Chapter 22 - Cold Hard Cofessions

The stiff, cold, steel bunk was certainly not what the doctor ordered. He much preferred his large memory foam mattress with its silky, microfiber sheets. His sore back and neck were a testament to how much he despised laying, or sitting on anything firmer than a down pillow. Even a wooden park bench would have been preferable to this disgrace for a bed.

A sturdy, brick wall separated him from the next cell and thick, rusty bars let a meager glow flow in from the hallway. Inside, a single toilet sat at the end of the bunk next to a filthy, porcelain sink. Across the hall, the other cell was empty but he could clearly hear the shuffling of a larger mammal from the next one over.

His shaking hooves were not from the chill that seemed to fill this place, but from the remnants of the complex drugs that were slowly leaving his system. The rage and adrenaline had subsided while he slept, but he still felt on edge and his lungs demanded that he gulp huge breaths of air. There weren't any strong hallucinogens in this batch so he wasn't about to start seeing things jumping at him through the bars. Still, coming down from the mix of stimulants and hormone enhancers was going to wreak havoc on his mind and body and while he was locked in this cell there was little he could do about it.

Most of the concoction that he had stolen from that naive director was designed to deliver a specific vector to a female's physiology and small doses were relatively harmless to males. However multiple doses taken over weeks or even months could have serious side effects so he was always careful when handling the product. His unsuspecting customers on the other paw, had no idea what they were getting into. The vector alone, if allowed to spread and thrive, would ensure that they never had any offspring.

The virus would completely invade his system in a few days, just enough time for the filth that arrested him to stick him in a mixed population prison where it could spread even further. His shaking hooves actually brought him comfort as he sat up in the icy bunk and waited for the fever to set in. Revenge would be slow in coming but when it did arrive, it would surely bring the filth in this city to their knees.

A rattle outside his cell brough the goat back to the present. He opened his eyes and took a deep breath to try and calm the shakes that wracked his body. Outside of the bars he saw a wide, uniformed rhino with a short, thick horn rattle the keys in the lock. A loud thunk later and the cell door slowly slid open. The rhino stepped inside and ordered the goat to stand with his muzzle to the wall and his hooves on his head. He did as ordered, but made sure to cough loudly into his hooves before complying.

Taking each of the goat's hooves in turn, the large police mammal pulled them behind his back and cuffed them together. With the smaller mammal properly cuffed, the rhino led him through the open door and into the hall.

The goat was led through the short cell block, past a much larger public holding cell and around several corners before they arrived at an open, steel door where a large, white bear waited. He was rudely shoved inside a room that was roughly twice the size of his previous cell and far, far smaller than his new, fourth floor office. Inside the room sat a single, steel table surrounded by three chairs. Two chairs sat on one side of the table while a single chair sat alone on the other. He was unceremoniously plopped onto the lone chair and his cuffs were removed. Then the large mammal, with his ugly, single horn, left quietly, shutting the door.

"Fine, I'll just wait here," Dr. William Walia yelled at the closed door. He turned to look at his own reflection in the silver mirror that seemed to fill the wall in front of him. His muzzle was dirty and unkempt and he looked like he had spent the night sleeping in a trash pile. The clean, white, doctor's coat was gone, along with the bright green tie that his wife had given him for the holidays many years ago. One of the sleeves on his shirt was torn by some kind of sharp claw and several buttons were missing from the plaid sweater vest that he wore over it.

He tugged at the sweater, trying to straighten up his appearance as well as ran his hoof through the fur on top of his head. Turning his head to the side he slid his hooves down the length of his extremely long, crescent horns to ensure they were still firmly in place. Not that an ibex's horns were ever out of place, or ever chipped. They were a goat's pride and joy and the larger horns were almost a status symbol amongst many prey species.

With his vanity back in place, he folded his paws across the table and waited. He knew someone would come to see him soon, so he waited calmly for them to arrive. Hours seemed to pass as he continued to stare at his own reflection, not that it was such a terrible sight to behold, but the shaking had returned quickly. Taking slow, deep breaths did little to calm the nerves and only seemed to cause his heart to race even faster.

"Where are they?" he asked, rising from the chair. He walked over to the mirror and knocked on the glass politely. "Hey, is anyone here?" When no response came, he walked over to the door, "Fine, I'll just let myself out then." But the handle would not budge. He twisted and pulled and even put his hind hoof on the wall and tugged at the handle with both arms, yet it, and the door did not move even a hair's breadth.

Giving a loud grunt, he conceded defeat to the door and returned to the table where he once again sat on the single chair. "Dam cops," he thought, "Inters, all of them." The city was filled with that kind of scum and depravity, all the way up to the highest levels of society.

