Chapter Forty - Photograph

Alex and Abbie sat at the table in the FBI building and waited for Rock to bring them the information on the thumb drive. Alex was worried about Olivia and she was getting impatient. Abbie put her hand on Alex's. Abbie knew that Alex was tense with worry about Olivia and skepticism about what Rock was going to give them.

"What is taking him so long?" Alex demanded.

"I don't know, Alex. I can go ask, if you want. But, I don't think that it will do us any good."

"You think he is stalling?"

"I do, but I don't know why. Either they have something or they don't, this keeping us waiting just doesn't add up. Did George send you anything on Rock yet?" Abbie asked.

"Not yet. I don't think that their plane has landed. I am a little worried about how Liv took the flight," Alex told her.

"I know you are worried about McSexy Butch, but she is good hands. She can handle her own. Let's handle what we got to handle so we can get back to her, shall we? What time was the plane supposed to land, anyway?" Abbie asked.

"About an hour ago," Alex replied.

"Text her."

"What?"

"Text her."

"Okay?"

"She'll answer. If she's still hung up about the flight, she's trying to talk herself down now that she's back on the ground. You and I both know what we saw the other day. The girl needs to blow off some steam. Text her. She's more likely to answer you if she doesn't have to talk to you. She probably doesn't want you to hear her sounding vulnerable. I know I wouldn't"

"Right," Alex said as she typed a text out to Liv.

Two seconds later, she got a reply. Abbie arched her eyebrow at Alex and smirked, knowing that she had been right. She laughed as she got up and refilled her coffee, watching Alex as she typed a message back to Liv. She was about to say something to Alex when Rock decided to finally come in.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, ladies," Rock stated as he sat down at the table.

He pushed the paperwork that he had in his hands across the table to them. Abbie immediately sat back down and took the file. Alex took the reports. They both started to go over what he gave them. They both looked at each other, not exactly knowing what they were looking at.

"Is this all that was on the USB drive?" Abbie asked him.

"It was all that computer techs could find. They scoured it and tried every encryption code they knew to break it. They can't find any reason to the data they found. There are files on there that can't be opened. We don't even know what kind of program that it was needed. It isn't code either. They can't hack it," Rock told them.

"That is very interesting. Is there anything else from the scene? Something else they found after our visit?" Abbie asked.

"No, nothing," Rock told them, "Here is the thumb drive. You can take it back with you to Quantico. I don't need it here. Maybe the guys back there can find something on it that we couldn't. I'll forward the rest by the usual channels. Anything else that I can help you with?"

"No, I think that we are good. Go ahead and send whatever you have to the US Attorney's office. We'll need it for the cases and so I can proceed with the indictments," Abbie stated.

"Yes, ma'am, right away," Rock told them, leaving them alone with the papers he'd given them.

Abbie watched him leave. She thought that maybe she could see whatever it was that Olivia had seen that made her weary of Rock. She looked at Alex and motioned towards the door with her head. Alex looked up at her from the paperwork.

"You need to see this," Alex told her.

Abbie crossed the room back to the table and looked at the papers that Alex was looking at. She down at took the paperwork. She couldn't make out anything that made sense on the paperwork. She scanned it several times, but still nothing jumped out at her.

"I don't get it, Alex. What am I looking at? What is this?" Abbie asked.

"Nothing, this is pure bullshit. It means nothing. This is nothing but leek speak and phrases that techies would understand. There is nothing useful here."

"Do you think there was anything useful on the thumb drive?"

"I do," Alex stated.

"Then how do we prove it?" Abbie asked.

"That is up to Liv. She'll know what to do. We need to make sure that USB key we are given is the right one. Who gave it Rock to begin with?" Alex asked.

"I did. You gave it to me after Liv went for her walk. I sent you down to her. Y'all went out to Mara's house. I signed it into evidence and gave it to Rock for processing."

"Damn it," Alex stated.

"What?"

"We didn't have time to clone it. If there had been something of importance to we'll never get it now. Damn it, Rock could have done anything to it and we wouldn't know. It is the perfect form of cover up," Alex explained.

"He does seem a little more edgy than the other day, but you're right. We won't be able to prove anything if he did anything. I think that he knows that, too. But, would you go through with it? If you thought that you were suspected, would you still go through with it? Wouldn't you do more to get suspicion off of you? "

"I would yeah, but this guy if he is dirty knows how to hide in plain sight. He is the perfect person to have on your side. He can fudge evidence and you would have no idea. Is there any way we could prove it?"

"I doubt it. We wouldn't even know where to begin. We have all the information that the Bureau and the local LEOs found during their investigations. There has to be something in it that we can use, something that hasn't been doctored," Abbie stated.

"If we go into this thinking that he doctored it, we're screwed. We have to look at this objectively. We have to believe that all the evidence is real and not doctored. If we don't, then this entire trip has been a waste," Alex stated.

