I sit in the courtroom the next day and listen to Tensley's attorney try to talk his way out of this. "Mr. Exley, your client is back in my courtroom again facing a serious charge." The judge looks to him shocked. "Should we install a revolving door?"
"Serious?" Tensley calls out "he's bragging on Facebook." She refers to the boy she hooked up with while in recovery.
Her lawyer whispers something to her and returns himself to the judge "your honor, miss Evans was in extreme emotional duress. Rather than prosecution, she needs a full psychiatric evaluation."
Barba argues "your honor, this is just another delaying tactic."
I look to Sonny who looks to me with wondering eyes "I wasn't aware you were a psychiatrist, Mr. Barba." The judge argues. "Mental illness is not something this court takes lightly. Psychiatric evaluation is so ordered." She looks at Tensley intently "but... miss Evans, you are still on probation. If you violate the law again, in any way, I will remand you." She bangs her gavel and we leave to head back to the precinct.
The next day Benson fills us in on the new information we received from Tensley. "She's a victim. We're not sure exactly of how much, but she was having sex with much older men. We need to look into this." She tells us as we sit down to meet.
"But it was consensual, what can we do about it now for her? And who is this guy?" I ask out loud.
"Adam Brubeck was the biggest teen producer out there. "Summer Days", "Five ways to play Hooky", "Farcity Blues" Rollins says, pointing him out on the board.
"I think I've heard of one of those" I semi shrug trying to remember if I've seen any of those movies.
"And according to Tensley," Benson goes on "Brubeck passed her around like a sex toy party favor."
"Explains why she's such a train wreck." Carisi adds in to the conversation.
Nick comes around the table "if she's telling the truth."
Amanda responds "Nick, I'm glad you're back, but really, you should have heard her."
"Well, she's an actress." He reminds her.
Barba agrees "Amaro's right. She could be playing you both."
"We had to pull it out of her, guys." Benson tells us. "This girl doesn't even know that she's been victimized."
Barba lays it out flatly "Gregory's father thinks that his son was, and there's video to back up that charge. I have to indict her."
Benson is taken back by this, as am I "Hold on, you do?" I ask him before he walks away.
"This is textbook mitigating." She says.
"And Exley is free to bring that up, when he tries to cut a deal." Barba simply returns and goes to leave.
"In the meantime, how about I take a run at Brubeck? See if he wets his pants." Carisi offers up. Barba quickly turns back around.
Amanda jumps on him "were you sick the day that they went over statute of limitations at law school?"
He answers "yeah, yeah, she's 24, which in New York is one year too late to charge statutory rape. Anybody want to explain to me why that law still exists?"
"You can thank the church lobbyists for that." Barba answers his question even though it seemed more rhetorical to me.
Nick adds on "the law's the law, all right? She needs to do time."
"And Brubeck doesn't?" I speak up now, not wanting this guy to get away with what he did, or is still doing.
"Look, whatever he did to Tensley, dollars to donuts he's still doing it to other girls." Sonny agrees, as if he was reading my mind.
"Great, are we going on a fishing trip?" Barba asks scarcastically.
Benson pushes him away "Barba, how about we pursue two tracks? You pursue yours, we'll pursue ours." She brings us back over to the board "now, I trust that this Brubeck is still producing?"
Rollins answers "oh yeah, he's been busy. Look, I'm checking his Twitter feed. He's in New York this weekend. Casting event for his new movie musical junior prom." Benson looks bewildered and we know we're going to make a visit.
We walk into the pool party, walking past someone with a clip board. As soon as we're inside, it's clear a lot of the girls here are underage. I look around for Brubeck when a young male comes over to us "Hey! NYPD! You guys are the best!" He indulges further "I did a drive-around with some homicide detectives last year. It was so awesome."
"Thanks. Mr. Brubeck around?" I say uninterested.
"Oh, he's in a cabana, but he's busy." He tells us.
"Which way?" Nick asks.
"Uh..." he looks around then points off.
"Excuse me." Nick pushes the kid aside a bit and we make our way towards the cabana he pointed too.
"Whoa! You just pushed Brody Clark!" Sonny says from behind me.
I look over my shoulder and ask "Who?" along with Nick.
"The breakout star of "Summer Daze"? And the "Knightmaster trilogy"?"
I roll my eyes "you would know that."
Amanda gets us back on track "I count at least two dozen underage girls in bikinis." She looks to us and the officers "you know, no one leaves. Start checking IDs."
"All right, you guys get that side, we'll take over here." Sonny points to two different sections. I walk off with him and lean down to a table of 2 girls and a man enjoying a beverage "ID's please." Sonny tells them.
The man sits up and smirks grotesquely "Come on man, we ain't doing nothing wrong." He spills a bit of his drink on the young girl next to him.
"ID's. Now." I say through gritted teeth.
He rolls his eyes and moves to the side of his chair to grab his I.D. One of the girls leaves to get her ID and another grabs it from her purse. "I'm 21." she says when she hands it to me.
"Right." I look at the ID and pass it back to her. We move to another table with more girls and older men drinking and ask for the same thing. I check all their ID's and Sonny comes back over to me "I got nothing." I tell him in a low voice so no one can hear.
"Same." He mutters and he nods to me to follow him.
We go over to where Brubeck just left his cabana and make our way to Nick and Amanda.
"There's no underage drinking, drugs, who knows..." Sonny starts off when we walk in. He catches on a bit after me that we walked in at the wrong time and spits out "sorry, am I interrupting?"
