DISCLAIMER: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and all characters
are property of NBC and Dick Wolf. I make no money, and I make no
claims. This is Mr. Wolf's sandbox. I just knock over his castle
for grins when he's not looking.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: My deepest thanks to Naelewai and Weehawken for slogging through the drafts.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Proximity Control
By Cymberlea
Part 4
"Benson and Stabler SVU, what the hell's going on?" Olivia asked while flashing her badge to the officer on scene as the EMTs brought out a stretcher from Levinson's house.
"Domestic disturbance call. Dad decided to beat the shit out of his son. What brings SVU?"
Elliot answered as Olivia went to the gurney and the EMTs, "The son's our primary in a rape case."
"And now," Olivia added, "The dad's our prime in murder." She looked at the chief technician. "Is he gonna make it?"
"He's pretty banged up, but he should pull through. You ridin'?"
"Nah. Wanna take a look around here."
"All right then. He's headed to Columbia," the tech said as he and his partner raised the stretcher into the bus.
"Right. Well, we'll put a detail on him there then. Thanks guys." Olivia watched as Elliot headed in to take a look around and talk to the arresting officers. With the younger Levinson out cold, there wasn't much for them to do on the scene. The warrant was only for the arrest, so they let the beat cops take the collar on Ed Levinson and send him down to a holding cell at the Tombs. That way, if the pieces clicked for him on the murder, they knew exactly where to find him. If indeed he was the murderer of Karen Coulter, it was a good way to keep him off the streets until it could be proven. Olivia had to chuckle. Sometimes, things just worked out nicely.
Between the snow, the traffic, and the leisurely lunch they took now that all parties in this current case were incapacitated, they didn't get back to the bullpen until about 1:00. Fin and Munch had been dispatched to Columbia from the station house, and now Liv and Elliot were wrapping up paperwork. They knew they had Levinson locked up on the assault charges, but the murder was still iffy. As Fin said, "Somethin' ain't right." Warner had said that from all indications the stab wounds had been made by a female and Dawn Coulter's prints had been on the knife, but Levinson's had too. Olivia, with her feet propped up, tapped her pen against the desk. She turned to stare at the board. Elliot got up and walked over to the family tree and started running the case with his partner.
"Okay, so Todd Levinson rapes his cousin, Karen Coulter. Ed Levinson, pays off Dawn to not press charges against his son, but he's so mad that he kills the girl?" He shook his head, "Nah, that just doesn't jive."
Olivia popped another Milk Dud in her mouth, "Levinson finds out and pays off his sister. I'll give you that. Then he beats up his son and nearly kills him. So he is capable of violence."
Elliot jumped in, "Coulter tries to stop her brother, but can't, and Karen winds up dead."
Olivia still wasn't convinced. She stood up and started pacing. She went over to Elliot's desk to take another look at the forensic photos. "Karen had no defensive wounds."
Elliot crossed over to stand beside her. "And she showed signs of on going sexual abuse." She closed the file and Elliot took his seat as Liv started to reign things in, "It wasn't Levinson, it was Coulter," excitement crept into her voice as the pieces fell into place at last. "Levinson found out his son had raped Karen, and he pays off his sister to keep it quiet. That's when Dawn Coulter finds out and in a fit of rage, murders her own daughter, and probably went for Levinson. Ed tried to stop her, because he was the first one to rape Karen and wanted to keep her for himself. He's the one Todd learned it from. Levinson's prints are on the knife because he tried to stop it!" She was in her groove. "Ed's prints were scattered on the knife. Not fixed. Not the wielder… and," she shook her head, "I bet, if we examine his arms, he'll have defensive wounds. Dawn Coulter killed Karen. Ed won't give her up because he doesn't want his own rape charges to come out."
Elliot, who had leaned back to watch the show, sat up in his chair, "Looks like we're headed to the Tombs."
Upon interrogation, Ed Levinson was shown to have two cuts on his right forearm indicative of defensive knife wounds. He would be brought up on rape and assault charges, but Olivia believed he could plea out on that if he would give up his sister for the murder. Todd Levinson was up for felony rape, as soon as he recovered from the beat down his father gave him. While Olivia didn't like that Ed Levinson would probably get away with being the first one to abuse Karen, she felt certain that Alex could seal the fate of the others with his testimony, and in a perfect world, her very competent ADA might even be able to find a way to close the case with out letting him plead out. She could only hope. Dotting the final "I" on the paperwork, Olivia looked at the clock, 5:47 pm.
"So, Kathy made pot roast. Extra plate?" Elliot was scooping up his work and getting ready to call it a day.
"Nah. I gotta watch what I eat this week if I'm going to fit into my dress for Friday."
Elliot nodded with a smile, "That's reason enough for me." He started walking out and tossed his partner a casual good-bye wave without turning around, "Tomorrow."
"Is another day…" Olivia finished, but she had an idea, and if things worked out right, the night was far from over.