Chapter 27

Olivia and Elliot arrived back at the precinct an hour and a half later, having left CSU and patrol officers in charge of the scene. The small nylon pouch had contained a flash drive which had been turned over to TARU Tech Mo Bartlett to investigate. Linda had been careful before there was no reason to think she wasn't being so now.

"Has Fin or Munch called in?" Elliot asked as the two partners stood in the Captain's office doorway.

"No, but I sent Munch a text to tell him we found a flash drive. Maybe that'll grease the wheels. Other than the flash drive, anything else interesting at the apartment?" Cragen wanted to know.

"CSU is fingerprinting everything. Our guy was fairly careful so I'm not sure what else CSU will find. I'm not sure how this guy missed the flash drive," Olivia said.

"You think it was a plant?" The Captain wondered.

"Could be? I mean the apartment certainly wasn't tossed but then again neither was James Lorigo's. We now know that Kevin wasn't the one who was careful, it was his buddy," Elliot spoke up.

"So, the couch cushions were left out of place, so you'd find them," Cragen figured.

"Actually, one of the windows was partially open. We think he went out the fire escape because he heard us at the front door. If we'd gotten to the window sooner, we might have caught him," Olivia said.

"Well, his prints aren't in the system, but if we can match them to the windowsill and to the flash drive, that's better than what we had before," the Captain wasn't upset. They were making progress and he hoped that Fin and Munch were too.

"I think we can't do much until we hear back from CSU, Mo, or Fin and Munch. Make sure you're up to snuff on all your paperwork and then call it a day," Cragen continued. The two detectives nodded and headed back to their desks. While they weren't behind on the paperwork for this case, they did have some leftover from other cases that were about to go to trial. Elliot headed for the coffee pot and fired it up.

Another hour passed before Fin and Munch walked back into the bullpen. Munch had a smirk on his face, which was fairly commonplace, but Fin seemed to be in a better mood. Olivia was on the phone, so they waited to give their news until she hung up the phone.

"So, you guys have good luck?" She wondered, looking at them while Elliot took a sip of his coffee.

"Oh, it would seem that whatever you guys found, it made Kevin mighty nervous," Munch said from his seat at his desk.

"He say what was on the flash drive?" Elliot asked.

"No, but he started sweating so bad I thought they were going to have to throw him in the showers at Rikers," Fin explained, he was fiddling with his computer. It had been acting up the last few days.

"Alex give him a deal?" Olivia was hoping the answer was 'no'.

"Well, it would seem that we got lucky there. Kevin can't afford an attorney, so his court-appointed lawyer told him to confess to whatever he'd done in order to save his own bacon. Alex promised that she'd consider his cooperation and would be willing to make a deal, only if he managed to fess up to everything and explain why poor Alan and James had to die. That's where things got weird," Munch said.

"Weird? Weird how?" Elliot was confused.

"Kevin said that no one had ever mentioned killing anyone. Said he didn't know that they were going to kidnap anyone until they got to Detective Benson's place. Even then he didn't know that it was Benson's place until his buddy told him. Of course, at the time, that name meant nothing, until he was charged with assaulting her.

"So, we showed him James Lorigo's address and he didn't know it. When he was shown a picture of James, he didn't know him either. He had no idea why this guy would tie into the case other than the fact that we told him he was Stephanie's uncle," Fin explained.

"Ok so there's a good chance that Kevin was just there because his buddy needed the extra pair of hands to perform a kidnapping. He really didn't know any of it?" Olivia was surprised.

"If he knew, he's a really good actor," Munch said.

"We said that we didn't think Kevin was the brains behind the operation," Elliot reminded them.

"Ralph Kenda said that Linda liked toys. Perhaps Kevin was one of those toys," Olivia shrugged.

"Did Kevin rat on his friend? Give us a name?" Elliot wanted to know.

"Yeah, we weren't that lucky. Kevin said he'd confess to everything, but he wouldn't give us a name. He was already freaked out after learning about the murders and he said that this guy would just kill him too. While I doubt this guy has that kind of reach to get at Kevin in prison, it doesn't really matter. Kevin can't really give us what he doesn't know regarding the other crimes," Fin said.

"So, did he confess to hurting Stephanie?" Olivia asked.

"He confessed to the attempted kidnapping of Calvin and the attempted murder of Sally Walden, he said nothing about Stephanie. That seemed strange due to the fact that he was sweating so much at the mention of the flash drive," Munch explained.

"Cop to attempted kidnapping and attempted murder but not to hurting Stephanie. Given her reaction to him, something is definitely off," Elliot wasn't sure he heard right.

"Well, all Kevin said was that he was lied to and it would seem that Linda was able to manipulate this guy fairly easily. I'm not sure I believe him, but since he's admitting to some of it and willing to take the punishment… makes it hard not to believe him," Fin just shook his head.

"Right. Why cop to attempted kidnapping and attempted murder, which already lead to long prison terms, and not assaulting Stephanie? It would tack more time onto his sentence, but he's never been clever enough before to try and hide things when confronted. Still Stephanie's almost violent reaction to him… I'm calling Huang. I probably should get down to the hospital," Olivia said. She quickly grabbed her cell phone off her desk and placed the call.

"Let's hope that Mo has that drive figured out soon. Stephanie probably isn't going to be able to testify against Kevin. That flash drive and any videos on it are going to be our best bet," Elliot heaved a sigh.

"Cabot called a ten am meeting tomorrow with Kevin and his attorney to finalize any possible deals. Let's hope you're right and we have more to confront Kevin with," Munch said.

"Kevin didn't know why they were attempting to kidnap Calvin, did he?" Stabler wanted to know.

"No. He said that as far as he knew, no one in the group was into little boys and even if they were, he'd have called the cops himself. So, my guess is that our guy was at first attempting to get Linda out of jail? I mean he kidnaps Calvin, then tells Benson she has to make evidence disappear or he's not letting Calvin go… the whole case goes down the tubes and then he gets rid of Calvin and disappears," Fin figured.

"Our guy has been stealthy and if the flash drive is indeed a plant, he won't be on it. That could be why Kevin is afraid of this guy. If he's as crafty and smart as we're giving him credit for, then it would explain why he's never gotten caught before," Elliot nodded.

"What if our guy is just some nut who watched too much CSI?" Munch asked.

"There is that too. He would know what not to do except he left his fingerprints behind…" Fin pointed out.

"Yes, but without anything to compare them to, they're useless. He would know that," Elliot said. Fin nodded. So far, the crook had been just smart enough. The wheels would come off the wagon eventually though and that's when they'd catch him.

"Ok, Huang said I should come down to the hospital. El, let's go," Olivia announced, now off her phone call. The two detectives grabbed their jackets and were on their way after saying goodbye to Fin and Munch.

To Be Continued…