7. A Case

== Judy ==

Ever since I had reached the top floor, I was musing over what I was going to say to Chief Bogo. Heeding Nick's wise words, aggression was not the way to go. I did however want to clarify that I was not in bad enough shape to go on sick leave. I now stood in front of Bogo's office, still without the proper words, my paw hanging pointlessly in the air. I had raised it to knock on the door, yet had held back at the last minute. Maybe speaking to Bogo wasn't such a good idea after all. I already heard from McHorn and Trunkaby what his reasons were for giving my case away. It wasn't necessary to start a conversation that might heat up my attitude again. I lowered my arm and turned around to leave, when the door opened behind me.

"Hopps?" I heard my boss's deep voice.

I whirled on my heels and saluted tensely.

"Sir!" I replied harder than planned.

"What can I do for you?"

"Well, sir. I-err... Actually, I was just walking by."

After a momentary silence, we both concluded how silly that excuse was since his office was at the end of the floor. He sniggered when I planted the palm of my paw onto my nose.

"You want to know why I gave your suspect to Delgato, don't you?"

I opened my mouth to try and deny it, though I closed it without making a sound. It was true and at least he spared me the difficulty of bringing the subject to words myself. He held out his hoof, guiding me inside. I was glad he sensed exactly what was on my mind. The carpeting tickled my feet pleasurably, just like mine had in my old room at my parents' house. Sweet nostalgia. I clambered onto the chair as he seated himself on the other side of the hardwood desk.

"Sir," I commenced, "Without meaning any disrespect, I think you have made a mistake."

"Oh? How is that?"

"The mild injury I have sustained is insufficient reason to take me off the Sahara Square Swindlers case."

"Mild injury? Hopps, contused ribs are hardly ever considered mild." He said astounded.

"Nonetheless, sir, I believe it is not enough cause to send me home. I am still more than capable of handling my police duties! Besides, I always have Nick to help me out."

"I agree."

"What?" I asked astonished.

"I know you're well enough to keep working, but that ferret you apprehended needs to be thoroughly questioned and his network needs to be dug up carefully."

"So?"

"So, I can't let you do that if I also want you on the car bombing case."

I felt my ears lift. That was completely against protocol. By being a victim of the incident, I had a conflict of interest. I would be deemed subjective, would I not? Luckily, Bogo thought along my reasoning.

"I know it's inappropriate, there's a good explanation however."

His eyes shot skittishly from left to right as he leaned forward. Instinctively I did the same. Apparently, what he was going to tell me was not meant for anyone to hear for he continued in a whisper.

"It is true that you are on good terms with Mister Big, yes?"

An uncomfortable heat possessed me, my limbs starting to tingle everywhere. How did he know? Why did he know? And for how long? It was true that I had built up a friendly relationship with the arctic shrew. The problem was that he was a mob boss, responsible for a great deal of illicit activities. As a police officer, I wasn't allowed to have that kind of mammals in my inner circle. Surely, I wasn't involved in them, yet still the connection between us could severely corrode my credibility as an executor of the law.

"Sir. I have no idea who you are talking about." I said as calmly as possible.

He stared at me incredulously and bored by my sad attempt at hiding the truth. I guess I wasn't as good an actor as Nick was.

"How is this relevant?" I asked evading the direct matter.

"Well, the limousine that detonated belonged to one of his businesses."

"I see. So, you want me to ask him who was responsible."

"Something like that."

He placed his reading glasses on his nose and pulled open a drawer. He disappeared underneath the desk for a while to emerge with a brown, paper envelope. With a theatrical thwack, he dropped it in front of us, subsequently closing its drawer with his foot. The first detail standing out was the red stamp, reading CLASSIFIED. This aroused even more intrigue on my part.

"This attack on Mister Big's property does not stand alone. Prior to this incident, multiple other reports regarding his affiliates have come in, yet all of those were petty crimes like vandalism and a single punch-up. This car bomb is a major jump up the ladder, and a dangerous one too. This time nobody got hurt, mostly thanks to you..."

I smiled shyly. Getting a compliment from Chief Bogo was a rare thing, meaning he was truly proud. That, in turn, made me proud as well.

"... The next time, though, we might not be so fortunate. Now… I think that these events are connected," He placed all recorded incidents in a row, facing my way, "someone is targeting Big on purpose. If this is indeed the case, then, having read the limited dossier we have on him, I believe a retaliation from his side will not be far out. This is something we need to prevent and the best method to do that, is by finding the culprit ourselves."

"But who would challenge someone like Mister Big? He's quite influential, is he not?"

"Yes, he is a big cheese in the underworld, thus I fear that whomever has his arrows aimed at him, is equally powerful. If we don't step in now, it might result in an all-out mob war."

I nodded, making a quick calculation how many innocents had gotten hurt at the Sahara Square attack. It was no rocket science that if those events were to multiply, the numbers would go in the hundreds.

