Contraband: Part 2

The next morning Judy had to explain to Chief Bogo why it was nearly noon and her partner had not shown his face at work yet. It was a difficult task since all she got from him this morning was a text reading 'Hold down the fort' and he did not answer any of her calls since. He was going to be nose-deep in paperwork for being this late, but if he didn't show up soon with a good explanation, he could get in real trouble, perhaps even suspended.

Judy propped her forehead up by her paws on her desk with a groan. Harsh words would soon become a shouting match if he did not show up soon. She spent the morning going over the case file to distract herself. The information was sparse but unusual. The casino that was raided was in the northern part of the rainforest district, far away from city center. McHorn had compiled evidence for weeks before the bust, but nothing on the list lead him to suspect meat was being served there. All the supply was frozen and packaged with no label, and there was no equipment for butchering nor any blood or byproduct, so the meat had been butchered elsewhere for sure.

She groaned again and rubbed the spot between her eyes when a snout placed itself between her ears.

"You won't find any leads there, bunny," Nick said. Judy startled and wheeled around before grimacing and giving him a much-deserved slug on the shoulder.

"Nicholas Wilde, you slimy piece of dirt, I could smack you right across the snout!" she hissed.

"No carrots, don't hold it in, tell me how you really feel," he toyed and leaned up against the door to her cubicle.

"Do you have any idea how much trouble you're in?" Judy accused.

"I already spoke to the chief, so yes I do and the answer is none."

"None," she repeated.

"Scot-free, which for me is an ironic phrase because the only guy I know named Scott is in prison," he wondered aloud.

"How did you manage that?"

"Well, are you done being angry with me?"

"No!" she spat.

"Then come chat with me when you're ready to talk about a lead," he said and began striding off. Her ears dropped and she followed him eagerly.

"Do you have one?" she asked excitedly.

"Yup," he answered and kept walking. She grabbed his arm and stopped him from going any further.

"Okay, Nick, I'm not mad anymore, what's this lead?" She asked. Nick smiled.

"Oh, I stopped by an old friend of mine's place this morning to see how things have been. Couldn't go in uniform of course, but he did say he was on a recent winning streak at the roulette tables, and I don't mean the legal ones," he said.

"So did he know about the bust in the Rainforest District?"

"Oh he knew all about that, but wasn't a patron. He did mention, however, that his favorite spot recently abandoned ship out of nowhere."

"You mean they deserted it?"

"My source says they were all fine and dandy till last week they packed up and abandoned the place. The owners of both knew each other quite well, and my buddy mentioned how the 'company was terrible but the food was delicious."

"You think this casino was also selling meat and got spooked by McHorn's bust?"

"Only one way to find out, and I got the address. So, are you sure you're not angry with me anymore? You could always sit this one out, I'm sure there are plenty of reports to finish filing," he jested.

"Nick you're amazing!" she said and bounced a little, slugging him on the shoulder affectionately.

"Ow! You know, the amount of abuse I get in the office should really be looked at by Animal Resources. My arms gonna fall off at this rate," Nick said and rubbed his shoulder.

"Oh quit your whining. Let's go!" she said and moments later she was driving the squad car up Beaker street with a fierce grin on her face.

Nick's source led them to a relatively rough part of town by the waterfront. The street lined a steep cliff that bordered a valley with a set of warehouses below. On the other side were rows of townhouses, most of which were run-down with a few foreclosure notices pinned to the front doors. The house they were looking for was towards the end of the street that seemed to drop out over the bay like an infinity pool.

Nick suggest they park a block up, so that the squad car didn't arouse suspicion. This was a recon case after all. When they got to the street that lined the cliffside, Judy looked out over the view.

"Hey Nick! Check it out, I can see your bridge from here. See it? The one that I found you at during the night howler case?"

"And you broke down like a baby and started leaking water from your face? How could I forget," he said and kept on walking. She scowled at his jab and followed him to the house they were looking for. The house was 4 stories tall and a dark shade of blue with boards on the windows. Clearly the house was foreclosed some time ago.

Nick and Judy walked up the stoop to inspect the place.

"The door looks like it hasn't been touched in years," she said giving the doorknob a tug to no avail.

"Come around this way, Carrots," Nick beckoned her and led her to a small space between the house and the neighboring one. He pointed up at a thin window that swung lightly in the breeze. The frame below the window was scuffed up with claw marks.

"After you," he said with a bow to his partner who jumped up to the window and peered inside. It was dark but she saw no movement so she climbed her way inside through the swinging window and hit the floorboards with a light thud.

"Clear," She called out and Nick followed her in.

The house was empty, dark, and dusty but there was a clear path where animals had been walking between floors.

