Judy repressed the urge to sigh. She had tried a number of lines of questions, but Holly Leaves still couldn't provide so much as a guess as to who the mammal who attacked her was or who might have hired them if they hadn't done the deed themselves. Judy almost hoped that it had been the work of a hired mammal, simply because the longer the chain from mastermind to victim was the more opportunities there were for the chain to break. It was obvious that the crime had been planned out fairly well, much more so than the typical murder attempt of a celebrity involving a crazy mammal with a gun and little else. If it had been the work of a single mammal, they were at least sane enough to plan well, which meant that they might also be at least sane enough to avoid easy capture.

As Judy struggled to come up with additional ground to cover, she heard what was unmistakably Nick walking down the hallway. Her ears perked and she was already walking towards the door when he knocked. When she opened it, he briefly dipped his head down towards what he was carrying–a tray that could only have come from the hospital cafeteria, loaded with plastic-wrapped sandwiches and paper cups of coffee–and then towards Holly Leaves. Judy didn't even have to consider the silent question before she nodded in response. The actress wasn't paying attention to their nonverbal exchange at all; she was gripping the paw of her boyfriend and staring at his still form.

"I thought that you probably didn't get the chance to eat anything," Nick said, catching Holly's attention as he walked past Judy and into the hospital room. "I brought some sandwiches and coffee. Decaf."

He set the tray down on the empty table next to the bed. Jacques hadn't been in the hospital anywhere near long enough to acquire flowers or cards; the room was cold in a way that went beyond the physically low temperature. "I'm her partner," Nick said, indicating Judy with the thumb of his left paw as he offered Holly his right paw and gave her his best smile that didn't reveal any sharp teeth, "Nick Wilde."

Holly took the proffered paw and gave it a single pump before disengaging. "Holly Leaves," she replied, "I appreciate the thought, but I'm not really hungry right now."

"I understand," Nick said, "But do you mind if I have one of these sandwiches?"

The actress shrugged. "Go ahead."

"Officer Hopps?" Nick asked, holding up one of the sandwiches.

Mercifully, Nick didn't call Judy by one of the many nicknames that he had for her when they were dealing with other mammals, but she almost wished that he would. "Officer Hopps," though accurate, seemed oddly impersonal in comparison to "Carrots."

"Thanks," Judy said, taking the plastic-wrapped sandwich.

Since Judy had been called back to the police station more or less immediately after getting back home after her day shift, she hadn't gotten the opportunity to eat anything since her lunchtime meal of a fresh salad. By comparison, the sandwich was somewhat lackluster. Although it was vegetarian, the vegetables filling the sandwich were soggy and somewhat wilted and the bread was spongy feeling. Still, once she had it unwrapped, her hunger awakened and made it smell tempting. Judy had to consciously force herself not to eat it too quickly, and noticed that Nick was doing the same. He was taking small, almost dainty bites from his sandwich, and Judy realized that he was avoiding opening his muzzle too wide and exposing his teeth, in much the same way that he had favored Holly with a closed-mouth smile upon meeting her. It also struck Judy that the actress seemed completely indifferent to Nick's presence. It might be that, after living through the attack and then speaking about it, she was too worn out to muster any more energy, or it might be the kind of latent prejudice that a lot of small prey held against foxes.

Before Judy could get much deeper down that line of thought, Holly grabbed one of the remaining sandwiches off the tray. "I guess I should, right?"

Nick nodded, and took one of the coffee cups off the tray. The fact that he had gotten three cups of coffee told Judy that he had clearly planned to split the tray between Holly, Judy, and himself, but she appreciated the gesture. The three of them sat in silence as Holly picked at the mediocre sandwich and Nick and Judy drank the subpar coffee. When Holly had eaten about half of her sandwich and set it back down on the tray, Nick spoke up again. "They'll take care of the tray in the morning."

Holly nodded, but her attention was on her boyfriend again and it was clear she wasn't really listening. Judy and Nick made their goodbyes, and promised to get back in touch with her later.

Once they were out of the hospital and on their way back to their car, Judy immediately asked Nick's opinion of Marty Thanatopsis. Since Judy hadn't spoken to the agent at all she was going to have to rely on Nick's judgment, but she was sure that if anyone could get a read on the agent it would be him.

"He's more worried about his career than anything else. You know, he didn't even ask if she was OK."

"Do you think he's involved?"

Nick shrugged. "Thanatopsis didn't do it himself, that's for sure. Did you see the guy? I don't think he could make the climb to the second floor, let alone the sixth. But I think the only way he could be involved is if Holly was in on it too."

Judy shook her head emphatically. "No way," she said, "You saw the way she was acting."

"Exactly. She is an actress," Nick said dryly, "Maybe she's acting. Maybe things went too far and her boyfriend was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Judy looked up at him skeptically. "Do you really believe that or are you just playing devil's advocate?"

Nick grinned, exposing a mouth full of sharp white teeth. "It is a a natural fit, don't you think? But no. I don't think she was part of it, but I do think we can't discount the possibility yet."

"I suppose," Judy said.

"What about the boyfriend?" Nick asked, "Could he have been the target?"

"If he was, she had no idea why. We'll have to dig on that."

Nick nodded. "I've got Thanatopsis putting together the hatemail that Leaves received. There might be something there, too. And we need to check up on the executive producer of her show; Thanatopsis is not a fan."

"Rich Wolf?" Judy asked, "Holly had nothing but good things to say about him."

"Apparently Wolf is putting together a press conference and cut Thanatopsis out of the planning entirely. Kind of a different perspective between an actor and an agent, don't you think?" Nick said, but Judy could tell that he filing the difference in opinion away for later.

Judy laid out what she had learned from Holly, referring to the notes that she had made. Nick agreed that so far Holly hadn't told them anything that they couldn't get from the crime scene. He also mentioned that while he had been picking up the sandwiches, Grévy had called in about the security camera footage. Apparently, the cameras recorded in an obsolete proprietary format so that while the ZPD had been able to copy the digital files they didn't have a way to view them. Forensics would probably be able to get the right software eventually, but it'd be easier in the short term to just view the footage where it had been recorded. Judy shook her head, "We shouldn't expect much from that footage, should we?"

"Grévy almost sounded happy, so no, I don't think we should."

After dropping the car off at the motor pool, Nick and Judy made their way to the train station to get back to their respective homes. The Zootopia public transit system never stopped for the night and ran just as many trains at night as during the day to accommodate the mammals working night shifts, so it wasn't too long before the train Judy needed arrived at the station.

"That's your train, Carrots. I'll see you..." Nick pulled out his phone and did an exaggerated double take at the time, "Later today, OK? Try to get some sleep."

Judy resisted the urge to yawn. It was either very late at night or very early in the morning, depending on how you looked at it, and they would have to be back at the police station in a few short hours. "You too," she said, as she got on board just before the doors closed.

Nick said something in reply, but even her sensitive ears couldn't catch it over the sound of the train's brakes releasing and the wheels fighting friction to get into motion. Knowing him, it was probably a quip about being naturally nocturnal.

Judy leaned her head against the window of the train and watched as Nick was reduced first to a red and blue blob and then became completely invisible as the train picked up speed and left the station behind. She kept watching out the window, and her view of the city started breaking apart. It had started raining, and the streaks of water running across the window distorted the lights of the city into a colorful blur. It was a bit like the case, actually. The picture they had of it was frustratingly incomplete, but there was no one she'd rather have by her side solving it than Nick.