Chapter Twenty-Three

Diverse Developments

"No good. It's no bloody good." Grunting for the dozenth time that evening, Bogo sat, slumping back in his large and reinforced office chair in the study of his flat. He looked about at his gray and sparsely furnished home. True, with the money he was paid he could have bought himself a really nice house of his own, rather than renting out a comparatively shabby flat, but the reason he had chosen to live here was because it was close. If he wanted to buy an actual house, it would mean a forty-five minute walk every morning to get to work, whereas this place was practically next door.

Besides, it was hardly used anyway, as Bogo made a habit of working extra hours whenever necessary, in a city this big: it was always necessary, and rarely did anything other than eat, sleep or spend yet more time looking into leads or finishing off paperwork with the little time he really spent there. Nice houses — like relationships — were pointless when you were chief of police.

Grumbling, pushing back against the wall, the wheels of the chair trundled as it rolled towards Bogo's desk. Stopping, he reached out to the third drawer down and took out a bottle of expensive brandy. He poured out a generous-sized glass for himself, replaced the stopper, and raised the glass to his lips.

His gaze fell back on the large whiteboard he had the proprietors install on one wall. Five feet high and twelve feet across, it depicted a simplified map of Zootopia, but allowed for drawings to be made over it which could be rubbed out after — useful in these situations. "Damn it," Bogo spat, "there is no wretched pattern, none at all." He took back the strong glass in one gulp, breathed for a moment while it settled, and then stood again. "Guess I'll just go over the damn wretched thing again," he muttered, his voice now a little tired and slurred.

"So," he grumbled, picking up a red marker pen and drawing dots all over the city-map-depicting whiteboard, "there have been ninety-five dealings in the past seven days, and that's just the ones we know about." Taking up a green pen, Bogo drew a circle around some of red circles representing dealings. "Twenty-six of these dealings occurred in the past twenty-four hours, so that means there's a definite and sudden increase in the dealings."

With green circles drawn around the most recent dealings, Bogo took a step back. "Dots," he mumbled, "dots everywhere. No pattern, no sequence, no meaning. Where do they come from, these drugs? This spike is too high and too sudden to just be a rise in 'trend'. Clearly there is some kind of gang in operation here. But if it's a gang, where are they based?"

His gaze shifting here and there upon the map, Bogo tapped the butt of his pen against his chin. "They must have a base of operations. A disused factory, the underground sewer system, an abandoned warehouse, perh—" Bogo froze as a thought struck him; his gaze locked upon a small building in Zootopia's main industrial complex.

Bogo snorted, once. "Ladders and Ladders and CO." The slither of a smile grew on Bogo's face. "Now how did I miss that?" He had been so focused on finding 'concentrations' of dealings, he had failed to notice the definite 'lack' of dealings in that area since it burnt down. His smile growing, Bogo swept the rest of the map with his eyes. The locations of known dealings were pretty much evenly distributed through all of Zootopia. The dealings which occurred in the past twenty-four hours were distributed pretty much evenly among them... except around Ladders and Ladders.

Bogo let out a number of slow, low chuckles. "It's a hive," he realized proudly. "One of a number." The chief of police picked up a blue marker pen. Raising it to the board, Bogo drew a large circle around Ladders and Ladders, which encompassed all of the dealings that had occurred prior to the warehouse burning down, but without including any of the dealings suspected to take place after.

"The hive is in operation; drugs are sold and deals made. The hive burns down, however; the deals stop." Raising the pen again, he drew a dozen more identically sized circles until every inch of the map was within the radius of a suspected 'hive'. He did this like he was playing the old computer game 'Minesweeper' — using oddities in the terrain and things like Precinct borders and built up, industrial areas to intelligently fathom where the boundaries of other such 'hives' might be. Using the radius of the circle around Ladders as a template and starting point to help mark up the others.

"Let's say," he mused in focus when this was done, "a twenty-five percent margin for error." Picking up a yellow pen, he drew smaller circles in the center of the larger, blue ones, so twenty-five percent was on the inside, seventy-five on the outside, and smiled at the result because, if he was right, and if his margin for error was accurate enough, then he had just narrowed down a city-wide search to just fifty buildings. And when he would get back to headquarters, he would check which of these buildings were in use, and which were 'allegedly' condemned like Ladders was, and then it would likely be no more than ten.

Bogo started chuckling again, rising in volume until his laughter had filled the room. "I've got you now, bastards," he called to the whiteboard and the room in general. "You'll rule the day you ever dared to set up a drug-dealing operation in my city."

