NIGHTMARES
CHAPTER SEVEN SVU SQUADROOM Monday, 19 February 7:30 AM
An hour later, it was back to reality.such as it was. Elliot was browsing paperwork, looking distracted.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey, yourself."
"Bauman called. Watson's autopsy is this morning. I told Cragen somebody else should go."
"Thanks." I helped myself to some of Munch's terrible coffee.
"Look, Olivia, I talked Cragen out of taking you off the case altogether."
"Mm, I figured it might come to that."
"Yeah, he's concerned about your objectivity."
"Maybe he should be."
He looked at me. "I don't know. I think you're handling it pretty well."
The words echoed in my head-"Like he owns you.like he knows what you're thinking.What's best for you." Ah, fuck it. I put down the coffee and picked up a stack of arrest reports.
An hour later I came up for air.
"Hey, Elliot?"
"Yo."
"Who talked to this guy-Ray Montgomery?"
"Umm-hang on." Papers shuffling. "Not me."
"Arrested in 98, assault on a police officer. Detective Leslie O'Hara, Narcotics. Put her in the hospital."
"We missed him?"
"Damn, he's been at Riker's since September. But he has a beef against woman cops."
"Yeah, him and five hundred other sickos." Munch stuck his considerable nose in.
I held up Montgomery's yellow. "Yeah, but four hundred ninety-nine of those weren't picked up carrying a military knife."
"Shit.same kind of weapon we found at Marino." Munch nodded.
"Damn." Elliot looked stunned. "We sure he's at Riker's?"
He wasn't. I put down the phone. "He was released three weeks ago. Case got tossed on a technicality."
********
There were forty cops outside Montgomery's building, but Elliot and me went in first. Nobody home. We searched. Nothing. No weapons, no bloody clothes, no nothing. We bagged clothes, garbage, and whatever else wasn't nailed down and went back downstairs.
Bobby was at the mailboxes with the super. He had Montgomery's mail, and didn't look up when we came toward him.
"Anything?" Elliot asked hopefully.
Bobby sniffed the mail. Elliot sighed audibly. Sometimes he didn't know when his chain was being pulled.
"Phone bill. Gas bill. Power bill.Condolence card."
"CONDOLENCE card?"
Bobby opened the card and squinted at it. "Dear Ray.We were all so sorry to hear about Annie's passing-"
"What?"
He read on, expressionless. "Tom and I spoke to your in-laws, and Mickey is terribly upset. We can only hope you will be.there for him."
"Holy shit," Elliot said.
"Ray Montgomery is Mickey DiGiovanni's brother-in-law."
*********
And this, after all, was why SVU had borrowed Bobby Goren in the first place. He was going to intimidate and sweet-talk Mickey DiGiovanni until he rolled over on Ray.
We found Mickey easy. He was at the McBride house in Brooklyn. Anna's parents lawered him up right away. I had kind of thought they might. It pissed us off, but the guy had to have a lawyer.right?
The whole gang waited outside the interrogation room. Me, Elliot, Fin, Munch, Cragen, and ADA Cabot. Time for Mr. Holmes to do his stuff.
Bobby entered the interrogation room alone. He was dressed to the nines. Charcoal Hugo Boss suit, maroon tie, expensive shoes. The jacket was so well-tailored I couldn't tell he was carrying. He looked good, more like a broker than a cop. He was carrying a cardboard box. Setting it on the table, he paused for a long moment, looking at nothing. Where did he go when he did that, I wondered.
"Jesus Christ," Elliot muttered. "He's a fucking lunatic."
"Just pay attention, Elliot," Cragen said, irritably. I suspected he thought Bobby was a fucking lunatic, too. Me? I KNEW he was. I didn't move, and managed not to smile.
Bobby emptied the box onto the table. Brown leather folder, full of stuff. A pack of Marlboros. A lighter. An ashtray. A small red-leather book. Two cans of Pepsi. A microcassette recorder. Two tapes.
He moved around the table, setting his scene. Taking off the jacket, he hung it over the back of a chair. Loosened the tie. Rolled back the shirt sleeves. Then he sat down and picked up his feet, putting them on the table, stretching out his nine-foot long legs.
"Damn, is he gonna get on with it, or what?" Fin grumbled.
