Steve groaned as he rolled over and blindly felt around the bedside table for the phone, managing to snatch it up after its eighth annoying ring. Eyes still closed as he pressed the phone to his ear, he mumbled sleepily, "Keller."
"Steve, it's Lee. Look, I know it's late and you were probably asleep, but we have a stabbing case-"
"Oh, come on, Lee, why are you calling me?" Steve groaned as he rolled over onto his back, and draped his arm tiredly across his eyes, "Mike and I aren't even on call tonight, and this is the first night in more than a week that I have managed to get home before midnight."
"I know, Steve, but I think that you you're going to want to come down here and lead this investigation yourself." Lee insisted as he turned around and looked at the terrified young woman, wrapped in a blanket, who was sitting on the stretcher in the back of the ambulance as Bill softly read her the Miranda rights. Turning around, he stared down at the body of a young man, lying on his back in a pool of blood on the ground in a trash littered alley with the handle of the knife protruding grotesquely out of his chest.
"Why?" Steve asked cautiously as he removed his arm and slowly sat up in bed, now wide awake. There was something in the tone of Lee's voice that warned him that he wasn't going to like the answer he was about to hear.
"We've arrested the suspect here at the scene, Bill's reading her the Miranda Rights now." Swallowing hard, Lee turned back towards the car as he spoke softly into the radio mic, "Steve, it's Mike's daughter, Jeannie. I think you better get down here as fast as you can."
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Climbing out of his Porsche and heading across to the crime scene, Steve forced himself to momentarily ignore the frightened young woman in the back of the ambulance as he walked past. He knew if he was to have any chance of being allowed to work lead on this case then he had to do everything according to the book and that meant not allowing any personal friendship that he had have Jeannie or Mike get in the way of the investigation.
Hurrying across to where Lee was waiting for him in the alley, he glanced around the alley, now brightly illuminated by the headlights of two squad cars, his eyes lingering on the body that Bernie was now examining before he looked back at Lee and asked, "So, what have we got?"
"Stabbing. A witness called it in." Lee told him pointing up at a fourth floor window overlooking the alleyway, as he continued, "The woman who lives in that fourth floor apartment told the uniform guys, when they rolled up on the scene, that she had been woken up by some sort of an argument in the alley just below her bedroom window. When she looked out of her window to see just what was going on, she saw a young woman and the victim fighting over what she thought was a knife just before she saw the woman stab the man with it."
"And she's sure the woman was Jeannie?" Steve asked as he ran his hand over his head and left it resting on his neck as he turned and looked up at the window which Lee was pointing at. He thought he could see the silhouette of a woman, peeking through the curtains, looking back down at him.
"Positive, Steve, she was able to describe Jeannie to a tee when she called the murder into headquarters," Lee answered as Steve turned back towards him. "And when the uniformed guys arrived they found Jeannie standing over the body, covered in blood."
Looking back at the body, Steve frowned, "Any idea who our victim is?"
Pulling his notebook from his pocket, Lee flicked it open and glanced down at his notes, "The vic's name, according to the ID that I found in his pocket, is John Solice, age twenty-two, a uni student from the University of Arizona."
"Arizona?" Steve frown deepened as he looked over his shoulder towards the open doors of the ambulance before he looked back at Lee, "That's the same university that Jeannie attends."
Lee nodded his head as they walked across to the body, "I didn't even know Jeannie was home. Mike usually gets so excited when he knows she is coming home for a couple of days that he tells everyone in the squad but this time …"
"Yeah," Steve agreed softly, just as surprised that Jeannie was in San Francisco as Lee. Kneeling beside the body, he looked across at the coroner on the other side as he asked, "What have we got, Bernie?
"Single stab wound to the chest. By the position of the wound and that amount of blood he lost, I'm willing to bet that the knife either dissected the aorta or penetrated the heart, he probably bled out in minutes." Picking up one of the victim's hands, Bernie turned it over to show Steve the deep cuts as he continued his preliminary report, "There's also defensive on both of his hands, looks like he fought hard to get control of the knife before he was stabbed." Placing the hand back down on the ground, Bernie grabbed the body's chin and rolled the head gently to the side to show Steve three long scratches that ran down the side of the victim's face, "He also has several deep fingernail scratches on his left cheek, probably happened when they were fighting for possession of the knife."
