Dan symbolically tightened the leather jacket around his upper body, as he strolled through the sparsely populated corridors of the massive Berkeley teaching complex. With most students absent during summer break, the only faces greeting him were those of the overworked staff and maintenance crews, preparing the campus for another onslaught of people in the next few weeks.
He felt an involuntary chill run down his back as he walked up the flight of stairs to Steve's office, remembering the bloodbath from two years ago way too fondly. His trained eyes made out the portions of the walls that had been repainted to cover up many of the crimson stains, as well as the new entry door to the young Professor's office, the old door frame still showing some wear and tear where they'd busted through to save his life.
When he reached the second floor, Dan hesitated for a moment, his mind imagining the horrific scene once again, seeing Steve's still body curled up on the floor, hearing Mike's agonizing pleas for his best friend to hold on as the ambulance rushed toward the campus, bloody handprints all over the windows.
It was safe to say that this fateful day had left scars on a lot of people.
A few feet ahead, the office door was closed with no sign of recent activity. A new golden plaque had Steve's title, name and office number engraved, and a framed lesson schedule for the upcoming semester was screwed into the wall next to the door.
Without expecting a response, he knocked a couple of times, cuing his ears to any activity inside. After several seconds of silence, Dan spun around, prepared to leave the campus again, when he found himself face to face with Dean Wilson.
The balding stocky man smiled cordially and stretched out his hand, the other one was shoved in the pockets of his navy suit pants.
"Daniel…I didn't know you would swing by today. How are you? How are things on the force? Mike sounded pretty stressed the other day."
"Well, Mike's pretty stressed every day.", Dan answered jokingly and shook the Dean's hand, "I won't lie to you though, things are a bit tough right now and we can use any help we can get. I was wondering where Steve is at? I had a couple questions for him."
"Mhm…"
Max Wilson shrugged momentarily, and then reached for the master key in his back pocket, carefully unlocking the young Professor's office door to gain entrance.
"Let me call security and see if he has checked in. I haven't seen him yet this morning. Doesn't mean he's not here though, that man is a phantom of the corridors and can be hard to find…if he is here, I will have Barb track him down for you…"
Dan watched the other man sit down behind Steve's desk and reach for the phone, giving the young Inspector precious time to take a look around. All furniture had been replaced after the incident, the walls repainted in a light blue hue and all file folders were neatly stacked on a large shelving unit along the side wall. Besides a picture of Mike in the corner of the cluttered desk, the entire office exuded a sterile, almost cold and unfriendly atmosphere.
With a sigh, he noticed that the sole thing that remained the same was the young Professor's overfilled inbox.
"Chuck says he hasn't been here yet this morning. I am sorry to say, Daniel, but it sounds like you made the trip in vain. Did Stephen say he would be meeting you here?"
Shaking his head slowly, Dan smiled, trying to come up with the right words to disguise the mission his partner had sent him on. Go and see Steve. Share a sandwich. Hope to get the truth out of him from his youthful angle.
Dan was certain of himself when it came to many things, but in this case, he begged to disagree with Mike. After last night's performance, he was pretty sure that hell would freeze over before Steve Keller would bare his heart to the young Inspector.
"No ehm…this was more of a …a welfare visit. See, Steve is helping us out on a murder profile and Mike was just…well, he was a bit worried about him. Unfortunately, Mike is tied up with meetings all afternoon so he wanted me to check on him, just to make sure that he doesn't…you know…overdo it between his two jobs, so to speak."
A spark of worry crossed Max's warm blue eyes fleetingly, before the Dean leaned back in the elegant leather chair and over-crossed a knee.
"Well, as far as I can judge he's doing fine. He's busy…we all are this time a year. Four more weeks and this campus will swell with people. There's a lot of excitement going on about the two new classes we're introducing and I think Stephen might be feeling some pressure because I offered him that teaching opportunity. But I really do feel he's the best guy for that job. He's got the background and he's amazing with his students."
Feeling a disturbing sense of deja-vu from the last time Max guilt-tripped the young Professor to an inch of complete mental and physical exhaustion, Dan nodded faintly, deciding to file that piece of information away for later use.
"He just seemed a bit short-tempered. I guess Mike wants to make sure he's up for the challenge we've thrown in his lap. If he has too much on his plate, we certainly don't want to add to it."
"Oh no, I don't think it's anything like that…", Max answered too fast and nervously ran a hand across his freshly shaven chin, "You know, he tends to get a bit emotional somedays. Stir-crazy even. He will never admit it but I bet he misses the Streets every once in a while. But I wouldn't worry too much about Stephen…he's fine. You probably just caught him on a bad day. If you want, I'd be happy to talk to him when he gets in. He needs to stop by here sometime today to drop off some files for the class assignments."
"I don't think that'll be necessary.", Dan interjected, his trained eyes having caught Max's tightening jaw muscles each time he lied, "I'll give him a buzz at his apartment later tonight to make sure he's ok. Thank you for all your help, I really appreciate it."
Cocking his head one last time at the friendly Dean, Dan turned around to leave, feeling a sense of confirmation when it came to Mike's suspicion. The real question was, why was Max covering for it as well.
He was ripped out of his thoughts, when he heard an unmistakable "psst" coming from a few feet away. Tucked behind the door to one of the other rooms stood Barbara Hoskins, the personable Recordkeeper they met the last time around.
Following the lead, he sped up his pace somewhat, making sure that Max hadn't left Steve's office yet to see him do a detour to the back of the hallway. As he got closer, he saw Barbara turn on the light inside the narrow storage room, before gesturing him inside.
"You're here to see Stephen, aren't you, Pumpkin?"
Smiling at her well-known use of terms of endearment, Dan nodded and carefully closed the door behind them.
"Just to check on him. Mike's worried. And I am beginning to worry myself."
Knowing that the caring matriarch had the young Professor's best interest in mind allowed Dan to relax somewhat in the otherwise unfamiliar atmosphere.
"Max is a horrible liar and this run-around they're giving you is getting old. Neither he nor Carmen are any good at this…", Barb muttered under her breath and leaned against the side wall, before crossing her arms in front of her chest, "Daniel, it's been a very…long six weeks. I tried to convince Stephen to tell the two what happened but he's been too distraught, stubborn even. So I guess it's time you find out the truth from me."