Chapter 8, Missing Pieces: Jazz led me back to the body. Aiden, Darby, Grayson, Grizzly, and other ZU officers were there.

"I know who this is. This is my cousin's ex-boyfriend. I didn't like him. He had a whacked-out conspiracy that campus police are out to hurt predator students." Jazz said. Why did this gang have such a vendetta against campus police? Could it have something to do with the missing predator students? But that wasn't their fault. Or was it? And why haven't we heard about these missing students? Surely some had to be on the news.

"Is he dead?" Aiden asked. Grayson showed us a vial.

"Poisoning." The gray wolf said.

"Every time! These cowards either flee or they poison themselves." Darby breathed out some air. He took out his walkie and called for a ten fifty-five.

"Not this time. We caught a couple of them and confiscated the poison. They're at the back of the school." Jazz said. Darby pointed at Grizzly.

"You take the criminals to the interrogation room. Have officer Bouncer lead you to them. We're getting answers this time." He said. Grizzly nodded and left with Jazz.

Grayson picked up the weapon. "Just as expected. The serial number is scratched off." He said.

"Hold on to it. The chief will want us to store that in the evidence room." Darby said. Grayson slings the weapon on his back. He picked up the blue shades the coyote was wearing. "Same blue spy glasses like the last one we caught had worn." He said.

"How do you know they're spy glasses?" I asked.

"It's really hard to see, but this black dot on the right corner of the frame is a camera. I remember seeing a port on these where you can charge it somewhere…here it is." Grayson shows the shades to us. I didn't even know spy glasses were a thing. Sounds like something from a spy movie.

"So it's like a body camera," Aiden said.

"Yep, no doubt they're using shades so they can record while being unidentifiable." He replied. "My dad used to work for a technology company. Not sure if they're made by the same one. They don't have the brand name on them. But they sure look the same." The gray wolf added.

"Could it be they're getting replicas from the place where they're getting the weapons?" I asked.

"It wouldn't surprise me," Grayson replied.

"What about the poison?" Aiden asked.

"Officer Bouncer said it's made from autumn crocus," I said.

"What is that?" Aiden asked.

"It's basically a deadly Night Howler look alike," Darby said. "Back at home, my mom grew them to keep insects out of her fruits."

A coroner van then pulled up at the scene. A raccoon, a striped hyena, and a side-striped jackal came out of the back. All three helped bag and place the body on the stretcher and into the back of the van. The jackal and hyena closed the door and the van took off.

"Roll out everyone and be on the lookout. They can be anywhere." The deer said to the rest of the campus police.

"Yes sir." The cops said to him. They got in their cars and drove off. Grayson stayed with Darby. Darby looked at Aiden and me. "Come with us." He said.

We both followed the deer and the wolf. Darby leads us to what looks like their break room. There was a fridge, a microwave, a coffee maker, a box of stale donuts on the counter, and a tray of stale bagels, cakes, cinnamon rolls, muffins, and scones.

"Sometimes the university cafe gives us leftover food," Darby said. On the wall was a whiteboard:

Free Dobby

Jazz: IV

Jerry: V

Barret: VI

Next to Jazz was a drawing of a rabbit's head. Next to Jerry was a drawing of a wolf's head, and next to Barret was a drawing of a bear's head. So the wolf's name is Jerry and the bear's name is Barret.

"What's the board for?" Aiden asked.

"Sometimes we find lost socks in the laundry room and we use them to throw them on his antlers. We use the board to keep score. I made the drawings." Jerry smiled.

"I only let them play because we had the same room in the academy. For the record, my name is Darby, not Dobby." The deer said.

"We put down Dobby because it makes it funny." The wolf replied.

"I'm Aiden." He said.

"Nice knowing your first name Aiden, and we already know Buck's."

"I didn't," Jerry said.

"Now you do," Darby replied.

"Why are we here?" I asked.

"He'll show you," Darby replied. Jerry hands him the weapon and Darby leaves. Looks like predators weren't allowed in the evidence room either. Could predator ZU officers do anything? Jerry gets a laptop out from one of the cabinets and connects the spy glasses to it.

