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 6—Unintended Consequences
(Part 1)
First there was blackness, lightening slowly to gray and then white. And then it was like the time-lapse display of the creation of an artwork; wispy black lines coming together to form vague shapes; coalescing gradually into something that was almost more recognizable. Now, as the outlines began to fill in with color, there were sounds as well; the clink of glass against metal, the robotic rasp of an intercom. Somewhere in the distance, a voice was barking orders, too faint to be understood. Lastly, there was the smell—dry, stinging, and antiseptic.
And then everything merged together and she was back in the real world.
Blinking wetly, Judy pulled herself up on her elbows...and found herself looking into the dark brown eyes of another bunny. No, she decided, not a bunny, a jackrabbit; too big, too lean, and too long in the ears to be a member of her own species.
She was dressed in a nurse's uniform.
"Oh good, you're awake."
Judy's response to this was little more than a dry whisper. That was probably just as well; what she'd been attempting to say was something she'd likely have had to take back later. But that was only to be expected. After all, he was not in the best of moods right now, and for a very good reason, "I HAD him!"
"Want some water?" the nurse asked her, and this was a question she could answer with just a nod. A few sips later and she could feel her voice starting to come back, but by then the jackrabbit-doe had already left, 'to go get Dr. Jarabal.'
That was fine with Judy; it would give her a chance to take stock of her situation.
She began with a brief self-appraisal. First and foremost, she could see out of only one eye, the right one. When she reached up to touch the left side of her face, she felt layers of gauze with something hard underneath, covering the eye socket. Lowering the paw again, she noted that her middle finger was splinted...and that any quick movement made her joints want to sing in E over high C. Looking further to the left, she saw an IV running into her arm, but saw no beeping monitor, and no electrodes attached to her torso; nothing clipped to her finger either. Okay, so none of her injuries were life-threatening. Shifting her gaze downwards, she saw that her midsection was swathed in more bandages. And now, for the first time, she noticed that the act of breathing had become something of a chore. She also saw that she was still in her street clothes and not in a hospital gown.
That told the doe-bunny that she hadn't, as yet, been admitted to whichever hospital they'd taken her. She was almost certainly still in the ER—which meant she couldn't have been out of it for all that long. Ahhh, how long did it take for a standard-issue ZPD tranq-dart to wear off again? Judy couldn't remember; her head would need to clear some more before she could retrieve that information.
Looking further around, she was at least able to confirm her location. The surrounding curtain was way too small, and the noises outside were much too loud for her to be in a hospital ward, much less a private room.
Fine...but how long, exactly, had she been unconscious? The question refused to go away...Oh, wait, of course.
Judy turned over her wrist—and saw that her watch was gone; great!
But then the curtain parted and Claire Swinton entered. Okay-y-y, maybe now she'd get some answers.
"Hey Detective, how're you doing?" She was wearing the most wan smile the doe-bunny had ever seen.
"How do I look like I'm doing?" Judy asked, speaking in a half-croak while reaching up to touch her bandaged eye. And then in no mood for small talk she got right to the point, "Who tranqued me Claire? Those darts that hit me had better not have been friendly fire." She swallowed and spoke again, "And where the heck did that SWAT team come from anyway?"
Swinton glanced into a corner, and bit her lip.
"Ahhhh, yes I'm afraid they were. You turned around; the SWAT team saw the gun in your paw...and what with all the smoke and pepper-gas residue, and their masks being all fogged up, they couldn't see much of anything else ...a-and so they thought you were one of the rioters, and..."
"Rioters!" Judy was waking up rapidly now, "What rioters, what the heck happened, Claire?"
"What, you don't know?" Swinton's expression had shifted from contrition to incredulity.
"No, I..." The doe-bunny answered, sitting up quickly and then falling right back down again. Oooo, that hurt. "Never mind, just tell me what happened."
"It was those kids in the hoodies, Judy." The pig-cop's face was almost solemn, "They just lost it and mobbed the stage; had a bunch of us trapped in the rehearsal room. It was really bad; Lieutenant Tufts had to call in SWAT to come in and get us out of there."
That tore it; this rabbit was now officially awake. "What, are you serious?" This couldn't be right; at the ZAPA auditions? If there was a LESS likely place for a riot to break out, she couldn't begin to imagine it. "What the heck started it, Claire?"
The pig-cop's eyes found the corner again.
"It started when...uh, when..." She fell silent, unable to continue.
"What the HECK?" Judy wondered, and then, reluctantly decided to let the issue go, at least for now. Like it or not, she had more important things to discuss.
"What about Con...er, the Lewis boy? Did we bust him? Please tell me that he didn't get away."
Turning at last to look in her direction, the pig-cop sighed, shrugged, and slowly shook her head.
"Nope, no luck, he got clean away; no sign of him anywhere. The Lieutenant's mad as all-get-out, as you can probably imagine."
Judy almost responded to this, but then stopped, feeling her nose beginning to twitch. There was something about the way Claire had said that, something that didn't...quite...
The curtain parted and the rabbit-nurse came back again, this time accompanied by a bespectacled, whited coated mammal resembling an opossum with woolly fur. Ahhh, what was the name for that species again? Oh, right...a cuscus.
"So, what's the verdict, doc?" Judy asked him, too tired to come up with anything but an equally tired cliché.
"Not guilty by reason of insanity," the marsupial quipped, speaking in a snappy south Asian accent. And then he grew serious. "Let's get your vitals first, yes?"
Unsurprisingly, Judy's temperature and blood pressure were slightly elevated, while her pulse was almost perfectly normal. When the nurse shone a penlight into her eye, the pupil contracted in exactly the manner it should have. The only real area of concern was her blood/oxygen level.
