Author's note: First thing first. I have to apologize to everyone about the last chapter. The scene with Nick and Judy deserved better and me being upset that I couldn't deliver it as I wanted without turning the rating to M made sure I did a subpar job in mine opinion. Reading over it a dozen times I could see the crummy job done and I went back to rewrite parts of that scene. It now at least is up to par with the level of writing I'm able to deliver (please bear in mind that these are the first stories I'm writing and thus am still learning). I hope that my addition adds to your enjoyment of the overall storyline. Also this chapter seemed easier to write than the ones before it so I decided that after the final edits and corrections were done I would post it instead of waiting for the weekend. Hope that you'll enjoy this one and please inform me about how you think the story is progressing.
Chapter 9: A plot most foul.
As the new day began Wolford and Fangmeyer had picked up Harris and Nick in their cruiser to begin their investigation anew at the crime scene. Judy in the meantime had taken Soniko in the patrol car she and Nick shared, and they were headed towards the lab to sift through the evidence in the vain hope of uncovering any new facts to investigate.
Chief Bogo had a stressful morning as the press smelled intrigued and was determined to get all the facts and dirt from him. The chief had managed to keep the press at bay and made sure to keep repeating again and again that the evidence was at the moment inconclusive and investigations were still ongoing. With no fuel to keep it burning the press were forced to relent, but Bogo knew that this hard-won time he had managed to acquire for his officers to finish their investigation was not going to last long. If they didn't find what was needed to close this case as soon as possible, the press would start trying to piece together what had happened and what they would come up with would not be good for the city.
As Bogo sat down at his desk with a heavy sigh another mammal across the city was having his own troubles.
Westley Dambildir, a beaver that was a second-year student, was having serious doubts about staying silent with what had happened yesterday. Yeah, it had all started out with them trying to make some trouble for the gang of predators that hung out in the alley behind their apartment building, but Jeremy had to go and make things worse. First by being a total dumbass stealing the metal case from some pred that had been busy dealing with some market merchant and that would have been bad enough by itself if he hadn't been so batpoop crazy to bring the thing right back to them forgetting preds and their keen sense of smell.
Oh yeah, when the guy showed up Westley had been close to soiling himself. Whatever the guy was up to the beaver was sure it was bad. There hadn't been any emotions on his face, and even more, worrying was the hint of a smile that didn't go away when the dumbass in their group tried to make him their errant boy. Oh, he seemed to comply easy enough, but when he came back it was clear that they had screwed up in the worst way. What he had done with those live chickens before handing them daggers to repeat it themselves would give him nightmares for years to come he just knew it would.
Westley looked out his window and noticed the squad car pulling up to the curve. As four officers got out, he noticed they were the same ones that had investigated the day before and while it had rained in the evening washing away the evidence the student wasn't sure that he would not be indicated. His nerves finally caving he ran to his phone and dialed the number he was told to dial in an emergency.
"Improbus residence how may I direct your call?" It was clearly some sort of butler on the phone, but Westley didn't have the time to wonder about that. "Can you please tell Max that Westley is calling?"
As the butler confirmed that he would inform his friend the beaver sat down shaking from the nerves he was experiencing.
"Westley my man how is it going?" The happy tone on the other side of the line was making the beaver ill at ease as he could imagine the police already making their way to his apartment to arrest him. "How is it going? It's going to crap over here that's what's going on!"
Max was silent for a moment before continuing. "What's wrong buddy? I know that things didn't go as planned yesterday, but that's no reason to lose your cool like that."
Westley looked at the receiver like it had caught on fire and suppressed an urge to ram it against the wall a couple of times. "Not as planned? We were covered in blood! The police are all over my building, and you know they won't stop till they have found the culprits. It won't surprise me if they haven't found a witness already that hung all our asses out to dry!"
There was a loud sigh on the other side of the line, and Max started talking again with an admonishing voice. "Calm down. First off there are no witnesses we made sure to check before we went to your apartment. Second, the police can't track our smell as the blood will severely mess with their noses. Third, you don't realize it, but the fact that the police is there is a blessing in disguise. Are there any preds among them?
Westley had to think about the officers he saw exiting the patrol car. "There was a fox, a tiger and a wolf among them." As he said that he heard a yell of joy. "Perfect. Tell you what you hang back there, and I will send someone over to help you. When this is all over even the preds in the police department will be under heavy scrutiny, and we will have the perfect opportunity to get rid of some of them."
The beaver had to suppress a sob as he shook harder when Westley realized he would be required to mess with the police next and the beaver was sure that Max wouldn't be sticking his neck out for him if he was taken down. "Max, you're confident that I'm not gonna get in trouble for this are you?"
"Don't worry my comrade. The one I'm gonna send over will take good care of you, and I promise you with all my heart that you will have no problem with the police whatsoever."
