Fox on the Run: Chapter 4

Judy sat quietly at her desk scrolling through arrest records. She peered at the screen closely, crossing off non-matches for this 'Spitz' character that Finnick mentioned. As her search turned up no leads thus far, her mind began to wander back to her conversation at Flake's. She had a team now, and that changed the nature of her investigation from the ground up.

 Back at Flake's

Judy finished explaining everything she knew, sparing no details, even about their pillow-talk with Nick the night before. Once she finished, her coworkers looked at her hesitantly.

"I know it sounds far-fetched," Judy said. "But knowing Nick, this is exactly the kind of thing he would do."

"So let's say we catch them, then what?" Francine asked.

"Dart everyone within a ten-yard radius and bring them in for questioning?" Wolford suggested.

"We need to make contact with Nick first. If the bombs are already in the city, then arresting Pumar might just push his buyers to act faster. From there, we'll play it by ear. For now, our priority is finding them before the ZBI does," Judy suggested.

"Won't be easy," Fangmeyer chimed in. "They've got more resources, mammal power, and intel."

"True. We're going to have to capitalize on what we've got," Judy answered. "We've got all the resources we'd have on any other case, which will help. But we know Nick, and so we'll be able to guess where he's going next. As long as we keep our eyes peeled for any breadcrumbs he leaves us, we should get there first."

"So where do we start?" Fangmeyer asked with a wave of her paw. The others grew silent and turned towards Judy. Her eyes darted between them as she realized they were turning to her for a decision.

"Me?" she asked.

"It's kind of your show here, Hopps," Wolford said with a shrug. "No one knows Wilde like you do." Each of them nodded in agreement.

"Ok," Judy said with her eyebrows raised. She placed a paw to her chin and began pacing lightly between her teammates.

"If we're going to pull this off, we need to play to our strengths. Francine?" she said, pointing towards her elephant coworker. "You know how to work the ZPD system better than anyone. I'm going to need your eyes on the records and the cams, and if Nick so much as takes a selfie with his phone, we need to know where it happened. You're our intel." Francine nodded confidently along with everything Judy explained.

"You got it," Francine said.

"Ok. Fangmeyer? Wolford? The three of us are the ground crew. We'll operate in two units, one pair and one solo. One of you will need to be driving me around since neither of you will fit in my cruiser. We'll be investigating every rock, root, and hole that smells like Nick. Speaking of smells Wolford, I'll need your nose so today you're with me. Since the ban, any whiff of Nighthowler you get could be a lead so we'll keep the windows rolled down."

"Yes ma'am," he nodded.

"What about me?" Clawhauser asked.

"I need you to keep the chief off our backs. He'll want to know what I'm up to, so you'll need to give him something convincing," Judy explained.

"I think I can do that," he said timidly.

"Good, because we'll also need you to keep an eye on the ZBI. Since they're using the precinct as their HQ, we'll need to know if and when they're on the move."

"Ok," Clawhauser agreed. "How do we communicate? We can't use the scanners or else the whole precinct will know what we're doing."

"For now we'll use our phones. No one is looking for us, so that should buy us some time," Judy decided.

"You think they'll be expecting anything from us?" Clawhauser asked.

"Even if they suspected me to be up to something, I doubt they'll see an entire team coming. Just keep an extra close eye on Savage," Judy added thoughtfully.

"Savage?" Fangmeyer asked.

"Agent Jack Savage, he's leading the ZBI investigation. He strikes me as the suspicious type, and he knows Nick and I are involved, so he might try to keep an eye on me," Judy explained.

It was true that Agent Savage came across as the inquisitive type, though that probably came with the territory within the ZBI. Considering how difficult it was for her to be taken seriously as a police officer, there was no telling what he had to do to climb the ranks in the ZBI as a bunny. The way he commanded the undivided attention and respect from the other agents was not lost on her, and the fact that he was assigned a case this important meant he was the real deal. If she underestimated him, she'd likely find herself suspended.

