Chapter Text
You know when, in all those old black and white movies, the air is filled with the smell of cigarette smoke and cheap perfume? Yeah, that’s pretty much what this felt like except in real life, cigarettes smell awful and the perfume wasn’t so cheap. Not too long ago, Judy and I got ourselves in over our heads. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking…but this wasn’t like the Night Howler maulings a few years back. This was well, a little worse.
The wolf sitting across from me had already smoked two cigarettes since he and his partner had come in and neither one of them had even asked us any questions yet. He was the kind of cop who liked to really lean into the lupine vibe; acting all hard-bitten and scary. I couldn’t help but smirk as I wondered how easy it would be to lure him into a howl. The other one, the femme fatale, was playing it cool like any snow leopard would. She hadn’t said a word, only staring at us with those cold predator’s eyes of hers. I honestly couldn’t tell which one of them was gonna play good cop or bad.
The metal chair creaked under him as the wolf leaned forward, stabbing his third cigarette out and turning on the digital recorder in the same swipe of his paw.
“Interviewing Officers Judy Hopps and Nicholas Wilde, Zootopia Police Department; Agents Bianca Ravnica and Thomas Barksley performing the interview.” He leaned back, the chair giving another little shriek of protest.
“Okay then…which one of you wants to start?”
I could feel Judy shifting in her seat beside me, nervous no doubt. Just to put her at ease, I leaned down and whispered, “Do you think it's him or her that’s wearing that perfume?”
“Nick, this is serious!”
“Officer Wilde,” The wolf growled. “This is serious.”
I couldn’t help but sigh, rolling my shoulders in a shrug. “Yeah, I know, I know. Just trying to lighten the mood. What do you want to know?”
“Everything you do,” the leopard said, pushing off of the wall and sliding into the chair next to the wolf’s. “You’re the one who saw all of this happen first paw, not us. Just…start at the beginning.”
My ears pricked up, surprised at the sound of her voice. She had a real Tundra accent, not the watered down version you get to hear in Tundra Town. That tracked and now, I was starting to wonder if these guys were actually Internal Affairs or maybe a little higher than that. Species Authority maybe?
“Well,” I said, glancing down at Judy. “Yeah…I guess the beginning sounds like a good place to start but all of this was in my deposition and we’ve already gone over all of this with Chief Bogo. I’m not sure what else we can say.”
“Let’s just say we’ve noticed some…inconsistencies in your stories.”
Judy was practically vibrating in place now. I know our stories matched and that it was likely Barksley and Ravnica were trying to drive a wedge between us for some convoluted ‘man in black’ like reason. But still…a part of me wondered; had everything happened how we remembered it? Some of it was so unbelievable that I found myself doubting it and I was the one who lived it.
Judy said first what we had both been thinking. “What do you mean ‘inconsistencies?’ I mean obviously, we’re going to word things differently, see things from two different perspectives. But between the two of us, you should be able to see the whole story…sirs,” she added a little later.
The two agents exchanged glances and I could see some silent communication happening there. A moment passed before Barksley took a sip of the awful coffee we usually have at the station and shrugged. “You have to admit, Officer Wilde, that some aspects of your reports don’t exactly inspire confidence. I mean come on.” He held up a paw, ticking off his fingers as he listed, “cannibalistic murder, ritual predatory behavior, weaponized night howler of and of course, an entire cult of predators who you say are bent on plunging the city into chaos. It reads like science fiction.”
“More like a horror novel,” I muttered. “But yeah…that’s what happened and we didn’t embellish this. If anything, we filtered out most of the gory bits. Believe me…some of what we saw is gonna be with me for a long, long time.” I reached up and tapped my head, just south of one of my ears. “They’re real…they’ve killed hundreds of animals by now and they’ll kill more.”
I glanced down at Judy who hadn’t said much since the interview started. She had that thousand yard stare, the kind of look I’ve only seen from her since this case started. In the five years since we made detective, we’ve seen some pretty awful things. Deep down, Judy is one of the most capable, brave and talented detectives I’ve seen. And yet, she’s still prey. Seeing some of her own kind torn up like they were really spooked her.
“Okay,” Barksley growled. “Let’s say for the moment Agent Ravnica and I suspect our disbelief a little,” he said, glancing at his partner. “Let’s say you’re right and all the evidence you and Officer Hopps have collected over the last year points to ritualized predatory murders. There’s still nothing to point toward a group of them. All of this could have been done by a single, although admittedly prodigious, serial killer. A predator who's gone feral.”
“Gone feral,” Judy said, shaking her head. “It's not just one animal. I think you can read between the lines and tell as much, Agent Barksley. And I can tell you…seeing what I saw…this is way beyond feral; way beyond what night howlers can do. They may have used night howlers to make themselves more wild, more capable of doing what they did, but you didn’t see them like we did. It was like…”
“Something out of a nightmare,” I finished for her.
