A/N: A very Merry Christmas to all! This chapter's kinda short, I apologize muchly for the wait.  School has kept me busy.  Now I can attempt to finish the REST of my unfinished fanfictions…

If you're looking for major character interaction, forget it.  This piece is-point of fact-a conversation between the plaintiff and his wife, and Jack McCoy and Abby.   I've always been fascinated by Dick Wolf's use of the characters who are so…so real.  Anyway, this is just a development Chapter.  Expect major motions in chapter five.  Also-this chapter upgrades the setting officially to R.

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What great delight it is to see the ones we love and then to have speech with them."
-Vincent McNabb, God's Way of Mercy

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Rikkers penitentiary

Day 5

"Visitor."

            Rachel Sherri Lawson sat down across from the man that had at one point been her husband and sighed.  She lay her head down on the table and looked at his calm eyes, his exterior betraying nothing.

"You look good Jack." She said softly, "That exercise yard of theirs must be doing wonders for you."

            Jack snorted, "There's nothing to do here except work out.  Think.  Contemplate your crimes." He smiled sardonically, glancing at the guard, "Wonderful thing Rach' our penal system.  They rely on the conscious to actually work.  It's a fascinating physiological study."

"Did you kill them?"

            Jack's eyes narrowed, "Please." He bit his tongue back, and Rachel smiled bemused.

"What? Did you think I was wearing a wire?"  She shook her head, "Please.  Far too Hollywood-esque."

            "That was always your style darling." Jack leaned back, his prison grays stretching across his chest, "Flashy and extravagant."

"Would you just answer me?"

Jack dropped his head.

"No." He said softly, "No I didn't."

            "How can you expect me to believe you?" Rachel looked at him with hurt eyes.  She had rehearsed their meeting so many times-him sweeping her off her feet-she promising to wait for him until the end of time…

"This isn't Hollywood Rachel." Jack said softly, "I wouldn't have killed Mackenzie if I wanted to."  He looked mournful, like a puppy she'd beaten too many times.

"Jack…"

In a moment of complete tenderness she reached across the table and took his hand.  He frowned, startled by the sudden contact.  She looked into his eyes-hardening herself against the mute appeal for forgiveness in his heart.

            "What about Samara?"

Jack dropped her hand.

"This has nothing to do with Samara." Jack said, hard, "Nothing at all."

            "You were there-you could have done something-"

"Rachel." Jack's eyes were abnormally cold, "Think about it for a second, why would I kill her?"

"I don't-"

"For Chrissake Rachel!" He pounded a fist on the desk, " I LOVED HER!"

            The guard rapped his baton sharply on the glass.  Jack nodded once, then dropped back down, glaring Venomously at his Ex-Wife.

"I don't know Jack." Rachel shook her head, " Loosing Samara…it broke me Jack."

"You." Jack laughed harshly, "Did not spend six months of your life in a sanitarium."

"What do you want me to say?" Rachel growled, "I'm Sorry you did it Jack? I'm sorry that you lost it? I'm sorry that it's been so hard for you to get a job out here? I'm sorry?"

"Yes." Jack said, "I want you to say I'm sorry."

"Well I can't." Rachel shook her head, "I can't say that I'm sorry.  I don't know what I'm supposed to be Sorry for."

            "And don't you just hate that." Jack sneered, "Don't you just hate that you aren't in control?"

"Stop it Jack…"

"Don't you just hate that you don't have some Line producer-"

"Stop it!"

"That you can get to control your little scripts?"

            The guard appeared now, a hulking reminder of the situation.  He hauled the professor to his feet, muttering under his breath as Rachel watched-the Room filling with background static.

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ADA offices

"Coffee?"

            Abby looked up from the case file.

"Thanks Jack." She took the cup, grateful, "I've been trying to go over our position on the Ring case."  She handed him a folder, "Following your notes."

            "My notes?"

Abby nodded, "Its not a sound case Jack.  All we have is that fingerprint and I'm looking into other ways that it could have gotten onto that pen."

            "Unless." Jack stood up, coffee in hand, "Dr. Jack Lawson somehow cut his fingers, put them on the pen, and forgot to wipe it off-then there's no way that-"

"And then…" Abby reached across her desk and held up a VHS cassette, "There's this."

Jack frowned, "What?"

            The tape was a standard cassette, black-white rotating heads-the usual.  Jack and Abby both instinctively shivered-aware of some evil that oozed from the plastic surface.

"You wanna see it?"

            "Its not some copy of that stupid movie from the movie is it?"

Abby shook her head.

A few minutes later they had a TV set up in the offices of LT, Detectives Briscoe, and Curtis.  The five watched intently.

"Its all static." Curtis pointed at the screen, "Is it eaten away?"

            "No." Briscoe said, "The guys down in Videography said that it was perfectly fine-"

CUT

A woman in a white dress standing before the camera against a white background.  Her hair covered her eyes and obscured her face.

FLASH

VOYEURS

CUT

The same word-in Japanese

"That was-um-"

"Shush!" LT put a finger to her lips, "There's more."

CUT

"Why don't you turn it off?"

"It is off."

"That's Lawson's voice." Curtis said.  The woman in front of the camera was much younger-and definitely not his wife.

"My God…" McCoy was speechless; "We might actually have an image of our killer on this videotape!"

"Well." Mackenzie said, "Okay I guess."

            "That's great." Lawson was Offscreen, "Wave and smile baby-you're a star."

"Really?"

"Absolutely." The camera angle shifted, "Now, I'm gonna leave this with you okay? I promise to send it to Rachel when you're done."

            "Dr. Lawson-this is-"

Lawson appeared on screen and gave her a deep, soul kiss.

            "Don't worry." He smiled, "You're my star Mac.  I'll leave you alone."

CUT

LT and the others flinched reflexively.  A close up shot of Mac, completely different from the last few shots.  Her face was bruised-a gag tied in her mouth.

"Everyone will suffer…."

            The camera closed on the whites of her eyes as the pupils dilated.  The woman thrashed about for a moment, then lay still.  The gag dropped from her mouth and the jaw opened in a scream.

"Turn it off."  LT said, "Curtis-turn that thing off right now."

            The TV clicked off.

For a minute or so any one said anything.  McCoy and Abby were both seething-along with the cops.  The sick bastard who had done this-had VIDEOTAPED this girl's murder…

The phone rang and LT jumped.

            "Hello?"

She raised her eyebrows, "Really? Thank you."

"Well?" Curtis turned to her and laughed nervously, "Are we gonna die in seven days?"

            Lt's eyes narrowed, "No.  But someone else might.  Apparently, the killer left a note at the boyfriend's."

"What?" Curtis raised his head, "That means-"

"That Lawson's off the hook-unless he has an accomplice."

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A/N: Excessive imagery with the videotape.  One of the greatest things that people abhor is the capturing of "death" on film.  Like-real violent death.  It's rarely portrayed.