Author's Note: Yeah, this chapter suffered from a ton of writers block and actually went through about five different versions before I settled on one, so sorry it's late!
"OK, let's take this from the beginning."
Nick spoke to himself as he threw the case file down on his desk and sat down. He opened the folder and thumbed through the files, his brain running to piece together the series of events that lead to this point. He was missing something.
He pulled the photos taken from the street cameras that showed Judy walking toward the bus stop that she always took to work. Somewhere in between two of the cameras, she disappeared. Since it was unlikely she was abducted in the middle of the sidewalk, she was most likely quickly dragged into one of the adjacent alleys, which limited the total number of possibilities.
"Oh, why didn't I see that before?" Judy had said she had been forced into the back seat of the goat's car, but why hadn't she fought back? Knowing Judy, she would've kicked the windows out before going quietly. And now knowing she was speaking under duress, nothing Judy had said was credible.
Nick scoured the other street cameras in the area around the time of Judy's disappearance for hours and, unsurprisingly, saw no evidence of the goat's sedan. Searching for a vehicle quickly became a dead end. It could be any of the thousands of cars that roamed Zootopia at any given moment. A proverbial needle in a haystack.
Nick shifted his attention to Judy's note, a copy of which was now tucked within the case file. She had offhandedly mentioned that "they were listening" so she wasn't able to verbally warn anyone about Bellwether.
"How are 'they' listening?" None of the medical reports from Judy's injury's mentioned any kind of listening device in her belongings, which left only one possibility. Nick stood from his desk and walked briskly toward the front door. He might know someone with the answers.
He didn't have to search long when he saw the familiar maroon van parked in a familiar alley. Finnick had a particular affinity toward this alley for a reason Nick could never understand. The tiny fox was one of the few animals Nick had difficulty getting a read on, which was one of the reasons he respected the diminutive con artist.
Nick knocked on the back door of the van and was forced to duck out of the way almost immediately as Finnick threw the door open.
"Who's there!?" the fennec shouted in his surprisingly low-pitched voice.
"Relax, it's me!" Nick shouted back. Finnick stared at Nick for several seconds before he burst out in laughter.
"Ha ha ha! I will never get used to seeing you in a cop costume, Nick!" he shouted.
"It's not a..." Nick began looking down at his uniform before realizing arguing with his former partner would get him nowhere. "Look, I need your help."
"Oh, is there something you cops can't do?" Finnick taunted.
"No, but I think you can do it faster," Nick shot back, knowing that playing to the fox's ego was the fastest way to get Finnick to help him.
"What do you need?" Finnick asked, obviously curious.
"What do you know about a radio transmitters?" Nick asked, noticing Finnick's curiosity rise.
"What kind transmitter?" Finnick replied.
"A really, really small one," Nick answered back with a small smirk. "You wouldn't happen to know where I could get my hands on one?" Finnick thought for a moment before he looked at Nick suspiciously.
"I can't get in trouble for this," he said in a tone that let Nick know it wasn't just a request.
"Hey, it's not illegal to know some random trivia," Nick replied. The answer certainly seemed satisfy the tiny fox, who gestured to Nick to climb into the van. Nick pulled himself into the tight space and noticed Finnick was typing away on a laptop computer. Nick noted the computer appeared to be extremely, but chose it best keep his mouth shut about it.
Finnick finished his search and turned his computer toward Nick. He looked over the page and saw a small microphone and radio transmitter device.
"So, do you know where one might be able to get one of these in a... shall we say... clandestine manner?" Nick asked.
"Potentially," Finnick replied. Nick new that was as close to a "yes" as he was going to get.
"And, hear me out here, could you hide this, um, in a person?" he asked. Finnick looked at Nick with a strange expression on his face.
"Potentially," Finnick repeated.
"You wouldn't happen to know the frequency these things transmit at, would you?" Nick asked.
"Potentially," Finnick repeated one last time as he reached for a radio receiver tucked under some blankets in the corner of the van. Finnick turned the radio to a certain frequency and they both heard only the sound of grinding metal.
The heavy metal grate was difficult to move, but Judy managed to budge it out of place. The resulting scraping noise was loud. Judy immediately froze, listening for anyone that might have heard. After hearing nothing for several seconds she pried the grate away from the drain cover and looked down the dark hole.