“Okay…” Barksley said, eyeing the two of us. “Lets go over all of it, start to finish. Then we’ll decide if this urban legend is real or not.”
I sank back in my chair and Judy and I stared at each other for a long moment. She still had that haunted look; those big pretty purple eyes almost brimming over into tears. She was scared and I couldn’t blame her.. So, I started first…
I slammed my paw down on the phone a little harder than I’d meant to, yanking it up from the cradle and putting it to my ear. “Office Wilde, what do you got for me?”
I winced, hearing Chief Bogo’s flat affect coming through the phone. “Wilde…I want you and Hopps in my office, now.” And then he hung up. Because of course he did.
Before I had even settled the phone back down, Judy was giving me that wide-eyed kinda cute questioning look she gives. You know the one. “Bogo?”
“Bogo,” I confirmed, the two of us sliding out of our chairs and making for his office door. The room was alive with chatter from about half a dozen different species, all of them taking calls of one kind of another or in some cases, doing their best to look busy while doing nothing much other than downing coffee. Since the two of us had made Detective a few years back, we had gotten used to it. Now, instead of the dull roar it sounded like on our first day, it was nothing more than background noise for us both, the sound of stuff getting done. Reaching up for the knob, Judy went through first. Something about seeing Judy first disarmed some of Bogo’s worst moods. She has that effect on people. It must be her cute aura that I hear all bunnies have, although don’t tell her I said that.”
“I’m sitting right here, Nick.”
“You sure are, Carrots. Anyway…”
Bogo looked decidedly more sour than usual. Yeah, I should have known something was up then and there but, I wasn’t quite aware of how really fucked up the rest of my week was going to be.
“Wilde…Hopps. We’ve got a bit of a situation. Close the door and sit down.”
Judy shut the door and as the two of us jumped up into a couple of chairs a little too high for us, we nodded and just listened.
“Last night, Dawn Bellwether escaped from prison.”
Now, neither I or Judy had really thought about the former Assistant Mayor for years, almost half a decade now. It was something of a shock to hear Bogo even say her name. The mastermind behind the Nighthowler Maulings had been safely tucked away in Zootopia’s prison system for all that time. And now what? She had just escaped? Just like that? Judy was the first one to recover.
“Wait, she escaped?! How?”
“That is still being determined,” Bogo said, reaching up to run one of his massive fingers the length of his right horn. “We have people there now, questioning the guards and gathering evidence but so far, it's becoming apparent there’s very little in the way of evidence to be found. She was in her cell at lights out and then in the morning, she was gone. No one seems to have seen anything”
“No one? How is that even possible? What about the cameras?”
“Again…we have people looking over the recordings, Hopps. They’ll find something.”
Looking confused, I said “Uh chief…if you have this all sorted out already, why are we here? What do you need from us?”
“You know Bellwether better than anyone else when it comes to her motives and how she operates so I thought it only fitting you two be the ones to hunt down the only lead we have. A day before she went missing from her cell, Bellwether got a call from someone at this address,” he said, sliding a piece of paper across his desk.
“First I want you to go and see what the uniforms found at the prison and then, go to that address and see what you can find. After that, run down any leads you have. We need to track that sheep down before she does something awful…I don’t want to think about what will happen if she gets her grubby hands on more night howlers.”
“We’re on it, Chief,” Judy said, and hopped off of the chair and made for the door.
“Hey wait a minute, Carrots. Chief, before we go, can we get some of that new nighthowler antidote? I know we only have a little but hey, it is Bellwether.”
Bogo gave us a nod. “Good thinking, Wilde. Do it.”
Judy drove like she usually does but the two of us weren’t talking much. We were both thinking about all of the nasty possibilities. We had gotten our doses of nighthowler antidotes and had gotten in the car and drove halfway to the prison without either one of us saying a word. We were just…thinking. It was Judy that broke the silence first.
“So yeah…Bellwether,” she said, eyes trained on the road but shaking her head. “I never thought I’d have to worry about her again. How did someone like her break out of jail?”
“I know what you mean, Carrots. I guess we’ll find out when we get there.” I said, glancing in her direction. For a moment, she locked eyes with me and right then, I could see it all written plainly on her face. The wide violet eyes, the droop in her ears. The bunny was afraid. But then, so was the fox. We had dealt with all kind of criminals and so far, there wasn't one of them that could prove too much for us. But this was like the past coming back to haunt us.
“Judy, I…look we’ve danced with Bellwether before, right? This isn’t new ground for us. We’ll be fine. We just need to keep our heads in the game and keep our ears to the ground. No big deal, right?”