How could any self-respecting mammal even think of dallying with another species? It was utterly disgusting, even unthinkable. Yet so many couples these days entered his office paw in paw with another species. His job required that he treat them all with kindness and listen to their horrific stories of how they had fallen in love. Stories of how they wanted to start a family. They were all looking for answers, but of course he had none for them.

Of course, if they had enough money he would refer them to that filthy hybrid and her disgusting research wing, but most he would just turn away. He always kept their names in a little address book for use later. They would regret their life choices sooner or later, this city and even life itself was not kind to mammals who strayed from the path of purity.

Inter's were a disease, a horrible blight on the city. They would all learn the error of their ways, that the mixing of species could only lead to heartache and pain. Such a pairing could never produce any offspring and those that somehow managed to defy nature, ended up sick or horribly malformed.

Worse, were those delusioned couples who thought that pred and prey could ever live peacefully together. Shaking his head in disgust, images of such couples filled his mind. How could anyone lay beside a filthy creature that could so easily rip you to shreds in their sleep and fed off the flesh of living animals to survive?

Preds clearly had no feelings, they were simply nothing more than vicious monsters allowed to walk the streets of this fair city, just waiting to rip out the heart of their unsuspecting prey. They didn't need those sharp teeth and claws to hurt you, only words, spoken by sharp tongues and cold hearts. Yes, filthy preds could not love and did not deserve to be loved in return.

The mammals of this city would eventually learn how wrong they were to think that the lesser species could live and work and love together in peace. After Cindy left his life, he swore to help the city learn that lesson, that no more mammals would be hurt by making the wrong choices. This society encouraged mammals to make those choices and it needed to be shown the error of its ways.

In prison, he would have to find a new strategy, the plan was already spreading, it would just take a little longer. There was little the city could do about it now, but if he kept quiet long enough, it just might have the chance to succeed.

As his mind drifted off, he was unaware of the smug grin that smiled back at him from his reflection in the mirror. He was also quite oblivious to how much his own reflection was moving its lips while he relived the plan in his mind.

"Does he even realize we're recording this?" the small, uniformed rabbit asked. She was standing in a dark room, looking through a large window at the agitated and nervous goat. Behind her, was a corner desk filled with electronic equipment and a small, tan bear operator. To her left, stood a tall, grey wolf that seemed to almost be growling at the goat on the other side of the glass.

"Krumpanski said that he has been mumbling to himself like this since he woke in his cell a few hours ago." Judy looked up at the taller officer, puzzled. "What do you think is wrong with this guy?"

"Do you see those shaking hooves?" Wolfard asked and the rabbit nodded. "He is probably coming down pretty hard from whatever drugs he has been taking."

Most of what the goat was muttering, was at such a low volume that it could barely be heard over a whisper, but with the recording equipment's enhancements they were able to make out about half of what he had uttered. What little they could make out, was very speciest and derogatory. The comments about preds as soulless monsters had really set the wolf on edge.

"I have heard enough of this rambling," the wolf stepped away from the window. Opening the small, dark room's only door, he flooded the room with light, causing the rabbit to blink several times. She grabbed a folder filled with files and followed the wolf out of the door.

The tall goat seemed to stutter for a moment as the wolf casually waltzed through the previously sealed door. He shifted in his seat and ran a hoof down the length of a horn. Leaning back in the chair, he folded both hooves on the table and waited for the questions to begin.

His calm, outward demeanor was shattered when the small rabbit followed the wolf in with a paw full of files. He blinked twice and wrung his hooves together as the pair of cops sat in the two chairs across the table from him.

On the outside, they appeared to be calm and collected, however, he could tell that the rabbit was holding back a raging ball of fury. Curiously, he wondered what it would be like to let that fury loose and watch the cute little rabbit, who played at being a cop, throw a tantrum. She placed the large folder on the table in front of her and began silently thumbing through the files.

The wolf on the other hoof, did little to hide his sharp teeth and claws. His visible snarl did not intimidate the larger goat. He remembered shoving the lupine officer aside like he was nothing more than a sack of toilet paper. The memory of his horns striking the wolf's bulletproof vest felt good and he would not hesitate to do it again.

Minutes passed while neither officer spoke. The rabbit sat reading the files while the wolf eyed him hungrily. His hooves continued to shake from the minor withdrawals and he tried to cover the nervous reaction by keeping them firmly folded on top of the table.

"What is this?" He finally asked, glaring back at the wolf. "Some kind of game?"

Neither officer changed their expression at his words. The rabbit continued to ignore him, while the wolf seemed to be drooling.

