The cobblestones were damp and cool under my feet in a pleasant contrast to the air of the Rain-Forest District, which made it feel as though I were attempting to breathe steam. As I approached the entrance of the Goredian Lock and Safe Company, my eye was naturally drawn to the way in which it stood out from the businesses that surrounded it. Whereas the others were covered with the mosses and creeping vines which flourished in the tropical climate of the district, only their signs and windows kept clear of the pervasive vegetation, the facade of the Goredian Lock and Safe Company was scrupulously clean. The austere gray rock of the exposed canyon wall stood out from its more colorful neighbors, and I could only imagine the effort it took to keep clean. While I could not claim to have nearly the insight into the minds of mammals that my companion did, I fancied that it spoke of Mr. Goredian's nature in some way, to insist on a Sisyphean battle with nature itself. As I passed through the doorway set in the well-scrubbed rock walls, I reminded myself that it was a battle that he appeared, by all accounts, to be winning.

The small lobby of the company showed every sign of having been carved from the rock of the canyon itself, although the floor and walls had been smoothed to a glossy shine. The main reception desk was an enormous block of marble so highly polished that I could see myself reflected in it. Behind the desk was a disinterested-looking doe in an inexpensive, plain dress of rough cotton. I was, however, more than a little envious of her, as while her dress was quite unfashionable it was undeniably looser and more comfortable looking than the one which I was wearing. The heat and humidity of the district was making me deeply regret accepting the dress from Wilde; it had been uncomfortable enough when I had left our suite of rooms but it seemed to be absorbing the moisture from the air and getting ever more hot, heavy, and restrictive.

"You there!" I barked imperiously at the deer, who had looked up from her little business of filing her hooves when she heard the bell over the door which announced my arrival, "I wish to speak with Mr. Goredian. Bring him out at once!"

I did not make a habit of being rude to salesmammals, or any mammals for that matter, but the charade which Wilde had set me upon seemed to demand the sort of behavior I had seen displayed by one of the most unpleasant mammals I had the misfortune of making the acquaintance of during my time in the service. I will not name her here, for her family is one of renowned wealth and standing, but I will say only that I hope the intervening years since we parted ways have given her cause to reevaluate her life and have perhaps humbled her somewhat. It gave me no pleasure to see the deer's look of wide-eyed shock at my demand, nor the way in which she dropped her file and suddenly sat up ramrod straight. "Do you have an appointment?" she stammered, pulling out a calendar and frantically flipping through it.

"Do you know who I am?" I asked, holding my nose up haughtily, "Fetch him at once, or I shall make sure he hears of your impudence."

The deer fled her post in a trice, and I was struck with a wave of guilt. It was not right to treat an innocent mammal so shabbily; I was being no better than Mr. Lemming had been to my companion. I recalled the disguise I had seen Wilde in, and wondered how wickedly he had behaved while dressed as a disreputable coyote. Perhaps he could separate his morals, should he have any, from the needs of his cases, but I could not. I procured the beaded purse from the clutch Wilde had given me, and from it pulled a half crown. If I was to humiliate and degrade an innocent at his behest, I had no compunctions about spending his money with which to do so.

Within minutes the deer returned with a mammal who could have only been Mr. Goredian in tow. From the location of his shop, I had expected that Mr. Goredian would belong to a species for whom the heat and humidity of the Rain-Forest District would be comfortable rather than oppressive. He was, however, a bull, although he seemed to have conceded somewhat to the artificial climate of the district by keeping his fur close-cropped to his skin. He was somewhere between middle-aged and elderly, his brown fur liberally shot through with gray. In his youth, he had likely been powerfully built, but his muscles had wasted away somewhat, leaving him with a ropey frame and a mild potbelly. Although he was somewhat stooped with age, he absolutely towered over me; he must have stood nearly eight feet tall. The doe, with her eyes downcast, introduced the bull. "Mr. Goredian, ma'am."

