Chapter 5: Changing plans.
Bogo was deep in thought as two of his smallest officers were currently sitting in front of him. Hopps and Wilde had requested a meeting and had brought some concerns they had to his attention. The concerns, however, were about the rookie he had just assigned to them. Officer Soniko was the valedictorian of her year and had passed all psychological, and mental tests as well as all physical ones.
"Hopps, Wilde while I appreciate that you've brought your concerns to me first before doing anything else I must stress that officer Soniko has passed all tests like all the rest of us and no issues like the ones you have brought forth ever came up or got reported."
Judy straightened out and made sure she had the Chief's full attention before continuing. "We understand that you can't just go up to her and suggest to undergo counseling on a hunch and it's indeed just something that we noticed while out on patrol. However, the intensity that we both felt made it seem urgent enough for us to at least feel you should be aware of it."
"I'm not berating you for your choice to inform me nor do I want to make you feel that the issue hasn't got my attention, but as for now, I want you two to just keep teaching her the ropes as you have done. If you witness more hostility towards individual civilians or believe that she lets her duties suffer because of prejudice, then, by all means, inform me of the issue."
Nick nodded. "Understood chief well keep on monitoring her."
Bogo was pleased that his officers were showing again that they were professionals. Not only had they immediately thought to bring their concerns before him, but they accepted his judgment without discussion. Now he was sure that they could handle what he had asked of them, but he would shift some of the workloads from them so they could concentrate their effort on officer Soniko. "Now because of what you had brought before me as well as certain events that occurred yesterday I've decided not to assign the second rookie to your care."
Nick and Judy were surprised by this call and wanted to protest, but Bogo just lifted his hoof and silenced them. "Now before you object let me explain myself. I want you two to concentrate on officer Soniko entirely. If you do that the second rookie would obviously get less attention and that is something that I can't allow as I want all my new officers at their best when this is over. Also, officer Umbra aided Fangmeyer and Wolford with the arrest of a suspect yesterday, and therefore I want to put him in with them as the arrest they shared would make forming work bonds between them much easier."
As the officers thought over what their chief was telling them they could only agree that this was for the best. Still, Nick wanted to see if Bogo would agree to his other plans. "Sir, may I offer a suggestion on another matter?"
The bull felt a chill go down his back as it was Wilde making the suggestion and therefore it was suspect. "Ok, Wilde let's have it."
Wilde put on his best hustlers face and laid out his plans for supporting the Bunnyburrow PD during the festival. He made sure to suggest the boon it would be for the training of the newest officers. When he finished, Bogo had a dubious expression. "While I agree with you officer Wilde that de BPD could use the extra help I do not yet see the value of it to officers Soniko and Umbra."
"Chief they learn to deal with crowds and the problems they can cause in a much smaller venue than the festivals taking place in Zootopia. That gives us a chance to evaluate them in a somewhat controlled situation without running the risk of overwhelming them too soon." The fox sat back into his chair looking at Bogo. He could see that the point he was trying to make had gotten across and the chance of his proposal getting accepted had risen significantly.
Bogo, on the other hand, was indeed taking in what Wilde had told him, but he was also one hundred percent sure that the fox was hustling him. It still was a sound proposal, however, and the buffalo had to concede that the experience would be indeed beneficial to his new officers. However taking a little more time to mull this over and try to figure out how Wilde was benefitting from this was still necessary. "I'll take it into consideration. Now if there are no further issues you're dismissed."
The officers stood up and saluted before opening the door and left the office.
The morning briefing proceeded without incident and while Soniko and Umbra were confused that they hadn't been partnered up with the same pair of officers. This because the chief had told them otherwise just the day before. It wasn't a problem of course, but it made them wonder what had changed.
As the teams left for their assigned routes, Nick was driving. Most of the time he would let Judy drive, but with the long, dull day yesterday and seeing how exhausted she had been yesterday he wanted to give her a chance to relax. During the afternoon he would trade places with Cindy giving her the opportunity to get to know the road and neighborhoods.
Arriving in Sahara square their assigned patrol for the day Nick planned the route they would take and the officers started looking around for signs of trouble. The morning passed without major incidents. Some parking and one speeding violation were all that they had to handle, and as lunch approached Nick and Cindy traded places, so Cindy could learn to navigate the different areas of Zootopia. It appeared that it would be a slow day again.
Clawhauser was manning dispatch when a call came in. "Zootopia police department. How can we assist you?" His eyes widened in shock when he heard the scared voice of a very young girl."
"Policeman please help my mommy." The voice sounded tiny and on the edge of starting to cry.
The cheetah immediately made gestures to his fellow dispatcher on duty, a friendly goat that had been hired a few months ago, for assistance with his call. "Of course sweety what happened with your mommy? Can you put her on the line?"
The child whimpered and said that they had been eating sweets when her mommy had made funny noises and was having great difficulty breathing and had signaled for her daughter to call for help. Clawhausers heart was breaking, but he had to keep his wits together if he wanted to have any chance to get their location to send help too. "Don't worry sweety were coming to help you. How old are you honey?"
