Chapter Seven: Remember the End Goal!
" Alright," he said, dusting his paws off. " Mom'll be here soon. She'll bring food, just try to clean up the rest of this…" Marcus motioned towards the rest of the dishes and discarded bits of food around the living room, "...before she gets here." I still didn't get how he managed to clean all those dishes so fast. A week's worth of a pile, gone in a few minutes!
I paced around the living room again, picking up bits of trash here and there, grimacing at the crumbs either falling or already piled up on the floor. The room smelled… musty… and I wondered if Marcus ever had that smell stick to his clothes. He did enough already. I didn't need him getting singled out as the smelly one because of me…
" Hey, " Marcus nudged me, balling up the trash I was holding and tossing it in the trash. " No moping, alright? Wait for Mom, go outside for a bit, maybe go see a movie somewhere, eat some lunch…"
" Do they have lunch at your school?" I asked, " I got money on my card, I could get something with you before your class, right?"
Marcus smiled a little, shook his head. " Not at this school. Just wait for mom and go out with her." Marcus gave me a hug, grabbed his things near the door, and made his way out, after teasing me for trying to cramp his style with the ladies.
All I had to do was wait for Irene to come, wouldn't be long. She'd fuss over me, try to get me to look proper, empty out the bedroom- same as always. I wondered if Judy would come visit today- always nice seeing her. And she was a good girl, always listening, asked good questions.
For now, just wait. Read a book, walk outside, anything to keep from falling into that funk again.
Vicks tapped the steering wheel, watching the line of cars ahead of us. He must've heard me fidgeting around in my seat, because he glanced over at me. " So, Judy," he said, voice light, " you nervous about moving into the big leagues?" The smile he gave was barely visible, just a slight lifting of the corners of his mouth. " All the way from Homicide to interviewing college students;" I said no, and he chuckled, " Now's the real horrible stuff, Judy. Just be prepared for what we end up seeing or smelling in those dorm rooms." The line inched forward, and Vicks sighed when two more cars cut ahead of us. " If it's anything like my nephew," he said, " You'll feel disappointed by the end of this."
Detective training wasn't that bad- at least, not as bad as I thought it would be. Vicks had walked me through the process pretty nicely. Last week we had done Violent Crimes training, and Homicide before that. With the Panya thing, Det. Vicks thought it would be the smart thing to do my Career Criminal training. I was just happy to not have to look at stabbing victims again- trying to piece together what got them to that extreme, having to poke around their body, seeing that empty face… Homicide wasn't my cup of tea.
But I need to focus on what's happening today. Go see the students, get more info, and hope we find a lead. Today should be easy. Well, easy-ish.
The line into the university eventually let up, and we were able to find our way into the school proper. The city's university wasn't the biggest thing ever, and I think it was emptier than usual this time of year- May was the end of classes, or something- but some of the folk that we needed to talk to were here. Students, and (as Nick and Thom had said over the phone a few minutes ago), maybe a few professors we could squeeze some info out of.
I felt kind of shocked at how different the University was in reality than the image I had in my head. The school wasn't big, especially for a city like Zootopia. I've had friends that went to schools with parking garages, restaurants, even a police station built in. But the one we were at had none of that- just a bunch of small, squat buildings surrounded by parking lots. Pretty though- lots of bright colors and greenery.
The dorm room thing wasn't serious- upsetting roommates, making witnesses more nervous than they needed to be with cops in their room- but we did at least go into the dorm building and find seats in an office near the front doors. The R.A. was nice enough to find the students for us.
A mink, Rachel, who had had a seat near the front of the auditorium, was first. She shuffled in, dressed in a sweater and pyjama bottoms. Vicks handled her, and I stood behind him doing my best to seem reassuring. The next kid was going to be mine to talk to, and Vicks would be standing up, grading me.
" So you didn't hear anything besides the pig talkin' ?" asked Vicks, tapping on the notepad in front of him, slightly hunched.
The mink shook her head, paws in her lap. " Nothing," she said, shrugging. " He went from a thing on evolution to shouting and busting his ass on stage, just, kicking everywhere." Vicks opened his mouth, but she cut in. " That was right before a bunch of us went up to the stage, a lot of folk had, like, flyers and signs, told him that he should leave, called him an asshole…"
" Right," said Vicks, who had yet to write anything down, " and did you see what might have made him fall down, that got him kicking everywhere and hollering like that?"
She shook her head. " I couldn't see his actual leg, I just heard a bunch of noise and saw him flop over."
Vicks nodded, glanced down at his notepad. " Okay… I think, actually, that Officer Hopps here had some questions for you, okay? You talking is helping us a lot, okay?"
I wasn't sure if he was lying. At this point I'd be tempted.
I took a deep breath, and took his seat. The mink went from looking level to looking down at me, and I felt every bit of that extra chair-space. A part of me wanted to sit on my knees to reach the notepad better, but I made do with stretching a bit.
" When you said all those folk went up near the stage…" I began, arms pulling me up enough that most of my face was above the edge of the desk, " was everyone in that group a student you recognized? Anyone stand out?" Her head tilted, and she shuffled in her chair a bit. I heard a foot smack against a table-leg.
" I don't think so," she said after a minute. " I mean, I don't know everyone there, but I see all of them around campus. They're all students."
This part, I think, was the one I hated the most. Not getting clear answers, all the maybes. But we couldn't throw away a witness unless we were sure we got everything we could.
