Chapter Eleven

Scales of Injustice

It's amazing: The sobering effects of discovering a corpse.

Forget Hair-of-the-dog, forget drinking water and eating greasy foods, forget headache pills, coffee, any hangover-away pills you care to mention; and going for a run... if you really want to clear away a hangover, suddenly discover the charred, skeletal remains of a corpse.

"God's Bones!" Judy cried, wiping her paw furiously off on her vest — trying to remove as much 'burnt dead-person' as she could. "It's murder!?" Nick was frozen, unable to think or move as he stared at the limb, while Judy pulled out her police radio. "This is Hopps reporting from 'Ladders'," she called — not shouting, but definitely louder than usual, "Clawhauser, put me through to Bogo."

"On it," came Clawauser's reply.

A moment of static, and then, "Officer Hopps, this is Bogo. What's your status?"

"We just found a body, Sir; buried beneath a pile of wood at the point of origin."

"Roger that, Hopps. Sending you backup now. Can you identify the body's gender or species?"

"It's, err—" she leaned to get a closer look at what little she could see "—unknown at this time, Sir."

"Alright. Try and determine their species; backup's inbound."

"Copy." She returned the receiver, breathed deeply, then turned to Nick. "Nick?" He was stock-still, so she called again, "Nick." An ear flicked. "Nick!" Like an elastic band severing, his head shot around to gawp at her, his mouth opened but he could't appear to find the words. Judy took a breath, then sidled across to him, and slipped her paw into his.

"You okay?" She asked quietly.

His paw closed around hers.

"Hhhh, yeah. Just shocked me, is all." His gaze flicked to the limb which was lying twisted on the floor — then back to Judy. "Anyway, enough about me. How are you?"

"Shook up," she answered airily with a shrug and a tremor in her voice, which told Nick she was rather more than just 'shook up',"but— you know… we've got a job to do. So..." Nick looked at the small, soft paw he realized he was holding, and rubbed the pad of his thumb gently across the top of her paw.

"Nick," said Judy after several seconds, "we have to at least find out what species this is."

"Okay, Hopps," he returned, reluctantly releasing her paw, and Judy reluctantly taking her paw away, before they both silently — and carefully — moved the rubble aside, where the corpse's head most likely was. Judy noticed Nick's nose wrinkling and decided that the best emotional support for each of them would be a little light conversation.

"Guess this must smell pretty bad," she tried to get them distracted from the foulness, "that because of the decomposition?"

"In part. It's that, the stink of the burnt wood, the mold embedded in this place, and I've never liked Finnick's smell ever since I met him. It's that, and—" They pulled away the last piece of rubble and the skull became visible. Judy gaped. Nick's mouth dropped.

The skeleton... was that of a fennec fox.

"— and I've just had a horrible premonition." With that his phone was out of his pocket and Nick was scrolling through his, almost ridiculously, short list of contacts. "Damn it," he muttered, coming to the end of the short list, "I deleted his number, didn't I?" With the flick of a thumb, he opened the phone's keypad. Bringing a paw to his head, he rubbed his closed eyes in an effort to remember the number of need.

"Who are you phoning?" Judy asked, though she knew the answer.

"Finnick," Nick replied as he started tapping numbers into his device, "I haven't even spoken to him since I left for the academy... It's ringing." They booth stood in silence while ring after ring echoed dully through the transmitter of Nick's phone, loud in the otherwise silent factory.

Booooooooop.

"Damn it!" Hanging up, Nick furiously pounded redial into his phone.

"No answer?" Judy asked.

"No, but that's hardly surprising under the circumstances. You know, I texted him once after I passed at the academy," his phone started to ring, "—telling him that I'd made it through and that I'd be working with you— and he texted me back saying... well... on second thought, you don't need to know exactly what he said— but it made his views on the subject pretty clear."

Booooooooop.

