It felt as though she'd only just fallen asleep when Judy was jarred back to reality by her phone's ringing. She was dimly aware of the covers beside her shifting before Nick's voice reached her ears.

"What the...seriously, Carrots? You couldn't put it on silent for one night?"

"I thought I did," she muttered, blindly groping for the offending device.

Nick pulled the comforter over his head, slightly muffling his voice. "Here's an idea; reject the call, turn off the phone, and we go back to sleep."

It was a tempting suggestion. Very tempting, if fact. But as much as she wanted to ignore it, there was no mistaking the distinct ringtone she'd assigned to the Precinct One switchboard. "No rest for the weary, I guess." She shrugged, offering him an apologetic smile as she lifted the phone to her ear. "This is Hopps. What the hel...lo, Chief."

Wincing, Nick tapped her on the shoulder and pointed toward the kitchen, silently mouthing the word 'coffee'. She nodded gratefully, still half-asleep as she tried to focus on whatever Bogo was saying. He was halfway to the door when her voice brought him to a halt.

"She's what?!"

~o~o~o~

"Y'know what I think is strange?" Nick mused as they crossed the parking lot of the Zootopia Female's Penitentiary in the early morning light, shadowed almost silently by Cooper and Fraser. "Not that someone would want her dead, but that she was in here for so long before someone managed to make it happen."

Despite the disapproving look she gave him; Judy couldn't help but agree. When she'd learned that Bellwether had been released from solitary confinement, she'd been sure the ewe wouldn't last more than a few weeks among the general population. Five years on, her death actually came as something of a shock.

Lost in thought, she was absently aware of Cooper breaking off to remain in the prison's security room, where he would keep an eye on the security cameras while Fraser stayed with them. A pair of detectives from Precinct Nine met them at the interview room, where the four of them briefly discussed the previous night's events and compared notes. It wasn't long before a pair of guards escorted the crime's only witness into the interview room. The Precinct Nine detectives went to speak with her, leaving Nick and Judy alone in the observation room.

Absently thumbing through the file, Judy glanced in her partner's direction. "What did you think of the witness's initial statement?"

"Action-packed, but not a lot to go on. Means and opportunity are kind of obvious, but as for motive?" He shrugged. "It'd probably be easier if the killer's windpipe were still intact."

She shrugged. "I guess that's why they pay us the big bucks."

"Hm." Watching from the other side of the glass, Nick snorted as the Precinct Nine detectives swaggered into the room. The smaller of the pair, a stern-looking otter, took the seat across from the witness. His partner, an older caribou, leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. They looked so much like a scene out of a bad police TV show, it was all he could do not to laugh. "Are we seriously letting Tweedle and Deedle here take the lead?"

"It's their territory," Judy reminded him. "We wouldn't want anyone sticking their snout into any Precinct One investigations, would we?"

"I guess not." He admitted, rolling his eyes as the otter spent nearly a minute silently flipping through the case file. "But is he serious with this made-for-TV nonsense?"

"Shh!"

Before Nick could say anything more, the otter calmly closed the file and met the eyes of the honey badger across from him. "Ms. Blaireau, we'd like to go over what happened last night."

"Again? Really?"

"Please."

"Fine." She sighed. "Let's get this over with."

Judy couldn't help but notice how young the honey badger looked. She wasn't sure what she'd expected but Blaireau didn't look like someone who'd killed two mammals and, more recently, practically mauled one of her fellow prisoners nearly to death.

"You were with Dawn Bellwether in the time leading up to her death?"

"You know I was," she ground out.

"Ms. Blaireau, this will go much quicker if you cooperate."

"Fine. I was helping her put some books away and needed to use the bathroom, so I stepped out and headed down the hall."

"The guards just let you go on your own?"

"Both of us are...were trustees. Besides, it's not like I was going anywhere. The library is in a closed block."

"Then how do you think Bellwether's attackers got in?"

"I have no idea!" The badger snapped. "If I did, I'd have told someone."

"How long were you away from the library?"

"About five minutes."

"Can you be more specific?"

"Seriously? Do you think I had a stopwatch or something?"

The otter ignored the question. "What time was it when you left the library?"