I paid her no mind and looked up into Mr. Goredian's face. "Amelia Cotton," I said, fishing out one of the calling cards that Wilde had included as part of my outfit, "You will have heard of my husband Thaddeus, of course."

"I am afraid that you have me at a disadvantage," he said respectfully as he examined the card, seeming to take in the finery in which I was dressed and assuming that I really was wealthy, "I cannot say that I have."

I sniffed. "I had been told that all the best mammals trust your safes, but I see that you do not move in their circles."

I pursed my lips. "I suppose I can forgive that, should your safes be of the quality I have heard."

I was almost surprised with how easy it was to treat others with disdain, and wondered at whether those mammals I had met who always acted in such a fashion—particularly the young lady on whom I was modeling my current behavior—realized or cared about the impact of their words. "There can be no doubt that they are," Goredian said with evident pride, straightening up, "What business is it that brings you here to-day?"

"I am here because of a fox," I said, quite truthfully.

Mr. Goredian gave no outward reaction, apparently content to allow me to continue, which I did by speaking blatant falsehoods.

"A thief attempted to rob my home last night," I said, keeping with the story which Wilde had generated for me, "My husband and I did not realize that the city would be so dangerous; had it not been for our servants, it is quite likely that we would be the poorer of many valuables and I myself might have suffered worse than this twisted ankle."

I gestured down at my leg and gave a delicate shudder, while Goredian made a little sympathetic noise. "There were vagabonds and tinkers in the country, of course, but they knew better than to attempt anything beyond the sale of worthless trinkets at outrageous prices. How do thieves grow so bold here in the city?"

At my story, Mr. Goredian had visibly relaxed; I would guess that I had done enough to convince him that I had money to spend and held similar views. "It has been a terrible shock for you, I see, but it is an unfortunate story. Thieves skulk around where the opportunities lie," he said disdainfully, "They have no patience for honest labor and so come to the city, where there are ever more opportunities to steal from those who have worked for their living. It is as though the city itself draws out the worst of their natural wickedness, and they will happily corrupt others to their ways."

Goredian had not directly stated that he was speaking of predators in general or foxes specifically rather than merely thieves, but I had little doubt as to the intent of his words. I could only imagine what he would have thought to learn that I was sharing a flat with a fox and doubtlessly being corrupted in his mind, let alone the kind of reception which he would have given Wilde. Had my flatmate shown up himself the large bull would probably have bodily forced the fox to leave his shop. I swallowed my distaste for Goredian's views and forced myself to nod my agreement. "You understand, then, why I am in need of a safe."

"Naturally, madame," he said, "What sort of safe are you looking for to-day?"

"What sort of safe?" I repeated, and the confusion that I put into the words was not entirely manufactured.

I had little cause to know much about safes, as I had never had the need for one. I had next to nothing in the way of valuables during my military service, and it was laughable to think of why a safe would be needed in Bunny Burrows. I doubt that any location in all the empire, except Her Majesty's palace itself, could be so secure and as free of crime as my hometown. The wealth my family had kept was in the land and the tools to work it, not in money or baubles; the few treasured Hopps heirlooms had no value except that imbued into them by sentiment. Besides, the town was composed almost entirely of bunnies brought up with the simple virtue that had been our birthright for untold generations. "A large one," I blustered, gesturing vaguely in the air, "A secure one. Your finest, that is."

Mr. Goredian smiled indulgently, and I wondered how often ill-informed mammals showed up at his shop."We have a showroom," Mr. Goredian said, "Please, I would be glad to show you the finest safes and lock boxes in all of Zootopia."

He held open a door leading out of the lobby, and I inclined my head and walked towards it. On my way past the main desk, I placed the half crown on it and turned my attention towards the doe. Since bringing Mr. Goredian into the lobby she had taken her seat behind the desk in absolute silence, her eyes fixed steadfastly downwards. I wondered how her own views compared to those of her employer, for she had given no sign of either agreeing or disagreeing with Goredian throughout our conversation. "I suggest you work on your manners," I said as I passed by.

