Detective Fangmyer entered the room with a takeaway coffee in hand and glanced at Detective Rhinowhitz organising some files.

“Everything okay?” She asked.

“Yes. I’ve got the files organised for the squad.” Rhinowhitz put a stack of files on his desk. “Looks like we will be joined by Wilde and Hopps in our enquires.”

“Oh. Really?” Fangmyer pulled up a chair. “I mean they’ve been beat cops for a while. Do you really think they’re up to this?”

“I think so. I would not have requested them unless I thought they were.”

Fangmyer paused.

“I… don’t like the idea.” She murmured. “I mean, we were working the Nighthowler case for months before Bogo extended it to the rest of the precinct. They just managed put the final pieces together.”

Rhinowhitz shrugged. “There’s an old story about a prospector that dug in the same mine for years and didn’t find anything.”

Rhinowhitz sighed. “Then some amateur starts some digging in the prospectors mine and hits gold. That’s life sometimes.”

“I still don’t like the idea.” Fangmyer sniffed

“I’m glad they did solve it. Otherwise, the city would be a different place right now”

“What? So we can have foxes and rabbits running the show now?”

Rhinowhitz gave the tiger a serious look.

“I mean…” Fangmyer reiterated. “They’ve only been on the force for a few months now, so they might not have the right experience for this squad.”

Fangmyer frowned.

“and from what I know that Fox has experience in a lot of other areas already…” she added

“I know that Wilde’s got a less then reputable background. Nevertheless, his work as an officer these past few months can testify that he’ll be able to work this case objectively and effectively.”

“How can you be sure?” Fangmyer murmered “Can a leopard change its spots?”

“You weren’t there when we caught up with them after they just got away from a savage jaguar…” Rhinowhitz countered in a low voice.
“I have never seen Bogo speechless before and that fox was the first mammal I’ve seen with the guts to do it.”

The tigress frowned “He talked down the chief?”

“The chief was about to have Judy Hopps hand in her badge, we just all assumed that it was inevitable that she would be handing that badge in and it was only…natural.”

Rhinowhitz stroked his chin.

“Wilde could have walked away, apparently Judy and twisted his arm to help her with the case, but he told the chief that he was actually was setting her up to fail with the meagre equipment and no resources. ”

Rhinowhitz leaned on his desk.

“That just smashed the distorted lens I didn’t realise I was wearing. I’d never seen a mammal stand up for another like that.” Rhinowhitz turned. “You know the rest of the story. Nick gained the respect of a lot of mammals in the ZPD in that moment.”

Fangmyer was silent.

“With that kind of mindset, we will do well to have them work with us.”

****************************************************

Judy was smiling.

She and Nick had been reassigned from street duty by Chief Bogo.

They were now part of a squad investigating a case under two other detectives.

It was certainly something more interesting than the standard shifts patrolling the streets, but the work hours could be longer.

After she spruced herself up and put her training equipment in her locker, she made her way down the hallway detouring from her normal route to the bullpen for an office on the second level.

She approached the elevator and reached for the button, just about going on the tips of her toes to hit the “up” button on the lift.

“I think they need to start thinking about redesigning this place for smaller mammals” said a familiar voice behind her. “After all, there’s about… thirty rabbits that have applied for the academy this year. They’ll need to work here too”

Judy turned to a red fox with a small smirk on his face.

“I didn’t see you at the training ring this morning…” Judy murmured as they entered the opening doors of the elevator.

“Oh, I was busy. Besides, I like this snout just the way it is, thanks.” He rubbed his nose

“So, what were you doing?

“In the cafeteria, eating French Toast.”

Judy glanced at her watch.

“It’s just about oh eight hundred! You were in the cafeteria all morning?!”

“Not by myself, there was Snarlov and Francine, they wanted to trade notes on a couple of cases they were working on.”

“Oh… Sorry Nick.”

“Tsk Tsk… What have we learnt about jumping to conclusions?”

Judy rolled her eyes.

Nick looked up at the passing numbers on the top of the doors.

“three… three… three… fourteen. We’re here.”

Judy knocked on the door.