Shuddering her reply came in little gasps as the child lost her composure a bit. "I'm four. Mommy is hurting."
"Can you tell us where you are or can you see something in the area we could use to find you."
"There is a house that looks like a round green plant with a purple flower on top and a very big house shaped like a tree." The tremble in her voice hadn't diminished, but Clawhauser managed to keep the child from panicking. The cheetah was applauding her for doing so well for her young age.
In the meantime, the goat had already gotten busy trying to triangulate where the call was originating from and informing units that were in the general vicinity with any information Clawhauser was able to get from the four-year-old.
"Ok honey where are your mom and you at? Can you see any other mammals that could help you until we arrive?"
"I and mom were waiting in the car for the shops to open."
"Good. Could you tell me what color your car is darling? And do you know where mommy parked her car at."
"It's red, and mommy parked it where almost nobody parks, there is nobody here now."
"Parking lot somewhere near the casino," Clawhauser was informed by his coworker of this new piece of info, and the goat quickly got back on the radio to inform the search parties.
Judy, Nick, and Cindy were in the meantime desperately looking for the child and mother. There were a couple of buildings shaped like how the little girl had described them and at none of the places they tried did they see anyone in trouble.
The radio came back alive. "All units that are currently involved in the search please be informed that the child has described their location as being in a deserted parking lot. They are sitting in a red car, and the mother was waiting for the shops to open before she started choking. Also, be advised that triangulation shows them to be in the vicinity of the casino."
Nick quickly began shifting through his memories to see which locations fit the bill, and only one came up that would let the child see the buildings she saw in the vicinity of the shops. "I think I know where they are. Inform dispatch and put on the sirens." Judy advised dispatch that they were moving, to check out Nicks deduction and Cindy hit the sirens and stepped on the gas while the fox called out directions to follow.
Ten minutes later they drove into the parking lot of the Gobi's retreat shopping mall. The officers quickly started scanning all the cars, but for all the colors on display, a red one wasn't among them.
Nick tapped Soniko on her shoulder. "There is a smaller one at the back of the mall almost nobody uses it, because of the distance to the entrance, but it has a playing ground there so the mom could have gone there. Cindy nodded and quickly steered the cruiser towards the lot.
As they arrived, they immediately spotted the red car as it almost was the only car in the lot. They saw a coyote struggling in the driver's seat with a very young girl next to her with a phone to her ear.
"Dispatch this is ten-Nora-fifteen, please be advised that we have found the child and mother in distress, we need an ambulance send to the Gobi resort mall."
"Understood ten-Nora-fifteen ambulance is on its way."
Cindy parked the cruiser, and the officers quickly exited the car. Judy headed over to the young girl as the other two cops opened the door and started trying to help the mother with her breathing troubles.
Judy opened the passenger door and smiled at the child to calm her down. "Hey, honey. Shall we go to the side so the other officers can help your mommy?" The girl nodded slightly at her and grabbed Judy's paw as she got out of the car. "May I speak to the officer on the phone?" The girl nodded again and gave Judy the cell phone.
"Hopps, do you have the child?"
"Yeah, Clawhauser. Nick and Soniko are working to try to free the mother's airway, but you can disconnect the phone call well keep in radio touch."
"Ok, good luck. I'll stand by on radio." With that, the line went down, and Judy turned off the phone.
In the meantime, the other officer's had gotten the mother out of her seat and noticed she was barely conscious at that point. Nick quickly laid her down and got on top of her. Placing his hands on her abdomen, he pushed down starting to apply the Hamlich maneuver. After a set of quick upwards stomach compressions, Soniko saw that the Coyote was trying to throw up the candy and as she succeeded quickly turned her in a stable recovery position. After the coyote was lying on her side, gasping for breath, Nick immediately informed dispatch that they succeeded in clearing the airway.
Judy had been consoling and distracting the distraught pup and when she heard that her mom could breathe again told the child that her mommy was ok, but they were going to bring them both to the hospital to make certain. At that moment they heard the telltale sound of sirens rapidly approaching, and a couple of seconds later an ambulance appeared around the corner.
After that, the ambulance personnel quickly loaded the coyote on a stretcher and put her in the ambulance while Judy decided to go with the child as they accompanied her mother. Nick and Cindy would follow as soon as they had established the identity of the woman and daughter by going through her purse to check for an id and called in her plates. After they had gotten a possible id and cross referenced it with the id they had found they made sure that the car of the family was secured and locked before heading for the hospital. In the meantime, Clawhauser finding the family name in the phone book notified the family of what had happened.
Judy had managed to calm the pup down and let her rest. The child was lying on a bench with her head on the pillow the officer had gotten her. The mother had come around during the drive there and was even fully awake when they arrived at the hospital, but with the candy lodged in her throat for some time, the doctors wanted to make sure no damage had been done and ran several tests.
