Author's Note: As it turns out, I ended up with a pretty long layover on Christmas Eve and I do have Internet access. I was able to get the next chapter written and now that all my nieces and nephews are in bed, I have the means to post it. I figured I'd put up another chapter as my Christmas gift to you. If you celebrate Christmas, I hope you enjoyed it. If not, I hope it was still a nice day for you.

"Was that why he was hired?" Nick asked.

Carlos shrugged. "You'd have to ask the folks in MR about why he was hired, but he definitely didn't let anyone forget it when he was fired. Look."

Carlos pointed at a field further down the screen, which was labeled "Employee Termination Notes." The comments that had been entered in were blandly phrased, but the content was screaming red flags. Roberto Escurel had become aggressive and confrontational when he was fired and had to be escorted out by security. The entire time, he had been raving about how his grandfather the mayor would sue the studio and how he, personally, would make everyone regret firing him.

"Do you have an address listed for him?" Judy asked eagerly.

Roberto Escurel was by far the most promising lead of the case so far, and she had no intention of letting it slip away. "Sure," Carlos replied, "3200 14th Street, Apartment 9A."

"We have to call this in," Judy said, already out of her chair and ready to run to the patrol car.

"Wait a minute," Nick said, grabbing her arm, "That address is useless."

Carlos frowned at that, and Judy was equally puzzled. "Roberto probably isn't there anymore, but he could have left something behind," Judy protested, "We should be able to get a warrant and—"

"That's not what I mean," Nick said, "I mean it's not a real address. 3200 14th Street would be about a mile into the bay. And unless they've done a lot of expansion since I last checked, I don't think there's an apartment building out there."

"Oh," Judy replied, her ears drooping in disappointment.

She forced herself to perk up. Yes, it was a setback, but they did at least have something to go on. "Well, we can still call it in," she said, "It'll just be a little harder to find him."

A sly grin suddenly spread across Nick's face. "You're right," he agreed, "That sounds like a job for Grévy and LaMerk."

Judy paused. While it was more than a little petty, his logic was sound. They had promised the zebra and the bear that they would share the credit for the case, and having them do the legwork that would lead to the likeliest suspect to date was a good start. The fact that it could be a wild goose chase was besides the point. "That's a good idea," she agreed, a small smile of her own appearing on her face, "I'll go report it in."

"I'll stay here and talk to MR," Nick replied, and then called out after her retreating back, "Make sure you tell Grévy and LaMerk not to drive off the pier!"

The nameplate on the door of the studio's Mammal Resources Director identified her as Brenda Stipula. She was a cheerful middle-aged hedgehog, her purple pantsuit somewhat snug around a generous midsection. Her office was quite a bit smaller than Rich Wolf's, and the desk and the view out the window weren't nearly as nice, but she had made it quite homey by covering her desk and walls with photos of her family and what had to be artwork done by her children. The largest work of art was a white piece of construction paper that had a lumpy brown blob in the center that vaguely looked like a hedgehog. At least, Nick assumed that it was supposed to be a hedgehog since the word "Mommy" had been written underneath it in large, shaky red letters. Nick wasn't an art critic or a father (although he had pretended to be both while running hustles), but he'd guess that the child who had painted it couldn't have been more than seven or eight.

Carlos had made a quick introduction before popping out of the room to whatever other tasks his boss had assigned him; Nick suspected that the poor coyote's job description was something along the lines of "Do whatever I tell you to do at any time of day." Brenda's greeting had been warm and her shake firm, but that was about what he had expected. The type of mammal who could work their way up the ladder in MR tended to be pretty much exclusively outgoing and gregarious. "How can I help you today?" Brenda positively beamed at him.

"We're investigating the assault on Holly Leaves—"

"Such a shame!" the hedgehog interrupted, "She's such a sweet thing."

"—and we're looking into Roberto Escurel," he finished.

Stipula's face fell a little at that, and her cheeriness seemed to go down a degree. "Oh dear. He made quite a fuss when he was fired."

"Yes, that's what we heard," Nick replied, "Were there any warning signs before he was caught in Holly's dressing room?"

"Absolutely not," she said firmly, "Everyone who worked with him said he was quiet and kept to himself. Never complained, just did his work."

"I see," Nick said, "And what was his work?"

He already had a vague understanding of Roberto's job, but he was interested in seeing what Brenda's reply would be. Despite what she might claim, the job of MR was really to protect the company, not the employees, and he suspected that she would be willing to stretch the truth a little to do that. "He was one of our junior lighting techs," Brenda said, "They set up and take down studio lighting. It takes a lot of lights to make a show like Black and White, you know."

