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 7-The Cascade Effect
(Cont'd...Part 4)
St. Bartholomeow's Hospital, Savanna Central, Zootopia -Monday. 11:37 Hours, ZST
Once again, Judy should have seen it coming.
She had expected it to be a simple errand; one-and-done. She would go to St. Bartholomeow's Hospital, have a talk with Max March, find out what the young buck rabbit knew about her sister's disappearance-and then back to Precinct-1.
No soap; almost at once, the best laid plans of bunnies and rabbits had gone completely haywire.
First up, Chief Bogo had informed her that there'd be no one available to drive her for at least another hour.. That was no great revelation, but it was still a disappointment-especially since it was useless to argue. As important as finding Erin was to her, the ZPD had only about a gajillion other things on their plate at the moment.
And then, no sooner did Judy get that news, than her cell began to buzz. It was her mother, wanting to know if she had any news about Erin.
Ohhhh boy, did she ever...and it was a task she relished about as much as getting a root canal. Luckily for the doe-bunny, mom had long since regained her composure. She accepted the news that her daughter was missing and unaccounted for with the matter-of-fact stoicism for which she had long been noted. The next thing she'd done was ask if there was anything she could do to help.
Judy had nearly said no, when a thought occurred to her. Maybe her mother could assist her-that is, if....
"Mom, hold on a second." she'd said...and then gone back in to speak to Chief Bogo. To her surprise-and relief-he had immediately given permission for her mother to serve as her driver. And so, half an hour later, mom had arrived at one of the Savanna Central Plaza checkpoints, seated at the wheel of a rental car.
She'd been devastated at the scene before her.
"Sweet cheez n' crackers, Jude...this is worse than what would have happened if the Guilfords had managed to drop that load of defoliant on the Carrot Days Dance.
Judy-who had never thought of it that way-had agreed with her mother completely.
Bonnie Hopps had never spent all that much time in Zootopia...but she was a good driver, and an even better listener.
And she had Judy for a navigator; they made the drive to St. Bart's in no time flat, and even found a parking space close to the entrance.
Great, the bunny-cop had thought, she'd be out of there before you could say...
"Ah, there you are Detective Hopps; right on time. If you can wait for me in Room D, down the hall I'll be with you in just a few minutes."
Judy's eyes pinched shut and she almost bit her tongue. Dr. Jarabal; she'd completely forgotten about her appointment with him this morning. Fortunately, she had an easy way to get out of it.
"Doctor, I'm sorry, but my appointment will have to wait. After last night's riot, the ZPD needs every paw..."
UNfortunately, she also had her mother with her.
"Judith Laverne Hopps, do you have an appointment with this doctor today?"
"Well...yes, mom..." she admitted uncomfortably, "But you saw..."
"Then you go wait for him in Room D like he said."
"Mom, please..."
But she already knew it was no use; Bonnie Hopps with her paws on her hips and that expression on her face was the proverbial irresistible force.
"Don't make me thump my foot..."
All right, fine...but Judy was not going to go quietly into that limbo. Turning to Dr. Jarabal, she quickly explained to him her other reason for being here. The cuscus nodded his understanding at once.
"You needn't worry Detective Hopps; Max...errr, March isn't scheduled to be discharged until tomorrow morning."
"See, dear? Nothing to worry about," her mother chimed in, "He'll still be here when you're done."
And so Judy ended up spending the next few minutes having her vitals checked by a marmot; temperature, blood pressure, blood/oxygen level, etc. That being done, the nurse subjected her to the usual round of questions. Have you had any falls? How would you rate your mood? Are you experiencing any bouts of dizziness, any feelings of lightheadedness, have you had any falls, headaches, shortness of breath? She answered no to all these inquiries except for the last one.
"But I'm a lot better than yesterday," she insisted.
The nurse-marmot only grunted as if she heard that line a thousand times before-which she probably had-and then informed her, "The doctor will be with you shortly," before departing.
...which of course, he wasn't; no sooner did the door close, than time began to move at a sloth's pace. Looking at her watch, Judy saw that it was 11:42. When she looked again, two hours later, it was 11:45. At one point, she thought she found a distraction to help her pass the time; a rack full of magazines pegged to the wall. That is...until she grabbed the top one and saw the broadly smiling face of Leodore Lionheart on the cover. The caption read, "Is This Our Next Mayor?'
She immediately put the magazine back where she got it.
When Dr. Jarabal finally knocked on the door, he entered to find her hunched in a chair with her fists clenched and a mile-deep frown on her face.
He then proceeded to make the same inquiries the nurse had made, although when it came to the subject of Judy's breathing issues, his questions were considerably more pointed. Next he proceeded to go over her with a stethoscope...again with more detail than in a standard examination.
However, it quickly turned out to be worth it.
"Well...I must say, Detective Hopps, there has indeed been a great deal of improvement in your breathing since yesterday. Just the same," he raised a finger in a tut-tut gesture, "I think it would be wise to have you wear an abdominal brace for the coming week."
"Sure, okay," Judy answered, in no mood to argue after having gotten off this lightly. She'd been assuming, up to now, that she was probably going to be admitted-and that this time her doctor would refuse to take no for an answer. "Uh, where would I go to pick it up?"
"McCatt's Medical," the cuscus answered. "Have you got your phone handy? I will text you the address."
She did, and was more than happy to comply. At last; maybe now, she could finally...
"Excuse me, Detective; we're not done yet. Sit down again, would you please?"
"AAAAAAGGGGGH!"
If Judy's scream hadn't been of the silent variety, it would have shattered all the porcelain in the sink. NOW, what? It was no good asking Dr. Jarabal, he was already on his cell phone.
"Eleanor, hello...is Dr. Matorkin available at the moment? Oh? Very good....could you have him meet me in the East Pavilion, Exam Room D? Yes, yes, thank you."
"Who's Dr. Matorkin?" Judy asked, trying and failing to keep the irritation out of her voice. ANOTHER long wait, just what she needed!
"Ophthalmic specialist," The cuscus answered, pointing to the left side of the doe-bunny's face.
"Oh..." she answered, reaching up to touch her bandaged eye and feeling suddenly very small-while a mantra commenced to repeat inside of her head. "Dumb bunny...Dumb bunny...Dumb bunny...Dumb bunny." How the heck could she have forgotten about that?
She expected another interminable wait...but this time the knock on the door came after only a minute for two. It was puzzling rather than reassuring; the noise came from somewhere down around floor level and was barely audible.
