Title: Till Death Do Us Part (7/15)
Author: KatRose
Disclaimer: Simply put, Dick Wolf's, not mine.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None that I can think of
Author's Notes: The dates for this story are all 2004. I also have to thank kukrae for all her help, wisdom, cheerleading and browbeating me into getting this story written.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
CHAPTER 7
WHITE NIGHTS
MIDTOWN MANHATTAN
MAY 4
Elliot and Olivia tried the front door of the club, hoping that someone would be inside in spite of the fact it was early afternoon. They were in luck, the door opened with ease. They stepped inside, closing the door behind them. Seeing no one in the immediate vicinity, they headed towards the back and ran into a pretty, rather pregnant woman putting away bar supplies.
"Can I help you?" she asked.
"We're looking for Kelsii Hatagov," Elliot said.
"He's not here at the moment. Is there something I can do for you?" she asked, continuing to put things in the bar refrigerator.
"What do you know about Mr. Hatagov's business?"
"A lot, I'm his wife, Heather," came the reply. Looking at the man and woman in front of her she asked, "Are you the new investment bankers?"
"We're …" Olivia started.
"Yeah," continued Heather, as if Olivia hadn't started to speak, "Kelsii said a couple of new investment bankers were going to stop by this morning. That's why I left the front door open."
Elliot and Olivia glanced at each other sharing a look of 'Do we go with the flow or tell her the truth?' It only took that moment for them to decide to play the cards they were dealt.
"We're glad you did. We weren't sure how we'd get in," Olivia finished.
"I'm sure you'll be thrilled the operation," Heather said. "If you'll come with me, I have some paperwork for you, we can take a little tour. By then, hopefully, Kelsii will be back."
"That would be great, thank you. By the way, I'm Sam and this is my partner Jack."
"It's very nice to meet you both," Heather said, shaking their hands. "I'm sure you'll be pleased with our little operation here and thrilled with the return on investment for your clients."
Heather's bubbly personality and enthusiasm towards the club and the people that worked and played there was fun for the detectives to witness. It's not often that they come into contact with people in up moments, it's usually the opposite. They visited the various levels of the club from the main dance floor to the seating area upstairs and the private dining rooms on the third floor. She also showed them the kitchen, workrooms and the DJ booth.
"State of the art, all the way," Elliot commented. "Very nice."
"Kelsii wouldn't have it any other way. He wants all of our patrons to feel like they're special to us. That we'll go that extra mile to make their evening a memorable time. It's one of the reasons we've been here for so long and why people like you are here looking to help us be around for years to come."
"How do you handle special requests?" Olivia asked.
"We handle them," she replied. "Whatever a patron needs or wants, within reason of course, we will provide to them. I don't know of anyone that's left here unhappy. Well," she laughed, "except for those that couldn't get in to begin with."
"When are you due?" Elliot asked, switching gears.
"July. It's our first. Do you have any kids?" she asked back.
"I have four," Elliot said.
"I'm not married," Olivia responded when Heather turned to her.
"I'm sure you will be one day. You're such a lovely woman."
"Thank you," Olivia said. "When do you expect your husband back?"
"He should be coming in any time now," Heather answered. "If you'll excuse me for a moment, I'll check to find out what happened to him." She left the office to use another phone to find her husband.
"I don't think she knows what else goes on here," Olivia said to Elliot.
"Nope. Though I wonder if she's as completely oblivious as she appears," he responded.
"Do we wait for Hatagov to show or head out before he gets here?"
"I think we should take off before he comes in and finds out we lied to his wife."
Gathering the packet of paperwork Heather had given to them earlier, they walked out of Heather's office hoping to at least tell her good-bye. Unfortunately she wasn't on their walk towards the front, so they left without a word.
SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT
SQUAD ROOM
"I don't know how finance guys do this every day," Elliot said after wading through part of the information Heather Hatagov gave them. "All those numbers and weird designations. Makes my head hurt."
"I gotta agree with you there," Olivia replied. "Makes me glad I'm not an investment banker for real." She continued to read her section of the paperwork. "Hey, this is interesting."
