It may have been Theo's day off from work, but it certainly wasn't Spiro's. He never took a day off. How could he, when a dangerous criminal like Cyrus Mossberg was on the loose? There had to be something he was missing about it all, and he knew it. There was some factor he wasn't accounting for. So Spiro went back through the files for the third time, trying to figure out why Mossberg had started the Hunters in the first place. If to catch an animal, you had to think like an animal, then maybe to catch Cyrus Mossberg, you had to think like him. Wasn't that how the FBI went about things? Spiro figured he'd find out soon enough. 

He stared down the photo of the gang leader pinned to the wall. If the rest of the night shift cops hadn't been in the PD, he probably would've yelled at the picture, some long speech about how he wouldn't rest until every gangster was behind bars, and the people of this town could rest easy at night. He knew he'd certainly sleep better with Mossberg in jail. Maybe he'd give in to Theo's wishes and start eating actual meals instead of living on a cracker only diet. That one wasn't really his fault though. Real meals took forever to make. Crackers were ready the second you cracked open the packaging. Spiro liked conveniences like that, which was part of the reason the Hunters were so frustrating to him. They didn't do anything that convenienced him. The whole gang was one big cat playing him like a fiddle, or however that metaphor went. Spiro shook his head, forcing all his sidetracked thoughts out. He had to focus. Theo was always focused when they worked, and he found ninety percent of their leads because of it. If Spiro could just focus on Mossberg for a minute, maybe he could find something too. Something worthy for the FBI to know. But in order to figure that out, he first had to examine Mossberg's motives for starting a gang in the first place.

The most obvious reason that he'd start was revenge. Mossberg's father had been in a gang, and he'd been killed. The Hunters may have been started to avenge him, except that Mossberg never took revenge on anybody. In fact, outside of their illegal fights, there was little violence in the Hunters at all. But maybe it was the drugs. He didn't look much like a junkie, but maybe Mossberg just hid it well. Maybe he had started a drug based gang to fuel his own addiction. But even that seemed unlikely. Drug junkies were definitely not as level headed as Mossberg was.

The other thing that nagged at Spiro was who the gang was started with. Practically everybody had a business partner. Bonnie and Clyde, Holmes and Watson, Cheech and Chong. Who was Mossberg's? Spiro thought it might be Kramer, seeing as the casino owner was shady enough for it, but Kramer was just in it for the money. Mills was too soft, Marcus had been a traitor, Felicia seemed more like a good ally than anything else, and Martin was a loser. So who was it? Maybe it was Cyrus's mystery wife. She could be pulling the strings behind the scenes, maybe even have suggested starting the gang herself; a Bonnie Parker reincarnated, just with a smarter Clyde. But when would Mossberg even have had time to meet and marry someone? There was no one in his childhood that they knew of, and in all the visible pictures they had of him in all the years they'd known him as a gangster, he had the ring. College was Spiro's lucky guess. Plenty of people met their future spouses in college, and Mossberg was one oddball gang leader who had actually gone and graduated. So he dug a little deeper into the gang leader's past, called up the school, and got some records of dorm assignments and old class schedules. The admissions department wasn't thrilled about hunting down alumni at two in the morning, but Spiro didn't really give a shit. He needed answers. The idea of a roommate came to him soon after. Tons of people were still friends, or at least in contact, with their college roommates. Maybe that was the business partner he was looking for. Roommates were assigned first year, but students got to choose who to room with after that. Whoever Mossberg stuck with obviously had to be in cahoots with him. Maybe it was even the mysterious Jared Sage that every gang member they brought in for questioning had mentioned, although they had already searched high and low for that dude and found nothing important. So Spiro tracked down the names of the old roommates and checked out what path they had taken later in life.

First year it was some random kid, a CEO of a company in Oregon. Unimportant and uninvolved.

But the next three years, Mossberg's roommate had stayed the same. Spiro froze as he stared at the name, and everything fell into place.

Theodore Adler.

Theodore Adler.

Theodore Adler.

Theo.

They had been roommates for three years, and Theo hadn't bothered to mention it once. In all the hours Spiro had spent with his partner, all the times they had talked about this case, shouldn't that have been the first thing Theo mentioned about it? Maybe he had thought that having a personal past with Mossberg would get him thrown off the case. The Chief didn't like it when people had personal connections to these kinds of things. But Theo had roomed with him for three years. Surely he had to have noticed something shady during that time. Guys didn't go from being squeaky clean to gang leaders overnight. An awful idea worked its way into Spiro's mind, and he prayed he was wrong, but he checked it out just to be sure. Theo had told him once that he had met his husband in college, but that had to just be an impossible coincidence. Theo was married to Benny— Spiro had met him at the Policeman's Ball for crying out loud, and they had certainly fought like an old married couple.

