Mike strode the long hallway to the brass offices in fierce determination, his temper boiling as frustrations over the Joplin case had finally reached a breaking point.

Reminding himself to remain calm even when every last seam of his patience threatened to come apart, he knocked on the door, four knocks for good measure.

"Come in.", came the muffled response from inside and he followed suit without hesitation.

Much to his surprise, Olsen wasn't alone. Condon sat in the visitor's chair by his desk, taking a slow draw out of his cigar.

"Come on in, Mike.", Rudy coaxed from across the room, when he noticed him hesitating.

"John. Rudy.", the Lieutenant replied dryly, then closed the door behind him again, swallowing his earlier aggravation for fear of it being noticed by the chief.

"Cigar? Looks like it's been a long morning for you.", Conden offered genuinely and pointed at the small wooden box Rudy had dug out from his desk.

"No, thank you."

"So, what brings you up here, Michael? Need any help with this car in the water up by the marina."

Cringing at how fast word had travelled up the floors of the Hall of Justice Building; Mike shook his head, feigning a casual shrug, as he pointed downstairs.

"I am just trying to track down the phone tap machine that was pulled from Joe Joplin's house?"

If he was surprised, Rudy did a good job not showing it. Instead, the captain shrugged in obvious disinterest.

"Well, I think…I think they needed it in Missing Persons. I saw the request on my desk and signed it immediately. To be honest, I don't know why it was at Joplin's house to begin with. That is expensive machinery."

Mike knew he was being set up the moment Rudy looked over at Olsen, both men's expression unreadable.

"Mister Joplin has been getting phone calls threatening his life and that of his family. We were trying to verify the accuracy thereof. Apparently, he just received another call but that was after the machine was pulled."

"Be that as it may, I am not quite sure I follow how you got involved in this…situation to begin with."

Rudy's voice was distant now, his blue eyes scanning him intently.

"Joe Joplin was a suspect in a murder case a few months ago.", Mike began, immediately seeing his superior's mouth open to cut in, "And he was cleared of all charges in the progress of our investigation. He does have a…history with my partner, which is why he reached out for help after the first phone call. I felt it would be wise to trace any incoming calls so that we can verify whether this is a valid threat or not."

"Why didn't you hand that situation over? I understand you guys have plenty open cases…the DiBarolo one on top of it all."

This time it was Conden speaking, his voice lacking the condescending tone he'd found in Rudy's.

"We're at a complete standstill until Joey shows face again and even with adding additional manpower, we can only put his place under surveillance for so long before somebody catches on. Handling the Joplin affair was done as a personal favor and I had hoped the situation would be resolved by now, especially if we had gotten that phone call on tape."

"Barring the fact that this isn't exactly your department, Mike, what is the validity of this threat?"

With his hands crossed over his chest, Rudy stood in the middle of the room, completely unmoving. The sun coming through the windows behind him made him look like a threatening shadow.

"It's a credible threat.", he replied evenly, "Joe recalls meeting the man he suspects of these phone calls during a peace protest back in Mississippi. There's a chance this guy singled out Joplin for some sort of revenge."

"So we got an ID on that guy?", Conden asked.

"Yes, we do. Warren Thompson. We've been able to confirm that he was working for the local police at the time and was at the protests."

"Is he a good lead? I mean, it's been a few years and sometimes details get a bit…sketchy."

Sharing his skepsis, Mike nodded at the chief.

"He is retired now but so far we are still scratching the surface when it comes to him. There are a lot of unanswered questions from both sides."

"Any chance that this could be some Freudian slip? Maybe Joplin confused the voice with somebody else?"

"That's what is hard to tell now. Without a recording, we can't have the voice pattern analyzed so we're back to square one."

"Well, it doesn't look like you had too much to begin with,", Olsen cut in and stepped closer, "I can talk to the guys down in robbery, I think they are slow right now. If they have time, they can pick up this case and see if they can get anywhere. In the meantime, I need you and Keller on those homicide cases. The longer we are without a lead, the slimmer the chance that we're going to solve these murders."

Clenching his teeth until he gave himself a headache, Mike nodded obediently, knowing that a battle lost didn't mean the war was over.

"Understood."

More than likely, there was more to this conversation than what bubbled to the surface. Budget meets, press woes or anything in between had the potential to sour the brass from time to time. Lucky for Mike, those decades in the force had taught him how to stretch and bend the rules just enough to obey a direct order and still get his way.