a/n Gus Charvnoski was Mike's former partner who was killed in the "30Year Pin" episode, which aired early in season one.
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It was late in the afternoon when Detective Bill Tanner got a call from the Medical Examiner's office. Jim Carson worked for the ME and had been involved in several recent homicide investigations. Ten years into his job, he still found forensic science to be fascinating, especially as new discoveries advanced his profession ostensibly every week.
One of the latest advances involved a better way of capturing fingerprints and developing images for electronic transmission to other police agencies. Jim took fingerprint copies of the body found at the motel and sent to several agencies, both locally and outside of the Bay area. The images were transmitted via telex and the receiving agencies would then try to match the prints by type and category.
But this time, a headshot of a corpse accompanied the fingerprint transmittal. With both images, the office was hopeful to get an identification quickly. It took very little time for the Department of Corrections to contact Jim Carson.
They advised of a possible match to one Gregory Harmon, age thirty six, late of Folsom Prison. He had been released less than six months earlier. His parole officer, Bruce Keith, was based in Sacramento. The DOC sent a copy of Harmon's prints from his arrest record to Carson for a cross match. The results were positive.
Bill called Bruce Keith to get a full report on Harmon since his parole release. Unemployed, Harmon had been attending classes in a vocational training program part time in Sacramento. Several parolees took this type of training, so it was not uncommon for a parole officer to have an established relationship with the vo-tech school. A quick call to the school confirmed that Harmon had missed the last three days.
But a big break in the case happened when the school official commented that Harmon's attendance record paralleled that of another recent parolee. Chuck Taylor had also been absent the last three days. Bill requested that the parole officer follow-up on the location of Taylor.
Bill hung up the phone with a feeling of accomplishment. He now had a positive ID on the body found at motel and a potential lead on the accomplice.
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"You can't be serious, Mike," Lenny stated. "Are you saying you're going to hang it up?"
"Damn it, Lenny. They were shot right in front of me. This was my deal - I was the one who worked on the logistics of escorting Charlie Spagnozzi to the trial. It stops with me." Mike's response was tinged with anger as he paced back and forth in the waiting room.
"You weren't the one that shot Steve or Spags," Lenny raised his voice, but quickly lowered it. He sat with legs crossed watching the older detective pacing. "As it looks right now, there was a professional hit ordered against Spags. Are you saying you are responsible for that?"
"No, I'm saying that I was responsible for ensuring the safety of Spagnozzi as well as the accompanying police officers. I was unable to deliver on that responsibility."
"Mike, this is ridiculous. You feel guilty - all cops do when this happens." Lenny reasoned. Mike would have none of it and shook his head.
Lenny continued, "Mike, there is case study after case study that speaks to the guilt that a cop feels after a partner is shot. And this, coming so soon after Gus was killed. You feel guilty about that too, don't you?"
"I've always felt guilty about Gus," Mike admitted quietly as he sat next to Lenny. "He taught me everything I knew, yet I was the one who was promoted. He spent nearly thirty years out on the damned street walking a beat. One week away from retirement - that's all he needed."
"But Mike, you weren't the reason he wasn't promoted."
"I'm not so sure about that. I had a break or two when I was a beat cop. One case I worked on was high profile and got the attention of the seniors who were making promotional recommendations. Gus was passed over for me."
"Did Gus hold that against you?"
"No, he was too good of a friend."
"But, ultimately you feel that because Gus was still on the street, you are somewhat responsible for his death?"
The gruffness was apparent in Mike's voice, "Lenny, I'm not stupid. I know that I'm really not responsible, but 'knowing' and 'feeling' are two different things. There are times when I do feel responsible for Gus and what happened to him."
"What about Steve?" Lenny inquired.
"I always feel responsible for Steve."
"Why do you always feel responsible for Steve?"
"You're analyzing me, Lenny. Stop analyzing me," Mike was annoyed.
"Answer my question, Mike," Lenny commanded. "Why do you feel responsible for Steve?"
