Legosi hadn't looked me in the eye since last night. He was back to acting shy and evasive around me. He actually positioned his chair as far away from mine as possible. It didn't hurt my feelings; I understood he felt extremely embarrassed over what happened. I felt really bad for him, actually. It's not his fault he's a carnivore with instincts. I'm sure he didn't mean to huddle over me last night, though I rather liked it. Still, he wouldn't know that; all he must be thinking right now is how he let his predatory instincts take over, showing a lack of control in front of me. Only it wasn't a lack of control….. After all, he didn't eat me.
I was looking at Legosi when Chief Bojo loudly groaned; he'd been up all-night working on this case. He rubbed his eyes and leaned back in his seat. "Alright; let's go over this one more time. You were walking alone outside by yourself…. for some reason." "Yes." "And you were trailed by a jaguar?" "A black jaguar- yes." "Uh huh. And this was around ten o'clock?" "It was that late?" My eyebrow cocked. The chief let out another deep exasperated sigh, glaring off to the side.
"Do you remember anything distinct about him? Any traits or specific features which would help identify him in a line up?" I considered Chief Bogo's question for a moment. Anything distinct? I honestly struggled to create a mental picture of my attacker on command. I mean, well I remembered his eyes and the fear they instilled into me, but I couldn't really re-create his exact image in my mind's eye. Maybe it's my brain's way of protecting myself- it'd be too scary to remember him exactly. Still, there had to be something I could recall….
"Erm, he was…. tall? Average size, I guess. He was wearing all black and… uh, I don't… know what else. Um….." What else, what else? Could I think of anything…..? Oh, wait! I perked up intrigued. "H-He had an armband on!" "An armband?" The chief's eyebrow raised. "Yes. It was red and it had uh, some symbol on it," I scrolled through my memory desperately. "What symbol?" "It was um, uh…. two words. Um, "day" and uh….. "desperate"? Mmmmmm, maybe "depravity"?" "Can you draw it for me?" The chief pushed a pad of paper and pen to me. I picked it up and draw the character for "day" and "depravity" side-by-side. It looked right to me. Chief Bogo took the paper and scanned it over; his eyes locked onto mine.
"Are you sure this was on his armband?" "Yes. It was… weird; the letters were black." "Ok. Is there anything else? Did he say anything to you?" "No, uh he…. He…... He acted really strange." "Strange? How so?" The chief leaned forward a little, interested. "Well he didn't…. He didn't want to kill me, if that makes sense. It felt like he wanted to abduct me." "Abduct you?" "I think so. He didn't try to bite me; at least not right away," I nodded. He rubbed his thumb under his chin, letting a lull come over the room. Then he clicked a red button on his desk. "Clawhauser?" He said into an intercom. "Sir?" The voice answered on the other side. "Send him in." My ears perked up again. Wait, send who in?
The office door opened and in stepped a familiar presence. Legosi and I both perked up; he with nervousness and me with elation. "Detective Cha!" I breathed. This massive panda completely ignored everyone else in the room, instead stepping straight over to me. He bent down so to be at my eyelevel as he stood beside my chair. "Are you alright, Haru?" "I-I….. Y-Yes, I'm fine!" "She's not fine. That jackass sliced up her arm pretty good," Chief Bogo scoffed. I caught Legosi flinch at this through the corner of my eye. Meanwhile Gohin inspected my bandaged arm carefully. After a second, he released me and straightened back up. His head spun to face Chief Bogo.
"What do you know?" He asked the chief. "Not much. There's no security footage, no DNA- no thanks to Sergeant Legosi over here," Chief Bogo's thumb stuck out in a frazzled Legosi's direction. Gohin glanced at Legosi, then back at the chief. "Anything else?" "Yeah, here. Does this mean anything to you?" He pushed the drawing to Gohin. The panda looked at it intently. "Day depravity?" His eyebrow rose up. "Apparently that was on an armband he was wearing. Is that a gang symbol or something?" "Not that I know of. I've never seen it before." "Well on top of that, it seems that abduction was the motivation; not carnivorous instincts," Chief Bogo added. "Hmmmmm…." Gohin contemplated this to himself, resting his hand under his chin and nodding slowly. I couldn't help but notice his eyes keep drifting my way.