"I mean it Max if I go down for this I'm taking you with me!" Westley wasn't sure that threats would work at this junction, but he had to make sure his 'friend' understood the implications if he was setting him up. When Max spoke next, the warmth had gone from his voice, and the beaver wondered if he had made a mistake. "Now there is no reason for you to make idle threats like that! Just make sure to follow the guy's instructions when he gets there, and things will get sorted out. Now till he gets there, I would appreciate it if you didn't call me again." With that, the call was disconnected, and Westley released the breath he didn't realize he was holding. As he put the phone back on the receiver, he heard the doorbell and knew without a doubt who he would find on the other end of his front door.
Nick and Ralph had been steadily going from door to door to interview the residents of the apartment building, and up till now, there hadn't been anyone that had even come remotely close to suspicious. They had only two floors left in this building, and then they had to rethink their position. The other two buildings were not like they though accessible from the alley leaving only this building as a possible place for their culprits to exit the scene from and wash up in.
Just as they were about to ring the bell again, the door was answered by a male beaver in his teens wearing a college hoody from Zootopia University. As Ralph looked the teen over Nick started the conversation. "Good day sir. I'm officer Wilde this is my colleague officer Wolford. We came to ask if you noticed anything strange yesterday?" Ralph saw the tremble as the beaver was clearly ill at ease and by the way, Nick's facial features cemented into a mask of pleasantness the wolf was sure he had noticed it too.
"No officer I haven't noticed anything off. Any reason why you are asking?" The beaver was looking from Ralph to Nick and back again, and the fox was sure that if the beaver didn't have anything to do with their case he would eat his badge. Hell, he would eat Judy's badge too, and that would be a challenge as the rabbit would fight him to save it.
"You didn't hear anything strange or see any suspicious movement in the hallway?" Nick made sure to keep smiling and try to get the beaver to slip up, but the mammal was too nervous and dodgy. "No officer like I said I haven't noticed anything wrong. Now can I go I was in the middle of something when you rang the doorbell."
"No problem sir. Here is my phone number at the precinct so if you remember anything to make sure to call me." At this, Nick handed out one of his cards the officers kept on them to deliver to witnesses and victims to give them the means to contact them.
"Thank you, officer, if I remember anything I will." With this, the beaver quickly closed the door, and Nick and Ralph made sure not to give anything away as they casually walked down the hallway.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Nick asked as he looked over his shoulder making sure the beaver wasn't watching them depart.
"You mean that the way that guy was acting he is not able to be innocent of ANYTHING." Wolford nodded. He liked Nick, as far as police officers went he and Hopps were great to hang out and investigate with. When it came to deductions, they were about the same level as Nadine and him.
Nick keyed in his radio and informed dispatch of the possible suspect and requested a pair of officers to be assigned surveillance on him like Bogo had requested. "You think it's still necessary to interview the rest of the building?"
Ralph shrugged. "It's clear as day that we have found one of our suspects. Still, it couldn't hurt to see if we can't see if the rest of the gang was also living here."
Nick nodded. "Good point buddy, in this case, it pays to be thorough. I hope that Nadine and Judy have found some leads too."
Judy and Cindy weren't having much luck in the meantime. They had reported to the lab, and while the three technicians there had been pleasant enough it was evident, they were a little bit irritated that their work was going to be double checked by others. Still, everyone was professional, and even the best could make a mistake, so there hadn't been any problems.
As Judy took another chicken carcass from the fridge to see what kind of weapon had been used on it, she noticed that Cindy was looking very tired. She decided to see if it had anything to do with the scene yesterday and asked in a friendly manner. "Hey had trouble sleeping?"
Soniko looked up from her own carcass and gave Judy a shrug. "Yeah, you can say that. Had some stuff to think about and before I noticed it, it was morning."
Judy nodded misunderstanding the situation. "I understand. All that blood yesterday wasn't healthy for my night's rest either." She noticed then the confused look Cindy was giving her. "Or was there something else bothering you?"
Cindy cursed herself for her slip up as the thoughts she had about Joe weren't ones she was willing to discuss. "Just thinking about events of the past. Don't worry it won't hinder my ability to perform my duties."
The rabbit looked her partner for the day over and sighed. "It isn't about you being able to carry out our obligations or not. I'm worried that there is something that is making you lose sleep. Now I know we just met, and I can understand that would make it hard to confide in me, but I want you to know that if you ever need an ear to listen to mine will be available to you."
The red panda looked down deep in thought. Cindy didn't want to discuss Joe with Judy. She was friendly enough, but as she said they had just met, and Cindy didn't know her sufficient for that. Still, it couldn't hurt to get some perspective from someone else on the old pain she was feeling. "Can I ask you a question?"
Judy perked up and gave her an encouraging smile. "Sure. I don't know if I know the answer you seek, but feel free to ask."
