"Steve, there's a forensic odon…odolot…odonotlogist…a teeth guy…there's a teeth guy on line four for you."

Tanner's words made him snap to full attention and Steve scrambled for his notepad with one hand, reaching for the receiver of his phone with the other.

Doctor Weissmueller calling him back already could be good news, or bad ones.

It was hard to tell.

Although Ericksson had promised to drop off the tooth he'd exchanged with Corbin the same day of their phone call, it took an extra couple of days for the overweight man to make it into the bullpen, breathing heavy from the arduous journey up the four flights of stairs, holding a small plastic container in hand that included a dried-up little tooth.

Perhaps the fire had kept him away that afternoon, Steve told himself, trying hard not to appear disappointed in the late drop-off, then ushered the man straight back down the stairs and back home, trying to keep any details about the ongoing investigation out of circulation. Often enough, a press van would keep an eye on the comings and goings of the Hall of Justice Building, then pounce on people as they left, trying to pry out information on high-profile cases.

Too much was at stake at their current case to allow for a faux-pas, no matter how small.

This had been five days ago and he personally drove the tooth over to Berkeley to drop it off for Doctor Weissmueller, following his gut on a possibility that the incredibly intelligent forensics expert could somehow link the kids' tooth to the adult equivalent found on their stiff.

And now he had a phone call waiting.

Glancing up as usual, he tried to locate his partner, anxious and eager to reel him in on what was going on, but the inner office was barren, meaning Mike was either in a meeting or taking a bathroom break.

Trying to stifle his excitement, Steve put the receiver to his ear, hearing nothing but his own rapid heartbeat for a moment.

"This is Inspector Keller?"

"Yeah, hello Inspector, this is Doctor Weissmueller, following up on the specimen you brought me the other day in regards to your murder investigation."

"I am all ears, Doctor…", Steve nudged, barely able to curtail his excitement as he reached for a pencil in his stack, ready to take notes.

"Well, Inspector, as I told you the other day, I specialize in rugoscopy. This is a fairly new field when it comes to forensic odontology and as such, we're still in the beginning stages of many tests, especially when it comes to antemortem and postmortem comparisons."

There came the disappointment, Steve sighed, and let his eyes drift over to his name plate, trying to hold onto the hope that there was something useful that would come out of this phone call.

"Now, we have very little to go on when it comes to the palate of your diseased victim, at least when talking about antemortem information. I understand from your coroner that there are no dental records at this time."

"That is correct.", he added, then reached for his cup of coffee with shaking fingers.

"This is quite unfortunate, as it would have made my work a lot easier.", the other man admitted, shuffling some papers as he continued on, "And you see, Inspector, what we do here is study the palate. We look for ridges, changes in bone structure, teeth that are growing in the wrong position, as well as disease. These ridges are extremely characteristic and allow us to match ante- and post-mortem specimen rather easily, especially for your kind of work. You might as well call it an odontological fingerprint of sorts."

Steve bit his lip, hoping the Doctor would get to the point soon.

"At any rate, I did find something that should interest you, Inspector. The tooth you brought me was a juvenile left mandibular incisor. Considering its age, it was in pristine condition. I suppose whoever stored it did so in some dust-free environment away from the elements. However, I checked this tooth against the left mandibular incisor on your victim. I was able to find a partial match in the palatal lining, to be exact, the lining from the roof of his mouth had, in a much smaller and less consistent way, continued on into his teeth. You have the same thing happening with your fingernails, Inspector. Any changes to the cuticle area will have an effect onto the way the nail regrows. But I found a secondary anomaly that was quite helpful. It appears that your victim may have been in a fight shortly before losing the juvenile tooth. At such a young age, this could have even been a fall, I wasn't able to ascertain exactly how it happened. However, I did see a small groove on the tooth where the enamel had been compromised due to some sort of trauma that extended deep into the gum line. And excitingly enough, I was able to identify the same spot on your victim's mandibular incisor as well."

Trying to follow the conversation as best as possible, Steve was rubbing his eyebrows, his active mind slowly but surely catching up.

"Doctor Weissmueller, so what you are saying is that the area of the trauma to the ehm… the gumline or the palate even…it transferred over from his juvenile tooth to his adult tooth?"

"Very much so, Inspector.", the other man countered with a hint of excitement in his voice.

It didn't take much for that excitement to carry over to Steve as well.

Clenching his fist in silent victory, the young Inspector cleared his throat once again, longing for his partner by his side at the eve of yet another major case break.

"Now, if you don't mind, let me ask you this, Doctor Weissmueller; if you were to be summoned to court to testify on our behalf, could you, without any reasonable doubt ascertain that the tooth I brought you is indeed a juvenile tooth of our victim, Lester Joseph Corbin?"

There was a brief silence on the other end as Weissmueller adjusted the phone, before speaking up again.

"I'd be more than happy to testify to exactly that, Inspector Keller."