Chapter 10: Desperate struggle
Harris had a hard time getting his head around the fact that he just had been a witness to a murder. As Fangmeyer yelled out to him to cover her, his adrenaline started to surge, and he snapped himself out of his daze. As the two cops ran towards the side door, Nadine blessed the celestials that they had the foresight to keep the door unlocked and opened. This decision was for the event that Nick and Ralph would have gotten in trouble, so the two cops in the alley didn't have to run to the front door to provide assistance.
As Harris covered the door, Nadine opened it, and they quickly scoped out the hallway. "Umbra quickly go to the front door and lock it down! Don't let anyone leave." As the hare immediately left to do as instructed Nadine turned around and yanked the handle from the door barricading it as it couldn't open without it. After making sure the killer couldn't use the emergency exit, she keyed up her radio and called in the murder to dispatch before informing her partner and his companion. "Wolford, Wilde come in we just witness a murder. The killer is still in the building; please head to third-floor apartments on the alley side."
Nick and Ralph hadn't been aware of the murder happening as they were three levels higher, but with the report, their thoughts immediately went to the suspicious mammal they had noticed when they were on the third floor. "Well, I guess we're down one suspect," Ralph muttered irrationally as he realized they lost a very promising lead.
As they reached the stairwell, he raised Fangmeyer. "Fangmeyer we're heading down what is the situation downstairs?"
Fangmeyer shockgun raised was covering the stairwell on the bottom floor. "Currently covering the staircase. Umbra has secured the entrance, and I've jammed the emergency exit." As she spoke, she looked up and saw the face of her partner as he cautiously looked down. They locked eyes for a moment before nodding their thoughts been made clear to each other.
"Understood we'll head to the third floor to investigate." As Nick and Ralph slowly descended the stairs, they made sure to check their corners with shockguns at the ready. As they neared their destination, they noticed the stairwell door to the third floor standing open. Seeing as all doors had an automatic closing system fitted in this building they frowned at each other.
"What do you think? Boobytrap?" Ralph signaled with his eyes at the entryway and the unnatural way the door stayed open. Nick nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, killer probably knows we're here and left a present."
Ralph swore under his breath. They knew they probably had the killer trapped, but this made it seem that this was the killers intend all along and he was prepared to fight them. "Hang on I've got an idea." As Wilde kept covering the door, Wolford quickly headed down the stairs making sure to inform Fangmayer so she wouldn't shoot him by accident.
Passing his mate, he immediately led to the utility room and got a broom with a long handle. After he had collected what he was looking for, he headed back up again to the third floor. As he arrived, he saw that Wilde was still dutifully covering the door and quickly signed for him to back up upstairs. Ralph wasn't sure what would happen when he opened the door, but he didn't want to get himself, or Nick caught up in it.
Wilde took up a new position where he could jump into cover while still being able to cover the door and Wolford used the broom to open the door further slowly. It didn't take much for them to hear the sound of something falling and while Ralph jumped a couple of steps down to get some distance from the door, Nick lay down on the steps to keep them between him and the door.
There was a high pitched sound of something activating, and the door almost was blown off its hinges as a hot ball of electricity flowed out. "RALPH! Please respond everything alright?" The excited voice of Fangmeyer made Wolford quickly tune in to assure her of his safety.
Nick slowly sat up again not forgoing his vigil as he kept his shockgun trained on the doorway. The door still hung limply from the bottom hinge, and while the fox slowly descended towards the third floor, he noticed a ball lying on the floor. It looked like the remains of a stun grenade, but at a glance at the pieces, it seemed to have modifications that were not part of the original design. He quickly glanced over to his temporary partner and saw Wolford ascend the stairs again. As they prepared to enter the hallway, Wolford informed the rest of the team that they were going ahead with clearing the third floor and asked the description of the murder victim.
Fangmeyer relayed all the info they had learned from the few seconds they had seen the victim before they had run in, but it was more than enough for Nick and Ralph as the clothes matched the beaver that had gotten their interest. Nick sighed. "You were right we just lost our suspect."
"Someone must be cleaning up. Don't know why the killer would want to fight the police though." Ralph took a deep breath and checking his surroundings stepped into the hallway. Nick followed quickly after making sure to cover the area behind Wolford as the two officers quickly cleared the hall. Slowly making their way towards the beavers apartment, they kept clearing corners and look out for possible booby traps. No further threats materialized along the way, and as the officers reached the apartment, Nick tried the door and found it locked.
