When Judy arrived at the station, she was mildly surprised that Nick was already there, chatting with Clawhauser at the main desk in the lobby. She had never actually seen where Nick lived; she mentally filed away the detail that it was apparently closer to the station than her apartment. "Glad you could make it, Carrots," Nick called out when he saw her, "Bogo wanted you here before he'd explain."
"He just knows that you're not going to be paying attention and only wants to go over the details once," Judy teased.
Clawhauser either didn't think that it was a joke or didn't find it funny. The normally effervescent cheetah's eyes narrowed as he looked at Nick. "You absolutely have to solve this!" he said, reaching over his desk and grabbing Nick's shirt and pulling him closer, "What if the mammal who did this tries again?!"
It was unsurprising that Clawhauser already knew the case that she and Nick had been assigned, but Judy hadn't suspected that his love for Black and White (or at least its starring actress Holly Leaves) ran quite so deep. From the way that the fur on Nick's tail had frizzed out when Clawhauser grabbed him, Nick hadn't suspected it either. "Of course we will, buddy," Nick said as he casually and unsuccessfully tried to get out of the cheetah's grip, "In fact, there's something that you could do that would really help us with this case."
That was apparently enough to get him to drop Nick. "Really?" Clawhauser asked as he pulled back, "You mean it?"
"Absolutely," Nick said, leaning over the desk and waving Clawhauser closer in a conspiratorial manner, "No one else at the station follows celebrities the way that you do, right?"
Clawhauser leaned in and nodded. "What we need," Nick said, waving a paw in Judy's direction and then back at himself, "Is someone to put together a file on Holly Leaves. All the roles she's ever had, anyone who might be holding a grudge against her. Ex-boyfriends, old agents, actresses that she beat out for roles, anyone who might have a motive. Can you do that?"
"Of course!" Clawhauser squealed, his delight at being asked to help apparent, "I'll have it for you first thing in the morning, OK?"
"That would actually be a big help, Clawhauser," Judy jumped into the conversation, "We'd really appreciate it."
"Not just us," Nick said, "But Holly Leaves's very life might depend on your research if whoever attacked her tries again."
That was, in Judy's opinion, laying it on a little thick, but the portly cheetah positively swelled with pride. "I won't let you down," he said solemnly.
"I know you won't," said Nick, "Come on, Judy, let's go see Bogo."
Once they were in Bogo's office, he didn't waste any time and sketched out the case in broad strokes. An unknown assailant had broken into Holly Leaves's apartment, and she had barricaded herself in the bathroom and called the police. While the assailant had been unsuccessfully trying to break the door to the bathroom down, Holly's boyfriend had arrived. The assailant had hit the boyfriend in the head hard enough to knock him out and fled before the first responders had arrived. "There are officers on the scene. They'll be able to provide more details," he concluded.
Judy could hardly wait for the chief's dismissal so that they could begin work, but Nick made no movement to leave. "Why us?" he asked, "What's the rest of the story?"
It was peculiar, Judy thought, as she did the math in her head. The crime couldn't have happened more than an hour or so ago, but that was somehow enough time for the mayor to become aware of it and request that Nick and her be assigned the case.
"Police aren't the only ones with police scanners, Wilde," Bogo replied, "The media happened."
He said the word media with obvious distaste, but it certainly explained a lot. An up-and-coming actress attacked in her own home by an unknown assailant was the kind of story that could be milked for all it was worth. "So the mayor wanted good press for a high profile crime," Judy said, realizing that she and Nick had only been called up to make the mayor look good, "This is all about getting him re-elected, isn't it?"
"Not re-elected, Carrots. No one voted for Escurel," Nick drawled.
It was true that no one had ever voted for Escurel as mayor. Bellwether had appointed the aging squirrel assistant mayor when she took over as mayor following Lionheart's arrest, and Escurel had in turn taken over as mayor following her arrest. Media stories about him tended to dance as close to the edge of libel as possible. It drove ratings far better to imply that he might have been involved in Bellwether's plot than to suggest what was the far more likely turn of events. Namely, that he was a milquetoast politician who lacked the charisma, drive, or intelligence to advance any further than a minor position on the city council and he had only been tapped for the job of assistant mayor precisely because of his lack of charisma, drive, or intelligence. He had been the perfect choice by Bellwether-completely nonthreatening to her position as mayor and her plot to rally prey against predators. But with an upcoming mayoral election, Escurel had apparently discovered that he did, in fact, like the position of mayor and wanted to keep it. Choosing a high-profile attempted murder case to flex his political muscle as tough on crime and a staunch supporter of the ZPD was pretty much Politics 101.
