Hey guys, StoryCrusader here.
I like where this story is headed already. I have to admit I really liked writing this chapter, but enough chit chat, lets get on with it.
Enjoy!
Section 1: The Case of the Silver Fox
Chapter: Murder
"Judy! Wait!" The fox yelled over the thunder, but the rabbit was already gone, sprinting through the rain towards the direction of the gunshot.
Their normal day off had just descended into chaos.
Lightning lit up the angry sky as the wind threatened to blow even the largest of animals over.
Judy weaved in and out of the spooked mammals fleeing the scene., trying to keep from slipping on the now wet pavement. The rain and the thick clouds above made it difficult to see, but she could just make out the location of the gunshot, judging by the way people were avoiding it.
A gust of wind nearly knocked the already soaked rabbit to the ground, but she endured and pushed past the remaining fleeing animals towards an alley way that people were fleeing from.
Judy slid to a stop and hugged the wall before slowly peaking her head into the alley. It was dark, too dark to make anything out.
There was a flash of lightning, and Judy saw everything clearly for a split second. She stared in horror at the crumpled form of a what appeared to be a wolf. Blood was being diluted by the rain as it was rinsed off the body of the animal.
Judy ran up to the canine hoping for a pulse as she put a paw to the wolf's neck. Nothing. He was dead. She quickly removed her paw, trembling a little. This was her first murder scene and her first time touching a dead animal. She shook away her panic and searched the darkness for any sign of life.
Another flash of lightning ripped open the sky. Her ear twitched at a slight rustling sound from the back of the alley. Judy caught movement in the corner of her eye in the same direction. She managed to catch a quick glimpse of a whitish furred animal disappearing around a corner. A fox? She instinctively reached for her gun only to grasp air. Her heart pounded, realizing how ill-prepared and vulnerable she was.
She glanced nervously back towards the street, then back to the corner. Her gut told her to wait for backup, but she ignored it and sprinted after whoever it was she had seen. When she ran around the corner, she gasped. It was a dead end.
"How? Wher… where did he go?!" Judy whispered to herself, suddenly having a chill go down her spine. There was no doors, no fire escapes to be climbed, no holes in the ground, just no exit! She saw someone go this way, yet she wasn't so sure anymore. The weather made it even more eerie. She had a sudden wish to leave. Had she seen a ghost? No, she didn't believe in ghosts. But, she had seen something, didn't she?
Just then, she heard footsteps behind her, her eyes widening, terror on her face, as her ears picked up a heartbeat. No, the shooter was flesh and blood, this proved it! She clenched her fist and whirled about to face her attacker, only to have her eyes widen with shock.
Why can't she wait for backup?
The fox splashed through another puddle as another car honked at him to get out of the way. He had lost sight of his partner. He was making his way toward where he had seen her last. He had left the leopard handcuffed to a lamppost, much to the protest of the leopard, and then had hastily began crossing the street after Judy.
Is it so hard to wait for your own partner and friend? 'Oh look, I'm Judy, the first bunny officer of Zootopia. I can take care of myself. I don't need back up. What do I care if I get hurt or…or killed…?'
Nick gulped at the thought.
Was he worried? Yes. She was his partner as well as his best friend, and so when she went running headlong into possible danger like this, he was always worried about what would happen to her.
If anything bad happened to her, it would be her fault for recklessly charging in, and Nick knew that. But, Nick would be beside himself with guilt regardless. He felt personally responsible for his partner's wellbeing, not that he will ever tell her that or anyone that.
If anything happened to that rabbit…well, that's not important right now. Right now, he had to find his partner.
Nick finally reached the alleyway he had seen Judy run into. He drew his gun, something Nick knew his rabbit friend didn't have at the moment. The fox held it out in front of him as he entered the darkness of the alley.
"Carrots?" He hissed.
Being a nocturnal animal, Nick could see perfectly in the dim light. He saw the trash littering the ground and gave a start at first when he noticed the blood on the ground, fearing it was his partner's, but then he noticed the body by the dumpster.
He knelt down to feel for a pulse, and finding none, he moved on.
At the back of the alley Nick saw the passage cut off to the right. The alley smelled of rotten food and trash, and in fact, several rotting trash bags lined the walls of the passage. The smell made it hard for Nick to track Judy's scent, but he could tell that she had rounded the corner up ahead.
The fox's heart raced as he padded silently towards the turn, a little afraid of what he will find around it. As he neared closer and closer to it, he half expected someone to jump out at him with a gun, and was just about to turn the corner when…
"Ufff!"
The punch to the muzzle sent Nick falling back into a puddle of water. The fox looked up to see a shocked rabbit, paws covering her mouth. Well, multiple rabbits from his perspective. But, hey, who's counting?
"Oh, I'm so sorry! Nick, you scared me half to death!"
Judy quickly sprang to help the dazed fox get up, relieved to see her partner after what she just saw, apologizing profusely for punching him in the nose.
