"Yeah… yeah… Well, that's not surprising. Right… Okay, yeah…. Thanks, Norm. Yeah, we'll see you tomorrow." Steve hung up the phone. picked up the beer bottles from the kitchen counter and went back into the living room.

Mike was sitting on the armchair he had pulled to the far side of coffee table. He started dealing as Steve sat on the couch and put the bottles on the table. "Who was that?"

"Norm," Steve answered as he picked up his cards. "Madsen lawyered up, no surprise there. He's not going with a PBA lawyer, which is a surprise. His father got one for him so god only knows who that is."

Mike snorted.

"Anyway, Norm said they're finished for the night and they'll start back at it tomorrow but he's pretty sure Madsen is just going to deny everything until this goes to trial." He paused and looked at Mike sympathetically. "It looks like we're going to be living this over again for a long time. You ready for it?"

Mike chuckled. "Well, I don't think we've got much of a choice, do we?"

Steve took two cards out of his hand and tossed them towards Mike. "So," he said with mischief in his voice, "are you gonna be at my bedside when I go in for my rhinoplasty?"

"Rhinoplasty…" Mike chuckled again, trying to decide which two cards to discard from his hand. "It sounds like they're going to be shoving a large, horned, leather-skinned animal up your nose."

Luckily, Steve had just been about to take a sip of beer so there was none in his mouth when he laughed. Mike looked at him innocently. "What?" He tossed two cards down on the two Steve had discarded.

"Careful," Steve admonished with a smile, "you make me laugh with liquid in my mouth and I could drown, you know?"

"Yeah, right," Mike agreed dryly as he tossed a card onto the table. "When do you get the wires out anyway?"

"It's still another three weeks. I can't wait. I don't know if I can drink pureed chili again, as good as it was," he grumbled. "Anyway, you're gonna be back at work a lot sooner than I am."

"I'll keep your seat warm."

Steve chuckled and tossed a card on the table. "Say, why didn't you ever get it?"

"Get what?" Another card tossed on the table and a peg moved.

"Rhinoplasty."

Mike's eyes shot up so fast that Steve flinched then smiled as sweetly and apologetically as he could. Mike's stern, angry look dissolved into a wry grin. "What, and destroy this purely original creation?" he asked with a magician's flourish.

They both chuckled and turned their attention back to the cards.

"I know this is not our case but I really want to find out what happened to David Abbott," Mike said as he picked up the cards, stacked them and handed them to Steve. "Norm didn't say anything about that, did he?"

Steve shook his head as he shuffled.

"Well, let's keep on them about that. I don't want what happened to this kid to fall through the cracks." He looked at Steve's hands. "Are you shuffling or are you rubbing the spots off? Come on, deal!"

# # # # #

"Mike, good to see you," Gerry O'Brien greeted the detective. "Have a seat."

Mike, fedora in hand, sat in one of O'Brien's guest chairs.

"How are you doing, Mike? You look great," the ADA said as he took his place behind his desk.

"I'm doing great, Gerry, thanks. Almost a hundred percent. I'm going back to work full-time in a couple of days."

"That's great. And Steve? How's he doing?"

"Well, it's gonna be awhile till he gets back. They won't operate on his nose till his jaw is no longer wired and that's gonna be another couple of weeks at least, so he won't be back on the streets for a bit," Mike expained with a sigh.

"Poor guy. I bet he's itching to get back to work. Ah, listen, Mike, before we get started, I just want to apologize to you for what we had to do with the Pettet thing. God knows I didn't want to have to go after you, of all people, but IA came to me with such overwhelming evidence, I didn't have a choice. If it had been up to –"

"Gerry, Gerry, it's okay," Mike cut him off with his hands up and a smile. "Don't worry about it. I know it wasn't your decision, and the evidence was the evidence. I'm just glad things turned out the way they did."

O'Brien exhaled loudly, obviously relieved. "You're not the only one, Mike, believe me. I felt so bad about it all, you have no idea."

"Water under the bridge, believe me. But, that's sort of why I'm here," Mike said carefully. "I know things are moving ahead with regards to formally charging Madsen and I know I officially have nothing to do with it except I'm, maybe, in a way, the plaintiff, I guess? The aggrieved party? Whatever, I don't care." He took a breath. "What I'm trying to say is, Gerry, there's this kid that got caught up in all this, David –"

"Abbott, yeah," O'Brien interrupted him, listening intently.

"That's right, and as you know, this kid has disappeared. And I kinda feel that he's as big a victim of Madsen as I was." He paused again. "Gerry, I want to find him, dead or alive, I want to find out what happened to him …for his parents … for the guys working the case… for me…"

O'Brien waited, watching as the detective struggled to find the words and get his emotions under control. "You've never met this kid, have you?" he asked kindly.

Mike shook his head. "Nope, and he was almost responsible for me being put behind bars, so…" He looked at O'Brien almost sheepishly and shrugged. "I can't put it into words, Gerry, but I just have to find this kid."

"Okay," O'Brien said slowly, "so, what do you want from me?"

Mike hesitated. "I want you to make a deal with Madsen. I want you to take one of the charges off the table, but only on the condition that Madsen tells us what happened to the kid. Can you do that?"

O'Brien leaned back in his chair. "Well, it's not usually something we do -" he began slowly.

"But you can do it?" Mike cut him off.

"I'll have to run it past my boss, but I might be able to persuade him –"

"I can go with you," Mike interrupted again.

