Detective Sylvan arrived at the Third and immediately felt the tension, if not hostility. A rather odd sensation with nearly everyone there an Ungulate like herself. As they were mostly big Bucks, Bulls, and Stallions, the more normal reaction would be polite deference to her as a relatively petite young Doe. But there was none of that here today. She was curtly directed to Detective Avila's office.

"Detective Avila?" She asked, and was a little surprised to meet the little Coatimundi. The species was not common in Zootopia, especially the darker nasua, uniformly dusky aside from the dramatically large ringed tail.

"And you must be Sylvan." The little fellow trotted over to shake paws. "Bet you saw the welcoming committee?"

"Yeah, what's up with that?"

"The precinct is really defensive about this. Mostly because it looks bad that it happened in their turf, but also - ." It was clear that he was wary to speak further. "Do you want to get a cup of coffee or something?"

Once well away from the precinct, Sylvan Turned to Avila, "What the hangnail?"

"The precinct has been very sensitive about old Bellwether sympathizers. Most of her muscle was recruited out of there. Obviously, anyone actively involved were kicked off, and they've taken every effort to avoid even the appearance of anything linked to such since. But anti-pred bias goes back further and is a lot deeper for a lot of folks."

Sylvan sighed, "Yeah. My family has a tradition of law enforcement, except for the gearhead side, and early on, it was in terms of 'keepin' dem preds in line'." The last said with an exaggerated provincial twang. "And thinking of pred-prey dynamics, we ought go see Judy and really grind on what we have so far."

"Judy?" The little beast cocked his head.

"Yeah, Judy Hopps. She's been made official as an analyst and is itching to get on the case. Wilde has been cleared to work it too, but is still too out of it so far."

"Wow, The Judy Hopps."

Sylvan called ahead to make sure it was okay to come over. Then to Avila, "Donuts. She said we can't do cop stuff without donuts."

Then, there they were, The Judy Hopps letting them into her home. Like all too many before him, Avila was a bit surprised how simple and unassuming she seemed in person. About his own size, aside from the ears, she had on a baggy ZPD sweater and sweatpants, grey on grey with grey. Had it not been for the now signature eyepatch and crutch, she could pass for any middle-aged bunny.

After introductions, she gave the pair a quick walk though of the place.

A fair portion of the top floor of the Grand Pangolin Arms had been converted to an extended suite for Wilde-Hopps during repairs after a still not fully disclosed event that also involved that notorious pair, ZPD SWAT and un-named government agencies. A fair portion of that suite was reserved as guest spaces for Hopps' many and varied visiting relatives, a tradition of hospitality that had carried over from the 'Burrows.

One of the rooms was now an office space, with a white board with some preliminary notes on the case already outlined.

"So, what did you bring me?"

Sylvan offered Judy the box of donuts.

"Yum, a good assortment. And for the case?"

Avila held out his laptop and explained, "As I told Sylvan, the precinct was awfully reticent to let go of files. At the time, it seemed more to do with feeling defensive than any sense that they're trying to actually hide anything."

He began opening files to show the pair, "I had to get creative to be able get access to more data than they were willing to release, short of a formal OPC investigation. No smoking guns, but plenty of circumstantial suspicion."

Judy showed him how to link his small unit to a big screen display for easier viewing by all three.

"Here's what we've got on the two shooters."

"Ken Hooper, Puma. Danny Ploover, Wolf. Neither have any major crime history, all nickel and dime petty theft and a history of drug and alcohol abuse. So there are some D and Ds, and Hooper has a couple muggings on his sheet from early on. But nothing about guns or significant assault charges."

"Supposedly, they had more or less cleaned up their act, at least don't have any recent activity, and have some drug counseling time a couple years back. There is no record of them working together, or any social relationship. Doubly so as they were both on probation and would have been prohibited from socializing, not that they would, Wolf and Puma, ya' know."

"Kind of specie-ist, don't ya think?" Sylvan half-joked.

