Santa Clauses Are Coming To Town

LO:SVU

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of LO:SVU . I'm making no money out of this whatsoever. Don't sue me, I have no money.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews. :D

10

Darkness

Shivering with cold and, she had to admit, with fear, Olivia lay in the open van and stared out at the people she could only perceive as grey shadows in the increasing snowfall. Her hands were cuffed behind her back and one of the men had taken out his belt to tie her feet. She could hardly recognize anything, just a giant figure next to a big shadow that most likely was several people. A part of that group went down to the ground as the big shadow impacted into it. But Olivia could only guess what happened. Given the condition she was in, she had to assume that it was her partner who was knocked down by Cornwell.

Elliot, she wanted to scream, but a glove stuffed into her mouth muffled it to an unintelligible sound.

Her cheeks had burned from the slaps she had received. Now everything was freezing in the icy cold of the beginning storm. Still she felt dizzy and she closed her eyes to try and steady the whirling world around her.

When she opened her eyes again, the figures approached the van. One of them was bent forward and more dragged along with the others than walking on its own. Together with a harsh blow of snow this man was shoved inside and collapsed next to her. He grunted. His arms, too, were tied behind his back, Olivia noticed, and her heart ached for her injured partner.

Cornwell and two others climbed in behind him and one of them took the driver's seat. Slowly, due to the heavy snowfall, the van left the park and returned to the streets.

xxx

"Something new?" Cragen asked as he strode into the bullpen.

"Nope," Fin replied.

"What are you doing here, Captain?" John asked. "Thought you wanted to stay at One PP. No one who's in his right mind would drive now…" He eyed his captain suspiciously. "And anyone who would go for a walk out in this storm should be ordered to consult with a police psychiatrist," he added because Cragen looked like a Yeti with his still snow covered coat. "Do you want me to call Huang?"

His clever quip just earned him a glare from his captain.

"How did you find your way? You can hardly see the end of the block."

"Just wanted to know if everything's alright on deck," Cragen said. "No need to call Huang. And it's not snowing that badly."

"Nooooo," John chuckled.

"I guess I'd freeze to an ice pillar," Fin mused with a glance out of the window. All you could see was a white fog of whirling snow. "If I don't have to I won't go out right now."

"No one said you should." Cragen took Elliot's chair to sit down at his desk. "I just thought that I should be here instead at the Chief's office."

Fin smirked.

"Everything's okay here," John said.

"Guess that El and Liv are waiting somewhere for the storm to ease up," the captain mused.

"They ought to." John looked at some notes. "They gave me the name of the guy Mr. Bradley suggested as a suspect in the Santa gang rape," he said. "It's one Paul Cornwell."

"What do we know about him?"

"Hmmm… He's matriculated at Columbia University, studying journalism. Age 29, Caucasian, brown hair, blue eyes, height six foot five, played basketball in high school. His parents are Jane and Conway Cornwell, living in Oregon. He has a sister, Caroline, and an older brother, Richard. After high school Paul joined the army. He was given a general discharge after a four-year tour of duty."

"A general discharge," Cragen mused. "Not honorable?"

Munch shook his head.

"That usually implies he was more trouble than the army wanted but hadn't done anything yet to justify a court martial," Cragen said thoughtfully.

"Which would fit right in with what else we know about him," John explained. "Olivia told me that he has a reputation as trouble-maker at Columbia. They warned him to expel him. His next offence would be his last at the University."

"Find out why the army dropped him," Cragen ordered.

"That would have been our next move," John confirmed.

Outside the wind was howling like a hungry pack of wolves. It was almost as dark as midnight, the city illuminated only by thousands of street lights and the warm glow that shimmered through millions of windows.

"Then you should do it now. Anything else will have to wait until the storm settles down," Cragen said.

Another heavy squall rattled the windows. The lights flickered. Darkness.

They waited for the generator to take over, but nothing happened. Silence fell over the squad room. As they looked outside they saw that the precinct was not the only building without electricity. Not a single light could be seen through the white wind.

"This isn't good," John said dryly as he lit the candle on Fin's desk.

They spent perhaps ten minutes in the dark, making idle conversation and wondering what the problem was until someone put his head through the door.

"We're working on the problem, sir! The battery of the generator's dead," he shouted and was gone before Cragen could react.

"Now we are working under the same conditions as Sherlock Holmes," John said with a smirk

"Yeah?" Cragen mused. "But skip the drugs, please."

"I can live with that. Does anybody have a violin?"

tbc…