Their pool of suspects had been narrowed down to five different names, all females with good standing in the police force, no priors and certainly no history of violence. But his many years in homicide had taught Mike early on that this didn't necessarily exclude somebody from committing murder, even serial killings.
Yielding Dewitt's order, even though they both knew it was directed at Steve, he had Tanner drive Squirrel and Luke home for a few hours of rest, after both boys nearly fell asleep on the return elevator ride down to the Homicide department.
Back in his office now, Mike was sitting in his chair, arms resting in his lap and leaning over copies of the pertinent information they kept on each potential suspect. Steve stood next to him, avoiding the idea of sitting down for fear of falling asleep himself, and bending over to read through every small detail of their co-worker's private information.
Shoulder to shoulder, Mike relished the scent of his old partner's expensive aftershave, an aroma that used to greet him every morning but eventually disappeared as the era of their partnership came to an abrupt, untimely end.
Discarding the painful memories for a second, the Lieutenant tried to focus back on the files ahead, ensuring that his troubled thoughts wouldn't get in the way of solving this deeply disturbing case. As they both studied the information quietly, even breathing in unison, he tried to envision having a strong bond with Dan one day that might come close to the relationship he had with Steve.
But then again, something that special only came once in a lifetime.
"My gut feeling says we can scratch Rosanna off this list…", Steve mumbled and reached for his glass of water, a demand Mike had made after they returned to the confines of his office. Taking a sip to clear his dry throat, the young Professor then fished for a few pills out of the case in his breast pocket, before reaching for the next piece of paper.
"How can you be so sure?", Mike countered credulously and grabbed her bio, holding it far enough away from his face to read the small print.
"Because I dated her once."
"Who haven't you dated in this building?...And since when is dating you a prerequisite to get somebody off a suspect lineup?"
Standing back up to stretch his sore back for a moment, Steve grinned smugly and shrugged.
"Well I don't know the other four, but I do know Rosanna. She's a sweet woman. And if she wanted to kill a cop, she had countless opportunities to catch me entirely defenseless at her apartment while I was helplessly tied to a-"
"I don't even want to hear it.", Mike cut him off and shook his head smilingly, "And by the looks of it, your non-committal self wouldn't have fit her lifestyle anyways. She's happily married now and has two kids. Her husband is Billy Sanders, the Deputy who works patrols with Sergeant Conway, they cover the Tenderloin. Nice guy. Looks like she is down in records."
"How about this one?", Steve suggested and handed over another bio, "Wilma Smith. Widow. Works as an assistant up in HR. They must have her handle all the filing. Says here she takes care of the re-cert paperwork but I think she files the psych evals too, if I remember right."
"I don't know, Buddyboy…the woman is sixty-two years old. Her husband used to work at the Port Authority. He drowned when one of the patrol ships went down during a rescue effort some twenty years ago. Have you met her before? She's all but maybe one hundred-fifteen pounds. Very dainty. Somehow…the thought of her with a gun going after people is pretty hard to picture…"
"That doesn't mean she is excluded from holding a grudge over her husband's death…", Steve speculated and sat down on the corner of Mike's desk, before crossing his arms in front of his chest, "Think about it…the Port Authority has a similar structure than the police force. She could be bent enough to display her anger and frustration about what happened onto her workplace and onto you. What's your connection to her? Could there be any reason she'd be after you and Dan?"
"The most interaction I've ever had is when I needed to file some paperwork for my change in dependents for taxes when Jeanie…well, you know, when she finished college and decided to stay in Arizona for the time being."
A faint smile crossed Steve's lips as the young Professor nodded understandingly.
"Okay, a little shaky on the motive. Let's see what else we got here …"
Steve was about to reach for another piece of paper when a faint knock on the door disrupted them. Outside the glass window, an anxious Tanner was waiting to be allowed inside.
Upon Mike's nod, the Inspector slowly entered, a worried expression filling his features.
"Sorry to disrupt you guys, but Sergeant Lawrence down at the motorpool brought this up…", holding a light blue piece of paper in his hand that resembled a sign-out sheet for each police car in the downstairs garage, Tanner cleared his throat nervously, "Steve, didn't you put out an APB for a blue LTD last night?"
Nodding faintly, the young Professor got off the desk and approached his old coworker, visibly intrigued.
"Well see, Sergeant Lawrence saw that APB come through this morning and he remembered signing out a dark blue LTD yesterday afternoon. I don't recognize the handwriting and there's no name, but it says on here that it was signed out under the Homicide Department."
