Steve took a sip of his Coke and leaned towards Roy, anxious to learn anything that would help him make sense of Mike's recent behavior. The nagging question of why Mike decided to handle the case on his own was his chief concern.

Roy, leaning forward as well, began, "Don't forget I was once his partner, too, Steve. We were both in Homicide when I got the opportunity to head up Robbery. That was about eight years ago or so," Roy smiled with a hesitation. "Can't believe it's been that long. When you get to our age, Steve, time is a blur."

Steve smiled in response, not fully appreciating a wistfulness in Roy's voice. If he only knew how Roy envied him and the open career path ahead. He coveted a chance to be in Steve's spot again and perhaps take decisions differently. But that was a matter for another day.

"So, you knew Gus then?" Steve asked, snapping Roy to the present.

"Sure, we all did. I, too, was in uniform when Mike got the call to Homicide. I was out on the streets and knew Gus and a lot of the old guys back then. It was a tough time."

"How so?"

"You know that Mike's promotion to detective was one of the earliest where the results were largely pegged on an actual exam? Before that point, promotions were given based on seniority as well as being plugged into the network, if you know what I mean."

"Hey, it pays to know people," Steve chuckled. "But you're saying that Mike scored better on the exam than others who had more seniority."

Taking another drag from his cigarette, "Yeah, he hit that mother over the wall. And some of the older guys were pissed. I'll bet you've seen a little bit of that yourself, taking a quicker route to detective from college and the Academy. But in Mike's case, the new requirement was scoring well on the new exam. They also had a panel interview with the exam and he impressed the hell out of everyone."

Steve was overcome with pride. "I'm not surprised, Roy. He's an outstanding detective. You know how Gus's murder was solved so quickly?"

Roy shook his head.

"I was there when Mike questioned the jeweler. He got him up in the middle of the night, made him open his shop and then had the poor guy re-enact the entire scene. He asked so many questions – with so much nuance and cadence. No detail was too small. I was taking notes, not just of what the jeweler was saying, but also Mike's questions. He just pushed and pushed, rapid fire. What we found out through that exercise led us to the craps game that gave us our biggest lead."

"Good old Iron Mike – a driving interrogator even in his darkest moments," Roy responded. "Let me ask you this: does Mike normally question with that same level of intensity?"

Steve sat for a moment thinking. "You know, with the detail and thoroughness of the questions, he paints a scene and I'm always amazed at what comes out of it. My god, I've learned so much from his questioning style. But to answer your question, the substance of what he was asking was not atypical. Intensity? Yes, he is always intense. But there was an edge that I've not seen before. That was something new. I know he was upset about Gus, but Gus was still alive at that point. I knew there was a degree of it being personal, but there was something else."

Roy nodded quietly for several moments after Steve stopped talking. Pieces were coming together. "He feels guilty, Steve. He convinced himself for years that he took something that was rightfully Gus's. Gus was next in line for the job under the old system, but everything changed by then. Just bad timing for Gus, but Mike felt like he abandoned him. To have Gus shot instead of the sendoff he deserved, I'm sure that brought back the old guilt. Man, Steve, I should have seen this coming. I should have gone to Captain Olsen when from the start and had Mike benched."