Chapter 2
"Can't see… Can't see…" Elliot's eyes are bothered by the spray that the shooter put into the air. There is only one way to end it… Olivia was glad that her former partner had pulled out his gun as hers went flying after she was shot. She grabs his arm, puts her hand over his and says, "I can."
The sound of knocking on her door snaps Olivia back to reality. She was still standing up after getting shot during the Shadowërk case. Her healing was moving along and Elliot had been helping as much as he could, which had been a blessing. She partly wondered if that was helping him deal with the death of Detective Jamie Whelan.
"Hey Liv, we've got a weird one," it was Amanda who entered her office.
"Oh yeah? And I guess you want to go out with the team?" Olivia gave her a look. Since the fall of Oscar Papa months prior, the blonde had gotten married to Carisi and had become pregnant with their first baby. The Captain figured that the BX9 case had pulled the two even closer together.
"I'm not that pregnant!" Rollins hated desk duty.
"Yes, you are. Where is the situation?" Olivia gave her a look.
"Trinity Church Cemetery," the blonde said. This caused the Captain to give her another look.
"The victim was found in the cemetery?" Olivia asked.
"It's complicated. The two-seven was called in when the grave diggers found bones where they didn't belong. Then they called us after Melinda confirmed that bones belonged to a kid," Amanda explained. Olivia let out a loud breath.
"Have Fin and Bruno take it… wait a minute, I thought they weren't able to bury anyone anymore. There's no room for in the ground burials in Manhattan. They had it on the news awhile back," she pointed out.
"Well, the nice lady who died had paid for her spot twenty years ago. They kind of had to leave it open since her husband was already there. Seems someone took advantage of the open hole in the ground…" Amanda told her.
"Good grief. Tell Fin and Bruno to go out to the scene. You and Churlish coordinate with the ME's office and the two-seven. We won't get Velasco back for another few days with him testifying," Olivia said.
"You got it," with that the blonde left the office. Olivia picked up her phone and called the Lieutenant of the two-seven, her good friend, Kate Dixon.
"Olivia, how are you doing?" Kate asked.
"I'll be able to sit down soon, but maybe not since my detectives heard about Trinity Church Cemetery before I did," she told her.
"Sorry about that. Things were moving fast and Detective Shaw called Rollins. Unfortunately, I need Shaw and Cosgrove on a not so cold body that turned up in an office building. Poor bastard was trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey," Kate heaved a sigh.
"Good luck. I've got Fin and Bruno heading to the cemetery," Olivia let her know.
"I'll pass the word along. Thanks Liv," Kate said.
"Anytime," Olivia promised and they ended the call. She sent a text to Elliot, wondering how his day was going and warning him that she might be in for a long night. He said he was going to swing by. Something had come up at OCCB.
"What do we have Melinda?" Fin asked as he and Detective Bruno walked up to the spot where the grave of Mrs. Bernardini was supposed to be. They had to be extremely careful to remove the bones and not dislodge poor Mr. Bernardini, who was beneath them. So, an archaeological type of dig was taking place to try and get all of the bones.
"Little kid. The skull has baby teeth in it so under twelve. I'll be able to give you more once I can complete the skeleton," Melinda said.
"Sometimes I really hate this job," Bruno shook his head.
"Don't we all?" The ME heaved a sigh.
"Can you gauge how long they've been dead?" Fin wondered.
"That's a full skeleton question as well. I'll need to look for outliers, like metal plates or orthopedic work. If I can't find anything then the lab would have to possibly radiocarbon date the bones," Melinda explained.
"I'll call Churlish and get her digging through missing kid's cases and see if the age range will help narrow it down," Bruno excused himself and moved away to make the call.
"Who does this?" Fin asked.
"The killer saw an open hole and disposed of the body. As much as I hate to say it – why here? I mean how many times have we fished bodies out of the water? Dumped in a park? Thrown into a dumpster? Much easier places than this," Melinda said.
"Maybe they cared for the victim but if they really cared, they wouldn't have killed the poor kid," he shook his head.
To Be Continued…