The People of New York v. Buffy Summers
by: Sam Lincoln (sam@cosmic-hippo.org)
Rating PG-13
Summary: An unusual case crosses the desk of Assistant District
Attorney Jack McCoy.
Spoilers: Post series finale for Buffy. Set in the current season of Law and Order, but no real spoilers.
Disclaimer: All characters from Buffy are property of Mutant Enemy. All characters from Law and Order are property of Wolf Films/USA Studios. Used without permission, blah blah.
The People of New York v. Buffy Summers: Chapter Two
-27th Precinct
Wednesday, June 11
Lenny walked into the squad room and found Ed lying slumped over his desk. "What did you do, spend the night?" He asked his partner.
"Must have dozed off," Ed muttered as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
"What happened to not letting the case get the better of you?"
"It was a long day yesterday," Ed protested.
"And today's going to be even longer," Van Buren said as she walked up to the two detectives. "I just got the call, they found another body, same MO."
"In the park?" Ed asked.
Van Buren shook her head, "No, and alley near Seventy-seventh street."
Lenny nodded, "Come on Ed, let's get you freshened up
then check it out. Hey, would you want to ride in a car next
to someone smelling like that?" He asked Van Buren. "
That's why I don't ride the bus."
"That's cold man," Ed commented.
"Just get out there before the press shows up. Ok?" Van Buren said before returning to her office.
-Seventy Seventh Street
-Wednesday, June 11
When Ed and Lenny arrived at the crime scene they found a tall man with a receding hairline holding an overstuffed day planner talking to the coroner. Standing next to the man was a small blonde with short hair.
"Hey, what's going on?" Lenny demanded, "This is our crime scene."
"Hello, you must be Detective Briscoe," the man said in a strange, halting cadence, "I'm Detective Goran and this is my partner Detective Eams."
"Hello," Eams said.
"I know who you are Goran, now why are you here?" Lenny growled.
"The chief thought that you could use our assistance," Eams said. "We do have a bit of experience with high profile cases."
"You're glory hogs is what you are," Ed accused the pair. "You swoop in and take the glamor cases and leave the rest of us chasing skels all over the city."
"We're not here to steal your case Detective Green," Goran insisted. "We're just here to help."
"And if we don't want your help?"
"Then the nice agents from the FBI will get involved," Eams said. "It's either us or them."
Lenny sighed, "Fine, what do we have here?"
"The same as last night I'm afraid," Goran said. "A Caucasian female, no sigh of anything taken, besides the heart that is. This guy really knows how to cut; look at the precision," Goran pointed to the hole in the young woman's chest with his pen.
"Is that all you've got?" Ed asked.
"This wasnÃt about rage," Goran mused. "There are any other wounds on her, but at the same time there's no remorse. Her face isn't covered. The person who did this is one sick individual."
"Yeah, we'd figured that much out," Lenny replied. "Was there any ID?" The coroner handed Lenny a wallet. "Her name was Shawna Mills. Lived in Soho," Lenny read off of the victim's driver's license. "I guess that rules out tourists as the guy's target."
Ed too the wallet from Lenny. "Check this out, her birthday is the same as Rachel Dietz's." he looked over at Goran. "That means the day has some special meaning to the killer, right?"
"Mmm, yes, is it the same year or just the same day?"
Ed looked down at the license. "The same day. Why, does that matter?"
Goran opened his organizer and scribbled a note onto a piece of paper. "Eams, help out Briscoe and Green. I need to do some research. I'll catch up with you at the two-seven," he instructed Eams before walking out of the alley.
"Is he always like that?" Ed asked Eams.
"No," Eams admitted. "You caught him on a good day," she sighed. "So, what do you need me to do?"
When Eams, Lenny and Ed returned to the squad room they found Goran already there sitting at Lenny's desk intently reading a leather bound book.
"What's that, the latest in the Oprah Book Club? " Lenny asked Goran.
Goran closed the book and looked up at Lenny, "No, it's actually a treatise on certain pagan rituals...well a translation actually, the original was written in Sumerian."
"Finally, we've found something you aren't good at," Eams quipped as she pulled up a chair.
"There isn't really time for me to brush up on my Sumerian, so I'm sticking to the Greek translation."
