Chapter 7: The Press Conference.

Chief Polaski was standing at a podium covered in microphones, each of which belonged to a different news station, he was going over his notes on what to say to the press and once he was ready he began his opening speech.

"Ladies and Gentlemammals, yesterday at around 11:30 PM, we arrested the known criminal and prison escapee Dawn Bellwether, we also arrested an officer who assisted her in a plot for personal and political gain, an investigation into police corruption is currently under way, this would not have been discovered if not for her partner, Robert Elmore, taking drastic action and uncovering the plot during the chaos caused by Bellwether's new night howler formula in the form of a massive gas cloud, I can confirm that every officer within the warehouse was recovered successfully with only minor injuries, and are on the fast track to recovery as we speak, and finally, a full team of four officers were killed in the incident, they were on our helicopter team and took in a large amount of the night howler gas, this caused them to lose all higher brain function and brought the helicopter down, unfortunately we could not recover any officers from the wreckage as the fuel tank exploded almost immediately, the officers families have been alerted and we are investigating into who is to blame for the gas cloud being created, thank you all and I will now pass you on to the officer who solved the case, Officer Robert Elmore"

Chief Polaski stretched his arm out to introduce Robby, who was still bandaged up from the night before, he didn't have any broken bones but he did fracture two of his ribs, he had also prepared some notes on the case in preparation for the conference. He walked over to the podium and stood onto a stool that had been put there for him so he would be able to reach the microphones and keep eye contact with the crowd of journalists. The journalists shouted franticly to grab Robby's attention, Robby pointed towards a moose working for a local news station.

"Wesley Antlersberg, Zootopia Action News, As the partner of one of the arrested individuals what is your stance on corruption in the police?"

"My stance is that it is completely unacceptable, I won't tolerate it and neither will anyone else in the ZPD, next question please", the mayhem to get a question in began again, Robby pointed towards a honey badger in the very front of the crowd.

"Mary Badgebert, Zootopia gazette, is there a chance that the night howler formula may cause predators to go savage again, and if so will the ZPD and the medical services be prepared in such a situation?"

"There is zero chance that there will be predator attacks again, any and all night howler formula has been recovered and destroyed, and in the very unlikely circumstance that it was to happen the ZPD would be completely prepared to deal with it just as well as they did last night, thank you. I'll take one more question before I leave", once again the struggle to get noticed begins, Robby points towards a cheetah who seemed more desperate than anyone to get a question out.

"Angelica Spotsworth, City News, according to a source who wants to remain unnamed, you, officer, left the building moments before your helicopter team was taken down and your fellow officers were sent into a frenzy, so my question is how do we know you were not also involved in your partners scheme?", Robby glared at the reporter, shocked at their accusations.

"That is ridiculous, I joined the ZPD to help this city, not to convene and plot with criminals to help myself, the mere fact that you are even accusing me of this is insulting and downright ridiculous"

"Is it really that ridiculous though officer? You only recently joined the ZPD, your status as a new officer would mean you could easily be convinced by your peers, it wouldn't be the first time"

"I'm not going to entertain your delusions any further, that was the last question, I'll now hand you over to chief Polaski to take any further questions regarding the future of this case", the cheetah was clearly upset at his avoidance of the question and tried to get his attention back.

"Officer, if you're not guilty of anything than you should have no issues answering the question", Robby walked away from the podium, ignoring the cheetah as he did, the chief gave him a quick pat on the back and took the podium.

"Thank you very much honorable members of the media, officer Elmore has had a very busy week and he doesn't need unwarranted accusations being thrown around after such a stressful night, from this moment further all questions will either be about the case, not involving officer Elmore or they won't be answered, ok first question, you in the front"

Robby walked away from the stage and went straight for the door that led outside, he felt stressed after being accused of being the bad guy after everything he did. Once he got outside and stopped hearing the chaos coming from the press conference coming from inside the city hall, he sat down against a wall and slammed the back of his head against it, and he let out a shout as loud as he could, he knew no one inside could hear him, something inside him was bubbling up, it wasn't the reporter, something deep inside him was coming up, he felt betrayed and broken, it took him a full night but it had finally hit him that his partner betrayed him, she used him for her own gain and even tried to kill him for trying to stop her.

Robby let out a tear, he hadn't cried since he was a child but for some reason this hit him harder than anything he'd experienced in a long time, "GOD DAMN IT" he screamed again, threw himself up and wiped his eyes, he rubbed the back of his head with both hands but it didn't help, he threw a punch at the wall, which hurt… A lot, he then threw himself back to the floor while gripping his hand, "Ouch, ow, ow, ow goddamit, ow", he layed his head back against the wall again.

Just as he did another mammal stepped out of the door that Robby just exited through, it was the cheetah from before, she noticed Robby sitting and tried to avoid eye contact, but she couldn't help but try and get more out of Robby, "Officer Elmore, I know you said you wouldn't be answering any more questions, but you never did answer me"

"You want to know how you can tell if I'm a criminal or not? Is that your question? Are you asking this because you're genuinely wondering, or are you just asking because I'm a swifty, untrustworthy fox?"

"We're all predators officer, I have no bias, just a need to get the truth"

"No, I'm not on Bellwethers side, I left the building to question a perp and then got sent home due to certain revelations that I can't discuss, then the helicopter came down and the gas was released, I went back in at my own risk and discovered Bellwether and Willow discussing their plan and I took them down. That enough for ya?"

"Thank you officer Elmore that was great, you're gonna make the story of the year", the reporter walked away looking smug and starting to make a phone call, Robby stopped feeling sorry for himself and stood back up and also walked away, he wasn't needed anymore and he had the day off to recover.

He approached the nearest road and attempted to hail a taxi, after a few minutes one pulled up and let him in, he asked to be taken back to his apartment, while being driven away from city centre, back to Tundra Town where his apartment was based, he started thinking to himself, pondering, how he was going to deal with the next six months, having to keep himself busy, until he is made detective he'll never get a case as big as the Bellwether case.

After a few minutes a taxi pulled up to him and he jumped in the back, he asked the cabby to take him back to his apartment in Tundra Town and they set off, Robby used his time in the taxi to think over the events of the last week, he wondered if he should have just kept his mouth shut when the chief overlooked him, he wondered what would have happened if he had left five minutes earlier and never saw the chopper go down, but then it hit him, he realised that he was going to be detective in six months, he's going to be achieving his dreams, for the first time in a long time, he smiled.

Author's notes:

Another short chapter I apologize, but this is the end of the first act of the story, now I need to make a difficult decision, and that decision is whether I'm sticking with telling the story through Robby or if I'm going to switch it to Nick and Judy, I'm leaning towards switching but honestly I'm not sure, I may take a bit longer getting the next chapter out because of this and I apologize again.

Anyway, thank you all for reading and feel free to follow, favorite or even leave a review, its always appreciated.