Nick touched his snout gingerly, wincing with each touch.
"I gotta say, Carrots," he began, blinking and shaking his head from the dizziness he now suffered from. "I don't know why I was so worried. You can take care of yourself just fine."
Nick swore as he touched a spot on his nose that was significantly more painful than the others.
"Sweet mother of a mammal, you can punch!"
Judy couldn't help a nervous laugh and smile, gingerly touching her partner's arm apologetically. Her face filled with concern.
"Haha…ehh… Sorry?"
The fox bended over, still clutching his nose, but waved his paw as if to say 'It's alright.' Removing his paw from his snout and blinking a few times before shaking his head, Nick turned to the rabbit with a sniff.
"Woah. Well, I am going to feel that later. Anyway, I'm fine. You alright? You had me worried there for a sec. I didn't know where you went."
Judy intently looked at her partner before relaxing a bit, convinced that he was in fact okay. She nodded.
"Yeah, but I can't say the same for him," she said, an uneasiness written upon her face. She cocked her head toward the body. "The shooter made a quick exit. I caught a glimpse, but he was gone before I could get a better look."
"What did he look like?"
"White and, uh, tall-ish? I don't know. I didn't get a good look at him."
Nick took note of Judy's facial expression, which told him that something was going on in that lapin brain of hers. Was there something she wasn't telling him?
Nick and Judy knelt down near the body. The storm had let up a little, and the clouds had parted slightly, allowing them to better view what lay before them.
She shuddered as she examined the brown wolf more closely.
He had been shot from close range directly to the heart. He never stood a chance. One shot. The shooter must have been confident in his shot, usually there were multiple gunshot wounds. Of course, what did she know? This was her first homicide scene. She glanced back towards the back of the alley.
Maybe it had been her imagination. The lapin redirected her attention to the fatal wound of the wolf.
No, I am sure I saw something.
Nick was taking this more easily than the rabbit. The fact that they had been in the vicinity of a murder, or even that they were examining a dead body for that matter, didn't seem to affect him. He nudged the body a little to get a better look at the mammal's face. The fox froze.
"Carrots?"
The rabbit looked at the fox but then at what he was staring at. Her eyes widened.
"Is he—?"
"The same wolf with the black bag and laptop from earlier?" Nick completed Judy's question, eyes locking with hers before answering.
"Yes… he is, except he is missing his bag and laptop."
Chief Bogo ducked beneath the yellow tape surrounding the crime scene. He had been interrupted from his lunch when he got the call that a shooting had taken place. At first when he got that, he was immediately concerned about Wilde's partner, Hopps, and feared that she would be the one shot. Fortunately, that wasn't the case, but the bull knew all too well how determined and stubborn the rabbit could be when she was doing her job. She had been known to go in alone before, and today was no exception.
The rain had become a light drizzle with the sky looking much less threatening than earlier.
The bull's eyes searched around the crime scene for the two officers he sought. Finding them along the outskirts, Bogo approached them.
Judy was pacing back and forth, wringing her hands. She didn't even notice the chief had calling her name.
Bogo, who was a bit confused by the rabbits behavior, caught Wilde's eye, whose look told the chief all he needed to know. That was when Bogo realized: this was the rabbit's first murder scene. Nick nudged the pacing lapin and nodded his head at Bogo.
Judy stopped and took notice of the police chief for the first time. She snapped to attention.
"Chief Bogo, Sir!"
Bogo sighed.
"First off, Hopps, what have I told you about going in alone? There is a reason you have a partner, use him."
Judy shifted a bit uncomfortably as the chief's words sank in.
"Yes, sir. It won't happen again, sir."
The bull sighed, inwardly rolling his eyes. That is what she said the last time.
He looked over at the white sheet covering the victim. He remembered his first time.
The chief cleared his throat.
"Now, Judy? I heard something about how you saw someone leaving the scene?"
The rabbit nodded.
"When I was checking for a pulse on the… um, him?"
She pointed at the white sheet.
"I caught a glimpse of this white-ish furred creature, looked almost like a fox. I guess you can say silver colored. They disappeared around the corner, and… uh, I pursued them, but…"
The rabbit trailed off. She didn't quite like where she was going with the explanation, but she knew it was inevitable.
The bull raised an eyebrow.
"But?"
Judy shifted her feet.
"But, um, they kind of just…vanished, sir."
Bogo raised the other eyebrow
"Vanished?"
He looked at Wilde, who looked equally confused.
Catching Bogo's eye, the fox quickly remarked,
"Hey, don't look at me. This is the first time I am hearing about the vanishing part."
The chief looked back at Judy.
"Hopps? What exactly do you mean by 'vanished'? You mean they escaped?"
Judy's purple eyes flickered from Bogo to Nick, a heat beginning to rise in her gut. She knew where this was leading, and she didn't like it.
The rabbit was unable to hold her tongue any longer, and blushed
"You guys are going to think I'm crazy, but I… Ugh. It's better that I just show you."
