What makes courage wither? Part 3

Amy Sykes looked pensively at the two murder boards the team had assembled in the squad room; Lieutenant Provenza had pulled rank on Robbery/Homicide, or so Amy deduced from the one-sided phone conversation, and then the older lieutenant had made Buzz roll the second board up from downstairs. Robbery/Homicide had rudely told Buzz off about what they had called 'thieving' and the tech had not looked happy when he came back up, the board rolling in front of him. Amy hid a smile as she listened to Buzz telling Provenza what Robbery/Homicide had said, word for word. Nevertheless, Major Crimes was now in the possession of an extra board.

One of the boards was for the 'guilty tattoo' serial killings, all six victims up on the board along with highlights and time lines in Lieutenant Flynn's neat, legible handwriting. The lieutenant's usual handwriting was illegible, but when he wrote on the board in a slow tempo that had Provenza rolling his eyes and Amy smiling at the sight, the words were large and precise. The other board was for Stroh, and the one Amy was working on along with Provenza and Mike Tao. Half of it was reserved for the investigation into the murder of Linda Rothman and the other half held the threats from Stroh.

Doctor Morales had called five minutes ago with the dental match from the teeth marks on Rothman and the DNA match. Amy had added Stroh's name to the board as the suspect. It was one thing to know in your gut that it was Stroh behind the murder, and a whole different feeling having that backed up with real evidence that would hold in court. She smiled relieved. The Captain made a brief appearance to hum as she looked at the board and at Stroh's name, her hand on Amy's shoulder giving a little squeeze before she went back into her office.

The time line for Linda Rothman was moving at a snail's pace and Amy spent the better part of the day trying to piece together the puzzle of the woman's whereabouts up until her death; Rothman had been to work Wednesday, the security guard together with security videos at the law firm, where she worked, had confirmed that. The lawyer left late at night and Thursday morning she had appeared early, but had left again before lunch, which was unusual of her according to the secretary. After that she had not come back into work and she had canceled a meeting with a potential client. So far it appeared the woman had gone home late Thursday evening to her house and stayed there. The lawyer had been killed sometime between that and early next morning. It did not tell Amy much.

Amy turned her attention to the bouquet of roses, she was sure Stroh had brought them with him. It was impossible to find where the bouquet was purchased without a delivery boy or any other distinguishing mark. Nevertheless, Provenza was supervising a search of the florists near Rothman's residence with rookies out of the academy. So far, no one had seen a man with Stroh's description buy roses or any other kind of flower.

"Any headway, Amy?" Mike asked her, swiveling around on his chair to face her.

"A bit," Amy nodded from behind the computer. She moved the cursor and went back to the cross-database search engine before she looked up to meet Mike's eyes, "From the canvassing we have a couple of neighbors reporting a white van or station car parked in Rothman's driveway along with her own silver Mercedes the night to Friday and early Friday morning. The Garbage man saw it as well when he went on his round at 5 am."

Mike tilted his head, "So Stroh might have a car?"

"I'm currently checking cars and vans," Buzz supplied, having heard the end tail of the conversation. He came from the break room carrying two cups of coffee and he gave one of them to Amy.

Buzz continued, "So far, I haven't seen a white car matching the description at any of the nearby traffic cams," he sipped from his mug, "but I still have a few cams to go through."

"It could be a rental," Mike offered with a thoughtful expression, his eyes on Buzz.

Buzz nodded, "I'm checking into that as well. I'm only waiting for Detective Sykes' warrant to go through, the rental places aren't big on sharing if they don't have to, legally."

Amy sipped the coffee while she listened.

"Rothman is not very active on Facebook or any other social media site; the last entry she made on Facebook is over four months old," Mike told them, "I have her credit card statements but there's nothing out of the ordinary on them."

"I sent the warrant for her practice to Judge Grove, in regards to her defense of Stroh," Amy informed the two men, "Just waiting for a signature. Maybe it will tell us something we don't know."

"It is likely," Mike agreed nodding.

"Maybe her defense will reveal a reason for Stroh to have killed her," Buzz wondered out loud as he sipped from his cup of coffee.

"You mean, aside from him being a bleeping psychopath?" Lieutenant Flynn commented from behind Amy. She looked over her shoulder; the lieutenant's expression was painted by annoyance and underlined with his arms crossed. To Amy he looked to be at the brink of biting someone's head off.

