Killing Game

By Kadi

Rated T

Disclaimer: This is only a sandbox that I like to play in. Sadly, it is not mine.

Chapter 2

They found themselves on a street lined with older houses. It was a quiet neighborhood located in that area of Echo Park that gave way to Silver Lake, middle class, with homes built in the forties and fifties. It was a mixture of wood and stone, rather than the more popular stucco and brick. Sharon studied the house from her place in the passenger seat of the unmarked Ford Explorer that Lieutenant Provenza had requisitioned for himself a few months ago. The Elliot home was a two-story structure. There were lights illuminating two windows of the first floor. She was able to recall the layout of the inside of the house from memory, although it had been a number of years since she had been inside; it was the family room that was lit, and although she was not as familiar with the upstairs, she would guess that at this hour it was the master bedroom's windows that were glowing with false cheerfulness on this dark night. Lisa Elliot was waiting for her husband to come home, and that was something that would never happen again.

"Someone is still up," Provenza remarked unnecessarily. He glanced at the Captain beside him before his gaze returned to the house. The Explorer had been parked on the street in front of it for several minutes, but neither occupant had made a move to get out and approach the house. "Did they have any kids?"

"Yes." Sharon's gaze shifted. She looked at the man beside her. "They have two," she said quietly. "Amanda and Joshua." She drew a breath and let it out slowly. Children that were now without a father. "Mandy is away at school. She would be..." Sharon's head tilted as she calculated the girl's age. "A sophomore. The last time that I spoke to Sergeant Elliot, he told me that she was planning to attend Washington State. Lisa's parents are from Washington and live nearby. Mandy was going to move in with them to help with the cost." She shrugged and let her gaze drift back to the house. "Joshua would be in third grade now, I think." Lisa and Matthew had tried for years to have another child, she recalled, and just when they had stopped, and least expected it, Joshua had come along.

Sharon could easily imagine Matthew and Lisa as they had been when she first met them; young and idealistic. They were such an unlikely pair, at least at first sight. Matthew was a stocky, bull of a man, one that had played football in high school. He fought too much, drank too much, and got into trouble as teenage boys sometimes did. His father had encouraged him to join the Army, in the hope that he might learn discipline and respect, for himself and others. He met Lisa while stationed at Fort Lewis. She was a freshman in college, living in Tacoma at the time, although Sharon could not readily remember which school that she had attended then. She was tall, blond and blue eyed; she had gone to school on a cheerleading scholarship of all things. Sharon remembered almost laughing the first time that she had heard that. Her laughter was quickly squashed when it was followed up with an explanation that Lisa had a degree in Physics, along with a teaching certificate. The pair had married while she was still a sophomore in college. Her degree was on hold while she followed her husband from one base to another, until finally he mustered out at the end of his initial six years in the service.

They had been in California at that point. Lisa had gone back to school, and Matthew had gone to the Police Academy. He had supported his wife while she finished her degree, something that Sharon had immediately liked and respected about him, especially given her own history. Mandy had come along while Lisa was still in school. Somehow she had managed both a college degree and caring for a small child. She was not only a cheerleader. It had served as a valuable lesson for Sharon, one that she had never forgotten, and had passed on to her own children. People should be judged for who they were, not only who you perceived them to be.

Provenza's brows drew together. He was trying to remember how long Elliot had been in FID. He looked at the Captain again. "How long did the Sergeant work for you?"

"Hm." She hummed. "Just over fifteen years at the time of my transfer. I pulled him out of Narcotics." Sharon folded her arms across her chest as she thought back. Her gaze drifted again and turned retrospective. "His partner was killed as the result of another officer's negligence. He was so full of anger and the need to do something about it. That was before FID was established." It wasn't until 2001 that her former division came into existence, prior to that, they had only been members of Internal Affairs. "Matthew had experienced first hand the fallout that could occur when officers abuse their responsibility and positions. When the anger cleared, he still wanted to be part of something that could curb that sort of destruction. The department was still recovering from the Rampart scandals. There was a lot of reorganization going on, as I'm sure you remember. We needed fresh faces. When I mentioned him to my Commander, he went for it. Then later, when FID was formed, I took the Sergeant with me." Her promotion had come a few years after that, but she had time to lay the groundwork for what she wanted it to be and to train those around her to perform the function that was required. Sharon met the Lieutenant's gaze again. "I recruited him. I trained him. He was meant to replace me." A smile that didn't reach her eyes curved her lips upward. "Only, as it turned out instead, my transfer did not exactly fit into my neat little timeline."

