A/N: Please note that this is the second part of an ongoing series.

Chapter 1

It was late in New York City and at the Special Victims Unit only Detectives Tutuola and Munch were on duty. Munch was surfing the Internet and Phin was chomping on a chilidog and thumbing through a newspaper. Olivia and Elliot had long since gone home. There was a smattering of other personnel in the room attending to other cases.

"The Yankees suck!" Phin announced.

Munch looked up from the computer screen. "They call themselves Yankees. What do you expect?"

A grim looking Captain Cragen marched in from his office with a picture in his hand. He pinned the picture of a dead man whose face was smudged with Halloween paint on the murder board. "This case just rolled over to us from Major Case."

Munch leaned back in his chair, disgusted. "Oh, this freak isn't important enough for them so they dump him on us?"

Cragen ignored him. "He was killed at the policemen's haunted house for charity a little while ago."

"Great," Phin said unenthusiastically.

"They initially thought he was Det. Mike Logan who was supposed to be where this dead guy ended up: as the hanging man. Instead Logan was knocked on the head." The victim had also been stabbed.

"Sounds like overkill to me," Phin stated.

Cragen turned to the board and wrote Dennis Whitlock underneath the picture. "He belongs to us because his prints came back identifying him as a pedophile just out of prison. We of course need to know who killed him. Since the two of you are on the overnight, guess what? It's all yours. I want you to get over to Major Case and talk to Logan and Wheeler --"

"What's this Wheeler cat go to do with it?" Phin asked.

"Wheeler is Logan's partner, so maybe she knows something." Cragen tried to mask a bemused look. "Or maybe not. According to Capt. Ross, seems she was having a little love fest with Det. Goren around the same time."

Munch frowned. "Goren? That big stiff?"

Phin chuckled. "Guess he's not your type, hunh, Munch?"

"No, he isn't," Munch admitted. "But she's a babe."

Cragen raised his hands. "Enough, you two,"

"What's the big deal about this dead pedo anyway?" Munch wanted to know. "If you ask me, the killer did us all a favor."

"I didn't hear anybody ask you," Cragen said, heading back to his office.

Phin chuckled and started for the door. "As much as I hate to agree with you, Munch, I do agree with you. But we still have to investigate. Can't have folks taking the law into their own hands."

Munch followed him. "You sound like Cragen. Or a politician. You running for office?"

"No," Phin said, looking back at him. "But I'm gonna run my fist up side your head if you don't shut the hell up."

Munch was about to say something else but thought better of it. Knowing Phin as he did, he realized that keeping his lip zipped was the best thing right now.

xxxx