"Well…I guess we'll never get you to marry her after all."
Even what little humor was left in Steve's voice didn't rub off on his partner as the two San Francisco Homicide detectives made their way back to the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge, hoping to reach the Hall of Justice Building before early afternoon.
Mike's last question to Willis had led to a detrimental domino effect of their latest person of interest clamming up completely, actually trying to backtrack some of her earlier statements, before Harald, the personal assistant, was asked to escort them out of the villa and sent them on their merry way.
Yet, even after several moments of silent travel, Steve was left to wonder just what exactly was happening when it came to the amputated legs. Was it truly possible that somebody might be cold-blooded enough to kill people, then amputated their limbs to practice sewing them back onto somebody else? Wouldn't there be a slew of coordination challenges when it came to live tissue and blood flow? What about the bones, tendons, muscles and blood vessels, all these other important parts tying a body together? Or was Willis right that the legs truly did come from donors? But how about Seavers? And why would abandoned limbs wash ashore across the nation if this was supposedly a legal deal? Was there no need for them in the criminal scheme going on? Were they rejected for some reasons he didn't know yet? Then why not dispose of them properly then?
What seemed like a bizarre science fiction movie was quickly turning into a potentially haunting truth Steve couldn't begin to fathom.
Judging by the silence coming from the other side of the Galaxie's seat bench, he wasn't the only one.
"Do you think it would make sense to bring her downtown for questioning? See if we can get her to stumble a bit more, find out who she's been talking to?"
"We don't have enough probable cause for a warrant like that…", Mike countered matter-of-factly as if he'd expected the question to come up sooner or later.
Glancing out of the windshield deep in thought, the Lieutenant finally shook his head, before continuing.
"Even if we did have enough to get a warrant, she doesn't hit me like somebody who's going to be easy to pressure into the truth. She's an actress, she can probably lie with the best of them."
"So, what do you want to do? We have nothing to start our investigation on. What little she told us was too vague to get R&I involved."
"We're going to use our heads, Buddy Boy.", Mike countered unusually stern, finally glancing over at him in unmasked impatience, "We have probable cause to look into her phone records and tap her phone line. You can bet your sweet badge she's going to call up that…that doctor as soon as possible. Now that she knows we're onto her, she's going to start to get nervous, push for the surgery to happen sooner rather than later. We're also going to put a put a surveillance team on her. I want to know where she goes and who she sees at all times. Sooner or later, she's going to make a mistake."
Steve knew that he situation had aggravated his partner more than he cared to admit and that any slight pitch in his tone of voice would only feed the growing tension in a less than productive direction. As such, he resorted to nodding softly, making a mental note to get a hold of Gerry as soon as they were back in the office, in the meantime, relishing his cold fingers finally warming up against the cozy breeze from the air vents.
After a few more moments of silence, Mike reached over to tap his shoulder, then point at an upcoming strip mall.
"Pull in over there, will you?"
Following the request and slowing the Galaxie down, threading the needle as he moved the large sedan through the narrow driveway that was the entry and exit to the equally small parking lot, Steve tried himself in a warm smile, his eyes drifting over to the sandwich shop along the corner of the strip mall.
"You're gonna buy me lunch after all that hard work, Lieutenant?"
"Keep dreaming.", Mike responded curtly and leaned over to glance into the passenger side mirror, "You've been too busy worrying about this case that you didn't notice we picked up a tail since we left Willis' house. I want to know who it is."