"What is it you want here, Audrey?"
Mike lowered his voice to a mere growl when he saw the unkempt man enter the confines of the homicide bullpen, knowing well enough that this wasn't a courtesy visit by any stretch of the imagination.
If anything, given his past record, it was safe to say that James Audrey had come up here looking for trouble, foolish as that may seem.
Disregarding his question initially, the retired Army Serviceman glanced around the bullpen, undoubtedly looking for Steve, and finally noticing him near the door frame behind the Lieutenant.
"You and I have a score to settle, you punk kid.", the man sneered, drawing the attention of the other Inspectors his way.
As both Tanner and Lessing slowly rose from their desks, willing to jump in and de-escalate the situation if needed, Mike cocked his head at them, telling them to back off for the time being.
If anything, Audrey's poor choice might prove to be a godsend yet when it came to getting this questionable character behind bars after all.
Mike took a second to scan the man top to bottom, looking for weapons hiding beneath the worn out jeans and red plaid shirt but saw nothing suspicious. More importantly, the tall and hefty man stood there with balled fists, bloodshot eyes, breathing heavy and exuding the aroma of stale beer.
"Steve, you stay out of this. I'll handle it.", he said quietly, never turning around or taking his eyes off Audrey but knowing his order had been received on the other end.
"I ask again. What do you want up here?"
Mike's stern voice seemed to finally snap the obstinate man out of his dazed state of obsessive aggression and he glared at the Lieutenant, one hand reaching up to wipe the sweat off his face.
"You stay out of this, old man. That kid took my woman and he's gonna pay for it.", Audrey countered and proceeded to take another step toward them, now standing in the middle of the large bullpen, seemingly oblivious to the assortment of law enforcement professionals ready to put him back into place.
"And here I thought you were the victim of Bethany Landau's approaches. Why would you need to come up here to settle any score? You got the attention you wanted, didn't you? Even got her fired."
Skillfully disguising a question destined to further indict Audrey in confrontational gift wrap, Mike watched the other man huff in irritation, then take another step closer, each movement causing a wave of twitches to flow through all attending officers in the large bullpen.
"I didn't want any of that. And I could have handled myself just fine with her. She just needed some taming. She and I needed some more time to talk. But then this guy came around and ruined everything."
"Now wait a minute, wait just one minute. I thought you felt misled by her, almost sexually assaulted when you didn't return her…her aggressive advances. Somebody who knows how to tame women wouldn't get intimidated like that, now would they?"
Stifling an alcohol-laden burp, Audrey took another step forward, standing just a few feet away from the Lieutenant now.
At that distance it became clear what kind of liquid diet had coerced the man to be so dumb as to cause a confrontation at the Hall of Justice Building. Just how exactly he managed his way up here without a guard stopping him was something Mike would address at a later time.
"Are you calling me stupid?", Audrey hissed and ran a hand through his unkempt hair, never noticing three Homicide detectives closing in behind him.
"Me? No, I wouldn't call you stupid. There are other, more precise words I would choose though."
Deciding that his plan to let his frustrations out on Steve wasn't about to come to fruition, Audrey settled on the next best goal and reached backward, ready to throw a punch in Mike's general direction.
Little did he know what a bad idea that really had been.