Nick did't shout this time, and as he tapped redial into his phone, he merely fussed a low growl, "I'm hoping if I keep phoning" the fox began explaining with the edge of desperation lining his voice, "that he'll answer, old ties and all that… he may just be—"

With a click, his call was answered... but no voice spoke. "Fin! You there? Talk to me, pall."

"Don't call me your pall; I ain't ever been your pall."

Nick huffed in relief at hearing the gruff, familiar voice which shouted angrily down at him through the phone, looking to Judy and saying, "It isn't Fin."

"Der hell it is Fin! W'at der hell you wan't anyway?"

"Just checking to make sure you're not dead is all."

"Have you gone nuts? Cause I ain't dead, why'd I be dead?"

"Well, you remember Ladders and Ladders?"

"Dat der wearhouse we broken into couple'a years back an nearly got ourselves arrested for nothin' but a heap of junk?"

Nick's eyes flicked up to look at the raised eyebrows, crossed arms and thumping foot of his partner before speaking, "Erm... yeah, that's the one."

"Whad about it?"

"It's burnt down, and me and Hopps found this—"

"Nick, what are you doing?" Judy breathed into his ear as the sound of approaching ZPD cars made themselves heard.

"Erm... Just a minute Fin." He pressed the mute button. "What?"

"You can't give away information like that to a suspect," she said, still whispering out of habit and natural convention even though Finnick was nowhere near within earshot.

"What? How is Fin a suspect?"

"This place is full of his scent... you said so yourself!"

"Judy, Fin is not a killer. He's many things but not a killer."

"Alright— well— tell him, just don't give him any details."

Nodding, he turned off the mute. "Yeah, we found signs that a fox of some kind had been here and I just wanted to check you're okay."

"Right... whad, is dat it?"

"Just about... sooo, you still selling Pawpsicles?"

"Narh, I got myself a better income deze dayz."

There was a lengthy pause.

"Well, it was nice talking to ya again."

"Wadever, don't you be goin' all mushy on me, Nick."

"Hah, wouldnt dream of it, Fin."

Finnick hung up.

"So, it's murder now?" Judy asked, having calmed down enough to take in the situation. Outside, the doors of several cars could be heard opening as the officers surely exited the vehicles.

"Accidental, yeah, but murder none the less."

"It's disgusting. Probably a drunk or a couple of youths, who thought they were being funny and this fox had to die for it. We're gonna have to bring Finnick in for questioning, you know." Judy turned her back on the scene, walking away into the rest of the room. Nick stood there and stepped over the corpse but, as he did so, something peculiar about the skull grabbed his attention to which he leaned in for a closer look.

"Ughhh..." Judy grumbled, "when we catch this brute, I'm really gonna—"

"Woh. Woh, woh, wait! Hopps, come here."

She turned at his voice, startled as it was low and whispered through anxiety, thus she replied, "Nick, what are you—"

"Come here, Hopps."

"Nick, I—"

"Now!" Panic stricken, the fox lurched towards Judy and took firm hold of her arm, swinging her weight and actually lifting her off the ground, bringing her around to the sight that made her mouth drop.

"Nick— its skull, is— is that a—"

"Yep... that's a bullet hole."

"It— it really is murder and not just an accident?"

"Sure is, Hopps. Brutal, coldblooded, murder."

Behind them, the door burst open and the towering and, under the current circumstances, reassuring figure of Chief Bogo stepped in. "This is starting to become a habit with you two," he bellowed as he approached. "Now, what dastardly plot to enslave the world have you uncovered this time?"

…

Author's notes:

Hesitance jumps around your mind,

Grooms decision thus chosen blind.

Your thoughts most succulent of snack,

All delivered by luscious feedback.

So don't hide like a tiny shrew,

Thus share that belovable review!

Social Links:

* To use a link just replace {dot} with a full stop/peirod.

- Youtube: youtube{dot}com/c/inlet

- Twitter: twitter{dot}com/inletreal