Chapter Two:
Curious Case of Baron Bouncer
A warm hand caressed its way along the top of Nick's muzzle, moving between his eyes and along his head. The sensation brought a low rumbling moan from his throat, a smiles tracing his lips. Nick's eyes fluttered open to see Judy sitting at the edge of his bed. To his surprise she didn't pull away, instead, she made another lap with her fingers along his face.
“Hey partner, how are you?”
Nick didn't answer, instead, he looked around the room. It was an observation room in the hospital. The overhead lights were dimmed to keep the atmosphere relaxed. The soft pulsing blip from the machines next to him brought his eyes up to the digital read out. His vitals looked normal from what he could tell, but he wasn't a doctor so he couldn't be sure.
“I'm good, a little tired.”
“I don't doubt it.” There was a soft tone to Judy's voice, Nick couldn't be sure if it was the atmosphere in the room, or if she was doing it for his benefit.
“What happened?”
Judy ran her fingers along Nick's chest, a sharp pain caused him to wince and grabbed her hand. “That hurts.”
“Yeah, there's another one too.” She pulled her hand from his and touched his stomach, again he winced, but didn't stop her from touching it.
It felt like an infected bee sting, complete with a welt that shifted under her fingers when she moved it. It sent a webbed pain out three times the size of a dime. Nick grunted and tugged at the gown, he wanted to see these welts for himself.
“Don't bother, they're already bandaged up.”
When Nick looked back at her, his eyes went wide. Judy had opened her pink button up shirt to show off the white square of gauze on her chest. Unfortunately, Nick only allotted himself a glance before his eyes wandered a little lower to her barely visible cleavage she unknowingly offered. A soft giggle escaped, bringing his eyes up to meet hers.
“Sly fox, I can see you're feeling better.”
Nick felt a rush of embarrassment wash over him like the whole hospital was now staring at him, judging him for being such a dirty dog. Quickly he averted his gaze from her feeling guilty for taking advantage of the situation, but Judy simple buttoned up her shirt and rested a hand on his forearm.
“The badger shot us with these strange darts. From what he said, if he would have shot us a third time we would have-”
The door opened, Chief Bogo stepped into the room with a lithe deer in scrubs following behind him. They were talking quietly to themselves, ignoring the looks from Judy and Nick. Nick watched as Bogo flipped through a folder full of papers. It looked like a case file, but not one he'd seen. Judging by the look on Judy's face, she'd not seen it before either.
“Officer Hopps was well enough to return to duty, is he?” Bogo finally spoke loud enough for Nick to hear.
“Because bunny's generally have a faster metabolism than foxes do, her body was able to absorb and pass the toxin faster. As for Officer Wilde, I'll be able to have a clear understanding after his next check up in a few hours.” The nurses' vowels sounded longer thanks to her accent. “I don't think it will be a problem, though. They will both experience some tenderness around the wounds, but as long as they keep them clean and dressed they should heal fine.”
“Excellent, do you need to speak with them, or may I...”
Bogo didn't finish his statement, instead, he tapped the file with the back of his hand. The nurse smiled and simply nodded.
“I will return in a short while to discharge, Officer Wilde.”
“Thank you, Avery. As always you've been a big help.”
“Anytime, Bogo.”
Without another word the deer stepped through the door, pulling it closed behind her. Nick and Judy both looked at the chief expecting him to launch into a speech about safety, being a loose cannon, or refusing to wait for backup, he simply cleared his throat and moved to join them next to the bed.
“Wilde, Hopps, I trust you both are feeling better.” He managed to keep his voice low and calm as the atmosphere in the room suggested.
“I've been better.” Nick tried to work a joke out of his hazy consciousness, but couldn't manage anything.
“Right as rain, sir.” Judy offered a salute that Bogo didn't return.
“Good, you gave us quite the scare there. I'd hate to minus a fox and bunny in my roster.”
“That's the nicest...”
“Zip it, fox. We're dealing with a situation here.” Bogo pulled a seat up, sitting beside the bed.
Judy got up and moved around to the other side giving her boss room to lay out what was in the folder. Nick saw a set of mug shots of the badger, the one that shot him and Judy. There were several other pictures among them. Pictures of other badgers that resembled those in the car. Judy picked up one of the pictures and looked at it closely.
“This is the one that took the shot at me when we were in pursuit.”
Nick saw her tracing her finger along the scar over the badger's left eye. “So what's going on?”
Bogo didn't say anything he gathered a few papers from the file and folded them, tucking them under his arm. “These aren't important.” He mumbled, barely loud enough for Nick to hear.
Judy reacted first. “Sir, if those files have any clues to figuring this out, we-”
“These papers belong in a different file, they don't pertain to this case.” Bogo sighed not meeting their gazes.
“If you say so, sir.” Judy lay the picture back down on the bed.
“I do.”
Nick looked up at Judy and saw the same look on her face that he knew he wore. “Who is this guy?” Nick wanted to move the conversation along.
“Born Bartrand Bouncer. When he moved to Zootopia, he changed it to Bucky Bouncer, but now he's known as Baron Bouncer.” Bogo said, holding up a picture of the perp.
“Bucky Bouncer,” Judy whispered. “I know that name.”
“You should know his name, along with being responsible for much of the cities medical facility and Pharmacy robberies, he used to be an upstanding citizen. He himself owned a Pharmacy. Many Zootopians thought he died years ago, but we know otherwise.”
“I don't understand. If this guy's such a big deal, why is he out and about committing robberies and of all things, Pharmaceutical.” Nick picked up a list of robberies pinned on Baron Bouncer.
“I'd imagine he's trafficking drugs,” Judy added, picking up a picture of Bouncer when he was younger.
“I would agree with that, except Vice hasn't heard a peep about increased trafficking. Or a new drug on the market. There's more to this than meets the eye.” Bogo picked up a piece of paper that showed a familiar looking dart.
Judy beat Nick to the punch. “That's the dart he shot us with.”
“Precisely, and from what the doctors have told me. It's a particular cocktail that has doesn't seem to contain a nerve toxin in it, but it's capable of stopping a great number of mammals of varying sizes. Two darts are capable of causing a mammal to pass out. Three darts-”
“Will kill a mammal,” Judy added.
“Not exactly, but it could kill the brain leaving them nothing more than a husk.”
“Fate worse than death,” Nick muttered, wincing as he touched his wounds.
“Unfortunately, all of this is hearsay. We took the dart but there wasn't enough left to study. We had the two of you examined and even if we knew where the devil he was, it's still your word against his.”
“Chief Bogo, are you saying that nothing in this folder has been proven for a fact? None of these robberies, or these-”
“That's exactly what I'm saying. All we've done was piece together a case fail based on theory. There are similarities between each and every robbery, but most of the time badgers weren't even involved.”
“I don't believe this. How is no one in the precinct aware of this?” Nick scoffed, he felt the blood boiling to his face.
It took Judy's soft hand on his chest to calm him. “How long has this been going on?”
“Five years, almost six. We didn't make anyone aware of this because up until now Baron Bouncer hadn't made a physical move against anyone.” Bogo leaned on the bed hanging his head.
“What do you want us to do, sir?”
“Find him, infiltrate his ranks, and get hard evidence to put him away.” Bogo seemed tired, like sharing this information took a huge burden off his shoulders.
“Undercover?”
Bogo looked up at Judy, who was beaming excitedly. “Undercover.”
“So now all we have to do is-” Judy started to say, but Nick rested his hand on hers.
A sly smile played across his muzzle, his eyes moving to meet hers. “No worries, I might know a guy that can help us with this. If he doesn't know, he will know someone who does.”
