Killing Game

By Kadi

Rated T

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

Chapter 4

The rest of the team was already assembled when the Captain returned to the Murder Room with Detective Sanchez. Sharon took a moment to look around the room. A timeline had already been sketched out on the murder board, and pictures of the crime scene had been placed. Thankfully there were none of the Sergeant, but rather his empty vehicle and the area surrounding it. Sharon took a moment to study the notes made by her detectives before she moved further into the room.

The room had gone a little silent upon her entrance, but activity picked up again once she joined them. "What do we have?" She asked, and her gaze settled on Lieutenant Provenza.

He pushed up from his chair and waved a hand toward Buzz's desk. "We have the download from the security cameras. We have the Sergeant going in and out of the gym, and know that he arrived at about 8:50 in the evening."

"Unfortunately," Buzz picked up as the Captain approached him. "We do not have a view beyond the side of the building where the camera is located. We did get footage from the shopping strip across the street," he told her. Buzz called up the footage on his computer screen so that the Captain could see it. "There was a vehicle parked in the way. We cannot see the Sergeant's car during the time of the shooting but..." As they watched, the non-descript, unmarked van moved and they were given a view of the black Camaro. Buzz zoomed in on the image as much as he was able without completely blurring the pixilation. There was a figure seated behind the wheel, and it was not moving. "We've contacted Traffic. We should be getting the footage from the cameras on that street soon."

"The chances of being able to actually identify anything from them..." Andy shrugged. It was pretty obvious to him that the van was parked where it was for a reason. To obscure the security cameras view of the Sergeant's car. The van was just plain enough that it looked like any hundreds of other vans driving around the city, and he would bet that it was either stolen, or that any license plates that they were able to identify had been.

"You are probably correct," Sharon agreed. "Let's keep trying. I agree that it is doubtful we will get anywhere with it, but maybe we got lucky and we will be able to identify our suspect from the footage," she told Buzz. She turned to Andy then and folded her arms across her chest. "What were you able to determine from the crime scene?"

"It was too damned clean," he said. That bothered the hell out of him. "We found a couple of different sets of prints on the car. One set came back to the Sergeant, which we were expecting, and the others probably belong to the family." He sighed. "We will need Mrs. Elliot and the oldest child to come down and do a set of elimination prints." Andy tilted his head at her. "Unless Elliot already had something on file?" It was something that many of them did with their families, especially after they had worked homicides and kidnappings for as long as most of them had. They kept prints on file and prayed that they would never be needed, but understood too well the cold realities of the world that they lived in.

"Yes." Sharon sighed quietly. "We can check with Lieutenant Wheaton. I know that Sergeant Elliot kept prints on file for his wife and daughter. I am sure that he updated those records when his son was born."

It was something that most officers didn't discuss. It felt morbid and a bit like spreading a bad omen around themselves and their families, but Sharon had also made sure to keep her children's dental records updated and on file when Ricky and Emily were younger. She could remember the look on Rusty's face the first time that she discussed that with him. Ricky and Emily had not known, although by now she was sure that they probably figured it out at some point. They had been children and she had updated their files every couple of years. Rusty had come to her half grown, and with so much mistrust for the people around him that she felt it necessary to discuss that matter with him, rather than just handling it. With Rusty, however, it seemed to have the opposite effect than she expected. For the first time someone actually cared enough to want to know where he was and how to find him if something happened.

"Okay," Sharon continued with a nod. "I will speak to Lieutenant Wheaton. What else do we have?"

"We spoke to the business owners on that street," Amy began, "there was a small deli down the block that didn't close until ten. The manager gave us a list of the employees that were on shift tonight," her gaze dropped to her notes. "None of them heard a gunshot or noticed anything out of the ordinary."

"The ballistics report is not back yet," Tao stated, "so we don't know if a silencer was used. It's possible that there was nothing to hear."

