Chapter 33: Riverstreet
Riverstreet was one of the richer streets in the fox district. The place was decorated with masses of Christmas lights, and practically on every corner stood a Christmas tree several meters tall being richly decorated boasting its attributes. There were Christmas decorations hanging on every shop sign, which surprised even Nick, who couldn't remember seeing even one Christmas light in this place in his youth. This place also had the most top brand shops, where only the richest practically flocked to buy something worthy for themselves. The restaurant that is located on Riverstreet was also not one of the cheapest in the city, it was representative of those top establishments where you can eat something. The prices were quite high, nobody even discussed it, but the food was pure poetry, it reminded simple but indescribably tasty food like in the days of youth, when everyone ate at home. Even though the prices were there, people stayed there all the time, you couldn't complain about a lack of customers, especially during the winter period when everyone wants to go for some warm, energetic meal.
Nick and Judy decided to split up and ask the shop clerks, or employees of the establishments, if they had seen anything suspicious in the area, or noticed any unusual behavior or anything that might lead to some additional clues. Fox took the east wing of the street and Judy the west. The division might have allowed them to explore the area more quickly, which might not have been too big, so that the clues would not be so, and they were very important at this time. Every minute counted when it came to the disappearance.
Upon entering the clothing shop, Nick was surprised by the modern design of the place. The white, shiny tiled floors, the partial walls replaced with full-length glass, and the modernistic ceiling left him in awe of the fox, who had only been in a shop like this once when he wanted to buy a gift for Judy and wandered around the shops, which he didn't do very often. There were hangers placed all around him with T-shirts, trousers and other pieces of clothing for Nick to try on. Out of curiosity, he peeked under the tag of one of these garments, he was left severely surprised when he noticed the price of $150 for one simple t-shirt with a mundane white pattern.
"Prices are more expensive than in Zootopia" thought Nick. He put the tag down and went to the cash register to get what he came for.
"Good morning, Nick Wilde, police. " The fox introduced himself, pulling out a gold, shiny, police officer's badge. The woman behind the counter greeted him, adjusted her glasses and looked at the badge as if to check it wasn't a fake.
"Good morning. Can I help you?"
"There have been reports of missing city citizens in this area in recent days. We're looking for evidence, sightings, anything that can help us. Have you seen any strange behaviour in the area, any suspicious people?"
"To be honest I haven't seen anything like that, there's honestly not much going on around here the last few days" the woman replied.
"Do you have any CCTV footage?"
Asked the fox.
"We do, but they only record the entrance to the shop. But if you want, I can show you" replied the woman. The fox was a little discouraged by this news, but agreed by nodding his head. He and the woman made their way to the back of the shop, to the security room, where a strongly built fox was sitting, sipping coffee from his desk and turned around lazily when he heard the sound of the door opening. Upon seeing the policeman's badge hanging from the fox's chest, he turned back and took the coffee cup to his paws again.
"Actually you can't see anything" muttered the fox quietly when he could actually see that he would not see anything useful from these cameras.
"Unfortunately, I'm sorry. But you can walk to the shop next to ours, maybe there will be a better view of the area from the cameras" the woman suggested.
"That's what I'll have to do, thanks for your help see you later" replied Nick. He let the woman pass him on the way out of the surveillance room and then left the shop
When Nick went to the second shop, Judy went to the shop that was even indicated for her, it turned out that the first shops belonged to the category of fashion and elegance. Stepping inside, Judy immediately noticed the racks filled with velvety perfumes, the smell of which immediately wafted into her nostrils. Her olfactory sensitive nose immediately picked up the composition of several perfumes, which combined to create a beautiful, delicate scent that compelled the rabbit to walk around the shop a bit and smell more of these beautiful scents. She made her way to the women's perfume section, from which was coming out a delicate, balsamic scent that drew her to walk around a bit surrounded by these beautiful perfumes. She tried to resist the scents, but ultimately decided that a moment's break wouldn't hurt anyone.
Each vial of scents was original, each presented a different shape, colour, it even seemed that in some models the material they were made from was different. As Judy approached the scents that were prettier to her, she couldn't resist smelling them, and with childlike eagerness opened the presentation models of the perfumes so she could inhale the delicate scent emanating from the vial.
"They smell so beautiful..." Judy sighed. Out of curiosity she looked at the price per vial of fragrance, her enthusiasm quickly cooled when she saw a price she wouldn't have thought of.
"Six hundred dollars for a vial like that? Slander..."
"Not exactly ma'am," interjected the man who had stopped by the policewoman.
