Delgato: Questions

Savanna Central grumbled itself into consciousness in the mid-morning hours. Delgato, dry-eyed and with little sleep sat up in his bed. His six-year-old boy called out excitedly,

"Daddy! I want tuna and eggs please!" The young lion cub jumped on the bed and tackled his father. Delgato fell backward as they wrapped their arms around each other in a familiar routine morning embrace.

"Arf! Alright, Gerard. Just give me a minute." Gerard squeezed his dad into life then wandered into the kitchen to tell his aunt that her brother was awake. "Why do boys have so much energy?" Delgato shook his head, fond of the morning moment. The touch and cries of his son always soothed away the anxiety in his mind, if only for a second. But it was a second of rest away from the toxic thoughts that otherwise held their death grip on Delgato's consciousness.

He pulled himself out of bed, tossing the thin blue blanket aside. It was just past six. With time short and not wanting to draw even more negative attention from Chief Bogo his way, Delgato quickly made breakfast for himself and his son, thanked his sister Marian, for being such a great babysitter while he worked, and headed out the door.

Today, Marian had tennis practice. Thanks to Big rewarding Delgato for protecting Finnick from conviction, Big had gifted his family with a hefty sum of cash. And with it, Delgato offered to pay for her tennis lessons. Gerard got a new game console, The Z-station, and school supplies. But the thought of it only made Delgato ill. He had just signed away his freedom. But how could he refuse? Big gave his family a kind of tax-free financial security that his normal job could not supply. But the expectations from Big were becoming direr.

Knowing the events of last night were only going to fester and get worse, so long as he had both Big and Bogo to worry about, Delgato fearfully ventured to the ZPD. He texted Grizzoli after his meeting with Chief Bogo last night to alert him of what happened. Grizzoli had not responded and the silence kept Delgato up for hours with frantic thoughts of the hellish ways he would meet his end if he did not retrieve Big's money. The shrew was reputed to be the most vicious predator to exist. And he would do anything to avoid finding out why.

He passed through the entrance of the ZPD and through the metal detectors stationed just through the main doors. He flashed his ID to Sergeant Clawhauser who, for the first hour of the day was in charge of scanning officers coming in for work. Clawhauser winced when he saw the harried Delgato.

"Good morning Delgato. Rough night?" Clawhauser softly smiled at the lion. Delgato met Clawhauser's gaze with a grief-stricken face. He was busy thinking up creative ways to call Clawhauser a "Fat fuck," but the only words to come out of Delgato's mouth was,

"Don't worry about it. Thanks." Clawhauser shook his head and tsked with concern.

"I hope you have a better day today. You're a good cop." The polite cheetah had no idea just how awful his timing was in paying Delgato such compliments. Delgato had lied to his Chief, a good captain. Strong and ethical. Fair but strict. He let himself become one of Big's errand boys. And in the middle of this, has spat on his oath as an officer and now bullied other mammals with extortion and helped create counterfeit licenses. No, he was not a good cop. And if anyone dared to tell him he was a good cop, he would gladly scratch their eyes out.

The ache of failure sat in the driver's seat of his mind. It rotted his mind and his heart. He had failed his fellow officers, failed his family by allowing Big to charm them with gifts and special "services." And now, Delgato fails the very mammals he was employed to protect.

He had twenty-five minutes to spare before he was expected at the bullpen. When Delgato remembered that Fangmeyer walked into the station last night with one of the two goats sent to Nick's stall, he hurried to the holding cells for answers. Avoiding as many officers as he could, he nervously glanced at the time on his phone once more and hoped that the captured goat was still in one of the holding cells. At most, there was a 48 hour holding period before the goat would have to be charged with a crime or released.

Slipping down the left hall of the ZPD, Delgato walked past a protected billboard riddled with papers tacked on. Notices, rule changes, missing persons and wanted people of interest all stuck to the board in a disorganized fashion. He pushed through a solid set of double-doors and into the holding facility at the back end of the station. The goat was on his right just three cells down. He was entertaining himself with push-ups and bragging to nobody. His braided beard brushed the floor on each fall and his horns like dangerous spikes on some strange mechanism, moved up and down with his workout.

"Hey. What happened?" said Delgato. With a huff, the goat jumped up,

"Shit. Now you show up." He rested his arms on his hips and tilted his head at Delgato.

"I don't have a lot of time. What happened, Ropes?" Ropes sucked his teeth,

"Me and my bro were in the stall searching the place, then that bitch showed up. You said he was being taken to jail."

"Another cop got involved, Judy Hopps. She lied to me. He wasn't supposed to come back."

"He did and when he panicked after seein' us in the stall, Flares pulled him into the truck an' whooped him." Delgato went wide-eyed with disbelief,

"You assaulted him?" He slammed his paws into the door of the cell, shaking it.

"Yo! Easy. The little bitch didn't fight back. It wasn't a problem." Delgato ran his nails through his mane and paced back and forth to the outer boundaries of Ropes' cell.

