Sitting in Olivia's office after a quick working lunch, he watched the footage of what had transpired earlier that morning between Rollins and Dr. Adler through the eyeglass camera that the blonde detective had been wired with.
Rollins had temporarily gone back to school and attended one of Dr. Adler's lectures at the Department of Psychiatry at Tompkins Square University.
"Psychiatry has devolved into social control. Depression, anxiety are not symptoms of mental illness. They are, in truth, an organic reaction to oppression. Sexual repression, economic disparity, misogyny, racism, these are all part of the root. And now, as psychiatrists are fond of saying, I think this is a good place to stop. I'll see you all next week."
He looked at Olivia, raising an eyebrow.
She rolled her eyes. Again. She knew quite clearly just what his thoughts on Dr. Adler and the entire situation were. "Don't say it."
"Hi, Dr. Adler!" Rollins said enthusiastically.
"Yes?" Adler said.
"I'm a big admirer of yours," Rollins said.
"Oh," came Adler's response.
"Amanda," the blonde detective said, offering her hand to the man. They shook hands as the detective spoke. "I actually took a lecture class of yours years ago."
"Yeah," the man said. "Yes, in, uh, Atlanta, right?"
Rollins smiled. "That's right."
"Yeah," Adler said, smiling more warmly now. "Well, aren't you a fish out of water."
"I-I am," Rollins agreed. "Guess you could say I was searching for a bigger pond."
Adler just hummed.
"Um," Rollins said. "I'm finishing up my master's in liberation psychiatry, and all roads still lead to you."
"Oh, call me Rome," Adler quipped.
"And your book," Rollins said, "'Oppression, Repression, Depression,' it really resonated with me."
"Ah," the man said, "so you're the one who bought it."
"Why," she inquired, "are you surprised your books aren't bestsellers? Pharmaceutical companies, mainstream psychiatry, they don't want the truth to get out."
"Dad," a girl said, "there's a lot of people that are waiting for you."
"Oh," Rollins said. "Oh, I'm I'm sorry." She started rambling a fair amount. "Just, um, thanks. Yes. Thanks."
"Amanda?" the man said, "Um, I don't know if you're busy later tonight, but, uh, I'm having an open house study session. Eight O'clock. You're more than welcome to join us."
"Yeah?" Rollins asked. She grins. "Okay."
He turned off the audio and turned to face the captain. "I assume you're sending her to Adler's little 'study session' tonight?" It really wasn't a question. That was the entire point on the operation; getting her invited.
"Obviously," the captain said. "She'll be wired the same way, and we'll be right outside. We'll need you on standby for warrants."
He nodded. "I'll ask my mother to relieve Lucy, and I'll join you in the van."
She nodded, not overly surprised by his comment. "Alright."
They were alone, so he gave her a quick kiss. "I've got to head back to the office, but I'll see you later. Think you'll be able to gran dinner?"
She gave him a peck on the cheek. "Forlini's at 6?" It would give them time to have a bit of dinner and still give them an hour's playtime to make sure they had everything under control. Not to mention all the preparation they would be able to do before.
"Perfect."
The rest of his afternoon went smoothly, thankfully. He moved one of his appointments to the next day, making it so he only had to deal with one meeting that afternoon, leaving him free to manage his files and get everything he needed on his end in order for the undercover op. that night.
Finally, they were all sitting around the stakeout van, watching the inside goings-on on the screen in front of them.
"And what about you, Amanda?" Dr. Adler asked from where he was seated. "Do you feel alienated from your true self?"
She dipped her head in a curt nod. "I do a lot of the times."
Dr. Adler nodded. "Well, we all do."
"How long are we gonna let this guy hit on, Amanda?" Carisi scoffed.
Rafael raised an eyebrow, looking at Carisi. He understood why it bothered the man, but they still had a job to do. "We're gonna wait for probable cause."
"Or machine elves?" Officer Tamin quipped, receiving a couple of dirty looks at that comment of hers. "Sorry." She gestured vaguely. "I don't believe in regular psychiatry, let alone this."
"I'm with Kat," Fin said. "Paying someone to listen to you talk?"
"Guys," Olivia chimed in, giving them all pointed looks, "please."
Knowing they needed to focus, they all turned their attention back to what was happening inside the so-called study season.
"Amanda, our society so suffocates the human soul," Dr. Adler explained, " our distance from true self so profound, that we turn to liquor, uh, to gambling -"
"Casual sex that just reinforces our low self-esteem," Anais Adler, the crazy doctor's daughter, said.
Rollins gave a fake smile, taking a seat, acting as though a light bulb had just gone off. "- But nothing seems to fill the void."
"Yes," Dr. Adler said. "Amanda, the reality that you're experiencing right now is not the only reality, but we're all so programmed, that we, uh -" The man was rummaging through his pockets to grab something. "- we can't even access the pathways in our own brains." Anais, who was seated beside her father, held up a pipe, which was clearly what the man had been looking for. "Oh, here we go."
