Chapter Ten

Three days trickled by…three days of interviews and interrogations for the detectives, days of failed leads, days of confusion and attempts at profiling, days of court and of paperwork. There were no more mutilated little girls and no more strange phone calls or faxes for Casey. Once Borden's daughter had been found, he probably had other things to be concerned with than annoying the ADA. He had been completely scratched off of the suspect list for the killer and Huang continued to assert that it looked like cult activity. What cult? No idea. He even tossed out the idea that there was more than one perp involved, which only worked to enrage Elliot and further distress Olivia.

At the end of the third day, Casey sat in her office typing away on her computer. She hadn't given much thought to the slowly wilting flowers on her desk. She pushed the very existence of Alex Cabot from her mind, and the woman had not attempted to contact her in any way. She thought about it so little that she didn't know if she was thankful or not. Her office phone rang and she mashed the intercom button absently. She answered, "Novak."

"It's Pete and you have a package."

She hesitated and looked up from her work, "What sort of package? I'm not expecting anything."

"Oh, well…it's…uh…"

"Use your words, Pete."

"It's in a box. It's a blank box. It looks like...uh..." He couldn't seem to describe the object.

Casey felt suddenly nervous, being reminded for the first time of the shit that had happened. She had a uni following her to and from work for what she felt was no reason. She leaned back in her chair, "Who delivered it? Are they still there?"

"No…it was a guy. He dropped it off. He had a thick local accent."

"Just hold it down there and don't touch it, Pete." With that she hung up on him and called Elliot on her cell. Once she heard him pick up, she said, "El, it's Casey. I just got a suspicious package. I had Pete keep it up front. I haven't seen it yet, so don't freak out and don't tell Olivia…just…come over here if you can…"

Finally getting a chance to talk, he responded with a simple, "Ok."

Casey decided to call it quits for the day, and by that, she would be taking everything home since she was feeling uncomfortable in her office. She slowly and deliberately collected her necessary files and tucked them into her briefcase. She saved her work and turned off her computer monitor and then locked her office behind her on the way out. She didn't speak to anyone in the hall and she went straight down to the front where Pete sat at the desk, looking confused.

"What's going on Ms. Novak?" Pete asked her.

"I'm not sure. Did you get a good look at the guy?"

"I guess so. He said he was from some bakery. He seemed annoyed to have to deliver whatever this is."

"Bakery?"

"Yeah. I couldn't think of what it was called? Is that a problem? It's a cake or something."

She blinked and approached the desk. "Did he sign?"

"Yeah, he did." Pete remained confused by the issue. Hadn't he been told about Borden's threat and to keep a lookout for anything suspicious relating to the ADA? She guessed not. Or he forgot.

She looked at the scribble on the sheet. It wasn't the most illegible signature and he had written down the name of the bakery as well. It was a place in Little Italy. She looked at Pete and said, "Pete, why didn't you tell me he wasn't suspicious?"

"You didn't asked. Do you want your package now?" I grabbed the blank box and sat it on top of the sign in sheet in front of her.

It was a plain white box made of thin cardboard, folded closed on the top and bottom, typical. It was relatively small and didn't contain a cake unless it was a small cake. A batch of cookies maybe? She opened the top of the box. When she looked down into it, she saw a rounded lump, wrapped in paper and sitting to the side was a white card. She shifted the paper a bit and saw golden-brown bread crust.

Elliot came through the doors and said, "Hey Casey, I made it here as fast as I could."

"Damn. Elliot, I'm sorry. Pete here made it out to be a lot sketchier than it actually is…" she grabbed the card and opened it.

Will this make up for the flowers? Bread is pretty useful, right? I know you eat bread, I saw you eat some at dinner. This is a parmesan loaf. Dinner again tonight?

She recognized the tiny and perfect handwriting and she quickly closed the note, feeling embarrassed in front of Elliot and even Pete. Embarrassed mainly for thinking it was a bomb or a body part, and also a little embarrassed because Alex Cabot had a loaf of bread delivered to her at her office.

"Is that…bread?" Elliot asked her, looking curious.

"Yeah, a parmesan loaf." She nodded.

"Someone sent you bread? Should we have it checked for poison?" He wasn't angry.

"Sorry for the confusion, Ms Novak," Pete said, blushing.

She patted him on the shoulder, dropped the note back in the box with the loaf, and covered it again with the lid. "Again, Elliot. I'm sorry to waste your time. I'm sure it isn't poisoned."

"Who sent you a loaf of bread?" He asked.

She shrugged.

"What'd the note say?"

"Nothing. Don't worry about it, El." She started toward the door with her briefcase in one hand and the loaf of bread under her arm. "Bye, Pete."

"I'll give you a ride home," Elliot followed her out after exchanging a baffled glance with Pete. "Who sent you bread?" He asked her again as he opened the passenger side door of his car for her.

She shook her head and hoped she wasn't blushing now too, "Don't worry about it, Elliot. It's silly."

"I'm just curious as to why someone sends an ADA a loaf of bread. Come on, you would want to know who sent me bread if this were the other way around."

Laughing, she agreed, "Yeah, I guess so."

He closed the door and walked around to get behind the wheel. "And it's a parmesan loaf?"