"What's that?" Elliot asked.
"Aisle Be There is one of Hatagov's holdings."
"The wedding planning company?"
"Yeah. It's listed as a matchmaking service in addition to a wedding planning company," she answered. "I wonder if we should be looking at that business as an off-shoot of Hatagov's nightclub. Maybe he's using her services to blackmail or extort money from prominent businessmen. All of the women were married to American men that have cushy jobs and are in a position to do favors if the right pressure were exerted."
"That's a possibility," Elliot said. "Want to take a run down and find out?"
"Yep."
AISLE BE THERE
GREENWICH VILLAGE
"Hello, Kevin," Elliot said when they got to the reception desk. "Is Ms. Rayner available?"
"Oh!" Kevin said a little startled to see the detectives back. "Um, you know, I don't know. If you'll wait a moment, I'll go find out." He hurried off to find his boss. A few minutes later he came back and said, "I couldn't find her. Alison, one of the coordinator, said she thought Dede left about 20 minutes ago for a meeting."
"Do you know where she went?" Olivia asked.
"To meet one of her clients. Alison didn't know which one. I can try her cell if you need me to."
"That would be great, Kevin," Elliot replied.
Kevin dialed Dede's number and waited for it to connect. "Hi, Dede, it's Kevin. The detectives are here at the office and wanted to talk to you. Give me a call back when you get this message."
"Sorry, she wasn't answering. She won't answer if she's with a client. She thinks it's rude. Hopefully she'll call back soon," he said. "In the meantime, is there anything I can do for you?"
"Do you have a list of past clients?" Elliot asked.
"We have all our clients' files here or in storage," Kevin responded. "What do you need?"
"We wanted to know if any of these women were former clients." Elliot handed Kevin the list of victims.
Kevin took the list and sat at his computer. "Let me just run the names through the computer and I can tell you if they at least filled out a matchmaking application or not. The rest of the information would be back with Dede or one of the coordinators. I don't have access to all that info."
Kevin typed away as his computer, jotting notes on the paper Elliot gave him. Several minutes later he looked up and said, "All of these women filled out applications. I don't know if they actually used the services or not. We'll have to wait until Dede comes back to find out for certain."
"In the meantime," Olivia said, "do you have a list of current employees and board of directors?"
"That I do have," Kevin said with a smile. "Let me make a copy for you."
Moments later the detectives walked out of the office with the notes from Kevin's search, an employee contact list and the board of directors list.
"Not bad for a 30 minute visit," Elliot said.
"Not at all. It also gave Kevin a chance to undress you again," she said with a grin.
"To do what?" Elliot exclaimed.
"You didn't notice? He was definitely checking you out. Probably wondering if your marriage was a sham or real," she said, dancing just out of Elliot's reach.
SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT
SQUAD ROOM
Elliot ran into Olivia's backside when she came to a screeching halt just before the bullpen doors.
"Wha'?!" he asked, grabbing Olivia to keep from knocking her to the floor.
"Um," Olivia couldn't quite say what was on her mind. She could only point in the direction of Munch and Fin's desks.
"Oh My GOD!" Elliot shouted. "What happened to you?"
Munch looked up with confusion, "What are you talking about?"
"Well, um, your face?"
Fin said quietly, "Born that way. Bad gene pool."
Olivia couldn't help herself, she started to laugh. "Munch, your face is an interesting shade of … well, purple."
"It's what?!" he exclaimed.
"Purple. You look like you got slapped by an Oompah Loompah," she said choking back her laughter.
Munch sped out of the room to see what Olivia and Elliot were talking about.
"Don't think I've ever seen him move that fast since he thought he saw a black helicopter tailing us a year ago," Fin said.
"What happened?" Elliot asked Fin, knowing that he had something to do with Munch's current state of face.
"Don't know what you're talkin' about," came the response.
"Yeah, likely story," Elliot scoffed and then laughed.
A very loud growl could be heard echoing off the corridor. "Guess he didn't like what he saw," Fin said. "Maybe he'll understand why I'm so cranky all the time, having to look at that face every day."
