Chapter 23: A Frustrating Interrogation
There is nothing to worry about, ZPDOfficer Judith Laverne Hopps. All you need to do is walk in, ask Bellweathera few questions, and walk out. Nothing to it at all.
This was what Judy was telling herself as she fought to maintain her confidence.
Yet despite being separated from the ex-mayor by a thick pane of one-way glass, she felt that previous confidence leak out of her just from staring at the sheep in question. Even seeing her clad in an orange prison suit, sitting with her arms locked in a secure set of cuffs and looking bored out of her mind did little to reassure Judy about what she was about to do. Bellweather was always the one to use words to fight her battles, leaving the physical confrontations to others when possible. Which ironically enough, was also where Nick was a much better officer compared to Judy's more direct approach.
A stray memory of Nick getting hit by a purple pellet flashed through her mind as Judy recalled the sinister smile Bellweather sported when she was certain that the Judy was only moments away from being killed by a savage fox.
But in all honesty, looking through the glass, Judy felt it hard to believe that the sheep sitting at an empty table was the same one that was ready to let Zootopia tear itself apart just for the sake of getting up just a little closer to the top of her ivory tower. While she wouldn't say that she had considered the two of them to be friends, even back then, Judy hated to admit how much of their personal lives the two had shared to each other across many evenings after long and tiring days at their work. And thinking about it now, she also started to wander about just how much of Bellweather's personal life that she was told was actually true or simply made up to get and keep Judy on her side.
"Judy..?" Jack's paw gently grasped her shoulder, giving her a slight shake to distract her from her thoughts. "I know the two of you have a rough history. I uh… you don't have to do this if you don't want to, you realize that, right? Even now."
Judy gave him a reassuring smile. Sure, she was never going to feel fine about doing this, but first of all, she didn't become a cop to have an easy job free of stress and uncomfortable moments. Second of all, if she was needed for this investigation, then her personal feelings can wait no matter what. Far more people were depending on her to do her job, even if they didn't actually know it. "Jack, thanks, but don't worry, I can handle her."
"Well, it's also that, you can't just go in there and start revealing secret information. She is a criminal, after all."
Judy stared back. "I need room to maneuver there, Jack. I know that I can't just drop classified info left and right, but I need to be able to be able to at least be vague about it. Drop hints and what not, but also get to the point if needed."
Jack nodded. "I know. And you did just read up on what she already knows. But… Be careful in there."
Picking up a small box from the table in front of her, Judy placed it on top of a stack of papers and picked up the whole lot before starting to make her way around the wall to the door leading into the room. Staring at the plain metal surface, Judy started to wonder again just what she was going to say to Bellweather, Jack's conversation with her during their drive over going through her head once again.
The several times they had tried before to get Bellweather to talk, they tried all of the usual approaches. Friendly, aggressive, both, passive, to the point, everything. And every single time, the sheep had refused to budge and always left them with no new information.
With a heavy sigh, she swiftly forced the door open and walked in before her nerves could fail her.
Bellweather looked up at the interruption, eyes narrowing as soon as she recognized the officer that walked in. For a brief moment, she stayed, gaze locked with Judy's, almost as though daring the other to make the first move. It was Bellweather who broke off contact first, tilting her head back as she simply started to laugh. A loud, obnoxious, hysterical laughter as she instantly recognized what was going on.
With a deep frown, Judy finished crossing the empty room, setting the box down on the table before taking her seat opposite of the ex-mayor. She didn't say anything as she waited for Bellweather to get through her laughter, knowing that anything she would try to do or say would only reinvigorate the hysterics anew. Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, Bellweather finally calmed down enough that Judy felt comfortable enough to start talking.
"...You done now, Bellweather? Yes, it's me, and no, I am not going to pretend like it's good to see you again," she sighed, grabbing paper and scanning though it in order to avoid having to look at Bellweather again. From the other end of the table, she heard an amused snort.
"I know the ZIA is trying to get me to talk, but this?" Bellweather let out a chuckle again. "I never expected them to get so desperate as to being you in, ZPD officer Judy Hopps! What did they even have to do in order to get you to show up in the first place? Threaten your boyfriend? Kitnap several of your children?" She leaned over the table closer to Judy. "You do have children at this point, right? A rabbit of your age must have at least fifty by now."
Judy's eyes rose up from the paper to glare at Bellweather, but the officer forced herself to breath calmly and ignore the blatant attempts to get her riled up. Once again, she found herself wishing that it was Nick here instead of her, but a large part of her was also starting to feel grateful that he would take time out during their work to teach her exactly how to deal with these situations. "I'm afraid that, despite what your imagination might tell you otherwise, all they had to do was ask," she answered as simply as she could.
"And what will happen to you if I don't talk, bunny?" Bellweather asked smugly. "I want to say that I will feel bad if I get you in trouble, but we both know that will be a lie."
Judy shrugged and moved the stack of papers over closer to herself. Expecting having to do something like this, she brought over some paperwork that she can work on while ignoring Bellweather's goading. "If you don't talk, then I will use the silence as an opportunity to catch up on my work, while you can enjoy counting the number of holes in the roof. Now, if you don't mind, I'm a busy cop." Clicking open a pen to further her point, she got to work, letting the sheep huff in annoyance at being left alone.
