.prints.

Special Victims Unit
Squad Room
Tuesday, July 6th

It was morning and the members of the Special Victims Unit were gearing up for another day filled with the horrors, intrigue and excitement that accompanied their jobs. Elliot was standing by the table where the coffee was, brewing himself a cup while eyeing a selection of doughnuts that some thoughtful cop had left in the squad room for the detectives. Olivia was sitting at her desk, already chewing on one of the sugary treats while she shifted through a pile of papers that had been delivered just moments before. "Try the custard filled ones, El," she suggested around a mouthful, "they're great."

"Yeah, you just gotta love those creamy centers," Munch remarked with a slight smile. Olivia merely rolled her eyes at the other detective and looked back to her paperwork.

"I think I'll be safe and just stick with one of the chocolate frosted bars," Elliot said, picking up the indicated doughnut.

"Man, I had one of those things earlier and they've gotta be at least two days old," Fin said with a grimace.

"Would make sense. After all, we always seem to end up with the other departments' leftovers," Munch agreed.

"So, how'd last night's reading go?" Elliot asked Olivia mischievously as he walked back to sit at his desk, holding a cup of coffee in one hand and his doughnut in the other.

"Horrible," Olivia groaned, gesturing at the journal that lay on the desk beside the stack of papers. "I forgot how much like a bad soap-opera teenage girls' lives could play out. And this kid wrote down every little thing! Every other week, she dedicated at least three whole pages to a time when her boyfriend said some little meaningless phrase that made her think he didn't like her anymore."

"This boyfriend got a name?" Fin asked.

Olivia nodded. "Sven Adler. I was going to call Eve's dad today to see if he knew a way to reach him."

"Were they still together?"

"Yeah, but they were going through a bit of rough spot."

"Rough enough to make Sven wanna teach Eve a lesson?"

Olivia shrugged. "It's a possibility though if he did actually do it, we've got a bit of problem."

"And what's that?" Elliot asked from behind his coffee mug.

"He's not a citizen of the U.S. He's a German exchange student."

"Oh, wonderful. I've always wanted to interrogate a neo-Nazi," Munch griped.

"Then you and Fin wouldn't mind going to have a little chat with him?" Cragen asked from where he stood in his office's doorway.

"And I suppose saying 'yes, we would' isn't an option?" Munch replied as he and Fin stood.

"Damn straight it's not."

"In that case, c'mon Fin. We're off to go question the Deustchlander," Munch said as he shrugged on his long black jacket. Fin pulled on his jacket and they walked out of the squad room.

Cragen turned to his other two detectives. "While they're off doing that, I want you two to get down to the CSU lab and tell the boys there to hurry up running those fingerprints through the system. And after that, head over to this hotel" He handed them a piece of paper with an address written on it. "It's where the Jordans are staying until their apartment's done with. The girl's mother called and sounded very distressed. She wants to talk to someone personally so it'd be nice if you two went over that hotel to calm her down. Make sure she knows we're doing everything we can to catch this guy."

…

"How's the IDing of our prints coming?" Elliot asked as he and Olivia strode into the labs of the crime scene unit.

A technician looked up from where he was sitting hunched at a computer. "SVU, right? You're talking about the prints found at the homicide of the teenage girl yesterday?"

Elliot nodded and the technician put down the book he had open in his hand. "Well, I think I've got those results around here somewhere…" the tech trailed off as he started shifting papers around, searching for the documents.

"That quick?" They were surprised.

"Yeah, someone here pulled an all-nighter last night and wiped out a load of stuff." The tech shook his head. "He found out his wife was cheating on him and was working to get it out of his head… aha!" He held up a packet of papers triumphantly and handed it to Olivia. "That's the preliminary report but it should have everything you wanna know in it. If I recall correctly, there were five matches found out of the fifteen in the kid's room. Most of the others were too smudged to make out or only partials without enough definition to get a reliable match."

"What about the rest of the prints?" Elliot asked.

The technician shook his head. "They've not got run through yet. Sorry."

Olivia looked up from the papers. "No, no. This is good enough for now. Thanks."

The other man nodded and returned to his work.

"Who've we got?" Elliot turned to his partner and looked at her questioningly.

"Prints from the two boys Munch and Fin talked to, Matt Hart and Jake Stone, prints from Amos Baker-" Elliot smiled grimly at that, "and prints from her brother, Paul Jordan, and a guy he was arrested with, Terry Franklin."

…

Munch and Fin walked through the crowded halls of the high school, pushing through clumps of students that had accumulated in the busiest sections of the hallway. As the detectives passed them by, they could hear the occasion word; many of which being repeated quite frequently were "raped," "dead," "murdered," and "Eve," usually in conjunction with the others.

"I forgot how fast gossip travels in schools," Munch commented to his partner as they edged their way around a particularly thick group of teenagers. "Almost faster than the speed of sound sometimes."

"Yeah, the Internet's cured that little handicap," Fin said with a nod.

They entered the school's office and flashed their badges to the secretary. "We need the address of one of your students," Fin told her.

"Is this about the murder of Eve Jordan?" the woman asked in a flustered tone.

"Yes, we'd like to talk to one of her friends," Munch replied. "A Sven Adler, German exchange student."

"Oh," the woman appeared as if she didn't know if it was all right for her to release the information to them or not.

"You do have the address, right?" Munch asked in a slightly sarcastic tone.

"Of course we do." The woman was indignant now. "We're required by law to."

"Then can you just pull it up on your computer there and give it to us?"

"One moment." She clicked the mouse a few times, typed the boy's name in and then gave the detectives the teen's address.

"Thanks for your speedy cooperation, ma'am," Munch said, this time allowing all his sarcasm to come through, before he and Fin turned and exited the office.

…

"How is the investigation coming?" Lisa Jordan asked anxiously as Olivia and Elliot entered her hotel room. Her son was stretched out on one of the beds with a laptop that was plugged into a phone jack and her husband was no where in sight.

"Good, we've got some leads. We're doing everything we can to catch the man who murdered your daughter," Olivia answered in a reassuring tone.

"If you need any information from us, just ask" Lisa said, wiping at her eyes with a tissue. "I can't sleep knowing that my daughter's killer is loose."

"Actually, we need to talk to your son about one of his friends," Elliot said.

"Paul, shut off that computer and talk to the detectives," Lisa snapped at her son.

"Just a minute, mom. I'm in the middle of something," Paul complained, typing away on the keyboard.

Lisa stormed over to the computer and slammed the top down, startling her son. She glared at him. "Your sister is dead, in case you've forgotten. Now talk to the detectives. Now."

He sat up on the bed and looked at the detectives sullenly. "What'd ya need to know?"

"You're friends with Terry Franklin, right?"

Paul's expression turned wary and he stood up, crossing his arms over his chest as he gruffly asked, "Yeah, what about it?"

"We need to know how to get in touch with him."

"If you need to see him, just stick around. I'm meeting with him in a little bit. What's this about anyway? You think he did it?" In a chair at the back of the room, Lisa sobbed quietly.

"We're not sure," Olivia answered quickly. "We just need to know how his fingerprints got into your sister's room."

Paul looked shocked for a few moments before his face became red with anger. "That son of a bitch. I'm gonna fucking kill him. Raping and killing my fucking sister. That son of a bitch."

There was a knock on the door and Paul practically flew past the detectives in his hurry to rip open the door and tackle the surprised teenager standing outside in the hallway. Paul slammed Terry's head against the floor as they went down, screaming obscenities at the other teen the whole time his hands pummeled the life out of him.