The doe's eyes briefly narrowed in annoyance, and I could hear her mutter, "And you as well, lady," under her breath as she took the coin, clearly underestimating my hearing.

I could not disagree with her assessment, but I chose to ignore it. The doorway through which Goredian led me took us into what could only be the main work area of his company. The day's work had only just begun, and the laborers seemed to still be in the process of setting up their tools at their work station. Even without any activity in progress, however, the factory floor was quite impressive. I saw that Goredian's work force ranged from mice, a group of which was busily setting up tooling so minuscule and delicate that it would make a watchmaker's equipment look like that of a crude bumbler, to elephants, setting up thick pieces of metal that I do not believe I could have budged so much as an inch. There were perhaps sixty or seventy mammals total, most of them closer to the middle of the size spectrum than the two extremes that had caught my attention, but I saw further proof that Wilde had been quite correct in his assessment of Mr. Goredian. There was not so much as a single predator among their number.

The showroom had a truly impressive array of safes and lock boxes on display; I would not have guessed that there could be so many varieties, but there seemed to be a safe of just about every size. I looked round the room before spotting what looked near enough to an exact twin of the lock box that had held the gold within the vault of the Lemming Brothers Bank. "Something like this would do quite nicely," I said, walking over to it.

"Begging your pardon, madame, but this lock box may not be the best choice for your needs," Goredian said delicately, clearly trying to make his point without giving offense.

"Why ever not?" I cried, "Do you doubt that my husband and I have a collection of valuables sufficient to demand such a large safe?"

"Not at all, madame, not at all," Goredian said hastily, "I mean only that the design may not be the most practical for your day-to-day use. You see, the lid must be lifted off entirely, and it weighs the better part of twenty stones. Neither you nor your husband could do so alone, I am sure, nor even together."

"Is that not an extra security measure, then?" I asked, "For surely, neither could a fox."

Mr. Goredian laughed agreeably. "Certainly not! Your would-be thief would be quite unable to so much as lift a corner of the lid. However, a lock box such as this would always require the aid of servants to open and close it. I would recommend instead one of these standing safes."

He brought us over to a safe that looked quite similar to the lock box, had it had been stood on one of its ends. I made a show of inspecting it closely, peering at the lock. "Is the locking mechanism equally secure?" I asked, "It would be a fine state of affairs to make it easier for the thieves to open in the course of making it more convenient."

"We offer a variety of locks to suit your needs, any one of which may be used per your preference," Goredian said, "Whether you desire a combination lock, a key lock, or both together, a safe such as this shall be just as secure as that lock box."

I did not, of course, particularly care about the combination locks, for the bank's lock box had only a key to open it. "I would much prefer a key," I said, "For I should like to know that I hold on my body at all times the only means by which to open the lock."

Goredian opened a small display case holding a variety of keys and withdrew one. "This is our most secure key," he said proudly, showing off to me a key that looked very similar to the one that Mr. Lemming's servant, Garou, had worn around his neck.

Indeed, while the pattern was somewhat different, it was also a metal cylinder with a variety of grooves and protrusions, with a small triangle on the top to show how to insert it into the lock. "Every key is machined by my shop and quite impossible to copy. The tolerances are far too tight, and the features far too fine, to allow a mold to be successfully struck."

I recalled the mice I had seen setting up their equipment on the shop floor and was inclined to believe him. "You could, of course, make a pair of keys, so that my husband and I could each open the safe?" I asked.

"It would be an extra expense, but certainly so. No one else could do so, of course."

"Of course," I nodded, filing the information away.

"But could the lock be defeated by other means?" I asked.

I hardly expected him to be entirely honest, but I imagined that Wilde would be interested in knowing what the maker of the lock had thought. "Certainly not," Goredian said, "For the past twelve years, I have offered a prize of two hundred guineas to any mammal who could defeat one of my safes in less than twenty-four hours. No one has ever claimed it."