" Would any one of them want to mess the pig up, maybe?" I said, " Any clue?" My witness shrugged again, looked up at me, and frowned a little. I realized how hard I was gripping my pen, that I had lifted myself up out of my chair.
The next fifteen minutes were spent with me and Rachel going around in circles. The notepad remained ink-free, and I had to fight to keep myself from sighing in front of her. Vicks kept the door shut for a second, glancing over at me.
" Deep breath," Vicks cautioned, " Alright? We aren't out of witnesses yet, and you never know what we could find."
I unfolded my arms and tried not to kick my legs against the chair. He was right, obviously, but there's only so many dead ends I could handle! Just give it a few more tries, and maybe. We'd catch a clue.
Everyone else ended up telling the same story. I let out a sigh, letting myself sink into the chair.
The campus was small, but they managed to plant a few bushes around, a couple of flowerbeds, even. More than once I saw contractors driving around in paint bucket-laden carts, touching up some of the more faded buildings with bright reds and yellows.
Vicks and I made our way down a sidewalk, which according to the maps would lead us to the faculty offices. At least, some of them. Vicks would mutter to me whenever we got a break from the gaggles of students crowding us.
" The questions were alright," he said, " But you have to be a little more subtle, you understand? Control those emotions. Don't let it show up on your face so much." He dug for his pack of cigarettes, but let his paws hang loose after another group of students came up near us.
Nick had mentioned a couple of murid research studies on campus. A quick search online pulled up a couple applications to be a research intern for a Dr. Gomez. He wanted to 'explore the psychological makeup of the murid brain', apparently. His office we found easy thanks to a directory, but we never got to step inside. The doctor was arguing with a mouse outside.
" It's not right!" the mouse shouted, " Honestly, Professor? You can't really think this a good time to keep running the study. I got everyone at home complaining that it's invasive, and insensitive, and that it's taking advantage of folk that don't know any better…" The mouse stared up at Gomez, head craned far back. I'd have to call that the first time I saw a mouse yell at a coyote.
" It's a voluntary project," Gomez retorted, his tone pedantic. He shook his head. " And that's looking at it from a negative perspective. Think of the positives for a second," his voice became slightly pleading, and he was about to go on when he noticed me and Vicks standing there.
" Come talk to me later," he said, straightening up and adjusting the collar of his button-up. " And you need to turn in all those assignments! Summer term isn't a time to slack off!"
The mouse scampered off, and Gomez led us into his office. Most of the wall behind his desk was covered in degrees and certifications. I could pick out a few awards for research, and what looked like printouts from some sort of science journal. The coyote was skinny, especially for a male, and sitting this close to him made the eye-redness and bags stand out more.
He took a sip from a coffee cup, letting us settle in to our seats. " Just so you know," he said firmly, eyes darting between us, " I'm not going to talk about my students." He sniffed. " And I'm didn't coerce anyone into anything, despite what some of them might have said."
I saw Vicks staring at me out of the corner of my eye. I sat up straighter and cleared my throat. " If you could explain to us what your project is about, maybe we could get a better understanding," I said, " help keep everyone safe and informed,"
The coyote sniffed again, resting his elbows on his desk. " I got IRB approval to do a study on our murid population," he explained, " in simple terms, to see how their unique situation affected their worldview. Just a few interviews." He grimaced, " But, someone twisted up my words and a rumor got started that there were all these experiments going on, that I was tricking subjects into these awful situations…"
" Why would they think that?" I asked. It'd take a lot to confuse interviews with lab experiments.
Gomez sighed. " I was part of a study done by that speaker the school had, Dr. Cornell- years ago!" He rubbed the back of his head. " And when some students heard a few months ago that he was booked to speak here, they did some digging and found my name." He dug under his desk, pulling out a wastebasket, filled to the brim with wadded-up papers. " All letters from anonymous ' concerned citizens'.
I mulled over his words for a while, letting the professor go on about advocacy groups and things being out-of-proportion. Vicks asked Gomez what his old study was about.
" Cornell wanted to examine their genes," Gomez explained, " His idea was to give them the benefits the rest of society has- full-color vision, for example." He shrugged. " That's not my field, though. I helped to soothe subjects and with the statistical analysis."
" It didn't work though," I noted. Gomez nodded sadly.
" From what he told me," Gomez said, " Color-spectrum genes are carried by the mother, and in order to give their children the benefits of a fuller spectrum, there would have to be a change in those genes." His voice started raising, little by little. " It'd take generations for it to even begin showing up in day-to-day life," he said, excitement tinging his voice, " but imagine it! I- We, would've done something huge, and-"
The coyote went off on his tangent, and I made my notes. Cornell's study focused on female mice, playing with their genes. A good target for someone wanting revenge. Was Panya one of those in the study, maybe? Revenge for all the subjects?
Piece-by-piece. A few clues are better than none, Nick reassured me later. I would end up hearing that more than once.
(A/N: Three reasons I haven't been posting:
1. I moved.
2. I accidentally wiped my entire hard drive after partitioning my computer incorrectly.
3. Midterms.
As penance, this is a longer chapter. Posting will get back to it's normal schedule, I promise.
Marcus is going to the big school to get a proper education. Yes it's ten times harder because it's not sized for him (especially the workload), but he thinks it's worth it compared to what he'd usually go to. The school is cool with it because of equal opportunity and good press.)
