Chapter 3: A Busy Breakfast.
"I've already eaten this morning, I'm not hungry", Robby sat in his seat in the cruiser, slumped down, worrying about the case and reading the files he was given to find out everything he could, but his partner was adamant they should talk about the case over breakfast, and as much as Robby refused Officer Willow would not accept it.
"Come on Elmore, you may have eaten but by the time we get there you'll be hungry, I guarantee it". Officer Willow nudged Robby to grab his attention when she noticed him reading the files.
"Ok, how about this, I'll have a cup of coffee and a cruller, but I'll be skipping lunch if I do", Officer Willow knew this was the best she'd get out of him, so she nodded her head in agreement.
"You better be ready for the best damn cruller of your life because I know I aint missing lunch and I do not share". Willow gave Robby another nudge to make sure he was listening, however in this instance he wasn't.
"Mhm sure thing", Robby was too interested in a piece of information he had come across to care about the conversation anymore, so he just agreed and carried on reading. The information that Robby found was relating to Doug Ramses, Bellwethers partner in crime during the original night howler incident, was released from prison early after giving information about bellwether to reduce his sentence, due to this he has been taken to a safe house until witness protection can get him to somewhere safe out of town.
"I think our first stop should be Ramses, He's actually not far from the donut stores location, we might actually be able to get some information out of him before lunchtime". Robby passed a picture of Doug to Officer Willow.
"This the chemist that created the night howlers?"
"Not just the chemist, also the marksman, he was on a few watch lists back in the day and the second he stops being monitored he instantly started working with Bellwether, it's pretty much assumed she got him off the watch lists and hired him, but that couldn't be proven according to this" Robby pointed towards Doug's section of the folder.
"Why was he put on a watchlist?" Officer willow passed the picture back to Robby.
"Doesn't say, it's probably classified." Robby put the pictured back into place with a paperclip and closed the folder. "Doesn't matter anyway, what matters is the fact that we need to speak to him as soon as possible, he can be found at this location" Robby put an address into the cruisers GPS, "once we're done at the donut store, we're heading straight there OK".
"Sure thing Elmore, but be prepared, once we get here you may never wanna leave, this place has the best coffee, and the best donuts in Tundra Town, ya heard it here"
"I'm not really a donut guy Willow, I always prefered to snack on insect packs, I just love those curry crickets more than anything."
"Oh yeah you're a predator, forgot you guys eat that stuff, if I have to be honest with you it makes me queasy at the mere thought of eating an insect" Officer Willow put her hand to her mouth in a motion that seemed as if she was about to vomit, and after a few seconds puts her hand back down onto the wheel again.
"Really? That bad huh" Robby seemed shocked that someone could even dislike his favourite snack, nevermind feel sick at the thought of it, but almost immediately he stopped caring and when back to reading the files.
After around 10 minutes of driving the two officers pulled up to a store called "Destiny's Donuts", the place had a really 1950's vibe, the signs for the place were neon, the flashy kind that turn on and off to really grab the attention of passers by, and on the inside were a row of stools against a long table attached to the window, each one had a cushion made of red faux leather and were clearly well kept, every few feet was a small jukebox, like the kind you would find in a diner, but instead of records it was all digital, so clearly the place was a themed store rather than a place just left behind in the times.
"This the place?" Robby nodded his head in the direction of the donut store, "You sure its not a diner?"
"I'm sure, the place has been my hang-out for the last 10 years Elmore, Why don't you walk in and take a seat? I need to make a quick phone call."
"Sure thing, you want me to order?"
"Don't worry about it, I'll order for both of us when I come in, they know me"
"Ok then, seeya in there" Robby jumped out of the cruiser, and started heading towards the donut store, "Goddam donuts, its 7:30am and we're getting donuts? I was hoping it would be at least 5 years before I became a cliché." Robby walked into the store, he saw a line of booths, with the same red faux leather as on the stools, he thought they looked comfier so he took a seat in the first booth he walked too.
After a few minutes of waiting, Officer Willow finally walked into the store and headed straight towards the counter, where she was greeted by a tall female hyena, wearing a white shirt and blue apron, "Heya destiny, I'll have the usual and a cruller for my partner here, and could ya put on a fresh batch of coffee? We have a long day ahead of us."
"Sure thing sweetheart, so, new partner?" Destiny leaned in and whispered "He's cute, you should keep this one" Destiny winked at officer willow.
"He's a fox, I wouldn't think that was your sortta thing Destiny" Destiny looked shocked.
"Honey he isn't my thing, but I heard of weirder couples than a fox and a rhino" Destiny winked again.
"Don't be weird destiny, besides, I doubt he'd be into that considering he hasn't even told me his first name yet, I get the feeling he's one of those all business no fun kinda guys, ya know?"
"Yeah I know, don't worry I was just teasing, anyway, go sit down, your food'll be over in a few" Destiny hanged a piece of paper containing officer Willows order onto a receipt spindle and sent it into the kitchen.
Officer wiillow went over to the booth where Robby was sitting, she wanted to think about the case but all she could think about was the fact that she missed breakfast, and a fresh box of donuts and fresh hot coffee were mere minutes away, as she went to sit in the booth with Robby her stomach rumbled very loudly, luckily the only other person in the building was Robby so she didn't worry about it too much.
"I found something interesting, it looks like Weaselton left zootopia around the same time Bellwether broke out, you think this is a coincidence?" Robby didn't take his eyes off the page, he already knew the answer, but he wanted some input to back up his theory.
"Definitely not, he's one of the major reasons she got taken down and everyone knows it, surprised he didn't leave earlier.
