Disclaimer: I do not own Law and Order: Special Victims Unit or any characters taken from the show. However, I do claim the rights to this story, my own characters, and some of the personalities of minor show characters, such as Elizabeth Stabler.
Prologue
In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate this vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the "Special Victims Unit." These are their stories:
It had been one of those days. A day that nearly everybody in Manhattan's Special Victims Unit dreaded.
It had been unusually quiet. The detectives who usually spent endless hours investigating crimes too appaling for words had been spending weeks at the precinct with nothing to do.
This day, however, had been the worst day of all.
"Something's not right here," Detective Olivia Benson spoke abruptly, breaking the silence in the room. "We haven't had a case in weeks."
"Liv's right," Detective Odafin Tutuola spoke in agreement with the brunette. "We've never gone this long without a case, and I have a feeling that something is going on."
"Maybe our cases are just being taken by the feds before they get to us. It's happened before," Detective Elliot Stabler tried to reason, but even he could not hide his suspicion.
Olivia shook her head. "It's not just not having any cases. I have this feeling that something major is happening. Maybe I'm just being paranoid or something, but I just can't shake this feeling.
--
At three o'clock in the morning, the apartment complex was usually silent. Even in New York City, it was a fairly quiet building. Aside from a few robberies or the occasional 9-1-1 call due to medical emergencies, not much happened.
Blood-curdling screams echoed from one of the apartments. A woman's voice, her piercing screams were mixed with sobs of hysteria as she begged for mercy.
And then, following a series of crashes, the complex was silent once more.