I walked into the station house, and my cell phone rang. Recently I had changed my ring tone to Switchfoot's, 'Dirty second hands' but I don't see why that is important, now. Don't ask why I chose to include that. Uh..Anyways, Munch didn't bother to wait up for me, he just kept on with his ever so purposeful walk towards his desk, already shrugging that black trench coat off his shoulders to drape it like a cloak over his chair.
I
shuffled the papers in my grasp to my other arm, fished around in my
pocket, flipped it open, not even bothering to check and see who was
calling, and said brusquely
"Roscamp."
"Darlene, where are you?"
It was Elliot. I frowned, and stared at the phone, "At the one-six house, where're you?"
I looked up, and caught his gaze. Elliot was at his desk with the phone to his ear, and for one of the few times in his life he looked speechless. Feet up on the desk, too, on top of that.
I grinned, "Hey there!"
I made a beeline for him as The Captain came out of his office, slamming the door behind him, and not looking all that happy to see me or Munch, "What you got, kids?"
"Boy oh boy, have we got a treat for you, Captain!" Munch grinned. He had grabbed a donut from his desk, and was now talking around a mouthful of creamy goodness, "The squirt here followed a hunch, and look what it got us!"
Munch nodded at me, and I handed over the papers we had gotten from the steel mill to him.
Elliot rose from his chair, still looking a little red, and stood next to me as the Captain flipped through the papers.
"If this is anything less spectacular then the resurrection, you're both fired." The Captain said blandly. I could tell that he was not in a good mood at all, so I wondered how this piece of info Munch and I had dug up would faze him. I watched his face closely. It went from polite interest, to confusion, to resentment, and then finally to a sort of resigned sigh.
"You have to be kidding." He said eventually, rubbing his temples with his fingers.
"Unfortunately, no we're not." I said, cracking a weak grin, "I just had a hunch, you know..and well, we went and checked out the punch card thing…and the signatures were exactly the same."
"Well, yeah, what'd you expet?!" Elliot said, folding his arms across his chest. He obviously didn't get it.
"Use that thick head of yours for something other than hanging your face on, Ell!" Much quipped, pulling the sheaf of papers from the Captain, and thumping them against Elliot, forcing him to make a grab at them before they fell to the ground, "The first signature is an exact copy of the second. We even stopped by the lab, and did some tests on the way back here. Someone traced the second signature, forging it, and making it seem that Stemple signed out. Huang was right, he was being framed."
"Has anyone else ever noticed that Huang is always, always right…." I murmured to no one in particular, my gaze on the ceiling.
"How do we know that Stemple didn't do it himself, just to throw us off!" Elliot said. Munch and I sighed as one, but the Captain held up a hand to stop any sort of comments that Munch and I were planning on letting loose.
"He's got a point, you two! Stemple is smarter than he looks, he could be playing us!"
Personally, I thought that Elliot and Don might have missed their morning cups of coffee. Maybe I had too, since something was suddenly clear to me, something that had evaded me for the last few days.
"OK, look at It this way." I said, taking a stance, "If Stemple is so smart, why would he even have signed out, I mean, really! How dumb can you get! If I was going to go and kidnap someone during my lunch break, I wouldn't go and sign-out with the boss before hand! We all know that Stemple isn't the kind of guy who likes to parade things, I mean, it took us forever to get him to admit he was stalking me, much less Veronica-so why sign out?"
"So you're still sticking with the theory that Stemple is innocent?" Munch asked me.
"Yes." I sounded a little surprised at my own words, "I am."
The Captain nodded, "Alright, I want you still to keep Stemple around. He has a right to a speedy trial, but I do NOT want him going to arraignment if there is the possibility that he is an innocent man. Darlene, talk to him, Elliot go find Olivia and see what you can dig up on another possible perp. I'll get a hold of Novak, and tell her about these new interesting….circumstances."
"Great." Elliot muttered as he walked back to his desk, "The return to square one……"
