(Notes and Warnings found at the beginning of Chapter 1)

Chapter Two

Medical Examiner's Lab

Manhattan

"What do you have for us, Doctor," Munch said as he and Fin walked into the lab after placing vapor rub under their noses at the entrance.

"Well," Dr. Warner said, "I'm pretty sure that I've narrowed down the age range to around 11 years of age, I would say that your victim is probably from a wealthy family. He's had extensive dental work done beyond the norm and currently has corrective braces on," Warner said showing them x-rays of the victims skull.

"I have some more bad news. There was extensive tearing in the anal region so I would definitely say that your victim was sodomized repeatedly," the M.E. continued.

"I still haven't been able to nail down how long your victim has been in the water, but I will be performing test as soon as we are done here to try to determine an exact time frame. I was also able to take some photos of the markings and enhance them. Definitely not Latin based, looks like it might be Aramaic or Hebrew."

The M.E. continued on but Munch was not paying attention. "As you can see here they are clearly cut into the skin. I would say with this precision the perp probably used a scalpel and they were definitely competent in using it."

Munch stood rooted to the spot frozen with fear, and tried to fight down the panic, but he couldn't. He could hear a voice in his head. He saw images of a young man helping him to write Hebrew. The boy turned to him and patted him on the back he then reached for the buttons on his shirt. At this point Fin turned to find Munch visibly pale and shaking.

"Munch, Munch," Fin called

"What," Munch answered shaking his head, "Sorry I guess I need to eat something. I'm getting a little shocky. I did after all throw up every single thing I had this morning as we all know. So doctor is there anything else you can tell us now?" Munch asked.

"No, not currently."

"Okay, you'll get in touch with us when you've completed the other test," Munch directed and then left.

"Fin….," Warner questioned.

"I don't know. I really don't know. I'll talk to you later, doc," Fin said following Munch out.

16th Precinct

SVU Division Squad Room

Manhattan

"Captain, according to the M.E. the victim was sexual assaulted at some point in time. Turns out the victim had some extensive dental work performed. We also have the exact height of the victim 5'4. The hair and the eye color are both brown. The M.E. took some photos of the markings and enhanced them. It looks as if the markings are Aramaic or Hebrew. It definitely looks like Hebrew to me" Munch said handing the photos to the captain.

"Get these to an analyst now."

"Right away Captain," Munch answered and walked off.

"Captain, may I speak with you for a moment," Fin asked.

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On his way back from dropping the photos off at the analyst, Munch found himself racking his brain to try to find out what the hell was happening to him. He couldn't rationalize it but he knew that if he didn't get his act together soon, Fin and others were going to start suspecting something was up and no way was he going to let that happen.

When Munch returned to the Squad room, he found it in a frenzy.

Stabler and Benson were on the phones talking frantically and Cragen, Fin, and Huang were huddled in a tight little circle in the mist of a deep discussion.

Cragen looked up when he saw Munch approaching, and the discussion came to a halt when Fin and Huang were alerted to his presence. Warning bells went off in Munch's mind.

"So what's going on?", Munch asked.

"We got a hit in the database shortly after you left that matches our MO. Actually we got multiple hits, all unsolved," Cragen replied.

"It looks as if we have a serial killer. We've found at least seven boys all over the US with similarities to our victim," Huang continued.

"We are currently trying to find out the identity of boy. Stabler and Benson are working on it," Fin said.

"Agent Huang is here to help coordinate efforts with the FBI and to offer some insight into our perp," Cragen continued.

"Detective Munch, may I have a word with you," Huang asked.

Munch shot Fin a look and said, "Do I have a choice?"

"You always have a choice," Huang replied with a small smile.

"Okay sure, well I apologize Captain. Looks like you're going to have to do without my help for the time being. It seems I'm going to be party to some head shrinking," Munch said sarcastically.

Fin and Cragen just looked at him and he shook his head in exasperation and followed the good doctor into the debriefing room.

Debriefing Room

"So Munch how are you feeling."

"Well I've been feeling pretty good up until the point that I found out that my day was going to include this little chat."

"Well, I have to say I've heard reports that conflict with that."

"Reports," Munch sneered, "and who would be the source of these reports."

"Detective Munch, I understand that there was an incident this morning where you vomited up at the scene of the crime. Quite severely I might add."

"Look, Doctor, first of all how does one severely vomit and second, a lot of people lose their lunch at the scene of the crime, and besides as I told Fin whom I'm sure you've spoken with about this since he is the source of said reports, ……."

"It was something you ate," the doctor finished with a slight smile.

"You know doctor that smile of yours is a little disconcerting."

Huang continued, ignoring Munch's comment,

"So lets talk about what happened exactly. You got the call this morning and reported to the scene. You get there and you start talking with the ME on the scene. You discuss the body and you were fine. Then something triggered your reaction. Did you see something that upset you? Is there anything familiar about the boy that you saw? Did he remind you of someone? Fin said you mumbled something about the markings on his back but he couldn't make it out."

For a brief moment, Munch felt an all out panic, and he fought hard not to show it to the doctor.

"No doctor. Okay, you want the truth? I just got a little nauseous. The body, it got to me. Twenty plus years in the field, you would think that I would have gotten use to seeing things like that. Look, I know your trying to help but I do believe my expertise and yours would be better served out there trying to track this freak down. May I go now," Munch asked.

Huang nodded in the affirmative with a sad smile.

Munch walked out of the debriefing room leaving Huang sitting at the table.

Munch walked out into the squad room and was met by Cragen.

"Munch, Benson, Stabler, Officers Fernandez, and Ottawa, are checking some leads on the identity of our victim."

"It's 6:00 pm, I want you to go home and take the rest of the night off."

"Captain,….."

"I don't want to hear it Munch, go home."

"Whatever you say, Cap't."

Fin approached Munch, "I'll drop you off Munch."

"The hell you say," Munch replied.

"Come on Munch, don't be that way."

"Fine, let's go."

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