"And what does any of this have to do with our two dead bodies?" Ed asked impatiently.
"The birth dates correspond to an important holiday on the Sumerian calendar, and there is a prophecy that say if you offer the hearts of four women born on that day the great lord of death will be released and so on, pretty standard apocalyptic stuff."
"You actually believe that?" Lenny asked.
"It doesn't matter if I do Detective Briscoe, what matters is that the killer does."
"But who would know an obscure Sumerian prophecy about the Apocalypse?" Eams wondered.
"An archaeologist or historian, especially one who specializes in Mesopotamia," Goran said.
"Or any damn fool on the Internet," Ed pointed out.
"It's a place to start, if someone wanted to recreate this ritual they'd need more information than you can find in the public library, or the Internet. There's a man who teaches at NYU, his name is Henry Braugham, he's one of the leading experts in Sumerian culture."
Ed picked up a newspaper sitting on his desk, "You mean was," he told Goran.
"What?"
"Says here Henry Braugham was killed in a hit and run two nights ago," Ed handed the paper to Goran.
"The night of the first murder, isn't that convenient," Goran observed as he read the article.
"Ok, so our guy gets the secret voodoo ritual from the professor, then runs him over to shut him up?" Lenny theorized.
"He must have counted on the professor figuring out the connection between the murders and his questions," Goran added.
"Or this guy was hit by a drunk and it's completely unrelated," Ed said.
"Regardless of how Braugham fits into this we do know the killer is finding his victims in night clubs. Last night Shawna Mills was seen leaving a club with a tall dark haired man," Eams told Goran.
"That's something," Goran allowed.
"It's gets better," Ed told the other detective. "The club was number two on a list we got from the front desk of the Americana, the hotel Rachel Dietz was staying at."
"And Rachel Dietz met the killer at the first club on the list," Goran recalled. "That is very interesting. It sounds to me like we need to visit the third club on that list tonight."
"And pay a return visit to the Americana," Lenny said.
"Not to mention pay our respects at Professor Braugham's office," Eams added.
"Then I guess it's a good thing there are four of us," Goran said.
"And since the professor is your idea you get to investigate him. Ed and I will take the hotel."
Goran nodded, "That seems fair. Ready to go back to school?" He asked Eams.
"I can't wait," she replied.
-Americana Hotel
Wednesday, June 11
Ed and Lenny walked up to the front desk of the hotel and Lenny rang the service bell. They were met by the same receptionist they spoke to before.
"Why hello again detectives, what can I do for you?"
Ed held up the list of nightclubs, "You can start by telling us about this list. Is it something you keep or do other hotels have a copy?"
"No, just me, is there something wrong?"
"We're the ones asking the questions," Lenny told the man. "Do you remember giving a copy to a man, about six two with dark hair?"
"Most days we're so busy I don't have time to hand them out so I leave a big stack lying on the desk. Anybody could pick one up and I'd never know it."
Ed nodded, "Ok, thanks for your time."
"Well that was a waste," Lenny said to Ed as they walked out of the hotel. "We would have been better off sticking with Goran."
Before Ed had a chance to reply his cell phone rang. "Green," he said into the phone. "You do? Great we'll be right there." He hung the phone up and looked at Lenny. "That was the video lab. They just found a picture of our guy's face."
-Office of Professor Henry Braugham
NYU Department of History
Wednesday, June 11
Goran and Eams let themselves into the office of the late Professor Braugham. Inside they found a young woman sitting at a desk crying softly to herself. The walls of the room were covered in books and mounted pottery shards. The woman looked up when she heard the door shut.
"I'm sorry," she said. "But this office is closed. If you're here about the memorial service you need to go to the administration building."
Goran removed his badge and showed it to the woman. "We're not here for the memorial. I'm Detective Goran, this is my partner Detective Eams."
"I'm Patricia Huston, what do you want?"
Goran and Eams pulled chairs up to where Huston was sitting. "We wanted to ask you a few questions about Professor Braugham. You were his graduate assistant?" Goran asked.
She nodded. "That's right. I also did some administrative work for him. I've already talked to the police though."
"I know, we're looking at a different angle to the case and we need some blanks filled in," Eams told Ms. Huston.
"Oh, ok."
