Authors Note: I know it's been a long wait for this chapter but I did NaNoWriMo again this year so between that and college I haven't had a lot of time on my hands. The new chapter is here though, I promise updates for all of my other fics too. Reviews are loved!
Chapter 3
The crime scene was eerily similar except that instead of an alley the body had been dumped in a quiet part of central park. The victim looked about the same age as Amy greenwood, thin, tall, pretty, she was wrapped in a white sheet like the one Amy had been wrapped in and her body was covered in the same cuts and bruises. He had to ask anyway.
"Are we sure it's the same guy?" Don questioned despite the similarities between the two scenes.
"It's looking like it," Danny stated as he photographed the bruises on her arm.
"These wounds look fresher though, whoever had her, I doubt they kept her as long as they did Amy Greenwood, maybe a day or so," Lindsay suggested as she looked over the body. She picked up the girls hand turning it over and looking closely at the wrist. "These wounds don't look as deep either."
"Body been washed?" Jess questioned and Danny nodded.
"Definitely, there's no blood," he told them.
"And I'm guessing there's no ID either," Jess said and then gestured over to a couple stood behind the crime scene tape. "They found the body?"
"Yeah," Danny told her barely glancing up and Don watched as Jess went to talk to them, "Whoever this guy is he's thorough, there's no blood and no trace that I can see. I'm not seeing a murder weapon either, not that I'd expect to with dump job. There's puncture marks on her arms and legs," Danny continued as he looked over the body, moving to stand by the victim's feet. "There's more between her toes, suggests drugs which also means she could be in the system. I'll run her fingerprints when I get back to the lab, hopefully we can get an ID."
"So we've got a prostitute and possibly a drug addict," Don stated thoughtfully, there could be a connection there.
"We also have a shoe print," Lindsay called from where she wondered off too. They walked over to where she was kneeling, the print was light and not complete but so far it was all they had.
"I don't know Linds, this is a park, people walk around here every day," Danny pointed out as he looked at the crowds of people outside the crime scene tape. "It could belong to anyone," he continued even as he knelt down to photograph it.
"It's all we've got right now," Lindsay stated.
"Let me know if you find anything else," Don told them as he left them and walked over to Jess. She finished talking to the couple and met him halfway, her expression telling him she'd gotten nothing, as she probably expected.
"They don't know her, didn't see anything, they just found here there like that and called 911," Jess summarised what she'd learned. She nodded over to Danny and Lindsay, "They found something?"
"A shoe print, it's not much but it's better than nothing," he told her and she nodded her head as she looked around thoughtfully.
"I doubt we'll have any other witnesses, at least none that are going to come forward, this is a good spot for doing something you don't want to get caught doing," she told him.
"Yeah," Don replied. "Danny's gonna try to get an ID on the vic, there's evidence she did drugs so maybe she's in the system."
"I'll get a search started, many we'll get lucky and the killer left something behind in the area this time, like a murder weapon."
Danny sat up straight as the computer beeped informing him it had found a match for the vic's fingerprints. The door to the room opened and Lindsay walked in with several files in her hand and a look of annoyance on her face.
"The shoe print is from a common design, no good to us unless we find one to match it too and even then it may have nothing to do with the crime. I called Sid too, he's only just getting started with the autopsy but he said the body had been washed thoroughly again," she told him as she leaned against the desk beside the computer. "Please tell me you got something from the fingerprints because otherwise we've got nothing."
"I got something from the fingerprints," he informed her and nodded to the computer screen. "Our vic was Claire Bell; she was arrested three times over the last six years for drug possession. I'll call Flack."
Danny grabbed his cell phone from his pocket and called Don, relaying the information to him and telling him to let them know what he turned up. Mac walked into the room just as he hung up, Stella right behind him.
"How's it going?" he asked them. Danny had informed Mac not long after finding the body that they most likely had a serial killer on their hands. Another body and he knew Mac would be getting involved in the case, he just hoped they could close it before the Feds came in and took over, things always got messy then.
"We've got a name on our vic, Claire Bell, but that's it," Danny told him. "Flack and Angell are running with that, Lindsay and I were going to go talk to Craven's girls to see if any of them know anything, if we're lucky maybe one of them will recognise Claire."
"Not that we've been lucky so far," Lindsay muttered at the side, it was obvious she was getting frustrated with that lack of evidence in this case and she wasn't the only one. This case was starting to get to them all.
"Check for connections between the two vics and keep me informed," he ordered and Danny nodded glancing at Lindsay who was staring at a spot on the floor. Mac and Stella left again, clearly on their way somewhere, probably to do with their own case. Danny turned to Lindsay who hadn't even seemed to have notice they'd left.