"Hopefully it will show something useful this time and not just a bunch of annoyed students, but I doubt it will," He said.

"Why are you doing this in the break room?" I asked.

"Remember what I said before? Predators aren't allowed in the security room." Jerry replied. "We did this with the last pair of spy glasses. It's so the rest of the force, who are predators, could see what they had recorded." He added.

"What else can you not do here?" Aiden asked.

"If it's not monitoring the students, then pretty much nothing else," Jerry replied.

"But that's unfair," I replied.

"Maybe when we crack down on Nessa the predators here can do their job like we're supposed to. I do believe she's related to one of the higher-ups here. It's the only thing that can explain why she's protected by this school and why predator ZU officers are limited on what they can do."

I wish I could help these officers. But we only had three days to find Deborah's kidnapper. No doubt Aiden shared the same sentiment. The spy glasses displayed quite a bit of footage. Two videos stood out to me; the one with the fox and the jackal, and the one with Jacqueline. In the same clothes, we saw her in earlier.

"What did I miss?" Darby asked coming back.

"Nothing. You're on time." Jerry replied.

"These two…" Darby said. He clicked on the one with the fox and the jackal.

"I don't want to talk about it anymore Thomas! We're through!" Deborah screamed. Aiden watched the video with wide eyes. Deborah must have talked to him in a really timid tone whenever he came to the store. He probably didn't take her for a screamer; from what I learned about her, I couldn't imagine her as one either. She must have been really angry here.

"Deborah. I joined because-"

"If you say because of me I will slap you! Just leave me alone! And tell your buddies to leave me alone as well!"

"Oh. But we would have still been together if I passed training! I see you flirting with that hyena at your job. You'd rather be with a hyena than me just because he's a cop!?" Thomas yelled.

"I didn't leave you because you're not a cop! I left you because you joined this goddamed gang! The gang that keeps freaking stalking me nonstop! All because what? I know Nessa!? The only time I feel safe is at work and even then I see them! Unless it's you under that hood since you just said you watch me at work!"

"They're only protecting you from Nessa, and I just wanted to know what that hyena is to you!"

"I do not need protection from Nessa, and Aiden is my friend! Why does it even matter to you!? I'm not your girlfriend anymore!"

"Deborah! Please! You're special to me! I thought you would understand why I joined."

"Because you think the whole world is against you because you're a fox? A fox and a jackal aren't that different! Yeah, prey does act suspicious of me at times, but not all of Zootopia is that way! I would have never been hired if that were the case!"

"Or maybe they're using you as their token predator worker."

"If that's what you believe then fine. But I still don't want to date you anymore. You made me feel uncomfortable on our first date. You're an alcoholic who refuses to get help. You had beat up Nessa, and you became a criminal." Deborah said.

"What I'm doing is not illegal and I hurt Nessa to protect you!" Thomas yelled.

"Vandalizing university property!? Messing with the campus police!? Harassing innocent students!? Sounds a lot like criminal activity to me! It also wasn't just Nessa you hurt! You had attacked some other girls as well! How do I know you won't do that to me eventually!?" Deborah yelled back.

"Those girls were prey who didn't like predators!"

"Oh like that makes it okay!" Deborah turns to leave. Thomas grabbed Deborah's arm.

"Deborah, you're not safe here. The campus police don't care about us. Haven't you noticed that predator students are going missing? Nessa is planning to kill you and I wouldn't doubt that lioness as well."

"Please let go of my arm."

"Deborah, listen."

"I'll listen if you let go of my arm."

"Deborah! I'm trying to save you!"

"Let go of my arm!" Deborah screamed, pulling away from him.

"Hey!" Darby was running towards them. "Let go of the jackal! You heard her! Let her go!" He yelled.

"Now they want to act as if they care about predators! I bet he wouldn't tell me to let go if I were a prey species."

"Actually I would. You have three seconds to let her go." Darby warned.

"No. You're not going to hurt her!" Thomas yelled.

"I'm not the one that's squeezing her arm! Let go of her now or I'll make you let go!" Darby yelled back.