Trust an ex-mayor with delusions of grandeur to not tolerate being ignored well.
For a good number of minutes, Judy continued to plug away at her paperwork in silence, deliberately ignoring the other mammal at the other end of the table. Bellweather would repeatedly try to get her attention, but since it was nothing more than bored nagging, Judy completely ignored her, focusing all of her effort on the rather admittedly boring paperwork. It was in fact because of this focus that she almost missed a rather useful nag.
"-Judy Hopps!"
Judy glanced up at the ex-mayor with an annoyed frown. "Yes, Bellweather?"
Bellwether let out a long, angry huff of air. "Are you planning on keeping me here for long? If you don't mind, I haven't had lunch yet, and I am feeling rather hungry. Since we both know that I don't have any answers for you, how about you save us both the trouble and let me out of here at least?"
Judy glanced at the door behind her, using the opportunity to suppress a grin of victory. While she hadn't planned on it going this well, this was something that she thought of at the last minute while they were driving over, and the idea was such that Jack even allowed them a quick stop at the store to get the box still sitting on the table untouched.
Turning back to face Bellweather, Judy clasped her arms behind her head in a casual manner. "Well, I have a lot of paperwork that I need to finish up on," she jerked her head at the stack of papers, "you know how it goes, being the ex-mayor an all. But…" Unclasping her paws, she grabbed the box and started to open it, deliberately being slow and careful as she went about it, knowing that Bellwether was watching with a keen eye. "...Since you are complaining of being hungry, I guess I didn't show up here empty-pawed after all." Reaching into the now open box, she pulled out a plastic container, sensitive ears instantly picking up on Bellweather's slight gasp of surprise at recognizing the container.
"Is that-?" Bellweather began, tone indicating disbelief at what she was seeing.
"Only your most favorite combo from a Twelve bakery?" Judy finished for her, proud smirk on her muzzle. "Why, I believe it is." She tugged the container towards herself as Bellweather practically lunged for it, stopped by the cuffs locking her to her own side of the table. "Nah uh, not yet." Smirk deepening as Bellweather slunk, defeated, into her seat, Judy nudged the box closer to the ex-mayor. "The way I see it, Dawn, it's rather simple, really. You can tell me what I want to know, and you can have everything inside this container. Or, if you choose to remain silent, I can eat this for myself instead." To emphasize this point, she pulled the box back towards herself. "And no, since this isn't a criminal investigation on you, you do not have a right to a lawyer."
While it was true that Bellweather had been tempted with food before, it was Judy's idea to grab this specific boxed meal. Or, as she explained to Jack as they were driving over to the jail facility, she really doubted that anyone before had actually known what to try bribing Bellweather with. But Judy, having spent far too much time being socialized with during Bellweather's stint as mayor, meant that the officer did know what type of food Bellweather would be craving now.
And her suspicions were being proved correct as now, sitting on her end of the table, she got to enjoy the sight of Bellweather visibly struggle with herself at choosing to either remain silent, or to give in to the bribe.
Bellweather's taste buds won the fight. "And what exactly do you want to know?" She finally asked, eyes transfixed on the box. "It's not like I haven't been locked up in jail for the past several years or anything-".
"-Five consecutive life sentences, all without parole, I know," Judy butted in swiftly. "Domestic terrorism charges are not something you can get rid of easily, but that's exactly the thing-" she leaned over, getting close to Bellweather. "If there's something that I have learned from the time you were playing mayor and puppeteering me around the city, is that, for the lack of a better way to express it, that you do care about Zootopia. Even if it meant getting rid of all of its predator citizens in the process, but in a twisted way, you cared enough to do go out of your way to try and create your version of the perfect city."
"Don't you try to patronize me, Hopps," Bellweather scoffed, "I know you don't actually believe what you just said."
"Maybe, maybe not," Judy answered back, "but what I want to know is why would someone want to restart your father's research facility."
Bellweather's eyes narrowed. "So you have done your homework. Unfortunately for you, it's not the first time someone has asked me that."
Judy grabbed the box and pulled it back towards herself. "Well, if you feel that way…" Picking up a pen, she went back to concentrating on her paperwork. Several minutes passed in silence before Bellweather started to try and grab Judy's attention again. At first, it was mostly just pointless badgering out of boredom, trying and failing to get under Judy's nerves. But it was in the middle of this annoyance that she picked up a barely audible comment from the ex-mayor.
"-I don't actually know why someone will want to work at Daddy's lab again," Bellweather mumbled quietly. "If you had done more of your homework, then you would know that he had been dead for several years now. Not that it matters. He always regarded the cancellation of his project as his greatest failure."
Looking up from her paperwork, Judy slowly put her pen down, staring at the mammal at the other end of the table. But Bellweather's eyes weren't on Judy, instead transfixed on the box. After some slight hesitation, Judy reached inside and pulled out a pastry, sliding it across the table. "Go on," she urged quietly, "what do you know about your father's involvement."
