Chapter 22

Cragen was in his office with Jamie, Nicole and ADA Casey Novak. "According to Munch the abduction fits the stalker's M.O. to a T." Cragen said to the group and walked around his desk to his chair.

Jamie was leaning on the table by the door, stood up and walked over to an available chair and sat down. "He goes after petite women, uses chloroform to subdue them and then carts them off in a dark 4x4."

"How long has it been since his last attack?" Casey asked.

"Almost a year." Nicole replied, standing behind Jamie.

"Yeah, we thought he'd gone underground or maybe just left the area." Cragen added. Just then Munch walked into the office and looked at the group. "You're late."

"I was up all night interviewing witnesses." Munch said.

"D.A. wants an update on the Bowery Stalker."

"Can't wait for the report?"

"She's made this case a top priority. Any warrants, lab work, anything you need." Casey informed him.

"Why all the sudden attention?" Munch asked.

"She knows how elusive he's been." Casey replied. "She thought you could use some help."

"Because I didn't nail him last time." Munch said becoming defensive.

"Oh, come on, John. Nobody's blaming you. We're all on the same team here." Cragen stated walking from behind his desk.

"Then why did you start the team meeting without me?" Munch asked.

"We were just leaving." Jamie said and started to get up from her chair.

"No, no, no, stay. I want you and Nicole to help with the canvas." Cragen ordered.

"It's my catch, Captain, I got it covered." Munch stated and started to leave.

"You're still the primary but that doesn't mean you don't need backup. Now the only agenda here is catching this guy before he kills again. Got it?"

"Got it." Munch repeated.

"Good. Now, where's your partner?"

"He's with a couple of witnesses and a sketch artist."

"Well, while you're waiting, why don't you fill Casey in."

"Mind if I get my morning tea first?" Munch asked Casey.

"Not at all." she replied.

They left the office and made their way to the table so Munch could get his tea. While they were walking he filled her in. "About a year ago, Sara Kimmel, stumbled into a bar on Avenue D, half naked, beaten. Claiming that a man with a beard imprisoned her as his sex slave in an abandoned warehouse on Broom. We raided it, found a makeshift cell in the basement stocked with sex toys and various instruments of torture and four mutilated bodies."

"Any trace evidence?" Casey asked.

They stood in front of the table and Munch offered Casey a cup. She declined and he poured himself some tea. "A few partials and DNA but nothing in our system to match it to. We staked the building out for a month, no luck, the guy just disappeared."

"Until now."

"Must have found a new safe house."

"And potentially more victims." Casey stated.

"John?" Fin called out, walking into the bullpen.

Munch and Casey turned to face him. "Anything on the tattoo?" Munch asked.

"Butch filled in a few details, ran it through PIMS and got a hit." Fin said and held up a sheet. "Skel named Frank Taggert, on parole for assault."

"Where?" Munch asked.

"PO said he got a custodial job at the fish market."

/Chung Chung/

"How desperate does somebody have to be to take a gig in a place like this?" Fin asked as he and Munch walked up to the fish market.

"I worked here when I was a kid." Munch replied. "Made good money too."

"What'd you do with all your money? You can't tell me women wanted to get with you after a day in a flower shop like this."

"Two words: Aqua Velva." Munch said as they entered the fish market.

"Come again?" Fin laughed.

"Fish monger's best friend. After a hot shower, slather some of that on and smell like Vic Damone."

"Smell like some mackrel and some cheap aftershave." Fin corrected.

"Hey, Munch, man." A big guy said and hugged Munch.

Munch returned the hug. "Olive!"

"Olive?" Fin asked.

"Name's Olivetti." Olive said holding his hand out.

"Okay. Fin." Fin said shaking Olive's hand.

"Even when we were kids he looked like a big fat olive. Ergo...?"

Olive laughed. "Long time no see."

"Hey, we're looking for a guy named Frank Taggert. He still work here?" Munch asked.

"Yeah, as little as possible."

"Where can we find him?" Fin asked.

Olive pointed outside at a truck. "There."

Fin and Munch walked outside and up to the truck. "Frank Taggert, we want to talk to you." Munch said.

Frank looked at them and proceeded to walk past Fin. "Hey, you heard the man." Fin said trying to stop him. Frank grabbed Fin and threw him on a pile of fish that was on ice.

Munch pulled his gun and held it to the back of Frank's head. "Hold it right there!"

Fin took this opportunity to get up and threw Frank on the fish, pulling his arm behind his back. "This was a new coat." Fin snapped at Frank and then looked at Munch. "Jamie just bought it for me."

