8:30 AM on the morning of the day that the final murder was due.

Nick wrapped his knuckles on Simon Setsworth's front door. The door slowly opened and the voice of an elderly badger came out. "Who is it.?"

"DI Hopps and DS Wilde, we have a warrant to search yours and your son's property. May we come in Mrs Setsworth." Nick barged his way past the old badger. Judy apologised to the elderly mammal and followed Nick inside. After a quick search of the house and a thorough ransacking of Simon's bedroom the pair we're about to give up until Nick spotted a locked door under the stairs.

"Mrs Setsworth." Nick called.

"Yes dear?" the old badger had been so sweet and helpful, Nick felt bad for the way he had barged her out of the way.

"Do you have a key for this?" Nick asked softly.

"Oh no, sorry, that's Simon's office he has the only key."

"Never mind." Nick said with a slight smile on his face. He was going to get to use his lock picking kit, which was a guilty pleasure of his.

He almost had the door open when Judy startled him.
"Not again." She said. Nick Just shrugged and continued fighting with the lock, firing a cheeky grin at Judy when the door popped open. Nick pushed the door open and to his surprise a staircase lead down into the cellar. He was expecting an under stairs cupboard not a whole new floor to search. He poked his head into the darkness before pulling back. "Ladies first."

Judy padded past Nick sticking her tongue out at him as she went by. "You call yourself a predator? Scared of an old woman's basement."

"Hey, plenty of terrible things go on in old peoples' basements. Like clown dolls and clown pictures and, well, clowns." Nick jokingly shuddered before pulling the cord to turn the basement lights on and followed Judy down the stairs.

The basement walls were covered floor to ceiling in shelves, Scratcher books covering every inch of wall space. In the back corner of the room in a cut-out section of shelving was a computer, one of them old ones with the monitor that a family could live in.
"It's a scratchers paradise." Nick said taking in the sheer number of books.

Judy hopped up onto the chair by the computer and wiggled the mouse.
"Bingo." The computer wasn't even locked, and the last web page was still open. The website was called 'Scratcher Jack forums' Judy immediately dove into Simon's messages, one of the usernames kept cropping up 'ScratcherFan666' the user was asking Simon very detailed questions about the murders and Simon was giving very detailed answers.

"Nick" Judy called. "Get a load of this." Nick came over and instantly noticed the username but he spotted something Judy had missed. All of the last messages were sent roughly an hour before the bodies were found.

"That's him, that's our killer." Nick said excitedly. he tapped his claw on the monitor. "See what IT can do on tracking that user. We need to speak to Simon again." Nick ran up the stairs to phone it in.

12:00, 9 hours until the final murder.

Nick and Judy were on their way back to the station when Nicks phone rang.
"Dave what's up?" he said as soon as he answered the phone.

"Hey Nick, we've had a DNA report in about some eyeballs or something." Dave said with uncertainty in his voice.

"Yeah go on."

"Well they found another mammals DNA on each victim but the samples all got contaminated, so they can't get anything conclusive."

Nick growled to himself, he wanted a more detailed answer but knew that Dave wouldn't know anymore than he had already told him.
"Thanks Dave. Will you put Simon in an interview room? we're on our way back and need to speak to him."

"Sure thing Red. see you soon." Dave hung up before nick could get another word in.

Nick turned to Judy. "Eyeball DNA was contaminated."

Judy's ears flopped "Your kidding? all of it?"

"Every sample." Nick confirmed.

Judy slammed her fist onto the steering wheel. "Damn, I was certain we would get something from that, let's hope this 'ScratcherFan' thing gets us somewhere."

16:23, 4 hours 37 minutes until the final murder.

"So Simon what can you tell us about ScratcherFan666?" Judy asked across the interview table.

"H-he, I met him on a forum, he said that he loved my book and wanted to know more." Simon replied Carelessly. Nick Picked up a screen-shot of Simon's messages that IT had pulled from his computer. The IT department were renowned for being the slowest mammals in the station and they were still working on Simon's computer.