"93%," Dr. Jarabal told her, "not too serious, but still a cause for concern. I believe you may have suffered a minor injury to your diaphragm. It will heal by itself, but you will need to be most careful until then,"
"All right," the doe bunny nodded. "What about the rest of me?" In other words, was she free to go?
By way of response, the cuscus scooped a tablet from a bedside tray-table, adjusting his glasses as he consulted it.
"Nothing broken, except for a hairline fracture in your finger; fair amount of bruising, but no major internal bleeding..."
"What about this?" Judy interrupted; pointing to her bandaged eye, the thing that most concerned her.
Dr. Jarabal flicked a finger against the tablet screen. "No damage to the eye itself, thank the maker, but you will need to keep it covered for a few days just the same. Those claws went fairly deep.
Deep? Judy swallowed hard and crossed her fingers.
"W-Will there be a...? Will there be any scarring?"
"No...nothing, at least, that will show through your fur, I should think." The cuscus frowned as he continued to scan her chart, "if you take proper care of it." He turned to look at her. "But as I said, my main concern is for your diaphragm. For the next two weeks at least, you need to avoid any activity that will lead to rapid breathing. No running or any other strenuous exercise...and no heavy lifting either."
"Hey," Claire Swinton chirped up from the corner, "looks like you're getting some medical leave."
Judy forced herself not to glare at the pig-cop; she had come off paid leave only a while ago and was in no mood to go down that road again. Instead, she looked at Dr. Jarabal.
"So...uh...are you going to admit me, or....?" She left the sentence hanging.
He examined her chart again. "Well, considering the possible damage to your diaphragm, I'd suggest we keep you overnight..."
Overnight! Judy groaned and would have face-pawlmed herself, if it hadn't been for that finger and her eye. How could she have forgotten about...?
"Oh sweet cheez n'...I never did ask; how long was I unconscious, wh-what time is it?"
It was Swinton who answered her. "It's almost 8 Judy," she said and the doe bunny immediately felt better. Ah yes, now, she remembered...that was about how long it took for a tranquilizer dart to wear off. Granted, she'd been hit by two of the little nasties, but there had probably been something in the IV to help bring her...
"Judy, I'd do as he suggests," the pig-cop spoke again. "Please don't take this the wrong way, but ..."
She was cut off by a commotion outside the curtain. For a moment, it seemed to fade slightly, but then a familiar voice cried out.
"Please...let me in there! That's my daughter!"
"Mom?" Judy called over the curtain, and then, to whoever was out there with her, she said, "It's all right, she can come." Nothing happened and she tightened up her voice a notch. "In case you don't know, I'm a police detective. So you let my mother in here...and I mean right! now!"
The curtain parted and Bonnie Hopps came hurrying through. Her dress was disheveled and her fur was a complete mess—and why were her ears drooping? But the worst of it was...there was no mistaking the dark streaks furrowing her cheeks–or those puffy red eyes. Oh, sweet cheez n' crackers!
"Mom, it's okay, it's not as bad as it looks," Judy moved swiftly to reassure her. "I'm a little banged up but..."
That was as far as she got before her mother cried out, "Judy, where WERE you?" She sounded more angry than anguished, and for a fraction of a second, the bewildered younger bunny was unable to respond. "Wh-Where was I? Mom...what are you...?" Then, all at once, it hit her. It would take a lot more than just seeing her daughter in the ER to get this rock-steady rabbit worked up into a state. "Mom...what happened?"
The answer came like a surge from a broken floodgate.
"I-It's Erin, she's been arrested!"
"WHAT?" Judy sat up at once, but "Owwww, okay, that REALLY hurt!" She coughed and clutched at her midsection, instantly bringing the doctor over. She waved him off and spoke again. "Mom...what was she arrested...? Wait, hold it..."
With the slow, deliberate movement of a gun turret, she turned her gaze on the only other member of the ZPD present. "Swinton...did YOU know that my sister had been arrested when you came in here? Ah-AH...look at me, not in the corner."
The pig-cop shuddered slightly and then nodded.
"Yes, Judy. I..."
"Yes, Detective Hopps!" Judy cut her off, archly, "And in that case, I'll let you tell me why she's been arrested." She leaned forward as best she could, "And you'd better tell me all of it."
The story came out at first in fits and starts, and then with more of an even flow as it progressed. Judy mostly let Swinton talk without interruption—that is until...
"What? WHAT!" She coughed and clutched her middle again–and again had to wave off Dr. Jarabal. "What, are you serious? Erin wasn't trying to start a riot; she was trying to get me to come and help with those kids."
"And where WERE you?" her mother demanded again, the cry bursting out of her in a wrenching sob. "We didn't even find out what happened to Erin until..."
"Mom...please," Judy pulled up her shirt to show her bandages, "Even if I could have heard her from where I was, I wasn't in any kind of a position to help."
"It's true Mrs. Hopps," Officer Swinton said, moving quickly to give the doe bunny some cover, "That rioter did a pretty good number on her."
Judy's world seemed to freeze in place for a second. Rioter...? They thought she'd been fighting with a...? And now she remembered; when she'd asked about Conor, the answer had been 'no sign of him anywhere'. But how could that be after...? Hadn't the SWAT team at least found the...?
With a sudden, vicious clarity, it all fell into place. Dangit, but that was one street-smart fox-kid! There was only one way he could have managed to escape undetected from that auditorium; Judy was almost sure of it.
But before she could deliver her theory, she'd need to be completely certain. And, in order for that to happen...
Once more turning slowly around, she leveled her gaze again, this time at Dr. Jarabal.
"Sorry Doctor, but I'm afraid I'll have to take a rain-check on that hospital stay."
