Their investigation had come to a standstill after they went downstairs to see Richard Harris to work up a sketch drawing of their unknown floater. None of the other Missing Persons files showed a direct link to a gas station and Mike was preparing to do both, increase the size of their research area, thus pulling in more files, as well as review the ones that didn't fit their criteria once again, maybe even interview witnesses to see if something as simple as a visit to a gas station may have been forgotten to mention.

In the meantime, he'd left Steve to call up family members of the four cases that did fit their pattern and see if anything at all could be gathered from their testimony. If their gas station organ dealer was targeting victims from a Union 76, there had to be something specific he was looking for.

The question was what.

By the time Mike returned from Missing Persons with another half dozen cases under his arm, his partner's desk was strangely deserted. Glancing around, he noticed Steve's dress coat still neatly hung over his chair and a set of yellow stationary paper scribbled full of notes by his phone.

"You've seen my partner lately?", he asked Tanner, who was busy cross-referencing police reports for an unrelated murder case.

"He went downstairs to take a breather, Mike.", the African-American Inspector said with a strange smile on his lips, "Whoever he was talking to on the phone, they gave him a piece of their mind, I tell you what. We heard that guy yell through the phone all the way over here. After that, Steve was pretty worked up and said he was gonna go for a walk."

"Just what we needed today…thank you, Bill."

Slowly crossing the bullpen to his partner's desk, Mike glanced over the notes in Steve's usual neat handwriting, organized meticulously by case number. Behind each victim, he'd added a brief description of the circumstances of the disappearance, date of the disappearance, last seen location as well as some biological data and a phone number to call.

The first one, Ron Sterling's case, was not much of a surprise. His family wasn't cooperative when asked about the man, and his employer only reiterated what the Missing Person's file had already said. Steve had made no further notations on that case.

The second one, Deborah Vantress, 46, widow, no children, last seen after her car broke down on her way to Middleville. Her best friend Rachel had reported her missing four weeks ago, no sign of life since then. A set of side notes talked about Deb being a diabetic and having become withdrawn since her husband's death. Her friend said it was unlike for her to just disappear without a trace and nobody ever saw her reach the nearby Union 76, only seven miles from where her broken down car had been found.

Number three, Frederick Acton was a twenty-seven-year-old oceanographic student from UCLA that was spending the weekend in Cloverdale with his in-laws, where they had planned to celebrate his birthday camping in Mendocino. Steve had underlined the phrase camping in Mendocino as another interesting clue tying their cases together. Acton was last seen leaving the family's house to gas up their camper ahead of the trip. When he hadn't returned two hours later, his in-laws went to check on him and found the camper parked by the local Mobil gas station, keys still in the ignition and Acton's wallet on the front seat.

The last case was that of Odin Molgren, thirty-two years old, living in Windsor, only child from a family of Swedish immigrants. The note said that he was openly gay. Twice a week, he was dressing up as a drag queen for one of the local gay bars and had reached such a level of popularity that he had quite the large following. Privately however, his family despised his life choices and had cut all ties. Six weeks ago, on the way home from one of his shows, he'd gotten into an argument with his manager and demanded to get out of the car and walk home. Not thinking anything of it, the manager had stopped just three miles short of Odin's apartment, hoping the walk would allow the young man to vent and clear his mind. It was the last time Odin had been seen alive.

Mike figured this to be the case that caused his partner's duress when he saw Steve's handwritten warning, in all caps.

"DO NOT CALL PARENTS AGAIN"