"Keep your phones at the ready," Judy reminded everyone present. "We got lucky that today's assignments have been relatively light. We should be able to look for him without abandoning our posts. To start, we'll just take a few detours while we're on patrol. Wolford, see if you can get the chief to assign us as partners. Fangmeyer, head over to the Rainforest District where we last saw Nick and see if you find up anything. Francine, make sure her visit goes unnoticed by the ZBI. Clawhauser, keep your eyes on Savage. Everyone clear?" she finished.

It was difficult for her to sit down at her desk after that meeting. She was eager to get out investigate, but she needed info first. Luckily, there weren't many Capybaras in Zootopia so after a few more minutes of searching, she found her mark.

"Marcus Spitzer" she read aloud. The image of a scruffy-looking rodent the size of a bobcat flared on her screen above his name. His face looked none too pleased with getting his mugshot taken. Judy quickly found the last known address on file and jotted it down in her pocketbook. His release was less than a year ago, so there was a good chance he was still there.

"Hopps," she heard from behind her. She turned to find Chief Bogo leaning against the wall of her cubicle. The large buffalo wore his usual stern expression that somehow complimented the stars on his collar.

"Sir!" she said and respectfully stood.

"Easy, Hopps. I'm not sure if Clawhauser got the message to you, but I assigned you Sahara Square patrol for the day," he said.

"Oh," she said nervously. "Yes, he did tell me sir."

"Well? You're decidedly not in Sahara Square right now."

"Yes, I'm sorry sir. It's just . . . well I—"

"—were probably wondering who your next partner is so you came back to await orders," he finished for her. "Well, Hopps, Officer Wolford has volunteered to be your stand-in partner for the time being. Considering you've been on the beat together in the past, I think it is fitting. He's been assigned standard patrol in Savanna Central today, so I suggest you get your tail out of that seat and form up."

Judy could not respond even if words could form quickly enough. The Chief finished his orders and walked away towards his office. While it was certainly characteristic of the Chief to be brief, given the current circumstances she expected at least something about Nick.

Judy shook her head out of her confusion and grabbed the address she jotted down. She made her way down the stairs and into the lobby where Officer Wolford was waiting for her.

The white timberwolf smiled confidently as she approached. Wolford had been Judy's first partner on patrols a few years back. After the Nighthowler case, the Chief trusted her with more standard police work and Wolford was assigned to teach her the ropes. Wolford asserted it was because of his renowned intellect, while the Chief said it was he was because he was the second shortest in the precinct, next to her. A part of her really did look forward to working with him again.

"Chief says I'm not to let you out of my sight," Wolford said with a smile. His tone was convincing, but the slightest wag of his tail betrayed his excitement. She smiled back and winked at him.

"Can't fight the Chief," she said with a shrug and began walking back towards the parking lot. Wolford's tail wagged a little more as they exited the building and headed towards his cruiser.

"Just like old times, right Hopps?" he said cheerily.

"No way, Max. I'm not a rookie anymore," she said and hopped up onto the seat. While she was not too thrilled about being in a car that was much too big for her, she was happier that she did not have to investigate leads alone.

"That's right. My little Meter-Maid is all grown up. I'm so proud," he said with a mocking show of affection, placing a paw on his chest before leaping into the cruiser. He gave the radio dial a click before closing the door behind him. His expression did not dampen, but as soon as they were alone in the cruiser, Wolford began to whisper.

"So where are we goin'?" he asked eagerly.

"Out to the Meadows," she instructed before fishing out the address from her pocket. "114 North Dandelion Ave."

"Alrighty," he said and put the car in gear before pulling onto the highway entrance.

"We're looking for a Capybara named Marcus Spitzer who goes by 'Spitz'," she explained.

"Can't say I've heard of him," he shrugged.

"He's not really big fish. According to his file, he was first arrested for indecent exposure and sexual harassment after finishing high school. He was linked to a few mob ops, but posted bail each time. Recently he got released after a six year sentence for grand-theft auto and brandishing a deadly weapon."

"Someone's been playing too many video games," Wolford said and shook his head. "Kids these days. Anything else his file mention?" Judy nodded.