Instead of answering, Bellweather took several minutes to really indulge in the pastry. Judy let her – if it meant getting her to talk, than the officer was more than willing to let Bellweather enjoy what was probably the best food she had in years. It wasn't even like Bellweather was being starved or anything, but prison food was notoriously bland for a reason.
Although a part of Judy hoped that the bakery wasn't actually the only reason why Bellweather started talking now.
"Daddy worked on a secret government project," Bellweather clarified, "he wasn't allowed to talk about it at home, and he made sure not to."
"Well yes, but surely he made vague statements about it?" Judy tried. "Talking about how well or poorly things were going? Talking about co-workers?"
"He didn't do that either," she answered with a huff. "He always made sure to leave work and home separate. Besides, I was in law school at the time. Wasn't exactly around home to learn about his work too much."
Judy narrowed her eyes slightly. "And yet you somehow knew enough to restart work to create your Nighthowler pellets."
"Once I got into office, It was much easier for Daddy's pals to find me than the other way around," Bellweather answered with a hint of smugness. "And don't even bother asking me about them. You and your ZPD were quite thorough in making sure that they are all also in jail now. You can go and ask them yourself. But to answer your thoughts, it was when they approached me that I figured out how to clean the city of predators. Well, at least until you and that stupid fox came along."
Forcing herself not to react at the remark at Nick's expense, Judy instead took the opportunity to take out another pastry and slide it over as though to reward Bellweather for her 'cooperation'. It was when doing this that she figured out what she wanted to risk next.
"Recently, a group of ZPD officers were asked to investigate suspicious activity at an abandoned warehouse. That warehouse was your father's old laboratory."
"-Yes, and someone was inside and had started it up again, they already tried that approach with me," Bellweather interrupted, mouth full of food, and with a hint of anger. "No, I don't know who it was or what they want in there. Should have done a better job at protecting yourselves too, I might add. I honestly expected better from Zootopia's finest."
Judy ignored the jab at Nick's and James' expense. While this did confirm that Bellweather knew that ZPD officers went savage, she still doubted that the ex-mayor knew exactly who it was that got effected by the drugs. It was only the firm belief that Bellweather only knew bits and pieces due to previous interrogation attempts that prevented her from showing visible anger at the remark that was very much intended, and rather succeeding, in getting underneath her fur.
Calm down, Judy. She's trying to make you mad. Just like Nick always says. Don't let her she that she's getting to you.
"-it's a real shame that you never saw my vision for the city, truth be told…"
Her ears tilted slightly as Judy almost missed this remark. "And what would that be? The complete genocide of all predators?"
"No, not genocide. I wasn't ever planning on killing them all. It's been tried before and always failed. Believe me, I looked." Bellwether leaned over again, getting as close to Just as possible, a wicked grin on her muzzle. "Did you know that there is a more elegant solution to the predator problem? Hopps, just think about it: Ten of us meek prey for every one of them. And despite the fact that they make up just ten percent of the population-"
Judy ignored the obvious mathematical error, something that she didn't bother correcting even when Bellweather still ran the city. Although a part of her did always wonder how the sheep ever made it all the way to mayor without realizing the error of the very simple calculation. Well, since it's always said that it's rabbits, not sheep, that are good at multiplying, then perhaps Bellwether can get a pass on this one.
"-seventy-five percent of the prison population. Fifty percent of homicide perpetrators. Think about it, Judy. Such a small number of mammals, causing so much trouble for the city. Can you imagine just how much better it would be for everyone if only they had been..?"
"Eliminated?" Judy asked dryly.
"Kept under a leash, actually," Bellweather finished.
"What do you mean?"
The ex-mayor flashed a sadistic grin. "You fancy ZPD cops ever heard of the T.A.M.E. project?"
Judy looked down at her notes. Of course she knew about those collars, but there was no way that Bellweather was able to know that. The shear coincidences and events that lead her to learning about those things would never reach Bellweather in jail. While she had looked down to avoid showing the flash of recognition on her muzzle, she shuffled the papers, making a show of searching for something that wasn't there as she frowned in confusion. "No, I can't actually say that I heard of that project? Is it related to your Nighthowlers? I can't find any references to it in my notes, and I can't recall ever hearing of it." Nick would have been extremely proud of the hustle she was pulling off as she looked up at Bellweather, a look of confusion so sincere that she would have believed herself had she been looking at a mirror.
Bellweather actually chuckled at Judy's reaction. "Oh, Hopps, you were always so hopeless! Let's see, how to break the news to you..?" She looked thoughtful for a moment, only to grunt and lean back in her chair. "Actually no, forget it. You would never understand."
"Understand what?" Judy asked with a frown.
"You used to whine and complain nonstop how you let a fox down, Hopps," Bellweather replied sourly. "You're the last person to understand."
"Understand what?" Judy asked again, allowing her nerves to rise. Seriously, she will need to brag to Nick about this, because while on the outside, she was letting herself appear to be losing control, on the inside, she was completely calm, collected, and constantly planning ahead. Or, as Nick would put it, she was with the hustle.