"I dunno. About eight?"

"Hm. And when you came back, the guard wasn't there and Bellwether's attackers were just leaving?" He pressed. She simply glared back in response. "Ms. Blaireau?"

"You have the file right in front of you." She hissed, obviously working to keep a hold on her temper.

"We'd like to hear it from you."

The badger squeezed her eyes shut in frustration and took a deep breath. "You've already heard it from me, in my statement, which is in the fucking file!"

"I think you'd better calm down." The caribou's deep voice rumbled from the shadows. "You're already in enough trouble."

"What're you gonna do, tough guy? Send me to prison? Add another life sentence? Fuck you." The caribou's stern expression faltered slightly; he obviously hadn't expected her to push back at him. "Here's an idea. Why don't you go talk to Dawn's actual fucking killer?"

"She won't be talking to anyone." The otter drawled as his partner regained his composure. "You practically tore her throat out. It's a wonder she even survived."

"Yeah. A real fucking miracle." Blaireau muttered. "What about that other cat? Peggy, I think? I've seen her around before."

"Unfortunately, Margaret Simms was found dead in her cell this morning." The detective shared a brief glance with his partner before he continued. "She was apparently in possession of contraband narcotics. She overdosed."

"Fuck! You can't even keep mammals alive in an eight by eight locked room?! What are you assholes even good for?!"

The caribou stepped forward, leaning over the table in a manner he probably thought was menacing. For her part, the honey badger seemed unimpressed. "Tell me, Ms. Blaireau; what do you know about the illicit drug trade in this prison?"

Behind the glass, Judy's jaw dropped open as Nick let out a disbelieving laugh. "What the hell...?"

"That's it. To hell with jurisdiction. These boneheads need to go." Leaving the darkened viewing room her partner hot on her heels, she opened the door to the interview room and beckoned the Precinct Nine detectives out. Scowling, the pair shot Blaireau one last quasi-intimidating look before heading out into the hallway.

"What do you want?" The otter snapped. "We're just getting somewhere."

Nick snorted derisively but didn't comment. Ignoring her partner, Judy stepped forward and, somehow politely, snatched the file from the other mammal's paw. "Thank you, Detectives. We'll take it from here."

"I beg your pardon?" The otter scowled at her angrily. "Detective Hopps, you can't just..."

"You heard the rabbit." Nick interrupted, waving dismissively toward the exit. "The grown-ups are here, so get lost."

"Now listen here, you flea-bitten little shit." The caribou advanced on the fox angrily. "We don't have to take this fr..."

"Ahem!" Until that moment, Constable Fraser had done an impressive job of melting into the background. Now he hovered just behind Nick's shoulder, lightly tapping one claw on his carbine's trigger guard and pinning the larger mammal with a stony glare. "Detective, I'll ask you to move back and keep a hold on your temper."

Eyeing the tactical officer uneasily, the caribou took a slow and deliberate step backward.

Fraser nodded. "Thank you."

"This isn't over, Wilde." The otter grumbled. "You better believe we're going to be filing a jurisdictional grievance about this."

"You do that. I think we both know that Chief Bogo will start ignoring it right away."

With a final glare, the Precinct Nine detectives stormed away. Once they were out of sight, Judy turned to the wolf behind them. "You can stay out here, Fraser."

"I'm afraid not." The wolf shook his head. "Where you go, I go."

"It's a secured room, Constable. I'm sure we'll be fine."

"Ma'am, my job is to protect the two of you from both active and potential threats." Fraser smiled patiently. "Would I be doing that job correctly if I left you alone in a room with a convicted murderer?"

Judy narrowed her eyes but couldn't seem to think of an argument that. "Fine. No talking."

"Understood, ma'am."

"And stop calling me ma'am," she muttered.

"As you like, Detective. If you'd please follow me?"

Blaireau looked up when the door re-opened, but whatever sharp words she'd had on the tip of her tongue vanished at the sight of the armed wolf. Nick entered right behind him and took a seat at the table, followed by Judy, who shut the door behind her. As it closed, she felt the typical muffled sensation of the room's soundproofing.