"This is no game, Mr. Walia," Wolfard finally replied coldly.

"Doctor. Dr. Walia," the goat corrected, but the wolf ignored him.

"This is all very serious."

"Is that what she told you?" the doctor scoffed in the rabbit's direction. "That she was serious."

Wolfard tilted his head slightly puzzled at their suspect's odd choice of words.

Not noticing the change in the wolf's expression, the goat continued, "I read the papers too you know and I know exactly what this little degenerate has been up to. First with that grubby fox who deserves nothing more than to be locked away. And now you fell for this miniature siren

as well."

The middle aged, grey wolf let his jaw drop slightly at the callous goats accusations. He didn't know what paper the other mammal spoke of, but he hoped that officer Hopps could hold back her emotions long enough to get this intolerable ungulate to tell them what he had done with Nick.

"What did she promise you?," Dr. Walia asked with malice dripping from his jaws. "To cherish you forever, to have and to hold?"

A large, square photo slammed down on the table in front of the goat, causing him to jump slightly. Even with the small, grey paw covering the center of the image, he could easily make out the image of his basement lab. Another photo quickly followed, this one of glass bottles and tubes containing liquids of various colors. The rabbit laid several more photos on the table in quick succession, the last one was a large, plastic bag filled with white, powdery pills.

"Why were you stealing experimental medications marked for destruction from the clinic where you work?" the rabbit demanded with a tense, yet hushed voice. The fierce, inward struggle was barely contained within her tiny frame. She wanted nothing more than to leap across the table and strangle the miserable goat and demand that he tell them where Nick was. Holding back her anger, she knew they had to play this game to the end. They needed more than just a confession, they needed answers.

"I don't know what you're talking about," the goat lied. He would not look directly at the rabbit when he answered, or the photos she had laid on the table.

Wolfard, seeing how the goat was avoiding his partner, decided to continue the questions. "How is it, that we found these in your basement," he pointed to an image of a sheet of freshly baked pills in an old oven. "And how is it that all of the numbers on these pills match the ones that your employer has reported as stolen?"

"We noticed that you have a really nice house for a lowly fertility consultant." Judy added, trying to sound impressed.

Scoffing, the goat crossed his arms over his narrow chest, "What? So now you think I am stealing for money?" An idea suddenly crossed his mind and he decided to run with it, "All right, you got me. I have this huge gambling debt and this sheep promised to hurt my family if I didn't pay him what I owe."

Playing along with the doctor's lie Wolfard asked, "What's the sheep's name?"

"What?" Dr. Walia asked nervously.

The wolf leaned on the table and raised his voice slightly, "What is the sheep's name? We would like to speak with him, especially if he can convince an upstanding citizen like yourself to steal drugs from your employer." The wolf's sarcasm filled the room like a thick fog.

"Jesse," the goat mumbled quickly.

Judy's ears perked up and she gently kicked the wolf under the table, "What did you say?"

Seeing the rabbits sudden interest in the name, the goat realized he may have said too much and quickly decided to change the story, "Um, Jack. Yeah the bookie's name is Jack Coatsmith." He nodded his head furiously, hoping the dumb, tiny cop would buy his lies.

"No, I clearly heard you say, Jesse," she stood and slammed another image on the table. "Now, cut the rotten cabbages and tell us what's really going on here." Pointing to the new image of what looked like a cross section of a jawbreaker candy with tiny, miniature aliens at its center, she confronted the goat, "These drugs you were stealing were designed for a very specific purpose and will cause serious harm if taken by the wrong mammals. Now, why were you distributing them so cheaply? You clearly weren't in it for a profit."

Leaning on the table, the goat doctor glared back at the rabbit. "You think you're so smart? You think you have it all figured out, do ya? Well, you are simply part of the problem, both of you."

"What problem is that?" Wolfard asked in a friendly, curious tone trying to get the doctor on his side.

Shaking his head, he slowly answered the wolf's question, "This city is infected. A social disease is running rampant through our parks and streets and schools. It has even infected the highest levels of government."

At the word 'schools,' the wolf reached into a large pouch at his side and pulled out a small, yet complex device and placed it on the table. It was an old style cell phone, with a rounded case and 12 plastic, numbered keys for dialing. The back of the phone case had been removed and a large, green circuit board had been attached. On the board was a large, digital clock display and several colored wires stuck out in various directions.

"Do you know what this is?" Wolfard asked.

Without a second thought the goat replied, "It's an analog radio receiver and deto..." Before he could complete the word 'detonator,' Dr. Walia quickly shut his mouth to rephrase his answer, "Nope I have no idea what that is. It looks complicated though."

