Chapter 4: Sinister Little Lamb?: We walked over to the campus police. The buck smiled and waved at us.
"Thinking about transferring over to campus police duty?" The deer asked.
I laughed a little at that. "No, we wanted to know how you got campus police duty," I asked.
"We were assigned at graduation." The jackrabbit said.
"I guess the mayor thought the university needed more cops. To tell you the truth, I think I know why." Said the deer.
"Why do you think that?" I asked.
"Look around you. When you arrived here, did you find anything out of the ordinary?" The deer asked.
Aiden and I looked around.
"Everything seems okay," I said.
"Look harder, to help you out, look at the students in particular." Said the buck.
Aiden and I looked at the students. There were alpacas, antelopes, deers, donkeys, gazelles, goats, horses, impalas, llamas, ponies, sheep, and zebras. Basically, the students were any prey species you could think of.
"There's not a single predator student in sight," Aiden said.
"Exactly." Said the deer.
"Prey do makeup ninety percent of the population. It may be because there's more prey than predators." I said.
"That's what we thought too at first. Don't tell anyone this. But lately, predator students have been going savage," The deer said.
"And once they go savage, we never hear from them again." Said the rabbit.
"It's because of Nessa Bellwether. You cannot convince me otherwise. This school is protecting her." The wolf said.
"How do you know it's her?" I asked.
"We don't know for certain if it's her or not." Said the rabbit. He pointed at the wolf. "One night he and I were sitting in one of the cars. Out of nowhere, a savage weasel jumped through the window. It was scary. We tried to fight him off, he was so quick though. I opened the door so that way we could pin him down when he jumped out. The weasel lunged toward me and bit me on the neck. My partner quickly pulled him off and kept me from hitting the road. While I was drifting in and out of consciousness I was certain I saw Nessa nearby. When I reported it to the deans they thought I was just delirious from not being fully conscious and the blood loss. They put me on medical leave for about three weeks." The rabbit explained. That story made me feel chills.
"Do you know what happened to him?" Aiden asked.
"He was sent to the hospital to reverse the effects. But that was the last time we ever saw him," The wolf said. I wonder how many other predator students had experienced the same fate as the weasel.
"Sorry, we spilled this sad story on you guys without introducing ourselves. I'm Stagg. Two G's." The deer said.
"Bouncer." The rabbit said.
"Grayson." The wolf said.
"Grizzly." The bear said.
It sounded like they were introducing themselves by their last name.
"Broncco. Two C's." I said.
"Cackle." Aiden said.
"Nice meeting you both." Stagg smiled.
"About that story...you don't think that could have happened to Deborah, do you?" I asked.
"Who is Deborah?" Asked Grizzly.
"Her name is Deborah Blackstripe. She's a black-backed jackal, she goes to this school, and she apparently knows Nessa Bellwether." Aiden explained.
"I have seen Nessa with a blacked-backed jackal from time to time. She gave her one of those friendship bracelets that you make at summer camp." Grayson said.
Aiden pulled out his notebook. "What did this bracelet look like?" He asked.
"It was purple and white. Nessa's was red and white." The wolf answered.
"Did you ever see Nessa hurt this jackal?" I asked.
"I haven't. They seemed like they were friends." Grayson replied. "I know it contradicts what I said about her being the cause of predator students going savage but I saw what I saw."
I remembered that last sentence in Deborah's diary. What is Nessa planning? And why is she keeping Deborah around? She doesn't seem to like predators seeing how she didn't mind cooperating with me but was so flippant with Aiden. Maybe she likes the thought of controlling a predator? Although I couldn't help but feel there's more to it than just being a toxic friendship.
"So you never saw her tase the jackal?" Aiden asked.
"Never." The wolf answered.
"When did this jackal go missing?" Asked Stagg.
"Nessa said she saw her packing two weeks ago," I said.
"The cameras! Stagg and I can take you to the security room!" Bouncer said.
"More like….we can take you at least," Stagg said pointing at me.
"Why just me?" I asked.
"The chief of campus police doesn't allow predators in the security control room," Grayson said. What's going on with this school?
Bouncer and Stagg lead me to the camera room. There was a giant monitor displaying different rooms across the school.
Stagg sat in the chair in front of the screen. Bouncer sat on his antlers.
"So she saw this jackal packing two weeks ago? Let's see…" Stagg started typing something on the keyboard and placed his hoof on the mouse.
"Is there a reason why your chief doesn't allow predator ZU cops in here?" I asked.
"The chief said the administrators here told him not to," Bouncer answered.
"And why did they tell him that?" I asked.
"Probably the same reason why they don't want us looking into why predator students have been going savage and then disappearing afterward," Stagg replied.
"It's frustrating. We were assigned to protect the students, but it seems like that only applies to prey students." Bouncer said.
"How did Grayson and Grizzly get this job?" I asked.
"When you're assigned, you're assigned. The school had no choice but to let them work here. I feel bad for any predator ZU police officer. This job is great, but predators sure do get the short end of the stick here." Stagg explained.
