Chapter 29: Into the Tiger's Den
Raccoon vs Tiger! Nick learns that Jake does have a lot of other friends in his unique life.
Jake and Marie met Nick and Judy for dinner at their favorite restaurant, a Cajun place called the South Quarter. As Nick and Jake were digging into their steamed crayfish platters, Marie picked at her blackened redfish, and Judy ate her favorite salad of roasted beets, candied pecans, and wilted greens. The fox and rabbit were having a grand time as they listened to Jake and Marie talk about their Mating Celebration night.
"I tell you that it took me two more hours to figure out how to untie those damn knots and get that bodice off Marie!" Jake stated. "Then the next morning, I mention the knots to her brother Johnny. He looked at me like I was a nut and asked why I didn't just cut the laces like everyone else does?"
As everyone was laughing, Jake's cell phone rang. He looked at Marie and sighed "Ratzolli made me promise not to turn my phone off again, sorry." Looking at the phone number, he recognized it was Al Catpone's office number. He stood up and said "I have to take this call guys."
Walking outside he answered "Runnel Security, this is Jake…Francine isn't a late to be working…Mr. Catpone needs to see me now…any idea why…are you…Okay tell him I'm on my way. Thanks." Looking down at his phone, he had a feeling that something was wrong, Francine did not sound right, and there was a slight tone of fear in her voice. He hesitated wondering if he should tell Nick and Judy, but he didn't want to drag them into a possible compromising situation with one of the city's most powerful crime lords.
"I've got a work problem that needs my immediate attention" he told his wife and friends. "Guys can you make sure Marie get home?"
"Someone tried to break into one of your client's businesses?" asked Judy.
"Nah, it's nothing that dramatic" Jake replied, giving the rabbit a smile.
Kissing Marie, he whispered to her, "I love you. You know that? I'll call you later, okay?"
Judy noticed that Marie gave him a strange look. Nick however was too busy finishing Jake's plate of crawfish to notice. After he left and they watched him catch a taxi, Judy turned to Marie and asked. "When did he start saying that?"
Marie looked at her and replied, "First time he's done that. I think I should call Jimmy Ratzolli and check to see if everything is alright."
It took ten minutes for the taxi to reach the ZIP Imports, where Al Catpone had his legitimate office in Savannah Central. The building was one of downtown's oldest, having been built in the 30's and it was of the Baroque style with cornices, outside ledges, and even gargoyles on the corners. As he entered the front door, two wolves were behind the front desk and smiled at him. "Boss said to go on up Mr. Runnel." Jake looked back at the wolves as the elevator door closed, they just didn't seem right. Catpone usually used fellow cats for his personal protection.
As he stepped off the elevator, he noticed half of the lights were off on the floor. Carefully he approached the secretary's desk and saw that the young ocelot was slumped on her desk. "Francine" he yelled as he ran to her, placing a paw on her neck, he felt no pause. He pushed her body back and growled when he saw she had been beaten to death.
"Runnel it took you long enough" spoke a voice out of the darkness and a tall one eyed tiger stepped out of the shadows. "It's time to die."
Scaresse back pawed the raccoon, sending him tumbling down the hallway. The smaller mammal shook off the attack and quickly dodged the tiger's next strike. Jake twisted and shot his only can of pepper spray into the tiger's one good eye. Then running down the hallway into Catpone's office, he dove under a table just as a large paw slashed down on top of it. The tiger snarled and tossed the table aside in his attempt to grab the raccoon, but his one good eye was still watering from the pepper spray and he could not see well enough to land his blows. Taking advantage of the tiger's discomfort, Jake grabbed a chair and tossed it into a nearby window. He quickly crawled through the broken glass and onto the building's ledge, behind him the tiger snarled as the raccoon moved nimbly out of his reach.
"What's the matter Scarface, getting fat and old?" mocked Jake, trying to bait the tiger onto the narrow ledge. "You're just all growls and no bite! Wait until I call Al and tell him you killed Francine." The tiger gingerly stepped out onto the ledge and began shuffling along towards the raccoon. Jake let him get closer, but dogged each time the tiger swiped his paw at the small mammal.
"Damn you Runnel!" the tiger roared in frustration and he brought his paw up again for another strike. As the big cat struggled to balance himself, Jake struck with his throwing knife by whipping it into the tiger's one good eye. The shock and pain of the knife hitting him was enough for the big cat to slip and pitch backwards into the night air. Jake winced at the meaty sound of the large mammal's impact on the pavement below.
Still sitting on the ledge, he could hear the sounds of police cars arriving. He pulled out his cell phone and called Al Catpone's private phone number, "Scaresse just tried to kill me at your downtown office, sir…he's dead…sorry sir, he killed Francine…you don't have anything you don't want found here do you?…might want to lawyer up anyways, it was a set up and I'm sure things were planted for the cops to find…can I ask a favor of you sir, can you call my lawyer Mannie…thanks…good luck. Finishing the call, he removed the phone's sim card and tossed it onto the building next door and the phone in the other direction.
"ZPD, off the ledge now!" yelled a voice from the shattered office window. Jake sighed and crawled back into the office, where he was roughly thrown to the floor. His paws were twisted behind his back and handcuffed and a muzzle was roughly drawn over his face. The patrol officer patted him down and he asked, "Anymore weapons, sir?"
"Nope and the name's Jake Runnel," the raccoon mumbled through the muzzle. "For the record I did not kill Francine, Scaresse did. Oh, and I want my lawyer."