"Basement first," Judy said and turned on her flashlight. She led them both down the creaky steps to a basement that was dark as night.

"Nick, do you see a lightswitch?" She said. A clicking sound followed by a lighted chandelier answered her question. The room was empty but smelled thickly of cigar smoke. The chandelier looked brand new and was positioned very low, as if to go over a table. She lifted the rug off the floor and found a few stray poker chips underneath.

"Looks like our casino, let's check the kitchen," Nick said and led them both back up the stairs. The first floor had a small kitchen in the back that looked older than the house somehow. Dishes piled up in the sink and rancid food was dried to each one. Nick gave the faucet a twist and nothing came out. Judy opened the fridge and found some rotten vegetables and jars of fruits but nothing out of the ordinary.

"No meat," she said.

"I don't think this is where they cooked. The sinks don't work. Let's try upstairs," he said and they both went up a floor where they found a bedroom that looked just as old as the kitchen. Nick poked around the bedframe looking for hidden compartments while Judy began opening drawers.

She found something odd. It looked like a belt to her, but it had a strange buckle with a light on it. The inside had two silver diodes facing the wearer, but it had no method of adjusting the size. The sight of the garment puzzled her, so she turned to Nick and held it up.

"Hey Nick, what's this?" she asked. He continued to look for clues.

"I don't want to know what you found in their underwear drawer, Carrots," he waved her off.

"Nick, look," she said.

Nick turned around and saw what she was holding. His face immediately dropped into a frown and he scowled at her.

"Very funny carrots," he said a little angrily.

"What? Nick I'm honestly asking," she pressed on.

"Are you serious? You have never seen a T.A.M.E. collar before?" He said and put his paws on his hips.

"A what?" she asked again. Nick's eyes widened and he put a paw to his forehead.

"You can't be serious. What are they teaching you out in Bunny Burrows?"

"Nick, would you please just explain what-"

"It's a shock collar. Decades ago, back when my grandfather was younger than I am, predators in Zootopia were required by law to wear collars like that at all times," Nick explained.

"What? You can't be serious," Judy protested.

"Yeah, well, back then prey were still looking for ways to feel safe around predators. Since the population was majority prey, they passed the law easily and predators had to wear those or get locked up." Nick continued to look for clues while he explained. "If a predator became too aggressive, the collars would emit a shock and that would 'remind' us to behave civilized."

Judy dropped the collar in disgust. "That's barbaric!"

"Hey, they were different times. Guess Bunny Burrows doesn't have many predators in the first place so I'm not surprised you never heard about it," Nick said and looked up. Judy was visibly shaken by what he was telling her. She looked at the device on the floor in a mixture of shock and disgust. Nick rolled his eyes and placed a comforting paw on her shoulder.

"Look, Carrots, the law was repealed before our parents were even born, so it's ancient history. Things were bleak, but with the support of most prey, the predators overcame it. Don't think too hard on it, ok?" Judy looked at him and placed a paw on his forearm and managed to give a weak smile before nodding. He smiled back and led her out of the room.

"Come on, two more floors to check," he said and led her to the third floor. There they found an empty room at the edge of the building with clear plastic tubes running out of the walls and into a sink. Judy inspected the tube and found a valve on one end which, when turned, ran clean water down the sink. Nick was following his nose towards something particularly pungent. He wiped a finger along the counter by the sink and gave it a lick.

"Salt and pepper," he said.

"I see," Judy observed. "These tubes probably run to the neighbor's plumbing where the water is still running. That way they can syphon water without being on the grid."

"Check this out," Nick said and poked at a large metal structure near the window. A large black cylinder swung open revealing grid lined metal bars and an exhaust line that went into the wall where the tubes went. "It's a grill," Nick observed. "Eugh, and it stinks!" he said and waved his paw around his nose. Judy took out her phone and began taking pictures of the tubes in the wall and the grill. She opened up her Ev kit and swabbed the inside of the grill as well as the countertop before shoving the evidence back in her belt.

"So far we have an illegal gambling house that served food by syphoning water through the neighbor's house. No meat," Nick said.

"We still have one more floor," Judy said with a shrug.

The two of them trudged up the last set of stairs to the fourth floor where they found yet another empty room. Oddly, the window frames had no windows and a cool breeze blew in freely. Nick sniffed around the room but could not find anything odd about it. It was a bedroom that had been emptied out completely, not even carpet left behind, just a set of drawers like the ones on the second floor.

"There's gotta be something," Judy said. Nick finished sniffing the room and shrugged his shoulders at her. She gave the drawers a tug but they didn't budge. She braced her footing and gave it another tug, but this time the whole chest budged a little.