"Come in," Dr. Jarabal said, and a tiny door set into the main one opened and a Siberian Hamster in a lab coat entered.
"Ahhh, thank you for coming so promptly, Doctor," the cuscus smiled in greeting.
"Lucky, I happened to be on this floor, eh?" Dr. Matorkin replied, returning the smile. He had a curious accent, half Slavic and half Asiatic.
"This is the patient whose chart I sent you," Dr. Jarabal told him, indicating Judy with a wave of his paw. There was an apprehensive note in his voice-as if he was hoping his colleague had taken time to actually read the thing.
Apparently, he had.
"Yes, yes," he peered up at Judy, "Officer...excuse me please. Detective Hopps, is correct?"
"Yes, that's me," the doe bunny smiled. For some reason, she couldn't help liking this hamster.
"Good, good," he was clasping his paws like a maître d' greeting a favored guest. "Dr. Jarabal has familiarized me with your case, SO..." he waved upwards at the cuscus. "Doctor, if you would be so kind as to remove her bandages, I will climb up...and we shall see what we can see."
"Certainly Doctor," his colleague replied, extracting a pair of blunt scissors from a drawer.
Judy should have been glad to get the bandages off, but instead...
"Is something wrong, Detective?" It was Dr. Matorkin.
"I..." she shook her head and blinked, "I...I'm kind of seeing double."
"That's normal," the hamster told her, fanning a paw. "Your eye will adjust momentarily. Dr. Jarabal, if you would be so kind again...?"
Laying a paw on the floor, the cuscus lifted his colleague up and deposited him on Judy's cheek, where he donned a pair of Nitrile gloves and-much to the doe-bunny's puzzlement-slipped a pair of Nitrile booties onto his feet.
"All right, Detective. Now I am going to push your eye open and see how you're doing. Please keep still and do not blink."
So saying, he took hold of her upper eyelid, raising it up like a window shade. A second later, she felt his feet pressing down on the lower one; hmmmm, so that's what the booties were for.
The sensation was only mildly uncomfortable-although it was a bit disconcerting to have a hamster as big as a minivan right in her face...or that was how it looked anyway.
"Hmmmm," he mused, working his incisors as he studied Judy's eye. "No damage to the eyeball that I can see; no excess blood, the capillaries all appear to be intact. So far, so good...Ah, please do not move Detective." She had been trying to heave a sigh of relief. "Now, let's seeee," he went on. "Iris is fine, cornea looks good. Let's check pupillary dilation." She felt his right paw let go of her eyelid. "You're going to feel a very strong urge to blink now, Detective. Please do not."
Before Judy could ask what he meant, a pinpoint of light shot into her eye-and seemingly straight into her brain. She almost blinked, but managed to hold it.
"All right...and again," the hamster said, and flashed the penlight a second time, this time holding it a bit longer. Once more the doe-bunny was able to keep her eye open, but this time just barely.
"Annnd...just one more," This time Dr. Matorkin held the beam for a full two seconds...and this time, Judy was unable to hold her eye open for the duration. It didn't matter; the hamster seemed to sense what was coming and pulled back just in time.
"Okay, okay-y-y," she whimpered, "I'll tell you where the money's hidden," Lame joke, but the best she could manage on short notice. Forcing a smile, she also had to force herself not to rub her newly un-bandaged eye
"We're almost done," Dr. Matorkin told her, making a small adjustment to his penlight. "I just need to take a look at the retina. This won't be quite so uncomfortable, but it will take a bit longer."
It seemed to take hours, but when at last the Siberian hamster put the penlight away, he was all smiles.
"Well Detective," he said, hopping down to sit on her knee, "Everything's looking fine; no damage to your eye that I can see." A quick frown crossed his features and he pointed to the claw marks just above, where Conor had tagged her. "But about this wound; is it better from when she was admitted?" He was speaking to Dr. Jarabal.
"Much better," the cuscus assured him, "When she was brought in the night before last, it was almost swollen shut."
Judy, who had been unconscious at the time, could only nod in silent agreement.
"Very well," Dr. Matorkin replied, tapping the penlight against his teeth. "Then I believe we can leave the eye uncovered...and I see no need for suturing or staples. Butterfly bandages will suffice, I think. Howww-ever, I would also recommend putting this bunny on a course of antibiotics; fights are dirty things, you know."
...As if Judy needed to be reminded of that.
By now she knew better than to get her hopes up that she'd be out of here any time soon. Sure enough; she had to wait for another nurse. And then, before the bandages could be applied, the fur had to be shaved from around the souvenir Conor had left her.
But then, finally, prescription in paw, Judy was given her leave to depart...and it was all she could do not to bolt for the door before either of those two mad doctors could change their minds about admitting her.
But when she returned to the reception area...oh joy, there was no sign of her mother anywhere. Well, that was hardly a surprise, but still... Oh wait, she could just call mom on her cell-phone.
Extracting it from the holster Judy thumbed up her favorites list. But before she could even begin to scroll through it, a voice called out from over on her left.
"Excuse me...Miss? MISS!"
It was not spoken in a friendly tone. And when the doe bunny looked, she saw that it had come from the reception desk...where a portly armadillo was pointing to a sign mounted above and behind her.
No Cell-Phone Usage In The Hospital Reception Area
Judy sighed and put the phone away. She could probably have forced the issue by pulling out her badge, but after everything that had already happened today-the heck with it.
Instead, she went hopping over to the desk where the sign was hanging.
"Excuse me?"
No response; she tried again.
"Um, excuse me..."
Still nothing; she might as well have been addressing a fence post.
"Excuse me!"
Okay, that did it. The armadillo leaned over the top of her private castle with an expression that fairly screamed, 'How dare you talk to ME that way?'
Judy ignored it.
"Was there another bunny in here a while ago, older than me, dressed in..."
"No, I didn't see any other rabbits," the receptionist interrupted, turning to go back to her work.
Judy almost asked her if she was sure...but again; the heck with it.
"All right then, can you tell me which room Max March is in?"
"Are you...a relative?" the armadillo demanded, leaning over the transom again, this time with a raised eyebrow and a barely suppressed sneer.
Ohhh-kay that did it; no more Ms. NICE bunny-cop; now Judy did pull out her badge, thrusting it directly under the receptionist's snout.
"No...I'm a police detective, here on police business. So, if you DON'T mind..."
"All right, all right," the armadillo responded, turning hastily to her workstation...in a voice the doe-bunny had heard only a thousand times before; the wheedling whine of the poor, put-upon, victim of police harassment. "He's in room 477 of B-wing, the pediatric section."
