Chapter 2

16TH PRECINCT
NOVEMBER 12TH

"Well?" Asked Donnie Cragen as he took a sip of his coffee. "What'd you find?"
"You can rule out the old geezer who filed the report of her shoplifting. I don't think he has enough power to kill some girl who's got twice as much muscle and youth than he does." Fin said, sighing.
"Besides," Munch added as he sat on the corner of a nearby desk. "The M.E. said that our vic was slashed by a rusty knife… this guy can't even stand the sight of dust. I think he'd drop dead and roll himself into hell if he saw a rusty knife."
"So the store's a fluke. Did you guys get any more luck?" Cragen asked.
"Well, we got ourselves a few names, but that's about it." Elliot said, flipping through his pages of notes. "Sarah… Truman. Liv and I were planning on checking her out a bit later."
"Hey," Olivia spoke up. "Could we get a file on Conrad Thiessen? He's her Psychology teacher."
"Sure. I'll go inform Records and Research." Cragen said and departed.
"Why do we want his file?" Elliot inquired with a small smile. "The guy seemed pretty shook up by the news of his student's death."
"Can't cross him out though. For all we know, he could have taken drama in high school."
Elliot shrugged. "Okay. Whatever you say. Want to check out Eliza's friend now?"
"Might as well." Olivia grabbed her jacket from the back of her chair. "Let's hope she's got some sort of top-secret information that could give us a lead on who killed her friend."


SARAH TRUMANS RESIDENCE
PARK STREET, MANHATTAN
NOVEMBER 12TH

"I heard about Eliza's death from Mr. Thiessen," Sniffed Sarah as she wiped away some tears. She looked extremely distraught. "I can't believe someone would actually kill her! She was really well liked. Not a lot of people had grudges against her."
"These sort of things usually seem to happen to the nice girls." Olivia quietly muttered under her breath, then continued. "Now you said there weren't a lot of people who didn't like her. But that meant there were a few?"
"Well, she wasn't perfect. Some people didn't understand how sensitive and dependant she was."
"Could any of these people have had the motive and chance to attack Eliza?" Stabler asked.
"No! Well... I guess you never know, do you? There's always a psycho somewhere." Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks and got dabbed away by her tissue.
"Now, um, someone told us that Eliza may have been having some troubles with her parents. Do you know anything about that?" Olivia asked gently.
Sarah froze, eyes big and looking down, avoiding contact with the detectives. "N-no."
"Sarah," Elliot sighed and pulled up a chair. He really didn't want to upset the girl even more but he couldn't think of any other way to get her to spill. "Do you know how Eliza was killed?" Sarah shook her head. "A man stripped her clothes off—"
"No, please—"
"—And he took an every-day household knife—"
"Stop—"
"—And he sliced your friend up like butter. He had no remorse for what he did and he's still out there, walking in the sunshine. For all we know, he may be preying on his next victim. Now whatever you can tell us that might help us with this investigation... Please do. It'll help bring her murderer to justice."
Sarah cried even harder and got another tissue. Olivia walked and sat next to her on her bed, comforting her.
"Are you sure you don't know anything about what might have been going on between Eliza and her parents?" She asked as gently as she could.
"S... She said he was harassing her. Her father." Sarah blew her nose and sniffed. "He didn't want her to go to NYU when she graduated. He told her she should have stayed home and went to school there. He doesn't like New York... He says that it's only where prostitutes and drug dealers ever make a living. She told me he said that she couldn't make a future for herself by going to school here." She shook her head sadly. "He kept on sending her threats to come home on the phone, through email, letters... Whatever. It was starting to get to her. She wanted to report him, but she thought it was stupid to file something against your own father."
Olivia was frowning as Sarah said all this. "Where did he send her letters to? Did Eliza have a dorm room or...?"
"Um, n-no. She bought her own apartment with some money her mom had given her. And she was working part-time at a nearby music store."
"Could we have her address?"
"S-sure." Sniffing, Sarah recited Eliza's address to Elliot, who wrote it down.
"Thanks, Sarah. We hope you'll feel better soon." They turned to leave when he spun around. "Oh, you said something about a part-time job... Where would that be?"
"Uh, the uh... the one down on Central Park West."

"So where do we go first? Work or home?" Olivia asked as they approached their car.
"Might as well go home. Find those lovely letters from daddy."
"Sure."

ELIZA CUSTERS RESIDENCE
155th STREET, MANHATTAN
NOVEMBER 12TH

"Not a lot of interesting things." Elliot said as he flipped through recent mail. "Taxes, junk mail, ads..."
"Nothing in her bedroom either." Olivia said as she came out of a room. "She cleaned this place up really fast." She headed to the kitchen.
"Or somebody else did." Elliot said as he looked around. "There has to be something…"
"Hey, Elliot!" Olivia called out from the kitchen.
He stopped and walked into the kitchen to find Olivia staring at the fridge. He strolled behind her and looked over her shoulder to see a scrap piece of paper with an address on it.

Friday:
Meet D. at his place on 345 Broome Street

"D for Dad?" She asked.
"Your guess is as good as mine. Let's check out this 'D's house."

"Here it is. Broome Street." Olivia said as they got out of her car and looked up at their destination. A grubby little home that was beginning to fall apart.
"Oh, don't you just love our beautiful city?" Stabler asked sarcastically, grinning, as he and Benson walked up to the door and knocked. Nobody answered. He knocked again.
"Is anyone home? New York Police Department!" He said loudly.
The door burst open and an old man looked at them cautiously. "What department?"
"Manhattan SVU. Do you know who Eliza Custer is, sir?" Benson asked politely. She looked at his eyes with interest. One was blue and the other was green. Not something you saw every day.
"No idea." He went to close the door, but Elliot stopped him.
"I beg to differ. Your address was found at her apartment. Now, why would she have a strangers address on her fridgefor no reason?" The man stopped and looked away.
"Are you her father?"
He paused, then sighed. "Yes."
"Well this is interesting. We heard from a friend of your daughters that you weren't a big fan of New York. Quite ironic, finding you in one of the grubbiest places in the city that you so fondly hate."
"I came here for business." He grumbled.
"Oh?" Elliot smiled. "And what would that business be?"
"...Just business." He growled.
"Don't you even want to know why we're here?" Olivia asked.
"Eliza probably went off and slept with the wrong guy and he reported her or something." He said angrily. "That girl doesn't know how to take care of herself."
"Actually, sir, your daughter was raped and sadistically slashed and left to die in a grimy alley - so maybe insulting her isn't exactly the ideal way to value her memory." Stabler said, getting annoyed.
Eliza's father stopped for a minute, then said. "She probably had it coming."
Olivia could sense Elliot's right hand forming into a fist and quickly asked, "Did you ever actually meet up with your daughter on Friday?"
"No." He said stiffly. "She never showed up. I should have known... She was always a tardy girl." He tapped his foot impatiently.
"Did you ever have contact with her before that? After she moved to New York?"
"No. My wife got the message to her to meet me here."
"All right. Thanks for your time." Olivia said, then put a hand on Elliot's shoulder. "Let's go."
Elliot glared at Eliza's father for another second, then brusquely turned around and went with Olivia back to their car.
That bastard.

It's coming slowly, but expect a third chapter within the few days! :) Much appreciation to those who reviewed!