22
Rune Alignment
Chapter 7.
Ok, that last part was just a little too loud, and everyone within earshot turned and looked.
Bobby shot up from his chair, looked around at those staring at him, and glared. In an instant, everyone found what he or she was doing of utmost fascination. He had to get away from here. He strode to the men's room. Inside, he waited for the guy already there to finish and leave. Once the door swung shut, Bobby flipped the dead bolt, locking himself in the restroom alone. He went to a sink and leaned over it, palms on the front corners. He looked up at himself in the mirror. He was a mess; it was just past ten Friday morning and he looked like he'd pulled an all-nighter. He moved to a urinal, finished, flushed, washed his hands and splashed water on his face. Tossing paper towels into the can he hollered, "Alright, alright. I'm coming," to the knocking on the locked restroom door. He scowled at the fellow on the other side as he barged past.
Back at his desk, Bobby shoved aside the folders from their current case, a body in a trunk with diamonds, he and Eames had both laughed at the Beatle song case tag.
He opened Gleason's cell and began to listen to the rest of the messages. The depraved words, some barely decipherable, sickened him. He wiped his face and rubbed his eye. Message after message, each one sicker and sicker. The caller kept talking, filling the two minutes allotted per message; sharing the sounds from his sexual pleasures, giving voice to his orgasms, describing the horrors he planned to foist upon Wintermantle. After the third message, Goren could sit no longer and began to pace. He began to mutter under his breath during the fifth.
Deakins interrupted Goren's disgust with a signal to come here.
"Shut the door." Deakins said as Goren entered the captain's office. "I don't want an argument from you on what I'm about to say. Wintermantle's case is going to Eames and Sledge. You and Bishop work the trunk case."
Goren's whole body reacted, he spun, arms flailing, "No!" he shouted. "This is my case. I interviewed her. I know how to proceed."
"Detective, it's obvious you have strong feelings for this woman," Deakins returned. Goren said nothing and glared at his boss with arms crossed.
"Come on, Bobby. You were sitting way too close; you couldn't keep your hands off her. You would never do that, nor would I tolerate it, with another vic. The tension between you two is evident. You are too involved."
"I can remain detached," Goren replied darkly. "Eames and Sledge can take the trunk case. This is mine."
"I'm sorry, Bobby; you are off this one. Go brief Eames and Sledge. Not another word."
Goren swung open the door, strode to his desk, slammed down an open fist and loudly muttered, "Son of a bitch!" Like a child told no, he threw himself back in his chair and stretched out to sulk. Others in the office area glanced briefly at the outburst. Everyone was used to Goren's eruptions.
Eames knew better to interrupt one of his tantrums. So, the boss told Bobby he was off the professor's case and that she and Sledge would work it. She knew Bobby would be royally pissed when Deakins had told her outside the conference room. Alex knew Bobby like a brother, and knew he needed time to simmer. He'd been angry with the boss before, angry with her, but mostly angry with himself for not being able to control his temper. One time he confided that he was afraid of his own temper; he said when he dropped the leash that held his temper in check, it was out of his control and he did not know what he was capable of doing. Eames had seen him teeter on the edge of loosing it completely with a frustrating suspect or uncooperative witness. She had always been there to call him back, though. It must be exhausting, she thought, to have to curb yourself every minute.
She stole glances at him as she tried to work on the trunk case, getting it ready for Bobby and Bishop to take over. Fat chance of that, Eames thought. Bishop will have the lion's share of work to do. Bobby will not let the Wintermantle case go, she was sure of it.
Since he hadn't moved after a few minutes, Eames thought her partner might be cooling off. To test the waters she asked, "Everything ok?" He didn't even glance at her. Ok, maybe later. Eames gathered up the trunk case files she had intended to move to the conference room before the professor's drama began and so headed there now.
Goren stewed stretched out in his chair, muttering, right hand tucked in left armpit, left hand gesturing: first a fist on his lips, then waving and pointing; too many thoughts colliding at once, about too many things: Gleason, those calls, the voice, the threats, the danger she was in, and the investigation that he was now not a part of! Gleason – how he felt when he saw her standing by his desk: pure joy, delight; how that changed as he drew closer and realized her fear; cold fear, burning apprehension. The serious danger she faced and didn't even know it, or maybe she did and it was worse than he thought. The phone calls – the quantity indicating a strong, unstoppable conviction. And he hadn't even heard the messages on Gleason's home phone yet. The voice in the messages – psychotic, deranged, sexually charged, full of vile hate, out of control at the end. The threats – this was the most frightening aspect of this whole thing; doable and vicious, detailed and progressive. The investigation, damn it! – make a list for Eames to be sure and do, miss nothing, stay on Eames, dog her.
Goren sat up, flipped open his portfolio, turned to a clean page and began to write Eames' to do list:
have Jerry in Audio secure a redirect bypass feed from Gleason's home phone; disable outgoing service
all incoming calls go directly to Jerry for tracing, taping and analysis
contact Gleason's phone service for taped copies of her messages; see Carver re a warrant
have Martin in Audio copy messages from cell phone and service to disc
have Martin voiceprint each message from cell and service
have Louise in Transcription do her thing with disc
give Huang at SVU an audio copy and transcription of all messages
have Huang profile the caller
pull in-system voiceprints matching profile from Huang
have Martin compare caller voiceprints with others that match caller's profile
get numbers from home caller ID
locate call sites from home and cell; pay phones?
map the sites
determine the site chronology
compare distance and time between calls
find out Elliott, the student's, last name; in the system?
let me know everything
That should get the investigation started, Goren thought. Eames is going to be furious when I give her this. Bobby looked up and saw Eames and Deakins in the conference room. He turned and saw Sledge heading this way down the hallway and Bishop was coming around the corner behind Sledge. Shit, Goren thought; he tore off the list he'd written and set it on Eames' desk. He grabbed his coat and headed out, passing both Sledge and Bishop.
"Hey, Goren, where're you . . ." Bishop called as he flew past.