He straightened up stiffly in response. "Ms...err, Detective Hopps, I would most strongly advise against this course of action."
"Duly noted," the doe bunny told him, "Now would someone please get this IV out of my arm?
With a reluctant sigh, the cuscus nodded to his nurse.
While the jackrabbit-doe went to work, Judy spoke to her mother again.
"Mom, go on back to the rental; I'll take care of this."
"A-Are you sure Jude?" Realizing at last how badly her daughter was hurt, Bonnie's agitation had morphed into guilt—which made Judy feel a little bit guilty too. She should never have been so short with her. And then she remembered something else. No way was this mother-rabbit going to be content with just sitting around, waiting for her daughter's call.
Fortunately, she thought she had a solution.
"Listen Mom, the last time I saw Erin, she was still in her stage outfit. She could probably use a change of clothes right about now. Can you go bring her some?"
"W-Will they let me?" Bonnie asked her nervously, "The ZPD I mean."
"They will if I...OW! Hey...!"
"Sorry," the jackrabbit-nurse responded, dropping the IV needle into the wastebasket.
Judy turned back to her mother.
"They will if I call ahead to authorize it," she said. "I know it's not much, but it's something."
"Y-You aren't going to go see her?" The elder bunny asked, looking more than slightly shocked.
Judy shook her head, "I will later, but first thing's first. Before anything else, I need to go see about trying to get her released. After that, I can go visit her."
"Ohhh, bless you Judy." Her mother's eyes were beginning to tear up again, "And I'm sorry for getting upset with you just now."
"It's okay mom, I understand; I feel the same way." She held out her arms and the two of them embraced. Judy stiffened as a shard of pain went through her side, but somehow fought it off. "But listen, when you drop off those clothes...ahhh, has anybody got a pen and paper?"
Claire Swinton had the pen and Dr. Jarabal supplied the paper. Judy took them and scrawled a quick note, which she handed to her mother. "Put this in with the clothes when you drop them off; don't worry, I'll make sure they let you bring it to her."
They exchanged a brief chin-rub...pretty much all that Judy could handle and then she watched as her mother disappeared through the curtain.
And then she looked flatly at Claire Swinton.
"All right, where's Lieutenant Tufts right now?"
The pig cop responded with a tight mouth and the tips of her hooves tapping against each other.
"Ummm, he's back at the school...but I don't think you want to..."
"Good, do you have a car?"
"Um, yes..." Swinton's eyes were regarding the corner again. "But listen, he's in a really..."
"Okay, let's go."
Judy swung off the bed...and would have collapsed when her feet hit the floor if the rabbit-nurse hadn't been there to catch her.
Her doctor was right there, too
"Detective Hopps, I must ask you again..."
She only waved him off a third time. Now, more than ever, she was convinced that her theory was correct. "Swinton, go get the car; I'll meet you out front."
At last conceding, Dr. Jarabal insisted that she at least let herself be brought to the hospital entrance by way of a wheelchair...and Judy allowed him that one small token; it would give her the space to formulate a plan. He also wrote her a prescription and made her promise to call him for an appointment on Monday. Finally, he rattled off a list of symptoms, telling her, "If you should experience any of those things, I want you back here immediately." Judy agreed to his terms, but mostly to get him to leave her alone; she had other priorities right now.
The most important thing was getting the charges against her sister dropped—and even in her post-tranq-dart state of mind, Judy was aware that a straight up confrontation with Lieutenant Tufts was out of the question. If he'd been looking to fire her before, he'd welcome the chance to get rid of her now like a long-lost, wealthy uncle.
That was why she needed to play her cards carefully. Before bringing up the subject of Erin, she needed to put herself in a position where the Kaibab squirrel didn't dare to let her go.
It would be no mean task, but not impossible either. There were a few things Judy knew that he didn't...or anyone else for that matter. Of some, she was certain; of others, well...okay, she'd need to get confirmation before she made her move...but if she was right, then maybe... Whoops, here was the hospital entrance, Saint Bartholomeow's Medical Center; so that was where they'd taken her.
And well, DUH, of course they'd brought her here; it was only the closest medical facility to the Performing Arts Academy. She should have figured that out for herself as soon as she woke up.
"Stupid tranq darts! Dangit, hurry up and wear off the rest of the way already!"
Judy didn't object to Swinton helping into the ZPD cruiser's passenger seat. But when the pig-cop tried to pull away from the curb, she waved a paw, signaling for her to hold up a second.
Then she turned to face her companion as best she could.
"Listen Claire, I've always liked you, and you've been in law enforcement a lot longer than me—so I REALLY don't enjoy pulling rank on you. That being said, I shouldn't have had to hear about my sister's arrest from my mother. You should have told me straight up when I asked how the riot started. I'm a big girl and I can handle news like that, okay?"
"Okay," Swinton nodded quietly. "You're right Detective, I'm sorry."
"Accepted," the doe-bunny smiled, and then she said, "But let's go back to 'Judy' again, okay?" The smile faded and she continued, "All right, first I need to notify the Precinct about those clothes my mom's bringing for my sister—and then I need you to fill me in on the rest of what happened back at the Academy."
"10-4" Swinton raised a hoof and smiled back, "and this time, I promise I'll tell you everything."
Angling the wheel she pulled smoothly away from the curb and around the driveway. Absorbed as they were in their tasks neither one of the two police-mammals noticed the graffiti adorning a pillar next to the entrance.
It was a familiar design–to a point; a hybrid of the 'V-For Vendetta logo' and a fox's face, applied in bright-red spray paint. Except this time the caption read ACAJ – We're Not Gonna TAKE It! Also this time, spray-painted flames had been added, making the emblem appear to be on fire.
