"I got back from the store early and I heard what Toni told you," Tony told Elliot before he left.
Elliot's overall composure changed when he heard that. "Oh man, Tony, I was hoping you wouldn't hear that."
"Yeah, I kind of figured that's why you offered to watch her," Tony said, "Don't worry, I'm not going to kill anybody, I just want to. But I think I can help you."
"How?" Elliot asked.
"Toni told you what that guy said to her. She said it sounded like a prison threat…she's right, I knew a guy in Rikers who said that line all the time," Tony told him.
"Who?" Elliot asked.
"This guy said the same thing every time he got a new cellmate, it became his trademark," Tony said, "And if I didn't have to think about it, I could've told you his name, but now that I think of it, I'm having trouble remembering what it is."
"Well try to think, Tony, we have to find this guy," Elliot told him.
"I know, I know…it was, Sankt, I think…"
"Sankt? That's an Aryan name, isn't it?" Elliot asked.
"Yeah…his first name was…Chris," Tony said.
"Would he still be in Rikers?"
"He should be, at least I would sure as hell hope so, he's doing three life sentences for five counts of murder one," Tony explained.
"And let me guess, he's a white pride freak," Elliot said.
"You bet your barrel ass," Tony responded.
"We checked on Christopher Sankt, he's a lifer in Rikers for killing five black teenagers 10 years ago," Olivia told Cragen.
"And he's still there, right?"
"We checked with the warden and the guards, he's still in his cell," Munch said.
"And we're sure he's been there this whole time?"
"As far as we know," Olivia said.
"I've been going over the photos and the medical reports of what happened to Toni in the past couple weeks," Huang said, "A lot of bruises and a lot of swelling, but other than that, I'm not seeing much."
"I don't get the point," Elliot said.
"The men who attacked her left her bloody and sore, but she was still alive and in considerably well condition, they could have broken her bones…"
"They did try, they tried to break her arms," Elliot said.
"But they didn't succeed, and they didn't try again after the first time," Huang said, "Elliot," Huang pointed to the enlarged pictures of Toni's injuries, "If this was Kathleen, what would be going through your mind right now?"
"That I'd want to kill the guy," Elliot said.
"But you don't know who did it, and in Tony's case, he's not a cop, so he has no way of figuring out who it is," Huang said, "Meanwhile, he's the only person around to take care of her…whoever's doing this isn't doing it because they want Toni dead, they want to make her father suffer. Granted, if they had broken her arms, he'd have to care for her a lot longer, but what's happened instead was he was roped into a false sense of security. The original attack wasn't too severe, Toni was able to get up and walk away from it after a couple of days, she started going out alone again. Then this happens, and this time she's practically bedridden, unable to talk for days, unable to feed herself, unable to do anything; so Tony has to do everything, he has to feed her, he has to help her into the bathroom, he has to dress her."
"Well he wouldn't have to do that if she'd just let the orderlies do their job," Munch said, "But if this guy Sankt's been in prison for 10 years, there's no way he could know that."
"But she made an amazing recovery this time and while she's still not capable of doing everything she was before, she's recuperating at a faster rate than most people would in her current position," Huang said.
"But Tony's probably getting worried about what happens next time Toni goes out by herself," Olivia commented, "If we don't catch this guy, next time it could be worse."
"Doc," Cragen said, "What're the odds whoever's doing this will kill her?"
"Going by what we have now, I'd say very unlikely," Huang said, "If she were to die in one of these attacks it would most likely be accidental, or a result from severe blood loss. Whoever's behind it doesn't want her to die, as long as she's alive but in pain, Tony Keller has reason to worry, his main concern is his daughter. The minute she's dead, he doesn't have anything holding him back, he'll go into another homicidal frenzy."
"So as long as she lives, her attacker is safe," Olivia said, "And he knows it, he's just screwing with all of us."
"Well it wasn't Sankt," Casey said as she entered the room, "I've just returned from Rikers…Christopher Sankt is locked in his cell 23 hours of every day, he has no phone privileges, no visitors, no mail, he has absolutely no contact with the outside world."
