In Too Deep
(Chapter Twenty Nine: Victim Of Circumstance)
SPECIAL VICTIM'S UNIT PRECINCT (04:17 am)
Elliot drove past the precinct to so they could grab their service weapons and trade out Olivia's personal car for a squad car. Then it was off to the crime scene.
ARCHSTONE CHELSEA APARTMENTS (04:40 am)
Olivia stepped out of the car and walked toward the crowd of onlookers and uniformed cops ahead in the street. She watched as one uniformed officer strung yellow crime scene tape around the perimeter of the area.
A cold drizzling rain began to fall. Olivia took a deep breath as she walked forward and knelt beside Dr. Warner to get a look at the body.
"She's rough," Warner warned.
Olivia nodded her head as Melinda pulled back the sheet. Olivia winced, but kept her widened eyes focused on the remains. She tipped her head to the side and looked into the deceased woman's eyes.
"The back of the skull is shattered from impact. She barely missed that parked car. I have one shoe on the body. And the slip of a night gown is soaked in her blood. So far all of the wounds I'm finding are consistent with the fall. I'll have to take her back and get a better look at her. I have already sent blood samples off to the lab. I should have those back later this afternoon."
Olivia nodded again. "What are these marks in the eyes?"
"Busted capillaries. Could be from the fall. I'll know more after the autopsy."
"I have seen this before. In strangulation victims, the eyes had the marks like this. Are we sure she was alive when she left the balcony?" Olivia asked.
"There is significant evidence of a struggle in the apartment and on the balcony itself. Prints everywhere. We picked up the boyfriend. So far he's telling us he came over for a night of fun, she turned him down and they argued. He said she hit him and he pushed her. Messed up the apartment a bit. Girlfriend must have taken a swan dive after that," Fin announced.
"That doesn't add up," Melinda Warner added.
"Why do you say that?" Olivia asked.
"For one, there is semen on the body and obvious signs of very recent sexual activity."
"Rape?" Fin asked.
"Won't know until I can get a better look at her. But I'm not seeing any signs that she tried to fight any sexual advance. No genital trauma, bruising or tearing that I can tell of. With rape or rough sex those signs are usually more evident."
"So if she didn't have sex with the boyfriend, then someone is missing from the party." Olivia moved her gloved fingertip across the woman's blood spattered face to brush her hair away from her eyes. "She's so young."
"Victim is Karah Baker, she was nineteen. College student. She and the boyfriend and four other students happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and witnessed the Massey murders," Fin said.
"Murder, Mr. Douglas Massey is still in a coma. Not technically a murder victim yet," Munch pointed out.
"Miss Baker is Douglas Massey's step daughter. Only child of one, Alana Massey, formerly Baker. She and her friends were supposed to have a little get together the night Mrs. Massey was raped and murdered. They had been out to dinner and found Douglas laying unconscious after the attack in the townhouse floor when they returned that evening. Boyfriend went to call 911. As he did Karah and her friends walked in on twenty seven year old parking garage attendant Blake Myers in the act of strangling the mother, they saw him exit through the fire escape. She gave us the description, we picked him up and she picked him from the line up. Seemed pretty cut and dry until our witnesses started dying off," Fin continued.
"What are you talking about?" Olivia asked looking at Fin.
"She is the third. A week ago suspicious car accident claimed the life of David Burke, one of the other witnesses."
"And the other?" Olivia asked.
"Huh?" Fin asked.
"You said she was the third."
"Oh, yes. Suicide," Fin said.
"Jumped from an eighteen story balcony?" Olivia asked.
"Nope. Overdose," Munch said.
"Accidental suicide," Olivia replied.
"That is what it was ruled. But Claire Damian was not a user," Fin informed her.
"So she tries it and overdoses. Wouldn't be the first time the stuff killed someone on the first try," Olivia reminded him.
"No, but there were a lot of suspicious circumstances around that one," Melinda remembered. "They didn't have enough to make a case and the family just wanted to bury their kid. So it was ruled an accidental suicide."
"Why on earth would the family settle for that?" Olivia asked.
"She was from a broke family from across the river. Raised by the grandmother, very religious. She was upset by the fact that we did the autopsy to begin with. Said she just wanted to be able to put the girl to rest," Melinda informed them.
"So, we have five socialites and her. They witness the murder and now they are all turning up dead. We'd better get uniforms on the remaining three witnesses," Olivia suggested.