"That you were completely wrong about him," Bellweather answered with a smirk. "After all, you put all of that trust into him, and he did what? Walk out on you? How long did he last for the second time around? A week? Used you to get back at me and dropped you like a discarded candy wrapper, I think."
Judy clenched her paws into angry fists. "I believe that it will be in your best interest to drop this subject right now. Lave him out of this."
The ex-mayor mocked surprise. "Oh, hit a nerve, did I? Are you… You're actually upset that that pelt dropped you as soon as you started to slow him down!" She chuckled as Judy growled in frustration. "Still trying to believe that foxes and bunnies can get along, Hopps? You're even more hopeless than I thought!"
"I'm not the one sitting here looking to live the rest of my life out behind bars, Bellweather," Judy hissed back. That's right, let that sheep believe that she was loosing her cool. Be that cute little helpless Mammal Inclusion Program bunny graduate that she always sees you as.
"Just because I got caught doesn't mean I'm wrong, Hopps. Just means that I was caught doing the means before we got to the justifying end."
"What end?" Judy demand again, ears pinned to the back of her head in raw anger. "Seriously, Bellweather. If you don't start talking, I'm walking out. You mentioned a TAME project. What is it?"
"You know, I rather like seeing you all pissed off, Hopps," Bellweather instead commented. "Go ahead and leave if you want, it's not like you will want to hear what I have to say. Too honest but tough for your little bunny heart to bare."
Judy closed her eyes, taking in a long deep breath. As much as her anger was all show, Bellweather's attitude was actually getting to her more than she cared to admit. Knowing that this was going to be tough, she opened her eyes again and glared back at the ex-mayor. "You know what? Try me. Pitch to me this idea of how the world should be. Why am I so wrong and you know better than everyone else of how things things should be? What is this TAME project and why is it so important?"
"The T.A.M.E. project is what would have brought all predators down to a controllable level, Hopps," Bellweather answered, smirk widening. "Control collars, if you will, that would make sure that all predators behaved themselves all the time. They would have brought the world to… a more perfect place. Make Zootopia the actual utopia it claims itself to be, and let the world follow its example."
At the mention of collars, the memory of a coyote dropping onto a dusty trail flashed across Judy's mind, but she ignored it. This wasn't the time to start correcting Bellweather. She needed the sheep to talk, and finally succeeded in doing so. Now her job was to keep the ex-mayor talking. "And why would predators need control collars? They behave well enough already."
"Not if you look into the crime statistics, Hopps. Despite there being only one of them for every ten of us, why is it that they make up two-thirds of our prison population? Over half of all violent crime? Hopps, what you need is a new history lesson. Not the one they taught you in school, where they teach you how they wanted the world to be, but of how it actually was."
Judy glared back again before rolling her eyes. "Oh, this should be good. All right, shoot."
Maintaining the pretense of being into this lecture, Judy struggled with the balance of needing to listen and pay attention just in case she might miss something important, and the desperate wanting to ignore the sheep. To call the ex-mayor's history lesson as wrong would be putting it lightly. It wasn't quite prey-power propaganda, but only because Bellweather knew better from her time in politics than to repeat the endless slogans and gossip that can be found spray painted in dark alleys and muttered by mammals who didn't feel like putting their time to better use.
In other words, even grandfather Pop-Pop would be ashamed to hold company with someone who sincerely was babbling on the nonsense that Bellweather was. It was at moments like these that Judy really found herself hating her job. But her job required to pay attention, and even speak up every now and then to feign interest in the conversation, but at the very least, she was able to keep Bellweather talking.
And Jack Savage had better be recording from the other room.
At least, finally, Bellweather got to the collars. Initially, Judy found it hard to act like she never heard of them before, but it did get easier as the ex-mayor continued to prat on about the method to her madness.
"-You've got to understand, Hopps, that the population simply isn't ready for such a… drastic solution. I can show them the data, the numbers, and all of the proof that they can ever ask for that yes, not only is there very much a need to control the predators in our society, but that there is also now a working solution to that problem. Okay, I'll be honest, if I were to release the numbers when I was mayor, that would have gotten me some support." Leaning back into her metal chair, Bellweather glanced at the ceiling, deep in thought. "Most of the information is already a matter of public record. But if I were to hold a full campaign on it? To really put the problem fully into the public consciousness? I think a sudden announcement of a mandatory predator TAME collar policy would have earned me five, maybe ten percent support from the total population. Those mammals like me who know about the problem and are not afraid to do what is needed to solve it. The problem is the other sixty plus percent I need to convince the city to pass such a law legally and without fuss."
"So you broke the law to try and avoid breaking the law?" Judy asked in a deadpan voice.
"The law wasn't written to be able to do what needed to be done," Bellweather responded in kind. "Every single time a new mayor tries to tell the population, 'yes, I know what needs to be done to fix the problems. I have the solutions'. And yet? Every single time, they take over, they do nothing, and the problems continue." Smirking at Judy, she grabbed the box and pulled it over to herself, only to frown upon discovering that it was empty.
Judy just shrugged. It wasn't her fault that Bellweather ate everything as she talked.
