So, this one was a long, long time coming. I bet a lot of you actually probably figured I'd abandoned this fic for good. Never fear, I have resurrected it. I'll try and update more often, I just get a little nervous about posting case file stuff as I don't think I'm so good at it.
With all that said I bring you Chapter 2 of Small Town Crime
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing in this story relating to SVU, I don't own the Hampton Inn, and I don't own the Sheriff or Medical Examiner. Finally I don't own Tioga Downs. I pretty much only own the plot and the victims and perp. At least at this point that's it.
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Fifteen minutes later Elliot and Olivia were pulling into the parking lot at Tioga Downs, neither one of them entirely sure how the place managed to stay open being that it was situated in the middle of nowhere.
"What would even possess someone to come all the way up here in the first place?" Elliot asked as he found a parking spot in the nearly filled lot.
"I have no clue. There is absolutely nothing anywhere near here." Olivia added.
As the exited the vehicle and walked towards the entrance they saw the unmarked Tioga County Sheriff's car parked out front. The moment they entered the building they were pulled aside.
"Benson and Stabler I assume?" The gentleman said.
"Yes, and you are?" Elliot asked.
"Tioga County Sheriff Gary Howard." He told them, flashing his badge. "Excuse the casual clothes will you, tensions have been running high around here the past couple of days. We're trying to keep this as low key as possible."
Olivia looked at her partner and raised one eyebrow as if to say 'How tough could that be in the middle of nowhere?'
"Alright, can you show us where the crime took place?" Elliot asked.
"Sure. Why don't you two follow me out to our stables and I'll show you." Howard said as he motioned towards a side door out of the main building.
The trio left the building and walked the approximately one quarter of a mile to one of the rows of horse stables. Upon first glance nothing seemed out of place. There were currently no horses in this particular building, but that could be attributed to the fact that it was a crime scene.
"On a normal Thursday night would this building have been full?" Olivia asked as she began looking around.
"It's not likely that it would've been. This time of year we run races on Friday nights as well as Saturday and Sunday afternoons. The jockeys and owners are given use of the track and its facilities from Thursday morning on. The majority of our racers though don't show up until mid-day on Friday at the earliest most weekends. Occasionally on holiday weekends we'll see them arrive Thursdays instead." The sheriff explained.
"Ms. Flanders, was she one of the ones who normally arrived early?" Elliot asked.
"That's just it, she wasn't racing until Sunday afternoon. She had no reason to arrive so early."
This caused Olivia to look up from where she had been examining the ground. The Charles rape/homicide, Megan Charles had not been expected at the stables for another couple of days either. Apparently Elliot caught this at the same time because he immediately turned towards his partner. In three strides they were standing next to each other once again.
"Sheriff, we're going to need a list of everyone who used this stable since Wednesday night as well as the names of anyone who may have been elsewhere on the property in that time frame. Employees, stable hands, jockeys who arrived early, everyone who would've been near here." Olivia commanded.
"I'll speak with the owner and have it for you not later than tomorrow morning." Howard responded.
"I think we're going to look over the grounds a bit longer if that's alright." Elliot told him.
"Sure, no problem, there may be a few of the jockeys still around. We cancelled all races for the weekend but word didn't get out to everyone before they arrived." The sheriff told them before leaving.
"Alright, we have Megan Charles, weekend stable hand for Miller Farms on Long Island. She's not scheduled to be in to work until Saturday morning but is found raped and murdered 6am Friday morning, approximately ten hours post mortem. Michelle Flanders, jockey for a Sunday afternoon race found raped and murdered on a Thursday night." Olivia retells the facts.
"Did we get a time of death on Flanders?" Elliot asks.
Olivia speed reads over the sparse notes that they have on the case looking for anything to give her the answer.
"Preliminary medical examiner's report lists time of death around 8pm rigor mortis was just beginning to set in when her body was discovered." She reads to him.
"Flanders' horse, what farm was it from?"
"There's none listed here on her bio, however she is from Montauk." Olivia tells her partner before breaking out in a smile.
"Benson, I think we have a link!" Elliot calls out.
"I do believe so, even a minor one. Let's get out of here. I've got my laptop at the hotel we can get one of the guys to send more info to us." She says, pulling him out of the stable and heading for the parking lot.
Before they even pulled out of the lot Olivia was already on her phone with the 1-6 looking for more.
"Fin, it's Liv. Look, I don't have the entire Charles file here with me. I need the names of everyone that was working at Miller Farms last year when her body was found." She tells her co-worker.
"You get something?" Fin asks.
"Jockey's from Montauk." Olivia states simply.
"So you're thinking she might somehow be connected to Miller Farms."
"Exactly, it's worth a look."
"Alright, I've got the list, I'll email it to you now, you should have it in about ten minutes, I've got to type it up still."
"Great, thanks Fin!"
"So, you and Elliot shacking up together in the back woods there or what?" He asks, chuckling.
"One room suite." Olivia whispers back, hoping Elliot doesn't hear.
Fin just laughs back.
"Call Al, she'll love hearing that. Tell my man I said hey."
"Will do."
"Oh and Liv? Play it safe!"
Before she can even respond to his comment Fin has hung up the phone.
"He sending the list?" Elliot asks.
"I'll have it by the time we get to the hotel, and Fin says hey." She told him.
The drive back to the hotel was silent until their exit off Route 17 when Olivia's stomach growling breaks the quiet.