"Well Tony was in Rikers and from what he's told me, that's not very reassuring," Elliot said, "In prison there's a supply and demand for everything, whatever you want, somebody can take care of it."
"Meaning he could still have put a proverbial hit out on Tony Keller's kid," Munch said, "But who?"
"Check his family," Casey said, "I checked the visitor's log, the order that he have no contact with anybody on the outside was only enforced two years ago after he was caught trying to get a cell phone smuggled in. Before that, a Bryan Sankt came to see him regularly."
"Bryan Sankt?" Elliot repeated.
"His brother," Casey said.
"One thing about this I don't understand though," Olivia said, "Why would Sankt want to come after Toni?"
"Tony said he had trouble with everybody in Rikers because he didn't play by the rules," Elliot said, "And he said he especially had trouble with the skinheads, and he still remembers the line Sankt uses on all his new girlfriends…I wonder if Sankt tried the same thing with him, but Tony wouldn't go quietly."
"He wouldn't go at all," Olivia corrected him.
Toni remained where she was on the couch in the living room, looking perfectly miserable. Her father came into the room and started to talk, but he saw the look on her face and realized something was the matter.
"What's wrong?" he asked her.
"I'm sick of this couch," Toni said, "All I want is to go upstairs to my own bed…but I can't get up the stairs yet."
Tony glanced out to the hall and saw the staircase, and a thought came to him.
"We'll see about that," he said.
He went over to the couch and pulled the covers back and slipped one arm under Toni's back and the other under her thighs and picked her up and carried her out of the living room. Toni wrapped her arms around her father's neck as he carried her up the stairs. Once in her room, he lowered the top half of her body onto the bed, but her feet were still up on his shoulder as he pulled back the covers, then he carefully put her legs down and settled her in.
"Thanks, Daddy," she said.
Tony smoothed the covers out on top of her and stroked through her hair momentarily, "How's that, is that alright?"
She nodded.
"Good, now you go to sleep and I'll bring dinner up later, okay?"
Toni nodded again.
"Good," Tony kissed her on the forehead, "Love you."
Toni smiled weakly, her eyes about closed and she looked instead like she was about to cry as she let out a low, quiet, "I concur."
Tony laughed and kissed his daughter again, then left the room. Toni wasn't able to turn over onto her side yet, so she just lay on her back looking up at the ceiling as she started to think.
"Did you get any sleep last night?" Olivia looked over at Elliot as they drove to the Keller house the next day.
"Oh I think about half an hour," he answered, "You?"
Olivia slightly shook her head, "Closed my eyes for two minutes and I just kept seeing her back in that hospital."
"Me too," Elliot nodded.
They pulled up at the curb and got out and as soon as they got on the sidewalk, they saw an unusual sight up ahead. Toni was laid face down on a sun lounge in a blue two-piece swimsuit with a large sunhat covering her head.
"Toni?"
She picked her head up and looked over at them.
"Hey Olivia, Elliot…what's up?"
"Well we think we might have found something out about your second attack," Olivia said, "Is your father around?"
Toni nodded once, "He's in the house fixing drinks, he'll be out in a minute."
"How're you feeling, Toni?" Elliot asked as he squatted down beside her to see her better.
"I can't complain," she replied, "So what'd you find out?"
"Well…"
Elliot stopped when he heard the front door open. Tony came out carrying a tray with a pitcher and two glasses on it.
"Detectives," he said as he set the tray down, "What's going on?"
"We need to talk to you two," Elliot said, "We think we've found our connection to this second beating."
"What?" Tony asked.
"Christopher Sankt is still serving a multiple-life sentence in Rikers, he has no contact with anybody besides the guards and he's not in general population so he doesn't see the other inmates," Elliot said.
"I told you before, that doesn't mean anything," Tony said.
"Yeah, but Sankt has a brother on the outside, he's been arrested a couple of times but nothing stuck…but we'd like Toni to take a look at his mug shot and see if she remembers him," Elliot explained.