"The perfume that drew your attention is decorated with franked gold, it's a precious commodity"
"I'm paying $600 for a pack?" Judy asked, to which the man laughed. He opened the vial and in a quick motion sprayed some perfume on the policewoman's hand.
"Please see, these are filings of pure gold" replied the man. Judy after looking at it could actually see that there were filings of real gold on her hand. She could see it from the golden reflections on her hands caused by the shop light.
"Why would anyone need a perfume like this?"
"We are a prestigious company, these perfumes are for the high society. Those who have no money buy what they want..." The man replied. Judy nodded with a movement of her head. She felt a little stupid in this situation, she hadn't expected such an answer.
"Seeing your outfit you didn't come for the perfume did you?" The man asked after a brief hesitation. Judy remained in slight thought but after hearing the question she shook her head with a movement smiling a little. She took out her badge then introduced herself.
"Indeed. I'm Judy Hopps, I'm a police officer. There have been some reported disappearances in this area in recent days. Have you seen any strange situations or behaviour? "
"I've heard about it, but nothing interesting in this area. Although the cameras may have picked up something, follow me" The salesman communicated. The two of them made their way to the surveillance room where, like Nick, Judy was able to see what the surveillance cameras looked like. Fortunately, the cameras were set up so that half the street was visible, it didn't give a full picture, but it was always more than nothing.
"I can't do much by going through the footage myself. Maybe the command should get them," Judy thought. Rewinding the tape herself wouldn't be as effective as sending it to the command. They would know what could be usefully done with it.
"Can I have the tapes? For command they would be useful," Judy asked, to which the man nodded with a motion of his head.
"Yeah sure."
After Judy, after waiting several minutes waiting for the man, received the CCTV footage to pass on for command, she was told by Nick to meet up. She was a little surprised by this information - they were to check every shop, they were to get as much information as possible that would help the case. She didn't understand what it could have been about, but she agreed to the meeting. After getting the evidence, she thanked the shopkeeper and went to the police car that was on the opposite side of the street, where the fox was already waiting.
"Something wrong Nick?" Judy asked as she got into the car. She found him in thought. The fox was sitting and looking through the photographs on the case file. He gave the impression that he was looking for something.
"Got anything?"
"I got the footage from a few days ago from the security of that shop across the street from us, we'll pass it on to headquarters and they'll see what to do about it" Judy communicated. Fox, meanwhile, was scratching his chin and with his file open sat looking at the pictures posted in the case documents.
"I think we're doing it wrong" Nick said thoughtfully, which made Judy a little confused.
"How's that..."
"Think Judy. We're investigating at a time when there are riots and literally anything can happen. Not everything we see or hear can be directly related to our case. Even if someone may have done something strange or committed a crime it doesn't have to be linked to our case. We need a point that is closely related to the disappearances." replied Nick. Judy had to admit the fox was right. Seeing what had happened on the streets the night before, anything could be suspicious and anyone could be taken for a criminal even if they hadn't done anything. Despite conceding the fact, the question remained how could we collect data for the case differently, more efficiently?
"So how do we proceed?" Judy asked curiously.
"We need to find a place that directly connects to this case. There was one yesterday during the interrogations...a specific place was mentioned several times..." Replied Nick closing his eyes so he could focus on his thoughts. A thought immediately came to Judy's mind that she had kept in the back of her head the whole time. The name of the restaurant that Angel had said during the interrogation. Earlier, at the police station, when they received the file and she saw the pictures of the street also into her head the first thing that came to her mind was the name of the restaurant where the interrogator's husband was supposed to go.
"Under the fox grove..." Said Judy thoughtfully.
"Can you repeat that?" Nick asked.
"Under the fox grove, that was the name Angel gave when we questioned last night," Judy repeated. Nick, after a moment's consideration, opened his eyes wider and nodded with a movement of his head.
"Exactly that! That's the name I missed...And from what we were told in the file, the restaurant must be across the street" replied Nick enthusiastically. And so it was. Already from the car, they could both see the building exalted above the others, covered in dark green paint distinguished by its architectural shapes.
"So let's go see if we can find anything interesting there," said Nick.
"You think there will be something interesting there?" Judy asked.
"The woman said yesterday that her husband was supposed to be in that restaurant, if something happened to him or someone did something to him there I'm sure we'll find something" replied Nick. His gaze and tone made him confident, although everything he said was just a guess.
"I hope you're right, it's getting dark..." Replied Judy thoughtfully.
She nodded with a movement of her head, then they both got out of the car.