Olivia strode into the SVU squad room feeling downright chipper. One nice side effect of being taken off the Beauchamp case was that she was allowed to go home and sleep all night, while her comrades remained at the stationhouse, interrogating Lilly's kidnappers. After she punched in, Olivia went over to Cragen's office--his door was open--and knocked on the doorframe.

George Huang had been intently watching through the two-way glass in Cragen's office when her knock caught his attention. "Hello, Olivia."

"Hey," Olivia said. "You taking over for Cragen, or what?"

That made Huang smile broadly. "The Captain's interrogating one of the kidnapping suspects," he told her.

"How's it going?" Olivia asked, as she walked up to the two-way mirror. Elliot and Fin were inside the interrogation room, working over one of the kidnappers.

"Not good," Huang said with a grim shake of his head. "Either they play games and deny everything, or they've outright asked for an attorney." He pointed at the man whom Elliot and Fin were presently questioning. "This guy, and one other man, Greeley, are the only remaining kidnappers who have not lawyered up already."

"Is the other one being worked on by the Cap and Munch?" Olivia asked.

Huang nodded. "I take it you didn't find anything useable in Stephenson's business records?"

Olivia shook her head. "No, her little self-help group for convicts doesn't even have any of the kidnappers' names listed."

"Once she found the men she needed, Stephenson might have dumped them from her records," Huang said. "It makes sense for someone as careful as she is."

"That's what Munch and I figured as well, but there's no indication of any missing files from her records," Olivia replied. "We still don't have much to tie Stephenson in with this conspiracy--except for the fact that she knows Childs personally, but that doesn't count for much." Olivia abruptly made a face. "I guess I shouldn't even be talking to you about this, since I'm officially off the case."

"How does that make you feel?" Huang asked.

Olivia gave him a suspicious look. "What, are you shrinking me, now?"

Huang held his hands up. "I can't ask a simple question?"

Olivia smiled. "Is that like how sometimes a cigar is just a cigar? Sometimes a question is just a simple question?"

"Yes. And sometimes I get a little sick of the shrink jokes, too," Huang muttered. Then he shook his head. "Don't mind me, Liv, it's been a long night. And it looks like it's going to be a long day, too."

Olivia nodded in sympathy. "No problem. If you need anything, I'll be right outside."

'And so it goes,' Olivia thought with a sigh, as she walked back out to the squad room.

She did a double take once she saw Casey. The Assistant District Attorney sat in a chair beside Elliot's desk, looking for all the world like someone who was waiting to report a crime. She stared intently at the floor, her hands clasped over the briefcase in her lap.

"Casey?" Olivia said, as she walked up to the ADA. When Casey didn't respond, Olivia realized there was something dreadfully wrong. She bent down next to Casey and said, "Hey, Casey, you all right?"

Casey looked over at her, startled. Her eyes had a raw look to them, as if she had been crying. "Oh, Liv! Sorry…I didn't hear you."

Olivia reached out and gently squeezed her shoulder. "Are you all right?" she asked again.

"They found Alex Borgia this morning," Casey said, her voice trembling. "She had been badly beaten, and left tied up in the trunk of a car, and-and…oh, God, Liv, she didn't deserve that. Alex didn't deserve that at all."

Olivia reeled back in horror at what she heard. Casey sat holding the briefcase up to her chest, looking like a little girl clutching her teddy bear for comfort. "Casey, I'm so sorry," she said softly. "Do they have her killer?"

"No. But they have a very good idea who might have done it," Casey said, as she sought to get herself under control. "The suspects are linked to a case that Alex was working on."

Olivia stood up. "Listen, I'll go get Elliot for you, ok?"

"Is he still in the interrogation room?" Casey asked.

"Yes."

Casey shook her head. "Then leave him."

"It's all right, Casey, he won't--"

"No, Liv, please leave him be," Casey insisted. "I'm fine. Really. I just needed to sit down for a minute and get a hold of myself."

"You sure?" Olivia asked.

"Yes," Casey firmly replied.

