Chapter 25
Munch and Fin trudged back into the precinct two days later, near quitting time. Elliot saw the looks on their faces and he knew that things were not good. He didn't press however as the Captain had seen them coming in from his office and decided to broach the subject.
"The teenage body was confirmed to be Sarah Marvin. The dog we found was confirmed to be a neighbor's. Poor thing happened to be in the front yard when Mr. Sabatini was driving home, whacking mailboxes off," Munch started.
"How'd they find that out?" Elliot interrupted.
"A neighbor down the block knew the family that owned the dog. The family had moved out of the neighborhood some time ago. Anyway, the lady recognized the collar that was in the hole. She said that poor Max had a bad habit of getting out of the backyard and it wasn't always when the family was home. She could remember more than once, multiple mailboxes being knocked down during the summer," Fin filled in.
"So Sabatini killed the dog and buried it in his yard? Dude was cold. Killing people and animals and just burying them in the backyard," Kenny shook his head.
"It gets worse," Fin heaved a sigh and plopped down at his desk. They all gave him a look while Munch took up the story.
"There was another human in the yard. Didn't use a car on this one though," the elder detective said.
"Who could it be?" Cragen wanted to know.
"Best guess is Cassandra Sabatini. Agent Schimanski never actually spoke to her but had been told that the local cops did. Apparently, the local cops couldn't find who actually gave the death notification anywhere in their records. So when Schimanski tried to speak to the now widow, a little while later, and she never picked up her phone, he figured she bolted.
"A week later, he got a call from the local police. A neighbor had reported Cassandra missing. With Sarah missing, two Sabatini's presumed dead, and now the third was missing, the local cops called him for help. They searched the house and found that Cassandra's purse was missing and not much else. No evidence of foul play. No messages left to say where she was going. Nothing," Munch explained.
"How'd she die?" Elliot asked.
"Bullet to the back of the head," Fin shook his head.
"Good grief," Kenny said.
"I'm glad that we handed that off to the Feds. We're sending Molly's body back to Maine. Hopefully, they can match the DNA from the body in the backyard to Molly and confirm both identities. Now all that is left to do is find Jeff Haggerty and gift wrap him for Agent Schimanski," the Captain said.
"No luck on finding this guy?" Munch raised an eyebrow.
"Basically, the Chief of D's gave us the next three days and then we're to let the APB out in the tristate area do the rest of the work. There are other cases and now that the Feds are on this, we can move off," Cragen explained.
"Why not just hand him over now? I mean why do we need to find him?" Fin asked.
"The Commissioner is trying to play nice with the local FBI office. Let's face it. We dropped a cluster on Agent Schimanski and anything to smooth things over, could help us in the future," the Captain said.
"Schimanski promised to keep us posted. If we're doing it for him, then let's do it," Munch nodded.
"Good. Now all of you go home. Get some sleep. We'll start fresh in the morning. That way everyone is on the same page," with no extra nudging required, the team dispersed. Olivia sent him a text as he was leaving – "On your way?" "Heading out now. Big plans?" He responded. "Dangerous ones. I dusted off the pots and pans," she responded. "Uh oh," Elliot teased. He smirked and climbed into the car, now looking forward to seeing what she was up to.
To Be Continued…