Nick made a show of studying his notes all the way back, ignoring Simon and Judy both, though at least when Judy asked him a question, he responded in monosyllables. Simon might have noticed, but he was too busy breathlessly spinning one theory after another. "Do you think Councilor Sand knew about the robbery? She didn't seem to, but maybe she's a criminal mastermind. I read about those. Zootopia's full of them, right? But mostly they're like, tigers and polar bears, I thought. Maybe that's how she throws people off the scent. Or it could be that coyote. My dad always told me that if he fell off a boat and the only other person on the boat was a coyote, he'd take his chances in the water."

"Why would he even go on a boat with just a coyote, then?" Judy asked, annoyed.

"I don't know. It's just a thing he used to say. I don't think he's even ever been on a boat."

"I've only ever run into one criminal mastermind," Judy said. "It turns out that's a lot of work if all you want to do is steal some money."

"I guess so." Simon leaned forward. "So you think it was just a robbery? Then why did you go interview the Councilor?"

"We got assigned this case by another precinct, so we have to do a thorough job. Nick and I are just dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's. Right, Nick?"

"Yup," the fox replied without looking up.

"Okay, but back in Bunnyburrow, if something happened and the police came and interviewed the mayor even though they didn't think he was involved, people would talk. Aren't you afraid people will talk?"

"Maybe," Judy said brightly. "But by the time you publish this story, we'll have solved the case. Right, Nick?"

Nick grunted. Judy went on, "And anyway you promised not to include her name in the story, remember?"

"Oh, right." Simon sat back in the seat and made a few extra notes on his pad. "I just don't know how interviewing her is going to help if it was a street thief who came in and took the money."

This was where Nick would normally jump in, since Judy had already answered the question, but his ears were forward and his head was down. "Well, it's probably a robbery. But the more information we have around the case, the better. When we present our report to Captain Whitehorn, we need to show her that we asked all the questions from every angle."

"In case there's a chance it wasn't a simple robbery?"

"Right. But it probably was."

Simon chewed over that for a while and then, just as Judy was beginning to hope that he was done, popped his head forward again. "I'm just trying to understand your process. I don't get how this interview is a more valuable use of your time than, say, walking the streets and shaking down informants."

A crinkle of paper made Judy look over and see Nick's paws tightening on his pad. His ears had gone flat. As calmly as she could, she said, "That's…really a TV sort of thing. We don't ever go into seedy bars and shake down informants. When we talk to informants it's not in public places because they don't want people to know they're talking to police."

"Do you have any informants?"

"Not yet. Not for this case. But we're going to do that legwork. Probably tomorrow." They hadn't talked about their strategy on the case, but they'd run out of people to interview so that was Judy's best guess about where to go next. "Unless you have other ideas, Nick?"

"Nope."

"You must know people in Happytown," Simon said to the fox. "Don't you have contacts? You know all kinds of people."

The car remained awkwardly silent until Judy mercifully spotted ZPD headquarters up ahead. "Okay, we're here," she sang out.

As she pulled into the parking garage, Simon tapped Nick on the shoulder. "Officer Wilde," he said, "I know having me along is making things more difficult, and I know I'm pushing in where I don't belong. But I love investigations. It's why I got into journalism. I'm really just trying to help. So if I offended you, sorry, but please tell me what I'm doing wrong and I'll try to be better. As long as I can still keep working on my story."

Nick put his notes away very deliberately and then turned around in his seat. "Nick," Judy said warningly.

He gave her a quick nod and then met Simon's eyes. "I feel like we've already asked you to be quieter when we're doing official interviews, but if I have to say it again, there it is."

"Sure. I just get excited, but I'll try."

And then Nick caught Judy's eye and said, "Actually, there's something else too."

"Of course!"

"I'd really appreciate it if you didn't ask my girlfriend out on dates anymore."

It took Judy and Simon both a long moment to process that, and Judy reacted first, as she pulled the car into its parking space. "Nick!"

"C'mon, Carrots," he said. "He was going to find out eventually no matter how professional we stay at work."

"I really don't think he would," she said.

Simon still gaped at them. "You," he said to Judy, "and him? Are dating? You're dating? Him?"

"Ah…" Judy's options were to go along with Nick's lie or claim that the earnest fox was joking, which would be a lot more complicated to explain and would also mean that Simon might actually ask her out again. "Well…sort of? We're still kind of seeing where it goes, you know?"

"You're dating a fox?"

"Not just a fox," Nick said pleasantly, clearly pleased to have the upper paw again. "This fox. This lucky fox."

"But why—why didn't you tell me?" Simon asked.

"I didn't want it to be in the story." Judy put her paw on Simon's. "You won't print it, will you? I know a lot of people in Bunnyburrow would be shocked by it, and it's really not part of my police work."

"I know two bunnies who'd be really shocked," Simon said.

"Yeah." Judy tried to glare at Nick without obviously glaring, but he hadn't been there when Simon had mentioned Judy's parents and he didn't know how it was in Bunnyburrow, how everyone knew everyone even though there were thousands of bunnies there. "I promise I'll tell them in my own time, just…let me handle it."

"All right, all right." He didn't look happy about it. "The biggest scoop of my visit and I can't write about it!"

"But you're in on the secret," Nick said. "Doesn't that count for something?"

