Disclaimer: Dick Wolf owns Law and Order SVU and the characters. I only own the idea for the story and the new characters.
Chapter 53: The grand finale
A couple of police cars had surrounded the rows of beach houses. About two dozen men tried to make sure no one could escape out the back. It wasn't ideal; the sand made it hard for them to run, but then again, the same would count for the perp. Also, the houses were dark and had many exits. All the officers were edgy and nervous.
They'd covered most of the houses now, just a few more to go, when a man stepped out of one of them. He was tall, blonde and handsome. He was Julian Peterson. In his right hand he was holding a gun and a big one too. He held it almost casually, as he warned them all, that if they took one step more, he'd shoot 'his gorgeous little detective'.
That made Elliot's blood boil. Like most uniforms, he was knelt behind a car, with his gun at a ready. Sharp and straight he was ready, with every fiber of his being, to shoot the bastard. Next to him was Fin, with the same intense look in his eyes. They squinted their eyes to hear what Peterson had to say. He was going on and on about how much fun he'd had with Olivia and with each word Elliot became more enraged. Horrific images popped up into his head at Peterson's descriptions.
'Are we just gonna let him hold his monologue?' Fin whispered.
Elliot leaned back a little to talk to one of the officers, 'Any sign of Detective Benson yet?'
'No, Sir.'
'Can't risk it.' Elliot replied to Fin.
'What about the wife?' Cragen was crouched behind them all of a sudden.
'We're guessing she's inside.' Fin explained, 'One of the neighbors has mentioned seeing her.'
'Munch is setting up the equipment right now,' Captain Cragen continued, 'to see who's in the house.'
Elliot was getting anxious, 'What's the plan, Cap?'
'I've got uniforms trying to see if there's a way in around the back.'
Elliot nodded and aimed the gun at the Scandinavian-looking asshole again.
Meanwhile, Hannah opened the hood of the car just a little bit to look out. They were obviously some beach and the place was crawling with five-O. She peered out through one eye, awaiting her moment, and then quickly jumped out. She'd gotten in without anyone noticing; she got out without anyone noticing. She moved around the car while crouching down. A little to her left she could see Captain Cragen and she immediately ducked down again. Better not let him see her.
Minutes went by and there was no change whatsoever. Peterson seemed completely relaxed and waiting in the doorway. He was even playing with his gun, swinging it around a little. Cragen tried talking to him, tried to get him to give up and surrender his weapon, but nothing had worked so far. Peterson just seemed to laugh at them.
'What's that?' Elliot looked up, his eyes widening in shock.
A small plume of smoke came from one of the top windows. Peterson looked up for a second and a small smile formed on his face. Elliot looked at him and he even pointed up with a theatrical look of surprise on his face. He was playing with them.
'Son of a bitch…'
'Fire.' Cragen said.
'We go in, now.' Elliot got up.
'Wait, Elliot.' Cragen stopped him. 'He's trying to get us to panic and do things without thinking them through.'
'He's burning the place down! Liv could be up there!'
'Nah,' Fin said, 'He loves the game too much to just kill her like that.'
'Is Munch getting anywhere?'
'It's taking too long!' Elliot almost yelled. 'We have to act now.'
Cragen turned away a little to talk on his walkie-talkie. 'Uniforms found a way in around the back. Let's wait and see what happens. If Peterson panics, we go for him.'
The beach house had a backdoor made of wood. Without a sound, one of the men broke the lock with a crowbar. He pushed the door open and thanked God it didn't creak.
'We're in.' Another said on the radio.
He sneaked in the back and moved around tip-toed. A second man followed him in.
'They're in.' Cragen told the others.
Elliot hated waiting. It made his fingers itch. It made his finger at the trigger of his gun itch.
Hannah had watched as the heavily armed men went inside. She could hear Cragen in the back of her mind, telling her to stay put at the precinct; well, that was too late now. He'd kill her anyways for sneaking out. She knew what Elliot would do. He'd personally drag her away and lock her in one of the police cars until all of this was over. But he hadn't seen her yet, either. Olivia would yell and worry way too much if she knew. But Olivia didn't know. All Olivia was thinking about now, probably, was how to survive. Right then, Hannah decided and she used the shadows to her advantage; a little trick she picked up on the streets at nighttime to stay safe. No one noticed when she crept inside as well.
'The fire's spreading, Cap.' Elliot warned him.
'Captain?' Munch walked up to them, 'We have a person running around the house. This person started the fire probably.'
'The wife?'
'Could be. The size matches a woman.'
'What else?' The Captain asked.
'She going up and down a lot of stairs; my guess is there's a cellar as well.'
'No sign of Liv?' Elliot asked, 'She's probably kept downstairs.' If they haven't dumped her body someplace else yet, he morbidly added in his mind.
