Gone

Elliot pulled the unmarked car up in front of the house and got a glimpse of both the amount of police already on the scene, and how large the house was. Both of their salaries for the next decade would barely even make a down payment on the place. It was a three story tall brick house with French doors on the second floor, and looked like it had 30 rooms easily. It could've been the sight of a narcotics bust for sure, or if it had been raided during a wild party, it would make sense to call sex crimes, but instead they were called out in the middle of the day because there was one man in the house and he was dead. It sounded simple enough, the cleaning woman came in and found him shot to death, very cut and dry, didn't sound like something requiring their expertise.

"So did you get why we got called on this?" he asked Olivia.

Olivia leaned out the window and took in a fuller view of the spectacle before them, and shook her head. "Nope."

"If that mansion's any indicator," Elliot said as they got out, "probably just somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who's covering all bases."

"Covering all asses is more like it," she replied.

The two SVU cops pulled up the crime scene tape, flashed their badges to the unis posted outside, and showed themselves inside.

Entering through the front door, it was pandemonium. There were about a dozen cops both uniform and plainclothes alike scattered through the hall, the dining room and the living room, in between CSU working the crime scene, the cleaning woman who was being interviewed, and Warner who was hovered over the body laying on the floor in a massive puddle of blood that was still in the process of drying.

"What've we got, Melinda?" Elliot asked.

Warner looked up at them in mild surprise. "No immediate sign of any sexual activity or assault, but I won't know for sure until I get him on the table."

"Who is he?" Olivia asked.

The dead man on the floor was relatively good looking or rather was when he was alive, he was probably six feet tall, had short light hair, he looked to be in his late 30s or early 40s and was dressed in an expensive suit that didn't conceal the fact he was well built.

"Dr. Steven Moll," a female CSU tech answered, "39 years old, one execution style shot to the back of the head, we haven't recovered the shell casing yet."

"A doctor?" Elliot asked, "What'd he do, charge someone too much for an x-ray?"

"He's a scientist, Elliot," Warner told him. "He does extensive work on new experimental drugs in trial runs for cancer."

"How do you know?" Olivia asked.

"The walls have tongues," the medical examiner answered.

"Huh?" Elliot asked.

Then he saw what she meant, scattered over the wall were plaques and framed articles with the doctor's picture on them for his achievements in his field.

"Find the gun?" Olivia asked.

"Negative," one of the uniforms answered. "We've tossed the whole house, there are several guns here but none of them have been fired lately."

"Any sign of forced entry?" Elliot asked.

"Cleaning woman found the door unlocked. Nothing's missing, nothing's tossed, there's no sign of a struggle."

"So somebody just waltzed in, shot him when he wasn't looking, and waltzed out?" Olivia asked.

"Looks that way," another uniform answered.

"And a rarity for such a case, he fell backwards and landed on the entry wound, as opposed to most execution style victims who fall forward instead," Melinda noted.

"Okay, so why call us?" Olivia asked.

"This is why," Melinda said as she stood up, and picked up a framed photograph off the mantel. "Since I don't have to listen to my patients while I work, I overheard some of the cops here saying it'd be better if you two handled this side of it since you have a lot of experience dealing with kids."

The two SVU detectives went over to Melinda and looked at the photo. It was of a young boy, maybe 10, maybe 12, with short light hair and bore an uncanny resemblance to the man on the floor.

"He has a son?" Olivia asked.

"12 years old," Melinda answered. "The maid says his name's David."

"Where is he?" Elliot asked.

Olivia looked at her watch and held up her arm. "At school, it's almost 3 o' clock."

"Melinda, how long would you say he's been dead?" Elliot asked, hoping against all hope that that boy hadn't been a witness to his father's murder.

"Based on body temp and the rate the blood's dried at," Melinda said, "I'd say about six hours."

"So his son would've already been in school," Olivia said.

"Thank God for small favors," Elliot dryly murmured.

"What school does he go to?" Olivia asked.

The school turned out to be Spencer Academy, a very expensive, very exclusive private school for students in middle school and junior high. Elliot and Olivia found the principal, Mrs. Norton, a tall, heavyset black woman with short braids in a blue dress suit, and walked with her through the corridor as they explained the reason for their visit.

"We need to speak to one of your students, David Moll," Olivia said.

The principal turned to her and said, "He's not in any trouble, is he?"

"Is there a reason he should be?" Elliot inquired.

Mrs. Norton turned to him and answered, "No, David's an absolute joy. Very bright, full of energy, a little timid but I guess that's to be expected."

"Why?" Elliot asked.

"He just recently transferred here, and it's my understanding this is his first time in an actual academic setting," she said.

"He was homeschooled?" Olivia asked.

"Not exactly, his dad said he had private tutors previously."

"How come?" Elliot asked.

"He said until recently they had to travel a lot for his work, made it impossible to put down any real roots," Mrs. Norton told them.

"Where is he now?" Olivia asked.

"It should be about time for his father to pick him up."

"Yeah well that's not happening," Elliot said. "Mrs. Norton, David's dad was murdered this morning."

The principal looked at them both with a wide eyed expression. "Oh my God."

"We need to speak to David and break the news to him," Olivia said.

"He never goes out to the parking lot, he always waits inside until Steven comes to get him," she said.

"What was his last class?" Elliot asked.

"History, this way," the principal led them through a couple more twists and turns in the school corridors before they arrived at the classroom.

The door was open and the kids had already piled out, all that was left was the teacher, who was closing folders on her desk.

"Miss Jenkins, where did David Moll go?" the principal asked.

The teacher was a young woman in her 20s with dark curly hair and glasses, who looked to the three people at the door and said with a curious expression on her face, "His father just came and picked him up 10 minutes ago, why?"

"That's not possible," Olivia said.

"I saw him," the teacher answered defensively. "Mrs. Norton, what's this about?"

"Dr. Moll is dead, Cathy," the principal told her.

"That…can't be, I just saw him take David out of the building," the young teacher insisted.

Elliot took a picture out of his jacket and asked her, "Just to be clear, this was the guy you saw?"

Miss Jenkins shook her head. "No, who's that?"

Elliot looked at her and blinked. "This is Steven Moll."

Mrs. Norton took the picture from him and shook her head as well. "No, I don't know who that is, but that's not David's father."

Olivia and Elliot looked at each other in complete confusion and the beginning of panic.