The door opened and Rhinowhitz extended his hoof to two chairs in front of a whiteboard.

Seems like we’re back at school Nick thought.

“Good Morning! I hope that this new routine won’t inconvenience you.” Rhinowhitz said

“Not at all! I’ve been meaning to try the coffee in the cafeteria for a while now.” Nick smiled

“I’m glad to be here!” Judy exclaimed. “What’s the situation?”

“Well we got a bit to cover this morning, so I suggest you get comfortable first…” Fangmyer said turning around by the window.

The two officers clambered up to their seats as the Rhino moved to the whiteboard

Rhinowitz pegged several photos on the board.

“Over the past few weeks, there has been an interesting number of Jewellery thefts throughout the city.”

If Judy’s ears were drooping down they were fully attentive.

“There has been amethyst stolen from a jewellers in Smith Street and a topaz crystal taken from the college of geology and a Diamond taken from a home in Lupinesford.”

Rhinowhitz paused.

“but the real deal comes from a Ruby taken from the Natural history museum. One of a kind Hathee’s Ruby.”

“So… someone might be on a jewel heist spree across the city.”

Rhinowhitz nodded.

“There’s no indication of forced entry, no unfamiliar prints nor broken locks or evidence of picking. The Hathee amythest was stolen soon after a power failure at the museum. ”

Nick scratched his chin and looked at the map on the wall. All the thefts took place within Downtown Zootopia, with one theft happening in the adjoining Ficus Grove.

“There’s been a few traffickers in the past with blackmarket jewellery within the CBD…” he mused “but a Hathee’s amythest would be something pretty hard to sell off without word creeping down the grapevine.”

“It seems like the gemstones need to be a certain size or quality…” Judy added “Any kind of jewellery that shows up with that kind of quality will need to come into question if any of these gemstones have been cut up for sale.”

“We’ve given a description to the pawn shops in the city as well as the media team to monitor online shopping websites,” Fangmyer said. “ We’ll see if they turn up anything.”

“It could be a private seller, a collector, or… maybe somemammals getting a kick out of lifting rare and exotic gemstones.” Nick murmured.

“Perhaps we could see about the main robbery, the Hathees Gem and see if anyone has any special interest in that artefact.” Rhinowhitz murmured.

“I guess the real problem is that whoever’s robbing these places is so well organised”

“Well, the museum could be a place to make some enquires about the Hathee’s amythest. Maybe we can get a few questions done?”

“Worth a shot!” Nick shrugged.

This time Nick was driving the cruiser. The two cops moved down through the afternoon traffic as it passed to late morning.

“Small mammals can pull off thefts all the time, but they still leave a scent behind them or if they mask it, it can be pretty oblivious what kind of animal was walking around there with little fur samples”. Judy murmured

“The doors were left unlocked… the window wasn’t closed properly. There are a few possibilities.” Nick added.

“Wingardum Leviosa!” She chuckled.

“What?” Nick said

“You know. Harry Spotter?”

“Oh… Okay.” Nick murmured “Might’ve used a wand.”

Nick glanced up the road.

“I think using magic in a story kind of takes away creativity in solving a problem.”

Judy frowned.

“I mean hey we’re stuck and a giant squid’s about to get us! Poof! We magically got a sword and shield.” Nick murmured

“Well, that’s the difference between good quality fantasy and poor fantasy!” Judy countered. “There’s responsibility for using magic just like it was another skill or applying it to ensure that mammals are safe.”

Judy smiled “It allows you to appreciate mammals who are different and they have such power when they work together.”

“I lost interest when the talking hat showed up…” Nick murmured.

“What? That’s my favourite part! It’s the crossroads where Harry has to choose use his skills for personal gain or for his friends!”

“Having that much power over something can really affect you though. Who can say what’s right or wrong?”

“There are rules in place…”

“Rules are there to be broken, Carrots…” Nick murmered.

The museum had certainly improved since their last visit. There were several new exhibits for the Florescence Era. There was a clay slab that dictated the first set of laws that were written down in Zootopian history.

The officers could see a few visitors filing their way out to the exit. They made their way to the directors office. Judy knocked on the door. There was no answer.