And had Judy or Claire Swinton stopped to rub finger across it, they would have noted that that paint was not yet completely dry.
By the time they made the first stoplight, Judy had finished speaking to the Precinct and was getting the skinny from Swinton about everything that had happened in her absence—and it was quite the revelation. She might have been privy to some information that no one else was aware of... but that was nothing compared to what she didn't know–about the riot and the events that had preceded it. For example, how had Lieutenant Tufts become aware of Conor's backstage sortie in the first place? Answer; one of the two young rabbits caught digging those holes had made it all the way to the rehearsal room. And from there, he'd peeked into the stage wings.
"That's where he told us he saw the Lewis kid," Swinton explained, signaling for a left turn. "Do you know either of those bunnies by the way? They said they're from Bunnyburrow; names are March, Max and Zack."
Judy half shook her head. "I know the March family, but I don't know any Zack March. I think I heard Max March's name once or twice, uh....look, can you try and step on it a little?"
Swinton glanced at her sideways. "I don't want joggle you...."
"I'll be okay, just move."
"All right...you're the boss."
The car lurched forward and Judy reached up to scratch the side of her face—and then quickly pulled back. Whoopsie, that was the bandaged area.
"So what happened to those two bunny kids?" she asked, "Did we let them go, or what?"
"Nope," Swinton sighed and shook her head. "They're being held on a vandalism charge for the holes they dug."
"Ohhhh, come ON," Judy groaned...and this time it wasn't from the pain of her injuries. "They cooperated with us, for crying out loud. What the heck; does Tufts not want anyone else to come forward?"
Swinton's eyes rolled and the corners of her mouth pulled back to make a duck faced grimace.
"Oh you're going to love this Judy. He's got a theory that they dug those holes for the Lewis kid—to get in and out of the amphitheater."
"Except, they didn't!" The words were out before Judy could stop them....but the pig cop only nodded grimly.
"I know, right? But that's his story and he's sticking to it."
More words came to Judy, but this time she was able to hold them back—just barely.
"I don't think—I KNOW that isn't how Conor got into the amphitheater."
She wanted very badly to say it; she'd probably get in trouble later for keeping it to herself now.
Except, if she didn't, Claire Swinton would be on the radio with the news so fast you'd need time-lapse photography to catch it. And wherever he was right now, Conor Lewis was almost certainly keeping a close ear on both the police bands and the ZPD switchboard. For the moment, as far as that fox-kid knew, John Law had no idea it had been him in that auditorium. Good, let him continue to believe that.
And besides, Judy didn't want to tip her hand to Lieutenant Tufts.
Her theory was based half in fact, and the rest of it was a simple hunch...albeit a very strong one. And there was something else... Wait, they were here.
Claire eased the cruiser to a halt and Judy saw an officer she didn't recognize approaching with a flashlight, a sable antelope by the look of him.
"Must be from one of the other precincts," the doe bunny noted, as Swinton rolled the window down. "Hmmm, looks like Tufts is beginning to get a little desperate. Why else would he be bringing in officers from outside of Savanna Central?"
Perhaps, perhaps not; if she didn't know this antelope, he knew her.
"Hopps? Wh-What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be...?"
"That's Detective Hopps," she interrupted, cutting him off at the pass, "And which way to the theater where I got tranq-darted?" She wanted everyone to know that she was aware of that fiasco.
The antelope pointed with the flashlight in a meaningless direction.
"Ahhhh, that'd be the Lionheart auditorium, over there."
Judy nodded. "Good, you can take me."
He sucked air through his teeth and looked away for a second. "Ummmm, I'm supposed to..."
But Judy already had the car door open, "A little help over here?"
In the next few minutes she became painfully aware of just how much damage she'd taken in that throw-down with Conor Lewis. What should have been a quick stroll turned out to be an arduous ten-minute hike, even with Swinton there to help her. Twice she had to stop and catch her breath.
When they got to the Lionheart Auditorium, the antelope excused himself and quickly departed, presumably to get back to his post. It didn't matter to Judy, what bothered her was that by rights, this place should be swarming with cops. Instead there were only two officers present, Jackson and Krumpansky...occupying the theater lobby and occupying themselves by drinking coffee and sharing gossip. When the lion saw her and Swinton approaching, he nearly dropped his cup.
"D-Detective Hopps? Are...you okay to be here?"
Well, at least he'd remembered to address her properly.
"I'm fine, Jackson," she said, pointing past him to the double doors leading to the auditorium, currently sealed off with yellow crime-scene tape. "I need to get in there."
Krumpansky immediately waved a big hoof.
"I-I wouldn't if I were..."
Judy's paws went straight to her hips.
"Now listen, dangit..."
"No, no Detective," the rhino hastened to explain, "It's still pretty bad in there from the leftover pepper-gas and all, and...well, your breathing doesn't sound none too good."
If it hadn't been for her eye, Judy would have face-pawlmed herself; dumb bunny!
All right, but even so...
"Okay, I'm sorry, and thanks—but I still need to get in there; it's important. There wouldn't happen to be a gas-mask anywhere around that'll fit me?"
It was a silly question and she knew it. In all the ZPD, there was exactly one of those things small enough to accommodate a bunny's face—and it was back at Precinct 1.
"Uhhhh, no," Krumpansky shook his head uncomfortably, "Well..."
"Wait a minute," Jackson snapped his fingers, "I think I know." He disappeared though the front door and returned momentarily with a small-mammal breathing apparatus in his paws. "Borrowed it off the ZFD," he explained, passing it to Judy. "I think it'll fit you."