"You don't say." Provenza looked at the house again and then checked the time. They had been sitting there for almost ten minutes. "We should-"

"Yes." Sharon was well aware of that. She had delayed long enough. "I suggest that we proceed." She pushed her door open and slid out of the SUV. She was aware of the Lieutenant doing the same. She joined him on the driver's side of the vehicle and they made their way up the walk together. Sharon was fully aware of what knocking on that door, at this hour, would herald for the family inside. It was the moment that every spouse, parent, child, and sibling of a police officer dreaded. It was a moment of nightmares and heart stopping, breath stealing seconds that came every time that a loved one was late in coming home. As far as they knew of the Sergeant's activities, he should have been home hours ago. It wasn't hard to guess what was going through his wife's mind in that space of time.

She hoped that she was wrong. Lisa Elliot held her breath as she opened the door of her home. She closed her eyes in those few seconds and lifted up a silent prayer that Matthew had left his house key at the gym, something that he had done before. She knew as her eyes settled on the two detectives on her front step that wasn't to be the case. Her jaw clenched. She took a couple of quick breaths, and if seeing them wasn't enough, that Sharon Raydor was one of them told her all that she needed to know. She felt a little lightheaded as she leaned against the door. Lisa looked away from them. She rested her forehead against the edge of the heavy, oak structure while all of the air rushed out of her lungs. "No."

"Mrs. Elliot." Sharon kept the cadence of her voice low, almost comforting, despite the fact that their visit was official. "This is Lieutenant Provenza. He is a member of my division. May we come in?"

Lisa drew herself up. She inhaled a thin, shaky breath as she stepped back and pulled the door wide enough to permit the two officers entrance into her home. She could already hear the words that they would tell her as she pushed the door quietly closed behind them. Lisa stood there for just a moment before she moved around the two detectives and led the way into the family room. The lighting was soft. She had only kept a couple of the lamps lit while she waited for Matthew to get home. It had seemed warm a few minutes ago. Now she was just cold. Lisa turned in the center of the room and stared at them.

"Say it." It was the Captain on whom she was concentrating. "I haven't been Mrs. Elliot to you for almost twenty years. Say the words, Sharon. There is only one reason that you would be here right now." Her jaw clenched when her voice hitched. Lisa swallowed back a swell of emotion. He is either hurt, dead, or missing. Which is it?"

"Lisa." There was a procedure to this, but it would be cruel to drag it out. The other woman was right; Sharon had known them for too long. Lisa was not a stranger to this scene. She had been a cop's wife for over twenty years, and how many widows had she comforted in that time? It was a dark fact of life that someone they loved might leave the house wearing their badge and never come home. It was a reality that they, as officers lived, but it was easy to take for granted how difficult, sometimes more so, it could be on those that they loved. Hadn't she learned that recently herself? Wasn't it only a few months ago that she was terrified of losing someone that she loved, and that feeling made worse by the fact that she had sent him into harm's way? Sharon walked over and took the other woman's arm. "Come on," she said gently and maneuvered her toward the couch. They both sat and Sharon angled her body so that she was facing her. "Is Josh home?"

She didn't answer immediately. Lisa continued to stare at her. She nodded after a moment. "Yes, he's upstairs. He's asleep. Mandy…" She trailed off and had to take another breath, swallow back the ache rising in her throat. "Mandy is in Pullman with my parents, at school," she managed.

"Mrs. Elliot," Provenza leaned forward in his seat, on a wide armchair to her left. He drew her attention away from the Captain. "You know that we have to ask," he prefaced, because there was no reason pretending otherwise and wasting any of their time. "Can you tell us when you last spoke to your husband?"

The typically cranky Lieutenant could be wonderfully gentle with victims and their families, something that few rarely witnessed. Sharon gave Lisa's hand a squeeze. "We really need to know," she explained.

"When he left the office." Lisa looked between the two and finally decided that it was easier to focus on the Lieutenant. "Matthew always calls when he is leaving the office. He told me that he was going to stop by the gym, and I asked him to swing by the store when he was done…" Her voice trembled. She turned her hand over in Sharon's, and although her gaze remained on the Lieutenant, she squeezed back hard. "We're almost out of milk, and Josh has to have milk or he thinks that the world is ending." Lisa had to take a moment before she could continue to attempt to compose herself. "That was around eight, maybe eight-thirty? I just sent Josh back to bed…" It was the third time that he had been up; her little boy didn't like bedtime. He always felt that he was something. He wanted to be in the world, experiencing it. She was thankful that he was missing this.

Sharon nodded. She drew Lisa's hand into her lap and gained her attention. She despised her next question, but it needed to be asked. "Were you both home all evening?" They would have to confirm that, but it shouldn't be too difficult.