As anyone could have predicted, no assistance was forthcoming; Judy had to figure out how to get there, all by herself.
But when she exited the elevator, things at last began to look up. Room 477 was practically right in front of her.
And also right in front of it was her mother-along with two other rabbits, a tall, rangy, slate-gray buck, and a dun-colored doe, about the same proportion as her mom, except with slightly longer ears.
"There she is," Bonnie waved as she saw her daughter approaching. "Judy, you know Harry and Ida March."
"Oh yes," she answered, coming forward with an outstretched paw, "Nice to see you again." In truth, she barely remembered either of the Marches-if that much. But since these were the parents of the rabbit she'd come to see, it was time to smile and play nice.
Ida's shake was warm enough, but her husband's paw might as well have been pulled straight out of a beverage cooler. It was no great mystery; all the while his eyes kept darting to the badge now clipped to Judy's belt.
Whoa, you didn't need to be a police detective to figure that one out. Harry March was angry over his son's arrest and she was the only cop in the vicinity. It would be necessary to alleviate that situation and pronto before she asked if she could speak to his son.
And so the first thing Judy said was, "How's your boy doing?"
It was Ida who answered her.
"Oh, quite well; the doctors say it was a clean break and he'll be as good as new in six weeks or so."
"Which means he'll miss the start of the soccer season," her husband chimed in, thrusting out his jaw as inviting Judy to put up her dukes. Before she could answer, Ida spoke up again, attempting to pacify her husband.
"Now dear, you heard what the doctor said; no permanent damage. Our Max will be back on the field again before..."
"He shouldn't have to come back at all!" the larger bunny snapped. "And he wouldn't if the ZPD hadn't dragged him off to jail like a...a common criminal." He raised a finger, a gesture clearly meant for Judy's benefit. "And don't think for a minute I'm going to...to just let things slide."
Judy expected a meek response to this from Ida, but instead her paws went straight to her hips and her mouth became a hard, flat line.
"Harry March, we already discussed this-and we are NOT calling a lawyer!"
"So what do we do, then?" He was waving a paw as if attempting to flag down a cab, "Just let the ZPD get away with persecuting our son-over what, over digging a few holes?"
"Oh, and I suppose we should just let him dig holes wherever he WANTS." His wife shot back, "Maybe next time he can dig up the Burrow County Courthouse lawn." She was thumping her foot at full tilt.
Judy watched the exchange with a mixture of fascination and dismay. Her first instinct was to rush to the ZPD's defense. However, again, she had to remind herself of something. With one word, either one these two bunnies could deny her access to their son...or at least make it that much more difficult to get in to see him.
But then, she had an idea.
"If it's any consolation Mr. March, you should know that the officer responsible for your son's arrest was suspended from duty the day before yesterday." She would not, of course, mention the fact that Albert Tufts had since been reinstated...especially since her words seemed to be having exactly the desired effect.
"He WAS?" Harry March was staring at her wide-eyed and his ears were reaching for the ceiling.
"Yes, that's right," Judy told him, glancing sideways at her mother...who was also aware of the full story. Not to worry, Bonnie had on her best stone face. "Mind you," the bunny-cop went on, "he wasn't suspended only for arresting your son, but that was certainly part of it."
...A very SMALL part, but there was something else she was keeping to herself.
That was when her mother finally joined the conversion.
"I know how you feel, Harry...Ida. My Erin was arrested at the Academy Auditions too."
She sniffed and flicked a finger at the corner of her eye...and it might or might not have been an act.
Harry March, for his part, seemed to shrink a little at the news. That told Judy that this was something he'd already heard-and then forgotten.
But how much had he heard about her sister, the doe-bunny wondered. Well, it'd be easy enough to find out.
"Speaking of Erin...Mom, did you tell them why I'm here?"
Bonnie immediately shook her head.
"No Dear, I thought it might be best to let you tell them."
"Okay," Judy nodded and then turned to speak to the Marches again. "When they did the head count at the City Youth Jail this morning, my sister Erin turned up missing and unaccounted for."
"Oh!" Ida's paws had flown up to her mouth, while her husband was looking away, shamefaced. It was easy to imagine his thoughts. 'My son may have a broken ankle, but at least I know where he IS right now.'
"Oh Judy, Bonnie, I'm so sorry," Ida told them, reaching out to clasp their paws.
"Thanks, Mrs. March," the younger bunny told her, and then delivered the punch line. "But the reason I'm here is that we have reason to believe your son may have seen what happened to her and..."
"Oh, in that case, of course you should talk to him," Ida interrupted, patting Judy's paw.
"Absolutely," he husband added; he sounded almost insistent. No more angry rabbit; he was now in total sympathy with her cause.
She found Max sitting up in bed, with his leg elevated in a sling. At the moment, he was occupied with watching an episode of The Howl Mouse on the hospital room TV. Or perhaps not; he seemed to be preoccupied with something else at the moment...barely able to keep his eyes on the screen.
She stepped into the room, closing the door behind her.
"Hello Max, how are you doing?"
He stiffened for a second before turning to face her. At once, recognition dawned in his bright, dark eyes.
"I-I'm doing okay, I guess. Uhm, you're Judy, right...Erin's older sister?"
"Yes," She informed him drily, "except right now it's Detective Judy Hopps. Mmmm...may I sit down?"
"Yeah sure," the young buck-rabbit answered, reaching for the remote with a stuttering paw. He seemed resigned to her presence rather than put off by it.
"He knows why I'm here," Judy thought, as she took her chair...one that was, for once, the perfect size for her species. With that in mind, she got right to the point as soon as the TV winked out.
"Max, Erin's missing; did you know that?"
His ears went up like a pair of skyrockets. "She...didn't come back?"
"No," the doe-bunny answered, feeling her own ears rising; so he didn't know the exact reason for her presence here. "But does that mean...you knew she left the jail?" There was an accusatory note in her voice; she couldn't help it.
Max hunched forward slightly as if he'd taken a soccer ball to the gut, "Uh...not really. I mean...that's where she was headed the last time I saw her...but I didn't, you know, see what finally happened to her."
Judy closed her eyes and counted to three.
"Easy, Jude...he's at least TRYING to cooperate. I know you're worried about Erin, but give this bunny-kid a break."
"Uhm, maybe you'd better just tell me what happened from the beginning," she said, as lightly as she could.
"Yeah, sure," Max answered her, straightening up as if someone had lifted a roof-beam off his shoulders. "Well, when the cell doors all opened, I decided to go looking for my cousin Zack..."
