If Judy ever had cause to question how lucky she was to be working in Precinct One, which she never did, a quick visit to any of the other Zootopia precincts would set her right. Where her building was a large, graceful monument to the peace and order provided by the police, the headquarters of Precinct Four was a large, squat monument to some city planner's utter lack of imagination. Or, as Nick had put it the first time they'd driven up to the grey boxy building, "I didn't know police came in Value Packs."

"Odds for who gets to take this to Bellyacher," Nick said, holding out a fist as they walked up to the dreary building.

Sergeant Bellicama, the warrant clerk for Four who would have to take their report and request the warrant, was a large elephant whose memory was unparalleled in the field of real or imagined slights anyone had committed against him. Judy had coughed once before giving him a document, and had been treated to ten minutes of a lecture on the importance of not spreading disease. Nick had a standing lecture about the body nets that long-furred species should wear so their shedding didn't cause problems for others, not to mention he had once incautiously asked what had happened to Bellicama's right tusk in a vain attempt to change the subject.

So Judy held out her fist, trying get her and Nick's fingers to come out to an even number. Nick was always trying to outguess her, but he hadn't yet realized that her strategy was to do whatever he'd done last time. So far it had worked a little better than half the time, but that was enough for Judy to keep doing it.

Last time Nick had held out three fingers, so when he said, "One two three shoot," Judy held out one (if she did exactly the same as his, he'd catch on for sure). And Nick had also held out one finger.

She smiled sweetly at him. "Give my best to the sergeant."

He pushed the door open and held it for her. "If I'm not out in fifteen minutes, call in Fangmeyer and Grizzoli."

"Will do. Hi, Rainy."

Sergeant Rainwater, a jaguar with a bright toothy smile, raised his paw to them. "Hopps, Wilde. Another Happytown crime?"

Nick held up the report. "We'd like to request a warrant for a suspect."

"I'm sure Sergeant Bellicama will be delighted to assist you. Oh, hold on." Rainwater dug under his desk and held up a small wad of netting. "Want to try this?"

Nick's muzzle wrinkled. "I'll take my chances." He turned to Judy. "Enjoy your fifteen minutes of peace."

"I will." She beamed at him, which made him roll his eyes as he walked away, which was what she was after, so she bounced up to Rainwater's desk as Nick slipped through the great glass-paned door to the back. "How you been, Rainy?"

"Not so bad." The jaguar pulled out his phone. "Did you see this video of the tiger cub on the trampoline? It's amazing."

"Show me!" Judy stood on her tiptoes to see over the desk.

But Rainwater had only just started the video when his intercom buzzed and a deep female voice came through it. "Rainwater. Is that Hopps and Wilde?"

The jaguar stopped the video with an apologetic glance at Judy. "Ah, yes, sir. Wilde's requesting a warrant and Hopps is, ah…"

"Just bouncing around," Judy said.

"Officer Hopps, would you step into my office?"

"Yes, sir," Judy said.

"She says yes," Rainwater said into the intercom, and then raised his eyebrows at Judy. As the intercom buzzed off, he leaned over the desk. "What'd you do?"

Judy shook her head. "I don't know. We parked in the right space and everything."

Rainwater jerked his thumb toward the elevators. "Better get going before she calls back."

"Right." Judy hurried over, waving as she went.

She had to hop to reach the elevator button for the top floor. Then she tapped her foot as the cables whined and gears creaked, and the elevator groaned its way upward. Would've been faster just to hop up the stairs, but she didn't want to arrive out of breath.

She'd only met Captain Whitehorn once, at a formal event where they'd barely talked. The captain was a rhino as driven as Chief Bogo, but unlike the big buffalo she had a reputation for being very even-tempered. "Sometimes too even-tempered," Rainwater had told Judy once in a whisper, but hadn't said any more.

Usually when she or Nick had to deal with Precinct Four business, they talked to Lieutenant Whip, a skinny cheetah perpetually on alert ("Not paranoid," she reminded them often). So if there was something Whitehorn wanted to talk to her about, it had to be important.

Judy squared her shoulders and made sure her badge was straight before rapping on the door of the office. "Come," said the deep female voice. Judy stood on her tiptoes to grasp the doorknob, turned it, and entered.

Whitehorn's office, smaller and dustier than Bogo's, was nonetheless tidier, and not just because of the lack of buffalo hair. Even the maps and notes on the corkboard were all set at precisely orthogonal angles, and when Judy scrambled up onto the chair to look across the desk at Captain Whitehorn, she gazed across a polished wood expanse marred only by a green blotter and a single file folder. "Officer Hopps," boomed the rhino, setting both hands on the blotter. "Thank you for coming up."

"Yes, sir," Judy said, and then, because the captain didn't say anything, "Nick—Officer Wilde—is requesting an arrest warrant for that robbery we went out on this morning."

A crease appeared over the rhino's eyes, and then cleared. "Ah yes. The Bandit case. You have a suspect?"

"We do." Judy clasped her paws together. "Officer Wilde recognized the scent and description."

"And you have an eyewitness who will testify?"

"I'm sure we can get one," Judy said.

"Mm." Whitehorn nodded her head slowly. "Make sure you do." One of her massive hands pushed the file folder toward Judy. "I've asked Chief Bogo for permission to assign you to this case. It has several unique elements that I think fit your abilities."

Judy leaned all the way forward to pick up the folder, nearly as tall as she was, and pushed the cover open. "A robbery?"

"A burglary. Councilwoman Sand, whose constituency includes Happytown, reported the theft of fifty thousand dollars last night."

