Mike put his cold hands in the pockets of his dark gray dress pants as he watched the Galaxy re-emerge from its underground parking spot on the northside of the abandoned apartment building. As they waited for the Coroner and the rest of the lab crew to arrive at the murder scene, he couldn't shake the feeling that somewhere, up in the nearby buildings, a very dangerous and calculating man was watching their every move.
Parking the Galaxy behind the ambulance they had called in as part of the standard operating procedure for this kind of situation, Steve slowly walked back over to him, his eyes focused on the sidewalk ahead, deep in thought, his back rigidly straight.
Mike couldn't blame his partner.
Having the killer get away once again, especially that close this time, was beyond disheartening. But at least they were still alive, something that couldn't be said about Tahoola.
He waited until Steve joined him next to the Firebird, before putting a hand on the back of his neck, squeezing it empathetically.
"We did everything we could, Buddy Boy."
Steve nodded faintly; his rain-soaked hair and sunken shoulders making him look like a lost teenager.
"Somehow that's not making me feel any better."
"When it does, you better start handing in that badge.". Mike cautioned and squeezed his neck one more time, before moving his attention to the approaching coroner's van, followed by a mint green LTD with running lights on.
"I think I know who might have hired our hitman. But I need to talk to Clarence first. Something Tahoola said didn't quite add up for me. He'd be able to put the dots together. ", Steve mumbled as they watched Nancy get out of the large white Coroners van, followed by Hasseijan and Healy in the chase car.
"One of the old timers? Lombardo or Frankie Scalino?"
Steve nodded, before circling the Firebird and reaching for the glove compartment.
"Pretty much. I am just not sure which one. I do have a hunch though. Plus, this is probably a rental again. If our killer got it from the airport this time around, we might have some camera footage for R&I. I will get started on that as soon as we're back in the office."
"Good idea, Buddy Boy. Let me brief these guys and then let's head back…"
Leaving his partner to search the car, Mike stepped forward to greet both Nancy and the two anxious Inspectors.
"Michael, this is getting out of hand.", the petite Coroner grunted and wrapped her thick green coat tighter around her chest, "You keep this up any longer and I am going to run out of morgue space."
Nodding in somber agreement, he pointed at the parking garage and the pile of spent shells in front of it.
"Our killer followed us into the Tenderloin where we met with a witness. Steve caught onto him tailing us around Ellis. We tried to corner him down here but weren't ready for his…his firepower. Our witness is dead and we have a mountain of evidence here that needs to get processed. Steve and I need to head back to the office; we might be closing in on who exactly hired this guy. That will be the first step to stop him before more people get killed."
"You guys are alright though?", Dan asked worriedly, his eyes going back and forth between the two detectives.
Mike nodded again, noting the arrival of another unmarked police car pulling into the side street as he cleared his throat.
"We're fine. But I will sleep a lot better when I have this guy safely locked away."
"Speaking of which…", Norm injected and pointed his thumb at the three figures exiting the police car, "Olsen's hot as hell about this. He's brought your two friends from Vice to babysit you guys. Don't think I've ever seen him this mad, Mike."
"That figures…", he sighed and accepted Nancy squeezing his arm sympathetically as she walked past toward the parking garage, while Hasseijan and Healy headed for the impressive pile of spent shells by the Firebird, scattering before their aggravated Captain would arrive.
Mike took a few deep breaths, trying to settle his nerves in preparation of the argument headed his way in stern decisiveness and black leather boots. As Olsen slowed down in front of him, both Dixon and Williams walked past toward the Firebird, Marc never even acknowledging him. Mike watched them circle in on his partners like hyenas on an injured antelope, before Rudy distracted him by pointing an angry finger at his chest.
"Why didn't you call in support on this? I told you that you two needed help."
Keeping his demeanor unreadable and his voice calm, Mike pointed his chin at the nearby Firebird.
"There's a radio scanner in that car. He would have known we're onto him. I had hoped that luring him down here would allow us to apprehend him far away from any innocent bystanders that could end up in the crossfire."
"That didn't help your witness, now did it?"
With his gray tie dangling loosely in the wind, Olsen grimaced in frustration, before running a hand across his balding head.
"He didn't follow my orders.", Mike argued and readied himself to reiterate a slew of procedural references explaining his course of action, when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye.
Steve had Dixon pressed against the trunk of the Firebird, his hands on either side of his jacket collar as if to choke the life out of the Vice Inspector. A dainty Williams was by their side, trying to pry the two apart with little luck.
Words were hissed that Mike couldn't understand from his position, as he turned around on his heels, ready to pull the two Inspectors apart before any more damage could be done in this fragile situation.
Thankfully Hasseijan and Healy were faster.
"You wanne try this again when nobody is watching, ex-partner?! I'll tear you to pieces, just give me a chance.", Dixon growled, as Norm and Dan pulled Steve off him, brusquely pushing the young Inspector against a nearby wall and away from the uppity Vice Detective.
"Just breathe, Kid. Calm down. He's not worth it.", Healy tried with a hand pressed against Steve's chest to keep him in place to no avail.
"I swear to you, if he gets as much as a scratch on him-", Steve started again as Norm grabbed his right arm and twisted it behind his back, keeping him under control until Mike arrived.
Throwing a warning sideways glance at Dixon who busied himself with straightening out his expensive suit, Mike marched over to his partner, whose futile efforts to get out of Norm's grasp were only aggravating the Lieutenant further.
"Inspector.", Mike barked, causing the younger man to freeze in his spot. Firmly holding the stare when a set of furious green eyes met his, he waited for a few seconds, allowing everybody to catch their breath, and more importantly, for Williams to get Dixon out of earshot.
Out of the corner of his eye, Mike could see the two Vice Detectives walking back over to Olsen, undoubtedly busy dishing out their side of what just happened and making a bad situation worse.
"Marc found out that we had Clarence in protective custody and somehow swayed Lieutenant O'Brian to have him brought in for questioning on an unrelated case. Clarence managed to get out of the police car when they stopped at an intersection down on Geary and has since gone missing."
Steve's voice had grown bitter, as the young Inspector gave up fighting the strong hands restraining him and relaxed his head against the concrete wall at his back.
"With our hitman on the loose, Clarence is a dead man."
Mike bit his lip in frustration, as he let the new information sink in. Feeling Olsen's glare in the back of his head, he paused briefly, hoping to get both, his temper and this escalated situation back under control.
"You have no way of knowing that he will go after Clarence next and this isn't the place to jump to conclusions. We will dispatch several unis to go looking for him when we get back to headquarters…", Mike explained in guarded neutrality and paused again, trying to swallow his growing anger.
"There were dozens of different ways you could have handled that situation. All of them more professional than what you just did.", he scolded after a few moments, then motioning for both Healy and Hasseijian to let go of his partner, "Don't you dare to let a stressful situation be your excuse to act out of conduct, Inspector…Cool it."
Mike waited until he saw Steve's shoulders relax and received a faint nod as an acknowledgment of the reprimand, before drawing in a deep breath and sighing, as he faced his team of detectives again.
"Give me a few minutes guys. I will talk to Olsen and handle this the way it should have been handled to begin with."