Regaining some of her confidence, the badger eyed Fraser critically. Standing calmly in the corner, the Constable didn't seem to care. "So, what's with Rambo here? I didn't think I was that scary."

Judy didn't answer, taking the seat next to Nick and waiting quietly. The same thing happened every time she interviewed a mammal convicted during the Nighthowler crisis, and she'd long since accepted that it was easier to just get it out of the way.

As expected, when Blaireau turned to face them she froze, looked briefly startled, then glared at the bunny. "I know you."

"Yes, you probably do." Judy nodded.

"You're Hopps. The bunny who ran her mouth off at that pre-"

"Press conference, yes."

"You put me in here." Blaireau hissed. "You made one stupid fucking comment, six and a half years ago, and I ended up in this shithole."

"Six years, five months, twenty-two days," Judy corrected. "And I didn't kill two mammals in an alley. You did."

"What the hell would you know about it?!"

"Only what's on paper, which probably isn't the whole story, is it?" Judy ventured, not giving the other mammal a chance to respond. "I don't know your whole story, you don't know mine, and right now neither one of us is the point. My partner and I are here to solve a murder, so how about you and I cut each other a little slack until that's done?"

Blaireau snorted. "As if you, of all mammals, give a fuck about who killed Bellwether. You probably wanted her dead yourself."

Judy felt her stomach clench but refused to let it show in her expression. "She broke the law and she went to prison. I had better things to do than hold a grudge."

Blaireau just glared balefully across the table. Judy met the badger's glare evenly, trying not to think about the photos in the incident file – particularly the shot of Blaireau pulled from a guard's body camera, her eyes practically manic, blood dripping from her claws.

"So, Ms. Blaireau. We've gone over your statement already and were not trying to poke holes in it." Nick said reassuringly, tapping one claw on the file folder. "If it seems like we're asking the same questions, it's just because we're hoping there's some detail you might not realize you noticed. Sound good?"

After a few seconds, Blaireau gave them a small nod.

"You said that the cougar..." He glanced down at the file. "Megan Poema implied that she and Simms had been paid to kill Bellwether. Can you recall her exact words? Did she hint at who might have paid them or what form the payment might have taken?"

"No, she just said they'd gotten paid."

"Do you remember anything noteworthy about the days before Bellwether death? Maybe she said something unusual? Maybe she had an unexpected visitor or received some correspondence that disturbed her? Anything that stands out in your mind could be helpful."

"No, nothing. I mean, she seemed pretty much normal. But we didn't really get along, so I don't know about that other stuff."

"Didn't get along?" Judy looked up from the file, surprised. "Hadn't the two of you been working together for a few months?"

"Yeah, but...I dunno..." Simone glanced away. "I was kind of mean to her."

"How so?"

Simone's eyes widened. "I didn't...I just meant that I was a jerk! That's all!"

"We're not accusing you of anything, Ms. Blaireau, I promise," Judy reassured her. "Did the two of you talk at all that evening?"

"A little, I guess."

"About what?"

"Just stuff." The honey badger shrugged. "Not anything important."

"It might be," Nick pressed.

"Um...she mentioned the new X-mammals movie that's coming out, and I told her my sister said the last one supposedly sucked. She asked if my family ever came to visit me and I...uh..." Simone hesitated, her voice hitching slightly. "I told her how they haven't. Not...not even once since I came here."

"Was that all?" Judy asked, clenching her paws under the table to keep herself from reaching out to comfort the poor mammal.

"No, she..." Simone blinked and looked away again, obviously embarrassed over her show of emotion. "We talked a little about politics. She said she didn't read the news and didn't know what was going on outside."

Nick leaned forward slightly. "Did she want to know about anything in particular?"

"The TSP, mostly. I forget how it came up. She said she'd never heard of them before, though, so I gave her the basics."

"How did she react?"

"I dunno. Why does it matter?"

"Humor us."

"I dunno. I remember she thought they sounded stupid. And she was surprised that they were going after the mayor's office." She paused, her eyes widening a little. "Actually, she got kind of intense when I told her that Longfellow was their candidate. I thought she was gonna freak out for a second."

"Any idea why?"

Simone shook her head. "No. It was just for a second. She said it was nothing, and I went to the bathroom right after."

