Vegas Adventure
Disclaimer: I don't own any characters from Law & Order: SVU or CSI, and I make no profit from this story.
Note: Sorry if my timeline is off, haven't been able to see a lot of the real recent episodes except for Fault and the episodes after that, leading to the season finale, so I'm not sure if I've gotten events correctly placed. For instance, Elliot's divorce, I'm not sure when they officially got the divorce finalized (or if they're still separated) but for the sake of my story, let's just say it's been about six months since the divorce was complete.
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Chapter 2
Saturday morning, May 27, 2006
Detective Elliot Stabler was in a pensive mood on his way to work on Saturday morning. A lot had happened in his life during the last few months.
He and Kathy had been officially divorced for a little over six months now, and since she had custody over the kids, he didn't get to see them as often as he would have liked, but that was also due to his job. With the exception of yesterday evening, he thought with a smile, beginning to think of last night's movie marathon he had with his kids. They had ordered pizza and watched three different movies, a celebration for the twins, as requested by the two themselves, Dickie and Elizabeth, for their acceptance into the National Junior Honor Society at the end of school.
Another event that had never left his thoughts was everything that had happened during the Gitano search. Although it happened about a month ago, Elliot still occasionally had the same nightmare about what could have happened if he hadn't stopped to help Olivia. In the dream, Elliot had run after the boy instead; then when police had cornered Gitano and retrieved the children safely, he realized Olivia hadn't turned up, he ran back to where he had left her only to discover that Olivia's cut was worse than it actually appeared and she had died from loss of blood. Elliot would then wake up, noticing small tears forming in his eyes, which he would rid himself of immediately. Elliot hadn't told anyone of these dreams.
Not only did the case haunt him, the events that happened afterward ruled his thoughts. The next shift, Elliot had been called into Captain Cragen's office. Cragen had told him that Olivia had switched to the Computer Crimes Unit, CCU.
During Olivia's hiatus, Elliot realized just how much he loved working with her. He had missed her not only as a partner, but as a friend. Once she had returned to SVU, they had dinner together after a case, in which Elliot found out, she had missed him too.
"I guess all we needed was little time away from each other," he said to himself as he was pulling into his parking spot.
With two coffees and a bag of bagels in his hand, Elliot walked into the precinct, noticing Olivia at her desk, which was stacked with mounds of files of cases. Her hair was pulled back and looked a bit disheveled and there were little bags under her eyes, which especially gave away her mood. They held a look of frustration, yet at the same time conveying a look of hope.
Elliot approached her, setting her coffee and bagel in front of her and said, "You didn't go home last night, did you?"
"That obvious, huh?" she smiled lightly, looking away from her computer and nodding her thanks for the coffee and bagel, which she began picking at instantly.
"Did the arrest warrant come in for Rundell?" Elliot asked while sitting down at his desk across from Olivia's.
"An hour after you left last night, actually," she said. "So I took the liberty of going over there myself, but he wasn't there, he skipped town on us."
"You went over there by yourself?" Elliot asked, astonished, feeling a surge of protectiveness awaken. "Do you not remember what he did to the last seven women?"
"Of course I remember what he did to them," Olivia said, glaring at him. "Now will your let me finish?"
Elliot leaned back in his chair and motioned for her to continue.
"I went over by myself because I had a feeling in my gut that he'd left town. Rundell's a smart guy, he knew we were on to him and that, at the time, we couldn't hold him yet, so he high-tailed it out of here before our labs processed the evidence. Turns out my theory was right because when I went over to his apartment last night, he wasn't there, and neither were his clothes or suitcase," she finished.
"So we don't know where he is? We lost him?" Elliot asked, disbelieving what he just heard.
"Not exactly," Olivia replied. "When I was in his apartment, I noticed a brochure of a hotel in Las Vegas called the Tangiers."
"What's so interesting about that?" Elliot asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Looks strikingly like Jody Campbell, doesn't it?" she prompted, taking the brochure from her desk and giving it to Elliot, pointing out the showgirl. "So, I started thinking that since none of the women had a connection in New York, maybe we could find one before they came to New York," she paused in her explanation and lifted the stack of files from her desk, onto Elliot's. "All of the women were dancers for the Tangiers," Olivia concluded.
Elliot scanned through all of the files, reading Olivia's highlighted notes. "How did we miss this?" he asked to no one in particular.
"Miss what?" said a voice the two detectives knew all too well. Their Captain, Don Cragen, stood hovering over their desks, with their fellow detectives and friends, John Munch and Odafin "Fin" Tutuola, flanking each side.
"All seven of our victims worked as showgirls at the Tangiers, located in Las Vegas, Nevada," Olivia answered. "And I found this in Rundell's apartment last night," she said, showing them the brochure with Jody Campbell's picture. "I think he fled to Las Vegas."
"Did you check and see if he bought a plane ticket anywhere, or if he checked into a hotel?" Cragen asked.
"I had just finished doing that before you all came in. He did buy a plane ticket to Las Vegas; the flight is supposed to be landing right now," Olivia replied, checking her watch.
"He might not need to check into a hotel if he's made frequent trips before," Fin chimed in. "He's probably already got a place out there somewhere."
"I'll call LVPD and have them put out an APB on Rundell and arrange a trip for us to come down and catch him. I hear Las Vegas has one of the best crime labs in the country," Cragen said.
Cragen turned and strode towards his office then paused in the doorway to tell them one more thing, "The four of you will need to get plane tickets for tomorrow to Las Vegas. I'll see if I can get full jurisdiction for you, but with or without it, you're still going."
"You're not coming with us?" John asked.
"I've got a unit to run, Munch," he answered. "The four of you will do fine by yourselves. I'll need frequent updates, though."
He paused then added, "Oh, Benson?"
Olivia looked up, with tired eyes and frazzled hair, "Yeah?"
"Go home and get some sleep," Cragen said, smiling lightly. With that he shut the door to his office.
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So, do you like? Oh, by the way, so sorry if the beginning with Elliot's thoughts got out of character. And, yeah, I know, I'm pretty sure that the NYPD wouldn't send four detectives, probably only the two lead detectives would go, if any for that matter, to track down a rapist in another state. But for the sake of my story, let's say they do, okay:D Like, always, you gotta leave me reviews if you want an update.
