The Fire Triangle, A Zootopia Fanfiction -- Part One

The Fire Triangle, A Zootopia Fanfiction -- Part One: Fuel - 78

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—A Zootopia Fanfiction

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Part One:

Fuel

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Chapter 9 – Fire And Mirrors
(Continued...Pt. 5)

"You have GOT to be kidding!"

Nick and Judy stared numbly at the display screen atop Chief Bogo's desk, trying hard to make sense what they had just seen. Nooo...this wasn't possible, was it?

"Again, Swinton," the Cape buffalo intoned grimly, and the image froze for a split second...not that it was easy to tell; there had been no movement for the last few seconds anyway. In fact, the only thing visible in the frame was the door to locker LB6.

Then the image blinked and a tiny change became noticeable; there was now a padlock attached to the door—a hi-tech model with a glowing, blue eye.

Nick and Judy had been surprised to find Claire Swinton here when they'd arrived, and then it had been hard to decide which was more unsettling, the doleful look on her face or the expression worn by Lieutenant Albert Tufts; HE had looked like a kid who'd just caught his elder brother sneaking in after midnight...on a cell-phone cam!

That had been troubling enough, but it hadn't even begun to prepare them for what they'd just witnessed on the pig-cop's laptop computer-screen.

Nick had recognized the material immediately; the surveillance-cam footage from the locker room—taken after Ian Shortal had dropped the money, but before Conor Lewis had arrived to retrieve it.

Or that was what the red-fox had thought he was seeing...until he heard Judy gasp, "Oh, sweet cheez n' crackers!"

"What?" he'd asked, and in response, she had pointed at the laptop's monitor display.

"Look at the time-stamp, Nick!"

He'd looked... and seen that it was 12:28:08, approximately the same time they'd met up with Officer McHorn in front of the alley where Conor had disappeared—in other words, long after he'd picked up the cash.

"Wha...? Why'd the kid lock it up again?" Nick had asked himself aloud—drawing an even haughtier look from Lieutenant Tufts.

The answer to his query had come only a few seconds later—like a sucker-punch to the gut. Nick had felt himself nearly doubling over and if rabbits were capable of puking, Judy Hopps would have lost it all over the floor.

And now, here was that dark moment all over again. From the left side of the screen, Ian Shortal entered the frame, opened the locker and removed the case from the shelf where he'd left it earlier.

Then he closed the door, dropped the padlock into a pocket and walked out of the picture.

For a long moment, nobody spoke...but everyone understood. They'd been played; the show Conor Lewis had made of trying to get the 'money case' to fit into his backpack? That had actually been his laptop computer; the whole thing had been an elaborate charade, a ruse designed to deflect ZPD surveillance team from the fact that the real money-case was still inside the locker, (and to keep anyone from noticing that he'd locked it up again.)