"Is it locked?" Nick asked.

"There is no lock on it," she said and tried the rest of them. "They're all nailed shut."

Judy hopped up and gave the very top drawer a heave, but it didn't budge. Rather, the whole chest began tilting and falling to the floor. She gave out a shriek as she tumbled backwards with the massive chest about to squash her. Nick pounced and caught the falling bunny and they rolled to the side as the massive chest pounded loudly against the floor.

"You alright?" he asked her.

"Yeah, thanks Nick," she said and rolled over to dust herself off.

"That's one you owe me," he said dusting himself off as well.

"What, we're counting now?" she jested. Nick thought about it, before giving her a nod.

"Yes, starting now."

"Oh shut up," she shushed him.

"No no I think I could beat you by the year's end," he argued.

"No, seriously Nick, shut up and look at this," she said and gestured to the chest of drawers.

The backside of the chest was completely missing. In it's place was a massive white hatch with iron doors. It was shiny and looked brand-new. The entire structure was using the chest as a cover. Judy immediately began taking photos again.

"No wonder it fell over, it's so top-heavy!" Nick pointed out.

Judy hopped up onto the hatch door and undid the latch, which came undone very easily. She squatted down and began to heave at the door before Nick's paw gripped her own.

"Wait," he said.

"What? What's wrong?"

"Carrots, we need to be prepared for what we might see in here," he said carefully. "It could be too horrible to imagine."

He was right. If they found what they were looking for inside, then Judy would immediately never want to see it again. She took a deep breath, relaxed her paw and gave her partner a firm nod. He nodded back and they both lifted the hatch upward and it swung open with a loud metallic squeak.

"It's empty," Judy said, nearly heartbroken and relieved at the same time.

"Not just empty, it's spotless. Look, even the hinges have been polished clean from the inside. There's no rust or wear or anything, and I can't smell a thing," he observed and pulled his snout out of the freezer box. Judy took a few more photos before shoving her phone back into her pocket.

"If they wanted to erase any trace of what was in here, why not just take the whole thing with them?" Judy pondered.

"Maybe they were in a rush? The counter in the kitchen was only kind-of wiped down and the casino room still had a few things in it," Nick suggested.

"Maybe. That or they weren't done with this place yet," Judy suggested.

Nick's ears dropped with a sigh.

"Awww does that mean we have to stakeout? We just did one last month and I thought I was going to spontaneously explode with boredom."

Judy was about to respond before her ear twitched. Something caught her attention.

"Seriously though, I think chronic boredom is diagnosaBLFMMMF!" Judy clasped her paws down on her partner's snout and shushed him violently. Her ears stayed at full attention and turned towards the door. Nick stopped struggling and listened as well.

Someone was downstairs.

They both quietly peered down the staircase and heard the sound of hoof steps and hushed voices. They gave each other a look and both drew their tranqs. The voices got louder as they climbed to the second floor.

"We can't arrest anyone," Judy whispered. "Otherwise they'll know we're on to them. We can't even be seen."

"If we dart them, can we sneak out without them seeing us?" Nick whispered back.

"No, they'll know it was police," she whispered back. The voices were getting close enough to understand and Judy holstered her gun.

". . . So when I take her out tomorrow night, I'm going to wait for her to offer to pay for dinner. We'll see who's whipped then, won't we?" one of the voices said.

"Still you," the other voice responded and then snorted loudly.

Pigs. They were two males and large by the sound of them. They made their way to the third floor and set to cleaning up the counter.

"You can't take her out tomorrow night anyway. We're working remember?" one of them said.

"Aww darn it, the big party thing is tomorrow night? Can't you take care of that? You don't need me for that one."

"No one needs you for anything. But Jaeger wants us both there. He's got a thing for displaying power and two bodyguards are better than one."

Judy's eyes widened. This was exactly the kind of information she was hoping for. Not only did she learn their boss's name but she knows what he'll be doing tomorrow night.

"Hold it, what the heck is this?" one pig asked. There was a moment of brief silence and Nick and Judy looked at each other nervously.

"The sink has water in it, but the tubes aren't leaking," one of them said in a hushed tone.

Judy slowly began backing away from the staircase and into the room. Nick followed her with an extremely nervous look on his face. His tail was frazzled and shaking.

"Someone's been here, and recently too," one said.

"Shush! They might still be here!" the other said.

"Spread out and search the place."

Judy stepped back and panicked. She thought wildly about what to do. They had to escape without being seen, but there was no way they could slip by them now. With the pigs split up, one of them would find her where she was and she couldn't sneak out the window without being seen by the other pig. She needed to think, she needed to escape, she needed the pigs in one place . . .

