A.N. Hello all. I'm back at it again with the chapters. I'm glad you liked the last chapter, or at least, I assume you did. If you guys ask questions, I'll answer you, but you guys need to understand I won't answer questions that will come into play for later chapters, because I HATE spoilers. Anyway, time for the next chapter, so please read and review.

As officers took pictures of the bodies, Judy and Nick watched, each taking notice of the different aspects of the murder. The moose, Anthony Ler seemed to have no connection to the other victims, in fact, had almost nothing of notice in his file. Went to community college, no family besides his mother in a nursing home, a nine to five job in tundra town, no large funds of money, nothing. His wallet was still there, as was his cell phone.

"Did we find anything?" Judy asked one of the forensic team.

"So far nothing," the bobcat answered. "But we haven't checked the cameras yet."

"Cameras?" Judy asked. "What cameras?"

"That car has a dashcam," the bobcat replied pointing to a large vehicle. "It's got two tickets. It's apparently been parked there for several days. It may have video evidence, but we need to ask the owner of the car."

"Who's the owner of the car?" Nick asked.

"Apparently, an elephant by the name of Archibald Trunkington," the bobcat said.

"Do we know his residence?" Judy asked.

"You'll have to ask someone else, I don't know about that," the bobcat replied. "Now if you'll excuse me."

"Hey, we got something," another member called.

"What is it?" Nick asked.

"We a few bits of fur that are not from a moose," the otter called back.

"Bag it," the bobcat stated. "Find everything we can before we start running things." He turned to Judy. "We'll let you know if we find anything else."

Judy nodded and began walking back to the car, Nick close by. "That was very quick." Nick said.

"What do you mean?" Judy asked.

"The blood wasn't dry yet," Nick answered. Judy just looked at him in confusion. "When it dries, it's much more brownish. It was still bright red. Whoever did it had just done it when we saw it."

Judy's eyes widened. "You're right!" She looked at Nick. "They could still be around here!" She shot for the door.

"Hold up Carrots!" Nick called. "We're not going to find them if we just go running around. Ask Clawhauser to look on the live street cams." Judy nodded and picked up the radio, intending to speak.

Instead, a deep rumbling voice crackled over the radio. "Did you like my art piece?" the voice rumbled. "It was a little rushed. Not my best work. I didn't even get a picture of it."

Judy and Nick stared at the radio with wide eyes. "How the hell is he on our radio?" Nick asked.

"I'm very good at what I do," the voice said. "That's how I'm on your radio."

Judy glared at the radio. "Can you hear us?"

"Oh yes I can," the voice rumbled. "And I can see you too. But you'll never find me. Not that you won't try." the voice laughed. "In fact, I'll give you a hint as to where I am right now. Like a bird, I am free, but with no wings to speak of. But like a bird, I have their view, the sun hanging above." The deep voice laughed. "You have one minute to find me before I disappear."

Judy dove for the door and Nick followed her outside. "He's got to be high up!" Judy said as she ran towards a fire escape only to be met by a group of reporters.

"Officer Hopps" they called. Each clamoring for attention, each asking about the murder.

"Move out of the way!" Judy shouted as she pushed through the crowd, Nick following after her shoving clamoring reporters out of the way as they struggled through the crowd, having a hard time moving through the mammals larger than themselves. Finally Judy managed to get out of the crowd, Nick close behind her as they raced to the fire escape. Judy leaped up on a trash can before jumping to the fire escape. Nick quickly followed and they raced up to the top. When they reached the top, the two searched the other roofs for any sign of a mammal.

Judy gasped as she saw a figure on a roof directly across from them. The figure was too far away for them to tell who they were, and there wasn't any way for them to get to the figure. "Shit! We need to get over there!" Judy cursed and looked for a way across. She saw several light poles. Each with overhanging beams.

Nick saw what she was looking at. "Judy, no! Bad idea!" He tried to convince her but Judy would not be deterred. She raced to the edge and jumped, landing on the poles and scrabbling for purchase on them. As soon as she had her balance, she ran as fast as she could along the pole, leaping to the next one. The figure didn't move. Nick cursed and ran back to the fire escape, running down it as fast as he could. As she leaped to the third and final pole, she slipped, grabbing it with her paws, barely, and had to pull herself up. Nick raced across the street, dodging traffic that honked and braked as much as they could. Breathing hard from his frantic run, he raced to the building's fire escape and quickly made his way up to the top.