"I think he IS getting on with it," said Cabot, a smile in her voice.
"Yeah, well, he better play as good as they say."
Inside the room, Bobby lit a cigarette. Two seconds later, he stabbed it out in the ashtray, and lit another. He did this twice more. Then he surveyed his props, and gave the guard the thumbs up.
They brought in Mickey and his lawyer. Mickey looked pale and very, very scared.
"Mickey," Bobby said, dropping his big feet to the floor and standing up. He towered over the terrified suspect. "Come in, come in."
Mickey and his lawyer took seats. The lawyer, a blond guy who looked about fifteen minutes past the bar exam, looked unhappy. He tried to put his briefcase on the table, but it was covered with stuff already, so he stuck it on the floor at his feet.
Bobby sat back down. He folded his hands on the table and didn't say anything for a long minute. He stared at Mickey. Mickey was sweating already, looking like he wanted to run far and fast.
"Come on, man!" he blurted out. "I don't know what ya want me for! I didn't kill Anna! Ya know that already!"
"No.Actually, we don't know that."
"Detective, Mr. DiGiovanni was at home when Officer McBride was killed," the lawyer put in.
"And it was Mr. Montgomery.all by himself.right?" Bobby paged through his folder, coming up with picures of Anna McBride. He slid them hard across the table, and they came to rest in front of Mickey. "He did THAT.all by himself.right?"
"Aw, man, that's gross!"
"Is that what you thought when you heard this happening? That it was gross?"
"Well, yeah! It was fucking awful!"
"And how awful is this?" Bobby gave over the pictures of Heather Marino, then of Shari Watson.
Mickey looked like he might faint. "Yeah! Yeah! Come on-"
Bobby picked up the tape recorder. "How about this?" he asked, and played the tape of Anna McBride's last minutes. Hearing it still made me queasy, but I didn't move. Elliot squeezed my shoulder for a second.
When the tape ran out, there was a long pause. Mickey was sitting still, tears running down his face.
Then Bobby popped out the first tape and put in a second one. Hit play.
Oh, my God. It was Heather Marino. Begging, crying, screaming.
Mickey jumped to his feet with a strangled cry. "No, way! No way, man!"
Bobby hit stop, and repeated the process with the third tape. It was Shari Watson.
I wanted to make him stop. I wanted to rush in there and grab the tape recorder, throw it to the floor, and smash it with the heel of my boot. Where had he gotten these tapes? How come we didn't know about them? I glanced at the rest of my team. They looked as puzzled and disgusted as I felt.
Bobby turned off the tape player. He set it down, and lit a cigarette.
"I didn't make those tapes! You can't pin this on me, no way!"
The lawyer was incensed. "This is not evidence, Detective! I don't know what you think you're trying to-"
Bobby held up his hand, in the direction of the lawyer. The lawyer stopped talking. "Mickey," Bobby said. "Sit down. Okay. We know Montgomery killed all three women.but.well, you helped him, didn't you, Mickey?"
"No! I swear!"
"You.introduced him to Anna-he was getting you coke, wasn't he? And you thought how much he would like your girl.the girl you grew up with.your first love?"
"Yeah, Montgomery was getting me coke. So what?"
"And.you introduced him to Anna?"
"No. He never met Anna."
"Hm." Bobby frowned. "That isn't what Anna said."
"What?"
Bobby picked up the little red book. "This is Anna's diary. You.knew she kept a diary, Mickey, didn't you?"
The lawyer spoke up. "Let me see that," he held out his hand.
"Oh.Sorry Counselor.that's evidence. Mickey.would you like to hear what Anna had to say about you?"
Mickey didn't say anything.
"She wrote about you all the time.she must have loved you very much.and you.you loved her too?"
"Of course I loved her. I wanted to marry her."
"Mm.yes.she mentions that here.She didn't want to marry you, Mickey. Do you know why?"
"No. She never gave me a reason."
Bobby paged through the book. "Here-'Mickey asked me to marry him again. He's living in the past. I'll never marry him, never. When he gets high-which is most of the time now, he's such a jerk-' did you know she thought you were a jerk, Mickey?-'he's such a jerk, and he still hangs out with those other druggie creeps, like his brother-in-law.I used to love Mickey, but that's all different now.' You see what she was thinking? She knew.all about the drugs.all about it."