"What's up with that van?" Fin asked, looking at their second camera which was showing them the goings-on directly outside of the building
"You know primitive cultures understood this," Dr. Adler continued. "They had a life built around ritual -"
"White male," Fin pointed out.
"Look like our pedicab driver?"
"To allow them to enter a dream state," Dr. Adler explained. "Amanda -"
"Industrial tanks," Carisi pointed out.
"Maybe Ether?" Olivia suggested.
"I knew it," Fin said. "They're cooking their own drugs."
Olivia huffed, shaking her head slightly at the screen where Dr. Alder was still speaking. "And you can experience it too."
Rollins gave Dr. Adler a sheepish smile. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea."
"Amanda," Dr. Adler urged her, "don't be afraid to swim past the breakers."
Anais offered Rollins a pipe to inhale the drug, and Rollins took off her glasses, but the captain immediately commented that they lost visual and told her detectives to move.
The detectives jumped out of the van and as they moved to the door with officers swarming, Fin told the guy with the tanks to put his hands up. The man said that it was all legal.
Rafael had to watch as they went inside, and hoped that the crazy lunatic of a doctor would actually allow himself to be arrested and didn't have any weapons on him.
Moments later, everyone was walking out, much to his relief. He did, however, notice the slightly glossy look in Rollins' eyes. He suspected she'd been exposed to the drug when inside, accidentally inhaling it. She really should go to the hospital in that case, but shook his head when he heard the woman adamantly denying having inhaled the drugs when she was exposed.
With no injuries, thankfully, it wasn't much later when they all called it a night, the people who needed to be in holding until the following day.
The following morning at the precinct, they had Dr. Adler in the interview room. Rafael had headed to the precinct after the hearing he'd had first thing. He watched as the man asked Rollins where she'd gone. The blonde detective had adamantly denied inhaling the drugs. The psychiatrist said that he saw the light come on in her eyes and her soul leave its cage, saying she was on her journey and that he was curious about where she had gone.
He and Olivia shared a look, and Rollins said nothing in response.
"She's trying to establish rapport?" Rafael asked.
Olivia nodded, and they turned their attention back to the interview. The highlight being the comment, "But if the Great Purge must proceed, then proceed it must." Rafael just loved dealing with assholes with a god complex.
Later, they watched Anais's interrogation. She said that they were family; maybe not the Brady Bunch as that was just an artificial construct to make them conform
Tamin asked if her father told her that, and Anais replied 'and more, every day since she was three, when her mother died.'
Anais explained her father sacrificed everything to take care of her and that what he's built and taught, no one can take that away. She added, 'It is how to be whole; people come to him for an alternative path.'
He raised an eyebrow, eying his wife. "And another one drank the Kool-Aid."
They were now down to one victim since one wasn't stable and the other one, Freja, had gone back to her home country. Thankfully, they discovered that one of the young adult men associated with Adler had worried parents who had come down to speak with them. That meant they had Caleb, the pedicab driver and ten others who were all on video taking a hit from the pipe. That was something. "This case has flees."
"I know it's not a slam dunk, but Meghan identified Anais and Caleb and she remembers Adler giving a lecture," his wife said.
He gave her a pointed look. "But after that, machine elves. She could be the Queen of England and I wouldn't consider her fit to take the stand."
She sighed. "Counsellor -"
He eyed the police captain. "Please tell me that we got a hit from the men's DNA, Lieutenant."
"Nothing," she said. "Yet." He gave her a look of pure exasperation. "But, they're in front of it." He sighed, as she continued to speak. "They claim it was a mutual psychonautic sexual exploration." Her tone of voice made it crystal clear just what she thought about that.
"Translation, consensual." He pinched the bridge of his nose, frowning. "Why am I not in the least surprised?"
"Yeah." Olivia sighed.
He noticed Rollins walking up to them now, her interview done. "Okay, so this guy claims academic freedom, but the truth is, he's a puppet master who gets his acolytes to rape and torture girls."
"I don't think that's what this is," Rollins said.
"No?" Rafael sneered. "So Meghan wanted to dig her own grave and run around half-naked in a bedsheet?"
"You know I didn't mean it like that," Rollins retorted.
"Well, Detective," he shot back, more than a little irritated, "then feel free to enlighten me about how exactly you meant it."
Rollins heaved a sigh. "I just, I don't know... he seems off. I think he genuinely believes what he's saying. He actually believes he's helping people." He went to speak, but the blonde put a hand up to stop him. "I know what he's doing. And it is wrong. You don't need to tell me that."
He gave her a curt nod as Carisi opened the office door and announced that Caleb's parents were there.
"Alright," Olivia said, "thanks, Carisi." She turned to better face Rafael as she spoke. "You going to join me in there, Counsellor?"
