Steve and Mark, father and son, sat at a hospital cafeteria discussing Steve's latest case. Mark was a consultant to the LAPD.
"This rash of robberies within a four block radius has us stumped, they are quick and don't leave a trace. Until today they haven't hurt anyone and now there's one dead and another critically injured." Said Steve in frustration.
" What's their MO?"
"They always hit during busy times of the day and take advantage of the chaos of a busy day at a convenience store to strike, they hide the gun so only the cashier sees it, they wear sunglasses and make sure they turn from the camera. They quietly ask the cashier to empty the cash register in a bag and make it look like they are just completing an order than t hey quietly leave. Most of the other costumers don't even know what has happened. This time the cashier decided not to cooperate and got himself shot and killed and innocent bystander yelled and was shot in the shoulder."
Amanda or Dr. Bentley as she was known around the hospital, and good friends of Steve and Mark approached. She worked in the hospital morgue. The cashier definitely died of a gunshot wound. What I found interesting was a tattoo on the inside of his bicep, it's small, but it's the same tattoo I saw on the gang member that died last week.
Mark said, "That's interesting"
Steve replied, "I'll have to see if there's a connection." At that moment Mark was paged to emergency.
Amanda had just started to eat her lunch and Steve was still finishing his. Talk gradually went to Amanda's son CJ who thought of Mark as an extra grandparent and Steve as an Uncle. They talked for a while.
Steve mentioned he needed to get back to work, Amanda thanked Steve for listening to her talk about CJ and her plans for the weekend at the bench with him. She said, "Some days I only get to talk to dead people and CJ it's nice to talk with an adult once in a while, thanks for letting me ramble on."
Steve said," No problem, I enjoy talking to you what are friends for, some days I only talk to criminals and you know I always like hearing about CJ." As Amanda walked away, Steve thought and I like looking into your beautiful eyes and see them light up when you talk about CJ. He quickly dismissed that thought as Amanda was just a good friend.