Chapter Text

Judy

The Amber Plateau, a district older than the city of Zootopia itself.

Once upon a time, a little rabbit in a big warren had picked up a book about the city's founding and read all about this place. When the city was built, The elephants had acted as mediators between all of the smaller mammals and built a settlement that would serve as a symbol of unity between species. A place that would unite predator and prey, burrowers and tree climbers, even the giants and the tiny.

Originally the city had been built far away from the plateau, at the time an elephant trading settlement that provided the primary workforce for the city's construction. But after a couple hundred years the city sprawled out so far that it engulfed the plateau itself...

But the elephants didn't mind really. Zootopia had become the shining beacon they had always dreamed of, and the Amber Plateau... Well, all the money from constructing those buildings had to flow somewhere, didn't it?

As we entered the Plateau we had to don orange jackets and throw on the siren's lights (not the sound though, that would be rude). There were signs strewn about the carefully manicured parks with messages like "Watch your Step" and 'Caution: Children Playing' that were clearly more warnings to visitors than anything else.

I swear I felt the cruiser shake as we passed a particularly energetic soccer match.

Nick, native Zootopian that he was, remained completely unphazed. "You holdin' up okay there Carrots?" He asked, with just a tinge of haughty superiority in his voice.

"I'm fine." I said. My voice was composed, but honestly my claws were burrowing a bit into the cruiser's upholstery.

I didn't have time to be unnerved today. I had some righteous justice to dole out and a friend counting on me.

And then we reached the Hathee Manor.

It was more than twice the size of my entire apartment complex.

I couldn't help it. I felt a tiny twinge of fear.

#

The rhino butler looked down at us. "Mr. Wilde and Miss... Hopps, I presume?"

To his credit, his words began to fade out at the death glare I was giving him. I unfurled a roll of paper. "We have a warrant to search the premises. I expect everyone here to cooperate. Is that clear?"

Getting that had been like pulling teeth, but I would be damned if these people were getting any special privileges.

"Miss Hopps?" a voice came from behind the butler. A woman with a striking family resemblance to Francine appeared in the hallway. She was immune to my glare. "Oh excellent! You've arrived. Please Hornson, let them in."

The Butler drew the door open wide in a completely unnecessary gesture. I could have fit a thirty rabbit chorus line through the double doors. I marched in as quickly as I could, holding onto as much dignity as I could manage given the massive size differences. I raised an eyebrow at the elephant woman, who I presumed was Amanda Hathee. Politician and dirtbag sister. I whipped out my notepad. "As requested, we have been assigned to your case in lieu of formal detectives."

Amanda made a placating gesture. "Miss Hopps, I merely called the mayor and asked for him to assign you to the case. Your investigative prowess has been heralded again and again in the papers, and as I understand it, your lack of detective rank is solely an issue of no detective positions currently being budgeted for. Something I am working on fixing by the way."

My eye twitched. "Alderman Hathee, if you are trying to bribe me-"

"Okay!" Nick clapped his hands together, "Miss Hathee, thank you for being so understanding with regards to the necessity of this search. I think it might be for the best if we sat down somewhere and asked you a few questions to start."

The elephant nodded. "Of course, I'll have tea brought into the parlor. I've had the serving staff lock down my mother's wing of the house." She grimaced. "Although I admit, it has been cleaned and turned over several times since..."

She looked away.

I felt a tiny twinge in my heart, but I snuffed it out. This woman was most likely complicit in one major felony, if not two. I wasn't about to trust her any further than I could throw her.

Nick just smiled at the Alderman. "Of course miss Hathee. Lead the way."

We were brought to an opulent room covered in priceless historical paintings and first edition books. We climbed on top of a couch larger than my apartment as the tea was served... Not that that was saying much.

The esteemed alderman sighed from her perch on the couch opposite us. "So... I'm guessing you've read up on the investigation into the... Incident involving my mother."