"You...what?" Judy interrupted, thumping her foot, "That was a big mistake right there, Max."
"Uhmmm, actually no, it wasn't," he rejoined with a twitching nose. His voice was a curious mixture of defiance and contrition, "when I looked back up at my cell again, I saw Craig Guilford poking around inside. If I'd stayed put, he'd have had me trapped."
At the mention of the renegade young coyote's name, Judy's ears shot backwards and stayed that way. Ohhhh, if that canine jerk harmed so much as a hair on her kid sister's tail...!
"You know about him, huh?" Max's ears were aimed at the ceiling again.
"I ought to," the doe-bunny responded with a wry expression, "I'm the officer who arrested him...and I was also there when his dad tried to spray-bomb the Carrot Days Festival with weed-killer." Max started to raise a finger, but she beat him to it. "But what the heck is that coyote's problem with you, kid?"
The young buck-rabbit let out a sound that was either a groan or a whimper.
"Craig thinks I snitched on him over a farm-stand he burned down." His eyes were big and plaintive, "I didn't do it...but he thinks I did and he won't believe different, no matter what anyone tells him. He must of swore a hundred times to get back at me for turning him in...but I swear, I DIDN'T do it."
Max's final declaration was just a mite too loud and ended a mite too abruptly...as if he had more to say, but was holding out on her.
It didn't matter; Judy already knew the rest of the story and she wasn't going to press him; he looked miserable enough as it was.
Besides, they had other things to discuss.
"Okay, so after you saw Craig, what did you do?"
What he'd done was something that made Judy want to grab him by the shoulders and shake him until his teeth rattled. Of all the spots he could have chosen for a hiding place, he'd had to pick on ERIN'S cell. She was none too thrilled about what her sister had done next either, putting on Max's shirt to try and lead his pursuer astray. Dumb little bunny, didn't she realize that if Craig had caught her, he might have hurt her anyway? Maybe she hadn't snitched on him-but she was still the younger sister of the cop that had put him in jail.
Before she could give voice to any of these thoughts, Max made it a moot point by admitting to having had a panic attack at that moment...bolting down the walkway with Craig in hot pursuit.
"I tried to lose him in the crowd," he explained, "You know, weaving my way through the spaces too small for him to follow."
"Right," Judy nodded, knowingly. That was an old, established tactic among rabbits attempting to evade an enemy.
In Max March's case, however, it hadn't been particularly effective.
"...And then Zack yelled for me to look out and I felt someone grab me by the ears."
Judy winced and almost groaned. That had only happened to her twice in her lifetime-but it was an experience she'd never forgotten; no bunny ever forgets the first time someone grabs them by the ears.
"But then the cat my cousin was hanging with jumped on Craig's head and started growling for him to let me go. He threw me against the wall and..." he looked away with a pained expression, "...and that's all I remember; when I woke up again, my ankle was broke and everything looked all fuzzy."
He stopped again, once more seeming to be holding something back.
...but this time, he let it come out.
"But then it got clear and the first thing I saw was Erin...kind of balancing on the top rail of the...balcony, I guess you'd call it. Then she started to fall and I reached out and grabbed her and pulled her back onto the walkway."
"You did WHAT?" Judy's eyes were wide and her jaw was hanging just above the floor. The young buck bunny tried to reply, but before he could manage even a single word, he was wrapped in her arms and she was hugging him tight.
"Thank you, Max. Thank you for saving my sister."
"Ummm...welcome," he answered, sounding completely baffled, as if he couldn't understand why it was such a big deal. Judy would have loved to explain it to him, but first thing's first.
"And what happened next?"
Once again, Max looked slightly embarrassed.
"We...heard Craig growling somewhere behind us and I told Erin to get the heck out of there; it was me he was after, not her. She took off down the walkway, and that's the last I saw of her."
"Did you see which way she went?" Judy asked him; probably he hadn't, but you never knew.
"Uh, no," the young bunny admitted unsurprisingly, "But there was a rumor going around that the freight door out back was open. She prolly went that way."
"D'ohhh right, the cyberattack," Judy grimaced at the thought; she had almost forgotten about that little component of the previous night's events.
But now Max was looking at her as if he had something he couldn't wait to share with her.
"What is it?" she asked him.
"When...When Craig finally showed up, he...just kind of looked at me and then booked it on down the catwalk, the same way Erin went."
Judy reeled back in surprise. That sure as heck didn't sound like the coyote-kid she'd busted.
"Maybe...he didn't recognize you?" She offered, tentatively.
Max looked at her with mild disgust. And why not; it was a 'dumb-bunny' question if ever there was such a thing.
"Nope, he knew it was me. Even if I'd looked different I still would've smelled the same; Craig's a coyote, don't forget. I think maybe what happened was he decided that getting back at me wasn't worth missing out on a chance to escape from jail."
It was a plausible enough scenario-but from the tenor of the young rabbit's voice, Judy could tell that he didn't believe it for a nanosecond.
Neither did she, for that matter. Ahhh, and there it was, another piece of the puzzle yet to be uncovered. What made it doubly frustrating was that she was equally certain that Max didn't have it; she was going to have to look elsewhere for that all-important clue.
Rising from her seat, she extended a paw to the injured young buck-rabbit. "All right Max, that's all for now. Thanks for your help...and thanks again for what you did for Erin."
"Y-You're welcome," he said looking shyly away as he took hold of her; his grip was like a mushy banana.
That was when Judy realized something. She knew she shouldn't, but resistance was futile.
"You have a crush on my sister, don't you?"
Max said nothing to this, but he didn't need to. The flush of his ears, the bob of his throat, and the way he averted his gaze told the doe bunny everything she needed to know.
But then he found his voice.
"Yea-a-ah, but I don't think she likes me very much. I think she's got a thing for that Conor Lewis kid."
Judy's ears snapped backwards as if they were spring-loaded.
"NOT funny, Max!"
His ears shot upwards in confusion.
"Wha...? I wasn't making..."
But she was already reaching for the door.
"I could have KEPT my mouth shut, but nooooooooo....!"
When Judy exited the hospital room, she found that her mother and the Marches had been joined by a fourth animal, a white-tailed deer. It was Doctor Robert Hind, the ZPD's consulting psychologist and she was in no way puzzled to find him here. There were at least three injured officers in residence at St. Bart's right now, and after being swept up in the events of last night, which of them wouldn't be in need of a little counseling? Come to think of it, she could use some of that herself.