"I guess." Simon slumped back in the seat and then reached for the door.

He went back to his hotel directly, while Nick and Judy went up to the station to write up their report on the day. As soon as Simon was gone, Judy shoved Nick against the elevator buttons. "I can't believe you said that."

The fox still looked very smug. "It worked, didn't it? You got your evenings back. You are very welcome."

"I could've handled it." She stepped into the elevator the moment the doors opened, dodging around McHorn's massive legs as the rhino lumbered out.

Nick squeezed around the side. "I know you, Carrots. You would've 'handled' it by being extra nice to him and going on another date so he didn't feel bad, and by the end of his trip he would've been asking you to come back to Bunnyburrow with him and you'd have to break his poor little heart."

"Not necessarily." She stabbed at the first floor button, angry that Nick was probably pretty close to right.

"This way he'll leave you alone, he won't print anything about it, and you won't have to reject him, which I know you hate. I was doing you a favor as a friend." He grinned. "And just as a friend. Don't get any ideas."

"Nick," she said, "you're a great friend, but I would never get that idea."

His ears went down and he pouted. "You don't have to be so firm about it. It's not like I'm Grizzoli or something."

"You're not Grizzoli, but you're secretive, competitive, and I don't always know what's going on with you. I feel like you could be seeing other girls and I wouldn't know about it. I don't even know if you have a girlfriend! Or a boyfriend! I don't even know which one you'd want! We've never talked about it."

"Hmph." He'd lost his smile. "You've never told me about your love life, either."

"I told you when I went on the date with Simon. And I tell you plenty of times about not having time to date, or what movie star I think is cute, and all that."

The doors opened. Nick held them for Judy to walk out, and they made their way to the bullpen in silence. The large room sat empty; after five, most of the regulars had gone home. Each of them sat down at their desks and pulled out daily report forms.

"You can do the apartment building and Sand," Judy said. "I'll write up Jenny Scar and the bank."

For a few minutes, only the sounds of typing filled the room. Then Nick said, "For the record, I'm not dating now. Haven't since before Bellwether and all that mess. Before that…there were a few. Boys and girls, foxes and not, just anyone who seemed interesting and interested. But none of them really kept up."

Judy kept typing but turned her ears toward him. "And you know a lot of things about me, probably more than anyone except maybe Finnick and my mom. I didn't have a lot of friends either. Some of the guys on the force here are good, sometimes we go out—"

"Without me?" Now she looked at him.

"Sometimes. Sometimes with you, too. C'mon, Carrots, we just went up to McPossum's last month."

"Right, right." She went back to the report.

"I was really just trying to help out a friend," he said. "I didn't mean it to upset you."

He hadn't said he was sorry, but he'd gotten pretty close, for Nick. "Next time ask me before you want me to pretend to be your girlfriend," she said.

"Deal." He grinned and went back to his report.

When they'd finished, Nick made a half-hearted offer to go out and get drinks with Judy, but she sensed that he wasn't really in the mood and she wasn't either, so she turned him down and went on back to her apartment, picking up Carrot Lo Mein from the pandas on the corner to take home.

The noodles were good and the carrots crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, but when she'd finished eating, she felt restless. Tonight she would've liked to take Simon around some other part of Zootopia, but after being warned off by Nick, it might not be good to call him tonight. Maybe later on in his visit, before he went back.

She probably shouldn't call Nick tonight either. It had been an intense day and they both needed a bit of a break. Still, she wanted to do something.

So she got online and looked up Happytown. She couldn't search for Freddy from her apartment, but if Nick was right about the police and council working together to—what, modernize? gentrify?—Happytown at the expense of its residents, maybe that was worth looking into even if it didn't pertain to this investigation.

There were three listings for Community Assistance, and the one that looked most promising was the Happytown Community Services group, which had been around for over forty years (according to their website). The only officer listed was a skunk named Sam Stripe, who had also helped found the group (or maybe his father had; it wasn't clear). Judy called the group's main number and eventually, after a good deal of cajoling, got connected to Sam Stripe.

His voice sounded like someone opening an old door whose hinges hadn't been oiled ever. "What can I do for you, miss…?"

"Actually it's Officer Hopps," Judy said. "I just wanted to ask—"

"ZPD?" The old door got deeper and more growly.

"Yes, but this isn't official business. It sort of is, I mean. It's related to an investigation, but I really just want to help."

"Sure," he said. "The police always want to help."

"We do."

"Just a question of who they want to help," he said.

"I'm…calling you."

"Seems like you think I can help you. How you going to help me?"

Judy rested her paw between her eyes. "What kind of help would you like?"

"Well, you can stop lockin' up folks just because they don't have a place to lay their head. You can stop sidin' with landlords every single time and helpin' them evict people who got nowhere else to go. You can quit stoppin' predators on the street because they, quote, look suspicious. How's that for a start?"

"I'm in Precinct One," she said, "but I can certainly relay your complaints to Precinct Four. My partner and I are over there all the time."

"Sure," he said, "I'll just wait here for them to act on those complaints. It's only been forty years, I'm sure they'll get right on it. Sorry, Officer, I don't think I can help you."

"Wait! My partner said something about the police being involved with the demolition of a building to put up a hospital and I just want to see if you know anything about it." She panted, saying all that in one breath so he wouldn't have a chance to hang up.

