Over at the lockers, Stabler is putting stuff away as Benson opens her locker and asks, "Where's the meathead?" He's in the interrogation room, of course. The partners chitchat about what else someone would spend a free $500 on, and we see that Stabler has pictures of his kids in his locker and an American flag sticker on the front. What a guy. Seemingly out of nowhere, he asks, "How long you been sleeping with Cassidy?" Benson is so caught, but stutters, "Uh, I'm not." Stabler: "Your stomach just dropped two floors, Olivia. The unconscious doesn't lie." "I'm not lying," she protests. "Not much." Stabler's all therapist: "Mmm hmmm." Benson wonders if it's that obvious. Stabler's all, "I'm your partner, for better or worse [swoon!]. Look, everybody knows too much about everybody else in this office anyway." Benson tells him that she broke a personal rule, and now Cassidy wants to see her again. Stabler asks if she can blame him. Uh, not that you asked me, but I can. Benson whines, "I can't do it right now. I didn't mean for this to -- I mean, I guess you never do." Stabler's way wise and says, "Sometimes you do. Be nice to him, maybe even over-nice. He'll be cold, but he'll get over it. It happens." Benson: "Really?" Stabler: "Really. Cragen's waiting for us." I have to say, as much as Benson's whining annoys the hell out of me, this scene was really well done and went a long way in demonstrating the friendship that exists between these partners. The fact that it portrayed my boyfriend as the world's greatest friend, looking out for both Benson and Cassidy, didn't hurt my opinion of it either.

Outside the interrogation room, Stabler is reading Ron Johnson's rap sheet, which "reads like a how-to on robberies, from five-finger discounts to B&Es." "Which escalated to rape," Cragen says. Stabler thinks this happened because of boredom and opportunity. Benson says Johnson fits the description of Harper's attacker (he totally does not; he's towheaded, not sandy-haired), and Harper is on her way to the station to make a positive ID.

Now we're inside the interrogation room, where Benson is at the table with Johnson, and Stabler is back by the window. Johnson got up around eleven and then "had a bowl of cereal, took a shower, then, you know, kind of walked around." Stabler: "Where'd you 'kinda' walk around?" Johnson: "You know. Around." Then he "hung out." Ah, sounds like the life of an MBTV staff member. Well, except for the showering part. ["And the 'walking around' part." -- Sars] Benson asks what he did last night. Johnson wants to know what the big deal is. Stabler walks over, sits on the table, and tells him, "The big deal is that last night, a guy who looks an awful lot like you --" "-- who also had nothing better to do," interrupts Benson, "broke into a woman's apartment and raped her." Johnson bugs out and insists he didn't rape anybody, even if he was using her credit cards. He's done a lot of things, but never that. Stabler just stares at him, like he does so well, and Johnson admits that he was in a holding cell last night. Stabler stands up and almost laughs at this. Johnson was being held for jumping a subway turnstile and didn't get out until 1 AM. He found Harper's wallet in a garbage can on the corner of Moore Street. It was "picked clean" of cash. He admits that he took the wallet, but insists that he "never, NEVER raped anyone."