"Is this part of the cure?" the wolf growled. He pulled out a long, metal pipe from the same pouch where he had grabbed the other device. The pipe looked like it had come from the typical plumbing aisle in any hardware store. A solid looking cap was screwed tightly on each end of the pipe with a pair of wires coming out of each cap. The whole thing smelled strongly of gasoline and fertilizer. "Was blowing up a school full of children part of your plan too?"

Backing away slightly, the goat put up his paws. "I didn't," he cried.

"These devices were also all over your basement, Mr. Walia." The wolf argued as the goat shook his head in denial. "Since none of these are yours, I guess you won't mind if I just attach these red and blue wires here and here." Wolfard twisted the matching wires together completing the circuit.

"What are you doing? You idiot," the goat nearly screamed and the rabbit looked on casually, like she was only taking a quiet stroll on a warm sunny day.

"And you won't care if I happen to also push this button," the large grey wolf pressed a small, black square sitting next to the digital display.

As red bars appeared on the clock showing the numbers 00:15, the goat leapt from his chair and ran into the corner of the room to watch the bomb in horror. "What the hell have you done?" he screamed.

The wolf tilted his head curiously at the terrified goat while the rabbit ignored them both as she continued to read the files in front of her. "Why don't you tell me?" Wolfard asked.

The numbers on the small device quickly counted down. "Do something. You will kill us all," the goat screamed. As they neared zero he looked around the room for any cover from his impending doom. He spotted only one safe place in the room and dove under the solid, steel table and put his shaking hooves over his head.

A few seconds later he heard a loud hiss followed by a not so subtle pop that reminded him of a child's firecracker. Before he could scramble from under the table, the door opened and in walked an angry looking reindeer in a dark, business suit.

This new mammal spoke clearly and firmly as he addressed the cops, "Officers Wolfard and Hopps, I am ordering you to stop harassing my client this instant."

"And who are you exactly?" Wolfard asked the tall, skinny mammal.

"My name is Ryan Wade. I am Mr. Wailah's lawyer and I will make sure that your superiors hear of this misconduct." The formal reindeer pulled out a business card from his breast pocket and handed it firmly to the wolf. "Now, I would like to confer with my client in private before you ask him any more questions."

"Sure, we could take a quick lunch break while you speak with your client." Judy stated with an imitation of cheer as she collected her files and photos.

Climbing out from under the table, Dr. Walia looked at the rabbit with a hint of hope in his eyes, "Lunch, I would really like some lunch too."

"If you need to eat, Officer Krumpanski will be more than happy to return you to your cell Mr. Walia," she said flatly.

"That won't be necessary, will it Mr. Wailah," the reindeer asked with a nod prompting the goat not to answer. "Also take this child's toy with you," he waved his hoof over the fake bomb as Wolfard stood to leave.

Before the pair of cops left the room, the tall lawyer pointed up to a small recording device in the corner of the room near the ceiling, "And turn that damn thing off while I speak with my client."

"Of course," Wolfard said with a grin. He flipped a switch behind the device before heading to the door. He then quietly closed it behind him, leaving the two ungulates alone in the interrogation room.

"I get a very odd feeling from that guy," Judy declared to her partner while they walked down the hall to the next door. "He really doesn't sound like a lawyer to me."

"I know what you mean," the wolf replied. "Did you hear how he seemed to deliberately mispronounce our goat's name?"

"Yeah, 'Wailah'. What kind of dialect is that?" the rabbit agreed. "Sounds like he was saying 'whaler'"

"Also this business card was printed very recently." He ran his thumb over the card to see the fresh ink smear across the white surface. "We should keep an eye on him while he is here." Wolfard opened the door to the viewing room and stepped inside and flicked a switch on a large camera that was sitting on a tripod facing the window. "He only asked me to turn off the cameras in the interrogation room but never said anything about this one."

"Sly wolf," Judy said with a smirk. This gruff, old wolf was growing on her and was starting to remind her of a certain fox. Her mind drifted back to the last night that she had seen her red furred companion and a soft tear ran down her cheek. She wanted to curl up in her bed with a certain plushie and cry til the pillows were soaked, but instead, she balled her paws into tiny fists and turned to watch the goat and his conveniently timed rescuer. What she saw was not the usual gratitude that she had expected.

"Who are you?" the goat demanded. "Did she send you?"

"Hush, Doctor," the lawyer said, holding his hoof up, with his digits spread apart. "I am here to protect my client's interest. And to make sure that you remain silent. It is your right and I'm going to enforce that right by any means necessary."

Judy turned to the wolf beside her, "Did he just threaten our suspect?"