After he was read his rights, he was hauled up onto his feet by the patrol officer, a wolf and his reindeer partner and they escorted him into the elevator. As they exited the building toward the patrol car, they passed the tiger's dead body. Jake saw a familiar bear and said, "Officer Jackson, it looks like cats really do land on their paws." The bear just grimaced at the joke.
Jake was right, Scareese had planted incriminating papers not only about Al Catpone, but also about the raccoon and even Nick. Sargent Mark Forrester with Internal Affairs was jubilant as he publicly arrested the fox in front of the other officers that evening. Everyone could see he took great pleasure handcuffing and muzzling Nick.
Adrian Bogo was angry himself about the situation, something just wasn't right about the whole affair. Delgato and Francine had questioned Jake and his story was matching the preliminary findings by the CSI team, but why the documents? He looked out his office window and saw both Judy and Marie huddling in the lobby and he sighed.
It was almost 3:00 a.m. when the cape buffalo's office phone's ringing awoke him and he answered, "What!…calm down Rudy…who transferred Nick and Jake?...the Commissioner…why was I not told…I know not your fault…where's Jake's attorney Moleinger…where did they take them…no way…damn." He slammed the phone down.
A long way from the precinct, Nick looked at Jake with concern as they entered into the Zootopia Maximum Security Penitentiary. Instead of being taken to processing, they were shoved by the two rams into the dining hall, still cuffed and muzzled.
"Tell me this isn't the way they usually do things coon?" the fox mumbled though his muzzle to the raccoon. He was panting profusely, almost hyperventilating as he fought a panic attack from being muzzled again.
"Nope and I know because I've been here before," Jake replied. Twisting his paws, he tossed his now unlocked handcuffs and then a muzzle onto a nearby table. Then a few moments later tossed Nick's handcuffs and muzzle on the same table.
"You always were tricky with the paws coon," said a voice as over a dozen members of a warthog biker gang walked into the room.
Jake looked at their leader and replied, "Well if it isn't my old friend Chopper. I figured you would be dead by now, you took the wrong shrew. Your old boss LePew is dead as you know and now so is Scaresse."
"You know Runnel I still owe you for that beating you gave me. I had that young fox ready to do about anything I asked, until you stuck your nose into it. I was looking forward for a piece of that tail!" laughed the warthog. "So maybe your friend can take his place. Hell, I'll even let you live long enough to watch me take him."
Nick glanced at Jake because the raccoon was now just sitting on top of a table and looking nonchalantly at the gang members. "Ah Jake, are you going to just sit there and watch me get raped before they kill us both?" he asked.
The raccoon just pointed behind the warthogs.
A dozen coyotes and wolves had silently entered the room. "Ho little brother, you need help?" one of the coyotes asked. A wolf laughed, "Wilde, I thought you went straight? What'cha doing here?"
"Stay out of this you guys, he's a cop!" yelled Chopper at the coyote. "Why do you care anyways?"
"He's a fox, a member of the pack and the pack, like the Family, always takes care of their own," replied a scarred arctic fox who had just entered with two tall polar bears.
"Tray, I didn't know you were still here in the slammer?" laughed Jake. "Thanks for joining the party guys. I'll let our dear friend you were here tonight."
"He's not your only friend Jako," said a rough looking wildcat as he entered with two tigers and a leopard. "My cousin Meredith said you and your lady had a proper Mating Ceremony down in the old country and here you've gone and organized a grand rumble to celebrate."
The room suddenly went quiet as a large rhino entered and looked around. "Ronnie, here's the raccoon like I promised!" shouted Chopper.
Hey Ronnie, how's your sister been doing in school?" Jake calmly asked the Rhino.
"She's doing great Jake and thanks again for the scholarship! We never could afford for her to go to the university without it," Ronnie replied. "You need any help here?"
Seeing that they were outnumbered, the warthogs made a run for it.
By now Jake was standing on the table and addressed the crowd of prisoners, "Okay guys, let them go I think we should get back to our cells before this reaches the warden and he gets pissed. I think he is already going to be pissed enough when he finds me and Nick here without the proper paperwork. Thanks for coming and saving me and my friend's pelts." Turning to the rhino he asked, "Ronnie are you still solo in your cell? Nick looks like he needs to lie down and since your upper bunk is usually empty, can we crash with you for a while?
Nick looked at his best friend in awe.
Jake was being mild when he said the warden would be pissed. The bear was beside himself in anger when he received the call from Bogo and then found the raccoon and fox sitting in a cell with Ronnie Charger.
By afternoon of the next day, the case against not only Jake, but also Nick, had fallen apart when the Inspector personally showed up with documentation clearing both of them and even Catpone, of the faked papers. Also included were details of payoffs made to Officer Mark Forester by an unknown party to arrest Nick. Judy had great satisfaction in arresting the white-tailed deer.
"So you came up with all these documents overnight?" Bogo asked his old friend Robert Oakley, known as the Inspector, as they sipped coffee that afternoon.
"I'm good Adrian, but I'm not that good," the elderly stag answered. "These were sent to me by a friend of Jake's named Skye. I guess the real question now is who wanted not only Jake, but also Nick and Al Catpone out of the way?"
While Nick's immediate Internal Affairs issues had come to an end, Jake still had to answer for the death of Reginald Scareese. Richard Fangmeyer personally led the team that investigated the tiger's death and his detectives quickly located a number of witnesses who had seen the tragic events play out on the building's ledge. It was quickly determined that the raccoon's actions were in self-defense and all charges were dropped.
Despite his public bravado, the regret of taking another mammal's life would always haunt the raccoon.
