Talk about a sense of continuity in this case.
Getting drenched once again on his way to the office, Mike mumbled an ill-tempered expletive, as he crossed the hallway to the bullpen, slightly amused at some of the Inspectors making a wide berth around him on that dreary morning.
Taking off his wet fedora and marching past the busy desks, he was surprised to see Roy in his office, smoking a cigarette and pacing back and forth the entire length of the relatively small room. Off to his right, a well-dressed woman was sitting in Steve's chair, anxiously awaiting his arrival.
"Of all the times I needed you in here early…", Roy grunted, his cheeks flushed with agitation, as he motioned for Mike to close the door.
He'd worked with him long enough to know just how to offset the Lieutenant of Homicide's overpowering anxiety, so Mike took his time to strip out of the wet overcoat, then neatly hung the fedora on the clothes rack and slowly helped himself to a cup of coffee, with extra cream and sugar, before closing his office door again and smiling broadly.
"Well, good morning to you too, my friend!"
"Where's Stephen?"
Enjoying a quick sip of coffee, Mike pointed his chin toward the parking lot downstairs.
"He's lagging a few minutes behind. Had to drop him off at the bachelor pad this morning for a change of clothes and a shower. Looks like we've got some development in our case?"
"A development of drama, if that's what you mean.", Roy snorted and drew another breath out of his cigarette, as he glanced over at the woman from underneath furrowed brows.
Her short red business dress was accentuated with a black leather belt that matched her pantyhose. A gold-colored clasp held her long brunette hair in place, showing off those high cheek bones and pretty eyes. Mike figured her to be mid-thirties, definitely from the fancier side of the train tracks.
"Cindy Jackson. She's the chairwoman of some community awareness subculture thing going on over in the Outer Sunset neighborhood. The police-criticizing type that think crime lingers around every street corner and that no women or children are safe in this town. Apparently, she's friends with a lady you interviewed yesterday?"
Tring to disguise his irritation behind another enthusiastic sip of coffee, Mike let the information sink in, already knowing what was expected of him.
"Needless to say, she is causing one hell of an upheaval about the Gilroy child rapist and his connection to San Francisco, ready to run to the press and talk to idiots like Freddy Garson from Channel Twelve. We're gonna have to figure something out to calm her down. John thought maybe because you're handling the case, you might be able to…you know…get her to relax a bit?"
Almost choking on his coffee, Mike smiled at the irony of all this.
"Would you like me to tell her that all children are safe, except those who closely resemble our two victims?"
Putting out his cigarette in the nearby ashtray, Roy shook his head in growing impatience.
"Well, of course not.", he grunted and ran a hand through his silver hair, "Just…give her the press lines…say that you're diligently working on the case, that everything in our power will be done to find the missing boy and that patrols have been stepped up in the area to avoid a repeat occurrence."
Shaking his head at the silly game the brass was playing, Mike sighed and leaned against the corner of his desk, glancing back and forth between the lady and his old partner.
"Seeing that you've got those lines down so well, maybe you ought to talk to her, Roy."
"Sorry to disappoint, I've got a staff meeting with the department heads in five minutes, you're the lucky one today, Mike."
A faint smile played on Roy's lips, a rare occurrence for a man who usually went about his day stern-faced and ill-tempered, and yet had a heart of gold paired with an overactive sense for justice.
Mike was just about to give his old partner a wise-guy answer, when he noticed Steve enter the bullpen. Looking decidedly less hungover and dressed in his black suit and fuchsia shirt, that made him stick out from the crowd of plain-clothed detectives like a flamingo, he was steering straight for his desk, barely acknowledging his coworkers.
Deciding to intervene, before he could get dragged into a conversation with the woman awaiting answers from the department, Mike reached for the doorknob of his office, then hesitated when he saw Steve's features brighten noticeably upon recognizing her.
"Cindy! What are you doing here?"
The rekindling was mutual when the lady rose from her chair in unbridled excitement to hug the young Inspector, then plant a kiss on his cheek that seemed a lot more affectionate than it should. The same held true for the hand she kept wrapped around his waist.
Roy joined him by the door, watching the scene with great interest and a just little bit of voyeurism, as he was fishing for a piece of gum in his gray suit coat.
"Can always count on the loverboy to come through, eh? Well, seems to me you might be able to unload the task onto Stephen. He appears to have a better connection with the female population all over this town. Geez, here I thought I get around."
"It's the aftershave, I swear…", Mike muttered facetiously and watched Steve and the lady have an engaged conversation outside his office, completely focused on one another, never even noticing their audience, "It's like the pied piper. Whenever he puts it on, the women follow blindly."
"I ought to get me some of that stuff then.", Roy said, his stern expression never changing, "See what the ex-wife says when I bring somebody like that home."
"Stacey still coming after you for alimony?"
Nodding faintly, Roy didn't answer for many long moments, but his bright blue eyes told the tale of his emotional struggles.
"Yeah. It's been eighteen months since the divorce. You'd think people have better things to do with their free time. Now she's trying to change over to the courts in Sausalito, claiming that the judges here are biased because of my position within the police force."
"Always something.", Mike whispered with a disappointed headshake, having grown fond of Stacey over the years, "Situations like these certainly don't bring out the best in people, do they?"
"Ain't that the truth...listen, I gotta get going. Haul Stephen in here for a minute and give him a headsup on why she's here, I don't want him getting into hot water with this…this committee she's running, or the press for that matter. I'll check back with you guys later tonight, Conden wants an update on the case by then."
With an acknowledging nod, he bid farewell to his old partner, then focused back on Steve, who'd frozen in his spot when he noticed both Roy and Mike one room over.
Upheaval.
Somehow, he felt as though that would be the theme for the day.