Zootopia: A Paradox in Time
A strange pocket watch is found with the bones of a murdered victim. Nick and Judy find themselves dragged into the past and they think that the only way they can save themselves from being trapped there forever is to stop the murder. For Judy the Roaring Twenties is exciting, but Nick finds that it is a dangerous time to be a fox.
Welcome readers, I was inspired to write this short story when I found an old beat up pocket watch at a thrift store. It reminded me of how such a once precious possession can in time become junk, but what if there is more to the watch than meets the eye? I don't know who owned the watch and why it end up in a box of random stuff, that my friends is another story which may never be told, but this story begins with a murder most foul.
I do not own the rights to Zootopia or any of its characters. This story was written solely for the reader's enjoyment and without any profitable purposes. The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this story are fictitious.
September 14, 1925
The thin middle aged cheetah was kneeling in the center of a muddy backroad, his once white dress shirt was ripped and there was blood trickling down his muzzle onto his torn striped tie before it dripped to stain the gravel below his knees crimson red. The private detective had long given up any attempts to wiggle or cut his way out of the stout ropes which bound his arms behind his back. Looking up at the two figures that were outlined by the car's headlights he shook his head. "Yeah, it figures it would be you in charge," he spoke to the third figure who slowly climbed out of a nearby unmarked patrol car. "I knew that Al Catpone had his claws into the cops, but I didn't know he owned the Chief of Police too?"
"Catpone don't own me chump," the fat ram in the dark blue uniform grunted out as he walked his way towards the wounded cat. The four gold stars on each of his uniform's shirt collars glittered in the car lights. "We have a mutual business arrangement which make us both rather rich."
"He shouldn't have killed Molly Greenhoofs," the detective sighed. "She wasn't anyone important, just an innocent young doe from Deerbrook County."
"What can I say?" the ram chuckled. "Catpone has unique tastes for a jaguar, he's into prey stalking."
"You know you won't get away with this?" the kneeling cat sighed. "Justice will prevail, even if I have to climb my way out of hell to get you."
"I won't get away with it? Ha, I already have Clawhauser and there's no coming back from where you're going," the ram chuckled and then stepped back as he nodded to the other two officers standing next to him. They both lowered their rifles and fired, riddling the helpless cheetah with round after round. After looking intently over the now dead body, the fat ram finally spoke again, "Dump him in the swamp where no one will find him!"
Present Day
"So this is where we found the skeleton," a tired looking otter wearing the light tan uniform of the city's Department of Fisheries and Wildlife said to the tall muscular horse dressed in a rumpled light grey suit. Detective Ronald Oates ran his hoof through the back of his auburn furred neck and then scratched the cream-colored mark that ran down his muzzle. "Some of the local boys were out frog gigging last night and their spear pulled up a bone, so one thing led to another."
Looking back at the slime encrusted partial skeleton, which had been laid out on a blue tarp, the detective sighed. "Definitely a medium sized male feline and based on the few mud soaked remains of clothing, I would say he died sometime in the pre-war part of the last century. Maybe the 1920's or 1930's, but I can't tell for sure," he said to his companions.
A much smaller rabbit in a light blue tactical uniform with dark blue impact plates joined him and knelt in the muck. "We found these embedded in the body," Judy said as she held up a plastic bag with a few bullets inside and then she passed another bag to the detective. "The only other thing is this broken watch."
The detective held it up and thoughtfully looked it over before answering, "A bronze double hunter style pocket watch with one of the lids missing. Have the lab boys open this up at the station, maybe we will be lucky and find an engraving inside the remaining lid." Judy nodded as she returned the items to their places on the blue tarp.
"Forensics is waiting for the body, but based on the bullets we found I'd say it was a murder," a red fox in a dark blue uniform added as he joined them by the tarp.
"That's an assumption Wilde," the detective drawled out, his voice had a country twang to it. "I reckon everyone knows the old saying to never ASSUME, because when you ASSUME, you make an ASS of U and ME. No, we'll let the lab guys give us a definitive answer and then see which way the wind blows after that."
"Like I haven't heard that pearl of wisdom before," Nick scoffed. "I doubt he died from old age."
"That's exactly why your partner will one day be a detective and you'll stay a beat cop," the horse replied in an amused voice as he sucked on a thin strip of wheat straw. "She doesn't jump to conclusions like you do Red."
"And you don't look as naive as you act," the fox replied with a smirk.
"Sometimes acting like a down home, dirt dumb hick can cause the bad guys to underestimate you," the detective chuckled as he followed the fox towards the large black and white patrol cruiser. "Besides, a little homespun wisdom might do you some good city boy."