Except for the face mask being a little bit long in the muzzle for a bunny, it was an almost perfect fit. And while the air-bottle was a bit of a strain on her back, the extra oxygen more than made up for it. Krumpansky meanwhile had retrieved a couple of masks for both Swinton and Jackson. "Fraid I couldn't find one for myself," he said, sounding almost apologetic.
"No sweat," Judy told him, highly impressed by the two officers' efficiency and ingenuity. Good cops, both of them.
Even with the supplemental oxygen she had to be helped up the steps to the stage. But when she got there, the first thing she saw was the wall where she'd burst through to confront Conor Lewis.
And it was once again just that—a blank wall.
"Sneaky little...I KNEW it, he doubled back on us."
She tapped Officer Jackson on the hip and pointed.
"See that there? There's a hidden door in that wall, leading to a secret tunnel."
"Wha...? Before the lion could respond, Swinton jumped in ahead of him. "I don't see anything there, how do you know that?"
Ohhh-kay, it was time to load up the bombshell.
Judy tapped the wall with a pair of fingers, "Because that's how I got in here before," she said, and then, after just the right amount of dramatic pause, she dropped it, "And it's also how the Lewis boy got in here."
"WHAT?!" Both Jackson and Swinton were staring bewildered. Good!
She turned to face them with her paws on her hips.
"That's right; the kid I fought with in here wasn't any rioter, it was Conor Lewis—and yes, I'm sure; he admitted it." She patted the wall a second time, "And that's also how he got out again...or he'd have left it open to try and throw us off. Do you understand?"
The two officers nodded and she went on.
"Okay, now listen. Get a Crime Scene Unit team in here ASAP, and make sure they've got door-breach gear...but DON'T call them on the radio. Our suspect might be monitoring the police band; I think that's what he was doing when I broke in on him."
Swinton pointed at the wall.
"Don't you know how to...?
"Only from the inside," Judy shook her head. "Look, I don't have time; I need to inform Lieutenant Tufts about this right NOW!"
That was good for a quick, shared nod on behalf of the lion and the pig-cop. In fact, the Lieutenant should already have been told.
Oh well, it was Hopps's neck, not theirs.
Then Officer Jackson pointed off to the left. "He's over in the main building—I forget the name—conducting interviews in the President's Office."
"Ainsley Hall, I know where that is," Swinton nodded, "I'll take Detective Hopps over there; you and Krumpansky start rounding up that CSU team."
"10-4" the lion-cop raised a thumb, and turned and hurried back down the steps.
Arriving at Ainsley Hall–after yet another exhausting trek–Judy found the foyer of President Vignius's office packed like a sardine-can. Many of the officers were speaking on cell phones while others were working laptops—and all of them were wearing miserable expressions. If the Lieutenant ain't happy, nobody happy!
When the other cops saw her, they reacted as if her ghost had just walked into the room; wide eyes, wilting ears, loud gasps, and then pin-drop silence.
The first one to break it was Officer Quino.
"Ju...Ah-ahhh Detective Hopps?" the alpaca queried, raising a crooked finger, "wha-what are you doing here? Aren't you...shouldn't you be...?"
"Sorry, no time," the doe bunny answered, pointing past him towards a tall, wooden door, "Is the Lieutenant in there?"
"Ahhhh, yes." Kii Catano spoke up, "But he's busy talking to Gazelle...wait, don't!"
"It's okay, Kii," Claire Swinton moved quickly in between them, covering the doe bunny's exit with a pair of raised hooves. "Believe me, it's THAT important."
"Someone get the door for me?" Judy asked, and Officer Quino reluctantly rose from his seat.
Even before the alpaca opened it, she could tell that a heated exchange was taking place on the other side; Catano had been sooo right to try and warn her off. This time, however, Judy knew exactly how to handle the Kaibab squirrel, (she hoped.)
When she entered the office, the row between him and Gazelle came at once to a screeching halt—and then both of them were gawking in her direction, although not in quite the same manner. While the popstar's look was a mixture of surprise and sympathy, his expression was concocted of equal parts shock and outrage.
"De-TECT-ive Hopps!" He chittered, rising angrily from his seat.
Judy threw down her ace at once.
"Sorry Lieutenant, but you need to hear this right now; that was Conor Lewis I was fighting with in the Lionheart Auditorium, not one of the rioters."
Bullseye! The squirrel fell back in his chair, looking stunned.
But only for a second, "Wait a minute Hopps, are you sure it was him?"
"I'd know those eyes anywhere, sir," she said, brushing aside his doubts. "And when I called him by name, he responded. Oh yes, it was him all right."
That was good, but not quite good enough.
"What the...? A fourteen year-old-kid took you down?" He was pointing at her injured eye.
Okay-y-y, now it was time to play her other hole card.
"No sir, the SWAT team did that." Judy allowed herself a bitter foot-thump, and never mind if it hurt. "I HAD him, Lieutenant!" she hissed, raising her paws and making claws with her uninjured fingers. "I had him covered with his own weapon...and if those morons-in-riot-gear hadn't tranqued me, he'd be in custody right now!"
"WHAT?!" Tufts was out of his chair again and more furious than ever—but not at her, Judy was satisfied to note.
However that did not mean he was pleased with her.
"All right...but why did you feel the need to come here and inform me fursonally, instead of..."
Once again, the doe-bunny had her ducks in a row. "Sorry sir, but I didn't want to risk using the phone...or especially the two-way."
Okay, that was the clincher; the squirrel was instantly thoughtful,
"Ohhhh...yes, yessss; I see what you mean," he stroked slowly at his muzzle as he spoke. "It would be just like that fox-kid to listen in on us, wouldn't it?"
"Exactly Lieutenant," Judy nodded. That's it, soften him up. "Oh, and I know how he got into that auditorium, too. There's a secret tunnel, leading from there to the Gazelle Amphitheater."
