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Thursday, October 10, 2013
Saint Louis, Missouri
Olivia arrived at the precinct a few minutes after Kris, just about 7 a.m. They were getting an earlier start than usual, trying to get a few hours of work in before Olivia had to leave for the airport. She was flying back at noon, stopping by the precinct, and then taking Friday off to study for the sergeant's exam. She still had a week—it wasn't until the 19th—but she had done precious little in the way of preparing for it. Originally, when she'd signed up, it was kind of a lark, really. Everything was in transition, so it was a what the hell, see what happens exercise in her mind. But so much had happened in the interim, and she really wanted to pass this damn thing now. It was time to look at all of her options, even the ones that she'd have once rejected out of hand.
The station was buzzing with activity by 8:30, and she retreated with Mackey to an empty interview room for one last brainstorming session. Just before nine o'clock, Mackey's captain stuck his head in and spoke to them. "You two should come out here."
They walked out into the squadroom, and found everyone watching one of the flat-screen TVs on the wall. One was always tuned to Headline News, and the other to the local NBC station's news channel, where they recycled the most recent newscast every half-hour unless there was a breaking story to report. It was the local station that held the room's attention now, and it appeared to be a press conference of some sort.
"What's going on?" Olivia asked Kris.
"Well, that's the mayor on the left, and the Chief of Police and chief of D's on the right."
"Who's the guy in the middle?" The men on either side were arrayed in the uniforms of their office: a suit for the mayor, and dress uniforms for the brass. But the man speaking was young—late 20s, she'd guess—and wearing jeans and sneakers, his only concession to formality a blue blazer thrown over his Lumineers t-shirt. He had on a Cardinals baseball cap, but that didn't differentiate him from 90% of the men in this town, Olivia observed.
"That's Chael Bauer," Kris answered. She offered no further explanation.
"Help me out," Olivia said.
"Really?" Kris asked, turning to face her. "He's the founder of Squawk, and PayGo. He's from St. Louis, dad used to be on the force here in the city. He lives in New York, or at least gets his picture taken at parties there. Thought you might have seen his face before."
"I've heard the name," Olivia said. "Just had no idea what he looked like."
They listened to his remarks, and knew why they'd been called out to watch. He had created two wildly popular websites, and a couple of well-timed IPOs had made him unimaginable millions. He had been visiting his father, and had heard about the cases that were puzzling the Major Case Squad in the bi-state area. His dad had poked around, it seems, and found that there was no suspect tied to these, or to a string of similar murders in New York. Chael (short for Michael, Kris informed her, a name apparently too pedestrian for Silicon Valley) was offering the city the services of two of his developers, free of charge. The two would take the existing tools available to police investigators—ViCAP, AFIS, and a couple of experimental programs and smaller databases—and write a program that would do it all, and do it more efficiently. "And more successfully, we hope," he added with a bit of a chuckle, though he quickly regained the mask of seriousness he had worn throughout the news conference.
When he finished talking, the mayor stepped up to the mic, but reporters were shouting out questions to Bauer: when did he expect to have a finished product, what agencies and departments would he give it to, and so on. He ignored them all as the mayor tried to speak, but one man's voice rose above the others.
"Chael, what motivated you to do this?"
Bauer looked apologetically at the mayor, who gestured for him to answer.
"My father was a cop here in the city, as most of you know. And St. Louis is dear to my heart. I know how hard the police here work, and they deserve all the help they can get. I don't know if we'll get lucky," he laughed. "After all, this is not the kind of work my folks normally do. But sometimes, you can apply a new approach and some new methodology and get new results. And as the fine men and women of our area's police departments risk their lives for us every day, I think we can all agree that anything that will make their jobs safer or easier is certainly worth the expense."
New York City
9:54 a.m. EDT
Cragen's phone rang, but he was in the middle of a discussion with Munch and Fin, and he gestured to a uni walking by to duck in and grab the call.
A moment later, the young officer stuck his head out. "Captain..." he began.
"Can it wait, Randall? We're nearly done."
"I don't think so, sir. It's the DA."
Cragen walked into his office and took the phone from Randall. Munch and Cragen had one eye on the boss. It wasn't every day the DA had any reason to call over here. One of his bureau chiefs called pretty regularly, of course, but that was personal.
"Cragen," Don said into the receiver.
"Don, it's Colin Samuels. We have a problem. I need you to get Benson in your office. If she's out, call her back from wherever she is, right now."
"Benson's in St. Louis," Don said. "What the hell's going on, Colin?"
"Damn," he answered. "There are news cameras all over the place over here. CNN is raising the satellite on their truck now. You have to call her before she sees this on TV."
Cragen paled as he listened, taking notes, eager to get Samuels off the line so he could call Olivia. He hoped she wasn't near a TV.
Saint Louis
9:05 a.m. CDT
As the press conference ended, the room was full of chatter about what they'd seen. Olivia turned around, and looked at Mackey and her boss, Captain Cramer. "I don't know this guy," she said. "I have no idea what any of that meant, or if I should even care. What's your impression?"
Mackey rolled her eyes, and Cramer spoke. "I think," he said, "that it doesn't matter one damn bit what I think. The guy is practically a billionaire who donates a lot of money to the hospitals around here, and who funded about half of the mayor's re-election campaign. Maybe something good will come of it, but it's not going to stop us from doing what we do. I still think it's going to be regular, old-fashioned police work that will catch this guy."
"And on that note, Olivia, shall we get back to the grind?" Kris clearly shared her boss's skepticism. As they turned to head back to the interview room, Olivia's phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out to see Cragen's number on the caller ID, but before she could answer it, she heard her name from across the room.
"Detective Benson," someone shouted. "I think you need to see this."
"What's going on?" she asked, as she headed toward the voice. She noticed the man was pointing at the TV with the national feed.
"Someone's shooting up one of your courthouses," he said. "Not sure which one, but it looks like..."
He kept talking, but she didn't hear a word he said. Her phone was buzzing in her hand, again. She'd let it go to voicemail once, distracted by the other detective, and Cragen was calling again. She knew it was the courthouse where Alex was trying her case, knew that she was there, this morning, now, had talked to her by phone as Alex walked in the building earlier in the morning. What in hell was going on?
The phone stopped buzzing in her hand, just for a few seconds, and then started again. She finally answered. "Benson." She was on autopilot.
"Olivia, it's Don," he said. "Where are you?"
"Standing in the precinct in St. Louis," she replied, never taking her eyes off the TV, looking for a head of blonde hair. The live feed was coming from a chopper, and it looked like mass confusion below, and she had no idea what Alex had worn that morning. She hadn't seen her yet. Is that good, or bad? She didn't know.
"I need to tell you something," Don said.
"I'm watching Headline News, Captain. What's going on there?" Her voice was oddly distant.
"Shit," he muttered. He spoke a little louder, and he'd managed to attract the attention of the detectives in the 1-6, who were clustered around his office door, but he knew he didn't have Olivia's full attention yet. "Liv, you need to listen to me. Sit down. It's not good."