"I'm just talking to her," Thomas said.

"Last chance," Darby warned. Thomas was moving away with Deborah. Darby pulled Thomas off of her and the two got into a fight. Deborah backed away looking scared. Thomas pulled out his switchblade prompting Darby to take out his taser and used it to immobilize the fox.

What Darby had said has been true. I did not know why Nessa didn't bring up Thomas attacking her, I was going to have to ask. The information could be relevant to the case. The thought of talking to her again made my coat crawl. It appeared that Deborah had problems with the gang as well. I needed to make a list of questions to ask her.

Something interesting happened at the end of the video. The camera turned to where a hooded mammal was hiding, they ran from their spot. It wasn't shown, but there was a gunshot followed by a crowd of students screaming and someone screaming for Darby. More than likely that was Fern.

"He must have given some signal to the raccoon. These fools set me up!" Darby said.

"I think the fox asked one of them to record them arguing and for one of them to shoot you. That's the only plausible way. The jackal couldn't have been in on it. The emotion felt too raw." Jerry said.

"He smelled like vodka though. Why get drunk while carrying out a plan?"

"He probably thought about the plan while drunk."

"Explains why he did it during the day," Darby said to Jerry. "Wait. Wasn't this the jackal you two were looking for?" Darby asked us.

"We found her. She's in the hospital right now. She was in some abandoned building in the rainforest district." Aiden said. Darby looked excited for a moment then looked disappointed.

"That may have been their hideout. But we're university police. We can't look into it." He said. Aiden and I were in such a hurry to rescue Deborah we didn't think to look at that shack thoroughly. There's also the fact those van tracks were fresh. Like Aiden had said, they may have visited that place frequently. Could it be that the hideout was right under our snouts?

"We could look into it for you. If you could help us find that fox in the video. He's the one who kidnapped her." I said.

"Deal." Darby held out his hoof to shake. I held out mine and we both shook hooves.

"But how are we going to find him? It'll take forever to try and catch every single gang member." Jerry said.

"We'll get the ones in the interrogation room to spill," Darby replied.

"What if they refuse? We've seen how one would rather die than talk to us."

"Don't worry. They will spill." Darby had a mischievous smile. A really dark mischievous smile. Jerry widened his blue eyes.

"You do not mean."

"I do. I don't want to do it. But this gang has shown that we have to fight fire with fire if we want to stop them." The deer replied. Aiden and I looked at each other like we were both asking the same question. What was their plan?

"I wonder why he thought Nessa was planning to kill her. He also brought up the missing predator students." Aiden said. I wondered about the lioness he mentioned; while thinking about the lioness I saw in city hall. Could that be the lioness he was telling her about? She was wearing a similar bracelet to Deborah's and Nessa's.

"Normally I would dismiss it because he did smell like vodka. But with things that have been happening at this school…" Darby said.

"They may know something we don't know. But the staff still won't see it as evidence to look into Nessa. They'll only see it as drunken words." Jerry said.

"If the school is protecting her, you could try going undercover," I suggested.

"We tried that before, Nessa knows how to spot an undercover cop. It's crazy." Darby said.

"I'm telling you. She's related to one of the higher-ups here." Jerry said.

"If these students have been going missing, why haven't they appeared on the news?" Aiden asked.

"We don't know ourselves," Darby said.

"I would blame the staff. But not even they can have that much power." Jerry said.

"I mean each time a predator student went savage they were taken to a hospital so maybe they're not missing? But it still doesn't explain why the staff won't let us look into it. Or why they're going savage, to begin with." Darby explained. This case gave more questions than answers.

"How long has this gang been around?" I asked.

"We don't know that either. They've probably been around before we got hired. Like I said when we first met, I feel like the mayor thought the university needed more cops." Darby explained.

"Could you play the one with the rabbit in it?" I asked. Darby looked at the video. "That's Jacqueline…" He played it.

"How did you find me here?" Jacqueline asked.

"I've been knowing you were here." Said a voice. This must have been Antonio's voice.

"You have to go now. You're going to get me fired." Jacqueline replied.

