Chapter 10 - Cragen

Thanks to tria246815, viol8dbyalizzard, Lady Padfoot II, Katydidit, qt-angel, christopher-meloni-freak, LawNorderLuver01, Whitney, Anna, nem, and SVUlover for reviewing. And to nem, about the titles and artists of the songs, I'll start putting those on here, but sometimes I take lyrics from like three different songs, so I'll try to put all the titles and artists on that I can. But here's the list for the first nine chapters.

1)Good Charlotte-S.O.S., 2)Eminem-Rock Bottom, 3)Avril Lavigne-How Does It Feel, 4)Simple Plan-Crazy, 5)Jimmy Wayne-Blue and Brown, 6)Simple Plan-Untitled & Leann Rimes-The Safest Place, 7)Big & Rich-Holy Water, 8)Avril Lavigne-Nobody's Home, 9)Simple Plan-Me Against The World

And this song is called Take Me Away, by Avril Lavigne.

I feel like I'm all alone
All by myself I need to get around this
All the thoughts lead back to you
Back to what
Was never said
Back and forth inside my head
I can't handle this confusion
I'm unable…

Cragen

As I stood behind the one way, listening to Elliot and Fin, I painfully recalled Olivia's story. She said the guy came in around mid-night and left at one-thirty. So if what Elliot said was true, he had an alibi and there's be no way that it could have been him. Then that would mean that Olivia was lying.

I could only push that thought out of my head and focus on the facts at hand. Now we had to either confirm or dispute what Elliot was saying. I watched Fin step out of the room.

"So what do you think?" I asked him.

"Well," he stood nest to me with his arms folded, looking at Elliot. "It's pretty convenient that he has an alibi right in the middle of the time frame she was attacked."

"But as far as we know, he has no idea what time she was attacked."

"So either it was him and he's making the whole thing up…" Fin started, letting me finish the thought.

"Or he's telling the truth and it wasn't him." I sighed. "Talk to his kids, see if they confirm his story."

"Okay. Do you want me to bring John too?"

I shook my head. "He's in the crib with Olivia. I'll go with you."

"Okay." Tutuola didn't object, but I heard the surprise in his voice. I was even a little perplexed by my offer. I had never really gone out and done any actual hands-on detective work before. Now that I think about it though, I never thought I'd be in this situation before either. Guess there really is a first time for everything.

--XXX--

Five minutes later, Fin and I were standing in front of Elliot's ex-wife's house. I knocked on the door, hoping that everyone was up by now.

"Hold on!" I heard Kathy's voice call out, followed by a clattering noise and someone shrieking. Kathy yelled something and the noise faded out. "Can I help you?" She emerged in the doorway, wearing faded jeans and a plain white T-shirt, throwing a dishtowel over her shoulder. "Hi Don." She gave me a polite smile as she shook my hand. Quickly though, it was gone. "Oh my God. Is this about Elliot? Did something happen? Is he okay?" Her expression changed to a look of fear.

"Elliot's fine. He's down at the station," I assured her.

"Oh thank God." She sighed and put her hand over her chest, relief crossing her face.

"Actually, Ms…" Fin, who was standing right beside me, started, not sure what to call her.

"Kathy." She shook his hand as well, correcting him. "Call me Kathy."

"I'm Detective Tutuola, I work with Elliot. We were just wondering if we could speak with your kids for a moment." So much for friendly chitchat, I sighed to myself.

"What? Why?"

I felt Fin's gaze on me, signaling that he wanted me to explain. I decided the partial truth would be the best thing. "Elliot's involved in an investigation. He said that his kids were with him last night."

"Well, yeah." She nodded, as if clearing her head. "Last night was his night with them. They spent the night at his house." She looked back and forth from me to Fin, trying to read our faces. "What did he do?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out. It may be nothing, but we just wanted to check with them, to see if they could help us sort this mess out." I tried to smile at her. I didn't want to spread around the complete reason we were there, because I didn't want to create any trouble if Elliot, in fact, turned out to be innocent.

"Sure. If it'll help you." She stepped back and ushered us inside. "Do you need to talk to all of them?"

"Yeah. Separately if at all possible," Fin answered her.

"Okay."

"Hey Mom, who's here?" A voice came from the kitchen, followed by Maureen, Elliot's oldest daughter.

"Maureen, this is Captain Cragen and Detective Tutuola." Kathy put her hands on her daughter's shoulders and led her over to where we were standing. "They just want to ask you a few questions."

"About what?" She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, watching us uncomfortably.

"You spent last night with your father, right?" Fin jumped right in on the questions.

"Yeah." She nodded. "Why? Did something happen?"

"We just need to know if he was with you guys all night."

"Um," she bit her lip and thought for a moment, "yeah. He was with us all night. We all went to bed around eleven."

"Did you hear anything last night? Like maybe someone getting up and moving around or something?"

"Yeah." She nodded again. "Someone walked by my room and woke me up in the middle of the night. I got up and saw my dad getting towels from the bathroom. I asked him what he was doing and he said that Dickie had gotten sick. Then he told me to go back to bed."

"Do you remember what time this was?" Fin already had his notepad out, scribbling things down.

"I remember looking at the clock on the wall before I went back to sleep. It was about twelve forty-five."

I looked over at Fin and we met each other's gazes for a moment. So far, it looked like Elliot's alibi was going to check out.

--XXX--

As we questioned each of the other kids, Kathleen, Dickie, and Elizabeth, they each produced the same story. Dickie had gotten sick around mid-night and Elliot was tending to him all night after that.

"Thank you for your help Kathy." I shook her hand as Fin and I were showing ourselves out.

"Of course. I hope everything's okay."

I just smiled and continued walking. "Me too."

Walking back to the car, Fin and I were silent. I knew we were both processing what we had just heard.

So there it is, I sighed. Elliot has an alibi. There was no way he could have attacked Olivia unless she had the time frame wrong. But surely she couldn't possibly have it wrong, could she? I doubted it. So that leaves just one answer, I had to admit to myself. It wasn't Elliot…