The ADA chuckled. "Okay, Mike, okay, I get it – this means a lot to you. Look, let me give this some thought and see what I can come up with, and if I think it'll fly, I'll let you know and we can both go to the D.A. Does that work for you?"

Mike got to his feet with a broad grin. "Thanks, Gerry," he said happily, holding his hand out for O'Brien to shake. "I knew you'd understand." He crossed quickly to the door and turned back. "You have no idea how much I appreciate this."

# # # # #

Haseejian stuck his head into the doorway of the inner office, where Mike and Steve were poring over a stack of files and photos. "Hey, boss, just to let you know, Madsen's preliminary hearing is this morning, finally. Dan and I are going over, and we'll let you know what's up, okay?"

"Thanks, Norm. Nothing yet on Abbott?" Mike asked hopefully.

After their meeting, Assistant D.A. Gerry O'Brien had lived up to his word and approached Madsen with a deal – the charge of extortion would be dropped if he would provide authorities with information about the fate of David Abbott. Madsen, unfortunately a true product of his lineage, continued to maintain that he had nothing to do with the young Missourian's disappearance and refused the offer.

Frustrated, Mike had taken it upon himself and Steve to try everything, from the confines of their office as they were both still on restricted duty, to locate the young man. So far they had come up with nothing, but Mike wouldn't give in to the growing fear that David Abbott was indeed dead.

A week later, Mike was in Olsen's office, discussing a couple of open cases. A date had been set for the Madsen trial, but it was well into the future and there were other matters that needed their immediate attention. O'Brien had told them he was confident that the evidence they had against the disgraced patrolman was overwhelming and that the trial should prove to be little more than a formality at this point, even without Abbott.

There was a knock on Olsen's door and Steve stuck his head in. "Sorry, Rudy. Mike, there's a call for you. I think you need to take this one right now."

Mike glanced at his boss, who nodded, "Go, go. We can finish this later."

Walking quickly, Mike followed Steve down the hallway to the stairwell. "Who is it?"

Unable to stop smiling, Steve didn't look back at his partner as they jogged down the stairs. "It's a cop from Seattle. He says he has some news for you." He tried to sound vague.

"News? I wonder if it's about Abbott?" Mike mused almost to himself, breaking into a trot as they approached the Homicide Bureau.

Beaming, supportive looks followed the lieutenant as he crossed the squad room and entered his office, picking up the receiver lying on the desk even before he sat. "Homicide, Lieutenant Stone."

"Hello, Lieutenant….?" came a tentative young voice from the other end.

"Yes?"

"Uh, Lieutenant, this is, ah, this is David Abbott. I hear you've been looking for me."

# # # # #

Mike was sitting back in his chair, his left foot up on the lower desk drawer, a coffee cup cradled in both hands. Steve was slouched in the guest chair, his feet on the desk. Healey and Tanner leaned against the filing cabinet, Lessing sat on the corner of the desk and Hasseejian was holding up the doorframe, all with their own cups. Mike was in mid-story.

"So this street cop in Seattle, he's walking around with our APB in his pocket and his beat happens to be downtown where a lot of those, uh, oh, what do they call them, Steve?"

"Buskers."

"Right, yeah, buskers were 'performing' or whatever the hell they do, and he thinks he recognizes Abbott from our photo. Now the kid had cut his hair and died it red," Mike's eyebrows shot up and the others laughed, "but this patrolman, somehow he recognized him. I gotta send that guy a bottle," Mike laughed.

"So how did he recognize him?" Lessing asked with a chuckle.

Mike shook his head in amazement. "I have no idea. This guy is good. We should see if he wants to move here," he said with a snicker.

"Well, I gotta tell you, this was the one part of this case that really bothered me," said Haseejian from the doorway. "I always felt that this kid was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and I gotta admit, I really thought Madsen had off'd him. I am so glad I was wrong."

"Me too," said Healey, raising his cup in a toast.

"Here, here," they all chimed in.

"So what's next in all this?" asked Tanner.

"Well, Abbott's coming here to testify and that pretty well puts the nail in Madsen's coffin, so, by and large, this is all behind us." Mike raised his cup again. "Gentlemen, you've all done a brilliant job with this, especially you Norm, Dan. Pozdrav!"

The others, holding their cups up, paused and looked at each other.

Mike sighed. "Salute!" he translated with a laugh and they all joined him.

# # # # #

"So what time again are you getting 'dewired' tomorrow?" Mike asked as the LTD turned onto De Haro.

"Ten," Steve said as he gunned the car up the street, the tires slipping on the pavement markings in the heavy rain.

"Right," Mike acknowledged as he did up the top button on his black topcoat. He peered out the windshield again. "Geez, it doesn't look like this is gonna let up anytime soon, does it?"

"I think it's supposed to rain all night."

Mike glanced at the dashboard clock. "It's almost nine. It would be nice to get home in daylight once this week."

The LTD swung to the curb and Mike opened his door. "I'll see ya tomorrow," he said as he got out, "pick me up at 9 and we'll go to your doctor together, okay?"

"Nine? Mike, nine's too early. I don't have to be there till –"

"Nine!" Mike insisted with a laugh as he slammed the door and turned to the steps.

Neither of them saw the black-clad figure that exited a car parked a little further down the block then stride quickly across the sidewalk to behind Mike. The detective, turning his collar up against the rain, had just put his foot on the first step when a voice behind him yelled, "Lieutenant!" He turned quickly, his eyes instantly snapping to the barrel of the gun aimed at his chest. Before he could move again, the trigger was pulled. The impact threw Mike back against the railing then he crumpled to the sidewalk at the foot of the steps.