Without anyone else of her family present, Judy had the duty to verify that the pup was safe till her family showed up. After she made sure that the child was comfortable with her pillow and was taking a nap, she grabbed a coffee from the machine in the waiting room and sat back next to her while waiting for either Nick or the family to show up.
As she took a sip, she looked around and was reminded of that evening all those months ago when she heavily leaning on Nick walked or rather limped into the hospital after having managed to expose Bellwether and solving the Nighthowler case. Bogo had driven them personally to the hospital himself, and the medical team had been ordered to give her and Nick the complete package of tests as the chief didn't want to leave anything to chance anymore. Judy had received stitches for her leg, and they both had been examined to determine if they had suffered any injuries as a result of being slammed into the pit.
Judy smiled at the memory as she remembered Nick and how concerned he had acted that evening. They were both going through those tests, but he always wanted her to go first. She had feared that he would split when she had those exams, but he was always there waiting for her, and he always looked a bit anxious even though she had to admit you wouldn't have seen it if you didn't know where the holes were in his mask. Looking back now it probably was around then she started to have feelings for him. The concern he was showing as well as the moment he had opted to stay with her when she couldn't escape by herself made her feel cared for, and that probably had been the spark to ignite the love she felt for him today.
Then had come the many many days of questioning. Not only of what had happened but also the methods they had used and the manner they had conducted their investigation in. At that moment the attorneys of Bellwether would be going after everything that wasn't done properly in a bid to get the trial thrown out. Luckily Judy hadn't been a cop anymore, and Nick wasn't one, to begin with, so they hadn't been a large threat to the proceedings as they hadn't been subject to any regulations.
Chief Bogo, however, had made a huge point on how they were to testify about how they had gotten the location of the lab. He was pretty sure that the fact they had a mob boss threaten to 'ice' a mammal into confessing, could lead the attorneys to try to blame them for framing the former mayor. Especially with Nicks colorful past, even though he hadn't done anything against the law he had been so close to crossing it that it wouldn't be a stretch that the jury could turn towards that explanation.
Judy was woken up from her ramifications suddenly when a couple of elder coyotes came into the waiting room and quickly approached them. As the bunny tried to identify who the coyote's where, and how they were related to the victim, the pup who had been napping sprung up. "Granny!" The female coyote quickly picked her grandchild up and squeezed and kissed her while the pup jubilantly kissed her back. The male looked at the pair smiling before switching his attention back to Judy. "Thank you for watching her officer. Are you the one who helped my daughter?"
The bunny shook the paw he offered and smiled. "I was one of the officers that responded yes, but it was my partners who saved your daughter while I took care of your granddaughter."
"Where are your partners if you don't mind me asking I would like to shake the paws of the officers who saved my daughter." The coyote looked around quizzically.
"They are on their way here, but first they had to find your daughter's identity to be able to notify you and your family of what had happened." Judy was wondering how long it would be for Nick and Cindy to arrive. She felt she had been at the hospital for at least a half hour, and if they found out the woman's identity, it couldn't have taken them more than fifteen minutes to get there. Just as she finished that thought, she heard the familiar voice of the fox she had been expecting.
"Hi, Carrots did you miss me?" She looked around and met his emerald eyes as they looked lovely at her. His face looked all business, but oh those eyes. The mask he wore when dealing with the world was a work of perfection. If you didn't know where to look you would never see the emotions hidden behind it, but it was when they were alone in their shared apartment, and he let the mask down. She loved that moment when she got to see the mammal behind the mask; it was something she cherished. But even if the mask were on in full force she would still have the eyes. Full of love when they fell on her, and she could always feel her body warm up when she looked into them.
"Took you long enough Slick. Got lost along the way?" She raised an eyebrow as Cindy's ears started to blush and she began to mumble something about not knowing the area yet and unfair mentors.
"Well as you could deduce by Red's mumbling over there I decided to see how well her knowledge was of the area, but even though she isn't as knowledgeable if I had hoped she would have gotten us here in agreeable time if we didn't run into a traffic jam." At this Nick patted Soniko's back. "Seeing as she couldn't have prevented us from getting stuck in traffic, I believe she didn't do a bad job at navigating."
Judy had to shake her head at Nick's timing but decided to discuss this later without an audience. "Well, sir these are the officers that helped your daughter. If I may introduce you to officers Wilde and Soniko."
The old coyote shook the officer's paws and thanked them, but Nick noticed that for a second before shaking his, the eyes and face of the coyote showed some distrust before he squared it away behind a friendly smile. The fox shrugged it off mentally as he couldn't blame the old coyote. The prejudice was slowly declining, and Nick was showing mammals every day that a fox was more than being a shifty lowlife, but not all mammals could or even would change their preconceptions of what foxes were. He had to admit though that the grandpa at least had tried to pretend he wasn't distrustful and that was a step up from what he had been used to not even a year ago when animals just showed open contempt for him. Nick smiled and gave a friendly nod as he released the paw.
The officers excused themselves and made their way back towards their patrol car as they still had some hours left before their shift ended. As they drove off, the radio came back alive.