"Casey's being released from Mercy General, Severide's going to bring him down soon to sign for his personal effects," Voight told the SVU detectives the next morning.

"Well that's a good way to get him into an interview room," Munch commented, "the question is what'll make him talk?"

"I got an ace up my sleeve," Voight said. "I if I have to, I think I can break that ice."

"What?" Fin asked.

"I had my guys get Casey's computer at home and get the techs looking over it, if we can't get into his phone history, we should be able to find something on his laptop," Voight told them, "and when he finds this out-"

"Heads are gonna roll," Munch commented. "The question is who's going to tell him?"

"I will," Hank answered.

"Oh good, I already had my back cracked once this month after apprehending a meth head," Munch said as he went over to his desk and sat down.

"We've tried running similar MOs of attacks on men who weren't locals, were here from out of state," Elliot explained, "even ran a cross-reference against any other vics with the same physical characteristics as Casey just incase our perp has a specific type, got nothing."

"Yeah well," Voight responded, "hopefully my guys will be able to come up with something soon."

"It would help if we had Severide in our corner to make sure Casey stays put and doesn't hop the next plane heading back to Chicago," Olivia said.

Voight nodded. "I'll handle Casey, you convince Severide it's in Matt's best interest to see this through."


"I don't understand why I can't just sign at the front desk," Casey said as he and Severide walked through the squad room.

"Well things are pretty crazy right now and our boss wants to make sure nothing's misplaced, trust me, it'll be a lot easier to get this done in a nice quiet interview room instead of out front where any schizoid off his meds could come in and turn the place into a war zone," Munch explained as he showed the two firemen to an unoccupied room, "If you'll just go in there and have a seat, somebody will be with you shortly."

"You're not coming in?" Casey asked.

"Sorry, much as I would love to handle the more mundane aspects of this job, I'm actually on my way to question a homeless perp who's been screaming for the last 10 minutes that he can't find his head," Munch told them, "Mr. Severide, I'm going to have to ask you to stay out of the interview room-"

"Why?"

"It's all these pain in the ass bureaucratic regulations we're forced to put up with, I could go on about them all day-"

"And he will," Fin warned them as he passed by with a folder in his hand, "Trust me, it's better not to ask. Meanwhile, Kelly, I need to ask you some follow-up questions."

"Why? I don't know anything," Kelly said.

"More bureaucratic regulations," Munch told them, "don't you just love them?"

The two firefighters looked at each other, it was obvious neither of them wanted to be there any longer than they had to, finally Kelly spoke first, "I'll...be back soon, I hope."

"Mr. Casey, if you'll head on in, somebody will be in to help you momentarily," Munch said.


"I'm not talking to you," Casey told Elliot and Olivia as they entered the room.

"That's fine, we just need you to verify," Elliot held up a plastic bag containing a black leather wallet, "This is yours, right?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, we just need you to sign these forms for it," Olivia put some papers before him, "sign here, here, initial here."

Casey took the papers, glanced them over one by one and slowly signed them. Before the final signature, he asked them, "Is this it?"

"What do you mean?" Elliot asked.

"Is this all that was recovered?"

They looked at him, not giving anything away. Whatever was on his mind he seemed to shrug it off, "I don't suppose anybody found my phone."

"No, we found it with the wallet," Elliot answered.

Casey looked at them, "Then where is it?"

The door opened without a courtesy knock, Voight told the detectives, "Your captain wants to see you two."

Elliot and Olivia turned in their chairs and looked at the sergeant.

"We just got started," Olivia said.

"That might be, but," Voight nodded his head towards the door.

Benson and Stabler looked at each other and exchanged a mutual expression. The fact that Cragen would allow this kind of intrusion meant something was up. Reluctantly they decided to go along with it, and stood up from the table and left the room. As soon as Elliot was out the door, Voight shut it behind him and told Casey as he approached the table, "Now it's just you and me."

"What're you doing here?" Casey wanted to know.

"I'm assisting in this investigation," Hank answered.

"No, what're you doing here?" Casey asked.

Hank sat down in the chair across the table and told Matt, "Your phone has been confiscated as potential evidence, the crime techs are going over it right now."

Casey's eyes widened in realization. "What?"

"What choice did they have, Matt?" Hank asked softly, "Got a victim who's unconscious, no contact information, nobody to call, nobody who can explain what's going on, why you are even in this city, they needed answers and that was the only way to get it. Now we don't have the final report yet, but it's not going to be long."

Voight watched as Casey's entire expression slowly changed to a grimace of horror as he squeezed his eyes shut and groaned out a hardly audible, "Oh my God." He gritted his teeth together and choked out a mortified, "No!" He jumped up from the chair and demanded to know, "How could you do that?"

"Matt," Voight also got up and stepped around the table, "This is your last chance to tell me what we need to know before they get done going through everything. Whatever trouble you're in, now's the time to come clean."

Casey's eyes closed and he raked his hands over his face groaning, "No-no-no-no! This can't be happening!"