Olivia took a paper out of a large envelope and handed it to Toni who looked at it twice before answering. In the picture was a large white man with a bad haircut and Hitler youth tattoos on his body.
"It looks similar," she said, "But this isn't a new mug shot, is it?"
"No, last time he got busted was four years ago," Elliot said, "However, he is still living in New York and we figure we'll pick him up, bring him in for Toni to ID and if it's him, we'll lock him up."
"Great," Toni said rather dryly, then fidgeted on the lounge, "I need to get up."
Tony pulled her to her feet and walked her over to the front steps and when she went in the house, Tony returned to the detectives and said, "During that inital beat down, when they were stomping her they must've knocked her bladder on its side or something, she's been doing a lot of this lately."
"Did you talk to her doctor about it?" Olivia asked.
"Hell no," Tony replied, "After all the time she's spent in the hospital, the last thing she needs is to go in for more tests and more poking and prodding and probing...we figured we'll wait about a week, and if it hasn't changed by then, then we'll go back and see what the doctors think. So where's Sankt's brother living?"
"Over on 12th Avenue," Olivia said.
"Well one thing I still can't figure out," Tony said, "If Chris hasn't had any contact with him, how did Bryan know to come after Toni?"
"Sankt's not under arrest yet," Cragen told the lawyer, "There's no reason for you to be here yet."
"Nice try, detective," James Dobson, the 30-something lawyer in the bad suit replied, "You bring my client down here accusing him of raping some girl he's never even met…"
"Wrong, he's accused of assaulting a young woman, then attempting to rape her, then nearly killing her," Olivia said, "And once our victim comes in and identifies him, then we can move onto the next part."
"Yes, where is your so called victim?" Dobson asked, "She's running rather late."
They heard some commotion from outside the door. It opened and Fin came in first, saying, "Sorry we're late, we had a little trouble getting down here."
Coming in behind him was Munch pushing Toni in a wheelchair.
"I can assure you she didn't need that before Sankt beat the hell out of her," Olivia told Dobson
Munch wheeled Toni over to the two-way mirror and he and Fin helped her to her feet.
"Boy you guys got a lot of ugly cops around here," Toni said as she looked at the identity parade before her.
"Toni, do you see the man who assaulted you?" Casey asked.
"Sure," Toni pointed to Sankt, "Number five, dead to rights."
"That's a high handed statement," Dobson said.
"Well you're a high handed person," Munch said, "And I'm using that term generously."
"High handed."
"No, person."
"She positively identified him," Casey said, "It's good enough for me and it'll be good enough for the grand jury."
Fin and Munch helped ease Toni back down into the chair and Munch turned it around and wheeled her out of the room with Fin closing the door behind them.
"You know," Toni said, "I appreciate this but it really wasn't necessary, I could have walked in there."
"We know that," Munch told her with a knowing smirk, "But the defense doesn't."
Fin opened the back door of the car and they got Toni in and he told Munch, "We still gotta get the interior cleaned out, it's got her blood all over the seats."
"I say we leave it as it is," Munch said as he folded up the wheelchair and put it in the trunk, "Then the next time we pick up a perp; we tell him that's what happened to the last guy who gave us trouble."
"We had Toni direct us through the second crime scene," Elliot told Casey as she headed in for arraignment, "CSU found blood, just hers."
"Well, the other eight skinheads are all being represented by the same lawyer," Casey said, "And he seems smart enough to know with all the evidence against his clients that he doesn't have a prayer, I think he'll play ball with us. The only real problem is going to be Sankt, he and his lawyer are ready to fight to the death."
Elliot looked at the top of the courthouse stairs and saw…
"Toni!"
She and Olivia were already there and it seemed they were waiting for the others. Elliot noticed Toni stood a bit crooked and her legs were turned almost completely to the sides.
"What're you doing here?" Elliot asked.
"Sankt's getting arraigned today, I want to see it," Toni said.