Bogo didn't contradict him. "The mayor has made a very generous offer in order to get the two of you on this case," he admitted, "And if he has found an advantage for himself, I don't care."
"The mayor couldn't find his nuts with both paws down his pants," Nick said with a dismissive wave.
"Nick!" gasped Judy; she should have known better than to be surprised at what he would say to their boss, but he was always pushing the line.
Bogo favored Nick with a glower, but Judy could have sworn that she saw the ghost of a smile flash across the dour buffalo's face. "Be that as it may," the chief continued, "It's your case now. I expect you to solve it."
Nick probably had something more to say-probably to ask what the mayor had offered-but Bogo didn't give him the chance. "Dismissed," he said, with the kind of authoritative finality that even Nick was (usually) wise enough to accept.
The drive to Beklan Heights, where the crime had occurred, was fairly short. It was an older part of the city caught up in a wave of gentrification. The tipping point where none of the original residents could afford the neighborhood hadn't quite been reached yet, but judging from the sheer number of buildings undergoing renovation, it was only a matter of time. Finding the apartment building was rather straightforward because it was the only building on Urtah Street with media vehicles and police cars in front of it. The red and blue lights of the police cars on the scene lit up the veritable swarm of camera mammals and reporters jockeying against the barricades for position. "Why don't we go around the back?" Nick asked.
They hadn't arrived with lights or sirens on, and Judy had no desire to speak with the press. She pulled the car around the back of the building, but the apartment building turned out not to have a rear entrance, just an emergency exit labeled "ALARM WILL SOUND IF DOOR IS OPENED." "I guess it'll have to be the main entrance," Judy sighed.
Fortunately, a male bear officer that Judy vaguely recognized as being from one of the other precincts was making a statement near the main entrance and they were able to get past the media and into the building without drawing any notice. There was another officer waiting inside, a caribou that Judy didn't recognize at all. He waved them towards the elevator. "Sixth floor," the caribou said.
When they got to the sixth floor, which was also the top floor, it was obvious how the assailant had made their entrance. The building was shaped like an L with equal length legs, bulging outwards where the legs met for the lobby on the first floor and for the stairs and elevator. At the ends of halls on the sixth floor, and presumably on all the other floors, there were large windows that led to fire escapes. On the sixth floor there were four apartments in each leg of the building, two on either side of the hallway. In the hallway that Holly Leaves's apartment was located in, the glass of the window to the fire escape was in pieces on the floor. Clearly, the criminal had climbed the fire escape and broken the window.
Nick and Judy made their way to what was the apartment they were interested in judging by the presence of crime scene tape across the open door. Inside the apartment there were a few crime scene technicians taking pictures and another officer. She was a zebra mare that Judy again vaguely recognized as being from another precinct. When she spotted Judy and Nick at the door, her expression immediately soured. "I was told to expect you and your partner, Officer Hopps," she said with a grimace that could not be called a smile without seriously stretching the truth, "I'm Officer Grévy."
Before Judy could say anything in response, the zebra mare continued, "And until the mayor made a few calls, this crime scene belonged to my partner and me. He's down there right now," Grévy said as she gestured downwards to where the bear was presumably still making an official statement, "Talking to the press. But that'll be the last time one of our names gets associated with this case, I expect. It must be nice to be a celebrity cop."
Interoffice and inter-precinct rivalries were something that Judy did her best to avoid, but the zebra did have a legitimate grievance. A high profile case could make an officer's career, and Judy already had one of those under her belt. Grévy and her partner had gotten just such an opportunity only to have it snatched away. It was politics, plain and simple, a graying old squirrel doing what he could legally do to keep himself in an office he hadn't exactly earned, but she had no idea how to explain that.