"We should go. Let's go back to the hotel room and review it alone. You've been reading Liv's notes for years. I'm sure that there is something that you can find that will prove or disprove Rock's involvement. You can read the evidence just like her. Let's go give it a try."

"Before we do that, I want to back to the brothel."

"Why?" Abbie asked.

"Because I think the trigger started there. I want to figure out what Liv was looking for. Something in the brothel stopped Liv for a minute and started Julie. I want to know what it was. If we can figure it out, we can help Liv. If I can help Liv, we can home and be a family."

Alex drove the car back to the brothel. They still had their warrants and their FBI credentials to get them into the crime scene. They had purposefully not told Rock what they were doing. Alex wanted to look at the scene as she had seen Liv do thousands of times in New York. It was now up to her to see what she could see in order to close this case.

"Abbie, you have the binder with you?"

"Yeah, right here," Abbie answered her as they stood outside the brothel.

"That's Liv's version, right?"

"Yeah, it is."

"What is the first note that she left in it?" Alex asked her.

"She noted the lack of information taken. She maintained the path in which the investigators took, but she questioned their lack of probing nature to things besides the obvious crime at hand. She wondered why they were only concerned with the dead bodies and not the other crimes and information that the brothel might be giving them," Abbie told her.

"Are there any questions written in the margins?"

"Yeah, plenty."

"Good, she was trying to figure out something. Is there a common theme in the questions? If so, what is it?" Alex asked, coming around to the front of the car where Abbie had taken to leaning against.

"She looks like she was trying to figure out how the police were tipped off about the brothel. She was trying to find out how the brothel was brought into the case. There is no report of a 9-1-1 call or any other tip. She wanted to know what it was that brought their attention to this case."

"Blood on windows?" Alex suggested.

"There is no note of that," Abbie said, looking up at the building.

There was indeed some blood on the windows, but was it is enough to cause a patrolman to want to investigate? Abbie grabbed the binder then Alex's hand and pulled her towards the brothel. They stopped outside the windows and looked at the logs. The blood was notated, but not collected. It was deemed as the victims' without testing. Alex looked up at Abbie.

"They didn't even attempt to catalogue it. It was like it was an open and shut case. They didn't try to solve it. They went in and didn't care. No one tried to identify the blood. Why?"

"That is a good question. Maybe we should get a team down here and find out. Do you think that we can do that without Rock finding out?" Abbie asked.

"We need to, either way. We don't have a choice. There may be more evidence that was never collected. It needs to be tested. It needs to be catalogued, even if it gives us nothing. Nothing about this case is making sense."

"I know. I see that. Liv was right to question it. But, what was it about it that triggered her to transform into Julie? Something in there or something at Mara's real house scared her, Alex. We need to find out what that was. We need to assuage her fears so that Julie doesn't take over."

"I agree with you. I know that. Do you want to wait for more crime scene units to show up or do you want to go in? I want to know what Liv saw in there. I want to know what scared her."

"Let's go."

Alex wrote her name and Abbie's on the crime scene log outside the main door to the brothel. She took the binder from Abbie and followed the map of the path that the original investigators took; once again trying to make sure they didn't contaminate the scene. They wanted to make sure that whatever evidence may have remained from the original investigation was still able to be tested and collected without any interference.

Abbie followed Alex, just like Alex had followed Liv. She seemed like she was on a mission. She went into the brothel office. Alex surveyed the scene. It was trashed.

"What were they looking for in here?"

"I don't know, Abbie, probably the books."

"The books?"

"Yeah, they were looking for anything that would link the cases together. Whoever broke in here was looking for Mara's books. They would contain the monetary connection to the Goldings. Whoever hit this place knew exactly what they were looking for. They came in here with a purpose," Alex stated.

"You have been following her too long," Abbie stated.

"You learn when you want to know. I had to find out what they saw so I could make the jury understand it better. If I can't understand it or see in the pictures or the evidence, how can I make a jury? Liv was patient, most of the time, but she helped me. I did have the highest close rate for SVU when I was the A.D.A.," Alex explained.

"Don't rub it in, Cabot. It isn't becoming. So, great and wonderful investigating lawyer, what do you see?"

Alex looked around the office again. It looked like a staged robbery. The safe hadn't been hit. There were papers and files everywhere on the floor. The computer monitor had been shot. The motherboard had been destroyed. The destruction was purposeful. It wasn't as random as it seemed. They tore apart the desk. The drawers were scattered and empty.

"I know why Liv left here and searched for Mara's hidden room."

"Why?" Abbie asked.

"She knew Mara. They had talked before. She knew that Mara was a financial genius. She knew that Mara would have made backups to protect her self. If the Goldings were after her, she would use them against them. She had to make them. She wanted to get justice for her sister, while protecting herself. It was why we found the USB drive. She hid the evidence in the most unlikely place for the Goldings or their henchmen to find it."

"They didn't know that Mara's sister was one of their victims," Abbie stated.

