"Is anybody here willing to consider the possibility that our killer thought Carrie Vokulivicz was dead and left her alone? That he fled quite a while before you two got there?"

Haseejian leaned his large frame against the back corner of Mike's office, his brown eyes scanning the round of detectives ahead, hoping for some support to his theory.

"Not after three successful kills, no way, Norm.", Mike countered confidently, arms crossed in front of his chest as he shook his head, "No, he got disturbed. Whether it was from the couple down the hall, or something else. He also knew from the note by her phone that she'd called Steve and that he'd be headed down there shortly."

"Doctor Ford said that she has a good chance of survival. They're going to keep her on a ventilator for a day or so for her system to recover. He said they won't know if there's any…permanent brain damage from the lack of oxygen until she wakes up."

Steve bit his slip when he said that, still sour about the killer slipping through their hands so effortlessly.

"Joe's the best emergency doctor I know. I've seen him perform miracles, Buddyboy.", Mike ensured, sensing a certain degree of guilt in his partner's subjugated behavior, "I also ordered guards at her door, just in case whoever tried to kill her will try again. She's too valuable of a witness."

"Forney has got to be in on that. It's too perfect.", Steve growled and nervously chewed on a sunflower seed, his eyes focused at something on Mike's desk, stewing away quietly.

"Everything about this case has been too perfect.", the seasoned Lieutenant argued back, then ran a hand across his dry eyes, growing increasingly frustrated with their hopeless efforts and circular arguments, "But we can't forget about the importance of doing things by the book. We can't have clowns like Eric McMillan push us into following some… some trail of breadcrumbs without thinking for ourselves. And right now, you have got nothing on Forney, Stephen, zilch. As a matter of fact, you've got half a dozen witnesses willing to testify that he was there the entire morning. If you keep pushing, he might end up running to the press and make matters worse than they are already. Fact is, until the lab crew comes up with something, we're right back at square one when it comes to what happened up at that apartment."

"I checked with the guard back at Big Al's…if you want to call him that…", Dan interrupted from his position by the water carafe, "For what it's worth, pretty much everybody could have snuck to the upper apartments. Nobody really keeps an eye on that stairwell during bar hours."

"According to your research on Tre Summers…", Mike said, intentionally pausing when his eyes met those of his partner, sensing the nervousness about going behind his back on the R&I report, "She too has been a recipient of significant donations from McMillan's funds. Forensic accounting is saying that he's claimed her as an independent consultant, and yet, none of that money shows up on her tax records."

"You think she could be his hitman…creating this elaborate scheme as a PR campaign for Eric?"

Dan shifted insecurely, then leaned an elbow against the file cabinet, chewing on a toothpcik as Mike turned around to face him.

"No, I don't believe that for one second. I know her well enough to be sure that she isn't the murder type. She's a controller, she likes to be far away from the action, doesn't like getting her hands dirty."

"She could have hired somebody to do the dirty work.", Haseejian suggested, a comment that made the Lieutenant nod slightly.

"It's possible. But according to our research, there are no hitmen that fit our killer's MO. The method of strangulation isn't even close to the guys we have on record. No…this is somebody new, somebody who has done quite a bit of research to figure out this method. It's somebody who knows damn well that this is quick and clean."

"The lead from the forensic accounting lab is enough to put a trace on her though. See if she talks to somebody besides Eric."

"Oh, she's talking alright, Steve.", Mike sighed and pursed his lips in frustration, "She's been doing an awful lot of talking to the press. And she's done a fine job coaching McMillan on it too. If she as much as suspects that we've got a team on her, she'll take this thing all the way up to the Mayor's office, mark my words."

"She doesn't know Dan and me very well. We could keep an eye on her for the rest of the day, see what she does.", Norm suggested with a wily smile, a warm gesture that was returned by Mike, before the Lieutenant checked his wristwatch.

"Let's have Tanner and Lessing do that. I'll be sure to tell them to keep a nice safe distance. In the meantime, we've got four hours before our stakeout begins. I want you two to check into your first victim's habits some more, see if he ever went to Big Al's. Steve and I will cover Peterson. Something tells me whatever started this case or whoever got angry at whom…it all began at that bar."