Wolfard looked down at the ZPD's smallest and also the brightest it seemed, officer, "I am not entirely sure. He is extremely shady that's for sure, but shady is the norm for most lawyers that I have had the displeasure of working with."

"I doubt we will be able to get a confession out of him now." Judy tugged on one of her ears that had somehow flopped forward in her eyes.

"We don't need a confession from this guy," Wolfard nodded thoughtfully. "He is guilty in more ways than I can count, the evidence in his house links him to several crimes, but having the confession will hammer home all the nails in his coffin. Instead, lets focus on getting Officer Wilde's location out of him."

Minutes passed as the two officers watched the shifty lawyer explain how to answer any of the cop's further questions. The goat already assumed that he was going to go to prison, but the reindeer assured him that the rest of his life would be much more comfortable if he just kept his big mouth shut.

After several more threats fell from the tall deer's lips, Judy's phone rang. "Hello," she said, swiping her paw across the screen. "Yes, this is Officer Hopps," her voice had a curious tone and her ears slowly rose. Suddenly the ears stood straight up and a smile crossed her muzzle, "That's great, we will be right up."

"What was that?" Wolfard inquired.

"That," she said cheerfully while pocketing her iCarrot, "Was Ray Spiterson, up in the tech lab. He has some more information about our goat over there."

The wolf nodded at the rabbit and looked back through the window as their suspect and his lawyer continued to argue. "Those two certainly aren't going anywhere. Let's go find out what Ray has for us."

Both officers quietly left the viewing room and headed for the elevator. A short trip later, they found themselves wandering the twisting halls of Precinct 1's tech labs. The hall itself looked exactly the same as the rest of the ZPD, with the beige walls and ugly, green carpet. However, instead of the usually uniformed officers, Judy and Wolfard found the hallway crawling with nerdy looking college students in long, white lab coats.

When they turned one of the many twisting corners, they found a tall, young llama wearing just such a coat waiting for them. He carried several files jumbled together in his hooves and seemed anxious to explain their contents to the two officers.

"Oh, great, you're here," the llama said anxiously.

Both officers addressed the lab tech before following him down the hall towards what they hoped was his office. The office turned lab, would have been clean and neat except for the piles of coffee stained reports, multiple computers in various states of disassembly and more piles of electronic parts than either officer had ever seen before, scattered all over the room. On one wall, high above the clutter was a clean and orderly shelf that held various comic book figurines.

"I've got good news and bad news," Ray said as he turned around and held up the messy bundle of files in his hooves. "Which do you guys want to hear first?"

"Good." Wolfard chose at exactly the same time the small rabbit at his side yelled, "Bad!"

Puzzled, the llama turned his fluffy head back and forth between them. The anxiety on his muzzle grew as he waited for the two officers to make up their minds.

Judy glared teasingly up at her much taller partner for a few seconds before the wolf replied, "Ladies first, I guess." He waved his paw in her direction like a gentlemammal conceding the point in a debate.

"Yes," the rabbit seemed to say as she pumped a small fist and gave a little hop. After a second, she calmed her excitement and turned back to the lab tech. "All right, what is this 'bad' news you have for us?"

The llama's eyes had trouble focusing on the rabbit for a second, "Oh right, the bad news." Tapping the folder in his hoof on the end of his muzzle, he looked up at the ceiling for a second, "What was the bad news again? The truck, er SUV."

"What about the SUV?" Judy asked, encouraging the young llama to get to the point.

"The goat suspect you have downstairs," Ray started to explain.

"Dr. Walia," Wolfard affirmed.

"Yes, Walia," the llama rolled the name around on his tongue like he was tasting a new flavor of ice cream. After another glare from the rabbit he continued, "Well, we went through the vehicle this Walia was driving and found a bunch of groceries."

"Groceries," the wolf detective tilted his head in puzzlement.

"Yeah, grocery bags from various drugstores, thrown all over the back seat. They were filled with empty cans of baby formula, empty jugs of antifreeze, broken light bulbs and several brands of decongestant."

"That almost sounds a lot like your addict's shopping list, Hopps," Wolfard commented to the smaller officer.

"Yep. Like a shopping cart full of junk. Why would he keep the empty cans and bottles in his SUV though?" She tapped the end of her muzzle thoughtfully before turning back to the llama lab tech, "What part of this is bad news?"

"The bad news is that there was so much mixed fur on the seats of the vehicle that it could take us months to go through it all and identify any accomplices."

"Or foxes," Judy cut him off.

"Foxes?" Ray asked puzzle.

Wolfard lifted his chin and looked directly at the young lab tech, "We think our goat abducted Officer Wilde a few nights ago."