"Of course," Nick said easily, "So how did he get the job?"

That was the question that he considered the answer to most important. It was possible that Roberto's grandfather had pulled some strings to get his grandson the job, and considering how Zootopia's past two mayors had turned out, it seemed worth poking into. He eyed Brenda carefully, trying to spot any sign that she might be lying. "He was working towards his film major, he had some experience with lighting, and he was already in the union," she said with a shrug, "We got some other applicants, of course, but he was the most qualified."

"So it didn't have anything to do with his grandfather?"

"Of course not!" Brenda replied, looking mildly scandalized, "He didn't even mention he was related to the mayor until he got fired."

If she was hiding something, she was doing an excellent job of it; Nick hadn't seen any signs that she was lying. Nick switched gears to the next question that might reveal the hidden paw of Roberto's grandfather the mayor. "Has Roberto tried suing for wrongful termination?"

Brenda shook her head. "Not so much as a peep from a lawyer," she said, "But I've been in Mammal Resources almost twenty years now. A lot of folks like to say they'll sue when they get fired, but once they cool down a little they realize it's not worth it."

Describing a squirrel who had apparently been forcibly ejected from the building cursing out the other employees and vowing to make them pay as needing to cool down a little seemed like a gross understatement, but minimizing things was probably one of the more important parts of her job. "OK," Nick said, "Besides Thomas Lupowitz and the producer—Jim Capricorn, right?—did anyone else know why Roberto was fired?"

"We don't make that kind of information known," Brenda said, her tone a little chilly, "Thomas and Jim were the only ones."

"And did Roberto know that Thomas was the one who caught him?"

"Absolutely not," Brenda replied, her tone downright frosty, "We strive to ensure that our employees can speak up when they see something without fear of retribution."

To Nick, that sounded more like a direct quote from the employee manual rather than a statement of fact, but it answered his question. Stipula's obvious growing frustration was understandable; she seemed like the sort of mammal who took pride in her work and his questions could be taken as indirectly asking if she was incompetent at her job. "Well, thank you for your time," Nick said, "We appreciate your help."

Just like that, as though a switch had been flipped, Brenda's face went back to a cheerful but ultimately hollow expression. It wasn't all too different from the one that had served Nick well in his hustling days. "Anything we can do to help the ZPD," she said.

Following Nick's interview with the mammal in charge of MR and Judy radioing the station, they had spent some additional fruitless time speaking to other members of the cast and crew at the studio. None of them had been close to Roberto, not even the other mammals working in the same area as him. He was apparently something of a loner and had never joined in conversations with others or even eaten lunch with them. With nothing else left to do at the studio, they had headed back to the squad car.

"So," Nick asked brightly as he closed the car door, "What are the odds we have three criminal mayors in a row?"

Judy laughed as she put the car into drive and pulled out of the lot. "You don't think Mayor Escurel is involved in this, do you?"

Nick frowned. "It doesn't seem likely, does it? It's been weeks since Roberto was fired and the studio hasn't so much as heard from his lawyer. I get the feeling that he's not going to be suing the studio. And if the mayor is involved, why would he pull strings to get you assigned to the case? He knows what happened with the last big case you had."

"We solved it on my second try," Judy replied.

"Well, yes," Nick conceded, "But if the mayor's involved, there's no way he could think you'd help cover that up unless he's really stupid."

Judy was quiet for a minute, thinking about what Nick had said. Whatever her failing were as far as the missing mammals case went, it was absolutely true that she had demonstrated she wouldn't stand by and allow the abuse of power by an authority.

It's the same thing they said about Minxon," Judy said.

"What's that? 'I'm not a crook?'" Nick replied, quoting Minxon's famous line in a surprisingly good imitation of the former President.

He had taken his mimicry a step further by stretching his arms out with his fingers in the V for Victory pose that the mink had been fond of using. Judy snorted and pushed his left arm away, which had been getting a bit close to the steering well. "No, not what Minxon said. What they said about him. You know, that it's not the crime, it's the cover up?"

"So Roberto didn't get granddaddy's help committing the crime..." Nick said.

"But maybe he got some help afterwards," Judy replied, nodding.

Nick ran a paw along his narrow muzzle. "We can ask Roberto ourselves once Grévy and LaMerk track him down. Speaking of which, did he have a driver's license on file?"

"He did," Judy said, "Same fake address that the studio had. I just can't believe the DMV didn't catch that."

