A/N: Sorry this is so late. Hope you enjoy it!
Chapter 6
Doctor Huang looked over the evidence on the board and frowned. The criminal they were after seemed to have a decided pattern. Yet the last day indicated that the killer was not escalating like they thought it was.
"Doesn't make sense does it?" Olivia asked.
"We don't have enough of the pieces. How many freezer places have you found?" Huang wanted to know.
"Surprisingly too many. We're trying to see if someone is using more electricity than they should be. Melinda said that there was no DNA so we have nothing there. She did say that we got matches on the victims. Both ladies were popped for prostitution a few years back. Our alley victim was Suzanne Smith and the second victim at Columbus Circle was Allison Grimes. If they weren't in the system, we wouldn't be able to identify them. He beat the living hell out of them," she said.
"He shows no preference for their looks. Suzanne was a blonde; Allison was a brunette. Suzanne was short and Allison was almost six foot. Our killer is using prostitutes because they are low risk. They go missing and no one will right away. He can stalk without anyone saying anything. Perhaps the reason we haven't heard from him is that the kills have emboldened him. As much as I hate to say it, perhaps he is out reaching for a harder target," Huang frowned.
"I hope you're wrong," Olivia shook her head.
"Have anything?" Cragen asked as he exited his office.
"Not yet. How about Munch and Fin?" Olivia asked.
"TARU got the video cleaned up enough to ID license plates. The care was not reported stolen so they're going to talk to the owner, a Mrs. Tina Scarlotti," the Captain explained.
"Ok so I'm guessing that our guy stole the license plates?" Olivia wondered.
"Could be or could be that Mrs. Scarlotti was victim zero. Munch and Fin have the local precinct backing them up," Cragen shook his head.
"Seems like it was too easy," Huang said.
"How do you figure?" Cragen gave him a look.
"Our killer is methodical. He makes a point to pick women that no one will miss. He beats them so that the only way we can identify them is by DNA; their fingers so frostbitten that printing them would basically be useless. If he's stolen a car, killing the owner is not part of his plan. It would be an opportunity to mess up and so far even his mistake about the alley killing wasn't enough to catch him. My guess is that he stole her license plates. He probably used gloves but it wouldn't hurt to fingerprint her car anyway," Huang told them. Olivia's phone rang and she picked it up. The phone call was short and she turned to the two men.
"Elliot has talked to Sister Peg and alerting the local pros. So far he doesn't have much in the way of ladies saying anything about seeing any possibilities for our suspect to show himself. He's on his way back in," she said.
"You guys waiting on something?" Melinda asked as she walked into the squad room.
"You have something?" Olivia wanted to know.
"I have something on the ligature marks. Our guy uses a bungee or something that he can wrap very tightly. The circulation gets cut off and he has them in the freezer which basically speeds up the frostbite," the coroner said.
"This guy is a sick bastard," Cragen clenched his fists. Then he got a call from Fin. They spoke for a few minutes and then he got off the line.
"You were right Doc. Mrs. Scarlotti is still kicking and her license plates are missing," he said.
"We need to pull everything we have together. This guy is out there stalking his next victim," Huang told them. It was then that Kathy Stabler walked into the squad room. Olivia swallowed hard and headed over to her.
To Be Continued…