"He apparently did not show up to his meeting with his parole officer last week, so on the books our visit today is just a 30-56."

"Your source said he was getting good money from a new boss, right?" he clarified.

"Yes, a mystery new boss who pays high for scavenging jobs," she said.

"Why though? It's a simple enough job to go find an abandoned house and see what parts you can fish out. Scavenging is barely even a felony, and most who do it are just desperate vagrants. "

"That's what we're going to find out," she said confidently and peered out the window as the glimmering towers of downtown began to fade behind them.

The Meadows were a rough part of town. So rough that it had its own dedicated precinct. Despite the increased police presence, it was the most crime-ridden part of the city. The houses were all thin and falling apart with many of them foreclosed by the bank. She responded to a few calls up there for domestic disturbances from time to time, but Nick always knew his way around the folks from that part of town. He had a way of making the locals feel at ease, whereas she felt like an outsider. This would be the first time she ventured into the Meadows without Nick by her side.

"You alright?" Wolford asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah," she shook her head. "Its just a lot to take in. I've got a lot on my mind."

"I don't blame you," he said and nodded. "You have any ideas on what Wilde is up to?" he asked.

Judy blinked. Back at Flake's, the going theory had been Nick was only playing along with whatever Pumar was up to. She thought through a couple of scenarios, but she was less concerned with 'why' than with 'how' at the moment. She could always figure out the 'why' part when she found him later.

"At first I thought it could have been the truth, since he's so well connected. But after I noticed his shirt from the picture, I figured it was a hustle. Maybe he's trying to learn more about Pumar from the inside," she suggested.

"Would he really do that without telling you?" Wolford asked.

"If he thought it might put me in danger, then maybe. There is also a chance he's being blackmailed."

"I get it. If Pumar is an old associate of his, then Pumar could bring the whole world down on Nick in no time. So he ropes Nick into helping him score big," Wolford said and nodded his head along with Judy's idea.

"Exactly," she said and thumped her hand on the center console. "If that's the case, then we need to be on the lookout for anything Nick might leave us. Speaking of which, how is your nose these days?" she asked.

Wolford's mouth turned upward into a sly smile. Keeping his eyes on the road, he turned his head slightly towards Judy and took a few short breaths through his nose. His snout bounced lightly in the air as he sniffed for a moment before clearing his throat.

"You had arugula salad for dinner last night, and you use Ramtine Pro-V shampoo, but no conditioner," he said with a grin.

"Is that all?" she joked, more than impressed with his abilities.

"Well, I didn't want to say anythin' else, but there's a whole lotta Wilde on you too," he said with a smirk. Judy's ears went bright red as she gave Wolford a slight shove to the shoulder.

"Maxwell!" she scolded him. "How did you even get that? I showered this morning!"

"Hey! Mixing other scents into your fur does not get rid of the other scents on you," he explained.

"Ugh," she groaned. "Have I been walking around the office reeking of fox for the past year?"

"You two are pretty much covered toe to toe with each other at this point. Grizzoli has a theory that your scents have actually merged into one now." The blush deepened on Judy's cheeks as she hid her face in the palm of her hand.

"We thought we were so good at hiding it, too," she said with another groan.

"Hey, if it's any consolation, only the certified sniffers would be able to pick up on it. Grizzoli and I never said a word."

"Well thank you for that," she said and shook the embarrassment from her face.

They eventually turned off the busy roads and headed into the thicker part of the Meadows. Each house was separated by just enough space for a medium-sized mammal to fit through. Many of them had bars on the windows and others were boarded up completely. They drove past a group of kids on bicycles, likely skipping school for the day.

"Up here," she said and pointed at the house marked 114. The house was nothing special from the others around it. A medium sized pickup truck was parked in the driveway. The truck sported so many after-market modifications it was practically 100 trucks put together. Wolford pulled over and parked right outside, giving the building a once-over. Both officers left their vehicle and made their way to the front door.