Sharon nodded. "Possible. The bullet that Doctor Morales retrieved from Sergeant Elliot's body has been sent down to SID also. I would like to know as soon as that report comes back." She turned again to look at the murder board. "We have no witnesses, no view of the crime scene from any of the security cameras at the gym or the businesses surrounding it. There were no casings at the scene, and I am certain that all of the prints on the Sergeant's car will come back belonging to the family."

"The cell phone records from the account belonging to the Elliot's indicate that Lisa Elliot did not leave her home this evening," Provenza told her. "I had a couple of uniforms canvas her neighbors while we were there, no one saw her leave the house. We have also confirmed that Amanda Elliot is still in Washington with her grandparents, and we already know that eight-year-old Joshua Elliot was asleep in his bed."

"Thank you, Lieutenant." Sharon took a step back and turned her back on the board. She took just a moment to glance at her watch. It had been several hours already. They were moving well into the early morning hours of Thursday. They couldn't expect to solve anything right away, but no one was going to be willing to rest until they at least had some sort of lead in the Sergeant's murder. "I will update Assistant Chief Taylor on our progress, and then place the call to Lieutenant Wheaton."

She stopped beside him, but Andy interrupted her before she could ask her next question. "I already spoke to Rusty. He knows not to expect you home tonight." The kid hadn't thought she would be, but he wouldn't wait up now that he knew what was going on. Andy had also mentioned that he might not want to talk to either of his siblings about this case if they happened to call before Sharon got the chance to speak to them. Elliot had worked for her long enough; he didn't know the entire history, but enough was said in the time that he had known her that he figured she would want to talk to the kids about it herself.

A small smile appeared, if only for a moment. "Thank you." Her hand brushed his arm in only the faintest caress as she continued past him. "With any luck, I will be back soon."

"Twenty minutes and we send the cavalry," Andy hooked a thumb in Tao's direction. Taylor didn't like his long-winded explanations any better than the rest of them.

The Lieutenant looked up from his computer and scowled at them. "Hey."

"What?" Andy shrugged at him. "It's your turn."

"It's always my turn…"

"There is a reason for that," Julio mumbled. He was already seated at his desk, inputting everything that they had learned from the autopsy into the division's shared case file.

Sharon smiled as she walked away from the murder room. She could hear their banter picking up a bit as she got farther away, at least until she rounded a corner in the corridor and their voices began to fade. It was normal, this behavior, and she found it oddly comforting too. It was not unusual either for her to find the lights inside Chief Taylor's suite of offices on at this time of night, not when they were working a particularly high profile case, and it did not typically get higher profile for the LAPD than the murder of a fellow officer. The Chief's assistant was not at her desk to announce her presence so Sharon knocked quietly on the door as she stepped inside.

Taylor looked up and waved her inside. He sat back in his chair and pulled his glasses off as she came into the office. He waited until she was seated in front of him before Taylor indicated the file that he had been reading. "I was reading the autopsy report from Doctor Morales," he told her. He was usually copied on the reports that came back from the Medical Examiner or SID; Taylor just usually waited for the Captain or one of her people to update him. "I will make a call to SID; make sure that they know this case takes priority."

"I doubt very much that they will require the reminder," Sharon pointed out, "but it cannot hurt at this point, specifically since we have very little to go on." She gave a small, delicate shrug. "Lisa's alibi is checking out, but we expected that. The security footage that we have accessed has, so far, proven completely useless."

Taylor leaned forward again. He clasped his hands against the top of his desk as a frown formed between his brows. "How so?" He had, like the others, hoped the security footage would give them a direction to move in. He wasn't looking forward to having to explain to Chief Pope that they had several hours on this case and absolutely nothing accomplished.

Sharon crossed her legs and folded her arms across her chest. "We found no bullet casings at the scene. No one was able to hear the shooting, as far as we can tell, and the car was more or less clean. Add to that, there was a van positioned in the way of the cameras across the street. It was almost as if our shooter knew that they would be there. Buzz is working on getting us the footage from the traffic cams, but I am not convinced that we will learn anything further." Her lips pursed and she shook her head at him. "This is too clean. Way too clean for a crime of passion, or anything other than a well thought out, well planned hit."

