"I am pretty sure everyone heard Audrey's nose shatter before he fell backwards and landed spread-eagle on Tanner's desk."
There was a gleeful smile on Steve's lips as he reiterated every last scene of the violent encounter between Mike and James Audrey, some of it beginning to sound more colorful than the Lieutenant recalled.
The same could be said about the enthusiasm and pride in the young Inspector's voice when reliving the moment of Mike finally losing the last of his patience and serving a strong upper cut to the obstinate man who'd ignored his third request to stay in place and began to charge at him.
It was a pitiful two-minute affair that would land Audrey several misdemeanor charges including resisting arrest and destruction of public property, on top of an Assault & Battery charge on a police officer with the intention of great bodily harm, Audrey's words, not his, a class C felony that would ensure some jail time to think long and hard about his poor life choices. As such, Mike didn't begrudge being the one to finally put a stop to the disturbing development between the retired Army Serviceman and Beverly Landau.
"You liked that, didn't you, Smiley?", he teased and stepped out of his office for a refill of coffee, leaving Steve to continue his engaged monologue that was beginning to sound like a fairy tale.
"Liked it? I loved it!", the young Inspector replied enthusiastically, then pointed at the door frame to paint a picture of the heroic incident for a visibly amused Kammers, "So he tells me to stand back. That he's got this. I mean, at this point Tanner and Lessing are ready to tackle this guy but nope, not as long as Mike's around. So he sets him up with all kinds of questions, completely annihilating the report he's got sitting down with Armin, and then goes for the kill…literally only, of course."
The Lieutenant shook his head with a quiet chuckle and reached for the coffee pot, filling his cup halfway and adding just a pinch more cream and sugar, then flexing the raw knuckles on his right hand.
"I know, I know…", Mike added after hearing the same story for the third time, "And out came the strong arm of the law…come on, you two, we've got some work to do. It's bad enough that Audrey robbed an hour from our day already, let's not fill the rest with heroic fairy tales."
Nodding obediently, albeit unable to wipe that smirk off his face, Steve turned back toward Mike's desk, waiting patiently until the Lieutenant sat down. Next to him, Simone smiled wearily, her high-cut purple blouse and large gold necklace utterly out of place for where the workday would take them.
Then again, to the Staff Sergeant's defense, she didn't know yet.
"You said you had an idea how to go about tonight's business…", Steve said cryptically, having completely returned to his professional self.
Mike nodded slowly and leaned back in his chair, absent-mindedly playing with the middle button on his red vest, as he stared straight ahead.
"Well, McPhearson won't budge when we confront him about Leanne again. And at this point I am fairly certain he's not our killer. As a matter of fact, I am thinking of pulling him into our plot, see if he can help us smoke out the real killer."
"How are you going to do that? So far, our suspect has been successful in avoiding arrest, leaving no evidence behind that could tie her to the murder."
It was Simone's worry-filled voice that put a smile on the Lieutenant's face this morning as he shook his head.
"She did leave evidence behind, just not the usual type.", Mike clarified evenly, much like a teacher explaining a math-problem to a student, "No forced entry. No Signs of struggle. A…martial arts worthy technique used to kill Leanne Harris. A perfectly clean apartment. And most importantly, no references as to how our victim might know her killer. I bet you if we can find out why Leanne never mentioned her, we'll have ourselves a closed case."
At his in-depth explanation, Kammers fell quiet, then sheepishly glanced over at Steve, whose keen eyes never left his partner.
"So, if we assume that jealousy could be the motive, that our killer didn't like what Harris and McPhearson were doing and wanted to make it look as though McPhearson killed her…we might be able to smoke her out if we…if we rub in that special relationship just a bit more, enough to make it sting. And see which one of the ladies reacts."
"Now you're thinking!", Mike praised and pointed at the black office phone, "Get a hold of McPhearson and give him just the tiniest of hunches of what we're about to do. "
When Kammers resumed to stare back and forth between both detectives, trying to follow the well-ingrained protocol of their investigative thinking and the intricate parts of their sophisticated body language, it was Steve who smiled broadly.
"Mike Stone Axiom 137. Question a subject directly and they will clam up. But go where the suspect feels comfortable, then bait them with an imaginary fact aimed to coax a reaction out of them, and you might just get a bite."