"What happens when you try to look into why predator students have been going missing after they went savage?" I asked.
"The higher-ups will deny that the predator was a student," Bouncer answered.
"And the cameras don't give us much of a lead because they all show they were taken by an ambulance. So what can you do if the staff refuses to let you look at student records, while the cameras give little to no clues?" Stagg said. Now I was starting to feel sick to my stomach. I really hoped Deborah wasn't one of them.
"Did you ever go to the hospital and asked the staff?" I asked.
"We would have. But we don't know the names of the students, and there's a lot of hospitals in Zootopia." Stagg said.
"So basically it would be like finding a needle in a haystack," I said.
"Pretty much." Replied Bouncer.
"And here it is." Stagg displayed a video that was recorded two weeks ago. Deborah was leaving the dorm building carrying a pink duffle bag with red hearts on it. Embroidered on the bag was the name " Becky Dollequine" . Deborah is a Becky fan. Interesting.
"All two hundred of my sisters have a bag that looks like that." Bouncer said. "So does Jacqueline and one hundred forty-nine of her sisters." He added.
"Becky Dollequine fans?" Stagg said.
"Hardcore." Bouncer replied.
"All three of my sisters and my cousins have the same bag. My oldest sister and my cousin Fern love her makeup tutorials. I don't know if her sisters follow them. But I'm sure they do." Stagg replied. If I weren't looking for the poor jackal I would have said that Becky is my sister.
As Deborah walked past a corner of the building she collapsed on the ground. Stagg paused the video, rewind it a little, and played it again slowly. He zoomed into the corner.
"Jackal tranquilizer." He said. I pulled out my apple-shaped notebook and wrote it down with my pen. I wrote down what she was wearing as well. She was wearing an asymmetrical purple top with a big white butterfly on it, a pair of black capri leggings, and her sandals were black and had artificial lavender flowers on them.
"Zoom in on her wrist," I said. Stagg zoomed onto Deborah's wrist and there it was. A purple and white friendship bracelet. I wrote down that she was wearing the bracelet.
"Keep playing it," I said. Stagg pressed play again. While Deborah was out, a mammal wearing a navy blue hood picked her up. Stagg looked like he was surprised by something. I thought he was probably shocked that Deborah was kidnapped.
"There! Pause right there!" Bouncer said. Stagg paused.
"Zoom in on the perp's paws." Bouncer said. Stagg did as told.
"Fox paws," I said. I wrote it down.
"Judging by the height. This might be a red fox." Stagg said. He continued to play the video. I caught a glimpse of a reddish black fox tail as he carried Deborah away. Definitely a red fox. I'm willing to bet that this fox is Thomas. Stagg switched the camera to the back of the dorm building. The fox placed Debbie in the trunk of a black van.
"Zoom in on that license plate," I said. Stagg zoomed in. "AF472K," I wrote down the license plate.
"Looks like the idiot thought that there weren't any cameras at the back," Stagg said.
"If only it could show a lead to where they might have headed," I said.
"I have a cousin whose family sells fruit preserves. To make some extra money on the side he laces some of the jellies and sells them to particular clients. I wouldn't doubt the kidnapper took that same route where he sends off the laced products. The route is popular among criminals. From what I heard that is." Bouncer said.
"You can't show it on here?" I asked.
"These are campus cameras. They're not going to show you the city. But go to city hall. Ask for Jacqueline Jackrabbit and tell her that Jazz sent you." Bouncer said.
"So your name is Jazz?" I said.
"It is."
"I'm Darby." Said the deer.
"Sometimes during break time we call him "Dobby" and put socks on his antlers." Jazz said. Darby playfully hits him with his hoof.
"Buck," I said.
"Now that we really have introduced ourselves. Hurry and find the jackal." Darby said.
"And arrest the fox while you're at it." Added Jazz.
"Cackle and I will make sure we will. This was a lot of help. Thank you so much." I said.
"Anytime!" Jazz said.
I met up with Aiden outside. We got back inside the car. I showed him the notes I wrote down and told him about the kidnapper.
"A fox wearing a navy blue hood?" He asked.
"That's right."
"While you were in the security room Grayson and Grizzly told me about these hooded mammals. Apparently, they've been a nuisance around campus. Following them around, shooting at them, and vandalizing the ZU police cars, they've also been getting complaints from students that these mammals have been following them around as well. I wonder what they wanted with Deborah. I really do hope she's not hurt." Aiden said.
"I think I have a theory. But I want to swing by her dad's first. So I can confirm it."
"We'll have to pull him up from the database. That would mean going back to the station." He said. I saw a laptop sitting on the mount.
"Maybe we don't have to," I said.
"Let's see…hopefully we're in the system." Aiden turns on the laptop and types something in.
"I'm not in the system yet. You try it." He said.
I moved over to his side and typed into the laptop.
"And we're in!" I said. I looked up Carl Blackstripe.
"933 Desert Drive," Aiden said, starting the car.
