T Minus 4 Days, cont'd
Avery had arrived at the station with exactly the attitude they all expected. He whined and belly-ached to Fin and Lake, bitching about how he'd done his time and threatening to sue them for harassment. Elliot had stayed out of sight, letting the others drag Avery into interrogation. But rather than settling in and questioning him, Fin and Lake backed off, leaving the room.
Cragen was stationed behind the mirror, ready to intervene if necessary. But he knew no one in his squad was better equipped to break Avery. He knew the individual strengths of his team, as well as their abilities to work as pairs. There were times when Munch's sarcasm, Lake's intelligence, Fin's street smarts, and Olivia's finesse were the best way to get information out of a suspect. Mark Avery, with his imposing physical characteristics and outspoken hatred of police, was best matched by Elliot's intimidating presence. Elliot's rage at having his partner hurt, as well as his predilection to sublimate the affection he felt for his partner into unbridled anger, were likely to have Avery singing like a bird. And with their history, with Elliot having previously established his self-appointment as Olivia's defender, Cragen figured Avery would either immediately clear himself or cement himself as their primary suspect.
Elliot stepped into the room, damn near having already tried and convicted Avery.
Avery looked up, his irritated glare melting into recognition and then surprise. "What the fuck do you want?"
To the observers, Elliot appeared to be sizing him up, perhaps trying to get under Avery's skin. On the contrary, Elliot was simply trying to retain control of himself, resisting the urge to declare himself Avery's executioner. Because he wanted to slam Avery's head into the wall until he would no longer be a threat to any woman anywhere. He had to keep reminding himself that killing Avery might keep them from finding Olivia.
Finally, Elliot sat down across from the object of his hatred, looking over the file before him. "Mark Avery. Served five years of an eight year sentence." He raised an eyebrow, as though it was actually news to him. "They let you out early for good behavior, huh?"
Avery folded his arms over his chest. "Yeah, so?"
Elliot shut the file. "Wouldn't have thought you were capable of good behavior."
He smiled, appearing to like having irritated Elliot. "Why is that?"
Elliot smiled back, letting the expression wage war with his furious stare. "Because you're a rapist, asshole."
Avery snarled. "I did my time. Lost five years of my life because my girlfriend was pissed off at me and went around telling lies."
"That's not what your daughter said." Elliot knew the mention of the girl would upset Avery. The girl was the only reason Avery had been locked up.
Avery was on his feet, kicking his chair back against the wall. "Because your whore girlfriend told her to lie!"
Elliot was on his feet in a second, tensing his muscles, ready to fight. "Sit down."
Avery swallowed hard and considered the situation before he slowly lowered himself back into his chair. Then his lips curled into a cruel smile. "Where is she anyway?"
"I ask the questions in here, jackass." Thinking himself deserving of praise for his newly discovered well of self-control, Elliot stopped short of patting his own back. "What have you been doing since your release?" The information from the PO had been pretty much useless. Avery was working and showing up unhappily for appointments when he felt it convenient.
"I've been working."
Elliot seriously doubted Avery was working nine to five and then heading straight home to watch TV. "What else?"
"Making up for lost time." Avery grinned. "Fucking every bitch I see."
He refused to consider what the ramifications of that statement could possibly be. "They're all willing, right?"
The grin on Avery face waned a bit. "Old girls from the neighborhood, you know, they missed me." He shrugged again. "A couple of strippers."
"Strippers offering their services free of charge, I assume?" Elliot really wasn't interested in nailing the ass for prostitution.
Avery nodded. "Mostly working though." He folded his huge hands together on the table, fingers fiddling with an obnoxiously large M-shaped ring. "Gotta pay the bills, you know."
Elliot tried to keep his mind from imaging those hands on Olivia, hurting her, touching her. He swallowed back bile. "What kind of work? It's hard for a fuck-up like you to find a legitimate job, isn't it?"
Avery's eyes darted down, the only tell he gave that he wasn't quite so proud as he would have others believe. "I'm a- uh – what do they call it-" He grinned, finding amusement that wasn't really there. "A sanitation engineer."
Elliot nodded, wishing he could laugh outright at the man, yet knowing Avery might keep back details of Olivia's whereabouts if he did. He only let himself smile. "You're a garbage man." He nodded again, not quite able to resist his urge to taunt. "You spend your days picking up other people's filth. Sounds like a good fit for you."
Avery snarled, grunting and looking away. "I don't touch the shit. I drive the damn truck that picks up the cans."
Elliot's blood ran cold, sending shivers through his body. "You mean the dumpsters? You empty them?"