"You're thinking," Taylor didn't like the idea that his mind had gone in that direction too, "that this murder has less to do with the Sergeant's occupation being a byproduct and more to do with it being the cause." He picked up his glasses again and held onto them for just a second before letting them drop back onto his desk. "There are people that will say that you were in FID too long. Turning this investigation internally could be problematic, you know that."

"I do." She stared at the surface of his desk, at the open autopsy report that was in front of him. "They could be right, but not all of the threats that are fielded through Professional Standards come from officers that we have investigated, disciplined or dismissed," she reminded him. "During my, not inconsiderable, time with FID," Sharon derived some small amount satisfaction from watching him wince when he realized how ageist his remark could have been taken, "I did receive my share of threats from both sides of an investigation. Sometimes clearing an officer in a Force Investigation can result in difficult feelings for the civilians or their families. They do not always agree with the findings, especially when a serious injury or death is involved. Someone could just as easily be attempting to make this look like an officer involved murder, rather than a revenge killing. In either case, one thing is very clear…"

"We are going to have to ask FID to open Sergeant Elliot's cases for the last six months." Taylor sat back in his chair again with a sigh. They would need to focus on those that had resulted in serious disciplinary action or termination as well as those where the officers were cleared. "I do not have to tell you how difficult that is going to be?"

"Hm." Sharon almost smiled. "They are my rules, so no; I do not believe that you do." Crossing the line that existed between FID and other divisions was particularly harrowing. There were regulations in place that fell under the mandates of the State and Federal Governments, but there were quite a few that the LAPD had put in place based upon her recommendations. As Taylor so enjoyed pointing out, she had been an officer with the LAPD for quite some time, and the majority of that tenure was spent in Internal Affairs. "There is a confidentiality factor that will need to be maintained. Force cases do not always originate on the streets of Los Angeles, and I should not have to tell you that." It was rare, but it happened, that an officer became uncomfortable with the conduct of a member of his or her division, division head, or even his or her own partner. They liked to maintain the anonymity of those officers as much as possible. The LAPD had a strict non-retaliation policy, but it also had another more unspoken rule. Snitches get stitches. It was about maintaining the safety of those officers as much as their professional integrity.

There was also, too, the confidentiality of those officers who had been investigated. Not everyone needed to know who the trouble cases were. Sometimes they were well known. Her own Lieutenant Flynn, for example, had a jacket a mile thick. She had pointed that out to him a number of times. There was a time, in his youth, when his mouth and temper had gotten him into trouble before his brain could catch up. There were also the investigations that were being conducted without the officer or his division knowing about it. As she thought through all of the scenarios that they would have to careful of, Sharon also considered the FID jackets that the rest of her Division had and almost groaned out loud. That was going to be problematic. There were no open cases currently that she was aware of, but Detective Sanchez was still subject to review based upon his conduct the previous year.

Taylor could almost see the wheels turning in her head. He inclined his head and watched her think. A smirk began to tug at the corner of his mouth. He steepled his fingers together and just waited. He could see when the Captain arrived at the same conclusion that he did. Taylor's brows rose in something very close to amusement. "You can take Buzz with you. He hasn't had time to annoy anyone in FID yet."

Sharon was tempted to roll her eyes at him. She settled on a bland look instead. "Well, let's give him some time. He has only just started reserving, and he is learning from the very best, after all." She sighed. "I will take Lieutenant Provenza and Detective Sykes. She has the least amount of exposure to FID and his rank should suffice." It had been a little while since Amy had been involved in an FID investigation, a couple of years at least, and the same was true for the Lieutenant. "We won't be able to bring any of those cases back to the Murder Room. We will need to review those files within the PSB offices. While we are doing that, I will have the rest of my team continue to canvas the area around the gym where Sergeant Elliot was killed and compile what little evidence we have been able to gather."

