Through the window? Judy met Nick's eyes and saw that he was thinking the same thing she was: what if this was also Freddie? Nick recovered first. "Of course that's in here," he lied. "But we'd like to get your full testimony on it, if you wouldn't mind."

"Oh, of course. Well, Lisa was the one who noticed it first. She's a wolf, you know. Bigger nose, better sense of smell. I'm sure you know what I mean."

Judy put a paw on Nick, which stopped his tail from bristling any further. "And she said it was a fox?"

"I smelled it too once she showed me the place." Jenny pointed at a door behind the couch Judy and Nick were sitting on. "There. He must have come in Prissy's bedroom."

"And where was the money?" Nick consulted the report while Judy reflected that the living room did not look like a young girl lived here.

"It was here in two suitcases. I was supposed to take it over to the school today. Councilwoman Sand gave me the day off so I could talk to you, but I was going to go in to the office once I'm done. I mean, there's no more reason for me to stay home, is there?"

Privately Judy wondered if Councilwoman Sand just wanted a break from her clumsy assistant, but Jenny had been working for her for years and probably nothing breakable was even left in the office. "Of course not," she said. "Mind if we take a look at the window? Officer Wilde might be able to get a scent off it."

"Of course, of course." She walked to the bedroom in front of them, and now Judy realized why her apartment was so pristine: nothing for her to trip over or knock over on her way to the bedroom. Her partner and cub must be very patient.

As they followed, Nick gave Judy a look, and she returned a slight shrug. It seemed incredible that two burglaries they were investigating both involved a fox coming in through a window. And if that were the case, how much more of a reach was it that they might both be the same fox?

Even Prissy's bedroom, though the walls were plastered with smiling boy band posters, felt too neat and clean to Judy. She'd grown up sharing a room with a dozen other siblings, where someone else's toys or clothes were always underfoot even after they made an effort to clean up. Stuffed toys sat on the pink-sheeted bed in a neat row, but no toys or clothes lay on the floor, and even the small dresser only had two pieces of clothing on it, both folded so Judy couldn't tell what they were.

Simon hung back in the entrance to the room while Judy hopped up onto the window sill to examine the latch. It had been forced all right, the metal twisted and the screw forced out of the wood. Up here on the second floor, probably the Scars hadn't thought they needed much more in the way of protection, but a flimsy window latch was nothing to a determined and experienced intruder.

While she was photographing the forced entry, Nick set down his pad and sniffed at the carpet around the window; the fibers would hold a scent better than the wooden sill. He got to his feet as Judy was finishing up her photos and turned to the expectant coyote. "I smell fox," he said. "Probably male, but it's hard to tell. There's a lot of other scents. You shouldn't have walked around the area."

"But it's Prissy's bedroom," Jenny said. "She wanted us to make sure it was safe."

"Procedure, ma'am." Nick sighed. "Course, we should've had an officer out here last night."

"That's what I thought," the coyote said, her manner turning chillier. "I was surprised when the sergeant said nobody was available until today. I mean—fifty thousand dollars."

"Yes," Judy said. "Precinct Four only has large species who would have trouble fitting in this apartment."

"Typical. So." Jenny's ears perked up and she leaned forward. "Can you identify anything from the scent?"

Nick had started to answer and then caught her pose and stopped for a moment. "Ah, no," he said. "Fox and male, that's all I got."

Jenny sank back against the wall and her ears swiveled back. "That's what Lisa said, too. I thought police might have more insight. After all, a criminal fox…" She laughed shortly, and gestured to Nick. "You must know how many of those there are."

Nick snapped his muzzle shut. Judy stepped in front of him. "We're only just starting our investigation," she said, and started back toward the living room.

"Sure, sure. Are we done in here?" She smiled at them, but her smile looked fake to Judy. Then Jenny turned and banged her hip on the wooden dresser. "What else can I tell you?"

"Um." Nick checked his pad as they walked back into the living room. "What form was the money in? I know you said it was taken in a large brown leather suitcase, but do you have pictures of the suitcase? What denomination were the bills, how many were there?"

"Well, I didn't count them." She made a clicking noise with her tongue. "But they were hundreds. So I suppose there were five hundred of them?"

"That adds up," Judy said.

"Yes, I can do math." Jenny's claw snagged on the carpet again, ruining the increasing attitude in her walk.

"Who else knew the money was here?" Nick asked.

"An intelligent question." She favored Nick with a smile. "Councilwoman Sand, of course, and our council treasurer. That's Kylee Caravan. I can give you her number if you want."

"Thanks," Nick said, writing down the name. "Nobody else in the office?"

"I don't think so."

"So," Judy said, "Ms. Caravan got the money and gave it to you personally?"

Jenny flicked her ears back. "Of course not. Her assistant did. I suppose he would know, too. He's a gazelle named Daren."

"Daren what?" Nick made another note.

"Er…you should ask Ms. Caravan for his information. I don't know Daren personally."

"We'll do that." Judy turned to Nick. "I'm done here. You?"

He nodded, putting his mini-pad into its belt pouch. "Thanks for your cooperation, Ms. Scar."

"I must say," she said, "I had expected that once the police finally arrived, there would be faster progress on the case. But, alas." She gestured casually with one paw, smacking it into the wall behind her. "Despite all of Councilwoman Sand's efforts to improve the police department…"

Maybe she would have gone on to say more, or maybe not; the trailing off felt to Judy like the coyote wanted to leave the rest to her imagination. But she never had the chance to continue, because Simon spoke up. "Where I come from," he said, "we respect the officers who put their lives on the line to keep the peace."