"Anyways, I did have a list of ideas on how to deal with troublesome predators," the ex-mayor continued, sliding the empty box back over to Judy. "To get back to what you started asking with, I did use my powers given to be as mayor's assistant to actually start looking into Daddy's old work. A part of me had a vague idea of what he had done, and, while he was still alive, I was able to ask him a bit more about it. And as for getting through security and classified documents?" She smirked again, rather pleased with what she was about to say. "Rather amazing what you can do when your boss stamps all your paperwork without ever looking at it. And as for Daddy, he talked. Told him the mayor was looking into some strange production within his city and wanted to know all he can about it. Daddy talked. Didn't have a reason not to. As I explained to you, as far as Daddy was concerned, his research into the Nighthowlers was completely on the level, had a very definite goal, and completely failed to achieve it."
Letting out a long sigh, Bellweather leaned back in her chair in order to give herself a bit of time for her mind to catch up. "But by looking into Daddy's work, I started to realize that it could possibly be useful. I didn't actually know what Nighthowlers would be useful for, but I did come across the documents that gave me the important information: manufacturing instructions, storage… And the real kicker, how to fake diagnosis tests to hide any evidence of an external substance in the bloodstream. But that all rather stayed passive in my mind, that is until I found out about TAME collars. And that was it! Just like that, solution found! Well, almost, there were some… issues with the collars. And not just in getting the population to accept them."
Judy was busy scribbling down some notes when she paused. "And what were those problems?"
"Do you even know what the TAME collars are?" Bellweather asked instead.
Of course Judy knew, far too much in fact, but she had to pretend like she didn't. "No… No I can't say that I know what they are. Although I am getting the feeling that you are going to tell me all about them." A bitter feeling was left in her throat as she just knew that what she was about to hear was going to be even more wrong compared to what she was being told just moments before.
"They are behavioral modification devices, Hopps," Bellweather explained. "Put one on a predator, and every single time they get angry, no - get even so much as a hint of a thought of doing harm to someone else, and the collar sends a sharp jab of electricity through their neck. In other words, since predators refuse to truly cooperate in our society, then those collars would force them to behave."
"Are you seriously telling me that your solution to the city crime problem is to stick a shock collar on every single predator you can get your hoofs on?" Judy didn't even have to fake the shock and disgust in her voice.
Bellweather just smirked back at the officer. "That is the ideal case, yes. Like I said, shame they had issues. Didn't actually work to well, I'm afraid."
Yeah, tell me about it. It was taking all of her might not to explain just how the collars still didn't work, and will never work. But instead, Judy kept her emotions inside as she let the ex-mayor continue talking.
"The collars were first created many decades ago when someone realized that they can pair a capacitor to a heartbeat monitor and stick both on an adjustable strap," Bellweather continued, either not noticing or not caring about Judy's silent pondering. In fact, she then proceeded to go down on a rather long and surprisingly detailed history and technical lesson behind the collars. A lot of it Judy already knew just from her exposure wit the ones Count and Trigger were forced to wear, but a lot of the especially early history, she wasn't aware of. And perhaps it was due to Bellweather's past experience as a politician and orator, or perhaps it was due to her own morbid curiosity, but Judy found herself in the very strange situation of listening rather closely to Bellweather's words, even as she was hating them at the very same time.
"-So in the end, much like Daddy's work with the nighthowlers, the whole project was tossed aside as something that will never work. However, looking deeper into it, it was to my pleasant surprise that I found out that it was foreign countries that took the idea and actually improved on the collars."
Perhaps this fact shouldn't have been surprising, but Judy felt rather stupid at thinking that other countries won't get involved. After all, if the 444 squadron base commander managed to fly over a pair of collars basically overnight all the way to Zootopia...
"It was the Ocelotians who used their manufacturing technology to really shrink the size of the collars, while the Urusians used their microprocessor expertise to fangle the collars into actually, well, working as they were supposed to. To actually effect-no, improve a mammal's behavior. To make them behave like they are supposed to, a part of civilized society."
Wrong on both counts there, Bellweather, Judy found herself thinking grumpily.
"Speaking of which, I hear the two are at war now. Care to explain what's that all about? After all, I only get about an hour of news a day, and that is if I get really lucky and the guards leave the TV running."
Judy blinked. "You really want me to try and explain to you what two foreign countries are doing and why? Forget it. Ask the guards to leave the TV on for longer instead." Again pondering Bellweather's latest comment, it suddenly started to make sense to her why Count and Trigger were forced into the collars so quickly. In a moment of shame, she realized with a sense of dread that she never really thought about why was it that the collars were sent over so quickly, only now realizing that someone in Ocelotia was more than aware of the collars, and for some nasty reason, had them as a contingency for a situation like the one Count and Trigger found themselves in. And for better or worse, Judy also supposed that it meant that mammals like Bellweather could be found all over the world, which meant that Zootopia wasn't actually all that different than… any other large city, really.