SLAM

Judy threw the door to the bedroom door closed loudly and the sound echoed throughout the house.

"What are you doing!? They definitely know we're here now," Nick called out in confusion and whipped his tranq out again.

"Put it away and help me!" she called out and began rolling the massive freezer-drawer towards the door. Nick realized what she was doing and rallied behind her. Two sets of hoofsteps began loudly scaling the last flight of stairs as they got closer to the door. Just as they shoved the freezer box against the door, another SLAM came from the door in front of them.

"Get up here! They're on the fourth floor!" a voice called out and more bashing against the door followed. With the chest propped up against the door, that bought them some time. Nick held himself up against the chest securing it up against the door.

"What is it with you and trapping us in places at times like this!" Nick accused her. "At least last time it was a train so we could get moving."

"We could be a rival cartel for all they know. We just need to get out of here without letting them see us," Judy responded. "Can we climb down from out the window?" She said and peered out the window.

"Not without the-*SLAM*-high possibility of gruesome death," Nick said as the pig rammed the door.

"There's got to be a way down, help me!" She called out. Nick groaned.

"Switch with me!" he said and Judy was by his side holding the door closed a split second later. Nick ran to the window and looked around outside. The shingles on the side of the building would not hold either of their weight, and there was no rope to propel down. Nick looked down at the street that lined the cliffside and held very still while another few SLAMs rang out from the door. He concluded that the only option was to dart the criminals or jump.

"I have an idea, but you're really not going to like it," he said and rejoined Judy holding the door closed. "We jump."

"You are absolutely right about me not liking that idea," she exclaimed.

"Listen, if we can clear the street and pass the cliffside, we'll be fine. All we got to do is jump straight out that way," he said and pointed towards the window. The thought of plummeting to her death made Judy's blood curl. The window scared her a thousand times more than the violent criminals trying to kill her.

"This is crazy!" she protested as another slam came from behind them. The wood on the door frame was beginning to crack.

"Fluff, look at me!" Nick shouted. Judy kept herself propped up against the chest but looked at Nick, who was returning her gaze directly into her eyes.

"Do you trust me?" he asked quietly.

"What? Yes!"

"With your life?" he said and gestured to the window. She hesitated, looking at the window and then back to him. She was scared stiff, but she gave him a slight nod.

"Yes," she said a little more quietly.

"Then on my mark, run and then jump as far as you can," he exclaimed.

Oh this is crazy this is crazy this is crazy! She heard herself think. She braced herself against the chest and peered out the window with her nose twitching like mad.

SLAM

"Now!" he bellowed and began sprinting towards the window. Judy cried out in protest as she followed as quickly as she could. The fox was faster than her, but she could out-jump him so as soon as she left the windowsill she caught up to him in the air.

Nick turned and grabbed her paw, pulling her in closer till they were the same mass of mammal plummeting downwards. Judy felt her sense of orientation fall away as they turned in freefall. She braced for impact with the street. Their feet narrowly missed the edge of the cliffside where the street was and they continued to plummet downward. Below them, Judy caught a glimpse of a rooftop that they were barreling towards. She shrieked and braced for impact again, pulling herself closer to Nick.

The two of them crashed through a thin sheet of glass that exploded into thousands of pieces and continued falling. Judy saw nothing as she kept her eyes closed as tight as she could. Expecting to feel the terrible stiffness of ground beneath her, she cried out again.

The impact came, but it was odd. The wind got knocked out of her chest but the ground somehow moved out of the way for them as they connected with it. There was a sound hundreds of pieces of plastic rubbing against each other, almost like the sound a flock of pigeons make when startled. A split second later and they were not moving anymore.

Judy kept her eyes glued shut and her breath held in as tightly as she could, for fear that as soon as she opened her eyes and tried to breath the pain of death would sweep over her. She could feel Nick's body beneath hers, but strangely divided from hers somehow. She dared not think or move or breath until she heard something odd.

"Y'alright there carrots?" Nick said with a huff. She opened her eyes and shifted herself on top of him. As soon as she did her vision was blocked by a swarm of soft round balls of plastic. She felt the weight of more of them on top of her. She wiggled her fingers, toes, and tail to make sure she still had her limbs and pushed upward from Nick. Her head surfaced above an ocean of color.

"A ball pit?" Judy wondered as her partner shifted underneath her. She swam aside and let him surface as well.

"That's two, Carrots, in the same day," he said a little dizzily, holding up two fingers from beneath the surface. Judy looked above her and found herself in a large warehouse with a glass ceiling that had a newly formed hole in one frame. They had fallen past the street, over the cliff, through the ceiling and into the large ball pit that they were currently swimming in.

