Chapter 11: Blood on the Island

437 Saint Marks Place
Saint George, Staten Island
2:30 PM

After finding Steven Zhang's friend and potential alibi witness, Dwayne Leung, brutally murdered in his Staten Island home, District Attorney Investigator Aldèard Fontaine was standing by the duplex unit's front doorway as the NYPD and the Medical Examiner did their work.

Detective Tommy Marlese of the 120th Precinct was assigned to be the lead detective on the case. He had only been a detective for a little under 2 years, having previously worked for 5 years as a patrol officer at the nearby 121st Precinct.

Detective Marlese was a tall tan-skinned and dark-haired man in his early 40's who was dressed in a collared NYPD polo shirt which bared the image of a gold Detective's shield and his respective precinct number, khakis, and sandy brown boots.

Lieutenant Beck and Detective Stabler arrived at the scene soon after the former of the pair had received a perturbed call from her boyfriend, Investigator Fontaine. Beck briefly engaged Fontaine in a whispered conversation that was spoken entirely in French before she motioned to Stabler.

"Aldèard," Beck said, "This is Detective Eliot Stabler from the Organized Crime Task Force. Elliot, this is my boyfriend, Aldèard Fontaine."

The 2 men cordially shook hands. "It's nice to put a face to the name," Stabler said to Fontaine, "I'm so sorry we're not meeting under better circumstances."

"No worries, Elliot" Fontaine replied, "Under any circumstances, it's a pleasure to meet the man that my Dani has spoken so highly of."

Stabler lightened the grim atmosphere with a chuckle. "Alright," he said, "So why don't you tell us how you found all this?"

Fontaine cleared his throat before replying. "I came straight here from my office as soon as Dani called me," he began, "My plan was to do a straightforward knock-and-talk with Mister Leung and then report in to you guys as soon as we finished up. I got here just after One-Thirty and went towards the front door. That's when I saw the bloody hand swipe on the door."

Beck nodded. "So maybe our perp cut themselves," she replied, "Or just hastily wiped Mister Leung's blood on the door as they bolted."

"The body was cold," Fontaine continued as he pointed toward the sectional sofa, "There was some blood spatter on the couch over there, and the pooled blood underneath him is starting to dry."

An impressed Stabler jotted down the investigator's astute observations in his memo book. "You're very observant," he said, "Were you a cop before you took the DA's job?"

Fontaine shook his head. "Not here in America," he clarified, "But I was a police officer in France for eight years before I came here to New York and became a US citizen."

"You were able to fully clear the house, right?" Beck asked, "After you found the body?"

Fontaine hung his head slightly in response. "Honestly," he replied, "I was more focused on whether I could help the man on the off chance that he was somehow still alive. The patrol officers did a comprehensive search of the house when they got here and didn't find anyone."

Beck patted her boyfriend's shoulder before whispering something else in French to him. "You're only human," she then said to him in English.

Medical Examiner Al "Fitz" Fitzsimmons then chimed in as he stood over the body. "Detectives," he said, "I think you're going to want to see this."

Beck and Stabler both nodded and excused themselves. Fontaine, meanwhile, stepped outside to get some fresh air.

"What've you got, Fitz?" Stabler asked as he knelt beside Fitzsimmons at the late Dwayne Leung's head.

Al "Fitz" Fitzsimmons was a skinny, balding white man in his mid-40's who stood at 5'5. He was dressed in a zippered windbreaker bearing the official logo of the Chief Medical Examiner's office, blue jeans, and gray slip-on shoes that were covered by protective blue booties.

"As you can see," Fitzsimmons began explaining, "Mister Leung here was sliced left to right with what looks like a rather thin implement of some kind. By the position of the wound, it looks like he was surprised from behind by his attacker."

"Have you found any sort of trace evidence on the body so far?" Beck asked.

"You actually have some very good timing on that, Lieutenant" Fitzsimmons replied, "I did find an errant red hair on his shoulder when I first looked him over. I gave it to a CSU tech and it's on its way to our lab now."

Beck and Stabler traded looks for a minute. "Cool," Stabler said, "What about time of death?"

"Liver temperature indicates about four hours," Fitzsimmons said.

Detective Marlese then came up to them, at which point Beck stood up and extended a hand to the detective. "Hi Tommy," she said, "I didn't realize that you would be assigned to this one."

"Hey Dani," Marlese replied as he shook his former boss' hand, "It's nice to see you back here on the island again."

Stabler then stood up and nodded to Marlese. "Detective Elliot Stabler," he said, "How you doing? So, you guys know each other?"

"Detective Marlese here was one of my patrolmen when I was a Sergeant at the One-Twenty-One," Beck explained.

"I moved over here to the One-Twenty when a got my Detective's shield about a year and a half ago," Marlese added before clearing his throat.

"Listen," he continued, "I wanted to let you guys know that one of our officers talked to a neighbor who saw a red-haired individual knock on the door here at about Ten-Thirty this morning."

Stabler nodded. "Did they happen to see whether they left the scene in a car or a vehicle?" he inquired.

"He said that he saw a black Prius drive away roughly a minute or so after this mysterious red-haired person exited this unit," Marlese replied, "He saw the Uber logo on one of the backseat windows."