Judy, having pulled herself up by now glared at the figure, running to make one more jump. She made it to the roof and stood. "You are under arrest," she huffed to the figure that she could see was wearing a hoodie pulled up, sweatpants, shoes, and a smiling mask, keeping it's hands in its pockets. Nick made it to the top of the escape and was now behind the figure. The figure didn't move, or acknowledge her. "Did you hear me?" She asked as she stepped to the figure. No answer. She poked it. It wobbled backwards and fell over, the mask falling off to reveal a stuffed generic mannequin inside the clothes.

"Where did he go?" Judy huffed as she kicked the mannequin. The duo looked around to see there was no one else on the roof.

Judy began to search the roof while Nick walked to the mannequin. He reached into its pockets. "Hey Judy?" he called. "You may want to come look at this."

"What is it?" Judy asked. Nick pulled out a stopwatch that was still going. It had just passed two minutes. "Those reporters slowed us down!" Judy angrily muttered. Is there anything else?"

"Dunno yet," Nick said as he went through another pocket. He pulled out a carrot pen just like Judy's. "The hell?" He looked at Judy. "Is this yours?"

"No," she shook her head. Nick turned it in his hands and was greeted by a smiley face drawn on it with crossed out eyes. It had the same recording and playback function too it seemed. It also had a message already able to be played.

"We need this on file." Nick said. "I don't think it will be replayed multiple times." Judy nodded and Nick pocketed the pen after putting it in an evidence bag, though at this point, his prints were already on it anyway.

"Anything else on this?" Judy asked.

"Not that I can find," Nick answered. "But we should bring it back just in case."

William watched over the roof of the truck as they drove back to the farm. The kits all sat in the back seats of the truck, Jack driving and Kira in the shotgun seat. A few other vehicles with various rabbits in them drove behind them. William was still clothed in his nanofabric as his other clothes had been destroyed by his transformation. As they got back to the farm, the rabbits piled out of the vehicles, the kits getting hugs from a relieved Bonnie as well as a stern talking to.

"Well," Stu said awkwardly. "Thank you for finding them," he gestured to the kits as he avoided William's eyes. "Especially with the crawler." He fidgeted.

William chuckled. "I'm not going to eat you Stu," he laughed. Stu flinched at those words as William laughed again. "Honestly, why would I eat you? You're much too old and tough." He joked.

Stu just gulped. As he looked fearfully at his family. "Who you calling old?" he asked, trying to get William's attention back on him. "I'm not that old and tough."

"Stu, I'm joking," William answered. "I'd never eat any of you." His stomach rumbled, startling Stu again. "Though I wouldn't be opposed to any leftovers you guys have from before."

"We have some of those," Kira called from the tables. "Now stop scaring my dad."

"That's a first," William chuckled.

"What?" Stu asked.

"Usually it's the dad doing the scaring," William answered.

Stu laughed at that, relaxing slightly. "Oh believe me I've tried with her boyfriends."

"Oh really?" William asked.

"I think that might be why she's dated preds," Stu laughed. "She doesn't think I can scare them off."

"Dad!" Kira shouted. This just provoked a new round of laughter from William and Stu. "Honestly, as nice as it is for you two to be getting along, I'd rather it not be at my expense."

William smirked and the two walked up towards the tables. "It's a dad's job to embarrass his kids sometimes. He's just filling his quota."

"I wouldn't say it's my job," Stu argued.

"Just a perk of the job?" William asked.

"Maybe a little bit," Stu answered. A couple shouts from the kits over by the barn drew their attention. Stu sighed. "I should check on that." With that, he walked off, scolding the kits that had started climbing hay bales, sometimes falling.

William chuckled and turned to see Kira toss something at him. He caught it and looked down to see an apple. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," Kira blew it off. "I don't think there is going to be any more work done tonight. Daylight's almost gone and everyone's still getting back together after Peter and the Trio with their little fiasco." William nodded and took a bite of the apple. "So what are you going to do now?" Kira asked.