At the moment, Mr. March was speaking to the deer-buck.
"...so serious all of a sudden; honestly Doctor, I've never seen my boy like this. I mean...I know he's been through a lot in the past couple of days, but he's like a completely different rabbit."
"It's true," His wife Ida put in with a sniffle, "I feel as if I hardly know him."
"All right," Dr. Hind's tone was light but also authoritative. "Is your son keeping completely to himself...or is he at least communicating with you?"
"Oh he still talks to us," Mr. March replied, glancing for a second in the direction of the room where his son lay, "But when he does, he hardly ever looks at us. And I haven't heard him laugh, not even once, since we got here."
"Well," the deer psychologist responded, putting on a tactful half-smile. "It's only been one day-and your son is on painkillers, don't forget, and hospitalized in an unfamiliar city. I think you'll see a marked improvement in his mood once you've had him home for a week. If not, give me a call and I'll recommend someone locally."
"Bless you Doctor," Ida March said, hopping up to clasp his hooves. Her husband, meanwhile, remained hovering in the background, still unsatisfied but not willing to push things any further.
That was when Judy's mother finally noticed her and waved.
"Judy, Judy, over here. Have you met Doctor Hind?"
"I have," the doe-bunny answered, reaching out to offer him a paw of her own, "Nice to see you again, Doctor."
"Likewise," the deer-buck answered, taking it. "How are you holding up, Detective?"
"I..." she started to say, but then realized he wasn't referring to her physical state.
"I'm hanging in there," she finally answered. There was a lot more she'd like to have said-but not in front of mom.
However, no rule said she couldn't take a rain check.
"Doc, I know you're busy right now, but when you have a moment...I'd like to talk to you privately."
"Yes, of course," he replied, not at all startled by the request. "Do you still have my card? Good, call my office tomorrow and we'll set up an appointment."
"Um....do you think you could also see Max?" his father Harry asked-suddenly, as if he'd been mulling the idea for some time and had only just now made a decision.
By way of response, the deer buck checked his phone messages.
"I can visit with him later this afternoon, but right now I'm supposed to see Mrs. Mary Cannon, downstairs on floor three.
At the mention of Mac Cannon's wife, all four bunnies gasped and Judy wanted to reward herself with a face-pawlm. Not just the cyberattack, she'd also forgotten about the injured bobcat-deputy. Yes, she'd been through a lot herself recently and yes her sister was missing, but still...her head was like a sieve today, and this time she couldn't blame it on any tranq-dart.
"Ohhhh, Poor Mac." Ada March was clasping her paws as if preparing to pray.
It was Judy's mother who asked the obvious question.
"How is he?"
In response Dr. Hind assumed a professional tone
"They've moved him out of the ICU and upgraded his condition to guarded. He's got a badly broken arm and a collapsed lung, plus some pretty extensive bruising. The good news is that there seems to be no evidence of head trauma."
Everyone heaved a sigh of relief. Bobcats have relatively thin skulls and are notably vulnerable to cranial injuries.
"Has he regained consciousness yet?" Judy asked him.
"Not yet," the deer-buck told her. "His wife and daughter arrived just a little while ago and as you can imagine, they're both pretty distraught. Chief Bogo asked me to go and see them."
"Well then, go...go!" Ida March was making shooing motions with her paws..
"Yes, absolutely," her husband agreed. For once the two bunnies were on the same wavelength.
"May I come with you?" It was Judy's mother. "I know Mary Cannon quite well; it might do her some good to see a familiar face."
"Excellent thought," Doctor Hind nodded in approval.
So what could Judy do but tag along as well? She didn't know Mary Cannon, but you better believe she knew Mac. And while she was in no mood to see what those detainees had done to him she felt that she owed it to the bobcat-deputy. Luckily she had some business to distract her until their arrival.
Even so, it wasn't until they were safely inside the elevator that she was able to bring it up.
"I didn't want to say this in front of Max's parents, Doctor. But there may be another reason why he's in such a serious mood; I...think he's on a guilt trip right now."
"Oh?" The deer-buck was raising both an ear and an eyebrow.
"What for?" her mother queried, nose twitching in curiosity.
Judy had to brace herself a little before answering. "You know those three kids who were arrested at the ZAPA auditions? Yeah, well...he's the animal who fingered them."
The reactions to this could not have been more divergent. Dr. Hind only nodded sagely, but Bonnie Hopp's ears were lying flat against the back of her neck. If that was true, it meant that Max was also responsible for the arrest of her daughter, Erin-indirectly to be sure, but he had still been the animal that started the ball rolling.
"Hmmmm, no wonder that young rabbit buck's in such a somber state," Dr. Hind was stroking his chin, "About the worst sin a kid can commit these days is to snitch out another kid; I swear, they're almost like a junior Cosa Nostra in that regard."
"Yep...I know." Judy nodded. Her mother said nothing, but her ears were staying locked in place. That told the bunny cop needed to soften things up and quickly. Otherwise, the next time her mom had an encounter with the Marches...
"Max didn't plan on fingering those other kids, Doctor...only Conor Lewis. But his plan backfired; he couldn't tell Lieutenant Tufts which way that fox kid went, and so..."
"...and so Tufts thought those other three young mammals could?" The white-tailed deer finished the sentence for her.
"Right," Judy nodded, "He more or less blackmailed that bunny-kid into pointing them out; it was either that or get the book thrown at both him and his cousin. Max didn't care about himself all that much, but he felt really bad about getting Zack in trouble too...and so he finally agreed to finger those other kids."
"Sweet cheez n' crackers...of all the dirty tricks!" Bonnie's response was as close to snarl as was possible for a bunny. She was still angry-but no longer at Max March, Judy was pleased to note.
And then the elevator door opened and they all got off.
They still had a ways to go; Mac Cannon's room was not only on another floor but also in a different wing. It gave Dr. Hind the opportunity to ask a few questions of his own.
"So, as I understand it Detective Hopps, there've been some new developments in the Conor Lewis investigation. Is it true...he was The Company's diamond courier after all?"
"Yep," Judy answered, fazed not at all by the inquiry. You could hack into the ZPD Database, turn off the police band, and shut down every officer's cell phone from here to Burrow County-and the word would still get around. Nothing short of The Apocalypse can put a police grapevine out of action. "You sound as if you've taken an interest in the case," she told him
"I'm intrigued, I admit it," the deer buck answered, offering a throwaway shrug. "But what I wanted to say is that if the Lewis boy was running with the likes of The Company, it goes a long way towards explaining why he attacked you first."
