Before Olivia and Elliot could get their heads around the first murder, there was a second one.
"Her name is Callie Carson; 29, lives in the Lower East Side and was found at 4:30AM." A garbage crew had just started to pick up the trash when they found her in an alley.
Like their first victim, Callie had been dressed to go out." Elliot was starting to wonder if they had a serial killer targeting young girls on their way home.
Olivia had a different train of thought. "Look at her bracelet." It was sterling silver; clearly the victim hadn't been mugged.
"It's nice?" Elliot didn't get what he was supposed to make of it.
"The logo Elliot! Melody had the same symbol on her earrings." It was a butterfly. Olivia didn't think much of it when Melody wore it, but now … their victims were connected somehow.
They needed to find out where the victims had gotten their jewelry. It could be that their killer is picking his victims from a particular store. It could also be that the butterfly symbol represents something, a club or a company.
"Let's trace the jewelry first," Elliot decided. "By the time we're done, hopefully the Doc has something for us."
They bagged and tagged the victim's bracelet, taking it to a jeweler that Alex knew quite well.
"Olivia!" Guillermo kissed both of her cheeks. "How are you?"
She was surprised he remembered her. She had not been here since Alex took her here for her birthday in 2003.
The man remembered everyone. "I'm good Guillermo. I have a case and we could use your help."
"Anything for New York's finest." He noticed Elliot's wedding band. Perhaps he could talk the man into getting something for his wife.
She showed him the bracelet. "Both of our victims had jewelry with this butterfly on it. Would you be able to tell us who makes them?"
He took the bracelet. "Of course." He pulled out a big book and started flipping through it.
"What is that?" Elliot questioned.
"I keep track of everything my competitors make. I have to make sure that my jewelry is not being outclassed."
The book both had designs that his competitors used as well as the trademark symbols that they used. He could do this all electronically, but the man was a bit old fashioned. He liked having books to flip through. It was easier on his eyes.
"Aha!" He pointed. "This was made by Jacques Morel. He's on 65th and Lexington."
"Thank you so much."
"Perhaps you would like to get your wife something." Guillermo gave Stabler a brochure.
His eyes widened.
After they left, he told Olivia, "I don't think I could afford cufflinks from that place."
Olivia shrugged. "All you need to do is take a second mortgage out on your house."
He glared at her.
"I'm just messing with you El."
Now it was time to find this Mr. Morel.
Casey was trying to figure out what to do next.
They had yet to tell Tim about the burglary. The detectives still had no idea who Tim and Sarah actually were, so they were not treating this as an attempted kidnapping.
To make this even more fragmented, they still hadn't figured out exactly what her father would get out of forcing Sarah to marry Jamie. They had wanted to call Sarah's grandfather's estate lawyer, but he might have told Sarah's father about the inquiry.
While Casey was trying to think of a plan, her phone rang.
"Novak!"
"Casey," it was Olivia. "We need a search warrant." They found out from Mr. Morel that both pieces of jewelry had been purchased by a millionaire tech geek named Nathan Foster. He bought five different pieces: the earrings, the bracelet, a necklace, a ring, and a pendant, all with the same symbol.
They went to his place of business only for his partner to say that Nathan had called in sick and said he'd be out all week. He wasn't answering his apartment door either.
"Give me 15." It would be a tough sell, but with two murders in two days and Mr. Foster's disappearing act, she was hoping that a judge would bite.
After some ethically questionable flirting, Casey got the warrant.
Elliot had the superintendent open the door and what they saw shocked them.
"Call for a bus!" Olivia shouted. Nathan Foster had been stabbed in his living room. She grabbed a towel and pressed it to his chest. "He's still breathing," barely. 20 more minutes, and he would have been dead.
Ten minutes later, Nathan was loaded onto an ambulance and rushed to the hospital.
Now they were really confused.
"So what do we know?" Elliot questioned.
"Nathan Foster bought five pieces of jewelry, presumably for five different women. Two of them are dead and he's almost there too." So he probably wasn't the one who killed the first two.
"We thought these killings were about his desire to control the victims. What if he was the target all along?" Someone who hated him started killing off his girlfriends and then they went after him.
"How does he have five girlfriends, buy them all the same jewelry, and they not find out about each other?"
It was time to search his apartment. Somewhere inside had to be a clue was to who would want him dead and what he was doing with these women.
They say a picture is worth 1000 words. The pictures Alex showed to the jury were worth 1M, the amount of the life insurance Jessica Adams-Smith sought to collect. She had cut the wires to their security system, so it wouldn't show her killing her husband. … but what she didn't count on was her neighbor's security system.
Her neighbor had issues with vandals attacking his yard, so he got extra cameras that showed his entire property and the camera caught some of Jessica's backyard as well. In particular, it captured Jessica bringing a semi automatic rifle into the home three days before the killing and it showed her taking it away before the police arrived.
Kessler had wanted to stipulate to what was depicted in the photographs, so the prosecution wouldn't introduce them into evidence, but Cabot refused. The look on Jessica's face was one of pure malice. She wanted the jury to look this woman in the eyes, not the perfectly coached woman who would appear at trial.
"The prosecution has the right to tell it's story with the evidence it choses, yielding of course to the Constitution and New York's Rules of Evidence."
The Supreme Court had held as much. The judge had no choice but to allow the photographs.
Alex came home after a long day, and both Olivia and Casey were still at work. With the third attack, she knew that Olivia would not be back until late and if they needed more warrants, Casey would be with her.
The blonde chuckled at the irony. She had not one love, but two, yet she was home alone.
"Maybe we should get a dog."
Alex had one as a child. He was a St. Bernard named Bruce.
She could see it now. Casey would spoil the dog with scraps from the table and he'd get fat.
Olivia would fuss when the dog stole her socks, but she would secretly pamper him when no one was looking.
A big house, a dog, and a gaggle of children running around, "not yet, but soon."