A/N: A shout out to SVUSHIPPER4EVER! Glad you liked it! :) I promise that there will be more EO coming too. ;)
Chapter 3
Linda Smythe was a complete bust. She refused to say a word. Didn't matter what Olivia or Elliot said, she wouldn't even flinch. They couldn't tell if she was just that good or having a nervous breakdown.
Sergeant Bradford promised to take her down to Central Booking. Olivia wanted to get to TARU, but she also wanted to be out looking for their missing adult. She headed back up to the crime scene, wanting to know more before she did anything else. Elliot said nothing and just followed her while Fin and Munch headed to the hospital, hoping to speak to Mr. Smythe.
She went into the room and looked around, trying to gain what knowledge she could. There were no professional clothes in the closet or dresser near the closet. Mostly just jeans, t-shirts, sweatshirts, pajamas, and underwear – no fancy underwear or bras, which wasn't entirely surprising, given that the mental age of the missing woman was in question.
There didn't appear to be any music equipment, until she went to the desk where the ABCs book was. Inside the drawer was an iPod Classic with a set of Sony stereo headphones, the kind that wrap around the wearers ear, so they don't fall off. The headphones had obviously been used but they had also lovingly been kept in their original box, which had been opened carefully so as not to destroy the packaging. Also inside the drawer was a hard blue pencil case, which when opened, revealed a graphing calculator, surrounded by foam, so it wouldn't get damaged in a backpack. These small things gave Olivia the sense that it was the engineer in the woman that made her so careful. It was so ingrained despite the possible mental disability; she couldn't ignore it.
"El," she had turned back to the bed, it was made as if it had not been slept in, but there was something small sticking up above the top of the folded over blankets. Carefully, she moved the blankets down and there was what every little kid would have hidden, to protect from their siblings.
"That teddy bear looks like it's been through the war," he said. There were patches of fur missing, worn down to the material that the fur had been attached to. It was obvious that there had been sewing done to the small brown bear. A stitched line down the center of its chest, its head had been somehow reattached, skillfully though, as if the person who did it, knew what meaning the bear held. Its little feet had had patches of light brown felt sewn over them, it was pilled, proving that the bear was well loved. The eyes and nose were just lines of thick orange thread, but part of the nose had worn away.
"Does Linda seem like the type to fix this little guy?" Elliot asked.
"Not at all. I think we better take this little dude with us. It may be the only thing we can use to convince her that we're here to help," Olivia said, scooping the bear up and putting it into an evidence bag.
"I agree. This room is half-adult, half-kid and I have a terrible feeling that those DVDs will make us wish that she'd been with people who actually helped her instead of used her," her partner frowned.
"Come on. With the alert out and the uniforms not finding much in their canvas, those videos are the only thing we have left. It's possible those'll point to whoever else is involved in this," Olivia said. That's when Elliot's phone rang. He quickly answered it, the call didn't last long.
"Well Mr. Smythe didn't make it," he told her.
"Perhaps murder charges will get Linda to open up," she said.
"Fin and Munch are going to find out. Maybe we'll get lucky. It looks like Stephanie didn't sleep here last night so that begs the question – does whoever have her still have her or did they see the mess out front and just keep driving?" Elliot asked.
"If they find out about the alert, they could kill her," Olivia said. Whoever it was, wouldn't want to readily admit they knew what was going on inside the apartment or that they were a part of a ring that passed the poor woman around. Killing Stephanie and dumping the body would be the easiest way to cover their tracks.
"Come on. We have to do what we can do. We need to look through missing persons files and see what pops. We have a name. Maybe Fin and Munch will be able to loosen Linda's lips now that murder charges are on the table," he tried to stop her from going there though he knew she was right.
"Get me to TARU. You grab Kenny and start searching for missing persons," she nodded.
"Dispatch to SVU portable," the radio that Elliot had squawked.
"Go for SVU portable," he responded.
"Return to base. We've got a relative of the vulnerable adult from the alert at your precinct," Dispatch relayed.
"On route," Elliot promised.
"Ten-four," Dispatch ended the call.
"That was fast," Olivia was surprised as they headed for the door.
"Not fast enough for the people who have been looking for her. Even if it has only been a week, that is forever, when someone you love is missing," he said as they exited the apartment and headed down the stairs.
"We have to find her," Olivia told him as they reached the building's front door.
To Be Continued…