"Now here comes the bad parts. One of the guns was simply an old shotgun, completely unremarkable. Looks like it's been in someone's attic for a few decades, the gun its self is at least eighty years old. The ammo is nearly as old, and was used in both guns. But it's the other gun that's the problem. While its nearly as old, it does have a history. Used in crimes decades ago, it had been held by the ZPD, until ten years ago when it was listed as destroyed."

"Out of the Third?"

"That's were it had been held in evidence. Files don't show any paper trail for transfers, just a destroyed notation. Though, to be fair, there was a lot of poor documentation at the time, as they were converting everything to a more 'paperless' system. Not that it got rid of all that much paper."

"Autopsies on the pair showed they were on Juice. But not just any Juice. The formulation has evolved over time, and what they had in them was an older formula, one that hasn't been around for nearly a decade. What's worse, and perhaps part of the motive for why them in particular, they were both on a low level of Blue, and had been so for a good while."

That likely meant that they had been extorted, a growing tactic for some criminals to force others to act for them.

Avila sat back and sighed.

"So, that's were my concern is that there might be something very wrong at the Third came from. It would be all too easy for someone or someones to skim any seized drugs. Though it had to be someone who'd been there back in the day."

"As for our mystery officers, there were only the three officers on the same floor that insisted that there were three or four additional officers cover the far side. And by unpleasant co-incident, none have body cam images of them. Two of the officers have a bad habit of not only not turning their body cams on, but actually powering them down. Repeatedly verbal reprimands and notations in their jackets about that."

"What's the difference?" Sylvan puzzled.

"Even when not actively recording images, the body cams still log GPS locations at regular intervals. But it doesn't make much sense to shut them off, as their comms also have a constant GPS record and ping."


"On the other hand, they don't have a statistically higher complaint rate than anyone else, and do have the good sense to turn on their cams when there is going to be an obvious hassle."

"Uhm. Look at their arrest record. Rather high pred ratio."

"Yeah, but not high enough to flag an official bias check. But let's do some reality check here too. Compare them to the rest of the precinct." Judy observed.

"Uhho, there is a bit of a nasty trend here. Even in a district with a higher than average prey to pred ratio, and arrest trends with the rest more in line with the population, these three have pretty much the opposite numbers." Avila grumped, while Sylvan looked on in sympathy.

Judy glumly pointed out, "Of course, they can argue they were simply keeping an extra eye out for pred perps. That's been a plea that's worked before, and with some justification, sort of. The actual arrests have been legitimate, but profiling can still be an issue, especially if they are jacking up random preds without cause and simply not reporting the clean ones."

Avila continued, "The senior guy, Tyndel, a Moose, been there eighteen years. Other than his arrest ratio, has been totally clean, lower than average complaints, no formal hits of any kind. A real ranger scout."

"Second guy, Jacob, an Oryx, actually went though the academy at the same time as you, Hopps. Was partnered up with Tyndel as a rookie."

"Wasn't Tyndel a bit young to be a trainer?"

"Like the jacket says, a total ranger scout. Figured he'd be a good influence."

"Didn't entirely take though, has a few dings early on when he got his own patrol. Seems he and his current partner share some of the same bad habits. Higher than average complaints, the body cam thing, the high pred ratio. But, again, just not quite bad enough to bring official attention to themselves."

"And there isn't anything to indicate any personal or partisan sympathies."

"As frustrating as that is, its a privacy safeguard that I still have to agree with. I sure wouldn't want my political leanings in my official files."

"The third officer, Brechenrich, a Blacktail, partnered up with Jacob five years ago. Has the sketchiest record of the three. Again, just enough non-pred arrests to not draw official attention, but has more complaints and procedural write-ups."

"As for the alleged other officers, they may have been two wolves and a cougar, and/or maybe a lynx." All three were vague about the exacts, claiming they were unfamiliar with them as they came from 'another precinct'." Avila was clearly unimpressed.