Realization seemed to dawn on the llama's face as he frantically fumbled through the stack of papers in his hooves. "Ah, here it is," he stated pulling a file from the folder. "The sniffer assigned to the vehicle wrote that she found a strong scent of fox on the seats. She states that it could only have been a few days old."

"And with Nick's scent in our goat's laundry, this confirms that he was the one who took my partner," Judy exclaimed. "Can you tell us where the SUV was three nights ago?"

"Unfortunately, that is the other piece of bad news I have." The white coated llama flipped through several more files before speaking again, "It seems that someone removed all GPS features from the vehicle, especially the one that records the vehicle's location while it's moving. So we can't tell where the vehicle went that night."

The rabbit seemed to deflate at the news. They now knew who took the fox, but they still didn't know where he was. And with the lawyer now defending the crazy goat, it was going to be extremely difficult getting the information out of him. She let out a little sigh and her ears fell behind her head.

"Didn't you say you had some good news for us, Ray?" Wolfard asked not seeing the disheartened look on the sad bun beside him.

"Oh, right," The llama seemed to spring into action again and ran over to one of his many computers and started frantically typing away at the keyboard while he spoke 90 miles an hour. "We managed to get a hold of your suspect's phone. It's a real doozy, let me tell you." He waved his hoof in the direction of his work bench where a disassembled smart phone sat among other electronic parts. "This newer model has a feature that stores its GPS location every few minutes even if it's turned off and we were able to get a list of addresses where the phone has been over the last few months. I managed to cross reference these with open cases and compiled a comprehensive list. Then I put those times and addresses into the traffic cam database before I came up with some very disturbing evidence. This goat has been a VERY bad mammal."

On the computer screen before them, appeared a dozen shots of the goat's black and green SUV driving the streets of Zootopia with the times and addresses printed at the bottom of each image.

"I know that one," Wolfard remarked as he pointed to the image of the vehicle driving through a nice neighborhood near sunset. "That is near Palm Court, and the time," he squinted to read the small print on the screen. "Eight thirty-five!"

"Hey, didn't the medical examiner say the gazelle's time of death was around eight P.M.?"

"Yep, the goat was definitely in the area when she was murdered."

Judy hopped on the cluttered desk and pointed at another image, "That one is a block from the Lemuris Middle School and only minutes before we got the call for the bomb threat."

"And here, this one in the middle. Isn't that the break-in that Sargent Higgins was investigating?" Wolfard added.

"Wait, that's him coming out of the research clinic the night his office was broken into." The rabbit scrunched up her muzzle and tugged on an ear, "He broke into his own office?"

"Criminals come in all kinds, Hopps." The wolf assured, "Mammals will even burn down their own homes and businesses for the insurance money they think they will get."

As the two officers discussed the new evidence, the llama continued to tap away at the keys. "Unfortunately we don't have any traffic video of the goat's vehicle from the night your partner was abducted. All I have are these few addresses." He pulled up the list and printed it to a sheet of paper.

Judy snatched the list from the lab tech's hoof and began scanning through the names and numbers. She pointed at one near the middle of the sheet, "That is the location of the pub where Finnick said he met Nick, but I don't recognize this one." Lifting the page she showed it to the wolf.

Wolfard leaned over and to glance at the address under the rabbit's finger. He thought for a second before replying, "That looks like the intersection near where they found your small, fox friend in his ruined van."

The next address on the list caused Judy's eyes to bulge out of their sockets and her paw leapt to cover her wide open muzzle. It took the rabbit a few moments to recover from her shock before she turned back to the llama, "What can you tell us about this address, 1221 Hammington Drive?"

"Let me check," Ray swiftly tapped at a few more keys before replying. "It's an old, boarded up, tailor shop that is attached to the back of a large warehouse. The warehouse has been broken into several times over the last decade and was recently raided by the ZPD. It seems that several gangs have set up shop there over the years."

"What's so special about that place," Wolfard queried.

"Nick and I staked out that place when we first started this drug case," Judy said softly, her thoughts drifted back to the first day they had caught the strung out wolf and the night she spent in the squad car with her foxy partner. She remembered how she had fallen asleep on duty only to wake with her head in his lap. Shaking the dreams from her head, she continued her tale, "We never saw anything that evening, but a few days later we spotted a goat selling drugs from a different location down the block. The address there was 1212 so we guessed that the addict had flipped the numbers."

"Makes sense," the wolf replied, rubbing his chin.

Ray turned around in his swivel chair to address the two officers, "From what we could pull off the phone, it looks like your goat spent over an hour there that night before going home."

Nodding thoughtfully, Wolfard said, "And we know that Nick wasn't at the goat's house so he might have dumped him at this warehouse."