"Stroh could very well be working with a partner again," Mike added.

"I'm sure Stroh has his own repertoire of psychopaths to choose from," Flynn said, "just imagine how many he cultivated before we caught him. I bet burning man and the rest are just the top of the iceberg."

Mike tilted his head and gave Flynn a teasing smile, "As a matter of fact, Andy, that term is outdated. We are not calling them psychopaths anymore, the proper term is dissocial personality disorder."

Amy almost laughed at the funny grimace Flynn made. She had to hide her grin behind the coffee cup and turned away from Flynn, afraid she would laugh out loud if she kept looking at him. Flynn would surely be directing his annoyance her way if she laughed.

Flynn shook his head, "Word play nonsense, Mike. Dissocial or psychopath, what's the difference, huh? A psychopath's a psychopath."

"Well," Mike started in a characteristic exuberant tone and Amy smiled to herself, already knowing this would lead to a lecture on psychology, "it's actually a genuine distinction. Psychopath is not a diagnosis in any diagnostic classification system. The term, dissocial, says more about the psychopathology behind the personality disorder that leads to -,"

Flynn rolled his eyes and then quickly intervened, "Yeah that might make sense to the shrinks, but Stroh and his associates are still star psychos' in my book."

Mike sighed.

Amy lowered her coffee cup and smiled, "I'd have to agree with Lieutenant Flynn."

Flynn gave her a small, approving smile.

Mike pursed his lips, but then ignored the comment, "I would think it is highly likely that Stroh has someone doing his bidding - or working with him somehow. Helping him delivering the threats maybe."

"It would be the smart thing to do," Amy nodded in agreement, "and free him of showing his face publicly in LA."

All four nodded and after a few silent seconds, Mike turned to Lieutenant Flynn.

"How's the tattoo case going, Andy?" Mike asked.

"Slow," was the monosyllabic, irritated answer.

"How slow?" Amy asked curiously and sipped from her mug.

"Slow enough to give me a headache. I'm trying to see if I can find anyone with an excessive procurement of Rohypnol."

"Rohypnol?" Mike asked, "why?"

Flynn sighed and scratched his chin, "Desmond and Wilton were pumped full of the stuff, and the two victims from March were sedated with the drug as well. Doctor Morales is going back to the victims from December to redo the toxicology test."

Mike hummed, his expression pensive.

Flynn continued in a somber voice, now resting his head in his hand, "The girl, who put up the charges against Wilton and Desmond, said they drugged her. Unfortunately, without any blood samples we can't determine if it was with rohypnol or not. But it's the assumption we're working with."

"That would make sense," Amy nodded.

"Yeah, kill the rapists with the drug they drugged their victim with. Sounds like the MO of a vigilante killer for sure," Flynn shrugged, "Julio is trying to find the girl and get a statement."

Lieutenant Flynn then turned to regard Amy, "You find anything more out about the roses?"

Amy shook her head in the negative, "Not yet, no."

"What about the bouquet the Captain got?"

Amy shook her head, "Provenza's on it."

"Do you think the Captain is Stroh's next target?" Mike asked her.

"Why send a warning to someone before you intend to kill them?" Buzz intervened before Flynn could answer.

"It's a scare tactic, meant to rile us up. The equivalent of giving us the middle finger," Flynn said with a sigh, "I just wish the bastard would say it to my face instead."

Mike gave a small smile, "And then what? Would you shoot him?"

Flynn gave a grin, "Maybe not between the eyes. I was thinking more south of that. Two in his junk; seems fitting, huh."

Amy expelled a small breath, shaking her head with a wry smile, "I'm not sure that would be entirely sanctioned."

Flynn rolled his eyes, "Of course not goody two shoes. I'm going to arrest the bastard if I ever happen to come across him," he paused and continued with a dangerous glint in his eyes, "But if I do meet Stroh, and he so much as twitches, I'm gonna shoot, sanctioned or not. Remember how much it costs us the last time we brought him in alive? That man is a monster – better off dead if I had a choice."

Mike nodded; his expression as grim as Flynn's.

It wasn't that Amy disagreed with the two; she would just like to put Stroh on trial for all his crimes and then sentenced, justice served. It was the right way. Buzz seemed to agree with her judging from the small frown on his brow.

…