"Ah, Officer Hopps, I take it you are here to hand in your report?" Bogo greeted the rabbit as she entered his office the next morning.
"Yes sir," Judy kept up a smile, trying not to draw attention to how tired she was, "it's all right here."
A lot was running through the bunny's mind as she dropped the folder onto the chief's desk. The guilt of working with a criminal behind the ZPD's back. The fact that the report she just turned in was one big lie. All of it burdened her greatly, though she hid it well. But there was one thing that Judy just couldn't shake, something that had stuck in the back of her head and wouldn't go away. What she witnessed last night was not something easily forgotten.
"Well, I have to go find Nick, see you later chief." Taking a step back, she excused herself, not wanting to be anywhere near Bogo until this case was over with.
"Good," The buffalo spoke as he put on his glasses, picking up the paperwork at the same time, "as soon as you find Wilde, go meet with Inspector Fox, she has a few things to go over with you."
"Sure thing." Judy nodded as she turned and left the office, letting out a quiet sigh of relief once outside.
There was a strange mood to the station that morning, it wasn't particularly busy, nothing was visually out of place, but the atmosphere felt…different. Perhaps it was all in the rabbit's head, the lack of sleep definitely was not helping her. Judy tried to blame it on some delusional paranoia in an effort to keep herself functional, which worked for about three minutes. The second she caught a glimpse of Nick over by the water cooler it was clear he was feeling the same way. He was good at hiding his emotions, but over time the rabbit had gotten pretty good at reading him.
"Morning carrots." The fox greeted her casually.
"Hey, Bogo said we're supposed to go see Carmelita."
"Ah yes, because her charming personality is just what I need right now."
Judy was surprised when her partner cracked a grin before finishing off his drink.
"Look, there's no point letting that get to you, right now all we can do is our job." Nick commented, noticing the troubled look on the bunny's face. It wasn't hard for him to guess what was causing it.
Taking a deep breath, Judy nodded before leading the way towards Interpol's makeshift headquarters.
"You're here." The vixen's stern voice shot clearly above the ambient noise of the busy workplace, catching the attention of the two officers. Carmelita was waiting near the map at the front of the room, holding a small photograph at her side.
"And good morning to you too." Nick replied sarcastically as the inspector came over to them. He still didn't like her attitude, but Judy could attest that both of them saw Carmelita differently after hearing Sly's story.
"I've got to make this quick, we have something big planned for later today so I can't afford any wasted time. First off I want to apologize."
The two of them were both surprised at this, curious to see where the vixen was going with it.
"I didn't know you just came from the hospital when I dragged you with me the other day."
"Oh it's okay," Judy responded, "I wasn't in too bad a shape."
"Doesn't matter, if anyone under my supervision gets hurt I take it personally, and that only added additional risk. Anyway, I need to update you two on the case. Forensics checked out that scene and we were able to link the truck to a private shipping service. The problem is things are taking far too long, more mammals are going missing every day, and the ones we have found are all… it's getting out of hand."
The vixen took a breath to calm down after working herself up on that last bit. Glancing down at the picture she was holding, Carmelita turned to the map before placing the photo against it, back side out.
"Winthrop." The Inspector called to her partner in a much quieter tone.
"Yeah?" The weasel spun in his chair, being seated at the closest desk on the right wall.
"What number was Mr. Sendak?"
"Uh, eighteen."
"Thanks."
Carmelita pulled out a pen and proceeded to inscribe '18 – Winnifred Sendak. File #00502' on the back of the picture.
"Eighteen." She continued, locating a red pin on the map, "Our friend here is the eighteenth missing mammal in this case." Using the pin, Inspector Fox held up the picture and stuck it to the map, "Report came in just this morning."
The group took a moment to look over the map of Zootopia, which was quickly filling up pictures and pins. A few of the photos had big red X's marked through them, it wasn't hard to figure out what that meant. The diversity of mammals that had disappeared was impressive, everything from a rhino to a sheep, all of them missing, or dead. Carmelita's team had been attempting to find a pattern in it, studying every location, type of animal, the whole big picture. Judy on the other hand, at least for right now, was only concerned with one photo. The smiling grizzly bear freshly pinned to the map. Interpol had no clue as to his whereabouts, his wellbeing, anything, all they knew was he had vanished, same as the others. They didn't know Nick and Judy had seen exactly what happened to the poor bear, that it all went down the night before, and that a red X belonged on the photo.
