Australian Christmas Greeting

Law & Order: Criminal Intent

by RoadrunnerGER

Disclaimer: No, still don't own them. Who said so? They're not mine. :(( The same applies to the song.

A/N: Before I joined FFN I had the idea to write an Advent Calendar and started to write Santa Incident, my first fanfic ever. But it didn't work out as I planned and when I finally joined in December it was way too late. Now it's December again and I did not only rewrite the SVU Advent story, but also wrote a new one for CI!

As it is the nature of an Advent Calendar, a new chapter will come up each day. Please have fun and let me know what you think, okay. ;) Many thanks to my beta-reader who helped me so much. This story is for Bammi1 and Infinity Star as well as for Blucougar57, The Confused One, Obsessedwithstabler, MaryT, Iluvstabler, all my reviewers and all the fans out there who read and share here on FFN.

1

Santa is dead

Alex Eames stood in the narrow alley between dumpsters and large cardboard boxes. At her feet lay the corpse of the day, a man in his thirties, even as the long white beard that hung lopsidedly under his chin suggested another age.

Well, for a Santa it's quite natural to wear a white beard, Alex thought.

He still wore his red suit, including the heavy fur lined boots and the corresponding hat. It was not one of the cheap costumes you could get everywhere but a thick velvet coat and trousers in a bright fiery red. Not even the fur on the rim looked as if it was synthetic. Alex could not tell for sure, but for all she knew it seemed to be real fur. The forensics would find it out for her.

The robe was not disheveled as if he had been fighting but the man also did not appear as if he died a peaceful death, as evidenced by the location, too. His features were distorted and he lay in a somewhat cramped position. Obviously he had been in a lot of pain.

Cause of death was not as obvious. There were no visible injuries, no strangulation marks, no blood. Still something had killed him.

"How do we know that he didn't have a heart attack?" Alex asked M. E. Rodgers.

"For sure? I can only tell that for sure after the autopsy."

"Is there any hint of third party fault?" Alex remained skeptical. "He could have had a stroke, tottered over here and broke down next to the dumpster. It doesn't look as if he fought for his life."

"As he is a VIP you'll have the honor to find his killer," Rodgers assumed.

"Yeah…" Alex looked back down at him, trying to find any sign of struggle except his painful distorted features. "Just wonder what the son of Eugene Tolliver was doing here in the middle of the night in a Santa suit."

"Well," Rodgers sighed, "that's your job to find out."

"Yeah, it is," Alex mumbled.

It was not long after two in the Saturday morning and she was tired. To be honest she was not very interested to work this case. During the last days she really had felt the absence of her partner, but she knew that she had to grant him the time. The death of his mother struck him hard and Alex had tried to keep in touch with Bobby, but he refused to talk with her. All she could do was to offer him an open ear and wait until he was ready to share his thoughts with her.

Right now she could do with some of his input. Maybe Bobby, with his unique way to look at crime scenes, would pick something up that she missed so far.

"When can you tell for sure?" Alex asked.

"If he was murdered? After autopsy, Alex. I already told you. But my guess is that he was poisoned. Either that or maybe an anaphylactic shock."

"An allergic reaction?" Alex mused. "That would be natural death."

"Only if he wasn't exposed to the allergen by his killer."

Alex rolled her eyes at the medical examiner. Now she really could do with her partner. An encouraging smile, a cup of coffee that miraculously appeared in his hand to give it to her, maybe a snack at their favorite diner… But what she missed most was the talk. With Bobby she could talk about all the world and his brother. Even the most ridiculous speculations finally led them to the right conclusion.

"Okay, Eames," Captain Ross, who just arrived at the crime scene, interrupted her thinking. "What do we have?"

"Nothing special yet," she answered. "Rodgers can't tell for sure if he was murdered or not until after the autopsy. We'll have to wait until then."

"That's not exactly what I'd like to tell his father."

"It's all we know so far, sir. We shouldn't just assume that he was killed only because he has a famous father."

"Well, Eames, ambassador Tolliver is not just famous. He's the British ambassador to the U.S. His son's killing deserves our full attention."

"If he was murdered, that's exactly what he'll get," Eames confirmed.

Damn! She really was tired. Tired not only because it was in the middle of the night, but also tired of her working alone. Of course she granted Bobby his grievance time. She knew how important this time off was as she had experienced that, too.

But as much as she appreciated Mike Logan's banter, it could not console her with the absence of her partner. She felt robbed of her second half. Another sigh escaped her.

Okay. Let's talk with the guy who found him, she thought and turned to go to the patrol car where he was waiting.

tbc…