"It's nice to finally put a face to the voice, Detectives, although you could have saved yourselves the trip. We sent everything we have down to San Francisco last night."
Mike kept his expression unreadable, as he reached forward to shake the hand of the short and stocky Sherriff. Mid-fifties, with crew cut red hair and a set of scrutinizing brown eyes, Luther Watson exuded the charisma of stale bread.
Behind him, Steve shook the man's hand before taking a moment to look around the small corner office. The wall behind the cluttered desk was adorned with several certifications, recognitions for outstanding service and dozens of pictures of the Sheriff with what seemed to be high ranking local politicians.
A small bookshelf off to the left contained accounts about anything from criminal investigation to psychology and case studies of past murders.
"We're up here to take a good look at some of the locations described in your report. Where you found the body, the park where Emily disappeared, anything in between those two locations that could give us an idea of what really happened."
Keeping his voice steady, Mike glanced over at his partner for a fleeting moment, his unspoken request to take in everything he could in the office, leaving him to handle the small talk.
"Well, I suggest you look at the pictures we sent you then. Because it's been a few weeks. The…ehm…the crime scenes have been disturbed by now."
Watson pointed his chin at the thick file Mike held under his arm, and put both hands on his sides, drawing in a deep breath before he continued.
"And I will tell you two right now, the papers in the area have blown this thing way out of proportion. The poor girl drowns and gets sucked into a boat propeller and suddenly everybody screams murder. I bet she just drove off with a new boyfriend or something and they did some hanky-panky on the docks and something went wrong. But of course, that doesn't make for a good story."
"How do you explain the missing organs?", Mike pried, more or less to put some pressure on the Sherriff and see how he'd react.
Steve had moved off to the right, looking at several photographs with great interest.
"Come on, now, Lieutenant. Does nobody ever die violently there in San Francisco? Bodies getting all torn apart?", Watson asked argumentatively and shook his head, clearly growing annoyed with the conversation.
"Nope. They just lay down and die.", Steve mumbled from his corner of the office, never turning around to see Mike stare at him warningly.
Ignoring the young Inspector's snide remark altogether, Watson walked around his desk and reached for a cold cup of coffee, before speaking up again.
"What happened to that girl is no different than a deer getting hit by a large vehicle at full speed. These…these propellers tear into human flesh like a scalpel. They tear anything apart. Now, I don't know what you two hope to accomplish here, or where your interest in this case stems from, since nobody seems to want to tell us…but quite honestly, you are wasting your time. And ours for that matter. I am very limited on personnel and time around here, especially during the holidays and I've already sent you everything we've got."
"What happened to the body after the autopsy?"
Growing increasingly tired of the other man's arrogance and rudeness, Mike stepped closer to his desk, putting both hands on the solid oak surface and leaning forward, his blue eyes scanning the Sheriff intently.
"It got sent back to her parents. They had it cremated. Why? You want to dig up the ashes and see if you find more clues?"
"We're going to do whatever it takes to find out the truth, Sheriff.", Mike answered sternly, never losing eye contact as his voice grew quieter.
"Why are you two after this case?", Watson asked again, the hand holding the coffee cup trembling slightly, "I mean, isn't there enough work for you in San Francisco? Your department got too much money on their hands and waste it by sending you two all over the place to meddle in other department's affairs?"
"They needed our office space to put in a massage parlor for the department so we now travel for a living…"
Steve looked up and gave the Sherriff his best wily smile, before turning back around and grabbing a picture off the wall, studying it intently.
Taken aback by the blatant ridiculing, Watson huffed for a minute, his eyes going back and forth between both detectives.
"We are after this case because a young woman was brutally murdered. And we want to know why. And we will find out why.", Mike explained sternly, before the other man could say anything further, "And when we do, we look forward to your full cooperation, Sherriff."