Part II, Oxidizer: Main Theme:
Disclaimer: Zootopia stories, characters, settings, and properties belong to the Walt Disney Co. This story is written under Fair Use Copyright laws.
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The Fire Triangle
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Part Two:
Oxidizer
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Chapter 1—A Rock and a Hard Place
(Part 1)
"Wha...? No, no, nooo...not NOW; I just got to sleep!"
Judy knew it wasn't the alarm-clock, not in the middle of the afternoon; the nagging buzz could only be coming from her cell-phone. That was why she almost tried to ignore it, pulling the comforter into an even tighter cocoon around herself. Ahhh, ohhhh, who could it be? Was it her parents, her sister...how about another prankster; "Pred and Prey, Stay AWAY!?" (She hadn't actually been trolled for more than two days now.)
Or...maybe it was Chief Bogo, calling to tell her she was good to come back to work.
"All right, allll right...you win!"
She threw off the covers and snatched up her phone from the bedside table.
And then...what the heck?
"Fru-Fru? Why would SHE be calling me...Never mind bunny, pick up quick, before it goes into voice-mail."
Pressing the red 'connect' button, Judy spoke cautiously into the receiver.
"F-Fru-Fru, what...?"
The response was a skull-piercing, silver-tin squeak that made the doe-bunny yank the phone away from her ear. For a second, she thought she'd been pranked again, but then she realized—that wasn't feedback, it was a sob, a high-pitched rodent-sized sob.
She put the cell-phone back against her cheek and tried again.
"Fru, what's wrong?"
"J-Judy," the little arctic shrew's voice was like a nail gouging aluminum siding, "Judy, please...I don't know where else to go. Please, you're my little Jude's godmother; you've got to help me."
"All right, Fru, calm down." Judy slicked back her ears with her other paw, silently wishing she'd never taken this call. Whatever Fru-Fru wanted, it wouldn't be good. "Tell me what happened."
"It's Daddy!" The little arctic shrew's answer came as another feedback squeal, "I-I've never seen him like this. I'm afraid he's going to do something crazy. Please Judy, you're a cop; maybe he'll listen to you. Come to the house, please!"
The paw which had been stroking the doe- bunny's ears now slapped across her face. Whoa, good thing this wasn't a video call; a mob boss...listening to her? There was about as much chance of that happening as there was of Chief Bogo asking Duke Weaselton for advice. Fru-Fru was obviously so distraught that she wasn't thinking straight. Otherwise, she might have considered things from the other side of the discussion.
Consorting with a known criminal is not exactly the wisest career move for an aspiring police detective. If Judy paid an unauthorized visit to Mr. Big's house and ZPD Internal Affairs got wind of it, she wouldn't need to kiss a fox in order to kiss her badge buh-bye.
"NICK! Dumb bunny...don't think about him!"
"J-Judy?"
"Yeah Fru, I'm still here." Dangit, she needed to stall, to give herself time to think. "What happened? Did...?" A thought struck her. Oh no, not that! "Did another one of your dad's properties get burned down?" She was crossing her fingers so tightly it seemed they might fuse together.
"N-No, that didn't happen, " Fru-Fru sniffled, sounding not at all relieved. "There was a meeting here last night. A bunch of those awful Sahara Square pigs came here to speak to Daddy...and...and..." She began to sob again, forcing the bunny to hold out her cell at arm's length again. "I'll tell you about it when you get here, but please...come talk to him."
Judy's paw found her face a second time.
"Ohhhh, sweet cheez n' CRACKERS!"
And then she spoke into the phone again.
"Give me a minute, okay Fru?"
"Please, Ju..."
"A minute, okay?"
Without waiting for an answer, Judy pressed the mute button. Putting the phone back where she'd found it, she began to pace back and forth across the floor. Dangit, this would have been a tough enough dilemma if she had a week to make up her mind; instead, she probably had less than a minute. Ohhh, what was she going to DO? If she agreed to see Fru's father, she might be sending her police career swirling down the porcelain. But, if she didn't say yes, she'd be turning her back on a friend, a friend with nowhere else to go. Crikes...Fru-Fru had to be at end of her rope and hanging on by the fingertips if she was willing to go to a cop for help—even if said cop was the godmother to her eldest child.
