Head resting on the desk in front of her, blonde hair strewn across her face, to all intents and purposes Tannis Archer was dead to the world. Steve smiled, she sure looked cute when she was asleep he thought and was immediately surprised by this observation.
'Those better be the supreme ribs you're holding in that bag there Sloan' Tannis growled without raising her head from the desk 'And that better be Travis' famous barbecue sauce I can smell'.
He grinned 'Of course – would I bring anything else?'
'Not with the amount of grovelling you need to do' she replied dryly, sitting up and taking the bag from his hand. She sniffed appreciatively 'You have to hand it to the little guy, he sure knows how to barbecue'.
'Hey' Steve interjected, pretending to be hurt by the comment 'Jesse's not the only one who knows the secret ingredient ya know.'
'Sloan' she replied sternly 'Now is not the moment for you to expect praise from me. Now is the moment for you to explain why you've been AWOL all day when we're supposed to be a team'.
Steve smiled sheepishly, as he'd expected she wasn't gonna let him off the hook easy. He took a breath and let it go as he collected his thoughts.
'I just thought that whilst I was at the campus it made sense to get on with the interviews. You know these academics' he hedged 'never around when you need 'em, always at conferences or working from home, I just thought I'd grab 'em while I could'.
She was still looking at him sternly; he wasn't home and dry yet.
'Look Tannis' he continued reasonably 'I know I should have called it in, but we don't have time to make committee decisions, we have a killer on the loose here and we have to move fast'.
'Steve …. ' she began but he cut her off impatiently, his frustration getting the better of him.
'I'm in charge of this case Archer' he snapped 'and if you don't like the way I do things then you don't have to continue. I'm sure the Chief has plenty of other cases you could work on'.
She sighed. She wasn't happy with this new 'gung ho' attitude, and it certainly wasn't like him to pull rank, but now wasn't the time to argue. Steve was tired, she was tired and at the moment this case was getting the better of them both. They needed to slow down and do some thinking, consolidate their findings so far, plan their next move.
She knew Steve was desperate to solve this case, needed to feel like he was doing something, but she also knew that sitting down and talking things through was undoubtedly more effective than crashing around like a bull in a china shop. Under normal circumstances Steve knew this too, but he was pushing himself so hard at the moment that he wasn't thinking straight. Tannis knew from experience that persuading Steve Sloan to do something he didn't wanna do was nigh on impossible, but she was sure as hell determined to try.
'So' she grinned aiming to lighten the atmosphere 'You got some coffee to go with those ribs?'
Steve relaxed, his temper evaporating as quickly as it had arisen. He had no idea where that sudden burst of anger had come from; she certainly didn't deserve it. He had to get a grip before he got kicked off the case himself on the grounds of mental instability! Grateful for the chance to get their relationship back on equal footing, he broke into a smile. 'I think that can be arranged'.
By the time he'd returned with the coffee she was half way through the ribs; simultaneously licking sauce off her fingers and flicking through the case files. As he handed her the steaming Styrofoam cup her blue eyes met his own.
'So' she looked at him teasingly 'Given that you left me here drowning in paper work all day, I'm guessing you've got something good'.
Sitting down opposite he tried to steal a rib, but she slapped his hand away. He gave up. Sighing he ran a hand tiredly through his hair.
'I guess the biggest break I got was a possible link between the two victims' he said finally.
Her eyebrows shot up 'That is big' she replied approvingly 'Tell me more'.
'Well' he sighed again 'It's pretty tenuous, but both men were in Cairo just before they died – Peterson presenting at a conference and Summers at a dig. I don't know if they were together, but it seems a pretty big coincidence'.
'Also' he continued, pausing only to yawn widely 'I got Amanda to go over the autopsy reports again, and there's another link. Again nothing that would stand up, but it could be a starting point.'
'Which is?' She prompted.
'Well' Steve paused – even to him it sounded pretty thin. Amanda says that with both victims there were traces of some unidentified organic compound. She's not sure if it's the exact same compound in both cases, but she's never seen anything like these substances before'.
Tannis was intrigued 'So we think it's one killer?' she asked.
'Looks that way' Steve confirmed 'different MO but using similar substances, both men in Cairo. Seems like more than a coincidence to me'.
Tannis chewed thoughtfully 'I agree' she replied finally 'But we still don't know what the motive is, how the two victims were linked nor whether the killer is an Egyptologist or a Chemist'.
'Tell me about it' Steve groaned slumping back in his chair 'Just thinking about it makes my head hurt'. He smiled ruefully 'There's just so many possibilities, so may leads to follow'.
'So then we have to apply logic' Tannis stated firmly 'Let's be methodical about this'.
Pulling out a blank sheet of paper she grabbed a pen from the desk and divided the sheet in two, heading one half chemistry and the other archaeology.
'Okay' she sighed blowing out the air through her teeth 'Chemistry department – who have we got?'.
Steve massaged his temple, forcing himself to think clearly
'Maggie Taylor is Peterson's second in command' he replied 'She's taken over the project he was working on.'
'Motive?' Tannis prompted
'Career advancement?' he suggested 'According to those files she's a real high flyer, career type. He frowned in frustration 'But that wouldn't explain why she'd kill Summers'.
'Forget that for now' Tannis instructed authoritatively. She looked at him encouragingly 'Who else?'