"It does; how Doctor?" Judy's mother asked with her nose twitching.
The deer-buck's mood became instantly sober.
"Everything I've heard about The Company says that they were one vicious bunch of animals, the meanest of the mean. You don't live with THAT kind of violence, day after day, year after year, without a little of it rubbing off on you."
Judy felt her own nose twitching-and her right foot wanting to thump.
"With all due respect, Doctor Hind...I-I don't think that's entirely true."
"I never said it was." He answered, raising a defensive hoof. "But it's certainly a factor...and what it says is that our fugitive young silver fox is more than capable of lashing out with violence, if he finds himself cornered again."
His assessment nearly provoked another disagreement from Judy. But on reflection, yes; when she'd gotten between Conor and his precious backpack, she had, in a sense, cornered him. It was something she was going to have to keep in mind if they ever crossed swords again.
Any further thoughts on the matter were cut off when her mother spoke up again-in what sounded like a heavily-starched voice.
"I really don't like to say this, Doctor, but it almost sounds as if you're defending that boy."
"Not at all, Mrs. Hopps," the deer-buck assured her, this time showing both of his hooves. "While I believe that his association with The Company may help to explain Mr. Lewis's actions...in no way do I think that it EXCUSES them."
"All right, then." Judy's mother replied, apparently satisfied with the answer.
Not so her daughter; for her, it only brought up another question.
"Tell me Doctor, do you think that's why he loses it if somebody grabs him from behind?"
"I think it's certainly a factor," he told her, glancing sideways for a moment. "And now I'm almost completely convinced that it's a PTSD reaction."
"Land sakes...a reaction to what?" Judy's mother asked, looking over at her daughter with a worried expression. The younger bunny's breathing was starting to become labored, courtesy of the long walk they were taking.
Or rather, courtesy of Conor Lewis, the fox kid who had given her that injury.
"Well," Dr. Hind speculated, scratching at a velvet-sheathed antler, "According to his medical records, Mr. Lewis suffered some pretty serious facial trauma at some point in his life. I'd say it's not outside the realm of possibility that someone grabbed him from behind and shoved him face-first into a wall...hard enough to leave him disfigured."
"Wha...disfigured?" Bonnie's ears were aimed upwards at the ceiling, "But...I met that boy, when he came to The Burrow for the Carrot Days Festival. He looked just fine to me."
"That's because he had corrective surgery, Mom," her daughter Judy pointed out. And then she decided that now was as good a time as any to point out something else; there was no point in keeping it a secret any longer. "And...you may as well know this. Conor Lewis was a big help in stopping that spray-bomb attack on the Carrot Days Festival, too."
Both Bonnie and Dr. Hind halted dead in their tracks.
"He did WHAT?"
Judy gave them the condensed version; explaining how the young silver fox had been hanging with her former partner when they'd come across Craig Guilford on that hillside overlooking the Carrot Days Festival-while he'd been pulling lookout duty for his father's planned attack on the Big Dance.
"It was Ni...Officer Wilde's idea to trick the Guilford brothers into bringing their crop-duster planes in over that fireworks display-but it was Conor who pulled it off. He called up Jerry Guilford on his cell phone, and pretended to be his son. I don't know what he said to that coyote-jerk; all I know is, it worked."
"Sweet....cheez n'...crackers." Her mother's voice was so breathless she might have just run a rabbithon. "How come you never mentioned any of this before Judy?"
"Because Conor swore...eh, my former partner to secrecy...and then HE made me swear." She swallowed and steeled herself, "And Erin too."
At once, she felt herself seized by the arm. "Erin knew?" The insides of Bonnie's ears had gone white as a chalk cliff.
"Yes mom," Judy answered her, carefully disengaging from the older bunny's grip, "She helped him, in fact." She was about to suggest that they save this discussion for later when Dr. Hind intervened.
"Given what we know now about that young silver fox, I'd say it's not too surprising that he wanted what he did to be kept secret," he said. And that was the last word out of any one of them for a while. They completed the rest of their trek in an awkward silence.
Enquiring at the nurse's station, they were told that Mac Cannon was in room 320, just around the corner. "But only one of you can go in," the goral on duty explained to the trio, "His wife and daughter are with him now, and our patients are only allowed three visitors at a time."
When they got to Mac's room, they were startled to find Kii Catano standing sentry outside the door.
"Kii?" Judy asked, ears up and nose twitching, "Kii, what are you doing here?"
Before answering her, the cheetah-cop looked nervously over her shoulder and motioned the others away from the door. And then, hunkering down into a crouch, she lowered her voice to front-pew level.
"For God's sake, don't say anything to Mrs. Cannon about this, but her husband's been getting death threats."
"Death threats?" Judy and her mother gasped in unison, paws flying up to their faces.
"Are you serious?" It was Dr. Hind.
"Wish I wasn't but yeah," Kii answered, shaking her head, "a whole bunch of them...or that's what Chief Bogo says anyway."
"What the...?" Judy couldn't believe what she was hearing. "What the heck FOR?"
"I have no idea," the cheetah cop answered with a frustrated shrug. "The Chief never said. All I know is that he wants Deputy Cannon kept under guard, 24/7." Her jaw set hard and her back straightened up as she said this; the ironwood determination of a police-mammal, called on to protect an injured brother officer.
"But what are you doing here, Judy?" she finally asked.
"I'm here with Dr. Hind," the doe bunny explained, nodding upwards at the white-tailed deer standing next to her, "He was asked by Chief Bogo to come and talk to Mrs. Cannon."
It was an inadequate explanation at best, but Kii seemed to find it satisfactory.
"Oh, I see," she said, and then stood up to address the deer-psychologist. "Honestly Doctor, I'm not so sure it was a good idea for Mrs. Cannon to bring her daughter along." Her manner was stiff...oddly stiff.
"Well-l-l-ll, that may be so, Officer Catano," he replied in an equally rigid tone of voice, "But there's not much we can do about it now; it's a done deal, as they say."
"Ah, maybe you should go in and see Mrs. Cannon now?" Judy's mom suggested, hesitantly. She too had noticed the tension in the air.
Dr. Hind promptly surprised her by suggesting that she go in ahead of him. "You were right Mrs. Hopps; it would do your friend some good to see a familiar face, right about now."
When Bonnie knocked on the door, the response was so muted she would have missed it entirely had she not been a rabbit. "C-Come in..."