If I were a thief, I could imagine that there were certainly safes and lock boxes with contents worth quite a bit more than two hundred guineas. Two tonnes of gold, for example, far out-valued the prize Goredian offered, but I acted impressed. "A wonderful testament to the integrity of your product," I said, "But what significance does twenty-four hours hold?"

"Any safe can be cut open, given sufficient time, but my safes are designed to resist such action for as long as possible. The outer-most and inner-most layers of this safe are case-hardened steel, superior even to that which is used on the Royal Navy's battleships. Between these layers, to provide additional resistance to heat and flame, is our proprietary mixture of clay and asbestos. Should you keep papers, the house around the safe could burn down and the papers within it would be completely unharmed."

As he spoke, Goredian gestured at a cutaway safe on the showroom floor, indicating each layer in turn. Indeed, it seemed quite impossible for any mammal to cut open one of the safes within any reasonable amount of time. "The safe itself seems admirably secure," I said approvingly, "I am yet unconvinced, however, that the same is true of the lock."

Goredian smiled grimly. "Thieves may try, but my safes incorporate a number of innovations—of my own design—to prevent picking. The locks of the master locksmith who taught me, for example, were vulnerable to water."

"Water?" I echoed.

"Indeed. Some enterprising thieves discovered that if they filled the keyhole with water and allowed it to freeze, the expansion of the water as it turned to ice was sufficient to force apart the interior mechanisms and allow the lock to be opened. They would commit their crimes in the dead of winter, or else steal small safes and bring them to Tundra Town."

From the expression on Goredian's face as he continued, I surmised that the memory of his own ingenuity was among those that he held most dear. "My safes, however, have far stronger internal mechanisms and incorporate a pressure plate. Should anything other than the key be inserted, the tumblers will lock in position and only my factory will be able to open it."

I recalled the way by which the bank's lock box had been defeated, and wondered if he had given thought to molten lead in the course of his design. To ask directly, however, seemed likely to give Goredian cause for suspicion. I believed that I had learned about all that I could from Goredian, so I thanked him for his time. "I will, of course, have to consult with my husband before we make a final decision," I said, as I allowed Goredian to escort me out, "But you shall hear from me shortly."

Ideally, however, I would never see Goredian again. I left the Goredian Lock and Safe Company and hailed a cab, resolving that I would inform Wilde of everything I had learned. As I attempted to arrange the heavy skirts of my dress to make it sit more comfortably within the hansom, I amended my resolution somewhat; I would do so the moment I had changed out of the abominable dress.

Author's Notes: Since it's not exactly a common unit of measure, I'll save you a trip to Google: twenty stones is 280 pounds, or about 127 kilograms. No matter what unit of measure you use, that's pretty heavy, although the mammals of Zootopia do vary quite a bit in size and strength compared to humans. There were major advances in metallurgy going on in the Victorian era; the use of case-hardened steel is appropriate for the time period, but would result in a very heavy and expensive safe. The knowledge of the negative health effects of asbestos dates to about 1900, but it is extremely fire-resistant, and it was widely used in the Victorian era for this property. The inventor of the Chubb detector lock (referenced in a couple of the original Sherlock stories) did offer a reward to anyone who could pick it, which took nearly twenty years for someone to claim.

There's a lot of details in this chapter, but I won't spoil the fun by saying which (if any) are important to the case. Parts of this chapter are in homage to The Great Train Robbery, probably my favorite Michael Crichton book after Jurassic Park and a definite inspiration for this story. It's a fantastic crime novel of a train robbery (kind of obviously) in the London of 1855 that I highly recommend.

This chapter is also something of a look at different shades of bigotry; there's more to the world than cruel, frothing-at-the-mouth bigots and pure, unbiased open-minded folks. I also enjoyed showing off Dr. Hopps's efforts at undercover work. I'm trying to be true to the spirit of both Watson in the original Sherlock stories and Judy's character in Zootopia by showing that Dr. Hopps is intelligent, competent, and observant. As always, I appreciate any and all feedback.