He nodded. "You know it."
They spoke with the parents who explained that they drove down from Syracuse as soon as they heard what had happened. They informed them that Caleb had had problems with depression and he was not taking any classes any more, it was like he was in a cult. Caleb met Adler in his freshman year about six years ago. He used to call them all the time but now wouldn't even call on holidays. They had an intervention and brought in a minister and emptied their retirement fund to pay for a de-programmer for their son but nothing had worked. All they wanted was to protect him. They had tried to do everything right but they admitted that they didn't know if their son would ever come back. Ever be himself again.
After that conversation, they had the pleasure of meeting with Chief Dodds in the man's office regarding the case. It had gone much as could be expected until Dodds suggested charging Anais and to flip her.
At that point, Rollins stated she didn't think the girl would turn, but then Officer Tamin spoke up, surprising them with what she had to say. "Or maybe that's just another alternate reality he's created." She had all their attention now. "I found a marriage certificate. Adler married Kathleen Bell in '94, but no obituary, no death certificate."
Olivia blinked but quickly recovered, speaking exactly what was on all their minds at that point. "Well, if she's not deceased then where is she? Find out."
Rafael had returned to his office at that point, grabbing lunch on the way. He then sat down with a coffee, managing his files and dealing with a quick last-minute meeting when Rita Calhoun barged in wanting to talk deal on for one of his other cases.
Officer Tamin's comment led to the discovery that Kathleen Bell Adler was admitted to Manhattan Psychiatric Center in 1997. She had been a brilliant clinician until she was found naked in the middle of Harvard Square one day. She was diagnosed with hallucinogenic psychosis with underlying paranoid schizophrenia. She could communicate intermittently but had been particularly bad lately.
After that, Rolling went to talk to Dr. Adler again, something that Olivia had been very reluctant to let her do. When the topic was broached Dr. Alder told Rollins his wife was broken long before he met her. They talked further and the man stated that he helped broken young adults.
Rollins pushed him, and Dr. Adler called her Kathleen. His wife's name. It was clear he is broken himself. The man began to yell. He wanted to know who was out there watching the interview. The man started climbing the metal grating on the window and Rollins explained he couldn't get out that way. The man still creaming, two unis went in to assist in restraining him but Rollins motioned for them to stay back. She managed to get Dr. Adler to come back down and he knelt at her feet, clearly happy, thinking that Rollins was Kathleen. He kept rambling and sobbing as he knelt at Rollins' feet.
"I've got an ambulance on the way," Fin said.
Olivia nodded.
"Could this be an elaborate act?" Rafael suggested.
Olivia looked exasperated. "If you ask me, he's just escaped."
Officer Tamin gestured to the interview. "I honestly have no idea what to make of that," she admitted. "But something's off."
Carisi sighed. "Yeah."
Dr. Adler was taken to the hospital and there wasn't much left for Rafael to do at the precinct, so while the detectives dealt with things there, he returned to his office to return a few missed calls and work emails among other things. He was in for a late-night as he had a trial the next day for a domestic.
It was quite later, and most people had gone home, Carmen having left several hours ago. He was considering finally calling it a night when there was a knock on the door. "Come in," he called out, not looking up.
"Figured you would be here," Rollins said."
He gave her a lopsided smile. "The work never ends."
She just hummed in response.
He gave her a look of concern. "Hey, what's up?"
"Um, I went and checked on Adler," she said. "He's at Bellevue and isn't eating or speaking. Nothing He's completely unresponsive."
He raised an eyebrow.
"It's not a ruse," she stated.
"Well, that may be, but I still intend to arraign him and his disciples," Rafael stated. "Including Anais. What they did to those women is disgusting.
"I hear you," she said, "just, can you give me 24 hours before you arraign Anais?"
He gave her a pointed look. "Why?"
Rollins sighed. "I want to take her to visit her mother. She deserves to know the truth and meet her mother. For good or ill."
He nodded. "And she can't do that behind bars."
"Exactly." Rollins bit her lips. "Barba, I know it's a lot to ask."
He waved her comment off. "It's against my better judgement, but I'll do it." She nodded. "However, I want you to tell me something."
"What?" the blonde questioned.
"If you don't mind me asking, what's your deal with this guy?" he inquired.
"I wanted to hear his side of the story," the blonde said. "I had no idea how far gone he was." She swallowed. "There was a time that I was lost and thought he had the answers, I wanted to learn from him. I wanted to follow him."
"And yet you didn't," he said. "You were smart, Rollins."
"Hmm."
"Hey," Rafael said. "You dodged a bullet. Don't feel bad about getting pulled in when you were younger. I think most of us have been there."
She sighed. "Yeah." She looked at him. "Walk me out?"
"Sure. I'll just grab my things," he said, giving her a warm smile. "I have a family I should get home to as well."