Steve felt awful leaving Mike to the piranhas in the bullpen.
But he had been given strict orders to keep a low profile and continue the investigation into their case, no matter how much that felt like betraying the loyalty to his partner, and the hell the Lieutenant would have to go through shortly, all because of the narcissism and big mouth of one power-hungry man.
Parting ways in the parking garage of the Hall of Justice building; Steve had spent an hour borrowing a desk over in Vice, staying under the radar while making phone calls to prepare the stakeout at Morley's Bar tonight. It was his sincere hope that connecting with this Horatio character would give them a much-needed case break, before Mike would get dragged through the wringer once more.
His second set of phone calls involved a different lead altogether. Using up all the goodwill he had left with the staff at Berkeley, Steve got a hold of several of his old Professors, trying to get some leads on Theresa Summers.
In Mike's heightened state of worry, he didn't want to bring up the idea that the female killer the Lieutenant thought they were after might actually be his long-lost flame. Theoretically speaking, he had nothing on the professor so far. It was possible to hypothesize a motive based on the lady's excessive need for power and control, but he didn't even have enough information thus far to see if she had an alibi. And yet, it was a lead he needed to follow up on, the more she and Eric McMillan derailed their investigation.
He was about to make another phone call, when he noticed Haley enter the Vice bullpen in a rushed pace, his weary brown eyes scanning the crowd of detectives for the young Inspector.
"Stephen…took a phone call for you. Do you know of a Carrie Folkil…Folkuiwu…"
"Vokulivicz.", he corrected with a faint smile and met the older Inspector halfway between desks.
"Yeah, that one. Said she wanted to talk to you as soon as possible and that you'd have her address?"
Accepting the piece of note paper with a frown, Steve nodded faintly, the gears in his mind turning at the strangely urgent message.
"That's the…the ehm girl that's part of David Forney's orgy club."
His words caused a few raised eyebrows amongst them, including Dan.
"The…wait what? When did all this come into play? Stone has Norm and me scraping filthy back alleys for finger prints and you two get to mingle with the people of the funny persuasion?"
With a cheeky smile, Steve returned to the desk to grab his revolver, handcuffs and beige overcoat, ready to head out the door, before pointing his chin at a confused Dan.
"Aren't you coming?"
"Me? Why? You're telling me I'm supposed to be babysitting you while Stone is getting grilled or something?"
Reading the truth between the lines, Steve amicably slapped the other man's shoulder, as they left the Vice bullpen behind.
"Look at it this way. Maybe Michael thought it was time for you to experience the social life of Big Al's too…"