"Ms. Huston did anyone out of the ordinary visit Dr. Braugham in the days before his death?" Goran asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Someone from out of town maybe, a person not connected to the university, but very interested in Sumerian culture," Goran said for clarification.
"In particular we're looking for a man about six two with black hair," Eams added.
"I...no, wait there was someone like that. He came in last week. Henry, Professor Braugham said that he had some questions about Sumerian death rites."
"Did Professor Braugham say why the man was interested in Sumerian rituals?" Goran asked.
"The man claimed he was working on a horror movie and was doing some fact checking."
"Did you get a name?" Eams asked.
"It started with a C, let me think," Ms. Huston chewed on her lip. "Carstairs!" She exclaimed. "Nicholas Carstairs, that was his name."
Goran wrote the name down in his organizer. "Thank-you for your help, and we're very sorry for your loss." He motioned for Eams to follow him and the two walked out of the office.
"Think it's our guy?" Eams asked Goran as they exited the building.
"I do actually, there aren't any movies in production about Sumeria."
"How do you know that?"
"I read Variety," Goran replied. "The better question is was that a fake name he gave Ms. Huston."
Eams shrugged, "It's a place to start." Her cell phone started to ring. "Eams. Really, that's great, but I can do you one better, we've got a name. We'll meet you there." She hung the phone up. "That was Green, they've got a face to go with our name."
-NYPD Video Lab
"Ok, I had a tough time finding this guy because I didn't have much to go one," the tech explained. "What I ended up doing was digitizing the entire tape and then searched for the same color pattern on the shirt we know he was wearing. What I found was this." He tapped a few keys on his keyboard and a grainy black and white image appeared on the screen.
"That's not much to go with," Goran said. "Half his face is obscured by shadows."
"That's why I get paid the big bucks detective. I ran the image through a series of filters, extrapolated some data and came up with this." The technician tapped the keyboard and the image on the screen was replaced with another, clearer, version of the picture.
"So that's our guy," Ed said as they stared at the picture.
"Nicholas Carstairs in the flesh so to speak," Eams added.
Goran stared at the picture. "Is it just me or is there something off about this picture?" He asked the others as he examined Carstair's foreboding features. "The eyes are too close together...it's almost as if I'm looking at a mask."
"that's probably the software's fault," the tech said. "The software is good, but it's still just a mathematical approximation."
"Better than a composite sketch," Lenny noted.
An office secretary walked into the lab holding several sheets of paper. "Excuse me, this was faxed over for Detective Goran."
"Thank-you," Goran told the woman. "It's a background check on Nicholas Carstairs," he said before beginning to read the file.
"Hey man, anything good in there?" Ed asked Goran.
"Just a home address and place of work."
"Then what are we waiting for, let's go check them out."
"He won't be there," Goran said.
"How do you know that?"
"Because this guy's a sleeper. UP to this point there is barely any record of this man's existence," Goran held up the pieces of paper. "He was waiting for this moment, and so he lived lightly to be ready for it. If you call I be you'll find he quit his job and his apartment is abandoned."
"So what you're saying is that we're dealing with a guy who doesn't expect to live much beyond this little adventure," Lenny said.
Goran nodded, "Precisely, which means our best chance to catch him will be tonight."
"I'd better go put on my dancing shoes," Lenny quipped.
-Cristo Club
-86th street
-Wednesday, June 12
"Hey Lenny," Ed whispered into his radio, "I thought you said you were going to put on your dancing shoes," Ed had traded in his suit for an outfit more inconspicuous in a club. Goran and Eams were also drifting through the crowd looking for Nicholas Carstairs.
"Sorry Ed, they don't fit me anymore," Lenny replied from inside the surveillance van parked across the street. "There's no way I could listen to that noise they call music for this long," Lenny told Van Buren who was sitting next to him.
"And just what do you think my kids listen to, Mozart?" Van Buren asked. "You're preaching to the choir here."
Lenny chuckled and turned his attention back to the radio. "Hey Goran, see anything?"
"Negative," Goran replied from his vantage point at the bar.
"Eams, how about you?"
"Nothing yet." Eams replied as she moved through the crowd.
"Suspect in sight," Green said over the radio. "He's leaving with a woman, early twenties, red hair. I'm following him."
