Chapter Twelve – Discussions

"Young girl found murdered in the park," Cragen started. "I've already fielded two phone calls from the Chief and the press is going to be all over us on this one people. So what have we got so far?"

"Briscoe and Greene traced the girl through missing persons," Munch replied. "Name, Amanda Peterson, age nine. She disappeared from her school playground just after school let out yesterday afternoon. Van Buren cleared them to follow up and do the interviews at the school."

"We know our perp likes to stalk his victims before hand so make sure they ask about strange men watching the school over the last couple of days," Cragen said.

"Public school in New York, already too many of those guys watching the playground," Tutuola said.

"What's the connection between the victims?" Stabler asked. "He plans these murders in advance and he's working off this ritual thing. He has to have some means to pick his targets."

Benson looked over at Dawn. "Whose next on the list?"

"According to the ritual the next sacrifice is 'tiller of the soil,'" Dawn answered.

"So a farmer, gardener maybe a florist," Stabler said.

"Pretty much," Dawn said. "Farmer would be the ideal match but anybody whose main job is to work with the soil would fit the ritual."

"That narrows it down to several thousand people in the New York area," Munch said.

"Are there any special items he would need for the ritual?" Buffy asked. "Something that would be hard to find? Something we could trace?"

Dawn looked back at her notes. "Not really. The herbs he could probably find at the local store. He might even grow them himself. The rest of this stuff you could find at a well-stocked magic shop," She continued to study. "Here's something. He needs a crystal, blessed by a priest of the old ways. He would need it to consecrate the place where he makes the sacrifice."

"That's a specialty item?" Benson asked.

"Depends on how smart he is," Dawn replied. "An amateur could be fooled by any old crystal a shopkeeper says is blessed the proper way. But if he were smart enough to do the research on the ritual then he might know what kind crystal to look for. How it would need to be cut, the proper shape, markings, age and what questions to ask the shopkeeper about the blessing ceremony," she didn't add that the true practitioner could spot a fake just by feel. But this killer didn't have that kind of power or skill.

"Our killer is intelligent," Dr. Wong said. "He also believes in this ritual. He would have done as much research as he could into how it works and what he would need before the first murder."

"So we canvas occult and magic shops to find someone who purchased the items needed for the ritual," Cragen said.

"That could take days," Tutuola said. "Our perp operates all over the city. We have no way to narrow down the search to a particular area. Just how many occult shops are in New York?"

Benson was flipping through the phone book. "I'd say over fifty."

"Probably more," Dawn said. "A lot of the serious magic shops don't advertise. They prefer word of mouth. They also tend to get misclassified as specialty stores or antique shops."

"If our perp sticks to his current time table he'll kill again within the next seventy two hours," Cragen said. "Anybody got any better ideas."

Buffy leaned back against a desk in thought. "Maybe there is a way to narrow it down," she pulled out her cell phone and hit the speed dial. "Amy, stuck on phone duty again huh ... I need to talk to Eric ... Eric, it's Buffy ... Yea, Dawn and I are still in New York. I need you and Faye to do some leg for me ... I don't care if you're taking some down time, we've got a killer out here who just murdered a nine year old girl using a gypsy ritual ... I need you two to check with any recent New York transplants," she nodded over to Dawn who was already moving to her laptop.

She continued, "Dawn's going to e-mail a list of items this guy would need for the ritual. I need you and Faye to find out where a wannabe would go to get those kind of items in New York ... Right, an amateur. He'll be smart enough to ask the right questions ... That's the kind we're looking for ... As soon as you can get it to me ... No he doesn't like it but Dawn and I can handle him ... Thanks Eric," Buffy hung up the phone.

"What was that about?" Munch asked.

"A couple of my people in Cleveland are going to check with recent New York transplants to find out where someone would go to get the crystal and the other stuff he needs," Buffy replied.

"I just sent him the e-mail," Dawn said. "Like I said before, it's a small world. There's not going to be that many shops that sell crystals blessed with the proper gypsy rituals. They'll be a lot of shops that might say they do, but only a couple that really do."

"And you two know how to find those shops?" Munch asked.

"I told you," Buffy said. "My organization watchdogs cult groups. A lot of them are into ritual magic. We have a few contacts."

"How long until we get an answer?" Stabler asked.

"With Eric and Faye," Buffy said. "I'd say in couple of hours. They're very persistent and they've got good contacts."

Faye was one of the Slayers from Sunnydale. Very few people were foolish enough to not answer her questions. Besides, after four years, the Cleveland magic community had learned the advantages of cooperating with the Slayers and the rather severe consequences of getting in their way.

"This Eric wouldn't happen to be Eric Travers?" Munch asked. He looked over at Dawn. "One of your predecessors at Guardian Research."

"Yes," Buffy replied.

"He went from running Guardian Research to working for you," Munch pointed at Buffy.

"Eric wanted to spend time pounding the pavement," Buffy said. "He didn't think it was right just sitting in an office all day. Puts him way ahead of his grandfather."

Cragen turned the conversation back the killer. "People let's stay focused. Is there anything too where he leaving the bodies? Is he creating some kind of occult symbol?"

"There's nothing in the ritual about what to do with bodies after the sacrifice," Dawn replied. "Either it's something from the translation he's working off of or something from his own head."

"Doctor?"

Dr. Wong paused in thought. "It's possible pointing the victims to next drop site is something he's doing subconsciously. Or the pattern he's using is something he picked up elsewhere that has meaning to him."

"I've run the pattern through our database," Dawn said. "Nothing comes up as a match."

"None of which tells us how he picks the victims," Stabler said. "What's the connection between these four people?"

"They're not random," Dr. Wong said. "He has some way to select and find his victims. It's probably something transitory. Someplace he's connected too intimately but they've only visited once or twice. Probably where he works."

"Like a restaurant or bar," Tutuola said.

"Possible," Dr. Wong replied. "But he's too intelligent to work in places like that."

"Maybe they have the same insurance company or used the same travel agent or they've shopped at the same bookstore." Stabler said.

"It needs to be someplace where he can learn what they do for living and where they live," Benson said.

"Munch, Tutuola you two stay with the ritual. Benson, Stabler, go back to the families," Cragen said. "Check everything, vacations, favorite restaurants, book clubs anything that might link our four victims. Go back through credit card statements for any place they may have shopped at in the last six months. Chief's already authorized all the overtime we need on this one and we can pull in resources from other units. We've had three victims in less then ten days and four overall. I want this guy caught before we get a fifth."