Chapter 25: Rescue

The schoolyard was much quieter now, two hours after school had let out. Sam pulled her car to a stop at the curb in front of the school's main entrance, then looked around. Off to one side, on the grassy practice field, the basketball team seemed to be ready to break up for the day, many players already heading across the field to their cars or to the road leading out to the road. There were a few kids strolling along in clusters on the front sidewalk, but the schoolyard was otherwise deserted.

Sam scanned the sidewalk for the group of girls Lia usually walked home with. The one girl Taylor had called 'Summer' had part of her hair dyed a bright fluorescent pink; it would be easy to spot in a crowd, and impossible to miss.

But there was no pink hair on any of the sidewalks, and Sam waited until quarter after five before deciding they must have gotten out already. She must have missed them. She drove once around the perimeter of the school, then slowly started driving along the girls' usual walk route, hoping to spot Lia, or Summer Winters' bright pink hair.

And about halfway to Lia's Aunt and Uncle's apartment building, she finally saw that shock of bright pink hair—and the four other girls who usually walked the same way and, Sam supposed, also lived in the same apartment building. But they weren't walking, they'd stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and were clustered around Summer's cellphone, watching something on the screen. Sam frowned as she pulled up in front of them, rolled down the passenger window, and said, "Hey. You girls usually walk home with Lia Riante. Do you know where she is?"

And Summer Winters froze at the sound of Lia's name, with a scared 'deer in the headlights' look.

Every alarm bell Sam Shaw possessed went off in her head at once, and she was out of her car before she even realized she was moving. The four girls stood frozen, clustered there on the sidewalk, and she ripped the cellphone out of Summer Winters' hand, glanced down at it casually as she started to toss it aside to get the girl's attention.

Lia was on the cellphone screen.

It took barely a second for Sam to process that it was Lia, and barely two seconds before she identified something was wrong. With an eye trained at spotting weaknesses and anything out of the ordinary, it didn't take too long for Sam to see Lia's eyes were glazed, and her movement was uncoordinated. It also didn't take that long for Sam to notice a few other things. One, that this was a live video feed sent to Summer's phone from someone else's phone; two, that Lia seemed to be fighting someone's attempt to take off her clothes. Just as she was about to demand an explanation from Summer, whoever was taking the video suddenly spoke. "Stop fighting, Lia. Just sit back and enjoy it. Give the boys a good time."

Kylie Whistler!

Ice swept through Sam's soul, and when she looked up, the four girls standing in front of her saw the frozen fury on her face and went pale. "Where is this coming from? Where's Lia?"

"I...I...I don't know..." Summer stammered.

Sam didn't waste any more time. "Finch," she snapped to the earwig in her ear. "Finch, I know you can hear me, it's an emergency."

"Ms. Shaw?" came Finch's surprised voice from her phone.

"I don't have time to explain. I'm holding a cellphone in my right hand. It's getting a live transmission of a video feed from somewhere. I need the location of the phone sending that feed."

"This is quite sudden, Ms. Shaw—"

"Damn it, Finch, just do it! Tap into the cell phone transmission and look at the damn video!" She snapped as she got into her car and started the ignition.

Barely a second later Finch spoke again—and his voice was flat with shock. "Is that—"

"—Taylor's girlfriend, Lia. Someone drugged her and they're trying to rape her—and Kylie Whistler is sending everyone a live cellphone video of the assault! Now give me that address!"

Finch rattled off an address. "That's on the NYU campus, where Steve Wood's brother is a student," Sam snapped tersely as she slammed her foot on the gas pedal. "Call John. And Joss." A moment later, "Call Captain Benson at the SVU. This is her squad's jurisdiction. Tell everyone to get to that address, as fast as possible! Hurry, Finch!"

"Mr. Reese, we have an emergency. I need you to go to—" John didn't even bother writing the address down; he had it memorized just listening to the panic in Finch's voice. He'd rarely ever heard the other man sound like that. "It's at an NYU frat house. Taylor's girlfriend Lia has been drugged and is being sexually assaulted there. Someone at the scene is taking a video with a cellphone and transmitting it to other cellphones belonging to other children at Taylor's school."

John felt his jaw drop in shock, but schooled his face quickly. He didn't want Taylor to know this, not just yet—the boy was playing his video game. This is an NYU frat house. There's a lot of drunk college boys. If Lia's badly hurt Taylor will lose it—and I can't take care of him and this situation too. Better he not know—not right now. Aloud, he said, "Taylor, I just got a call from my boss. I have to go. Be back soon." And he was gone.

In the car he ground out through gritted teeth, "What's happening now?"

"Sam is on the way. She'll probably get there in a few minutes. You need to get there as soon as you can, John."