"Honestly, it's a real shame though, what those two countries are doing. Didn't they start building that space elevator together? Get over their squabbles from the late eighties and early nineties, and build something amazing together. Instead? Start work on what amounts to a glorified, extremely expensive, lighthouse. Then when the materials required for the actual space part fail to become a reality, do what? Urusia starts blaming Ocelotia that the project was nothing more than an attempt at imperialism, backs out of the deal and goes to war."
Somehow, despite being in jail since before the war started, Bellweather was correct about the start of the war as far as Judy could tell.
Realizing that her mind was wondering, Judy also knew that she really needed to bring the conversation back to why she came here in the fist place.
"Okay, fine. So you wanted to use nighthowlers to scare the population into accepting shock collars on predators. Ethics aside, it doesn't actually matter all that much since you were caught before that could happen anyways, which makes the point moot." Leaning closer to Bellweather, Judy tapped the table. "I am interested why right now, years after you were locked away, why someone else is digging through your remains and trying to start it all up again. And much more importantly, who."
All she got was a shrug from Bellweather. "Beats me, not anyone I would know," the ex-mayor admitted. "How about a different angle. Perhaps I might get an idea if I were to know who you think is going to be targeted this time around. I wanted to target predators because they are a menace to society. So who's in the cross-hairs this time?"
"We don't know," Judy answered, hoping that this wasn't information that she wasn't allowed to give up. "Might be anyone and everyone for all we know."
"Well try to find out who the seller is, and you will find the customer," Bellweather commented.
"What?" Judy stared back, trying to decipher this cryptic answer. Her blunt reaction earned her laughter from Bellweather.
"If you can't figure out who might be wanting to use nighthowlers, then try from the other end: try to figure out who is working to supply them," Bellweather elaborated. When Judy continued to state blankly at her, she started to laugh again. "Guess which one of us is the politician, and which is the beat cop?" she asked sarcastically, still chuckling. "Okay, try it like this: businesses like to make money. Legally, too, since going against the law tends to be a short term gain for a long term loss. Lawyers, lawsuits, the whole lot. Anyways, the thing is, if you have, say, a pharmaceutical developer, or some chemical manufacture. If someone shows up asking for them to make a product for them, and has the cash to give, what's to stop a business from, well, doing business? As long as the customer shows that everything is on the level, then the makers tend to not fear the authorities. And yes, that includes restricted and normally illegal substances. Look into Zootopia's chemical manufactures. Hell, get that hare of yours to look into any government contract for nighthowlers, or any documentation from any manufacturers asking for permission to use them for a product. If you can find the supplier, I am sure you will have a much easier time finding who is the buyer, if that's who you're going after."
Judy frowned, deep in thought. Everything Bellweather was saying appeared to be… honest. And rather unusually helpful too. Based off that assumption, she tried prying for more information. "But as a ex-politician, you wouldn't know of anyone who might be involved with nighthowlers? Legal or otherwise?"
"No, why would I?" Bellweather answered, smirk returning to her muzzle. "When I was using and developing them, it was for reasons that happened to be illegal. As I wasn't in a position to change that, I also made sure to keep well clear of any legal suppliers, to avoid grabbing any unwanted attention. But then you of all mammals had to show up, you and that fox of yours. I still don't know how you found that lab in the abandoned subway station, but here I am, in jail, and Zootopia gets what out of it? Something makes me think that predators are still running around committing crime far out of proportion for their numbers. It's a real shame you never allowed me to get as far as I planned to go. Would have made for a jewel of a city, that's for sure."
"No, I don't think it would have been like that," Judy answered, glancing at her phone. To her surprise, they had spent close to two hours in here, despite it feeling like much less. "Are you really sure that you don't have any idea on who might be using nighthowlers now?" Perhaps she was starting to reach her limit with Bellweather's very delusional ideas about how to change the city, but somewhere while listening to Bellweather drone on and on, she decided that her patience had been pushed to its limit and that it was time to start wrapping up here.
Luckily for her, a quick text over to Savage confirmed that he was also fine with that idea.
"How should I? It's not like I've been in jail for the last several years," Bellweather complained, causing Judy to blink in deja vu. "Come on, Hopps, I like talking to you. You reminded me of when I was the mayor again."
Judy rubbed her fatigued eyes. "Bellweather, Zootopia was at its worst point in decades when you were mayor. It's rather hard to believe that you really wanted the best for the city when it just about tore itself apart under your watch. To think that I blamed myself for it, too…"
Bellweather grinned. "Why? I say you performed rather excellently in that press conference. You did exactly what I needed you to do and say!"
"I didn't become a cop just to be your puppet, Bellweather!" Judy shot back, wincing mentally at how easily she let it show that she was getting agitated. She wasn't even sure if the ex-mayor really was still believing that the two of them could work together or-no, that was not it. Bellweather was simply trying to get under Judy's nerves, that had to be it. Unfortunately, it was working rather well, though. Letting out a silent groan, she scanned the list of items she needed to go over with the ex-mayor. Recalling through their conversation and checking her notes, she confirmed that they actually went over everything she needed to get through. Unfortunately, she didn't exactly get a lot of answers, but Bellweather did at least gloss over everything needed, sometimes even without any prompting from her.