"Exactly. Mara used her room like a safe house. This is where she hid the evidence against the Goldings. Liv figured it out because she knew Mara's background. She knew that Mara would find another place to hide it. Whoever broke in and killed them all didn't. They didn't know Mara. Liv did. Mara must have left something else. A sign or a clue that only Liv would see and recognize, it would be something that everyone else would miss," Alex stated.

"What would that be?"

"I have no earthly idea. Like I said, it would be something that only Liv would know because she knew Mara. There has to be something in the office that clued her in to looking in that room. Then there was something in that room that lead her to Mara's house in the suburbs," Alex said.

Abbie looked around the chaos and tried to figure out what that clue might be. She remembered that Liv found the USB key in Star Wars mug. She wondered if it could be something as mundane as that. Was there something in Mara's office that they couldn't see?

She watched as Alex moved around the room. It was like watching Liv years ago. They moved the same way. She noticed as Alex would pause and pick up a piece of paper, study it contents and replace it. She knew that they were waiting on CSU to come.

Alex methodically moved around the room. There was something in there that started the chain reaction that brought Julie back out. She kept looking for it. It was something tangible, something real and something in that room.

She sat down on the floor amid the chaos. The papers and the files didn't make an obvious pile or disregarded mess. She kept searching. There had to be something that brought it all together. She looked up at Abbie and then back around the room.

Alex suddenly stood up and crossed the room. She grabbed a framed photograph that was on a bookcase against the wall. She turned around, holding the photograph, and showed Abbie.

"This is it," Alex told her.

"That is what?" Abbie asked her.

"This is the trigger!" Alex told her.

"How is that the trigger?"

"Look at it."

Abbie crossed the room to where Alex was. She took the framed photograph from Alex and looked at the photo. She glanced at it. She noticed that it looked like a family style photograph but something seemed a little off with it.

"Who are all these people?" Abbie asked her.

"I think that this is Mara and her sister Rebecca. This is Robin. I don't know who that is, but I think this is Frankie," Alex told her pointing them out.

"Wow!"

"I know. I didn't understand how close we resembled each other. I know that Dana and George tried to tell me. It wasn't until I saw her photos in the dossier that I understood Liv's attraction."

"I'll say. She could be you, a very Southern you with brown eyes. The resemblance is uncanny, Alex. Did you know about this?"

"I found out in Quantico. I didn't know that she resembled me that much until Dana told me. It made the craziness of meeting Ike and Russell a little more interesting. I am sure that I gave them a shock when they met me. It made me a little more uncomfortable with Liv at first. It wasn't until George and I had our own session that it made it more understandable to me."

"Understandable? What the hell does that mean, Alex? Understandable? How does that make it more understandable? She looks just like you. Hell, she could be you. How does that it okay?"

"I don't know, but it did. I can't explain it to you Abbie, but she loved her. I think that it made me love her more. Olivia has her issues, but I still love her. I can't fault her for what happened to her while she was undercover. She was doing her job. I can't be mad at her for that."

"But still Alex…"

"Nothing, Abbie, is going to change my mind about this. I love her. She loves me. She loved Frankie. She's told me truth about their relationship. I respect her for that. I won't lie; it surprised me how closely we look alike, but I know that our relationship is different. It has always been different between us."

"I know that, Alex, but…she could have been you," Abbie stated.

"I know. I think that is part of her trigger. I look so much like her, or maybe, you have to think like Olivia did. Frankie looked like me. When you think about it in that light, I can't be upset. I love her, Abbie. I know what happened. I can't hold that against her. I have to help her embrace what happened and help her move forward with her life. Can we please just move on."

"Fine, I'll drop it."

"Look at the photo, again."

"Okay, we know that is Mara. That is Rebecca. This is Robin here. That is Frankie. Who is the mystery woman? Is someone missing from the picture? Am I missing something?"

"Someone is purposefully missing from this photo. Look at the edge. Frankie is there and there is someone holding her hand, but that person is missing. We know that Robin is in the picture. She is holding Mara, almost possessively. Look at her expression though," Alex told her.

"She isn't happy. I don't think that she wanted this picture to be taken. Robin seems almost sickingly sweetly angry that the picture is even happening. Who do you think is missing from the picture?" Abbie asked her.

"Olivia, or rather Julie Seabrook, is the one missing," Alex stated.

"Are you fucking kidding me? Liv is the one missing. Robin is angry, probably because she didn't want a 'company' picture to be taken. You have Robin the head of the gang. We have Mara and Rebecca, major players in the brothels. Then there is Frankie and Liv, two of the main runners for the gang. Now, we need to identify the mystery woman. Who is she, Alex?"

"That is the question we need to figure out. We have to find out who she is. She may be the catalyst and the trigger. Obviously, she is someone important to the gang. We need to get this information to Dana, quickly. We need to call George to find out if Liv can identify who this person is. She might be the connection we have been looking for, Abbie," Alex stated.