"Yeah, I drive the truck."
Elliot met Avery's eyes, pissed as hell at the man for existing, for hurting Olivia, for having an answer for everything. "Those trucks pick up the dumpsters, right?" Avery nodded, confusion beginning to settle into his hard features. "So you don't actually touch them yourself?"
Avery shook his head. "Fuck, no, man, you think I'm Superman? I just drive the damn truck."
With a real fuck-you kind of smile, Elliot leaned forward and bit back his desire to cheer. "Then explain to me how your fingerprints wound up on the dumpster outside my partner's building."
Shrugging, Avery sat back. "Sometimes I have to turn them so the truck can pick them up. The boss gets all pissed off if I leave them blocking the alleys."
Elliot was beyond listening to any excuses; he wasn't buying anything Avery was selling. "And you just happened to touch that particular dumpster, huh? Outside Olivia's apartment. Did you ask her to help you move it before you grabbed her?"
Avery stared back, his eyes widening a little as he started to catch on. "Something bad happen to Little Miss Sunshine?" He chuckled. "Gee, I can't imagine why anyone would want to hurt your sweet little bitch. She's such a peach."
Elliot's hands were around Avery's throat before he even realized he was on his feet. He was around the table in a second, slamming Avery into the wall with his whole body, not caring at all that his control had snapped. "Where is she? What did you do to her?"
Avery hadn't been expected the attack and wasn't prepared at first, but his arms rose quickly, shoving at Elliot with all his strength. Unable to dislodge Elliot's fierce grip on his throat, he threw a punch, connecting squarely with Elliot's eye.
Fin and Lake were there, pulling Elliot back before he could retaliate.
Avery rubbed at his throat. "Son of a bitch. I'm gonna sue your ass."
Enraged, Elliot surged away from the hands holding him, grabbing a hold of Avery's collar. "Where is she?"
Avery shoved Elliot back. "Fuck you. I want a fucking lawyer!"
Cragen stepped into the room, pushing all three of his detectives away from the door. "You're not under arrest at this time, Mr. Avery."
Realizing he was getting a chance to walk away, Avery straightened his shirt and smiled. "Course I'm not. Cause I didn't do shit." He brushed past Cragen on his way out.
"Don't leave town, Mr. Avery." Cragen's words didn't receive a reply. At least, not from Avery.
"What the fuck are you doing?"
"Don't start with me, Elliot." Cragen turned to Lake. "I want you to follow up on what he said. Where he works, his route, if he's supposed to touch the dumpsters, when the last pick up by Olivia's was."
Lake nodded, scurrying from the room. "I'm on it."
Glancing between Cragen and Elliot, Fin jerked his thumb toward the door. "I'll help Lake."
"He threatened to kill her." Elliot wasn't sure who he was angrier at, Cragen or Avery. Avery hadn't disappointed him. "You heard what he said. He might as well have admitted to taking her."
"I heard what he said." Cragen's frown revealed how he felt about hearing the derogatory comments Avery had made. "I also heard him have a reasonable explanation for why he was at the scene."
Elliot didn't say a word. He just stared at the floor, furious and unable to do anything to expel it.
"Go get some ice before your eye swells shut." Cragen stepped out of the room, but turned back before he got far. "Elliot, we'll get him. If Avery has her, we'll get him. But we have to do this by the book, you know that."
As he watched Cragen walk away, an idea came to him. Whoever had taken Olivia knew where she lived. Therefore, unless it was a random attack which no one was really considering, the kidnapper either knew her or followed her. With Phil ruled out, Elliot seriously doubted there were any possible suspects that knew her. If someone had targeted her, had followed her, there could be a witness. It was a long shot, but Elliot was willing to take anything he could get.
Cragen's door was closed and Fin and Lake were tied up on the phone, but Munch was sitting there, coat in hand, list of recent releases at the ready. Elliot grabbed his jacket and nodded toward the door. "Let's go."
Munch climbed in on the passenger side, fastening his seatbelt and reading off the first name. "Keith Klein, lives over on 94th."
Without a word, Elliot turned the car to the left.
Munch looked around for a moment. "Um, 94th is south of here."
"I know." Elliot nodded. "There's something I need to do first."
"Care to let me in on it?" Munch set the list of names on the seat between them.
Elliot shook his head with a rueful smile. "You probably wouldn't approve."
"Then I really need to know." Munch waited patiently for Elliot's answer, which wasn't forthcoming. When they pulled into the parking lot of a medical center, the wheels started to spin. "Just out of curiosity, your wife is a nurse, right?"