"Okay! Okay! I introduced her to Ray! But it was no big deal, I swear! He didn't hardly know her! Why is this my fault?"
Holding the little book, Bobby stood up. He walked around the table until he was behind Mickey. Mickey started to stand, but Bobby put a firm hand on his shoulder and held him down. "You owed money, didn't you, Mickey? And Ray told you that if he could have Anna, he would wipe out your debt. Maybe he.would even give you more drugs. And you.you were.angry at Anna. You figured that this was a good way to.get even with her for breaking up with you. So you.told him where she would be. You knew she and her partner would be stopping for dinner.You knew where.and that she wouldn't want her partner overhearing your argument."
Bobby leaned over, so his face was right next to Mickey's. "You.set her up."
"I didn't know he was gonna kill her!"
Bobby stood back up. "That really isn't the point, is it? You.got him started. You gave him the woman you loved! And look what he did to her! And her-and her!"
Mickey burst out crying. "I didn't know! I swear, I didn't! I thought he was gonna-"
"What? Rape her?"
"I didn't know, man! I didn't know!"
Bobby pulled his chair over so it was in front of Mickey's. He sat down and leaned toward Mickey. "It's okay, Mickey.It's okay. We need to know where to find Ray. Do you know where he is?"
"I didn't know he was gonna kill her," Mickey said.
********
Mickey did know where Ray was. It turned out that the two tapes Bobby had played were fakes-mock-ups made by the police lab, with the cooperation of a couple of secretaries.
Ray Montgomery was indicted on three charges of murder. Mickey DiGiovanni was charged with conspiracy.
And Bobby went back to One Police Plaza.
In the following weeks, he called me a bunch of times. I didn't call him back. One-night stands weren't my usual style, but I had a feeling that it would be better for both of us if it just stayed that way.
Until he showed up. It was a Tuesday night. I had just nuked a frozen dinner and was sitting down to watch The X-Files when the buzzer did its buzz-thing. Damn, I thought, what now? I got up and pressed the buzzer.
"Yeah?"
"Olivia? Can I come up?"
Wow. I had to think about that one. "Yeah, I guess so." I buzzed him in.
I wasn't dressed for company, but he was going to have to take me as I was.
"Hi," he said, standing shyly in my doorway. He was wearing jeans, boots, a faded army jacket, and a Mets cap.
"Hi, how are you?"
"I've been better. Can I come in?"
"Um. Yeah, I guess so," I said again.
We sat on the couch. I kept my distance. Neither of us said anything.
"So.how have you been?" He asked.
"Fine. Great. You?"
"Fine."
I sighed, and looked at him. He was looking at me, a quizzical expression on his face. "Look," I said. "You're a nice guy-"
He reached over and took my hand. His hand was warm. It felt nice.
"I don't want to get all angst-ridden, here," he said. "But how come you never called me back?"
"I just-didn't want to, okay? And I don't want to talk about it, either."
"You just want to-"
"Don't analyze it, Bobby," I said. "Okay?"
"Sure." Deep in his eyes was a flicker of-something. I hoped he wasn't going to make any kind of declaration or anything.
"I like you," I said.
"Well, I didn't think you would have slept with me if you didn't," he said. "You were.upset."
"Nuh-uh," I shook my head. "Not a mercy fuck. Please, give me a break."
"I don't do mercy fucks," he said.
"Everybody does mercy-"
He smiled. "Nope. Not me. Not my style."
"It's not funny."
"Sure it is. We met. We liked each other. There were sparks. So we slept together. No big deal. Isn't that the way it works?"
"Wasn't it a big deal?"
He scooted over to my end of the couch and put his arm around my shoulders. "Yeah," he said. "It WAS a big deal. To me it was a big deal. To me it's always a big deal."
I wanted him to move back to the other end of the couch. No, I didn't. I put my head back, on his shoulder. "It was a big deal to me, too."
"Okay. Good."
"Why do you have to pick everything to pieces?"
"Hm.Just the way I am, I guess. Can you deal with that?"
"Do I have to?"
"Yeah. Unless you want me to leave."
"No," I said, turning my face up to his. "No, don't leave."
So he kissed me.
And then we watched the X-Files.
THE END.ELVIS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING.