He was quiet for so long that she said, "Hello?" fearing he'd hung up anyway.

"Who'd you say your partner is?" The old door had lost some of its growl.

"Nick Wilde. Officer Wilde. He's the first fox on the ZPD."

"Old John Wilde's boy. Sure, I remember him. Why isn't he calling?"

"We're off duty now. He's looking into something else. I remembered it and I didn't believe it, but he seemed sure, and so I thought I'd get another point of view. That's what we do at the ZPD."

"Heh. Heh. I guess one of you does that, anyway." He took a breath. "All right. I'll tell you what I know, for all the good it'll do. Told the story enough times, might as well do one more."

And he proceeded to tell her more or less the same thing Nick had, with more details. There had been an apartment building, mostly full of people who'd lived there for decades, and the nearby main street off Sahara Square had recently been renovated, with a lot of new businesses popping up. Developers had come and made bids on the apartment building but the owner didn't want to sell. She was proud of the home she provided to her tenants.

And then there were damages to the building, more than would be expected even in an old building. There were arrests of some of her tenants so they couldn't pay their rent.

"The police really were part of it," Judy said softly.

"Course the police were part of it," Stripe said. "I was there when they arrested poor Mr. Shell. That old armadillo hadn't done nothin', but they said he was 'causin' a disturbance.' My tail he was. Couldn't hardly raise his voice when he wanted to."

Judy took down notes, asking for specific names, and got as many details as she could. She didn't know what she'd be able to do with this, but she felt terrible for the injustices she was hearing, and doubly bad that they'd been perpetrated by officers wearing the same uniform she did.

"What about the City Council?" she asked.

"All in the pockets of the developers," Stripe scoffed. "Every now and then they pass some law to keep us happy but the police don't enforce it."

"I heard that Councilor Sand has an intern program from Happytown," Judy said, not sure why she was bringing it up except that she very much wanted to hear that there was at least one good deed attributable to the government. "She takes people from those neighborhoods and gives them good jobs. I met one. She lives in a really nice place now and has a family."

"Sure, they pit us against ourselves like that. Make us compete for opportunities we should all have. I've met a couple of those interns. They go on out of Happytown and then forget where they came from. Don't do nothin' to help us out back here." His voice softened again. "I'll say this for your partner, though. He comes back here. He hasn't forgotten."

"You've talked to Nick?"

"Nah. Not directly. But I talk to people who see him around. They say he hasn't forgotten. That's nice. You tell him that's nice."

"I will." Judy sighed. "Mr. Stripe, I've written down a lot of the things you've told me here. If you want to file an official police complaint, I'll make sure—"

"Ha ha!" He lapsed into a coughing fit. "Officer Hopps, the only thing that would do is waste your time and paper. I been down that road. Thank you but no. You have yourself a fine night, and thanks for listening to my stories."

"Thank you, sir," she said. "You have a good night too."

When she'd hung up, she sat looking at the notes she'd taken. Then she pulled the page free from her notebook and carefully stashed it in the drawer of her desk.

#

Judy's phone buzzed as she was sitting and thinking about what she'd just heard, and looking down, she saw a voicemail notification from Nick. Residual annoyance led her to shut the phone off, but she really did want to talk to him about the case, and after a few minutes she brought the phone back out and listened.

"Hey Carrots, sorry again about today. I really was just trying to help. I went out and did some legwork tonight and I think maybe it'd be good to discuss it before tomorrow morning. I'm gonna be at the bar down the corner from the first place you met me until about midnight and if you don't show up or call, I'll see you in the morning."

She weighed the phone in her paw. Nick was being sneaky about things, which he did sometimes just because, but also maybe he was worried about them being followed or overheard, so it would be best if she didn't call back.

His tone made it clear that she shouldn't come in uniform, so she got into a flannel shirt and an old pair of jeans but brought her badge just in case she needed it. Then she hopped into a bus outside her place and took it down to a Sahara Square neighborhood.

There was Jumbo's Ice Cream, the first place she'd seen Nick. It had only been a couple years but it seemed like forever ago, her first day in a new life when she'd thought that everything was easily sorted into good (herself, her parents, police) and bad (thieves, speciesist elephants, bullies). She was so different now from the eager young bunny she'd been then that it was hard to remember sometimes, but the ice cream parlor, even closed, brought back memories of her earnestness, how Nick had tricked her, how angry she'd been.

The ice cream shop was closed—it was after nine at night—but down on one corner was a neon sign and a lighted window from which spilled out music and conversation. Nothing else on either side of the street was open, so Judy headed for The Saharan (the words on the neon sign, squeezed between two garish palm trees).

This was a large mammal bar, but there was an entrance for mediums too and a staircase to a seating area from which the medium mammal customers would be at eye level with the elephant and camel servers. Judy climbed the stair, avoiding two drunken armadillos tumbling down, and scanned the area for Nick when she got to the top.

He'd picked a table in shadow far at the back of the area, and though he definitely saw her, he didn't wave, only nodded as she made her way over to him. She slid into the chair across from him and stared at his garishly colored flower-patterned shirt and big pink-rimmed sunglasses. "Why the cloak-and-dagger?" she asked. "And why are you so bad at it?"

He took off the sunglasses and tossed them to the table with a snort. "I'm here because I wanted a drink and it's midway between our apartments, and I'm in the back because this place is loud and it hurts my ears."

