Captain Heart Ch 14

Once there, Don showered and dressed and got himself a huge cup of coffee then went into the squad room and leaped on everyone's back. "Get these, son of a bitches. All leaves and days off are cancelled until these bastards are caught." he announced glaring around at the whole lot of them.

They industriously turned to their jobs and he moved from desk to desk getting what information they were working on. Once he'd made his circuit he turned to his office and picked up his phone. He got his messages and began returning phone calls. He idly noted when Olivia appeared back in the room. During one of his calls he noticed his message light had come back on. He finished his call. He hit the button to call up his voice mail. "You can move back into your place now. Leave a message at my house when you need her to come in and testify. I'm chasing the Zebra." Karens voice said.

Alarm shot through him. He pushed the button again to hear the message again. It replayed the same as before. That was all, no personal greeting, nothing else. "Benson!" he bellowed.

Olivia came at once. "Captain?"

Don played the message for her, glaring at her the entire time. "She's gone home. Take your partner and bring them in, handcuff her if you have to." he barked.

"Captain?" Olivia said startled.

"Okay, no handcuffs, but I want her in custody! We're going to sit on her if we have to, literally. Don't come back until you have her with you."

"We'll get her, sir. Don't worry."

He felt like growling. He wanted to call Charlene and warn her to have Karen and Katies bags packed but he figured if he did she'd be entrenched in her fortified house by the time they got there. He paced to his office door and glared out at the activity in the room and returned to his desk. He wanted to do something, he wanted to fix something. His phone rang. "Cragen."

"She's not here, Captain." Stabler said. "Charlene doesn't know where she is. She says she's hasn't heard a word from them. We checked the whole place, but there's no sign of her."

Don swore, loudly and creatively. Where else could she be? "Did you check any friends she has or the local hotels? She won't go far from home."

"That's the next step, sir. We don't have any names to go on. Did she mention anyone to you?"

"No. Only Charlene. Check out the town. She's driving a new truck, it's a metallic maroon Chevy."

"Will do. I'll let you know as soon as I know something."

Don hung up and called Munch in. "Get her vehicle plate number from DMV and put out an APB for it, then call it in to Stabler. Karen and Katie are in the wind. They're to be apprehended but not arrested."

"Yes, sir." Munch hurried back to his desk.

Don dialled Karens home number and Charlene answered. "Karen?"

"It's Don. Did she contact you, Charlene? You know I'm not trying to harm her. I just need to protect her."

"I swear to you I haven't. I told your detectives the same thing. I'm not lying. I want her safe just as much as you do."

"Where else could she have gone?"

"It's hard to say. She's protecting Katie so she could do most anything. She doesn't think like the rest of us so it's hard to tell what she's doing. She's going to be in this area somewhere, and she'll be checking her cell for your messages even if she's not answering it. Otherwise she wouldn't know when to come in. Katie is safe, I can guarantee that, but I don't know where."

"Keep your eyes open. These killers don't know where they are either. They might come looking at your place for them."

"I'll be careful. Don, I'm worried about them, too."

He hung up the phone and wanted something to hit in the worst way. Or something to drink. His phone rang again. He didn't recognize the number. "Cragen."

"We're fine. Don't worry about us." Karen said without preamble.

"Karen, thank God. Where are you? You have the whole department up in arms."

"Find the killers then."

Don was trying to get the attention of one of his squad. "I'm trying, but I'm wasting valuable manpower trying to protect you. Why did you run?"

"The why is obvious. And this is a prepaid phone, so you can't track it, but just in case you can, I'm going to hang up. Leave a message on my cell when you "Catch the Zebra. I'll see you then. Enjoy your bed. It's nice."

She hung up. "Karen!." he called futilely. Now he used his most proliferate language. "Fin, get the techs on the line. She's monitoring her cell. I want someone one with it at all times so we can trace the signal."

"She didn't use it to call in?"

"She said it was a prepaid. Check her credit cards and see if she purchased one and call the companies to see if she registered it in her name. It's a long shot, but we have to try. Charlene says she'll be in this area. She hates crowds, doesn't have many friends, we need to see if she has made any cash withdrawals." He dialled this detectives number.

"Benson."

"It's Cragen. I just heard from her, but no location. Check with people she knows from the home and places she might go in connection with her business. She makes friends easily, but they aren't close, so you might get lucky that way."

"Are we sure we need to bring her in, Captain? If she's this good at hiding from us, wouldn't we be better off letting the local police find her while we hunt for the killers?"

"Do you really believe the locals will care if it's a protective custody or an arrest warrant? Keep looking, we have people here working on the rest."

"Yes, sir."

"He says keep looking." Olivia told Elliott.

"This is like looking for a needle in a haystack, someone elses haystack." Elliott said glumly.

"Then we need to think like her. She has only limited funds, a very visible truck, a young girl who doesn't talk well and people who are looking for you. Where would you go?"

"Where there is alot of people or way out where there isn't many." Elliott said. "With a hungry child and it's getting toward meal time, I'm going to bet we're going to be looking at a grocery store or McDonalds."

"Let's go find a place to watch it." Olivia suggested. "If she's not a crowd type of person she might go there to hide. She can get Katie food and still be safe."

Elliott took off from the house and turned back toward town. They passed a strip mall with a few cars in the lot. And a red metallic Chevy truck. Elliott whipped in and pulled up behind the truck. "What's her plate number?"

"That's her truck." Olivia said checking her notebook.

They got out and Olivia checked the hood of it. "It's still pretty warm so she can't be far. I'm going to call the Captain. I think we should start checking for restaurants nearby." Elliott said. "Captain, we have her truck. We're going to check the local stores now."

In the meantime things were happening with amazing swiftness at Special Victims. By checking for Karen and Katie, Fin had followed a hunch and sent out a call to the local police asking about women with the particular hats and found that one had been spotted and reported in that area. He told them what was going on and beat feet for Dons office. "Captain, someone is there looking for them. I just talked to the locals and they have a sighting there. I think we need to roll out there in force."

"I'm going. Call them back and tell them we're coming out there in force and I want as many officers from here as we can spare."

"I'll be right with you."

Don called Elliott and Olivia and updated them as he headed for the door. Fin, Munch and four other detectives were right behind him, including the woman who had been on guard when Karen left. She nodded at him and he was tempted to send her back, but she looked at him and he wanted to give her a chance to redeem herself. He nodded once and led the way. She knew who Karen and Katie were, which at least gave her a leg up on some of the others.

He was going to find Karen and Katie, find these killers than he was going to have a long, long talk with Miss Karen and they were going to get a few thngs straight! He was the first one out of the garage. There was more than one person who was surprised at how fast he drove. Most of them just knew who she was, they didn't know his history with the woman.

TBC