It's been a very long day but I wanted to at least get a few more chapters out. Again, all my stories are complete, I wouldn't post them otherwise, but it just takes a while to upload all these chapters and my German patience (or lack thereof) doesn't always cooperate…
"I think you got something there, Mike."
Running a hand over his tired brown eyes, Lenny drew in a deep breath, before lowering the file in his hands back onto the desk.
"A little more detail or facts would go a long way by now…", the Lieutenant answered cantankerously as he leaned against his outside window, trying to ignore the clock that was close to reaching the 5am mark.
Crossing his legs and interweaving his hands, Lenny sat back in the guest chair, obviously feeling crowded by the assortment of detectives surrounding him, amongst them Olsen, Tanner, Lessing and a newly encouraged Elliot Swanson.
"Fact 1, Lieutenant, is that she fits the pattern.", the psychiatrist answered frustratedly before glancing around the crowd, "Fact 2 is that her prescription matches what would be required to subdue an adult male within the weight ranges of all of our victims. Fact 3 is that from her interviews with Doctor Walters, it is obvious that she is highly manipulative, using both, psychological and physiological…techniques to coerce others. One time she even flashed him her…well, you get the idea."
"So how does this…illustrious lady from the psych ward fit in with Al Mulligan?"
Behind the crowd, Olsen had his arms crossed in front of his chest, the remnant of a cigar still in his mouth even though he'd put it out long ago.
"There's a good chance she found him on the streets, two peas in a pod. Her controlling behavior and continuous thirst for physical interaction combined with Al's need for affection, attention, domination and devotion could very well turn them into the mentally ill equivalent of Bonny and Clyde."
"A psych ward couple of serial killers. Is that all you got?!", Mike barked, an angry frown on his face, "What about my partner? How is this going to help Steve?"
"Can somebody get him some sedatives, please?", Lenny retorted in sheer annoyance, before nervously rubbing his hands together, "Just chill for a second, Lieutenant, okay? Where I was going with that is that we now have two subjects, we can begin to look for common dominators. When two people join forces like that, they either consciously or subconsciously compromise. Anytime you partner with somebody, their behavior affects yours, right? So we can take parameters from Al's file and match them up against those in hers, and see what we can come up with. Behavior patterns that might lead to a preferred location where they might hang out at, certain tastes, preferences, activities they share. The sooner we can find the common denominator, the sooner we can track them down."
"I haven't got a clue of what you just said, Lenny.", Olsen admitted, the quiet nodding in the group signaling that he wasn't the only one.
"That's why I have a team on standby back at the clinic to help us out with this. We'll go through and see what we can find. In the meantime, you guys have a few more serious problems on your hands."
"Why?"
With his voice lowered, Mike glared at the psychiatrist in anxious impatience.
"Well, for starters, Al changed his MO drastically with Steve. We expected for his behavior to escalate somewhat, but did you realize he actually struck a day sooner this time? In the past, he'd kidnap the night before day four, and deposit the body the following morning. But we're only on day three now."
"Why the acceleration in pace you think?"
This time it was Tanner who spoke up quietly.
"I think it's because all his other victims were chosen seemingly arbitrary. He probably stalked them for an hour before he kidnapped them, but there wasn't much rhyme or reason before other than finding some helpless good-looking guy. With Steve, I think he knew exactly who he was after and he just waited for the right opportunity. And it came sooner than expected. Which brings us back to that kid, what was his name?"
"Andre.", Mike answered deep in thought, "I spoke to Doug half an hour ago, so far they haven't been able to trace him. His mother has been briefed, as soon as he shows up at home, she'll give us a call…You said there were a couple serious issues…"
"I am not going to lie, Lieutenant, I am deeply worried about Steve and his role in all that."
Lenny's words made the room fall quiet, as all eyes were trained on the psychiatrist.
"It's becoming pretty obvious that Susan is the lead in this whole case, that it is her enjoying dominance over all our male victims. There has to be some sort of reward for Al to bring them to her. He's basically her runner boy. At any rate, these five other guys, including Randy, are just your average Joe Blows. I doubt they'd put up much of a fight. But now you get Stephen in the mix."
"And he'd do everything in his power to protect our fifth victim and try to escape.", Mike mumbled, a troubling thought filling his mind.
"That's right, Lieutenant. So there are two scenarios we're looking at here. Either Susan is going to fill him so full of drugs that he can't even remember his name, but then he won't do her much good because he wouldn't react to her…her approaches. He'd be too drugged up. And she'll get tired of him a lot faster than the other few guys due to a lack of sexual stimuli. The alternative is that he would become so violent that she realizes he isn't worth the trouble and has Al…discard him. Especially being that he's a high-profile kidnap victim now. People are looking for him all over the place. He poses a threat to their grand plan. Whichever scenario we're dealing with here, the outcome has me gravely worried for his safety."
A depressing silence filled the four walls of Mike's office. In the end, it was the Lieutenant who drew in a deep breath, before clearing his throat.
"Well, it seems we better-"
He never got to finish that sentence when his phone rang. Sharing an ominous glance with the Psychiatrist, Mike carefully picked up the receiver.
"Homicide, Stone…yes…I see…okay…which address you said this was? 46 Donahue, on Donahue and Lakewood Street...Ok, we'll be right over. Tell the dive team to go ahead."
Pursing his lips, Mike glanced down for a moment, his blue eyes filled with heartbreak and apprehension as he hung up the phone again.
"This was Sergeant Collins. They have a witness who saw a guy fitting Al's description drive a green sedan into the bay down at Hunter's point. They got a dive team on site already and are getting ready to lift the car back out of the water."
"He may be depositing more than just the car.", Lenny mumbled, vocalizing everybody's worst fear.
"We'll find out as soon as we get there…", the Lieutenant noted and reached for his badge and revolver, when Olsen raised a cautious hand.
"You're staying here, Mike. That's an order.", even though he got ready to protest, the Captain emerged from the crowd, his stern glance leaving no room for interpretation, "Lessing, grab Harris and get on down there. As soon as you know what's going on, call us."
Without another word, the African-American Inspector rushed out of the office, leaving the rest of the detectives behind.
"Come on now, Rudy, I need to go. What if it's Steve?"
Shaking his head, Olsen grunted impatiently.
"Let Lessing do his job, Michael. If it is Steve, you sure as hell don't need to see him like that."