Disclaimer: Dick Wolf owns Law and Order SVU and the characters. I only own the idea for the story and the new characters.
Chapter 52: Suspension
Police academy had taught both Detective Tutuola and Detective Stabler to not enter a dangerous place on their own. If they had no choice, because the situation was so urgent, of course they could and should even, but never without requesting for backup before entering. Without question, this situation was both urgent as dangerous, but not one of the men even thought about wasting a second in requesting for backup. Not at first, that is.
Elliot recognized the beach from the photo, because he used to go there a lot when he was only a kid himself. It was there he'd learned how to surf and pick up girls at the same time. The memories were so good; it almost made him feel sick now.
Fin was comparing the picture to the beach houses they passed by, but so far they didn't look anything like the one in the photo. Elliot raced like crazy, completely ignoring the angry people and honking cars around him. And they still hadn't asked for backup yet.
'Elliot!' Fin called out, all of a sudden, 'What about those?' He pointed to a row of houses just down the beach that all looked very similar and had a strong resemblance to the house in the photo.
Elliot jerked the wheel violently and speeded off in that direction. A moment later he was forced to stop though. 'I can't drive here, the car'll get stuck in the sand.' So they both jumped out of the car. They sprinted the last couple of hundred meters through the sand, which is not an easy thing to do, trust me.
Because they were not able to determine which house it was exactly, they were forced to try every single one. Elliot knocked on the first door and an old man opened up. He looked like he'd been a fisherman once and he seemed very confused at the moment. Since they didn't have time to explain, both detectives just barged in and searched the rooms.
'Wha-What do you think you're doing?' The old man stumbled.
'Police business.' Fin explained with as little words as possible. 'Abduction.'
The man stopped him in the hallway, 'And how would you imagine me to have abducted someone?' He held up his trembling hands.
'Nothing.' Elliot joined them, after he'd searched everywhere.
'We're very sorry, Sir.' Fin called, as they were already running out.
'Call for backup,' Elliot ordered now, 'there are too many houses. Once he sees us knocking on every one, he might try to run for it and we might not be able to stop him.' Fin nodded and jogged back to the car to send the message over the radio. Elliot took another few steps back to compare the houses to the photo, but it really was too hard to tell. He tried to look for movement behind the windows, but nothing. A lot of them were probably empty too, this time of year.
'Munch is on his way with a team.' Fin appeared next to him again.
'What about the Captain?'
'Didn't say anything, but I'm guessing he'll come too.' Then they proceeded to knock on the next door and when no answer came, they kicked it down.
Back at the precinct, Captain Cragen, who was of course coming too, and Detective Munch were already leaving with a heavily armed team as backup.
As they were running out, Cragen saw Hannah was still sitting on the floor, from the corner of his eye.
'You did a great job,' He told her, as he knelt down, 'you helped us find Olivia, stayed out of our way when you had to and now we'll go and get her back to you, okay?'
Hannah nodded weakly.
'Just hang on a little longer.' He continued, 'I'm sure Olivia is doing the same thing right now.'
She nodded again.
'Just wait here.' He got back up again and walked away. He thought he saw her nod again and was glad this was all coming to an end now and that little girl could get some peace of mind. She'd seemed so passive these last couple of hours.
But in fact, Hannah hadn't nodded at all; she'd shaken her head ever so slightly. She waited until the team had rounded the corner and then got up quickly herself.
Just a quick short chapter, before I leave the country in about an hour. I'll be back for more after the weekend! Xx
