Chapter 4

- Day 11 -

"Settle Down!" Bogo orders, the excited whoops dying down. I focus on the Chief's expression, it is most definitely not a good one.

"In the past week, a string of mammals have turned up dead. All appear to be tortured to death, with the eventual cause of death always being repeated doses of nighthowler and its antidote. First Victim: Kristine Carols, 20, black doe from Bunnyburrow. Died on a stretcher at ZGH. Victims Two through Five: Assorted small predators, all from low-income areas of the city, aged 19 to 25, all found in a half dug mass grave in a junkyard over in the medowlands. And Attempted Victim One: Arnold Grounder, 21, Ram from downtown, reported missing three years ago, found in the trunk of a car by scrapyard workers."

Everyone is silent, I see several mammals in the room starting to boil with rage. Infront of me, I see Fangmeyer digging her claws into the table, and Wolford is clutching his fists together so hard I'm starting to see drips of blood.

"The only officers not assigned to this case are McHorn and Rhinowitz. You two are needed for a SWAT mission in the Rainforest District. Everyone else, stay seated."

The two giants walk out of the bullpen, as soon as the door closes, Bogo turns a chalkboard over, revealing a web connecting the victims.

"Alright. Our surviving victim has described to me that he was kidnapped shortly after graduation, and sold through the slave trade for the past three years. He eventually wound up in the paws of our serial killer, we have no name, but what we do know is that it's a he, and it's a Arctic Fox missing two fingers on his right hand. Our victim can tell us the guy is a fucking psychopath, subjecting his victims to torture for 12 hours, then giving them night howler for a period of time, before giving them the antidote and torturing them again. This goes on until they are dead. Now, our first victim was found alive. Our survivor tells us that after he was given the night howler once again, he woke up in a hospital bed, so we are to presume he got lucky and when he was given the antidote he was presumed to be dead."

Over the course of Bogo's informitave speech, Judy, Sydney and Fangmeyer all had to make a mad dash for the trash can, with several others, including myself not far behind.

-0-

I look at the trashcan, my swirling vomit looking back at me, I straighten myself up, wiping the vomit off my chin with my sleeve. I mentally prepare myself, turning back around, facing the bear I shudder, feeling my stomach not done yet, but I fight down the feeling.

"Didn't take you for a puker." Joseph says, looking down at me, his Russian accent not hiding his surprise

"Tornakov. It's the damn smell." I say, clamping my hand firmly over my nose. As I make a few shaky steps back towards the tables.

I'm about to open my mouth again when I hear the doors behind me open, a corpsman pushing a stretcher with a body bag into the room. I look at the tag as it's pushed bye, recognizing the name.

"Ah god damn, I need to make a call." I say, pulling my phone out and hitting the contact labelled 'Chief'

-0-

I pat Nick on the back as he continues to puke his brains out into the trash can. His stone expression lasted until Bogo pulled up a slideshow that featured pictures of the deceased.

From somewhere at the front of the room I hear 'Try Everything' come from a phone, clearly a ringtone. The Chief simply pulls his phone out, putting it to his ear. "Chief Bogo... I see... Thank-you Doctor." He says putting his phone away before simply sighing. "Grounder is dead, heart gave out fifteen minutes ago."

I lead Nick back to his seat as a collective garble of rage comes from the various officers in the room. I simply sink into my seat next to White, who is holding a plastic bag in his hands, clearly not sure if he's fine.

-00-

I breathe in the fresh air of the seaside, enjoying it before I take a bite of my lunch, a sandwich from a sub shop on the boardwalk.

"Found our pedo, over there by the Ferris wheel." Logan says, pointing at a hog wearing a dark trench coat, trying to hand candy to passing children.

"Let's get em." I say, sliding off the hood of the cruiser, crumpling the sandwich wrapper into a ball.

Logan and I walk down the boardwalk, pretending to be oblivious to the hog. I rest my hand on my tranquilizer pistol, while Logan has his hands on his vest, right above his taser. I whistle may way behind the hog, preoccupied by a rabbit kit who he's trying to hand a freebie.

I cough into my hand, causing the hog to turn, before starting between two of the buildings on the boardwalk.

Is it too much to ask that one person doesn't run? "ZPD FREEZE!" I yell, tranquilizer gun in hand as I watch the hog decend stairs on the side of the boardwalk.

I jump the guardrail and roll when I hit the sand, finding myself at the bottom before our pedo.

"PUT EM UP!" I yell at the hog, who turns to find Logan at the top of the stairs. He goes to reach into his pocket, but a taser to the back stops that action. A set of cuffs later and we were carrying the unconscious pig back to the cruiser.

-0-

Burn baby burn, disco inferno, burn baby burn...

I hum to myself, mixing the powders together carefully. I take a rag to clean some of the fog off of my gas mask, it slipping out of my hand and falling to the floor. As I lean down I hear a sound I recognize all too well, slowly raising up, I see a small fire having started on my hot plate.

Can't take your eyes off something for ten seconds nowadays can you? I dart for the door, running down the hall as fast as possible, forgetting I'm only wearing my underwear and a gas mask.

-0-

"Dispatch to all units, need two units for traffic control at a skyscraper fire in Sahara Square." The radio crackles.

Sydney picks up the radio, responding to the dispatch as I pull out of our speed trap location, flying down the road.

-0-

"Fire units have been battling the blaze in This Sahara Square high rise building for four hours now, we do have confirmation from the ZFD that some residents of the residential high rise are still trapped in the upper floors of the building. ZPD has announced that one mammal is under arrest after used incendiaries were found in his apartment."

The news then switches to a live shot of the blaze, where halfway up the building fire could be seen coming out of windows. Meanwhile I had my hands full, the late evening blaze started right after most mammals got home from work, and the ER was packed with everything from simple smoke inhalation to a firefighter who had to have their leg amputated with a fire axe after it got trapped.

I close the door to the room, going to my next assignment, one Jared Fowler, ZFD who got burns and smoke inhalation injuries. I open the door, finding the room empty, I double check the file and room number before grabbing a shortwave radio that was given to doctors in emergencies like this.

"Hey Alice, The ZFD guy, Fowler was in 27-B right?"

"Yea, why?" Comes the crackled response.

"Alert ZPD and hospital security we have a missing patient."

-0-

"Jessica." I say, walking up to the roadblock.

"Yea?" She replies, turning away from a pig covered in soot.

"Let Logan handle them, I need to tell you something." I say, not wanting to have this conversation, but we had become good friends at the academy and the Chief decided I should break the news.

I lead her down the street a bit, remaining silent as I think of how to break the news. I sigh, sitting down on the curb.

"Sit down." I say, patting the ground next to me.

I can see the fear in her eyes, going over the possible scenarios.

"Jared's dead?" She asks, tears beginning to flow.

"No. No, but it may not be any better." I inform as she embraces me in a tearful hug.

"Just tell me."

"He's missing. Hospital cameras caught him being wheeled onto an ambulance."

"If he's on an ambulance they should know where he is..."

I rub my forehead, not knowing how to break the worse news. She can see it in my eyes.

"What?" She asks, holding me by the shoulders. I can see Sydney walking up behind her.

I drop my head, before looking upwards. "The 'paramedic' who loaded him onto the ambulance was an Arctic Fox missing two fingers on his right hand..." I state sombrely.

She looks into my eyes, I can see her heart break and shatter before being crushed under the heel of a jackboot. She falls forward onto my chest, hugging me tightly. I don't know how to respond, the only thing I can do is return the hug. "Don't worry, we'll find him, and we'll find the fucker that has him as well."

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