Only one review. And I believe I'm meeting its request to post the next chapter quickly. Enjoy, and leave a review!
Chapter 10
Judy and Nick also heard the announcement over the radio and couldn't believe what they were hearing. At the site of the crime, many officers were already arriving. Officers and detectives were all over the area, taking pictures and blocking the public off from the area. The site was officially declared a crime scene by the time Bogo arrived, and without a moment's hesitation, he rushed into the alley. The sight was sickening, but it wasn't anything he hadn't seen before. On the ground surrounded by a pool of blood was a wolf, Winston Philips, with lacerations covering his body. Recklessly discarded to the right of the corpse was an antique spear; the same spear stolen two days prior from Sharp Fitness & Aikido.
"Detective, what is going on here?" he asked, grabbing the attention of one of the on-sight detectives holding a camera; the same detective which was investigating the theft of the spear.
"Honestly sir, I'm not sure. The body is sadistically mutilated. Throat cut open, body torn apart. It's ugly," she replied.
"What do we know?"
"Well, all we've really got is the spear. No other evidence was left. No fur, no blood, no fingerprints on the weapon. Nothing," she said.
Bogo was about to speak again, but he was silenced by the sound of feet quickly running on scene; the feet of a bunny and fox. Bogo turned just in time to see Judy stop in place, mortified by the scene laid out in front of her.
"Oh my god!" She exclaimed, before quickly turning away.
Nick quickly pulled her close, hiding her face from the blood and gore. Bogo let out a sigh; stressed as he was, he knew when it was time to take it down a notch.
"Officer Hopps, maybe you shouldn't be here," He said.
"No!" She exclaimed, breaking free from Nick, "I'm fine."
Gathering her courage, she tentatively turned back around to face the crime scene. She was still horrified, but drove herself past it by focusing on the task at hand. She gasped again, however, when she saw the face of the wolf lying dead on the ground.
"I know him," she stated, taking a few more steps forward.
"How?" Bogo asked, rushing to her side quickly followed by the detective.
"When I…when I went rogue and spent half the day in the gym to watch the classes, two wolves entered and tried to get memberships. Ark kicked them out, and this was one of them," she replied.
Bogo grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her to face the two of them, "I need you to tell us exactly what happened in that gym."
"He and his buddy came in, and Ark said that if everything checked out, he would get them their paperwork to apply for a membership. In the middle of his Aikido class, they both began laughing. They said that his class was a joke; that they should be demanding respect from enemies through violence. They laughed at him, and he refused to give them a membership. He escorted them out when Winston became violent," Judy explained.
Bogo took a few moments to think before sharing a knowing glance with the detective, who looked forlorn but nodded at the chief.
"Coldmen!" he called out, and from the crowd of officers, Angelica ran out.
"Yes sir?"
"Come with me. We're going to finish this," he said, and they began to walk off together.
"Where are you going?" Nick asked.
"We're going to arrest that sad excuse for a Zootopian!" Bogo replied angrily.
Judy immediately rushed in front of them, stopping them in their tracks.
"On what charges?" she demanded.
"What else?" he replied, motioning to the corpse behind him.
"What evidence do you have?" Nick asked, moving to stand beside Judy.
"A weapon registered to his family as the murder weapon, for starters."
"A weapon reported stolen!" Judy countered.
"Officer Hopps," the detective interjected, grabbing all of their attention, "There was no trace of any animal accept him in his gym. Not a trace of DNA on this crime scene. Who else knows exactly what to hide, knows exactly what the police would be looking for?"
Judy stood, searching for any argument against this.
"He had plenty of motive. Winston insulted and embarrassed him and his way of living. It's easy enough to deduce that he staged the break in to his gym, took the spear, got his revenge, and was gone without a trace. Nobody else has that kind of training, nor the experience of so personally killing another animal. I'm sorry, but your friend is guilty," she added.
With that said, Bogo tried to walk forward again, but again Judy blocked him off.
"You know as well as I do that he isn't capable of this," she said
"What do you know of him?" Bogo shouted.
"It's because of him that I lost my father, and it's because of him that I am scarred for life. I saw a brutal, savage killing as a little girl. Now he's finally getting put away," Angelica added angrily before shoving Judy out of the way. She would have fallen to the ground if it weren't for Nick catching her.
The two watched Bogo and Angelica drive away in a police cruiser, helpless to stop them and save their friend from a life in prison.
"We have to have missed something," Nick stated, "Ark couldn't have done this."
"What?" Judy asked, confused.
Without giving an answer, Nick left the crime scene with Judy in tow. They went straight to their car and straight back to the station. The sun was getting low as they say down at their desks, looking through every note they had taken, searching through everything they had. A half hour had passed and they still found nothing. Absolutely nothing to prove the innocence of their ally. They froze in place when the front door opened, and led in wearing hand cuffs was the convicted Siberian Tiger. Bogo and Angelica led him in, and his eyes remained low on the ground. They were filled with sadness. He was led back into the temporary holding cell area. Once locked up, Bogo and Angelica stood there staring at him, but he refused to make eye contact.
"Your trial will be tomorrow afternoon," Bogo stated bluntly.
Angelica walked out of the room, feeling satisfied, but Bogo didn't move.
"Why did you do it?" he asked.
Ark only turned his head.
"What more could you do to this city? You were the best of us. Now I can't stand to see you."