"I have to warn you, Miss Keller," Casey said, "This won't be as easy to settle as the last time, there's no forensic evidence to connect Sankt, he'll probably get out on bail."
"I don't care," Toni replied, "I have never hidden from anything in my life and I'm not about to start now. I had Olivia bring me down because I want to see what happens to the bastard."
"Where's Tony?" Elliot murmured to Olivia.
"He said if Sankt doesn't stay in Rikers until the trial, he'd kill him in front of the judge and everybody," Olivia replied.
They headed inside and reached the right courtroom; Elliot, Olivia and Toni (with obvious difficulty walking) went and sat down with the rest of the spectators while Casey, Sankt and Dobson headed up to the front while the bailiff read the docket number.
"People vs. Bryan Sankt, one charge attempted murder in the first degree, one charge criminal assault in the first degree, one charge attempted rape in the first degree."
"You've been a busy man, I see," the judge said.
"Your Honor," Dobson started.
"Cool your jets, Mr. Dobson, how does your client plead?"
"Not guilty," Sankt answered.
"The people on bail, Miss Novak?" the judge asked.
"Remand, Your Honor," Casey said.
"My client is hardly a flight risk," Dobson said.
"We believe Mr. Sankt to be a danger to the community and it be in the public's best interest if he be held without bail so as not to pose a threat to anybody else."
"There's not even any physical evidence linking my client to the alleged victim," Dobson replied.
The judge seemed to consider both sides and answered, "Well put, Miss Novak, but this isn't a murder charge on the table, bail is set in the amount of $200,000."
"I'm sorry, Miss Keller but I told you going in that that might happen," Casey said.
"I'm not blaming you, it's just that I know how bail works, you only put in 10% and you can get out," Toni said as they headed for the door, "Sankt looks like a guy who has $20,000 laying around somewhere."
"We're going to put the word in at the department that if he gets out on bail, to have him tailed," Elliot said.
Toni turned around and saw something and she grabbed Elliot by his shirt to get his attention.
"Who's that?" she asked.
Elliot looked and saw who she meant, a black woman in a matching black jacket and skirt and a white blouse. He remembered her well.
"That is Carolyn Maddox, a defense attorney," Elliot said.
"I seem to remember reading about her," Toni commented, "She's the one that argued that women can't rape people, right?"
"Yeah, and today she's taking part in another such case," Casey told them, "So when you head out the door, expect to be bombarded by the media circus."
"I'll get her home," Olivia said, "See you later, Case."
Toni and Olivia exited the courthouse and watched the media frenzy over on the far right side of the steps, waiting for Maddox to come out with her client. Olivia looked and saw Toni standing defensively, her arms folded tightly at her chest.
"What is it?" Olivia asked.
Toni watched as Carolyn and another woman came out and the reporters swarmed them, and Toni said, "I've got an idea."
She went over to the other side of the steps and said to Carolyn, "Excuse me, are you Carolyn Maddox?"
"Why yes I am," she replied proudly.
"I thought so," Toni said, "I seem to recall hearing about you…you're the one who says that women are incapable of committing rape, isn't that correct?"
"Yes it is, women are anatomically unable to commit such an act," Carolyn said, still smiling for the cameras.
"Uh huh," Toni said, unconvinced, "Well let me give you a little tip, lady…when some guy beats you down to the floor till you can't move, and he's too drunk or too stoned to get it up so he penetrates you with his fingers, or a broom handle, or a wrench, or a pistol, or a glass bottle, or a baseball bat, then you can tell me that that doesn't count as rape since he's not using his penis."
Suddenly Carolyn wasn't looking so sure of herself, and the cameras had caught every word of Toni's statement.
Toni turned around and headed down the stairs to Olivia who was waiting at the car.
"Let's go," Toni told her.
"Toni?" Olivia said.
"Wasn't me, I was just making a point," Toni explained her as they got in the car, "Drive like hell."
Olivia stepped on the accelerator and they were out of there, thinking about what the public's response to that statement Toni gave the press was going to be.