Elliot glared at him. "Ex-wife."
Munch shook his head, but fell in step beside Elliot anyway. "Please tell me we're not going to question Kathy."
Elliot shrugged with a smile, pressing the button repeatedly to call the elevator. "I don't think she kidnapped Olivia."
"Oh, well, good." Munch smiled at him. "At least you appear somewhat reasonable."
"But she might know someone who saw something."
Munch hung his head. "Forget what I said about you being reasonable."
Kathy was at the front desk, talking to the secretary about a patient. She looked up with a smile to greet them, but it disappeared instantly as she backed up a step. "Don't make me call Tom, Elliot." Her eyes searched Elliot's face, obviously noticing the swelling around his eye, but not mentioning it.
He shook his head, refusing to even consider how sad it was that the woman who he once thought he'd spend the rest of his life with would no longer look at him without threatening to call her lawyer. "No, Kath, don't call Tom."
She looked nervous, her eyes narrowing. "What's this about?"
Elliot's eyes fell on the secretary who was staring at them. At his pointed stare, she suddenly found something to go file. "Did the PI give you any other pictures?"
Wincing at the mention of the PI, she looked down and shook her head. "No. You have all the ones I saw."
"Were there others? Do you know if he followed Olivia at all?" As usual, Elliot was so intent on getting what he wanted that he didn't notice Kathy's face cloud over.
"I have work to do, Elliot."
He wasn't thinking as he reached over the desk, catching her hand before she turned. "Please, Kathy, I need your help."
She yanked her hand out of his grasp. "Damn it, Elliot, don't make this worse than it already is."
"It can't get any fucking worse." He was there to beg his ex-wife for help, after all. He was about on the ground.
Munch stepped in, trying to diffuse a situation that could become very nasty very quickly. "Kathy, please help us out here."
For the first time, Kathy's eyes turned to Munch, actually doing a double-take when she realized the person at Elliot's side wasn't who she expected. Her eyes were wary, but a bit softer when she looked back at Elliot. "Did he turn you in? Did Cragen split you guys up because-"
Elliot realized what she thought, how completely she'd bought into her lawyer's own made up bullshit. "Look, Kathy, I'm not getting into this, but I swear to god that I never cheated on you."
She took a moment to size him up before she nodded. "Where's Olivia?"
Munch felt compelled to remind them he was there, trying to avoid watching anymore of the soap play out. "We don't know."
Elliot answered Kathy's obvious confusion. "She disappeared three days ago. I'm hoping your PI has more pictures. If he followed her, he might have caught something on film. He might even remember someone. Please, Kathy, this doesn't have anything to do with me and you." He glanced at Munch, hating to show the man anything so personal, hating that he'd accidentally let another one of his coworkers in on just how bad his divorce had been. "Olivia never did anything to hurt you, Kathy."
"I know that." Kathy looked away, taking a deep breath. "She saved my life and Eli's too." She bent down, picking up a tablet and pen and scrawling a number on it. "I don't know how to reach him, but I'll call Tom and give him permission to talk to you." She handed him the paper with her lawyer's number. "Give me ten minutes to talk to him, then give him a call." She turned to the side, flagging over another nurse. "Can you get an ice pack?"
When the other nurse returned, Kathy handed it over with the paper she'd written on. "Here. It's starting to bruise."
Elliot accepted the ice, almost having forgotten about Avery's fist, after he'd tucked the phone number carefully in his pocket. "Thanks, Kathy."
Her eyes turned hard again and she shrugged. "I'm doing it for Olivia, for the woman who's had to put up with your shit for ten years, Elliot. I'm certainly not doing it for you."
He nodded. "Thank you. For everything." He hoped she knew he wasn't talking about the ice. She nodded, but said nothing as she walked away.
In the elevator on the way back down to street level, Munch offered a piece of advice. "You know, Elliot, next time you want to ask Kathy for a favor, you might consider not doing it when you reek of Olivia's perfume."
Elliot turned to look at him, ready to dispute the accusation as always. But then he remembered his shower, soaping up with Olivia's lilac-scented soap, and crawling into her bed for the night. Instead of arguing, Elliot shook his head. "You might have mentioned that before I went in there." Seeing Munch's amusement with the idea he'd sunk to wearing Olivia's perfume, Elliot made an attempt to save face. "Besides, it's not her perfume. It's her soap."
Munch's smile dissolved into actual laughter. "The point is moot, my friend. You still smell like Olivia."
"There are worse things." Elliot grinned as they got back in the car, wondering how many people had picked up on what was apparently so obvious.