"Let's go get something to eat," he suggested and she looked up at him. "We can stop on the way to Craven's place, I think we could both do with the break."
Jess stepped out of the car and looked over the small diner in front of her. It was a small place, surrounded by the kind of people Jess would avoid outside of work but the business looked to be thriving so she supposed the owner had to be doing something right. She was stared at by several men as she walked around the car to join Don and she didn't fail to notice that he walked a little closer to her than he usually would.
They entered the diner, trying to ignore the group in the booth by the door that were clearly high on drugs. There was a man behind the counter serving coffees and cake to several women there before he turned to them.
"What can I get you?" he questioned.
"The owner," Don replied flashing his badge and the man stood up straighter.
"You're looking at him, what do you want?" he questioned on edge now, probably expecting half of his customers to be arrested.
"We need to ask you some questions about one of your employees, Claire Bell," Jess told him. "When was the last time you saw her?"
"Last night when we were closing up, she in trouble?" the owner questioned.
"She's dead," Don told him and Jess saw the man visibly pale, the questions running through his mind. "She was found murdered this morning in central park."
"My god," the owner said stepping back and reaching for the surface behind him for support. "How, why?"
"That's what we're trying to figure out," Jess told him. "You said you last saw her last night, what time was that?"
"About 10pm, we were just closing up and I told her to go, that I'd finish up. She wanted to go pick up her son from her sister's place, they had plans for the today since it was her day off," the owner told them. "Oh God, poor Isaac."
"She has a son?" Jess questioned.
"Yeah, her sister sometimes takes care of him while Claire works. I'm sure you have records of Claire's drug problem and I know what you must think of her but Claire was a good mother, that boy never wanted for anything. She would rather miss a fix than let her kid go without anything, she'd starve herself if she had to for the drugs but that boy was her life, she loved him and she'd do anything for him. Whatever you may think of her, she didn't deserve this," the owner told them.
"Do you have a name and address for the sister?" Don asked and the man nodded.
"Yeah, she keeps the information in her locker, in case something ever happened to her and I needed to call her sister. I'll just go get it for you," he told them and then walked away into the back of the diner. Jess looked around her, there were at least two groups of drugged up people and at least two couples needed to get a room in the next few minutes. She couldn't imagine spending everyday in a place like this, she'd go crazy.
"Here it is," the owner said as he handed them a piece of paper.
"We'll be in touch," Don told the man as he took the paper and the two of them left the diner. Jess waited until they were back in the car to speak.
"To the sister?" Jess questioned and Don nodded.
Danny knocked on the door and moments later it was opened by a half naked woman that gave him a seductive smile. She couldn't have been older than twenty, if that; she was stood there wearing a corset, panties and too much make up but that was it. She stepped out of the apartment, seemingly oblivious to Lindsay's presence as she took a step toward Danny.
"Can I help you?" she questioned.
"Detective Messer, NYPD," he stated and then gestured to Lindsay. "This is Detective Munroe."
That seemed to stop any further advances by the girl, she looked him over and then turned to Lindsay. "You're here about Amy; I'll get Craven for you."
"That would be great but we actually came to talk to you, you and the other girls," Lindsay told her and she looked at them both in surprise.
"But I don't know anything, Amy and I barely talked, I didn't like her," the girl told him which Danny quickly picked up on.
"Why didn't you like her?"
"She thought she was better than us, better than this life, she didn't say it but I could tell," the girl replied and then turned around to walk back into the apartment, swaying her hips as she went. The apartment was full of more half naked women, girls really, the oldest looked to be in her mid twenties. They all watched Danny and Lindsay walk into the apartment before Craven came through from another room.
"What's going on, who are you?" he questioned.
"They're detectives, here about Amy," the girl who had brought them in told him and there were whispers throughout the room.
"I already told the other two everything I know," Craven stated his annoyance with the interruption obvious.
"Well we didn't come here to speak with you, we came to talk to them," Danny told him gesturing to the girl's that were crowded around the room. "But whilst you're here, do you recognise this girl?" he questioned taking out the picture of Claire Bell and showing it to him. He glanced at it briefly and then shook his head.
"No, she's not one of mine, I've never seen her before, and neither have any of my girls," he told them and Danny raised an eyebrow at him.
"Why don't you let them tell us that for themselves," Lindsay suggested and then turned away from Craven and looked over the girls. They started asking questions sometimes to the group, sometimes to individual girls and the girls spent the entire time dodging them. They got next to no answers and what they did get was bordering on useless. They left feeling annoyed, which was only made worse by Craven's smug smile as they walked out of the apartment.