William shrugged and swallowed. "Dunno. I may just do some research on the crawlers."

"Why?" Kira asked.

"It's just strange. I have a hunch about what happened, but I don't have all the information about them."

"Well, if you want more information about them, we could head to the Redtail farm. They have a few pastures for them."

"You guys mentioned that the crawler was branded by them?" William asked.

"Yeah," Kira answered. "A few years ago, they lost one of their spiders. They had to euthanize the whole stock and start over so they could fix the pen."

"Huh," William mused. "I'd like to see this farm."

"Well, there's not much to do here I think," Kira stated. "I'll make sure with my dad, but then we can go."

"Cool," William answered as he took another bite. As Kira walked off, William watched the horizon, trying to pick out where the fields ended and the shallow and deep wood began.

"We're clear to go," Kira said from behind him, drawing his eyes from the horizon.

William nodded and climbed into the back of the truck as Kira started the truck. As they began to drive off, William thought about the possibilities that a silk export could mean. Did wool still have a possible export value? How about dairy products? He had seen cheese being sold, so there had to be dairy, or at least some kind of substitute. But what about the descendents of their dairy cattle? The ones that had been genetically modified to always be producing milk? Did that modification still exist in this time? If so, then wouldn't that be a valuable product? So many questions that just came from the existence of a silk trade.

As he looked off into the dying light, the chip automatically helped to maximize his night vision along with the genetic enhancements. As they drove, he noticed a large farmhouse, much larger than the Hopps' home. There were fields all around them and in them, William could see large caterpillars that he could only assume to be silkworms. As Kira pulled off the main road and into the driveway, William was greeted by several mammals, all of them at least having a pistol in a holster if not a rifle in hand. "That's some tight security for a farm," William mused.

The security didn't move to stop them though. They seemed more concerned about keeping something in than keeping anything out. William noticed that a large majority of them were larger mammals, several of them being predators, and of those predators, most were canines.

As Kira parked the truck, William slowly stepped out of the back, not wanting to startle any mammal with a gun and possibly a twitching trigger finger. "Have any of you seen Mr. Redtail?" Kira asked a nearby wolf guard.

"He's at one of the behemoth enclosures," the guard answered pointing towards a large building.

"Behemoth?" William asked aloud. "I'm guessing that they're very large moths, is that right?"

"Yeah," the guard replied. "It was molting day yesterday." Several gunshots echoed through the air at that and William jumped to a ready position, ready to move in any direction at a moment's notice.

"Settle down," Kira huffed at William. "They're just putting down the behemoths."

"Putting them down?" William asked.

"Once they go through metamorphosis," the guard explained, "The moths starve to death because they can't eat. So they'll just die off anyway, but if we don't kill them, they'll breed too fast and then we'll have way too many silkworms."

"I guess that makes sense," William mused. "Then what do you do with the carcasses?"

"They go into the crawler pit," the guard answered. "They feed the crawlers, which we harvest for insect proteins and silk, just like the silkworms for silk."

"So this entire farm just grows insects and harvests silk?" William asked.

"Yep," the guard replied. "There are a few other meats that are exported though. Crab and lobster is a good export."

"I see," William answered. He then noticed a fox walking towards them, rifle in hand and a cigar in his mouth. His fur was carefully trimmed, though the fur around his muzzle was starting to grey, giving him an older appearance with several similarities to having a beard. One eye had a milky film over it along with a scar over his eye, but the other was a deep hazel color.

"Well look who it is," the fox laughed. "A little bunny and a stranger." He stuck his paw out for a shake. "Name's Kenny. Kenny Redtail. And you are?"

"I'm William," William answered.

"You already know me you old rascal," Kira rolled her eyes.

"Well, what brings you here?" Kenny asked.

"I just have some questions about your livestock," William stated. "And with it, I might be able to give you some information too."

The fox looked at him with intrigue. "Alright, what do you want to know?"

"First off," William began. "What is the silk that you sell used for?"

"It's used for a variety of products," Kenny answered. "From clothing to bandages to rope, the silk we sell is very profitable, especially the spider silk, which is good because it's much more dangerous and hard to obtain."

