Chapter Nine

The group started taking some foods and bread slices from various plates to make their preference of sandwiches at the table.

"Well," Nick said, "right now, we are in the middle of an investigation of an attack at the school and there has been two attempts on our lives – the latest this morning by your nephew with a drone carrying a bomb and we escape with a small scratch. We caught him on the school campus with the remote control. Of course, we took him to jail and he will face some charges from this events."

"What?" Alex exclaimed, "He tried to kill you this morning?"

"Well," Judy interjected, "We don't know if we are intended target or if it targeted on some of the deaf students. Someone at the station is questioning him now as we speak so we will get some answers soon."

"Yes, that is correct," Nick agreed, "And we are here to ask you some questions about Eddie to shed some lights on his motives because you are his legal guardian and we hope that you can answer something that we don't know. We know it's hard to you, especially Molly. All parents and guardians hate that kind of situation with their kids."

"Yes, you are right," Alex said sadly, "It is difficult. Hayley was with Molly in her room when you came in." He turned to his daughter, "How is Mom now?"

"She still shaky but a bit calmer now," Hayley answered, "I asked her to join us for lunch and she said that she's not ready yet so give her time. She will come when she's ready."

"That's all right," Judy said, "And I am glad that you are here. Can we ask you something about Eddie before we go the station with one of you?"

"Sure," Hayley nodded.

Okay, tell us a bit about what it's like growing up with Eddie because we want to get some kind of idea what motived him," Judy asked.

"Jon and I always had an uneasy sibling relationship with Eddie when we grew up. We are not sure but we believe that Eddie blames Dad for what happened to his parent because he was with Dad when that happened."

Judy looked at Nick, then to Alex and back to Hayley, "Yes, Nick mentioned about Edward's accident. I guess that's why it's always difficult raising at a young age as it did to your dad."

"Yes, it was hard for him," Hayley agreed, "when we grew up, we never understood why Eddie got into so much trouble while we grew up, even though we do get into trouble occasionally but never as bad as Eddie's. Later, we learned about Eddie's parent's accident and all that that we began to understand a bit at a time."

"I am curious," Judy pondered, "Did Edward insult you like 'half-breed' or something similar like he did to your mother?"

"Oh yes, he did on the day he ran away two years ago," Hayley said. "I never forget that day. I was shocked and hurt by it. Jon did not understand the meaning of it as he was still young that time. I learned that word from someone else at school couple years before that. That was the last time any of us seen or contact Eddie. He said insulting words and slammed the door on the way out. He also said that he was glad that Jon and I cannot have our own kids due to our mixed genes that rendered us infertile so there won't be any more mixed breeds. I was hurt by that and asked my parents about it which they confirmed with deep regrets."

"What?" Judy exclaimed, "You can't have your own kids at all?"

"Unfortunately, they cannot," Molly said as she entered the lunch room, "It was very hard for Alex and me to accept that we won't have our own grandchildren but we will still love adopted grandchildren someday regardless."

Judy looked at Nick with regrets because of the possibility that if they end up together and have children, they would be infertile like Jon and Hayley. Nick noticed Judy's sad expression.

"Let's not worry about that right now, Carrots," Nick said, "Let's focus on Edward and the case, all right?" Judy nodded.

Alex noticed the interaction between Nick and Judy, exclaimed, "I knew it!" interrupting the musings of the others. He turned to Nick, "You sly fox! I knew it because you always talk about Judy and I figured you two are dating!" Nick sighed in resignation as Judy blushed.

"All righty, you smart fox," Nick smiled, "Yes, we have been dating for a while and we had our ups and downs but let's focus on the case for now, all right?" Alex giggled but Molly gently slapped his arm to stop his giggling.

