Repercussions

Olivia read through the lab report a second time, slowly. She took the folder into the work room where Stabler was zipping his way through the hotel's security tapes.

"These are useless."

Elliot rubbed his eyes.

"You can't really see her room door. There's an oblique angle here," Elliot said, freezing the picture and pointing to the door for the exit stairs, "Someone could have come up the stairway, hugged the wall, and their piece of shit security system never would have seen him. We've not nothing to work with."

"Well, it's good that I've got nothing too."

"Come again?"

"Roger Markum's DNA hes hes the skin found under Janet's finger nails and the DNA from the rape kit. There were no other contributors to the sample. There was no spermicide found. No spermicide, which was present in all the other cases, which means..."

"...either our guy didn't rape her, he just killed her..."

"...or she had unprotected sex with the person who killed her."

Stabler got up and paced to the other side of the room.

"I still don't buy it."

"You saw the financials, everything was in her name. He's drowning in personal debt, and she wasn't doing anything to help him out. She dies, he gets everything."

Elliot picked up a chair, turned it backwards, and sat.

"He could have doubled back after the 8am breakfast meeting," Olivia said.

"Run the timeline for me."

"The maid found her around 3pm. We know she was alive at 10:45am because she called room service to order breakfast. Markum could have been in the city before noon, killed her, and been back in Connecticut by 3pm."

"When's the ME put time of death?"

Olivia paged through the report.

"Between noon and 2pm."

Elliot showed his partner an evil, full-toothed smile.

"How about we get Munch and Fin to work the Metro-North conductors, see if anybody saw him on an inbound train?"

"Let's see if we can match his 'client meetings' up with any of the other attacks."

******

Alex sat at her desk and stared at the contents of the file folder in front of her. She had no idea how long she'd been looking at the page without seeing the words. Clearly, she was missing the complete picture.

After tying Alex's stomach in a knot, Liz Donnelly had moved their lunch conversation to more general topics. The rest of the meal had passed in a blur for Alex. Formal training had taken over allowing her to answer coherently and politely as the rest of her mind in in the suspicion that Liz knew more than she was letting on. The knowledge slipped in like a grain of sand an oyster would make into a pearl. But for Alex, ambition and desire fought over what this grain of informational sand would become. The phone on the corner of her desk rang. Both grateful for and dreading what she was sure was on the other end of the call, Alex lifted the receiver.

******

As Alex handed over the lab report she very carefully kept her fingers from brushing Olivia's. Olivia noted Alex's care but doubted anyone else had. Stabler and Cragen were both focused on Alex's crisp assessment.

"All this proves is he had sex with his wife."

"Munch and Fin got a photo array id from a conductor on the Metro-North New Haven line that puts Markum on the 10:26 into the city Tuesday morning. You can sneeze on her hotel from Grand Central. It gives him plenty of time to get up to her room, kill her, and be back in Connecticut by 3pm."

"Anybody see him on the outbound train?"

"Not so far. Still working on that," Stabler said.

"What abohe she security tapes from the hotel?"

Stabler crossed his arms.

"Her room door was in an alcove near the fire stairs. You can't really see anything. It's in Video Analysis. They're working on it."

"Not good enough. I need something I can take to a judge."

"He lied to us about his alibi, no one we talked to at his office saw him at the retreat center between 9:45am and 3pm, she held the purse strings and he's practically bankrupt," Olivia said, ticking the points off on her fingers.

"He matches the description given to us by the other six victims, and," Elliot said, pointing to a grid on the chalk board, "his schedule for the last two months puts him out of the office during the time frames for every single attack."

"Plus, I finally figured out what was bothering me about this. It wasn't just the scene, it was the victim."

Olivia pulled the official statement log out of a stack of folders. She handed the statement log and Janet Markum's autopsy report to Alex and pointed out the relevant passages.

The scent of Olivia's perfume mixed with the aroma of the roses on Olivia's desk teased Alex as Olivia stood close and waited for her to finish reading the notations. Her conscious and subconscious minds fought briefly as the memory of the dream touch of Olivia's hand flooded Alex's nervous system. She focused on the reports, drawing an inevitable conclusion. Alex handed the log and report back to Olivia and picked up her briefcase.

"Pick him up. Your warrant will meet you there."

"I'll get a uniform on his house," Cragen said, picking up the phone.

Alex walked out of the squad room quickly, hoping to catch the elevator without a wait. The door was just sliding shut as she got there. Anxiety warred with arousal as Alex heard Olivia approach her from behind in the hall. She punched for the down elevator, took a deep breath to relax the knot in her stomach, and turned to face the detective. Alex was taken aback by the look of concern that washed Olivia's features. She thought her game face had been securely in place.

"Are you OK?"

"Fine. Why do you ask?"

Olivia tented her fingers and raised her eyebrows at the cold, New England steel that shot through Alex's five word reply.

"Pay enough attention and it's not hard to see you're little off balance. That's all."

Alex's expression lost its edge under Olivia's steady, sympathetic gaze. It only took a few seconds for her to assess and accept the risk. She shifted her brief case from one hand to the other.

"It's been an...unsettling day."

Olivia, keenly aware of the foot traffic in the hall and the squad room door not 15 feet away, squashed the urge to comfort Alex with touch. She loaded her voice with solace instead.

"Do you want to come to my place for some dinner and talk about it," Olivia asked, a small smile lighting her lips and eyes, "I'm a decent cook and I've got a bottle of really good red wine."

Be sure, Alexandra, be very sure.

Alex paused.

"I'd like that, yes."

The elevator dinged to signal its arrival and the door slid open. Alex stepped on.

"If you're not here already I'll call when we're through," Olivia said.

Alex nodded as the elevator door closed.

******

Elliot folded the stick of gum into his mouth without taking his eyes off the front door of the Markum house. He waved as the marked cruiser moved down the block, walked back across the street to where Olivia had parked their sedan, and got in the passenger side. Olivia closed her cell phone and put it back into her coat pocket.

"Cabot come through with the warrant?"

"Munch and Fin are on their way with it now. Fifteen, 20 minutes tops. He in there?"

"Came home 20 minutes ago. Couple of lights turned on upstairs no movement since."

Olivia nodded. Part of her mind was busy sorting the facts of the case. Another part was busy inventorying her refrigerator. Need to hit the market on the way home. A delicious, scary tension bubbled beneath her dinner planning. Elliot said something she didn't quite catch.

"Sorry, what?"

"Well, that answers my question," he said with a grin.

Olivia arched an eyebrow. 'Don't be a jerk' was written large in her expression.

"I said, 'you seem like you're a million miles away.' Plans tonight?"

"Depends on when we get done here, and we may not be done for a while."

"Liv, look."

Stabler gestured across her toward Markum's house. Roger Markum, hands in his pockets, crossed in the middle of the block and approached the driver's side of the sedan. Olivia's hand went to her holstered automatic. Markum stopped about three feet away from the car.

"You're more than welcome to come inside, Detectives. No need to wait for your search warrant. I don't have anything to hide."

******