Chapter #4Hunting for cows in the most unlikely of places by: blader   “The only cases at the moment are small time things, as cops we usually like things to be peaceful Judy, and I’m sure Fangmeyer and Wolford will love having your help. Clauhauser will give you a copy of the case file, dismissed,” Bogo replied waving Judy unceremoniously out of his office. Scooping up the cases on his desk as Judy turned to leave he pretended to sort them, but simply held them in front of him out of sight as Judy left, the door closing with an audible click behind her. Sighing in relief, he returned to his desk and fanned the cases out before him “homicide, drug bust, kidnapping” were just a few of the titles on the cases that lay before him. Judy was good but if she did not take a break every once in a while than she would be liable to jump into a situation she could not get out of and Bogo while hard on his officers knew that protecting them was also part of his job as police chief. He began to mutter to himself as he looked over the case files, assigning and re-assigning officers, his door opening minutes seconds later. He quickly hid the cases, behind his back as he looked up to see Fangmeyer and Wolford standing in the doorway, the large female Bengal Tiger and gray wolf looking nervous as they walked in together. “Chief there’s something we need to talk about,” Wolford began; Chief Bogo returned the case files to his desk as he prepared to hear what they wanted. As Wolford finished Bogo heaved a great sigh as he rubbed at his eyes, a slight migraine setting in “go find Officer Hopps and let her know there’s been a change, dismissed.”
Down on the precinct floor Judy raced in and out of the legs of her fellow officers as she took ran from Chief Bogo’s office to Clauhauser’s desk down in the reception area.
“Clauhauser, Clauhauser” she exclaimed as she neared the pudgy cheetah’s desk. Clauhauser pulled his face out of a box of donuts long enough to look all around in an attempt to find the source of the voice before finally glancing down and seeing Judy standing there, the action getting a small eye-roll and an amused smirk from Judy as he really should have known it was her calling by now.
“Oh, hey Judy, what do you need?” Clauhauser asked, leaning over the desk, arms lowering to support his larger head. Judy could not help but smile as she saw Clauhauser, the cheetah’s ease of conversation made things a lot easier and he was always good for a laugh.
“Chief Bogo wants me to take a look at the Hugh Mann case, you wouldn’t happen to have the file would you?” Judy replied, leaping up to the counter she held herself up with her forearms, her feet kicking expectantly beneath her as she waited for Clauhauser to retrieve the file.
“Oh yeah, I’ve got it right here, but I’m surprised that Chief Bogo had you assigned to that case, I thought Fangmeyer and Wolford were already on it.” Clauhauser replied as he brought out a manila folder that was much more substantial than the last one she had to work with. Carefully taking it Judy began quickly skimming it, it listed was all the information she had seen in the record Chief Bogo had, birth date, age, gender, the usual pieces of information. However much more relevant information was also listed, last known sightings, possible aliases, and interestingly enough there was a small sheet of records pertaining to his stay in the Tundra Town Institute.
Pulling the sheets from the folder to examine those several pieces of information quickly stood out to Judy. Several incidents with Hugh during his stay had been recorded, despite the facilities security he had somehow smuggled in contraband though all of it was technological in nature. Computer equipment, wiring, and other electronic paraphernalia, when examined no one could figure out what he would have used the items for, it all would have been useless in an escape and Hugh like most criminals did not volunteer the information when asked. What caught her eye most was a small footnote attached to the sheets written as if someone was just scribbling down observations or idle thoughts “ever since Hugh entered the facility our power bills have been skyrocketing, there have been noted spikes in power usage when contraband was located in his cell. As patient cells are devoid of any electrical outlets or other ways to access the electrical grid for their own safety and the continued security of the facility this is a most puzzling fact. When questioned about his having a possible way to access the power grid Hugh was non-cooperative.”
“Thanks Clauhauser I think I have all that I need” Judy said leaping up and placing the folder back onto his desk, the cheetah looking puzzled as she did, she’d had it for only a few minutes at most.
“Judy you only had the file for ten minutes,” he shouted after her as she scampered off towards her desk, his voice incredulous as he could not imagine after Wolford and Fangmeyer had worked for a week Judy had come up with the solution so easily. Shrugging two words came to mind “night howlers,” that had been all that was necessary to blow the Bellwether case open, so who was he to complain. Ever since the Bellwether incident, the ZPD was granted access to “private” but more mundane information regarding the running of Zootopia. From accessing the street cameras scattered across the city to electrical records of individual households, they had access to everything and that access is exactly what Judy needed. Rushing to her computer she quickly signed in, pulling up the electrical database for the city she began a thorough search of the power grid for the past few days, several places came up with spikes in terms of electrical usage.
Most of the hits however could be explained away by cross-referencing major events in the city, the Beaverton Hotel hosted a movie premiere several days before so it was out as the electricity was most likely for floodlights and other devices. Location after location was eliminated in this fashion until only one was left, though Judy groaned as she realized where it was. The criminal never goes far from the crime, and despite escaping from the Tundra Town Institute neither it seems did Hugh. Looking at the electrical records, the only place he could be was an ice cream factory several blocks away. The factory had been shut down after its workers, all cows had begun to practice a belief of “my udders, my choice.” Regretfully this lead to the workers not properly sanitizing their udders nor pasteurizing their milk before it was utilized in the ice cream. This led to the closure of the factory for health reasons after an outbreak of Salmonella was linked to the factory and its practices.
Smiling, as she knew where to look Judy sat back and tried to think about what was going on. Hugh was incarcerated for his belief that there was an entirely different dimension filled with creatures no mammal had ever seen before. Hugh was found on numerous occasions with seemingly random electrical equipment, not even attempting to escape just tinkering with it. As she looked at the electrical readouts, it was obvious that Hugh had been sapping a massive amount of power for...something.
There was only one conclusion that she could come up with, Hugh was crazy enough to try to access this other dimension and bring some of its inhabitants here to Zootopia. She wasn’t sure if he actually had the knowledge to do what he was planning or if this other dimension even existed but she knew that she had to stop him. A self-sure smirk crossing over her features she got up from her chair, just as Fangmeyer and Wolford stepped in front of her cubicle. “Oh, hey Fangmeyer, Wolford” Judy addressed each of them in kind, giving them a slight nod and getting one in return. “Here to work on the Hugh Mann case? I’ve been doing some research and...”
“About that Judy...we’ve made no headway whatsoever so Wolford is going to head back to undercover, and I’m going to be heading back to Swat.” Fangmeyer spoke first inadvertently cutting Judy off. The tigress was perceptive enough to catch Judy’s ears as they drooped for a moment, “hey I’m sure that since you’re on this case it’s handled, we’ll see you around Judy.” Fangmeyer said softly, turning she and Wolford left, the wolf turning and shooting her a small smile before separating from Fangmeyer.
“Come on Judy, you were fine as a cop before Nick showed up, you can do this on your own.” She muttered though her words lacked the conviction she had expected them to have. Stomping her paw her entire demeanor changed, her ears stood tall, she set her eyes forward as she took off for the precinct’s garage, she would catch Hugh then take that vacation, and it had been quite a long time since she had some time off. As she hopped into the seat of her modified cruiser, the roar of the engine shaking her much more than the car she had to admit to herself that Bogo was right, she loved being a cop but a vacation would do her good.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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