Title: Her Negotiation
Author: ZombieJazz
Fandom: Law & Order: SVU
Disclaimer: I don't own them. Law and Order SVU and its characters belong to Dick Wolf. The characters of Will (and his family) and Noah have been created and developed for the sake of this AU series.
Summary: What would happen if the Season 14/Season 15 finale and premiere were set in the AU of Liv/Will/Noah? Cragen sends Olivia home for a couple days after working the William Lewis case. She hasn't heard from her husband or son for several hours when she walks into their unusually quiet house.
"Have you got her?" Cragen barked into the phone, answering it before it even got through its first ring.
"No Captain," Fin replied into his ear in a somber voice even for him. "But we've got another body."
The Captain sighed hard. "I'm putting you on hold," he said louder than he needed to and then paced out into the bullpen. Grabbing the line and hitting another button on the phone on the missing detective's desk. "You're on speaker. Tell us what you've got."
The other detectives looked up from the work as the hubbub the scene filled the room. Everyone quieted to hear word from the scene. They'd been hoping that tracking the car that'd been swiped out on the Benson-McTeague's account would lead them to Liv. But of course that would've been too easy. Instead it'd had lead them to a trail of other victims and mangled witnesses who'd barely been able to confirm that Benson was still alive. To increase their anxiety even more Lewis had also stopped at a hardware store to make some gruesome purchases and then picked up some 5-Crazies and other assorted bottles on another one of his apparent pit stops. All that before the car came to a stop and apparently had been sitting for hours now at a house in Elmont.
Over the speaker the cops on-site, the crime scene investigators and the forensic teams could already be heard in the background. It'd likely be hours more before they collected and processed anything that would give them enough clues about where Lewis had taken Olivia next. If he'd left any clues. It was more likely that he'd just left further evidence of her torture and the massacre he was leaving in his wake.
"Lewis was definitely here," Fin said through the phone's speaker. "Looks like the Tasmanian devil went through this place. Blood. Hair. It's everywhere."
The detective who really had seen it all between his years undercover with narcotics and now SVU. Fin didn't seem to have visible reactions to much of anything anyore. But he still seemed to pause on the phone after that for a moment. Like he needed a moment to figure out how to break the next bit of news.
"We've got another pan on the stove here with keys left in it," Fin finally said. "It smells like burnt flesh."
"Son of a bitch," Cragen cursed under his breath.
Rollins and Nick looked at each other with eyes that didn't need any sort of words. They were failing her and they were failing her husband and son who were still sitting in the adjacent rooms trying to come up with anything that might lead them to her. Amaro scrubbed hard at his face before running his hands through his hair and leaving them resting on his head.
"OK," he said loudly and brought his hands down, gesturing even though he knew the detective on the scene couldn't see him. "Do we know if the blood's hers or the vic's?"
There was a pause and they could almost feel Fin moving back towards the victim's body and standing looking at them.
"I don't think it's the vic's," he said flatly. "She's hanging from the closet."
"Do we know who the victim is?" Cragen barked.
"It's kinda hard to tell lookin' at her," Fin said drily. "Her face is beaten beyond recognition. But I'm going to go out on a limb and say our latest vic is Lewis' attorney turned girlfriend."
"Vanessa Mayer?" Rollins asked with some shock.
"House belongs to her parents," Fin said, his pacing through the crime scene apparent again.
"Do we know where they are?" Cragen demanded. They didn't need a second set of Carmichaels on their hands at this stage in the game.
"Not here," Fin replied flatly. "We've got the rental car," he added. The breeze of him having moved outside blew in the speaker and more noise was audible. More officers sent to the scene on the expectation that they'd be rescuing a cop – not cornering off another area to send in the techs with their fine toothcombs. "More blood in the trunk. Got CSU testing it to confirm its Liv's."
"How much blood?" Amaro asked.
"Not enough that she's bleeding out," Fin replied with the faintest touch of emotion quivering there.
"So do we know how they left the property?" Cragen asked.
"TARU not got a lock on her cell yet?" Fin responded not answering the question. But Cragen also didn't reply to that proposal. If the location of her cell was giving them any answers yet – they'd be there too. The detective shouldn't have to ask.
"Her cell's off. It's still just going to voicemail," Nick provided.
Fin let out his own small and barely audible sigh. "Got a BOLO out on the parents' vehicle. Assuming that's how he's transporting her now. Driveway's wet but looks like there's fresh tire tracks outta here," Fin told them. "But got no news on that. The car hasn't been spotted on any bridges, tunnels or ferries"
"So they're … somewhere on Long Island," Nick spat out with some frustration and threw his hands up in the air turning back to the case board and just staring at it. He didn't know how much more he could look at it.
"He'd told his lawyer … before …," Rollins said with some hesitation but still stormed over to where a map was being projected onto one of their screens, "that he wanted to clear his mind. That he wanted to go to the beach."
"The beach?" Nick said even more annoyed and paced over to stand next to her. He pointed at the screen that was painted with the expanses of green foliage and the beige of the sand all surrounded by the dark navy of the ocean. "On Long Island? Which beach? North shore? South shore? The Bay? Do you have any idea how many beach houses there are on Long Island?"