Chapter 7: Lauren and Isabelle Conard
It was going on two o'clock in the morning and Reyes was laying in bed. She'd finally gotten her brain to slow down enough to close her eyes and try to sleep. She was starting to drift off when her phone chimed on the stand next to her bed. "Urgh, You have got to be kidding me" she thought in frustration. She rolled over and grabbed her phone, hitting the unlock code and looking at her screen. She had a text from Sgt Benson of an address telling her to get there right away. After a few more groans she threw back the covers and got out of bed. She quickly got dressed and grabbed her phone and keys and headed out the door. When she got to the address, there was a very familiar scene: crowd gathering, uniformed officers and crime scene tape, fire truck, ambulances, another alley in Hell's Kitchen. She spotted the team standing outside the crime scene tape looking at the scene. She hustled over where they were standing.
"Don't tell me..." she said looking at Rollins.
"Two more bodies, set on fire. They're securing the area now" she said confirming her suspicions. Reyes didn't want to think it but she couldn't help it. More bodies is what they needed. The fact was, they didn't have much of anything to go on from the Mullins' crime scene and they wouldn't get anything more if this guy didn't give them more victims. A fire fighter walked over to where they standing, "Scene's clear. You can go in now" he said continuing past them to the fire truck. They ducked under the crime scene tape to get a closer look at the bodies. Dr. Warner had already beat them there and was taking her first look at the victims.
"Burns aren't as bad as the first two victims" Reyes said as she looked down at them.
Warner nodded, "Someone spotted the blaze not long after it was set. He went for help and they put out they blaze together" she explained. Rollins walked over to them holding a white trash bag, the same a the one dumped at the first scene.
"Same thing" she said approaching them, "Clothes and wallets inside. They're names are Lauren and Isabelle Conard. Both thirty four years old. Found business cards in their wallets; they worked together, paralegals".
"Are there tan lines on their ring fingers?" Reyes asked. Melinda looked at both women's hands and nodded her head. "Took their wedding rings again" she said softly. She inhaled slowly and let it out in a huff. If she wasn't sure about her theory before, she was definitely sure about it now. Melinda and her assistants bagged up the bodies and loaded them for transport to the morgue.
"I'll let you know what more I find" she said before turning and leaving the scene. Benson, Amaro, and Tutuola walked over to Rollins and Reyes.
"CSU is dusting the dumpster for prints" Amaro said stopping in front of them.
"They won't get anything but I think I know what this is about" Reyes said. She looked around the alley with laser sharp focus for something, anything, that would give them more on their perp.
"What?" Fin asked. Out of nowhere something caught her eye. There was movement behind some bags of trash not far from where the bodies were left. Ignoring Fin's question, she walked over to a makeshift shelter and kneeled down to talk to whoever was inside.
"Excuse me" she said nicely, "Can you come out here. I don't want to hassle you. I just want to talk to you for a second". She waited for whoever was in there to make a decision about coming out or not. She saw a hand creep out from underneath the blanket covering the cardboard roof and push it to the side. A young guy, no more than eighteen years old, stuck his head out and scared brown eyes looked into Chris' caring greens. "Hi" she said with a soft smile, "What's your name?" He just stared at her for a second then decided she seemed nice enough to trust her.
"Donnie" he answered softly.
"Hi, Donnie. I'm Christina. You know about what's going on over there?" She asked as gently as she could, not wanting him to think she was accusing him.
"I didn't do anything" he said defensively.
She nodded her head, "Yeah, but maybe you saw something". He was shivering from the morning cold and from the looks of it didn't have much clothing on to make it better.
"White guy, crazy. Threw away a big white bag then he walked away. I saw the flames, then I heard yelling. I didn't want to come out. I was too scared".
Chris and nodded her head, "Ok. Thank you, Donnie" she said nicely. He nodded his head and started to go back inside his cardboard home. His hand was frail and shaking uncontrollably. Chris felt so much for him. "Hey" she said catching him before he retreated completely inside his shelter, "How about you come out of there and come back to the station with me" she suggested.