“Right,” she said, but I could tell by that little quiver in her voice that she wasn’t quite agreeing with me. “Nick…I’ve…had nightmares about her.”
Quirking a brow, he turned to look at her. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. Only a few here and there but they happen. Mostly, it's all about what could have happened if you weren’t such a clever fox and didn’t switch out the night howler balls for those blueberries. What if she tagged you with a real night howler…and you killed me.”
I didn’t know exactly what to say to that. So for a long time, I was just silent. Finally, I reached over and took her paw in mine. “Carrots…Judy….that’s not gonna happen. We’ve got the antidote now, remember? Besides, there’s no way she would try the same trick twice. We’ll be okay.”
“Yeah…yeah, you’re probably right,” she said, squeezing my paw before returning hers to the steering wheel. “We’ll just have to take her down one more time. Gonna shear the sheep!”
I laughed. “Love it when you talk dirty.”
Driving up to the jail was a surprise. There wasn’t any outward sign of an escape, no swarm of media and accompanying cameras or anything out of the ordinary other than a few extra guards who stopped us at the gate. Flashing our credentials, we were let through and soon found ourselves walking across the same gravel parking lot we’ve been across hundreds of times before.
In the lobby, we found the two uniforms we were looking for. Delgato and Clawhauser are the kinda guys you can rely on, good cops both.
“Hey hey, just the two cats we were looking for. What’s the story fellas?”
“Nick,” Delgato said, his mane shifting about his head as he nodded to us. “Judy. Sorry to say, we have a whole lot of nothing. We found a call in records that Bellwether got from an outside address - passed that along to Bogo. And we’re still waiting on someone to show us the camera feeds. You’re welcome to come along if you like.”
Judy beamed up at Clawhauser “Well look at you! Cutting down on the donuts?”
Clawhauser, who had lost more weight than I ever thought a cheetah could have, shuffled in his steps, giving that goofy, sheepish smile of his. “Yeah, Judy, thanks for noticing! I had to be able to run if I was gonna pass the field officer’s exam, you know?”
“Looks like you could catch up with me now!”
“No one can catch up with you, Carrots. Now stop stroking on Spot’s ego. Let's go see those cameras. Delgato, you still have some of that bug flavored gum?”
“You know it.”
The surveillance room at the prison is like just about any other I’ve ever been in; cramped, dark and smelling of stale bug burgers and badly watered down cola with a hint of burnt rubber. Don’t ask where that last one comes from. The surveillance officer who lorded over the screens in this one was a gazelle named Luther who like most surveillance people I’ve met is just oh so happy to be there.
“I’ve run this back and replayed it about two dozen times now and it still don’t make no sense,” he said, turning his head to look at me so sharply that he nearly speared Clawhauser on the tip of one of his horns. “This is the camera closest to Bellwether's cell. Note the time stamp. She goes in for the night and the cell doors shut, all on schedule. Now watch this…”
He played a recording of the corridor outside her cell. And then suddenly, the timestamp jumped nearly eight hours ahead. He played it back again and again, and it jumped ahead again.
“All the feeds are like that,” Luthor said. “Every single camera cuts out at the same time and resumes the feed eight hours later.”
Frowning, Judy stared into the screen. “Okay, that’s not normal. Luther, how can someone cut so much footage without being caught? Would they have to be on site?”
Luther threw his hands up. “If they were on site, they were a ghost. I was on duty that night and I didn’t see shit. No, it’s more likely someone hacked into the system and removed the recording off site although, that’s not very likely either. We have a top notch firewall because well, you know…prison. Anyone who can hack through that is a genius.”
Clawhauser whistled low. “So someone from the outside wanted Assist…that is, Bellwether out of jail. Can’t be good, all things considered.”
“You think that’s bad,” Delgato growled. “Wait until the media gets a hold of this. They’re gonna tear into it and send the whole city up into a panic, just like they did with that nighthowler bullshit.”
“We’ll just have to solve it before the media finds out about it,” Judy said, putting her paws on her hips. Her voice sounded like its old resolute self. At least, it probably did to our feline friends. I think I was the only one to hear the doubt.
Luther spun around in his chair, looking at all our faces highlighted in the glow from the screens. “That means we’re done here? I was supposed to be off two hours ago. Only stuck around so you badges could see what I saw. If you want to see something else, I suggest you talk to Mirabelle who's been waiting to replace me for a long-ass time now.”
“Yeah,” Delgado growled. “We’re done. Have a good one, Luther. Nick, Judy…what are you doing now? Got time to take lunch?”
