Chapter Nine
Olivia typed away at her computer, trying to find any connections at all between the victim (Danielle) and well, anything. Munch, Fin, and Lake had all just left with lists of Danielle's friends and acquaintances and were headed back to Hudson to talk to everyone. So far they had nothing. Zilch. The tension level in the squad was reaching the same level that it always did when they were working with very little evidence. The only real clue that they had was that Danielle had been stabbed with two different knives; one a normal pocket knife and the other a large copper dagger.
She heard a large clunk from across her desk and looked up to see Elliot slam his paperweight back on his desk. He had been searching ViCap for any similar M.O.'s but if his current paperweight abuse was any indication, he'd come up without any matches. She looked back down to continue searching, but felt a twinge run up the back side of her neck and realized that if she didn't rub the kinks out she would have a hard time moving her head for the next few days. She reached up with both hands, rubbing her lower neck and shoulders. She could feel Elliot's eyes on her. No wonder he wasn't getting anywhere-ever since there little conversation about his phone call he had looked at her approximately every three minutes. She wanted to look up at him and say "What?" just to stop him from doing it. She didn't, but only because she knew why he kept looking at her. Relief. She had heard the desperation in his voice when he asked her how she knew he would call Kathy. He had needed to know that even with the changes, the years, she could still read him like a book. So she told him. In their world of few vocalizations, "I still know you" meant "I still know you'll do the right thing. I still have faith that you know what the right thing is. I still trust you to get what I'm saying even if it is only with a look and four words."
So he was relieved at the affirmation, much as she was. Until she whispered the words, she hadn't known if they were true or not. Sometimes it was more difficult for her to know instantly what he was thinking; Sometimes it even took a little detective work of her own. But the fact that she had known he wouldn't be able to go more than two hours without trying to make things right between him and Kathy (the pain shot back up her neck) and had known that he wanted her to know he had apologized grounded her in the truth. She still knew him.
She lifted her hands from her neck and looked up. He was staring at his notes, a wrinkle between his brows and tense lines around his chin. She knew that look too, damn it. He was working through something, puzzling it out. For someone who was often extrinsic, he could be quite adept at working through things internally when he wanted too. The problem was, when he didn't vocalize his thoughts they were most likely not on a case. They were probably personal again.
Olivia felt her irritation from a couple days ago creep back into her system. She knew that he was having a tough time right now. The whole damn day had absolutely sucked for him. Hell, they had even talked about it, which was not a common occurrence. At some point, however, he was going to have to focus back on the case. She was going to have to figure out how to get him back on task. Although she was a damn good cop, they worked much better and solved quicker when they were throwing ideas at each other and working together.
"El" she said, looking up. "I'm getting nowhere quickly-You find anything at all that's similar?"
"Nope" he said. "Nothing on the knives, nothing on the location. I've cross referenced everyway I can think of and still didn't get anywhere"
She took that in, feeling more annoyed than ever that he was pretending he hadn't been just off in LaLa land. "What were you doing right before I asked? Did you find any other connections in you notes that I missed?"
"I wish the others would get back here with something" was all he said in reply. That surprised her a bit. She had thought he would get defensive, mad, if she implied that he hadn't told her the complete truth. She couldn't very well confront him if he was going to turn passive on her all of the sudden. Just as she was about to tell him to go grab them dinner (if his mind was going to turn off on her he may as well do something useful) both of their phones started ringing. "Benson" she said into hers.
"Olivia" Munch said. "I think we've got the guy"
"What?" She replied, confused. From the look on Elliot's face he had just received similar news from Lake or Fin.
"Grad student she was dating. He's an archeologist. We found a pocket knife in his room and a copper dagger from the collection he was authenticating turned up missing" Munch explained. "We're bringing him in now"
Olivia said bye to Munch and hung up. She looked over at Elliot who still seemed to be feeling a bit of kilter. She didn't blame him. Rarely did cases go from being cold to solved in the space of two hours.
"Well" he said "I guess in this case good old fashioned leg work really came through"
She didn't reply. She had been about to make a remark when she saw a flash of blonde coming towards them from far down the corridor. At first she thought it was Kathy-Didn't the women have enough sense to give Elliot a little space when he was so tense? Her aggravation reached a whole new level. It wasn't any of her business, true, but it didn't make it any less annoying. If they started fighting, Kathy wasn't going to have to be the one to calm him down. She would leave, and Olivia would again have to do the soothing, the real fighting, whatever had to be done to fix Elliot.
As the woman came closer she realized that is was Maureen. She let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and replaced her plastered on grimace with a genuine smile. She liked Maureen-she had watched her grow from a boy crazy teenager into a young woman with a great deal of empathy, insightfulness, and poise. Olivia had always sensed a strength within her that wasn't present in her next youngest sister. She saw a lot of Elliot in her.
" Hey Maureen" she said, widening her smile. "How's it going?"
" Hi Liv" she smiled back, "Everything is great". She looked at her father "Hey Dad-Can I talk to you for a second?" Olivia saw Maureen's smile waver suddenly and looked to see if Elliot had caught it. He hadn't.
"Sure" Elliot said. "C'mon, we'll use the conference room". He looked back at Olivia and shrugged slightly before steering Maureen to one of the open conference room doors.
Olivia sat down at her desk, a little worried by the nervousness she had seen in Maureen's smile. She hoped to hell that whatever they were talking about was good. She knew that giving Elliot bad news when he was already stressed to the max would not end well for either of them. She tapped away at her computer, absently pressing the keys as she listened for any sounds from the conference room that would signal that she was needed. Hearing nothing, she continued tapping, relieved that Elliot was handling whatever was going on with out raising his voice. She was still typing away when Munch, Fin, and Lake arrived. She was still typing when the interrogated the suspect. And she was still typing when Maureen and Elliot came out of the conference room, each looking much the same as when they went in.
Maureen came over to her and surprised her with a half hug. "See you soon" she said.
Olivia stopped typing. Now what had that been all about?