Nick laughed. "Really, Carrots? You've been to the DMV. Did you really get the impression that they'd care about something like that?"

"No, I guess not," Judy sighed, "But his license did have his height listed."

Nick's interest seemed suitably piqued, and she waited a moment to draw it out before he finally asked, "And...?"

"Two foot ten," she replied, "Close to the low end of our estimated height on the assailant, but definitely a possibility."

"I think we'll need to pay his grandfather a visit, too," Nick said thoughtfully.

After completing the paperwork to document what they had done that day, Judy made her way to the female locker room to change back into civilian clothing before heading back to her apartment. Although she had eagerly and proudly walked into the building on her first day of work in full uniform, she had quickly learned that there were a number of practical reasons not to do that. In particular, that if she got sweaty or dirty on a shift, she'd have to either go home in the same state or waste a change of uniform. Since the past shift hadn't been physically demanding at all, she skipped the shower and simply started getting changed.

She had finished changing and was in the process of stuffing the worn uniform into a bag when she heard the telltale sign of one of her coworkers approaching. While Francine could be remarkably quiet for an elephant, even her gentlest tread was always audible to Judy's delicate ears. Francine had clearly just finished a shower and was wrapped in a towel that Judy could have used to make five or six sets of bed sheets. "Judy!" the elephant called cheerfully as she opened her locker and started rummaging around, "How's it going?"

"Pretty good," Judy replied, studiously turning slightly away to avoid catching a glimpse of the elephant naked, "How about yourself?"

"Oh, can't complain," came the response, "Did Nick introduce you to his new girlfriend?"

Judy completely forgot about not looking at the elephant and spun around. "His what?"

Francine was, mercifully, not exposing anything at that point, but she just chuckled, apparently misreading Judy's surprise. "You don't have to cover for him," she said, "Bogo won't care unless he's taking extra breaks without clocking out, and I figure there's no way you'd let him do that. I heard from Wolford that Nick came back today reeking of a vixen."

Apparently Clawhauser was merely the biggest gossip in the police station, not the only gossip. Judy's first reaction was simple palpable relief. "That wasn't his girlfriend," Judy said, "We ran into a friend of his at lunch and she hugged him, that's all. I didn't know Wolford would be able to smell that."

She hadn't been able to smell Jamie on Nick at all, but considering the way that the younger fox had wrapped herself around Nick it made sense that a wolf would be able to pick it up. "Uh huh," Francine replied, not sounding convinced at all.

"You don't have to cover for him," the elephant repeated, "Clawhauser said Nick came in this morning with his fur un-brushed, wearing a T-shirt. A T-shirt! You really expect me to believe he didn't spend the night with a vixen? What'd he tell you he was doing last night?"

"He slept with me last night," Judy replied without thinking.

When her brain caught up with her mouth and she realized how that sounded, she quickly corrected herself, "I mean, we slept together last night."

That wasn't any better. Francine's eyebrows were climbing up her forehead in apparent disbelief. "That came out wrong," Judy said with a nervous chuckle, "I mean, we were watching TV at my place last night, and we both fell asleep. He didn't wake up until my alarm went off, so he didn't have time to go back to his place and he had to borrow one of my shirts."

Judy's speech had sped up a little and her ears had heated in embarrassment at her slip, but the elephant didn't seem to catch it. "Oh," Francine said, sounding to Judy as though she was disappointed that Nick was neither involved with a mystery vixen she could talk with Judy about nor involved with Judy herself, which would have been an even bigger piece of gossip for the station.

If, of course, that wasn't already what they were speculating. "Well, take care," Francine said, giving Judy a lazy wave with her trunk as she left the locker room.

"You too!" Judy called after the elephant.

She gave herself a minute to compose herself, then grabbed her bag and headed out. Nick was waiting in the lobby, chatting up the ibex who pulled desk duty after Clawhauser. "Ready to head out?" he asked.

Judy nodded, and they left to walk to the metro station. Nick was apparently absorbed in thoughts of his own, because they walked in silence. For her part, Judy was puzzling over the possibilities of the case. Was Roberto the assailant? Was his grandfather involved at all? She tried to push the thoughts away, and realized that they had somehow made it the station without her noticing. There were a few minutes before either of their trains would arrive, so she made a decision.

"Do you want to head over to my place and watch a few more episodes of Black and White?" Judy asked, "I owe you for lunch; I can pick up something for dinner."

A slow smile spread across Nick's face. "As long as I can catch a train back to my place afterwards. The showers in your building are terrible."