"At the rate that you beat your head against the wall, you are going to give yourself a concussion, young man."

Ricky's words, though soothing, did nothing to improve his disposition that evening and Steve sighed in frustration, slowly but surely growing weary of the silly game of tit-for-tat, hoping that Mike next door had better luck.

Judging by the fact that he hadn't gotten pulled out of his interview to hear about some form of case break however, things didn't look so good.

"Then I have to beg the question as to why you keep forcing me to do that? What is your satisfaction in seeing others struggle?", he answered in undisguised frustration, hoping to use Ricky's flowery approach to a murder investigation to his advantage, "You sound like you cared a lot about Lester, and yet you are not willing to openly share the information that can lead to the arrest of the person who committed the murder. Maybe you don't care for Lester as much as you claim after all."

"Your ingenuity flatters me, young man. Using a new technique once again, see if you can make me mad enough to relinquish the information you so desperately crave. And I so wish I could."

"What do you mean by that?"

Ignoring Linus' nervous chatter from down below, Steve leaned across the desk once again, his dark blue tie dangling back and forth with each rapid breath he took.

"I mean what I already told you, young man. Yes, I am certain he was murdered. No, I didn't see it happen. And no, you cannot make me angry. I feel no hostility toward you. And as such, you can't make me angry."

"How was he murdered?", Steve hissed, trying to cut to the chase after one too many evasive maneuvers from the other end of the table.

"I am not sure…", Ricky began, then raised an apologetic hand as if to beg for patience, "It was midnight. Just after a rain shower went through. The air was thick and rich. But the road was slick…I knew he was nearby, up on Dolores and 16th where you caught up with Linus and myself. He wanted to meet, so I waited for him by the embankment. But the road…there's too many lanes, it's very busy. Linus is so scared of it. It was so slippery that night."

"You were on one side of the road and he was on the other?"

With his hand shaking slightly, Steve wrote down a few notes, feeling a faint sense of progress.

"That is correct. We waited and waited for him. He was running late. But Lester was always late so we didn't worry."

"But you knew he was on the other side, getting ready to meet you?"

"Yes. I could hear their voices from afar. He had…he had Albert with him and the both of them went to cross the road…"

For the first time since they met, Steve could sense the deep pain and grief in the other man's words as he stopped mid-sentence, his bottom lip quivering, hands aimlessly sliding across the surface of the table.

As a bad feeling arose in his gut, Steve straightened out a bit, mentally travelling back to the busy intersection, the two lanes of heavy traffic making their way across town like an overflowing river.

"And he was hit by a car."

Steve said those words with the utmost care and compassion, his reward being a faint nod from Ricky.

"I just heard the brakes squealing, then a thud. Albert screamed. It was about forty- fifty feet away from me. Linus rushed up my pantleg for cover. Everything went so fast."

Running a hand across his chin, Steve clenched his jaws, feeling the murder case slowly but surely morph into a manslaughter one, his earlier premonition of having finally caught their killer now trickling through his fingers like warm beach sand on a windy day.

"Before I could gather my bearings, I heard a body tumble across the wet pavement. Then Albert's screams. I heard his palms hitting metal. He was slamming his hands against the hood of the car and screaming. Then the engine roared and it took off."

"The driver fled the scene of the accident?"

"I believe so. That's what it sounded like to me and Albert said it's true.", Ricky answered somberly and reached down to caress Linus who'd taken up his spot by his master's boot, "But I couldn't see it myself. I can barely see when it's light out but at night…I try not to wander too much because of my vision."

With his heart beating frantically, Steve jotted down a few more notes, giving his racing mind a chance to get caught up with the story he'd just been given, think of all the angles and any questions that would now arise.

"Do you know if Albert saw the make and model of that car? Did he get a plate number? Anything?"

Shaking his head, Ricky swallowed hard, ignoring the tear that ran down his cheek before disappearing below his bony jawline.

"Albert is a nice kid. But he gets easily overwhelmed. His…his relationship with Lester was the best thing that could have happened to him but it…it just ended too soon. He wasn't ready to be on his own. So, when the accident happened, he freaked. He screamed. He yelled at the other cars driving by but nobody stopped to help. Eventually, when I heard the traffic clear, Linus and I walked across the road to help. But there was nothing more we could do."

"You didn't call an ambulance?", forcing himself not to sound exasperated, Steve lowered his voice a bit, hoping to keep Ricky talking, "Or the police?"

"It made no difference. He was dead.", the other man countered matter-of-factly, "And just what would you guys have done with two…two homeless bums and a dead body in the middle of the road? We could have told you anything under the sun and you wouldn't have believed us."

Whether he wanted to admit to it or not, Steve felt a sense of anger rising from within, frustration even at the fact that after nine months and no solid ID on the flight vehicle, the chance of finding the driver would be infinitesimal at best, more than likely impossible.

Running a shaky hand through his wavy hair, he exhaled slowly, ready to begin pacing the room again when Ricky reached out for his wrist, intuitively grabbing it on the first try and holding onto it tightly.

"We carried him back to the other side of the road and to the cemetery right there by the Basilica. And we gave him a proper burial and found him the best possible spot for an internment. It was God's will and we are at peace now. So is Reverend Joe. Please, do not grief or begrudge his passing. He wouldn't want that, young man."

Glancing down at the sinewy hand holding onto him, Steve shrugged.

"That's our job.", he said contritely, "We need to find his killer and bring him to justice. He needs to serve time for what he did. He left the scene of an accident and killed a human being. Those are serious charges."

Ricky smiled faintly, then shook his head before giving his wrist another squeeze.

"Your intentions are honorable, young man, but your quest will be in vain. After all this time, you won't find an eye witness who saw the accident. And clearly, the driver hasn't turned himself in yet. For all you know, the car might be sitting in some junkyard, hiding any evidence you might want to gather. But there is one thing you can do."

Raising his weary head again, Steve looked over at the intriguing man, his eyes meeting Ricky's although he couldn't be sure that he saw him well enough.

"And what's that?"

"You can rest easy now that all your questions have been answered. And you can move on."