His voice was quieter than she'd pitched hers, but she could still hear him. She tried to tone her voice down to the same level. "And why couldn't you just tell me the name of the bar?"

He grinned. "All right. You got me. I did some snooping around tonight and I found a few things that might be bad or might not, but I thought we should keep them off the record, both ZPD and Pulitzer Pete."

"His name's Simon."

"I know, but there's not a newspaper joke I can make that starts with S."

"Why even make a joke?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Hi, have you met me?"

"Fine, fine. As it happens, I made a couple calls around tonight as well, so I can trade some information."

"Ooh." He perked his ears. "Sounds good. Tell me about yours."

So she recapped the phone call for him. "Ah, old Mr. Stripe," Nick said. "He's all pleasant now, but he used to chase me and my friends down the street yelling at us and telling us to get jobs."

"Well, now you have one."

"True!" His grin faded. "And it sounds like the poor guy isn't doing great, so I guess I can forget the past. For the moment."

"So what did you do tonight?"

Nick leaned back in his chair. "I thought it might be useful if I just went around Happytown by myself, not in uniform, and talked to some folks about things that have been going on, or not going on. Maybe some of my sources would be willing to talk about Freddy to me, or about the theft, when they might not talk to you and me in uniform."

"Not to mention a tagalong bunny."

"I didn't mention him, but yes." He winked. "Anyway, I spent a couple hours walking around and talking to people—"

"Hey! Bunny!"

Judy turned to see an elephant staring across the seating area at her. "Yes?"

A long trunk reached across between several other tables and dropped a laminated page on her table. "What can I get ya?"

The menu listed drinks and bar bites. Judy scanned it quickly. "A White Tiger and the deep-fried carrots, please." She held up the menu and the trunk grabbed it back.

"Fox, you good?"

Nick raised his drink. "I'm good."

The trunk withdrew. "Back in a minute," the elephant said, and disappeared into the chaos of the large mammal area.

"Anyway," Judy leaned in. "You were saying."

"Right." Nick sipped his drink and put it back down. "We saw Freddy that day, right?"

"Yeah."

"Far as I can tell, nobody's seen him since then. At least, nobody who would talk to me about him. But I'm a pretty good judge of when someone doesn't know something and when they're just not telling me."

"So, nothing about Freddy? Is it unusual for him to be gone for a few days or does he do that often?"

"That," Nick said with a smile and a finger-gun pointed at Judy, "is the really interesting thing. Nobody had heard anything about the fifty thousand, either, but they thought it wouldn't be strange for Freddy to be involved. A little outside his normal range, but it was from an apartment, not like he went to rob the First Bank of Zootopia or something. But they all thought he would've been spending it around if he'd gotten it—'unless he got arrested again,' they said. More than one person."

Judy sat straight up. "He's been arrested? More than once?"

"More than once. More than twice. More than five times, as far as I can tell. It never seems to stick; he gets arrested, is gone for a few days, comes back. They think what happens is that the police know him, so anytime a robbery happens they just pick him up, and when they can't pin it on him they let him go again."

"That's not how we're supposed to work!" Again, the indignation of people who shared her uniform betraying the code they were all supposed to follow.

"Not in Precinct One," Nick agreed.

"Huh." Judy rested her elbows on the table and her chin on her paws. "You think Chief Whitehorn…?"

"Maybe. You know I don't trust her."

"Bogo does, though." Judy stared past Nick without seeing.

"Does he?"

She nodded. "At least, he didn't tell me to be suspicious of her, and I think he would've at least hinted at that."

"But." Nick held up a finger. "It's also strange that he just loaned us out to her for this investigation."

"Not really. We work over there all the time. Really, you should've been assigned there in the first place."

"Good thing I was smart enough to pick a better precinct," he said with a smug fox smile.

By which he meant not only that he'd made a smart decision, but also that he'd placed first in his class at the Academy so he'd been given his choice of assignment. "I'm glad you did," Judy said.

"Me too." He looked around and then back at Judy. "I really am sorry about that lie with Simon. I thought it'd be a good way to get him out of your fur."

"It's just that he knows a lot of people back home and now I'm worried about who he might tell."

Nick's ears went flat and he brought both paws to his muzzle. "Oh, Carrots. I didn't even think of that. I didn't know how small Bunnyburrow was. You keep talking about how many brothers and sisters you have and I imagine it as this city of hundreds of thousands."

"It kind of is," Judy admitted. "They passed a hundred thousand last year. But everyone knows everyone because everyone's family."

"I've met your parents, though," Nick said. "I mean, only over the phone, but still. You don't think they'd believe him, do you?"

"Maybe not," Judy said. "But someone will."

"All right, well, I'll make sure—" She raised her eyebrows at him, and he leaned back. "I'll make sure that I don't say anything else without asking you about it. But if I can help, let me know."

"All right. I'm sure it'll be fine. Anyway, it's none of their business if I did want to date you. There's way worse people in Zootopia."

"That there are." Nick drew back from the table as a trunk dropped a tray between them with a clatter.

Judy took her drink and the small bowl of steaming deep-fried carrots, which she set between them once the tray had been withdrawn. "Help yourself," she said.

Nick picked one up and sniffed it, then popped it into his mouth. "Ow ow hot hot hot," he mumbled around it, chewing and gulping hastily.

