Nocturne: Chapter 1: The Approaching Night A/N: I wrote this as a personal story to be put on fictionpress and then decided that it would work very well as an SVU story, so I reworked a few things. The main character was a prosecutor of my invention named Rose, but she's very similar to Casey Novak. :) Jackie and Amando are OC's. Jackie is there as Liv's partner so that she could be with Elly, and to add another female perspective. She doesn't have a huge role, nor does Amando, so no Mary Sues. Read & Review ~platarozaluna
Wednesday, March 13th
New York City
She was...a prosecutor. Waist length hair. Curly. Red. Glamorous. Some call her a killer, a murderer, herself. But is she if she kills to make the world safer?
"Casey!"
She turned sharply on her heel and fixed the man with a familiar icy stare.
"What? In case you haven't noticed, Detective, I'm trying to get home before midnight," she snapped coolly. Detective Elliot Stabler scowled and handed her a manilla envelope.
"Oh I think what I have will be of interest to you, Miss Novak. Olivia and Jackie had a lead on the Lanzo Mancini case-probable cause to believe he's affiliated with the De Luca family, the mob family we've been tracing for years," Elliot explained and Casey took the envelope hesitantly.
"Thanks. I'll review it from the comfort of my own bed," she said rather blandly and left the building.
It was after midnight by the time Casey returned to her Manhattan apartment. She sifted through some old Hibachi takeout in the fridge, trying to see if there was anything worth heating up. She ended up finding a styrofoam container of smoked salmon towards the back of the refrigerator and popped it in the microwave. She always enjoyed this time of night-total silence after a rough day. She always listened to her answering machine messages while she ate her dinner at whatever obscene hour of the night it usually was.
"Casey-I know you're probably working, but it's Karen from the Times. I wanted to congratulate you on your "New York's Most Successful". I loved the cover shots you did. Anyway, I wanted to know if you'd be interested in doing another interview for the Times-readers loved your last one. Give me a call when you get a chance, thanks"
"Hey Casey, it's Melinda. I think I found something on the Adriana corpse. Come by my office at around 10 tomorrow morning."
Lanzo Mancini. Favorite in the rape and murder of Adriana Russo, the daughter of a mafia lord of the Russo family, who'd been competing with the De Lucas for years. What she didn't understand was why the Russo family even bothered coming to the police-didn't the Mafia tend to take care of things for themselves? Murder was murder, though, even if Lanzo had killed one of his own. Mediterranean male. 6'0. Brown eyes. Aged 33 years. Tattoo of a serpent on his right bicep. Casey would have the pleasure of questioning him in the morning before his 3:00 arraignment.
She would bring this family down-she had to. For Sáratríz.
After a hot, soothing shower, Casey changed into a pair of black yoga pants and a red cami and slipped into bed. She opened the manilla envelope Elliot had given her earlier-Olivia and Jackie had evidently pulled city birth and death records dating back to the early 1900's to tie Mancini to the mob. Lanzo Mancini was born in 1990 to Vittoria and Filippo Mancini-he had a little sister, Valentina. And Vittoria's father was Giovanni De Luca. The victim, Adriana, was the daughter of Alessia and Lorenzo Russo. Lorenzo Russo's grandfather, Giacomo, had a brother...Luca...who married Sáratríz after her first husband, Tomás, "died." And it was Vittoria Mancini's grandfather, Pietro, that...raped and beat Sáratríz. And paralyzed her in the hit and run. Casey traced the genealogy lines with one finger and with her other hand, clutched a black cross like a lifeline. Justice was going to be done.
Casey walked into the precinct early Thursday morning clad in a black high-waisted skirt, red blouse, and a black leather jacket with matching heeled boots. She dropped a cup of coffee on Olivia's desk, causing her to look up startled and then smile.
"Late night?" Casey smirked.
"How the -hell- do you manage waking up early, stopping at Starbucks, and still have time to do your hair?" Olivia exclaimed exasperatedly, and it was true. Her wispy brown hair was still wet and pulled back in a loose ponytail, while Casey had every curl meticulously in place.
"It's called sleep, my dear friend," Casey replied and Olivia rolled her eyes.
"The perps don't sleep," she yawned. "But the ADA does. Now, Did you guys turn up anything legitimate? I'll need more than hypotheticals and circumstantial evidence to get your search warrant. I'm heading over to the ME's office in a bit, so if you can get me something in the next two hours, I'll do the paperwork on my way back." Olivia groaned and ran her hand frustratedly through her hair.
"If it's him, which I have no doubt it is, he'll have left nothing behind for a warrant to turn up. We're talking about a Mafia kill here," Olivia pointed out.
"Do you even have a motive for me? Why Adriana Russo? It's not typical for a mobster to kill a young woman and they don't typically rape. It doesn't fit procedure," Casey said and Olivia shrugged.
"Maybe it wasn't a mob kill. Maybe it's just a coincidence that he's a De Luca..."
"And she's a Russo? Come on!"
"We're doing all we can. Let up," Elliot growled coming up and placing a hand on Olivia's shoulder.
"Hey, sweetie," she smiled and Casey rolled her eyes.
"That's my cue to leave. Where the hell is Jackie?"
"She went to have a word with Amando," Elliot replied with a smirk.
"I'd have her off the case for fraternizing with the public defender if I thought they were talking about the case, but she'd best have her ass back here by the time I get back from the Medical Examiner's office or we're going to have a problem," Casey growled and stormed off. Friend or not, the criminal justice system had no place for incompetence.
"I hope you have something for me and that it's good news," Casey said exasperatedly as she walked into the lab behind the dark-skinned young woman in the lab coat with the curly black hair. Melinda Warner spun around.
"Well good morning to you, too. I've spent two days picking through a cadaver for you and this is the greeting I get?" she said, but was smiling and handed a stack of papers to Casey somewhat triumphantly. Casey, however, was confused.
"Why the hell am I looking at a hairy old man's chest?"
"Read it, genius," Melinda pointed further down on the paper. Casey scanned the paper.
"This guy was branded with some weird symbol...Mafia kill...well, that makes sense. The Mafia was and is big on honor. They're not going to have an innocent take the fall for something they've done. Putting that symbol there was there way of alerting law enforcement officials that it was a mob kill," Casey explained and Melinda raised an eyebrow.
"Should I ask you how you knew that?"
"Please don't," Casey replied and Melinda nodded.
"What does the symbol on the guy's chest look like to you?" Casey frowned and took another look at it.
"Oh my god...it's a black hand!" she exclaimed. Melinda crossed back over to the corpse covered by a blue sheet and beckoned for Casey to come over to her. Melinda slowly pulled back the sheet to reveal an identical black hand branded, post mortem, into Adriana Russo's chest.
"Melinda...you are a brilliant woman," Casey murmured. She had a case now.
A/N: It's a little awkward in the beginning, but what do y'all think? It's going to be a story focused on Casey, obviously.