Fin walked past Munch with Taggert and Munch followed. "Two words: Aqua Velva." Munch said again.

/Chung Chung/

Jamie and Nicole were walking down the hall when they saw Fin and Munch walking in with Taggert. "Hey, guys." Jamie said walking up to them.

Fin looked at Munch. "Take him. I'll meet you in interrogation."

Munch nodded. "Come on, Frankie, let's go."

Nicole looked at Munch. "I'll walk with you." she said and followed him down the hall.

Jamie moved closer to Fin. "Why do you smell like fish?" she asked.

"That asshole threw me on a pile of fish when we went to talk to him." Fin replied.

"I just bought you that coat."

"Yeah, I know. Listen, I gotta get to interrogation. I'll see you later, okay?"

Jamie smiled. "Yeah, okay."

/Chung Chung/

Fin walked into the interrogation room. Frank was seated at the table and Munch was standing beside him. Fin walked around the table and sat in a chair against the wall. Munch turned Frank's right arm over and looked at his tattoo. "That's a hell of a tattoo you got there, Frankie." Munch said.

"It's an original." Frank stated.

"Your design?" Fin asked.

"Elmo's Tats on 8th. What the hell do you care?"

Munch walked around the table and sat across from Frank. "Where were you last night between eleven and midnight?" Munch asked.

"Rusty's bar in the Alphabet."

"Can you prove it?" Fin asked.

"The bar stool near the door has a permanent imprint of my ass. Feel free to check it out."

"It'll be the highlight of our day." Munch stated.

"Am I being charged with something here or are we just shooting the breeze?"

Fin stood up and walked over to the table. He sat down and looked at Frank. "We got witnesses that place you and your original tattoo outside a diner on Canal street grabbing a girl and pistol whipping her friend." Fin snapped.

"I was nowhere near the place."

"Just like you were nowhere near your girlfriend's place, the night you beat the crap out of her?" Munch asked angrily.

"That was a misunderstanding." Frank said and sat back in his chair.

"You put your fist right through her teeth."

"And I did my time and I ain't been near the bitch since."

"That why you grabbed the waitress? Feeling the need for a little self expression?" Fin asked.

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about. I didn't grab nobody. And anybody who says otherwise is a liar."

Munch looked at Frank and then Fin. Then he sighed and sat back in his chair.

/Chung Chung/

Fin and Munch were walking down the stairs with Cragen and filling him in. "The bartender at Rusty's said Taggert ducked out around eleven the night of the abduction." Munch said.

"Gets him to the diner with time to spare." Fin added.

Cragen sighed. "What about the 4x4?" he asked.

"Nothing registered to him." Munch replied as they walked into Cragen's office.

"Doesn't mean he didn't steal one." Fin said.

"Well, get all the witnesses down here for a lineup. Including Sara Kimmel." Cragen stated.

"It's been almost a year." Munch said.

"He held her in that warehouse for two days. I doubt she's gonna forget his face."

"He messed her up pretty bad, Captain. We get the ID off the other two."

"Then we'll get a court order for his DNA to match to her assault. If not, she's our insurance policy."

Munch sighed and he and Fin left the office.

/Chung Chung/

Fin, Munch, Cragen and Casey were in the observation room with Butch. He was looking through the oneway mirror at the men in the lineup. "Does one of them have a tattoo?" Butch asked.

"We need you to make the identification without prejudice." Casey replied.

"It's the only thing I got a good look at, besides the gun." he said and looked back at Fin and Munch.

Next they brought in Marty Potter. "Number four. No five." Marty said and pointed to the glass.

"Which is it, Mr. Potter?" Casey asked.

"Five. Definitely five."

"Thank you, Mr. Potter." Cragen said and Marty left the room. "Officer Peters will be happy to know that he's just been identified as the Bowery Stalker."

"I'm sorry, Detective, it looks like it's up to Sara." Casey said to Munch.

/Chung Chung/

Sara was sitting at a table in a conference room. Munch entered and she looked up at him. "Is he really here?" she asked.

"We have a suspect but we need a postive ID." Munch replied and leaned on the table.

"I can't." Sara said and shook her head.

"He won't be able to see you."

"But I see him. Everytime I close my eyes. I leave my lights on at night or I see him staring at me from the shadows."

"He can't hurt you anymore." Munch stated.

"I'm 28. I'm living on disability because I can't leave my house without falling apart. Don't tell me that he can't hurt me."

"I wouldn't ask you to do this unless I had to. But we think he's hurting somebody else."

