Chapter 3: Blast from the Past

Gillian Hardwicke was going through all of the paperwork that was building up on top of her desk. With so much shock that had gone through-out the office, she knew that even though she was backed up in paper work no one was going to be riding her about being so behind. Though she didn't know Casey Novak personally, a tiny bit of her was feeling jealous of the former ADA. She felt terrible for even having those thoughts, she honestly had no idea why she felt that way. Maybe it came from the fact that everyone was mourning the loss of Casey, that they obviously cared deeply for this woman. She had heard so many things about Casey in the past, she also remembered following the case against Detective Tutuola's step son, Darius Parker. And even though she lost the case, Gillian admired how great Casey was during it, and it was the way she wished she was or ever could be.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the door of her office swinging open with force, she jumped slightly as she looked up and saw her boss, Arthur Branch enter the room, a newspaper in his hand. He slammed it against her table, making her take a step back.

"What the hell is this?" He asked obviously furious. Gillian looked down at the newspaper and her jaw dropped slightly, instantly knowing the lecture she was about to receive.

She picked up the newspaper, reading it out-loud. "Just Discovered: Former SVU Affair Causes Cop Death," she started shaking her head and sighing. A photo of Casey Novak and Chester Lake seemingly talking to each other just outside the courthouse. She was silent a moment, she wasn't sure she wanted to continue. This was obviously going to hinder things with Casey's murder case.

"Continue Gillian, it's only begun to get interesting," DA Branch said breaking the silence that had filled the room. He took a step towards her, pointing to the article. Reluctantly, she sighed and looked back at the article, continuing to read it aloud.

"It seems that recently deceased former assistant district attorney Casey Novak was to blame for the 2008 murder of police officer Thomas Crane. Sources say that Miss Novak, who was disbarred the same year, had an on-going sexual relationship with his murderer, former SVU detective Chester Lake, who received 20 years to life in prison for the crime. After the rape case against Mr. Crane was dismissed, one source says they saw "Casey Novak and Chester Lake talking after the trial," and that they "heard them talking about permanently getting rid of Thomas by any means. She was asking him to kill Crane, as well as flirting with him openly in front of the courthouse, not even trying to hide it." What could this mean for the district attorney? Possibly a closer look at all employees and former ADA's who have called the Special Victims Unit of Manhattan their home."

She dropped the paper onto her desk, her arms crossed. Branch shook his head and began to pace her office. "If we don't figure out if this article is true, any case against Casey Novak's killer will fly right out the window."

"Why? Even if she did have a relationship with Chester, that has no bearing on someone taking her life."

"They will paint her as a liar and a cold vindictive woman who had someone killed because she didn't want to lose case," Branch said as he placed his hands in his pockets. "Then the defence will say that someone simply took her life so that she couldn't get former Detective Lake out of jail

"Let me talk to special victims, I'm sure that we can do enough damage control to prevent any damage to this case."

"Alright Gillian, the SVU detectives get 24 hours to investigate and come up with solution. If they haven't , then I will have no choice but to break from special victims until we can figure out if the allegations are true or not." With that, Branch turned and left her office. Gillian slumped down onto her chair, her head tilting back slightly and she looked up at the ceiling. She wasn't looking forward to this conversation, she wasn't looking forward to working on this case.

Captain Donald Cragen paced his office, before walking around his desk and opening one of the drawers. This entire case was beginning to give him heartburn. He pulled out some alka-seltzer, letting it drop into the cup of water that was sitting on his desk. All he wanted was for this to finally be closed with the perp in jail. It was after taking a sip of the drink that he saw Finn walking towards the office followed by Munch. As they entered, they closed the door behind them. Neither of them looked very happy.

"Well?" Cragen asked looking back and forth between two. "What did you find out from Lake?"

"He won't talk Cap. He said that she mentioned something to him about being afraid of something, and then it was like his mouth forgot how to speak. He won't tell us anything else," Munch crossed his arms.

"Yeah, Chester is refusing to talk about it, saying that he didn't know if it had anything to do with her murder and he wasn't about to let someone else get railroaded into doing jail time like he did. It's a dumb ass excuse, but he's sticking to it."

Cragen sighed before his door was opened and Gillian Hardwicke walked into the room. "What do you need Gillian?" He asked, sounding slightly annoyed that she was there. She walked further in, handing something to him. "What is this?"

"It's a court order that will get Rickers to bring Lake here for an interrogation," She answered before clutching her briefcase with both hands and smirk appearing on her beautiful face.

"But can't we just talk to him over there? I mean, there isn't a reason that we need him to be here for questioning."

"I figured you would say that," She said before opening her briefcase and pulling out the newspaper article, holding it out to the older man. "And we thought the same thing, then this came out."

Cragen was in shock from just reading the headline. He didn't believe it, he didn't think he could. "There is no way that any of this is true," He said looking away from it. Munch took the paper from him and after reading the headline, began to read the article to himself.

