'Hello?'
'Lanie it's Ryan, did I wake you up?'
Lanie grinned at Dave, still lying on top of her with his chest puffing like a steam engine while she took the call on her cellphone. 'Nope, I was already up. What's going on?'
'Karpowski wants a full briefing of the investigative team this morning. That includes CSU and you too.'
'Okay. What time?'
'As soon as you can get here.'
Lanie glanced at the clock, saw it was just past eight-thirty. 'Okay. I'll be there.'
'Don't eat too much. Meredeth made us fajita hash.'
'Oh sweet.'
'Yeah, so get here soon before Esposito takes it all when he can get it whenever he wants.'
'I think there's a sex joke in there somewhere,' she laughed. 'See you soon.'
Lanie hung up her phone, gave Dave's ass a loving slap. 'Off you get, lover.'
'Yes doctor.'
She giggled as he rolled away and she prepared for the morning meeting; because it was Sunday and the only people in the bullpen would be weekend staff and fresh arrests she decided on a seasonal Kelly-green cashmere sweater and comfortable black pants. She gave Dave a juicy kiss goodbye and headed to the precinct, reviewing the PDF of her notes on her tablet so when she stepped off the elevator into the Twelfth Precinct's homicide bullpen she was fresh on the case.
The scent of good homemade food caught her nose first and sniffing like a hound, Lanie followed it to the conference room where she saw Esposito and Ryan handing out plates while Adam and the man she'd met as Padraig and now knew to be Ryan debated some hot point of the previous night's hockey match. 'Claire and Watkins are on their way up. Hungry?'
'Oh yeah. Wake-up sex always gives you an appetite.'
The boys groaned and Lanie just laughed as Watkins walked, neatly pressed in her uniform. 'Watkins, it's Sunday, you could have worn your soft clothes, couldn't you?'
'Nope, I'm still an unranked officer so I have to wear it as long as I'm on duty.'
'Well come on over and grab a bite to eat,' Esposito invited her with a wink.
'Gosh is it warm in here? I'm feeling flush, Detective.' She fanned her left hand in front of her face and the group collectively let out a happy cheer when they caught the wink of jewels.
'Hey! Is that what I think it is?' Ryan asked, coming over to inspect the ring.
'Mm-hmm!' Watkins bobbed her head like a bird drunk on worms. 'Brianna proposed last night!'
'Congratulations, girl!' Esposito gave her a hug, as did Lanie and Adam, and even Bryan.
'It was so sweet, we were having dinner and she gave me a single flower with the ring tied to a ribbon that said 'Marry Me?' on it. We both cried, it was so wonderful.' Watkins looked at the slim platinum band with the cushion-cut diamond flanked by two smaller sapphires and sighed romantically. 'And we agreed we're going to get our wedding bands engraved to say 'Crackers and Cheese, Best Pair Ever'.
'Crackers and Cheese?' Adam laughed.
'Yeah, her name is Brianna, right? So I call her Brie, like the cheese and she calls me Crackers.'
'That is too cute. Claire!' Lanie waved over the federal agent when she appeared at the doorway of the conference room. 'Food's hot and we're inspecting Officer Watkins' new engagement ring!'
'Congratulations, Officer.'
'Here.' Esposito, who'd made himself busy pouring a few drinks, appeared and handed everyone a plastic picnic cup. 'A little toast to Brianna and...well, shit, this is awkward.'
'What?'
'We don't know your first name, Watkins,' he told her with a guilty look.
'Oh, Evelyn. It's Evelyn.'
'To Brianna and Evelyn, for many years of happiness and health.'
They clinked cups, drank, and set to filling their plates while Claire finished setting up their meeting notes. By the time the only remains of Meredeth's fajita hash - a mix of peppers, onions, potatoes and pulled pork in a spicy guajillo sauce - were the bowl and serving spoon, the cops focused their attention to the case.
'Alright, this is what we know, ladies and gentlemen,' Claire said. 'Between nine and ten pm on March fourteen, Melissa McGyver was attacked and killed in her office. Lanie?'
'Cause of death was officially listed as manual asphyxiation.' Lanie pulled her photos from her file, clipped them with magnets to Claire's board. 'She was knocked around and she fought back a little bit but her killer choked her to death with his hands, and once she was dead, he cut out her right eye, which speaks to religious symbolism as does the tattoo on her body and the bible page with the passage found underneath her body at the crime scene.'
'Thank you, Doctor Parrish-Robbins. Detective Ryan?'
'Initial interviews have given us some pattern of her movements in the hours before her death.' Ryan picked up the briefing ball, ran with it. 'She was having dinner alone at the Tanzania Grill when her accountant, Carson Creed, met with her, giving her a warning about not reneging on a deal she'd made with person or persons unknown. Carson Creed is alibied for the murder itself but further investigation into his work on the books for Melissa's McGyver's business indicate that he was involved in trafficking women. Her dating service business acted as the lure and the dating service in turn received a hefty sum of cash when a particular match was made between one of Melissa's clients and a member of the Pure Spirits Christian commune.'
'The commune itself purports to be a self-sustaining community whose main three sources of income are the tannery, the publishing business and the produce crops, but based on the records we've found,' Adam continued, 'it appears they were wanting women of specific skills to keep up appearances, like dentists and teachers and musicians and other trades. They also bought women that were meant to be specifically breeders, or sexual companions.'
'So far we have looked through nearly seven years of records and found a total of eighty-three women and two men,' Watkins concluded, 'and from listening to what you said yesterday Claire, there is a possibility that number could be greater if we include our search to look at Missing Persons as well.'
''What is interesting is that they were able to continue doing this, even after they were under suspicion of illegal activities from federal agents before,' Bryan commented, looking at the information the officers and medical examiner had put together. 'How would they be able to slip this past?'
'Well that's something we're going to look at today, Special Agent,' Claire replied. 'We need to find more victims of her dirty business and we need to try and find someone with a motive. What about the money Melissa was gaining from the dirty business? Where did all of that go?'
Adam and Bryan shuffled papers to look at the movement of funds on Melissa's business accounts. 'It says here that the money was transferred by wire into the account and then minutes later it is transferred out into an off-shore account that Carson set-up as a trust-fund in her daughter's name.'
'What about the daughter?' Claire asked, and both Ryan and Adam shook their heads.
'We talked to her, she is alibied with a study group the night of the murder, and her dorm manager confirms she never left until she was out the door on Thursday morning for early class.'
'Look at the off-shore account,' Claire told them briskly. 'There might be some movement there we missed.'
Adam nodded, making notes, as she went on, 'What about the Pure Spirits commune, where are we on shutting them down?'
'Before we answer that, Claire, we have to ask.' Esposito paused, cleared his throat. 'How are you still allowed to look into this case since you obviously have a vested interest with your sister's disappearance?'
'Because this case is not about missing persons, this is about human trafficking. My sister went missing so that is someone else's problem,' she said with a bitter edge to her voice. 'What I want is to nail this fucker to the ground so that no more women go missing. That is in my wheelhouse to solve.'
'Then we'll figure it out.'
Claire cast her eyes down for a moment; they were clear when she looked back up at them all. 'Adam, Bryan, Watkins, you're on the marriage records again, Esposito and Ryan, you take the money. I'll be talking to the captain when she's in and we'll go from there.'
'One question, Claire.' Ryan held up his hand. 'What if we find conclusive evidence that Paul murdered your sister?'
'Then I expect him to be dealt with to the full letter of the law so that he never breathes natural air again. No vigilante business for him or I'll see you all busted to Traffic in New Jersey. Am I clear?'
'Yes sir.'