“Can’t,” Judy cut in, taking the folded piece of paper with the address out of her jacket pocket. “We gotta go check out that address Bellwether’s call came from before the lead goes cold. Rain check?”
“Rain check,” Delgato confirmed. “Good luck you two.”
And with that done, we left. But we still had a lead in the address Bogo had given us. Chief Buffalo Butt wanted us to run it down so saying our goodbyes to Clawhauser and Delgato, off we went. Right into the line of fire.
“And that’s when you got into the firefight?”
I drummed my claws on the metal of the table. “Yeah, I was getting to that,” I said, drinking the lukewarm coffee that was still left in my mug. Across the table, Agent Barklsey and Ravnica were staring at us as if we were perps and this was an interrogation, not a questioning. Believe me, there is a difference.
Ravnica, crossing her legs beneath the table, looked at me with that cold, expressionless face of hers. With someone with such fluffy fur, she can look mean when she wants to.
“So,” she said, “You had no idea you were about to walk into a firefight?”
Reaching up to straighten my tie, I canted my head, looking at her with an incredulous look. “Lady, if I had known what was in that apartment, I would have called the SWAT team. I wouldn’t let me and Hopps just prance in there all bushy tailed.”
“Then why, if you didn’t know, would you have asked Bogo for the nighthowler antidote? You clearly expected trouble.”
“We always expect trouble,” Judy shot back. “Always.”
I hiked my thumb at my partner. “Yup, she’s got it. Be prepared or be sorry. That’s pretty much been our personal mottos since you know…the whole damned thing that launched our careers which, I would remind you, had to do with night howlers. So we came prepared.”
“Settle down, Bianca…” Agent Barksley said. “They are kinda famous for this shit.”
“Just because someone is some kind of celebrity doesn’t make them beyond reproach.”
Judy looked between me and our interrogators, ears perked up to their full height. “Excuse me? Beyond reproach? We aren’t the ones you should be questioning. We didn’t do anything wrong. Lethal force is more than called for if you’re being shot at and besides, no one was killed in the end.”
“Well that’s the funny part,” Barksley said, giving us a lupine sneer. “We all know what eventually happened to your mysterious gunman and of course, you two didn’t even wear body cams so in the end, we wouldn’t even have an idea of what the fucker even looked like if not for the video of the interrogation.”
“We were going to check out an address, not make an arrest,” Judy said, staring right at the wolf. “In that instance, body cams aren’t required as per Zootopia law. We didn’t go there expecting to be shot at.”
“And yet…shots were fired,” Ravnica said. “Do tell us again about that.”
“454 Sand and Silt Avenue, Sahara Square,” I read aloud as we walked up to an apartment building that overlooked one of the square’s more busy streets. A rusting old fire escape clung to the side of the building like a leech fashioned to flesh. The exterior of the building was the typical stucco you could find all over Sahara Square but it was old and starting to crumble; exposing some of the brickwork beneath. “Apartment 53. Hope the elevator still works.”
Nick whistled low. “By the look of this building, I just hope there’s electricity. Looks like I need a tetanus shot just from looking at it.”
Nick checked his holster and out of habit, so did I. “Sometimes I miss the strike plates I used to wear when I was in uniform. Going around without body armor makes me feel…I dunno, vulnerable?”
Smiling, the fox gave me a not at all professional look before he winked. “Me too…and I miss that tight little jumpsuit you used to wear with it.” He breathed deeply and let it out slowly. “Oh yeah…those were the days.”
Grinning, I said, “Head in the game, Mr. Fox.”
“Anything you say, Carrots.”
Together, we moved into the building and stepped into an elevator that looked like it could tumble down the length of the building at any moment. But trusting in fate and good old Zootopia engineering, I pressed the button for the fifth floor. From time to time, as it lifted us up, the thing would shudder ominously beneath our feet. I tried not to think about how long it had been since someone had inspected the cables now hoisting us into the air.
As the door dinged open, the two of us went out in the hallway and toward the end where the door to Apartment 53 stood. The hallway looked awful; all peeling paint and flickering lights and aside from the few mice that made their homes in the baseboards, there weren't any signs of life. Smiling, we passed them by.
It was then we noticed that the door to the apartment was open. Exchanging worried glances, we both drew our guns and snapped on our flashlights. The apartment was dark, as dark as it would have been at night, a number of blackout curtains turning the interior into an artificial gloom and blocking out all but the most tenacious rays of sunlight. As our flashlight’s cut through the dark we could see the apartment itself was trashed. Makeshift furniture covered in bug burger and candy wrappers, old soda cans and dirty laundry was everywhere. And like any apartment in Sahara Square, it was hot and uncomfortably dry. I suddenly felt way too warm in my own fur.