"Elliot is talking to Casey now to see if we have enough for an order of protective custody," Fin replied.
Olivia stared down into Karah's eyes once more. "What is this here?" She asked Melinda pointing to a bruising pattern on the girl's neck. "Looks like a ring pattern," Olivia suggested placing her hand against the spot on Karah's neck pointing out that her ring finger fell exactly where the mark was.
"Very well could be. I get some photographs sent over to you as soon as I get her cleaned up. That should make any bruising and marks a little easier to see."
"Thanks, Melinda." Olivia stood up and pulled her bloody gloves off turning them inside out.
Munch approached her and walked beside her for a moment. "Listen Liv, if I interrupted anything this morning when I called about this case, I'm sorry." Olivia stared blankly at him for a moment. "I mean, if you and Elliot were together….if you were…"
"I was sleeping, John. Very soundly, until I got the call."
"Okay," he said walking away.
She shook her head and walked into the building taking the elevator to the eighteenth floor to check out the apartment.
APARTMENT 18B (06:15 am)
"What have we got?" She asked Elliot, who had been walking through with CSU.
"Beds a mess. Some broken glass over here from a mirror that used to hang on the wall. And I found her other shoe. Looks like she threw the shoe, possibly at the boyfriend and it broke the mirror."
"But why would she walk all the way out to the balcony wearing the other one?" Olivia asked.
"There is also a scuff mark on the concrete balcony, I'm guessing from the heel of the shoe she is still wearing."
"A scuff mark. This sounds more like maybe someone persuaded her to take her little trip from the balcony. Lucky for us, she wore strappy heels."
"How is that lucky for us?"
"It didn't come off during the fall." Olivia took the radio from Elliot's hand and asked Fin to bring the shoe from Karah's body up to the apartment.
"Why do you want the shoe?"
"I just want to look at it for a minute."
Elliot picked up the heel he found in the living room and offered it to her.
"Don't you have a pair of these in your collection?" He joked.
"No, I don't." She replied with a smile as she pulled the heel from his hand. "Elliot, look." She leaned down and laid the bottom of the heel against the scuff mark. "Doesn't that mark look like it could have came from this shoe?"
"Yeah, so she scuffed her shoe while walking out to the balcony."
"That's what I thought."
"I don't understand."
"Here's the shoe you wanted, Liv." Fin walked through the apartment and handed it to her. Olivia inspected the heel then laid it down against the mark. "This scuff definitely came from this shoe."
"Yeah," Elliot said still confused.
"El, if you look at the wear pattern on the bottom of the heel. This shoe could have only been facing this direction to make that mark. If she were walking out of the living room, her shoe would have been facing the balcony and the mark would have been the other way. Like this."
"Damn Liv," Fin said staring down at her.
"She had to be facing the living room and walking backwards when the scuff mark was made," Elliot said in realization. "We gotta question this boyfriend again."
"It was a woman," Olivia mumbled.
"What?"
"She was about my size, right?"
"Right."
"Okay, look." Olivia turned him to face her. "Karah stood here, where I am, facing the living room. Let's say it was the boyfriend. Grab my throat."
"What?"
"Humor me," she said nodding her head as she raised Elliot's palm against her throat. "There, see. A man would have had a bigger hand."
"Okay."
"Okay. So the bruise from the ring would have been in a different place on her neck. But women have smaller hands." Olivia raised her own hand to her throat. "My ring finger sits exactly where the mark would have been on the body."
"You're right."
"I know that."
"Except for one thing," Elliot pointed out. "You're using your right hand." He turned Olivia to trade places with her. "The mark was on the right side of the neck. If her attacker was standing in front of her," Elliot raised his hand to her throat once more.
"It would have come from a left hand."
"Like an engagement ring."
They went back down to the parking lot to get another look at the body before it was taken away.
"So we are looking for a left handed woman wearing a very impressive princess cut diamond solitaire," Olivia said studying the mark on the neck again.
"How do you know that?" Elliot asked gazing into her eyes.
"You can tell by the pattern, here. It was a large square stone. The ring must have turned during the struggle and the stone was on the inside of the attacker's palm."
"She's right," Melinda Warner assured Elliot.
"Since when do you know so much about diamonds?"
Olivia smiled and turned to walk off.
Elliot turned around to see Munch and Fin standing behind him with smiles on both their faces.