With no further words, Bogo stormed out. The cell hold filled with silence, but if you listen closely, you could hear teardrops rolling down the cheeks of the only prisoner and falling to the ground. Nick and Judy never went home that night. They were tirelessly working on a case to make proving Ark's innocence, but continued to come up empty handed.
"Maybe we can find him an alibi," Judy suggested.
"Nobody was with him at the time of the murder," Nick replied, "What about Mr. Bigs? He trusts him, maybe he'll-"
"Mr. Bigs is the most feared crime boss in the city. Would it surprise anyone to find out he trusts a murderer?" Judy interrupted.
Nick let out a sigh of frustration and sat back in his seat. Right as their silence fell, three people emerged from the cell area the same way they had come through the front door. Bogo and Angelica led Ark out of the station and to their car, and within minutes, they were gone. Judy sat forward and rested her head in her hands.
"Do you have any music you could play?" Nick asked.
Upon hearing Nicks request, Judy remembered that she had written down the song she had heard the lynx perform on the street. She said yes, and pulled out her notepad to quickly begin sifting through the pages. When she found the song, she quickly pulled up the music video on her Carrot Phone to play. As it began, she tossed her note pad down on her desk before resting her chin on her hands again. About halfway through the song, Judy glanced down at her note pad to find that it had opened to an older page when she tossed it. A page with only two names written on it. The names of the two cheetahs who had initially led them to Ark's gym, Jeff and Donny Reynolds.
She quickly took the notebook in hand. The names sounded very familiar. In a split second, she pulled out the list of employees that had no criminal record. Sure enough, one of the names on that list was Don Reynolds.
"Nick, look at this!" She exclaimed.
"What?" he asked, sitting up and scooting over to her.
"The cheetah brothers we met when we first went to Ark's gym. I wrote down their names, and one of them works at Dessert Depot," she explained.
"Wait a minute. What was the name of that rival crime boss?" Nick asked.
Both of their eyes met, and Judy's widened, "Carson Reynolds."
In her head, Judy was having an immense sequence of flashbacks. It started with meeting the Reynolds brothers.
"What a jerk. We're citizens of this city too. He can't just throw us out like that," one of them said, causing the ears of Officer Hopps to perk up.
"The right to refuse service. Try the right to be racist!" The other replied
Being very procedural, Judy had her badge out to show as they approached the boys who couldn't have been older than 19. Of course, they immediately took notice and seemed nervous.
"Judy Hopps, ZPD. How are you?" She asked in a very sweet tone
"Uh…fine. Can we help you?" replied the one in the flannel
"Funny you should ask," Inquired Nick, "but we are looking in to a nearby business which has been denying business to a lot of people. We couldn't help overhearing your conversation and were wondering if you had any information you could give us"
"Well, the business is just down the road. It's a fitness gym, which also offers lessons in something called Aikido, whatever that is," the cheetah in basketball shorts replied
"Some kind of fighting class. We wanted to get a membership, cause the price was amazing, but the guy who runs the place won't let hardly any predators in," the other added
Judy was fast at work writing all of the given information down on her little notepad.
"What can you tell us about him?" Judy asked
"Well, he's a Siberian Tiger who drives up from Tundra Town every morning," the fully dressed one replied
"How do you know that?" Nick asked
"There's always snow on his car," the other cheetah replied
"Can I get your names, in case we have any more questions?" requested Judy
"Yeah, Jeff Reynold, and this is my brother Donny," the cheetah in the flannel replied
Judy's flashback then switched to the security cam footage of the break in to Ark's gym. Seeing the two figures dressed completely in black do the things they did. Their size was a perfect match, but their skill? They were nineteen at the oldest, it didn't make sense. They had no criminal record. Unless…unless they were trained by the second greatest crime boss in the city, also known as their father. She then remembered what the detective had told her at the crime scene the previous day.
"Officer Hopps," the detective interjected, grabbing all of their attention, "There was no trace of any animal accept him in his gym. Not a trace of DNA on this crime scene. Who else knows exactly what to hide, knows exactly what the police would be looking for?"
Judy stood, searching for any argument against this.
"He had plenty of motive. Winston insulted and embarrassed him and his way of living. It's easy enough to deduce that he staged the break in to his gym, took the spear, got his revenge, and was gone without a trace. Nobody else has that kind of training, nor the experience of so personally killing another animal. I'm sorry, but your friend is guilty," she added.
WHO ELSE HAS THAT TRAINING
"He was framed," Nick blurted, evidently coming to the same conclusion.
"But why?" Judy asked.
"You remember the story Ark told us? When officer Coldmen threatened Carson's operations, he was hunted down. They wanted him out of the way," Nick explained.
"But why go to all that trouble? Why not just take Ark out? That would be the simplest way, unless…" Judy paused.
"What is it?" Nick asked.
"Unless Ark isn't the only one they want to get rid of," she finished.
"Who else would be that big a threat to them?"
Judy's eyes widened again, "The only two officers who were involved the same way Ark was."
Nick saw where she was going with that and his ears fell, "And they needed to get them all in the same place."
"In the same car."
DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN! Things are getting clear now, aren't they? To my conspiracy theorist, now you have a good idea of how close you were to the truth, but there is still a great deal more to this story. It's not even close to over yet, trust me. I know it seems like it's going really fast, but it is a criminal justice mystery type thing, and you've seen how quickly they go through those on TV. 30 minutes gives you an entire murder case solved. Well, there you go everyone. See you in the next chapter!