Chapter 14

Fin wasn't sure whose ass needed to be kicked for hauling him and Liv out of bed in the middle of the night but he had a hunch. Neither of them had been on the duty roster to be on call and yet both of their phones had buzzed within minutes. "What've we got?"

"A very dead male," The uniform replied with a grimace. "Pants around the ankles, hands bound, we figured better safe than sorry you know?"

"Yeah, it's a good call," Fin nodded and looked at Liv, "Any word on the rest of the crew?"

"John and the captain are on their way in. Elliot's MIA," Liv shrugged as she put her phone back in her pocket. "You know this area isn't usually quite so deserted," She looked at the uniform. "Where's the local population?"

"Behind the tape and not happy about it," The man replied with a grimace, gesturing to the multitude of street people being held back. "We figured we oughta keep 'em out of the blood and stuff but they're chompin' at the bit to come and get their stuff."

"Well they can keep chomping," Fin looked up as the ME arrived. "Warner," He nodded. "Think you can give us COD?"

"With a little time, and..." Warner rolled the body once the crime photographer had snapped his pictures. "Ah, I believe cause of death would be the stab wound to the heart."

"Hard to mistake," Fin sighed as he stood and looked for Liv. She'd gone to canvas the locals no doubt. Sure enough, John was with her, ducking under the tape to back her up as she began asking questions. "Well let's do our jobs then," He began to work with Warner asking questions and in general making a pest of himself until the captain showed up.

"Any word on Elliot?" Cragen asked as he looked at the body being loaded into the bag.

"Not since we saw him earlier," Fin shook his head. When Cragen simply looked at him the younger man shrugged. "He came by Liv's place. He's pretty pissed off at Liv and me right now Cap'n. But we got victims, the twins and this guy, personal business can wait."

"Great. We'll deal with that later," Cragen shook his head. "All right, let's move like we have a purpose."

Fin nodded and soon enough they were back in the squadroom with Cragen regarding them thoughtfully, "Why were you two even at the scene? Neither one of you is on call."

"I wish I knew," Fin shook his head. "We were supposed to come in tomorrow morning."

"I'll track it down after we get this case going," Cragen told him. "In the mean time. Give John a few minutes, get him up to speed and then go home. I'll see you two in the morning."

"Well this'll be a fun day," Olivia quipped as they parked the car. "You want to get the coffee or should I?"

Fin took a moment to touch her cheek, one last caress against a day of forced distance and was given that sweet smile in return. "You get the coffee Babygirl, if Elliot's here already I don't want him jumping you first thing. I'll at least give him another target."

"Okay, I'll text you when I'm on my way up," She hugged his hand to her cheek for a moment more, turning to kiss his palm before she opened the door and got out of the car.

Fin sat for a minute and watched her go before he got out of the car and headed into the precinct. John was there, and from the looks of him he'd been there all night, he looked exhausted, "Hey man, Liv's bringing coffee. Text her if you want that instead of your usual tea." He told his partner.

"If I drink any more coffee I'll turn into a coffee bean," Munch groaned. "On the bright side I may be getting somewhere with the victim."

"Yeah?" Fin listened with half an ear as John began to expound on the man's background and what sexual history he'd been able to learn. Stabler wasn't in yet but Cragen was in his office, most likely he hadn't left since last night either. Like Liv had said, this would be a fun day. Hopefully if and when Stabler got in he'd have gotten his issues under control.

"You're not listening," Munch complained and Fin looked at him.

"I'm listening when you say something I haven't heard, you been repeating yourself for the last five minutes," He told his partner. "You and the captain both need some rack time."

"Yeah just as soon as I make some headway on this," John nodded. "I need to start talking to his ex-girlfriend, she sounds like a peach."

"This the one who has a record of assault?" Fin picked up the file, "She must have a hell of a lawyer to get off with probation for assault with a deadly."

"I get the impression her victim, another male, wasn't exactly thrilled by the idea that his beat down by a five foot nothing chick would be made public," John retorted. "Male fear of humiliation will make us stupid."

"You're tellin' me," Fin chuckled. "Half the reason we do the things we do is to look good for women."

"That why you cut off your ponytail?" John grinned, "So Liv would do a doubletake?"

