Cat and Mouse

By

18lzytwner

Chapter 1

The phone rang in the middle of the night and there was a lot of fumbling around to answer it in the dark. Finally, he managed to grab it and answer it.

"Stabler,"

"It's Munch. Fin and I could use your help," the Sergeant said. Elliot looked over at the clock and groaned.

"It's two thirty in the morning. Did you guys not go home?" He asked. When he and his partner had left for the night, Munch and Fin were out investigating a new lead on the case they were working.

"We're at a second crime scene. Bastard struck again and this time he left no witnesses," Munch explained.

"Shit. All right. Give me the address and I'll roust Liv," Elliot replied. The Sergeant quickly gave him the address and then hung up. By now, Olivia was out of the bed they had shared and ducking into the bathroom for a quick shower. He climbed out of bed and walked into the bathroom.

"Mind if I cut in?" He asked.

"Well, only if you promise to behave yourself. We can't be fooling around," she gave him a slight smirk.

"I'll try to control myself," Elliot promised. They did the best they could not to get themselves all worked up as they scrubbed the previous evening's events off. There had been a rash of cases that had not taken long to solve, which had meant they'd been spending more time together than they had been able to previously. Both wished they could move in together but they knew that they would need to explain to IAB. While always a tough thing to do, whoever was gunning for the Captain, was watching the unit and they knew it.

They arrived at the crime scene a little while later to find Munch and Fin had practically finished up. Elliot was a little upset at that but they couldn't get there any quicker since they still had to make it look like he had to pick Olivia up from her place.

"So you got us out of bed for a lousy cup of coffee?" Olivia tried to crack a joke as Munch handed them some of the hot beverage. The scene was on the third floor of an apartment building not too far from Pier Ninety-two.

"We know how much you like lousy coffee," Fin smirked.

"So what makes you think it is the same guy? Who found the body?" Elliot asked, given the odd hour of the night.

"The roommate found the body and they had to sedate her and get her to the hospital to get checked out. The roommate's boyfriend is who called nine-one-one," Munch started. The victim had been found on the couch and the unsuspecting couple had practically had a heart attack when they turned on the living room lights.

"So they get in from a night of clubbing and find our victim. So what makes you think it's the same one that assaulted Christina Lawrence?" Olivia wanted to know.

"At first, they didn't look at all the same. Christina was walking home and he drags her into an alley, assaults her, and then knocks her unconscious, leaving her to have the local homeless guy call for help. Our victim here, Susan Johnson, was locked inside her apartment. Melinda thinks that our perp might not have meant to kill her but she won't know for certain until she finishes the autopsy," Fin explained.

"Why would she guess that?" Elliot raised an eyebrow.

"We found medication in the medicine cabinet that had Susan's name on it. She had a clotting disorder," Munch said.

"A big jump from attacking someone on the street to breaking into an apartment," Olivia frowned.

"The door wasn't jimmied so either she let him in or he climbed in via the fire escape," Fin told them.

"Then I guess we had better get to work on next of kin, the roommate and her boyfriend, and any possible boyfriends for Susan," Elliot said.

To Be Continued…