Okay, so I'm having some troubles with uploading the story and such, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. If it takes a while for another chapter or something else happens, please don't be too mad I'm trying my best! xD With that said, I hope you enjoy the story! =)
The place reeked. Judy's nose crinkled up in disgust as she and Nick entered the noxious apartment. She could hear Nick gag. "What is that smell?" He groaned.
"I don't know, but let's just hurry up so we can get out of here." She responded, beginning to look around in the apartment. "Why don't you look over there," she said, pointing to a hallway with two doors leading off into different rooms. "I'll look over here." She then turned to scope said area.
Nick walked into the hallway and through one of the doors, into another room. Judy entered the kitchen and searched through the piles of papers strewn across the kitchen countertop. Her interest perked when she saw something shiny through all the papers. She reached out to grab it, but before she could, she heard Nick scream, "OH. MY. GOD!"
She rushed out of the kitchen and into the room where she heard the scream. It looked like it must have been the tiger's bedroom. "Nick! What happened?!" She asked him frantically.
He pointed to a poster hanging on the wall of the bedroom, his eyes wide and his mouth hung open. On the poster were three ferrets wearing quite a bit of bling, and at the top in big lettering, it said "Ferret Wap". "That is the best band ever!" He told her, looking intently at the poster. "This guy's got good taste." He smirked.
Judy crossed her arms and her foot started thumping frustratingly. He looked over at her. "What?" He asked innocently.
"Don't scream like that!" She glared at him. "I thought you had found something! Or… something had found you…You scared me half to death!"
"Aw, calm down, Carrots. I'm fine. I wouldn't expect you not to scream if you had found a Gazelle poster." He chuckled. Seeing as she still looked mad, he added, "I'm sorry."
"It's fine," she sighed, "Just keep looking in here." She walked out of the room and back to the kitchen, where she picked up the shiny object that had caught her attention. It was a little plastic card that said:
YMCA
(Young Mammals' Caboodle Association)
Claud B. Alas
Deluxe Membership
She studied the card and thought to herself, Deluxe membership? He must go to the YMCA quite often… Lots of people must know him! Maybe someone there will know where he went!
"Hey, Whiskers!" Nick called, snapping her out of her thoughts. She walked back into the bedroom to see Nick squatting on the ground, squinting at something lying there.
"Did you find something?" She asked him.
"I think so." He pulled out some tweezers and a little baggie. He picked up whatever he was looking at with the tweezers and put it in the bag. He held the bag up to Judy. She peered at the bag. Inside was a piece of fur.
"What kind of fur do you think that is? It can't be the tiger's, his fur is orange and that fur is gray." She asked him, her eyes still locked on the fur, trying to identify it.
"I'm not sure. But.. maybe if I lick it…" he started opening the bag.
"Nick! No!" She slapped the hand about to open the little bag. "That's evidence! Plus, you can't just go around licking things willy nilly, that's disgusting!"
"Sorry, jeez! Would you like to lick it?" He snickered, holding out the bag to her. She grabbed it and scowled.
"Let's just send it to the lab. While they figure out what fur it is, we'll be visiting the Y." she grinned.
"The Y?" He smirked. "Why?"
Ignoring his joke, she held out the YMCA membership card for him to read. "Because Claud B. Alas is a member there."
"Aaaand…?" He inquired, his hands making a rolling motion.
"And I think someone there might know what happened to him." She stated proudly.
"Mmmkay." He smirked then put on his aviators. He then turned a mock serious. "Let's do this."
Once they had dropped off the fur sample and gotten back into their police cruiser, it was only a twenty minute drive to the YMCA. Judy was behind the wheel, and nick was staring out the window, his shades still on. His arm was resting on the edge of the car and he drummed his fingers on the car to the beat of "Livin' on a Prairie" by John Bovine, a cow famous for his rock 'n roll songs.
Judy didn't care for rock, but Nick did, and it was hilarious to hear him singing along to it. When they finally pulled into the parking lot of the YMCA, she basically had to drag Nick out of the car and onto his feet, because he claimed to be "exhausted", but she knew he was just being lazy. She frowned. "You know, the YMCA has an indoor pool," she said to him.
"And…?" He looked up at her, confused.
"And a lot of people go to the YMCA…" she continued.
"I don't see where you're going with this, Carrots."
"I'm sure lots of girls are swimming in there…"
His eyes widened when he finally understood what she meant. "Oh… Oh!"
He grinned. "Then what are we waiting for?!" He got up and strolled to the entrance to the YMCA. She hopped after him. The things she had to do to motivate him...
They went inside and stood in front of the reception desk. Sitting at the desk was a female deer. She looked up at them and said, "Hello, how can I help you?" Judy pulled the picture of Claud B. Alas out of her pocket and showed it to the receptionist.
"My name is Officer Judy Hopps," she pointed to her partner, "And this is my partner Officer Nicholas Wilde, we're with the ZPD. This is Claud B. Alas. We understand he has a membership here and is a frequent client, is this correct?" The deer adjusted her glasses and squinted at the photo. Her eyes flashed with recognition.
"Oh, yes! Mister Alas. Yes, he's one of our most recurring patrons! He comes here every weekend!" She smiled, then frowned, looking worried. "Why are the cops looking for him?"
"I'm afraid Mister Alas went missing from his apartment last night…" she told the deer, who obviously knew him. She hated to be the bearer of bad news. The deer gasped and shook her head.
"That's just awful, but… why are you here?" She asked them.
"We were hoping someone here would have any idea on why he went missing, and where he would go."
"Oh, well you could talk to Lucas." She pointed over to a jaguar lifting weights. "They always came here together."
They told the deer thank you then walked off to talk to the jaguar. "Excuse me?" Judy asked. No answer. "Lucas?" Still no answer.
"Ay, buddy!" Nick tried. He frowned, then reached over to pull out one of the earplugs he had spotted in the jaguar's ear. Startled, the jaguar set the large weight down and then sat up, panting.
"Can I help you?" He glared at them.
"Yes, actually. Hi, I'm Officer Judy Hopps and this is Officer Nick Wilde." She held out the picture of Claud B. Alas. "Do you know this tiger?"
The jaguar wiped his arm across his face then said, "Yeah, my old buddy Claud! What'd he do?"
"He went missing." Nick frowned. The jaguar's eyes shot up. "We were hoping you might know why." Lucas thought for a bit.
"Hm… well, recently, I dunno… he's been hangin' out with some shady lookin' dudes." He knit his brows. "Maybe they have something to do with him goin' MIA."
"Do you know these people? Any idea who they are, where they live… anything?" Judy asked.
"Well… I'm pretty sure I remember Claud telling me about one of 'em. Think he said his name was Rocco Blancan. Goes by Loco Rocco. Where he lives though, can't tell you that." Judy got out a notepad and wrote down the information.
"Okay. Thank you very much, mister…?"
"Sonaro. Lucas Sonaro."
"Mister Sonaro." She smiled and walked off with Nick. Once in the car, she said, "Alright. Now all we need to do is find this "Rocco Blancan"."
"Yep." Nick responded, a little disappointed that they weren't able to go by the pool area. "How do you suppose we do so, Cottontail?" He smirked, his eyes half-lidded.
"Easy! We have Clawhauser do it." And with that, they were off towards the police station.
