Thank you for reviews/alerts/favourites. I hope this next chapter pleases as much.
Benson-Stabler residence, Manhattan, New York
Monday, April 3rd 2009
6.21 pm
"We're home!" Olivia called as she and Elliot walked through the door.
As soon as the door shut they could hear Melissa's footsteps running from her bedroom.
"Don't run on the stairs!" Olivia yelled as she saw Melissa on the top of the stairs.
Melissa obeyed but as soon as she was at the bottom she dove into Olivia's arms and held her tight. She loved it when Olivia and Elliot arrived home from work but as Olivia had been on maternity leave she'd been used to having Olivia pick her up from school and help her with her homework and make her dinner, this was the first time in four months that she hadn't.
"Your father not with you Olivia?" Anne asked as she walked into the hallway holding a very bouncing baby.
"No, he's doing paperwork ... come to Momma baby." Olivia cooed to Nicole who bounced harder and giggled on Anne's hip before being passed to Olivia who planted a large kiss on her cheek making her giggle more.
"Did Momma's little baba have a good day?" She continued as she tickled Nicole's stomach and Melissa greeted Elliot.
Olivia pressed her cheek to Nicole, it only lasted seconds the embrace as Nicole was too fidgety.
"Right go give daddy cuddles while Momma takes her coat off." Olivia smiled handing the happy baby over to Elliot.
"Hey Nikki, did you be good for Granny?" He cooed as he greeted his daughter.
"Well I'll put on the coffee and you two can sit down and have something to eat I'm sure you haven't eaten all day your father called and said you might not have made it home tonight." Anne smiled going through to the kitchen.
Olivia and Elliot both followed her through with the kids. As they asked Melissa about her day and played with Nicole, Anne cooked them up some food. It had been a long day and Olivia couldn't help but begin to wonder about what things would have been like on a day like this had she not had Melissa, Nicole and Elliot to keep her from thinking about what they had seen that day, the poor teenage girls now dead and their killer still on the loose.
Just before Anne finished making dinner for them Don Cragen arrived home with heavy shoulders, Olivia and Elliot knew it was work related and he shifted his head towards the living room and they knew it was something that couldn't wait.
"Baby Mommy and Daddy's going to talk to Granddad, you stay here with Granny." Olivia sighed placing Melissa on the chair beside her.
"Ok." Melissa sighed knowing it would be work related.
The three adults went through to the living room and shut the door behind them.
"Well?" Elliot asked sitting on the couch.
Olivia sat down beside him and Cragen sat on the couch opposite.
"A fourth victim." He sighed.
Elliot and Olivia looked at each other then back at Cragen.
"Why didn't you call?" Olivia asked in shock.
"Munch and Fin are on the scene with Warner and CSU I thought you could come home have something to eat and put the kids to bed before coming back in." Cragen explained and he pulled two manila files from inside his coat and handed them to the detectives.
"Cassandra May Lee age sixteen." Olivia read aloud. "Found in an alley on West 79th street ... wait same alley as Hannah Coldwell?"
"Exact same one." Cragen nodded. "Warner said blunt force trauma by having her head bashed into the wall."
"Exact same way." Elliot sighed. "So we need to find the killer."
"Yeah, the brass wants us to find the person responsible and have given us twenty four hours before they start passing the buck so tell me so far what do we know?"
"Well the killer's name begins with the letter A, she was probably at the party last night ... hold on..." Olivia flicked through the jacket and pulled out the invite list.
"What?" Elliot asked.
"The guest list is in alphabetical order according to first names, the killer is either ... Abigail Salford, Amber Richards, Amelia Kelly, Andrew Hotchkiss, Anthony Becker or Ashleigh Torres. We know it can't be Andrew or Anthony because they're male and so it leaves us with Abigail, Amber, Amelia or Ashleigh." Olivia explained as she looked over the list one more time.
"Ok I'll call Munch and Fin and tell them to see if any of those names have a record and see if we can track any of them down before morning." Cragen replied just as there was a soft knock on the living room door followed by Anne's head poking around the corner.
"Dinner's ready guys." She smiled.
"We'll be through now." Cragen replied knowing as soon as they had eaten and put the kids to bed they'd have to go to the one six.