It seemed rather weird that they would return there. The repairs were complete and there were mammals milling to and fro.

A Ram and his son recognised the two cops and told them "to keep up the good work".

Others just kept minding their own business.

I guess fame is fleeting Nick thought.

There was a table behind a desk packed with various items. They could make out a rabbit tail and hindquarters standing on a chair with his head between the items. The rabbit seemed to be searching for something.

“Excuse me!” Judy exclaimed.

“Sorry! One sec!” The rabbit replied. Several items on the desk shuffled around as the rabbit wiggled out of the collection to stand up on the chair.

He turned to face them.

“Oh…Wow! You’re… here…”

The rabbit coughed and quickly brushed his nose with his paws and rubbed them together before hopping off the chair to greet them.

“It’s an honour to meet you… both of you!” The rabbit smiled. “It’s just so great about how you got rid of Bellwhether. I knew that ewe was trouble the moment she took Lionhearts place.”

Nick gave the rabbit a bemused look

Judy opened her mouth to say something

“Daniel Warren!” The rabbit exclaimed. “I’m one of the curators here. I guess you’re here about the ruby!”

“That’s it…” Nick answered.

“I can show you the room. It hasn’t been touched as the officers have said and I can answer any questions you might have.” Daniel smiled.

Maybe we could start asking some

“Sounds like a plan!” Judy said.

“Yeah, my job is to categories the new museum acquisitions. What to go into the archives and what needs to be refurbished.”

“Yeah” Judy answered “ I can see you have an old milk churn there. My father has one of those in the barn. My grandfather used to have cows as neighbours.”

“Ah! Here’s an artifact!” Nick smiled.

He held up a blue object in his hand.

“A flip phone. I haven’t seen one of these in ages…”

“Uh…That’s mine.” Daniel answered. “I was looking for that..”

Nick quietly handed the rabbit his phone.

Judy have Nick a look.

Nick shrugged

I wasn’t going to say anything

“The ruby was kept in a private collection among some of the more… valuable items kept in this museum”

They were definitely after it specifically as nothing else in the archive was touched.

Daniel directed them down the hallways past a snow leopard security guard. Daniel pulled out is pass card and the security guard lead the three of them to a large steel door.

The officer put gloves on and typed in the code on the panel near the door.

The vault was a small room with items arranged sealed in plastic or in crates.

Daniel indicated to a vacant cabinet opposite a large chariot.

“It was shut when we came in.” Daniel said

“Who was on duty that night?” Nick asked

“Henry Sumerson”

“Can we have a chat to him?”

“He’s currently in a meeting with the directors about the incident. He should be finished soon.”

“Have you sent the security footage to the ZPD?”

“Most of the stuff is static during the blackout.”

“Perhaps we could have a look for ourselves if we could pick up anything.

Nick glanced at the black and white footage of the cameras.

Why does everything in a museum have to be ancient?

“..and then, poof there it goes…”

Static filled the screens.

“Well, play it again Daniel and let’s see if we pick anything out of the ordinary.”

There were a few mammals wondering in the hallways around the entrance to the archives that day.

A squirrel kit got lost and was directed to the foyer. There were two pigs holding a map arguing with each other.

Judy’s ears perked up at the heavy footfalls behind her. The Leopard security guard was approaching the desk.

“This was just before the robbery right?” Judy asked

Daniel nodded.

A stallion with a camera around his neck walked past the hall.

“Wait…” The snow leopard security guard behind them moved forward and looked at the screen.

“That horse there… he looks familiar…”

“Play it again Daniel!” Nick said

The rabbit rewound the footage and they saw a light brown stallion in a black jacket walk on by.

“I remember seeing that horse the other day in front of a statue of Olemus…” The guard murmured.

“What was he doing?”

“He was pretty fixated by the statue. I wonder if he was casing it for something.”

Judy looked at the footage again.

“Are you sure it’s him?”

“Each paint horse always has a unique pattern of his coat. That’s him definitely.”

The interview with Henry was basically the same information. The hippo was very disgruntled about the incident.

The two officers made some notes and made their way to the cruiser.

