BACKGROUND CHAPTER TWO

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"Name is Kayla Harrison, she's 16 and a junior at Johnson Academy," Finn informed Olivia, Elliot, John and Cragen later that day. "The school said that the number and address they have on file for Kayla has been disconnected for about two months, but when they asked Kayla about it she just said that she didn't know. Umm...one of the secretaries in the attendance office said that Kayla hadn't been in school yesterday, which was when Warner placed the estimated time of death."

"How are they going about searching for this girl's family?" Cragen asked, already anticipating the answer.

"Um...By handing the entire case over to us, since there was no recent missing persons cases with her name or description," John intervened. "They turned it over to us as soon as Warner told Elliot and Olivia that she had previous bruising."

"Okay, Finn and John, talk to Warner. She said we could talk to her in a couple of hours and it's been six," Cragen instructed. "Elliot, Liv, start looking for the Harrison family."

MEDICAL EXAMINER'S OFFICE

3:35 PM

"Her backpack was nearby," Warner said, handing it to Finn as John finished snapping on his gloves. "You know, whoever made these gloves are so blatantly sexist. What male's hands can actually fit into these?" John asked, rubbing hands together. Finn eyed him, putting up one hand to show that his hands indeed fit and had room left over. John just shrugged.

Finn dumped the contents of the backpack on a cleared table. Out spilled typical high school student belongings. There was a trigonometry book and an anatomy book, as well as two binders matching those subjects. There were also a handful of notes written by, John and Finn assumed, friends. "I guess the only thing worth taking is the notes," John said.

"I don't know. I hid things pretty well using my backpack. Just go ahead and take the whole thing," Finn told him. "What kind of stuff did you have to hide?" John asked, smirking. "None of your business," Finn shot back.

"Okay kids, let's continue," Warner said, shaking her head.

"I haven't gotten a chance to do an autopsy to to the official cause of death, but I think that she was hit so hard in one area that something internally probably caused her death, because she has extensive bruises. A lot of them were shortly before her death, but there were over a dozen in various states of healing. Whoever did this was probably particularly angry."

"Why?" Finn asked.

"Because they continued to pummel her even after they had killed her."

"Obviously she didn't come home last night, why the hell didn't anyone file a missing person's report?" Elliot demanded.

"You know that kids lie, Elliot. She could've told her family that she was going to a friend's house," Olivia told him.

They went to the address that the school had listed, to see if any neighbors knew where the family had gone.

They first double checked the former Harrison home, to no avail, then knocked on the door across the hall.

"Yes, officers?" A man around 30ish asked when he had answered. "Hi, sir, I'm Detective Elliot Stabler and this is my partner Olivia Benson. What's your name, if you don't mind us asking?"

"Um, Joe Ganglioni. Is everything alright? Is my kid okay?" He demanded.

"Oh, no Mr. Ganglioni, nothing like that. We just need to ask you a few questions. How long have you lived here?"

"Oh, thank God, just call me Joe. I've lived here...Um, since my third kid Rachel was born, so 5 years."

"Would you mind if we came in and asked you some questions about the family that used to live across the hallway?" Olivia asked.

"Um, sure, if you don't mind a big mess. This apartment is way to small for four kids," Joe said and opened the door, inviting the detectives in. The living room was scattered with toys and there were pictures all over the walls, of an older girl around Kayla's age, a boy a few years younger, the girl that must have been Rachel Ganglioni, and then a little toddler boy. "Gracie, Greg, Rachel and Rhett," Joe said proudly.

"How old is Gracie?" Olivia asked.

"16. Greg's 10. Rachel's 5. Rhett's 2."

"Did you or your wife or your kids know the Harrison family really well?" Elliot asked.

Joe made a face before continuing, "Me and my kids did. My wife left about a year ago. Hell she might have known them. We knew them well, but it was hard to. They were a weird ass family."

"How so?" Olivia inquired, taking a seat on the beat-up loveseat.

"Oh you know, normal stuff I guess. There was five or six kids, I can't remember, I think 5. Kayla, Keagan, Kevin, Kacey and Kyle. They moved in the same time we did. Kayla is Gracie's age. Keagan is 12. Kevin was...umm...10. Kyle was pretty young last time I saw him, not even a year."

"What about Kacey? And when was the last time you saw them?"

"Man it was really sad, Kacey and Kayla got into a car wreck around eight months ago, when Kayla was 15 and Kacey was 6 I think. The whole situation was really bad. Mike and Molly, those were their parents, told Kayla to go pick up Kacey from dance lessons, even though Kayla didn't even have her liscense, just her learners. It wasn't even her fault, meaning the wreck. She was on the highway when she shouldn't have been and she got hit by a truck head on. She was fine but little Kacey was killed immidiately. Her parents never forgave her. I haven't seen the family in like two months, though. And Kayla was even longer than that. I haven't seen her since a couple months after Kacey's death."

"Do you know what happened with her?"

"I don't know the full story, just rumours. I don't think her parents wanted to accept responsibility that it was their fault that the girls were on the highway in the first place. The wreck wasn't Kayla's fault, but if she was an experienced driver she could've figured out a way to swerve maybe. I don't know. BUt Kayla just went downhill. She stopped doing schoolwork. I'd see her coming in to her house drunk as hell some nights. My kid Gracie told me that she just changed. I'd hear her parents screaming at night, at her, and about how they hated her."

"Do you know anything about them moving, or why you didn't see Kayla anymore?"

"Here's the really horrible part. I don't know for sure but Gracie told me that Kayla told her that her parents kicked her out six months ago, when she was still 15. Kayla told her that she was living with friends or sometimes even teachers, I don't know though. The family moved pretty close by. Why are you guys are so interested in Kayla anyway? Did she get in serious trouble?"

"No...Kayla was murdered yesterday, Joe. Thanks a lot for your help. Call us if you think of anything," Elliot said and left a card with his number written on it.

When they had emerged from the building, they decided to go their seperate ways. Olivia took the car they had driven but Elliot told her that she would rather walk.

Elliot began walking towards the station to pick up his car. It felt good just to walk without a reason, rather than be walking to inform someone that their kid had been murdered or walking to tell a woman that her husband had been shot in the park.

"Keagan! Hey, Keagan wait up! Mom said you can't leave me! Hey, Keagan!" Elliot heard a little voice yell. "Hurry the hell up, Kevin!" He heard another voice snap.

Elliot swivveled around and saw two boys around the ages 12 and 10. Keagan couldn't be that popular of a name...

Elliot decided to follow the two boys to see where they went to, hoping that they were heading "home".