Manhattan SVU, Manhattan, New York
Monday, April 3rd 2009
8.42 pm
Munch and Fin were the only two people in the dark squad room with most having called it a night hours ago. Olivia and Elliot headed over to them and the crime board were they were looking at the newest victim.
"Ok so do any of our girls have a record?" Olivia asked wanting to close this case before they had any more bodies.
"Yeah just one Amber Richards for theft." Munch replied handing her the mug shot photograph.
"Well she isn't our perp." Olivia sighed making them all turn to look at her.
"How can you tell? Psychic?" Fin asked, he was always moody when he was tired.
"No." Olivia replied angrily. "The woman at the coffee shop said our perp was brunette."
"Ok Olivia and Elliot go see this girl and find out if she knows who our killer is, Munch and Fin wait to hear from Warner, if you need me I'll be on the phone with the brass in my office." Cragen told them before marching off.
Olivia and Elliot bode goodbye for now to their co-workers and headed off to the address they'd been given.
West end Avenue, Manhattan, New York
Monday, April 3rd 2009
9.04 pm
"Hi we're looking for Amber Richards." Olivia said as she and Elliot both showed their shields to the man in the door.
"Come in detectives." He sighed. "Amber! Can you come down here?" He yelled from the bottom of the stairs before showing the detectives through to the living room.
They weren't waiting long for the tall and thin red head to come bouncing into the living room.
"Amber we're detectives from Manhattan's Special Victims Unit and we'd like to ask you some questions." Olivia explained.
"What did you do now?" The man snapped.
"I didn't do anything Dad!" Amber replied fearfully.
"She hasn't to our knowledge sir we just have some questions for her." Elliot informed him making the man sit down and shut up.
"Ok Amber do you go to school with these girls?" Olivia asked handing her the school photographs of the victims.
"Yeah, all of them." Amber replied handing the photographs back to the detectives. "Is this about their murders?" She asked.
"It is." Olivia nodded. "Now can you tell me anything about these girls?" Olivia asked handing over the list of names beginning with A.
"I know them all, what do you want to know?" Amber replied.
"Can you tell us what they look like and maybe where they live?" Olivia asked as Elliot flicked open his tiny detectives notebook to write down the information Amber gave them.
"Well Abi, she's got brown hair, brown eyes and wears glasses, she lives over on Amsterdam, then Amelia is also brunette, blue eyes, wears glasses and she lives over on West 89th Street. Ashleigh is blonde haired, green eyed and lives over on West 80th Street." Amber replied handing back the list of names as she spoke.
"Ok thank you Amber." Olivia replied knowing that they had narrowed down the suspect list to two.
"You're welcome, I hope you find the girls killer, school's never going to be the same without Hannah, Carrie and Sammy." Amber sighed the tears glistening in her eyes.
"You'll find out soon enough but a fourth body was found." Olivia said and Amber's eyes fixed on hers.
"Who?" She asked in shock.
"Cassandra Lee." Olivia replied and the tears spilled down Amber's face.
"Daddy!" She sobbed and her father wrapped his arms around his daughter.
"Cassie's Amber's best friends, they've known each other since kindergarten." He explained as Amber sobbed into her father's shoulder.
"Wait..." Amber said jumping to her feet and going over to the mantle. "Please..." She whispered pulling a photo from its frame. "When you find her killer, have this photo with you."
Olivia took the photo from Amber's shaking hands who quickly returned to her father's embrace as Olivia peered down on two smiling teenagers on a beach together.
"I will, thank you for all your help we'll see ourselves out." Olivia replied and she placed the photo in her pocket and gripped it tight, even if their perp was a sixteen year old girl they were still a monster in Olivia's eyes.
As soon as they were outside Elliot turned to Olivia and she just shrugged knowing he was going to ask where too next.
"Let's radio Cragen and tell him what we know and then go visit our first brunette." Olivia sighed.
West 89th Street, Manhattan, New York
Monday, April 3rd 2009
9.32 pm
They arrived at the first brunette's house and knocked on the door. A brunette girl around sixteen answered with a gentle smile which Olivia found disturbing considering they were looking for a killer.
