"Andre, what in the world are you doing here?"
Stepping out of the Galaxy and onto the sidewalk along Kearny, Mike grabbed the young man by the arms, shaking him slightly.
"I was in the area and heard the police commotion. So I thought I'd check it out."
Looking him up and down as if to reassure that Andre was unhurt; Mike noticed his unusually light clothing considering the cold temperatures outside. Wearing only a red and brown checkered flannel shirt and holy blue jeans, he was surprised not to feel him shake.
"This is no place for somebody like you to be out roaming, especially right now. We have a murder suspect on the loose in this area…looking for…for young men just like yourself."
Nodding regretfully, Andre fell quiet. When he heard the police radio in the Galaxy spring back to life, Mike quickly ushered him into the back seat, before listening in on the air waves and sharing an ominous glance with Lee.
As he'd expected, the roll call only yielded that Albert was still at large and that they now had five units in the vicinity looking for him. Apparently the first black and white had spotted a suspicious acting man near the bus depot and cross referenced the description against their APB. Upon approaching, Albert fled on foot and just like the last time, he escaped law enforcement thus far.
"What do you want to do, Lieutenant?"
Without having to glance back, Mike knew that Andre followed their exchange with great interest, as the young man leaned forward and put both of his hands on the front bench of the tan sedan.
"Let's sit idle here for a moment. See if he slips up."
Rolling the window down, Mike pulled the emergency light off the Galaxy's roof, hoping to disguise the unmarked police car as best as possible.
"It's strange that he goes all over town. I wonder why he's so erratic. There seems to be no pattern…", Lee sighed and ran a hand through his thick black hair.
"Maybe that is his pattern…", Mike speculated, his trained eyes overlooking the corner of Kearney and Green, waiting for any suspicious activity.
"Is this the killer I heard about on the news? Is this who we are looking for?"
Andre's voice was filled with nervous excitement, as the young man scooted over to the other side of the backseat bench to get a better look at the intersection.
"This is who we are looking for, not you. I will get you dropped off as soon as we're done here. What were you doing outside dressed like this anyway? Where do you live?"
"I eh…I live right off Market and Dolores, down by the grocery store. I took a bus here because I had some homework to do and they wanted us to find the prettiest spot to look at the Bay and Treasure Island."
Mike was about to inquire further on that homework assignment, when Lee's hand carefully tapped his upper arm, disrupting their conversation.
"There's Steve. You want me to flash him my lights?"
Turning back around in surprise, Mike saw his partner casually stroll down the sidewalk across the street. Dressed in his expensive black suit, he looked woefully out of place as he approached a crowd of onlookers who had gathered on the corner to watch the police activity down the road.
They waited for the young Inspector to flash his badge at an older lady and ask a few questions, then look over into their directions as if he knew he was being watched.
Smiling cheekily and shaking his head, Steve jogged across the street, his bright red tie flying in the wind as he approached the passenger side of the Galaxy, just in time for Mike to get out and greet him.
"Seen the commotion when I got home so I thought I'd check things out…", the young Inspector said, momentarily freezing in his spot when he saw Andre in the backseat.
"You always dress like that to go to the dentist?", Mike growled suspiciously but dropped the attitude when Steve just shrugged indifferently, "Albert has been seen down here. One of the unis alerted us and we came right down but it looks as though he got away again."
"Damnit…", Steve hissed and looked around, as if he was hoping to see any signs of their murder suspect.
"You can say that again. Listen, eh…you think you can take Andre and me back to headquarters in the Porsche? This way Lee can stay here a little bit longer in case there's a break. Then we'll drop him off at home on our run out. You and I still have an impressive list of houses to check out."
Hesitating momentarily, Steve nodded and nervously glanced a block over where his apartment was located, his green eyes turning distant and neutral.
"Sure…it'll be a tight fit but I guess I can make it work. You'll just have to give me a minute to get my suits out of the back."
"Did you ever sit down and wonder how many suits you actually own?", Mike tried kind-heartedly and gestured for Andre to get back out of the car and follow them down the sidewalk toward Union Street.
"Enough for a nice down payment on a house."
What started out as a relaxed conversation soon turned into a one-sided dialogue as they walked the few hundred yards down Kearney, before heading east onto Union. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Steve was more than perturbed about Andre's presence, his distant behavior so strangely out of character for the usually cheerful young man.
Then again, a lot of things had been lately.
Mike sighed in relief when the silver Porsche came into view, hoping to an end off the verbal standoff and some return to normality once they got back downtown. As much as he'd been trying to stay neutral about Steve's issues, regardless of what they stemmed from, he couldn't help but begin to be affected by the sheer endless mood swings thrown at him in the duration of a single day.
Unexplainable mood swings that were slowly but surely raising his ire.
Respectfully staying a couple feet back to give his partner room to clean out the front and back seats of the tiny sports car, Mike raised an eyebrow when he saw Steve tuck a large envelope with a logo he couldn't identify under his arm the moment he opened the car's passenger side door. Even from his distance, it was obvious that the young Inspector was quite troubled that he'd been seen near it and made sure to disguise it inside his dress jacket before more could be seen.
"Here you go. It's eh…it's a bit tight but better than nothing. Let me just bring my stuff inside and I'll be right back. See if we can get her back up the hill with three people in it."