SUNDAY, 12:24 A.M. (The Night Before)
Nick and Judy looked to each other uneasily as the first picture appeared on the screen in front of them. Sly had snapped it with his binocucom and sent it over to Bentley for a closer look, something about being higher quality. The inside of the warehouse was dimly lit, just barely enough to distinguish some of the larger objects on the ground. An eerie red glow emanated from one of the walls off in the darkness. These unknown details sat in the background however, overshadowed by the one row of bright lights, which demanded attention at the far end of the structure.
Underneath the spotlights sat a strange contraption. Seeming like a mix between a dentist chair and a mad scientist's operating table, the device was surrounded by tables of tools, bindings, and lights. Wires ran off of the chair to a few carts in the immediate area and then out into panels on the back wall. It wasn't possible to make out the details from Sly's view point up in the rafters, but some of the light bled outward, revealing what looked like shipping crates buried in the darkness.
"Strange." That was Bentley's response. Judy and Nick were caught off guard by the calmness of the turtle's tone as he delivered his reply. "See if you can get a closer look."
"On it." Sly's voice crackled back through the radio.
About thirty seconds later another picture came through. This time the view was from almost directly above the chair. A morbid feeling filled the air as blood stains and claw marks could be seen on and around the device.
"I don't like this." The raccoon's tone was ever so slightly shaky, the scene must have put him off.
"Alright, grab a few more shots and get out of there, we still need to check out those offices."
The computer quickly displayed about five more pictures as Sly took them rapidly. The turtle glanced at them to make sure they looked alright before printing out hard copies. As the printer underneath the table started up, Sly called over the radio again.
"Wait, I think I hear something."
"Uh Sly, you've got company." The gps display Bentley had showing everyone's location was tracking an unknown individual near the raccoon.
Without a word the binocucom display turned on again, Sly was watching two figures moving towards the contraption from the left side of the building. Zooming in as much as he could revealed one of them was a large spotted giraffe, accompanied by an indistinguishable smaller creature about the size of an otter. Unfortunately he had gotten too far away for a good view.
"Hang on," Bentley doubled checked something on his computer, "That's Longfellow himself!"
"What do you think they're doing?" Sly whispered over his radio, keeping the view on the two figures down below.
"I wish I knew, if only we could hear what they're saying."
"Someone else is coming." The view panned right as an additional light source flooded the area then disappeared, resulting from a door opening and closing.
Shouting could be heard from below, too obscure to make any of it out, but someone was yelling at something. A second later three more large mammals appeared coming in from the right, draped in shadow at first, but as they approached the bright lights of the chair it was clear two rhinos were escorting a struggling grizzly bear whose arms were bound behind his back.
"I don't like this." Sly voiced his concerns at the situation while Longfellow looked to be directing the scene below.
Even the background buzz of the radio seemed to quiet down as they watched in silent dread at what happened next. Longfellow motioned towards the chair sitting dauntingly in the center of the group. The two rhinos forced the bear, who was doing his best to resist, into a harness, strapping him down to their apparatus. What few lights were on in the warehouse dimmed as machinery all across the back wall kicked to life. The smaller mammal, most likely the giraffe's assistant, stepped around back of the chair as the rhinos went to hold down the bear's already secured limbs.
A tiny shimmer of light glinted from something on the bear's neck as a large red button began blinking slowly on one of the machines. Longfellow, in a deliberately slow stride, stepped over to the button, pausing with one hoof outstretched. After the tension had climbed sufficiently high, one swift stroke sent the button inwards. There were no screams of pain, no cries of agony, only the sound of machinery churning and pumping, doing its job as intended. The rhinos shifted their weight, quelling the muffled shuffling of the bear's attempts to break free.
The auditory wind down of the equipment paralleled the poor mammal's fleeting strength, eventually bringing the entire building to a harsh calmness. Everyone feared the worst as the rhinos slowly backed off. The chair tilted forwards slightly and the straps were unbuckled, freeing the grizzly from the device. Surprisingly, the bear stood up, no resistance, no attempt to flee, in fact no movement at all. He simply stood at the base of the torturous machine, staring blankly into the darkness of the warehouse.
"Bentley…" Sly looked to his partner for an idea of what to do next while a miniscule green light flashed from a collar the bear was now wearing.
"Sly, get out of there." The turtle spoke briefly and in as calm a tone as he could manage.
Taking a moment to process all of the options, the raccoon kept his binocucom pointed right at the statuesque grizzly. As if in slow motion, the bear leaned off to its left before stumbling to catch itself.
"Get out. Now." Bentley repeated sternly.