Nudging me, Nick motioned with the muzzle of his gun to a sliver of light coming from beneath a door. A bathroom maybe? Training our weapons on the door, I called out.
“Zootopia Police Department. We’d like to ask you a few questions.”
There was a long pause as the shadow beneath the door moved ever so slightly. Then the door and part of the wall surrounding it exploded outward, showering us with splinters wood and drywall. Then out stepped the largest boar I had ever seen. And he had a shotgun!
I dove to the right and upturned a table for cover while Nick went left, falling behind the counter of a small kitchenette. Panicked and near deaf from the blast, I shrieked “Cheese and crackers!” only to be answered with Nick’s distant-sounding “Fuck!”
“Fucking pigs! Get out of my apartment!”
The irony of that statement didn’t escape me but hey, there’s no time for quips while you’re being shot at. Three more shotgun blasts chewed holes out of the furniture and the walls behind us as Nick and I stayed in cover, bits and pieces of wood falling down around us.
“Nick! Call for backup!”
“Already doing it! Dispatch, Detectives Wilde and Hopps…”
Another blast drowned out Nick’s voice and for a moment, I really wished I didn’t have such good hearing. Lowering my ears against the sound, I popped up and fired three quick shots but missed. I barely lowered my head again before the boar peppered the surface of the table I was behind with a shot.
“You like that, pigs, huh!?
“Now he’s just doing it on purpose,” I said, rolling my eyes. I leaned up, shot two more times and hit nothing but the wall the boar was hiding behind.
“Let’s see how you like this, assholes!”
There was a metallic clank as something the size of a can of carrots hit the floor and rolled to a stop against the leg of a kitchen stool. I nearly leapt out of my fur, thinking it was a grenade. But then the release popped and out poured a plume of purple and blue smoke. My first thought was that he was using smoke to make his escape. But then the smell hit me and my heart nearly leapt out of my chest. Nighthowler mist!
“Nick, the antidote!”
“Yup!” He rolled one vial across the floor to me right before stabbing his own thigh with his own syringe. I was just starting to feel a little overly aggressive when I gave myself the shot. It was only later that I would realize how deep the needle had gone. Good thing I hadn’t hit anything vital.
The door, or what remained of it, slammed shut with the boar behind it. As the dust and debris began to clear, Nick and I looked at each other in the odd, sudden silence. The howler mist was still clearing when he shook his head and whispered,
“I think he expected me to start eating you now…thinking what I’m thinking?”
I slipped my gun into its holster and nodded. Nick quietly got up and rounded about the kitchenette, slipping up close to the door through which the boar came. For my part, well…I’m not all that good of an actress. But I can sound like an animal in distress when I need to. I fell to the floor and started making horrible noises, screaming, crying and choking. And then, after a minute or two, I went silent.
When the boar came to see the aftermath of a crazed predator killing his bunny partner, Nick punched him straight across his nose, smashing that pig nose of his even flatter. The boar dropped to the floor, drooling as Nick pumped the shotgun three more times until all of the shells were out.
“Not bad for a dumb bunny,” Nick said, giving me a lopsided grin.
“I was thinking it wasn’t bad for a clever fox.”
“Backup is on its way…” Nick said, giving a baleful look around at all the mess. “This is going to be a ton of paperwork.”
Both Barksley and Ravnica just stared at us. It was the wolf that finally said, “Look, we know you two are a couple, as fucking weird as that is. But are you telling me you were flirting right after surviving a shootout?”
Nick raised a brow, “I’m sorry, is that not the time for it?”
“So you’re telling us nothing we don’t already know,” Ravnica said, giving her partner the side-eye, “We know that your backup arrived and that the boar was taken into custody and we have the recording of your interrogation with him. Then he simply disappears right out from under your noses. Interesting how that happens.”
“Almost as interesting as the former Assistant Mayor disappearing while in prison,” Judy countered, leaning forward over the table. “If you saw our interview, you know what he said and if you know that, you know every bit as we did up to that point.”
“Yeah, we saw it. Saw you do a piss-poor job of it,” Barksley growled.
“I’m sorry, is this an interview or an opportunity for you to insult us through official channels? Do you want to hear our story or not?”
“I’m all ears, Officer Hopps. Please continue,” The wolf said, giving a lopsided and decidedly predatory grin.
There was about three hours of paperwork before we ever got him into one of the interview rooms. By that time, it was well past noon and both Judy and I had skipped lunch. You’d be surprised how hungry surviving attempted murder can make you. So when we came into the interview, we brought lunch with us.