But then a wry look creased the doe-bunny's face. Maybe so, but wasn't that shrew still her father's daughter? 'I'll tell you when you get here,' she'd said. While that might not have been an intentional ploy, it meant there was only one way Judy was going to find out the reason for her call. And that would be to go in and talk to her dad. Hrmmm. what was it Nick had told her once? 'Friend or no friend, don't ever forget something; in La Cosa Nostra, blood is thicker than everything...'"I TOLD YOU NOT TO THINK ABOUT THAT FOX!"
Mostly, inner voices are a pain; your own, fursonal, pestiferous Greek chorus. Sometimes, however—what would you do without them? These were to be Judy Hopps' feelings in the next few seconds, when her conscience decided to cut to the chase.
"What if you say 'No' and Mr. Big DOES do something crazy? What happens then?"
"What happens then is a gang-war," the doe bunny muttered under her breath.
And that made up her mind for her. She grabbed her phone and unmuted it.
"All right Fru, I'll come," she said, and then quickly, before the arctic shrew could say anything, she tacked on a qualification, "But I have conditions."
Fru's answer was a high-pitched whistling noise that only a bunny could have detected, the sound of a shrew sniffling.
"Wh-What kind of conditions?"
Judy blinked hard and made a fist with her free paw.
"I'll come see your father, but when I'm done, I'm going straight to Chief Bogo and brief him on everything we talked about."
"Judy, you can't!" Fru's cry came as another shriek of feedback, and the doe-bunny would not have been greatly surprised to hear the stuttering beep of the call being disconnected.
Instead, the line stayed open...and Judy moved quickly into the breach.
"Listen Fru, I'm taking a big enough risk as it is, agreeing to see him without notifying the Department in advance. Heck, I'm taking a risk just accepting this call!" She paused to let her words sink in, and then continued. "I took an oath when I joined the ZPD...an oath that's as important to me as the oath of Omerta is to your father; c'mon, you know that." She had no idea if any of this would have an impact, but when Fru-Fru spoke again her voice was much calmer than a moment ago.
"All right Judy...but when you speak to Daddy, before you say anything else, I want you to tell him what you just told me.
"Fair enough," Judy said. (This was actually what she'd intended from the start. But why prolong the discussion needlessly?) "Okay, how do I get to you?"
"I'm sending Mr. Manchas," the little arctic shrew replied, and there was something in her voice that made the doe-bunny suspect that the black-furred jaguar was already on the road. Had Fru known all along that the answer to her plea would be in the affirmative? Well, as Judy had already noted she WAS the daughter of a mob boss.
"And yeah, that IS something I'd better not ever forget," the grey-furred bunny reminded herself, a warped smile curling around the edges of her muzzle.
And then another thought struck her.
"Wait, don't send him to my apartment," she said, speaking quickly, "Have him pick me up out front of the Elm Street Metro." She did not explain or elaborate; at this time of the afternoon, there'd be there'd be at least a few other vehicles waiting to pick up passengers outside the station. No one would notice another one, limousine or not. And if Renato Manchas couldn't find that place on his own, he had no business working as Mr. Big's fursonal driver.
"Yeah, good idea," Fru responded, having grasped the doe-bunny's reasoning at once. She was a child of La Cosa Nostra all right. "He'll be there in about thirty minutes."
Judy made a quick calculation, "Hmmm, so he IS on his way already," and then shrugged and let it go.
"I'll be there too. Bye Fru."
She stowed the phone and went to her closet.
An hour later found her sitting in the back of a limo inside the Creavers Valley Tunnel, midway between Downtown Zootopia and Tundratown.
Moving her paw over the car-seat, Judy noted that the upholstery was newer than the rest of the interior—except for the carpeting, which was also of a more recent vintage. Hmmm, could this be the same limousine in which Emmit Otterton had been darted with Nighthowler; the one where she and Nick had later been jumped by Kevin and Raymond? It was not outside the realm of possibility, although it WAS rather surprising that Renato Manchas would ever be willing to set foot inside of this particular limo—fully refurbished or not.
