Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine; they belong to Dick Wolf.
Sorry if this chapter is a bit out of character for Dani and she seems a bit incompetent.
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Two weeks later and we're still at a loss with Alicia's case. Her husband's been calling us every day at 6:00 without fail, asking if we've got any leads. And every day I have to tell him we don't. Every day, I have to listen to his resigned sigh when I give him the bad news.
I feel like crap.
All of us are working overtime to catch this vicious monster, but so far, we've got nowhere. We had two suspects at one point, but both had solid alibis so we had to let them go.
I'm sitting at my desk, going through everything we know about the man who raped Alicia. Elliot and Detective Beck, who are tighter than I'd originally realized, are chatting quietly as John and Fin help me. I try not to notice, but I can't help but think that it used to be the four of us; me, Elliot, John, and Fin. And if it wasn't the four of us, it was Elliot and I. Now, it's Elliot and Dani, then the three of us. No, who am I kidding? In all honesty, it's Dani and Elliot, John and Fin, and then me, the odd one out.
We all look up as a tall, Hispanic woman who looks to be several years older than I am enters the squad room. I go over to her, glad to be distracted from my brooding. "I'm Detective Olivia Benson," I introduce myself. "Can I help you?"
"I want to report a rape," she whispers.
"Okay," I say. "Why don't you come with me?" I lead her into a separate room and sit down across from her. "What's your name?" I ask.
"Sarah," she says, so softly that I have to strain my ears to hear her.
"Okay, Sarah," I say. "Do you want to tell me what happened?"
She gives a shaky nod. "Last night, I was coming into my apartment at 7:30, maybe 8:00, and a man comes up behind me. He puts his hand over my mouth and says he'll kill me if I scream. He pushes me into the apartment, throws me on the bed, and rapes me. And – and while he's raping me, he's whispering, 'Cop's bitch.' My husband's a cop – he works for Narcotics. And when he's done raping me, he – he burns it into my stomach. I was just wearing a tank top and he pulled it up and he had this lighter thing and he burned CB into my stomach. Cop's bitch." She's crying by the end of her monologue, but I'm frozen, too shocked to even offer her the words of comfort she so desperately needs. This is Alicia's rapist.
Of course, I knew the guy wasn't a one time offender, so I don't know why I'm so surprised. He was obviously going to strike again, I just didn't think it would be so soon.
I interview Sarah for awhile longer. John and I take her to the hospital to have a rape kit done and I help her call her husband. They go home together, leaving my head spinning in circles at the speed of light.
When we return to the squad room, my brain is still rushing to process the information. "What's up, Liv?" asks Fin.
All I can manage is, "It's Alicia's rapist. He's struck again."
"Okay," he says. "So tell me, what's the connection?"
"Well, he burned the same thing into her stomach. He raped her but there are no fluids, no semen, nothing, just like with Alicia. They're different ages, different races. The only thing they've got in common is that they're both married to police officers."
Elliot lets out a low whistle. "This guy really hates cops."
"Yeah," I snap. "State the obvious is such a fun game, isn't it? And you're so good at it."
He raises his hands in surrender, seeming surprised at my animosity. I still haven't forgiven him for Dani, even though I've come to somewhat accept it by now. It's just another tough fact of life. I've had to accept a lot of these kinds of things, for example:
I'm the product of a rape
My mother was a drunk and this caused her death
Elliot and I will never be anything more than partners
I'm never going to know who my father is
Alex is gone for good and she's never coming back
So I think I'm pretty good at coping with the curveballs life throws. Life's given me a lot of really sour lemons, and all I can do is try to sweeten the taste of my lemonade.
* * *
By the next Monday, we're still floundering in water. That is, until we find another victim. Her name is Vida and she's in her late fifties. This only further clarifies that our rapist isn't raping for sexual pleasure; he's raping a specific type of woman for revenge purposes only. He wants to hurt cops and this is his way of doing it.
"It's working," comments Elliot when I tell him this. "I've been calling Kathy every couple hours – just in case."
I roll my eyes, wondering why he even cares anymore. He's left her and gotten back together so many times that it's hard to take him seriously. But then, even if I'm not Kathy's biggest fan, I wouldn't want her to be the next poor soul with CB burned into her stomach. So I don't say a word.
* * *
All of the victims have husbands who are cops, but that's the only connection. The cops are all from different precincts. One works narcotics, one works homicide, and one is a traffic cop. We're all holding our breaths, waiting for the bastard to hit SVU, but then it occurs to us that we probably have the highest stress rate out of all the different units, and the highest divorce rate too. It's difficult for me to handle a relationship because the job with always come first and most men can't accept that. Elliot's been bouncing back and forth between being with Kathy and being single, John's been divorced four times, Fin's divorced, and even the captain isn't married. So maybe the rapist will ignore our unit.
I actually don't blame Elliot when he says he needs some time off. He wants to spend some time with Kathy and I completely understand. This case is getting personal for him and I guess it's made him realize how important his wife really is. He's spending most of the day with her now, which is a step forward on any measure, and she is very happy about it, even though it's more for her protection than her pleasure. I guess she's stopped seeing me as a threat. I briefly wonder if she sees Dani as a threat too or if it is – was – just me. In the back of my mind, it occurs to me that if the rapist does make a move on Kathy, we will know who he is, but I would never ask Elliot to dangle his wife as bait.
John, Fin, Dani, and I are working the case now that Elliot's gone, and I am trying my very best to hide my envy of Dani. I have to be civil because the case is the most important thing and any tension between her and I will prevent us from solving it.
"We need to figure out who the next victim will be and then we can watch her and catch him," says Dani.
I resist the urge to roll my eyes. In an ideal world, we could do that, but in reality, it's harder than it sounds. "Now how do you propose we do that?"
"Well, let's look for a pattern."
"We already did that."
She ignores me. "One of them is a narc cop, one of them is a traffic cop, and one works homicide. There's also the major case squad – and us. We're the five main ones. So I would guess that one of their wives is going to be a victim, unless he doubles back, which is possible."
"So, in other words, we have nothing," clarifies Fin.
I suppress my smile. John and Fin aren't any more Dani's fans than I am.
"No. We know who's next."
"We know who might be next," Fin corrects her.
"And we're not sitting on the wife of every single cop," I say. "So in other words, we're nowhere."
"Olivia, he hates cops. We could be next," Dani says, raising her eyebrows. "I would think you'd be more enthusiastic about getting this son of a bitch."
"Dani. What do you think we should do?"
She turns back to our bulletin board with pictures and information about each victim. "They don't live in the same areas," she says, more to herself than anyone, ticking things off on her fingers as she goes. "Sarah lives in Queens, Vida in Brooklyn, and Alicia in Manhattan. They're different ages – Vida's in her late fifties, Alicia's in her twenties, and Sarah's in her early forties. They're different races – Alicia's white, Irish background. Sarah's Hispanic and Vida is Indian." She looks at John, Fin, and I. "The only connection is that they have police officers for husbands. Do you think they hate those three specific cops or all cops?"
I sigh. "I don't know, Dani. But the victims don't know each other and the victims' husbands don't know each other, so I'm guessing the latter."
"Okay, so why?"
"Maybe he's an ex-con," suggests Fin.
"Okay, so if he's an ex-con and the attacks started a month ago, maybe he just got released from jail a month ago. Let's check all the releases from prison from two months ago to last month. Cons arrested for sex crimes, most likely."
That one actually doesn't sound like such a bad idea, so I agree. "Okay. Let's check the prison releases."
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