The boar gave us the stink eye from the one eye that I hadn’t blacked and sat there with his arms crossed as Judy cracked open the plastic tub of her salad and I unwrapped a very noisy-sounding bug burger. I took my time slurping up some soda from a bendy straw - I had learned just how annoying that could be from Clawhauser. For a few minutes, we ate in silence across from the boar until, as with an unseen signal that the two of us had developed over years of partnership, Judy spoke first. Looks like I was gonna be the bad cop this time around.
“Jonathan Tusker…that is you, right? At least that’s what your ID says. Aged twenty-four, brown eyes and species, Common Wild Boar.”
The boar crooked his muzzle. “Ain’t nothing common about me, cotton tail. But yeah, that’s me and that’s about all you're getting from me, pigs.”
Nick squinted at him. “You really just don’t understand the idea of irony, do you?”
He shrugged. “I know you aren’t interested in me. You’re interested in Bellwether. I just so happened to have been on the road you’re already driving.”
“We are,” Judy confirmed. “You want to tell us why you called her hours before she disappeared from her cell? If you give us something, we might be able to drop all charges other than the attempted murder. Breaking into a prison’s security systems is a pretty serious crime and could add decades onto a sentence if you’re convicted. Tell us what you said to Bellwether and we’ll try to make them disappear. No promises, though.”
“You see John,” Nick said. “Can I call you John? We are going to find out everything you’ve been doing for Bellwether. We’ve got your hard drives. We’ve got our tech’s creeping and crawling around your personal cyberspace and they will find out what you’re about. You can make it easy on yourself and tell us what you know now or don’t. It doesn’t matter. Either way, we’ll know sooner or later. And if you cooperate well who knows? Maybe my kind-hearted little bunny partner will make good on her promise.”
The boar leaned back in his chair, the metal creaking under his bulk. “Nah.”
“No? Just like that?”
“Nah,” he said, shaking his head. “Even if you ain’t lying to me, you’ll never let me out of here once you find what’s on my computers. If only I’d aimed that shot gun at my PC. Then you’d have nothing on me but that stupid phone call.”
Judy and I exchanged glances. “Just what is it that you expect us to find on your computers?” I asked.
The boar looked down at the table. “Fuck it. If I’m going down, that sheep is gonna go down with me. I called her, yeah, that you already know. But I called her on behalf of someone else, someone who didn’t want get his paws dirty. He called me out of the blue about two weeks ago; said he had found me on a short list of hackers that had done work for uh…people in the past. Whoever it really was, I never knew, but he called himself The Crawler. He asked me to make it so some camera feeds from the jail disappeared for eight hours. I didn’t even know it had anything to do with that crazy-ass sheep until I woke up today and found out.”
“Wait,” Judy said. “So it was you that deleted the camera footage of her cell? That still doesn’t explain how she escaped, though.”
“Like I said, I didn’t have nothing to do with the escape, just getting rid of the footage. I didn’t even know that it had anything to do with her escaping until I heard about it over the net. When you got to my place, I was fixing to get out of town. You scared me so you know…shotgun.”
I bit into my burger and through a mouthful of meat, I said, “So how did you find out about the escape then? Our chief only found out about it this morning.”
“I’m a hacker. Not like that bullshit you see on TV, I mean a real one. I keep my eyes on shit.”
I could hear Judy patting her foot on the floor before she said, “And the howler mist?” Where did you get that, if you aren’t working directly with Bellwether.?”
“Cotton tail, how do you not know this? I thought you two were supposed to be detectives. Ever since that shit became common knowledge, every predator seekin’ a cheap thrill is after it. There are labs popping up all over the city just so people can feel the high of feeling feral for an hour or two. People take it recreationally now. Me? I thought it might be handy to have in case you know…things.”
“So,” I asked again. “What do you expect us to find on your computer?”
That was all Tusker had to say to us. After he said what he said, he was finished and neither me or Judy could get him to open up again. That was fine with me. Like I had told him, we had our ways to finding out for ourselves what was in his digital playground. Our cybercrimes division isn’t large and is situated in the basement of the department with the records room just down the hall. We don’t really have officers assigned to cybercrimes, only civilians. Judy and I went down there, looking to sniff out what we hadn’t found from the boar.
Tabitha Patterfoot is our tech expert at the department. While she’s not exactly a member of the department itself, she’s what’s called a civilian contractor and she may very well be my sister from another mother! Tabitha’s paws flew over the keyboard, typing in a few more lines of code that looked like nothing more than nonsense to me and swiveled her chair to face Nick and me.
Tabitha was a little younger than me, but not by much, and had a sense of style that I both envied and wished I could afford. Sadly, a cop’s salary wasn’t anything compared to what she could afford. Tech paid, apparently. She had spots of gray over an otherwise white coat and was careful never to wear anything that would clash with her pelt. That day, she wore her lop ears back, a line of silver studs piercing through the right one. Her glasses made her look almost as smart as she really was.