"This is bull. I'm all for freedom of speech, but trying to make an ADA look dirty after her death is in bad taste even for me."

"Well, I'm hoping this article will loosen mister Lake's lips," Gillian said as she allowed her gaze to travel along the faces of the men. "It's the only positive thing that can come from this piece of trash article."

Finn finally took a look at the paper, reading it to himself. As soon as he saw the author of this story, he shook his head, knowing exactly who it was. "Maybe Elliot and Liv should question Lake when he gets here," he suggested before looking up, catching the eyes of Cragen and then moving his gaze to Munch. "Munch and I should go talk to the person who wrote this trash."

"Alright," Cragen nodded. "Just don't do anything in front of witnesses," he said without missing a beat. Gillian rolled her eyes and smiled.

"I'm just gonna pretend I didn't hear that."

Chester Lake sat in the interrogation room, one that he had been in on the other side of this same scenario many times. Being a cop was something he missed more than he could explain into words, but going out the way he did was something that he wasn't ashamed of. He knew that Thomas Crane would never stop, that monster was only going to stop if he was made to stop. When Casey had lost the trail, he knew that she meant it when she said she would re-file the charges and that they would get him. He just couldn't take the chance if she was wrong.

His thoughts ran wild as he waited alone in the room, and he kept replaying Fin's words to him over and over again. Casey was dead, and her death was his fault, no one would understand why he believed that. She was trying to help him and someone stopped her before she could. The moment she was officially disbarred, she had been by his side through it all. She was the only thing that was in his life that he looked forward to, and the only connection to the outside.

The door opened and Elliot walked in quickly followed by Olivia, he was expecting to see Fin and Munch, but any of the detectives were fine by him. He sat up in his chair as Elliot pulled out a chair and straddled it, Olivia leaning against the wall of the room, hands in her pockets as she looked at Chester.

"You know, I never thought that after your sentencing hearing I would ever see you again," Elliot said, finally breaking the tense silence that was previously surrounding them.

"Look, Chester," Olivia began to walk forward. Once she reached the table, she leaned down placing her hands on it as she kept her eyes locked on Lake's. "I know that you didn't have anything to do with her death. But you told Finn and Munch that she confided in you about being in danger."

"Confided being the operative word," Chester countered before letting his stare go to the two way mirror.

"Fine, we can just arrest you for obstruction then," Elliot said getting to his feet.

"Chester, just tell us what she said. If it doesn't lead to someone that can tie to her murder, then no one is going to go to jail wrongfully."

Lake looked back up, starting to feel himself get angry. He stood up, knocking the chair backwards as he looked into her eyes. "Then how come I am in jail?" He yelled to her, slamming his hands on the table that was in between them. "Thomas Crane was going to get away with killing and raping one girl and raping another, and there wasn't a damn thing you could do about it! I did everyone a favor by taking that son of a bitch out!" He shook his head and pushed himself away from the table. Olivia was silent, shocked, but Elliott remained unfazed.

"You killed him Chester, you took a life without provocation."

"There was provocation! He got away with two counts of rape and one count of murder on a technicality! You tell me how that's fair!"

"And that pissed you off! It was Casey's fault, she was the reason he walked! And you killed him because of that but then you were put in jail. Casey may have lost her job, but you lost your life! You got so angry at her you just had to teach her a lesson. So, you figured out a way to get her killed while putting the blood on someone else's hands," Elliot said getting into Chesters face, he smiled slightly. "So, maybe you made friends with a fellow cellmate. He gets out of jail, you tell him when she's going to come visit and you have him take her out for all the pain she caused you. You're going to be in prison for at least 20 years, all because of her."

"You've got it all wrong," Chester said, his voice much softer and his face mimicking the softness. "Casey was trying to get me out. She was helping me file an appeal. Why would I kill her?"

"Because Chester," Olivia joined in the conversation. "You thought that if she was gone then the world wouldn't find out about your plan."

"What plan?"

"This one," She tossed the newspaper article onto the table.

Lake looked at the headline and shook his head a moment as he saw the photo of the duo standing outside of the courthouse, and he recognized it. His mind flashed back to that moment in time, replaying it in his mind like a movie.

He had just walked away from her after she said that she would re-file charges. He didn't want to hear it and stormed out of the room. It wasn't long before he heard her calling his name, he stopped, sighing and his jaw-clenched as he tried to hold his anger in. She was apologizing, trying to tell her she was sorry she screwed up. He accepted her apology and they hugged. Then she left and he didn't see her again until after he had put a bullet into that bastard Thomas Crane. He was snapped back to reality when Olivia slammed her her hands down on the table.

"Were you having a sexual relationship with her? Did she ask you to kill Thomas Crane?" Olivia asked as their eyes locked once more.

"No, Casey was apologizing to me. She said she was sorry that she caused the case to get thrown out."

"So, this was a simple friendship and every statement that is in this article is false," Elliot countered nodding.

"That's exactly it. I could never hurt Casey, I was in love with her."