"That makes sense," William acknowledged. "Are there products made from wool or dairy in the market?"

"There are," Kenny answered. "Wool is a product used for various textile products, though it isn't nearly a widespread as cotton or silk. It simply is seen as a bit of a faux pas for use as clothing or rugs, but it's a profitable business that many sheep take advantage of, shearing their wool anyway so they sell it for a profit."

"So they sell it, but it's not socially acceptable to use it?" William asked.

"Yes and no," Kenny answered. "It's similar to wearing another mammal's fur, which is the main problem, but the only mammals that actually care about it aren't even sheep. They simply get offended on their behalf because they think it's wrong." William nodded in understanding. "The dairy however is an entirely different monster to understand."

"How so?" William asked.

"To put it simply," Kenny continued. "It's an invasion of privacy of sorts. It's very useful in products and is used in ice cream, cheese, yogurt, and even just as a drink. It's proven to have nutritional benefits, but it's strange because only bovines of a specific ancestry are able to produce reliably."

"Really?" William asked.

"Yes," Kenny answered. "And with other mammals understanding where dairy comes from, they seem to self insert themselves and decide that since it's a massive invasion of privacy for them, it shouldn't be an industry."

"I'm sensing a but in there," William prodded.

"But," Kenny continued with a small grin. "Deeper research into the genetics gave the understanding that they constantly produce milk. They have to put it somewhere, and as such they sell it. Because of this, it's a strange topic that most mammals won't talk about because it's uncomfortable for them as well as it has no clear answer to most." Kenny grimaced. "I am included in those mammals. Now is there a different question you want answered?"

"Yes of course," William replied. "How many different species of crawlers are there."

"We don't know," Kenny answered. "There are only a few that I can think of. They don't have subspecies like their miniature counterparts. There is only one kind of spider crawler, not several hundred variations."

"So there is only one kind of crawler that is a spider, but are there other crawlers?" William queried.

"There are," Kenny answered. "Scorpions, centipedes, silkworms, caterpillars, and pillbugs are all different crawlers. Hive species don't seem to have a crawler counterpart, and most species in general don't have a crawler counterpart."

"Makes sense," William replied.

"How so?" Kenny asked.

"There is significant evidence that the bugs you call crawlers are the result of an extreme genetic anomaly that causes them to be much larger than normal, and with that, they became their own species, that through cannibalistic tendencies, cull the size of their population themselves," William explained. "As such, these crawlers are incredibly aggressive, long lived, and grow constantly."

"What makes you say that?" Kenny asked.

"How big are your crawlers?" William asked.

"We make sure to put them down before they get any bigger than a deer," Kenny answered. "They're simply too dangerous and we can't keep them from procreating any other way."

"And you lost one a few years ago." William stated.

"Yes," Kenny answered with suspicion. "Why?"

"Well, that one you lost, we found. It was much larger than a deer," William answered. "I'm guessing that's why you keep such tight security?"

"Exactly," Kenny stated firmly. "So it lived outside the pen?"

"Very well if the size was any indication," William stated. "How did it get out?"

"Another crawler, a scorpion, somehow made its way all the way over here and attacked the enclosure," Kenny explained. "It was before we reconstructed the enclosure so it was mostly chain link fence and ceiling. It cut through it with it's pincers and got inside. Killed three of our stock and wounded four others that died soon after the crawler was killed. The spiders swarmed the scorpion and eventually killed it, though one small juvenile spider got out during the commotion. We had to go and put them all down because of the breach. That's by law of crawler farming," he continued. "We found that we lost one and tracked it all the way to the Deep Wood. I wasn't going to send any of my workers in after it. That would almost be a death sentence. The odds of surviving a trip inside is very low. We figured to just cut our losses and put our efforts towards reconstruction."

William nodded at this. "I can understand that. However, I have one more question. How large is the industry that this farm is a part of?"

"Feeding predators is hard work," Kenny answered. "Especially because we're one of the few in the industry. We're a major part of the industry, with this being a large farm, but we only can get so much food for predators all at once. Silk is our major export, but it takes time to process it and get it ready for sale. However, it's a stable export, so I'm complaining. Silk always sells."