Opening the door, she saw...Oh, sweet cheez n' crackers, distraught didn't even begin to describe Mary Cannon's current state of mind. Her dress was disheveled, her fur was going in every which direction, and her eyes were so puffed and swollen she looked almost as if she was suffering from an allergic reaction. Not only her cheeks but her shoulders were stained with tears.
Mary's daughter Susan didn't look much better, sitting motionless, seemingly frozen in time, staring towards the hospital bed with wide, unblinking eyes. She could almost have passed for a doll-or an animatronic figure that had broken down.
Following the bobcat girl's gaze, Bonnie laid her eyes on Mac for the first time. Oh Lordy, what had they done to him? She was nearly ready to start crying herself.
Most of Mac Cannon was invisible beneath the bed sheets, but what the bunny matron was able to see more than made up for it. His broken arm, encased in plaster, was hanging suspended in a sling. Even though Bonnie knew that the break had been set, it still seemed to her that the angle was all wrong. The upper part of his chest appeared covered by what looked to be a carbon fiber breast plate. And if his head had emerged unscathed from that jailhouse melee, the same could not be said for his face, swathed in so many bandages they could have served as protection in a sparring match.
But the worst thing was the corrugated plastic tube, protruding from a corner of his mouth behind a broken tooth...and the steady, rhythmic, hiss-and-sigh coming from the thingamajig-machine connected to it. Above this a quartet of jumpy multicolored lines were scrolling across a monitor-screen.
Sweet mother of mercy, no wonder Mary and her daughter were in such a state.
Mary...
The recollection made Judy's mother straighten up and take a breath. Never mind about Mac for now, her friend needed her.
"Mary? Mary, it's me. Bonnie."
"Bonnie?" Her head came around like a rusty valve, eyes blinking as if they might be deceiving her. "Bonnie...Hopps?"
"Yes, Mary...I..."
That was all she managed before the bobcat flung herself into her arms...nearly smothering to the doe-bunny matron, who was perhaps a third of her size.
"Oh Bonnie....th-thank you...for..." She began to sob uncontrollably all over again.
"There, there Mary." Bonnie stroked her back as best she could. "It's okay....just let it out.
Her daughter Sue was meanwhile just continuing to stare blankly at her father-as if nothing else was happening in the room.
"Mary," Bonnie spoke to her as soothingly as she could. "There's a police counselor outside who's willing to see you. Will you talk to him?"
After thinking for a moment, the bobcat nodded her agreement. Susan just sat there as if she hadn't heard a thing and had to be led from the room by her paw. Bonnie would later tell her daughter Violet. "That cheetah was right, Vi... Mary should never have brought her daughter Susan along. Good Lordy, she was almost like a little wind-up toy, that girl."
No one had any idea whether Mary would be willing to unburden herself to an animal she didn't know, much less a city deer-or how much she'd be willing to tell him.
Instead, when she opened up, she opened like a floodgate.
"I knew Mac was going into a dangerous occupation when he joined the Sheriff's Department. I didn't like it, Doctor-but accepted it. I loved him and I knew he'd make a great deputy; I never tried to talk him out of it, not even once." She sniffed back a tear and went on. "I must have given myself a thousand pep-talks-braced myself a hundred times when the phone rang while he was out on patrol. I knew he might get hurt, or even worse, someday."
Her face fell into her paws and she began to sob.
"But nothing can prepare you for when it actually happens...Oh, Mac...Maaaac."
At once, Bonnie's arm was around her shoulder-and at once, Judy was moving away from the scene. There was nothing she could do and besides...although she certainly hadn't meant to, Mary had just reminded everybody that the next peace officer to end up like Mac Cannon might be HER.
And so, with nowhere else to go, she ended up drifting over to Kii Catano.
"Poor thing, she's taking it so hard."
"Who can blame her?" the cheetah cop snarled, "Have you seen what those young punks DID to her husband?" She sounded as if she'd like nothing more right now than to sink her fangs into the animals responsible for Mac Cannon's injuries!
And that was something Judy couldn't fault. For Kii Catano, what had happened to Mac was a double whammy; not only a fellow law enforcement officer, but also a fellow feline. She had every right to be angry.
But then her mood seemed to mellow a little.
"I heard about your sister, Judy," the big cat told her...once again demonstrating the efficacy of the ZPD's bush-telegraph. "Have there been any new developments?"
"As a matter of fact, yes," The doe bunny replied, and then went on to narrate her conversation with Max March a short while earlier. For most of the story, Kii just listened with interest. When Judy finished however, she tilted her head and scratched dubiously behind an ear."
"I-I-I don't know...doesn't sound quite right to me. That Guilford kid's a complete psycho from what I hear, but honestly...I can't see him shining on that Max kid and going after Erin just because she's your sister."
"He...didn't..."
The voice was like a pair of cinder blocks being rubbed against each other-and so faint that Kii Catano missed it completely.
But not Judy; her ears shot up like a pair of antennae, trying hard to pinpoint the sound. Dangit, it could have come from any...
"Judy..." the voice spoke again, "Judy...Hopps...Come here..."
Oh sweet cheez n' crackers, it was coming from the hospital bed in the room directly behind her. Her mom had left the door open when she'd exited a short while earlier.
And this time Kii Catano heard it, too.
"Oh, good God Judy, he's awake!"
"Kii, go get a nurse," Judy told her, assuming her 'Detective Hopps' fursona. And while the cheetah cop went hurrying in the direction of the nurse's station, she slipped into the room and pulled up a chair beside Mac's bed.
She was barely able to look at him. Dear Lord...and she'd thought she was hurting.
"Judy, listen..." the bobcat rasped again. He was barely able to speak, and even then only between heaves of the respirator pump. "Craig...Guilford. He...killed that sand-cat kid. I..." He had to stop and wait for the pump to cycle. "...saw him do it. And then he...blamed..." Another pause, maddening this time, "...it on me; that's why...I was...'tacked."
A paw fell on Judy's shoulder.
"Sorry Detective, you're going to have to leave now," a marbled leopard in scrubs informed her.
"No!" Mac protested attempting to reach out to the doe bunny with his one good arm. "She needs to...hear this...please."
"All right," the other cat replied, backing off a little...and at the same time regarding Judy with an admonishing eye.
She leaned in close to Mac, laying an ear upside his mouth.
"Erin...saw it too," he croaked. "And Craig knows...that she saw. That's why...why..."
His words ended in a coughing jag.
"All right Detective, that's enough." The leopard cat informed Judy pushing past her. "Clear out please...and right now."
