We made it back to the office about two hours before the end of the shift. So, I sat at my desk, glared at the computer, and tried to figure out where I could get my hands on some chocolate peanut butter ice cream.
Kowalski looked at me like I was a bomb about to go off at any minute and took his files to the conference room to get his reports done.
Honestly, I didn't mind. I knew that I was in a bad mood, and it was easy to blame it on the lack of ice cream, but even I knew that was not what was getting to me the most.
Hell, even finding out that there was a Hunter in the city wasn't causing me to be this upset.
It was William Kowalski and his complete disregard for what I had said.
Now I am not complaining that the whole organization was sexist or that it was a boys club. But I knew that being trapped in a body that was perpetually 18 did not earn me much credit in the police force.
Don't get me wrong though, I have had plenty of partners that trusted me and took me at my word. But constantly telling Kowalski the same thing, over and over again, was causing me to doubt my partnership with him.
I shook my body and tried to get out of my head. Everybody was entitled to a bad day, and today would be mine. Hopefully, tomorrow would be better.
Thirty minutes before I was to leave, Momma Bear came out of his office and straight towards my desk.
"Where is Kowalski?" Mike asked, looking around the bullpen.
I pointed towards the conference room silently. I guess the silent part was what clued Mike in that something was wrong.
"Everything ok, Nads?" he asked, genuine concern steeping through his every word and action.
"Oh yeah! They were just out of my favorite ice cream," I replied smiling. My issues with my partner needed to be worked out between us, I didn't want to involve the Bossman if I didn't have to.
"Ok then, you know you can always talk to me. And I think I have a carton of chocolate peanut butter ice cream in the management's fridge. I'm pretty sure that the whipped cream didn't make it, but I hid the sprinkles in my desk. Just let me know when you want it!" As I said, Mike Volasko was, without a doubt, the best human, person, man, Boss in the world. I could feel my eyes start to tear up as he looked at me.
Seeing my eyes water, he smiled and said, "I'm going to go get Kowalski, I have something to talk to the two of you about."
I nodded my head and while he was off getting my partner, I got myself under control. I even took out the mittens from my desk drawer to make myself feel better. For some reason, every time I got upset my hands would turn to ice.
In less than five minutes, Mike was back with Kowalski in tow.
After sitting both of us down, Mike handed us each a folder.
"We are going to have to put The Specialist on hold for a few days, there has been an incident in Central Park and I need you two to go investigate," Mike started.
I opened the folder and the first thing I saw was the victim, a Caucasian male around 30 years old with his throat ripped out and a bullet through his head. That seemed like a bit of an overkill, but what did I know?
"As you can see, a body was found over an hour ago in the middle of Central Park where the forest takes over and there are no paths. We are unsure of what the victim might have been doing at that location, but whatever happened, he didn't deserve this. I need you two to give me some answers before the Brass starts asking questions. Nads, you are going to the location, see if you can get someone talking. I can't believe that in a place like New York, no one saw what was going on. Kowalski, I need you to go to the M.E's office and get the report. See if they can identify the type of dog that caused this damage. I can only assume that it is a dog… what else could rip out a man's throat like that?"
Kowalski and I stood up and saluted before Mike went back to his office. It looked like we weren't going home anytime soon.
I gathered my stuff and headed to my car. It was a short drive to Central Park from Third Street so I was able to get there quickly.
It's too bad that I didn't take my partner with me.
------
It was just after 5 pm and Viktor was still going through some paperwork, and legal documents when his secretary called him.
"Hello, Sir, I have someone from the Third Street Homicide Unit down here requesting a moment of your time," the woman said, looking at William Kowalski and smiling.
Viktor sat up straight and turned on a separate computer that showed the video feed from the lobby. One of the perks of it being his company, he was able to access any and all videos from his office. Seeing who was waiting to speak to him, he raised his eyebrow. "Send him up," he said.
"Thank you for taking the time to see me, I was surprised when you accepted the appointment. I thought I would be speaking to your secretary this time," William said as he took a seat in Viktor's office.
"I can only assume that even if you were not able to speak to me today, you would just come back tomorrow. I figured we could get this over and done with and get on with our lives. I see your partner isn't with you, why is that?" Viktor asked, a slight smile on his face.
After seeing the Little Cub for the first time earlier today he could guess why she didn't come to this meeting. However, he was surprised by the Detective's response to his question.
"Detective Sokol is unaware of my visit. We seem to have a differing opinion of your relationship with The Specialist," Kowalski said, crossing his legs and getting more comfortable.
"Really? What is her opinion on the matter?" Viktor asked still having a slight smile on his face. He didn't bother to get more comfortable nor was he intimidated by the other man. There was no reason to be.
"Her opinion doesn't really matter, what does matter is I would like to see the sales records of who bought armaments from you for the past three years."
"Sorry, Detective, but those records are highly confidential and I'm afraid that you don't have the security clearance needed for that type of information," Viktor replied. As far as he was concerned, the conversation was over. From now on, unless the Cub came, Andrei could deal with this matter.
"I can get a court order for the information," threatened William, uncrossing his legs and leaning forward, trying to intimidate Viktor into confessing his involvement.
"I wish you would. You will need permission from several governments to get the information you desire. But by all means, get a court order. Sasha, come see this gentleman out," said Viktor calling for his new Assistant to come and deal with the matter.
Meetings without the Cub were simply not worth his time.