Voight grabbed him by the shoulders and told the lieutenant, "Matt, whatever it is, there's still time to fix this, but you've got to be honest with me."

It didn't even occur to Casey to struggle in the cop's hold, his chest was rising and dropping rapidly as his breathing became distressed, the only thing that came out of his mouth was a half coherent, "Everybody's gonna know, oh God..."

Casey wasn't hearing the words coming out of Voight's mouth, he started rambling denials and cries of despair that all reached a boiling point and he went rigid in the Intelligence cop's hold and screamed at the top of his lungs, shortly replaced as he slumped weightlessly against Voight's body and broke down crying. Voight put his arms around Casey and held the firefighter tight and tried to get him to calm down, even in his grip Casey sagged down towards the floor and rather than fight it, Voight steered into the skid and sank down on the floor with him, he held Casey in his arms and patiently waited as the blonde man sobbed hysterically, unable to form any words or even any coherent sounds.

Watching through the two-way mirror, Cragen, Olivia and Elliot stood at the wall and watched in confusion.

"So much for forcing Casey's hand," Elliot said, "this guy's a rock."

"He knows it's over, who's he still trying to protect?" Cragen wanted to know.

Olivia felt sick and reached over and cut the sound coming from the interview room. Not only did they not get any information out of Casey even with Voight's tactics, she felt they were intruding on a private moment and should leave the two men alone.


Kelly Severide, thankfully, hadn't been present for Casey's breakdown. Fin had been keeping him busy in a separate interview room where he couldn't hear what was going on.

"I don't know what I can tell you," he said as he leaned forward and rested his head on the table, feeling tired and lost and bordering on hopeless, "Casey never told me he was coming to New York, he didn't tell me anything."

"He have any enemies back home in Chicago?" Fin asked.

"Who doesn't?" Kelly replied as he sat back up. "Everybody at 51 does, people are always coming after us for some reason or other."

"Casey have a beef with anyone lately? Somebody that might've followed him out here?" Fin asked.

"Not that I can think of," Kelly shook his head, "nothing comes to mind."

"Would he tell you if he was in trouble?" Fin asked.

Kelly thought it over for a few seconds, "Not right away...not usually...but...if he was in over his head, he would've told me."

"Is there anyone you can think of who might come after him like this?" Fin asked.

"Uh...no," Kelly answered, "I don't know what you know about Voight out there-"

"We have history."

"So do he and Casey," Kelly said, "he once hired these three goons to beat Casey up, but...even Voight, and he's the worst guy I know, or was anyway...even he wouldn't do something like this."

"No kidding," Fin replied.

"Casey doesn't want the guy caught that did this," Kelly said, "he doesn't want to go to trial, he doesn't want everyone finding out what happened to him...is that really so horrible?"

"The problem is the guys that did this are gonna do it to someone else, and odds are already have, to several guys that we don't know about," Fin said, "It's more to prevent any future attacks on any other guys than solely for his benefit."

Kelly made a small sound in his throat as he took that in, "I didn't think about that."

"It sounds like a conflict of interest trying to get one victim to put themselves on the line to protect other victims from the same fate," Fin explained, "But we gotta look at the big picture, if we don't get these guys on one case, we'll be seeing more of them down the line, and cases like this where nobody wants to go to court and have their private business exposed, it makes these guys invincible because they know with no complaining witness, the law can't touch them."

Kelly was silent for a few seconds before he looked at Fin and commented, "No wonder you guys are always getting burnt out. I'd rather run into a burning building than have to do this every day. But how long does Casey have to stay here? He just wants to go home."

"Understood, but we have to give this investigation everything we got and he can't really leave our jurisdiction until we make an arrest or we run out of leads," Fin told him.

Kelly groaned, "What do we do in the meantime?"

"Get a hotel room, we're not giving up yet," Fin said, "we're hoping TARU can find something on Casey's phone to explain what's going on, what he came out here for."

"Casey...had a hotel room?" Kelly asked.

"Motel, real fleabag dump," Fin answered, "Whoever attacked him tossed his wallet with all his cash and credit cards still in it. Clearly he could've afforded a better place to stay, we couldn't figure out why he was staying there."

"Neither can I," Kelly said, as he shifted in his chair, "I'll find a place for us to stay. Um...you've been doing this a long time?"

"More than 10 years now," Fin said.

"So...any advice?" Kelly asked. "I mean how does this work? What do I say to him?"

"What have you said to him?"

Kelly shook his head, "Not much, I don't know what to tell him. I...I don't really have any experience with this...my...I have a sister, a half sister, my dad...I didn't meet her until she was already grown up...somebody kidnapped her, and did to her...what they did to Casey...she left town and I didn't get much chance to talk to her...I had no idea what to say then either."

Fin watched the Squad lieutenant intently as this revelation came out, and after a pause he told Severide, "Most of us have personal motives why we choose this line of work, it never gets easier talking to the victims. In my opinion it doesn't matter much what you say, just as long as he knows you got his back, that's the important thing."

Kelly glumly nodded in response. Then he asked the SVU detective, "Can I see Casey now?"