Guess she really doesn't know what's going on right now, Judy thought remorsefully, recalling how exhilarating it was when Bellweather spilled the beans to her and Nick, thinking that they were trapped and done for in that museum pit. Compared to then, today's interrogation was rather… disappointing.
"So, Hopps, you've got any other questions for me today, or can we call it a day? If you don't mind, I'd love to go back to my cell."
"Someone will be here soon to take you back," Judy confirmed. "You know, for someone who didn't want to say anything, you sure talked for quite a bit."
"A familiar face sure helped, I admit," Bellweather relented casually. "I guess you can say I do like to run my mouth. It was after all how you and your fox caught me in the end. Although compared to when I thought I had you two trapped in the museum, I needed to worry about the time the cops would take to arrive. Today, I had the luxury to both be able to say what I mean and not worry about time, so yes, it was rather nice meeting you again. Hopefully, Hopps, I think that if you will give it enough time, you will look back on today and realize that I was right all along. And that, if you will, I am willing to call my personal victory." She smirked as Judy started to gather her notes and papers. "And so, goodbye, Hopps. Though I doubt it, I do sure hope that we will meet again, it has been far too long."
Grumbling underneath her breath, Judy stood up from her seat. "No, Bellweather, it really hasn't. So long." Turning her back to the ex-mayor, she approached the door out, and waited for the buzzer and loud click of the locking mechanism to release.
Moments later, she heard both and the door opened on the first try to her relief, a genuine smile of relaxation forming on her muzzle as she practically walked right into a waiting Jack Savage. "Sorry for that end, but I really needed to get out of there," she apologized. "I was able to stay calm and collected initially, but the longer Bellweather talked, the more I- eep!" Her rambling was interrupted by a tight hug from Jack.
Almost just as quickly as he initiated the gesture, Jack pulled back, grinning sheepishly, ears pressed back in embarrassment. "Sorry, just sort of happened," he mumbled, "rabbit and all…" He brushed off his shirt in an excuse to avoid having to look into her eyes.
She, in turn, started to laugh. "Really? It's just that- normally I'm the one doing something like this!" Unintentionally, as if to further to prove her point, in order to maintain her stance and avoid falling over, she reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder, using him for support as giggling shook her entire body. Realizing what she was doing, she only started to laugh even harder, which unfortunately meant that she wasn't able to let ho of Jack, who luckily was also chuckling along as he too noticed what was throwing her off.
"Us bunnies must look so weird to other mammals, don't we?" Judy finally asked when she found the breath to do so.
"It's okay, I'm used to it," Jack agreed. "Feeling better now? It wasn't… actually my intention when I uh, hugged you. That really was just me being a dumb rabbit. But I guess it did brighten up your mood, right?"
Judy nodded. "Yeah, I needed that, truth be told. The hug too, I really didn't mind that. Talking to Bellweather, and especially seeing just how… nuts she is! It was too much by the end, and I really started to feel like I stayed in there for too long. But as long as you got something out of it, then it was worth it."
Jack beamed at her. "Judy Hopps, I have no idea how you did it, but you were amazing in there! With hardly any planning, you went in there and got her talking more than a lot of professional interrogators combined!" He spread out his arms to show just how much her talk helped. "I suspect that most of what she told us is going to be useless, but I think I heard at least some few things in there that we didn't think of yet. But really, thank you."
"Glad I made today useful," Judy commented with a sigh, rubbing her fatigued eyes. "Can we leave now?"
"Sure, just let me make sure all of the data is saved to our server." Jack lead her back to the darkened room looking into Bellweather's interrogation room, now empty. "Had enough listening to a mad mammal's rambling?" he asked as he started typing into a computer terminal and reading the output.
"It wasn't her rambling. It was… well, everything she believes in," Judy admitted with a shudder. Now that it was just her and Jack alone in a tiny room, she finally had the opportunity to vent, and she wasn't going to let it go. "A part of me knew to expect her to sing praises on the nighthowlers, even if I hoped that she had changed her mind about them. But the TAME collars? I thought they were some sick idea by some Ocelotian military guy, not some widespread conspiracy. I mean, by the sound of it, who in the government doesn't know about those stupid things? How come I never heard of them until recently? And then Bellweather starts preaching about how wonderful they are and she's just… wrong! She believes that the collars can do- do what? Make us better? She didn't see Trigger get shocked so bad that his fur burned!"
"Judy, to be fair, his fur burn was likely due to the salt water all over it," Jack mumbled, noticeably wincing as soon as the words left his mouth. "N-not that I am trying to defend the use of collars," he quickly stammered in response to her completely shocked expression. "But, well, never mind…"
"Jack, it wasn't like a normal shock. Trigger, well, you know how he always finds some excuse as you why wearing the collar is not a big deal. But that time? He just dropped, like a brick. No warning at all or anything."
Jack nodded solemnly. "Yeah, Chief Bogo gave me a rundown of what happened. But since we're speaking of Trigger, and his burned neck, how is he after that incident? Hadn't actually seen him since that morning."
