Closing the interrogation room door behind him, Mike took a deep breath, trying to settle his frayed nerves.
As the information about Mavis' final days became available, he couldn't help but feel a knot form in his stomach. Mike's mind tried to envision how the teenager must have felt like, and how one night of unprotected foolishness had snowballed into a homicide investigation, leaving a young woman dead, her boyfriend a felon and a third girl facing a potential murder charge.
Swallowing hard, Mike crossed the bullpen, noticing Sekulovich glance up at him with a sympathetic smile. Word about the latest case had long spread throughout the entire department and nobody envied the two detectives dealing with a case as disturbing as this one.
"Art, get Dylan down to booking. I need to get Child Protective Services involved and Gerry needs to know about this situation as soon as possible."
Sekulovich nodded at him in understanding, before getting up and walking towards the interrogation room.
A few feet away, Steve stood by his desk, the phone receiver balancing on his shoulder, as he wrote down notes from whoever he was speaking to. Careful not to startle the young Inspector, Mike gently put a hand on his upper back as he walked by, enough to tell him to come over to his office as soon as he was done.
Steve looked up briefly and flashed a quick smile, before returning his attention back to the phone call.
Mike sighed, as he slid into his chair and ran a tired hand across his face. Putting his black reading glasses back on his desk, he leaned forward on his elbows, trying to process the new information.
He felt reasonably sure that Dylan wasn't their killer. He didn't fit the bill. Between his emotional involvement in the case and his size, it didn't seem plausible for him to kill Mavis in the matter she was murdered.
That didn't mean he didn't have a motive, of course.
Killing his pregnant underage girlfriend to avoid criminal charges made for a strong motive. And maybe his dislike for Chantal could be an elaborate plot. There was even a chance he hired Chantal to kill Mavis.
Nah.
He discarded that thought as quickly as it arose. What little they knew about Chantal didn't make her look like a good candidate for murder either. Which brought him back to Dylan's statement about her beha-
"You'll have me back working at Vice? That was bad Mike, that was really bad.", Steve said, grinning in obvious amusement, "So, what did you find out?"
Standing by the door frame, the young Inspector straightened out the dark blue tie against his chest before walking in.
Mike motioned for his partner to close the door and leaned backwards, interlacing his fingers in his lap.
"Well, I don't think he killed her. He did admit to having intercourse with her. He was also unaware of the pregnancy. He about fainted when I told him."
"Mhm. That'll make him a candidate for CSC."
Reaching for a sunflower seed in his pocked, Steve sat down and glanced at the case file.
"What about Chantal?"
"He claims she's our killer. Said he hung around us hoping we'd lead him to her so that he'd get his hands on her first. I almost believe him too."
Steve shook his head vehemently, before chewing on another sunflower seed.
"No way is she a killer. I am not buying it. He's lying."
Mike raised his index finger as a subtle warning.
"Easy now, Buddy Boy. What did I tell you about getting so dead set on your belief that you ignore the evidence?"
Steve grinned and rubbed the back of his neck.
"So what evidence are we talking about here? Other than the statement from a kid who has a good motive to get rid of his girlfriend?"
"Motive yes, but the murder method doesn't fit. Opportunity is on shaky ground…He didn't see Chantal kill Mavis, but he feels certain that she's responsible for whatever led to her death."
"There could be a fourth person to that triangle though.", Steve breathed, before looking back up at his partner, "I talked to the guys over in Oakland and they're faxing me the information on Mavis' parents as we speak. Something tells me we should consider her parents as potential suspects as well. Anybody capable of beating their own daughter seems capable of pretty much any other heinous act of violence."