TRICKS AND TREATS: CHAPTER 4
Back in Barbara's home.
Nick was in low spirits, but not only because he had paid the bill Oates gave to them because Judy had not that much money unlike he did.
Nick had just ended his phone call with chief Bogo and the call didn't went so brightly. The chief wasn't in the sunny mood and he definitely wasn't happy about the deal which Nick made with Oates to investigate in his name this a new case in order to prevent Judy to be brough into jail for the crime she does not remember to commit or even having been involved. Chief Bogo was also considering Judy's possible resignation from the force as punishment for breaking ZPD's code but Nick had succesefully, but just barely, managed to convince Bogo to turn the punishment as parking duty, which really wasn't Judy's favorite job in the force but there was not another way to avoid Judy's near resignation.
Right now, Nick wasn't even in the playing mood when the children asked him to play with them. All what the frustrated and tired fox officer wanted right now was to be left alone to read some book in the armchair.
Until suddenly…
"Uncle Nick! Uncle Nick! Uncle Nick! Come quick!" Sis shouted as she rushed out from the guest room to Nick's arms through beneath of his book, startling the fox officer completely, which nearly caused the whole armchair to fall over to the floor
"Woah! Hey, hey, hey, hey, slow down! Calm down, Sis! No panic! Take it easy! The house is not sinking!" Badly surprised Nick shouted as an attempt to calm both himself and apparentöy panicking rabbid doe down as he tried keep to avoid both him and the armchair to fall over to the floor.
And, after the armchair fell back on its feet...
...and after both the fox officer had recovered from Sis sudden appearance in front of him from beneath of the book and after the small rabbit had at least partially managed to calm down.
"What is it, Sis? What's wrong?" Nick asked.
Sis quickly jumped out from Nick's arms and referred with hurry Nick to follow her.
"You have to come quick! Something is wrong with aunt Judy!"
Sis then disappeared to there from where she had came from.
"Oh, great! Yet another accident within one day." Nick groaned as he jumped up from the armchair.
"What could be terribly wrong than to be depressed today's events?" Nick asked from himself as he followed Sis to the guest room.
As Nick arrived there, Skippy and Tagalong were already there around of Judy.
And when Nick took one look at her, he gasped in shock.
After Oates had left, Judy was thankful to Nick for his support and standing uo for her even though Oates had the full right to take her away, but it could not wipe away her depression and she said that she needs some rest, despite the fact that she has been sat in the armchair all morning.
But right now, she did not lied in the bed but she was rather sitting in there.
Her gray fur had apparently turned much more pale than usual and she moved sleepily like she was in drunk. Her expression was indecipherable… and yet her eyes were turned into lifeless gray and she moaned like her mind was completely empty.
"What happened?!" Nick asked from the kids in shock after seeing Judy in this state and quickly rushed in her side to check her.
"I don't know. We just found her like this." Skippy answered wit hthe concerned tone.
"Is she possessed or is she a zombie?" Tagalong whispered from behind of the bed, holding Sis in her arms.
She and Sis were a bit frightened of Judy's state when the trio had found her from the guest room like this.
There was of course an another reason because she, Skippy, Nick and Sis were watched yesterday two horror movies telling a wicked demons and undead, Which Barbara of course had forbidden her children to watch. However, Nick had belayed that rule when Barbara was briefly gone.
"No. Not of course, Sweetheart. Demoniacal-stuff and the zombies are just the horror movies stuff." Nick said and turned to Judy.
"Judy? Carrots? Is everything okay?"
However, all what Judy said, was the low moaning from her mouth. It also turned into brief howling which a bit frightened Tagalong. Sis took Tagalong in her arms to comfort her a bit frightened little sister.
"What by my tail and pawpsicles has happened to you, Carrots?" Nick asked as he pressed his paw to Judy's forehead. He quickly got his paw off.
"She's not warm… she's stone cold." Nick said in surprise.
"What does that mean? Is aunt Judy sick?" Skippy asked.
"Maybe." Nick said, before he carefully and gently took Judy in his arms and carried her out of the guest room.
"Hey, uncle Nick. Where are you going?" Skippy asked as the white-furred rabbit went after Nick.
On his way, Nick passed Barbara, who had just returned from her day's jogging. Barbara looked in confusion at Nick, who passed him as the foc rushed into entryway and towards the doors, carrying Judy in his arms. He managed to see that Judy did not felt very well, but wasn't aware of Judy's real state.