"What?"
"Elliot, you've already got her picking out rings and you don't even know it," Munch said shaking his head.
"Some women just know things like that," Fin said. "We all just work with her like this so much, sometimes we forget she is a woman and not one of the guys."
"Oh, I'm sure Elliot has not forgotten." Munch laughed.
Fin rolled his eyes and walked past them back toward the crowd of uniformed officers.
As the sun rose and the crowd of bystanders thinned out Olivia began to feel the weight of only getting two hours of sleep the night before. She questioned a few neighbors about Karah Baker, then headed back downstairs to meet up with Elliot and head back to the precinct to question the boyfriend yet again.
"I could really use a cup of coffee," Olivia said looking up at Elliot. "You about ready to head back to the precinct?"
"I got a couple of more people around here I wanna talk to. Why don't you go on ahead and talk to the boyfriend, I'll catch a ride back with Munch in a little while."
"Okay."
Elliot tossed her the car keys and Olivia turned and walked toward the car.
"Wait up, Liv. I'll go ahead and ride back with you if that's okay," Fin said as he walked toward her.
"Sure. But I am totally stopping at Starbucks for a real cup of coffee on the way."
"Works for me."
He closed the car door behind him as she pulled away from the scene and into morning traffic.
STARBUCKS (09:17 am)
Olivia could feel Fin watching her as they stood in line for coffee. She knew he had something on his mind and was trying to think of the best approach to talk to her about it without offending her or pissing her off. She could tell this because he hadn't said a word in the half hour it took them to drive across town from the crime scene. She stepped forward and placed her drink order and grabbed a blueberry muffin as well. She turned around and sat down at a table as she waited for Fin to get his coffee.
"I thought we could just sit for a minute and enjoy our breakfast before heading back to the station," she suggested as she pushed his chair out from under the table with her foot.
"Okay, as long as we hurry. I don't even want to deal with Cragen if he finds out we stopped to sit down and have coffee."
"I'm talking five minutes. Just let me finish this," she said raising up the muffin, "and we can be on our way. Want half?" She broke the muffin in half and placed the larger "half" on a napkin sliding it over to him.
"Thanks."
Olivia watched him for a moment without saying a word. She took a deep breath and pressed her lips together.
"So spill it," she said raising an eyebrow and combing her fingers through her hair.
"What?"
"You have been staring me down all morning and have not said two words since we left Chelsea. What's on your mind?" She tipped her head to look at him.
Fin smiled. "I have just been wanting to ask you how things are going with you and Elliot?"
Olivia smiled back. "Ahh, there it is. Things are great. You were worried?"
"Not worried, really. I just know things got a little tough on you there for a while. And now, since you guys came out so to speak and told everyone about your relationship…" He sighed. "Everyone knowing is a relief, I am sure. But it can also add a little pressure to a relationship."
"We're fine. As a couple. It is a lot better now that we don't have to sneak around. The kids are happy about it."
"And Kathy?"
"Kathy is another story all together. Elliot says it doesn't matter what she thinks because they are divorced. But I can't help but secretly wish that somehow she could be happy for us. I think somewhere inside she knows that the affair was going on while they were married. She has never said anything and he never told her. But I am sure she figured it out at some point in time. As long as she is civil with him about the kids, I guess it really doesn't matter."
"True."
"Munch has been really weird about it though."
"How is that?"
"He just says random strange things. And makes stupid jokes about us having sex. Like that is all we ever do. It isn't, by the way."
"Oh." Fin shook his head. That was more than he needed to know.
"Like this morning. He said he called my phone first. I left my phone in the other room, last night. When I got here he got me off to myself and apologized for interrupting anything that may have been going on. But he did it in a way, it was almost like he was asking me if we were doing anything. It was three thirty in the morning. I was sleeping. Along with half of New York."
Fin laughed. "I am sure he will come around. I mean if I hadn't already known for a while now that the two of you had been seeing each other, it probably would have come as kind of a shock to me too."
Olivia smiled, "I guess so."
"Listen, we'd better get back before Cragen puts a hit out on us."
Olivia looked down at her phone. "Elliot just sent me a message. He and Munch are on their way back to the station now. Why don't you head on out to the car and I'll get them some coffee, now that the line has died down."
"Sounds good."
Olivia grabbed them coffee and they headed back to the precinct to interview Karah Baker's boyfriend.