Manchas...was he looking at her again?
Judy lifted her gaze...just in time to see his eyes dart away from the rear-view mirror.
He'd been doing that ever since picking her up. At first the doe-bunny had found it annoying; now it merely scratched her curiosity. The glances she'd caught had shown nothing in the way of disapproval, much less hostility. No, the big cat had seemed almost...what was the word for it, melancholy...regretful? No, neither one of those quite fit.
She was tempted to ask him about it, and so she might have—except she needed to stay focused on the task ahead.
As the limo came out of the tunnel and into Zootopia's arctic district, she sat up and peered out the window, taking stock of her surroundings. What she saw was both familiar and oddly unfamiliar. She'd been in this part of Tundratown before, the first time she and Ni...she and her former partner had been brought in to see Mr. Big. That visit, however, had occurred in the dead of night, and she'd been sandwiched in between a pair of very unfriendly polar bears. This time, the sun was up and she had the back of the limousine all to herself.
The season had been different then as well. Back then, all the streets had been carpeted with layers of snow. Now, while there was plenty of white stuff strewn along the roadsides, the pavement itself was bare. (Even Tundratown has to pay homage to summer.) The mountains on her left, normally a uniform white, were splotched here and there with patches of grey and even a hint of green. Behind her, only the upper halves of the skycrapers adjoining Downtown Zootopia remained sheathed in frost, giving them the appearance of ginormous shaved-ice dispensers. Here in the foothills, most of the architecture was alpine; houses and businesses built to resemble either chalets or mountain lodges. If you wanted to find igloos or ice palaces you needed to look further down the valley, towards the flatlands encircling Icy Lake.
Now Manchas turned left and onto a wide boulevard. As he rounded the corner, Judy took note of a polar bear in a tall cap, standing sentry beneath sign reading 'Private Road—No Turnarounds'. At the limo's approach, he stiffened and readied his weapon. (O-M Goodness, was he packing a...?)
But then the bear peered closer, and smiled and waved. Judy saw Mr. Manchas return the gesture and then sat back again, feeling her nose beginning to twitch. Given the current state of affairs in Zootopia's underworld, what she'd just witnessed was hardly surprising—but it was still unsettling. The Tundratown and Sahara Square mobs really were on the brink of war...and God help the city if they took it to Defcon One. One thing at least was comforting to the doe-bunny; she'd been absolutely right to agree to Fru-Fru's request. To forestall such a calamity, she'd have gladly put her life on the line...so why not her career?
The houses here were of a much different caliber than the ones she'd seen elsewhere in Tundratown. All were spaced at wide intervals, all of them were gated, and all of them were surrounded by either high walls or towering fences. Through a few of the latter, Judy was able to glimpse the onion-arched facades of what looked like Russian dachas. Clearly Antonino Grandi, aka Mister Big, liked to keep his soldiers close at paw.
Unsurprisingly, the Grandi family compound was situated at the far end of the street. This place Judy remembered; timber, and plaster and tall, gothic windows; a high-peaked roof, more befitting to a cathedral than a private residence. Like every other house on the street, it was surrounded by an industrial strength palisade; in this case a stone wall that could have withstood a direct hit from an artillery shell. What was different here was the absence of any gate. Instead the entrance was secured by a stout chain—a chain watched over by not one but THREE of the Big Shrew's bodyguards, two polar bears and a Siberian tiger, all of them heavily armed.
Though the sun was bright and shining, it seemed to Judy that the entire estate was enveloped in a cloak of dark mist—the fog of war. And what could one little bunny do to burn off such an all-encompassing shroud of acrimony?
She had no idea; she only knew that she had to try.
Entering by way of the estate's front door, Judy found a Greenland wolf waiting for her in the foyer; dark suit and even darker glasses, an animal she didn't recognize. He was standing at parade rest beside a low stool. And as the doe-bunny came closer, she became aware of a stiff tail, a tapping foot, and a hard frown. If Fru-Fru wanted her here, this animal obviously felt otherwise.
