Chapter 7
Elliot had barely parked the vehicle when Olivia flung open her door and got out of the unmarked sedan. She was already making strides into the park, toward the soccer fields. Elliot quickly caught up to her, knowing that her concern for Stephanie was overriding her lack of sleep and coffee.
"Slow down. We don't want to freak this poor woman out," Elliot told her as the occupied soccer field came into view.
"Did you call Huang? We may need him to help us talk to her," his partner asked without turning her head toward him.
"Once we get back to the precinct, I'll shake him out of bed," he promised. Olivia just nodded; her hand went into her jacket pocket; the evidence bag she'd grabbed before they left was still in there.
"Hey guys! Glad you could make it!" It was a tall, blonde, young man who came running up to them, short of the soccer field. They were close enough though to see the bulk of the group keeping Stephanie occupied by playing around with the ball. Inwardly, Olivia heaved a sigh of relief.
"Detective Stabler. That's Detective Benson. You call the tip line?" Elliot asked, as the two flashed their badges.
"That was me, Robert Ashmore. You know what wrong with her?" He wanted to know.
"She was in an accident that diminished her mental capacity," Olivia explained.
"Super sweet but she scared the crap out of us. She just seemed to appear out of nowhere. We're not used to having much of an audience, so when she sat down in the grass near the net, we figured something was wrong. She didn't have a jacket and she's got slides on, not exactly early morning walking equipment," the young man explained.
"Did she say anything – like where she came from or where she was going?" Elliot wondered.
"No but she seems to know how to play the game, otherwise I don't think we'd have been able to keep her occupied," Robert said.
"Take us to her," Olivia told him. He nodded and brought them over to the field edge before calling for e a time out. Everyone seemed to sense that fun time was over and one of Robert's buddies brought Stephanie over.
"Stephanie?" Olivia asked.
"Who are you?" She asked cautiously, giving the slightly older woman a look. It surprised the detective at first but then she figured that the college boys had probably seemed closer to Stephanie's age rather than her. Plus, it would seem that Stephanie knew the game of soccer according to Robert so that connected them on some level.
"My name is Olivia. That guy over there is my partner, Elliot. We're police officers. Here's my badge," the detective carefully extracted her badge from her waistband and handed it to Stephanie.
"Are you going to take me home?" The impaired woman wanted to know, looking at the badge.
"We're going to head to the precinct first. Your Uncle promised to meet us there as soon as he can," they handed called him yet because they hadn't been able to verify the woman was Stephanie until a few moments ago.
"My Uncle?" Stephanie seemed surprised as she handed the badge back to the detective.
"He's been looking for you honey. He's missed so much," Olivia told her.
"He has?" This might be tougher than the detectives thought.
"He has and so has your sister and brother-in-law. I know there is someone else who has been looking for you too…" that's when Olivia went into her pocket and pulled out the evidence bag. Stephanie's eyes lit up. Olivia opened the bag and removed the bear before handing it to her. Stephanie pulled the bear into her chest, squeezing him tight. Elliot could see the college boys trying hard not to lose their cool. The lady in front of them might have physically close to their ages but it was obvious that she wasn't mentally.
"I figured he might be important," she smiled.
"He is," Stephanie said.
"Well why don't you, me, and that little guy head for the car and we'll put on the lights and sirens?" Olivia asked.
"We can put on the lights and sirens?" Stephanie couldn't help but smile.
"Yeah, we can. I won't tell anyone if you don't" Olivia winked. Stephanie's smile got bigger, and Olivia put her hand on her shoulder and started ushering her towards the car.
"You guys did good. Thank you. If you think of anything else, I want you to call me or Detective Benson," Elliot told them before handing out a few of his and her cards; glad he'd grabbed a few of hers before leaving the precinct.
"Did someone do something to her?" A boy about Robert's height with brown hair asked just before Elliot started to turn toward the car.
"That's what we're trying to find out," Elliot told him before heading back to his partner and the car.
"Ready to go?" He asked as he climbed into the car.
"I think so," Olivia smiled.
"Lights and sirens," Elliot smiled as he looked up into the rearview mirror to see that Stephanie seemed pretty happy. He turned on the lights and sirens and headed for the precinct. It wasn't a long ride and they sat in comfortable silence.
"Wow," Stephanie seemed in awe as they walked into the precinct. By now it was a change in shift and the lobby was busy. They wound their way through the halls to the elevator and rode up to the floor where SVU resides. Elliot went to his desk phone and quickly called Huang before calling James Lorigo while Olivia took Stephanie to the small interrogation room. Fin and Munch weren't around and he figured they were still interrogating Linda.
"Did you get any breakfast this morning?" Olivia asked once they were inside the small room.
"No. I'm getting hungry," Stephanie admitted.
"I think we've got something around here somewhere. I'll be right back, ok?" The detective smiled. The impaired woman nodded and played with her teddy bear. Olivia exited the room and closed the door.
"Huang is on his way in and so is the Uncle. We need to keep Stephanie away from Linda," Elliot said to his partner.
"We'll be able to keep her distracted. I'm grabbing her one of those leftover bagels and cream cheese," she told him, heading for the coffee stand and the fridge.
"Good call," he came over to her and grabbed her hand.
"You ok?" The words were barely above a whisper.
"I will be when I shake this feeling about what happened to Stephanie," Olivia admitted before slicing the bagel and spreading the cream cheese.
"You're afraid that just because it wasn't on the DVDs…" Elliot let the thought hang there.
"We saw how Linda was ready to do something to her. She killed Alan. I have little doubt that something bad happened," she said.
"Let's hope Huang can help us and her," Elliot said.
To Be Continued…