"Huh," Wolford murmured and leaned over the fence to take a closer look at the pickup in the driveway.

"What is it?" Judy asked.

"This truck strike you as odd?" he asked back.

"It's modified to no end. The guy probably spent a fortune on it," she said.

"What kind of mammal spends thousands on a customized truck and leaves the keys in the ignition?" Wolford said. Judy glanced back at the truck and furrowed her brow.

"Did he lock them inside?" she wondered. Wolford tested her theory by tugging on the passenger door. It hitched open with no complaints, and the wolf shot Judy a puzzled glance. Judy could only shrug back at him and look back at the front door. The mailbox was full of bills and junk mail, and the windows were so filthy she could hardly see anything through them. Wolford stepped up the stoop and joined her by front of the door.

"Woah," he said with a start. "Something is definitely off, Hopps."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Something's going on here. I can smell ammonia," he said.

"You sure?"

"Definitely, along with some other things I don't recognize."

Judy of course couldn't smell anything, but that was unsurprising. What was surprising was when she went to knock on the door and it drifted open effortlessly. Judy looked back to Wolford and placed her paw on her tranquilizer gun resting on her hip. Wolford nodded and leaned into his shoulder.

"Dispatch, this is Wolford," he called into the radio. After a moment of static, Clawhauser's voice returned his message.

"Go ahead, Max," the radio chimed.

"I've got probable cause on a 30-56 out in the Meadows on Dandelion. Be advised, we're going to take a look inside," he said.

"Rodger that, Wolford," Clawhauser said before the radio went silent.

"After you," Wolford said and fished his own tranq out of its holster. Judy kept her weapon low as she slowly pushed the front door open with her back and observed the entryway.

As soon as she opened the door, she noticed the odd chemical smell Wolford mentioned. It wasn't strong, but it was strange. It was almost like the air had been artificially manufactured in a factory somewhere in a way to mimic normal air. Judy immediately noticed a mess in the living room beside the front door.

"What do you make of that?" she asked and pointed to the rug in the middle of the room. In the center of the rug stood a glass jar overflowing with bubbles. Whatever the foam was, it seeped out of jar and into the carpet. The bubbles looked almost solid and were coated in a thin layer of dust. It looked like it would procure a vile odor, yet the smell was tolerable to Judy.

"That's what is making it stink in here, I'd guess," Wolford said quietly. Judy nodded, noting that the smell was much worse for her partner.

"Looks like my middle school science fair project," Wolford continued.

"I doubt there is anyone here. Someone living here would have cleaned this up by now. It looks like it's been here a while," Judy observed.

"Days. Weeks even," Wolford mentioned as he reached out and popped one of the bubbles with his claw. It deflated like a balloon rather than disappearing.

"Let's move along. If those chemicals are making that smell, then I don't want to breath it in longer than we need to," Judy said. Her partner nodded and rose to check the Kitchen.

Judy made her way upstairs and kept her tranq out and low. She rounded each corner carefully, noting the dust that settled on practically every inch of the house, even the floor. She opened the bedroom door and found a second jar. This one also leaked strange foam and soaked the carpet around it.

"Got another one up here," Judy called out to her partner.

"Hopps, take a look at this down here," he called back in return. Judy made her way back down the stairs and joined her partner in the kitchen. Wolford stood by the refrigerator holding the door open.

Inside the refrigerator there were two large tanks with some kind of piping leading out either end. The shelving in the fridge had been removed to make room for the tanks that lay catawampus against each other. Judy cocked an eyebrow and the strange sight and shot a glance at her partner.

"Water heaters?" she wondered.

"Small ones. Would probably only work for a rodent apartment complex or maybe a single small-mammal apartment," he said.

"Too small for this place, then," she noted.

"But why the fridge? Obviously our guy does not care to cook much, but you'd think he'd keep his pizza in here or something," Wolford said.

Judy pondered why someone would keep water heaters in his refrigerator when she found one more door. It was off from the kitchen and led under the staircase. Curiosity was getting the best of her at that moment as she holstered her tranq and gave a short hop to grab the doorknob and pull it open with a rusty creak.

