Chapter 19
"Damn," Fin shook his head. He and Munch stood in the exam room at the coroner's office. Melinda had just confirmed the body's identity via her fingerprints.
"He beat the hell out of her. I couldn't even use her dental records to identify her. If her employer hadn't had her fingerprints on file from their fingerprint punch-in machine, I wouldn't have had a way to ID her," Melinda heaved a sigh.
"Why poor Molly?" Munch asked.
"Why any of these other poor girls? He just likes getting his rocks off on these poor girls and then using them as his own punching bag," Melinda said.
"I hope that APB finds him. He goes underground and he'll just pop back up somewhere else. Then he'll just go and start all over again," Fin forced air through his lips.
"Elliot got a hold of Huang. The FBI is putting their muscle behind the case, especially since more cities have possible links to him," Munch told them.
"Then the only thing left to do is sit on our hands until our guy pops up," Melinda smiled slightly and covered poor Molly Sanders back up before sliding the poor dead girl back into the coroner's refrigerator.
"Let's go tell the parents," Fin frowned.
"Everyone's favorite part of the job," Munch heaved a sigh. The two thanks Melinda and then headed out to their unmarked car.
"Maureen said that?" Elliot asked Olivia. He'd gone to visit her and get an update on how she was doing. With that came the unexpected conversation about what had happened with his eldest daughter.
"She did. I don't want her to get in trouble but she skipped school and came to talk to me, which means she was afraid to mention it to her parents," his partner told him.
"Well you've managed to worm your way into Maureen's heart," he smirked.
"Yeah that's me. I like to worm," Olivia gave him a look. His response was to put his hand over hers, with his body blocking the view, the officers out in the hall couldn't see. I love you, he mouthed. She winked; it was the best she could do under the circumstances.
"I'll talk to Maureen. We'll have a lot more time since Huang and the FBI got involved. Since we know who he is and have his fingerprints as a condition of being a PI, other cities have matched him to other crimes. The APB has yet to turn up anything," Elliot was back talking shop.
"I guess we're onto our next case. Well sort of. Did Tucker talk to you?" Olivia asked.
"He did. I'll be back to full duty as soon as my arm heals up. What about you? Weren't you supposed to be leaving this morning?" He wanted to know.
"Yeah… Doctor Beresford wanted to run one more scan. He wanted to make sure my neck didn't get kinked up, especially after I had tingling in my arm last night," she sighed.
"They find anything?" Now he was concerned.
"The scan came back negative. I'm already on thin ice after what happened to my neck and the Chief of D's stopped by to check on me. One more field injury and its permanent desk duty until I get my twenty in," her eyes started to well up. She didn't know what else she would do with her life. Until Elliot, the job was her life.
"Hey, this comes with the job. You are not the job. You are a wonderful human being. You can do whatever you want. I will support you. Right now, let's just focus on you getting better and you getting back on duty," he told her.
"Good because I had the doctors run a few tests off the record," Olivia admitted.
"What for?" More concern was evident in his voice.
"My cycle was late. I was concerned. Then I had bad cramping and all of a sudden my cycle started. I'm on the pill. Something is wrong," she said. At this point, he no longer cared what the officers out in the hall thought. Elliot climbed onto the bed and pulled her close.
"We'll get this figured out," he promised, kissing her temple.
To Be Continued…