Judy got to that line of the report and whistled. "But this says it was taken from the apartment of Jenny Scar." Species: coyote, the report read.

"She's Councilwoman Sand's assistant." Captain Whitehorn laced her fingers together. "That's one of the interesting elements."

"Why didn't she report the burglary herself?" Judy rubbed her chin and looked over the statement.

"Quite."

"And why did she have that much money in her apartment?" She ran her finger across letters as large as her thumb. "It was a payment to the Sunshine Middle School?" She looked up. "Do schools in Happytown usually get paid in cash?"

"That's another interesting question." Captain Whitehorn smiled.

Judy came to the end of the statement. "You said several interesting features of the case? I can't guess any more."

"Two." The rhino held up one finger. "One: It landed on my desk because it was reported by a Zootopia Councilwoman. Ms. Sand is the second most powerful member of the council, which some people would say makes her the second most powerful person in Zootopia if you happen to not have a good opinion of the new mayor. You have a history of investigating people in power and not backing down. That may prove useful here."

Judy laid her paws flat on the desk. "You think Councilwoman Sand might be involved?"

"I said, 'may prove useful.'" The rhino raised a second finger to join the first. "Two: The crime took place in Happytown, which means that it would benefit us to have the officer with the most thorough knowledge of Happytown's criminal element involved in the investigation. Fortunately…"

"He's my partner." Judy felt a swell of pride whenever someone else on the force complimented Nick.

"Quite." Captain Whitehorn tapped the desk. "And I think he should be just about done listening to Sergeant Bellicama's complaint of the day, so take the file and get started. Chief Bogo will prioritize your other casework, but I want to impress upon you how important this case is." She tapped Councilwoman Sand's name on the statement with a force that made Judy's paws and arms shiver.

"Yes, sir." Judy pulled the file closed and took it to the elevator, already planning their first move.

One long elevator ride later, in the lobby, she found Nick and Rainwater arguing about the latest episode of Pestworld, a show she didn't watch about a post-apocalyptic future overrun by huge zombie insects. "I'm telling you, Shannon is dead," Nick said. "No way they bring him back to life."

"I heard the actor is doing the rest of the season," Rainwater said stubbornly.

"Flashbacks." Nick shook his head and then spotted Judy. "Hey, Carrots. What's the word from on high?"

"New case." She brandished the folder. "Top priority."

Nick's ears and eyebrows rose. "Nice." He turned to Rainwater. "Of course, it won't be anything as important as cracking a city-wide conspiracy to frame predators, but I wasn't officially a cop then."

"We all know your resume." The jaguar shooed the fox away. "Get going."

"Jealous," Nick said with a grin as they left the station and walked into a light rain.

"He likes sitting behind a desk." Judy tucked the case file under her jacket.

Nick swept his long tail around his hips. "Yeah, but he'd also like to get a medal or a commendation sometime. You can tell by the way he looks over at the Wall of Fame."

"Oh. Huh." Judy hadn't noticed that but made a note to look for it in the future.

When they got in the car, Nick didn't reach for the new case file, but grabbed the old one, the Mrs. Bandit one, and flipped through it. He pulled out a sheet of paper and studied it.

"Don't you want to know what the new case is about?" Judy waved the case file under the fox's nose.

He shook his head and pointed at the page. "I wanted to check something in there. Look."

The top of the page had the usual ZPD header and a date two days ago, and beneath that:

EMERGENCY SERVICES TRANSCRIPT, #1446-33-9

CALL CONNECTED 11:22 AM

OPERATOR: ZPD EMERGENCY, HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

CALLER: MY NAME IS MYRA BANDIT AND THERE'S SOMEONE IN MY APARTMENT. I JUST CAME HOME AND THEY JUMPED INTO MY CLOSET.

OPERATOR: ARE YOU IN IMMEDIATE DANGER?

CALLER: I DON'T THINK SO BUT PLEASE HURRY.

OPERATOR: I HAVE YOUR ADDRESS AS 114 FOX AVENUE APARTMENT 405, IS THAT CORRECT?

OPERATOR: MRS. BANDIT?

CALLER: YES, THAT'S MY ADDRESS BUT DON'T WORRY. DON'T SEND ANYONE. HE'S GONE THROUGH THE WINDOW.

OPERATOR: I'LL SEND A CAR OVER ANYWAY.

CALLER: IT'LL BE TOO LATE. I THINK HE ALREADY RAN AWAY.

Judy looked up from the page. "What about it?"

Nick tapped the caller's first line. "Here she calls the intruder 'they.' Very progressive. She didn't assume it was a guy."

"So…she's a feminist?"

He shook his head and moved his finger farther down. "Here she calls him 'he.'"

"Oh." Judy stared at the words and then up at Nick. "She knew him!"

"Uh huh." He replaced the page in the folder. "Doubt it would hold up in court, but I'll bet you a dozen carrot cake donuts he came out and begged her to be quiet while she was on the phone."

She sank back into the seat. "So there's no point in going after him. She'll never testify that he was there."

Nick held up a dark brown finger. "Not necessarily. We might get some information out of him. There has to be a reason he was there, right?"

Judy shook her head. "Something's bugging me about it but I can't place it. But anyway, Nick, we have more important things to worry about." She pushed the new file folder at him. "Read that to me as we drive. I want to work out a plan of action on the way back to the ZPD."

He took the folder. "All right," he said. "But I don't think we should give up on the Bandit case that quickly."

"Why not?"

Nick pointed out the windshield. "Because Five-Finger Freddy just crossed that street up there."