"Can I help you?" She asked her hand combing through her long brown locks.
"Yeah we're looking for Amelia Kelly." Elliot said as he and Olivia flashed their shields.
"That's me. Why would the police be looking for me?" She asked her eyes narrowing with fear but Olivia still couldn't get a read on whether this was their killer or not.
"Can we come inside?" Olivia asked.
"Of course." She nodded opening the door wider for the detectives.
Once they were all seated in the living room Olivia begun asking the questions.
"Amelia we were told you wore glasses." Olivia pointed out knowing that it would help if she was wearing them.
"I used to but I had laser eye surgery six months ago, I haven't worn glasses since then, why?"
"No reason just someone said you wore glasses." Olivia sighed a little knowing that this girl was probably not their killer.
"Ok, so where were you last night between ten pm and one am this morning?" Olivia asked.
"Ten pm? I was at Carrie Lloyd's party and I arrived home at eleven thirty pm breaking curfew which has landed me grounded for a week." Amelia replied.
"Ok that's all we needed to know." Olivia smiled gently knowing that Amelia's mother or father would confirm the alibi.
"Are you the detectives looking for Carrie, Sam and Hannah's killer?" Amelia asked weakly.
"We are." Olivia replied.
"I hope you find them soon, none of the parents are letting the girls out until they catch the guy." Amelia explained. "Those girls didn't deserve to die, they're the nicest people I've ever met."
"Thank you Amelia." Olivia smiled gently and gave the girls hand a gentle squeeze before leaving with Elliot.
"So Amsterdam?" Elliot asked.
"Amsterdam." Olivia nodded, she was fed up now and just wanted to go home to bed with her fiancé knowing there was one more killer off the streets but it didn't seem like that was going to happen tonight.
Amsterdam Avenue, Manhattan, New York
Monday, April 3rd 2009
9.57 pm
When Elliot and Olivia pulled up outside Abigail Salford's house they found three marked police cars which had both of them jumping out of the car and rushing to the officer stood outside.
"Benson, Stabler, SVU what's going on?" Elliot asked the young uniformed officer.
"Sixteen year old Abigail Salford is missing and considering there's someone out there killing sixteen year old girls brass wanted all the stops pulled out to find her." He explained.
"Ok can we go inside?" Olivia asked glancing nervously at Elliot, she was hoping that their suspect had not become a victim.
They went inside and found officers taking a statement from someone who was visibly Abigail's mother.
"Sorry to disturb you." Olivia told one officer who came out to the hallway.
"Benson and Stabler Manhattan SVU what's going on?" Elliot explained because he knew that they needed to find Abigail and fast.
"Abi Salford left for school this morning but she never made it there." The cop explained.
"Any leads?" Olivia asked.
"No, SVU is dealing with the murders right?" He asked nervously.
"Yeah the first was suspected to be a rape murder turned out it wasn't but we kept the case from homicide." Olivia explained. "Abigail Salford is our prime suspect."
"Well I'm sure you can tell now that she isn't."
"Of course not, she might be in hiding, you don't cross anyone off your list until evidence excludes them, I'm not surprised your still in uniform." Elliot hissed angrily, he hated rookie uniform cops who thought they knew better than two cops.
"Right, sorry, so what can I do for you?" He sighed not wanting to get into an argument with the detective.
"We need to search the bedroom, and I'm going to call in our co-workers to come give us a hand, this is SVU's case not missing persons." Olivia explained grabbing her radio and going out to call Cragen.
"Someone's cranky." The uniform muttered under his breath.
"My soon to be wife has just come back from maternity leave, she's missing our three month old baby and is working a very tiring and long case involving missing girls, of course she's cranky." Elliot spat he was at the verge of punching the uniformed officer who gave an apologetic look and nodded his head towards the living room for Elliot to go in.
"Hello Mrs Salford I'm Detective Stabler, have you got a recent picture of Abi that I could have please?" He asked knowing they needed it more than ever.
"Yeah, here you go." She replied handing a school photograph from the table.
And there was their prime suspect, brunette with leopard print glasses.
"Thank you, my co-workers will be here in a while to ask you some questions meanwhile may we have a look around Abi's room?" Elliot asked.
