"Alright, now that we've gotten Olsen's blessing, what did we get from R&I on Rob McAllister and that stolen car situation?"
Mike's office was filled to the brink with people that morning.
Both Haley and Hassejian were pressed against the door, making room for Lee Lessing sitting in the guest chair, holding a considerable pile of files in his lap. Lenny, who sat in the other chair, intently read through the R&I information provided on the rodeo cowboys, as the nervous tension filled the busy four walls of the Lieutenant's office.
Bernie stood by the water carafe, one arm resting on the tall file cabinet in the corner, offering some of his precious time to give the task force the best chance possible to close the high-profile case.
"Robert McAllister started out as a retail associate at the local Bay City Fine Jewelry back in '43, quickly rose in the ranks until he gained ownership, then expanded to several more outlets in the area.", Hassejian explained and took a quick sip of coffee before handing the R&I file over to Mike.
Studying the picture of the middle-aged man with the short brown hair and calculated expression in his dark eyes, the Lieutenant flipped through the pages looking for any police records but found none.
"He decided on a career change in '59 and bought a large portion of the San Francisco Zoo. His retail and advertisement background really helped turn around the visitor numbers and created several successful events. The people I talked to said that attendance went up almost 30% in the first four years he bought into the zoo, so eventually he ended up buying the other shareholders out and owned the whole thing."
"Buying a zoo, now I've heard everything…", Dan muttered under his breath, only to have Lenny glance up from his chair and shake his head.
"Not even close, Detective, not even close."
"Alright, let's not get sidetracked here, gentlemen.", Mike cautioned from his corner of the glass walled office, his eyes absent-mindedly drifting across the bullpen to his partner's empty desk.
"He sold the zoo in '65 and bought the Cow Palace a year after that, has been running it ever since. Up until last year, attendance was up, but they've been struggling a lot lately. I guess interest is fading in rodeos and such, so he's been trying to bring other types of sporting events in there. Says here he was married to a Madelyn Harris, got divorced in '67."
"Intense pressure to perform. Pair that with some personal drama. Financial burdens. That could be a good start.", Lenny mumbled, causing several of the detectives to nod in agreement.
"We might have to wait until we hear from Steve on whether or not McAllister was around the night of the murder.", Mike cautioned and pointed his chin back at the DMV file on his desk, "What did they tell you in regards to the stolen car? Were they able to determine if he had anything to do with it?"
"Not really, Mike. All his records came back clean as a whistle.", Norm said disappointedly and shrugged, "He bought that car two years ago, registered it as stolen in May and there's been no clear connection ever since. I talked to some more to the guys down in Narc and they offered to put a trace on Freddie Moreno for a few days, see if the car reappears again."
Sighing in defeat, Mike cleared his throat before releasing the latest bit of information.
"Let's make a wide berth around Narcotics for the morning at least. After he called in for two days in a row, Inspector Aldarez did not show up for work again this morning. I talked to Rudy about the situation and he agreed to send a black and white to his apartment to check on things."
As the room fell quiet, Mike pursed his lips, forcing himself to move past the continuous confusion and gloom surrounding every aspect of this case. But no matter which assurances he tried to give his exhausted team of detectives, it was becoming painfully clear that the deeper they dug into the situation, the larger their problems became.
When nobody dared to say anything, he continued, trying to keep his voice calm and even.
"Dan, Lee, anything on the clown? Or the rodeo riders?"
"Jeffrey Topps, 64 years old, sounds like he's been in the rodeo circle his whole life, no priors, no arrests, not even a parking ticket. Probably because he doesn't own a car…", Dan said in a disheartened voice, as he read off his notepad.
"Sounds like my rodeo guys.", Lee chimed in and glanced down at his paperwork, "A few misdemeanors from bar brawls, some property damage, but no injuries, no crimes against women, nothing that sticks out from the crowd. To make matters worse, I checked with the schedule of the Cow Palace and they were busy performing a show around the time of the murder. It was some sort of Bull riding championship that was in town."
