Chapter 2

Elliot arrived at the station in good time and immediately went to his partner.

"What's going on?" he asked.

Olivia let out a deep breath. "Follow me," she said as she walked through the station. Elliot followed closely.

"Apparently there was a party last night," she began as they continued walking. "We think something went wrong, someone got mad… anyway there were three couples- all three men were shot and killed, two of the women were raped and then killed."

As they stood out in the bright sun, Elliot shook his head. "That's awful."

"When isn't it?" she asked as they got to the car and she got into the passengers side.

Slipping behind the wheel, he asked, "Where am I taking us?"

"Twenty-fourth and Central," she directed as she struggled with her seat belt.

He laughed at her predicament. "Sorry about that, Dickie was messing with it. Here," he said as he unbuckled and reached over her. She leaned against her seat to give him more room to reach around, and he untangled it for her.

"There you go," he smiled as he looked up at her, not realizing how close they were to each other.

"Thanks," she smiled back as he got his seat belt back on.

After a few minutes of nothing but the sounds of the city, Elliot glanced over at her and asked, "So who's at 24th and Central?"

"The apartment," Olivia told him matter-of-factly.

"Riiight" Elliot smiled before turning his attention back to the road.

With a glance of her own, she asked, "Why we're you late this morning?"

Rubbing his forehead with his left hand, he sighed, "Busy, busy morning. I had to help Kathleen with her homework, never did. I don't think she's very happy," Elliot admitted.

"What do you mean?" Olivia asked shifting her body in his direction.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I mean, she makes these comments, about Kathy ignoring her, and Maureen not hanging out with her any more. I think she feels neglected."

"How old are your kids now?"

"Maureen is seventeen, Dickie and Lizzie are seven, and Kathleen is…oh god…" Elliot looked down at his steering wheel in shame. It took him a second to remember. "She's fourteen. No, thirteen."

Olivia nodded. "It sounds like she may be a little neglected right now, but that's not unusual."

"It isn't?"

"No. I mean, she's right in the middle, Maureen is practically eighteen, almost out of high school. And Dickie and Lizzie are at the very beginning, just starting to learn. But Kathleen is in the middle. She knows a lot, but isn't ready to learn more yet. She's starting high school soon, but other then that she's kind of alone right now," Olivia told him, thinking back to her own childhood. "When I was fourteen, I was so alone. I actually did meet a boy who was a junior in High School though… I lost my virg…" Olivia looked up at Elliot who looked scared that his daughter would do the same.

"I lost my virg-virg-…a…bin," Olivia stammered pitifully, as she tried to come up with something.

"You lost your 'virgabin'?" Elliot wondered.

"Yeah… it's uh slang for… vitamins?" Olivia looked at him with a fake smile, knowing she was fooling no one. Elliot laughed.

"My point is," she went on, "you know what will come with these teen years for Kathleen, but just because you know, and you've dealt with it before, you can't ignore her. She still wants your approval Elliot. You're her father," Olivia told him as she put her hand on his right knee. "You know what I'm sayin?"

They stopped at the red light and he nodded. He looked at her hand on him, then up at her.

"Thanks Liv" he said as he put his hand on top of hers.

The two got to the apartment after a half hour in traffic. They weren't in a rush, and it was nice to chat for awhile. Elliot told her things he hadn't talked to anyone about. But he still didn't know how to deal or talk about the awkwardness between him and Kathy.

Olivia got out of the car and buzzed the manager. He came and showed the detectives to the room.

"I could live in a place like this," Olivia said as she walked in and looked around. "Except for, of course, the blood and tarnished furniture."

"Alone?" Elliot asked putting latex gloves on.

She smirked as she put hers on, too. "Well… there's always an escort service."

He couldn't help but laugh before getting down to business. "You know how it went down?"

"Well from what Warner told me… here's how it 'went down'," she told him as she went over to the card table in the living room.