"If someone broke a promise with you and hurt you in the process, but they don't know that they hurt you. Is it fair to be angry at that person?" Cindy knew she was unfair, but she couldn't find it in herself to forgive Joe. Yes, it was a childhood promise and as little kids you believe you can do anything even if it turns out to be untrue, but the promise had been important to her.
"Did this person know he was breaking his promise when he did it?" Cindy looked up in shock as Judy looked at her seriously. The red panda knew that he couldn't have known that she was in trouble and he probably never found out that something had happened. "No, I don't think he was ever aware of it."
"Then I would confront him about it. If he doesn't know he did anything wrong, you can't expect him to understand that you're angry with him." Judy made sure that she had Soniko's full attention. "When he knows what he did wrong you can go into how he hurt you with breaking the promise and that gives him the chance to apologize for it."
Cindy suddenly felt like a little kit again. "What if he isn't sorry for breaking it?" She felt a paw on her shoulder and looking up saw that Judy had moved over giving her shoulder a friendly squeeze. "I don't think you believe he wouldn't regret hurting you. If you really felt he didn't care you wouldn't be so conflicted about it."
With that Soniko closed her eyes and just gave a nod of understanding. She now understood what she had to do. Still doing it would be hard as she had to confront Joe. If everything had gone like normal at the academy, she just could have walked up to him and asked for them to talk, but with the drugs being found in his locker and her panicked mistake afterward she might have screwed up things between them to much.
If she wanted to rebuild her friendship with him, she would need to find out what had happened at the academy while in the meantime trying to keep the attention away from him. She had made a mistake because she didn't have the time to think things over, but now she would make sure to find out if he had been doing drugs and if Joe had been innocent, as he had claimed, to locate the evidence needed to clear his name.
Westley was pacing back and forth in his apartment waiting for the mammal Max had to send his way and wondering how much longer it would be before the police would leave and they missed their chance. As the doorbell rang again, he bolted towards the door and opened it up to be greeted by another police uniform.
"Sorry officer I already told your colleague that I didn't see anything!" As Westley said that he looked up and saw the eyes of the mammal he had been talking too. Suddenly he knew exactly what Max had planned to get the police in trouble, and he also knew that he hadn't lain too. There would be no way he would be in trouble with the police. As the mammal in the uniform pushed his way into the apartment, his last thought went to his parents. 'Mom, dad, sorry I wasn't a better son.'
Nadine and Harris had been busy looking through the alley any new leads, but the rain the night before had washed away a lot of the blood and the garbage cans didn't give them any new clues either.
"We drew the short end of the stick didn't we?" Harris had to wonder what the point was of coming back here. They had gone over the scene with a fine comb, so it was very doubtful there would be anything left for them to find.
Nadine sniggered as she realized that the new blood was correct in his assessment of their situation. "Very much yeah. Still, you never know. For all, we are aware the suspects returned to the scene of the crime and left new evidence for us to recover."
The hare shook his head in exasperation. "Yeah, right we just open a garbage bin and presto we find new evidence just like that eh?"
The tiger smiled at him. "Well, at least we have checked all the bins and containers in this alley so we can be sure they haven't come back here." As she opened the last container, Nadine was sure that she wouldn't find anything of worth but frowned when she noticed that there was more garbage in it than the day before. The trash bins and containers had been emptied recently, so they had been almost empty when they had conducted their search yesterday. Today, however, this container was close to half full.
She gave a quick whistle and motioned the hare to come over to her. "Maybe we got lucky. I'll give you a boost so you can reach the bags."
Harris gave Nadine a doubtful expression. "You're taller than me why don't you just get the bags out yourself. It seems to me you can easily reach them."
Fangmeyer gave him the sad kitty stare she had perfected while dating Ralph and it pleased her to no ends that the hare didn't seem to be impervious to it either. "Fine boost me up I'll get them."
It took a couple of minutes for her and Harris to get all the bags that she thought were suspicious, but when they were done the first thing she noticed was one bag had cuts in it. As she slowly opened it, she saw the glint of many daggers covered with blood and the first thing that went through her mind was B.I.N.G.O. Bingo! A couple of the other bags gave up some bloodied clothes, and there was even a letter in there addressed to a 'W. Dambildir'. Things started to look up, and Nadine couldn't suppress a happy shout as she turned to the new recruit.
"See Umbra. Going through all the garbage had paid off in a big way. I have to hand it to the chief sometimes you just don't know what will fall into your lap." Afterward, she had to admit that she should have worded that differently. The celestials seemed to have a very sick sense of humor.
At the end of that sentence, a window a couple of floors above her burst in a shower of glass and the soulless remains of a mammal, wearing a Zootopia University hoody, smashed into the cement pavement a couple of feet away from them.