"Deep-frying is this thing where they put it in hot oil." Judy grinned at him, taking one and blowing on it theatrically to cool it off.

"Usually they give it more than ten seconds between the oil and the table." Nick stuck his tongue out. "And the carrots aren't even that good."

"If they had deep-fried blueberries I would've ordered you some." Judy nibbled on the carrot and found to her dismay that Nick was right; it was a bland carrot, nothing like what she'd grown up with. In Zootopia, you couldn't always count on good carrots.

"That also sounds terrible," Nick said, "but in a really interesting way."

"So what's our next move here?"

"Well," he said, "I figure we need to go back to Four and check in anyway, and we can find out if Freddy's been arrested. If he has, we can talk to him there. If not, then we might still be able to figure out why he's been arrested so many times."

"I think that's a good idea," Judy said. "And I'd like to go talk to the Sunshine Middle School administrator, see if there's any developers after them. I don't want to suspect it just because I heard another story, but…"

"But you've only heard one story," Nick said, "and how many haven't we heard?"

"Right." Judy picked up another fried carrot. This one was cool enough now to eat right away. "But Nick…if Councilor Sand is behind it, or Chief Whitehorn, or both…what do we do?"

They both stayed quiet for a moment. Then Nick said, "Did you ever think that maybe that's why Chief Bogo gave us this case?"

#

"Why are we going back to Precinct Four?" Simon wanted to know when they set out the next morning.

"Checking in," Judy told him. "The investigation is technically being run out of that precinct, so we should update them on our progress."

"I'm afraid it's going to be very boring." Nick, with his morning coffee and a plan, was much more cheerful. "But it is part of police work and life. So much paperwork."

"It's for everyone's sake," Judy clarified. "We have to document everything we do because we're responsible for keeping Zootopia safe. So if we do something wrong, or even if we don't, we have to make sure we keep track of it."

"Hey, I get paperwork," Simon said. "My whole job is 'paper work.'"

Nick gave Judy a look as Simon leaned forward from the back seat. "Get it? Because I work for the—"

"Oh, we get it." Nick half-turned with a toothy smile. "Say, do you moonlight as a comedian back in Bunnyburrow?"

"Nick," Judy warned.

"Some of my friends say I should." Simon didn't seem to notice Nick's buttery tone. "But I dunno, I just can't see myself in front of a mike."

"That's a bummer," Nick said. "Those pun comedians really score big with the gals."

"Oh, that's, uh…" Simon sat back and buried his nose in his notebook.

Nick turned to Judy with eyebrows raised and she shook her head at him. Then they passed the big sign that said, "Welcome to Happytown" and the fox stared at it and went silent.

Judy enjoyed the rare ten minutes of peace up until she parked out in front of Precinct Four, when both Nick and Simon looked up. Nick's mouth twisted in distaste as it always did in front of the plain concrete building, and Simon asked, "Where's the police station?"

"There," Nick pointed before Judy could answer. "Disguised as an abandoned warehouse. It's very effective camouflage."

"I don't even see the shield—oh, there it is, it's the same color as the stone." Simon took some pictures and then followed Nick out of the car.

"Hi, Rainy!" Judy bounced up to the jaguar's desk.

"Hopps, Wilde!" Rainwater leaned forward. "How's my favorite small mammals today? Oh—" He spotted Simon. "We're not doing tours today, sorry, that's Fridays only."

"He's a reporter following us around for a week. We just came in to file a progress report on the investigation Captain Whitehorn asked us to take."

"Oooh, yeah, how's that going? I heard her talking with Roarey about it yesterday."

"Roarey?" Judy asked.

"Lieutenant Roarey," Nick said. "The lion?" He pointed to the wall where everyone's picture smiled out at the lobby.

"Right. We met him at the picnic, I think?" Judy looked up at Rainwater. "There were a lot of people there."

"He was there. But he mostly keeps to his group of friends." The jaguar waved at the wall. "The tigers and bears, you know."

"I don't think we talked to him," Nick said. "Might've met him once or twice. What were they saying? Nothing bad, I hope."

"He doesn't like investigations going out of the department, but it's not his call, is it? Whitey's the captain and head of the precinct. That's what she told him. I think that's what she told him." The jaguar scratched at his whiskers. "She might've said that her head is prescient."

"Probably it was the first one." Judy smiled. "We brought our reports to copy, but we also wanted to ask about a certain prisoner you might have in custody here?"

"Oh, sure, okay." Rainwater scooted over to his computer and tapped. "What's the name?"

Judy looked to Nick, who said, "Frederick Foxson."

"Oh, him." The jaguar came back over to them. "I know him. Nah, he's not in here now."

"Now?" Judy perked her ears.

"Yeah, Freddy makes it in here about every month or so, I guess. Poor guy, he's just not that great at robbing. Gets caught all the time."

"Then…" Nick tilted his head. "How is he back every month? Does he never get convicted?"

"Huh." Rainwater rubbed his nose. "I guess not. Maybe the officers just think he looks suspicious. On account of, you know."

"Being a fox?" Simon chirped up.

"The five fingers," Rainwater whispered. "Also the fact that he steals a lot of stuff. You know, I can look it up, hang on."