Judy didn't need to be told twice. In any event, she'd heard enough. As soon as she left the room she grabbed for her badge, holding it aloft like a talisman
"I need to call my precinct right NOW!" she announced to everyone in the ward.
"Uhhh," one of the nurses, a numbat, was raising a timid paw, "That rule about no cell phones only applies to the reception area."
Judy almost offered her thanks, but then happened to glance sideways at her mother. Whoa, hold it Jude-the-dude...Just! Back! Up! Do you really want mom to know that Erin witnessed a murder...and that the killer might be stalking her even now?
Like HECK she did! And so she quickly redacted her announcement.
"Yes, but I need to talk to them privately."
"Oh," the marsupial nodded and then pointed down the hall. "In that case, you can use one of the restrooms."
Judy started the call even before the door clicked shut. Taking no chances, she punched the icon for the direct line to Chief Bogo.
He answered the call with his usual air of affability.
"Hopps? Where the Devil are you? You should have been back here hours ago!"
That meant she had better cut right to the chase and right now!
"Sorry Chief...I'll fill you in later. But listen...Mac Cannon just woke up and told me that Craig Guilford's the animal who killed that sand-cat kid!"
Bogo responded to this by blasting a double-barreled note through his nostrils, one that made Judy yank the phone away from her ear lest she end up deafened on that side. Whoa they probably heard that one all the way down at the reception desk.
She placed the phone back against her cheek.
"That's right sir...and there's more. My sister Erin saw it too...and the Guilford kid saw her and then went after her. That's from the March boy, Max."
"Hopps, stand by," Bogo informed her succinctly and then disappeared. Judy was relieved rather than dismayed. She could guess what he was doing right now.
Sure enough, when he came back, he had some news of his own to relate. "Right...I've just put out a city-wide alert for the immediate apprehension of Craig Guilford; now wanted for murder-and also an alert to keep an extra close eye out for Erin Hopps, whose safety may be in jeopardy."
"In other words, 'whose life may be in danger,'" Judy thought but didn't say it. In any case, she didn't feel the need to correct her Chief. Now that Craig Guilford was a homicide suspect, apprehending him had become a top priority. And since Erin had been witness to his crime, locating her would be high on the ZPD's to-do list as well.
And so, what she said was, "Chief, you make it sound like the communication network's back online."
"Came back up a few minutes ago," the big Cape buffalo grunted. "The database is still down, but at least we've got radio communications." She heard a shuffling of papers, and then he said, "Anything else, Detective?"
"Yes sir," the doe-bunny answered quickly. "Mac also told me that the Guilford boy fingered HIM as the sand-cat kid's killer. That's why those other detainees jumped him."
"And then that's also why he's been getting death threats," Bogo added, with a sulfurous snort. And then he said, "Word to the wise, Hopps; if y'should happen to make a pinch on that young coyote a second time, you'll want to make certain that you don't let him get within fifty feet of me; otherwise, I might not be able to restrain meself."
"No sir!" Judy answered, in wholehearted agreement with her Chief. In the event she found herself face to face with Craig Guilford again, she might not be able to hold back either.
When she returned to the nurse's station she found that Dr. Hind had departed and that Kii Catano's relief, Officer Spottiswoode, had arrived; Yes-s-s, it figured that Bogo would give the assignment of guarding Mac Cannon exclusively to members of the feline order-in this case a leopard.
The good news was that Mary Cannon was looking worlds better from her conversation with the deer-psychologist. That should have been reassuring to the doe-bunny, except...
"Ohhh Mary...if you only knew what I know," she thought to herself, trying not to shake her head.
Mary's daughter, meanwhile, was still in what appeared to be-for lack of a better term-a catatonic state, the same frozen expression, the same unblinking eyes.
That was when Judy's mother raised a paw.
"Jude...how did your call go?"
Ohhhhh, and there was so much she couldn't tell mom either.
"About like I expected," she said, going over and sitting down next to her mother. "How are you doing, Mary?"
"Oh much better," she said. There were tears in her eyes, but she was smiling.
"Tell her, Mare." Bonnie prompted, nudging her in the arm.
"A-All right," the bobcat sniffed, "The doctors have upgraded Mac's condition to stable. He's officially out of danger."
"Oh Mary, that's wonderful," Judy responded, reaching out to give her a hug. His arm was still going to need a lot of work, but he was going to survive his attack.
Ye-s-s-s....he was going to survive and be able to testify against that no-good dirtbag Craig Guilford! Judy was unable to keep the dark thought out of her head...not as long as that rogue coyote-kid was still a threat to Erin. Oooo, he had better keep away from her, if he...
"Hey, wake up dumb bunny; someone's trying to talk you!"
Oops it was Mary Cannon.
"Were you hurt in the riot, too?" She was pointing to the bandages above Judy's left eye.
"Uhhhh, no," the doe bunny answered, trying to collect her thoughts. How much did Mary know about the ZAPA riot? She'd be aware of Erin's arrest and the melee that followed certainly-but how much did she know about the role that a certain young silver fox had played in those proceedings?
No idea; she'd just have to wing it.
"Noooo, I got this from my fight with Conor Lewis."
"With...who?" Mary's ears were up and her whiskers were bobbing.
"Oh, great!" Judy sighed inwardly, drumming her fingers on her knee. She was in no mood to tell THAT story again, and now she'd have no choice.
In the end she gave Mary a stripped-down account of her battle with Conor, offering only the briefest description of the fugitive young silver fox and leaving out entirely what had happened when she'd grabbed him from behind.
When she finished, Mary appeared satisfied with the story, but Judy's mother seemed to feel that it needed an epilogue.
"For what it's worth Mary, my daughter gave up as good as she got in that fight-no, BETTER than she got. The Lewis boy ended up in another ER with much more serious injuries than her."
"Good; I hope he dies!"
Every head the waiting area turned...to see that Sue Cannon had come out of her trance-like state and into a state of high fury. There she was, standing rigidly with her paws jammed downward and her claws and fangs unsheathed. Her ears were lying so flat against her scalp that they seemed to have vanished into thin air.
"It's all that stupid fox-kid's fault!" She snarled, in a voice that made Judy want to back away and take up a defensive posture, "If he'd stayed away from those auditions, Erin and those other kids would never have been arrested-and Daddy wouldn't have ever gotten hurt."
It was the skewed logic of a young adolescent-and yet there was truth to it. Even Judy had to admit that much.
"Sue...hon..." Bonnie started to get up, but the bobcat girl was in no mood to be placated.
"I HOPE HE DIES!" she shrilled again...and this time it was a full-throated scream.