"Nuh uh" he said shaking his head from side to side.
"You can get a nice, warm shower and some fresh, warm clothes; a nice hot meal. Whatever you want, it's on me. Come on, it's freezing out here". He thought about her offer for a moment before finally crawling out of the small space. Just as Reyes suspected, his clothes were worn and tattered and he was incredibly thin. She led him over to one of the squad cars and told one of the officers to drive him to the station, get him some clothes and a shower and she'd be there shortly. It took some doing but she convinced Donnie to let the officer drive him and she would meet him there. She walked back over and joined her teammates.
"He see anything?" Fin asked as she joined their huddle.
"Crazy white guy. Said he saw him dump the bag and then there was fire. He was too scared to come out".
Benson nodded her head, "Well it's something. We'll sit him down with a sketch artist, see what he can come up with. Let's get back to the station and add them to the victim work up and start tracking down their families". They dispersed to their cars and made their back to the precinct. When they arrived back at the precinct, Reyes checked the interview rooms, looking for Donnie. He was nowhere to be found. She spotted the officer she'd told to drive him back.
"Hey" she said getting his attention, "Where's the kid you drove here?" she asked.
"Oh, he's in the lockup" he said nonchalantly.
"What?!" She immediately went from zero to ten on the pissed off meter.
The officer looked dumbfounded, "You said to escort him back to the station. I put him in lockup so he wouldn't try to run off" he explained.
"I told you to do a couple of things and putting him in a holding cell wasn't one of them" she said angrily.
"Look, girlie, he's a vagrant and he was mouthing off. I thought I was doing you a favor". If Chris were a cartoon there would have been steam coming out of her ears. She walked over to the officer and got in his face.
"First of all, if you ever refer to me as "girlie" again I will fuck up your life in every way I can possibly think of. Second, if you ever want to want to go on patrol again, you will go get him and do what I told you to do when I told you to bring him here". Her voice was calm, almost eerie and she'd gained the attention of everyone in the squad room. No one thought the officer should call her bluff. He backed away from her and headed to the lockup to get her witness. She turned around and saw everyone staring at her, "Get back to work" she said. Instantly, people started moving about the squad room again, resuming their tasks. Olivia, Nick, Fin nor Amanda said anything to her about what'd just happened. They just continued to fill the board with information and search the victims' closest relatives. Benson sent Amaro to their address to look around and see what he could find; anything to help them learn more about the victims.
After Donnie was showered and dressed in fresh, warm clothes, Reyes set him up in the interview room across from Cragen's office and asked him what he wanted to eat. "Breakfast" he replied. She laughed and asked what he wanted for breakfast. He seemed surprised that she was letting him choose specifically what he wanted to eat. He said pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon, hash browns, and grits with apple juice. He looked like he was waiting for her to say that he was asking for too much and was stunned when she didn't. Reyes left the interview room to go take care of his breakfast. She almost told the uniformed officer that'd pissed her off to go get it but she didn't trust him not to do something to the food. Instead she got on her computer and found a place that had everything Donnie wanted and also delivered. She ordered a bunch of extra everything for herself and the rest of the team and got an estimated delivery time of forty minutes. While she was waiting for the food to arrive she went in the interview room with Benson to question Donnie about what he saw in the alley.
"Donnie, this is Sergeant Benson. We're just gonna ask you some questions about what you saw, ok?" He nodded his head and clutched the cup of coffee Chris had given him. "Ok. So, first things first. What's your whole name and how old are you?" she asked.
"Donald Hanover. I'm seventeen" he said quietly.
"How'd you end up out on the streets?" It wasn't something he liked talking about. He was always nervous that people would treat him badly. But he liked Chris, trusted her. He felt like he could tell her. "
I'm gay. My parents weren't happy when they found out; said they couldn't have me around my younger brother. They were worried I might rub off on him or something. So they told me to get lost. I was at a shelter for a while but the people there weren't very nice. They'd try to beat me up and take my stuff. So I left and I haven't been to another one". It pained Reyes to know that parents could just toss their kids to the side because they didn't like who they turned out to be. Parents are supposed to be the ones to love you no matter what.