"He slit the stomach from top to bottom, removing the knife just above the pelvis, then he sliced around and removed the liver before tying her to the castle gates and pinning a note to her chest by driving a knife through her heart." Nick read the last message that Simon had sent to ScratcherFan without an ounce of emotion in his voice. "This isn't education, this is murder porn." Nick hissed.

"This… ScratcherFan, Do you know him?" Judy asked leaning on the table.

"just through the forums, most mammals hide their real names." Simon replied.

Nick couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. "So you know nothing about these mammals yet you share how to butcher women with them?"

Simon went on the defensive. "That information is all publicly available, what they choose to do with it is up to them."

Nick had more questions he wanted to ask but Dave burst into the room.
"IT have traced the IP address to a house in town. Bogo's trying to get a warrant pushed through now." He said through rushed breaths. Nick and Judy both turned in surprise their ears standing straight up.

"Interview terminated 16:28." Judy slammed the tape recorder off and shot out of the room.

"We'll be back." Nick hissed at Simon as he stood to leave.

20:18, 42 minutes to the murder.

The warrant had taken hours to go through, which was amazing really considering it normally took days. The whole team were stood outside of a house on Stanley Gardens which was 2 streets away from the car park where the original murder happened. Judy's heart was racing, and she could hear Nick's doing the same. Dave was stood by the door with the battering ram in his paws. He counted to 3 and smashed the door in. The team rushed around him into the hallway of the house. "Police, stay where you are." They all shouted together, but the house was deserted with a computer screen illuminating the back room. There was a pin board beside it with a town map pinned on. All of the murder locations were highlighted apart from the last one. Instead a circle surrounded the car park with a question mark in the middle. Judy was inspecting the map and searching the computer desk when she heard Ben's voice form upstairs.

"Skip, up here." He called.

Judy bounced up the stairs. Ben was holding a Ukrainian passport in his paw, Judy snatched it from him and dropped it moments later as she ran down and out of the front door. The passport landed face up on the landing, the face of a large grey wolf jumping out at whoever looked at it.

Judy fumbled in her pocket trying to get her phone out, she furiously tapped a number in.
"Come on, come on, answer the bloody phone." she said, her teeth clenched so tight that her jaw hurt. Finally, the phone was answered.

"Hey Judes. what's up?" The voice at the other end said.

"Julie where are you? is anybody with you?" Judy's voice was rushed and filled with panic.

"I'm at home cooking, Judy what's going on?"

"Are you alone?" Judy asked quickly, her heart was beating faster than she thought possible.

"No, Josephs came round for supper. sorry Judy I have to go."

"Julie wait!" Judy shouted but it was too late, the line was already dead.
"Shit, shit, shit." Judy spun around helplessly looking for Nick. She was a little dizzy when he grabbed her shoulders and shook her gently.
"Judy, what's happened?"

the whole team had come out and were looking at her in confusion.
"Julie, where does she live?" Judy said, sheer terror in her voice.

"flat 46 Millers walk. Why?"

Judy shot off to her car and Nick instinctively followed. Judy's foot slammed onto the accelerator and they sped away before Nick had managed to close the car door. "Jesus Judy, what on earth is going on?" Nick squeaked, bracing himself against the dashboard and gripping tightly on the overhead handle as Judy sped through the narrow streets.
"Josephs the killer and he's in her flat."

20:48, 12 minutes left.

Judy rattled the door to the main entrance of the Millers Walk tower block, but it was locked.

"Watch out." Nick said, pulling his baton form his belt using the metal base of it to smash the glass window beside the door before scurrying through the gap. The pair sprinted up the stairs to the 4th floor and frantically searched for flat 46.

"We should split up and cover more ground." Judy said when they came to a T junction in the corridor.

"Not a chance, you think I'm gonna let you face a killer on your own."

