Picture Story: Law & Disorder Pt. 3

The statue of another missing woman was found in Central Park.

Unconventional Victims Unit Detective Ellen Gabler finished conferring with one of the crime scene techs and approached her partner, Detective Cynthia Benton. "The Sculptor's getting ballsy," Gabler pronounced as she surveyed the crime scene. Her gaze lingered on a crowd of bystanders who were watching the CSU team at work. "This path gets a lot of traffic."

"Yet somebody was able to haul a statue through the park and pose it here without being seen," Benton countered as she flipped through the wallet that had been found at the statue's feet, one of the Sculptor's trademarks.

Gabler frowned. "What's the vic's name?"

"The driver's license says Sonja Thorsdottir..."

Gabler raised an eyebrow. "Thorsdottir? What the hell kind of name is that?"

"Icelandic, I think," Benton replied distractedly. She held up a student ID card. "Sonja's a student at NYU, and has a job in the library there. The staff confirmed that she didn't show up for work today. She was last seen leaving the library last night around 7:00 PM."

"So... we'll need to follow up with her friends and neighbors and find out if anyone saw her after she got off work," Gabler pronounced. Her gaze flicked over the crowd again, and her eyes narrowed. She stepped closer to Benton and lowered her voice. "Cynthia, see that woman with the cigarette? The one in the distressed jeans?"

Benton glanced over at the onlookers on the other side of the crime scene tape, careful to avoid letting her gaze linger too long on the woman in question. "Yeah. What about her?"

"I could swear that I've seen her among the lookie-loos at some of the other crime scenes."

Benton's brow furrowed pensively. "Now that you mention it, I think that I remember seeing her, too."

The girl fidgeted a bit and looked around nervously, almost as if she knew they were talking about her. She glanced at the statue, then suddenly turned and started walking away from the crime scene.

The two detectives exchanged a look, and then nodded. Gabler casually slipped under the crime scene tape and headed down a side path as Benton set off in pursuit of the smoking girl. The detective made no attempt to conceal the fact that she was following the woman. Hearing the footsteps behind her, the suspect glanced over her shoulder at Benton, then picked up her pace. She was stomping along at a pretty good clip when Gabler suddenly emerged from behind a bush and stepped out in front of her.

"What's the rush, honey?" Gabler asked with a smirk.

"I, uh, have to, uh, be... somewhere," the girl replied evasively. She jumped as Benton stepped up beside her.

"What's that you're smoking there?" Benton asked. She sniffed the smoke and frowned. "Doesn't smell like tobacco. Could it be... ground up fruit rind, perhaps?"