Mike could feel the net closing in at last.

With Tanner dispatched to keep an eye on Harris's office for the arrival of the real couriers, he knew it would only be a matter of time before some light would finally be shed on this perplexing situation.

Once they knew where the money was coming from, it would be easy enough to tie Thompson to the harassment and put an end to this case- and an excruciatingly long week.

As they entered the busy bullpen, Mike glanced across the rows of desks, grateful to see his inspectors eagerly working away, either studying files or making phone calls. Haley and Hassejian were sitting across from each other in the northeast interrogation room, intently staring a map and exchanging ideas.

By the time he got to his office, he could hear Sekulovich mention his name to somebody on the phone, the Sergeant raising a hand to get his attention.

"Yes, Sir, as a matter of fact, he just walked in. Let me put you on hold so he can grab the line."

With his eyebrows raised, Mike waited until Sekulovich pushed a few buttons on his phone, then pointed at his office.

"Lieutenant, it's a Warren Thompson. He wants to talk to you. Said it's urgent."

"Speak of the devil…", Mike breathed and glanced over at his partner; Steve's expression mirroring his concern about the call.

Nodding in acknowledgement, Mike headed over to his office and waited for his partner to reach the spare phone to listen in, before lifting the receiver.

"This is Lieutenant Stone?"

"Lieutenant. What a coincidence that we get a chance to talk again. This is Warren Thompson."

Staying professionally neutral which was getting harder and harder as the case went on, Mike nodded.

"What can I do for you, Mister Thompson?"

"Well, you could explain to me why you have me under surveillance? First you are sending the local sheriff to check on me and do a voice sample, then you have somebody call my neighbors to ask questions concerning my whereabouts."

There was a hostile undertone in his voice that came with a man who was usually in charge, and certainly didn't appreciate being questioned. Mike couldn't help but wonder if there wasn't a little bit of guilt mixed into it as well.

"This is all part of an ongoing investigation, Mister Thompson.", the lieutenant replied, hoping to gauge his conversation partner's guilt by the reaction he would receive.

And it didn't disappoint.

"What kind of an investigation is this? And what do I have to do with it? Since retiring from the police force, I have done nothing but boring busy work, nothing that would warrant suspicion. And I will have you know that I did some research on you too, lieutenant. Even though your reputation speaks for itself, I don't appreciate the investigation that has been done behind my back. I don't know what witch-hunt you are on, but I am no part of it."

Mike smiled at Steve as the enraged monologue continued for several more seconds, until Thompson finally stopped to take an overdue breath.

Time to lay the cards on the table and see what they would get dealt.

"Your name has come up in the process of an ongoing investigation.", Mike repeated patiently, but kept his words short to prevent Thompson from interrupting again, "It would be helpful if you can tell me about your relationship to Joe Joplin."

There was a long pause on the other end, and he could hear Thompson fidget with something, before he spoke up again.

"Joe…who? I don't think I know who you are talking about."

"Joe Joplin.", Mike repeated, "The man you arrested during the Oxford peace protests."

"Oxford...lieutenant, that's been a few years and I arrested a bunch of people during those. You are going to have to be more precise than that."

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Steve inhale to respond and raised a hand to silence the young inspector.

"I am talking about a man you arrested near the library. There was a quarrel. Some people got hurt…on both sides of the line."

The not-so-subtle notion made the man on the other line hiss, before taking a moment to sort his thoughts.

"I think my squadron and I arrested about eight or nine guys the day I was dispatched there. So, you are saying this Joe Joplin was there and there's some investigation? Because we were well within our rights during that response. There were people throwing things at us and yelling profanity. You would have handled it no different, trust me."

"There's a good chance I wouldn't have.", Mike shot back, seeing his partner visibly relax, "But that's not what this is about. I need to know about your relationship to Joe Joplin."

"There isn't one, I already told you that. If he was there, I could care less about him and all these other hooligans making a scene and causing chaos. We were there for crowd control and things escalated. I explained everything that happened in my report. If that guy wants to file charges now, he's out of luck."

While Thompson was responding, Mike had grabbed a notepad, writing on it the words: I don't think he knows what we are talking about?

Handing it to Steve, he received a nod in return.

It was the next question he knew he didn't need to write on a notepad because he saw the same thing in Steve's eyes. If Warren Thompson had nothing to do with this, then why would Aaron Harris go out of his way to make threatening phone calls on his behalf?