'Vicky Harris, Peterson's grad student. She doesn't have a strong alibi for the night of the murders. But …'
'But what?' Tannis interrupted.
'The girl was like a groupie, a founder member of the Peterson fan club. And' he continued 'She came here to get a PhD – Peterson's death could prevent that. Why would she want him dead?'
Tannis chewed on the pen thoughtfully 'Relationships between tutors and grad students can get pretty complicated' she replied 'And you did say groupie – interesting choice of word'. She grinned 'Groupies can get pretty obsessive ya know'.
Steve shrugged his shoulders 'I'll take your word for it'. He thought hard 'And there's another student involved – Eric Scott, but I didn't get to talk to him today'.
'Okay' Tannis finished writing 'so that's Taylor, Harris and Scott for chemistry – who do we have for archaeology?'
'Schwenk' Steve shuddered at the memory 'He's now the head of the department. He's obviously jealous of Summers' academic achievement, so there's the career advancement thing again and he was also trying to incriminate Natasha'.
'Mmmmh Natasha!' Tannis said sardonically eyeing him carefully.
'What?' Steve asked innocently.
'Don't think I didn't notice the way you looked at the grieving widow the other night' she replied dryly 'You and every other man in the place'.
Steve grinned 'You know Archer, they say jealousy is a very destructive emotion'.
She pulled a face at him as she added Natasha Summers' name to the list of suspects in what Steve noted were rather overly large letters.
'Finally there's Nate Johnson' Steve continued 'He's another grad student'. He frowned 'He's also Schwenk's alibi for the night of the murders'.
'You speak to him yet?' Tannis inquired raising an eyebrow.
Steve sighed 'Not yet, but I'd sure like to check out that alibi'. He scratched his ear thoughtfully, there was definitely something suspect about Schwenk. Steve's gut was telling him not to trust the guy. He had nothing concrete yet, but that didn't mean he was wrong. He grinned at Tannis 'So partner what's our next move?'
'Hmmm' she paused, scrutinising the paper in front of her. She let out a long breath 'Okay' she said decisively, pushing loose strands of blonde hair behind her ears 'We know both men were in Cairo – right?'
'Right' Steve agreed
'But we don't know exactly what they were doing there'.
'Right again Sergeant.' Steve smiled at her 'You know, you're getting real good at this Detective thing'.
She rolled her eyes at his attempt at humour, but refused to be distracted 'I think it's time we got to work on our international relations.' She paused before looking at Steve with a grin 'How's your Egyptian Lieutenant?'
Two hours later and they may as well have been speaking Greek, for all the good it was doing. Apparently the initials LAPD didn't carry much weight in Cairo. Tannis threw down her pen and let her head drop to the desk.
'Please shoot me now so I don't have to wade through anymore red tape' she groaned to Steve.
'Not a chance' he replied dryly 'If I have to suffer, you have to suffer. We're a team remember.'
Tannis rolled her eyes and didn't bother to dignify that with a reply.
Besides' he treated her to his trademark lopsided grin 'I need all my bullets for those imbeciles at the Egyptian Embassy'.
Tannis grinned 'Good point'.
After being put on hold and then continually redirected through the embassy, it seemed as if between them they had spoken to everyone from the second cousin of the woman who provided the catering, right through to Tutankhamen himself. And yet for all that work they had very little information. Apparently in Egypt, Government officials were not free to release details concerning United States citizens, at least not without clearance from above. And wouldn't you just know that the man in question was in a meeting.
All they had managed to ascertain was that two men possibly fitting the descriptions of the academics had booked into adjoining hotels and that there was another Westerner, a woman, possibly travelling with them, staying in the same hotel as Peterson. Apart from that the embassy was remaining tight-lipped.
Tannis sat up and looked at Steve who, still slumped in his chair, was now frowning again.
'So' she sighed 'I guess today's million dollar question is - who is the mystery woman?'
'If there really was a woman' Steve replied irritably 'We don't even know if the men they're talking about were actually Peterson and Summers.'
He groaned dropping his head into his hands 'For all we know those officials could have been describing some perfectly innocent tourists on a package tour down the Nile'.
'Whoa!' Tannis interrupted 'Getting a little pessimistic there aren't ya Sloan?'
Steve rubbed his eyes tiredly 'Okay I admit it' he sighed letting out a deep breath before meeting her gaze 'This case is getting to me okay'. He smiled ruefully at her 'Happy now?'.
'Nope' she said dryly, 'but I do have a cure'.
Steve was sceptical 'Oh yeah?' he asked raising his eyebrows.
'Go home' she said firmly. 'Your Dad called earlier, he's cooking a meal – Travis and Dr. Bentley are arriving, no doubt laden with goodies'. She waved at him to get up 'Go on, eat, drink and be merry'.
She could see he was about to protest so she stuck her fingers in her ears 'I'm not listening to anything you have to say Sloan so you may as well go'.
Steve smiled, he knew when he was beaten – plus he really could do with a break. He looked at her serious suddenly 'I'll go' he replied 'If you promise not to stay late. I'm not the only one who needs some sleep'.
Tannis gave him a mock salute and a solemn face 'I promise, 2 minutes tops and I'm on my way' she replied 'Now get outta here'.