Zootopia: ZPD Mysteries - Case #1: The Blackout at Steel Mountain Manor

Chapter 8: Trapped Like Rats

As soon as Nick had led Judy a ways into the crowd, she began to ask him questions.

"What's going on, Nick?" she asked, a little nervous as to what might be happening. "I haven't seen you this anxious to talk with me since that time back in the Canyonlands and you had knocked over that gasoline barrel."

"I'd rather not remember that," Nick said sheepishly. It was actually Finnick's fault the gasoline had been spilled, now that he thought about it.

However, Nick wanted to get Carrots off the subject of the Gasoline Incident that resulted in the demise of Finnick's newly-bought Catston Martin, and onto the real issue at hand.

"Carrots," he said, nodding to the occupant of the stage, "do you notice anything weird about Dr. Killdeer?"

Judy managed to catch a glimpse of Dr. Killdeer, who stood atop the stage and was continuing to assure the guests that there was nothing to panic over.

"I can't see anything different about him," Judy said, missing Nick's supposed point.

"Carrots," Nick said, discreetly pointing to Dr. Killdeer, "one of his antlers is crooked!"

Judy stared, squinting her deep violet eyes to see whatever it was that Nick had discerned about Dr. Killdeer's antlers. To her, they looked no different: they were still the tannish-white, almost skeletal-looking antlers of a typical, healthy, strong male elk.

"I don't see it," she said. "Maybe your eyes are tired," she suggested.

But Nick shook his head.

"I'm telling you, his right antler is crooked," he affirmed. He then proceeded to reach into his pocket and dig out his phone, scrolling through the many photos in his gallery.

After scrolling through countless selfies, funny moments with Finnick in the van and downloaded memes from the internet, Nick finally stopped at the photo from Judy's promotion.

"Take a look at this," Nick said, holding his phone up for Judy to inspect. In the photo, Chief Bogo towered next to Judy, a fatherly smile on his face as he put his hoof on her shoulder as she, dumbstruck, held up her new badge, displayed in a wooden box, for all the world to see.

As she looked at the photo, Judy cringed slightly.

"Chief Bogo blinked when the flash went off," she moaned. "The chief's not going to be all that happy about it if you show this photo around."

Nick rolled his eyes and pointed to Dr. Killdeer, who was standing off to Bogo's left, perhaps, for the first time, paying attention to the crowd and not to whatever technology he had on his phone.

"Look at his antlers!" Nick said, getting more excited by the minute. "They're both straight here!"

As he continued his explanation, part of the crowd began to move, and a particularly large wildebeest decided at long last to step out of the way. From there, Judy had a clear view of Dr. Killdeer on the stage.

For a second, she thought she was seeing things.

No.

She wasn't seeing things.

Indeed, Dr. Philip Killdeer's right antler was bent at a thirty-five-degree angle, and was also slightly twisted, like he'd knocked into something with it.