"What about after you came back?" Nick kept his voice soft. "Did she say anything to you before she died?"

"I don't...I don't think so."

"Are you sure?"

"I said I don't know, okay? I keep trying to remember but there was so much blood and I..." Her voice broke slightly. "I just...I don't..."

"It's alright, Ms. Blaireau. Take your time."

"I think...yeah, Dawn did say something right before she...right at the end. Pan...something. It sounded kinda like pangolin. What the hell was it?" Blaireau muttered, her brow furrowing in concentration. "Pangea. She said, 'tell them pangea'. Does that mean anything?"

"It might." Nick admitted, turning to ask Judy and finding her distracted by something. She glanced around the room for a second, eyes narrowed, then seemed to shake it off. "Did you ever hear Bellwether use that word before? Even in passing?"

"I don't think so."

"What abou-" Judy's phone loudly chirped a notification at her. Glancing at the device in annoyance, she skimmed the message, looked briefly startled, then schooled her features back to a calm expression. "Alright. I think we have what we need."

"We do?" Nick asked, looking a little surprised.

"Yes, we do." She rose from her seat. "Thank you for your help, Ms. Blaireau."

Confused at the conversation's abrupt end, the honey badger didn't respond as Judy hustled Nick and Fraser out into the hallway.

"Well, that was about as productive as you'd expect a two-minute interview to be." Nick muttered after the door was closed. "Feel like clueing me in on the quick exit?"

"We need to place Ms. Blaireau in ZPD protective custody right away."

"What? Why?"

"Just make the call, Nick. I'll explain in a minute." Despite his hesitant expression, Nick sighed and pulled out his phone. Judy turned to Fraser and pointed to the holding room. "We aren't moving from this spot, and no one enters that room without my okay. No staff, no guards, not even the warden. Got it?"

Puzzled, the wolf gave her a sharp nod.

"Good. And radio Cooper. Tell him to get in here." Absently tapping her foot on the concrete floor, she waited for her partner to go through the motions of arranging secure transport and holding for the young badger. When he finally ended the call, she leapt on the opening. "Well?"

"Armoured transport vehicle will be here in five." Tucking his phone away, Nick eyed his partner. "But what do you say we just pump the brakes for a second? What the hell is going on here?"

"I think Simone Blaireau's life is in danger."

"I caught that much, but don't you think she's safe enough here? Y'know...in prison? I dunno if you noticed, but she can probably take care of herself."

"What I think is that Bellwether was murdered in the prison library, Margaret Simms overdosed in her cell..." Judy opened an email on her phone, holding it up for him to see. "...and Megan Poema just died in the prison infirmary of a previously undocumented medication allergy."

Nick scowled at the screen. "Shit."

"Yeah. As of right now, Simone Blaireau is the only mammal who was in that library that's still alive. I'd prefer to keep her that way." She looked to Fraser. "Is Cooper on his way?"

The wolf nodded, one paw pressed to his ear. "Two minutes."

"Not that I'm doubting you, Carrots, but what makes you think anyone is coming after Blaireau. Simms and Poema are one thing, but Blaireau wasn't even in the room when Bellwether was actually attacked."

"She said everything that happened was in her statement, right?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Well, everything except that pangea thing, whatever that's supposed to mean."

"Exactly. We're the first mammals she mentioned that to." Judy glanced at the interview room door. "And the second she did, all the audio recorders in the room switched off."

He gave her a dubious look. "How could you possibly know that?"

"Because one second the mics were buzzing, and the next second they weren't."

"Oh, come on. I know your ears are good but that's pushing it."

"It's a soundproof room," she insisted. "Zero background noise. After a few seconds, I could hear your heart beating."

"Of course you could." He paused, and she could practically see the wheels in his head turning. "So you think that whoever had their claw on the switch heard the word pangea and made sure that nothing else about it made the tape."

"Exac-"

"I'm going to need you to stop right there." Fraser's mildly spoken command cut through their conversation and the pair turned to find the Constable standing in front of the holding room door, staring down an annoyed-looking pair of uniformed prison guards.

"We've been ordered to return the prisoner to her cell, mutt," the larger of the two guards rumbled. "So get outta the way."