Nick and Ralph formed up to the apartment and as Nick prepared to kick in the door something suddenly stopped him. Years of hustling we're screaming at him that things were wrong. What would be the point of booby trapping the stairwell and leave the hallway clear? The fox looked around and saw further down the hall exactly what he needed. The fire extinguisher he saw was large and thick enough to be able to break the door.
Wolford who had regarded the fox skeptically finally understood Wilde's intent as the fox returned with the extinguisher. The two officers took position next to the door, and at Ralphs nod, Nick swung the extinguisher sideways with all his might and slammed it into the door. The door cracked and turned inwards, but no second later an electric blast sounded in the hallway, and a deadly blast of electricity flew past the shocked officers. Nick and Ralph threw themselves back against the wall and prepared for a lethal response. Ralph set his shockgun to 'stun medium' and while holding the gun to the door opening shot blindly three bolts into the apartment. Nick than with lethal settings went into the apartment quickly clearing it.
His scan showed no hostiles and looking back he saw the set up that the killer had prepared for them. The smoldering remains of what must have been a shock gun smoked while wires attached to it led towards the door. At first glance, it was not exactly clear how this trap had been set up, but the fox would leave that for the investigation team to figure out. Together with Wolford, they made sure to check every room, but the killer hadn't stayed around. "Wilde here apartment is secure." Nick looked around and while noticing the broken window also noticed the distinct lack of signs of a struggle anywhere.
The four officers now were facing a big problem. Seven floors to secure with a killer present that had a love for leaving booby traps.
As their friends and colleagues were trapped playing a deadly game of hiding and seek Judy and Cindy got more and more exasperated with their general lack of finding any new leads.
The chicken corpses had not provided more clarity. In fact, they had done just the opposite. Most had been cut up using daggers and or knives the cut wounds straight and clean, but two of them had clear signs of being serrated with claws. Had there been a predator or two been mixed with the prey youth? Or had predator teens forced a prey resident to let them clean themselves up in the apartment and if so why hadn't the residents come forward when the police were there.
The cage itself hadn't given up much either. The only clue that looked a little promising were some pink hairs that had gotten stuck to the handle that had been used to carry it. It wasn't much to go on, and it could even not be related, but on the other hand, there weren't many mammals that dyed their hair pink. If they issued a b.o.l.o. across the city, they should be able to find some and ask if they knew anything more about the cage.
Cindy groaned as she rubbed her tired eyes. She had spent the last three hours using the lab equipment to cultivate dna samples from all the collected blood. Just like all the test, the technicians had done before her all came back as being chicken blood. The red panda had expected it but still had hoped to find something more for them to go on.
Judy smiled wryly as she too started to tire from their constant reexamining of samples and cadavers. As she was about to speak up to see if Cindy was interested in a five-minute break to get a cup of coffee Clawhauser rushed in.
"Hopps! Soniko! Fangmeyer just called in a murder on your crime scene. And at the moment dispatch is getting flooded with calls from residents who have heard an explosion and the discharge of shockguns. Bogo has ordered a mass responce of officers to assist."
The rabbit felt her blood go cold as she immediately thought about her boyfriend being in the middle of all that. Her chair was sent flying as she leaped from it and grabbing her temporary partner by her wrist tightly as she ran towards their cruiser.
Soniko only had seconds to adjust to what was happening and found herself half running half being dragged. As they passed the atrium, she looked down and saw the mass commotion of officers gearing up and running towards the parking lot. When the ZPD mobilized they didn't rut about that was for sure.
The girls reached their cruiser and jumped in. Judy quickly buckled it and looked over to make sure Cindy had secured herself before hitting the sirens and flooring the gas, causing the cruiser to race out of the parking lot. As the red panda pushed herself into the seat as the scenery zipped past the bunny spoke up. "Hold on to something cause this is gonna be a very bumpy ride."
Cindy closed her eyes she became aware of multiple sirens in front and behind them. The red panda shook herself mentally and steeled her resolve. While the drive was intense, it probably was nothing compared to what their coworkers were facing.
As Judy raced past a bus, she felt the dark pressure of dread, and she had to force herself not to think about how Nick might be hurt or worse. As she pushed the gas pedal all the way to the bottom only one thought was inside her. 'Hold on guys. Help is coming.'
In the meantime, someone was having the time of his life. He had to admit that the officers had exceeded his expectations and he was thrilled that they had managed to trap him on the upper floors. If he had just killed the guy like he was ordered to do the killer could have used the police uniform, he was wearing like planned.
Kill troublemaker, make a ruckus, let mammals see you leave in your disguise and mammals all across zootopia would lose trust in the predator officers on the force. Still, he hadn't come all this way just to play spy games. He had come for a pred/prey war, and if he needed to strike a spark to set of the powder keg than by all means, he wouldn't hesitate.