Munch could be heard stomping down the hallway and the exclamations of surprise by the other cops in the vicinity. He'd growl and they'd back off, but the grins and laughter trailed him back to the squad room.
"You are so dead!" he yelled at Fin.
"Why?" Fin asked.
"Why?!? Because you did THIS to me!" he said pointing to his face and the palms of his hands.
"Me? I didn't do anything. Not my fault you spilled powder on your desk and didn't get it all cleaned it up."
"Powder? I didn't spill any powder …" Munch stopped mid-sentence. The light bulb went off suddenly and he really got animated. "That little bag propped up against my phone?! The one that dumped out on my desk?! You dirty rotten, stinkin' evil little toad! You planted it knowing I'd knock it over and not question what it was! How could you?! What have I ever done to deserve this?!?!" Munch was almost hopping up and down while he yelled at his partner.
Cragen stuck his head out of the office asking, "What's all the caterwauling about?"
Munch spun to explain the situation when Cragen burst out in loud guffaws. Munch threw the entire group a disgusted look and stormed up to the crib hoping to find something to clean the dye off his face and hands.
Cragen wisely didn't ask for verification that anyone was the source of this mess. Feeling like a father more than commander at times, he knew it was sometimes better to let the kids battle things out by themselves. He turned to Elliot and asked, "Did you find anything at the wedding shop?"
"Yeah, we found out that all the victims had at least been to Aisle Be There. We won't know if they actually used the services until Ms. Rayner returns from her meeting, but the receptionist was extremely helpful in getting us the names of the employees and their board of directors. We can match them up against the board listed in White Nights' investment documents to see if anything matches up or sticks out," Elliot responded.
"Since it's been a long day, why don't you guys work on this in the morning," Cragen said. "Hopefully by then the remnants of the theft detection powder will be off Munch's face and he'll be able to see people without scaring them off."
"Thanks, Cap'n. See you in the morning," Olivia said gathering her things and heading out. Elliot and Fin followed her shortly after. It look a little while longer to get Munch out of the bathroom, but he too, eventually went home.
Author: KatRose
Disclaimer: Simply put, Dick Wolf's, not mine.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None that I can think of
Author's Notes: The dates for this story are all 2004. I also have to thank kukrae for all her help, wisdom, cheerleading and browbeating me into getting this story written.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
CHAPTER 7
WHITE NIGHTS
MIDTOWN MANHATTAN
MAY 4
Elliot and Olivia tried the front door of the club, hoping that someone would be inside in spite of the fact it was early afternoon. They were in luck, the door opened with ease. They stepped inside, closing the door behind them. Seeing no one in the immediate vicinity, they headed towards the back and ran into a pretty, rather pregnant woman putting away bar supplies.
"Can I help you?" she asked.
"We're looking for Kelsii Hatagov," Elliot said.
"He's not here at the moment. Is there something I can do for you?" she asked, continuing to put things in the bar refrigerator.
"What do you know about Mr. Hatagov's business?"
"A lot, I'm his wife, Heather," came the reply. Looking at the man and woman in front of her she asked, "Are you the new investment bankers?"
"We're …" Olivia started.
"Yeah," continued Heather, as if Olivia hadn't started to speak, "Kelsii said a couple of new investment bankers were going to stop by this morning. That's why I left the front door open."
Elliot and Olivia glanced at each other sharing a look of 'Do we go with the flow or tell her the truth?' It only took that moment for them to decide to play the cards they were dealt.
"We're glad you did. We weren't sure how we'd get in," Olivia finished.
"I'm sure you'll be thrilled the operation," Heather said. "If you'll come with me, I have some paperwork for you, we can take a little tour. By then, hopefully, Kelsii will be back."
"That would be great, thank you. By the way, I'm Sam and this is my partner Jack."
"It's very nice to meet you both," Heather said, shaking their hands. "I'm sure you'll be pleased with our little operation here and thrilled with the return on investment for your clients."