Cragen and Munch abruptly exited their interrogation room, both looking exhausted and angry.

"What happened?" Olivia asked. "Did Greeley lawyer up?"

"No," Cragen replied with a heavy sigh. "Greeley didn't lawyer up. He's just incredibly stupid."

"At first we thought this clown was just pretending to be dense," Munch said. "But, apparently, Greeley's just as dumb as he appears."

"You ok?" Cragen asked Casey with concern.

"No," Casey flatly replied, as she got up from the chair.

"They found Alex Borgia," Olivia said sadly. "She's dead."

"Oh jeez," Munch whispered, as he slowly shook his head.

"Casey," Cragen began, "I'm so sor--"

They were all startled from their conversation by the sound of Elliot yelling at the top of his voice from within the interrogation room. 'Oh shit!' Olivia thought, realizing that when she could hear her partner shouting that loudly right through the walls, that he was royally pissed.

Huang came running from the Captain's office. "Elliot's attacked the prisoner!"

As Huang ran into the interrogation room, everybody all broke into a run after him. When she entered the room, Olivia saw that Elliot had the prisoner pinned up against the wall, with Fin trying to pull him away.

"Mr. fucking tough guy here," Elliot snarled at the kidnapping suspect. "Yeah, you're a big man when it comes to terrorizing a little girl, but why don't you try me? Let's see just how fucking tough you are, huh?"

It took the combined efforts of Fin, Munch, Cragen and Huang to finally pull Elliot off of the kidnapping suspect, who merely smiled smugly at Elliot's outbreak.

Olivia stayed by the doorway with Casey--until movement at the corner of her eye made her she glance at the squad room. She saw that the other kidnapping suspect, Greeley, had stuck his head out the door of the interrogation room Cragen and Munch had left him in.

Shaking her head, Olivia ran over to him and said, "Where do you think you're going? Get back in there!"

Greeley stared sheepishly at her. "I-I'm not free to go?"

'Jeez, this guy really is dense, isn't he?' Olivia thought with disgust. "You've been booked for charges of kidnapping, sir. To answer your question: no, you can't leave. Please sit back down at the table."

Greeley quickly complied, sitting down at the table with his hands clasped together before him like an obedient schoolboy. "Are you gonna talk to me, now?"

'I actually would like to beat your head in!' Olivia thought angrily. "No, sir," she replied, maintaining her professional tone. "I'm just here to make sure you don't try to leave again."

Greeley nodded in understanding. Then he glanced up at her and said, "I ain't never dealt with a lady cop before."

Olivia, who stood by the opened door, glanced back in at him with a frown. "First time for everything," she muttered.

Olivia watched with concern as Elliot had been brought into the squad room, where he took a seat in his chair. "Captain, Casey, I'm sorry," he said, shaking his head.

"That arrogant scumbag had it coming," Fin said with a wave of his hand.

"I don't care if we've got the anti-Christ in there," Cragen said angrily. "We have a procedure to follow here, and I shouldn't have to explain it to you by now, Elliot!"

"I know, I know," Elliot said with a shameful nod. "I let him get to me. I fucked up."

"Do you take care of the kids?" Greeley suddenly asked.

"What!" Olivia said, giving him a puzzled look.

"Is that why they have a lady cop like you around," he sincerely asked, "so that you can take care of the kids?"

Olivia, growing tired of this moron's constant droning on and on, just nodded her head and said, "Yeah, whatever…."

"You remind me of my big sister," Greeley said. "My mom died when we were young, and Marie, my sis, raised us." He looked depressed for a moment. "Marie won't be very happy to hear I'm going back to jail again."

'And whose fault is that?' Olivia thought, annoyed. She really wished this idiot would shut up.

"Hey, listen: since you take care of the kids here, then you'd know how that little girl is doing, right?" Greeley said. "Is she ok?"

There was nothing Olivia hated more than when a perp tried to gain sympathy by shedding crocodile tears for his victim. "If you truly cared for Lilly Beauchamp, you never would have kidnapped her in the first place."

