"She has a strong motive, that's for sure."
Working on his second cigarette, Roy sat down on the corner of his large desk, absent-mindedly fidgeting with the ceramic ashtray nearby.
"She also has the opportunity. And she fits our psychological profile."
Steve nervously ran a hand through his wavy hair, his eyes never leaving the Captain as they informed Dewitt of their latest disturbing findings.
Next to him, Mike continued to remain unusually quiet as he sat in the guest chair, reducing his comments to one-word answers or nods of the head. It seemed that their breakthrough was wearing on the seasoned Lieutenant's emotions a lot more than usual.
And maybe for good reason.
But without having been there to witness the events that led to the tragic and untimely death of Homicide Inspector Jim Holmer, it was hard to say how a case three years ago affected today's outcome- for his wife and anybody in the way of her wrath.
"I remember the day Jim was shot. That kid had only been in Homicide for what, a couple of weeks? Killed by some paranoid, mentally-ill, gun-slinging idiot down on VanNess. That was a bad one…", Roy muttered and drew another deep breath out of his cigarette, before shaking off the ashes, "Never thought I'd see there day where reaching retirement age in our chosen profession is a rarity."
"I'd assigned what seemed like an easy stakeout duty for him that night, Steve. You know, how we always used to do with the new guys? I guess I was hoping to break him in slowly. We were even talking about Jim having a date night with Erica. I was absolutely certain, it was a safe thing for him to do.", Mike said and shook his head in disbelief, "That case went on to take so many twists and turns, Daniel and I never even made it to the funeral, never even got to meet his widow. We were busy working toward the indictment with Gerry. I felt horrible."
Listening in with great interest, Steve rested a reassuring hand on his friend's shoulder, never moving from the spot behind Mike's back, where he'd been standing like a guarding shadow for the past twenty minutes.
"Roy, we're speculating that her…her anger towards Mike and Dan may have started this entire episode. She came across the signup sheet containing the names of our previous three victims, and something must have triggered her. Maybe a memory popped up, or the names reminded her of something. We haven't had time yet to check into it, but it's possible that one or more of our victims were friends with Jim. Whatever it was, it pushed her over the edge and set off this killing spree. In her skewed vision, it could have even been some sick sort of practice, getting used to pulling that trigger and watching people die, or she was laying the groundwork for her elaborate plans to kill her prime targets, it's hard to say until we talk to her. We're currently looking into whether there was a .32 registered in Jim Holmer's name; it's quite possible that he had a private gun, I mean, we all do. Tanner said that the Motorpool guys confirmed that she signed out the LTD last night, and she hasn't been seen or heard from since the incident at Mike's house- neither has the car."
"You got her address; you should probably check out her place. If nothing else, it might give you an idea what all she's up to…"
"That will be our next step, Roy…", Mike explained in an even tone that hid most of his inner turmoil- except that it didn't work on neither one of his old partners who knew him too well.
"I take it you told the guys downstairs to keep an eye out for Erica? If you're correct Stephen, the last thing we want is for her to come up here and open fire at people."
Nodding quietly, Steve glanced past Roy and out of his window overlooking the city, painfully aware that Erica could be anywhere at this point, anxiously waiting for them to become careless to conclude her plans.
"She killed three good men, almost four…to avenge her husband's death…"
Mike's sad voice reverberated through the quiet office as the three men struggled to come up with a plan to handle the concerning situation.
"We should talk to Director Rutherford; she handles the downstairs offices and needs to be aware of the situation. And how about some of Erica's co-workers? Maybe she talked to them about some of her struggles, told them about a place she might be hiding out at to let the dust -"
Dewitt's rambling stopped when the Captain realized the flaw in his own thinking considering the dire circumstances. For all intents and purposes, Erica Holmer was a deeply distraught woman who had already proven beyond a reasonable doubt that she wasn't afraid to kill anybody in her path; a path that was littered with deep grief and hatred she'd kept to herself for three years. A path that she appeared to want to end in the worst way possible.
Insecurely glancing back and forth between Mike and Steve, the Captain sighed heavily, knowing that there were only a handful of options left for them to solve this case, keep their suspect alive and reach an airtight indictment- and neither one of them included much protection for the two men standing in front of him.
"Roy, my friend, I don't think she's hiding out at all.", Mike finally said, a sad undertone in his voice as he rubbed his hands together, "She's out there…somewhere…waiting patiently for a chance to kill me…and everyone who will try to stop her."