He fell back into his chair — and would have broken it if it had not been specially reinforced — still bellowing with self-satisfied laughter as he leaned back upon the seat. He picked up a marker pen and tossed it lazily towards the board, hitting the location of Ladders and Ladders square-on with the nib, splatting red ink all over the industrial complex of that area.

"Now… Ladders… what about you then?" Sitting forwards again, he pulled open another drawer and took out the arson report Judy had written for the investigation at Ladders. Flicking through, he drank in the facts like water. "Male fennec fox killed," he muttered as he read, "on knees when shot, execution probable. Fire started using incendiary device. Wood piled as flue. Clearly arson. Multiple arsonists suspected."

He set down the open file, resting his elbows on the table and placing his head on his hoofs in a state of deep thought.

"So. A warehouse full of illegal substances; a fennec fox turns up, wanting to buy drugs cheap and threatening to turn them over to the police if they don't give him a discount. What do they do? They kill him. But before they do that, the fennec tells them that a friend of his holds incriminating evidence of their presence there, and that that friend will paw it over to the police if he doesn't come back — insurance to make sure the gang don't just kill him." Bogo sat back, slowly.

"How would the gang react?" he pondered, putting himself in the mainframe of a gang boss. "Well, they can't risk being found out, yet they mustn't look like pushovers in front of their clients. So, what do they do now? They kill him, relocate the drugs, and then torch the factory to burn away all traces of evidence. If they were efficient, all of this could've happened in just one night, and all that's left for Hopps and Wilde come morning… a corpse. There..." Bogo added, an uncharacteristically childish grin growing on his face, "that should keep the press happy."

Bogo reopened the third drawer and poured himself another glass — though this time, it was a celebratory drink — he sipped at it, smiling, for it tasted all the better for the success. Upon the desk beside him, Bogo's phone buzzed. He set down the glass and picked up the phone, he read the name, and then pressed answer. "Jack," Bogo called, his spirits high, "how goes the espionage?"

"It's most informative," crackled Jack Savage's voice from the transmitter, "thank you, Sir. I'm just calling in to report like you asked."

"And what have you to report?"

The voice of the rabbit cleared its throat, then he started speaking as though reading from a list of notes. "At six minutes to dusk, the track: AKA Officer Hopps, climbed the exterior steps to the roof of The Target's: AKA Officer Wilde's, apartment. At five and four sixths to dusk, Officer Hopps narrowly avoided being shot by Officer Wilde—"

"He what? Agent, I thought I made my orders perfectly clear that you were to inform me if Nick—"

"No, Sir, it was just a matter of unfortunate timing and even more unfortunate positioning; it was not intentional by any means. Then, at five and two eights, both officers Hopps and Wilde apologized to one another. At five minutes to dusk, Officer Wilde started to recite his family history to Officer Hopps. At one minute—"

"Savage," Bogo interrupted, and Jack knew just by the way he had said his name that this was going to be a sarcastic comment, "this is all very interesting, but do you think—"

"Be patient, Sir," Jack inserted in reply, "things get more interesting from here on in. As I was saying, at one minute to dusk Officer Wilde serenaded Officer Hopps with a romantic ballad—"

"— what—"

"— And at dusk... they kissed." Silence settled for a long moment, then Savage's voice came again. "And, in so far as I could make out, it was their first time doing so." Bogo made no reply. It didn't really bother Jack if he was too stunned to comment or not — he just wanted to finish this report and get back to it — and so, he carried on.

"Ahem— at two minutes past dusk Officer Wilde carried Officer Hopps down from the roof. At three minutes past they started making out. They stopped this act around forty-seven seconds in and went on to discuss each other's overpowering odour and their subsequent need to use the washroom. Officer Hopps offered Officer Wilde the first shower— then, at—"

"Sorry, what?"

"Pardon, Sir?"

"What did you say just then?"

"Hopps offered Wilde the first shower."

"No, just before that."

"They talked about their odour?"

"No, before that."

"They made out, Sir?"

"Erm. We'll— we'll get to that."

"What then, they kissed?" In the dark confines of the room above Nick's apartment, the line fell dead. The stripped rabbit, who was still sat upon the floor with a half-full notepad, a blunted pencil and a lot of pencil shavings beside him, sighed at Bogo's stunned silence. Jack Savage passed the phone from one tall ear to the other, muttering something along the lines of 'it's just a kiss, get over it' under his breath. "Sir, do you copy?" he asked, bluntly. "Sir, do you respond? Sir?" He knew Bogo could hear him, but he wasn't going to sit there doing nothing while the Chief gathered his thoughts back together. "Sir, I'm hanging up the phone now."

