Chapter 26: The Capybara
Everything looks like it's finally over for Jake and his team, or is it just beginning?
Their van was old and rusty as they cruised the streets of the Rainforest District, the two cousins inside had always been somewhat useless in life. Even their parents finally gave up on them and sent them north from their homeland to hopefully find a living of their own in the city. Once in the city, Luiz and Emiliano took up a life of petty crime. Today the two grungy dressed cousins had branch out from simple battery and petty theft to kitnapping, the money was just too great of a temptation.
"Hey, what about her?" Luiz asked as he pointed toward a squirrel walking down the sidewalk.
"The doc said cats and that ain't a cat idiot!" Emiliano fussed. "Weren't you listening to him?"
"I was rolling nip joints, you know with the good stuff," the other Capybara laughed, his grin showed his broken yellow stained front tooth. "I figured you'd pay attention."
The van backfired and Luiz gave his cousin a look. "Dude I thought you fixed that?" he asked. "We can't afford to get pulled over for a ticket."
"Hey lookie what we got here!" Emiliano excitedly pointed at the attractive servil in a black and red checkered flannel shirt and tight jeans, The cat was standing on the street corner with two suitcases sitting by her hindpaws. "Ain't she a hooker? "
"Yeah, I've seen her before, easy mark," his cousin jubilantly answered. "It looks like she's leaving anyways, so no one important will miss her." He began to turn the van around when a red pickup truck pulled up to the curbside and a coyote jumped out and ran around the truck.
They watched as a grinning coyote in a matching flannel shirt and jeans, his tail furiously wagging behind him, picked up the cat's suitcases and set them in the back of the truck. Then after opening the passenger side door, he scooped up the cat and passionately kissed her before carrying her laughingly to the truck.
"Yuck!" Emiliano said. "What's this world coming for when canines and cats start getting together?"
"Specieist," his cousin laughed. "I think they look cute together."
"Gaakk! You're going to make me puke," the other rodent replied, trying to make a gagging noise. "It's just that they are so…unnatural."
"Come on we need to find someone for the doc and we need the cash," Luiz snapped.
"Ever wonder what the doc does with those cats?" Emiliano asked. "I mean, you don't see them after they are delivered. I heard he's been dumping bodies in the swamp, those that didn't survive his treatments."
"Do I care what he does to them?" his cousin remarked with a shrug. "As long as we get paid, I don't care."
"Yeah but kittens?" the other capybara continued. "Look grown hookers are trash, the swamp cats are trash, but kittens? The cops are going crazy looking for them, that's heavy heat."
"Kits disappear all the time from the streets," Emiliano growled. "Homeless kittens will never be missed and that's all we've been cruising for anyways."
"We haven't seen any lately, at least around here," Luiz grumbled. "Maybe we should try Tundratown?"
"Shit I'm not going anywhere near that side of the wall," his cousin huffed. "That's Northern Mob territory, I not going over there because those SOBs will hunt us down and send us for a one way icy swim."
A well-dressed jaguar in a dark blue business suit caught their eye. "She's alone, why don't we grab her, Emiliano asked"
"No way, she's married and looks like she has some money," Luiz answered. "She looks important, that'll open a can of worms."
They drove a few miles more toward one of the many park areas, passing a patrol cruiser parked on the side of the road. A zebra in police uniform had a weasel pressed against the car and was handcuffing the mammal. "Looks like they caught the Duke again," Emiliano laughed. "That asshole is still trying to unload those bootleg DVDs, you'd think he'd move on to a new scam."
"Some mammals never learn," Luiz chuckled as he wheeled his van down the road into the park and towards the playground.
"Lookie there!" Emiliano suddenly shouted. "A teenage kitten playing all by herself and poor old grandma napping on the bench. The Doc pays extra for the young ones, I'll bet we'll be long gone by the time granny wakes up."
"I don't know, there's a cop just a mile away. If she wakes up and sees us, we're fried. " Luiz sighed.
"She's not going a wake up," Emiliano snorted. "We'll make it fast, bag the cat and disappear."
Luiz slowly pulled the van off the road, behind some palms and the cousins slipped down through the tropical growth towards the playground. "I'm not sure, what if the old hag wakes up before we're out of here?"
"Look I brought another bag, a gag, and some rope, so lets sneak up on the old cat and tie her up. Then we can nab the kitten," his cousin offered.
"It's kind of weird to see a snow leopard here in the rainforest, usually they live in Tundratown?" Luiz observed. His cousin just shrugged, the two capybara would have had their hoofs full if the cat was in her prime, but the leopard was elderly and asleep. They jumped on her and she did struggle, swiping at Emiliano with her claws before they subdued her and left her tied up and gagged on the bench.
The kitten ran towards them screaming for her grandmother, her claws out in anger. Luiz looked at her and said, "Look sweetheart I'm going to kill your old granny if you don't do as we say."
"Hey that was easier than I thought," Luiz triumphantly proclaimed moments later as they drove away towards the highway with the kitten bound and gagged in the back of the van. "Now for our payday!"
Emiliano's ears drooped at the sound of crying from the back of the van, but only for a few moments before he thought of all the money they were going to get. "Yeah, payday cousin," the Capybara sighed. "After this, I need to get stoned."
The cousins got their money and quickly wasted it on drugs, hookers, and booze, just like they always did in the past. However unbeknownst to them, their kitnapping had set into motion a chain of events that would shake up the very lives of everyone in the city and propel a certain raccoon into the public spotlight.
The next day in Tundratown, Jake Runnel stared out of the mansion's window as the afternoon snow was falling on the gardens of ice below. The raccoon didn't like the cold and he shuddered at the thought of living here and having to deal with a thick winter fur coat. He always had his fur groomed close for warm weather, even during the winter months. Also, the cold made him want to eat more because of an ancestral instinctual craving to build up his body weight for the lean winter months. For a modern mammal, having food available all year was no longer an issue but the instincts were still within him trying to drive his behavior. Finally he sighed and turned back to the little shrew.
"I'm not a private investigator Fru Fru," Jake said to Mr. Big's daughter. She had just asked him to look into the disappearance of her former nanny's fourteen year old grandkitten. "I've never had to do anything like this before. What do the cops say, do they have any leads?"
"Daddy's mammals haven't been able to find her and the cops are not much help either. Please Jake, I need your help. We need to find her soon! Pleeease!" Fru Fru sniffled. The sight of the little shrew's tears was more then he could take.
"All right, I'll see what I can do," Jake said and then he sighed again. "But I am making no promises."
Continued in Zootopia: A Raccoon's Redemption, Chapter 7: A Favor For Fru Fru . It's not safe being a feline in Zootopia when a mad scientist decides to unleash a biological horror.