"Is something wrong with Judy? Where you are taking her, Nicholas." Barbara asked, asking Nick to stop and explain this.
"I'm taking her to Central Hospital. Skippy, Sis and Tagalong found her like this a moment ago in the guest room. I don't know what is wrong with her. Maybe Dr. Madge can tell me what's wrong with her." Nick said as he opened the door and was about to step outside.
"Is she sick?" barbara asked again.
"Short of… but honestly, I don't know." Was all what Nick could say.
But before he managed to take another step in forward and disappear outside from the door, he quickly turned around and targeted his eyes to Barbara.
"But hey, Barbara. You would not happen to have a car what would be designed for animals of my size, and what could I borrow for a moment when I'm taking her to the hospital."
Luckily to Nick, Barbara had indeed bought the fox-sized car that was designed for animals of Nick's size. And Barbara was also willing to allow Nick to borrow whenever he had need to it.
Even though Barbara had the car designed for animals of Nick's size in case if Judy and Nick were willing to take her children to the long drives or to somewhere to have fun for the day, she also had the car designed for the animals of the bunnies size, which Barbara mostly used when to go to work or something else.
Nick was a bit quite surprised that Barbara's answer was a simply nod, due to that he was actually excepting barbara's answer to be completely different from what she gave to him.
And with that, the rabbit doe threw the keys of the car to Nick, who grabbed them from the air and quickly thanked her before he disappeared out of the door, took the car from the garage and drove away from the garden.
On the way to the hospital...
...much to Nick's surprise, there was numerous warrants attached to the trees on the streets, and each of then had the pic of the mammal child from various different species, both the prey and predator alike.
Such like shrews...
...antelopes...
...armadillos...
...badgers and honey badgers...
...bats...
...beavers...
...black, grizzly and polar bears...
...black-footed ferrets...
...boars...
...camels...
...buffaloes...
...cheetahs...
...cougars...
...elephants...
...gazelles...
...gerbils, hamsters, mices and rats, even though their own warrants were a much smaller than what were the other animals...
...giraffes...
...goats...
...groundhogs...
...hippoes...
...hyenas...
...horses...
...jaguars...
...kangaroos...
...koalas...
...leopards and snow leopards...
...lions...
...mooses...
...opossums...
...otters...
...oryxes...
...pandas and red pandas...
...panthers...
...pigs...
...porchupines...
...raccoons...
...rhinos...
...sheeps...
...squirrels...
...three-toed sloths...
...tigers...
...warthogs...
...weasels...
...wildebeest...
...woodchucks...
...wolverines...
...wolves...
...wombats...
...yaks...
...zebras...
...and yet even rabbits and foxes.
And under of each warrant's pics only two simple and usual writings that "Lost", "Have you seen?" and the phone number of the animal who had placed the warrant.
"Woah, Oates didn't tellus anything about the missing mammal children. Seemingly the same case, that is apparently a much bigger than what i was thinking, is repeating itself, or what Carrots?" Nick asked.
"Carrots?"
Judy only let only the low moan out of her mouth as na response, which reminded Nick that in what kind of state Judy was under right now as she didn't either listen nor she did not even hear what he said.
"Oh, right." He said as he slapped his paw over his forehead as a little self-punishment for completely within minutes forgetting Judy's state.
"Dumb fox."
Then, at the Central Hospital.
Nick brought Judy to Dr. Madge the Honey Badger, who was arrested for being involved to illegal inprisoning the savaged mammals with Lionheart, but she was released from the charges and that she was free to go... unlike Lionheart, who was the mastermind of his own illegal actions even though he meant good - well, at least partially good - with his actions for the public.
And the best of all for Madge, the Honey Badger had got her job back after several weeks when Judy and Nick sent Bellwether to the prison after exposing her conspiracy and hustling her to confess her crimes against the predatory population of Zootopia.
Luckily to them both, the honey badger did not held any grudge against them for her arrest, due to the fact that she herself had highly protested Lionheart's actions from the start the Night Howler incident began.
Madge had also got the shorter judgment than what Lionheart did, because Lionheart was the mastermind of the secret operations of kidnapping and illegal imprisoning the savaged mammals... even though this was all for good reason to keep Zootopia's peace and harmony in safe and avoid the chaos to break between of prey and predator, as well as protect his own personal reasons, of course, such like his own reputation as a predatory mayor of Zootopia.
