Hanging up the phone after a conversation that lasted more than an hour, Steve took a deep breath and reached for his coffee that had long gone cold. Reviewing the notes he'd taken one last time before rubbing his dry eyes, he glanced up when he sensed a presence beside him.
Swallowing the question about the Lieutenant's scary ability to sneak up on him like that on a second's notice; Steve smiled wearily, before muttering a quiet "Sorry about that."
"Don't worry."
Reaching for his coffee cup with a smirk, Mike spun around to get him a refill, then slid into the guest chair beside his desk.
"So, what was that all about?"
"Martha Roberts…", Steve said with a pained expression on his face, his partner mirroring it, "She ehm…she gave me the list of all of Sarah's friends…at least those she was aware of, or heard her daughter mention."
"Anybody that sticks out from the crowd?", Mike asked and reached forward to grab the large notepad out of his partner's hand, holding it away from his face before looking it over intently.
Leaning back in his chair and resting his burgundy leather boots on the desk, Steve shook his head.
"Most of it is nothing but first names, many of them street names, just like Luigi. For all we know, the list may only contain five people with different variations of their first or last names. Martha said that Sarah was pretty uptight about her friends, knowing that her father didn't approve of too many of them. Didn't fit their…their public persona of sorts."
"Now, let me ask you this…", Mike said and used the notepad to tap his partner's shoulder, "What do you make of the mother? Could she be covering anything up?"
Exhaling slowly, Steve weaved his hands behind his head and pondered for a moment.
"She's an interesting character. Doesn't fit the…the structure of that household well. I mean, if you look at the father, you think he's the rich patriarch who has a trophy wife and two adorable kids. But Martha is actually working full time herself, managing a bank in downtown Oakland. She's gone most of the day. Now, oh wise Lieutenant, would you care to guess who the real trophy is in that marriage?"
"Oh really?", Mike noted with raised eyebrows, "Another one of those women's lib movements in the making? She's putting food on the table while he raises the kids? A new, modern take on redefining gender roles?"
"Not completely, no. See, he used to have a pretty decent job as an insurance broker for one of the bigger firms downtown, but Martha said he was canned a couple years ago and hasn't been able to…quote on quote…find a job that meets his salary and benefits expectations."
With a wily smirk on his face, Mike chuckled.
"Is that wife-talk for saying he's enjoying his time at home and on the golf course a little too much and won't bother going back to work unless somebody rolls out the red carpet for him?"
"You better believe it.", Steve said and pointed his chin back at the black desk phone, "I am going to have R&I run a full profile on that family. Something about that…that naïve tone in Martha's voice strikes me as odd."
"Odd in what way?", Mike asked, his bright blue eyes scanning his partner intently.
"I don't know. I guess, she just…okay, when we talked to Jason, I could sense that he was quite aware of what his kids were doing, where they stood when it came to drugs, their friends, and so on. Martha, she ehm…she talks about them as if they're still kids. It's as if she doesn't want to realize they're grown adults now. It's like she has it in her mind that her daughter can do no wrong, that she's the victim of a vile, and arbitrary crime that has nothing to do with her social circle. And you can't convince her otherwise."
"Mhm hm.", Mike grunted and pursed his lips for a moment, a shadow of suspicion flooding his features, "And on the other side you have Jason who seems to be quite aware of what she was doing, condemned it even. Now the question is, if he knows his daughter so much better, is so much more aware of what she does because he has been home a lot more in the past two years…why did he send us to Martha to get all the info on Sarah's friends?"
"To throw us off course? Stall the investigation?"
"Yeah, I think you're right, Buddyboy."
Running a hand through his salt-and-peppered hair, Mike sighed, before glancing over at his office.
"Listen, I've gotta do some of my own research. Tim brought over a file on that…that festival out east. I want to run some of the information through R&I, see if it gives us any leads on who runs the show, when the next get-together is, all that sort of stuff. Why don't you stay on Jason Roberts, pull anything on him, I want the full works before we even consider bringing him in for further questioning. Any priors, work history, tax statements, heck, his Sunday church attendance records if I can get them. Also, get back down to the DMV, I want the files on all the vehicles registered to him, or his household, past and present, to see if there are any more connections to that missing car. He wouldn't be the first guy to elaborately orchestrate his daughters' murder to make it look like some druggie did it."
A dreadful expression clouded Steve's face at the mentioning of the Department of Motor Vehicles- and it didn't stay unnoticed by his partner.
"Now, don't you give me that puppy look. Get on down there and grab those files. There is no such thing as a woman preying on you at the DMV. Stop being a baby. Come on, let's go, Buddyboy."
