Chapter 9

Olivia stayed behind to try and help Huang get Stephanie to open up, as Elliot, Munch, and Fin headed over to James Lorigo's. Elliot banged on the third-floor apartment door announcing who he was and calling for the man to open the door. There was no response.

"You think he took off?" Fin asked.

"I don't know. He doesn't have a job and it seems like a long time to be gone for a trip to the grocery store," Elliot commented before he banged on the door again.

"I can go find the landlord," Munch suggested. That's when one of the neighbors opened their front door shouted,

"Hey! What you doing?" A younger man with brown hair, who was probably in his late twenties, was holding onto his head. He seemed like he was hung over, on a Tuesday, near noon time.

"Have you seen your neighbor James?" Fin asked, flashing his badge.

"No, I haven't seen much since I lost my job yesterday," the man said, seemingly sobering up.

"What's your name? You have a way to call the landlord?" Munch wanted to know.

"My name is Sam. One sec, let me get my phone," the man ducked back into the apartment. He came out a minute later with his cell phone. He quickly gave the men, the phone number. Munch quickly called the number and filled in the landlord.

"He lives downstairs and promises to be right up," the Sergeant told them.

"So, what has the old man done?" Sam piped up from his doorway.

"Hopefully nothing. What do you know about James?" Elliot asked.

"He keeps to himself. Says 'hi' at the mailbox if we bump into one another. Doesn't go out much as far as I can figure or at least not after I used to get home," Sam admitted.

"Did he ever have company?" Fin wondered.

"Not that I saw. He doesn't even have a pet. Helped him with his groceries once. No pet food or kitty litter or anything. Though I did think he had a lot of groceries for one person. I just chalked it up to stocking up, so he didn't have to go out again," the neighbor explained. They heard the elevator down the hall ding and they hoped it was the landlord.

"Thanks for your help," Elliot said.

"Good luck," with that Sam closed his door. Footsteps in the hallway revealed a man holding a set of keys. He looked like an older man, who didn't like to shave, his almost white colored beard was all scraggly and stained from smoking cigarettes. The three flashed their badges and explained that they needed to get in.

"Never once had a problem with James. You think he's ok?" The landlord, who had identified himself as Danny, wondered.

"We hope so," Elliot didn't give any more details as Danny unlocked the front door. Fin told him to stay back and the three detectives headed inside the apartment, quickly sweeping through the small two-bedroom space. Admittedly, the "second bedroom" was more like a closet, only big enough for a twin sized bed and maybe one dresser. This room though was filled with stuffed animals and Elliot figured they were Stephanie's.

"Stabler! Munch!" It was Fin and Elliot ducked out of the stuffed animal room and headed toward the sound of the voice.

"Look who I found," Fin said as Elliot entered the larger bedroom, Munch was right behind him, having exited the bathroom.

"Any chance of…" Elliot started.

"He's cold as a stone. Must have happened last night," Fin shook his head. There, in his bed, was James Lorigo, dead. Munch whipped out his cell phone and called Melinda. Elliot pulled out his cell phone and sent a text to Olivia and then the Captain while Fin called for a forensics team.

"I don't see any blood. You think a heart attack?" Fin wondered they were all off their phones, and as he circled the bed, looking for anything that might indicate it wasn't natural causes.

"Could have been. He didn't seem to be in good physical shape," Elliot shrugged, looking around the room for any signs that may be this wasn't what it appeared to be.

"He wasn't in good shape. The medicine cabinet is loaded with prescription bottles," Munch confirmed. Fin's phone buzzed and he checked it.

"Kenny is going to be coming with the forensic team. Seems they struck gold at Alan and Linda's place," he said.

"Oh yeah? They find the laptop?" Elliot asked.

"They did. It was stuffed inside an air vent. Linda was definitely trying to hide something. TARU is going to go through it and see what they can find," Fin explained.

"I don't want to go there but…" Munch let the thought hang in the air.

"You think James was in on it? I had that thought too until we found him dead," Elliot admitted.

"Well maybe that's not how it started. I mean sometimes insurance covers some things and not others. Maybe he gets told that an in-home aide would be covered in full whereas he has to pay for her stay at the group home. He complains to an aide that he couldn't take Stephanie in because she needs twenty-four help in the beginning. The aide offers to help. What could go wrong?

"We ran a check on Linda. The reason her paperwork looked legit was because it was honest to goodness forgeries. Linda worked at the facility at five-thirty-eight west one-fifty-sixth street. Her badge was legit and she got her hands on the paperwork off the server. Cragen is working with Cabot to try and get her employment record. Seems the company who hired Linda is a little skittish when it comes to admitting they hired a psycho," Munch explained.

"Sweet Jesus," Elliot forced out of his lungs.

"He probably had no idea that Linda had no patience and was about to spirit away her very own punching bag," Fin frowned. Munch's phone rang and he quickly answered it. The other two detectives heard him giving directions to someone.

"Let's search the apartment. See what we can find. We have to call Stephanie's sister to give her the good and bad news," Elliot said.

To Be Continued…