He slid back over to his computer and typed some more. "Foxson, Frederick…here we go. Time served, released for lack of evidence, released, released, probation and time served, released, released, released, released…huh. He's been here a lot."

"Yeah, you said." Nick looked up over the lip of the desk. "Who's the arresting officer?"

"Oh man, I have to go into each one to look at that…" Rainwater tapped a few more times. "Stomper…Urson…Fangle…Urson again…" He looked over at Nick. "Why do you need to know this?"

"Oh, no reason." Nick stepped back. "He's a suspect and we'd heard that he got arrested a lot. I just figured that if we could talk to the arresting officers, we might be able to get an idea of where they usually pick him up. Maybe we could go check out those locations, you know?"

"That's not a bad idea." The jaguar snapped his fingers. "You know what, you should ask Roarey. I mean, Lieutenant Roarey."

"The lion?" Judy asked. "Why?"

"He knows Freddy, I think, from somewhere. Anyway, I remember a couple times I saw them talking. Let me see…" He went back to the computer. "No, his name isn't on any of the arrest reports. But I'm sure I saw them talking. Let me just call him up and ask him."

"No, no!" Judy and Nick said at the same time, jumping forward. "Don't bother him," Judy went on. "We'll file these reports and then when we get to the point where we can use his information we'll call him up. We know where to find him, after all."

"Sure, that makes sense." Rainwater slid back over and leaned on the desk. "Wilde, what did you think of the latest Pestworld? Crazy, right?"

"Oh, shoot," he said. "I've been caught up in this case and I haven't watched it yet."

Judy dragged Simon toward the copy room to give Nick an excuse to follow her, and he did, looking back at Rainwater. "Sorry," he said, "I promise I'll watch it soon and then I'll text you about it."

"Don't be eating when you watch it," the jaguar called after them. "It's gross."

"Right!" He pointed finger-guns at her and then hurried after Judy and Simon.

In the copy room, they waited for an elephant officer to finish making copies and then Judy gestured to Nick to close the door while she climbed up onto the copier (made for large mammals) to operate it.

Simon stayed on the floor and when Nick came back, Judy started the copies going. She hopped down and stayed next to the loud machine, speaking as low as she could manage while still ensuring they could hear her. "You think Roarey has something to do with this?" she asked Nick.

"Maybe," he said. "Could just be an off-the-record informant."

"What?" Simon looked between the two of them.

"Sometimes," Judy said, "we have an informant but we don't want them listed as an informant because…"

"Then we have to pay them," Nick said sourly.

"Or because we're worried word will get out and they'll be in danger," Judy added.

Simon's eyes got big. "Danger? Like…might be killed?"

"Maybe." Judy looked at Nick. "It's happened. Not often, but…"

"Yeah," he said. "Or…"

She nodded. "Or."

Simon shook his head. "Or what?"

Judy beckoned him in closer. "Or Roarey's doing something illegal and using the arrests as an excuse to get closer to Freddy and make plans with him."

"That was the plot of a movie we saw once," Nick explained.

"But also it's happened. Not since we've been officers, but…"

"But in Happytown for sure," Nick said. "I knew a guy, when I was a cub here, got arrested all the time and never seemed worried about it. Later we found out."

"Later?" Simon asked.

"The point is," Judy said, "we can't be sure which it is unless we talk to Freddy. And if he is the one who stole the case, then he's going to be hard to find."

"Why would Freddy tell you?" Simon asked.

Judy pointed to Nick. "Freddy would tell him."

Nick smiled broadly and then, as the copier finished, walked around to the output tray and grabbed the copies. "Because you're so nice, I'll go give these to Bellyacher. Meet you back out at the car?"

"Sure." Judy hopped up to get their originals back as Nick slipped out the door.

When she returned to the ground, Simon was scribbling in his notebook. "Wow," he said. "I mean, I knew police work could be dangerous, but I thought your dad was just being paranoid."

"It's dangerous, but—wait," Judy said. "My dad?"

Simon's ears fell to the sides of his head. "Oh—yeah, I mean, I talked to him a little about…when he found out I was going to be doing this interview, he—"

Judy grabbed him by the arm. "All right, come on. We're going to meet Nick at the car, but tonight you and me are going to dinner and you're going to tell me why you keep talking about my parents."

The other rabbit gulped as he hurried after her. "But what about your—Officer Wilde?"

"Don't worry. I'll tell him it's not a date." Judy gritted her teeth. Just a few more days of Simon and she'd be done with him.

#

When Nick got back to the car, Judy asked if Happy's was okay for lunch and then set out in that direction almost before Nick had gotten out the whole word, "Absolutely." The sandwich shop on the edge of Sahara Square was only a short drive away and a favorite of the Precinct Four officers.

Over sandwiches, she said, "By the way, Nick, I asked Simon if we could get dinner tonight. Not a date, just catching up on Bunnyburrow stuff."

"All right," he said, and looked like he thought about saying more but then remembered their earlier conversation and just bit into his sandwich.

"I won't try to steal her," Simon said earnestly.

"I know," Nick said, his mouth full. "Anyway, you couldn't 'steal' her. She's an independent bunny and she makes her own decisions."

"Oh yeah, right, of course." Simon bobbed his head. "But—"

Nick reached out to grab his paw, and Simon jumped. "Bit of advice," the fox said sweetly. "Stop now before you say something she'll make you regret."

