To Find What I Wasn't Looking For
Chapter 2
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The loud noise from her phone woke her up. Groaning and still in a semi sleeping state she grabbed it from the nightstand and, without looking at it, switched it off. She lay there for a minute or two, slowly waking up, letting her eyes adjust to the bright light that seeped through the window and stretched her body out, pulling at her relaxed muscles.
Saturday. Today was saturday and she had the day off so why did her alarm go off? She didn't even remember setting her alarm when she went to bed the previous night. Confused, she lifted her hand, phone still in it, and glanced at the bright screen with one eye, blinking several times before she realized that it wasn't her alarm, that had so unpleasantly woken her up, it was a call from Fin. She had accidentally hung up on her colleague and friend, thinking it was her daily morning wake up call.
"Damn." she muttered and quickly rang him back. Only one signal went through before he answered. "Fin, I'm so sorry. I thought for a second that it was my alarm blaring in my ears so I accidentally hung up on you. What's up?" she hoped that Fin wasn't calling about a new case but, of course, she knew better.
"That's alright. Story of my life. Sorry to wake you up so early on your day off but we got a case and I think the vic would be more comfortable speaking to a female detective rather than two male." he stated. "Meet me at Bellevue?"
Running her fingers through her sleep toussled hair, she sat up and stiffled a yawn. "Give me thirty minutes."
She showered and brushed her teeth at the same time, got dressed and headed out. The weather had improved over night and the sun was shyly peeking through the white puffy clouds in a blue and crisp sky. It was still early, only seven am, but she could already feel the sun's warm rays on her face as she walked to her car. The traffic was nearly hitting it's peak and Liv just hoped she would get to the hospital before all hell broke loose.
Finally, although a few minutes late, she pulled up, parked and headed to the emergency department, greeting a few nurses and doctors on her way. Olivia's presence at the hospital was unfortunately all too frequent and, over the years in her line of work, she had made acquaintances and formal friendships with some of the staff working there.
"Hey, Stacey. How are you doing?" she greeted the young blonde woman behind the desk.
"Lieutenant Benson, hi! I'm doing alright, thank you very much. I guess that you're not doing so good since you're here, in the ass crack of dawn on a saturday. Another vic?"
"Yeah, I'm afraid so." she sighed sadly then spotted her partner approaching, from the corner of her eye, and gave him a nod. "Hi Fin. What have we got?"
Fin stopped by the desk and threw the woman behind it a smile. "Hi Stacey." he grinned, his eyes lingering longer than what he had intended before Liv suddenly cleared her throat. The blonde, seated by the desk, had turned into a jelly-like formation as her eyes came in contact with Fin's.
"Oh um, hi detective Tutuola." she replied, her face blushing slightly as she gazed up at the african american man.
"Call me Fin." he shrugged smugly and winked at the younger woman. "I believe we're on first name basis at this point since we have met numerous times."
Blushing again, Stacey nodded. "Of course, Fin it is. I'll... um, I'll get the nurse for you, give me a sec."
As she left the two detectives behind, Liv turned towards her partner and spotted his gaze lingering on the woman's backside as she strolled down the corridor and she had to wave a hand in front of his face to get his attention. "Um, Fin! Hello?!"
"What?" he replied, eyes still following the girl.
Liv snickered. "Hi Stacey. Oh hi detective Tutuola. Call me Fin. Of course, Fin it is." she mocked in a teasing voice, almost childlike and waited for the man's reaction. She never got one as he was still staring down the long isle even though she had disappeared out of view. "Oh Fin, you've got it bad." she muttered.
"What?" he questioned, turned to face his partner and gave her an oblivious look, as if he hadn't heard anything of what Liv had just said.
"Nothing." she sighed, a smile lingering on her lips. The nurse suddenly came into view and Liv took a deep breath, bracing herself for bad news. "Hi Jackie." she politely greeted as the scrub clad nurse approached the duo.
"Jackie?" Fin stated amused. "Nurse Jackie? You know there's tv series that's called the exact same..."
"Yeah, she knows, Fin. She gets it all the time." the brunette interrupted, slightly embarrassed for her partner.
"Just saying." he shrugged and shoved his hands into his jeans pockets, shifting his body weight from one foot to the other.
"What have we got?" Liv asked softly.
Jackie sighed, sounding almost defeated and resigned. "36 year old woman, she was raped anally and vaginally, roughed up and left in the bathroom in a nightclub. She was semi conscious when she was brought in about three am this morning, she didn't say much, just that she told him to stop and he wouldn't. We did a rape kit and treated her cuts and bruises."
"Is she awake? Is she able to talk?" Liv wanted to know, eager to put the perp behind thick metal bars for a long time.
"She's awake but fragile and scared. Try to make it as quick as possible. She should be discharged later this afternoon if things are looking good. Room 6 just down the hall."
"Thank you, Jackie. We'll try to be quick." They reached the door but before they entered, Liv took another deep and calming breath. It helped, or at least it felt a bit better, since knowing what she would face behind the walls was impossible before she was face to face with the survivor.
Upon opening the door, she immediately spotted a petite form sitting on the bed, her head hung, hair covering her face and she was dressed in a seemingly short hospital gown, her bare legs hung limp towards the linoleum floor, a few visible bruises and scratches on the pale skin. Liv cleared her throat gently, just to let the woman know that she wasn't alone in the room any longer. "Hi, I'm Lieutenant Benson and this is my partner detective Tutuola. We're with the special victims unit. Can you tell us what happened and who did this to you, honey?"