"Step up there," he instructed her, in a toneless, Nordic voice, waving towards the stool with a device she recognized as a metal-detector wand. Judy did as she was told and then raised her arms, remaining stock still while he ran the wand over her. Even though she knew he was only doing his job, she decided she didn't like this animal, (and judging by the look on his face, the feeling was more than mutual.)
After giving her a quick twice-over with no response from the detector-wand, the wolf stowed it and motioned for her to step down.
"This way," he growled, striding to the hallway door and all but flinging it open.
The interior of the house was just as Judy remembered; that is, what little of it she was able to remember. The first time she'd been here she'd arrived by another entrance and had practically been frog-marched inside. Since then, she had never been back. Oh, she'd met Fru for lunch on numerous occasions, and the two of them had many times gone shopping together; (the little shrew was a genius at finding bargains.) But until today, she had never returned to the Grandi Estate, and for a very simple reason. This house was the property of Mr. Big, not his daughter. And like any good mob boss, he considered his home his castle.
It was a castle with La Cosa Nostra practically written all over it; dark, heavy timbers, stone and hardwood floors covered in brocade carpets, and walls in washed-out pistachio green, hung here and there with dimly lit paintings. The biggest difference for Judy was that the frost which had seemed to fill every nook and cranny on her previous visit was largely absent this time; hardly an icicle to be seen anywhere.
Summer had definitely arrived.
Passing by a window that fronted on a small courtyard, Judy spotted something peculiar, a domed greenhouse protecting only a single piece of flora, a tree of many small trunks and big, trefoils leaves. Wait, was that a fig tree? Yes, it was and what the heck was that doing here in Tundratown?
The wolf eventually brought her to a heavy chestnut door which he opened without knocking. Stepping aside, he ushered the doe-bunny through and closed it behind her.
On the other side of the doorway, everything was instantly familiar; this was the office where, two years ago, Judy had first encountered the Padrone of the Tundratown mob. Only, where was...?
"Judy, is that you?" A wee, tinny voice queried hopefully. It was coming from the top of Mr. Big's massive slab of a desk.
"I'm here, Fru," the doe-bunny assured her, moving quickly around to the front.
Fru-Fru was parked on the desktop, laying back with an overstuffed belly in an overstuffed lounge-chair. She was wearing a mist-blue maternity dress that would shortly need to make way from the next size up. On her right was a basket of mealworms, and on the left was a bowl of...vanilla cake frosting?
As Judy watched, she took one of the worms, dunked it in the confection and popped it into her mouth, devouring it in two quick bites...and reminding the doe bunny that size and appearances notwithstanding, shrews are one of the world's most rapacious predators.
But...mealworms with icing? Ewww, no wonder that wolf hadn't wanted to wait around.
"What can I say, I get cravings," Fru shrugged, having caught her guest's expression. By way of further explanation she patted her expanding tummy. "Thanks so much for coming, Judy," she said, and then gestured to a spot behind and to the left of the doe bunny. "Please...sit down."
The rattan chair was a bit large for a rabbit, but she managed...and she also noted that it didn't go with the rest of the room décor; Fru must have had it brought in especially for her visit.
That was when Judy noticed; something in this room was conspicuous by its absence.
...Or rather, someone.
"Wh-Where's your dad?"
Fru-Fru blew a tuft of air from her face and her eyes turned upwards for a second. The look on her face might have been either embarrassment or disappointment; the doe bunny was unable to tell.
"Jude-eeeeee, I couldn't bring you here while he was home; he'd never have let you in the house." She was a lot calmer than she'd been on the phone...which was more than you could say for her visitor.
"Oh wonderful," Judy groaned to herself. Great, then what would Mr. Big do when he came home and found her here in his private office? Her next thought was, "Am I THAT obvious?" because Fru was grinning at her...sheepishly, but still a grin.
"Don't worry Judy, he won't...do anything. If that was even possible, I'd never have asked you here." She aimed a finger downward at the floor. "Slide out of that chair for a second and thump your foot, g'head."
Judy eyed the little arctic shrew curiously for a second. Now, THERE was a request she didn't get every day. Just the same, she let herself drop to the floor and drummed her foot against the carpet. Nothing happened and she looked up again with a twitching nose.
