Chapter 11

"So what did IAB have to say?" Elliot asked as Olivia hopped into their unmarked car. He hoped that they could get dinner and then head over to his place.

"They were poking around, trying to see if I had any good reason to have the Judge killed. I told them that basically there was a long list of people who wanted him dead and I wasn't on it. Still they used the interview as a chance to make sure that you and I weren't cuddling up together," she frowned.

"Too late. I do enjoy our cuddling though," he chuckled as he pulled the car out into traffic.

"I told them that they wouldn't ask Fin or Munch that question and they backed off a little. Apart from that it was the usual, try and trip you up type of interrogation. Personally, I'm beginning to wonder who did kill the judge," Olivia told him.

"Well so are Lupo and Bernard. I cleared things up with them when they swung by the squad room earlier," Elliot said, keeping his eyes on the road.

"Thanks for that," she smiled.

"No problem. Seems they have a suspect though, a William Jeffson, former court officer for Tuft when he was just a New York City judge. He sound familiar?" He wanted to know.

"No. You think the judge had him get the poison for him?" Olivia wondered.

"Not sure and the guys from the two seven are struggling to prove anything at the moment. Either way I think it's best if you steer clear of Annabelle until this is resolved," Elliot said.

"Agreed. IAB said that they want to see you tomorrow," she let him know.

"After we go to Central Baptist Church," her partner quickly caught her up on what they had.

"So TARU hasn't been able to find anything on the files with regards to the metadata?" Olivia was surprised.

"Gus covered his tracks pretty well. A bunch of the photos were definitely scans of old photos since the computer has them all dated the same day. This means we have no idea when they occurred except that they were definitely perpetrated before he went upstate. However, there are a bunch that he scanned after he came home, and they are all dated the same day again, so there is no way to tell when the photos were actually taken. Once we narrow down the photos we have, we're going to have to start checking the area around where he lives now," Elliot explained.

"How many cases have come in from other precincts?" She asked.

"As we had suspected, there weren't many reports. Only five that matched our MO and Kenny matched only three of the photos – all of them had already run out of time to be prosecuted. The other two didn't match anything we had," he heaved a sigh.

"Well then all we can do is find the victims and see what we can do," Olivia said. Elliot nodded as he pulled into a space near his building. Take-out sounded like a much better idea at this point. They climbed out of the car and headed inside. Once they'd decided on Italian, they were looking at, at least an hour until it got there. Olivia knew just how to put that hour to use as she leaned over her partner from her seat on the couch and covered his lips with hers.

The next morning, the two arrived at Central Baptist Church and found that the building was mostly empty with just a few parishioners sitting on the pews. There was no service scheduled, they were just there to talk to their God and reflect. Luckily, there was one man there who realized the two who had just walked in were not normal parishioners and he approached them.

"I'm Lucas Boyle, church caretaker. Can I help you?" He asked them in a low tone.

"I'm Detective Stabler; this is my partner Detective Benson, Manhattan Special Victims Unit. We need to talk to the Father about something that requires privacy," Elliot said in an equally low tone as they flashed their badges.

"Pastor Reeves is at home. He only comes in for specific events and the usual sermons. Perhaps we can head to his office however and I can try to help you. I've been caretaker for twenty years," Lucas explained. Elliot and Olivia nodded and the older man led them through a corridor off to the right of the room that led to a door, which revealed the back offices for the church. Once they got to the Pastor's office, Lucas unlocked the door with his set of master keys and let them in. He closed the door behind them and took a seat at a table that was separate from the Pastor's desk.

"So what do you need?" Lucas asked.

"We have some pictures that we need you or the Pastor to look at. We're looking for teenagers who might have been parishioners between ten and fifteen years ago," Olivia spoke up as Elliot pulled out a three ring binder will copies of the pictures they'd found at Gus's apartment.

"Well it's a good thing you're talking to me then. Pastor Reeves has only been here six years. He replaced Pastor Stephens, who unfortunately died in an accident, seven years ago," Lucas told them.

"Sorry to hear that. Do you know the parishioners well?" Elliot asked.

"Those that attend regularly I do. We do have walk-ins of course too though," the caretaker admitted.

"We're thinking that the girls in the photos would have been regular fixtures at Sunday services," Olivia said.

"Do I want to know why you're trying to identify them?" Lucas suddenly seemed upset.

"We believe that they may have been assaulted and their religious necklaces stolen from them as trophies," Elliot was honest with him.

"Oh dear God," the man swallowed hard.

"Take your time with the photos and let us know if you see anyone you recognize," Olivia smiled slightly at him.

To Be Continued…