Eventually the panda let his arms fall down at his sides. His expression was sincere. "Looks like we got our first lead." "Come again?" Chief Bogo blinked at him surprised. "Don't you see? This might have something to do with the missing herbivore cases. Haru said that the man tried to kidnap her; not eat her. If there're carnivores going around nabbing herbivores, it would explain why there've been no bodies yet. These aren't one-off attacks; it's obviously an organized crime syndic." "You have no proof of that, Detective," the chief stood up out of his chair, slamming his fists into his desk. Gohin locked eyes with him. "I pretty damn sure this counts, and we've got our first key witness. Detective Haru is perfect for this investigation because she's seen what a possible suspect looks like. And she knows the armband." "So what?" "So, for the first time since this case broke, we've got somewhere to go with it. Now the first thing to do is get Detective Haru and Sergeant Legosi specialized badges."
The colour drained from Chief Bogo's face. "What? Who said that Detective Hopps is being assigned to this case? She's already got another job." "And from what I hear it's a waste of time. I've heard, Bogo, that you haven't been using Haru to the best of her abilities," Gohin remarked and the chief- for the first time ever- backed down a little. The panda when on. "You really want to fight me on this one? Or should we hear what the superintendent has to say about this?" Gohin folded his arms in a victory pose. Chief Bogo looked at him, then at me, then back to Gohin. The most frustrated, annoyed sigh left his lips as he gave his head a single defeated shake. "Alright, bunny- you've got your first case," he didn't bother holding back any venom in his tone.
"Really?!" My eyes lit up both with astonishment and fear. I was admittedly perplexed at the moment. On the one hand, I had been hoping for a job like this since I graduated from university. On the other hand, I wasn't keen on searching the streets to find my would-be attacker. I didn't want to see him again or anyone that had anything to do with him, but I knew turning down this gig now would be a very bad idea. I say no and I'll likely be on parking duty for the rest of my career. I deliberately hid all reservation from my face, trying to look as dumbfounded as possible- which I genuinely was. Gohin winked at me while the chief came out from around his desk over to my seat.
"Let me be clear, Doctor. I do not want you on this case. Despite your "impressive education", I think that having a cute, little bunny rabbit track down a gang of vicious carnivore kidnappers is a bad idea. You have three days to change my mind," his fat finger pointed at me. "Oh, lay off, Bogo. She'll be safe what with Legosi as her partner," Gohin rolled his eyes. "W-What?! Me?!" Legosi gasped, all of us hearing the sound of his voice for the first time. "Oh, I'm sorry. Do you other plans we should know about?" Chief Bogo shot at Legosi in equally harsh a tone. "You need to go with Detective Haru on the case, Sergeant. You were there last night; you know his scent. If you can track him down using that brilliant nose of yours, Haru can identity him. That'll take care of at least one thing," Gohin's voice was much kinder. "Yes. Let's track him down and charge them. Then you two can go back to your normal jobs," the chief returned to his chair behind his desk. Gohin frowned at him but didn't say anything this time. I merely glanced over at Legosi, who still couldn't look me in the eye. Me? Work with Legosi? It's not the craziest idea I've ever heard. Plus he's a predator; he's strong…. Gohin's right; I'll be safe with him. Only…. Does Legosi even want to be partners with someone like me? He's so hard to read.
With another very heavy sigh, Chief Bogo opened up his top left desk drawer and pulled out a folder. He practically threw it at me, earning another disapproving frown from Gohin. "This is a copy of everything we have so far; as you see, it's pretty much nil. You two will be working from the ground up. And may I remind you, you only have three days. If you can't show me any new evidence on the case in three days' time, your partnership will be dissolved. Do I make myself clear?" "Yes, sir," both Legosi and I said at the same time. "Great," he said sarcastically rolling his eyes. I suppose we took that as our cue to go but he stopped us for one more minute. Only he wasn't looking at me this time but straight at Legosi. Chief Bogo locked stares with him. "And don't let anything happen to her. I'm not going to have a death on the force spoil my perfect record; and especially not from a bunny. It's up to you to make sure nothing bad happens to Detective Hopps out on the field. Remember Sergeant…
If she dies, your head is on the chopping block."