"'Kayyy...what?"
Fru-Fru only grinned again, and this time her eyes were twinkling.
"Hey c'mon...you're the cop over here; you figure it out."
Judy felt her ears begin to turn backwards, but then looked down again. Wa-i-i-i-t a minute; she was standing right on top of...
She thumped her foot gain, and again there was nothing—where there should have been a hollow, booming noise.
She looked up again. "The ice pit—it's gone."
Fru patted her belly again. "When Daddy found out I was having a boy, he promised me no one would ever get iced in this house again. And to prove it, he had the hole filled in." The pride in her voice was unmistakable, but then her face turned almost grave. "I'm telling you this, Judy, so you'll understand that what else I got to tell you here is the truth."
That was good for another raised rabbit ear...and an eyebrow to go with it. "Excuse me, what...else you have to say?" She could feel her nose twitching again.
"That's right." Fru-Fru sat up in her chair. "While you were on your way here, I got to thinking about what you said, how you gotta tell the Chief about your talk with my dad, after you leave." She leaned even further forward, whiskers twitching like antennae. "So I got something I want you to tell him from me."
"Whoa, is this the same shrew that almost got hysterical on the phone with me?" Judy wondered in amazement. It reminded her of her earlier call with Erin. And it made her realize something; when it comes to hormonal mood swings, adolescence has nothing on a pregnancy.
Fru, meanwhile, was struggling to get up out of her chair. Judy reached quickly to help her, but the arctic shrew only waved her off.
"I got this, I got this, but can you lift me up over there, Judy?" She was pointing to the mantel over the fireplace.
Judy cocked her eyebrow again; it was yet another odd request but then so had been asking her to thump her foot...and that had made perfect sense in the end.
However, there was another problem.
"Uhmmm, that's a little high for me, Fru...and I don't want to try jumping while holding you; not in your, uh, condition."
"There's a step ladder you can use, over by the fireplace tools," Fru-Fru pointed to the left side of the hearth, nodding for emphasis.
"So it's true," Judy said a moment later, as she cupped the little arctic shrew in her paws, "Your dad really IS getting out of the rackets."
Fru-Fru's brow flattened and so did her mouth. "Where'd you hear that, Judy?"
"Oops, way to go, DUMB bunny." Judy mentally chided herself and then thought fast for a second. "Around the Precinct." she said, shrugging it off, as if it was no big deal. "It's just gossip so far...but it's true?"
"Yeah, it's true," the little arctic shrew sighed, already resigned to the fact that her father's plans were known to the ZPD. She patted her tummy again. "He wants to make sure little Tony never gets into 'that life,'...and so do I." Her face had stiffened with resolve.
THAT was something Judy found easy to believe. Not merely his grandson, but also his namesake; Mr. Big would absolutely not want this boy in the rackets, no way!
With such a delicate load in her paws, ascending the stepladder was a slow process; Judy had to move with the stylized steps of an actor in a Tanbuki play. When she started lifting Fru up towards the mantelpiece, the little shrew shook her head.
"No Judy, not up there; up there." She was pointing towards the shelf above the mantel, the one containing a portrait of a wrinkled, old lady-shrew, flanked by a pair of Rosary candles.
"Okay," the doe bunny nodded, beginning to get what Fru was after.
It was a bit of a stretch to reach up that far, but Judy managed it. Taking a step back down the ladder, she watched as Fru-Fru waddled to the center of the picture, placing a paw against the canvas, and another one over her heart. Her voice was as somber as the face of the shrew in the painting.
"Judy, on the memory of my sainted great-grandmother, I swear to you: Daddy had NOTHING to do with burning down that recycling plant and that flower-shop!"
"So Ni...the fox was right about that too." This time the doe bunny wisely kept her thoughts to herself. Unfortunately, there was another, even more awkward response that she couldn't avoid speaking aloud.
"How do you know this Fru?" she asked, immediately bracing herself.
"Because he told me—wait!" She had seen Judy starting to raise a finger. "Wait, I know what that sounds like, but please... hear me out before you say anything, okay?"