It took some time from Madge to check Judy's examinate Judy's state of health in doctor's office, before Dr. Madge asked Nick to pay visit on her office, where Judy was as well, placed to sit in the another chair next to the desk.
"Is everything alright with Judy, Dr. Madge?" Nick asked as he sat down to the chair in opposite side of Dr. Madge's desk.
"Mostly, yes and no, Mr. Wilde." Dr. Madge answered.
This caused Nick to look at her in confusion.
"What do you mean. What does that "Mostly, yes and no" thing even means. What is wrong with Judy?" Nick asked again, impatiently demanding the answer..
"Well, Mr. Wilde. I examinated Mrs. Hopps' the physical condition from the tips of her ears to her little bunny toes... as well as all her senses. Despite her apparent outer ill-look, everything seems to be fine. Her body is in good condition, but…"
This was followed by the prief pause between of two mammals.
"But what?" Nick asked.
"I cannot say the same about her head."
Nick was quite speechless… at least briefly.
"Yeah, I already know. Her pupils were oddly gray and she moans as if she would be like an empty shell or something." Nick said.
"Yes, Mr. Wilde. Because, for now, she is now… only empty brainless shell." Madge confirmed.
Nick almost interpreted these words as an insult towards his partner, who is usually anything but brainless, and was almost about to jump from his seat like the launched rocket and bared his teeth in anger until Madge quickly interrupted him from doing so and calmed him down.
"And that's not a new thing to me today."
Nick quickly calmed down and sat back down.
"What do you mean, Dr.?"
"Earlier today, I got as my a new patient a young elephant, Jerry Gray. Famous teenager skater, at least among of his elephant friends. His parents believed their son either having become blind from the camera's bright flashlights when he and his friends took the pictures of him the last night or then he had caught a cold, because last night was pretty cool and he was out in the low clothes. His parents interpreted it at first as a little cold because that Jerry's skin was pale-gray, until they noticed that he barely even moved his limbs and trunk nor did he do any other movement, with the exception of slowly swinging from the side to another like he was drunk. And not to mention about the fact that he moaned lowly and oddly to them and that he felt cold like stone instead of burning up." Madge explained.
"Jerry Gray… eh?" Nick said with the humorous yet still bitter tone, because he knew that little elephant buddy's father.
When he was half younger from his present age, Nick always saw Jerry's father and his young elephant gang skating in the Central Park and he was his gang's prime leader and top skater… or at least he said so. Once he had challenged Nick to the skateboarding competition on the streets… which badly ended Nick getting into the troubles with the cops after accidentally breaking the passing Police Cruisers windshield after the jump over the wooden hedge.
Nick could make a bet for two hundred bucks for the fact, that the whole competition was only the plot set up by the prejudiced elephants against him and get him into the trouble instead of them... just because he was a fox.
"So you know this guy?" Madge's interruption made Nick to snap out of his thoughts.
"At least his father, maybe too well, but never mind. That's not important thing." Nick said after clearing his throat.
"By the way… This Jerry does have very same troubles like Judy has right now?"
Madge nodded at Nick.
"So, please continue." Nick gently gestured.
Madge nodded in appreciation for the fox polite attitude, despite the fact that he was the fox, and continued explaining.
"Yes, very same troubles as officer Hopps has right now. And this is not any natural trouble. I'll say that this is about a some kind of hypnosis."
Nick's mouth fell open after hearing this.
"Hypnosis?"
"Yes." Madge responded positively.
"Well, if this is about a hypnosis, have you tried to wake her from that odd hypnosis up by clicking fingers?" Nick asked, knowing that that quite old trick in the case of hypnosis was only "so-called" solution to snap the hypnotized person out of his hypnotized state.
"Done already, but no effect." Madge answered almost immediately.
"I don't know what kind of hypnosis this is, and why should I know. Hypnosis is only a circus stuff what the animals working in the circus use to amuse and make the mammals to laugh in circus. Luckily to you, there's a Halloween event, with Halloween circus, that just arrived to the city the last night. In case that if you did not know about this, they are this very moment building an event on theTown Square. Maybe you should find something from there either as cure or clue at this, officer Wilde." Madge answered.
Nick sighed out of frustration.
"What do you mean, Dr. Madge. Aren't you gonna help Judy or what?" Nick almost yelled at madge in frustration.
"Impatience, frustration and angrily barking do not help her very much, Mr. Wilde." Madge said, trying to calm down the frustrated fox officer.