"Thanks, Bernie." Steve nodded as he rose to his feet.
"I'll send you a full report after I do the autopsy" Bernie called after Lee and Steve as they turned and walked towards the mouth of the alley.
"Has Jeannie said anything about what happened tonight?" Steve asked as he stopped and stared at the ambulance.
"No, she's pretty shaken up. The only thing she has said to us is she doesn't want us to call Mike, that's why we decided to call you instead." Lee paused and sighed, "But with the eye witness telling us she witnessed Jeannie stabbing the victim and the uniform guys found Jeannie standing over the body, covered in the vic's blood, we had no other choice, Steve, we had to arrest her. Bill has already read her her Miranda rights."
"I know," Steve sighed as he lightly touched Lee's arm in reassurance before he headed towards the open doors of the ambulance.
Pulling the blanket, a little tighter, around her shoulders, Jeannie could not stop herself from shaking. She could still feel his hands as he grabbed her, she could still smell the alcohol on his breath and she could still feel the handle of the knife in her hand as it plunged into his chest. She jumped as she felt someone step into the back of the ambulance and looked up just in time to see Steve climb into the back of the ambulance and step across to where she was sitting on the stretcher as Lee waited just outside. "Steve!" she cried, grabbing Steve's hands.
"Hey, are you okay?" Steve forced a small smile as he knelt in front of her, visually checking her over for any injuries that he could see, there was a light black colored shadow around her left eye, but he was uncertain if it was bruising or caused by her mascara running and one hand had been wrapped in a now blood-stained bandage.
Jeannie nodded woodenly, unable to stop the tears running down her face.
"Good," Steve breathed as he reached up and gently brushed several strands of damp hair away from her face before he gently grabbed her hands again and gave them a light squeeze as he ordered softly. "Jeannie, I need you to listen to me because I'm only going to say this once, understand?"
Jeannie's bottom lip trembled as she nodded silently again.
"I don't want you to talk to anyone, and I mean anyone, including me, until Mike can get you a lawyer and you have spoken to him. And I want you to make sure your lawyer is present when we question you, understand?"
"But…" Jeannie started to protest weakly.
"I mean it, Jeannie," Steve told her firmly, cutting her off, "don't say a word to anyone until you have a lawyer present! Understand?"
Jeannie swallowed hard and nodded again as another tear trickled down her cheek.
"Hey, everything's going to be okay, I promise, just hang in there, we will get this sorted out." he promised softly, gently wiping away another tear that began to trickle down her face as he gave her another reassuring smile before he stood up and left the ambulance.
Lightly squeezing her shoulder, Bill murmured, "I'll be right back," before he turned and followed Steve.
Taking a few steps away from the ambulance so they were out of Jeannie's earshot, Lee and Bill turned to Steve. "So, how do you want us to handle this?" Bill asked quietly.
"Lee, I want you to go with her to the hospital, get her checked out for any injuries before you take her back to Bryant Street. That should give me enough time to go and see Mike and for Mike to get her a good lawyer." Steve paused before he turned and looked back at the ambulance, tugging his bottom lip as he tried to think of a way that he could keep Jeannie out of a holding cell. Turning back to look at his friend, he suggested quietly, "Then after you process her through booking, why don't you take her up to the interrogation room to wait for her lawyer. I don't want her sitting in a holding cell, not until she has to."
"What do you need me to do while Lee's at the hospital with Jeannie?" Bill asked softly, sensing the Steve had different plans for him.
"I need you to try and find out everything you can about the victim. I need to know everything there is to know about him, and I need to know fast." Steve told him quietly, silently hoping that there might be something in the victim's past that might help and explain just what had happened tonight.
Lee and Bill nodded their agreement to the younger inspector's orders before they all separated and went their different ways, Bill heading back towards their car while Lee headed back across to the ambulance and Jeannie as Steve turned and hurried back to his car.