Manhattan SVU Squad Room
90 Minutes Later

The news of Dwayne Leung's vicious murder caused everyone to reconvene once again at the Manhattan SVU squad room. With Lieutenant Beck having returned to the 15th Precinct to handle other business, Benson, Stabler, Bell, Tamin, Ming, Tutuola and Slootmaekers were all present in the room.

Benson approached the bank of high-definition monitors at the front of the room. "So," she began, "What do we have so far on this Staten Island murder?"

Stabler stood up. "Dwayne Leung," he began explaining, "Age Twenty-Six, found dead in his duplex apartment this afternoon out in Saint George. Dani Beck's boyfriend, Aldèard Fontaine, found the body when he went there to interview him at our request. As we know, he's an investigator with the Staten Island DA."

"How's he holding up?" Benson asked.

Stabler shrugged his shoulders in retort. "He held it together when Dani and I were questioning him," he candidly replied, "He went out to get some fresh air after a few minutes, but I don't think any of us can blame him there. It was a very appalling scene."

"I'd say so," Tamin chimed in, "The guy had his throat slit left to right from behind. I've been in contact with Detective Marlese. He told me that a couple of officers found an eight-and-a-half-inch fillet knife with what looked like blood on it discarded in a gutter down the block from Mister Leung's duplex. The lab is working on it as we speak. "

"Elliot," Benson said, "You said that the perp left the scene in an Uber vehicle. Where are we on that?"

Slootmaekers stood up to answer the question herself. "I talked to the local Uber office a few minutes ago, Captain" she said, "They're working on trying to track down any of their Prius drivers who took people to that area of Staten Island today."

"Alright," Benson said, "Please stay on them if you would. In the meantime, what do we know about Dwayne Leung's movements today?"

"Marlese talked to the FDNY's Central Office where he worked," Tamin replied, "They said he'd been out sick for the last two days with the flu. None of his neighbors have seen him leave the house during that period, either."

Tutuola then raised a hand. "This is all very interesting," he said, "But this Leung guy was supposed to be corroborating the alibi that Steven Zhang gave you guys earlier, right?"

"Right," Stabler replied.

"So," Fin continued, "My question now is, if the dude is dead, where does that leave us as far as figuring out what the hell's going on here? Did this red-haired perp, whoever they are, kill him to silence him so that Enzo's attack could have a better chance at being pinned on Steven Zhang?"

Bell nodded as she began to mentally pick up what her fellow sergeant was putting down. "Or" she chimed in, "Did they kill him just to satisfy some sadistic impulse to throw us all off and leave us to scratch our heads for a while?"

Struck by his boss' moment of psychological insight into their suspect's mind, Stabler grinned. "Damn Sarge," he said, "I didn't know you had experience as a profiler."

Bell scoffed in retort before shrugging her shoulders. "What can I say?" she replied, "I've spent a little time taking classes with the FBI, too."

"Okay guys," Benson said, "Let's get back on track here. Speaking of Steven Zhang, what's the status on the case against him?"

"I talked to Mister Carisi on the phone half an hour ago," Ming replied, "He says that the Brooklyn DA's Office was trying to get their hands on Zhang because we grabbed him on their turf. But he anticipated that, so he reached out to one of their judges, who agreed to bundle the police evasion charges in with the prior van theft here in Manhattan. Judge Mcnamara gave him high bail and ordered him sent to Riker's for now." The sergeant referred to Riker's Island, a jail complex that sat on an island in the East River.

One of the unit's desk phones then started ringing, at which point Benson held up a hand and answered it. "Manhattan SVU," she said into the phone, "Captain Benson. What? Okay, hang on, I'm going to put you on speakerphone."

The captain momentarily lowered the phone receiver to address everyone. "Guys," she said, "It's Eames on the line. Something's going on and she needs our help."

Benson then pressed the speaker button and set the receiver down. "Okay, Inspector" she said, "You're on speaker and everybody else is right here with me. What's up?"

"Hey guys," Eames said from her side of the line with a noticeable sense of urgency in her tone, "I've got two precincts in Manhattan and Staten Island that are in the process of implementing Level One mobilizations."

"What's going on?" Tamin inquired.

"Zoe Harris, Mark Hedley, Barbara Hedley, and Perry Gilbert have all been reported as kidnapped," Eames replied, "Zoe was seen being grabbed from outside her workplace in the One-Five's territory thirty minutes ago. A witness said that she was being shoved into a gray four-door sedan, which promptly hauled ass out of there."

"What about Mark and Barbara?" Stabler asked.

"Central got a Nine-One-One call from their next-door neighbor roughly an hour before Zoe got taken," Eames explained, "Two cars from the One-Twenty-One responded and found the front door kicked in and the kitchen in complete disarray. They also found some signs of a struggle at the scene. The State Police Superintendent is livid since Mark is a trooper, but he says that his agency is at our disposal."

Benson glanced around the room. "Okay," she said as she went into Boss Mode, "Elliott and Jet, I want you guys working together to try and track down everybody's cell signal. Hopefully, they're still on."

She then looked at Tamin and Ming. "You guys go back to your precinct," Benson continued, "Coordinate with Lieutenant Beck and your precinct captain. I want as many of you guys flooding your territory as possible."

Tamin and Ming then got up and bolted out of the precinct, at which point Benson looked to Bell and Tutuola. "The three of us will run down leads from here," she said, "If we find anything tangible, then we'll all respond together."

Everybody then got to work, initiating their own mobilization in response to this now very harrowing development.