CHAPTER SEVEN SVU SQUADROOM Monday, 19 February 7:30 AM
An hour later, it was back to reality.such as it was. Elliot was browsing paperwork, looking distracted.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey, yourself."
"Bauman called. Watson's autopsy is this morning. I told Cragen somebody else should go."
"Thanks." I helped myself to some of Munch's terrible coffee.
"Look, Olivia, I talked Cragen out of taking you off the case altogether."
"Mm, I figured it might come to that."
"Yeah, he's concerned about your objectivity."
"Maybe he should be."
He looked at me. "I don't know. I think you're handling it pretty well."
The words echoed in my head-"Like he owns you.like he knows what you're thinking.What's best for you." Ah, fuck it. I put down the coffee and picked up a stack of arrest reports.
An hour later I came up for air.
"Hey, Elliot?"
"Yo."
"Who talked to this guy-Ray Montgomery?"
"Umm-hang on." Papers shuffling. "Not me."
"Arrested in 98, assault on a police officer. Detective Leslie O'Hara, Narcotics. Put her in the hospital."
"We missed him?"
"Damn, he's been at Riker's since September. But he has a beef against woman cops."
"Yeah, him and five hundred other sickos." Munch stuck his considerable nose in.
I held up Montgomery's yellow. "Yeah, but four hundred ninety-nine of those weren't picked up carrying a military knife."
"Shit.same kind of weapon we found at Marino." Munch nodded.
"Damn." Elliot looked stunned. "We sure he's at Riker's?"
He wasn't. I put down the phone. "He was released three weeks ago. Case got tossed on a technicality."
********
There were forty cops outside Montgomery's building, but Elliot and me went in first. Nobody home. We searched. Nothing. No weapons, no bloody clothes, no nothing. We bagged clothes, garbage, and whatever else wasn't nailed down and went back downstairs.
Bobby was at the mailboxes with the super. He had Montgomery's mail, and didn't look up when we came toward him.
"Anything?" Elliot asked hopefully.
Bobby sniffed the mail. Elliot sighed audibly. Sometimes he didn't know when his chain was being pulled.
"Phone bill. Gas bill. Power bill.Condolence card."
"CONDOLENCE card?"
Bobby opened the card and squinted at it. "Dear Ray.We were all so sorry to hear about Annie's passing-"
"What?"
He read on, expressionless. "Tom and I spoke to your in-laws, and Mickey is terribly upset. We can only hope you will be.there for him."
"Holy shit," Elliot said.
"Ray Montgomery is Mickey DiGiovanni's brother-in-law."
*********
And this, after all, was why SVU had borrowed Bobby Goren in the first place. He was going to intimidate and sweet-talk Mickey DiGiovanni until he rolled over on Ray.
We found Mickey easy. He was at the McBride house in Brooklyn. Anna's parents lawered him up right away. I had kind of thought they might. It pissed us off, but the guy had to have a lawyer.right?
The whole gang waited outside the interrogation room. Me, Elliot, Fin, Munch, Cragen, and ADA Cabot. Time for Mr. Holmes to do his stuff.
Bobby entered the interrogation room alone. He was dressed to the nines. Charcoal Hugo Boss suit, maroon tie, expensive shoes. The jacket was so well-tailored I couldn't tell he was carrying. He looked good, more like a broker than a cop. He was carrying a cardboard box. Setting it on the table, he paused for a long moment, looking at nothing. Where did he go when he did that, I wondered.
"Jesus Christ," Elliot muttered. "He's a fucking lunatic."
"Just pay attention, Elliot," Cragen said, irritably. I suspected he thought Bobby was a fucking lunatic, too. Me? I KNEW he was. I didn't move, and managed not to smile.
Bobby emptied the box onto the table. Brown leather folder, full of stuff. A pack of Marlboros. A lighter. An ashtray. A small red-leather book. Two cans of Pepsi. A microcassette recorder. Two tapes.
He moved around the table, setting his scene. Taking off the jacket, he hung it over the back of a chair. Loosened the tie. Rolled back the shirt sleeves. Then he sat down and picked up his feet, putting them on the table, stretching out his nine-foot long legs.
"Damn, is he gonna get on with it, or what?" Fin grumbled.