"There's a...?!" Once again the Kaibab squirrel was halfway out of his seat—and once more, Judy was quicker.
"Yes, sir; with your permission, I ordered the Crime Scene Unit to send a team to check it out."
"Oh? Good, good." Tufts immediately took his chair again—although he obviously wasn't as contented as he was trying to appear. In other words, he was moving in exactly the direction the doe-bunny wanted him to go.
But then another voice joined the conversation.
"Ah, discúlpame, por favor, but...a tunnel did you say?"
A heat rose quickly in Judy's ears. Oops, she had forgotten all about Gazelle; so had Lieutenant Tufts.
"Ah, I'm sorry Ms. Gazelle," he said, "but I'm afraid I need to ask you..."
"Wait, listen," she was raising her hooves. "There are tunnels like that all over the Academy campus. And all of the doors open up in the same way. Push once on the left and then twice on the right."
"That many...really?" Judy's nose was twitching again. She'd considered that possibility earlier, but then dismissed it as unlikely. There might be one or two other underground passages traversing the school grounds—but not tunnels, tunnels everywhere. "Wrong again, dumb bunny."
Tufts, meanwhile, appeared to be mulling over a problem, cupping a paw to his muzzle, and scratching his cheek with a finger claw.
Finally he looked towards the popstar.
"Ms. Gazelle, do you think you could go on over to the Auditorium and show our investigators how to access that hidden door...if they haven't gotten through it already, that is. I would much rather that they didn't have to break it down."
"Si, I can do that," she replied, rising quickly from her seat. She seemed grateful for the opportunity to help, although her hostility to the Kaibab squirrel was still clearly in evidence. She was just about to reach for the doorknob when she stopped, seemed to remember something and pivoted in Judy's direction.
"Before I go...ahhh, it's Judy Hopps, si? Before I go, I want you to know...I am just so sorry for what happened with your sister, Erin. Please...come and see me later; we will talk about her."
And with a farewell sneer in Tufts's direction, she was out the door and gone.
The squirrel either didn't notice it, or else he didn't care, muttering something under his breath that Judy probably wasn't supposed to hear. "Chrrrr; got rid of her easy enough."
And then he was looking in her direction once more.
"All right Hopps, but what I still can't understand is...how did you find that tunnel in the first place? For that matter, HOW did you manage to catch up with the Lewis kid before he got away?"
The tone of his voice told the doe-bunny that this was going to require some seriously fast talking; she could only hope that she was up to it.
Taking a chance, she hopped up into the chair Gazelle had just vacated; it made her chest hurt a little but it was nothing she couldn't handle.
"Ahhh, the answer to both questions is pretty much the same, Lieutenant. Remember that rabbit hole you had me check out...?"
From there she went on to a barebones explanation of how she'd located Conor's escape route, making sure to tell the squirrel, "When I tried to report in, I couldn't get through; there's no phone service down in that tunnel. Anyway, I found a door pretty quick, but it was padlocked. And that was when I knew the Lewis boy had been down there, too. After that I had no idea which way he'd gone, so I just played a hunch and took the right-side tunnel, and...well..."
Continuing with her story, she gave Tufts a blow by blow description of her fight with the fugitive young silver fox.
"I admit it sir; I underestimated that kid—badly. But that's not how I got this." she reached up to touch her bandaged eye. "When he ran past me, I tried to tackle him, but I only managed to get my paw on his collar...and when I did, he just completely flipped out; it was almost like he'd gone savage except he was scared instead of mad."
"Same thing he did with Wilde?" the Kaibab squirrel asked, surprising her. Of course he'd remember that incident—but up until now, he had refused, point blank, to believe the young fox's contention that when he'd lost it with Nick, he hadn't known what he was doing.
But now Judy had to wonder...had Tufts really never believed Conor's story?
Well, she sure as heck believed it; you couldn't even try to fake that kind of berserk. However, that was a subject for another time.
"No sir; this was worse, a LOT worse. When the Lewis boy bit Officer Wilde, he snapped out of it almost as soon as he let go. Not this time; he kept on coming, full throttle at me, even after he clawed my eye. I had to practically ram that nightstick down his throat to get him to back off."
Nightstick....Oooo, that reminded her of something else. Dangit, her head had been all over the place, ever since she'd awakened in that hospital. She couldn't even remember which one it had been right now. Was it her injuries, or had there been something in that IV...?
"Head up, Tufts is giving you the eye."
She pulled herself together again.
"Sorry, they must have given me some kind of meds in the ER. But I just now remembered something. Conor had a weapon, too...a collapsible baton. Did the SWAT Team or anyone else find it?"
"No," the squirrel admitted, rubbing a paw over an ear, "No sign of that tranq-dart gun you mentioned either; why?"
"'Why' is because the Crime Scene Unit team needs to keep an eye out for those weapons," she said. "I think he may have abandoned them."
Tufts's tail began to flip.
"After going to all that trouble to retrieve them—why would he just dump them?"
Judy crossed her fingers...and crawled out onto the limb.
"Lieutenant, even before Gazelle told us that there were more tunnels like the one I found, I was pretty sure there had to be another hidden doorway somewhere in that auditorium. That was how the Lewis boy originally planned to make his escape. But when the SWAT Team broke in, he knew he wouldn't have time to reach it. And then...I think when he saw me get hit by those tranq-darts, he also knew that I wouldn't be telling anyone about the door where we came in—not for a while anyway—and so he went that way instead. Believe me; if there's one thing I've learned about that silver fox kid in the time I've known him, it's that he's one heckuva fast thinker. Even so, when he doubled back, it was a spur of the moment decision. But then after he ducked inside that tunnel, he'd have had a minute or two to consider his options."