"Sounds like we're back to square one.", Hassejian sighed and ran a frustrated hand through his hair as he clenched his jaws.
"I wouldn't say that, Norm.", Mike reiterated, although he shared some of his detective's sentiments that morning, "We've got a start. We just have to keep digging…here, Tanner is back, maybe he has some valuable information to add."
Waving the African-American Inspector over to his office as he entered the bullpen, Mike immediately noted his slumped shoulders and tight features.
Something hadn't gone as planned.
After a quick greeting, they made room for Tanner to squeeze in between everybody, before Mike raised his voice again, deciding to tread carefully
"Were you able to talk to him, Bill?"
Nervously unbuttoning his rain-soaked trench coat, Tanner nodded and gratefully accepted a glass of water.
"I did. He was busy doing chores and talking to this Jordan lady. Well, talking and then some."
Ignoring the chuckles from the corner of the room, Mike nodded impatiently, too worried about his partner's safety to get mad at the moment. Reprimanding him for not following an order he knew he'd given in vain would come at a later date.
"What did he find out so far?"
He knew he'd stepped into the proverbial hornet's nest when Bill glanced around nervously, scanning every face in his office as if to release confidential information.
"Well, we…we didn't get to that part, Lieutenant."
Putting his hands on his sides, Mike frowned, not liking the answer one bit.
"What do you mean? You said you talked to him. He hasn't figured out anything since yesterday?"
"Steve was…I guess I am not sure how to put this, Lieutenant…", swallowing hard, Bill stared at his dress shoes for a moment, before mustering to courage to make eye contact with Mike again, "He wasn't acting right. I saw that Jordan girl take a couple shots with him, smelled like whiskey on his breath but it sure seemed to hit him hard and fast. As he was talking to me…his pupils got so large I couldn't even see the green in his eyes anymore. He seemed disoriented, couldn't focus, it's like he was high on something. I think she drugged him with that stuff. Before I could get any valuable information out of him, he just wandered away."
Inhaling deeply, Mike glanced over at both, Lenny and Bernie, hoping for some sort of explanation that could hold back the growing fury that was beginning to rise in his gut.
"If he was injured like you said Mike, chances are they are feeding him the same drugs we found in Sally Howard's system. It would explain those symptoms of inebriation Bill is talking about. That's a very dangerous cocktail. He's going to destroy his liver if he keeps this up."
Bernie's explanation was somber, creating office-wide silence as Mike bit his lip for a moment.
"He was telling me yesterday that he did it to stay in character. Now this is the second strike. I won't allow there to be a third one. No…that's it."
"What do you want to do, Mike, pull him out?"
Hassejian's alarmed question was interrupted when Lenny cleared his throat and raised his finger to get a word in.
"You might not like hearing this, Lieutenant, but I would vote to keep him there one more day. If he managed to get to this Jordan girl, that means he's pretty close to penetrating all the social layers of these workers there. That's why I believe him when he claims he had to take the drugs. He probably knows that refusing them would result in mistrust. If you pull him now, all the work will be in vain. Isn't there something you could slip him to counteract the effects of those drugs? Bernie, what's that case I remember some fifteen years ago where a Vice cop managed to stay undercover in a crowd of homeless people for over two months and they kept giving him pills to fight the effects of the drugs he took until they could nail down the supplier…?"
Mike didn't wait for Bernie to respond, before raising his hands defensively.
"You are right, Lenny, I don't like what I am hearing one bit."
Ignoring the frustrated scowl directed his way, Mike sighed in defeat when he saw Olsen enter the bullpen, trying to get his attention before motioning for him to follow upstairs.
"Listen up guys, I gotta head out for a moment…in the meantime, let's focus our efforts onto digging up everything we can on Rob McAllister. Seems to me that no matter what we find, everything ends up leading in his direction. I think I want to talk to him tonight, maybe even at the Cow Palace. Because quite honestly, no matter which way we look at it, he's the only one out of our realm of suspects who could afford to buy Sally Howard that expensive bracelet."
