Loose Ends and New Beginnings
Summary: See ch1
Disclaimer: Not mine
A/N: Here's another chapter, I hope u enjoy, and don't forget to Review!!
Information
While Fin and Briscoe interrogated the three woman that had arrived at the station house that day, Munch and Elliot made their way into upper Manhattan to speak to the Corrigans once again.
Elliot knocked forcefully at the door of the brownstone until Samantha greeted him. "Oh, hi detectives, I wasn't expecting you. Is everything alright?" She asked concerned.
"Everything's fine, we just have to ask you a few more questions concerning James Anderson, if that's alright." Elliot said in as polite a tone as he could muster.
"Of course." She said opening the door to the detectives, "But I've already told you everything that I know." She said.
Samantha led them into the living room and gestured for them to have a seat.
"You failed to mention that you were already familiar with your attacker before you looked at the photo array." Munch said as he sat down on the couch.
"I'm not sure what you're talking about." Samantha said, her voice giving away her nervousness.
"He's talking about two ago, when you followed Anderson home after seeing him on the street. You went to police then and told them where they could find your rapist." Elliot enlightened her.
"You never asked me if I knew who my rapist was. You just asked if I saw him in the photo array." She answered defensively.
"Why didn't you tell us Mrs. Corrigan?" Munch asked.
"Because you people didn't do anything the last time. Why would I think this time would be any different?" She asked, her voice threatening to crack. "What does it matter anyway?" She asked, forcing herself to calm down.
"What matters is that there are a whole bunch of people that knew Anderson was the one who raped you, and where to find him. That gives them motive and opportunity." Munch informed her.
"You don't still think I had something to do with his death?" She seethed. "I have an alibi and you checked it." She said angrily.
"It's not you that we're concerned about Mrs. Corrigan." Elliot said. "We are, however, going to need to speak with your mother and your husband, and anyone else who knew about Anderson."
"My mother was home with me." She said fiercely. "So was my husband."
"Can anyone else corroborate that?" Elliot asked.
"No. It was night time." She said coolly.
"Mrs. Corrigan, who else knew about Anderson?" Elliot asked. "And please, remember that withholding information is considered obstruction; and is a felony offense when it concerns a murder." He warned her.
"I didn't tell anyone." She lied, fighting her tears. "I couldn't tell my mother, it would kill her to know that the man who raped her daughter was back on the streets. I was too ashamed to tell my husband"
"Thank you Mrs. Corrigan." Elliot said. He really didn't want to totrure this woman
"The next time you want to accuse me or my family of something, call us into the station, because I will not have you in my home insinuating something like this again." She warned them.
Elliot and Munch hung their heads, and showed themselves out.
"You think Mom and dear old hubby really had no clue about Anderson?" Munch asked as the two walked down the steps of the brown stone toward the sidewalk.
"I don't know." Elliot answered.
"What if Mom found out? Samantha did say that it would kill her to know the man who raped her daughter was back on the streets." Munch noted as the two climbed into their car.
"I don't think a 60 year old woman could have held Anderson down in order to sodomize him." Elliot reasoned.
"Hey there are stories of Grandmothers who lift cars off their grandkids. Adrenaline is a force not to be messed with." Munch noted.
Elliot started the car, and steered into traffic.
"I don't know. I mean, I talked to the woman. She said that she and Samantha were with her grandson all night." Elliot said. "Plus the doctor corroborated."
"What about the husband?" Munch asked.
"He could have done it, but we're gonna need to prove that he knew that Anderson was his wife's rapist before we can go digging around him." Elliot huffed. "I guess all we can do is to talk to the cops over at the 15th."
Back at the 1-6 Olivia was staring off into space at her desk. She would have missed the incoming call had one of the other detectives in the squad room not called her attention to the ringing phone.
"Detective Benson, Special Victims Unit." She said into the phone.
"Hey Livvy, it's Keith." She heard on the other end. "Look, I just wanted to apologize for the way I acted yesterday. I really am happy for you. I just, I never expected Olivia Benson to settle down and get married." He said with a small chuckle.
"Well thanks Keith." Olivia said sarcastically.
"I want to make it up to you. Can you do lunch?" He asked.
"Keith, I don't think…" She began.
"Strictly one old friend taking out another, unless you're busy with work or family or something." He said quickly.
Olivia thought it over for a moment. "No, I'm actually sitting her staring off into space. I guess I can grab a quick lunch." She said, giving into his way with words, and her sudden hunger.
"Great. Meet me at the old place in 20?" He asked.
"I'll see you there." She said with a smile, remembering the crummy old burger place they had had their first date in.
(Flashback)
The 1-6 was working with Keith and another detective from the 1-5 on a case when Olivia met him. He had tried to get her to go out to dinner with him the entire time they were working together, but she always refused, citing the fact that she didn't date people she worked with. After they had closed the case, the group went to one of the local bars to celebrate. Slowly everyone started to leave, until it was just Olivia and Keith. She remembered how he was sitting on the bar stool next to her when he again tried to get her to go out with him.