"And those options would have been...what?" Tufts asked her, raising an eyebrow. He was irritated but at the same time intrigued.
"Okay," Judy puffed out her cheeks, "Here we go; facts first, then logic...and then you can speculate."
"Sir, when Conor and I fought, I gave at least as good as I got. If I needed medical attention afterwards, it's pretty much a slam-dunk that HE would have needed it too."
"Only in his case, it's going to be a little bit more difficult that it was for you," the squirrel was smiling grimly...but then he chittered in frustration, "Dangit!"
"What sir?" Judy asked, regarding him wide-eyed. She actually knew, but was going to make him say it.
"Hnnngh!" he said, making the closest thing possible to a growl for an animal of his species. "We need to notify every hospital, clinic, and urgent-care facility within five miles of here to be on the lookout for that fox-kid...only if we do, and he's monitoring..." Without any warning, he slapped his paws together. "Wait, I've got it!"
"Sir?" Judy's ears were up and her nose was twitching. Okay, this was something she hadn't expected.
Tufts pressed a finger to the side of his face. Hmmm, Judy hadn't noticed the headset before; dang those tranq darts. "Quino? Get your wooly, little tail in here ASAP."
The alpaca wasn't halfway through the door before the squirrel was barking orders at him.
"All right Quino, listen up, there's a Fur's Electronics store not far from here on Bushwillow, and they should still be open for a little while longer. Get someone down there and have them pick up a dozen burner phones. Tell whoever you send to use the lights and siren if they have to, but get there before that store closes. Oh, and tell them to stay off the radio, too; that's a direct order."
The alpaca stared at him and blinked. "B-Burner phones...?" he started to say, and then quickly caught himself. "Yes, sir, right away!"
He hastily ducked out the way he had come. Tufts watched him and then sat back in his chair, chittering under his breath. "Two can play at that game, kid."
While they waited for the phones to arrive, Judy gave the Lieutenant a more detailed account of the events leading up to her encounter with Conor Lewis. She was itching to bring up the subject of Erin, but not yet...not until he gave her an opening. (Actually, she'd had one earlier—but Gazelle had been in the room and so no dice.)
She began her explanation with a fuller description of how she'd ended up in the tunnel beneath the amphitheater. To her surprise, and annoyance, Tufts seemed to find her description of how she'd literally fallen right into it highly amusing. Judy let it pass; there were more urgent matters to discuss, such as the padlocked door she'd found.
"I couldn't tell exactly where it led, but I'm betting that it opens up into the stage wings. How the Lewis boy got from there to the other side without being spotted, though—honestly, that's anybody's guess."
"Actually, no it isn't," the squirrel informed her, "There's a passage under the stage with a trapdoor at either end; Gazelle told us about it." There was no arrogance in his voice for once, not even a hint of condescension. "But I think you're right, Hopps; that door you found almost certainly opens up into the right-side stage-wings."
Judy nodded in agreement. "Well, we'll know soon enough, Lieutenant." Dangit, why couldn't he be this civil ALL the time?
He leaned forward, with an elbow on his knee. "Yes, we will. In the meantime, tell me about that other branch or the tunnel; the one that went off to the left."
"Hmmmm, can't say for certain where that one went," the doe bunny answered, chewing thoughtfully on her lip. In fact, she had a pretty good idea, but now was not the time...and the crime-scene guys would find out soon enough anyway. "But it seemed to head off in the direction of the theater seats." To herself, she added. "Dangit, I should have asked Gazelle what those tunnels are FOR."
Tufts's response to this was interrupted by a knock at the door; not Quino with the burner-phones, but Officer Jackson, with an important piece of news. Judy's guess just now had been spot on; at the other end of the unexplored tunnel the ZPD Crime Scene Unit had come upon another hidden door, this one opening out into the amphitheater's VIP seating section.
"They also found these," the lion reported grimly, laying a pair of items on the desktop, next to the Kaibab squirrel. The first was a chartreuse hoodie in small mammal size; new and unworn by the look of it. The second one was...
"...A gas-mask!" Tufts's tail was flipping like a rag in a gale. "Great, cracking walnuts; that fox-kid thought of everything."
"I know sir," Officer Jackson replied, pointing, "And that's no second-paw surplus model either; it's better than the ones we use."
Judy, for her part, thought the Lieutenant was overreacting. Go to practically any protest demonstration these days and you'll see half the crowd wearing gas-masks. It surprised her not in the least that Conor would have had one.
"Mmmm," Tufts chittered, regarding the mask as if it had just crawled out from under a rock, "I can understand why he ditched that thing...but why the hoodie?"
"Because he didn't want to be mistaken for one of the rioters," Judy spoke up at once, and then looked to the right. "Jackson, do you happen to know where, exactly, the CSU team found those things?"
He responded with a quick nod. "Yes, right by that door to the VIP seats."
In other words, right where Judy had suspected they'd be. Okay, she figured, this was as good a time as any to advance her theory. She focused again on Lieutenant Tufts. "Remember what I said about that kid needing medical attention, the same as me? Well, what I think he did first was try to get rid of any incriminating evidence. And then after he sneaked out through that hidden door, my guess is that he tried to pass himself off to one of the EMTs as an innocent bystander—an unlucky kid who just happened to get caught in the crossfire."
"EM...T's?" Tufts was his old self again, regarding her with a mixture of confusion and contempt.
And once again, she was ready for him.
"Sir, I may have been out of it for this riot, but I've worked a few others in my time. And if there's one thing I know about these blow-ups it's that there's always some uninvolved citizens getting hurt—and always some emergency medical fursonnel around." She frowned, and looked at Officer Jackson. "Only, where the heck are that baton and that tranq-dart pistol? Didn't the CSU team find either of those things?"