"That was part of it," Fin shrugged as he went to study his case board. "And I figured I wasn't going undercover as a drug dealer so why not look like an adult instead of a punk." He tilted his head at the board, "You know something about this…reminds me of something. But I can't place it."

Olivia walked in the room as he was studying the board and handed him his coffee with a covetous look at the hot cup. "John I got you the same green tea, I hope that's good," She told Munch as she handed him a tall cup. "Elliot never texted me back so he loses out but I got the captain an extra shot of espresso in his."

"He'll be so grateful he might kiss you," John told her as she went into the captain's office.

She came back out with the captain who was sipping the steaming cup gratefully and regarded the board with Fin, "So I had an idea when I was walking back with the coffee." She told them, "These two…for some reason they remind me of Hansel and Gretel."

"What, like the fairytale," Cragen eyed her curiously, "How'd you come up with that?"

"This woman walking ahead of me was eating a muffin," Liv explained as she picked up a paperbag and began pulling out breakfast burritos. Taking a bite of hers, she quickly swallowed and continued, "This pigeon was following her, eating the crumbs as she dropped them. It did that for a block and a half, didn't even pay attention to me." She looked at the board again, "The way they're dressed and posed… and they're both blond, about the same age…"

Fin nodded, "That's why this seemed familiar." He looked at Cragen, "Wasn't there a case…about eight months ago, over at the one four, a little girl dressed up and left posed like she was sleeping?"

"And about a year before that there was a boy, same MO but he was dressed in the modern version of lederhosen," Olivia remembered. "But that was out of the one one."

"Different genders, different precincts," Fin said slowly, "So no one made the connection." He went to his desk and pulled up the files, "What did the boy look like? Little girl was blonde, long hair, posed in a blue dress and lace socks with frills."

"Boy had dark brown hair, tanned skin," Liv looked at him in shock, "Tanned…like…" She sat down and stared at the file. "Like Pinocchio," She said in distaste.

"Little girl looked like Sleeping Beauty," Fin wrinkled his nose. "And now we've got Hansel and Gretel."

"Go back further, all similar crimes, see how many other fairy tales this guy has been using," Cragen ordered. "Liv from now on, you wear a vest at all times. No excuses."

Fin held up his hands when Liv looked over at him, "Hey I haven't said dick over here. I figure you know when you need a vest. Dad's just worried is all."

Cragen looked almost embarrassed and shook his head, "I know how long you've wanted this Olivia. Let's just not take chances all right?"

"All…right," Liv nodded.

"Fin you help her," The captain ordered. "John, until Stabler gets here you're stuck with me. One of his kids is sick so he's at home still. When Kathy gets off her shift at the hospital he'll be in."

"That's convenient," Fin couldn't help but comment and went to help Liv put on her vest. In the relative privacy of the locker room he regarded her thoughtfully. She looked tired and stressed, and she hadn't looked that way until the captain had brought up Stabler. "Babygirl, are you okay?"

"You ask me that an awful lot," Liv smiled up at him. "I'll be fine. Just grateful when Elliot comes in to make his scene and we can get it out in the open. I don't like…waiting."

"Yeah," Fin couldn't help but grin as he thought of her impatience in the bedroom. "Yeah I've heard that." He teased as he helped her buckle the vest. "Makes you feel better I feel like I did in Mogadishu, hurry up and wait, wait and then boom." Once her vest was on he pulled his out and began to unbutton his vest and shirt. When she looked at him curiously Fin shrugged, "I figure if I'm wearing one too you'll feel better about wearing yours."

"It just makes me look ten pounds heavier," Liv made a face at him. "Which reminds me, the Obstetrician called confirming my appointment. Picture day is in five days, at eleven."

"I'll tell Cragen so we can both go," Fin grinned at the thought, "Can't wait to get a look at our little one."

"Well you have to wait five more days," Olivia teased as she checked his vest. "You're good babe," She patted his shoulder. "Get dressed and we'll start searching for like crimes."

"Yeah," Fin slid a hand down her arm, the only affection he could give in the precinct and watched her go.

Like crimes yielded Snow White, Peter Pan, Jack the Giantkiller and Cinderella, all stretching back in six month and year intervals. Fin frowned and shook his head, "Why two this time? I mean does he pick the kids to suit the fairy tale or is the fairy tale to suit the kid he picks."

