A couple more chapters today because I couldn't sleep. Enjoy!
"Well, that's a hell of a mess this McMillan guy has started, now isn't it?"
John Conden leaned against the edge of his mahogany desk, straightening out the collar of his gray dress shirt, fighting the urge to reach for a cigarette, as his warm eyes scanned the two men ahead of him with a mixture of worry and discontent.
Next to Mike, Olsen sighed in frustration, one hand running across his half-bald head in nervous tension.
"He's put us in between a rock and a hard spot, John. We can't bring in Erin McMillan without any sort of incriminating evidence. So far, she's had an alibi for each murder. The same can't be said about her brother. His wife claims he was home, but that's shaky at best. And yet he's got the press all rallied up expecting an indictment on the case by noon."
Nodding in agreement, the Chief glanced over at Mike, who'd stayed quiet so far.
"What do you make of all this? You're a lot closer to the pulse of this case than we are. Have you or Keller been able to dig something else up that might help solve this situation? What about Haley and Haseejian?"
"We're looking at several different angles at this point; all of us.", the Lieutenant countered guardedly, his hands resting quietly in his lap, back pressed against the chair he sat on as he drew in a deep breath, "I am currently making sure that Erin McMillan's alibi checks out. Steve is setting up a stakeout for tonight. We received a tip about a masked person at one of the bars downtown, making remarks about justice and things that could possibly tie into our killings. We're hoping to pick him up tonight, to shine some more light into this matter."
"How good of a lead are we talking here, Mike?", John asked curiously and helped himself to some more coffee on a morning that was filled with nothing but tension and undue stress.
"As good as it can be. We have no witnesses to either killing, no evidence beyond the bodies and the matching murder weapon. None of the victims mentioned any sort of meeting to their family members, leading us to believe the encounter was unplanned from their side, but that our killer targeted them specifically for a reason we have yet to establish. It's possibly they all know him…or her. It's possible that our killer took on the role of somebody trustworthy, maybe dressed up as a cop even, somebody out victims wouldn't feel threatened by. None of our stoolies have been able to provide much. It's the best chance we've got at the moment."
"Michael's right, John. I say we go all in on that stakeout tonight. Maybe even put Keller and another man inside, several on the outside. Make sure we reel that guy in."
The mentioning of his partner's involvement caused a twitch in Mike's gut. Along with the weird coincidence of his clothing choice for the day matching that of his nightmares; it was enough to push him into a heightened state of fear.
"I won't lie, guys, the Mayor is quite worried about this situation. He's treating it like a faux pas from the Homicide department, something I sternly refute, but you know how he gets.", Conden sighed and played with the empty coffee cup in his hand, "What do you want me to tell the press in the meantime? They're all over McMillan's comments. Seems to me, if I discredit him, they'll make us look like a bunch of arrogant fools who blatantly disregard a lead and do sloppy work on a murder investigation. If I do give him credit, it'll blow his ego out of proportion, open the doors to more political involvement in our line of work, and we'll be forced to pull Erin McMillan in for an interview with absolutely nothing to go by, which could compromise the integrity of this entire case. I feel like we're standing in quicksand here. The more we fight, the faster we sink, and if we do nothing, we'll sink just as much."
Pursing his lips, Mike nodded, a fitting answer in the back of his mind he didn't even dare to vocalize. Just like Tre had warned him early on, there were some things he shouldn't have messed with.
