Steve sped up his pace once again, hoping his hunch of following the raccoon was correct. Short of somebody else having vermin as some sort of support animal, there were few of them around sporting a blue harness with a bell, approximately fifteen-some pounds overweight and heading behind what was left of an abandoned storefront one alley down.

There was no doubt about Rick's connection to Reverend Joe and perhaps, with some luck, they'd be able to finally shed some light on the strange disappearance of one man, coupled by the discovery of the body of another. Whether or not both cases revolved around one and the same person would be left for them to figure out.

Ignoring his tie flying around in the breeze, he leapt across a handful of boulders, huge chunks of concrete torn up from the rubble and placed along the edge of the property to block cars from coming in.

As he turned the corner toward the alleyway, Steve tried to glance back, no longer seeing Mike in his peripheral vision. Then again, the Lieutenant may have chosen to come from the other side of the lot, blocking the escape route of their person, or raccoon of interest.

Despite the thumping of his own heart, he could hear footsteps nearby, scurrying away from his position at an accelerated pace.

Locating the sound coming from behind the nearby wall of the abandoned store, Steve slowed down for a moment, carefully approaching the decaying structure and ducking the windowless openings, as he paralleled the person on the other side.

Slowly, one careful step at a time, he followed along, hoping Mike would appear on the other end of the alley at any moment. Instead, he heard the footsteps speed up, then drift off into a different direction altogether.

Sprinting to the next available opening, an old side entrance to the building, Steve rushed through, finally able to see the person he'd been following. Surprisingly, it wasn't Rick the Raccoon guy after all, but a man in a priest's cassock, running away from him at an astonishing speed considering his broad frame.

From a few yards away, he watched him cross the empty building in a hurry before darting out of a side door and taking a right.

Steve gave chase, barely noticing the raccoon scurrying away from him and seeking shelter in a dark corner, chirping away angrily.

By the time he turned the corner, all he could see was the other man's head disappearing beneath a slope leading down to a set of train tracks ahead, never slowing down as if to run for his life.

When the distance between them grew, Steve considered giving up the chase altogether for now but then decided to continue for just a bit longer.

In one big leap, he tackled the slope, hoping to gain on the other man, not realizing that the ground below was covered in large rocks.