The lion's eyebrows jumped in surprise.
"What, the kid had a TRANQ-DART gun?"
"Yes, and a telescoping baton too!" Judy could feel her chest beginning to ache and toned it down a little, "And I don't understand; those should have been the first things he threw away." She looked in Tufts' direction again. "I'll bet you anything that wasn't the only gas mask brought in here today...and almost every kid in that audience was wearing a chartreuse hoodie. But if the Lewis boy had been caught with either of those weapons, it would have been all she wrote; he'd never have been able to explain away something like that." To emphasize her point, she pantomimed the act of putting the cuffs on somebody.
"Maybe he waited until after he left the tunnel before dumping them," Lieutenant Tufts suggested, unexpectedly concurring with her, "hoping some other kid would pick them up."
"Could be," Judy nodded. Loathe as she was to admit it, his idea made perfect sense. What kid of the anarchist bent could have resisted either of those goodies?
Officer Jackson, however, wasn't so sure.
"I-I-I don't know, Lieutenant." His voice was a low growl. "Wouldn't the EMTs have asked for some ID?"
Tufts pointed to the desktop and bared his incisors sardonically. "The Lewis kid came here with a gas-mask, Jackson; do you think he did that and then DIDN'T think to bring along a fake ID?"
"And even if he didn't, he could always say he lost it in all the confusion," Judy pointed out.
The lion-cop remained unconvinced.
"Well maybe, Detective...Lieutenant; but for crying out loud, how brazen can you GET!"
Tufts's voice turned contemptuous and as caustic as lye.
"He snuck into a place that he knew was wall-to-wall with peace officers, just to watch Detective Hopp's sister give her audition performance. Is that brazen enough for you, Jackson?"
Judy tensed and clenched the fingers of her uninjured paw. Ready or not, that was her cue—and if there was one thing she knew by now, it's that there was no point in trying to be tactful. No matter how she phrased it, Tufts was going to blow up at her like an overstressed boiler.
So, she might as well throw down the gauntlet.
"Yes, about that sir," she said, ears laying flat against the nape of her neck, "exactly where do you get off arresting my sister?"
That did it; the Kaibab squirrel's chair became an instant catapult. In half a nanosecond he was on his feet with a spiking tail.
"You watch your mouth, Hopps."
"Detective Hopps," she hissed, "And maybe you didn't hear me just now? I'm speaking as a sister, NOT a police officer."
For the barest of seconds, Tufts glanced at the door, making Judy wonder if Gazelle had been having words with him about Erin when she'd been in here. It was anything but unlikely. According to what Swinton had told her, the popstar had been none too pleased with any of the Kaibab squirrel's actions.
"All right, Detective," he spat out the word like a cherry pit. "As a matter of fact, I wanted to let your sister go...but noooooo, she had to go running out on that stage and throw a lit firecracker into a gas tank."
One more time, Judy was ready for him.
"Oh come on Lieutenant; Erin wasn't trying to start a riot, she was trying to get me to come and help; she had no idea that those hoodie kids would go off like that. Look, I know my sister; she gets a little emotional every once in a while—she's that age—but she'd never try to start a riot on purpose."
Tufts folded his arms.
"On purpose or not Hopps, that IS what she did. It's just a lucky thing we had SWAT standing by, or who knows how much worse it could have been. Have you seen what those kids did to the amphitheater stage? Did you know that when Catano ran out to get your sister, she got hit on the head by a sports-bottle—and almost got her knee taken out by a tire-iron? That's right; it missed her by something like less than an inch."
"No sir," Judy admitted, and then batted the news aside like a mosquito, "But whoever pegged that thing at her could just as easily have hit Erin. You know how rioters are; throw first, and aim later. Honestly, do you think my sister would intentionally put HERSELF in the line of fire?" She could feel her chest, beginning to ache again. Easy, easy...watch your breathing.
"What I think is academic at this point," the squirrel informed her coldly. "Even if I wanted to let your sister walk, you know as well as I do that there's nothing to be done until the courts open up on Monday. And even then, it'll be out of my paws; the Judge will make the decision."
Judy's ears shot even further back, and if it hadn't been for her injuries, her foot would have been beating a hole in the floor. The way he'd said the word 'judge'...it left her with almost no doubt.
And the HECK with whether it hurt or not, she was not going to let this go unchallenged.
"You'd better not be talking about Judge Predd...I-I mean Judge Schatten."
Tufts regarded her as if she were an idiot.
"He's the senior Judge of Zootopia Juvenile Court, Hopps. Who else would I be talking about?"
THAT...did it. Ignoring the pain, Judy shot up out of her seat.
"Why, you bushy-tailed little...you are NOT putting Erin up in front of that speciest jerk!"
She expected another explosion...but this time the squirrel's only reaction was a toothy smirk.
"Why Hopps...thank you so much for the lovely present; just what I always wanted, an excuse to fire you with cause."
She returned his smirk with interest.
"Except you can't, Lieutenant...because as of right now, I'm a little too valuable for you to lose. If I hadn't told you about that hidden door in the auditorium, you wouldn't have found it for at least a day or two, maybe never." She leaned forward, looming over the Kaibab Squirrel and pointing in the direction of the Amphitheater. Her left side was shrieking in protest but she barely noticed. "So, here's how it is. You can get rid of me...or you can finally get Conor Lewis. But you can't have both."
Behind her, Officer Jackson was turning and reaching for the doorknob, murmuring to no one in particular. "I see nu-thing, I know nu-thing!"
At that instant, it practically blew right off its hinges.