"Woah!" Wolford nearly barked. "Eyes up Hopps!"

Judy leaped off the door and pulled her tranq out again at lightening pace, training it on the doorway. It was empty, and led down a dark staircase towards the basement. Wolford's nose bounced as he sniffed the air that seeped from the doorway. His eyes were wide and his tranq was steadily pointing at the darkness.

"What do you smell now?" she whispered.

"More chemicals, along with something foul," he said. The curiosity and calm demeanor had all but vanished from his voice as he slowly made his way down the staircase.

Judy followed closely behind, but had trouble seeing anything in the absolute darkness. As she approached the bottom, she began notice something else in the air. The chemical smell was stronger, but the air seemed to sting her nose with something putrid as well. She still could not see a thing so she held close to where her partner was standing.

"Shit," Wolford gasped.

"What?" Judy said and squinted, trying to make out whatever it was that made Wolford drop his tranq on the floor. Judy cursed herself for being foolish and not pulling her phone out sooner. She quickly hit the flashlight function and shined it towards her partner. He was staring at the wall with a ghostly look on his face. Judy followed his eyes and shined the light on the wall. She jumped, nearly dropping her phone on the floor before regaining her composure and holding her phone back up.

What was left of Marcus Spitzer lay limp against the wall. There were clear marks in his shirt, where bullets had torn through. But the rest of what she saw was distorted and blackened with rot.

Judy tasted bile.

"Dispatch, this is Wolford. We've got a 10-22 at 114 North Dandelion Avenue," he said into his shoulder.

"C-copy that, Max. Sending backup and paramedics now!" Clawhauser called back.

"No need for medics," Wolford hailed back. "It looks to be at least a week old, maybe longer."

Judy could not tear her eyes away from the corpse in front of her. It was not the first body she saw on the force, but in the few cases she handled that involved a death, they had either been accidents or first-responses to a shooting. The bodies she saw before were all at least still recognizable as living creatures. One might pretend they were only sleeping. This one was morphed into something terrible. The only thing that kept her from turning away and loosing her lunch was that the smell was gracefully bearable. Realizing that, she turned to her partner.

"We couldn't smell this upstairs," she noted. Wolford nodded.

"A body kept this long above ground should have the entire neighborhood clutching their noses."

Judy turned to the glass jar behind her that rested on the floor. Like the others, this one bubbled over with foam that looked nearly solid and filled the air with a sickening chemical smell.

"It's the jars," she said. "Whoever did this wanted to keep it secret but didn't have enough time to get rid of the body properly."

"I couldn't even smell it from upstairs. Whatever the foam is, it had me for a chump until we opened the basement door," Wolford said and looked down at Judy. He noticed she was staring back at the body up against the wall with a disappointed frown.

"Come on Hopps. Let's get upstairs and wait for everyone else," he said and put a paw on her shoulder. "Nothing we could have done."

"It wasn't him," she whispered.

"What?" He turned back to the small bunny beside him.

"Nothing," she shrugged him off her shoulder and turned towards the stairs. "Let's go."

The forensic team went to work quickly. The entire block was filled to the brim with cruisers with their lights blaring. The sun was already down and the swirling blue and red from the police cars filled out the neighborhood in both directions. Judy watched as Sptiz's body was carried in a black bodybag into the back of an ambulance. It would not take a coroner to conclude the cause of death was a bullet to the chest.

From how old the crime scene was, it was not likely the traffic cams were going to help. They automatically wiped their memory every week to keep memory space open.

What was more interesting to her was the ballistics on the bullet buried in the wall behind where his body was. The caliber of firearms varied widely, and the size of the gun was usually a good tell of the size of the animal who fired it. The lab would likely find something from the jars that could link them to whoever did it. If the murderer was covering his tracks in a rush, he was more likely to make a mistake and give them something to go on.

Judy's cellphone dinged in her pocket. She pulled up a text from Clawhauser addressed to her, Wolford, Francine, and Fangmeyer.