However, he had to admit he had underestimated them. He had set up the shockgun placement beforehand and making sure his second surprise was ready to be installed had checked if the cops were still in the alley. Then everything was just so easy. Throw the corpse out. Set up the trap on the stairwell. Hide on the fourth floor ready with shockgun in case they checked it. Then when the trap had gone off, he had waited a couple of minutes listening before noticing the cops had gone down.
He then had silently entered the stairwell, but felt the pressure of someone further down and had decided to travel up. Now on the seventh floor, he didn't have anywhere left to go and was now excitedly making new plans. He still had some shock grenades left, and while he had sacrificed his shockgun, he still had some daggers left he could put to good use.
Then he felt the irritation of his disguise. The uniform was perfectly suited and fitted him fine, but the costume was itchy and made every action he took more arduous to perform. It had been a close call, or the officers would have caught him closing the door to the fourth floor before they noticed him.
It wouldn't be long though before more police would show up and start clearing the levels one by one till they got him. In the worst case scenario he could always take a hostage or two, but from what he had understood from the information provided the only pred residents had been on the second floor so he could only take prey hostage. Something he didn't want to do. As he looked for another means of escape, he noticed something against the wall.
'Well, cops you have won round one. Sadly my disguise will not fulfill the role it was intended for, but at least you won't catch me'. As the killer softly laughed to himself, he moved down the hallway gathering the items needed to help in his escape.
Nick and Ralph had joined up with Nadine and Harris again and were discussing the best way to proceed. With a mad mammal boobytrapping everything searching the apartment building was just screaming for one of them to get hurt, but not doing it was akin to leaving one of the residents to trigger one of them.
As they were about to formulate a strategy they heard and saw the first cruiser pull up. The officers backup was arriving. McHorn and Higgins exited their vehicle and ran up to them. "What's the situation?" Their question was short and to the point making it easier for them to clue the new arrivals in.
Quickly formulation their strategy to proceed it was decided that Higgins and McHorn would cover the front entrance making sure to take note of everyone that was leaving. The four of them would start clearing out the levels getting the residents out of harm's way while at the same time making sure the killer didn't escape.
Their plan was simple to go up a level where Harris and Nadine would cover the floor above them so the killer couldn't slip past while Nick and Ralph would secure the hallway making sure the killer wasn't hiding there or had left any of his presents. Then when the corridor was deemed safe, they would alert the residents and make them evacuate. When they reached the front entrance, they would be processed by the cops at the door, and any additional backup would join up with them and help with clearing the floors.
As far as plans went, it was the best they had and the four officers while covering each other's blind spots started heading up to the second floor again. They had trouble at the doors though as now they couldn't say for certain if they had been tampered with making them waste time checking every inch of it to make sure.
As Umbra and Fangmayer kept them covered. Nick and Ralph opened the door to the second hallway and started clearing it. As far as they remembered none of the residents of this floor had seemed suspicious, but it wasn't said that the killer hadn't forced his way into one of the apartments and was keeping the residents against their will. Clearing the hallway the officers proceeded to knock on every apartment and ordering it's inhabitants to evacuate the building. While some protested most were cooperative, and it only took fifteen minutes before the floor was secured.
Nick was cursing inwardly this was taking much to long and every minute that was wasted gave the killer more time against them to plan strategies and put up surprises. As he was about to suggest them to start speeding up their evacuation process, he heard the voice he had been craving all day. "NICK!"
Looking down he saw the face of the bunny he loved. Judy looked up at him shockgun drawn pointed towards the ground. He could see how her features slowly relaxed as her eyes scanned his body looking for any wounds. 'Oh, my poor bunny. You must have been so worried.' Nick made a vow to himself to make sure to give his girlfriend some extra cuddling time when they got off as he was sure she would need it tonight.
On the seventh floor, the preparations were ready. The killer had understood the intent of the cops, and he had to admit as strategies went it was a good one, but sadly he had secured his escape and now it was time to put his plan into action. Lighting a match, he threw it in the wastebasket and smiled while the uniform and disguise started to burn 'well hopefully you guys enjoy shifting through soot.'
He slowly walked towards the wall grabbing the second part of his plan as the smell of smoke started to fill the hallway. 'Now my cunning adversaries let's see how you deal with this.'
As Judy and Soniko joined up with the four officers clearing the building the sound of a massive explosion rocked through the building and as fire alarms started blaring the residents of the floors above ran into the stairwell trying to escape.
As screams began to fill the apartment complex, Nick could only curse at his own ineptitude to see this coming. He locked eyes with Judy, and they both understood the situation "We're boned."