When Nick let go, Simon rubbed his wrist and looked between the two of them. Judy smiled as sweetly as Nick had. "I'm really not that mean," she assured him.

"It's okay." Simon bit into his roasted carrot sandwich. "It's part of the article, you know, what kind of bunny would come be a cop in Zootopia, and the answer is, a pretty confident one."

"Dang right," Nick said. "Anyway, that's fine. I figure I'll have more luck looking for Freddy on my own, and maybe out of uniform too. We'll see how this afternoon goes."

"What are we doing this afternoon?" Simon asked.

"Records," Judy said. "I'd like to look back at the projects Councilor Sand has been involved in just to have a little background on her and to give us a little context for the money going to the Sunshine School. Was it the kind of thing she did a lot, was this unusual, things like that."

"More paperwork." Nick grinned and leaned in toward Simon, lowering his voice. "But paperwork is dangerous too."

"It is?"

"We might get…" He raised his paws and wiggled his fingers. "Paper cuts!"

Simon stared at Nick and then leaned back. "I'm not a kit," he said. "You don't have to be patronizing."

The fox chuckled. "Sorry. I like to have a bit of fun, you know. Hey, that goes in the article too, right? 'What kind of partner would Zootopia's only bunny cop work best with? One who can laugh.'"

"Suuuuure." Simon didn't take his notebook out. "Why don't you stick to the police work and I'll write the article?"

"Suit y'self." Nick finished his sandwich. "I prefer police reports anyway."

"Ouch." Judy nudged Simon. "He hates police reports."

"All right, fine." Simon folded his arms. "You know what, I just came here because I was interested in Zootopia and in Judy, and I think this investigation is a pretty interesting story on its own. You know, I broke a big story back in Bunnyburrow for the Beacon, and no, I'm not going to tell you about it because it's going to sound silly to you big city mammals but it was a big deal in Bunnyburrow. And I just want to see what happens at the end of this investigation and I can't wait to write it up, okay?"

Nick grinned and licked his fingers. "Whatever you say, Scoop. Some people are made for Zootopia and some aren't."

"I never said I was."

"Settle down." Judy was worried Simon might try to punch Nick, which would not end well for the bunny. "You know what, why don't we take a break for the rest of the day. Nick, didn't you have some people you wanted to talk to alone?"

"Sure," he said, getting up. "Sounds good to me. I'll report back in the morning and I'll text you if something else interesting happens."

"Great."

He raised a paw to Simon. "Don't try any moves on her."

"Or what, you'll beat me up?" Simon tried to show bravado, but Judy could see the trembling of his whiskers and was sure Nick could too.

"No," Nick said, and jerked a thumb back toward Judy. "She will."

#

There was always enough paperwork to fill an afternoon, so Judy took Simon back to ZPD Headquarters and they sat in a room together while she filled out forms and reports and he wrote a first draft of the first half of his story. They didn't talk much, but Judy kept thinking of what she was going to say to him over dinner and that made the reports take a lot longer than they usually did, enough time that she only had a little time for the research she'd wanted to do and she couldn't focus properly on it, so she set it aside for another day.

When five o'clock finally rolled around, she stuffed the forms in a folder and put the folder in a drawer of her desk. "All right," she said to Simon. "You hungry?"

This time, instead of a fancy restaurant, Judy decided on one of her favorite places, a little bunny-run restaurant that served a lot of carrot-based dishes. The owner, an old white bunny named Carlotta, greeted her with a cheery wave and smile and brought her a carrot juice without asking. "Oh, and what can I get for this handsome young buck?" she asked.

"Ah," Simon cleared his throat. "Celery juice, please."

"Coming right up. Officer, you want the roasted carrot appetizer?"

"Please." Judy beamed up at Carlotta. "Simon's visiting from Bunnyburrow so I wanted to show him what Zootopia bunnies can do with carrots."

"Oh, then you'll want the special. Marza's doing a carrot soufflé with parsnip puree and a dandelion vinegar reduction. She came up with it herself! I won't have her here much longer so you should try it while you can."

"Sounds lovely." Judy set the menu aside.

"Same for me," Simon said.

"Perfect." Carlotta collected the menus and bustled off to another table.

Judy set her elbows on the table and glared at Simon. "All right," she said. "Spill it. What's going on with you and my parents?"

He sighed. "It's—"

Carlotta plunked a glass of celery juice down in front of him. "Fresh squeezed," she said. "It's sparkling. Tell me if you want flat instead."

"Oh, sparkling is nice." Simon took a sip. "Yeah, this is great."

When the white bunny had left, he rubbed his fingers along the glass, looking down at it. "So, yeah, I mean, I know your dad from a couple things. You know your brother Lyle works at the paper now, right?"

"I can't keep up with all my brothers and sisters," Judy said.

"Anyway, he was a junior reporter and I was his mentor, so I met your folks that way, and then your dad's farm contributed to the paper so he and your mom got to come to the Bunnyburrow Beacon Balloon Games. That's where we have a lot of balloons and we play games with them."

"I remember Dad talking about that," Judy said. "He and Mom said they came in second in the Three-Legged Balloon Hopping."

"Yeah, that's right!" Simon's ears perked up for a minute. "Anyway, they talk about you a lot. Like, more than any of their other kids. They worry about you—your dad more than your mom, or, well, maybe not more, but louder. I think your mom worries too but she doesn't let on as much."