"Of course," Molly agreed, "Alex and I had our ups and downs but we keep our bonds strong. Ironically, it was Eddie that brought us together and convinced our parents to accept our love and, eventually, our marriage. We don't understand why Eddie is so bigot even though we are interspecies couples and treated all our kids equally. It was some of Eddie's friends at school that had influenced him with bigotry ideas. We told him that bigotry is bad and all that but he still won't listen. He bullied some mixed kids at school as well. Jon and Hayley were not bullied by Eddie at school because they were in different years. He did some bullying at home and got into trouble for that but he still resisted Alex and me. The last few years has been very difficult for us as he refused to respect us as their guardian, saying that we are not their real parents repeatedly which broke our hearts. We even went to counseling for that but it did not work out. It was hard for Alex because he gets upset about this situation. And – and…" Molly started to cry again as Alex put his arm around her to comfort her.

"It was harder on her than me," Alex said as he comforted his wailing wife, "because of all the efforts she had done to take care of Eddie along with Jon and Hayley. She felt that all her efforts have been wasted, despite the more success of raising Jon and Hayley."

They continued with the conversation on Edward along with what they can find about his upbringing and other issues that could explain the motives. Alex agreed to stop by at the station for visiting with his son along with more questioning and paperwork. Upon their arrival at the station, Chief Bogo informed Nick and Judy that Edward had attacked one of the officers, a prey one obviously, and had to detain in special detention chair, which disappointed Alex greatly but asked Nick and Judy not to mention this to Molly because of her emotional breakdown. They went down to the detention section, went to the visiting room. Soon, the officer pushed Edward in his detention chair. It was a sight that Alex had hoped not to see. He sighed deeply, looked at his old friend.

"Nicky," Alex said, "Thanks for all your help and I want you to stay with me here while I talk to Eddie."

"Sure," Nick agreed and brought the second chair, turned to Judy, "Want to join us, Carrots?"

"No, you go ahead," Judy said, "From what I heard from Bogo about what he did to the prey officer and I think it's best for me to be out of his sight as I am a prey species. I will meet you upstairs in our office as it's a good opportunity for me to do some paperwork on our cases to give to Bogo."

"No problem,"

Nick and Alex sat at one side of the window separating the visitors and the prisoners while Judy left the visiting room. Nick motioned to Alex to begin. He sighed and picked up the phone on the side. The officer on the other side picked up the phone and hold it next to Edward's ear.

"Eddie," Alex began but Edward interrupted him, "I don't care what you are going to say to me. And don't you call me 'Eddie' anymore! I am Adolf now!" which angered Alex.

"You listen to me, boy," Alex snarled, "No matter what name you want to call yourself this day, you are always 'Eddie' to me and YOUR family! Your own parents were great friends with some prey species and it was your mother who introduced your aunt to me as she was the daughter of your mother's good friend! Do you know what you did to your dear aunt when she finds out about your joining that stupid group, SPS? I have never seen her crying that bad in my own life! You have broken her heart!"

Edward laughed as Nick and Alex watched him with disgust. "Good!" Edward squealed, "I can't wait for her to cry to death and I can enjoy that meal with my friends!" He laughed at the idea with glee. Alex got up and punched him but got stopped by the thick bulletproofed glass. He screamed in pain as Nick pulled him away from the window while clinching his painful right paw.

"Calm down, Alex," Nick said as he kept restraining his old friend while the other officers, a jaguar, assisted him in holding the angry gray fox back as Edward continued his laughter. Nick turned toward Edward, groaned, and turn to his fellow officer holding Alex back. "You got Alex, Riggs?" The officer nodded. Nick let him go as Riggs kept a hold on him.

"That was very stupid to say in here, Eddie," Nick snarled, "There are cameras and recording devices in here! They can be used against you in your case! Do you want to spend the rest of your life in prison?!"

"So what?!" Edward said, "The SPS is superior and will break me free out of your inferior station! We are ready to take on Zootopia! We will make the city a prey-free city with hunting and big meals for all of us predators! Starting with those inferior deaf kids! We don't need them in our society! Wait and see! We will be ready when that school goes boom!"

Nick stood as he looked back at Alex and Riggs. "Shit! Wait here!" He ran out the room to Bogo's office, opened it to see Bogo and Judy in the room.

"What it is, Officer Wilde," Bogo asked as Judy looked on.

"Get those kids evacuate out of that school now!" Nick yelled, "There's a bomb in there somewhere! Do it quick!"

At that moment, few miles away from the station, there was a massive explosion at the school.