"Wait, Jack!"

"Yes, Sir?"

"This is going to take some explaining."

...

Judy purred softly in her sleep. Upon the padded sofa in the decent-sized living room of Nick's apartment, dressed only in Nick's black dressing gown, which hung off her body loosely and with her face in a simple smile of angelic bliss — Nick had never seen a sight more adorable.

The fox gazed lovingly upon her, stood, as he was, just before the sleeping rabbit who had not stirred from slumber since settling into him a little earlier. He had been lucky then, and had managed to slip from beneath her without waking her up twenty minutes after — when he had no choice but to see to dinner. Dinner was ready now however, and, well, she couldn't eat in her sleep, could she?

Lowering himself down on his knees, his head came level with Judy's. Nick smiled as the rabbit's pinkish nose twitched at his scent as he rested his head on the couch, close to hers. He reached up with a delicate paw and stroked Judy upon the cheek with the back of his finger to wake her. Her smile grew to a beam, but she didn't wake, and then one of her paws came up to her face and her fingers wrapped softly around Nick's own.

Clutching at his melting heart with his free paw, Nick almost died of a cuteness-overload as his index finger became enwrapped in Judy's small, soft paw as she slept. The rabbit took in a long breath, then let it out slowly with a slight "hmm, Nick" as she did so.

And then, Judy turned over. Rotating to face into the darkness of the padding, the rabbit dragged Nick's arm beneath her. The fox got startled at the sudden movement, moving with her so as not to wake her up, shifting up and onto the sofa as Judy unconsciously pulled his arm, finding himself suddenly flush against Judy's back with both his arms around her small, sleeping frame.

Nick sighed with mixed emotions as to his current situation. Yes, it was very nice: very, very nice to be up this close against Judy — but it wasn't exactly aiding his original goal of waking the slumberous bunny up! He looked about at the so-called 'progress' — and immediately wished he hadn't. He wished he hadn't, because of the way Judy was lying and how Nick was positioned against her — coupled with the looseness of the gown she was wearing and the lack of any other items of clothing beneath — meant that, looking down, Nick had a near unparalleled view of Judy's... erm—

Heat started to build around his collar as he tried, and failed, to look away from the unfathomably pleasurable sight. He managed to glance away once, but then his eyes were drawn irrevocably downwards once again. It wasn't that he didn't like the view — it wasn't that at all — it was just it emasculated his dignity, to think he was peeping on his partner — romantic or no — while she slept.

Reaching out briskly with his free paw, Nick made to cover Judy's bosom with the gown she was wearing. One inch away from achieving that goal, however, Judy's paw shot out and gripped Nick's by the wrist. "And what do you think you're doing with that paw, Mister Wilde?" Her eyes opened.

Nick was too flustered to notice the light-heated playfulness in her voice as he stuttered with an answer, "No, Judy, it's, erm— your... your bathrobe was sli— slipping and your… erm— 'bust' was err—"

Judy sat up a little, her voice ringing with teasing accusation. "So, you thought you'd just have a quick grope, did you?"

"No! No, I was just going to cover it for you!"

"Oh, I know what you were planning Nick," Judy breathed as she settled back down, "you dirty fox, I know exactly what you were planning."

And then — gently, and to Nick's everlasting amazement — Judy slowly lowered Nick's paw down, slipped it between her soft gown and her smooth fur, and pressed it unflinchingly upon her flat breasts.

Nick's breaths deepened as he held her. Judy whimpered ever so slightly, her head falling back against his chest as his touch stimulated that sensitive place on her body, applying just enough pressure to satisfy her, yet leaving her aching for more. Tenderly, Nick started to massage one breast in a slow circle; Judy's whimper turned to a soft moan as he applied slightly more pressure.

Suddenly, Judy turned around to face him and to meet his lips for a passionate kiss. She moved quicker than Nick acted, and so his paw remained stationary, catching in the fabric of one arm and sliding the loose-fitting robe away from her body to slip from her shoulder — revealing yet more of the rabbit's body to the room — and reiterating to Nick just how naked Judy was underneath.

Nick turned himself over, and in another instant the fox was on top and the rabbit was on her back beneath. He pressed his lips against hers, as he twitched the material off the rabbit's other shoulder and revealed all of Judy's fount to him. He kissed the rabbit more deeply — more passionately — as he brought both his paws up to fondle, to caress and to massage that sensitive part of Judy's soft, silken body — enjoying both the way she felt beneath him, and the wonderful sounds of pleasure that escaped her luscious lips.

