Assistant Inspector Steve Keller glanced up from the Remington as his partner stepped through the door of the glass-walled inner office. His eyes sliding back to the form in the carriage, he started to type a little faster, then grimaced as he struck the wrong key.
"Sorry," he said quickly, "I thought I'd be done by now. Almost finished."
Detective Lieutenant Mike Stone threw both hands up and chuckled. "Hey, I'm in no rush. Take your time." He dropped into one of the guest chairs, leaning it back and putting his right foot on the edge of the desk as he craned his neck and undid his collar button.
With a smile and a chuckle of his own, the young man backspaced and typed over the error several times until he was satisfied the correct letter was legible. "So, what was the meeting all about?"
With a loud sigh, Mike crossed his arms and stared at his protégé's profile. "You ever heard of a place called Colville? It's upstate… near Eureka from what I was told."
"Colville?" Steve asked without taking his attention from the form.
"Yeah."
The younger man shook his head. "Never heard of it. Why?" With a last flourish of snapping keys, he pulled the form out of the Remington and scanned it, checking for mistakes before he turned and handed it to Mike, who had taken his foot off the desk and leaned forward, the front legs of the metal chair reconnecting with the tile floor with a loud thud.
The lieutenant's piercing blue eyes moved back and forth rapidly as he read the report. Steve got to his feet and started to roll his shirtsleeves down, doing up the cuff buttons as he watched and waited.
Eventually Mike nodded and held the form out. "Perfect. Let's turn that in and get out of here. It's been a long day and I don't know about you, but I wanna get outa here. Jeannie's gonna call tonight."
Steve's face exploded into a warm grin. He knew how much Mike was missing his daughter, who had left for her first year of university in Arizona only a month before. In the eleven months that he and the legendary lieutenant had been partners, he had witnessed first hand the close relationship father and daughter shared; it had always left him with a bittersweet melancholia.
Trying to hide an affectionate smile, Steve took the form and circled the desk as Mike stood, turning to the coat rack to pick up his fedora and drop it haphazardly onto his head. As the younger man crossed to his chair, picking up the beige-and-brown-checked sportscoat from the back of the chair as he dropped the report on the blotter, the older man leaned across his desk and opened the top drawer, removing the .38 and snapping it onto the right side of his belt.
"So, what was that about Colville?" Steve asked as he adjusted his cuffs, his partner joining him in the bullpen.
"What?" Mike's mind seemed to be elsewhere. "Oh, yeah, right? Ah, sorry, ah, I need to talk to you about that."
Smiling slightly, Steve watched as the older man tried to pull his attention back to the present. He was getting used to his partner's many moods, most of which, he had learned, were of an optimistic bent. Mike seemed to see the world, and his role in it, with an enthusiastic idealism that was an inspiration. Most of the time he had a slow fuse, but when he exploded, and he did, you almost wished you weren't in the room.
And when it came to his daughter he was the proverbial doting father, and in his eyes she could do no wrong. Since his wife's death two years before, their bond had grown stronger, and now he was trying to come to grips with the realization that his little girl was growing up. When Jeannie had left for Arizona State four weeks ago, Mike had seemed slightly withdrawn at first, but he seemed to be slowly warming to the idea that though his daughter was no longer going to be in his life every day, she was just a phone call away.
"Talk to me about what?" Steve started to walk towards the Homicide office door. Mike followed.
"Ah, it seems they need some help on a case… or at least they think it's a case. They had a young man go missing from the area a couple of weeks ago. No sign of foul play or anything, he just… disappeared."
Steve opened the office door and stepped into the corridor, his partner on his heels.
"It wouldn't have rung any bells except they had another young man disappear from the area about a year ago and a third about 18 months ago. And it's not a big town." Mike was staring at the floor, his hands in his pants pocket as they approached the bank of elevators.
Steve punched the Down button. "What? Do they think they just left town or do they think they were murdered?"
Mike shrugged, still looking down. "Well, from what I was told, two of them came from close families and one of them was engaged to be married, so…? But no bodies have been found and, like I said, there was no sign of foul play. But there's gangs up there, biker gangs, and they've had trouble with transients too, so who knows…" He looked up, eyebrows raised above a slight smile. "Anyway, ah, Rudy asked if you and I were interested in going up there and giving the local sheriff a hand for a couple of days. It seems they don't have much experience with homicides and they're hoping maybe we can at least find out if that's what they're dealing with or not."
"You mean a road trip?" Steve asked with a grin as the chime sounded and the elevator doors opened.
Chuckling, Mike followed the younger man into the car, turning to lean against the back wall. "Not much of a road trip but yeah. It won't be fancy – we'll be staying in a motel and, from what I heard, the town only has one small diner, so it's not going to be The Ritz."
"So you told them we're going? I don't get a say in this?" Steve asked with a slight frown, secretly pleased at this new development but wanting to make his partner squirm a bit.
Mike's smile disappeared and for a second he looked uncomfortable. "I, uh, well, I thought you'd –"
Steve smiled suddenly, chuckling and Mike's eyes narrowed; he knew he'd been had.
"All right, wise guy, you got me. But, yes, I did tell them we were up for it."
The elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. Steve stepped out into the lobby and stopped, turning back towards the car. Mike was still leaning against the far wall, his hands in his pockets, staring at the younger man with a frown. Steve put a hand out to stop the doors from closing again.
"You don't want to go?"
Steve smiled again and sighed. "Of course I want to go. I was just grinding your gears."
With a soft snort and a shake of his head, Mike pushed himself away from the wall and stepped through the doors. "I'm sorry," he said quietly as they started down the corridor toward the exit to the parking lot, "I should have talked to you about it first. I just thought –"
Steve grabbed the older man's arm and pulled him to a stop. With a soft smile and shaking his head slightly he said, "Mike, you don't have to apologize. You're the senior partner, remember? We do what you want us to do. And I'm fine with that… believe me." He squeezed the older man's arm before letting it go.
Mike smiled self-consciously and dropped his head with a slight laugh. As they started down the corridor again he glanced at the young man in step beside him. "I may be the senior member of this team, but it's still a partnership. You have a say in what we do too."
"I know," Steve said softly then, looking at the older man mischievously from the corner of his eye, he continued, "and when you do something that I don't agree with, I'll let you know, believe me."
Mike's head came up quickly with an affronted frown and there was a definite hitch in his step. Steve kept walking, staring at the tiled floor with a tiny smug smile. After several steps, he heard the older man laugh and he looked over his shoulder to see the broad Mike Stone grin.
They fell into a comfortable silence as they approached the exit.
"So, when do we leave?" Steve pushed the panic bar door open and they stepped out into the brisk evening air.
"Day after tomorrow. They have us for a week but it might be less than that. Depends on what we find, I guess."
"Sounds good to me," Steve chuckled, fishing the car keys out of his coat pocket as they reached the tan Galaxie. As he opened the driver's side door, he looked over the roof and grinned. "Let's get you home for that phone call."