"Did you call Joss?"

"She's my next call. And then Sam told me to call Captain Benson at the SVU, as this is her squad's expertise."

"I'll be there in five minutes." Then, grimly, "Tell Sam to leave enough of the boys' bodies to identify."

"I can try but I doubt she will listen to me."

"Taylor's really been good for his school's basketball team. Lee says your son's school has never been this close to a State championship before," Fusco said as he closed another folder on his desk and opened the next.

"I know Taylor's good at basketball, but he's been getting better since John started taking him out to the courts after school and shooting hoops with him—" Joss stopped speaking as her phone rang. Her eyebrows rose as she saw 'Unknown' on her phone screen, and she smiled as she answered it. 'So what can I find for you today?"

"Sorry, Detective, no time to chat." The barely-veiled panic in Finch's tome cut Joss's banter short, and she grabbed a piece of paper and started scribbling an address down. "Taylor's girlfriend Lia has been drugged and is being sexually assaulted—"

"Oh my God, Lia's being raped?" her voice rose incredulously on that last word even as she sprang out of her chair, grabbing her purse. Across from her, Fusco was also in motion, grabbing his keys and leading the way at a run, toward the motorpool.

"Someone at the scene is sending a live cellphone video. Sam saw it on the screen of a cellphone belonging to one of Lia's schoolmates. I managed to track where the feed was coming from and sent Sam the address, she should be arriving on scene any moment now. John isn't far behind."

"Taylor?"

"I don't believe John has informed Taylor yet. I imagine he thinks Taylor would want to accompany him and I don't believe John would feel equal to trying to control the situation, stop Ms. Shaw from murdering the boys involved, and keep Taylor from getting hurt—or hurting someone—at the same time."

"It's better that he not know right now. I'm on the way with Lionel." She handed the paper with the address on it to Lionel; he took a brief look, nodded, and then hit the lights and sirens as he peeled out of the motorpool parking lot.

"Sam also requested that I contact the SVU captain, Olivia Benson."

Joss nodded. "Yes, Do that. I'll want her squad at the scene as soon as possible. This is their jurisdiction and it'll save me having to call them later."

"I'll call her next. Just get there as fast as you can."

"So you got any plans for the weekend?" Fin looked up as Olivia closed her office door.

"Go home, grab some shuteye, and spend the rest of the weekend with Clayton and Auggie. I called Joss and John earlier this week to ask her if Taylor would consider going with Auggie and Marissa to Cam's for the summer, I'll probably stop by her place and talk to her, see if Taylor's decided if he wants to do it or not."

"Givin' Joss and John some kid-free time?" Fin grinned.

Olivia grinned back. "Not like they don't deserve it."

Fin snorted. "After what they've been through, they deserve the rest of their lives together. The way they look at each other, they'd like that. Wonder what's stoppin' em?"

"It's none of our business, Fin—" Olivia stopped talking as her phone rang. "Unknown?" she answered it. "Captain Benson, Manhattan SVU."

"Captain Benson, thank you for answering. We have a bit of an emergency at present..."

She finally placed the voice. "Finch?"

At his desk, Fin sat bolt upright, his eyes flying open. She held up a hand to forestall his question, trying to focus on what she was hearing. "Wait, wait, Joss's son's girlfriend is being raped? Right now?!" A pause as she leaned across her desk and grabbed a sticky, jotting an address on it. "NYU. Right. I'll be there as soon as possible, though, I suspect, not as quickly as some of our mutual friends. Just...tell them to try not to leave a mess I can't explain, okay?" Without waiting for a reply, she hung up. "Come on, Fin. Joss's son's girlfriend was drugged and sexually assaulted at an NYU frat house."

The door was open when Sam got there.

Not that it really made a difference, because she would have opened the door herself even if it hadn't already been open. This just ensured she didn't have to waste time or energy kicking the damn door in.

The front room, she noted with absolute disgust, was full of inebriated boys. So drunk that they just stared stupidly at her as she came flying in the open door; she didn't waste time asking where Lia was, or asking anything at all of the boys here, because she was positive there wasn't a single person in there who could hear anything over the blaring music. Instead, she pulled her new Beretta from under her jacket, took aim, and fired across the room at the monster sound system, which was blaring out some ungodly cacophony of sounds. "Where's Lia?"

Eight pairs of eyes blinked stupidly at her; inebriated brains unable to comprehend the question aimed at them. Sam gritted her teeth—at the moment, every instinct she had, every fiber of her being, wanted to paint the walls of this room red, and the only thing keeping her from doing so was the even-more-urgent whisper in her head that said she needed to find Lia now.

