"You look like somebody stole your breakfast."
Dan Haley slowly sat down in the guest chair beside Steve's desk, his warm eyes scanning the file in front of him, then his wrinkled collar from too many attempts to massage the tension out of his neck courtesy to the latest curveball thrown his way.
"Then why do I feel like I ate the canary, Dan?", Steve replied listlessly, thwarting any efforts to cheer him up in a hopelessly awkward situation.
Exhaling slowly, he buried his face in his palms for a moment, trying to quiet the incessant voice from within that urged him to share his concerning findings with Mike, hoping to protect his best friend from a man who was quickly proving to be of questionable character.
Add on the strange dream that had followed him into the wee hours of morning, bothering him more than it should.
"That got something to do with the Wagoner girl?"
"Yes. And no."
Raising his head back up, Steve let his weary gaze drift over to the skyline of San Francisco, hoping to find the answers to his troubles in the sea of windows ahead.
When that didn't happen, he grunted in frustration.
"This…this Bobbie Parker guy that is rooming with Mike…he's…I don't know, something's not right with him and I am worried."
"Oh yeah, Norm told me about that.", Dan replied and ran a hand through his medium length hair, then shrugged indifferently, "I have to admit, I don't know enough about the guy. Just what I heard, which isn't great but I mean, it's just hearsay. I am sure there is a lot of nonsense circulating around about us as well."
He wanted to bring up the strange encounter at Mike's house the other day, share the weird feeling that it caused, the unanswered questions. But eventually he decided to hold off on that just a bit more.
Instead, Steve took a sip of coffee long gone cold, then cringed before answering.
"What if there's a chance that he might be tied to the murder?"
"Well, that would certainly change things. What have you got?"
"Not much yet. A description that fits a little too well. A witness that gave me his name. Sounds like he was trying to fence some of Amber's jewelry."
"Who is your witness?"
It was the question he was dreading to answer, knowing that it would shine a light of doubt onto his worries.
"It's a stoolie from robbery. He contacted them because the jewelry had our victim's initials on it. And blood. He described a guy matching Bobbie and even gave me the first name."
"Is he gonna testify to that?"
"Probably not. It would blow his cover right out of the water.", Steve replied matter-of-factly," It's not like there's anything to gain for him from helping us with this case. But it's a heck of a coincidence if you are asking me."
"Yeah, but you're not gonna get a warrant on that unfortunately."
Leaning back against the chair, Dan ran a nervous hand down his leg, picking off some random fuzz that had gathered on his black dress pants throughout the day as a tense silence befell them.
Of course, Steve knew he didn't have enough for a warrant, not even probable cause. And even if he did, what was he supposed to do? Search Mike's house? Station a team out front to watch the place? As if Mike wouldn't notice? There were easier ways to bring upon the wraith of the universe.
"If you ask me, I'd make sure you find that jewelry first, see if whoever bought it can give you the same description. If not, see if there were any cameras nearby that could have seen the exchange. I wouldn't step into those shark infested waters until you know for sure that this guy is involved. Getting Mike worked up over something like this after he's been sitting at home for two weeks would be a death sentence."
Even though Dan had said it with a smile, Steve knew that the genuine words held much truth, along with an unspoken warning.
And as much as he wanted to heed it, there was no telling what would happen if Bobbie continued his criminal activities.