"Yes." Lisa stared back at her. She steeled herself and then lifted her chin. "Sharon, say it." If there had been any doubt in her mind before, it was gone now. She only needed to hear it. She wouldn't believe it until she did.

She took both of Lisa's hands in hers and met the other woman's gaze. "Lisa, I am very sorry. Matthew was found in his car this evening, in the parking lot of the gym where he works out." She had to stop speaking when the emotion became too much to push past. Her eyes glistened with tears, but she quickly blinked them back. "He's dead."

Suddenly breathing was very difficult. Lisa tugged a hand out of Sharon's grasp and wrapped her arm around her middle. She leaned forward, as though that would somehow alleviate her pain. These were the words that she expected to hear, but even knowing that they were coming could not prepare her for the reality of it. It didn't matter how long her husband had been with the department, or how many times that she told herself that losing him was possible. All of the conversations and preparations that they made; the funerals that they had attended and families that they knew and comforted, none of it meant anything in that moment. As intellectually aware of death and loss as they believed themselves to be, there was always that voice in the back of their minds, that small spark of belief that they were exempt. It wouldn't happen to them. It couldn't happen.

Lisa had a vice grip on her hand, but Sharon didn't feel it. She laid her other hand against the younger woman's back. "Breathe, Lisa." She knew that she didn't feel as if she could, or ever would again, but one breath after another would get her through the next few hours, and that would get her through the next few days. "Is there anyone that we can call for you?" With Lisa's parents in Washington and Matthew's family in Ohio, she knew that the family they had in California was largely made up of close friends and coworkers.

While the Captain sat comforting their victim's wife, Lieutenant Provenza stood up and slipped away from them. Under the guise of making a phone call, he took a cursory look around the first floor of the house. There was nothing readily out of place. There was an open novel on a comfortable looking armchair in a corner of the room, along with a half empty cup of tea. In the kitchen, where he stopped to make his call, there was a kettle still on the stove.

They would be pulling the Sergeant's cell phone records, and while they had access to the account, they would pull the wife's too. It would be easy enough to corroborate her story, especially once they had their hands on the security footage from the gym. While Provenza thought about that, he called Tao to get the ball rolling on the cell phones. Provenza wasn't surprised to learn that he had already started, but it gave him something to do while the Captain dealt with the crying widow in the other room. After he was finished speaking with Tao, Provenza made a second call. He decided that it wouldn't hurt to wait for an LAPD grief counselor to arrive before they headed back downtown to meet up with the rest of their team.

The department had counselors on call twenty-four-seven. There would be someone available to drop by the Elliot home, and he knew that whoever that person happened to be, they would get the department advocate involved on behalf of the family. There was a system for widows and their children. The Elliots may not have need of the Memorial fund, but there were other services that the LAPD provided when a loved one was lost, either on the job, or in the manner in which Matthew Elliot had been killed. Those services were made up mostly of volunteers, other department family members and retired officers, people who would know who to call and how to get the ball rolling on everything that Lisa Elliot would have to do now that her husband was dead: funeral arrangements, pension assignment, and the like.

Provenza didn't want to deal with the crying widow, but he wasn't heartless. This way he could help. Because really, this time, his instincts were telling him that it was not the wife.

MCMCMCMCMCMC

When they left the Elliot home almost an hour later, Sharon had a message on her phone from Chief Taylor. The Sergeant's identity had been released. It was official now. His division had been informed and the Chief was putting together a press conference for first thing the following morning. Sharon shook her head as she walked toward the Explorer. None of that would matter to Lisa Elliot. She had to call her daughter and wake her son. How did a mother decide how to tell her children that their father was never coming back?

Yes, Jack had left her a number of times, and most of them while the children were at school or in the middle of the night, but she never had to tell them that he was dead. There was always the chance that he would return, and he usually did… when he was out of money or wanted something. Dad had to leave became a staple in her house before her children were in middle school. After the first few times that he did it, they both stopped questioning why and just accepted that he would eventually show up again. However terrible that situation was, the potential for better still remained. Jack might have been an absolute disappointment as a father, but he was still alive.

"Take a minute." Provenza was aware that he startled her with the suggestion. The captain was staring at him, looking as if she didn't honestly understand. He waved a hand at her and leaned against the side of the Explorer. "Take a minute," he repeated. The counselor had arrived and they had things to do, but another couple of minutes wouldn't hurt. Besides which, the old girl was looking pale and just as upset as he was sure that she was. She needed to get herself back in check and they could afford to let her do that. Especially before Flynn saw her, because by god he didn't want to have to listen to that old woman fretting about the shape that he was bringing her back in.