"That fox is a fence for Big. He was only to be scared for the money, not attacked. Where is the money?"

"Oh, Flares got it. He even searched the fox too while I held him out the window. Flares dug into his pockets and went through his boxes. But I don't know where he is 'cause the cops showed up too fast." Delgato clenched his jaw and glared at Ropes,

"You don't know where Flares went with the money?"

"No. We didn't have time to settle on a meetup spot after, not with police right down the block. Dumbass." He scoffed and stormed out of the holding cells, unable to further tolerate the ostentatious goat.

Yet another nail in the coffin. Delgato had two minutes to make it to the Bullpen. He jogged his way over and with trepidation, opened the door and entered. Chief Bogo was already up front, blocking the whiteboard with his large bulky frame, shuffling his work papers. Delgato glossed over the buffalo up front then turned to walk to his seat in silence, thankful that Judy Hopps was not present today.

He timidly waved to Grizzoli who sat in the corner. Grizzoli scowled and shook his head. He bit the air with his teeth, baring them at Delgato. Unfortunately, the meaning behind the response was lost on him.

The Chief graciously ignored commenting on Delgato's harried appearance and simply extended a courteous,

"Good morning." With barely an audible utterance, Delgato said,

"G-good morning, Sir." His tail hung limp and his once proud brow now wrinkled with the fright of a mammal facing a sentence of unknown torture and humiliation.

Chief Bogo's ears flicked and he softly snorted, jumping into the morning routine,

"It looks like we are all on time today. I wouldn't expect anything less..." The Chief adjusted the small glasses on his muzzle and went through the list as usual. Delgato watched as officers, mostly in pairs, walked up to the front and snatched up a case file - if one was necessary - and headed out for the day. When Grizzoli was called, he slowly walked up to the front, swiftly glancing at Delgato. He quietly uttered,

"BBL tonight."

"Yes," replied Delgato. Then he was gone. The BBL was Big's Bar and Limo. Delgato figured Grizzoli would have wanted to meet him at the club in Tundratown. The despairing lion sat alone in the bullpen. All the other officers were off to their patrol zones. The Chief eyed him and frowned in disappointment. With a sigh, he walked up to Delgato as he trembled in his seat, unaware that he was audibly whimpering.

"You should be worried," Chief Bogo began. "After our meeting last night I got some interesting news." Delgato forced himself to face Bogo. "Officers Fangmeyer and McHorn brought in an obnoxious goat last night. They said that Nick Wilde was attacked. They even went so far as to credit Judy Hopps with warning them of potential threats hovering over Nick; who by the way, is still a possible suspect in our stolen cargo case."

"Oh!" Delgato sighed painfully. The scrutiny of his chief and the many levels of errors he had made last night left him speechless. Chief Bogo lowered his head to Delgato, as he stood over his seat.

"This just gets stranger and more complex. I usually like a mystery, but I can't help shake the feeling that something dirtier than usual is going on. And it breaks my heart to suspect that it might possibly involve one of my officers who despite my berating, I treated as an equal. As family."

Family. There was that word again. It was the word that represented the perverse mammals of Big and his mob. It represented the honorable lot of the ZPD. And it represented the innocent relatives of Delgato; or any other mammal, left at the mercy of an unpredictable shrew.

Kneading his paws, Delgato said,

"Sir, I am just an officer. I have merely failed to do my job and I will accept whatever punishment you have in mind for me."

The chief raised his head, straightening his posture while keeping his gaze focused on Delgato as he tried to keep from squirming in his seat. He forced himself to stare at his chief as he spoke,

"Nick is in Savanna Medical. Fangmeyer and McHorn actually left just before the bullpen briefing to check up on him. But we are going over there as well." Delgato blinked, unsure if he heard right.

"We?"

"Yes." The Chief pulled his badge from his front pocket and a report.

"We have reasonable suspicion that a certain red fox was spotted in the Rainforest District hauling away stolen cargo. So we are going to check in on Mr. Wilde. If he can be released from Savanna Medical, we will take him in for questioning. A witness will be brought in to confirm if it is indeed the same fox." Delgato struggled to breathe. No matter the outcome now, it seemed as if he was going to be exposed and the rapidly approaching fallout would be his unemployment or arrest. In any case, Big would set his sights on the lion and not be satisfied until he was tossed into Big's icebox where he would freeze to death after being shaved and beaten by his massive polar bear guards.

Delgato heard stories about victims that were skinned alive and then tossed down into the vault. Their flesh would be peeled by the bears and they were said to lick up the skin flakes and blood that oozed out from the wounds. Still living, wailing pained lumps of flesh, tossed into the bone-biting cold. Their muscles would freeze to the floor, the walls, whatever was touched. Smaller mammals never lasted a minute. But it was a minute of agony and terror that spat in the face of time.

On trembling legs, Delgato followed Chief Bogo to their patrol jeep. Delgato entered the vehicle and sat shotgun. He stared out the window of the passenger door distressed, like a child in trouble with his parents.