"How long ago was that?" she asked.
"When my parents kicked me out; six months...almost seven. About five since I stopped trying to find a good shelter. That alley was best place I'd found so far. I've been there for almost a month".
"Ok, Donnie. Let's talk about the man you saw in the alley" Olivia said jumping in. "You said he was white and crazy?"
He nodded his head, "Yeah, maybe forty; not too tall. Wore jeans and a black hoodie. I didn't want to look for too long. I didn't want him to notice I was there. He just tossed the bag in the dumpster and walked away".
"What made you think he was crazy?" Reyes asked.
"He was talking to himself. Spouting all kinds of religious stuff. The kind of stuff my parents said when they kicked me out; about abominations and going to hell". This was just what Reyes needed to hear to confirm her theory. She was ready to share her thoughts with the group. There was a knock at the door and Rollins walked in with the sketch artist in tow.
"Donnie, this is Rick. He's a sketch artist. I want you to describe the man you saw to him" Benson said getting up and letting Rick take her place.
"I told you, I didn't really get a good look" he said.
"It's ok" Chris said reassuring him,"Just do the best you can". She got up from the table and walked out with Olivia and Amanda to gather at the table in front of the board.
Captain Cragen came out of his office and stood next to the board. "Alright, so we've got two more bodies and a witness who may be able to give a description. Any more physical evidence on the bodies?" he asked.
"Same as the first vics" Amanda said, "Fluids present but useless because he's not in the system". Reyes stared at the board and thought about what Donnie said about what he heard the perp saying. She decided she was ready to share her theory with the group.
"Great, so we're no closer to catching him and don't have any theories about who this guy is or why he's doing this" Cragen said not pleased by their lack of progress.
"It's a hate crime" Reyes said, confident that her theory about this was correct.
"What makes you think that?" Fin asked.
"He's attacking married lesbian couples. Donnie heard him rambling about them being abominations and sending them to hell. He's making a statement with how kills them" she said explaining why she thought so. "A lot of people think that they can beat the gay out of their kids. How often, when a lesbian is raped, does her rapist say he did it to "fix that gay gene"? Stripping them to humiliate them and then setting them on fire in Hell's Kitchen ie. burning in hell".
"Maybe he set them in fire to make them suffer" Amaro suggested. Reyes shook her head in disagreement.
"If he wanted them to suffer he would burn them alive but he kills them first. It's symbolic of the flames of hell" she said using air quotes. "He took the time to strip them naked and then left everything behind. Everything except their wedding rings. He's stripping them of their marriage. He's probably proud of what he's doing, thinks he's on a mission to rid the world of married lesbian sin".
"That's a pretty good behavioral analysis detective" said a voice familiar to everyone. They all looked in the direction of the voice and seemed happy to see him. Reyes pretended not to know who he was. They said their hellos and he took a seat at the table.
"Chris Reyes this is Dr. George Huang, a forensic psychiatrist with the FBI" Cragen said introducing them. They shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.
"I think you hit it right on the nose, detective" he said agreeing with her. "Olivia sent me what you all have gathered so far and I took a look. I'd also add to what Detective Reyes has said by saying that he doesn't care if he gets caught" he said.
"What makes you think that?" Fin asked again. He didn't know where Reyes and Huang were coming up with their theories.
"He leaves his DNA behind" Reyes said answering for the doctor. Dr. Huang nodded his head in agreement.
"Even though he knows that he'll be easily linked to the crimes from the evidence he leaves behind, he's not taking any steps to cover his tracts. He doesn't think he's doing anything wrong" he said.
"So he's delusional" Fin concluded.
Reyes chuckled, "Well, I think that goes without saying" she said picking up her coffee and taking a sip. "But I think it's personal too" she said.
"Wait. How'd it become personal now? I mean, we've gone over the backgrounds of the victims; searched through their apartments. They don't have much in common except they sometimes hit the same bars but that's not unusual, right? Aren't there only a few lesbian bars in the city?" he asked looking at Reyes.
