"What a mess."

They'd reconvened in the office shortly after finishing their respective litany of phone calls, minus the doughnuts. Both detectives were leaning back in their chairs, exhausted from the wasp nest of emotional turmoil they'd disturbed with just a few well-placed questions and talking to the right people.

After a twenty-minute monologue turned crying session, Steve had been able to get off the phone with Sarah Milan's mother, assuring her once again that his participation in this case did not mean that the police force had written her daughter off, nor that there was some unidentified body in the morgue they were trying to put a face to.

The heart-wrenching conversation had worn on his nerves a lot, along with the uncomfortable undercurrent he felt this case taking, drifting them into possible IA and internal misconduct territory that made his skin crawl.

With his head tilted over the back of Mike's guest chair, the young Inspector stared at the ceiling for a brief moment of relaxation, before facing his partner again, who'd sat in silent contemplation, forehead wrinkled, eyes narrowed as that legendary mind was putting whatever pieces he'd gathered from his phone conversations together.

"Nobody but Vasiri seems to be able to confirm the threatening phone calls Milan received.", the Lieutenant began as he twirled his black-framed reading glasses back and forth between his thumb and index finger, "And somebody spent three hundred dollars buying those plane tickets…all cash. That seems like a lot of money to invest into derailing a case. Maybe that wasn't the reason they were there…"

"You're thinking courtship?", Steve hypothesized, causing his partner to nod.

"Something like that, yeah. As she's rising up in the ranks of city leaders and fire department, maybe somebody up the ladder took a liking to her. You saw the file photo, she was a very attractive woman. Unrequited affection is always a good motive for murder."

"That goes along with what her mother said…being too busy with her career to deal with a love life. She could have shut him down hard, and if it's one of those high-falutin city guys not used to rejection, that could have been the trigger."

"Add in the fact that her apartment rent was, in fact, not prepaid, which points back at some sloppy police work…possibly intentionally so. These guys covering up the tracks of some city council member or worse."

Mike's eyes hardened when he said that, leaving no doubts about the Lieutenant's intolerance when it came to abuse of power within the police force.

"Your point about the rape is right though…she could have set it up. Supposedly staying late in the office with nobody around to testify that she left when she said she did…could have met up with a guy, submitted herself, maybe go a little…rougher than usual, tear up her clothes, then come up here to make the connection to the Milan case to make Davis' department look bad."

Steve looked straight ahead, disturbed by his own words, feeling a certain level of discomfort of questioning the rape case altogether, every sinew in his body fighting the idea that a woman would go as far as faking such a horrific scenario.

"That's a lot of effort to damage somebody's reputation, Buddy Boy."

"And so is buying $300 in plane tickets. You said it yourself, there's nothing worse than a woman's scorn. Just wait till she hears you question the legitimacy of her rape case."

With a broad smile, Mike shook his head before pointing back at his partner.

"That's why I won't be doing it. You will."

"Me? Wh…why me? What did I do?"

Gesturing indignantly, Steve was about to stand up and plead his case in front of the jury that was Mike Stone, when the Lieutenant lowered his hand to calm him down.

"Nothing. But I want to head across town to speak with Milan's supervisor, and in the meantime, you could conduct…say…a welfare visit at Visari's place. Feel her out some more. Ask about the Davis connection. See what batting those eye lashes and showing off that cheeky smile of yours can buy us today."