"bu…"

Nick crouched in front of her and flattened her ears with his paw. "No way Judy, we're in this together. Now let's move." Nick looked at his watch 20:53 they had 7 minutes maybe less to find the flat and stop Joseph.

"There." Judy shouted and bounded off down the corridor with Nick close behind.

"Carrots, MOVE!" Judy jumped back and Nick slammed his shoulder into the door of flat 46, stumbling into the room. Nick almost fell, but he didn't have time to get his bearings. Joseph was stood in the middle of the room with surgical gloves and scrubs on like he was ready to operate, the knife in his hand was clean, they had got there just in time.

Nick pounced at Joseph and clung to the wolfs back in an effort to floor him, but it was no use. Seconds later he slammed into the arm of the living room sofa the wind rushing out of him. Nick managed to look up and see Judy's powerful foot connect with Josephs muzzle the crack making Nick flinch. Joseph stumbled back and Judy fell to the floor, but she didn't get up. 'don't stop now Carrots we've almost got him.' Nick thought until he heard the sinister laugh from the wolf. Nick looked on in horror at the now bloodied knife in the wolfs paw. Nick threw his baton at Joseph without thinking, it missed smashing a vase on a shelf behind him. Nick leapt towards him, but Joseph ran out of the flat and disappeared into the corridor.

"Judy" Nick wailed. He flopped down next to his bunny and scooped her into his arms. A red stain forming around a rip in her shirt just below her stab vest.

"NO, NO, Judy." Nick strained.

"Check on Julie." Judy winced at the pain when she tried to wriggle free from Nicks arms. Nick laid her down carefully and ran into the bedroom. Julie was cowering behind the bed. She was shaken but unharmed.

"She's ok." Nick shouted.
"Judy?" No reply came. Nick flew back into the living room and was quickly back at Judy's side. He scooped her back into his arms, but she was unconscious and her breathing was becoming strained.

Nick fumbled for his radio. "Officer down, 46 millers walk, I repeat Hopps is down." Nick's worst nightmare was just becoming reality, he had just had to call for medical assistance for his partner, his friend, his Judy. A tear rolled down Nick's face as he stroked Judy's ears back. "Come on Judy, wake up. Please wake up, I-I need you."

21:05 outside Millers Walk.

Nick was sat in the back of an ambulance with a blanket around him, he hadn't been allowed to travel with Judy because he wasn't family.

Dave approached cautiously. "Nick, I thought you should know… we caught him… he ran right into Bogo's hooves." Nick didn't respond he just stared blankly into nothingness, the sound of Dave's voice and all of the sirens blaring around him fading into nothing. For all he knew his world had just fallen apart.

26th September, early morning.

6 months had passed since the scratcher murders. Nick was crouched in front of a marble headstone in the town cemetery with tears welling in his eyes. He silently placed a green and purple bouquet on the grave and brushed away a few fallen leaves with the back of his paw.

"I remembered your favourites." He stuttered through silent sobs. The warmth of a friendly paw on his shoulder taking an ounce of pain away.

"I miss her so much. It's like there's a hole that only one mammal could fill." Nick said tenderly.

The paw on his shoulder tightened "I know you miss her, but you don't have to go through this alone."

"I really appreciate you coming Dave, you meant a lot to her." Nick said as he stood, a tear rolling down his muzzle.

"Come on skip, she wouldn't want you getting all upset now would she."

"Your right. come on, let's go." Nick and Dave walked off towards Nick's car, which was parked at the cemetery gates.

Nick opened the driver's door and climbed in.
"you alright foxy?" a voice called from the passenger seat.

"yeah I Just can't believe it's been a whole year since…" Nicks voice trailed off.

"hey, we're all here for you." The grey doe planted a kiss on Nicks muzzle, flinching in pain as she sat back in the seat.

"stab wound still a bit raw fluff?"

"I think it's always gonna be raw." Judy said rubbing at her side.
Nick started the car and went to put it in first, Judy's paw met his on the gear stick.

"Hey Nick."

"yeah Carrots."

"Your Mom would be proud of you."