Sharon sighed as she leaned against the side of the vehicle beside him. She clasped her hands in front of her and stared at the pavement in front of them. She supposed that he was right; it had been a difficult evening. Sharon would still prefer to be the one to tell Lisa that her husband was dead, but she paid a price for it. This one had taken a chunk out of her considerable reserve of emotional control. She had always been very fond of them both, although she didn't think that was much of a secret to anyone.

"Lisa used to babysit for me," she admitted quietly. "Mandy went to public school, but when my kids were younger, we didn't live very far from here. Lisa worked across town, near St. Josephs, so it wasn't very far out of her way to pick them up. Matthew suggested it once," she continued, head inclining and voice remaining soft as she slipped into the memory. "We were working a case and I wasn't going to be able to get away in time to pick Ricky up and get Emily to dance class. I couldn't reach my regular sitter, so Matthew suggested that his wife do it. At first I was appalled, how could he just volunteer his wife without asking her first," Sharon laughed. "Then when he called her, he asked if she minded. Mandy fell in love with Ricky, so…" Sharon rolled her eyes at that memory, "of course it had to become a regular thing. Lisa picked up my kids, and she would drop Emily at dance school and take Ricky home with her." She folded her arms across her chest and exhaled quietly. "When I was able to, I returned the favor. I would keep Mandy so that the two of them could have time together."

What Sharon did not verbalize to the Lieutenant was the night that Ricky had gotten on his bike and ridden to the Elliots' because Jack had come home, drunk and loud, and acting a fool because she wouldn't let him stay. Jack could be a belligerent drunk, but not a violent one. She never had reason to fear him, but she had always done everything that she could to keep her children shielded from his behavior. Ricky had been awake, and it had frightened him, so he had gone for help. Sharon was showing Jack out the front door and telling him to call a cab when Matthew pulled into her driveway. She could remember just how mortified she had been by the incident. It was no great secret that Jack was a drunk. They had too many friends and colleagues in common, but no one had ever had to witness his behavior before and certainly not one of her subordinates.

"You were friends with them," he pointed out, and without judging. Hell, he had friends on the force. What the hell did they think Flynn was? His personal pet monkey?

"Hm." She hummed thoughtfully and nodded. Her gaze had drifted again. Sharon was staring at the house. "Yes," she agreed. That was true. It couldn't be denied, not that she would have. She felt a little guilty, however, that she had seen so little of them since her transfer. There were several friendships that had fallen, not necessarily to the wayside, but the backburner with her move to Major Crimes. The hours were different and far more unpredictable than she had to contend with in FID. There was also the matter of the invisible line that had to exist between Professional Standards and other divisions. They had to maintain a distance from one another, an objectivity to be able to do their jobs effectively. That didn't mean that she hadn't spoken to Matthew and Lisa since her transfer. There just had not been much opportunity for more than the occasional conversation. They were all busy people. That is what she had told herself. Now she was wondering how busy was too busy where the people in your life were concerned. "It made me very nervous at first," she said, "I always worked so hard to keep my work and personal life separate, especially after I joined Professional Standards."

"But how could you dare think about parting Mandy Elliot from her first crush." He said it rather dryly, but they both knew that he was trying to fill the silence with something other than memories and grief. Provenza pushed away from the SUV and looked at his Captain. "We try not to get too close to the people that we work with, for obvious reasons, but sometimes it just isn't possible. This is why," he waved a hand back toward the Elliot's house. "But if we don't, then what the hell is it all for?"

"Yes." Sharon stood straighter. "That is exactly right." She smoothed down her jacket and nodded. Sharon shook back her hair and took a deep breath. "I guess that I am no more immune to it than the rest of the world." When morning arrived she would need to call her children and tell them about the Sergeant. She was certain that Ricky would want to call Mandy and check on her. That crush had gone nowhere as there was over a five year age gap between the pair, but they had been friends.

Provenza snorted at her. "Captain, it pains me to be the one to tell you this… We changed your code name to Glinda a while ago."

Her jaw dropped open as she watched him pull open the driver's door and climb into the vehicle. Sharon blinked a couple of times before she turned where she stood and walked around to join him in the truck. Before opening the passenger door she took another deep breath and let it out slowly. There was still much to do; they were only just beginning the investigation. She was able to tuck away the worst of her emotional response, however. The Lieutenant had given her the moment that she needed before snapping her back to reality. Sharon wondered, a bit idly, if she should tell him that his code name had been changed too. He was no longer Lt. Cranky Pants.

A small, if wan smile had curved her lips when she slid into the vehicle. "Let's rejoin the rest of our team, Lieutenant. I would like to see where we are on getting that security footage from the gym." And although she did not want to think about it, they would need to check in with Doctor Morales too. That was quite possibly the part that Sharon was least looking forward to.

-TBC-