"Yeah, that's what Fluff back there tries to tell me," Nick snickered as he dug around for a thermos and a couple of Styrofoam cups. Carefully he poured the still hot coffee into the cups and offered the larger one to the horse. "She has even threatened to haul me down to the family farm to do some field work, claiming that hard work might teach me some humility."
"I never thought I'd up and hear the word humility come out of that pie hole?" the detective laughed as he sipped the dark brew before changing the subject. "Ya'll should really be more…ah…selective in what you up say when you tease Bogo."
"Yeah, I'm the one who had to sign my performance review," Nick sighed as he added another packet of sugar to his drink. "Insubordinate…sarcastic… "
"Woah partner, no need to lay out your little old personality disorders to me," Oates chuckled. "They're well known to everyone."
"They all come with being a fox," Nick shrugged. "Everyone expects me to be the way I am and I learned at an early age to be that way, so old habits are hard to break."
"Hopps saw something in you that the rest of us didn't," the detective replied as he stopped sipping his coffee and stared out into the swamp as if he was contemplating his words before looking back down at the fox in the blue uniform. "She went to bat for you with Bogo and then he put his butt on the line to give you a chance to wear those blues. No one in the department, or even in the city, imagined that one day we'd see a fox become a cop."
Nick's ears flattened and he looked back at his partner who was interviewing one of the two teenage skunks who had found the bones. "I never told her how hard it is for me to wear this uniform," he sighed before looking up at the taller detective. "Even dressed like this I'm despised and ridiculed. I've heard other cops saying that I only got my job because of minority recruitment, that I'm unqualified and that I'm just here because someone in public relations wants to use me as an example of how progressive the ZPD has become."
"Wilde you earned that uniform," the detective said as he leaned down closer to the small mammal. "You're smarter than most cops and have great instincts, you've lived on the streets and know what folks are most likely to do under stress, where they might hide, and how they might act. These recruits from cozy suburban neighborhoods only learn this after many years of being in the field, if they survive, but you already have it as a rookie."
"Toot toot, lucky me!" the fox sarcastically laughed as he made a pumping gesture like that of pulling on a train whistle with his right paw. "Next you'll be telling me that the red fur makes me lucky because the bad guys can't see me bleed."
"Har…Har…Har," the detective scoffed. "Being a fox gives you a lot of gifts that I don't have."
"Name one!" the fox challenged as he returned to his coffee. "Besides being the guy who always gets blamed when something goes wrong."
"Okay pard, lets start with your eyes..." the detective began to say, only frown when he was cut off by the fox batting his eyes while looking up at him.
"Aw, you like my eyes! That's so sweet you big lunk," Nick chuckled as he smirked up at the larger mammal.
"Can it Wilde!" the horse sighed. "I'm trying to make a point here."
"Who's stopping you?" Nick laughed as he continued to bat his eyes at the detective. "Is it my eyes?"
Oates let out a huff and shook his mane, before continuing, "As I was trying to say, you can see in the dark and I can't. Second, your hearing is almost as good as your partner's. Then there's your sniffer which is just shy matching any wolves," the horse counted down. "You're thin and wiry, which makes you fast and maneuverable up close."
"I've gone from cute eyes to being thin and wiry, you need to make up you mind big guy," the fox snickered, before he added. "You can still outrun me on the track,"
"It's called trotting when I do it on a track and yes I can outrun you in the long run, but you can out turn me up close," Oats added. "You should stop selling yourself short."
"You just said short, was that a pun?" The much smaller mammal laughed again and then he gave the detective a look of warning as they both saw the even smaller rabbit approach. "So did those two little stinkers know anything that was useful?"
"No!" Judy grumbled in frustration as she joined them by the cruiser. "They just found the bones and then called the ranger."
"Well I reckon there's not much more we can do around here, so let's pack it in and see what the archives have for us," Oats sighed as he leaned against the cruiser. "I don't think we have any active missing mammal records from the 20's or 30's, so we've up and got ourselves a little old cold case."
"So Carrots, why are you looking so glum?" Nick asked as he gave her a knowing smirk. He had kept an eye on her during the interview and had a good idea of what was going on, but he just wanted to tease his partner.
"The chubby one kept asking me out," she sighed. "I about decked him when he said that I was so cute in this uniform."
"Annnnd there you go Oates, just another day on the beat for Wilde and Hopps," Nick sarcastically chuckled. "We're just an untrustworthy sly fox and a cute little bunny wunny playing at being cops. Welcome to our world!"
"No Nick, its Hopps and Wilde!" Judy corrected her partner. "I've got seniority rookie."
The tall handsome horse just replied with a long neighing sigh as he shook his head.