"So they sent you to spy on me for them?"

He shook his head. "Okay, this—this is gonna sound bad but I want to tell you in advance that I never agreed to it. I just said I'd come here, do my job, and see how things went."

Judy shook her head. "They wanted you to go out with me so we could get married and have lots of little bunnies?"

"No. I mean, maybe, I guess, they probably wouldn't mind that. Your mom did mention once or twice that she wished I was her son, which wasn't nice the time it was in front of five of your brothers, but no, they wanted me to convince you to move back to Bunnyburrow."

She stared at him and then dropped her face into her paws. "I can't believe they're still on about that. I told them last year when I went back for the Carrot Festival that I love it here and I wasn't ever going to move back, full stop, end of sentence. And Mom said okay, and Dad, well, Dad at least didn't start crying again. But now, this?" She gestured to Simon.

"I know. And hey, for what it's worth…I can see you're doing great here. Your fellow officers respect you, you're doing great work, and they trust you with really difficult cases. This thing with the councilor isn't just a mystery, it's got political intrigue too and like you could maybe get someone important in real trouble with it. It's a great case."

"I wish I could be sure we're going to solve it," Judy said. "It feels like we don't know any more now than we did when we started."

"Maybe Nick will find something from his contacts. He must know a lot of shady types."

She opened her mouth to defend Nick and then shut it again. This wasn't the time to do that. But it did remind her… "Hey, you won't, uh, you won't say anything about me and Nick to my parents, will you? I don't know if it's even going anywhere and I don't want to tell them until it's for sure. My dad would go crazy."

"Ah heh," Simon said, and pushed his nose down into his celery juice. "Mmm. Yeah. He does not trust foxes."

The way he said it set Judy's fur prickling. "You told them already."

"Ah—"

"Simon! That was private!"

"Hey!" He sat up straighter. "You said not to put it in the article and I didn't." He stabbed at the tabletop with a finger. "I left that part out. But you never said anything about not telling anyone."

"I didn't know you were going to talk to my parents!"

"I wasn't!" He sat back in the chair. "I wasn't. They called last night. They wanted to know how it was going and how you were doing and if we went on another date."

"Another—you told them about our dinner?" Judy folded her arms. "Of course you did."

Simon looked away. "Yeah. Anyway your dad asked if you might consider coming back to Zootopia and I said you had more than your job keeping you here, and they asked if you were seeing someone and I said you were, and they asked if it was Nick and I said that I wasn't supposed to say anything about it. I thought I was being pretty good but they, ah, they might suspect now."

"Oh, no." Judy groaned. "I can't believe they didn't call me right away."

"Well, ah," Simon said, "you know, maybe it's better for it to be all out in the open. You don't have to hide it now?"

"Argh. It's not real!"

At that moment, Carlotta came back with their soufflés and placed one carefully in front of each. "Now, be gentle," she said.

"What do you mean, it's not real?" Simon stared at Judy.

"I'm not dating Nick!"

His ears went down. "What?"

"He only said that so you wouldn't ask me to go on another date, because I'm too nice to tell you that I'm not interested in you."

"Whoa," Carlotta said. "You know, if you just get some food in your stomach—"

"That's fine." Simon ignored the white bunny. "I'm not interested in you either. You, you seek out danger, you don't have any other bunny friends—"

"Hey," Carlotta said.

"And you just work all the time! What kind of life is that? I should've known you weren't dating Wilde. You don't have time to date anyone."

"I have time." Judy set both paws on the table. "It's just not important right now."

"It's important enough that you let your partner lie instead of just telling the truth."

"Argh!" She pounded the table.

"Whoa there!" Carlotta snatched the soufflés up again. "Careful!"

"You know what, you've got enough for your article."

"Huh?"

Judy stood up. "You just wanted to see how Bunnyburrow's Judy Hopps handles police work and life in Zootopia, right? Well, you've done that. You don't have to see how the case comes out. You're done."

"I got a week," Simon protested.

"I'll talk to Chief Bogo in the morning and I'll tell him that you've been making our job more difficult—which you have—and that this case could be really important—which it could—and I'm pretty sure I can talk him into ending this assignment. Tell my parents it was really nice getting to know you."

"So…you don't want the soufflé?" Carlotta asked.

"I'll take mine to go," Judy said.

"Sure." The white bunny eyed them both and then set the plates on the table again. "Let me just go get a box."

The whole restaurant was staring at them, a small room full of mostly bunnies. Judy avoided meeting anyone's eyes, especially Simon's. After a moment, everyone's conversations started up again, but whenever Judy looked at a table there, the bunnies looked like they had just been staring at her and had turned away a moment before she looked. Her whiskers twitched and she ached to get out of here.

"All right." Carlotta brought a box to the table. "Here we go, let me just…"

Judy reached for her wallet and Simon saw that and did the same. "No," she said, "I'm going to pay for this."

"I can get my own." He pulled a bill out at the same time she did.

"If I can just…" Carlotta tried to get past Judy and then went around to the other side of the table.

"Here," Judy said, "for both dinners."

"I've got it!" Simon slapped his bill down on the table a moment before Judy did, just as Carlotta grasped Judy's box. Both soufflés wobbled and then collapsed in the middle.