Law and Order: SVU is the intellectual property of Dick Wolf. The use of the characters, settings, and plotlines is not malicious. This is a work of fiction.

Squad Room of the Special Victims Unit, Sixteenth Precinct, Manhattan

"When did you find this?" Elliot asked, horrified as he watched the video play again. He grimaced as he looked away from the computer, catching Olivia's pained eyes. His heart sank, and for a moment, he wished he could shield her from the terrors of the job. "Liv, let's see if Morales can trace this piece of..."

"Already called him," she mumbled quickly, her eyes glued to the computer screen and her thumbnail caught between her teeth. "He's working on it."

As discreetly as he could, he ran his hand in small circles on her lower back, hidden from view by her chair. "Stop watching this," he whispered. "Once was enough, you know you don't..."

"I don't want to miss anything," she interrupted him again. "There's got to be something..."

"If I don't get a raise because of this, I quit!" Morales from the technical response unit burst into the room, cutting off the rest of Olivia's words. "The user who uploaded the video...TheWatcher59...I got his name, address, and upload history. This isn't his first time at the rodeo." He pushed his way in between Munch and Elliot, grabbed the mouse, and began to point and click as he typed into a search engine. He gave a triumphant yelp and held both hands out to the monitor. "See?"

"Son-of-a-bitch," Elliot hissed, scanning the list of uploaded videos on the screen. "Every one of these is either footage of a crime scene, some of 'em are in-progress, who the hell is this hump?"

Morales, looked at him and handed him a sheet of paper. "Here," he said.

Elliot's eyes widened, and then narrowed. "Liv," he said, sliding the paper in front of her. "Mother fucker lied to us."

Olivia scoffed as she read the name and the address, and she looked at Elliot. "Why am I not surprised?"

"You're jaded," he said bitterly. "Like me." He slapped her on the shoulder lightly. "Let's go." He waited for her to stand, handed her jacket to her, and gave her a small wink and a smile.

She returned his lighthearted grin, and then moved in step with him. They were almost to the door when Cragen stopped them. Together, their heads turned, and they waited with slight contempt in their eyes. The conversation from earlier that morning had left wounds, some caused by what was said, and some caused by what wasn't."

"I, uh, just wanted to tell you again...before you go...I'm sorry." Cragen nodded once at them. "I can admit when I'm wrong, and, uh, I guess I was misinformed." He looked down and dismissed them with a wave of his hand, and turned to focus on the still-looping video of their victim being dragged down the street and left on the sidewalk in front of the West End Apartments.

West End Apartments, 5D, Riverside Drive, NY

"Danielson, NYPD, open up!" Olivia yelled, pounding on the door with the side of her fist. "You knew we'd come back!" She stepped back, hearing the chain-lock slide and jingle, and both she and Elliot readied their guns.

The door opened, and Brian Danielson stood in front of it, wearing nothing but a pair of striped boxers and a smug grin. "Afternoon, Detective," he said, poking the inside of his cheek with his tongue. "I was hoping to see you again. You know, if your pal here wanted to leave you with me, I'd, uh, take good care of you."

With a furrowed brow, Olivia looked at Elliot. "Is this kid for real?"

"He keeps it up he won't be real at all anymore," Elliot said, his jaw tight and his teeth clenched. He rolled his neck and stretched a bit, and then addressed Danielson. "We need to ask you a few more questions. You need to put some clothes on, and you need to come with us."

"No," Danielson said, squinting and turning his lips up. "I don't think I do. I told you everything I know about..."

"You're 'TheWatcher,'" Olivia said, silencing him. "Fifty-nine? What does that mean?"

Danielson's face went white. He backed away from the door, shaking his head. "That's supposed to be anonymous. How the hell did you find out that was me?"

Elliot smirked. "We're detectives," he said with a shrug. "It's what we do. Now, we're being nice, here, letting you put some clothes on, but if you'd rather come down to the station in your skivvys, I have no problem dragging your ass down there right now."

Danielson nodded, then left the door open as he moved to the side to pull on a pair of jeans and a tee shirt. He grabbed his jacket and looked at Elliot, and then at Olivia. "Honestly, I just uploaded footage from the security camera. It's nothing I didn't give you, and no one got hurt by..."

"No one got hurt?" Olivia spat, disbelieving. "That woman's family may have seen that! That's someone's mother, and you plastered pictures of her naked, broken, dead body all over the internet!" She grabbed his arm and yanked him out into the hallway. "Let's go."

Danielson turned and looked over his shoulder at Elliot, who was a walking a half-step behind them. "I really didn't mean to...it was just a grainy video! I didn't think it would cause any trouble!"

"No, you didn't," Elliot said to him. "Obviously, thinking is difficult for you." He heard Olivia chuckle and he tugged on his tie, his grin growing a bit wider.

Squad Room of the Special Victims Unit, Sixteenth Precinct, Manhattan

"So, you're telling me, all we have him on is criminal mischief, obstruction, and unlawful distribution of surveillance images," Casey Novak, Assistant District Attorney, listed as she sat on the edge of Elliot's desk.

"Sums it up," Elliot said sharply. "Could you get your ass off of my blotter?"

Casey peered down at him, a bit aggravated, as she slid off of his desk and leaned against it. "Better?"

He rolled his eyes. "Worse," he said. "Just move, Novak." He used his elbow to nudge her out of the way, smoothed out his wrinkled calendar, and shook his head. He sent an annoyed look across his desk toward Olivia, who was glaring at Casey. "Hey," he called to her in a harsh whisper. He saw the fire in her eyes as she snapped her head toward him. A surge of arrogant pride coursed through him, knowing how jealous she was, and knowing why. "I didn't even notice, so stop making a mental list of the ways you could kill her."