"Why are you asking me?" she asked a bit offended that he just assumed she knew how many lesbian bars there were.
"I wasn't asking you specifically. I was just posing the question...to the group" he said covering his ass.
"Yeah, sure you were".
"Ok, moving on" Cragen said ending the little spat. "Is she right, doc? You think there's something personal in his motive?" he asked the expert.
"I think there's definitely a strong possibility of a personal agenda" he said nodding his head.
"Uh, care to elaborate on that?" Amanda asked leaning on the back of a chair.
He turned and looked at Christina, "Detective" he said inviting her the chance to expand on her theory.
"He has a type" she said simply. They all turned and looked at the pictures of the victims, noticing the pattern for the first time. "Lauren and Jessica both have dark hair and green eyes. Isabelle and Rachel, blonde hair and blue eyes. A type usually means that they represent something, or someone. Most likely someone he fells hurt or betrayed him. The religious aspect is just the excuse he gives himself to act out his revenge". Dr. Huang was noticeably impressed by how spot on Reyes' analysis of the case was. He almost wanted to pull her to the side and ask her what she thought about joining the FBI. The door to the interrogation room opened and Rick, the sketch artist, walked out. He went over to Olivia and handed her the sketch he'd worked up with Donnie and she taped it up on the board. It wasn't the best but it was something. The guy looked how Donnie had described him; white, early to mid forties, short hair, no visible tattoos or scars.
"Great. This is a sketch of more than half the men in the city" Fin said. They were all frustrated with how this investigation was going. They had a working theory of the crime and not much else. They were in desperate need of a break in the case.
"Yeah, well, ugh, he did say he didn't get a good look" Reyes said. She was just as frustrated as everyone else but their lack of progress wasn't Donnie's fault. He'd done his best to help them which was a lot more than what he had to do.
A delivery man walked into the squad room, "Is there a Chris Reyes here?" he asked holding three large bags. She hopped down from the table, "Yeah. That's me". She walked over to her desk and grabbed her wallet to pay for the food. "It'll be fifty four eighty" he said giving her the total. She handed him three twenties and a five, "Keep the change" she said trading him the money for the bags. He thanked her and then left. She carried the food over to the table and took it out of the bags. They'd put a bunch of extra plates, napkins, and plastic spoons and forks in one of the bags. She set everything out and told them to help themselves before taking a box container and the bottle of apple juice then heading to the interview room. They all looked around stunned for a minute before Fin stepped up and grabbed a plate.
"What?" he said noticing them staring at him. "She said to help ourselves". They laughed and them joined him in getting some of the breakfast food. Chris gave Donnie his breakfast and thanked him for helping them out on the case. She told him they'd figure out something for him but she didn't want him staying on the streets anymore. She promised to keep working with him until they found the right place. She left him to enjoy his breakfast and joined everyone back in the squad room. They sat around the table tossing out their ideas of things they could do to close down on this perp. George took this opportunity to chat up Reyes.
"You really have great insight into this perp already. Almost as if you're an experienced profiler" he said complimenting her.
"I might have taken a seminar or two back in California" she said.
"Well, whoever taught it did well".
She smiled, "Yeah, you did". She smiled at the blush that came over him. She knew it wasn't because he was modest about his work but embarrassment that he didn't remember her. "Don't worry about it. It was a big room and I sat way in the back". She got up from the table to go throw her plate away and came back with her phone and laptop. She did a search of shelters and group homes specifically for kids in Donnie's situation and started making phone calls to find him a place to stay.
Fin overheard Chris on the phone and offered her a solution. He told her about his son, Ken, who worked at a group home for gay teens put out on the streets by their parents. He said he'd give him a call to see about getting Donnie a spot there. They finished breakfast and cleaned up all the bags and boxes. Captain Cragen heard his phone ringing in his office and went to take the call. He came back a few minutes later with a solemn look on his face, "We got two more bodies".