"Well, that was a waste of time," Lindsay stated as they walked down the stairs and out of the apartment. They were about to get into the car when a voice called for them to wait. One of the girls from the apartment was running down the steps, a light coat covering her lack of clothing underneath.
"I didn't want to say anything in front of Craven, but Amy was my friend and I know something that might be useful, I don't know but..." the girl trailed off. "My name is Emily; I spoke to the other detectives when they came here. Ramiro recruited me at the same time as Amy, she's the only girl in there I ever really talked to, the only one I would have trusted."
"What do you know?" Lindsay questioned.
"She was trying to get out, she'd been putting money aside for almost a year now and she almost had enough saved up to get out of here, out of this life and set up a new one, a better one," Emily told them brushing her hair back from her face and glancing nervously at the apartment. "She wasn't like the other girls here, she was better than this and she was a good person. She even offered to take me with her, to get me out of this life," she continued, getting emotional now and Danny could see the tears starting to form. "We had all these ideas, we were going to get an apartment together, somewhere nice, get jobs at waitresses and spend our money on jeans and hoodies so we could sit around the apartment or go out without anyone seeing more of our bodies than we wanted them to. I guess none of that is going to happen now."
"What would happen if Ramiro found out about the money, her plans?" Lindsay asked.
"I don't know but I'm not sure I'd ever have seen her again," Emily stated meaningfully and then looked at the watch on her wrist. "I have to go, I'm supposed to be meeting a client, I hope what I told you is some use, please catch the people that did this to her, make them pay."
Emily ran off then throwing one more nervous glance back at the apartment before she disappeared around a corner. Danny turned to Lindsay; the meaning of Emily's words was more than obvious. If Ramiro had found out Amy had been planning on leaving he could easily be the one responsible for her death.
"We should call Flack and Angell."
Meagan Bell looked very much like her younger sister, the same hair, the same eyes. Don watched as she fell to pieces at the news of her sister's death, sobbing quietly for a minute before glancing over at the three year old boy playing with toy trucks in the corner. Claire's boss had been right, the boy was well looked after, he looked like a happy, healthy three year old, dressed in nice clothes and well kept.
"I knew something was wrong when she didn't come back for Isaac last night, I tried to file a police report around 2am but they told me I had to wait, that maybe she was just late or something but I knew. She loves Isaac, there's no way she'd have been so late picking him up and if she was she would have called me," Meagan told them getting her tears under control. "She was a good mom, I know she had problems but she never let them affect Isaac, he was her whole world."
"You had no contact with your sister after she dropped Isaac off here yesterday morning?" Jess asked her and waited patiently for the woman to compose herself and answer.
"None, I take care of him sometimes when she's at work, I'm a nanny you see for another family. I take care of their kids during the day, sometimes at night too, they get along really well with Isaac and the family never had a problem with me bringing him along so it was easy for me to watch him while she worked. It used to be just every now and again but it's been a lot more often recently," Meagan explained.
"Why is that?"
"She didn't like the people at work, the customers, she used to take Isaac there with her but she didn't want to do it anymore, said it wasn't a place for a kid."
"Do you know if anyone would want to hurt her, maybe she didn't pay her dealer?" Don questioned and Meagan shook her head emphatically.
"No one, she always paid her dealer, she has money set aside for it, she wanted to make sure that they never came after her or her son. She was a good person detective, she had her problems, everyone does but she was a good person and good mother. I can't think of anybody that would want to hurt her," Megan told them forcefully as Isaac walked over with a police car in his hand.
"Do you have one of these?" he asked Don who smiled at the small boy.
"Not today but there are lots of them where I work," he told him and the boy smiled and walked over to his aunt with his arms out. She picked him up and placed him on her knees, wrapping her arms around him tightly.
"What about his father?" Jess asked the woman.
"Not in the picture, never was, they went out briefly. He was a drug addict, he didn't pay up and he took off before Claire even found out she was pregnant, he wouldn't even know he has a son, that's if he's even alive," Meagan told them.
"And there's no chance the dealer took that out on Claire?" Jess asked.
"It was years ago, like I said, Claire didn't even know she was pregnant back then and not many people knew about their... relationship, if you could even call it that," Meagan replied.
"Any other men in her life, a new boyfriend?"
"No, Claire hasn't had a boyfriend since Isaac's father ran off," Meagan told them. "I wish I could be of more help but my sister was not the kind of person to make enemies, she didn't deserve this."
Don glanced at Jess; this seemed like another dead end in a case that was proving full of them. "Thank you for your time Miss Bell, I'm very sorry for your loss."
TBC