"Speak of the devil…"
They'd been ready to part their investigatory ways when none other than a smiling Lenny Murchison entered the barren office, a bag of sinkers in one hand and a newspaper safely tucked under his left arm.
"What does he want here? And why on Christmas?"
Upon Steve's frustrated headshake, Mike shrugged and exited his office to greet the grinning Psychiatrist.
"What's this? You finally pushed somebody's buttons too much and they made you work the holiday?"
Answering his question with a discrediting snort, Lenny shook his head before stopping at Steve's desk to sit down.
"Hardly, Lieutenant. You should know by now that Christmas and New Years' is our busy season. Nothing screams "jump off that bridge" louder than all that fake cheer lurking around each street corner, choking you out with the hypocrisy of bestowing kindness for one day out of the year and then pretending everything will change for the better because you get to flip that calendar page…"
"Not another holiday hater…", Mike sighed, glancing over at Steve who threw him a triumphant grin.
"Told you it brings out the worst in people, Mike…"
"In more ways than one…apparently. So what brings you here? I don't recall seeing a request for your services cross my desk."
"Lieutenant, Lieutenant. Can't I just stop by from time to time to check on my favorite detectives?", Lenny countered flippantly and set the bag of sinkers down, before pulling the newspaper out from under his arm and leaning back in Steve's chair, "After all, I had to meet the faces behind the infamous crime fighting team, Detectives Graham and Hicks."
With a theatrical eye roll, Mike took a step back, ready to refill his coffee, when Lenny opened the paper to page 8 and began reading.
"Graham woke up soaked in sweat, his heart racing, hands trembling as he pulled the covers off his weary body and sat up in bed. It took many minutes for him to realize that the vivid experiences of heroism, their superpowers and action-laden lives had been nothing but an exhaustion-induced dream all along, leaving him to find his way back to reality in a somewhat subdued state. At least one thing remained unchanged- his strong bond with young detective Hicks, a bright mind with a caring soul yet unscarred despite the horrors they faced daily…gentlemen, what in the world of dysfunctional lunatics is going on here?!"
"You tell us. You're the Psychiatrist…", Steve countered curtly, reaching over to the coffee machine to refill both Mike's and his cup.
"So that's the latest? Now all the super powers were a dream and we are in fact detectives. Go figure.", the Lieutenant scoffed and shook his head, "Conden thinks it's great PR for the police force, some…noble hero story people can appreciate. I say we're letting that crazy woman take things too far."
"I concur…", Lenny countered worriedly and folded the paper back up, "She's got some serious delusional psychosis going on there. I am not sure if it's a schizotypal personality disorder or some type of distorted paranoia driving this but you better put a lid on it fast. This is de Clerambault's syndrome 101. I can't believe the detail she's noticed and added in here, the obsession with which she must watch every move you make to a point that I can tell out of 700,000 Bay Area residents that she's talking about you two. Is she going after one of you more than the other, or is her delusion focused more on your partnership?"
"It might be the partnership.", Mike hypothesized and took a sip of coffee, well aware of Steve's worried glance in his direction, "I have yet to pull a jacket on her but there's nothing we can charge her with until she does something wrong. It's my concern that if we corner her, it might feed her dreams and desires."
"You are absolutely right there, Lieutenant. With a delusional psychosis like that, the patient reinvents their own reality to fit a mental image of how things should be. They pretend to be in relationships with the people they stalk, they make up stories about some sort of connection they might share, their behavior becomes compulsive as their entire world shrinks down and focuses solely on their target. As far as you two are concerned, any sort of contact with her, even if you were to try to charge her with something would only affirm the fantasies she's got swirling around in that head, so you gotta take that into consideration. It would reinforce her delusions and possibly spiral her behavior out of control. Right now she gets a sick kick out of being the silent observer to your partnership, then spewing all her findings in the paper and garnering attention for it. That's bad enough. But if you as much as blink in her general direction, it could escalate this situation. I can't believe Conden isn't the least bit worried about this. I know I am."
"Conden's been in a tough situation since the shooting, I am sure that's playing a part in it."
Mike's justification earned him two hesitant nods, before a nervous silence once again filled the room.
"So what are we supposed to do, Lenny? Wait until she oversteps that line and ignore her until then?"
"You hit the nail on the head there, Steve.", the Psychiatrist answered, not too thrilled himself, and nervously tucked on the collar of his beige turtleneck sweater, "Sometimes these…these episodes go away and the stalkers become bored even, the ehm…the psychological climax of digging into other people's business wears off and they find something else to busy themselves with. Other times they move on to different objects altogether, another cop or bus driver or anybody they come into contact with. That would be the best outcome considering this situation. But to be perfectly honest, with the media attention she's been getting, it's also a highly unlikely outcome. Realistically, I think this is going to get worse before it gets better. I just hope for the sake of everybody involved that she's going to overstep that line hard enough for a judge to throw the book at her…and do so without getting either one of you guys hurt in the process."