"Of course first door on the right." She sniffed.
Elliot called Olivia over and they headed upstairs to begin their search, unbeknown to the mother downstairs that they were looking for evidence that she was a murderer and not looking for information to help find her.
"Right, whatever we find we put back until we can get a warrant." Olivia hissed.
"Why we've got permission?" Elliot shrugged.
"Yeah to look for something that may find her not pin four murders on her." Olivia replied.
"If we find something that makes her our killer is exigent circumstances Liv we can use it." Elliot smirked.
"Ok." Olivia replied nodding, she wasn't so sure but she'd let Elliot deal with the consequences, they had permission to search the bedroom.
Both of the detectives pulled on latex gloves and started going around the bedroom looking for anything that would help them either with the murder or disappearance. It was a typical teenage girls bedroom with posters of the hottest teen celebrities and favourite bands and tv shows, the walls were bright purple and the furniture was white, the bedding was white, purple and gold and Olivia found herself liking the design of the bed spread.
"Liv..." Elliot called and Olivia rushed over to him to see what he'd found.
"That's blood." Olivia commented even though she knew Elliot already knew what it was.
"Yeah. We need to bag it and we need CSU down here crawling all over every inch of this room, call Cragen make sure we can actually take it." Elliot informed her just as Munch and Fin came into the room.
"What?" He asked seeing the two detectives coming in.
"There's been a sighting of Abi Salford." Fin explained.
"Then what are you doing here?" Elliot asked in shock.
"Missing persons are on it but they're going to deliver her straight ... hold on..." Fin answered the ringing cell phone just as Olivia came back into the room.
"Engaged and he isn't answering his cell." She explained.
"Captain?" Fin asked gaining everyone's attention. "Cap can you speak with me ... guys listen." He placed the phone on loud speaker and everyone listened.
"No! Don't you dare move!" A female voice echoed.
"What do you want? I can help if you speak with me." Cragen's voice filled the room and Olivia could hear the fear there.
"Shit!" She gasped. "We need to go back to the one six and call for back up!" She cried out rushing out of the room Elliot hot on her heels.
Manhattan SVU, Manhattan, New York
Monday, April 3rd 2009
10.42 pm
Olivia's heart hammered inside her chest, she was debating in her head whether or not to call her Mother but then she didn't want to upset her without it being necessary. When they walked into the bullpen they could hear the echoing voice of the girl coming from Cragen's office. Both of them whipped out their guns and held them at arm's length as they rushed to the office and peered in through the blinds.
"She's got a knife." Elliot whispered.
"We need to go in. She's far enough away, we'll shoot before she gets to him." Olivia whispered back.
Elliot nodded in agreement and they both made their way slowly to the door. Olivia held the handle and took a deep nervous breath and waited for Elliot's nod.
She quickly threw the door handle so it sprung open.
"Drop your weapon!" She yelled her gun pointed at Abigail Salford.
"Don't come any closer!" Abigail screeched, Olivia could see that the young girl was terrified as she placed the knife at her own neck.
"Dad are you ok?" Olivia asked her eyes flicking to Cragen and then back to Abi where her gun was pointed.
"Yeah." He nodded his breath slowly slowing.
"Abigail, you don't want to do that sweetie, put the knife down." Olivia whispered gently, she knew she had to get the knife from her before anyone could move.
"No! I didn't mean to kill them! I didn't want to! They made me do it!" She wailed hysterically.
"Who made you do it Abi?" Olivia asked gently.
"The voices, the voices they're everywhere telling me to do things!" Abigail explained hurriedly.
"Ok what are they telling you to do now?" Olivia asked.
"I don't know they're all yelling inside my head!" Abi hiccupped.
Olivia glanced nervously at Cragen who looked terrified again from what Abi was saying.
"Ok Abi, we can help, we can get help to make the voices go away if you only put the knife down." Olivia pleaded.
"I can't do that. I killed people, I have to be punished!" She yelled.
Olivia watched as the knife began to dig into Abigail's neck and her hand twitch where she was going to drag it across and Olivia reacted by shooting one shot.
"Liv!" Elliot gasped as Abigail fell backwards against Cragen's desk.
