Chapter 3
"Hey Liv," Rollins had poked her head into her friend's office again. The Captain moved her head around her laptop.
"What's up?" Olivia asked.
"The dig is going to take a while. Fin and Bruno have spoken to the cemetery workers. They don't think any of the grave diggers did it. Their boss doesn't seem like a likely suspect either. Since it's a cemetery, there is no security camera footage. Churlish has started sifting through the missing persons cases but without much more to narrow the search…" the blonde paused. There were cases across the decades and some of the records hadn't been fully uploaded into the system. There was just a note telling the searching detective to head to file storage.
"There's too many to count," Olivia heaved a sigh.
"It's depressing…" Amanda admitted.
"Yes, it is. There isn't much to do until we get a date range from Melinda. You and Churlish head home for the night. I'll call Fin and let him know," the Captain told her.
"Sounds good. I'll see you in the am," the blonde said.
"Give my best to Carisi," Olivia smiled.
"Will do," Amanda smiled back and then left the office. Olivia picked up her phone and called her sergeant. Fin confirmed that they had reached a holding pattern as well. Melinda and her team had officers from the two-seven keeping the scene secured.
"See you in the morning," with that the phone call ended. She peered out into the bullpen to find it empty. Elliot was not coming over tonight. A case had called him to go back undercover. She wasn't thrilled with the idea as OCCB was down a detective, which meant less people to back him up. There was also a worry that their heads and hearts might not be fully in it.
A knock on her office door made her lose focus on her thoughts. Knowing everyone had gone home, she left her standing station and went to her office door. Upon opening it, she found a five-foot-tall woman dressed in a blue pant suit, a badge clipped on her hip, next to her weapon.
"Captain Benson?" The brunette asked.
"I am and you are?" Olivia wanted to know.
"Detective Amanda Klass, Queens SVU," she explained and stuck out her hand. Olivia shook her hand and let the woman into her room.
"What can I do you for?" The Captain asked. She offered the detective a seat on her couch, noticing that instead of wearing dress shoes, she wore black sneakers. Olivia quickly explained that she couldn't sit down just yet due to her injuries.
"Word was that you found a body in a cemetery. I wanted to come down and see for myself," Klass told her.
"News travels fast," Olivia was surprised.
"I have a friend down at the ME's office who called me. She knows that I'm on the lookout for a missing girl, Nicole Cox. She'd be eleven years old now," Klass heaved a sigh.
"How long has she been missing?" Olivia asked.
"Just before the pandemic. She went out Christmas shopping in December of twenty-nineteen with her mom. Neither one of them came home. We found her mom, Darlene, last year or rather what was left of her, after a house was demolished in Queens. It was mostly bones and she'd been shot in the back of the head," Amanda shook her head.
"And you think that Nicole might be our dead body," the Captain said.
"Honestly, I don't know what I think. We combed that site looking for Nicole but never found any trace of her. Darlene had been buried beneath the basement floor. I could never peg this guy. He kidnaps a mother and her seven-year-old daughter and held the mother for some time before he killed her. Then what about Nicole? If he were a pedophile, he would have just kidnapped Nicole. Would have been easy enough. How busy are the stores in December? But he took them both," Klass explained.
"What did the security footage at the store show?" Olivia wanted to know.
"Cameras were terrible. We have them leaving the store, but as they get near their vehicle, all we have is a man approaching them. Then a big delivery truck pulls up blocking the camera. By the time the store workers tell him where to go, Darlene's car is still in its parking spot and the two are gone," the detective frowned.
"Do you think it was a coordinated attack? Either that or our kidnapper got incredibly lucky," the elder woman said.
"That's what I thought. Turns out the truck driver had been hired as extra holiday help and it was his first delivery. He didn't know what he was doing. We had TARU analyze the footage for the days prior and even if we'd had footage, it would have been impossible to get license plate numbers. The further out something was the blurrier it got and worse still it was all in black and white. In this day and age, you would have thought there would have been a better system installed," Klass heaved another sigh.
"They were more worried about inside the store than outside," Olivia understood the frustration.
"So anyway, the ME's office has Darlene's DNA on file so if they match it to the body… I just want to know if you catch the guy," the detective said.
"I'll do you one better. I'm down a detective while he testifies in court. I'll call your Captain and you can fill in the team tomorrow morning. If it turns out to be Nicole, I'll see if we can borrow you for longer," Olivia told her.
"Really?" Klass was surprised she'd offer and did not want to get into a turf war.
"You know this case better than anyone. Plus, I have a very pregnant detective who is on desk duty. We could use the extra set of hands," the Captain smiled.
"I appreciate it, Captain, I really do," the detective stood and shook her hand again.
"No problem. See you in the morning," Olivia told her.
To Be Continued…