"Well either way we're out of luck on this one, all we have is Mr Big and we're gonna need clearance to speak to him, and Doug Ramses, the one we're about to speak too, the way I see this is once we've dealt with Ramses we head over to the fish market and see if we can pick up on anything suspicious"
"Sounds good partner, who knows, we might get lucky and find her shopping for grocery's"
"We could only wish to be so lucky." As the two officers stop speaking Destiny walked over with a jug of coffee in her right hand, and two coffee cups in the other.
"Freshly brewed coffee as requested for the two busy officers", Destiny layed down the two mugs, and filled up the first one for Officer willow, the way she usually has it, but signals to Robby to ask how he wants his coffee, however because he was busy reading through the files Robby didn't see her gesture, "Hey sweetheart, you looking for a pick me up?", Robby looks up quickly, as if disturbed from a daydream.
"Huh, oh yes, that'd be great, thank you ma'am"
"Ma'am? Honey ya'll cam call me destiny, Ma'am is way too formal for me, and do ya mind if I ask your name?
"Officer Elmore Ma'am"
"I said don't call me ma'am, you're not just a customer here, as long as you're with Jessy here you're family as far as I'm concerned, now whats ya first name? I wouldn't feel right you knowing mine but me not knowing yours now."
"My name is Robert Elmore, sorry, I'll call you destiny from now on"
"Robert? I'll call you Robby, its nicer, less formal" Destiny poured out Robby's cup of coffee until he gestured her to stop, "Well, if ya need anything else just call over to me." Just as she says this a bell rings behind the counter, "Oh, your orders ready, I'll bring it right over", as she says this she walks away behind the counter and into the kitchen.
Robby looks at Jessy confused, "What kinda donut store is this anyway?"
"It used to be a diner, they converted it but kept everything pretty much the same, besides, they still serve more than just donuts here." As if to be as perfectly timed as possible Destiny walked back over with one plate in her left hand with perfectly brown toast, a selection of jams and jellies, and assorted breakfest veggies, along with a smaller plate with a rainbow sprinkled donut as a side order, in the other hand was just a small plate with a glazed cruller, a small, twisted deep fried pastry, perfectly sized for a fox.
"Here ya are officers" Destiny put down the large plate and the side plate with her left hand "The usual for you jessy", and with her right hand she carefully placed the small plate with the sugary delight on the table, "And the fox delight for the newest member of the family", Destiny seemed as if she wanted to start another conversation but noticed a few customers come in through the door, "Hope ya'll enjoy, if ya need anything else just holler at me", Destiny left the two officers to reconvene their earlier conversation.
Before the two officers spoke again they both took a sip of their coffee, Robby had to sweeten his to taste first, and took a bite from their respective meals, Jessy decided to start with her toast, smuthering it in blueberry jam, no butter, and Robby just took a bite from his pastry and put it down to rest.
"So, your names Robby?" Jessy inquisited Robby even though he seemed uninterested on getting to know her on a personal level, however this one time Robby decided to humour her, just because he wasn't getting anything new from reading the case files over and over.
"Yep, and your is jessy, I assume?"
"Yeah, my mother hated it when people called me jessy, but I always prefered it over Jessica"
"I always preferred Robert, but feel free to call me whatever you feel comfortable with."
I'll stick with Robby, at least when we're not around civillians" Both Robby and Jessy had a small laugh, but almost immediately went back to a serious tone once the conversation was over.
After about 15 minutes had passed both Robby and Jessy had finished their food, Robby was back to reading the case files however and was happy to sit there all day reading, however he couldn't help but overhear Jessy's radio, "Officer Willow, please report in" the radio blared, it was obviously the voice of Officer Trunkski on the other end.
"This is Officer Willow"
"Officer, you've just been given permission to make a visit to the VIP, do you copy?"
"10-4 gotcha loud and clear" Jessy clicked off her radio, "Come on Elmore, we just got cleared out to visit doug" Robby looked at Jessy in shock.
"You called it in? so that's why you wanted to get breakfast first? Just to waste time? We could have used this time to get started on the fish market"
"Nah, I was just hungry and I knew we'd need clearance" Jessy stood up and prepared too leave, "But I thought you'd try and get me to go freeze my backside off at the market if I gave you a choice, you new officers always try that", Robby also stood up ready to leave.
"Goddamit, we have a week, do you not understand that?"
"I understand that perfectly Elmore, so whats a quick 20 minute breakfast out of an entire week?"
"Ok fine, I don't care, can we please just leave?"
"I wouldn't be standing if we werent", Jessy waved to Destiny, "Seeya same time tommorow Destiny" Robby looked at Jessy as if she had just punched a child.
"We are not coming here again tommorow, you better eat breakfast tommorow because we are working on this case non-stop until its solved", Jessy looked at Robby smugly, as if she knew what he just said was completely wrong.
"Of course we will Robby, of course we will".
Authors notes:
2300 words, wow these chapters keep getting bigger and bigger.
Now for a couple of things I need to mention, you may have noticed a difference in the way I approach dialogue in this chapter, this is due to a very helpful suggestion from reddit user u/justaquicki, the thing was actually pretty minor but it helps with the readability in such a large way I won't be going back to my old bad habits.
I also experimented a lot with dialogue in this chapter, I feel like I made it seem as natural as possible but I can't really critique myself fairly.
I also got this chapter done much faster than the last two because, honestly I'm having so much fun writing this that I just seem to come back to it no matter what, I cannot wait until we get into the more exciting bits later on, I have so many ideas but I'm gonna have to figure out which one to go with, anyway, a quick redaction on my last author note, it probably won't 3 chapters per day now as I feel like thats not really enough, I'm gonna try and get to the more fun parts as soon as possible, the next chapter should kick that off.
Anyway, thanks again for reading and feel free to follow, favourite and leave a review if you wish, and I'm always seeking to improve so be honest, I can take it.