As she stood there wondering if she should threaten one of them with a bullet if they didn't talk, she realized she could hear sounds from the second floor. Male voices, sounding like they were cheering or urging someone on; a girlish female voice that Sam was positive was Kylie Whistler. But she couldn't hear Lia, and that was the most worrisome—and the one thing that made her blood boil.

She took the curving, sinuous stairs two at a time, full-speed—and when she got to the top of the stairs she made a hard right. The door the sounds were coming from was closed, and it was locked.

But locked doors had never stopped Sam Shaw.

The door flew open, sagging crazily from one twisted hinge. And when Sam saw what was happening inside, icy rage flooded her.

Lia was on the bed, her shirt missing, bra hanging off one shoulder, nude from the waist down. At the foot of the bed, two boys were holding each of her ankles, keeping her from kicking out. At the head of the bed, Kylie was sitting propped against the headboard, holding her cellphone aimed at Lia—who was struggling just to breathe, since Steve was sitting on her chest, holding Lia's wrists pinned to the bed above her head with one hand as he fumbled with the waistband of his boxers with the other.

He never even knew Sam was there.

With a strength borne of absolute fury, Sam's hand shot out, grabbed the first handful of him she could reach, and yanked hard. She heard him howl, didn't even blink as she dragged him off Lia by his hair and flung him to the floor, then finished him with a hard, brutal kick right between his legs. He shrieked, his voice a whole octave higher than its usual tone, and curled up on his side, sobbing as he balled his fists between his thighs.

Kylie started to move...then stopped and slowly raised her hands, her face going pale at the sight of the muzzle of Sam's Beretta a bare inch away from her own face. "You bitch," Sam hissed, barely recognizing her own voice for the hatred and rage in it. "You scheming, conniving little bitch."

Kylie froze. The gun pointed at her face was shaking with its holder's rage, but at this range, if Sam chose to pull the trigger, there was no way she could miss, even with all the shaking. The standoff lasted for two frozen seconds, for what seemed like an eternity, until a weak voice croaked, "S-s-sam?"

And time snapped back into focus for Sam Shaw. Deal with the bitch later, just eliminate the threat now. She reversed her gun, clubbed Kylie hard across the face, across the blond girl's left cheekbone. The girl dropped like a stone, out cold next to her still-howling boyfriend, and Sam abandoned both of them in favor of going to the bed.

Lia was trying to coordinate her movement enough to get off the bed, but wasn't succeeding. Sam sat down on the edge of the bed, and the girl crawled to her, crying; Sam wrapped her hands around the girl, feeling the slim body shaking with sobs, and whispered, "Sssh. Ssh. They won't touch you anymore." A glance at the floor; Kylie was out cold, and Steve Wood seemed disinclined to move—especially when Sam pointed her gun at him. "Stay the hell there. You move, I'll shoot. I'll take your knee. You'll never walk straight after that." Steve subsided, and Sam returned her attention to Lia. "Hey. It's okay."

Lia's eyes were glazed, her speech slurred, and when she spoke Sam knew she'd been drugged—with the same stuff John had been drugged with, if her sense of smell was any indication. The smell of Ten Scope was strong on Lia's breath. How much had they given her? John definitely hadn't been this uncoordinated. "Lia. Lia, look at me." The girl tried, but she couldn't focus. "Okay. Okay, I don't know how much of this stuff they gave you but he have to get as much of it out of you as we can." She turned Lia in her arms so the girl was face-down over her left arm, then slipped her fingers between the girl's slack lips and thrust hard toward the back of the girl's throat.

Lia vomited quite satisfactorily. Not much, but what she vomited was pinkish, and Sam thought she remembered seeing a glass bowl of red punch downstairs, and her fury grew. So sheltered that no one ever told her not to drink anything anyone hands you at a party, she thought, full of disgust and anger at Lia's aunt and Uncle. Sheltered and naive. Lia's not ready to be an adult because they've sheltered her too much.

"Tired..." Lia moaned, and Sam shrugged out of her jacket. She wasn't going anywhere until backup arrived; Lia needed care. In this state, there was no telling what might happen now.

"No, don't go to sleep, Lia. Stay with me, okay? Stay awake. Come on. Let's put my jacket over your shoulders, okay? Cover you up." A quick look showed Lia wasn't bleeding between her legs, but that didn't necessarily mean she hadn't been raped; it would take a medical exam to determine that. But she had red areas on her ankles, on her thighs, on her wrists and upper arms, that Sam knew would become bruises later, and she didn't like what that might mean.

She resolutely put that out of her mind as she reached for Lia's wrist, searching for a pulse.. "Stay with me, okay, Lia? Stay with me, just a little longer..."