"Because he's my partner."
"But there's something different. Is it because he's still so young?"
Mike gave a small smile. "We started getting recruits from Berkeley five years ago. I never thought that I'd have one of them working for me so soon. But it's been over two years now already," Mike recalled. "Lenny, I'm old enough to be his father and then some. I'm also his mentor and I know he looks up to me. It's just different than with the guys who work for me and are of at least the same generation."
"So, are you telling me that maybe you don't want Steve working for you anymore?"
Mike was silent in thought with that question. A minute passed and then he answered quietly. "No. Not at all. In some ways, Lenny, he's the best partner I ever had. He's smart, a quick thinker and very likeable. Extremely likeable," Mike corrected. "He has good ideas. And he has my back. I couldn't ask for a better partner."
"Then what is it?"
"I've failed him." Mike's voice shook at the revelation.
"Do you think Steve would say that?"
Mike chuckled at the question. Steve was very loyal to Mike and the older detective knew it. "No, he wouldn't."
"Damn straight, Mike. He would never for a moment think that you were at fault here. And you know what he'd say if he thought you would turn in your badge over this?"
"No, Lenny, what would he say?" Mike was half humoring the psychologist.
"He'd say, 'What did I do wrong?'" Lenny replied with a pointed finger tapped into to Mike's shoulder. "That's what he'd say. He'd feel guilty that he drove his mentor away."
Mike sat silently and then broke. "That's utterly ridiculous. There'd be no reason for him to feel guilty about me leaving."
"Just as it's utterly ridiculous for you to feel so guilty about the shooting that you would leave the department and him behind."
Mike looked over at Lenny and cocked an eyebrow.
Lenny continued. "You know I'm right on this. Mike, I believe that Steve is going to pull through this. I also believe that he's going to have a long road back both physically and emotionally. He's going to need you every step of the way. Don't you dare abandon him now."
Mike nodded his head, and the pair fell into silence. Minutes grew and suddenly two hours had passed.
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The doctor walked through the swinging doors from the operating area. "Lieutenant Stone, I can give you an update on Mr. Keller. Let's go to my office."
Lenny and Mike followed the doctor dutifully into his office which was a short walk from the OR area. As each step was taken, Mike braced himself further for any news, whatever it might be. He was grateful for Lenny being there, too.
As the three men entered the office, the doctor pointed to two guest chairs and shut the door behind them.
"Well?" Lenny asked as he sat down.
The doctor replied, "We found where the laceration on the kidney was draining. That was the underlying cause of the abscess. The abscess was rather large, but we were able to take care of that as well as repair the kidney. He should be feeling much better after the initial soreness from the surgery wears off."
"Thank God," Mike exhaled. "So what's next?"
"Mr. Keller is in a very weakened state. I don't need to remind you that he's had two gunshot wounds, a skull fracture, and is recovering from a near fatal allergic reaction to penicillin. In addition to that, he's been in surgery twice and is still intubated. All within little more than twenty four hours. While I feel better about his condition than I did this morning, he's still got a long way to go."
Lenny remembered the infection. "What about the antibiotics and the original infection? Was that all contained within the abscess?"
"Yes, just about. For the record, the antibiotics did do some good despite being of a weaker class. While they did nothing to control the abscess itself, the drugs did appear to keep the infection from going any further"
"You said his temperature was quite high..." Mike began to ask.
"When we checked his vitals at the start of surgery, it had hit 105. That made the surgery fairly risky, but we didn't see that we had any choice. His body was working overtime fighting the abscess. If the infection had become systemic, I don't think he'd have much of a chance," the doctor added.
"Sounds like it was a very close call," Lenny concluded.
"Indeed," replied the doctor. "But with quite a bit of rest and lots of fluids, we should start seeing an improvement in the next day or two."
"That long?" Mike asked. "How long will he be in the hospital?"
"If all goes well, maybe two more weeks."