"Yes." She attempted a subject change as they pulled into the street and she sat with the box on her lap, "What's going on at the precinct?"

He made a face, sticking out his bottom lip and shaking his head, "Not much. Average week. Still working on trying to figure out our eye-gouging perp."

"No leads?"

"Nope. Not a damn thing that panned out." He got angry when he thought about it, so he changed the subject back, "What kind of person sends someone bread? Is it an inside joke?"

"Don't worry about it."

"I'm not worrying, I'm just wondering. Is it a secret admirer?"

"Not really a secret, no."

"Oh!" He chuckled, "I see. I wasn't aware that the mating rituals of Casey Novak involved bread."

"Oh my God…no mating ritual. A nice person that I know sent me some bread. I like bread. Would you leave it at that?"

He just laughed.

"Oh, and the patrol car outside of my apartment, I don't think it's necessary anymore. Nothing has happened since the fax." She grumbled, bitterly. "I think Borden is done harassing me."

"Maybe nothing has happened because of that patrol car, Novak."

"Whatever. Should I ask permission to go out to dinner tonight?"

"It's fine as long as you take your cell phone. Who are you going to dinner with?" He gave her a quick playful punch in the shoulder and then looked at her, wiggling his eyebrows up and down. "The bread sender?"

"You're incorrigible, Elliot. Alex wants to get dinner is all."

"You and Alex are best buds now."

"She's just bored," Casey asserted, and then she said, "You know…I don't even have her number."

"How are you two communicating? Is there some sort of secret lawyer code? Lawyer telepathy?"

She shrugged, "I know you have it. Give it to me."

"Bossy."

…

Olivia hung up the phone and then ran from her desk, across the precinct into Cragen's office.

He looked up and said nothing.

"Where did Stabler go? We have a potential lead."

"I don't know…where did Stabler go?" He asked her.

She blinked, "I thought you sent him on an errand. He said he'd be right back after getting a call."

"Call him. Now. If he doesn't turn up in the next forty-five seconds, take Fin with you and get on this lead."

She nodded, yanked out her cell, and closed the door. After three rings, Elliot picked up.

"Stabler," he answered.

"El, where the hell are you? We have a lead."

"Son of a bitch. I gave Casey a ride home. I just dropped her off, I'll head right back."

"Cragen said you had forty-five seconds and for me to take Fin." Munch and Fin were both listening in. She made eye contact with Tutuola and motioned for her to come with her as she headed for the door. He put on his jacket and followed, leaving Munch looking sad and left out. "Is everything ok with Casey?"

"Yeah. She just had a little scare is all."

"What happened?"

"Nothing. False alarm, but then I gave her a ride home. What's the lead?"

"Apparently one of the friends of Lindsey Borden made a comment to her teacher that sounded like she may know something more than she told us before."

"Tell me it implicates Borden," he said hopefully.

"Don't know yet. Gotta go." She hung up and she and Fin got into her car.

…

Alex had been milling around her hotel room, straightening little odds and ends. She went grocery shopping and had stocked up for the next few days before she left for DC. She stuck a bottle of white wine in the door of her refrigerator and then paced the length of the suite.

Peering out of the sliding glass doors onto the little balcony, she wondered if Casey had gotten her clever present or not. She told them to deliver it just before five and left an exorbitant tip to ensure that they did so. Chuckling to herself, she pulled out her cell and called Olivia, not knowing that the detective was on her way to speak with a schoolteacher and then one of the little girls involved in the Borden case.

She frowned, making a face that looked sort of like a sturgeon, when Olivia didn't answer. She should have exchanged numbers with Casey at some point, or at the very least put it on the card with the bread. She was beginning to feel like she made a rather arrogant assumption thinking that Casey would exert the effort to obtain her number and call her. She gave her three days to do so and then decided on the gift loaf to prompt her into action.

Attempting to seduce Novak was one of the strangest things she had ever done, she concluded. Maybe not though. Olivia probably. Alex didn't know why she bothered there, since Olivia clearly had the hots for Elliot. Worth a try though, right? It had somehow cemented their friendship pretty solidly, rather than ruining it. Olivia and her empathy. She could legitimately relate though – being attracted to someone unattainable and all herself. Alex laughed at the thought. Casey though, she wasn't even sure what made her want to pursue her. The other woman was almost notoriously rumored to be asexual. Maybe that was it? Maybe it was the fact that it seemed to be an impossible task in which the odds were all against her.

Her phone vibrated in her hand and she answered without looking at the ID, assuming it was Olivia calling her back, "Cabot."

Silence.

"Hello?" She looked down at the screen and saw that it was unavailable. She said again, "Hello?"

She felt oddly uncomfortable and looked down at the sidewalk below to see if there were someone looking at her. She felt like she was being watched. She tried to shrug off the feeling because it was only the second time she had gotten the odd phone call. She couldn't shake it and called Elliot.

He answered and she said, "Hey, I have two questions."

"Ok. Shoot, but make it quick. We apparently have another lead on the eye-gouging case."

"One: can you give me Novak's number? And two: can you put a trace on my phone?"

A/N:Thesturgeonfacelookssomethinglikethis - :C