A/N: Again, I'd like to thank everyone who favorited, followed and reviewed this story, it means really a lot to me! I'm sorry I haven't been following a posting schedule, but my life has been pretty hectic and so have my health issues. Without further delay, here is chapter 4! I hope you guys keep enjoying this story, the CO activity has been so slow lately that I'm afraid the fandom has died out! Feedback always welcomed (:
Chapter 4
Casey Novak strutted inside the sixteenth precinct bearing all the faux confidence she managed, completely unsure of what sort of scenery she would find inside it or how she would be treated by those who worked there - she already knew how unpleasantly the SVU detectives handled the situation if an A.D.A. decided to show up at a suspect's house during evidence collection. Under normal circumstances walking for the first time into a police squad where she would start working would be an anxiety inducing task all by itself without the whole force being involved in a brutal case, but considering her first meeting with Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler she could point out the circumstance as almost nerve wrecking if she wasn't so angered over the news that a new lead on the case hadn't been enough for any of them to pick up the phone and call her even though she had asked to. She noticed all the detectives gathered around one of the work desks, a wide range of expressions on their faces, the majority which she read as expectant, they were certainly discussing the case in hands, she pondered.
"So, who's our daddy?", Captain Cragen asked flatly.
"Results aren't back yet", Elliot replied, eyes focused on the computer keyboard where he carelessly typed something.
"You were supposed to call as soon as you found anything", Casey blurted out, eyes going from an unresponsive Stabler and finally settling on the woman who had occupied her thoughts for so long that afternoon, "What's this I hear, you're onto a new suspect?", she hastily inquired, eyebrows raised up awaiting a reply.
Olivia sighed deeply, rubbing her fingertips through her frown, trying to brush away a persistent headache that insisted on installing itself on her head and that would inevitably stay if that fiery redhead kept popping at her work place and demanding to know every detail about everything in real time.
"We found a guy that Brianna believed was the father", she said while exhaling a gush of air.
"He's not copping to it, though", the captain completed.
"That's why you have to come to me. I can get an order for a paternity test", Casey stated in an aggravated explanatory tone.
Elliot rose up from his chair with agile moves, his face turned sideways to the conversation and his whole body language expressing his annoyance at the A.D.A.'s presence.
"He offered it up voluntarily", the detective replied.
"Usually a bad sign when we get it so easily", Cragen said to Casey, making him the only one in the room who kept his focus on her.
"What about the chemist?", she asked, now in a less predatory tone.
"His alibi is solid", he answered simply.
"Well, everybody's after the flavor of the month, so the place he works in has hidden cameras everywhere. He got in at 6:00 and was there all morning", a detective Casey recognized from the SVU files she had been reading as Odafin Tutuola commented, now standing side by side to her and, as Cragen, acknowledging her presence.
"And what about the pharmaceuticals we found at his house?", she asked detective Tutuola.
"That was a sample case a sales rep sent him. Our techs said no combination can make Pitocin or Versed", he answered.
Olivia took a quick glance at Casey, observing the woman's placid yet questioning expression and thinking that she looked extremely different when she wasn't being objective or intrusive. For a second she wondered what really hid underneath that rigid and effective facade, but she promptly shook those notions away and decided she'd have to wait to know anything more about her.
"So he really was shielding his wife", the detective took the news by throwing her pencil on top of a file she had been reading and crossing her arms in front of her chest, face curled up in a frustrated smile.
"Last call for bets on Dr. Newlands' paternity test", detective John Munch announced as he paced towards his colleagues with a casual smirk on his face.
"Just give us the results, John", Cragen insisted impatiently.
"What do you want, the good news or the bad news first?", he teased.
"John", Cragen raised his voice.
"He's not the father", Munch affirmed carefully, slightly pursing his lips.
"So what's the good news?", Casey quizzed in exasperated disbelief that there could be any good news to the situation.
"We cleared a cold case", he exposed, to watchful and inquiring shocked faces.