"Besides, I would help her yes, if I just could, but it seems now that only the original hypnotist may withdraw this hypnotic spell from officer Hopps. Unfortunately, I cant' do anything else to this matter, and I'm sorry for that." Madge said, much to Nick's dismay.
Nick was about to jump off from the seat, until he suddenly felt the urge to ask something else.
"Wait! Was there more details about Jerry's case. I mean, did he commit or was he involved and eventually caught either by his parents or ZPD's night patrol in the act of the theft in the last night... theft that associated with sweets from some shop?" Nick asked, suspecting that this Jerry might have come across the same person who had ambushed Judy with the C-word from behind, which was soon followed by the candy theft in the Shopping Paradise... and to Judy's current state.
Good news were that Madge had some kind of answer to that... but the bad news were that the answers were not what he had expected.
"Yes and no. You see, his parents told me that they were looking for him the last night after they noticed that Jerry Gray was for hours late from the agreed timetable for when he should have come home. They found him, after an hour of searching, near of the candy store, but not from stealing."
"But however, he still got berated by his parents for being late, right?" Nick asked eagerly.
"Yes, but the boy, instead of ashamed, acted like he was completely lost, and yet and he reacted with confusion to the beratings he received from his parents for not coming home as they had agreed. And the boy yet had no idea of how he managed to be late from the timetable hee had agreed with his parents, as his last recollection was that he was exiting from the candy shop a seconds ago." Madge said.
Nick started to get a skeptical of this.
"Memory?" Nick asked again.
"Yes. You see, officer Wilde, confused, Jerry told his parents in defense that he was on his way to home until he crossed the paths with someone in the shadows in the nearby alley and everything then turned black in his eyes, but only for a seconds before everything turned clearer again. However, He felt a little dizzy after that blackout but was able to walk normally."
"And it was then when he noticed that the candy bag he had bought from the candy shop and what he was holding in his hand before blackout, was missing. Disappeared from his grasp like the ashes into the air. Stolen, no doubt, by the shadowy figure whose son encountered in the entrance of the alley. Jerry's parents had also said that Jerry had no idea that what kind of species was the one who stole his candies. That's all what they said to me." Madge explained.
And after Madge had finished, Nick sighed out of dismay, because he was expecting for a new information about this case rather than an old information that related closely to Judy's incident, albeit it was in a different version this time.
Soon, after leaving from the Central Hospital...
Depressed Nick and still empty-minded and zombie-like acting Judy were on the road again, heading back at the Barbara's.
During of the silent drive, Nick recalled everything new information he had heard from Madge about this, trying to find from them even a single clue that makes more sense or which would help him in this case...
...during of which and driving, Nick mumbled quietly out of frustration and anger that he did not receive any help from the hospital for Judy, only such of clues tips that seem to be more nonsense or the childish speaking.
"Hypnosis… only original hypnotist… Halloween event and Halloween circus… Hypnosis is only a circus stuff... my apologizes but I cant' do anything else to this matter... she said." Nick murmured, mockingly imitating Madge's words.
And finally, Nick let out the loud moan out of the frustration and puzzlement.
"What on earth I can do?" Nick asked from himself.
He had now less than one and half day time to solve this case in order to clean Judy's name and save her from being threw in the jail, but so far he has not made any progress in this whole case. The information he received Dr. Madge at least gave to him a start to this case, but they weren't enough to get this case to progress...
...and all of that speaking of hypnosis and the extremely high-leveled lack of evidence of hypnosis being involved of this case, despite the states and the similarities between of Judy and Jerry Gray's incidents and cases, wasn't good enough to be reported to detective Oates.
Nick's question he asked from himself was a good question enough...
What he was supposed to do now?
Nick drove through the same way where the multiple warrants of the missing mammal children were located and attached against the trees. Now, there was two times even more warrants than what was then when Nick was taking Judy to the hospital.
Suddenly, Nick's eye catched two mammals from the streets!
Both of them were zebras and they were attaching a new warrant to the tree.
Because they seemed clearly to be a very desperate and almost on the verge of crying, Nick decided to pay a visit with the zebras to see if everything was okay - though iot was clearly see nthat nothing wasn't okay with the poor zebra couple. So, he instantly stopped the car to the edge of the street for a moment, with no willing to pay parking fine for the wrong parking.
And before stepping out from the car, Nick needed to ensure Judy's safety at first, due to her being unable to fend herself in that state.
And because of that, even though with the knowledge and under of that strange state, Judy wasn't able to escape anywhere from the car but just in case, Nick activated the car's each doors child locks to keep empty-minded Judy inside, while he was doing the officer-business with the zebras.