"I think he IS getting on with it," said Cabot, a smile in her voice.
"Yeah, well, he better play as good as they say."
Inside the room, Bobby lit a cigarette. Two seconds later, he stabbed it out in the ashtray, and lit another. He did this twice more. Then he surveyed his props, and gave the guard the thumbs up.
They brought in Mickey and his lawyer. Mickey looked pale and very, very scared.
"Mickey," Bobby said, dropping his big feet to the floor and standing up. He towered over the terrified suspect. "Come in, come in."
Mickey and his lawyer took seats. The lawyer, a blond guy who looked about fifteen minutes past the bar exam, looked unhappy. He tried to put his briefcase on the table, but it was covered with stuff already, so he stuck it on the floor at his feet.
Bobby sat back down. He folded his hands on the table and didn't say anything for a long minute. He stared at Mickey. Mickey was sweating already, looking like he wanted to run far and fast.
"Come on, man!" he blurted out. "I don't know what ya want me for! I didn't kill Anna! Ya know that already!"
"No.Actually, we don't know that."
"Detective, Mr. DiGiovanni was at home when Officer McBride was killed," the lawyer put in.
"And it was Mr. Montgomery.all by himself.right?" Bobby paged through his folder, coming up with picures of Anna McBride. He slid them hard across the table, and they came to rest in front of Mickey. "He did THAT.all by himself.right?"
"Aw, man, that's gross!"
"Is that what you thought when you heard this happening? That it was gross?"
"Well, yeah! It was fucking awful!"
"And how awful is this?" Bobby gave over the pictures of Heather Marino, then of Shari Watson.
Mickey looked like he might faint. "Yeah! Yeah! Come on-"
Bobby picked up the tape recorder. "How about this?" he asked, and played the tape of Anna McBride's last minutes. Hearing it still made me queasy, but I didn't move. Elliot squeezed my shoulder for a second.
When the tape ran out, there was a long pause. Mickey was sitting still, tears running down his face.
Then Bobby popped out the first tape and put in a second one. Hit play.
Oh, my God. It was Heather Marino. Begging, crying, screaming.
Mickey jumped to his feet with a strangled cry. "No, way! No way, man!"
Bobby hit stop, and repeated the process with the third tape. It was Shari Watson.
I wanted to make him stop. I wanted to rush in there and grab the tape recorder, throw it to the floor, and smash it with the heel of my boot. Where had he gotten these tapes? How come we didn't know about them? I glanced at the rest of my team. They looked as puzzled and disgusted as I felt.
Bobby turned off the tape player. He set it down, and lit a cigarette.
"I didn't make those tapes! You can't pin this on me, no way!"
The lawyer was incensed. "This is not evidence, Detective! I don't know what you think you're trying to-"
Bobby held up his hand, in the direction of the lawyer. The lawyer stopped talking. "Mickey," Bobby said. "Sit down. Okay. We know Montgomery killed all three women.but.well, you helped him, didn't you, Mickey?"
"No! I swear!"
"You.introduced him to Anna-he was getting you coke, wasn't he? And you thought how much he would like your girl.the girl you grew up with.your first love?"
"Yeah, Montgomery was getting me coke. So what?"
"And.you introduced him to Anna?"
"No. He never met Anna."
"Hm." Bobby frowned. "That isn't what Anna said."
"What?"
Bobby picked up the little red book. "This is Anna's diary. You.knew she kept a diary, Mickey, didn't you?"
The lawyer spoke up. "Let me see that," he held out his hand.
"Oh.Sorry Counselor.that's evidence. Mickey.would you like to hear what Anna had to say about you?"
Mickey didn't say anything.
"She wrote about you all the time.she must have loved you very much.and you.you loved her too?"
"Of course I loved her. I wanted to marry her."
"Mm.yes.she mentions that here.She didn't want to marry you, Mickey. Do you know why?"
"No. She never gave me a reason."
Bobby paged through the book. "Here-'Mickey asked me to marry him again. He's living in the past. I'll never marry him, never. When he gets high-which is most of the time now, he's such a jerk-' did you know she thought you were a jerk, Mickey?-'he's such a jerk, and he still hangs out with those other druggie creeps, like his brother-in-law.I used to love Mickey, but that's all different now.' You see what she was thinking? She knew.all about the drugs.all about it."
