*
"What the hell is this?" Chin asked, standing next to her desk and looking down at the small decorative pillow on her chair. It wasn't even 7:00am, and she hadn't had her morning coffee yet.
"Oh that," Pepper said as Wallace sat there sniggering. "I figured you might need that."
"What are you talking about?"
"Well, you hit that mat pretty hard yesterday on your little tushie and I thought a nice soft cushion like that might ease the pain."
"Ian, what am I going to do with this guy?" Chin said to her partner as she reached down and picked up the pillow. "One lucky leg sweep, and the guy thinks he's the Karate Kid."
"I think you're going to have to wipe that obnoxious grin off his face. Rematch?rematch...," McTavish started chanting as he looked over at both of them. Wallace picked up the chant, with both of them going at it as Chin slowly walked over to Pepper's desk, pillow in hand.
"You know, I could whip you upside the head with this thing," Chin said, waving the pillow tauntingly before setting it calmly down on the desk in front of Pepper, "but I won't. I'll just leave it here, because the next time we have one of our lessons, you're going to need it to soak up all those tears you're going to be shedding."
"Listen to Chin, throwing down the gauntlet," Wallace drawled, holding out his hand and exchanging a fist bump with Chin as she leisurely strolled back to her desk.
"Thanks for having my back there, pal," Pepper said once Chin was out of earshot.
"Are you okay, buddy, or do you want me to drive you to the burn unit. Chin scorched you on that one."
"Okay people, huddle up," Caruso's booming voice filled the squad room as he lumbered towards the murder board, his bum hip making that penguin-like waddle look even more pronounced than usual. Pepper figured like most of them, sleep wasn't coming too easily to the boss either. "All right, DiCicco and Harris are at the university today, keeping an eye on the professor. Anything to report?"
"Well, as we sent around to everybody last night, we didn't see anything on that security footage," Chin said.
"And from what we could see, the professor spent a quiet evening at home, shutting things down at about 11:00," Wallace added.
"Any response from The Sandman to the posting you put on that Reaper website?"
"As of about ten minutes ago, still nothing," Pepper said.
"And what about the e-mail messages on the Bartolucci kid's phone. Any response since you gave him Pepper's name as the contact on our end?"
Wallace shook his head as he held up the phone. "Nothing so far."
"Sir," Johannson spoke up as she nodded towards her partner, "Sean and I have to appear in court on the Romashyna case at ten this morning."
"Is that the guy that went after his wife with the golf club?"
"That's the case, but it was her taking the club to him. We're going to be called to testify today."
"Sure, of course. Do what you have to do." The Inspector looked at the murder board, a dismal look on his face as he took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He slid his glasses back into place and ran his hand over his bald head. "McTavish, you and Chin are probably falling behind on that Sertovic domestic violence case too, right?"
"Well, yes."
The Inspector shrugged, his lips set in a grimace as he turned to face all of them. He looked around at each of them in turn. It had been more than 48 hours, which all departments recognized as the critical time frame when it came to a case like this. The probability of solving the case quickly dropped off substantially after that. And other than this possible contact with The Sandman on the kid's phone, all their other leads had turned to dust-the guy was just too meticulously careful. Caruso knew his staff couldn't neglect the rest of their workload. All of them were already carrying more cases than they should have, and he knew he wasn't going to get any more extra staff. That was typical these days, with budget cuts hitting the department. "All right, Chief Dakin talked to me late yesterday about the state of the case and I had to tell him that every lead we had was turning out to be a dead end. He's approved the surveillance on Drummond right now, but I don't know for how long. He wants everyone to keep up with their other job duties, although this one is still a priority, especially if anything breaks. McTavish and Chin, you're up for keeping track of the professor tonight, with Wilson and Johannson taking it tomorrow night."
The detectives set about their work, with Wallace impatiently monitoring the kid's phone every five minutes or so, hoping for a response. Pepper was the same with the Reaper website, checking time and again to see if The Sandman had replied to Frank Booth.
DiCicco and Harris called in around mid-morning. The professor had gone straight from home to the university, and around ten-thirty he'd gone into the library. Carrying a knapsack and wearing a ball cap, Harris had followed him. But the professor had not gone to the stacks department, only to the periodical section, where Harris had witnessed him perusing a magazine briefly before taking photocopies of an article. When the professor had replaced the magazine, Harris had checked the title before following the professor out. He'd only had time to spot the large-sized text, 'BJS', as he kept the professor in view. Once the professor had returned to his office, they'd gone back, only to find that the BJS stood for 'British Journal of Sociology'.
"Too bad it wasn't the latest issue of 'Killer Illustrated'. That would have been nice," McTavish said.
Pepper and Wallace were eating their lunch at their desks when the kid's phone pinged.
"What does it say?" Pepper asked as Wallace picked up the phone and opened the message.
He started to read. "So Detective Pepper, it looks like it's you and me. I have to admit, I like the name, Pepper, kind of tough sounding. Do you ever use pepper-spray in your work, Detective? I bet that would sting. I think that's what I'll call you from now on: Sting. A good name for a member of The Police, don't you think?"
"Inspector, take a look at this," Pepper said as he spotted his boss coming out of his office.
"What've you got? Did our guy respond?" he asked, spotting the phone in Wallace's hand.
"Yeah, take a look."
"Hmm, okay Sting," he said, looking over at Pepper. "Keep it going, see if you can get him to tell us anything more about himself. At least we've got something going here." He handed the phone to Wallace and walked back towards his office.
Wallace pondered things over for a few minutes before he started hitting buttons. "Okay, this is what I'm going back with: "All right-Sting it is. From the messages you've left us, it sounds like you'd like someone to talk to. I'm your guy, anytime, anywhere." What do you think?"
"That's good. It still lets him think he's in control, but hopefully he starts slipping up somewhere along the line."
Wallace hit the send button, the message on its way. "Okay, now we wait and see. Where's that file on those pawn shop robberies?"
"Right here," Pepper said, pulling out a file from the stack on the corner of his desk. "Yeah, based on what the boss said, we better not get further behind on this too."
Later in the afternoon, Pepper stepped outside to get some fresh air and clear his head, the sky dappled with fluffy white clouds, the sun beaming down making the dull grey sidewalks and dead grass look strangely inviting after the long winter. Pepper pulled out his phone and called Shauna, having put the number she'd given him into his contacts list.
"Hello." Her voice was like a warm purr on the other end of the line, and even that single word brought a smile to his face.
"Hi, it's Scot." Once again he surprised himself by instinctively going to his real name, having no idea why, only that he knew he felt something different about this woman.
"Hi. Catch any bad guys today?" He could hear the cheeriness in her voice.
"Not yet, but I'm trying."
"What more can we ask from our men in blue."
"Are you still at the shop?"
"Yes. Your mom went home a few minutes ago, but your gra
ndmother and I are still here. She's going over some accounts and I'm just finishing cleaning up in the kitchen. There's a function at Victoria Hospital tomorrow that we're getting stuff ready for, but everything's in good shape so far."
"Good, good. Look, um?would you like to maybe grab a bite to eat tonight? You know, maybe just something casual."
"How about if I cook for you at my place?" Shauna replied quickly, catching him off guard.
"Oh, well, uh, okay. That sounds great."
"Is seven okay?"
"Perfect. I'll see you then." Feeling like a kid who'd gotten his first date for the prom, Pepper found himself smiling like the village idiot, but he wanted to be careful he didn't get too cocky-Wallace had that title sewn up, along with his 'Husband of the Year' award.