Judy and Nick walked back to their office to hammer out a plan for how they were going to nab this Buffalo. Before they could do that though, they both needed to have an important conversation about what had just happen. Or more appropriately, what hadn't. Nick walked past the break room and grabbed a cup of coffee as Judy walked next to him staring at the floor. After taking a sip of his coffee Nick sighed and decided that now was as good a time as any.
"Look Carrots, don't beat yourself up over it. If I know the cases that you've been on, this is your first one involving any kind of sexual assault." Judy didn't look up, still examining in great detail the polished concrete under her foot.
"You're right, it's just… Well… I've heard stories of certain females abusing the law and the rights it gives them. I don't know why, but I just assumed that she was doing the same."
"Don't you think you're letting it get a bit personal?" Judy looked up to meet Nick's gaze.
"What do you mean? How am I letting this get personal?" Nick took another sip of his coffee before he continued with his train of thought.
"I've heard the stories too. How young females will regret being with someone of a different species, and to avoid the embarrassment of letting the information get out simply claim that they were assaulted, or worse." He cast a casual glance at her, "of course, you would never do anything like that." He said with a sly grin. In a hushed tone Judy hissed back at Nick.
"I thought we promised we wouldn't talk about that at work! What if-" Nick held a free paw up to her lips.
"Relax. No one here has any proof of that. All I'm saying is that you shouldn't let your personal life influence your decisions like that. Besides, I think he can fend for himself." Nick gave her a discrete wink and motioned for them to keep walking towards their offices.
As they arrived back in their familiar chairs Judy decided to pick up the next part of the conversation.
"Alright, so what do we know about this guy?" Nick picked through the folder they had been given.
"Quite a bit actually. It seems that he knew our tigress for some time before he made his move. We have a name, an address, his place of work, everything really. As far as I can tell, we have enough information to arrest him in today, collect the evidence tomorrow and get a conviction by next week."
"Well, it sounds like we don't have any time to lose. I'll put in a request for a search warrant on the apartment now. It should get cleared just little after we arrive."
"Now there's just one more thing that we have to worry about…"
"That being?"
"Whether or not you're going to get to the car before me."
"I don't see…" Nick took off sprinting.
"Last one has to ride shotgun!" Judy smirked a little, confident in the outcome of this little contest.
By the time Nick arrived at the black muscle car, he was out of breath and Judy was perched lazily on the hood. He staggered forward and let one tired paw land on the hood of the car as he tried to catch his breath and passed the keys to Judy. She twirled them around before throwing them up into the air and catching them with her other paw.
"Remind me again how you passed physical training?" Nick wheezed out his response.
"Easily… I just had to run a mile in seven minutes… not…"
"Six minutes?" Judy gave a smug look as Nick let his head fall into his arms.
"Exactly…" Judy got off the hood of the car and unlocked the side door as Nick dragged himself into the passenger seat.
The car still smelled like the northern woods, and a few of the mud stains from their last case seemed to have stubbornly stayed put despite Bogo's best efforts. It was in fact because of all the stains that he'd ceded the car over to Nick and Judy as their new squad car, as he no longer felt like buying it.
Pity. Nick mused to himself. It's still a fantastic car, though it does smell a bit more rural now.
Judy drove them to the apartment building where the tigress had said Greg lived, and where the incident had taken place. It wasn't much to look at, overall a very standard apartment building with brick and limestone accents. Walking up to the front Judy buzzed the landlord's office and explained to them the situation. It wasn't long before a frazzled looking Skunk came to the door and greeted them.
"Bonjour? Ah, pardon moi, I mean 'hello.'" Judy, being closer in height addressed the Skunk first.
"Hello, we were hoping to talk to you about one of your residents."
"Ah yes, Greg Stinson no?"
"That's the one! What can you tell us about him?" The Skunk took a moment to mull over the question before giving them his response.
"Monsieur Greg is a good mammal; I have no idea of why you would accuse him of hurting a poor tigress. Besides, I don't really think that he is big enough to really do anything to threaten such a large mammal." Judy and Nicked looked towards each other before Nick answered.
"Greg's a Bison… He's more than capable-"
"A Bison? No, he's a squirrel last I checked?" Judy's ears perked up at this.
"A squirrel? Are you sure?"
"Yes, of course I am. It's not very often that a mammal as small as a squirrel asks to rent an apartment normally meant for an elephant." Nick and Judy were both dumbfounded at this point blankly answering in unison.
"Uh huh…"
They let him trail off about how strange it seemed to him that 'Greg' was willing to pay the high rent for such a large room. He could only assume that he came from a very wealthy family, which of course led to a tangent about his family history. Wrapping up the conversation with him, Nick explained that they would be back later with the search warrant for his apartment, but that for now they were going to talk to his neighbors.
Stopping first at the neighbor just down the hall they were greeted by a Cow who explained that she thought 'Greg' was very polite, though admitted that she didn't see him very often since he was nocturnal and apparently a possum. The neighbor across the hall was a Kangaroo who told them that 'Greg' was an Alpaca with 'mad' beatboxing skills. Still another neighbor informed them that 'Greg' was a Wombat, and that he apparently had horridly bad breath. No matter who they interviewed they never got the same description of 'Greg.' It was abundantly clear at this point that 'Greg' was merely a name for the individual that happened to live in this apartment at any particular moment in time. Nick and Judy went downstairs and waited in the lobby to go over everything that they had so far, with Judy beginning the summary.
"So far we have several witnesses who have all seen 'Greg.'"
"Yup. Except all of them have a description of 'Greg' that varies wildly in coloration, mannerisms and, most importantly, his species." Judy sighed before continuing.
"Exactly, and he apparently paid for his rent with cash every month. Could this case get any more bizarre?" Nick flinched.
"Never say that Carrots…" Judy gave a half smile and playfully punched Nick in the shoulder.
"Don't be superstitious! Granted what we've seen so far is pretty odd, but I'm sure that when we open up that apartment everything will make sense! We're bound to find something!" Nick took another sip from a cup of coffee that he'd gotten on the way there.
"Whatever you say."
At that moment their phones buzzed, informing them that they had just received an email from the county clerk's office. Attached was the warrant that they needed in order to enter the apartment. Quickly, they headed downstairs and showed the landlord said warrant, and he guided them to the elevator. They then followed him to the apartment that hopefully held the answers to the myriad of questions now surrounding it. Unlocking the heavy door at a special skunk sized second lock, the Skunk pushed hard and slowly moved it to one side.
Before them stood… An empty room. There was nothing there to indicate that anyone had ever even lived there. The white pine floors were pristine, and the kitchen looked as if it had never been used. The entire place radiated eerie vibes as a grave hush fell over the three shocked mammals. Nick took another sip from his cup of coffee.
"Remember when you said it couldn't get any weirder?" Judy didn't even bother to look at him when she answered.
"Shut up."
Author's Note:
Noting that my second largest audience seems to be in Ukraine, I just wanted to say hello and thank you for reading! I don't speak any Ukrainian or Russian so I am not even going to try and write something out in those languages… Well, except the following for which I apologize in advance: сука блять! Sorry, that's the only Russian I know and it's because I play games online. Anyway, my grandfather and his family were Kulaks from the Ukraine! Well, him and his family were Kulaks before the Holodomor famine and Stalin. All I'm trying to say is that I have a small but significant connection to you readers from Ukraine and that it makes me very happy that you are reading and enjoying my work. Thank you!