"All right," Judy let her arms fall to her sides, watching the little shrew with a curious eye and a twitching nose.
"Okay," Fru-Fru leaned back against the canvas and slid downwards, using the frame as a makeshift seat; one of the advantages of being so small. Then she said, "I know my father Judy. If he'd had anything to do with either of those fires he would have said something to me like, "'Baby, you know you're not supposed to ask Daddy about his business.'" Her muzzle shot suddenly upwards, as if in defiance. "But that's NOT what he said...and I didn't have to ask him; he came to me. I had just finished putting little Judy to bed when Raymond walked in and said my father wanted to see me in his study. When I got here, Daddy was sitting on the desktop and as soon as Ray set me down, he got up and took me by the paws." She took a deep breath and when she spoke again her voice had become a fair approximation of Mr. Big's wheezy rasp.
"My child, you're going to be hearing some bad things about your father very shortly; that I gave the order to have two of the Red Pig's businesses torched. I swear to you daughter; on my dear, departed Grandmamma's grave, I did NOT do these things."
She stopped abruptly, and Judy realized she was being scrutinized for her reaction. Dangit, what was she supposed to say? She believed what Fru had just told her, but it wouldn't last three seconds in a court of law...or with Chief Bogo.
But then the arctic shrew spoke again.
"It's the same thing Daddy said to Joey the Shadow when he came here for the sit-down last night—almost word for..."
"Wait, WHAT?" Judy's ears felt as if they were going to shoot straight through the ceiling.
"Joey Porcini," Fru amended quickly, "He's the Red Pig's Consigliere..."
"No, that's not what I mean," Judy had to steady herself on the ladder to keep her balance, "Your father let you attend the meeting; you were THERE?" She couldn't believe that even Mr. Big would be that indulgent...and even if he was, his 'guests' sure as heck wouldn't have stood for it.
Fru-Fru's eyes turned momentarily upwards, and she began to scan the air around her, as if searching for an intruding mosquito.
"Ummm, noooo...but...you see this fireplace here?" She was aiming her finger downwards, "Wellll, the chimney goes right past the TV room upstairs and umm...well, if you stand at a certain spot, ummm... right next to that part of the wall..."
"Okay Fru, I get it." Judy spoke quickly wanting to spare her friend the embarrassment of having to admit that she'd been eavesdropping. "And everything you just told me never leaves this room."
"Thanks Judy," the arctic shrew responded, letting out a breath of heartfelt relief.
"No problem," the doe-bunny smiled and then quickly grew serious, "Maybe you better tell me about that meeting from the beginning. I promise not to repeat anything you say, but if I'm going to be able to help you, I need to know what happened here last night."
"Yeah, right," Fru-Fru puffed out her cheeks. "Can you put me back down on the desk first?"
When 'The Shadow' Porcini had arrived at the Grandi family compound, he'd had a troop of bodyguards with him. Except for Vinnie 'the Painter' Truffalini, Fru hadn't recognized any of them. "But I know a stinkin' Razorback when I see one," she spat out the word like lye.
"And the Red Pig didn't come himself?" Judy asked. She wasn't surprised, only curious.
"No, and it's a good thing, too." Fru-Fru's cheeks were puffing out again. "That javelina's a total, stinkin' psycho."
Peccari's absence from the meeting had given Fru a little hope that maybe her father and the Sahara Square mob would be able to hammer out a peaceful settlement to their differences. But no sooner had Koslov shut the front door, than Mr. Big had sent her upstairs, offering her only the timeworn mob mantra as an explanation, 'Business is business.'
Fru-Fru had taken her place next to the chimney just in time to hear her father swearing once again that the arson attacks on the Red-Pig's property had in no way been carried out at his behest. After that, she hadn't been able to hear much of anything; the animals downstairs had all been speaking in hushed tones.
"But then just like that, they all started yelling at each other. I couldn't make out most of it, but it was like a horror movie down there; y'know, when the monster comes in and everybody starts screaming at once?" She hugged herself and shuddered. "Except this was all angry, not scared...and what I DID hear... When Truffalini called Koslov a 'Goombear' I thought for sure that the next thing I was gonna hear was gunshots. And then I heard Vinnie 'The Shadow' screaming 'Snitch' at my father."
