They walked down the steps when Steve put his hands in the pockets of his dress pants, taking a moment to slowly inhale the crisp air.

Next to him, Mike cleared his throat and headed back towards the barn.

"Why didn't you tell him how Glenn died?"

"Oh I don't know. I wanted to roust him a bit. See if he'd give something away."

Grabbing his elbow, Mike forced his partner to look over as he shook his head determinedly.

"He's not our killer, Steve."

"Why not? He's got a motive. He had the opportunity…"

"Motive? What motive? A gay man comes up here for some peace and quiet and Cannon kills him? That's not a motive for murder."

"Maybe Cannon wanted to get rid of the gays on his farm once and for all. Figured that if word spread about the murder, he'd stop getting calls. Then he goes and dumps the body off on his way into Carmet."

"Oh no no, now wait a minute…", Mike's intense gaze remained unchanged when he poked his finger at Steve's chest, "Now you're backpedaling. Now we're back at a hate crime. You said yourself that the method of murder doesn't fit."

"Cannon was a fire fighter. Maybe he hates the gore so much; he wanted to kill him…gently. He is being way too helpful- like any good murderer would."

Shaking his head, Mike straightened his fedora and continued towards the livestock area.

"It doesn't add up, buddy boy.", he argued and stopped at one of the paddocks, before leaning against the wooden fence, "If Cannon didn't want him here, he could have said so. Why let him come anyways?"

"If he truly allowed him to come up, then why didn't he pick him up?", Steve countered determinedly, "Why make him travel alone all the way to the ranch if he knew that the villagers hate gays. It's like he set him up to get caught in the crosshairs. Think about it Mike… if you have a guy who has a crisis about societal reactions to his sexual preference, why force him to deal with it on the way up? That is…unless Cannon was afraid that he'd be seen together with Glenn."

"That's plausible. Doesn't explain the killing though. For a guy like Cannon, this seems…primitive. I still don't think he's our killer, Steve. He might be acting strange, but he isn't our killer."

"Aw, come on now. You gotta be kidding me."

"Your motive isn't strong enough, Inspector. As far as opportunity goes, that's on shaky ground right now. We have yet to establish if he owns the sedative and even if he does, what's its access for other people? And on top of it, Cannon is a guy with loaded weapons in his barn and a kung fu ninja kid hanging around, that dropped you like a hot potato. So with all these options available, why kill him with the drug?"

Smiling shyly, Steve shrugged.

"To my defense, he did kick the back of my knees before jumping me."

"Be that as it may, I didn't particularly enjoy playing poker with that kid. He's a troubled one.", Mike added, a brief shadow of concern flooding his features, "I even threatened him with prison time."

"You did what? You know that would never hold up in court."

"Yeah, I know that. But he didn't. And you were looking a little green around the gills. I wasn't sure if you could last until we all reached a mutual peace agreement."

There was a slight tremor in Mike's voice he picked up instantly. Not sure exactly what happened after he got choked out, Steve decided to treat the subject carefully.

"Well, thank you for once again bluffing me out of harm's way.", he countered amicably and gestured over to the pastures. "Where do you want to start looking?"

"I don't." Mike said with a weary smile and reached over to pat his partner's shoulder, "Not today. If we start looking for something specific, we'll give away clues. You know as well as I do that those kids are watching our every move. Let's take Cannon up on his offer and come back tomorrow when nobody is around. It'll give us a chance to compare notes tonight. I also need to call Rudy with an update and we're getting close to our check-in time."

"I have to admit, I've got a hell of a headache." Steve mumbled and ran a hand across the bruises on his neck again.

"You look the part too.", Mike agreed before heading back towards the Galaxy, "My turn to drive back. See if I can manage to get us back without hitting all those potholes you did."