Judy gritted her teeth at the term 'incident', but the question also threw her off. Rather, not the question, but her answer. "The strange thing is, I think that he's actually… doing better." She grinned, giving Jack a nervous chuckle as he watched her curiously. "I had thought that him getting burned, and well, he was in a really bad mood by the end. As in, he was shaking, for goodness sake! Even himself admitted that it was a complete mental breakdown. But at the same time, what I guess happened, was that he was finally able to let go of something that was eating away at him. I suspect…" she added with a frown. "...I don't actually know. Well, you know how secretive he gets about his past, Jack. Every now and then he might tell us something, but it's like a jigsaw puzzle. A big, highly complicated, multidimensional puzzle."
"But he is doing better?" Jack asked again, just to make sure.
"Definitely," Judy confirmed. "More relaxed and easygoing, that's for sure. Laughs easier and more often now. Actually, heard him crack a joke a couple of days ago. Not that he doesn't get into his moods, but those do seem to be less common and for less time when they do happen." She grinned again. "Just in time for Bogo to place us back on regular cop duties again. It was honestly odd not having Trigger or Count in the cars with us for a while."
"Yeah, well, they need to get ready to transfer back to a unit. Can't spend all day riding along with you cops like they used to. Besides, I like having access to them, and their knowledge on those drones Urusia loves so much. Still trying to smuggle them past our shores, I'm afraid, but we're getting better at catching them. And, just to be safe in this building, that's all I'm going to say on that subject." Savage nodded at the computer screen, convinced that the data was sent where it needed to go, before closing it all down and leading Judy back out of the small room. "By the way, when we get back to the car, try giving Wilde a call. See how he's doing with his physicals."
Judy frowned at the strange tone he used with the suggestion. "Why am I under the impression that if I were to go to Nick and James, I will find Count and Trigger there too?" she asked suspiciously. "I thought it was strange that they were being tasked with checking up on their post poisoning progress, something they were both completely cleared of days ago!"
"Took you this long to figure it out?" Jack asked with a smug grin. "Hopps, that's a shame, coming from you."
"Don't you get started with me, agent" Judy growled back, pointing an accusing finger at him. "I had my doubts, but I also had to focus on my own work today, especially when I found out that I was supposed to interview ex-mayor of Zootopia Bellweather! If anyone's at fault here, it would be you for leaving me in the dark!"
"Just doing my job, Hopps," Jack answered with a shrug, swiftly dodging a resulting swing from her fist. "And let me remind you that assaulting officers of the law is a punishable offense!"
"You're calling that assault? Let me show you assault!"
The two continued to 'bicker' all the way back to their car, when it had to end with Jack climbing into the driver's seat. But what it also meant, that like he had suggested, that Judy had the time to pull her phone out in order to call Nick. There was always a chance that he was still busy and unable to answer the call, but she had already pressed the dial button on her phone before she realized just how annoying she always found it when her family would call her out of the blue. And yet here she was doing the same, and waiting for him to pick up the phone…
He picked up on the sixth ring or so. "Hey, Carrots! What's up?"
"Nick? Hey! What's going on? Just got done on my work with Jack."
"Agent Bunny? How did that go? Make it quick, I can't be on the phone too long though."
"Had to interrogate Bellweather," Judy admitted with a heavy frown. Just saying what she just finished doing was again bringing up unpleasant feelings.
"You had to do- what? No, never mind, suddenly I am thinking that I actually do prefer being here instead. To think that I would have swapped places with you had I had the chance…"
"Why, what are you doing exactly?" Judy asked, eager to learn what her partner had been up to.
"Well, I'm baking in the sun here at some military base after being run through the gauntlet by your favorite polar bear in the butt. Call her number quickly enough and I think she'll still pick up. Was rather disappointed that you weren't here, Fluff. Anyways, now I need to find Strikes and County in between chugging down water and not die of thirst."
At first, Judy chuckled at Nick's complaining about the heat. At this part of the globe, at this time of year and day, even as the day was starting to end, it was still very common for the temperatures to be high. Oh, that silly city fox and his climate controls! However, her laugh stopped dead as soon as, at the same time as having her suspicions confirmed about the whereabouts of the pilots, she caught on to the wording Nick was using to describe what he was doing. "Wait, what do you mean 'find', Nick? You lost them? Where's James and why isn't he helping you find them? Bogo will have our hides if he finds out! And why are you sounding so relaxed about this-"
"Calm down, Carrots! Chill! It's only an exercise! Escape and Evade, if I remember them calling it. Fixed perimeter, so they can't actually get out. Just need to find them before they well, um, 'escape'. Wolfy's helping me too at this, so I don't actually think he'll appreciate me yapping into my phone for much longer. But you help you calm down, I'm pretty sure they're still wearing those collars. But really, gotta go! Tell you what, I'll call you when I'm done, how does that sound?"
Judy nodded. "Sure thing, Nick, you do that instead." As much as she wanted to catch up more with him, she wasn't willing to sacrifice his exercise for that pleasure. No, she was willing to wait for that.
"'Kay, see ya, Fluff!" With a beep, the phone went dead as he killed the call from his end.