"You said it used to be a gang hideout?" Judy asked the llama tech.

"Yes, it comes up in the ZPD database multiple times for gang related activity and arrests."

"Maybe a new gang has moved in? One that our goat seems to know," the rabbit's nose started to twitch and her ears rotated, trying to pick up the tiniest of sounds in the room.

The wolf lowered his head to look down at the small rabbit. He placed his paws on his knees and leaned down slightly, "We might be able to convince Bogo to arrange for a squad to raid the building, but we are going to need actual confirmation from this goat first."

Judy's small, pink nose twitched furiously and her ears stood straight above her head. Her amethyst eyes took on a crimson tinge and her muzzle curled back in a snarl that the wolf had never seen before on such a small animal. "I think I have an idea," she declared, holding out her paw for the files the llama was still carrying. "Do we have a photo of that warehouse around here somewhere?"

The small, grey room smelled of stale sweat and cheap cologne. Two mammals occupied the room, a large goat with long crescent horns and a tall reindeer in a formal suit. The former smelled like he hadn't slept in days while the later somehow seemed more dangerous than his typically timid species would suggest.

A sneer planted firmly on his muzzle, the goat sat in a cold chair in front of a large, steel table, The table had a large metal loop sticking through the center and was severely dented in one corner. Gouges and scratches covered most of its once polished surface and the goat kept his twitching hooves folded on top of the table, giving the pretense of calm, despite the inner battle he fought with his raging emotions.

Pacing the tile floor behind the goat, the reindeer grit his teeth. He clenched his hooves together repeatedly, like he was squeezing a rubber exercise ball in each one. Stopping mid stride, he turned to look at the seated goat and spoke firmly, "Let me make this clear, you do not have to answer any of their questions, and the more you open that damn mouth, the deeper you will dig your own grave. So I suggest you keep it shut."

"I don't give a ..." the goat was about to say as the room's door quickly opened and a uniformed wolf strutted in and sat across the table opposite the goat. He wore a smile on his muzzle that seemed to say that he knew what the goat was thinking and shouldn't bother hiding anything from him.

Following the wolf, was a small, grey, rabbit officer carrying a folder full of files. The rabbit's ears stood straight up and her eyes seemed to glow with crimson fury. Her lips curled back in a snarl revealing her large, buck teeth and her claws seemed to tear at the manilla folder in her paws.

The goat was almost glad to see the diminutive creature let go of the fury she had tried to contain earlier. He tried not to giggle as she stormed into the room and mounted the large chair in front of him.

"Where is the fox?!" All of the rabbit's anger and hatred were directed at the goat across the table as she slammed the folder onto the scratched and dented surface. The sound of her voice echoed around the room causing Dr. William Walia to jump and his lawyer lifted his muzzle in mild surprise.

"Did she actually growl?" William thought, before he spoke. "What fox?" As the words left his muzzle, a sharp hoof gently landed on his shoulder and squeezed. The sudden pain in his shoulder was so intense he could not speak or gasp for breath, he simply stared at the rabbit in shock. As suddenly as the sharp pain wracked his body it fled, leaving his arm numb and tingly. He looked down to see the reindeer's hoof leave his shoulder as the lawyer took the final seat next to him. "I don't know what you're talking about," William finally said with a straight face.

Judy pulled out a picture that showed several images of the same SUV taken from different angles and times.

"What is all this?" The lawyer asked, snatching the colorless collage from the table.

Wolfard sat up straight in his chair and answered the reindeer's question. "On top of the physical evidence we found in Mr. Walia's basement, we have photographic proof that he was present at 6 different crime scenes."

"These are nothing more than random traffic images," Ryan Wade scoffed, throwing the photo back on the table.

"Each and every one places him driving his vehicle only minutes from a serious crime." Wolfard calmly pointed to each image in turn, "Breaking and entering, theft of experimental drugs, bomb threat on a public school and murder, shall I go on, Mr. Wade?" The wolf's eyes narrowed, "Your client is going to go away for a very long time whether he speaks or not, but maybe if he cooperates with us today we can work something out."

The deer looked over at the goat calmly, but the goat only shook his head. Turning back to the police officer in front of him, he replied as if thick, crude oil spilled from his lips, "I don't think that would be in my client's best interest right now." He gave the wolf a wink and a dark smirk, "Like you said, he is going away for a long time no matter what he says."

"I am not going to ask this again. Where is the fox?" The rabbit's fury was such that her sharp black claws gouged tiny scratches in the well worn table. "What did you do with him?"

"I really do not know what fox you are talking about." The goat said with a shrug.