Jenny glared at him, with a hint of fang showing. "Nobody's putting their 'lives on the line' here," she said. "They made sure the thief was well gone before they turned up."

"It's okay." Judy put a paw on Simon's arm. "Thanks, we'll be going now."

"She was rude to you," Simon said. "And you're doing your job."

"Rude?" Jenny drew herself up. Her tail, sweeping to one side, knocked over the glass of carrot juice. "I will not be insulted by a professional gossip."

Simon's eyes bulged. He wrestled his arm away from Judy. "Better a professional gossip than a snooty glorified secretary!" he yelled.

"Hey, hey." Nick grabbed Simon with a firmer paw and dragged him to the door, throwing him outside and following him to make sure he stayed out.

"I'm so sorry for him." Judy held her paws up because it really looked like Jenny might run at her. Fortunately, she wasn't intimidated by all the little things predators did to scare her, and Jenny's growl and bared fangs were more amusing than anything else. Her anger was scary not because Judy thought the coyote might assault her, but because she might report them to her boss. "He's new in Zootopia and he's just following us to write an article."

"I'm sure Councilwoman Sand will be most interested in the people the police allow in their company." The coyote's tone remained frosty.

Judy could have simply left without making a bad situation worse, but she believed she could fix it. Think, she told herself. "I'd very much appreciate it if you wouldn't," she said. "You know how it is when your boss makes you do something you don't really want to."

"All the more reason." The coyote picked up the glass she'd knocked over. "You should be thanking me. If my boss comes down on your boss, you won't have to put up with so much."

"Yes, but…" Judy breathed in. "It'll just make things worse for me."

"You mean Chief Bogo takes out his problems on his subordinates?" Jenny's eyes gleamed.

"Doesn't every boss?"

The coyote drew herself up. "I'm proud to work for Councilwoman Sand. She's trying to build a better world and her problems aremy problems."

Judy thought that Simon might have been right in his assessment of Jenny Scar, but that wasn't an excuse for the way he'd spoken. She softened her tone still further. "We're all trying to build a better world," she said. "Again, I'm very sorry for the way he spoke. I will talk to him and make sure he knows that's not appropriate."

For a moment, she thought that even that might not be enough, and she added a soft, "Please."

"All right, all right." The coyote lowered her ears and brow. "But keep him away from me."

"Of course." Judy put on her best smile. "Thank you so much, Ms. Scar."

Outside, Nick and Simon stood in silence, each one staring at his phone. They both looked up as Judy came out, and Simon started talking right away. "I'm not going to apologize," he said with a glare at Nick. "She was being a—"

"Careful," the fox said without looking up.

"A—a jerk about it. Expecting you to solve the case just from sniffing around the apartment!"

Judy put up her paws. "I thought journalists were supposed to observe, not get involved."

Simon's expression turned sulky, his ears flattening back. "That's what he said." He jerked his head toward Nick.

"Only not as nicely," Nick said with a predatory smile.

"But the interview part was over." Simon put his phone away. "And she was being mean to you."

"People are mean to us all the time." Judy shared a smile with Nick. "You should've seen this raccoon earlier. Not everyone gets what we're doing. So we have to just take it and do our job."

Simon's ears came back up. He took his phone out and typed quickly. "'Take it…and do our job.' That's good. That's real good. So where are we going now?"

"Ah…" Judy glanced at Nick, who took the cue.

"Actually," he said, "why don't we get some lunch? Judy and I will take you to one of our favorite places."

The advantage of the Bugburger truck was that you grabbed your food and ate it in the park, so that when Judy said, "Oh, I forgot the hot sauce," and Simon volunteered to get it, he had to run all the way back across the street and down the block, which gave Judy and Nick time to plan.

"I'll take Simon back to ZPD and let him observe me filing the report," she said. "Can you find out who Daren is and interview him if possible?"

"Of course," Nick said. "We going to do this all week?"

"We can't take him on another interview."

"Agreed." Nick rubbed his muzzle thoughtfully. "What do you think of the case so far?"

"I don't know." Judy looked out across the park. "Whoever the thief was, he had to have known that money was there." She hesitated. "Was the scent…familiar?"

"Could have been Freddy. It was muddled. But there aren't that many fox criminals." Nick scowled. "We don't go around breaking into every window."

"Especially not in Ms. Scar's neighborhood. So." Judy tapped her foot. "Jenny told someone, or her partner did."

"Or their cub."

"Or their cub. Or Councilwoman Sand, or Daren, or the treasurer, what was her name?"

Nick consulted his pad. "Caravan. I'll try to get a meeting with her too. Ears up," he added.

Judy perked her ears and caught Simon's panting breaths. "I'll see if I can contact Ms. Scar's partner," she said quickly. "Okay, got our plan."

Simon spent a lot of the lunch talking about how weird the burgers tasted and talking about Mrs. Potter's Carrotburgers back in Bunnyburrow. Judy had liked them, sure, but she hadn't even gone back there her last visit. Of course, her mom and six oldest sisters were great cooks, so whenever she came home, especially on holidays when more of the family came back, all three kitchens were going pretty much full time.

When they'd finished their food, Judy told Simon the plan for the afternoon. "You and I will go file the paperwork, and Nick is going to go set up our interviews for tomorrow. We have a lot of ground to cover so sometimes we split up."

"Oh. Okay." Simon turned his head to Nick and then back to her. "So I'll stick with you, I guess."

"Sounds good." Judy kept her smile bland, and Nick hid his behind his napkin.