Chapter 2

Olivia sat near the bed Elliot was propped up in, her head in her hands. She was terribly upset over what had happened, and the menacingly message hadn't ceased to replay itself over in her mind. Olivia Benson it had read. It was her fault, she had brought this upon her partner, her friend, for what reason and how she could not imagine. She had never had any romantic feelings for Elliot, even as a friendship their relationship was a little strange at times, but when she had seen him there broken and beaten she was moved nearly to tears, almost surprising herself even. And since then many tears had fallen on his behalf.

Bzzz went Olivia's phone.

"Hello, what, what is it?" she managed, suppressing the tremor in her voice.

"Liv, you better get back here quick, we've found something," said Fin through the other line.

"A-All right, I'll be there soon," Olivia clicked the phone shut and took another look at Elliot. She felt miserable. She had been most excited to see his expression, her partner's expression, when she cracked the case, and now it turned out she hadn't cracked anything at all. She had no idea how this could have happened, the small gap of time between when she deactivated the transmitter and when she had reached Iscanyth's house just wasn't long enough for him, or anyone really, to seize Elliot and trap him there. Besides, the note read Olivia Benson. It was more than just a criminal escaping arrest, it seemed. More vicious, at least. Not to mention she hadn't given enough thought to the fact that a single person would probably not have been able to disable Elliot and haul him into this apartment in such a short amount of time. But they only had one suspect.

Olivia stood up wearily. It was just past noon, she still hadn't slept since two nights ago, and she hadn't had anything to eat since the middle of last night. Yet these physical ailments didn't even approach the emotional fatigue she was feeling, not to mention the feeling of failure. She gripped the handle of her purse and lifted it to her shoulder, taking one last look at Elliot. The doctors had said he would be all right. He was a tough one, and despite the severity of his initial appearance he wasn't injured too badly. Just a succession of minor cuts and bruises. Bashed up and then rendered unconscious by one hard blow to the head.

Olivia sighed and said quietly, "bye El, I'm sorry. I'll be back to see you soon."

She turned to go and walked out, pushing worry and gloom from her mind and setting her focus back on the case that had now become more of a personal vendetta. She left the hospital in a flurry, too preoccupied to notice the shaded pair of eyes that watched her egress.

SVU SVU SVU

"Fin, Munch," Olivia said, reentering the precinct. "What do we have?"

"First, you have lunch," said Munch, handing Olivia a paper China takeout box with a pair of chopsticks protruding from the top.

"And second, you have a look at this," said Fin, holding up yet another microscopic electronic device.

"Ehh, whua?" Olivia said, through a long-awaited mouthful of noodles.

"That's what I said. Found this little bugger stuck next to the door over there on the filing cabinet. Not only audio, but a full live video stream of the sex crime detectives and their daily going ons. In color too."

"That's, a camera?" Olivia said in exasperation, covering her mouth.

"Yes, not the same make as the audio transmitter you found though," said Munch. "This one is even higher quality. I've got the techs downstairs trying to trace it, but so far no luck. It's some really high end gear."

"God…" Olivia moaned, setting down the noodle box. "Why didn't I think to check for other wires?" she asked herself, settling back into a gloomy depression. "No wonder he knew I was on to him…"

"Liv," said Fin in consolation, although he knew there was little potential in successfully assuaging her grief, "there was no way you could have known, we would all have done the same thing. Elliot's going to be fine, at any rate, and now we've got another link to our perp."

"I guess so," Olivia said, still despondent, "how did you find this? she asked, taking the video receiver and eying it closely.

"Munch's idea," said Fin, "decided to search the rest of the place."

"Yeah, and just for the sake of caution I had computer crimes run it through with a radio scanner just to be sure we didn't miss any others." Munch turned up his hands to indicate they had found no others.

"Well, I suppose this is helpful," said Olivia, "but we're going to need more than a couple spy gadgets to catch this guy, what else do we have?"

"I've been running background on Iscanyth," said Munch, "he's a pretty complex fellow, and by that I mean it's hard to find anything on him. That act he put on in the interview room was just that, an act. Look here, immigrated to the United States from the Ukraine in 2007, and changed his name from Igor Morozova to Peter Iscanyth. He's Russian originally, but I can find absolutely nothing about him before he came here. I've had our international friends search him out too, and they've found nothing as well. It's still early though."