"Yeah," Greeley said awkwardly. "You're right. You're absolutely right. But I thought we were gonna just scare them, y'know? The little girl and her mom. But I was shocked when Ms. Stephenson wanted us to kill her right away. For what it's worth, I never wanted to hurt that poor kid."

'Oh sweet Jesus,' Olivia thought, stunned, as her eyes grew as large as saucers. 'Did he just mention Stephenson's name?' She leaned forward in the doorway, making sure she was out of Greeley's sight, and frantically waved for Casey to come over.

Once Casey ran up to her, Olivia silently gestured for her to go into the adjacent room, which had a two-way mirror, so that she could listen in on their conversation.

Assured that Casey was in place, Olivia slowly stepped back into the interrogation room and said, "Excuse me, what did you just say?"

"I said I never wanted to hurt that poor kid."

"No, before that…."

"Oh, about Ms. Stephenson wanting us to kill the little girl?"

Olivia smiled. "Right. Who's Ms. Stephenson?"

"Claire Stephenson," the man replied. "She's a friend of Mr. Childs. He wasn't too happy when she showed up that day, let me tell you! Mr. Childs wanted her to stay away from us, but when Ms. Stephenson showed up anyway, they got into a big argument."

Olivia came over and sat down across from the man at the table. "Where was this?"

"At the house where we kept the girl," Greeley told her. He shook his head at the memory. "Ms. Stephenson was really angry, too. She wanted us to kill the little girl right away. But Mr. Childs said we had to keep her alive to use as bait to get to the mother. That was when I realized that all of this wasn't just to scare them."

"To scare them into doing what?"

"Actually it was to scare them into not doing something," Greeley said. "Ms. Stephenson didn't want Lilly and her mom to testify in court against some guy."

Although Olivia kept her face as a neutral mask, within she felt her spirits soar as high as an eagle. 'This is it,' she realized. 'We've got her! We've just nailed Claire Stephenson to the wall!'

Casey entered the room with a picture in her hand. When she handed it to Olivia, she saw that it was a photo of Claire Stephenson. Olivia placed the photo on the table and shoved it towards Greeley. "Is this the woman you saw speaking to Mr. Childs?"

"Yeah, yeah," Greeley said with a nod. "That's her. That's Claire Stephenson."

"And you overheard Claire Stephenson telling Mr. Childs to kill Lilly Bueachamp?" Casey asked.

"Yes, I did," he replied. "Are you a lady cop, too?"

"No," Casey said. "I'm the assistant district attorney who's prosecuting this case. Would you be willing to repeat everything you've just said in a court of law?"

When he hesitated, Olivia prodded him. "It would be a big help to Lilly."

"Would I still have to go to jail?" Greeley asked hopefully.

Olivia and Casey exchanged a knowing look. 'Apparently, he's not as dumb as he looks,' Olivia thought. 'He's trying to cut himself a deal, here.'

"We could work something out," Casey said coyly. "Excuse us for a moment, would you?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------

"It's not that I don't appreciate what you've done," Cragen said to Olivia when they were all gathered in the squad room, "but what the hell did you say to Greeley?"

"We've been working on Greeley all night," Munch added, "and all we've got out of him was that he was just the errand boy for the kidnappers. He cleaned the house, bought the groceries,did their dishes, and so on."

After Olivia told them of what occurred between her and Greeley, she added, "He told me I reminded him of his older sister, who raised him."

Huang grinned. "You reminded him of the one authority figure whom he trusted; that's why he felt he could open up to you."

Olivia nodded. "Then he just started talking to me about Stephenson, and I ran with it. Cap, I know I'm off the case, and I'm sorry, but--"

"Nonsense. You just helped to break this case wide open, so no apology is needed," Cragen told her. "In fact, I should have kept you on the case; you probably would've cracked Greeley much sooner."

"Did Lilly mention anything about seeing Stephenson where she was being held captive?" Munch asked.

"No, not at all," Olivia replied. "She said the kidnappers kept her in that room all the time."

"She wouldn't have seen anything anyway," Elliot said in agreement.

