Chapter 14
Captain Cragen slouched in his chair behind his desk. It had been a long day and they hadn't gotten very far. The driver who had dumped Olivia off at the precinct was still in the wind as was the car. If the Russians were smart, they'd have dumped it into the river or set it on fire like the other car the other day.
"Captain, we've got something," Kenny Briscoe poked his head into the office. Cragen nodded and hoisted himself out of his seat. Walking out into the bullpen he was met by Munch, Tao, and Detective Jones. Given the situation, the Buffalo Police Department let her stay a little while longer to help catch their quarry, Anatoli Volkov.
"What is it?" Cragen asked.
"Melinda was able to ID the dead girl in the trunk of Volkov's car, a Seraphina Sokolov. She'd been popped a few times for prostitution," Munch explained.
"So she was working at the brothel," the Captain said.
"Yes she was. Based off of what the medical examiner found, Anatoli beat the hell out of her before bashing her brains in. Official cause of death was blunt force trauma," Detective Tao told him.
"Another victim to add to the pile. How does this help us?" Cragen wanted to know.
"Well she wasn't just another pro working at the brothel. According to all of Tao's hard work she was often seen in the company of Ivan Zhukov," Angela said as Munch pulled up a picture of the man for the Captain to see.
"So what does this Ivan have to do with it?" Cragen raised an eyebrow.
"Well at first it didn't mean anything to me until I pulled up all the pictures of Ivan we had. They are few and far between as if he was trying to seem like just another customer at the brothel. It wasn't until I noticed the same man in every photo with Ivan that I put two and two together," Tao pulled up a picture that the Captain could look at.
"This guy next to him is carrying," Don said.
"That guy is Gregor Petrovich," the Vice detective told him.
"But you said that Gregor was Boris's right hand man," the Captain reminded him.
"I think they've been hiding their power structure all along. They know that we've been keeping an eye on them so they tried to hide who was really doing what," Tao continued as Munch pulled up a tree diagram onto the computer screen.
"We know that Boris collects the money from all of the Captains which makes him Derzhatel obschaka or the bookkeeper. This puts him one step down from the Pakhan. Vlad is a Captain who happens to be Boris's younger brother. Gregor was thought to be Boris's right hand man, seeing as he seems to be running errands for Boris all the time but what if he isn't running errands for Boris? What if he's running errands for Ivan?" The detective posited.
"Ivan stays hidden for a majority of the time while Gregor acts in his stead, making it look like instead of being second in command to the boss, he's actually second to the bookkeeper," the Captain nodded.
"That would mean that Ivan trusts Gregor implicitly. I don't know about you guys but usually you don't see that kind of loyalty between groups like this. I mean will they lie to the police and keep their mouths shut? Sure. But for Ivan to assume that Gregor isn't going to stab him in the back, is ballsy," Angela gave them a look.
"True but to keep the continued security of their operations, hiding the Pakhan makes sense. They aren't in Russia where these guys can parade around and be treated like gods. They have to hide and the more confused they make us than the safer their operations will be," Tao said.
"Which if you're right, then they've been doing a damn good job," Cragen nodded.
"We could be missing something though. As Angela pointed out, Ivan trusting Gregor that much is risky but what if it isn't a risk because they have cameras? Lennie said that when they busted that Asian trafficking ring, the victim had hidden cameras all over the massage parlor," Munch pointed out.
"I remember that. Then that makes total sense. Ivan uses Gregor to run errands and then keeps an eye on everything with cameras," Kenny nodded.
"Then we need a way to Ivan," Cragen agreed. Before they could do anything though, Munch's phone rang. The Sergeant picked it up and spoke briefly to the person on the other end.
"Well it looks like Angela will be going home sooner than we thought," Munch told them.
"Why?" Angela asked.
"Because they just found Anatoli Volkov's body out in the back alley at Momma Popov's restaurant. Someone emptied an entire clip into him," he explained.
"You, Kenny, and Tao get down there. Angela, let's call your Captain," Cragen said.
To Be Continued…