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?

20. Chapter 20

By the time they left the police station, the wind had picked up significantly, signaling a storm front slowly making its way to the city south of San Francisco.

Off to the right, leaves and a crumpled-up piece of paper blew across the sidewalk before disappearing underneath parked cars.

Some thirty feet up above, right in front of the police station entrance, Old Glory was fluttering in the breeze, the clinking of the swivel snaps hitting the metal post filling the eerie silence. The recent storms had begun to wear on the flag, causing small tears along the red and white stripes.

A definite need for replacement, sooner, rather than later, Mike scoffed, having fought for that flag long enough to understand the need to respect it and keep it free from any blemishes.

"I'm starting to understand why Alex took matters into his own hands, considering the type of…leadership he had to deal with.", Steve grunted, walking beside him, his gaze trained on something off in the distance.

"Me too…", Mike countered, revisiting the conversation with Morris that ended abruptly after his inquiry about Carl, the hermit, "The real question is what caused his defensive attitude to begin with. Guilt? Or ignorance?"

"Could be both.", the young Inspector countered and shoved his hands into his coat pockets, "It seems that his department did a sloppy job with the investigation, not going through all the angles they should have. Maybe that was done on purpose. He could be covering for the real killer."

"That's what worries me. A lot."

Mike shook his head, hating internal issues with corrupt police officers more than anything. Secretly, he also wondered if Alex's words about suspecting somebody from the city actually meant somebody working for the city.

Unbeknownst to Steve, his suspicion grew when he noticed a dark blue Skylark in the employee parking lot, the same one he saw circle the block at Alex's house the previous day.

"Buddy Boy, I think we stumbled over something a lot bigger than just the Saunders' murder here.", he finally said, then pointed at their waiting Galaxie, "Let's head back to San Francisco. We've got a lot of work to do. And I need to fill you in on something I saw yesterday. I didn't think much of it then. Today, I do."