Where There's Smoke, There's Fire
(Chapter Three: Face Off)
A couple of hours later they met up with Porter and a few other guys at a cabin at the base of a mountain.
"From here we will have to go in on foot," Porter said to the group.
"Where exactly are we going?" Elliot asked.
"This guy knows the mountain like the back of his hand. He has camp areas and underground bunkers all over the place. We're gonna check out some of his old hiding places. We're gonna hike in and about six miles up ahead, some of my guys have already gone in on ATV's and set up our camp. Are we ready?"
"Yeah," Olivia said with a nod as Dean Porter made eye contact with her for the first time since they had arrived.
"You can leave your bags there in that trailer. They will bring them in when they bring the food for the evening. Everything will be delivered before we arrive at the site."
"So, why don't we get those cool four wheeler things?" Elliot asked in an attempt to lighten the mood.
"Because, we don't want to disrupt any possible evidence or contaminate possible crime scenes. Do you get it now, Detective Stabler?"
"Hey," Olivia said stepping between the men and staring Porter down. "We are here to help. If you don't want us here, just say the word and we'd be glad to go."
"Of course I want you here."
"Then lets calm down and stick to business, alright? Shouldn't we be going?"
"Yes," Porter said staring Elliot down again.
Olivia looked back at Elliot.
"You ready?"
"Of course," he replied.
They spent the biggest part of the day hiking through woods and talking facts about the case. Elliot stuck as close to Olivia as he could in an attempt to ward off Porter and his advances. About three miles in, they found an underground bunker that appeared to have been slept in recently.
"How do we even know it was him who stayed here?" Elliot asked. "Anyone could have found this place, just the way that we did."
"Anyone isn't looking for a place to hide out with a small child. This place is familiar to him, he would have come back here."
"All I am saying is that without evidence to prove that it was our guy, nothing about this is going to stand up in court."
"Do you want to run this investigation, Detective Stabler?"
Elliot bit his tongue and held his composure.
"All he is saying is that we have to make sure we have enough to hold him this time. We need evidence. This bastard has gotten away with this before and we need to make sure he doesn't get away with it again. We're all on the same team here, Agent Porter."
"I can't help but wonder," he remarked looking at Elliot.
"What is your problem, man?" Elliot asked. "Do you not think that we had our own work to do back in New York? You asked for us to come here and we are here."
"I asked for her," he said pointing at Olivia. "I didn't ask for you."
"I must just be an added bonus," Elliot said with a smile.
"We don't exactly need your help here Detective Stabler. You are free to head back to New York whenever you'd like."
Elliot laughed.
"You think I'm just gonna pack up and head back, leaving my partner in the woods hundreds of miles away with a bunch of strange men? Over my dead body."
"Elliot," Olivia said getting his attention and breaking the standoff between the men, "can you look at this?"
Elliot walked over to where she was kneeling and studied the ground.
"Do you see that?" she asked.
"I sure do."
"Do the two of you have something you'd like to share with the rest of the class?" Porter asked from behind them being an ass.
"He was here," Olivia said. "With the girl."
"And how do you know that?"
Olivia reached forward with a plastic glove from her pocket and picked up a piece of material from the dirt floor.
"This ribbon was in Arianna's hair when she went missing. I'm betting the hair stuck in it is hers. Thee are also two sets of foot prints over here in the dirt. One adult size, large, probably from a man. And the other are much smaller."
"A child's size twelve."
"You can tell the show size by looking at the dirt?" Porter asked Elliot in his usual smart ass tone.
"Actually, I can. The number from the bottom of her shoe is printed in the dirt."
"Do you have the stuff to cast this?" Olivia asked in an attempt to ease the tension between the men.
"Yeah, we do."
"Good," she replied. "Let's get it done. We need pictures, too. This entire space. We need to get this processed, we're losing time."
"Relax," Porter said folding his arms and staring at her.
"This man is a pedophile and a murder. The longer he has this little girl in his possession, the longer he has to hurt or kill her. I won't relax."
"I will have a few of my guys process all of this. We should move on."
"Wait, at least one of us should see this through. What if something gets messed up? Or over looked?"
"These men have worked their share of crime scenes. They know how to bag a hair ribbon and take a few pictures. I need you with me incase we catch him and the girl is still alive. If this guy's been doing her, she isn't gonna come to one of us. We're gonna need a woman to reach out to her."
"Doing her? He is raping her, you asshole! This child is seven years old, not nearly old enough to give consent! And this man is a monster!"
Elliot watched as Olivia hit Porter in he chest pushing him out of her way and stormed outside.
"Way to go," Elliot said as Porter and his band of jerks laughed it off.
Elliot walked outside to find his partner.
"Liv, are you alright?"
"He is such a prick," she said through tears.
"He is. He is all head and no heart. He doesn't know how to work with victims and that is exactly why he is right."
"He is?" she asked looking up at him very confused as the new direction this conversation was taking.
"That is exactly why you should be there when they take this guy. That little girl is going to be horrified and she will probably have a fear of all men for a while. She is really going to need you."
"Elliot look around us. No one else cares about this case. No one else cares about the victim, about Arianna."
"Go with him."
"What? No. If we go with him and those men screw this up….you know how hard it is to prosecute these cases as it is. I don't want that little girl to have to go through anymore than she has to. I don't want to make this any harder on her, she deserves justice. They both do. Without enough evidence, that man will walk and she will never get that. Neither will any of the other little girls he has hurt in the past."
"Go with Porter. Go with him and find Arianna. I will stay here and do this. I'll make sure we get every shred of evidence to put this man behind bars for the rest of his life. We don't have time to lose and processing this properly could take hours. I'll meet back up with you at camp tonight."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive. Porter and his crew are good, but they don't know how to work this kind of case. I'll supervise here and you run things on that end. Now let's bring Arianna home."
Olivia smiled.
"Thanks, El."
"Are we ready?" Porter asked looking at Olivia.
"I'm ready," she said walking past him without even looking at him.