Heather's bubbly personality and enthusiasm towards the club and the people that worked and played there was fun for the detectives to witness. It's not often that they come into contact with people in up moments, it's usually the opposite. They visited the various levels of the club from the main dance floor to the seating area upstairs and the private dining rooms on the third floor. She also showed them the kitchen, workrooms and the DJ booth.
"State of the art, all the way," Elliot commented. "Very nice."
"Kelsii wouldn't have it any other way. He wants all of our patrons to feel like they're special to us. That we'll go that extra mile to make their evening a memorable time. It's one of the reasons we've been here for so long and why people like you are here looking to help us be around for years to come."
"How do you handle special requests?" Olivia asked.
"We handle them," she replied. "Whatever a patron needs or wants, within reason of course, we will provide to them. I don't know of anyone that's left here unhappy. Well," she laughed, "except for those that couldn't get in to begin with."
"When are you due?" Elliot asked, switching gears.
"July. It's our first. Do you have any kids?" she asked back.
"I have four," Elliot said.
"I'm not married," Olivia responded when Heather turned to her.
"I'm sure you will be one day. You're such a lovely woman."
"Thank you," Olivia said. "When do you expect your husband back?"
"He should be coming in any time now," Heather answered. "If you'll excuse me for a moment, I'll check to find out what happened to him." She left the office to use another phone to find her husband.
"I don't think she knows what else goes on here," Olivia said to Elliot.
"Nope. Though I wonder if she's as completely oblivious as she appears," he responded.
"Do we wait for Hatagov to show or head out before he gets here?"
"I think we should take off before he comes in and finds out we lied to his wife."
Gathering the packet of paperwork Heather had given to them earlier, they walked out of Heather's office hoping to at least tell her good-bye. Unfortunately she wasn't on their walk towards the front, so they left without a word.
SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT
SQUAD ROOM
"I don't know how finance guys do this every day," Elliot said after wading through part of the information Heather Hatagov gave them. "All those numbers and weird designations. Makes my head hurt."
"I gotta agree with you there," Olivia replied. "Makes me glad I'm not an investment banker for real." She continued to read her section of the paperwork. "Hey, this is interesting."
"What's that?" Elliot asked.
"Aisle Be There is one of Hatagov's holdings."
"The wedding planning company?"
"Yeah. It's listed as a matchmaking service in addition to a wedding planning company," she answered. "I wonder if we should be looking at that business as an off-shoot of Hatagov's nightclub. Maybe he's using her services to blackmail or extort money from prominent businessmen. All of the women were married to American men that have cushy jobs and are in a position to do favors if the right pressure were exerted."
"That's a possibility," Elliot said. "Want to take a run down and find out?"
"Yep."
AISLE BE THERE
GREENWICH VILLAGE
"Hello, Kevin," Elliot said when they got to the reception desk. "Is Ms. Rayner available?"
"Oh!" Kevin said a little startled to see the detectives back. "Um, you know, I don't know. If you'll wait a moment, I'll go find out." He hurried off to find his boss. A few minutes later he came back and said, "I couldn't find her. Alison, one of the coordinator, said she thought Dede left about 20 minutes ago for a meeting."
"Do you know where she went?" Olivia asked.
"To meet one of her clients. Alison didn't know which one. I can try her cell if you need me to."
"That would be great, Kevin," Elliot replied.
Kevin dialed Dede's number and waited for it to connect. "Hi, Dede, it's Kevin. The detectives are here at the office and wanted to talk to you. Give me a call back when you get this message."
"Sorry, she wasn't answering. She won't answer if she's with a client. She thinks it's rude. Hopefully she'll call back soon," he said. "In the meantime, is there anything I can do for you?"
"Do you have a list of past clients?" Elliot asked.
"We have all our clients' files here or in storage," Kevin responded. "What do you need?"
"We wanted to know if any of these women were former clients." Elliot handed Kevin the list of victims.
Kevin took the list and sat at his computer. "Let me just run the names through the computer and I can tell you if they at least filled out a matchmaking application or not. The rest of the information would be back with Dede or one of the coordinators. I don't have access to all that info."