"Nick! Are you alright?" she said and took his face in her paws. His face seemed disoriented but he smiled just the same.

"I'm not splattered on pavement, which is nice," he commented and rubbed his forehead with a paw. "That ceiling didn't feel too good though."

"Nick, that was the craziest, stupidest thing you've ever done," she scolded him.

"Hey, I'd take it over being flushed. Remember that bright idea? At least this time we're not wet." Nick slowly rolled and swam his way to the edge of the ball pit, climbing out onto the paved tiled floor.

"But how did you know we would land in here? Where are we even?" she called out and climbed out of the pit herself. She took a moment to regain her footing and followed her partner.

That's when she noticed the rest of them. There were rides and attractions everywhere around her. She could not see to the other side of the massive building through the various games and rides. One wooden roller coaster ran above her, an arcade game of some kind was to her side, and behind her rested the giant ball pit featuring a pouncing board and a large colorful sign that read 'Little Bites'. Towards the back, a large and rickety stage was set up with rows and rows of seats lined up for performances.

The whole place was colorful, beautiful, and massive, but eerily quiet. Normally a place so beautiful would beg the sound of children laughing and folks cheering with the hustle and bustle of everyday mammals, but the whole place was deserted. The plants grew out of their pots and dirt collected in piles along the floor.

"Nick?" she called out again and wandered about looking for him. The place was bigger than she first thought. Her voice echoed in the large chamber as she called out for Nick. She passed by a jaw-strength testing machine and a sign near the entrance that read 'Chompers only.' There were a few games that look like it was designed to catch prey, which made her feel a little nervous.

"Nick!" she called out one more time, and finally got a response.

"Carrots," she heard and followed the voice to the entrance of the park. She found her partner gazing upward with his hands in his pockets.

"Nick," she said as she finally found him. "What is this place?"

He simply pointed to a large sign above them.

'Wilde Times' the sign read. Beneath it sat a large colorful carousel with lights and all manner of birds and beasts for seats.

"This place," Nick began, "Was my grandfather's response to the T.A.M.E. collars. Not sure how, but he found a way to remove the collars. For a small fee, any predator could come here and literally check their collars at the door. He had to keep it secret, of course, because removing them was very illegal at the time. But the shifty fox hid his paradise in this place away from prying eyes, and all the predators who came here loved it and him. This was the only place they were free."

He spoke softly, as if just mumbling to himself, but Judy hung on every word. She observed the walls and the lights and the colorful everything and knew just how important the park was to her partner.

"What happened?" she asked after a moment, and Nick smiled.

"The law was repealed, the predators were free, and old gramps had to shut the place down. Heh, it's funny. I don't remember much about him, but he said that the happiest day of his life was when he went out of business," Nick explained. He turned and began to head towards the doors, fishing out a small key from his rear pocket. A small keychain with a cursive 'W' on the end dangled from the end of the old rusty key. That's when Judy realized something.

"Nick?" she called out. He stopped but did not turn around. "This place has got to be expensive to keep, let alone run. The rent costs alone would bankrupt anyone . . ." she began. He showed no reaction at all. "When I met you, you were living under a bridge down the road from here, but you were making more than 200 dollars a day tax-free and still homeless somehow."

He didn't respond.

"Nick? Have you been paying rent on this place?"

Again, no response. He simply began walking again towards the exit. He placed the key in the door and it swung open with a loud click. Judy followed him out, catching up with him and putting a concerned hand on his shoulder.

"Listen, Carrots," he started.

"No you listen Nick. I know you care about this place but you can't let it hold you-"

"Shhhhhsh, listen!" he hissed and looked upwards towards the cliffside they fell from. A strange sound echoed off of the cliffside.

"Sirens?" she asked.

"Did you call for backup?"

"No, you?"

Nick shook his head. The sirens were getting loud, and Judy could tell that there were multiple cars. Then came a loud and violent horn that got them both on edge.

"This way!" he said and led her towards an area underneath a parking lot where a set of rickety stairs took them back up to the street level. They passed through a shabby-looking medical clinic, Judy guessed it was a front for the theme park, and ran back out onto the street they were earlier. Once they arrived, they stopped dead in their tracks.

The blue house they were investigating was now roaring with flames and billowing smoke out into the harbor. The flames began flying higher and higher and the air stunk of arsenic and smoke. The two officers looked at the place dumbfounded as the fire trucks pulled to either side of the blaze and began connecting with nearby fire hydrants.

"Whelp, guess this means we don't have to do a stakeout," Nick said.

It was a bright side Judy had trouble enjoying.