"Everyone was chatting, playing cards, having a good time," she explained. "Based on tests, Greg and Marsha sat here, Jack and Janet sat here, and Elliot and Olivia sat here," she told him as she showed the pairs of chairs next to each other.

He looked at her with a frown. "Elliot and Olivia?"

"Weird, I know," she agreed.

"Anyway," she continued, "there's two ways this could have happened. Either an ex-boyfriend or a gambling partner, someone like that, broke in. He wasn't prepared for this large a group, and shot the three men. He then tied down the three women. Raped them one at a time, and murdered them all except one. Now either he didn't have time, or he was some how connected or needed the last woman to stay alive, but he left her tied to that chair. Now the manager came in the next morning to see her cleaning up the place, and when he tried to help her, she screamed, probably trauma related, and he called the police."

"Is that the best we got right now?" Elliot asked after a second of thinking.

She shrugged. "Unless you have some other ideas, that's it."

"Who was the woman who survived?"

"Marsha," Olivia told him as she watched him deep in thought.

"Do we know who these other couples are and how they're related to Marsha?" he asked. Olivia nodded. Pulling out her notepad, she listed off the information. "Jack and Janet Johnson: Jack owns and is the director of a sales manufacturing company. Importing and exporting. Janet is assistant director of the same company on the exporting side."

"Both would have connections to foreign 'goods'," Elliot suggested. Olivia nodded.

"What about our doubles?" he asked.

She smiled then turned a few pages. "Olivia Hubert and Elliot Quadrado: Olivia is married to one of California's richest men. She apparently comes to New York to shop, and in the meantime, is actually having an affair with Mr. Quadrado." She looked up at Elliot.

"Well that's a relief. Sounds like you couldn't be any more different," Elliot smiled.

Smiling again, she continued to read. "Elliot Quadrado resides in New York. He has two condos, one in downtown, and one right on the beach. He works for a company that makes websites for other companies."

"We're definitely not the same," he confirmed, and when he saw Olivia waiting for an explanation, he winked, "I'm crap with computers." He pointed to her notepad. "What about Marsha and Greg?"

"Marsha and Greg Langsam: Marsha and Greg started a company back in the nineties, after two years it was apparently closed. Then another year later they were back in business with the same company. Tuna."

"Tuna?"

"Tuna. And when I say tuna, I mean tuna," Olivia smiled. "They're the owners of all the tuna in New York."

"I had tuna for lunch yesterday," Elliot looked at her almost worried.

Olivia smiled wider. "Well, we're trying to find the connections between these couples, apart from their jobs, so I don't think you have to worry about a big tuna conspiracy." He made a face at her which she pretended to ignore. "How are they connected? Where would they have met? And why they would meet here?"

Elliot looked around the place. "You know, I see bowels for chips and cups for drinks but there are no beer bottles or cans in the trash can. And I don't see a bag for chips in any of these cupboards," Elliot said as Olivia followed him into the kitchen.

"What if this was a plan?" he raised an eyebrow, thinking. "The couples would meet, like it was a social party, but it wasn't. Maybe the person who raped and murdered these women, knew these people were meeting. Maybe he was in on it, or maybe he was trying to blackmail them or take revenge."

"You know in these types of cases, it seems we're usually looking for a woman. Someone behind the scenes," Olivia suggested. "A rich woman like Olivia or Marsha or Janet could have easily paid someone to do this. I think we have to keep an open mind about it all for right now."

Elliot nodded in agreement as his phone went off.

"Stabler."

"Elliot, it's Cragen," the voice identified itself. "We need you back here."

"What's up?"

"We found Janet Johnson's records. There is some interesting stuff here. We're going to need you both to get through all this."

Elliot jerked his head in the direction of the door. Olivia took the hint. "Okay, we'll be down in a few."

Once he had hung up, she asked, "What's going on?"

"That was the Cap. He wants us back at the station. Looks like we've got some work to do."

Elliot took off his gloves and they walked out of the apartment.

TBC