Disclaimer: I own nothing associated with Law and Order or any of the characters within the story other than the ones I made up. I'm not making any money so it shouldn't be a big deal! I'm no professional writer so take my skillz with a grain of salt. Enjoy!
Chapter One: Pineapples
"I knew it." Jessica Dufrane mumbled to herself as she stood out in the lobby of her small Greenwich Village apartment building. It was after midnight; Jessica and the rest of her neighbors were huddled together in small groups after the police told them to gather downstairs. She decided to congregate with the people from her floor, even though she didn't know them all that well.
"Oh yes, it was definitely that man on the third floor. The strange one who never looked you in the eye." An older woman with long hair and a dingy white bathroom was telling the group. "I was pretty sure he was stealing my mail, I've been missing a few of my catalogs ever since he moved in."
She was a nice old lady, thought Jessica, even though she was paranoid as hell. She had been complaining about those missing catalogs ever since Jessica moved in 4 years ago. No, mail fraud wasn't the reason why everyone had to be brought down to talk to the cops, though it did have something to do with that strange guy.
Jessica had been living in cities for the past 15 years, ever since she moved out of her parent's rural homestead after high school, and the first rule of city living was to not get involved. You meet a lot of weirdos in the city, you can't get involved when every one of them acts suspiciously, it would be a full time job. Jessica noticed that guy on the third floor was weird, kept to himself, very skittish and whispered to himself in the elevator but she figured that she'd just avoid riding alone with him from now on. Once the cops told her that they'd be asking her some questions about one of her neighbors, she just knew it was that guy, especially since he wasn't anywhere to be seen in the lobby.
"God damn it." She mumbled again as she looked around at all of her tittering neighbors. This is why you don't get involved, you don't know anything then you don't get hassled when something goes down. Hopefully they'll get to her group first so she can get back to sleep as soon as possible. She shifted in her plaid slippers and Spongebob pajama set.
Of course they had to call her down when she was wearing her last clean pair of pajamas. She had a hard enough time getting taken seriously as a single woman, living on her own in a building full of older people and families, Spongebob pajamas weren't going to help. Plus some of these cops were cute; they never seemed this cute during the day. She just knew that the cop who would be questioning her in her undersea finery would be devastatingly tall, dark and handsome. "Awesome."
"Apartment 4b? " A short, beefy beat cop shouted over the crowd.
Hearing her apartment number, Jessica looked up and tentatively raised her hand towards the man. "Uh yeah, right here!"
He pointed over to the front of the lobby with his clipboard and barked out the next number.
"Er OK." Jessica slunk across the room to a cluster of men and women discussing something intently. When she approached, they broke apart and quickly wrapped up future plans for the case, leaving her with her questioning detective. Dressed in a suit and very, very tall, he was gray at the temples but had a young face and playful eyes.
"4b? I'm Detective Goren, Major Case Squad." He took her hand and smiled rakishly. Looking straight in her eyes, he seemed confident without being overly aggressive and it made her stomach drop.
"I knew it."