Her voice was as soft as a whisper, soothing like balm to the soul and mind, hoping it would put the woman at ease. Liv slowly walked around the bed where she could face the woman, who still didn't seem to acknowledge their presence. "I know this is difficult to talk about." she gently stated, tilting her head down and to the side a bit, desperate to see the face of the person before her. She was just greeted with a small sniffle and a shuddering breath and her heart clenched in sympathy and compassion. "Can you start by telling me your name?"
There was a pregnant pause in the room. Fin had also made his way around the bed but was standing a few feet away. The slightly shivering form suddenly brought her head up to look at the two detectives, tears shimmering in her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out, only a pitiful sound that resembled a choking reflex more than anything, and she shuddered.
"It's okay, take your time." Olivia soothed, taking a step closer to the distraught woman, waiting patiently for her to say something, anything, but the silence persisted and Fin decided to step in, hoping he could be of any assistance.
"Can you tell us about the man who did this to you?" Fin had always been a 'straight to the point' kind of guy. He was also a ladies man and seeing a woman, like the one in front of him sitting on the bed, all bruised and broken looking, he felt the anger towards the man who had caused it and his patience would run low and the need to find the guy was almost overwhelming. "His name, looks, age? Anything?"
To anyone, who didn't know Fin, he could come across as firm and blunt, perhaps even intimidating but he had a big heart and all he wanted was for justice to be served. He had taken a step closer to the seated form and, as he did, her head shot up, eyes wide and face crumbling. "Please... don't! Don't hurt me!" she held her hands up to cover her face from invisible oncoming blows and Fin stopped deahd in his tracks, backing up a few steps.
"Don't touch me... please! Get away... get away from me!" she screamed, pushing herself as far away as she could from the male detective and from Olivia as well, temporarily seeing them as a threat and a danger.
Liv also stepped back, holding her hands up in a non threatening manner while keeping her voice low and soothing. "It's okay, no one is going to hurt you. We're here to help you, honey. Easy, try to calm down." she instructed but the woman didn't show any sign of stopping or calming down as she curled herself up into a ball against the wall and her face still covered by scraped hands, whimpering softly as she cried.
The door suddenly opened and Jackie stepped inside with another nurse and a doctor. "Sorry, detectives. You're gonna have to leave now." the doctor spoke while he ordered one of the nurses to administer some sedative to stop her from hurting herself or others.
The doctor almost pushed them out of the room himself and an apologetic Jackie came up to them, rubbing her palm over her forehead in a tiredly manner. "I'm sorry but she's obviously not ready to talk just yet. You have the rape kit, you're gonna have to work with that until she feels safe enough to talk to you. Again, I'm sorry."
They both groaned, mentally, as they watched Jackie disappear back into the room where the previously upset woman had calmed down significantly and was now on the verge of falling asleep. "Damn." Fin muttered and sighed deeply.
"Yeah," she responded in a whisper. "we're gonna have to work with what we have." she suggested as they made their way out of the hospital to Olivia's car.
"Which is nothing." Fin mentioned and slumped down in the passanger seat, resting his head against the back rest, trying to calm his anger and frustration.
"Yet." Liv positively chipped in. "We'll put a rush on the kit and see what we find. There has to be traces on her clothes, under her fingernails, DNA, anything. We'll get him."
The precinct was quiet since it was still quite early. John arrived about twenty minutes after Liv and Fin and a red faced Carisi finally came in, breathlessly jogging, into the pullpen and almost collapsed in his chair, by his desk. "Sorry, Lieu but the traffic was unusually busy this morning. I'm pooped."
"Well, I hope you're not too pooped cause we got a case. Fin will you fill him in and I'll see how the rape kit process is going."
It took almost four hours before Melina, the medical examiner, could give them anything. Liv and Fin headed straight down to the ME while Carisi worked on getting any footage from the club she had been assaulted in. "Melinda, tell me you've got something." Liv almost pleaded.
"I just got the results back. I found fibres and DNA under fingernails, seamen from her dress and underwear but there's no match in codis." She stated and handed Liv the papers from the documents. "The fibres are a satin blend, navy in colour with a fine thread count so it looks like the perp was wearing something expensive."
Olivia skimmed through the papers and sighed. "Okay, Fin will you let Carisi know that we're looking for a guy wearing something navy in satin material. Where's her clothes? What was she wearing?"
Melinda reached for a bag, underneath the table where they were standing, giving it to the tall brunette. "Everything is in there. Panties, dress, shoes, purse and jacked."
"So we've got an ID on this girl?" Liv asked as she rummaged through the paper bag finding a black stylish clutch bag with a silver detail on it.
"Carisi is waiting for them to send over the footage. I told him to look out for a navy expensive looking dude. What did you find? Got an ID yet? " he stepped closer to where his boss was standing, peeking ober her shoulder to see better.
Liv had a shocked and confused expresson on her face as she went through the clothing. "What did you find, Liv?"
The brunette had all the items laid out on the table in front of her and just stared at them and doubled checked the ID. Black high heels, black blazer, the black purse and a red dress. The ID read Amanda Rollins.
"Oh my god! I think I know this woman." she looked at Fin, mouth slightly open, stunned and confused at the same time. The roughed up woman in the hospital, that they had just tried to talk to, must be the same woman that had mistakenly texted her two days prior.
"It can't be." she looked at the ID again, checking her name and picture. Blonde hair, blue eyes and 5 foot 6. It had to be.