Chapter 4:

Manhattan

Captain Donald Cragen wandered out of his office as he read from a sheaf of papers. He stopped Elliot as he headed for the coffee maker.

"Elliot, you and Olivia were primaries on the Saxon case, right?"

"Not exactly. We partnered up with Green and Brisco in Homicide. Why?"

Cragen perched on the corner of the other man's desk, not taking his eyes off the paper in front of him.

"I received an e-mail from a detective in Las Vegas about a half-hour ago. You might want to see it."

Elliot scanned it and then handed the paper to Olivia. "Is this a joke?"

"No joke." Cragen said as handed more papers to Elliot. "You should look at this, too."

He skimmed the meager amount of paper that obviously made up a police report. His brow wrinkled into a frown and went to hand the report back to Cragen. "Why are you showing me the Saxon case?"

His captain pointed to something on the top of the page as he pushed it back towards Elliot. "Oh, but it's not the Saxon case. This is the Hand case from October of 2004."

Olivia thought for a second. "I don't remember that case."

"You shouldn't. Lee Hand was killed in Texas."

Elliot's eyebrows went up as he reread the file. "This is almost a duplicate of the Saxon case."

"And that's not all." Cragen handed out eight more reports not including the Saxon case, each eerily similar to the first.

Detective John Munch looked up from one of the files. "You're telling me we've got a nationwide serial on our hands?"

Detective Fin Tutuola leaned over John's shoulder to better see the file. "Seems to me this guy's doin' us a favor killin' all these rapists."

"Much as I agree with you," Cragen said, "murder is still a crime and crime is our business. Detective Martin e-mailed me asking for any help we can give her and I intend to do just that."

"So, you're probably gonna want us to pull those files for you." Olivia said.

"And after that, you and Elliot can pack. You're going to Vegas."

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At 7:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time Olivia and Elliot left Kennedy Airport for McCarran Airport in Las Vegas.

6:00 p.m. Central Standard Time found Detective Tasha Alexander and Lieutenant Jen Linn leaving the O'Hare Airport in Chicago, Illinois for McCarran Airport, too.

At 6:00 p.m. Central Standard Time Detective Sam Tracy climbed into a beat up, red Chevy S-10 in Houston, Texas and also headed out for Las Vegas.

Over in Las Vegas, Nevada, 4:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, Swing shift had just started and CSI Warrick Brown and CSI Nick Stokes sat at the break room table awaiting CSI Swing shift Supervisor Catherine Willows. While not 15 miles away D'Angelo Thesa stared down the barrel of a .45 semi-automatic handgun.

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Lanna-Nailo: Thanks.

Shankahand55: Why not? Doubt you could do any worse than us.