"Snack foods not enough for you there Liv?" Elliot laughs.
"No, apparently not. So how about some dinner?"
"Subway?" He asks, seeing nothing but fast food near their hotel.
"Only if you swim with me afterwards." She bargains.
"I…uh…forgot a suit. I wasn't exactly planning on much recreation time."
"You don't have anything to swim in?"
"Maybe a pair of basketball shorts in the trunk."
"Perfect!"
They drive down just past their hotel to the Subway there, order their subs, then head back to the hotel suite to eat. As they sit down to eat, Olivia takes half of her Chicken Bacon, and Ranch sub and trades it for half of Elliot's Italian BMT. Just as he starts to take a bite he notices the switch.
"Who said I wanted your chicken?"
"You did, two months ago at the Subway on 34th Street. We grabbed lunch after court and you made me trade you half of my sub." She tells him nonchalantly.
"Oh."
Why had he never noticed before the way she does that? Olivia always seemed to remember every little thing the two of them said or did. He'd just never really noticed until now. Maybe she just had a really good memory.
"What was that sub we brought the cap back last week from the deli, that looked good." He asked, testing her.
"No clue, you'd have to ask him." She answered, never looking up from her email.
Elliot again brushed it off, and just went back to eating his sub.
"Hey El!" Olivia called out a few minutes later.
"Yeah, Babe?"
Olivia's head shot up, not believing her ears. There's no way he just called her that. Elliot didn't even seem to notice he'd done it.
"Check this out. Last year when Megan Charles was found dead there was a Michelle Thomas on staff with them as well as a Martin Flanders." She showed him, pointing to the two names.
"We need to find Martin Flanders. Also, see if we can get the guys to dig up anything on Michelle Thomas, find out if this is her." Elliot said, starting to take charge.
"Call Fin, please? I want to change and go swim." Olivia begged.
"Still thinking of swimming?" He chuckled.
"Why not? Any information we're going to get is going to come through the squad, the locals seem to shut down by 6pm. I'll take my cell down to the pool."
"Fine. Go change."
Olivia grabbed her bikini out of her suitcase and headed towards the bathroom as Elliot picked up the phone.
"Tutuola."
"Hey. Look we found a connection possibly. Last year there was a Michelle Thomas and a Martin Flanders working at Miller Farms. Can you guys see what you can dig up on both of them?" Elliot asked.
"Sure man. So how's the trip going?"
"Liv's getting ready to go swimming now. Apparently the town shuts down at 6pm."
"Make a move yet?"
"Nah, I'm telling you, she's not interested. I'm just her partner." Elliot told his friend with a twinge of sadness in his voice.
"You never know. Well, hey, I've gotta run. Take care of your girl. Talk to you later when we've got info for you."
"Alright."
"Go play lifeguard El!" Fin ordered his friend before hanging up before he could respond.
After being hung up on, Elliot decided to seize the moment and went to grab his shorts from the trunk of his SUV. He walked in the hotel room just as Olivia was walking out of the bathroom. All he could do was stop and stare. He'd known her forever now, yet he couldn't recall ever seeing her look as sexy as she did at that moment.
"El?"
No response.
"Elliot?"
"Hmm…what?"
"See something you like Stabler?" She said, wiggling her ass in his direction jokingly.
"Everyday." He muttered under his breath.
"Meet me down at the pool in five minutes?"
"Sure, just have to change." He told her as she started walking towards him.
"You may want to calm Lil' El down first." She whispered in his ear as she passed by.
Elliot walked into the bathroom totally embarrassed. He couldn't believe that not only had he been standing there staring at her, but he was harder than an aluminum bat the whole time. Just perfect, he was sure he'd just blown any already non-existent chance with his partner. He wanted to just stay in the suite and beat himself up over it but he had told Olivia he'd come swimming with her. By this time his rather large problem had gone away, so he changed into his shorts quickly and headed off to the pool.
While Elliot was upstairs changing Olivia sat down by the pool dialing her best friend's cell phone.
"Cabot." Alex answered, out of breath.
"Bad time?"
"Nope. I was just in the kitchen, phone was in the living room. Fin's not even home yet, something about your case."
"Ah, yes."
"So why is it that you're calling me when you should be jumping your partner?"
"Did you ever stop to wonder why even when we're not working we answer the phone with just our last names?"
"No changing the subject Liv." Alex told her friend sternly.
"Remember last month when you, Casey, and Melinda were over and we got playing Truth or Dare?" Olivia asked vaguely.
"No way!"
"Not that! Casey's truth question to me not the dare. Yeah, he definitely has an excuse for acting so cocky sometimes."
Right as she was telling Alex about Elliot's finer attributes he walked up behind her, of course she didn't notice him until the words had all left her mouth.
"How big of a reason?" Alex probed.
"Uh…Al, I've got to go. Call you later." She told her, turning bright red.
"He's standing right there, isn't he?" Alex asked as she burst out laughing.
"Bye Alexandra!"
Olivia ended the call before looking up at her partner sheepishly.
"Umm…El…"
"Let's just call us even now, okay?"
"Okay."
The two both jumped in the water ready to wash away the embarrassment of the day. Neither one managed to hear Olivia's cell phone start ringing while they were busy dunking each other underwater. Downstate, one particular detective was breaking out in a huge smile as Olivia's voice mail picked up.
"They'd better be getting it on." Fin said to himself as he waited for the beep.