Nick also locked the car's driver's seats door after stepping out from the car and closing the door of the driver's seat.
And after that, the fox then started to walk towards the zebras.
"Uh, excuse me." Nick started, not wanting to even accidentally startle the already stressed-looking zebras and particularly not wanting to make them feel suspicious of his presence because of him being a fox.
The zebras, however, startled of Nick's sudden call nonetheless.
Zebras, they always have to be so shy mammals in Zootopia and thus easily scared, even though no one ever intended to scare them. And yet one of the Junior Scouts was the zebra, who wasn't afraid nor hesitated to join the other prey mammals to bully him with the muzzle.
It is just as annoying as the good memory of the elephants when they always remember something from the past that has offended them and they always cost it to other animals... such like foxes. The owner of Jumbeaux's Café, Jerry Jumbeaux, Jr. is good example for that.
"Woah, woah, woah, woah! No Panic and Run, zebras! Easy there. I didn't mean to scare you to half-dead." Nick said to the zebras, before he took out his officer badge to show it to the zebras.
"Officer Nicholas Wilde, ZPD." Nick said as he took out from his pocket his badge to show it to the zebra couple, to prove to them that he was a police officer and that he was here only to help and check that what was bothering them.
After seeing the badge and realizing that they had crossed the paths with the first fox officer of Zootopia, the partner of the first rabbit officer of Zootopia and who was hailed as a hero for saving Zootopia from the chaos the last treacherous mayor had caused, the zebras seemed to calm down as they let out the sigh in relief...
...which, however, quickly turned into desperate and sorrowful expression.
"Pardom me to disturb your peaceful day, which seemingly is not quite sunny to you two. No offense of course, but… what's wrong with you two?" Nick asked politely, as he put his badge back into his pocket.
Zebra woman gestured with her hoof the warrant which her husband had just attached to the tree.
Nick went closer to look at the warrant, in middle of the which was the pic of two young zebra twins under the written "Lost."
"Our little sweethearts… Tony and Bud… disappeared the last night. We've tried to look for them from everywhere from the whole neighborhood but there's not any trace of them. Nobody has even seen them lately. We are sick of concern and in desperate." The zebra woman said tearfully.
"Oh boy." Nick murmured sadly, understanding the zebra's concern.
"Have you two made any report of your missing children to ZPD?" Nick asked as he turned from the warrant at the zebra parents. Both of them nodded positively as an answer.
"We already did this morning, before we came here to attach the warrants to the trees, in case if anyone of this neighborhood can help us to find them." Female zebra answered tearfully.
"Because you're that famous officer Nicholas Wilde, who helped the famous rabbit officer Judy Hopps to find the missing mammals the last time and solve the Night Howler Incident, right? Can you please help us to find our kids and bring them home?" The male zebra asked with the pleading tone from Nick.
It didn't took long from Nick to notice that he had found himself from the very same trouble - again - like he did about year and seven months ago… found himself in middle of the missing mammal case.
"Weird that Detective Oates didn't mention anything about the missing children." Nick mumbled quietly and he started to think of the extent of the case and the possibilities that the hypnosis and the missing mammal children somehow related to each other.
"What?" The confused Zebras asked, snapping Nick out of his thoughts.
"What? Uh… yes. I can. I myself have a bit of a hurry to solve the Shopping Paradise case but I do what I can. With the fox officer's word of honor." Nick said as he waved as a goodbye to the zebras and started to walk back towards his car.
"Oh, thank you, officer Wilde." Zebra woman said after him with the grateful smile.
"Bless you, fox." Male zebra said after him as well.
This made Nick to smile a bit as he opened the car's door and sat to the driver's seat and drove away, waving for the last time at the zebra couple.
"Hmm… Judy was ambushed with the C-word from behind and then got hypnotized… probably to steal that bar from the Shopping Paradise and was left, without even a memory of committing the crime, to take the blame for that… A little jerk of the big elephant jerk presumably got hypnotized as well... probably to give his candy bag to the hypnotist... and then snaps out of it without a memory of it... and now, those two's zebra children got disappeared the last night when the Shopping Paradise crime and Jerry's incident happened, probably kidnapped or something." Nick mumbled.
"Hmm… something strange is going on here, which oddly brings my mind two things… candies and children. But why?" Nick murmured while driving, recalling in his mind everything he had heard today.
TO BE CONTINUE...