"He's a night watchman, right?" Olivia asked.

"Yeah, he checks in night deliveries at Monadnock Metallurgy," said Munch. "It's a pretty dull job by the looks of it, maybe 20 trucks come in a week, which isn't much for an industrial metal company. It's more of a security job, they've had some break-ins lately."

"A pretty good cover if he doesn't want us finding anything out about him, to say the least," Fin added. "The company hardly even knows anything about him. They already faxed over his files, nothing but the basics, however. Social, criminal history- none, work history, address- same as the one you hit this morning. Nothing to go off of, it's as limited as possible. Nothing more than a home phone number."

"Yeah, and that's why you two are heading back over to his apartment to see if you can dig anything else up there," said Cragen, walking up. "Munch, continue working on his background in the Ukraine."

"Right," said Fin, "and we're taking a forensic team with us."

SVU SVU SVU

Olivia and Fin reentered Morozova's apartment, flanked by five other agents over-laden with gear. They walked through the first room, which was littered with various things in a disorderly manner. The furniture lay spread in no distinct pattern; papers and odd objects sat around haphazardly. It was hard for Olivia to tell if this was the usual state of the apartment or if it had been upturned very recently.

The neighbors said they saw very little of Mr. Iscanyth. He seldom came and went, or at least they didn't see him when he made his visits, and in any case they were unsociable out of prudence and knew nothing about him. It was a 'keep to yourself' neighborhood. The landlord said Peter had moved in a few years before, just after he had arrived in the country apparently. He made no fuss and spoke little, he paid his bills on time and disturbed no one. As far as the landlord cared, well, he didn't care. He got paid, and that was the end of it.

"Liv, this place looks to me like a false-house, like he was just putting up here to have an address and otherwise had no use of the place. Look, fridge is empty, kitchen only has a couple cans of food. Nothing else, no shampoo or soap in the bathroom. This is a ghost house, Iscanyth hasn't lived here for god knows how long, if ever."

Olivia nodded in agreement, shaking a duffle bag that was swathed in dust and finding nothing inside. "Why need a fake house though?"

"Gives him an address- for mail, for a job."

"Sure, but what's he hiding? Fin, those wires left at SVU weren't cheap. The one I found was state of the art and Munch said the camera was even more advanced. I keep feeling that this is way beyond a petty criminal.

Fin tossed down the can of vegetable soup he was holding and kicked the refrigerator door shut. He leaned back against the kitchen counter and crossed his arms in thought. "Why the fires then? And the murders- half were women and they were all raped beforehand. We could find nothing substantial linking them together…" he trailed off uncertainly.

Olivia stepped on a pile of folded cardboard boxes and walked back out into the living room, stepping aside in deference to one of the forensic agents who paused to inform Olivia that they had found nothing useful. "Just a really dirty apartment. Hardly a trace of inhabitation."

Olivia beckoned Fin to follow her and they returned to the dreadful room where they had found Elliot a few hours before. The writing was still visible on the wall although now faded and smudged. Olivia shuddered as she walked in, the grim memory of Elliot's haggard form still seared into her mind.

"Anything in here?" she asked to one of the other operatives, who lowered the radio scanner he was waving about to answer her.

"Nothing ma'am, aside from the blood nothing at all. Just like the other rooms." Olivia nodded her understanding.

"Liv this is a dead end," Fin said behind her. "I say we get back to the station and pour back through the victims to try to find out what this Morozova figure is after. Maybe Munch will have found something too." Olivia agreed and the two filed out, feeling thoroughly disgruntled. Weariness was beginning to beset Olivia as she walked out, her head drooping.

SVU SVU SVU

They returned to the precinct a little later. Munch and found nothing, and was still absorbed deeply in his computer screen, his face contorted in thought. He waved a greeting to them, judging by their solemnity that they had found nothing helpful either. Cragen informed them that Elliot was still asleep, and then returned to his office. Olivia sat back down at her desk and began to sift through the victim files again but her head continued to sag and soon she was overtaken by sleep. Her head fell down upon the papers and soon she was sleeping peacefully.

a/n review please!