“Did you pack lunch today, Carrots?” Nick asked

“You mean me. Or are you asking did I pack carrots?” Judy answered

“Probably both…”

Nick drove the cruiser back to the station.

The two of them headed to the squad room.

The door was partly open and Nick pushed the door open.

Rhinowhitz and Fangmyer were already present and discussing something over a desk.

The two of them stopped their conversation and turned to them.

“We ran a few security checks with some of the surveillance companies that were used at the crime scene. We went down to IT and they ran a few checks on online marketing website and nothing seems to have come up now.” Rhinowhitz said

“We think we may have a suspect.” Judy murmured.

The other detectives looked at the picture on her phone.

“We have no idea who this horse is” she continued “but we think he might be a part of this heist.”

*********************************

It was 4pm and Judy had just about had enough. They tried to make some progress with some of the files, but after some more enquires with the other crimes scenes. There were no other leads other than that horse at the museum.

Judy wrapped up her progress notes on her computer and turned to go home.

They had a lead and it didn’t pan out. She moved to the park in front of the station. She could make out the last of the suns ray’s disappearing between the high spires of the skyscrapers.

She sat down on one of the benches near the fountain. Why was she feeling so down?

All her ideas and all her other suggestions that afternoon had been turned down and

She had put her effort into this case and there was nothing more she could give.

“Not a bad time to come out and enjoy the evening eh?”

Judy’s thoughts were interrupted by a ram moving up the path, a cane in hand.

“Yes, it is beautiful…” Judy agreed

“Phew, I’ve been trying to get to eight thousand steps per day. It’s not that easy!”

Judy let out a small huff.

“Mines the opposite, I think I do too much walking for my job. My feet could use a spa right now.”

It felt good talking to someone that wasn’t trying to meet a deadline.

“What’s you’re line of work are you in?” the ram asked.

Judy frowned. Probably couldn’t see the uniform in the fading light.

“I’m a police officer.”

“Ah right! Well, I assure you I won’t loiter around here for long!” the ram chuckled

Judy smiled.

“I really give you credit to take that kind of work.” The ram continued. “It takes a special kind of individual to put in so much for all the flak you take and not receiving any special commendation back for it.”

Judy shrugged. “Well, I’ve been on the force for almost a year now. Some day’s have action, others are just putting cases in the right folder.”

The ram frowned for a moment in thought. Judy was about to say something when he spoke again.

“You know your voice sounds familiar? Were you on TV a while back?”

Judy swallowed. “Uh…”

Then she remembered the long cane by the rams side.

His eyes lit up in recollection.

“You’re that rabbit aren’t you?”

“Yes…” Judy frowned “you can’t…”

“…See?” the ram finished. “No. I can’t.”

“Oh. I…”

“No need to apologise. I’ll admit it’s annoying sometimes.”

Judy scratched the back of her neck she wasn’t sure what to say next.

“How long have you been blind?”

“Oh. It started just after my twenties. I was a pretty good baseball player in my youth.”

“So, what are you now?”

“They saw me losing my eyesight. So, they made me an umpire!”

Judy burst out laughing. The ram laughed a bit at his own joke.

“Sometimes life chucks you a wretch, but you make the most of it.”

Judy felt a little embarrassed. After all she’d been through, things had turned out pretty well.

She made her goal.

Helped make life better for a lot of animals in this city.

A little stonewalling for one case didn’t seem all that big a deal in that light.

“After all you said on TV, you must feel pretty proud of yourself.”

Judy stiffened.

“We can all make the world a better place, just passing on a bit of kindness. Trying to understand one another.” The ram answered.

Judy relaxed.

“Yeah we…” Judy trailed off. “…all make mistakes.” she finished.

“And we learn from them.” The ram added.

“So what kind of work are you in now?” Judy asked.

“I’ve found that I’m pretty good at listening to mammals so…”

“Sorry.” Judy interrupted. She felt her phone vibrating in her pocket and flicked it out.

There were several miscalls from Nick.

She flicked answer on her phone.

“Nick?”

“No, it’s a fruit bat in lederhosen. Where are you?!”