"Jacqueline this is-"

"Antonio. Do not say this is for us. I keep telling you. I. Lost. The. Baby. You can tell those members to stop following me. There's no hybrid to "protect"."

"Why can't you just tell me John made you kill it?"

"He did not! I didn't even know I was pregnant until I lost it."

"This poor rabbit was pregnant and did not know until she miscarried, and he is accusing her of killing it. Or at least accusing one of her family members." Jerry said.

"Jerk. No wonder officer Bouncer didn't like him." Darby said.

"To put the icing on the cake he's recording it," I said.

"That's just straight-up psychotic," Aiden said.

"This is still for us Jacqueline, we can try for another baby."

"I do not want another baby right now. It was painful losing that last one. Plus I'm in college working as a simple file clerk. I cannot support a baby and you sure heck can't. All you're doing is fighting imaginary crimes. I also don't want the baby to know that its dad is a criminal."

"This gang is not illegal and we're fighting for predator rights."

"Say what you want. It's only a few steps away from being a predator supremacist gang."

"I keep telling you that it's not. There are prey species who are also in the gang. We also protect predators and mammals who are mixed with predator and prey."

"The only way a mammal can produce a hybrid is if they are part of the same family. Each species has a different set of chromosomes. The chance of a prey-and-predator hybrid happening is pretty slim. Probably why I miscarried."

"You don't know that for sure Jacqueline."

"This approach is still wrong. You see a prey student talk to Nessa one time and bam they're a target. You see a predator with a prey family and bam your gang targets the family. You see a campus police officer tase a student who is a predator, the officer deserves to get shot, no matter the context."

"Okay so us going after that blonde horse was a mistake. But the campus police officer deserved it. We're only talking to students who talked to Nessa because we're trying to gather information about her. The campus police aren't doing anything to stop her."

"Leave now before I scream. How could you say that so nonchalantly? You could have traumatized the fox making her see her foster mother get harassed by suspicious-looking mammals probably thinking they might kill her foster mother right in front of her, and you did traumatize a doe by shooting that campus police officer. But it doesn't matter because she's prey right? Also if Nessa is such a huge threat, how about looking into Nessa without harassing the students?"

"You're taking it out of context. I admitted going after the horse was a mistake."

"Shooting the deer was also a mistake. The fox had a weapon."

"Because you only hear what Jazz tells you to hear."

"Leave. Now."

"Is everything okay, miss?" It was Judy. After that, the video ended. Antonio must have run off when he saw her and Nick.

"So what I gathered from both videos is that the gang hates us because they think we're defending Nessa and not doing anything about the predator students," Jerry said.

"They assumed that we're the enemy," Darby said.

"This video must have been recorded not too long ago. Because she was wearing the same outfit when we asked her to look at the city cameras, and we had sent Nick and Judy to talk to her about the gang." Aiden said.

"It seems like he decided to go on some suicide mission when he couldn't get her back, or couldn't handle the fact his child is dead. Maybe both." I said. I don't know if I ever wanted to be in love. Love drives mammals insane.

"While I do feel bad, it was beyond despicable that he recorded her pain and the fact he saw what happened and still tries to tell her you deserved to get shot," Aiden said.

"It would be great to see him behind bars. But at least he can't hurt any more mammals. This group's days of playing heroes are going to be over." Darby closes the laptop.

"I wonder if that horse is a college student or a civilian," I said. If the horse wasn't a college student that would mean the gang has been harassing citizens. This was soon going to be a ZPD problem.

"Not sure. I haven't seen any blonde mares." Darby said.

"I've seen a few. There is one who I think is a medical student. She always wears pink scrubs and a white lab coat with it and she always has her mane in a braid with a pink flower clip. Thinking about it, I don't know if she is a medical student or one of the university doctors. I'm sure that scrub color and the flower clip is a dress code violation."

I lashed my tail. That sounded like Dotty. But I didn't know if Dotty had children. Jerry also said he's seen a few blonde mares. There may be a chance Dotty is not the horse that was mentioned in the video. Darby took the spy glasses.