Nick apparently did, though. "It's politics," he said smoothly, "And when the mayor tells the chief to jump, and he tells us to jump, we don't have much of a choice."
"If I wanted your opinion, I would have asked for it, fox," Grévy snapped back at him, emphasizing his species as an epithet.
If it fazed him, Nick didn't show it, and he continued as though she hadn't just insulted him, "But we're all cops, and there's plenty of credit to share. We can make sure that you and your partner get your share of the credit, or we can take it all for ourselves. Which means how much help you give us now is going to make a big difference down the road."
It wasn't exactly the most ethical of tacts to take, but it seemed to work. Grévy narrowed her eyes at him, "Your partner is going to hold you to that."
Judy was offended on Nick's behalf that his word alone apparently wasn't good enough for Grévy, but she instantly agreed. "You have my word."
"Fine. There's not too much to add to the initial report. Holly Leaves and her boyfriend, a personal trainer and author by the name of-" the zebra grimaced in distaste, "Jacked Rabbit are in Zootopia General Hospital. She's physically fine, but he's got at least a severe concussion."
"Jacked Rabbit?" Nick asked, his delight at the name obvious, "Are you sure he's not an actor like his girlfriend? In, perhaps, a slightly different industry?"
He waggled his eyebrows suggestively to make his meaning clear. He was obviously just trying to push Grévy's buttons, but she didn't take the bait. "Personal trainer and author," she repeated, "He couldn't give a statement because he was unconscious when they took him to the hospital, and Holly Leaves couldn't because she was going into shock. I've got the super pulling the security camera footage now."
"Thank you," Judy said, with all the sincerity that she could muster, "We'll take a look around now."
Officer Grévy grunted an acknowledgement and left the apartment, doubtlessly to follow up with the building's superintendent on the camera footage. The crime scene technicians taking photos had wisely made themselves scarce when Grévy had begun talking, which left Judy and Nick in the apartment alone.
It was significantly larger than Judy's apartment, but somehow still cozy. The furniture looked old and overstuffed, and there were throw pillows and small ceramic knick-knacks everywhere. There was an eclectic blend of art hanging on the walls, everything from embroidery pieces to what must have been family photos to band posters. If anything, the apartment was almost too full, but Judy had a trick for focusing on the crime scene.
When she was a kit, Judy hadn't played with dolls and dollhouses in the same manner as her siblings. While they had played house, she had made crime scenes for the dolls to solve. She wouldn't have admitted it to anyone, but she found it was useful mental tool to visualize the crime scene as though it was one of those little dioramas. The extraneous details that the lived-in space contained fell aside as she concentrated on the items that really mattered.
The door to the apartment had a chain lock, half of which was on the floor. The tool used to cut the chain was readily apparent-on the floor near the bathroom, there was a set of bolt cutters that had a bouquet of flowers taped to one of the handles. The flowers themselves and some of the many loose flower petals on the carpet around them were bloody, in contrast to another bouquet laying on the floor closer to the apartment's door. The door to the bathroom was currently open, and there were fresh gouge marks in the wood near the doorknob.
Judy put the sequence of events together in her head. The assailant, which she was visualizing as a generic doll with neither gender nor species, had broken into the apartment building through the fire escape, and then approached Holly's door with a bouquet of flowers concealing a set of bolt cutters. The presence of the other bouquet suggested that Holly had been expecting her boyfriend; maybe she had looked through the peephole and seen only flowers, or perhaps she had opened the door when the assailant knocked without checking. In either case, she must have left the chain lock engaged and opened the door a crack. The assailant had used the bolt cutters to cut the chain lock and had then forced the unlocked door open, suggesting that it had to be a mammal physically stronger than a rabbit doe. Holly had managed to lock herself in her bathroom, while the assailant used something, probably the bolt cutters again judging from the flower petals on the carpet near the bathroom door, to try to force their way into the bathroom. While the assailant had been hitting the door, Holly's boyfriend had arrived with a bouquet of flowers of his own. The boyfriend had been struck in the head by the bolt cutters, causing a wound that had bled freely. The assailant had then fled, probably back down the fire escape.
Judy frowned. It was a logical reconstruction, but there were two witnesses who could provide additional details. "Come on, Nick,"she said, "Let's go visit the hospital."