“In the park out front…”

“You up for a drive? We might have found someone, who saw someone who said that he might know something aaaand it might be important.”

“Okay…”

She looked up at the ram.

“Gotta go!”

“No worries, duty calls…” the ram shrugged.

He heard the light footfalls fade away up the path.

“Young folk these days…”

Nick was once again in the drivers seat and on the quiet streets of Hyenahurst.

“Don’t you think that this is a little bit suspicious?” Judy said. “A call in the darker hours on a tip for one of our jewellery stores?”

“I don’t know about you, but I was getting a bit tired of sitting on my tail.”

Judy looked out on the faded streets. Mostly streetlights shone out on against the older buildings.

There were hardly any cars on the road.

“HEY WAIT NICK STOP!”

The fox slammed the breaks and followed his partners direction.

“What?!”

“There’s a tiger cub standing alone on the sidewalk there!”

Nicks shoulders relaxed.

Little bleeding heart. By the tone of your voice I thought somemammal was getting strangled…

He pulled the cruiser into park and the two officers jumped out.

The cub was still standing there under a streetlight at the corner of one of the alleys.

“Excuse me…” Judy cried.

The cub turned but otherwise said nothing.

There was a look of uneasiness in it’s eyes.

“Are you lost?” Judy asked.

The cub shook it’s head.

“No.” she said “I was told to wait here…”

“Who by?” Nick asked. “Who would ask you to wait here after lights out?”

“I’m safe don’t worry.”

The assurance in her voice made Judy stop for a second.

The cub raised it’s paw and stroked a small golden flower stuck in the top pocket of her tattered shirt.

“Do you know where you live?” Nick pressed.

The cub nodded.

“I need to wait here to give him something.” The cub answered

“Give who, what?”

The cub raised her other paw that had been clenched in a fist and opened her fingers slightly.

The gem sparkled in the street light and Nick made out a shade of green.

“How’d you get that?”

“Um… I…”

She looked at Judy. Judy held her gaze and said nothing.

“Somemammal gave it to me…”the cub finished

“Can you tell us who this mammal was?” Judy asked gently

Once again silence.

“What’s your name?” Nick asked

“Lila…”

“Alright Lila. You’re going to have to come with us…”

“No. She is not.”

The two cops and the cub looked up the street and saw a horse in a green hooded jumper approaching.

Judy’s eyebrows shot up. The horse from the museum.

“Are you aware that there’s been a number of Jewellery robberies throughout the city?”

The stallion seemed amused by the question. “Is that so?”

“So if your little friend here has a whoopin’ huge emerald in her hand, it causes us cops to ask questions…” Nick added

The stallion approached Lila and placed a hoof on her head.

“I do not see any law enforcement here… I see two misguided mammals alone at night.” He mused

Judy felt the tips of her ears get very hot.

Her paw reached for her dart gun.

“Well, proceed then. Place me in irons.” The stallion smiled nastily

Judy pressed her lips into a hard line

“Sir. You are under arrest.” Judy said firmly.

The stallion remained unfazed. Lila looked at the officers and then to the stallion again.

“Move it!” Judy raised her dart gun.

The stallion held her gaze.

Judy squeezed the trigger. Nick picked up the radio off his chest and spoke into it.

The fired dart appeared a few inches from the stallions chest. It stayed in mid-air for a split second, then fell and rolled around on the pavement.

Judy’s jaw dropped and Nick raised his head with a confused look.

A blinding burst of light caused the two of them to cover their eyes.

Nick tried to blink the red and blue colours away to see that apart from Judy they were alone on the sidewalk.

The two cops looked left, right then up the street and down the street.

They looked at each other.

“That…” Judy gasped.

Nick shook his head with a frown.

“That’s just… not fair…”

************************************************

Lila gasped as she found herself in a dimly lit warehouse with a panting stallion on the group.

“Are you okay?” she gasped.

“I’m tired.” The horse replied. “But if my source is right. I will have more magic than ever now that we have that last gem.”

Author's Note

Finally finished the second chapter!
Been a hectic few weeks with uni placement and hit by the flu.

Hopefully the next one will be sooner.:)