"Officer Stagg. Report to my office now." A voice said on his walkie. It was the same voice that gave him the affirmative code.

"I have to see what the chief wants. But these need to go in the evidence room." Darby said. Jerry takes the glasses and stores them in a plastic bag sealing the top.

"I'll meet with officer Bouncer in the interrogation room and have him store them in the evidence room. We also need to find time to show the rest of the force the footage." Jerry said.

"I know. I'll schedule a time for us to meet." The deer said to the wolf. The wolf left the break room. Darby looked at us. "I have to meet with the university chief of police. If you need to go back to your station I won't hold you any longer." The deer left.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking Aiden?" I asked.

"Maybe. What are we thinking?" He asked.

"That we might find our missing pieces if we transfer to university police duty. Temporarily of course."

"We have to look into where they kept Deborah before we do." He replied. I nodded and left the break room.

"I forgot to ask. What did you want to tell Darby?"

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"While he was telling us about how he had to use a taser. You looked like you wanted to tell him something." I answered.

"Oh that. I wasn't sure if I should break it to him that all tasers are the same. You know how you told Nessa on average a taser has fifty thousand volts? It's the same for all medium-sized predators. A coyote, fox, and wolf taser all have that amount of voltage. For larger predators like cougars, bears, and tigers. That goes up to one hundred thousand volts. Predators on the smaller side like meerkats, otters, and weasels. Those tasers only have twenty-five thousand volts." Aiden explained. I bought a taser that goes up to one hundred thousand volts. I needed to throw up. Aiden looked worried.

"Buck, are you okay?" He asked.

I swallowed. It tasted bitter. "I'm okay. How do you know that?" I asked.

"All predators know that. There's a reason why there aren't any tasers for prey species." He replied.

"Why?" I asked.

"Fear sells. As my former neighbor, Katey said, "Tasers are a replacement for shock collars." Pepper sprays are also the same way. The larger the predator. The more potent it is." Aiden answered. I was really feeling sick now. Aiden looked very concerned.

"Buck. Do you need me to take you home?" He asked.

"I'm fine really…do you think Darby should have done it?"

"Of course, he should have. The fox had a weapon. He's lucky that the deer wasn't trigger-happy. I just wasn't sure if I should have told him that it wouldn't have made a difference had he picked the bobcat or wolf taser. Of course, if he had the bear or cougar taser I would have told him he should have might as well used a bullet. One hundred thousand volts on a medium-sized predator? Chances are he would have died. They should just stop making predator-specific tasers and sell them by the amount of voltage they have. But as I said before, fear sells." Aiden replied. I just nod.

"Buck. I'm taking you home." He said.

"No really, it's fine. Just go get me a carrot juice from the vending machine and meet me in the dorm lobby."

"Aw, you want alone time with that brown sheep?" Aiden asked. I made a short laugh.

"No. But I do have something to ask her."

"A date?"

"I mean it, no. It has something to do with the case." I said. Aiden nodded leaving. I walked back to the dorm lobby. Bella was there reading a book.

"I'm guessing you like reading," I said. Bella looked up with her brown eyes and green-rimmed glasses she smiled.

"I'm a bibliophile. I'm majoring in library science. Not sure if I want to be a librarian or archivist."

"Whatever you choose I'm sure you'll be good at it," I said. Bella smiled.

"Thanks. Oh, did you find Deborah yet? Wait, never mind, you had to. Nessa told me she was going to the hospital to see her. Is she okay?" She asked. I thought I was really going to throw up then and there. Deborah's phone is still in cyber forensics. How did Nessa know she would be in the hospital? I needed to find Aiden fast.

"She is. Thank you for telling me this." I left. I knew Bella was probably confused but I didn't have time to explain.

"Woah, Buck. What is the rush?" Aiden asked coming up to me with a bottle of carrot juice. I took the bottle.

"Did you give Deborah her phone back?" I asked.

"No. It's still in cyber forensics. Why?" Asked Aiden.

"Nessa's heading to the hospital to see her. I'm not sure how she would know that she's there." I replied. Aiden looked scared.

"Well let's run!" He said.