Chapter 10
"We're looking for Benson and Stabler," Detective Lupo said when he and his partner came into the sixteenth precinct later that day. They had been sent upstairs by the desk sergeant and now stood in the doorway to the bullpen.
"Benson is at IAB and Stabler is talking to the Captain. I'm Sergeant Munch," the older man introduced himself. The other two detectives quickly introduced themselves.
"Here about Judge Tuft huh?" Munch wondered.
"Yeah not exactly coming up with much either," Bernard frowned.
"Probably a level one cover up. I mean how else does someone get to the Judge when he's in protective custody?" The Sergeant gave them one of his classic over the glasses look.
"Here he goes again," Fin piped up.
"We still have to rule out suicide," Lupo frowned.
"Poison is usually not the weapon of choice of men but he was a high society kind of guy so it is the more classy way," Munch said.
"Detectives, I'm guessing that you're here to speak to us about your case," Captain Cragen had opened his door to let Elliot out and to greet the men who now graced his precinct.
"We are. Detective Benson said we could swing by," Lupo smiled slightly.
"Well she's at IAB right now but you have the other detectives at your disposal. Why don't you start with Elliot?" Cragen suggested. Elliot had just taken his seat at his desk and he looked up at them, wondering just where their investigation stood.
"Thank you sir," Bernard smiled, watching the Captain retreat back into his office. Munch went back to his desk while the other detectives took a seat near Elliot's desk.
"So you want to know who killed the Judge huh?" He asked.
"First, we want to know why your partner was over at Annabelle Tuft's place. She was dodging us earlier," Bernard, a former IAB detective, lowered his voice to ask. He was feeling like there was more top the story.
"Look, Liv has this amazing ability to connect with the victims. She often checks up on them. Annabelle has been through enough to last two lifetimes and Liv wanted to be sure she wasn't harming herself. Plus she wanted to be the one to give them the news, not two detectives who are looking to make a case against her or her mother," Elliot explained in an equally low tone.
"We read Annabelle's file. She wouldn't seem to be one to order a hit nor to actually have the connections to do so but we stumbled onto something that you two might not have known," Lupo said in a regular tone.
"What?" Stabler was beginning to wonder just where this was going. Now Fin, Munch, and Kenny were interested too.
"A court officer by the name of William Jeffson visited Rikers the other day. Now that seems a little unusual but not entirely unheard of if the person being arraigned was stuck in the hospital ward. However, no one was being arraigned that day inside the hospital ward. So we spoke to him about his visit and he said that he was checking up on a friend who'd been sent there on a drunk in public charge. Most of the time with that charge, you pay a fine, and then you move on. When we questioned it, he said that it was unfortunately not the first time his buddy had been busted on that charge and the judge figured he deserved a night or two to think about it. So we did some checking and we know that was a lie because no one had been remanded to custody for that charge," Bernard told him.
"So you think he snuck the poison in?" Elliot raised an eyebrow.
"Could be. It turns out that he worked in Judge Tuft's court before Tuft became a federal judge so we're wondering if he helped him commit suicide or if he had him whacked. When we mentioned his name to Annabelle and Louise they both seemed like they didn't know him," Lupo explained.
"His name is definitely not familiar. How about you guys?" Stabler asked the other detectives.
"Never ran across his name before," Fin shrugged.
"Me neither. Elliot we got something on Gus that you need to take a look at," Kenny spoke up.
"Gus?" Bernard asked.
"Serial rapist who we caught the other day. We're trying to ID his victims from photos and trinkets we found in his apartment," the detective explained.
"He won't tell you the names?" Lupo was confused.
"He doesn't know we know and we'd like to keep it that way. The only reason we caught him was because he was foiled in his most recent attack," Munch said.
"Sounds like you have your hands full," Bernard frowned.
"Oh that doesn't even begin to cover it," Fin shook his head.
"Well if you think of anything, let us know," Lupo said.
"Will do. Good luck fellas," Kenny smiled at them.
"You're Lenny's nephew right?" Bernard asked him.
"I am," Briscoe smiled again.
"The Lieutenant sends her regards," Lupo smiled and then the two of them headed out of the precinct no farther along in their case but they'd managed to give Elliot an idea.
"So what do you have on Gus?" Stabler wanted to know.
"We dug back through the records and found a couple of old addresses that he had before he moved to where he is now," Fin said.
"And I'm guessing that helps us…?" Elliot raised an eyebrow.
"Oh you know, quaint little hell holes of apartments near Central Baptist, Old Broadway Synagogue, and the Harlem Islamic Cultural Center," Munch told him.
"We have dates for when he lived in those hell holes so all we need to do now is hunt down the religious leaders of those facilities and see if we can get some info about the girls," Kenny had a smirk on his face.
"Excellent work guys," Elliot looked down at his watch and realized what time it was.
"It's late. We won't find anyone we need to talk to now. I'm going to swing by One PP and get Liv. Tomorrow morning we'll take Central Baptist. Munch, you and Kenny go to the Synagogue, and Fin, go to the Cultural Center. We'll reconvene here and hopefully we have something we can work with," he said.
"Sounds like a plan," Munch smiled.
To Be Continued…