...

"And then," Jack continued, his voice still calm if a little strained, "after their in depth conversation about marriage, sex and children, Officer Hopps fell asleep in Officer Wilde's arms whilst lying upon him on the couch... clear?"

Bogo sat back in his chair, rubbing his forehead with a hoof. "And what are Wilde and Hopps doing now?" he asked.

"Well, Officer Hopps was sleeping the last I checked, and Officer Wilde was preparing stew," Jack replied, "but I've stopped listening in since to make my report."

The Chief grunted. "Let me hear them."

"Yes, Sir." There was a moment of static, a click as the transmitter was adjusted, and then a new sound filled Bogo's ears.

"Nnh, Nick… hhf— nnhhh, ah— arhh… nnnhhhn—"

"Switch it off," Bogo bellowed, standing, knocking his chair to the floor and smashing his hoof down upon the table, "switch it off now!"

...

"Nnnhh, Nick— hhf."

"Boy, you rabbits always this vocal?"

"Stop teasing, Nick," Judy huffed in reply, "I'm enjoying this too much for you to— harrhhh god."

Nick allowed things to carry on as they were for a moment longer — this was a wonderfully pleasant sensation for both of them after all — but then he leaned in close to her ear. "You know, Hopps, my darlin', unless you really want to break this vow of abstinence after only one hour, we're gonna have to stop soon."

"Arhh— I know Nick, I know. I was trying not to think about it but— aarh… but you're right, we— we will."

"Well, I didn't wanna rush you, Whiskers, but—"

"No. No, it's good that you have. It's best if we just stop now, Nick."

Nick drew his paws softly back from that sensitive part of Judy's body — both missed the touch instantly — and then proceeded to slowly close his gown back over her again, covering her dignity as he traced a line of kisses up her fount — being careful to avoid pressing against her windpipe — to then, finally, plant his most loving of kisses against her lips.

"By the way, your carrots are done, Carrots."

"Good, I'm starving."

"Me too. You know, for a moment there, I was half tempted to devour you."

"Hmm," Judy giggled, lightly, looking up to Nick, her eyes sparkling. "You know, if you had tried to take things further just now, all the way even, I wouldn't have even thought to stop you."

"I know," he replied, coolly, "s'why I didn't."

"It was all your fault though, you know."

"Me, how was it my fault? You're the one who put my paw there, I would never've—"

"Yeah, but this dressing gown I'm wearing belongs to you, and if it wasn't for your gown which slipped—"

"I see," he said, deadpan, "you're blaming me for the actions of inanimate objects now, are you?"

"Well… you definitely can't blame me for the fact you don't have anything 'rabbit' sized in this apartment of yours."

A smile crept across Nick's face. "We'll see about that." He stood and started off towards his bedroom.

"Nick," Judy grabbed Nick's arm as he moved away. The fox stopped and turned to her, a fond smile on his lips. "Nick, that... that was the first time I've ever had anything like that done to me, ever. And I just wanted you to know, it felt... wonderful."

"Well," Nick said in reply, leaning close towards one of Judy's ears and whispering with a mischievous grin on his face. "If you think that felt 'wonderful', just you wait and see what it's like the night we get hitched!"

"Our honeymoon, you mean?" She nuzzled close to his cheek, whispering in return, "I can't wait." Nick chuckled and rolled his eyes as the rabbit started kissing him on the cheek, then started reaching out to pull him back on top of her with her arms and legs. Nick knew exactly where this was going — he may have shrugged it off when Judy mentioned it, but it took every ounce of self-control Nick had not to take Judy's body in every way, shape and form he could have on the couch just then — and, he knew, it would be impossible for him to back away from that same offer so soon after the last.

He was only mammal after all.

"Judy," he said between the rabbit's kisses, "The food will be burnt, the kitchen will catch fire, the flat will burn down, everyone will blame me— I'll get kicked out of the ZPD. My rent'll probably be put up. I won't be able to get house insurance again, my credit rating'll be destroyed and your present too."

Judy pulled back from the kiss, crossing her arms over her chest and frowning with a playful pout that Nick should want to end to stop playing a game as fun as kissing. Nick chuckled. "Sit tight, Carrots," he said, roughing the fur on the top of Judy's head with a paw, instantly turning her playful frown into giggling as she tried to bat his paw away, "I'll be back soon."

Shaking his head and smiling, Nick walked softly away. Judy could do nothing but grin at the handsome fox — grinning, and remembering the wonderful sensations which had just passed between them — thinking on what it might be like to go further as she waited for her lover to return with her gift.

…

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,

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