"I can't believe you are working Christmas Day again!...Mike!"
"Well, sweetheart, somebody needs to. And sure enough, a body was found early this morning and it looks to be murder."
Mike was surprised, when his partner returned to the deserted office just an hour after he'd left for Missing Persons. Carrying a dozen or so files under his arm, the young Inspector strolled over to his desk confidently, wiping his tired eyes for a second, before noticing his partner on the phone.
"Yes, but you and Steve aren't the only detectives working there. This is what, the fourth Christmas you worked? I thought you love Christmas. Why deal with death on your favorite holiday? Is it because I am not there? I promise you, I'll make up for it next week."
"No, sweetheart, this has nothing to do with it…", trying to assuage his daughters concern, Mike glanced up, when he noticed Steve leaning against the doorframe to his office, sporting a grin that conveyed that the young Inspector knew exactly what was being discussed.
"Well, what are you two going to do for dinner? No restaurant is going to be open. Do you still have the frozen meatloaf from Thanksgiving? That will only need 45 minutes in the oven. This way, you two could at least eat something nice tonight."
"What's all this worry about Steve and I for? How was your Christmas morning with…with Eric?"
Biting his lip when Steve shook his head laughingly, Mike scowled at the young Inspector, hoping to drive him away to no avail.
"It was great, it really was. His parents were excited to have me; they are wonderful people, just like I told you. But it wasn't the same without you there. I look forward to seeing you in a few days, Mike."
"I look forward to seeing you too, Sweetheart…", Mike breathed before looking back up from his phone, meeting his partners eyes that had turned caring and warm, when he sensed the melancholy filling the four walls of the office, "Both Steve and I do. But hey, listen, why don't you enjoy the rest of the holiday. I gotta get back to work and dig through some files. There's a lot of work ahead of us."
"Always in detective mode, aren't you?", Jeanie countered and he could hear voices in the background, "Well, I will give you a call tomorrow, just to check in and see how things are going. I have to make sure you get some time off in between the holidays."
"I'd like that very much. I will talk to you tomorrow. I love you, Sweetheart."
"I love you too, Mike. Tell Steve I said Hi."
"I sure will. Bye now."
Hanging up the phone, Mike sighed deeply and glanced back down at the receiver, hoping the moment would be enough to calm his senses a bit. With Steve's eyes on him, it didn't take long for the young Inspector to enter and drop wordlessly into the guest chair across from the desk, waiting patiently until his partner was ready to talk.
Both men sat there quietly for many minutes, breathing in unison, easing one partner's pain in silent and unconditional comradery.
Finally, Mike cleared his throat, nervously playing with a pencil in his hand, before looking up.
"I send you down to MP to grab the file of every single person gone missing in the past six weeks from the area north of us…and you return with a handful of cases after barely an hour. How's that?"
"It's nice to see that you've missed my bright and shiny personality while I was gone…", Steve nudged and grinned, hoping to raise his partner's spirits, "So, won't you ask the great genie how he narrowed down our massive list of potential victims?"
Chuckling at the young Inspector's sheer endless reservoir of ingenuity and genuine caring when it came to improving his sour mood, Mike crossed his arms, a warm smile playing on his lips.
"Please, great genie, enlighten the old Lieutenant this afternoon…"
Steve nervously tapped his long fingers against the corners of Mike's desk, his tie slightly askew from having been readjusted by busy hands fidgeting aimlessly. His green eyes stared straight ahead, unseeing, as the thoughts played out in his overactive mind.
"See, the thing with the rotten teeth gave me an idea.", the young Inspector began and took a deep breath, "Somebody who's never seen a dentist. Maybe came from a poor family. No military service. Maybe he was homeless at one point. Didn't take good care of himself. Somehow ended up out on the streets, where our guys picked him up…Our John Doe didn't fit most of the cases I looked at for one very particular reason, and it was the same reason that made me jump on a limb and narrow down my search criteria significantly…Mike, whoever is doing this isn't targeting your average Joe Blow coming home from his accounting job, or little Diana who was abducted from the playground at daycare and her family is putting up flyers all over town and organizing search parties. No, these guys harvesting organs, they're going to go after a very particular group of people…the kind of people nobody is going to miss…"