Monsters

by Farmer847

A single phone call pulls our two favorite San Francisco Homicide Detectives into the depth of an unsolved crime so sinister that the locals would rather see it buried in the back of an old file cabinet, never to be mentioned again. What will it take for Mike and Steve to fight off the monsters along the way to seek justice for the victims, no matter the cost?

5. Chapter 5

Steve crossed the glass walled vestibule to the Homicide bullpen in undisguised dread, the events from the previous night still weighing heavily on his heart. As such, he'd managed to get zero sleep despite his best intentions, a skull-splitting headache and upset stomach bitter reminders that the scenes of the senseless bloodshed had affected his entire body tremendously.

This late in the day, the aftermath of the shooting seemed to have been completely pushed into the hands of the Feds, much of the previous tension washed off the faces of the staff involved as he strolled through the corridor, greeting patrolmen and Captain's alike.

Naturally, the same didn't hold true for the media, the images of the stricken nightclub on every single front page this morning as the citizens of San Francisco gobbled up the papers to get a more or less skewed version of events.

Sometimes Steve missed being on their side of the curtain, allowed to review an incident after the fact, from the comfort of a living room couch, rather than being neck deep in the drama, having only fractions of a second to make life-altering decisions.

Shaking the acrimonious thought out of his mind as he crossed the rows of desks manned by his colleagues; Steve slowed down when he noticed that Mike's office was empty, showing no sign of the Lieutenant having been there all day.

A couple feet ahead, Bill Tanner was busy removing blemishes off his dress shoes on the polishing machine along the wall of the inner office, when he saw the young Inspector hesitate.

"He called in about an hour ago. Told me to tell you he'd be gone all afternoon. Some emergency down in Burlingame."

Frowning at the cryptic message, Steve reduced his reaction to a faint nod, trying not to fret about the nature of said emergency until he knew exactly what was going on- but failing epically.

From his distance, Bill seemed to notice his change in demeanor and shrugged insecurely.

"He didn't sound panicked or anything, if that helps."

"It does.", Steve lied and proceeded toward his desk, his shoulder sagging even more than they did before he left for work.