Or maybe it was like a pair of people who didn't like each other, but had to pretend to be married. The doubt had been planted and with no other leads to go off of, it festered and spread.

So Spiro searched for a marriage certificate between Theodore Adler and Benny Tilford. And Benjamin Tilford and Theodore Adler. And Benny Tilford and Theo Adler.

Nothing came up.

There was no marriage certificate registered to Theo at all. Nor was there one for Benny. Or Cyrus Mossberg. There was one for Jared Sage, although Spiro wasn't even sure why he looked it up.

That wasn't suspicious at all.

A little more research, and Spiro discovered that a boy named Benny Tilford went to Jenks public schools in Oklahoma at the same time Mossberg attended them. Was it too far of a stretch to assume they might have been friends? The more Spiro thought about it, the more he realized he hadn't seen a wedding ring on Benny's hand the night of the Policeman's Ball. That Theo might have a better reason for never discussing his personal life, and that Theo and Benny hadn't even seemed to like each other all that much. There had been no affection between them at all. Granted they had been fighting the whole time, but still. Shouldn't there have been something to go off of? The rest of the officers had pictures of their loved ones at their desk; Theo didn't. There was nothing tying Theodore Adler to any family at all, and maybe, just maybe, that's how Theo wanted it. Like he had a reason for hiding everything. Like he had something so big to hide that he had hidden it right in front of everyone's faces. Realization was a flatbed truck, and Spiro had just been crushed into roadkill.

Theo was married to Mossberg. That had to be it, didn't it? He considered for a moment that Benny was the husband instead, but it didn't fit. Theo was involved somehow, and the lack of evidence was just the evidence that proved it all. Spiro sunk into his chair in shock.

Theo and Cyrus Mossberg were married. And had been for years without anyone finding out. It would've been an impressive feat, if Spiro hadn't been filling up with fury towards his partner.

He'd known. That's what stung at Spiro the most. Theo had known about Mossberg the whole time. Knew about his crimes, knew where he lived, probably what move he would make next, and had never once mentioned it. Had never made a move to take him down. How many times had they tracked down a dead end lead? How many times had Mossberg just slipped out of their grasp? They had worked so hard for so long and the whole time, Theo and Cyrus had probably been laughing at him behind his back, thinking he was an idiot. No wonder Theo had told him to shoot Marcus. It was all so clear now. Marcus would've spilled everything, and Theo knew he had to get him out of the way.

That was also why Mossberg had saved him from Kramer at the casino. Because he knew Theo would be mad if he had died. He had even fucking winked at Theo for crying out loud, and Spiro hadn't thought anything of it. It made so much sense now that Spiro kicked himself for not seeing what was right in front of his face. But he was mad now. He was furious at Theo, his every bone aching with rage at the man. They had been partners. They had been friends, and their whole relationship was nothing but one big lie. But Spiro was done now. For once, he was a step ahead of Mossberg, and Theo too. He had the power now, and he had to play the cards right. If he did, he could take down Cyrus Mossberg, the Hunters, and Theo all in one swoop, with or without the FBI's help. He could do his job, and out Theo as the liar he was. Hell, the FBI just might give him a medal or something for it when they arrived. Probably not, but he could dream. This was the kind of thing they awarded, right? Spiro stared at the evidence board, changing everything he knew now that he knew the truth. It was all on him to take it down now. He knew just how to do it, too. It was time to hit Cyrus Mossberg where he was weakest, and get a little payback at Theo in the process.

***

Cyrus had gone back to the Hunters Headquarters to wrap up some things with Benny, so Theo was alone when his phone rang with a call from Spiro.

"Okay, I know I didn't forget about a stakeout this time, so what's up?" He asked. It was probably a little soon to mention the stakeout, seeing as the wound was still fresh in Spiro's mind, but oh well.

"I got a lead," Spiro said. "Or at least, I think I do. Somebody at the coroner's office went through Marcus's pockets and found an address. I think it might be to one of Mossberg's warehouses, maybe one of the places where he gets drugs delivered. Wanna check it out?" It was a complete lie, but Theo didn't know that, and seeing as he knew no such warehouse existed, he was happy to humor his partner. He was happier to see that Spiro wasn't still in a funk after killing Marcus though, so all the more reason to help out. If Spiro was ready to jump back into the game, then of course Theo would be there to back him up. That was what partners did.

"Sure," He said. "When do you want to meet?"

"Are you busy now?"

"No."

"Great, I'll send you the address." Spiro hung up. Theo stared at his phone for a moment. That was strange. Spiro was rarely that blunt about anything.