“You aren’t gonna like this,” said in a sing-song voice. “Mr. Tusker’s hard drive was maybe the most ugly place I’ve ever had the displeasure of dipping my digital digits. Almost as bad as his apartment from the photos the crime scene guys took.”
“Maybe, but you didn’t have to smell that stink,” Nick said. “I was way worse in person, believe me. Why Tabby, you smell absolutely delicious by comparison.”
Tabitha shot a look up at Nick and smiled. “Careful, predator…I’ll bite back.”
Rolling my eyes, I said, “Would the two of you stop flirting for just a second? We need to know what’s on that PC Tabitha. This Tusker guy is horrible and I have to admit, I’m curious as to what is on there.”
“Oh, I don’t think you want to know,” She said, giving a protracted sigh. “He’s committed every cyber crime I think there’s a law for. He’s helped people alter camera feeds, siphon money off of bank accounts - only a few cents at a time so no one notices - and altered and falsified records for a lot of animals. It would take years to go through it all. He’s also worked with Ricky the Snake, Bobby Runner and Mr. Big to name a few. But that’s not even the worst of it.”
I felt my brows raise. “That’s not the worst of it? Then what is?”
“Cub porn,” she said, looking a little sick. “I only saw enough of it to know what it was. I’m not going through all of that, your people are used to see that; they can go through it. I don’t want bad dreams.”
“Shit,” Nick said, looking a little sick. “Anything in there that will give us another lead to follow? Anything about Bellwether or whoever hired him to alter the camera feeds?”
“No,” She said, giving a helpless little shrug. “I wish there was but it looks like he was telling the truth about that at least. He probably had no idea who it was that really hired him.”
“But whoever did wanted Bellwether out in the open,” I added. “But why?”
Nick shook his head. “Bogo’s not gonna like that we came up empty. Tabitha, are you coming over tonight? We’d love to have you for dinner…that is, have you over for dinner.”
Tabitha reached up to straighten her glasses and bit down on her lip with her two upper teeth. “Can’t, I have a real date tonight with a real single guy for once. Hanging out with the two of you so often makes people think we’re all in it together which in turn makes my dating life kind of well…nonexistent. They see you two and well…”
“You mean they see a fox,” Nick said, looking sheepish. “Yeah, we get it.“
It was like all the air got sucked out of the room, all at once. “Well…yeah, Nick, I’m sorry. You know I don’t feel like that about you but most bunny bucks, they see a fox and they just…don’t want to be around you. It's in genes, you know?”
“I’m gonna get some coffee,” and Nick went out the door.
“Fuck, I’m just a stupid bunny,” Tabitha said, slipping her glasses off and rubbing at her temples. “Do you think he’ll ever forgive me for that?”
I took my best friend in my arms and gave her a great big hug! “Of course, Tabitha! He forgave me, didn’t he? At least your foot-in-mouth moment wasn’t during a press conference where the whole of Zootopia could see it. He understands how animals still see foxes. Besides,” I said, giving her a wide-eyed smile. “I think he likes you.”
Tabitha giggled. “I think he just likes bunnies. Dirty fox. Look Judy…if I can do anything to help your case, you just ask okay? I don’t have a new lead for you yet, but I’ll keep looking.”
“Thanks Tabitha. See you soon.”
Both Ravnica and Barksley were staring at me again.
“Got a thing for bunnies in general, do you?” the wolf asked, quirking a brow.
“No…just two of them,” I said, glancing down at Judy. “Now can we get back on topic, please?”
“Sure,” Ravnica said, sitting on the edge of the table so that plush tail of hers curled up near the floor. “You can tell us how Mr. Tusker disappeared.”
“Yeah,” I said, folding my arms across my chest. “Like we said, you know that part already and you know what happened to him. ‘Disappeared’ isn’t exactly the word I would use. More like murdered.”
“Yes,” Ravnica intoned. “And it happened in the middle of the Zootopia PD and with absolutely no witnesses. I’m starting to see a pattern here, Detectives, even if you are not. Mr. Tusker was killed in the middle of the night, while in a secure holding cell and without any witnesses; the camera feed altered so that no one saw anything. What’s more, according to the coroners, he was killed by a predator who used their bare claws. Quite savage if I say so myself.”
I eyed her. “What’s your point?”
She shakes her head, “Just reiterating the facts. What did the two of you do that night? I take it Miss Patterfoot didn’t join you for dinner?”
“No, she didn’t,” I said, glancing at Judy who, for her part, was looking decidedly more and more uncomfortable. “We went home and went to bed. The plan was to see Tabitha in the morning to see if she had found anything else on Tusker’s PC and then work from there.”