"I'd get away with it," she hissed back at him, swiveling her chair around. She picked up her pen and shook he head, refocusing her attention toward the case. "Morales cleaned up some of the images, so we have a clear shot of our perp." She held and eight-by-ten photo in her hands. "Or, at least the guy who dumped the body. I'm running it through the system, hopefully this new facial-recognition program is worth the grant money the department spent on it."

Elliot scoffed. "Well, at least we got his face."

Munch hummed, hearing her. "And thanks to Doc Warner, we got an ID on the vic." He walked over to the magnetic board in the middle of the room, shuffled a few things around, and tacked up a photo of his own. "Darlene Aberforth."

"Okay," Elliot said, leaning back in his chair. "That sounds like money."

"I'll say," Munch said, turning to face his colleagues. He lowered his head a bit and peered at them over the rim of his glasses. One bony finger pointed upward as he spoke. "Her husband was the late Richard Aberforth, the real-estate mogul. Self-made billionaire, left her sitting on a mountain of cash and assets when he died."

Olivia clicked the pen in her hands over and over, mirroring Elliot's position. Leaned back in her chair, legs crossed, and eyes forward, she asked, "Did we notify the family? And how much are we talking about, because money is always a motive for..."

"Her three children are scattered across the country," Munch said, holding up a hand and shaking his head. "No immediate family in the tri-state area. Her oldest daughter is flying in from Arizona tonight, but I couldn't reach the other two." He dropped into his chair and rubbed his palms over his knees for a moment. "They each have a strong but equal share of inheritance, on top of their current split fortunes. Money wouldn't be an issue for any of them, so that's the wrong tree to be barking up, Benson."

"Guess so," she said with a laugh. "I'll look deeper into her financials, see if there's a greedy broker, crooked banker, or pissed off politician in her history." She sat up straighter and started typing into her computer.

Elliot reached over, grabbing a green and white cup off of Olivia's desk. He brought it to his lips and sipped, winking at her, and put it back down where he'd found it. He took a breath and asked, "Do know if she had any enemies? She piss anyone off lately?"

"Only about fifty disgruntled employees," Munch said as he pointed to his partner. "Fin did a little digging while you were chatting with our amateur Spielberg in the box," he said.

"She was the boss from hell," Fin declared as he rubbed a hand down his face. He flipped up a page in his notebook and rattled off a list of their victim's hired help. "Man, this woman had people for everything. She had a dog-walker, four maids, a butler, a cook, two landscapers, a gardener...because apparently that's different...a guy who washed the windows, a lady who did her laundry, two drivers, and a personal aesthetician." He looked up, flummoxed. "Whatever the hell that is."

Olivia laughed, taking a sip of her coffee and then handing it to Elliot, who nodded gratefully. "It's a skin and beauty specialist. You know, facials, chemical peels, hair, and makeup...some even give Botox injections and perform minor plastic surgery."

Fin narrowed his eyes. "So someone who does all the shit you don't need done, huh?"

"Damn right," Elliot said, smiling at Olivia. "She's a natural beauty."

Casey let out a single snort of laughter and folded her arms. "Natural, except the hair color, right?"

Elliot turned with a sneer and shrugged at her in confusion. "Why are you still here?"

"I'm waiting for one of you to give me something I can use with Mister YouTube in there!" she yelled, jutting a thumb in the direction of the interrogation room. "If I charge him with three E-Felonies, he'll be home in time for dinner!"

"Well, that's all he's guilty of, so schedule his arraignment and remind him to floss after he eats!" Elliot yelled back. He sighed and licked his lips, rising from his seat. He took two steps, closing the gap between him and Casey. "Oh, by the way," he said, lowering his voice, "Next time you want to throw me and Liv under the bus, make sure it's for something we actually did, instead of something your sick and twisted little mind conjured up."

Casey flinched. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You told Cragen I was sleeping with her," he whispered angrily. "It's none of anyone's business, especially yours, if I am or not. So stay out of my life, and stay out of my way. You got that?"

"Are you out of your mind?" Casey said snidely. "Why the hell would I tell Cragen anything? And, for the record, you can fuck whoever you want."

"Yeah, I can," he hissed. "But no one in this place needs to know about it. You're fucking lucky I got us out of the fucking mess you made. Christ, he was ready to fire us." His eyes flickered with anger and his nostrils flared. "Try anything like that again, and I'll go right to McCoy."

Casey let out a slow breath, looked deeply into Elliot's eyes, and whispered back, "Even if I did know you were screwing your partner, I wouldn't tell that to Cragen. So if someone was trying to get you in hot water, it wasn't me." She straightened up and, loud enough for all to hear, she said, "You got it, Detective. I'll schedule his arraignment. Sorry I took up so much of your precious time." She looked around and then huffed as she turned sharply and walked out of the squad room.

"Everything okay?" Olivia asked him, concerned.

He nodded, scratching at the budding five-o'clock-shadow on his chin. "Peachy," he said, walking back to his chair. He sat, pulled his seat into his desk, and said, "Just taking care of a little problem.

"Good," she told him. "Now maybe you can help me take care of a big one."

He tilted his head, grinned at her, and said, "Not at work."

"Not that," she said, whipping him in the arm with a folder. She rolled her eyes and stifled a laugh, hearing him chuckle. Taking a breath she said, "You know our vic reminded me of my mother."

All trace of mirth was gone from his face as he nodded. "Yeah, I saw it, too. It was a pretty strong resemblance."

Olivia nodded, taking another breath, and she cleared her throat before she turned her monitor to face him. "Well, now we know there's a reason for it."

Peace and Love

Jo

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