*The ZBI are back at the precinct, except for Agent Savage*, it read. Judy quickly texted her teamback.

 *With this lead gone cold, we'll need to focus on hunting down whoever's buying chlorine underground. Francine, can you check the arrest records in the past month for anyone arrested for smuggling or dealing? Look for anyone who had pool-cleaning chemicals with them at the time.*

Judy hopped off the hood of the cruiser she was sitting on and looked down at her phone waiting for a reply. It was unlikely that Francine would find anything, mostly because that is the sort of detail that might get left out of an arrest report because it was seemingly unimportant.

*Sure thing, Hopps* Francine texted them back. She began walking and texting another request for Clawhauser to let her know as soon as Agent Savage was back at headquarters.

Right as she rounded the edge of the car, she collided with another mammal who nearly made her leap into the air with a start.

"Officer Hopps," Agent Savage greeted her. "I am sorry if I startled you."

Judy frowned and dusted herself off.

"Not at all, Agent Savage. Might I ask what you're doing at my crime scene?"

The bunny simply straightened out the lapels on his suit and gave her a calm look of indifference.

"We have an international murderer on the loose, officer. Any murder deserves my attention," he said.

"I'm afraid there is not much here to help," she said. She was being honest of course, but she was careful not to give Agent Savage the impression she was hiding something from him.

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, for starters this was a simple house-call. He missed his last parole meeting so we just showed up to give him his warning. The rest of it is as you see here," she said and gestured to the house. "The only odd things here were the sent-diffusers."

"Is that something you see here often?" he asked.

"Can't say I ever have, though I haven't had the chance to ask anyone else yet back at the precinct." Again, she was not lying, though she was almost certain that no one had seen that trick before.

"I see. So nothing else odd about this one?" he asked her.

"There were water heaters in the refrigerator," she remembered. "Any idea what that could be about?"

"Sorry, Hopps. You had your chance to ask questions like that," he reminded her. She furrowed her brow at Savage as he turned towards the house. He really was beginning to bother her. She answered his questions, albeit vaguely, but he was clearly not interested in working quid-pro-quo. Before he left, he knelt down and picked something up off the ground before turning back toward Judy with a raised eyebrow.

"Before I go, Hopps, you might want this back," he said and held up her phone in his paw. Judy's eyes widened. She hadn't even realized she dropped it. She did not thank him, instead she scooped it up out of his paws and continued to scowl at him. Agent Savage did not reflect her frustration back at her. He kept that infuriatingly calm look on his face and turned toward the crime scene.

Once he was gone, she looked back down at her phone, hoping that one of the others had something else to go on. Instead she saw no new messages and sighed.

Wolford was filling the lab-techs in on all the details they noticed, and each of them began carrying small plastic bags of evidence back towards the van. Other officers were keeping a small crowd of curious citizens at bay behind a line of yellow police tape. She thought of Spitz, and how Finnick had told her that he liked to run his mouth. Whoever scared him into keeping quiet, they scared him for good reason. She turned again and observed Spitz's custom truck. The other investigators ignored it.

On not much more than a whim, she walked around the side of the truck and hopped into the driver seat. She looked around at anything that might give her another lead. Perhaps a coffee mug that might tell her where he was before he got home, or a list of items to pick up while scavenging. Instead, she found dirt in the cupholders, unpaid parking tickets in the glove box, and keys in the ignition.

"What the heck," she sighed and placed her foot on the break, needing to reach out with her toes as far as she could. She twisted the keys in the steering column, but nothing happened. She tried again, and still there was only silence. There was no sign that the engine was even turning. The truck was just completely dead.

She groaned. That explained why the car had not been stolen in the week's time it stayed in the driveway with the keys inside. Judy was just about to give up when she noticed something odd about the keys.

A single small strand of fur was lodged into the keychain. It looked light brown, and was much too long to belong to a capybara. She carefully plucked it out of the keychain and held it between her fingers. It was evidence, and thus it needed to get filed into the police report. She would file it, along with everything else she discovered that night.

Eventually.