"What do you think?"
Mike shrugged at the question, then leaned back in his office chair, his red tie somewhat askew from fidgeting with it during the phone call with the mayor earlier. Then again, there were still three other equally as demoralizing phone calls on his list for the afternoon.
Pursing his lips, the Lieutenant glanced over at the Scales of Justice sitting near his door, letting the thoughts gather in his mind, trying to silence the voice inside that was beginning to question the sanctity of the law he'd sworn to uphold so many years ago, and the justice that had become a rarity in the courtrooms across the city.
"I think that whoever killed Sullenger did so premeditatedly. They wanted him dead for a long time."
"But why not shoot him? Why hit him upside the head with a brick?"
Steve's question made him shrug, before turning around to face his partner.
For a morning he was supposed to spend catching up with personal business and car repairs, the young Inspector seemed unusually tense, his back and shoulders rigidly straight, hands grasping the corners of the gray file cabinet in a death grip, green eyes glancing up at him covertly whenever he thought Mike wasn't paying attention.
"Could be that our killer doesn't like guns, or isn't qualified to own one. And when the opportunity arose, he…or she…grabbed the first weapon in sight, which came from the pile of refuse material the city workers left behind after replacing parts of the sewage pipe right by the newspaper stand."
Steve nodded faintly, having barely touched his coffee since he came in, and completely ignored the chocolate muffin Mike had bought him for breakfast.
"In the case of our suspect prostitute, premeditation would only make sense if he picked the same one each time. Maybe a call girl. Personal…escort."
"The jacket was too cheap for an escort girl.", Mike argued and pointed his chin toward his partner's desk, "Did you get anywhere rattling cages about prostitutes being seen with Sullenger?"
"Nothing.", Steve answered too fast and began to pull up his shirt sleeves in nervous agitation, "Scooter Briggs got busted by Vice a few months ago and hasn't been actively…servicing the area where Sullenger lived or…relaxed. Johnny "Double J" Jackson claims innocence. I haven't heard back from my hooker friends yet, seems they're…quite busy over the holiday season."
"That figures…well, in the meantime, let's pull an R&I request for our…our Psych Reader. I can't help but wonder how she got such…accurate insights into the case, other than the fact that she may have worn that jacket and killed Sullenger herself."
When Steve didn't answer right away, Mike glanced over at his partner, just to find him staring blankly at the pencil holder ahead.
Quickly noticing that he was being watched, the young Inspector flinched and looked back up, a slight shade of red appearing on his cheeks.
"…What?"
"I said we should run an R&I report on this Andrea lady. See if anything in there ties her to our victim…are you ok, Stephen? Seems like your mind is some other place?"
The slight irritation in his voice was duly noted and the young Inspector nodded with the most assurance he could muster, before resuming his task of kneading the sleeves of his mandarin dress shirt.
"Yeah…yeah I am fine. I will get right on that."
"You do that.", Mike answered skeptically and watched his partner duck his head, once again avoiding eye contact, as he scurried out of the office to reach for his phone, "One more thing too, leave a note for the cleaning lady to go over your desk one more time. I swear, I am still smelling that Psych Readers' strange perfume."