"Okay! Okay! I introduced her to Ray! But it was no big deal, I swear! He didn't hardly know her! Why is this my fault?"
Holding the little book, Bobby stood up. He walked around the table until he was behind Mickey. Mickey started to stand, but Bobby put a firm hand on his shoulder and held him down. "You owed money, didn't you, Mickey? And Ray told you that if he could have Anna, he would wipe out your debt. Maybe he.would even give you more drugs. And you.you were.angry at Anna. You figured that this was a good way to.get even with her for breaking up with you. So you.told him where she would be. You knew she and her partner would be stopping for dinner.You knew where.and that she wouldn't want her partner overhearing your argument."
Bobby leaned over, so his face was right next to Mickey's. "You.set her up."
"I didn't know he was gonna kill her!"
Bobby stood back up. "That really isn't the point, is it? You.got him started. You gave him the woman you loved! And look what he did to her! And her-and her!"
Mickey burst out crying. "I didn't know! I swear, I didn't! I thought he was gonna-"
"What? Rape her?"
"I didn't know, man! I didn't know!"
Bobby pulled his chair over so it was in front of Mickey's. He sat down and leaned toward Mickey. "It's okay, Mickey.It's okay. We need to know where to find Ray. Do you know where he is?"
"I didn't know he was gonna kill her," Mickey said.
********
Mickey did know where Ray was. It turned out that the two tapes Bobby had played were fakes-mock-ups made by the police lab, with the cooperation of a couple of secretaries.
Ray Montgomery was indicted on three charges of murder. Mickey DiGiovanni was charged with conspiracy.
And Bobby went back to One Police Plaza.
In the following weeks, he called me a bunch of times. I didn't call him back. One-night stands weren't my usual style, but I had a feeling that it would be better for both of us if it just stayed that way.
Until he showed up. It was a Tuesday night. I had just nuked a frozen dinner and was sitting down to watch The X-Files when the buzzer did its buzz-thing. Damn, I thought, what now? I got up and pressed the buzzer.
"Yeah?"
"Olivia? Can I come up?"
Wow. I had to think about that one. "Yeah, I guess so." I buzzed him in.
I wasn't dressed for company, but he was going to have to take me as I was.
"Hi," he said, standing shyly in my doorway. He was wearing jeans, boots, a faded army jacket, and a Mets cap.
"Hi, how are you?"
"I've been better. Can I come in?"
"Um. Yeah, I guess so," I said again.
We sat on the couch. I kept my distance. Neither of us said anything.
"So.how have you been?" He asked.
"Fine. Great. You?"
"Fine."
I sighed, and looked at him. He was looking at me, a quizzical expression on his face. "Look," I said. "You're a nice guy-"
He reached over and took my hand. His hand was warm. It felt nice.
"I don't want to get all angst-ridden, here," he said. "But how come you never called me back?"
"I just-didn't want to, okay? And I don't want to talk about it, either."
"You just want to-"
"Don't analyze it, Bobby," I said. "Okay?"
"Sure." Deep in his eyes was a flicker of-something. I hoped he wasn't going to make any kind of declaration or anything.
"I like you," I said.
"Well, I didn't think you would have slept with me if you didn't," he said. "You were.upset."
"Nuh-uh," I shook my head. "Not a mercy fuck. Please, give me a break."
"I don't do mercy fucks," he said.
"Everybody does mercy-"
He smiled. "Nope. Not me. Not my style."
"It's not funny."
"Sure it is. We met. We liked each other. There were sparks. So we slept together. No big deal. Isn't that the way it works?"
"Wasn't it a big deal?"
He scooted over to my end of the couch and put his arm around my shoulders. "Yeah," he said. "It WAS a big deal. To me it was a big deal. To me it's always a big deal."
I wanted him to move back to the other end of the couch. No, I didn't. I put my head back, on his shoulder. "It was a big deal to me, too."
"Okay. Good."
"Why do you have to pick everything to pieces?"
"Hm.Just the way I am, I guess. Can you deal with that?"
"Do I have to?"
"Yeah. Unless you want me to leave."
"No," I said, turning my face up to his. "No, don't leave."
So he kissed me.
And then we watched the X-Files.
THE END.ELVIS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING.
