Chapter 36

"There is no way the initial suspect could have done all of that in that specific time frame," Quinn said in a conference with Brian and Captain Shields the following week. "For one, his alibi location is at least an hour from where the victim was found. The ME determined the time of death as midnight, and Davenport was able to confirm the guy being where he said he was when the victim was killed."

"What else do you have?" Shields asked.

"Just got a report back from the lab," Marie added. "The DNA profile doesn't match the rape kit either."

"Are you looking at anyone else?" Brian wondered.

"Not sure about Quinn here, but I'm having some second thoughts about the wife. Though she was seen at her job, her boss stated that there was a time span between nine and midnight where she couldn't be accounted."

"Dig up more on that," Shields suggested, as they all got up and he handed them another file. "Talk to anyone associated with the woman and if you can, get a DNA sample, even if it means one of us getting an order to get it. Meanwhile, lay off the husband; there's no reason for us now to keep tabs on him."

"Right," Quinn nodded. "Consider us on this immediately."

As the two detectives left, Shields turned to Brian, smiling, and going over to where Brilor lay in his carrier. "Well, young fellow, you just got an up close and personal view of your dad at work."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Brian apologized. "Lor had kind of a last minute thing to go to and couldn't get anyone to stay with him before Joey gets out of school."

"Don't worry about it. He's a good boy, aren't you, little guy?" Sheilds picked up Brilor, who grinned at him. "Consider this on the job training for the little man. We can get him started early to follow in his dad's footsteps to brilliance."

"I think his mother may beg to differ," Brian chuckled. "She says she worries enough about me."

"Don't know why; it isn't like you do much field work anymore."

"Which I miss terribly," Brian nodded. "That's the only drawback of this job; I need to get out more often."

"To be honest, I miss it too," Sheilds agreed. "That and teaching at the academy."

"Ahhh, the academy," Brian grinned. "The good old days."

"Yes, who would have thought it? That smart ass kid from Olympia that I pegged as most likely would either never get out of Traffic or general patrol. And now look at you, going from patrol to Traffic to Vice to Homicide before you arrived."

"Serves you right for not getting the meaning behind 'assume', Captain," Brian laughed. "And in our line of work, we can never assume anything."

"Nice to know you were paying attention after all," Shields grinned back. "How about some coffee? I think we both deserve it."

"Works for me. Take your time getting it; I have to change the little future detective here anyway."

Shields nodded, going off to get the coffee while Brian changed the baby, just settling Brilor back into the carrier as Shields returned with two steaming mugs.

"We got lucky," he said, handing Brian a mug. "Someone just made a fresh pot."

"Question is, did they wash the pot beforehand?" Brian joked

"I'm sure Arlene did at one point when she was here yesterday. By the way, she loved the new pictures of the kids. Jospehine seems to be thriving these days."

"Yeah, Joey's the typical sixteen year old these days. Now she's begging for her driver's license."

"Oh? What are you doing about that?" Shields took a sip of coffee and made a face.

"Not sure how Lorelei will react to that, but I told Joey to not even think about it unless I was with her to help her prepare for the test."

"Yes, better to have a parent teach them the basics than to go off with some of their friends," Shields agreed, making a more profound face when he drank more coffee.

It wasn't lost on Brian this time. "Something wrong, Captain?"

"Whoever is doing the coffee room between Arlene's visits should keep a closer check on the milk," Shields replied. "What's in there isn't exactly fresh, to say the least."

"Uhhh…..Captain, you wouldn't happen to have used what was in the blue container, did you?" Brian asked slowly, dreading the answer.

"That's the one," Shields nodded. "Why?"

"Because some of your future detective's dinner is in your coffee mug right now."