At this Judy gasped and felt her paws fly up to her face. Even she knew that in La Cosa Nostra, there's no greater insult than to accuse a fellow mobster of violating the code of Omerta.
Whoa, good thing Mr. Big had gotten that ice-pit filled in. Otherwise at least one of his 'guests' would have left the room that way—but not without taking one or two of the Big Shrew's soldiers with him; the Razorbacks were nobody's helpless little pigs, and by the sound of things, there'd been way more than three of them in here.
And even worse had been yet to come for Fru-Fru; after several more minutes of verbal chaos, her father's voice had pierced through the din like a red-hot needle.
"You stay away from my daughter, you hear me, Shadow? OR I'LL STUFF YOUR NOSE DOWN YOUR T'ROAT!"
"Oh my God," Judy felt like hugging herself too. No wonder Fru was so desperate.
"I never in my life heard Daddy scream like that," the little shrew was almost in tears again. "I swear, I didn't know his voice could GET that loud."
Mr. Big's angry fusillade had been the straw that broke up the meeting. Porcini and the Razorbacks had stormed out through the front door and gone screeching out of the driveway with their tires throwing up rooster-tails of snow. As soon as they were gone, Fru had summoned Kevin and told him to bring her back downstairs. At first, the polar bear had tried to demur. "You should wait little bit, babuschka...till Big Shrew feels better, da?" It was no use; Fru-Fru was The Boss's daughter, and she wanted to see him right now. Eventually, reluctantly, the polar bear had complied with the order.
"I should have listened to him when I had the chance, Judy." the little arctic shrew sniffled, wiping at an eye with her finger, "When Kevin brought me downstairs again, as soon as we hit the ground floor, I could hear Daddy ranting...l-like a crazy animal, all the way down the hall. 'That jerk, that punk, that pezzi di sporcizia...how dare he talk that way to me? ME! Maiale bugiardo, I'll make him eat his words with battery acid!'" She sniffled again, "If I hadn't been there myself I never would of believed it...that my father could lose it like that."
But even then, Fru-Fru couldn't have imagined how angry he really was.
"When I saw Daddy after Kevin opened the door...oh my God, Judy! I thought for a second one of those pigs must have slipped him a Nighthowler. He had his jacket open, his shirt collar was all undone, and his fur was all sticking out every which way, like a punk rocker or something. All his teeth were showing too. And his EYES; sweet mother of mercy, it was like someone had stuck a coupla deviled sparrow-eggs in his eye-sockets. At first, he didn't even seem to know I was there...stomping back and forth, all over the desktop, waving his paw in the air. And then...and then, wh-when he finally noticed me..."
Her words ended in a choking sob, and it was nearly a minute before she was able to continue.
When Mr. Big had turned and seen her...
"He...screamed at me Judy, for the first time ever, 'YOU! YOU GET OUTTA HERE!'...a-and not in those words; he used language even Kevin hadn't heard him use before."
She began to cry again, and Judy looked fervidly around the office. Dangit wasn't there anything in here she could use as a tissue?
"He...apologized to me over breakfast this morning," Fru sniffled, wiping her eyes on the back of her sleeve. "But he's still almost crazy-mad about last night." She lifted a pair of fingers and crossed herself. "I just hope it's not too late already. When Daddy left the house earlier, he didn't tell me where he was going."
That was something he probably never did anyway, Judy mused to herself. But never mind; what the heck had happened here to set the Big Shrew off like that? And not just him; from the way things sounded, the Red Pig's envoys hadn't left in a particularly jolly mood either. What could have started it? WHO could have started it?
To find out, Judy knew she would have to choose her next words very carefully...and even then, it would be a roll of the dice. However she presented the suggestion, Fru-Fru wasn't going to like it. In a worst-case scenario, she might even order the doe-bunny to leave the house and declare that they were no longer friends.
It was a risk, but the only thing that might shed some light on what had touched off that powderkeg last night.