"Don't get too close," Van Buren warned. "We don't want a hostage situation on our hands. Lenny, go help Ed."
Lenny nodded and got out of the van. He watched Carstairs and the redhead walk down the street. He stayed far enough behind them to remain unseen, but close enough to not lose sight of them. "They just turned down Third Avenue," he said into his radio.
"We'll cut them off," Goran said, "You keep following them.
Lenny turned and saw that Ed had caught up to him. He had his gun drawn and held it by his side. "What took you so long?" Lenny asked.
"You ever try running in leather pants?" Ed replied.
"Backup is on the way," Van Buren said over the radio. "Do not do anything to provoke him until they arrive."
"Great," Lenny said to Ed. "Try not to provoke a lunatic, easier said than done."
They continued to shadow Carstairs as he walked down the street. They were halfway to the ambush Goran had set up when someone rand past the two detectives, knocking them to the ground.
"What they?" Lenny exclaimed as he picked himself up and saw a petite blonde woman running away from him. Before he could say anything to the woman she grabbed Carstairs and dragged him down a nearby alley. "Goran, get down here!" Lenny shouted into his radio. "Go after them Ed, I'll check on the girl." Lenny ran over to the young woman. "Are you ok miss?" He asked the redhead.
"I'm fine," the woman stuttered, "Who are you?"
"NYPD," Lenny replied. "Don't go anywhere," he instructed the woman as he followed his partner down the alley.
Lenny caught up to Ed and they cautiously walked down the alley. In the distance they could hear the sounds of a fist fight. They came to the end of the alley just in time to see the blonde woman ram a knife into Nicholas Carstairs's chest.
"Freeze, NYPD!" Ed shouted as he aimed his pistol at the blonde.
The woman pulled the knife out of Carstairs's body which lifelessly slumped to the ground. She stared at the dull red blood dripping from the blade, "It's not supposed to be red," she muttered to herself.
"Drop the knife lady," Ed instructed the woman. His index finger shifted from the trigger guard to the trigger. "I'm not going to tell you again."
"You don't understand," the woman told them. "He had to be stopped."
"Sure he did," Lenny said in an attempt to talk the woman down. "Now why don't you give me the knife and we can go talk about this at the station."
"You're going to try to put me in prison," the woman accused Lenny.
"We just want to hear your side of the story," Lenny assured the woman. "Look, if you don't put the knife down my partner is going to have to shoot you."
The blonde laughed sharply. "I'd like to see you try," she flung the knife hilt first at Ed. The knife hit the detective on the head, dropping him to the ground. Before Lenny had a chance to react the blond knocked him over with a powerful roundhouse kick to the midsection that sent his revolver flying.
Suddenly a shot rang out and the woman fell to the ground, clutching a bloody arm. Goran ran down the alley with his gun pointed at Ed and Lenny's assailant.
"Nice timing," Lenny said as he stood up. He picked up his revolver and aimed it at the young woman. "Don't try that again."
Goran glanced over at Ed. "Are you ok Detective Green?"
Ed rubbed his head, "My ego's bruised, but other than that I'm fine."
"What about Carstairs?"
Ed walked over to the body, "Dead."
"That means you're under arrest for the murder of Nicholas Carstairs," Lenny said as he handcuffed the woman. "Want to go see a doctor about that arm?" He asked.
The woman glanced down at the bloody gash on her upper arm. "No, I think I'll let it bleed for a while."
Lenny shrugged, "Suit yourself." He grabbed the woman's uninjured arm and lead her out of the alley. "You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law..." Lenny read the woman her Miranda Rights as they walked out onto the street.
"Buffy!" the redhead exclaimed as she ran over to Lenny and his prisoner. "What's going on?
"Call Giles Willow, he'll know what to do," Buffy said.
"Ma'am, please step back," Eams said as she reached for Willow's arm.
A swarm of police cars descended on them. Van Buren got out of the lead car. "What the hell happened? Where's Carstairs?"
Ed pointed at Buffy, "That girl there jumped him before we had a chance to make our move."
"So what happened to him?"
"She killed him LT, shoved a knife into his heart."
"It looks like the redhead knows the assailant," Goran noted.
"Bring them both in," Van Buren ordered "Damn
vigilantes," she observed as the paramedics drove up.
-to be continued-