"You were right, Lieutenant.", Dan announced, as he and Norm re-entered the busy Homicide bullpen mid-afternoon, "Got one of his bowling buddies to admit that Timothy did like to go to Big Al's on occasion. Only for the amazing drinks though…or so he claimed."
Sharing a wide grin with his partner, Mike nodded in relief, feeling as though they were finally getting closer to the truth. He waited until both Haley and Haseejian returned to his office and closed the door behind them, before pointing toward the chalkboard he and Steve had prepared next to his desk.
Top to bottom on the left side, it read the names of several Shakespeare characters, starting with Hamlet, Romeo, Lord MacBeth and Othello. They had begun to dig deeper into Hamlet, because of their Horatio lead providing the obvious connection to the play, drawing conclusions to the main character by adding a description of "emotionally bitter", "mistrusting", "cynical" and "indecisive" next to the name.
"I hope you guys are into Shakespeare, because there's going to be a lot of that until this case is done with."
With a pained grimace, Dan dropped into one of the guest chairs, followed by his partner.
"I am pretty sure my resume stated that I was good in PE, not literature."
"And I am pretty sure they told you at the Police Academy that your resume is going to get a serious workover.", Mike countered facetiously and sat back down in his office chair, leaving Steve to be the only one standing.
"So, we figure there's a good chance that our killer is feeling a certain sense of righteousness about those killings. It could be that he had some personal connection to our three victims beyond meeting them at Big Al's, or it could just be that he went after them because he saw them there, despises the patrons who go there to look at the girls. We can't be sure yet."
Upon Mike's explanation, the other detectives nodded eagerly, waiting for him to continue.
"Now, it's possible that he's working there. Maybe a bouncer, or a bartender. But it could just be one of the dance girls for that matter, sick and tired of being stared at by lusting males. Something made her snap and she decided to go on a killing spree. Explains the lack of defensive wounds. She could use a great backup story to explain her sudden appearance, or…and I have a couple calls into some stoolies of mine to confirm, it could be that some of the girls there do a little bit more than just dance. Every single one of our victims, except for Carrie, was male. It's just as possible that our female killer was hired out to…appease these men and decided to murder them instead."
"Wait a minute though…", Steve interfered and raised his index finger, "None of those girls dancing would be able to lift our victims into a car and drop the bodies. You think this Horatio might be her accomplice, helping her dump the bodies?"
"Mhm hm."
Leaning back in his chair, Mike reached for his coffee cup and took a long sip, before speaking again.
"It could be Forney, for all we know. Explains his alibi during the actual murder. If not him, it could be somebody else working there."
"How about the McMillan connection though?"
This time it was Norm who spoke up, as he nervously tapped a hand against his knee.
"Yeah, I wondered about that too.", Mike admitted deep in thought, "With all the cash he had on hand, it's impossible to track his spending at a place like that unless we ask around, see if any of the workers saw him before he was killed. If he was a regular, it puts us on the right track. If he wasn't, then the sole connection left to this whole McMillan mess is David Forney."
"Who just by chance expressed deep disdain for both Eric and Rudy McMillan, a strong motive for murder.", Steve chimed in, "It's just as possible that he is our killer, using one of the girls to lure our victims into a false sense of security, then kills them and disposes the body. Personal protection from creeps in the form of murder could also be a good motivation for all his so-called witnesses to cover for his alibi. Either scenario explains the lack of defensive wounds."
"You two are giving me a headache.", Dan whined and ran a hand across his face, "Regardless of whether we have a male killer and a female co-conspirator, or vice versa, where do we stand on tonight, and what do you want to do about the girl in the hospital?"
"Well, her connection to Forney is obvious, but it's also possible that she became aware of what was going on surrounding these killings.", Steve hypothesized, causing Mike to nod in agreement, "When she tried to talk to us about it, our killer found out and decided to silence her."
With a brief glance at the clock on his wall, the Lieutenant leaned forward in his desk, his piercing blue eyes wandering back and forth between the three detectives.
"Alright gentlemen, we've got two things to achieve here. First, circle in on this Horatio guy tonight. I am even more intrigued by this…this bar now that we know Peterson used to go there too. Dan, you and Steve will cover the inside of Morley's, Norm and I stay outside, along with a couple of Sergeant Fernando's guys. The other thing we have to do is figure out who our killer may prey on next. And we better do so quickly."
