Chapter 13
"I can't leave you alone for five minutes, can I?" Captain Benson asked as she approached Detective Klass. She had left Casey Barreto's office in the capable hands of Detective Lee when she'd received a call from the Queens SVU detective. The Captain noticed the scene had been encircled by squad cars from the local precinct and a forensics team was busy working in the formerly occupied lot. Some of the CSU team were sifting through garbage that had been left behind and there was a team using ground penetrating radar in a portion of the lot that looked like it had been disturbed recently. Benson shivered involuntarily as thoughts of finding Maria Recinos in a lot similar to this one popped into her head.
"Well truth be told, I wasn't expecting Betty to find us something interesting," Klass shrugged.
"Betty was helping?" Benson raised an eyebrow.
"She needed a walk and I was thinking that a couple with a dog might blend into the neighborhood a little better than two cops. It was all good until Betty lost it. I haven't seen her do that before," the detective admitted.
"What did you find?" The Captain wanted to know.
"Since Betty is not a police dog, I called for backup, and put her in the car. I didn't want any crime scene contamination. Local precinct was kind enough to bring a dog with them and we figured that he stumbled on what Betty could smell," Klass moved toward Gonzales and the forensics team. They were looking at a pile of garbage that was near the entry to the lot where Betty first alerted.
"I didn't know Betty was a cadaver dog," Benson said as she moved with her.
"She isn't. Sniffed bombs in Afghanistan, but I suppose that she would know what death would smell like," Klass explained. There were more questions, but they were stopped by the New Jersey State Trooper saying,
"You guys better come take a look at this." The two women turned their attention to what was found.
"Is that what I think it is?" Benson gave him a look.
"It used to be a dog. Give me a few days and I could find out what kind," CSU tech Lauren Dancy told them.
"Was this what Betty smelled?" Klass was also concerned that she had just called for backup so they could disturb Fido's grave.
"Probably, but it gets worse," Lauren admitted before she moved over to another pile of garbage.
"What is in that bag?" Benson raised an eyebrow.
"Well, I don't want to scare anyone, but we might have a budding serial killer in the neighborhood," the CSU tech opened the bag and the stench knocked them back a bit. There were more skeletal and non-skeletal remains in the bag – mostly what appeared to be squirrels, rats, and a few that they couldn't readily identify. Lauren quickly reclosed the bag.
"Good lord. No wonder Betty freaked out," Klass gagged.
"Ok, but how does this help our case?" Benson wanted to know.
"Not sure but we've got the name of the owner of the lot and we can go knock on his door. Could be our Mr. Louis Howey just dumps his garbage here or could be…" Gonzales started.
"In on our little charade," Benson nodded.
"I've got something!" It was the tech with the ground penetrating radar calling out.
"Might not be a budding serial killer after all," Lauren swallowed.
To Be Continued…