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property of NBC and Dick Wolf.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Silly Motive Thing
By Del
"All right," Cabot said, removing three manilla files from her briefcase. "Are we ready?"
Three of the detectives seated around the table nodded; the fourth did not respond.
"OK, then." Alex handed each detective a stack of documents. "Elliot, these are some miscellaneous documents that CSU dropped off this afternoon. Munch, here are the witness statements; Fin, here are Popadopolous's financials. And here--" She frowned at Olivia, who grabbed her stack without glancing up and began leafing through it. "--is the 5 on Popadopolous's prior assault charge."
"Was this a revenge killing for the prior assault, or was Popadopolous killed by someone else?" Alex asked. She drew a line down the center of her legal pad. "Who are our suspects, and why?"
"Word on the street is that Popadopolous was into dealing a couple of years ago," Fin said. "Could be some payback."
'Drug connections,' Alex printed on the yellow sheet.
"The girlfriend's a maybe," Elliot offered.
She scribbled another note. "What would her motivation be?"
"'You always kill the one you love,'" Munch quoted.
"That's 'hurt,' not kill," Fin pointed out.
"You haven't met my ex-wives."
"Can we be more specific?" Alex asked. "Olivia?"
A moment passed before the detective answered. "What?"
"Do you have anything to offer?"
"Apparently not," Olivia snapped. "I'm just a dumb flatfoot, not some genius lawyer that can speak Latin all night long."
Alex cleared her throat. "Okaaaay," she said slowly, "but do you have any theories on the girlfriend's motive?"
"Maybe she caught him cheating on her with some bullshit fancy-ass three-piece suit."
"Cheating?" Alex exclaimed. "Where the hell do you come up with that? Maybe it was just a working dinner, for Christ's sake!"
Elliot raised a piece of paper that was torn on one corner, as if hastily ripped from a writing pad. "I can't read this," he said. "Should we get a translator?"
"No need," Alex said. "Detective Benson seems capable of forming conclusions without having all the information."
"Sure." Olivia snatched the paper from Elliot's hand. "Yeah, I think it says something like, 'she goes out of town for one evening - - one fucking evening!'" -- she held up an index finger -- "'and she comes back to find him at a restaurant getting ready to play hide the salami with The Hair.'"
"Hide the salami?" Alex repeated. "Oh, my God, that is a complete overreaction!"
Olivia flipped the paper back at Elliot and crossed her arms.
"What language is this?" Elliot asked, leaning toward Munch to show him the note.
"Greek," Munch replied. "I'll have a go at it."
"If she did have that crazy idea, maybe she should have let him explain," Alex said, still focused on Olivia. "Maybe it was just a working dinner, and he scheduled it for a night that she would be gone because he couldn't bear to be away from her when she was home. Maybe he spent the whole time missing her. Maybe he loved her so much that it broke his heart that she thought he would ever cheat on her."
Olivia looked up at her.
"'You lying hyena,'" Munch read.
"Really?" Olivia asked quietly, holding the other woman's gaze.
Alex sighed. "Really."
"'I come home from visiting Mother and find you eating with that pig,'" Munch continued. "'You have humiliated me for the last time.'"
Olivia closed her eyes. "That would make her a total ass," she murmured.
"He would love her anyway," Alex said. "Although God knows why." She shook her head, then smiled. "Of course, he might make her do certain . . . favors . . . to make up for it. Several times."
"She wouldn't mind."
Both women rose suddenly and grabbed their coats. "We're outta here," Olivia declared, hurrying after Alex.
"'And now you must die.'" Munch set the paper down on the table. "Where'd they go?"
Elliot shrugged. "To get a warrant, I guess."
"Damn, that Benson is somethin' else," Fin said admiringly.
"Yeah," Elliot agreed. "I never knew she spoke Greek..."
The End