"What kind of a world do we live in where a young cop can just disappear and nobody has seen anything?!"
Mike's relentless barking was met with the stoic two faces of the patrol Sergeants who had combed the entire perimeter for Steve and the missing Galaxy, only to come up empty-handed.
With the sunset imminent, darkness would soon overtake the countless city blocks once again, diminishing their hopes of finding any clues before the end of the day.
"What about garages? I mean, he could have hid the car in a garage. As a matter of fact, any of these surrounding houses here could be his hideout. He could be watching us right now…"
"Mike, settle down for a moment, will you?", Lenny urged, squeezing his upper arm through the thick fabric of his gray overcoat, "You can't get a search warrant for every single house and garage in this city."
"You bet I can!", the Lieutenant argued angrily and pulled his arm free, before stepping off to the side and watching the traffic slowly creep past the single lane road block they had constructed on the westbound side of Lombard.
"And how long is that going to take? Come on now, Lieutenant. Think clear."
He was ready for another bout of arguing with Lenny, when he saw a patrolman approach from across the street with a young man carrying shopping bags in tow. Raising his head as a glimmer of hope returned to his weary senses that night, Mike approached the odd couple hastily.
"Lieutenant Stone, this is Warren Dempsey. He was shopping across the street and says that he saw Inspector Keller get abducted…"
Nodding at the trembling man in his mid-twenties reassuringly, Mike reached for his badge, before flashing his credentials and forcing a fake smile.
"I am Lieutenant Mike Stone with San Francisco Police Homicide. Mister Dempsey, this is very important. What exactly did you see?"
From his peripheral vision below the fedora, he noticed both Lenny and Sergeant Swanson approach hesitantly.
"Yes, I remember you from the TV, Lieutenant. Last Thursday…about the killer. Anyways, yes it…it kinda happened so fast. About an hour and a half ago I think it was. I was shopping for groceries for the weekend and I saw that fella come out of the old abandoned house down on the corner. At first, I thought he was a building inspector but he was dressed too nice for it, so I figured he was an insurance guy. I didn't give it much thought and went about my business but when I paid the bill, I seen him walk into the alley to his car, a green one, Ford I think. This isn't the safest of neighborhoods, so I was about to warn him but then I seen him pull out a radio and knew he was a cop."
"Can you describe him for me? Height? Age? Weight? What was he wearing?", Mike asked, having to cover all the angles for a witness statement that might have to stand up in court.
"Oh, I'd say maybe 5'10, 5'11, 160lbs, early thirties. Brown hair, medium length. Skinny guy. Had a black suit and a bright red tie…"
Nodding at the confirmation that made his heart ache, Mike cleared his throat before pointing at the nearby alley.
"You said he was parked right there?"
"Yes, Lieutenant. He ehm…I seen him make a radio call but then suddenly, this burly guy shows up from behind one of the dumpsters and grabbed him by the back of the neck and shoved him head first into the doorframe. I heard the thud all the way over here. The cop, he went down right away and this guy, he just picked him up and threw him over his shoulder like it was nothing, and then he shoved him into the trunk and drove off with the car. He was headed westbound on Lombard and I tried to see where he'd turn but traffic had gotten so dense that I lost him."
Feeling his heart race at the additional information trickling in, Mike reached for his black notepad.
"Can you describe the assailant, Mister Dempsey?"
"I would say mid-forties to mid-fifties, weighed probably twice as much as the cop. He seemed unkempt but extremely strong. His white jacket was dirty and he seemed…I don't know…manic. At one point as he drove off, he looked up at me wide-eyed and it scared the hell out of me."
Surfacing a file photo of Albert Mulligan from his coat pocket, Mike handed it over to their witness.
"Is this the man you saw? Did he kidnap the cop?"
Nodding eagerly, Dempsey symbolically pointed at the picture, before his haunted eyes met Mike's again.
"That's him. I am absolutely sure. I am…I am sorry I can't help you any further, Lieutenant."
"That's alright, you've been a big help.", Mike said reassuringly, before patting the man's shoulder and nodding at the nearby patrolman, "Dennis, take his info down in case we have any more questions."
"You've got it, Lieutenant."
Walking up closer toward him, Mike could hear Lenny take a deep breath as he cleared his throat.
"West on Lombard... He could have gone anywhere from there. That puts us practically right back to square one."
Pursing his lips, Mike glanced down the busy street, his mind working overtime to envision his killer's next steps.
"If anybody knows how to get out of a tight bind, it's Steve. Let's hope he can send us some sort of signal. In the meantime, I need to take a moment to brief the press. I want this whole city to know what's going on so that Albert has no place left to hide."
"Mike, I know you don't want to hear that, but this plan of yours might put our suspect into a heightened state of anxiety. His actions could become more erratic. He might kidnap more people. Or, worse yet, discard of his…well-known victim, hoping to eliminate any traces back to him."
Drawing in a deep breath, Mike looked back at Lenny, his senses having grown dull from the relentless downpour of bad news for the day.
"I don't have a choice. I need to try to flush him out if there's any chance of saving Steve and our other kidnap victim. I'll be damned if I just sit around here and wait for the call that my partner's body has been found in some nearby park."