All this happened in a time period of about two minutes. Inside the uniforms tried to check as many rooms as possible without both Peterson and his wife noticing. The latter was the hardest, because she seemed to be moving. So far, they'd gone unnoticed.
Peterson seemed unaware of all of this. Either that or he played his unconcerned arrogance really well.
Hannah hid in the kitchen behind one of the cupboards. Her heart was pounding in her chest. She knew it was dangerous and that she could even endanger the entire case, but she couldn't just sit there and do nothing. She was angry enough to ignore her fear, so she checked the hallway again. Then she covered her mouth, to prevent a scream of escaping. A woman came out of one of the rooms and she was so close, Hannah could practically touch her. Scared she had betrayed herself, Hannah froze completely, but the lady hadn't seen her. Then she went down some stairs.
'We're still waiting…?' Fin had started to sound as impatient as Elliot.
'Yes, we are.' Captain Cragen emphasized, but even his eyes were shooting back and forth, from the back of the house, to Peterson, to the flames that were licking at the roof right now.
All of a sudden, a loud noise came from the house. It sounded like furniture was being knocked over.
'What was that?' Cragen demanded, as he looked back at Munch.
'One of the uniforms. Damn!' Munch explained, sounding agitated.
'Really!?' Fin hissed, angrily. Elliot got ready to jump up and charge the house.
Peterson noticed as well and turned around, genuinely surprised this time. He hesitated for a little while and then decided to go inside.
'Let's go!' Cragen ordered.
Peterson had run inside and searched the rooms with his gun raised. The two uniformed men pointed their guns at him as well. The situation was frozen for a few seconds.
Hannah had slipped past all of them and was descending the stairs now, almost pissing her pants in fear. The steps weren't lit, so she couldn't see a thing. With hands held out in front of her, she felt a door after a while. Finding the doorknob, she opened it and cringed when it creaked.
At the same time, Elliot and Fin approached the front door and tried to open it.
'Bastard's locked it.'
Elliot kicked down the door and then quickly moved to the left side of the door, out of reach. Fin did the same to the right side. No gunshots came and he carefully tried to look in. When it seemed clear, he and Fin moved inside. Immediately, smoke clouded their vision.
At the cellar, Patricia Peterson turned around with a panicky look in her eyes, when the door creaked open slowly. Olivia looked up and whimpered, but not much sound came out; they'd put the tape back over her mouth. Still, Patricia slapped her face hard at that. Olivia closed her eyes slowly in despair, when she saw what she'd feared the most; Hannah's face.
Patricia laughed a cold laugh when she saw the little girl. 'Really? This is what the police is sending in these days?' She pointed a knife at Hannah and the girl backed away from the door.
Upstairs, the smoke was getting thicker and thicker and the roof above first floor was in danger of caving in. Elliot had followed the screams and demands of the men in uniform and was now standing behind Peterson. He put his gun to his head.
'Drop it.' He stated simply and Peterson had no choice but to comply. As he roughly shoved him up against the wall, the uniforms lowered their weapons and went in search of Olivia again.
'Where is she?' Elliot banged him against the plaster again, but he got nothing but a small chuckle in reply.
Fin cuffed him and said, 'Go, Elliot, go! I got this.' And he marched the bastard outside.
Olivia panicked completely when she saw that knife getting closer and closer to Hannah's face. She started to struggle and manage to free one of her hands. The first thing she did was rip off the tape and scream, 'Leave her alone, bitch!' She couldn't do much else, because she was still tied up and tied to one of the pipes, but she kept on yelling.
Outside, Peterson was put into one of the police cars. Cragen had called the fire department and was expecting them any second now. They really would have to hurry; he had way too many good officers inside. A lot of the officers were busy evacuating the rest of the citizens from the beach houses. All of the houses were made of wood, so they could be in real danger.
The armed backup weren't the smartest of police officers; they were more like the muscle work, hence the mistake of knocking over the furniture a minute before. But even they recognized Olivia's scream and noticed it coming from downstairs. The first man quickly found the right door and stomped down the stairs.
Of course, Patricia could hear this man coming down the stairs, so she grabbed Hannah and hid behind the door. When he kicked the door down, Olivia could only watch in horror, as she stabbed him in the ribs at once. He didn't expect that at all, so it was done before he could react or Olivia could have warned him. The uniformed man fell over and Hannah had to stumble out of the way, to not get crashed by his body. Olivia wanted to grab Hannah and get her away from that crazy woman, but there was nothing she could do. But to her surprise, she saw that Hannah was leaning over the officer as he gurgled his final breath. What was she doing?