"Mister Big doesn't hold a reputation of being very talkative to the police. That is where you come in as our ace in the hole. If I'm not mistaken, he holds you in high regard. Perhaps he trusts you enough to give you the information we need to stop this war from breaking out."

"I can at least give it try. How do you plan to sell it to the media?"

He waved his hand to mark that as insignificant.

"I'll think of something. You get yourself to tundra town. If he's not even willing to open to you, we can still decide to get you your old case back and have Delgato take this instead. So, for that same reason, try not to let everyone know you're on this case."

"Whatever you say, chief!" I replied enthusiastically.

"…Oh, and you can take Nick with you if you want." He added, taking notion of my thoughts once again.

This came as a relief. I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep anything hidden from Nick, nor did I want to. Except for my secret devotion to him of course, but that was for an indeterminate length. Hopefully, I would someday find the courage to bring that up. Someday. Not now. I swiped all the papers and pictures back into the envelope and jumped off the chair. With the doorknob in hand, one last question popped into my head.

"How did you know?"

Bogo, who had already turned to other paperwork, looked up disturbed.

"Know what?"

"That me and Big were eh… acquaintanced."

He grinned satisfied and pointed at the dossier I was holding.

"Don't you have work to do, officer Hopps?" He said, bending back over the files.

I shook my head amused. Have it his way. One day, I would get him to tell me how he found out. I saluted and closed the door behind me softly. Outside I looked at the item in my hand. The red letters teased me with their mysteriousness. I leaned on the railing that delimited the floor. Bogo had an excellent view over the main hall of the precinct from up here. I saw Clawhauser at his reception desk. He was talking to Nick, discussing a topic the cheetah seemed to enjoy far more than the fox. I contemplated calling out to them, eventually deciding not to. It would be unprofessional to start screaming without good reason. It was the midst of day and there were a lot of animals here who were trying to work. I dared not disturb them with another of my blissful outbursts. I turned around and embarked on the long descent to the ground level.

== Nick ==

For the past few minutes, I had been trying to convince Clawhauser that what he had seen was just his own imagination. That he had not seen me melt in Judy's cuddle. That he hadn't had his coffee yet. Something I had figured to be quite easy. Unfortunately, I had hugely misread the cheetah's personality as ignorant. He was not as moldable a mind as I had marked him. Additionally, it was nigh impossible to get him to rethink what he had seen.

"You have no idea what you are talking about." I denied confidently.

"Oh, yes I am, Nicky." He laughed, "Acting all tough around here to hide the crush you have on your partner. I saw you with her. It was so –"

"Don't!" I sparked.

"Cute." He said undeterred, "You all red, when she squeezed you like a toy. I mean redder than normal."

I sighed loudly. Of all cops, why did it had to be him.

"Do you have any idea how stupid you sound?" I ridiculed him.

"I don't know, maybe a little like this."

He put on a goofy smile as he pretended to be hugged. I was slightly frightened by the realistic impression he managed to pull off. Had I really looked like that? If so, I was more smitten than I thought. Not replying instantly to his play gave him the opportunity to deal a final blow to my crumbling defenses.

"I wonder what the rest thinks. Oh wait, here comes Judy herself. Let's ask her how stupid I am."

When Judy looked away from us to talk to someone else, I pointed at my interlocutor menacingly.

"Listen, donut boy. If you tell anything to anyone, especially to Judy, I promise you… I will make your days in the records room feel like a darn holiday. Got that?"

He chuckled unimpressed.

"Don't worry, tough guy. Your secret's safe with me."

I prayed mutely to God that that was true, whilst putting up an innocent smile as the rabbit walked up to us. I came to the unnerving realization that my plan to hustle Clawhauser had backfired. Instead of having persuaded him into believing that I had no love for my partner, it had concluded with me confirming that suspicion. Was I losing my touch, or was everyone at the ZPD a lot craftier than I had estimated? Whatever it was, I had to tread cautiously in the future to keep more of my schemes from coming out wrong.

"Hey Judy!" Ben greeted cheerfully.

And he was a good pretender too. There was more to this one than meets the eye, that was certain.

"So, how did it go?" I asked.

She glimpsed at the big cat, prior to answering me with a tentative shrug.

"Okay I guess. Come on, we got some work to do."

"Sounds like it went well." I judged from the fact the she had been given a task.

"Yeah, it did." She replied, "Are you coming?"

She seemed eager to leave, much to the disappointment of her flabby friend behind the desk. He got what he deserved for wanting to meddle with my relationship with Judy like that. That said, I sincerely hoped that he would do as he promised and keep quiet. After all, my threat had been a hollow one, an ordinary bluff. If he really did tattle, there was nothing serious I could do to him. And my gut told me that he knew that too.

I quickly tagged along as Judy headed for the parking lot.

"Where are we off to exactly?"

"Hard to explain, I'd better tell you on the way."

"Whatever you say boss." I said obediently.