"Well let me spell it out to you then." Judy leaned across the table glaring at the goat. "His name is Nicolas Wilde and he is an officer of the ZPD. Officer Wilde was viciously abducted from his friend's van three nights ago."

"What does this have to do with me?" William shrugged again.

Wolfard leaned in as the rabbit growled, "We found his scent on your clothes and all over the front seat of your vehicle. So we know you were with him that night."

"Ok, I may have picked up a hitchhiker that night. I didn't know who he was. I was just trying to help a mammal out, you know?"

"In Happy Town? You sure like taking risks for a well respected doctor." The wolf snickered.

"I don't think that is what happened at all," the snarling bunny declared. "What I think happened was that you spotted him during one of your drug deals and you knew that he was a cop. Then, when you found out that he was following you, you arranged for an accident to happen that drove the small, orange van off the road."

"That's not ..." the goat tried to interrupt.

Holding up her small paw she silenced his objections, "Let me finish. You saw that he was still alive and knew that he would give away your identity."

"I didn't," he interrupted again.

A small fist slammed onto the cold, steel table causing the goat to jump again, "I said let me finish." With the goat silenced again, Judy continued, "You saw that he was still alive so you took him and threw him into your vehicle and started driving away. Not sure what to do, your mind started racing trying to think of your next move. When you drove past the river, you knew what you had to do."

The goat shook his head and opened his muzzle, but with a glare from the angry bunny he shut it again.

Judy continued, firmly laying out what the goat may have done with her fox, "At the edge of the river you hauled Officer Wilde's body to the bank, but you saw that he was still moving so you hit him on the head with a rock til he stopped. With his blood covering your hooves, you threw him into the river and watched as his red fur floated away."

"That makes two counts of murder dosen't it, Officer Hopps?" Wolfard asked.

A loud chortle escaped from the reindeer's muzzle, "Where do you two get these wild stories? You should become television authors. That tale would make for a really good thriller." The goat did not seem so amused, but sat back in his chair with a look of horror on his muzzle.

"I didn't kill the f-, agh," Dr. Walia cried out in pain as once again the reindeer clenched at his pressure point.

"Then what did you do with him?" the rabbit demanded, she was fully standing on the table now, her muzzle mere inches from the goat.

"Don't," the lawyer cautioned.

"Fine," Judy declared with her ears pointed at the ceiling as she turned around and walked back across the table. From the folder, she pulled a large photo and laid it in front of the goat. It was the image of an old, condemned warehouse with a small storefront attached to one side. Trash and litter filled the streets and several layers of pamphlets, posters and old graffiti covered the walls, with most of them torn away by years of wind.

"What? How did you get this?" the goat asked. He pushed the photo away with a shaky hoof.

"You were seen at this warehouse the night of the abduction," the wolf added.

"That's not possible, no one knew about this except," William turned to the reindeer at his side. "You! She did this didn't she? You're going to regret this!"

"I would like to request a break," the reindeer declared. "My client is obviously delusional and is in no condition to answer any more questions today."

Judy's rage and anger completely evaporated and she smiled back at the lawyer, "That's fine, we got everything we needed from him." She quickly packed up her files and stuffed them back into their folder and left the room with the wolf in tow.

With Wolfard's large paw clasped in her own she dragged him down the hall. "Hey, slow down, Hopps," he called to her trying not to lose his arm to the enthusiastic rabbit.

"Hurry up you old wolf," she exclaimed. "We have to tell Bogo!"

[A/N] I have been dealing with a serious case of writers block for about two weeks now and was not able to finish the story properly so my editor suggested I post what I have for now. I honestly have been so distracted with life and work I really do not know when I will be able to finish. Hopefully I will be able to get the final chapter written in two weeks but I just dont know when or where I will be able to dig up the motivation to continue, it may be much longer. So I am going to apologize now so you guys are not wondering what happened to me. Most of the reason is that work is picking up again and making it hard to concentrate on Zootopia, but another part you can blame a certain anthropomorphic anime that I have started watching. I bet that you all know which one i'm referring too, but I will not mention the name here. Let's just say that I have found myself completely obsessed with the show, almost as much as I have been over Zootopia, and for the sake of the story let's hope that I'm not tumbling down this rabbit hole for another 4 years ;)

Distraction is my major flaw with getting this story completed in a timely manner so I hope you all understand. I will try to keep plugging away but I am not going to make any promises at this point. I would rather put out a quality update, than to force one that my heart is not really in because of deadlines or schedules. Sometimes I am able to get past this funk in a few days, some times it takes months. Please be patient, I am just as anxious to find out how this story ends all of you are.

Thank you so much for reading this story and sticking with me for the three years that I have been working on it!