Sly heard his partner's concerns but was fixated on what was unfolding below him. The stumble had snapped the bear out of whatever trance it was in, and all hell proceeded to break loose. Letting out a guttural roar, the grizzly spun around and charged Longfellow, clawing at its neck with one paw and lashing forwards with the other. The two rhinos jumped to intercept the bear, while the giraffe barely even flinched, calmly staring down his attacker. The flurry of screaming and shouting from below was interrupted by an electronic 'beep' and red light from the bear's collar. Mere inches from his apparent target, the limp corpse of the grizzly fell lifelessly to the ground with a loud 'thud', echoing gloomily throughout the warehouse.
The video feed shut off abruptly and without a word, Sly made his exit.
MONDAY, 7:48 A.M. (Present)
"Are you even listening?" Carmelita's harsh voice brought Judy back from reliving the night's events.
"Huh? Yeah." The rabbit blinked quickly as she returned to the present, pretending she had heard everything the Inspector said.
"Good, you two get on that, I've got work to do." The vixen proceeded to meet two Interpol agents at the door before exiting the room with them.
"What did I miss?" Judy turned to her partner after watching Carmelita leave, confused as to how she could have missed anything the commandingly loud fox said.
"Well, besides the part where she made it clear she didn't like me…again," Nick smirked at the unamused rabbit, "she wants us to do more research into each of the victims."
"Alright."
"Listen, carrots. Don't worry about last night, we'll work on that later, right now we have to focus on being here."
"Yeah…I know… So, research, what do ya say we hop to it!"
"Ugh, please never attempt a joke ever again."
"It wasn't a joke, it was pun."
"It was a detriment to mammals everywhere, that's what."
The banter continued throughout the day as Nick and Judy looked through Interpol's entire database on all eighteen involved in the case. The two knew who was to blame for it, but they couldn't tell anyone at the ZPD, not yet at least. For one it would give away Cooper, plus the situation was far too dangerous to let anyone rush in unprepared. Right now the best approach was to help Sly and his gang gather intel and see what happens from there.
This didn't mean the two would be unable to help from inside the ZPD though, in fact using all of the resources available could be beneficial. Researching the victims would hopefully give better insight into Longfellow's targets, and possibly his plan in general. Unfortunately the giraffe was covering his operation well, after a few hours of digging, neither of the officers had found any useful information. All of the mammals involved had most of their records wiped clean, and the ones they did have gave them nothing more than a face and name.
Letting Judy continue the investigating, Nick got up and took a walk to clear his head. After grabbing a drink he strolled back into the room, passing by the large map in the front. Whether it was in an effort to prolong his break, or an attempt at actual investigating, Nick stopped to look over the case map. He wasn't searching for patterns or anything like that, just observing when something caught the fox's eye. One of the victims' pictures, one with a large red X through it, hung in a part of the city he knew all too well. Slowly, an idea sparked up in his head.
Moving quickly, but without drawing attention to himself, Nick went over to the computer Judy was just about ready to give up on. Without a word he took over the machine and printed off a sheet with all of the victims' names and pictures.
"What is it?" Judy questioned, knowing her partner had thought of something, good or bad, she wasn't sure yet.
"We've been going about this all wrong." The fox said quietly before walking to the printer to retrieve his paper. Satisfied with what he saw after giving it a once over, he motioned for Judy to come with him.
"Nick?" The rabbit questioned as she caught up with him by the door.
"We have access to the ZPD's and Interpol's systems, so we can only see what's been reported to them."
"Right."
"And what types of mammals don't like reporting things to the government?"
"Well you for one."
"Exactly."
"Wait, how does that…You don't think…" Judy trailed off as she started piecing together her partner's logic.
"Criminals, hustlers, delinquents, now usually we have a record of them, but the good ones, or if they're real lucky, don't get caught-"
"So they wouldn't be anywhere in our database, that makes sense. But none of those looked like the criminal type, and besides, if we don't have anything on them, who would?"
"Hey Clawhauser, let Bogo know we're heading out to check on something for Carmelita, see you tomorrow." Nick called as the pair passed by the front desk and out of the station.
"Sure thing guys." The cheetah responded brightly.
Turning back to his partner once outside, Nick continued with a grin. "I think a certain turtle might be able to help us with that."
And the plot thickens...
So that's another chapter out of the way, and now my excuse for taking forever (I have a new one every time, isn't it great?). I'm just busy, that's really it, I hope the timing between chapters isn't getting too much for you, I do my best to put them up as soon as I can. Enough about me and my failures, lets talk about the story. Obviously this chapter got a little dark, I'm trying to convey the severity of the situation, this ain't no cartoon where everyone lives happily ever after. However the balance between gritty/dark and comedic/lighthearted is proving difficult, but fun. If you find any issues with this chapter please let me know, as it is starting to set up a few pivotal points later on, and eventually the climax itself. As always thank you for reading, without you all this would be is me rambling to myself on the internet. Thank you.