I narrowed my eyes. "You mean where the evidence clearly supported your mother locking your little sister in a room with a bull elephant who had been dosed to the gills with testosterone by his mother?" I gripped my notepad tightly. "Who confessed, is serving a 20 year sentence and implicated your mother in the plan? Yeah, I think we might have a few files on that."

The alderman sighed. "Look, that incident occurred nearly a decade ago, and everyone who could have been involved is either in prison, on the other side of the planet, or dead. And whatever my mother may have done, it could not possibly have justified her being poisoned in cold blood."

The elephant met my gaze. "Someone killed my mother Officer Hopps. I don't think asking you to find out who did it is particularly uncalled for."

Nick let out a breath. He'd been so quiet I'd almost forgotten he was there. "Miss Hathee... You must understand this is a personal case for us. My partner worked closely with your sister and is simply concerned for her friend."

... Yet another conflict of interest her request to city hall had created.

Nick continued, "Frankly I'm concerned for Francine too, but we fully intend to investigate your mother's death to the best of our abilities."

The cow raised her trunk uncertainly, then just sighed. "Thank you Mr. Wilde. I appreciate your professionalism and candor. Now, what do you need from me?"

I flipped open my notebook. "When and where did your mother pass away?"

"She was in the dining room having lunch. She liked to take it 12:30 sharp. I was with her, as was Mr. Hornson and a Mr. Roebuck, a representative of Roebuck and Engles."

Nick raised an eyebrow. "What the heck was a lawyer doing there?"

Amanda looked down at her tea cup. "Mom had made a few modifications to her will recently..."

My ears perked up. Oh boy...

Amanda held up her hooves reassuringly. "She said they weren't major modifications, but she wanted to make sure everything had gotten filed properly. He assured us he'd triple checked it and everything was in order."

Nick nodded. "Okay, but we'll need to see the modified will to make sure that all of the beneficiaries check out."

Amanda shook her head. "I don't have a copy actually. The estate hasn't been distributed yet. You could talk to the firm though."

I jotted the firm's name down. "We'll do that, but back to the main question, what had she eaten that day? Who prepared her food?"

"She'd just had breakfast and taken her pills a few hours ago. Her food was all made by Mr. Hornson." She gestured to the Rhino standing at attention next to her. "Who, for the record, I trust completely."

The rhino gave the elephant a slight nod, then resumed his attentive posture.

"We'll want to question you as well of course," I added to the rhino in question.

He gave me a nod as well.

"I'll be sure he's made available to you." Amanda said.

I narrowed my eyes, but kept them hidden behind my notepad. I could already see a overbearing boss motive forming in my mind. "How did you get along with your mother?" I asked.

She tilted her head, as thought it was a strange question. "Quite well."

I narrowed my eyes. "Really?"

She narrowed her eyes right back. "Look, I know you've already decided to judge my mother some sort of monster for a single, alleged sin, but I think I'm allowed to have a more complex opinion of her and I ask you to respect that decision."

"And with all due respect, Alderman," I said through gritted teeth, "I would better understand that opinion if your mother hadn't also kicked Francine out of her house and disowned her, which apparently you had no objections to."

The Alderman rubbed at her temples. "Oh Karma, I swear you're worse than the contractors union... Not everything in the world gets into a police report. Of course I didn't agree with my mother, but publicly denouncing her would have done exactly nothing to help my sister, and would have put my child's future in jeopardy."

She glared at me, "Or have you forgotten that my actions affect more than just me? Never the less, I have tried again and again to reach out to my sister and provide her with support, but she sent back every check and hung up on every phone call." The elephant sighed. "To be perfectly honest I was hoping that after all of this was over you could convince her to start talking to me again so we could finally put this all behind us."

I felt bile rising in my stomach, but before I could tell her where to shove her olive branch Nick cleared his throat. "Well Ma'am, I think that covers the basics for now. If you don't mind I'd like to do an initial sweep of the house."

