"Recuerda," Rafael reminded his son, "debes traer una botella de agua hoy." (Remember, you need to bring a water bottle today.)
Noah glanced up at him from where he was putting his lunch into his backpack. He picked up his water bottle for the field trip and waved it at Rafael. "Lo sé, Papi, y todavía necesito un regalo pa'l cumpleaños de Mikey." (I know, Papi, and I still need a present for Mikey's birthday.)
He nodded. "Tu mamá o yo lo agarraremos después del trabajo," he explained. "Sin embargo, debes darte prisa o perderás el guagua." (Your mom or I will grab it after work. You need to hurry up though, or you'll miss the bus.)
Noah rolled his eyes. "¡Ya voy, ya voy!" (I'm coming, I'm coming.)
"Cheeky brat," he deadpanned.
Side-eyed, Noah retorted without missing a beat. "You should shave the beard."
He quirked an eyebrow. His beard had gotten rather long and he'd trimmed it, of course, but found quit liked the look. He'd also laid off dying his hair, and had cut it a fair amount shorter just a few days prior. "Now I'll just grow it out even longer."
Noah gave him a pointed look. "Now who's cheeky?"
He shook his head, amused. "En el carro. Now." (In the car.)
He had motions court and a plea hearing that morning, all of which had passed without too much hassle. He lost the one motion, but the judge ruled in his favour over the other two motions, so it was still a win in his books.
He then made his way to the 1-6 to deal with the mess from the previous day.
"There were two rape reports filed in Manhattan South on that date," Officer Tamin said. "One was a DV, and the other one was ours."
"But neither is her." Olivia sighed, looking at them all.
"This was an outcry if I've ever seen one," Rafael said. "And I'd prefer to find her before we end up with a repeat of the Jason Karr incident." The woman obviously felt disillusioned, rightfully so, and was likely escalating if he had to guess. The billboard wasn't the first attempt at reaching out.
"Agreed," Olivia concurred. "Fin and Kat, check local strip clubs. Check out the billboard company. Whoever she is, we need to find her."
He shook his head slightly, hating the situation. "I have a meeting with Kressler that I have to get to, but keep me posted."
"You already have a heavy caseload," Olivia pointed iut. "Did you maybe want us to bring in one of your ADAs?"
He raised an eyebrow. "This one's mine, although how's the Wilder case going?"
"We've almost got enough to make a case," Olivia informed him. "Why?"
"Hand it to Lancaster," he said. "He's been doing quite well in E.C.A.B, and if I keep him their much longer I think we'll both end up in straight jackets."
The captain dipped her head slightly, smiling. "Alright then."
Throwing on his jacket, he took his leave, calling Carmen to let her know he'd be a couple minutes late for the meeting.
After the much too long meeting, he grabbed a quick lunch before making a few calls and sitting down two manage his files.
He'd only had to wait a couple of hours, however, before he got a call from Olivia regarding the billboard case. "I'm heading down to the 11th to speak with the brilliant officer who failed to notify SVU. I figured you'd want to come."
"You thought right," he said. He started to grab his things. "I'll head there right now."
Once there, he met Olivia and Fin outside and got a quick update on the case before going inside to deal with Officer Donald Donahue.
When Fin and Rollins went to Hook, Line & Stripper, the strip club manager, Toni, claimed her club was safe. A worker who walked in agreed and said that Toni took care of them. Both the worker and manager pointed out that the woman's previous club, Topaz Gentleman's Club, which was owned by someone who was ex-NYPD, was not so safe. The girls there spent a lot of time their hoping they weren't raped.
Tamin and Rollins had then gone to Topaz and were shot down immediately; everybody denying knowing anything about the woman they were looking for. Rollins and Tamin found the bike outside from the billboards, however, and feeling it wasn't a coincidence, told Olivia the girl likely worked there.
Everyone agreed it was time to finally go to the local precinct for that neighbourhood.
"December, stripper?" Donahue said. "No, I don't think so."
"Think harder," Rafael sneered, giving the man a pointed look. "If you don't cooperate we'll still get the answers we need, but I'll be irritated that you wasted our time. Cooperate and I won't throw a little thing called 'obstruction of justice' your way."
"Oh, yeah, that girl," Donahue said. "Yeah, it's coming back to me."
"So she was raped," Olivia said, "and you didn't notify SVU?"
"It was unfounded," the man said. "I called the club manager. Turns out she was making the whole thing up. Just looking for a payday."
"Who, Jared?" Fin chimed in. "He's ex-NYPD. Are you looking out for him or her?"
"Oh, come on!" Donahue replied. "I did my due diligence. The complaint was BS."
"We're gonna need to see that report," Benson said.
The officer looked sheepish. "Well, when it didn't pan out, I -"
"You tossed it?" Olivia said, her tone a mix of disgust and disbelief. "Do you remember the girl's name?"
"'M' something?" the man said. "Mary? She had dirty blonde hair. A tat of a bird on her hand. Look, I know you SVU guys have big hearts, but this wasn't a real rape."
"'A real rape'?" Olivia sneered. "Is that because they knew each other, or is that because she dances in a strip club?" She gave the man a look of discussed.
"If that's your attitude you shouldn't even be a cop," Rafael said, glaring at the man. "Sex worker or not, no means no."
"Do me a favour," Olivia said, the look of mixed disgust and disbelief still on her face. "Have your captain call me."
They wasted no time getting out of there, more than a little sick of hearing all the crap that the man had been spewing.
Olivia sighed. "When are these dinosaurs gonna die out?"
"Not soon enough," Rafael sneered.
"True that," Fin said. "They have no natural predators."
Did Fin hear the things that came out of his mouth or did he like to be as surprised as the rest of them when he said it? Well, nobody could argue the man didn't have a hell of a lot of personality
"We're looking for a blonde with a bird tattoo on her hand," Olivia said, clearly frustrated. "Somebody at Topaz has to know who she is."
Setting up a sting at Topaz with Fin and Carisi later that evening, they parted ways, Rafael returning to 1 Hogan Place to get some other work done.
Rafael ended up working until eight o'clock before forcing himself to go home, although he ended up running to the store for Noah's birthday present for Mike while his wife dealt with the upcoming undercover sting. It was as close to low risk as you could get, but the fact remained. You couldn't be too careful.
He ended up grabbing a sandwich and snack for dinner on the way home, relieving Lucy and chatting about the day's field trip before reading Noah a short bedtime story; Sofía having long since dosed off do to the rather late hour.