"I will call Lieutenant Wheaton," Taylor held up a hand before she could argue. "I will tell him that he should expect to hear from you very soon and make sure that he is aware that we expect him to cooperate. I cannot imagine any circumstances in which he would not want to, but, we are entering a bit of an obstacle course here."

She snorted quietly as she pushed out of her chair. "Oh, don't worry, Chief. I will do my absolute best to make sure that you do not fall on your face in the mud."

Taylor shook his head at her retreating form. "Mmhm." He wasn't filled with a lot of reassurance. In fact, he wasn't filled with a lot of warm and fuzzy feelings at all. None of them were. "Get your people in place, Captain. The clock is ticking."

"Of that," she stated, "I am perfectly aware." Sharon left the Chief to make his phone call and made her way back toward the murder room. She stopped along the way to fill a cup with the coffee that she knew someone on her team would have already brewed. If she was lucky, it was Amy. Julio hadn't been there, and both Buzz and Tao tended to make it too strong. On the other hand, if Andy had done it, she knew that she could kiss her stomach-lining goodbye. When she stepped into the break room and found the afore mentioned man waiting for her, she wasn't sure if she wanted to cry or dive right into the pot of coffee without bothering to care that she could be ingesting jet fuel strength caffeine. When he held her favorite cup out toward her, Sharon's brows rose and she eyed it carefully.

Andy rolled his eyes at her. "Amy made it." He held the cup a little closer and gave her a dry look. "Do you want it or not? If you don't want it, I'll drink it, but the pot is just about empty and I can't promise what the next one will be like." He was also tempted to point out that she was the only one who seemed to have a problem with his coffee making skills. Rusty liked it, and since the kid had no problem letting them know when he was unhappy about something, Andy had no reason to doubt that he was being honest about it. Instead, Andy arched a brow at her and waited for her to take the cup.

Her eyes narrowed just slightly. "Hands off, Lieutenant." Sharon took the cup from him and leaned against the counter beside him. She sighed quietly. Her feet were aching, her neck was stiff, and there was a dull throbbing behind her eyes. She lifted the cup to her lips and took just a moment to inhale the fragrant aroma. Definitely Amy, she thought. She had used the lighter, French roast. She took a sip and hummed appreciatively; then she leaned her head against his shoulder. It had been a difficult night, and it was far from over. "I don't have time for this," she mumbled, more to herself.

"Take a minute," He said. He stood there, while the seconds ticked by. It had been a long day; she was tired when he dropped her off earlier. He couldn't imagine that she had done more than change for bed and talk to Rusty when the roll-out came. That was before they had known that this was anything but one of their usual cases. He had tried to cancel their evening because of the fact that she was tired. They hadn't been exceptionally busy lately, but it was budget time. She was spending most of her time in her office lost in a world of numbers and expense justifications. Sharon had wanted to go out, however. She needed something to think about other than the numbers that were bleeding together when she closed her eyes, and she wanted to spend that time with him. Well, she definitely had something else to think about now. It was a hell of a way to end what had been a pretty great night. "Okay?"

"No." Sharon stared into her cup. Five minutes, she thought, she could spare that much to clear her head before she had to get everyone moving again. That would give Taylor time enough to make his call. It wouldn't be time wasted. Sharon closed her eyes, but quickly opened them again when she was greeted with the memory of the Sergeant lying on the autopsy table. "I thought," she said quietly, "that losing Ally was hard. I didn't see through her lies, and I allowed her to use me. I couldn't imagine anything being harder than watching Amy be assaulted while we were unable to help. Suspending Julio…" That had definitely ached for a while. "That one was really hard, but calling Vicki and Charlie and having to explain to them that your condition had worsened," she said of his ex-wife and son, "that was harder. Telling Lisa Elliot that her husband was never coming home again…" Her voice hitched and she shook her head. "That one wins an award that I never wanted to get near."