Olivia fell to her knees as Cragen rushed to check Abigail.
"Call for a bus Elliot!" He yelled puling the scarf from Abi's neck and tying it around her upper thigh to try and stem the bleeding from Olivia's shot.
"Why did she shoot?" Abigail asked as she gripped onto Cragen as he placed her gently on the floor.
"To stop you from killing yourself, she'd just saved your life." He replied, he knew what Olivia did, he'd seen her move the gun down and shoot.
Olivia clutched around her waist as she tried to calm her breath, even though it was a clean shot to stop a kid who was hearing voices from killing herself it didn't make a difference to her as she'd just shot at a child, she had so many thoughts rushing through her mind about the possibility of missing and killing the kid.
"Liv come here." Elliot whispered pulling her into his arms just as the EMTs rushed in.
As soon as Cragen moved from Abigail he rushed over to Olivia's side peeling the gun from her hand and placing it on his desk before wrapping his arms around her. She wasn't crying, but her breath was ragged and her mind was in a frenzy.
"You're ok Olivia, you're ok." Cragen whispered rocking her gently in time with Elliot.
"I could have killed her ... I could have missed or ..."
"Shh don't think like that Olivia, come on it was a clean shoot." Cragen whispered into her ear before dropping a light kiss onto her cheek hoping to calm her down a little.
"It wasn't ... she wouldn't have killed herself would she? I mean ... oh my God I shot a teenager ... oh my ..." Olivia's breath began to quicken and suddenly the tears were dripping down her face and her breath was a small gasp.
"Liv... Olivia ... Liv come on talk to me." Elliot pleaded just before she went limp in his arms.
"Someone help us!" Cragen yelled and Munch, Fin and Huang rushed into the room.
"What happened before she passed out?" Huang asked flashing his light into Olivia's eyes.
"She was sobbing and she couldn't breathe." Elliot replied his eyes reflecting the panic he was feeling.
"Ok I think she'd had a panic attack." Huang explained as he took her pulse. "Can you lay her down flat?"
Cragen and Elliot lay Olivia down flat on her back and Huang then quickly placed her in the recovery position.
"What happened? Why did Liv panic?" Fin asked him and Munch didn't know exactly who had shot and why.
"She was worrying about Abigail, I think she felt guilty and panicked because she was mumbling about nearly killing her asking what would have happened if she'd missed." Elliot explained, his voice weak.
"Liv shot?" Munch asked in shock, he'd expected it to be Elliot.
"Yeah, Abigail was stood with a knife to her throat and she started dragging the knife really slowly and so Olivia shot her in the leg." Cragen explained knowing that the detectives had to hear the full story so they knew it was a clean shot.
"She's coming round." Huang informed them as Olivia's eyes began to twitch.
"What happened?" She croaked weakly her head rolling so she was looking up at everyone.
"You had a panic attack Liv you're just fine." Huang reassured.
"Where am I?" She asked her eyes were barely open.
"Cragen's office." Huang replied.
"Why doesn't she know where she is?" Elliot asked the panic rising again.
"It's normal, she's a little disorientated just give her a minute and she'll remember everything." Huang explained hoping to calm Elliot down.
"Did I really shoot that girl or was I dreaming?" She asked her eyes still closed.
"It really happened Liv." Cragen replied softly as he stroked her hair out of her face.
"Why did I do it?" She asked sitting upright slowly with Huang and Elliot's help.
"To save her life Olivia." Cragen told her firmly.
"Was it really a clean shoot Dad?" She asked taking Cragen's hand in her own her voice quivering.
"Yes." He replied giving it a gentle squeeze. "You're fine Liv, IAB might have a few questions but you don't need any time off, you didn't kill anyone and it was a clean shoot."
"Ok." Olivia nodded. "Can we go home now?"
"Yeah, we can deal with everything tomorrow." Cragen replied wrapping her up in an embrace which she quickly returned, needing to feel something other than the guilt she thought would eat her up eventually.
Next Chapter Olivia and Cragen have a beautiful daddy daughter moment, then Olivia answers to IAB and she and Elliot find out exactly why Abigail was in Cragen's office!
