Chapter Eleven – Ritual

Back at the squad room Dawn was working on her computer. She opened her E-mail.

"Damn."

"What is it Dawn?" Benson asked.

"Have they called in from the crime scene yet?"

"I think they're on the phone with Elliot now," Benson answered.

"The victim," Dawn paused. "It's a child. The bastard murdered a child."

"How do you know?"

"Linda found the ritual he's following," Dawn answered. "He's killing by type. The markings on the body will translate as 'innocent.'"

Stabler got off the phone, "That was Munch."

Benson looked over, "Was our victim a child?"

Stabler shook his head. "Munch said she looked about ten years old. How did you know?"

"Linda found the ritual," Dawn replied. "He's way off the pattern. The basic ritual is thirteen sacrifices. One performed on each full moon over thirteen months."

"What's he supposed to get out of it?" Benson asked.

"Power," Dawn replied. "Basically immunity from death; the power to advance as far as he wants; instant respect. The usual stuff," Dawn paused looking over the E-mail. "None of the bodies have been anointed with oil have they?"

"Nothing in the ME's reports about foreign substances left on the bodies." Benson replied.

"Do we know the last thing they ate? Anything the same for each victim?"

Benson began leafing through the files on her desk. "No, all three victims had different stomach contents. Why?"

"He's definitely working off a translation," Dawn said.

"Why do you say that?" Stabler asked.

"I'm translating on the fly, but the ritual is very specific about how the body is supposed to be prepared before the sacrifice," Dawn said. "He didn't do any of it; the final meal; proper anointing of the sacrifice. If he had access to this text, he would have known better. Now we just need to figure out which translation he's working with."

"Do you think that's possible?" Benson asked.

"It's a small world," Dawn replied. "Not that many people have access to materials like this and we know most of them. There are probably very few translations floating around."

"How did you get a hold of them?" ADA Cabot asked. She had been listening to the conversation.

"According to Linda, we picked up this set of scrolls at an estate sale about thirty years ago," Dawn gave the usual cover story. A previous Slayer had actually recovered them. "They've never really been of any use to us. We haven't even bothered adding them to our imaging database. That's why it took so long to find a match to the ritual. They've been sitting on the back shelves collecting dust for most of that time."

"Less then twenty four hours after you e-mail the request is a long time?" Benson said.

"For us, yes," Dawn just smiled back. "Now you know why we can charge so much for our services."

"If he's working off a translation, how do you plan on finding it?" Cabot asked.

"The tribe that developed this ritual was a pre-cursor to a large gypsy clan," Dawn thought for a second. "We'll start there. Very few people outside the gypsies are granted access to their rituals and translating them tends to take forever. The deviations from the base ritual should also help narrow it down and finding if anything is available in the New York area."

"Tell us who needs to be contacted and we'll make the inquires," Cabot said.

"No offence Ms Cabot, but that would probably slow things down," Dawn said.

"And why is that Ms Summers?"

"A lot of the people who work with occult related artifacts prefer to keep a low profile. Questions from government agencies tend to make them shut up. Assuming they even return your calls they won't answer your questions. They know us and trust us. They'll respond to our questions."

"Ms Summers, these people are not involved in anything illegal are they?" Cabot asked.

"No," Dawn said. "Its just that there are a lot of negative stereotypes about the occult. They don't like to advertise. If you ask they'll deny any knowledge. You'll try threatening them with legal stuff. And since a lot of the people we're going to be talking to initially are in Europe a New York DA won't scare them very much. If I find a link to New York, I'll let you know," Dawn went back to typing an e-mail to Linda.

"Ms Summers we need to make certain we can document the investigation," Cabot said.

"Don't worry," Dawn said. "Linda is one of my best people. She always takes complete notes when she's working a problem. You'll be able to backtrack everything she does."

"I don't like relying on outside groups to handle a police investigation."

"Look, how many people do you have on the payroll that can speak a half dozen gypsy dialects?"

"None that I know of," Cabot replied.

"Do you have the heads of the two largest gypsy clans in Europe on speed dial? Not that they would be willing to talk to you if you did."

"I understand what you're saying Ms Summers, its just."

"I'll make sure Linda documents everything," Dawn cut in. "But if we do this your way it's going to take you weeks to get any information out of these people. And the odds are any information you do get will be useless. Finding this kind of stuff out is what we do. Just let us do it. I promise you will have a solid evidence chain."

Cabot thought it through. "Fine. But any leads you come across in New York, we follow up on."

"Not a problem."