Bogo looked at Nick, who in turn shrugged and followed his partner.
The rabbit marched off, a bit flustered and embarrassed about having to explain herself like this. The other cops began to gain interest as the rabbit led the chief and her partner to the back of the alley, making Judy feel that much more uncomfortable. She shivered slightly, as she passed by the white sheet, remembering what lay under it. She felt the eyes of everyone on her back as she pointed to where she had seen the 'silver haired fox.'
"I glimpsed someone just before they went out of view going this way."
She traced the path with her paw.
"I ran after them only to find a dead end!"
She motioned to the dead ended alley with her hands.
"There was no one to be seen!"
Bogo started to look at Judy in a way that she didn't like.
"So this silver fox? Just vanished?" The chief questioned.
Judy began to blush.
"I don't know how to explain it, but I am not crazy," she insisted. "I saw something."
She looked to her partner for support only to find the fox looking about the space.
"Nick? You believe me, right? Nick?"
Nick wanted to, but what he observed about the dead end alleyway convinced him otherwise no matter how much he wanted to believe his friend. There were no doors, no windows, no manhole covers, no grates in the ground, just no exit.
"Carrots, there is nowhere they could have gone. You sure you didn't imagine it?" The fox suggested, a bit of worry in his face.
Judy gaped at her friend. She could hardly believe what she was hearing. She was not crazy. She saw something. Her ears lowered.
"I am not crazy," she whispered. She wanted them to believe it, but she didn't even believe it wholly herself. Tears started to come to her eyes, and she didn't know why.
Bogo, stepped towards the rabbit with concern written on his face.
"No one said you were. You are just a little stressed out. This was your first time discovering a murder scene. Sometimes it can mess with your head. You can have an extra day off from work. You too Wilde. Go home and get some rest, both of you," the police chief began to turn away, only to turn back and place a hoof on Judy's shoulder. "I will look into the case. Don't let it get to your conscience, Judy. That's when you start fighting a lost battle. Go home and get some rest."
With a quick look of compassion, the bull turned and left Nick and Judy alone.
Judy was impressed by the bull's advice. Bogo could be very inspirational and moving at times. Maybe, Nick's right. Maybe she did just imagine it after all.
Judy lowered her eyes to the ground.
She looked up with a sniffle when she felt a paw rest on her shoulder. It was Nick, and Judy had to admit he looked tired. His fur was matted. His shirt was stained. His tie looser than normal. Judy assumed she looked just as bad.
Judy didn't know why she was acting like this. She didn't understand why she was getting this emotional. She thought back to what Bogo said about a murder scene messing with your head. That was probably it. Why was this so important to her? She felt silly.
She smiled weakly.
"Sorry, I'm just being a dumb bunny. Am I?"
The fox grinned and put an arm around her, pulling her close as he began guiding her toward the street. "You bunnies. So emotional. Come on, Carrots. I will walk you home."
Judy rested her head against Nick's side, since she wasn't quite tall enough to rest it on his shoulder. She was still confused about what she saw. She was sure she saw something, but was it just her imagination and her mind playing tricks on her after what she had seen? She wasn't sure. She was too tired to think about it. She could hardly believe that the day was ending. It all happened so fast. She knew one thing though.
Judy snuggled happily in the fox's warm embrace as they walked along the sidewalk toward her apartment.
She was glad she had a friend who cares like Nick.
Nick couldn't get to sleep. As he lay there in his bed, looking at the ceiling of his apartment, his mind pondered over the events of the past day. Something bothered him. He had missed something at the crime scene, or had he forgotten about something in his past that could somehow help him understand what went on today.
He thought about Judy. He thought about what had been bothering her. Did she see something? If so, how was this 'silver fox' able to disappear?...
There it is. That's what was troubling him. Something about being able to vanish… That's it!
The fox bolted up in his bed and practically jumped out of his bed. He knew how Judy's silver haired fox had disappeared. Nick grinned at his own slyness. How could he have forgotten about that? It had been there staring right in front of him.
Judy was not crazy, and Nick had been wrong to ever doubt her. He grabbed his phone and keys and headed out the door, locking it behind him. He knew. Of course, he did, but he had to make sure he was right. The fox already knew he was, but he had to make sure, for Judy's sake.
He will prove that Judy was not imagining things after all, but that there was a perfectly rational explanation as to how the mysterious fox, the murder, the silver fox, had vanished into thin air. It took a sly fox to figure out how that fox had done it, and Nick was that fox.
He chuckled. Judy was going to love this.
So that was that, Chapter 2 of A Wilde Life of a Fox and Rabbit. Something foul is afoot. Judy struggles with her emotions. Is she falling in love with Nick? Will Nick recover from what should have been a broken nose? Well, yes to that last one, but stay tuned to find out what will happen next. Just how did the murderer disappear?
Until Next Time!
StoryCrusader
P.S. Please leave a review. I will like to know how I did and what I need to either change or improve on. I will very much appreciate it. Thanks!