A/N: The characters Larry Mullen and Ed Brown don't belong to me, they are borrowed from "the TV show Ironside" and will be returned completely unharmed!
December 1971, Tuesday, 28th: A Mystery Solved
To Mike and everybody else's delight, Homicide was fully staffed once more, and had it not been for the unresolved case of the missing body, things just might have gone back to normal.
Steve had discretely distributed all the paperwork he had neatly typed to the appropriate desks and then started working quietly at his own desk. Roy and Mike were deep in conversation with another person in the Lieutenant's office behind closed blinds. All seemed to be business as usual.
At five minutes to nine, Larry Mullen came in, slightly out of breath. "Hi guys! Did anyone else catch the bug of our Typhoid Steve? "
"Better ask who didn't!" Healy answered without looking up. "Seems to me though you are the last one who recovered and you are certainly looking well!"
Mullen chose to ignore his colleague's acerbic remark. He addressed Steve in a mocking tone, "What's the story, Boy Wonder? Have you solved your first murder case without the help of your father figure?"
Steve didn't rise to the bait. "There are still a few uncertainties."
Norm chimed in, "Like the whereabouts of the body!"
Mullen started laughing out loud. "I don't believe this! Mike is barely gone and the youngster is messing up big time already. He brings back a virus but not the body. What do you think, will daddy still protect you when he finds out how you botched the job big time? "Mullen stopped abruptly when he saw Mike Stone coming out of his accustomed office.
"You're right, Larry, I will be hard pressed to protect anyone who is responsible for such a blunder. We are talking about a disciplinary inquiry here." The acting Captain sounded stern.
Mullen suppressed a self-satisfied grin.
"The only thing we know for certain at this stage is that Steve Keller is not responsible for the blooper. He was never in the morgue that day," Mike added.
"Oh come on, he signed the wrong release form, didn't he?" Mullen insisted.
Mike's voice sounded frighteningly friendly. "And how would you know about a release form?"
Larry stammered, "Ah, someone rang me to tell me about the commotion. You know, office gossip, it is kinda funny, isn't it, like…"
Ed Brown, Chief Ironside's right hand man stepped out of the office. "Yeah, I suppose as funny as Ed Brown losing a body. That's what you wanted to say, isn't it, Larry?"
Norm got up from his desk, too and closed in on Mullen. "The funniest thing though is how the virus ended up in the morgue. I brought the kid home before he could go down, and I didn't go down there either." He looked around, a lot of heads nodded in agreement.
Steve spoke up at last. "You were in the bathroom when I first got sick, I remember that! You must have been the first one who caught it off me! "
"So what? Everybody caught it off you!"
"Whoever took the forms that were on my desk and brought them to the morgue more than likely brought the virus there too," Steve maintained.
Tanner looked at Mullen with a murderous expression on his face. "You did pick up something from Steve's desk, I saw you!"
"Sure, calm down, guys, I did bring the paperwork down. Is it a crime to help a sick colleague out?"
"No, but it is a crime to falsely accuse a colleague!" Ed declared.
"Is it my fault that the college boy is too thick to fill in a form?" Mullen tried to defend himself. "He probably mixed up the ID numbers of the old case he was supposed to release and the new corpse that was coming in!"
"Yep, our new body, Mr. Taylor, to give him his proper name, was actually found in the drawer allocated to Mr. Blake, who was due to be released for cremation to his family," Roy explained.
"Now then!" Larry sighed. "No harm done! The missing body was found. I suppose the kid wasn't feeling too well and we should show some compassion. You know, his first case without supervision…"his voice trailed off.
"How come the paperwork for Mr. Taylor was in your desk drawer when you said you brought it to the morgue?" Ed Brown asked sternly.
"How dare you rifle through my desk? You're not even part of this department!" Mullen accused.
"It was me who checked, actually," said Mike, still deceptively friendly. "The release form that went missing from Steve's desk did make its way to the Morgue, though slightly altered. You don't need a graphologist to see that it is filled in by two different hands. But I'm sure an expert can tell for sure who wrote the misleading information. I have no doubt that everybody here would gladly give a sample of their handwriting for elimination purposes."
Everybody bar Larry Mullen nodded in agreement.
Mullen threw up his arms in despair. "It was a joke; I just swapped the ID tags on their toes and the labels on the drawers around. No harm done to the family of the deceased! I meant to bring the paperwork back after a day or two. I only wanted to let the little upstart sweat a bit, and I never meant to cause him any real trouble…" Mullen defended himself and dug his hole deeper with every word he said.
"Yeah, you just wanted to humiliate someone and gloat," Ed said harshly. "Have you forgotten to tip off the press this time?"
Mullen looked down. Ed wasn't sure if he was ashamed of his tasteless prank or embarrassed about being caught out.
"Mike, in my position as Lieutenant here in Homicide I would like to deal with this individual privately in my office," Roy requested.
"You do that, Roy, and after you chewed him up and spat him back out, will you send what is left of him to the Captain's office? There is still the matter of holding up a murder investigation and obstructing justice," Mike added sweetly.
When Roy and Larry Mullen had disappeared, he affectionately cuffed the back of Steve's head. "I hope this will teach you a lesson, buddy boy! How often have I told you that the last thing you do when you fill in a form is sign it!"