"But, I've been on site security myself back in the day, and in mixed circumstances, had simply trusted that the other guys were who they appeared to be." Judy offered. "I assume dispatch doesn't have any record to account for any additional real officers?"

"Hope."

"Could it be that the area was simply left open for the two shooters to walk in? No fake officers at all?"

"Would make life a lot simpler."

"Especially for whoever planned this."

The two younger officers looked at Judy querulously.

"Was this shooting planned from the start, a staged scene to draw them in, or was it more of a matter of opportunity?"

"Think about it. The original call was for a domestic disturbance gone bad. First unit had to call for back up due to multiple actors. The drug angle wasn't part of it until they were picking up the pieces. The officers and the first detective on site were all unpleasantly surprised by it all. It wasn't until then that Post and Wilde were called in. From that point until they were shot was only about two hours."

"If it not pre-planned, then it needed to have someone who knew what was going on. Either monitoring the communications, or someone in the chain of command."

"Do you have records of all communications in the time frame? And one better, all other recordings, dash cams, everyone else's body cams?"

"So, we can figure out who knew when?"

"And if we're lucky, maybe we can catch something."

Judy got on her secure terminal and began typing. "If the data is still out there, we'll get it in just a few." She watched the results of her inputs. Made a face and beat on her machine a bit more. And waited. And beat some more. Her good foot began to thump in annoyance. She opened another screen and beat into it. And waited. Then opened another screen and beat into that. Then got up to stretch, and looked back over the box of donuts.

"I've worked with an Agent who would always carefully pronounce these as 'dough naughts'." Holding a Homer special up, but decided against eating it, too sweet.

Sylvan laughed, "My awful Brothers, just to be rude, always referred them as 'dog nuts'."

The Coati smiled a bit awkwardly, these two seemed to already have a good relationship going, and he felt a bit like the odd mammal out. Judy noticed.

"Avila, if she hasn't already bored you with it yet, her Brothers are all race car drivers, and this silly doe, and her older sister, who's now the Sheriff back in the Tri-Burrows, are both crazy drivers."

"But you were the perfect example of restraint coming over here?"

"It's all in the context." the Doe mimicked handling a steering wheel and went 'vroom vroom!'

"Yeah, just don't be in a vehicle with her if there's an all-units call."

"And how about you?"

"Nothing much to tell. My family have always been craftsmammals, tinkers, silversmiths, custom woodworking, jewelers. I wasn't as interested in any of that hand work, but I was always good at puzzles and riddles. I originally was interested in forensics, but didn't have the math or science chops for it. So, a detective."

"And working at the Third?"

He made a face. "Up until this happened, not a problem. Since I'm a small ominivore, I guess I've never been on anyone's radar or anything. There are a couple preds in the precinct, a wolf and a bear, I'm not close, but I never heard of them having any problem either."

"Then this happened and now everyone is walking on egg-shells and is paranoid about saying or doing anything that can be mis-construed as specie-ist. A lot of the officers act like they've been accused of something, at least by association."

"As previously mentioned, since there was the old connection with Bellwether, its almost like there is an imposed collective guilt on everyone."

As they thought about that, there was a tone, but not from the computers, But Judy's 'phone. She saw the number and answered, "Judy Hopps here, is there anything wrong?" then she made a whole spectrum of faces, finally settling on somewhere between frustrated and dismayed. "Yes, I'll be there in a few."

She looks to the pair, "It's the Twins, they got into a fight at school."

"Are they alright?" Sylvan gasped.

"Apparently, though there is a Moose with a broken hoof out of it. So I gotta go." She looked to the computer screen to see if there were any results. Nothing yet. "There ought to be some answers coming up, eventually. And probably a couple messages for clarification. You can answer for me, and I'll be back - in a while."

As she was preparing to go, she though of another thing, "If anything comes up here at the house, wake up sleepy head. He's still a bit out of it, but can help if needed be."

Avila turned to Sylvan, "Sleepy head?"

"Wilde, he's crashed out in back."