Andy didn't say anything. He slipped a hand beneath her hair and cupped the back of her neck. She was tense, but it was hardly a surprise. His fingers worked at the stiffness that he found there while he thought about what she said. He hadn't known her well enough during the Ally Moore case to be able to comment on it. The woman had been a sociopath, though, so he didn't think that anyone could have seen through her crap. Amy getting hurt a few weeks after she joined their team had been tough on all of them, and he didn't want to think about the hell that his ordeal had put her through not too long ago. She had cried over Julio, although he was sworn to secrecy about that. She was pissed as hell over what he had done, stressed out about Rusty and Stroh, and so disappointed that she could barely stand it. Thing was, she got over it. Julio came back. Life went on. That wasn't going to happen this time. She had lost one of hers, and in the worst way possible. To stretch a situation from terrible to really screwed up, he had a pretty good idea of what she was thinking when she went to talk to Taylor.

"You'll check on Lisa in the morning," he said quietly. "Then you'll call your kids. I told Rusty to make sure he didn't say anything if he spoke to them before you could. While you're waiting to do all that, you'll figure out who you can take with you to go through all of Elliot's cases, because you and I both know that's the next step, and we also know that I can't go with you." He looked down at her. His eyes held the same grim determination that had greeted her at the crime scene, although they softened just a tad when she met his gaze. "I was banned from that particular set of offices."

"Hm." Sharon lifted her coffee cup again. She hid her smile behind the rim as she took a sip. "Yes," she said afterward, "I remember. Something about harassing the officers responsible for a couple of your conduct reviews."

"You would know," he reminded her. "You were the one that banned me." His hand dropped away from her neck when she straightened. "One little shouting match, and all of a sudden I am the bad guy." Andy shook his head at her and lifted his own coffee cup for a sip. "I never understood that."

"I seem to remember that incident a little differently," Sharon said, "and I will be glad to remind you later." There had been a few choice names that didn't really need repeating. Things had changed quite a bit since then, and so had the both of them. "As to the ban," she shrugged at him, "I lifted it a few weeks later; I just wasn't required to inform you about it."

"I feel cheated," he deadpanned. Andy took a good, long look at her. She seemed to stand a little straighter than when she entered the break room. Nothing could erase the grief that was dimming her eyes, nothing but time, and finding the person responsible. "When?"

"As soon as possible." She explained her intention to take Amy and his partner along for that leg of the investigation. She didn't question how he had known. She didn't have to, not at this point in their relationship. She had stopped asking how it was that he always knew and just accepted it. "That means that we should really get back out there." The minute that he had suggested that she take was long over. "I want you and Julio to take over finding that van. You are probably right about it, but I will feel better when it is located."

"Yes ma'am." Just like that, they were back to work. He felt a little better about it as he watched her fully pull her mask into place. Andy moved around her and pulled the door of the break room open. "I will call down to Traffic if Buzz hasn't received anything yet and rattle a few cages. How far back are you going to dig?"

"Six months." She cradled her coffee cup in both hands and walked alongside him back to the murder room. "That should give us a good vantage point of the cases that the Sergeant has been working lately. If there were any credible threats made, he would have logged them in the files. I will be reachable on my cell if you find anything."

They stopped beside his desk and he nodded. "Yeah, well," Andy shrugged. "I'm betting you find something before we do." They would keep digging, but he was thinking that she was probably right. This had something to do with Elliot's work. They would find less running down generic old vans than she would find at the source, but they would keep at it.

She only hummed in response. "Lieutenant Provenza, Detective Sykes, will you both join me please..." She would give them a brief run-down of what they would be doing before she made her call to Lieutenant Wheaton, something that she wanted both of them to be present for. She wasn't expecting a lot of resistance. Wheaton was another that she had trained, and she knew that he would want to get to the bottom of this every bit as quickly and efficiently as she did.

-TBC-