Olivia glanced at her watch. "Speaking of Lilly, she's being released from the hospital today and I'm supposed to be there soon."

"Go bring the kid home, Olivia," Cragen said. He glanced over at Casey and added, "As for the rest of us, I suppose another visit to Claire Stephenson is in order?"

Casey smiled. "I can do one better than that. Let's bring her in for questioning."

"She's already lawyered up," Munch warned. "She'll bring Langan with her."

"Let Stephenson bring her expensive mouthpiece," Casey said. "I don't care. She's now a prime suspect in this investigation, and that makes her fair game. I want to take a run at her in the interrogation room."

"You heard the lady," Cragen told his detectives. "John, Fin, are you two rested up enough to escort Ms. Society Page back here to the squad room?"

"It would be our extreme pleasure, Captain," Fin said with a predatory smile.

"Still got your water pistol?" Munch asked Fin as they left the squad room.

Fin patted his jacket pocket in response. "I'm always prepared, baby. Let's go get the Wicked Witch!"

Cragen paused, staring after them with a strange look on his face. He appeared to be on the verge of asking what they were talking about--but then thought the better of it with a shake of his head and walked back into his office.

Olivia grabbed her coat and personal effects. "I'm on my way to see Lilly and Linda," she told Elliot and Casey as she left. "You guys need me, just give me a call."

"Say hi to Lilly for us," Elliot called after her. He then walked over to Casey and gently rubbed her arm. "You ok?"

Casey let out a chuckle. "I should ask the same of you. That was some blow up before."

"Yeah," Elliot said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "That's what you get for not getting enough sleep, I guess." He gave her a concerned look. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you look like you've been crying."

"That's a fair assumption," Casey with a weary sigh.

"What happened?"

"They found Alex Borgia," Casey said, and no sooner did she say those words than she felt her very soul being drowned by grief once more. "Um, she's dead…."

"Oh jeez, Case, I am so sorry," Elliot said, as he pulled her into a tight hug.

"They beat her, Elliot," Casey said, the tears flowing once more as she clung to him tightly. "They beat her senseless, and then they left her tied up in the trunk of a car, where she…she vomited, but because of her gag, Alex, she…she…."

"Casey don't," Elliot told her. "Don't torture yourself."

"But I was with her, Elliot!" she said, pulling away from his embrace. "Just a few hours before she had been abducted, I was with her at the DA's office. And I can't help but wonder now if only I had just invited Alex out for coffee, or--"

"You can't blame yourself for this," he said softly. "Please don't do that. Listen, I'll make it an early night tonight. We can be together, all right?"

"I'd like that, I really do, but I want more," Casey said. "Elliot, we've been through so much in this past year. Olivia and I have been kidnapped, and I've been nearly beaten to within an inch of my life; you've been shot. And now Alex's death…it's yet another reminder to me of how precarious and precious life is. Any one of us can be gone just like that. What I'm saying is, I want us to be together every night, Elliot. I'm not asking for marriage just yet, but I still want more of a commitment in our relationship. Does this make any sense?"

"Of course it does," Elliot said, after some thought. "It makes perfect sense to me. You know, I've been--"

Casey shook her head in annoyance when her cell phone rang. "I'm sorry, El!"

"That's ok. Duty calls," Elliot told her. "Go ahead."

When she answered the call, Casey heard Hector on the other end. He sounded out of breath and excited. "Casey! I've got news for you. Are you sitting down?"

"What is it, Hector?"

"Are you sure you're sitting down?" Hector asked.

Casey let out an aggravated groan. "Look, Hector, I really don't have time for this nonsense. So will you just please tell me what is it?"

"Charles Beauchamp is dead," Hector said.

Casey was so taken aback by that news that she was literally knocked off her feet. Elliot caught her by the arm and guided her onto a chair.

"What is it?" Elliot asked anxiously. "What's wrong?"

Casey stared back at Elliot, still stunned. The only thing she could think of saying was: "Holy shit…."

To Be Concluded In The Next, And Final, Chapter...