Kevin typed away as his computer, jotting notes on the paper Elliot gave him. Several minutes later he looked up and said, "All of these women filled out applications. I don't know if they actually used the services or not. We'll have to wait until Dede comes back to find out for certain."
"In the meantime," Olivia said, "do you have a list of current employees and board of directors?"
"That I do have," Kevin said with a smile. "Let me make a copy for you."
Moments later the detectives walked out of the office with the notes from Kevin's search, an employee contact list and the board of directors list.
"Not bad for a 30 minute visit," Elliot said.
"Not at all. It also gave Kevin a chance to undress you again," she said with a grin.
"To do what?" Elliot exclaimed.
"You didn't notice? He was definitely checking you out. Probably wondering if your marriage was a sham or real," she said, dancing just out of Elliot's reach.
SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT
SQUAD ROOM
Elliot ran into Olivia's backside when she came to a screeching halt just before the bullpen doors.
"Wha'?!" he asked, grabbing Olivia to keep from knocking her to the floor.
"Um," Olivia couldn't quite say what was on her mind. She could only point in the direction of Munch and Fin's desks.
"Oh My GOD!" Elliot shouted. "What happened to you?"
Munch looked up with confusion, "What are you talking about?"
"Well, um, your face?"
Fin said quietly, "Born that way. Bad gene pool."
Olivia couldn't help herself, she started to laugh. "Munch, your face is an interesting shade of … well, purple."
"It's what?!" he exclaimed.
"Purple. You look like you got slapped by an Oompah Loompah," she said choking back her laughter.
Munch sped out of the room to see what Olivia and Elliot were talking about.
"Don't think I've ever seen him move that fast since he thought he saw a black helicopter tailing us a year ago," Fin said.
"What happened?" Elliot asked Fin, knowing that he had something to do with Munch's current state of face.
"Don't know what you're talkin' about," came the response.
"Yeah, likely story," Elliot scoffed and then laughed.
A very loud growl could be heard echoing off the corridor. "Guess he didn't like what he saw," Fin said. "Maybe he'll understand why I'm so cranky all the time, having to look at that face every day."
Munch could be heard stomping down the hallway and the exclamations of surprise by the other cops in the vicinity. He'd growl and they'd back off, but the grins and laughter trailed him back to the squad room.
"You are so dead!" he yelled at Fin.
"Why?" Fin asked.
"Why?!? Because you did THIS to me!" he said pointing to his face and the palms of his hands.
"Me? I didn't do anything. Not my fault you spilled powder on your desk and didn't get it all cleaned it up."
"Powder? I didn't spill any powder …" Munch stopped mid-sentence. The light bulb went off suddenly and he really got animated. "That little bag propped up against my phone?! The one that dumped out on my desk?! You dirty rotten, stinkin' evil little toad! You planted it knowing I'd knock it over and not question what it was! How could you?! What have I ever done to deserve this?!?!" Munch was almost hopping up and down while he yelled at his partner.
Cragen stuck his head out of the office asking, "What's all the caterwauling about?"
Munch spun to explain the situation when Cragen burst out in loud guffaws. Munch threw the entire group a disgusted look and stormed up to the crib hoping to find something to clean the dye off his face and hands.
Cragen wisely didn't ask for verification that anyone was the source of this mess. Feeling like a father more than commander at times, he knew it was sometimes better to let the kids battle things out by themselves. He turned to Elliot and asked, "Did you find anything at the wedding shop?"
"Yeah, we found out that all the victims had at least been to Aisle Be There. We won't know if they actually used the services until Ms. Rayner returns from her meeting, but the receptionist was extremely helpful in getting us the names of the employees and their board of directors. We can match them up against the board listed in White Nights' investment documents to see if anything matches up or sticks out," Elliot responded.
"Since it's been a long day, why don't you guys work on this in the morning," Cragen said. "Hopefully by then the remnants of the theft detection powder will be off Munch's face and he'll be able to see people without scaring them off."
"Thanks, Cap'n. See you in the morning," Olivia said gathering her things and heading out. Elliot and Fin followed her shortly after. It look a little while longer to get Munch out of the bathroom, but he too, eventually went home.