Elliot tried to go upstairs, to make sure Liv wasn't there and in serious danger right now. He took one of the officers with him. Downstairs, he could hear more and more officers flooding the house. The stairs sounded dangerously unsecure and he coughed at all the smoke. Flames came towards him, as he called out her name.
'Liv! Liv!' But he couldn't see her.
'We'll burn to death!' The uniform tried to drag him back down the stairs before it was too late.
Elliot kicked down another door and looked inside. 'Liv! Are you in here!' No answer and nothing but smoke and fire.
'Come on, let's go!' he urged him to leave again, 'She's not here.' This time, Elliot did follow him.
In the cellar, Olivia saw what Hannah had taken and so did Patricia. She was pointing the dead officer's handgun at her and backed away, to get some distance between her and that knife. The little girl's hands were shaking, but she had a determined look on her face. A look Olivia had seen before and it reminded her of another terrible night in a cellar, similar to this one.
Patricia seemed shocked at first, but then she started acting again. 'You don't even know how to use that, little girl.'
'I do,' Hannah answered at once. 'but please don't make me use it.'
'You don't have the guts.'
Hannah shook her head and Olivia could see the sweat dripping down the side of her face, as she said, 'Killed my first man at nine.'
That took Patricia aback.
'Hannah, calm down…' Olivia tried to sound soothingly. She could see Hannah was starting to shake. Obviously, she was having a flashback as well.
Hannah shook her head and yelled, with panic in her voice, 'Don't think I won't do it!' She lifted the gun a little higher and aimed again.
'You're willing to die for your abusive husband?' Olivia asked Patricia. 'That bastard who treats you like nothing but his personal slave?'
'Shut up,' She hissed and approached Olivia with the knife, 'he loves me.'
'Then why has he left you here?' Olivia could smell the smoke as well, 'Why has he left you in a house that is about to burn down?'
Patricia took another step towards Olivia, but Hannah yelled, 'Stop! Don't take another step.' Patricia stood still and turned towards her.
'Please don't make me shoot you…' Hannah almost whimpered now. She really didn't want to kill another person and panic seemed to take over. 'Please don't make me…'
'Just drop the knife, Patricia.' Olivia looked Hannah in the eye while saying this, but she was talking to Patricia. 'You're the victim here too.'
Right then, Elliot came running down the stairs and he jumped up on Patricia from behind. He wrestled the knife from her grasp, as she screamed out in despair. Then she just seemed to give up and let him cuff her.
Olivia sighed a sigh of relief, but Hannah couldn't. She was still pointing her gun at Patricia and was still mumbling, 'Please don't make me shoot you… Don't think I won't do it… Please don't make me…'
'Hannah…' Elliot held up his hands and tried to get eye contact with her, 'Hannah, look at me.' She looked up, but seemed to come from very far away. He wasn't sure if she could actually hear what he was saying.
Then, a crashing noise came from upstairs.
'The roof just gave.' One of the uniforms said and he started to untie Olivia quickly. She winced, as he paid little attention to her sensitive skin and fresh wounds.
Hannah jumped up at the sound and almost dropped the gun. Elliot was at her side at once and grabbed her hands, which were still holding onto the weapon.
'Sweetheart,' He looked her in the eye and this time she looked up at him, 'let go.' And she let go at once. Hannah was still mumbling to herself and Elliot suspected she was in shock.
'It's okay, it's okay.' Elliot comforted her and picked her up.
'Liv, are you okay?' He asked her, as the officer was still busy untying her. Olivia's had been beaten thoroughly, he could see that. But he feared the wounds he couldn't see the most.
'We have to hurry, Sir.' The officer was getting nervous, as the smoke was coming down into the cellar now as well.
'Get Hannah out.' Olivia told Elliot.
'I'm not leaving without you.'
Olivia looked at her girl. Her eyes were wide with shock. 'El,' was all she had to say and he did as she asked.
As Elliot jogged up the stairs again, he could see the fire had spread to the hallway. With his jacket he covered her the best he could and ran through the flames and out the door. Both coughing, medics were over them at once. They were both wrapped in blankets and given oxygen. Elliot felt fine after a while, but Hannah still seemed out of it.
'What!' Cragen came walking up to them and Elliot removed his oxygen mask, 'What is she doing here!?' he demanded again, pointing at Hannah.
'She was in the cellar.' Elliot explained matter-of-factly, but only then he started to think about it. What was she doing here?
Cragen's anger seemed to fade as well and was replaced by worry, 'Is she okay?'
'She's in shock.' One of the medics explained.
'And Olivia?'
Elliot was still wheezing a little, as he pointed up to the front door. Olivia was coming out, supported by the officer in uniform, just before the entire house went up in flames.
I got back and wrote this as soon as I could. Please review! Xx