Doctor Huang had ended up being called in when he and Liv figured they had a serial killer on their hands and answered Fin's question, "I'd say he sees a child and the fairy tale is immediately in his mind." He gestured towards a picture of the girl dressed as Snow White, "Margaret has the pure white skin and black hair of Snow White. Her coloring suggested the fairy tale most likely and something about her resonated with him. But the way he dresses them suggests he isn't limiting himself to the Disney version of these characters."

"Everything is modern," Liv nodded and rotated her neck as if it ached. "Like the scarf. But the shoes…" She shook her head, "Did we have specially made shoes on any of the others?"

Fin divided his attention between his woman and the file and frowned, "It looks like some pretty sloppy filing here. We don't have pictures of all the shoes, at least not for the boys." He flipped through to the next victim, "But I got them for Snow White, Margaret." He held up the picture, "I'm going down to the lab; maybe if I talk to them in person they'll answer some questions."

"Let me finish—" Olivia picked up her phone. "Benson," She frowned. "You do? Okay great. And the parents? Oh my god… yeah, all right." She hung up the phone a sick look on her face. "We've got an ID on the kids. They're Jenny and Nathan Montgomery," She sat down heavily shaking her head. "Apparently the entire family was visiting from Minnesota. They went missing six months ago, parents bodies were found but they never found the children. Nobody made a connection to our victims until we started looking for twins."

"He's been holding them all this time?" Fin frowned, "That's one sick bastard."

"And was it the same with the other children? Parents dead, children missing until the bodies were found," Huang asked looking through his copy of the file.

"No, with Margaret she was taken when she wandered away from a school field trip to the zoo," Fin read out of the file. "She was found a month and a half later."

"The rest of the kids, same thing, the longest time was three months from the time they disappeared to the time the bodies were found," Olivia had gathered her nerves again. Fin could almost see the steel she was putting into her spine. "One of them though, the boy was out with his dad, evening walk to the corner store and the dad was hit over the head, in a coma for a week before he came out of it. They figured out the boy was with him at the time when the cops checked the apartment, they found the picture in his wallet. A neighbor had seen them leave together."

"And which one was that?" George Huang looked up and answered his own question as he found the file, "Peter Pan, Brian Kroska, the child before Pinnochio."

"So he's escalating in violence if the kids aren't alone," Fin shook his head. "That makes for a cheery picture."

"Less time between taking the kids, but he keeps them… keeps them and makes them his," Huang was staring at the board. "He kept these two for six months, twice as long as any of the others; maybe because there were two of them, he could divide his attentions."

"That would mean there was overlap though," John put in, "He has to have a place to keep at least three kids, because Sleeping Beauty went missing two months before the twins were taken, but her body was found a month after they disappeared."

"So he has property somewhere," Cragen frowned. "I want the sites mapped out, where they were taken, where they were found and we need a common thread people." The phone on Stabler's desk rang and he picked it up, "SVU." His face darkened into a scowl, "Elliot I don't want to hear it right now. Are you coming in or not?" Fin had never seen the captain's face go quite that color before, "Fine. Tomorrow then, you get here bright and early and we'll talk before the rest of the squad gets here. In the meantime we've got work to do." The receiver in his hand crashed violently down onto the phone cradle and Cragen took a deep breath.

"I guess Elliot won't be joining us on our hunt for the Grimm rapist?" John quipped dryly. Fin shook his head and put the file he was holding down on his desk.

"He will not be, not today," Cragen shook his head visibly shaking off his irritation, "Doctor Huang, can I impose upon you to back Munch up?"

"If you don't mind, why don't I go with Olivia, that way Fin and John are still working together," Huang smiled. "Liv and I have worked together before, we have a good relationship I think."

Fin smiled slightly in spite of the circumstances, "That's a good idea Doc." He shot Liv a look, "You know I love working with you but we want George sane and John'll drive him nuts. After all these years I'm immune."

As he'd hoped that made Olivia laugh and she nodded, "That's fine with me."

"Oh good, now that we're all paired off," Cragen said sarcastically. "Go, bring me suspects."

Author's Note: So work is intruding upon Liv and Fin's relationship, seems like that's always the way. We'll be seeing a bit more of this case in the next chapter.

I'm curious, how do all of you see it going when Elliot finally comes into work? A blow up or is he going to act like nothing's wrong? Inquiring minds want to know.

Thanks for reading and reviewing. I appreciate the feedback.