William nodded. "Thanks for answering my questions."

"Not a problem," Kenny said. "Would you like to see the enclosures? It'll give you a much better idea of what we do here than anything I could have said."

"Do we have time for that?" William asked Kira who had simply listened to the conversation."

"We've got plenty of time," Kira answered. "And to be honest, I'd like to see them too."

"Well, if you're both interested," Kenny said with a smile. "I'll show you around personally."

Chief Bogo rubbed his brow in frustration. Everything was falling to pieces all at the same time. They had had a drop in crime, but all the down time they had was now returned with interest. Hopps and Wilde were on the murder case, the human wasn't even in the city, and that damn weasel was paranoid while easily making Bogo feel paranoid. As he mused about the timing, his mind drew back into his talk with the weasel.

-Flashback-

Chief Bogo placed an audio recorder on the table of a modest living room while Duke Weaselton sat in an oversized armchair, making him look very small. "I'm sorry about the conditions," Bogo apologized unapologetically. "This was the best we could do on such short notice."

"It's fine, it's fine," Weaselton huffed. "As long as I stay alive, you could put me in a dumpster."

"You keep saying that," Bogo stated. "Could you explain?"

"You know the saying don't you?" Weaselton asked. "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times in enemy action." He took a breath. "There have been more than three attempts on my life."

"Do you mind listing them?" Bogo asked.

"First was a bus accident," Weaselton said. "A bus I was riding didn't slow down at a stoplight, but instead continued going forwards. I was at the back, but I could see the driver pumping the breaks, trying to get them to work. The bus crashed, three smaller mammals died. I didn't stick around, cause I was avoiding you coppers, but I think the brakes were cut."

Bogo would need to look into the files to see if that was the case. "Second?" he asked.

"Motel I was staying," Weaselton answered. "I had just checked in, late at night, very few other patrons, but somehow, a fire was lit in my wall. They said it was 'faulty wiring' that started the fire, and somehow, every smoke detector in the motel was 'without batteries'."

"How does that attribute to an attempt on your life?" Bogo asked.

"Oh please," Weaselton scoffed. "What motel doesn't have at least one fire alarm at their front desk if no where else?"

"Any others attempts?" Bogo asked incredulously.

"At the train station," Weaselton answered. "I was waiting for a train when some mammal pushed me from behind."

"Pushed you?" Bogo asked.

"Yes," Weaselton stated. "Whoever it was pushed me almost into the tracks. I only didn't get hit by the train because a tiger saw me and snagged me by the collar. He didn't even ask for my thanks or anything. Just grabbed me by the collar, pulled me away, set me down and walked off."

Bogo was now believing that the attempts on Weaselton's life were real. Even if the other two could be accidents, the third would likely be a conscious choice. "And is that the last one?"

"No," Weaselton answered. "Two attempted 'muggings' but they had high quality weaponry that common thugs don't have the cash to get."

"What did they have?" Bogo asked.

"Each had a heavy duty knife like those from the military," Weaselton answered. "They also had pistols with silencers on them. Why do they call them silencers? They don't silence the gun." Weaselton asked.

"That's just the popular term," Bogo stated. "They're more accurately called suppressors."

"Well that makes much more sense," Weaselton said. "Cause they definitely weren't silent."

"Were there any more attempts?" Bogo asked.

"No," Weaselton answered.

-Flashback end-

Bogo rubbed his face with his hands and idly checked his phone, which had a message from his wife. All it said was "Check the news" which he did with his phone. Looking online he saw pages of news stories about a murder. ZNN, Fox, local news channels, everyone was on live television talking about a murder. "Fucking hell," he muttered. He raced out of his office and to the balcony. "Clawhauser!" he shouted. "Get Hopps and Wilde on the comms! Now! I want to know what's happening right now!

A.N. Wow! Okay, I finished this chapter really fast. It's been a lot of information about the world, which I think to be rather necessary. Seriously, we know they aren't vegan, and mammals do produce plenty of different byproducts as well as we know that Mr. Big wanted a wool rug, and Nick gave him a skunk butt rug, so wool has to be something product wise. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter, have a great rest of your day, and please review.