"Fru," she said, speaking very slowly, "whoever burned down the Red Pig's properties, I'm getting a...a very strong vibe that he and your dad were already feuding—even before the Tux-On fire. I-Is that right?"
Okay, there it was; Judy crossed her fingers, waiting for the answer.
"Uh-huh," Fru's expression had shifted from distress to disgust—but not directed at her, the doe-bunny was relieved to note. "Yeah that's about it; they've been sniping at each other since back when summer started."
Judy let out a breath but not all of her breath; that was only the first hurdle.
"Oh-kayyy," she said, mentally crossing her fingers. While Fru-Fru wouldn't be offended by her next question, she most likely wouldn't know the answer either. "Do you have any idea what started it?"
To her considerable surprise, the little arctic shrew's response was as bitter as a straight shot of Amaro. Her eyes narrowed into fire-grate slits and the corners her mouth arced downwards almost to her shoulders. In the meanwhile, her paws had tightened up on her the arms of her chair, as if preparing to rip them from their mountings.
And when she spoke, her voice was as screechy as finger-claws on a blackboard.
"Oh yeah, I got an idea how it started. It was all because a' that STUPID ring!"
"R-Ring?" Judy felt her nose twitching...and not out of mere curiosity; disquiet was in the mix too. The word shouldn't have raised even a single red flag with her and yet a whole covey of them seemed to be taking flight. "Wh-What ring?"
"My engagement ring," Fru looked as if she wanted to bite somebody's face off.
Judy started to lean closer and then stopped herself. Given the little shrew's mood right now, it might not be the best course of action to get within range of those chompers.
Fru, however, had seen her reaction, and moved quickly to calm herself.
"Sorry, sorry...it just makes me so mad when I think about it." She turned sideways and for a second, Judy thought she was going to spit. But then she held out her left paw in the doe bunny's direction, while she fumbled in a pocket with the other. "But I didn't mean this engagement ring, I meant the other one, the FIRST one. Now where the heck...? Dang, I haddit here a second ago."
Judy stared completely puzzled; just when she'd thought that things couldn't get any more confusing. A...NEW engagement ring; who the heck buys a new engagement ring...unless they've lost the old one? (And that obviously wasn't the case here.)
After another minute of rummaging, Fru's face lit up, "Success!" Extracting a tiny object from her pocket, she held it out in Judy's direction. It was perhaps the size of a gumdrop, but the doe-bunny recognized it immediately—a ring-box.
"G'head, take a look ," the little shrew prompted, but it was easier said than done. Too small for Judy to get a decent grip on it, the box at first denied all attempts to get it to open. Finally, on the third or fourth try, she managed to hook a thumb-claw under the lid and peel it backwards.
Inside was a ring of a deep-yellow gold set with a lustrous diamond. A gorgeous piece of work, but there was nothing special about it, at least not that she could see. Of course, it was a shrew-sized ring, and so she couldn't get a decent look at it anyway, and yet...
And yet...why was her nose twitching nervously again?
She looked up at Fru and saw the arctic shrew pointing to her left.
"There's a magnifying glass on the desk right there."
Yes there was; a fine-looking piece...etched in brass, with an art-nouveau handle. That was the good news; the bad news was that it was of a size intended for a larger mammal...of say, polar bear proportions. In Judy's paws it was as big as a tennis-racket and as unwieldy as an industrial sledgehammer. After three unsuccessful attempts to lift it up over the ring, she decided to compromise. Propping the glass up on its edge, she slid it sideways along the rim of the desktop until the ring-box was centered in the lens.
Yep, there we go...except the image was still a little blurry. Judy tilted the lens back a little and the view quickly crystallized.
At once, she let out a yelp of surprise, and lost her grip on the magnifying glass. It fell onto the desk with a flat, wooden slap as her paws shot up to her cheeks again.
"Sweet Cheez' n'...oh my God!"
What Judy had seen beneath the magnifying lens was putting everything else in a clear view as well; at last it was all beginning to make sense...including why Fru-Fru had chosen to reach out to her.
She looked up again at the arctic shrew—and saw her sitting rigidly, with folded arms and an expression of grim contempt.
"I know, right? A lavender diamond!"