When the wolf didn't move, the guard began to inch her paw toward her holstered mace sprayer. Fraser snapped his carbine up almost faster than Judy's eyes could follow, deftly flicking the safety off with one claw as he leveled the weapon on the guards.

"Don't." He snapped, punctuating the command with a threatening growl that made Judy wonder just how dangerous the polite northern wolf actually was.

Wide-eyed and startled, both guards lifted their paws in surrender and moved back several paces. They didn't leave, though, effectively blocking the only avenue of escape. The holding room sat at the end of a long hallway, and while that meant that no one could come up behind them, it also meant that the three of them were all but trapped.

While Judy was entirely confident in Fraser's ability to protect them, she really didn't want to have to explain to Bogo how they managed to get into a firefight inside a prison. The tense standoff lasted until, to her immense relief, Judy saw Cooper rushing toward them. Turning toward the sound of the dingo's boots striking the concrete floor, the guards realized that they were stuck between two armed and very determined-looking mammals.

"Down on the ground!" Cooper shouted, raising his shotgun.

The smaller of the guards, a wide-eyed wolf, seemed confused. "But we work he-"

"On the ground, now!"

Both of them immediately dropped to their bellies. With Fraser covering him, Cooper secured the guards' paws with flexi-cuffs before moving on the holding room.

"Ms. Blaireau?"

If Simone hadn't been surprised before, she certainly was now. "Y-yes?"

"On your feet," Cooper ordered, his tone inviting no argument. "You're being placed in protective custody."

"I...what?"

Not waiting for her to catch up, the dingo grabbed her by the back of her prison-issue jumpsuit, pulled her out of her chair, and pushed her toward the door. "Stay close and do what we tell you."

Quickly guiding her out of the room, he let Fraser lead the way to the exit as the detectives followed close behind.

"Well, this should be fun to try and explain." Nick commented as they moved past the bound guards. "You realize that Precinct Nine and the Department of Corrections are gonna be fighting over who gets our heads on a platter?"

"One problem at a time, Nick." Judy responded.

"Seriously, are we even allowed to do this?" Nick muttered, following her lead regardless.

Although Simone's ankle cuffs kept her from going much faster than a quick shuffle, they still managed to make good time to the security checkpoint. A trio of guards moved to block their path as they approached, and Nick was shocked when his partner smoothly drew her tranquilizer pistol from its holster.

"Oh, son of a-" Nick drew his own taser and dialed up the voltage. "Here we go."

Quickening her pace, Judy moved up beside Fraser and stared evenly at the guards. "This prisoner is being taken into ZPD custody. Step aside."

"Uh-huh." The largest of the guards, a muscular rhino, refused to move. "I don't think so, bunny."

"Not a negotiation, tough guy," Cooper growled and half-raised his shotgun.

Where Judy hadn't managed to intimidate the rhino, something in the dingo's eyes must have gotten the message across. The much larger mammal held his ground for another few seconds, then nodded to the other guards; all three stepped out of the way.

They stepped out into the early morning light a few seconds later, relieved to find an armored truck waiting for them. A pair of ZPD SWAT officers stood next to the open rear door, stern-faced and weapons in paw.

"Fancy meeting you guys here." Cooper drawled as they guided Simone into the back of the truck. Once he'd strapped her in and secured her ankle cuffs to the floor, he waved Nick and Judy in. Fraser got in behind them, and as the wolf closed and secured the heavy steel door, they felt the rumble of the vehicle's engine starting.

"Ok, seriously." Simone said as the vehicle began to move. "Does someone want to tell me what the hell is going on?"

"You're getting put into protective custody," Cooper reminded her. He kept his eyes on one of the truck's narrow reinforced windows, carefully watching the city go by.

"No shit. Why?"

"Because we think your life could be in danger," Nick glanced at his partner. "It's possible that the same mammals who arranged Bellwether's death might want you out of the picture as well."

Simone's eyes widened. "What the hell did I do?"

"You told the truth, and you told it to the cops. Mammals have been killed for less."

"But..."

"That's all we have right now," Judy cut in. "And until we know more, you'll be safer with the ZPD."

~o~o~o~

END PART 5