Kate Skinner

A young boy is found smothered in the baggage compartment of an airport bus. Detectives Stabler (Christopher Meloni) and Benson (Mariska Hargitay) track down the bus' origin and via the tape in the parking lot see the young boy sneaking on the bus with an older boy. They find the older boy, Ernesto (Pablo Santos), at the airport trying to sneak on a plane. Ernesto is devastated to learn that his "brother" Jose, who he was helping to escape their abusive adopted father, is dead. Their "father" is Bret Jansen, a wealthy attorney who raped, tortured and abused them in his luxury apartment. The detectives go to Bret's apartment and find him castrated and dead, lying in a pool of blood. Bret and his two squash buddies, it turns out, were procuring young boys from Central America and using them as slaves. The detectives establish that Ernesto did not kill Bret so the investigation shifts to Bret's pals, Anthony Damon (Will Arnett), a travel agent, and Dr. Stewart Lynch (Patrick Cassidy), a plastic surgeon.

Frank mobilizes the entire NYPD to find the killer of an off-duty police officer who was murdered during a diamond heist.

The police break up a dog-fighting ring, and discover a woman's finger inside one of the dead animals. The finger is identified as belonging to Lauren Vance, soon-to-be ex-wife of Marty Vance (guest star Adam Rothenberg), after her body turns up near a dog breeder. Since Lauren and her husband were in the process of divorce proceedings, Detectives Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin) and Cyrus Lupo (Jeremy Sisto) initially suspect Marty as the brutal murderer. Marty was involved in the dog-fighting ring with friend and business partner Jay Carlin (guest star David Harbour), an extremely wealthy wine dealer. As the investigation unfolds, the detectives plot to trick an ambitious reporter, Dawn Talley (guest star Lara Flynn Boyle), who uses her sexuality to try to break the case. Turns out Jay's business is a scam, which leads prosecutors Michael Cutter (Linus Roache) and Connie Rubirosa (Alana De La Garza) to a new suspect. Also starring: Sam Waterston and S. Epatha Merkerson.

Detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) investigate when two teachers are shot in a high school parking lot and a group of male students have sex with a developmentally disabled girl in an unused part of the school. McCoy (Sam Waterston) and Ross (Carey Lowell) must prove the case involves rape instead of consensual sex because they believe the girl did not have the sense to say no. S. Epatha Merkerson and Steven Hill also star.

An apartment building, under construction at the former site of a well-liked community park, is ablaze. The charred naked body of a woman is found in one of the back apartments. Arson is suspected because of the chemicals found at the scene. Conventional wisdom is the arsonist didn't know someone was in the building, but now this is a murder investigation. It takes awhile, but they finally ID the victim - Karen Fried, a local elementary school teacher. She was last seen with Eric Shollar (Michael Leydon Campbell), the father of one of her students, but he's married and hesitant to talk to the cops when they approach him at home. Eric admits that he and Karen were having an affair and he brought her to the building under construction. He claims she was waiting for him while he ran out to buy condoms and the building blew before he got back.

Goren searches for evidence that a pompous doctor is relieving his elderly patients of their heirloom jewelry just before they suffer deadly strokes.