"No. No, we were just leaving." Amanda quicky replies and leaves the space.
"Oh. It uh... Just looked like something else." Sonny awkwardly says back.
I look at him with a semi-opened mouth as Nick stares him down before leaving. He mouths the word what to me with a shrug and I just roll my eyes trying to hide a smirk.
The next day we all go to Barba's office "So Adam Brubeck's casting party, no drugs, no underage drinking." He asks.
Nick answers with disdain "Nah, it was just a bunch of older men watching wet teenage girls in bikinis"
Barba responds to him "If being a letch were illegal, Beverly Hills would be in lock down."
I get out "look, he smart, he's careful, he's wised up."
Benson nods "what did he say about Tensley?
"Oh, he admitted that she came to his parties, at 13, but he blamed it mostly on the mom." Amanda tells us.
"You thought he'd confess to child rape?" Barba asks while looking over a paper his Secretary was showing him.
"We keep digging deeper, we're gonna find something." Sonny says "In fact, I made a few calls.."
Amanda interrupts him "yeah, you know what? So did I." She jumps right into what she found. "This is the research on Brubeck's former child stars. Okay, Tensley is not the only one that's crashed and burned. This is Bella Macy. She starred in "Teens in Space" at 12. She did an after school special, and then disappeared. She got arrested four years ago in Ohio for armed robbery."
We all look over at the pictures she shows us "Mm-hmm. Go on." Benson mumbles.
"This is Jordana Russo. She starred alongside Tensley in "Sophie Spade". She's now doing... porn. Now this is our friend Brody Clark."
Carisi adds on because she could continue "that guy used to be a complete mess. In and out of rehab for years."
"Exactly." Amanda agrees "the list goes on and on."
"Next question: Did any of them file a lawsuit, press charges?" Barba asks, knowing none of that really matters.
Sonny has something though "Actually, he was almost charged in L.A. We all give him a kind of questioning look. "I have an ex at LAPD. She told me an actress named Amber Forbes drowned at one of Brubeck's Beverly Hills pool parties, nine years ago."
"Drowned?" I Ask "how old was she?"
"She was 15." He answers. "The M.E. ruled it an accident, but there was alcohol and ecstasy in her system. Brubeck and Dennis were questioned by police. Also, on the witness list, Brody Clark."
"Okay, talk to Brody." She tells Sonny and Nick "find out what he knows."
"Grey, come with me to talk to Tensley." She looks at me and I nod, following her out of the ADA's office.
We get to her home and let in by her mother, whose already raging at us again " I don't know what you're doing here." She starts off. We move forward, going to follow Tensley and her lawyer. "Oh, did you know that Tensley's alleged victim is texting her? I guess he wants to be traumatized again."
"That's not what this is about." I assure her calmly.
"Tensley's aware you're here to talk about Amber Forbes, right?" Her lawyer looks to Tensley to encourage her to talk about it with us.
Benson starts off "We understand that you were at the party when she drowned?"
"Hold on, detective." He stops us from continuing
I interrupt him, knowing what he's going to say "that death was ruled accidental.
He answers "even so, my client needs to be immunized."
"And she's not a suspect, you have my word." Benson assures him.
"Okay. Uh, yeah. Yeah, I was there, but... That was forever ago and I'd really rather not go back to that time." She tells us, then looks to her mother. "I was in a lot of pain."
"Yes, I understand that, but we need to know, did you see Amber in the pool?" I ask in a soft voice, catching on to how uncomfortable she is.
"No. No, I don't want to talk about this." She gets up and storms away.
"Tensley, you okay?" Benson asks as she pushes past us.
"I'm gonna be sick." She mutters holding her stomach.
"Baby.-" her mother tries to soothe her.
Tensley yells back, pushing her arm away "don't touch me!"
Her mother turns to us "all right, this agenda of yours is destroying my daughter!"
"Our agenda?" I spit back, sick of her sitting on her high horse "you put her on the pill at 13."
She shakes her head back at us "it was her doctor's idea!"
I huff out a breathe "you didn't know what was going on at those parties."
Benson stops it from continuing "all right, that's enough."
"Detective. I love my daughter. I don't know what you two are up to, but I would like it if you would just leave." She tries to stay firm and collected while telling that to us.
"I'd like to talk to Tensley alone." I simply slip past her.
"I'll go with you." She tries to follow.
Benson steps in front of her, letting me find Tensley "no, you're not." I hear her say before turning the corner.
"Hey, Tensley." I knock on the door. "Can I talk to you for a second?" I wait for a response. "Tensley? Okay, Tensley, I'm coming in." I inform her. I move back a little and push on against the locked door with my shoulder. "Oh, sweetie." I rush in the bathroom once I see the blood dripping down her arms. "What did you do?" I ask, throwing a towel over her wrists. "What did you do?" Tensley whimpers and cries leaning into to me, shaking, "Shh, it's okay, sweetie. It's okay, I've got you." I try to soothe her.
"No, you don't..." She mutters back through her tears. "I told you, I didn't want to go back to that time."
"Shh, it's okay, it's okay. Hold that tight." I tell her and yell out to Benson "Liv, we need a bus!" I instantly hear feet moving towards us and Benson on her phone calling an ambulance to the house.
Her mother reaches us first "oh, my baby!" She squeals once in eye sight. "What did they do to you?!" She goes on dramatically coming over to her. She takes the place of where I am, holding her daughter, and I push down on the towel to stop the bleeding. We wait for the ambulance to arrive 15 minutes later and head back to the station.