Ms. Hathee looked uncertain. "You are of course more than welcome Mr. Wilde, but..." She eyed him apologetically. "Your size may make that something of a hike. I apologize if it is rude to say so, but I had assumed you would arrive with a large number of CSI personnel."

Nick nodded. "You must understand that there are... Political concerns with a large police investigation being present here. The Mayor's request to the department asked for our discretion, especially considering Warfarin takes some time to kill a person and where she was dosed is up for debate. If you were willing to re-advise the mayor of the urgency though..."

Ms. Hathee looked annoyed, though it didn't seem directed at us. "Of course... Archibald wants this treated with kid gloves. This is private property and let it be known that you have my complete consent to search it as you see fit. I'll inform the mayor and see if that gets the wheels turning."

"Thank you Ms. Hathee. For now though, there is something we can do to provide us with a wealth of information instantly." Nick reached into his pocket and produced a small tablet. "I just need to follow my nose."

Ms. Hathee smiled. "Now you're talking. I had no idea you had scent training Officer Wilde."

Nick smirked. "Nothing formal, but I've dabbled in the past and following a scent trail is easy enough when you have a sample of what you're looking for." He popped open the bag and gave it a whiff. "Alright, I'm ready when you are ma'am."

The elephant blinked. "You want me to come with you?"

"Having someone to open the doors and provide context would be invaluable, so yes, yes I do."

The alderman rose to her feet. She had an almost predatory smile on her face. "By all means then Mr. Wilde. Let's track down a monster."

#

The search lead us through room after room. Nick said there was a faint scent in roughly half of them. It implied the poisoner hadn't known the house very intimately... Or they'd doubled back on themselves to cover their tracks.

Nick asked where Francine's old room was (just to be thorough), but it had been converted to a gym ages ago. The scent of Warfarin was there too, but just because the killer stopped there it didn't mean it was out of sentiment. The other rooms in the hall had the scent too.

Eventually, after yet another opulent library, we came to the master bedroom.

The place was neat and tidy, but a work desk stacked with papers and an old computer within easy walking distance of her bedside implied that while she was well off and bigoted, Francine's mother was at minimum, not lazy.

The bed was gargantuan. More than big enough for two elephants. "Dad passed away over 15 years ago." The Alderman explained. "She never gave up the old bed."

The pictures fit with the story. The dresser was covered with them. Francine's father was big, even for an elephant, but he didn't look imposing. When he wasn't dancing with his wife or playing with his kids he just looked like he was flustered to be having his picture taken. Even the picture of him in a Navy dress uniform just looked like a sensitive soul trying to act tough.

"He was a Navy Surgeon." Francine's sister explained. "Though he had some trouble getting assigned to a boat. During the Secessionist wars the army needed more people doing triage so..." She shook her head. "Sorry, it's a long story. He liked talking about chestnut trees more than that stuff anyway."

It was getting harder to be angry at her. I nodded. "Understood. Nick? Have you found anything."

"Yeah... Yeah I have." He'd climbed up on the bedside table, pulled open a drawer and slipped on a pair of gloves. Inside was a large pill organizer.

He sniffed at it carefully and grimaced. "Yup. This is it. This is how she was poisoned."

Amanda blanched. "Oh god... Someone tampered with her medications?"

"Well none of the other bins smell like Warfarin, so yeah. Barring further evidence, I'd say this is how it got in her system." The fox frowned, "Crap."

I blinked. "What's wrong?"

Nick lifted up the organizer (with more than a little difficulty) to show me "Carrots, the last filled slot in this thing is for Friday afternoon. She died before she could take them."

My ears fell back. "Oh no..." Nothing could ever be simple, could it?

Amanda was lost. "I'm terribly sorry, what's the issue?"

Nick lowered the pill organizer, very carefully so as to not injure himself. "The issue is that the perp could have placed their little present here any time in the last five days before your mother's death. No one has a five day alibi..."

Amanda's ears fell back. "That's going to make this difficult isn't it?"

Mine fell too. "I'm afraid so Alderman. I'm afraid so."