Mike's POV:
It had been close to twelve weeks since I had last seen her. During that time, I had been returned to my place on the force and had been working hard to regain the confidence of my coworkers. There were times I had given thought to stopping by to check on Vicki, or at the very least on Coreen, but I had always talked myself out of it. After all, I had made my feelings very clear that night and I had known that Vicki would need some time to process things. I was well aware that I had basically told her to make a choice between me and the vampire. I had also known it would take her some time to figure out her feelings. Emotional self-awareness was not one of Vicki's strongest characteristics.
Up until an hour ago, I had thought everything in my life was pretty much back on track. My cases were going well and they were all normal. Not a demon or psychic in the whole bunch. Then I received the call asking me to come here. Initially the details had been sketchy but enough to cause my heart to race in alarm. The general gist was that there some sort of an armed standoff going on in Vicki's office. When I arrived I found out that was not really the case. As of yet, I hadn't asked for a formal case summary. All I had wanted, upon my arrival, was to see Vicki and assure myself that she was okay. Unfortunately, I could tell that she wasn't.
Many of my colleagues were sitting around in the outer office where Coreen usually sat, while I stood leaning against the door frame looking into the inner room. What I was looking at was heartbreaking in the extreme. This wasn't just another murder and the people involved weren't just strangers to comfort. Coreen was clearly dead and it was clear, from what I could see of Vicki, that she was barely holding it together. The gun in her left hand was the reason why I had been called. While force could have been used to remove the body from Vicki's grasp, most of the people here knew her and respected her. Someone had thought that perhaps I could defuse the situation. I sincerely hoped so.
I turned my back on the inner office and quietly asked my partner, Dave, to fill me on on what he knew. He looked more than happy to do so. After all, this case had the potential to be a disaster.
"We got a 911 call from the lawyer who practices out of the next office. He was leaving for the day and saw that the front door to the office was open. That's apparently fairly unusual so he decided to step inside to wish the ladies a good night. He said he really didn't know Vicki besides the occasional "hello" when they passed in the hall. He called her name a couple times from out here and then walked in this far and saw Vicki and her assistant. He thought maybe the assistant had fallen."
I immediately responded, "Her name was Coreen Fennell and she was more than just an assistant. Vicki had pretty much taken Coreen under her wing like a little sister. They had gotten close and, if asked, I know Vicki would tell you she considered her to be family. Coreen doesn't have any family of her own."
Dave paused for a few moments to jot some of the information down before continuing, "Okay. Anyway, the lawyer says Vicki didn't acknowledge his calls at all, and with her back to the door, he had to step all the way inside to see what had happened. It wasn't until he was in the inner office that he realized Ms. Fennell was dead and that Vicki appeared to be injured. In a panic, he ran back to his own office to use the phone. When the paramedics arrived, they did a cursory review of Vicki. As far as we've been able to tell, the blood she is covered in belongs only to Ms. Fennell. The investigation had been moving along fairly smoothly. Where we ran into a problem was when we tried to remove the body from the scene. Vicki pulled a gun out from somewhere and took the safety off. We pretty much decided that we could use some help before the situation escalated. We dimmed the lights in her area of the office to reduce some of the stimulation and stepped out here. Thus the phone call to you."
I turned back around and looked at Vicki's body hunched over Coreen protectively and I wondered how I was going to fix this. I had left a message for the one other person that might be able to help me, but as of yet I hadn't heard anything back. Of course, it was only a little after sunset now. Dave's hand on my shoulder drew my attention back to him.
"I know things aren't great between the two of you. At first I hesitated calling you because I've noticed she hasn't been around the precinct. I didn't even know if you were speaking to one another, but under the circumstances, you were the first person that came to mind as a possible help. Well, that Fitzroy guy also came to mind, but I didn't know how to reach him. Anyway, Crowley wanted us to forcibly disarm her and remove the body but I bought some time to see if you could help."
The thought of someone trying to disarm Vicki by force sent a chill down my spine. That would almost certainly lead to bloodshed and I highly doubted it would be Vicki's. Her vision might be a little hazy but her instincts were dead on. Taking a deep breath, I finally stepped fully into the inner office and started to close the door behind me.
"Man, are you sure this is a good idea?" Dave inquired.
"It may not be one of my better ones but I know I'll do this better without an audience than with one. After all, she's not going to shoot me."
As Dave removed his hand from the door, I was able to close it fully. I just hoped that what I had just said was actually true. It was quite possible that in some corner of Vicki's mind she might somehow blame me for this. Maybe if I had been here. . . . .