A/N: I am sorry for how late this is. My back is out of whack and I have spent the last week going to appointments and trying to get as comfortable as I can. I appreciate your patience and thank you so much for reading.
Chapter 4
Elliot dialed Benson's phone number the second he was out of the courtroom. The call went to voicemail and he left her a message. Then he called Fin. The Sergeant picked up and Elliot wondered if he'd heard from his commanding officer. He had not but he gave Elliot Amanda's number and the former SVU detective thanked him.
"Rollins," the southern drawl was still slightly apparent in her voice.
"It's Elliot," he said.
"Hey Stabler. You lose the Captain's number?" She asked.
"Funny. She didn't pick up," Elliot told her.
"That's because of what we're staring at. She's on the phone with Chief McGrath. You ever hear of a rape tree?" Amanda wanted to know.
"Fairly certain I don't want to know. These BX9 guys just keep getting worse, don't they?" He asked.
"They certainly aren't getting any better. Meet us at the precinct. We're heading back there soon," the blonde told him.
"See you then," Elliot promised. He hung up and heaved a sigh. His guess was that the team probably hadn't eaten lunch and now they were approaching the dinner hour. Doing a quick search to see if the pizza place near the precinct was still in business, Elliot phoned in an order.
"Who was that?" Detective Bruno asked.
"Stabler. Used to be SVU, now he's OCCB," Fin explained.
"Checking up on your Captain?" Bruno was surprised.
"They have their own complicated thing. Kind of like this mess you got going on here," Fin shifted the focus back to the pile of cases. The two didn't get a moment of silence as Officer Tonie Churlish walked into the conference room they were in.
"U.S. Attorney Avital just told me that Captain Benson won't be joining us. Things have taken an unexpected turn and she's been put in charge of this," the young, ambitious officer showed them a picture she'd just been sent. It was a tree that was covered in women's underwear, like they were the leaves on the branches.
"What the hell is that?" Fin gave her a look.
"Duarte called them 'rape trees'. They're a giant collection of trophies. Captain Benson is ordering a rush on all the DNA. She's willing to bet that since these were probably all perpetrated by BX9 members, that their DNA will be in the system. At any rate, the U.S. Attorney's office wants this cleaned up, like yesterday," Tonie explained.
"Guess that means the pressure if off of us then?" Bruno wondered.
"Avital wants me to assist Sergeant Tutuola in hiring new detectives for Bronx SVU. She also expects that we get this ship righted before the whole BX9 situation hits the papers," she told them.
"That'll take some pressure off. If the media is worried about what Liv is up to, we can get this cleaned up. Where are we on catching our guy who is targeting deaf girls?" Fin wanted to know.
"I've got the victims coming in tomorrow morning, but we're short a translator. I called down to One PP for one but that was two days ago," Bruno shook his head. Fin frowned but didn't get a chance to say anything as his phone rang. While he answered it, Bruno's phone rang too. Churlish raised an eyebrow wondering what the likelihood was. Still, she waited patiently until Fin got off the phone.
"That was my Captain. She offers her apologies, but she's got someone who can help us with the translating," Fin told her.
"Good because we've got a body," Bruno was upset. This guy was escalating and now a poor girl was dead.
"He killed someone?" Churlish asked.
"Found her behind a dumpster near Willis and a hundred and forty-first," the detective was not in a good mood.
"All right. Me and you, let's get down there. Churlish, start looking at candidates so we can fill some of these desks around here. We need to get this wrapped up to get the Feds and McGrath off our asses," Fin told them as he stood up. Bruno quickly joined him and grabbed his coat.
To Be Continued…