/Chung Chung/

Munch opened the door to the observation room and walked in with Sara. He walked her over to the window and she had her head lowered. "Whenever you're ready, Sara." Munch said softly.

Sara slowly lifted her head and looked through the window at the men in the lineup. Suddenly she got a terrified look on her face and she started to shake. "You see him don't you?" Munch asked.

"Detective." Casey warned.

"Which one, Sara, which one?" Munch asked.

Sara started to cry and collapsed against Munch. "He's not there."

Munch put his arms around her and held her. "It's okay. It's alright."

/Chung Chung/

Fin and Munch drove Sara home and walked her to her apartment. They got to the door and she unlocked it and walked inside. "Sara?" Munch said.

"Thank you for the ride home." Sara said, closed her door and locked it.

"Damn!" Munch hissed.

"You didn't have a choice." Fin said trying to ease his partner's mind.

"I was sure we had him. What the hell are we missing?" Munch asked.

"I was just thinking... Taggert said his tattoo was an original."

"Right. Elmo's Tats on 8th."

"I wonder how many Elmo original's are walking around Manhattan." Fin said and they left the apartment building.

/Chung Chung/

Fin and Munch were in Elmo's looking at the drawing of the tattoo posted on the cork board. "Hell of a work of art." Elmo said.

"If you say so." Munch replied.

"It ain't mine. A guy brought it in last summer. Asked me to do a tat and liked my work so much, left me the sketch as a bonus." he said and sat down to finish a tattoo on a customer.

"How many have you done since then?" Fin asked.

"Count 'em on one hand. Most folks are into Goth these days."

"Do you keep names and addresses?" Munch asked.

Elmo laughed. "It's not exactly that kind of business. But the ones who want that one are hard to forget."

"Such as?"

"Uh, an old dude who walked his cat on a leash, a woman wrestler, a guy who smelled like rotten fish and the one that brought it in."

"What'd he look like?" Fin asked.

"Big fella with a beard. He said that 'Bobcat' was his platoon name in the service."

"You mind if we take the sketch with us?" Munch asked.

"Why not, it's not exactly bringing in the foot traffic." Elmo replied and went back to his tattooing.

/Chung Chung/

They brought the sketch to Forensics to see if they could get any prints off of it. "I saturated the paper with Ninhydren which revealed two distinct sets of prints. One matched to the shop owner, the other was a John Doe."

"Damn." Fin said.

"Until... I ran it against the alternate databanks." the lab tech said and walked over to a nearby table. He picked up a file and handed it to Munch.

"Darryl R. Kern, dishonorably discharged from the Army in 2005." Munch read and handed the file to Fin. He then picked up the phone and dialed a number.

"About the same time the attacks started." Fin observed.

"How much you wanna bet that DMV turns up a green 4x4?"

"And a home address." Fin added.

/Chung Chung/

Fin, Munch and a SWAT team made their way down the hall to Kern's apartment. Fin found the door and pointed to it. "Right there."

Munch banged on the door. "Darryl Kern, this is the NYPD. We have a warrant to search the premises, if you don't open the door, we'll open it for you." Munch stated firmly. They waited a minute and listened for any kind of movement.

When they heard nothing, the SWAT leader gave the go ahead. "Take it down!"

A SWAT guy hit the door with a battering ram and everyone piled into the apartment. "Police!"

They cleared the place and Fin and Munch started their search. "Cool cat." Fin said looking at a picture on the wall.

"Fin." Munch called out. Fin walked over to Munch. "Take a look at this." he said and handed Fin some papers. "Easy pass bill."

"This guy does some serious traveling." Fin stated.

"And always to the same place." Munch noted.

/Chung Chung/

Fin and Munch were reporting the information they learned to Cragen, Nicole and Jamie. "Kern's Easy Pass statement show periodic travel along the same route dating back to last June." Munch said. "From Manhattan he goes across the Tri-borough bridge onto the throughway, across the Tabin Z, north to Utica where he exits onto Route 12 north."

"Credit cards show him gassing up his '92 Pathfinder along routes 12 and 11 all the way up to Walden Falls. A pit stop of a town 20 miles east of Watertown." Fin said.

"Two days later he takes the same route back to the city." Munch added.

"Seven women went missing within a day of each of these trips." Fin said.

Jamie shook her head. "You got a lot of unspoiled wilderness up there."

Cragen sighed and stood up. "Well, there's only one way to find him... Munch, Fin, pack your bags. You're going on a road trip."

TBC...