"So, looks like it's just you and me. This could be considered a date if you'd let me buy you a drink." He had said with a playful grin.
"Well, too bad I'm done for the night." She had told him.
"Come on Olivia. It's not like we're working together anymore." He had argued. Olivia remembered how cute she thought he was at that moment. She had turned him down at least 20 times in the past week, yet he was still trying. "Would you at least let me buy you a burger from the place next door?" He tried one last futile attempt. "And before you shoot me down… again…" He had said, making her laugh. "Just remember that you have to eat sometime, so why not just let me pay for it."
"I guess I really can't pass up a free meal if you are insisting. But it's just a burger, nothing more." Olivia had finally said. He had started to grow on her in the time they had worked together.
That night she let him buy her a burger, and then ended up walking around the whole city with him, getting lost in conversation. He walked her to her apartment that night, and she let him kiss her. She would probably have invited him to stay, but it was him that reminded her that "It was just a burger, nothing more."
She called him the next night, and they started dating shortly after. He had been a good guy to her, just not the right one.
(End Flashback)
"Captain, I'm going for lunch, I'll be back in a half hour." She yelled into Cragen's office. She didn't want to just leave, in case he was still furious at her.
Keith was walking out of the 1-5 as Elliot and Munch were walking in. None of the men noticed the other.
The two detectives made their way up to Keith's squad room to speak with his Captain.
"I take it you're detectives Munch and Stabler." Captain Sparks said when he saw them. He extended his hand to each. Elliot had called before. Cops were very territorial, and it was bad natured to barge into someone else's squad room unannounced. "I set up a room for us to speak privately in." He said, motioning the two to his office.
He closed the door behind them. "Please, take a seat."
"Thank you." Elliot and Munch both said, but refrained from sitting.
"What can I do for you? You said on the phone that you needed to talk about Judge Anderson?" He asked.
"Yes. Someone killed him a few days ago, and we need your help to figure out who." Elliot said.
"You need men?" The Captain asked.
"We need information." Munch answered. "You guys brought Anderson two years back due to a complaint that Samantha Corrigan made against him. She told you that he had raped her 5 years prior."
"That's right. I remember that. My officers brought him in from his home, and questioned him for over an hour." Captain Sparks said.
"Do you remember why you didn't hold him?" Elliot asked.
"I didn't feel that we had enough evidence to charge a Judge with rape. If I recall, Mrs. Corrigan refused to have a rape kit done 5 years ago. EMT's were called to the school where she worked. She was found by a student. She told them, and ER doctors, that she had gotten jumped and mugged. It was only later that she changed her story to that she been raped, and that was only because her husband accused her of having an affair when she wouldn't have sex with him." Sparks told them. He was talking about the origional rape of Samantha Corrigan
"You didn't find it odd that after she did report the rape, the description she gave to the sketch artist bared an uncanny resemblance to Anderson?" Munch asked.
"A sketch isn't enough to charge a Judge with rape." Sparks defended. "But what does it matter now. He's dead. If he did rape her, I think justice was finally served."
"Unfortunately, now we have to bring in the person who took justice into their own hands." Elliot said. "Do you remember how Samantha acted when she found out you were letting Anderson off?"
"I'm afraid you'll have to speak with the arresting officers Detective. I was on vacation at the time. The only reason I'm so familiar with the case is because my men called me when they realized that they had arrested a judge." He said.
"Would you mind telling us who was on the case?" Munch asked, clearly annoyed at the maze Captain Sparks was making them run through. The man obviously felt that the 1-6 was overstepping their boundaries on this one.
"Since the interrogation was kept off official record you're going to have to check the hard copy, and according to my records one of your detectives was the last to have it.
"Hold on for a second." Munch said, stepping to the back of the office to call Cragen to get the names that were on the file he had showed them that afternoon.
"One of our detectives tracked that file down?" Elliot asked. Cragen never did tell them how he got his hands on a sealed file.
"Yes. And I don't appreciate you going behind my back to get at my sealed files." He said indignantly.
"Our Captain says the cops on the case were Detective Michael Stevens and Detective Andrew Layolla." Munch said as he closed his cell.
"Stevens moved to Colorado with his wife and kids two months ago, and Layolla is on vacation until Monday. Sorry Detectives." Sparks said.
"Is there a phone number we can contact Stevens at?" Elliot asked.
"He didn't leave one with me." Sparks said, not sounding too upset over it.
"Tell Layolla that we need to speak with him when he gets back." Elliot responded, annoyed.
With that the he and Munch made their way back to the street.
"Well that was a waste of time." Munch huffed.
"Yeah, let's just get back to the house and see if we can find out anything else on the Corrigans." Elliot answered.
TBC... Let me know what u thihnk!