Title: Should Have Known

Characters: Lennie Briscoe, Ed Green, Anita Van Buren, Elizabeth Rodgers, Arthur Branch, Jack McCoy, OFC. Also starring Serena Southerlyn, Danielle Melnick, with assorted guest stars and extras.

Summary: A drowned man is found with four bullets in his back. Briscoe and Green investigate, but the case is complicated by a less than honest cop. McCoy has to choose between sticking to his principles or a successful prosecution.

Rating: M for sexual content, and profanity.

Disclaimer: I do not own "Law and Order", nor any of the characters therein. I am making no profit from this.

Author's note: Follows "Curioisty Killed" . Early chapters follow the police investigation, with the DA's Office playing a larger role as the story progresses. If you are only interested in the lawyers, skip straight to chapter 11. Of course, you might then find the plot a bit confusing!

I am not NY native or indeed an American, as my woefully inadequate knowledge of NY geography and the American legal system makes perfectly clear! I do, however, love Law and Order. Down here in Oz, we get the episodes years late and often out of order, which has led to my long-standing confusion between who is in the show when and why and how old they are. My fannish imagination therefore has its own chronology, which differs from the show's canon in only three substantial ways: Lennie Briscoe didn't retire; Jack McCoy was snap-frozen ten years ago (since that's the age he is in the reruns that are all our free-to-air channels see fit to give us) ; and my series kicks off at the beginning of series seventeen, so it is substantially AU to everything from then on.

Reviews welcome, constructive criticism especially welcome. Flames ignored.

Ten Buck Bet

Robert F J Wagner Park

4. 15 pm Friday 22 September 2006

"Yeah, Simon, I bet you ten bucks you can't hit it," jeered the bigger of the two boys playing on the wharf.

"Ten bucks! You're on," Simon replied, looking around for something to throw. Nothing was handy.

"Yah, lucky for you," jeered his friend.

"Just wait, Jimmy!" Simon ran to the edge of the wharf and looked down. The tide was out – he could see a few lumps that might be rocks in the mud. "Just wait and see!"

The wharf supports were as easy to climb as the jungle-gym in the park, if a bit more splintery, and Simon clambered down them easily. The mud sucked at his shoes, and he had a sudden vision of his mother's face if he returned home with mud up to his knees. He grabbed on to the wharf again, intending to climb rather than walk to the waterline, and then realised he was touching something that wasn't wood.

"Jesus, Simon, come on! It stinks here!"

It did stink. It stank worse down here than up on the wharf, and not of weed or motor oil. It smelled sweet and disgusting at the same time. Suddenly Simon didn't care about winning the bet. "I'm coming," he called, and started to climb up. As he pulled himself up whatever he was holding on to with his right hand gave way and he fell backwards into the mud.

Up on the wharf, Jimmy heard him fall, and ran back to the edge. "Jeez, Si, you okay?"

Simon was lying on his back in the mud, sucking air. His mom is gonna kill us both, Jimmy thought.

Then Simon started screaming. Not yelling in pain, like maybe he was hurt. Screaming. Screaming like a little kid lost in a department store with a lost mommy and a scary stranger.

Jimmy freaked. Later he would tell the cops and his parents and his friends that he had thought about it and decided that getting grown-up help right away was the best thing he could do, but in his heart he knew he hadn't thought that at all. Hadn't thought anything.

Had just flat out started running, and run until he saw a couple of people walking their dog along the path near the water's edge.

"Hey! Hey! HEY! I need some help! I need some help here! Somebody, help!"

A/N: I do not know if this park is as described, but I looked at pictures …