Barksley nodded. “That’s it? You just went to bed?”
“Yeah and well…we had sex,” Judy said, trying to make it sound casual.
The wolf nodded, leaning back. “Tell us about that then.”
Judy recoiled. “What? No! That’s none of your or anyone else's business!”
“Officer Hopps,” Ravnica said, something of a purr lacing her voice. “We need to know everything that led up to the events in question. Everything. If that makes you uncomfortable then I am sorry but for the record, we must know. You could refuse, of course. But that refusal will be noted on the file.”
Judy stiffened in her chair. “Well…I guess I could give you most of it. Without going into too much detail.”
I flipped on the lights as soon as we came in the apartment door and Nick shut it behind us. The need was there even before we had left work. We’d had a hard, long day and like so many times before, we both needed a release. Glancing up at him, I saw it there in his eyes too; that hungry look he gives me sometimes, the kind of look that makes me wonder if he wants to eat me or fuck me. Maybe both. It started calm at first, both of us slipping out of our jackets and hanging them up.
I reached up to take his paw and together, we walked to the couch. Our couch is soft, cushioned and perfect for when we just can’t seem to reach the bedroom. I bounced down onto the couch as he leaned over, that adorable snoot of his started raining light little kisses all along my cheeks and neck. I like that, his teeth being so close to my fur; like a lingering threat or maybe a promise. His breath was hot and eager; not so much a panting but getting close. He told me once that everyone has a unique scent that foxes remember them all. Bunnies don’t have that kind of keen smell.
As he kissed me, I reached up to unwind his tie, pulling it off and letting it slither down to the floor. My shirt came next and then his. I don’t wear a bra, bunnies are too small in that department. But I left my panties on. I know he likes to take them off.
Sitting there in nothing but my fur and a pair of lacy cheekies, I shucked his pants and underwear down, letting him step out of them before I took him by the sheath. It takes both my paws to wrap around it but they manage. I let my ears droop and looked up at him with my best cute bunny charm. I could feel him getting hotter, harder as I took him into my mouth, my tongue careening all across his expanse of sensitive places, running beneath his sheath and along the hardening length of his cock.
The sounds he makes make me smile around his girth, his ears pinning back in that tell-tale sign of pleasure that you only get from felines and foxes.
“Careful bunny. I’m all pent up tonight. Keep going like that and I’m liable to pop off too early.”
I take him out of my muzzle just long enough to say, “So? If you did, I’d just make it hard again.”
I work on him for a while, listening to all the little noises he makes and until he’s so hard that I think it might hurt me to put it inside. Then I lean back, looking up at him a giving him a sly little smile.
It doesn’t take him long to take the hint. He bends at the waist, his claws slipping beneath the elastic of my panties as he gently tugs them down my thighs and legs, tossing them to the floor somewhere behind him. He kneels down on the floor like he’s going to worship me and I spread my legs to invite him in.
His tongue coaxes a soft moan out of me and I can feel myself blushing beneath my fur. My paws explore my own body as he pleasures me, that prickly rough tongue of his flickering again and again over my sweet little bunny cunny. His paws are all over me, chasing my own across an expanse of warm gray fur and feeling all my curves just for good measure. I may not have much in the way of tits, but I have curves in all the right places.
When I’m sopping wet and close to release, he stops and I whine. I want more but the best is yet to come. We shift on the couch and he settles between my legs. The size of him is intimidating, at least at first. But when he pushes into me, I feel so perfectly at home with him. He belongs inside me and when he is, I can’t help but feel so perfectly female. My arms wrap around his neck and we kiss again as he starts to thrust deeper; deeper just as suddenly as we began, I cum hard around his cock, my entire frame shaking and shivering with the pleasure coursing through me.
He grins down at me, a little surprised. “Already? You’re a needy bunny tonight.”
I bury my face in the fur at his chest, clinging onto him for dear life was he fucks me deep. “Was pent up too…” I say, my voice is a little higher than normal. “Keep going! Harder, please!”
And oh, he does. At first, being with him was painful. The difference in our size, well, that’s to be expected. But he was patient with me and I was curious enough so that now, we fit so well together that it's hardly worth mentioning that we’re a different species. I climax again before we’re finished. In the end, there isn’t any question about where he’ll finish. I like to see his face when he fills me. There’s a bloom of warmth deep inside me as he pumps that fox seed of his into me. Even before our shared pleasure starts to fade into a warm afterglow, I feel his knot start to swell inside.
He leans down to kiss me and I smile up at him, a pleased little grin crossing my lips. “Looks like we’re stuck for a while, Mr. Fox. You want to carry me to bed?”
“What? No seconds?”
I can’t help but laugh. “I love you.”
And he says it back.