Olivia
I had to be honest. This case sucked. There were awful cases when a teenage boy was killed. Then there were awful cases when a girl was raped. But when you combined the two, the case just plain sucked.
"Come on, Olivia, don't do this to me now. I get off in ten minutes, and I was in court all morning," the lab tec said as I walked in holding an evidence bag.
"Sorry, looks like you're going to have to pull overtime. I need you to test these sheets," I told him, pulling the sheets out of the evidence bag.
"What are you looking for?"
"DNA on the bloodstain and test the sheets for semen. The perp didn't use a condom, so we have a shot."
"Is this absolutely, positively necessary? Or can it wait until Monday morning?"
"This could put a rapist currently on trial away for a long time."
"Is this the Laurence kid?"
"Yeah."
"I thought that there was no physical evidence of the rape."
"We were wrong. The girl who testified after you came forward and said that she kept the sheets that had been on the victim's bed."
"I'll see what I can do."
"Thanks."
"Glad you could take time out of your busy social calendar to join us," Munch said, filling up a glass from the pitcher of beer he had in front of him and Fin when I got to the bar.
"I was at the lab," I explained, setting my jacket on the empty chair beside me. "Elliot didn't come?"
"He went home," Fin explained. "What were you doing at the lab?"
"Lauren found me after court today. Apparently she saved the sheets that were on the bed when Jamie was allegedly raped."
"Won't help us much. Kressler isn't denying that they had sex. He's just saying that it was consensual."
"I don't know. We can figure that out when we get the results."
"Do you think we have a chance at winning this case?" Munch asked.
"I hope so. Jamie's testimony is going to put the final nail in his coffin," I said.
"Do you know if the DA has approved Alex's death penalty motion?" Munch asked.
"Last I heard it's still undecided. I think he's going to go for it." I took a long sip of my beer.
"If anyone deserves it, it's this guy," Fin muttered. "Three years in SVU and I still can't understand why people would do something like this."
"Doesn't get any clearer. I spent most of my career in homicide, and I don't get how anyone could kill someone else."
I looked down at my drink, ignoring his comment, the face of Eric Plummer coming back to me. The man who's life I took.
"How long do you think this trial's going to take?" Fin asked, noticing my expression.
"Depends on how hard the defence is going to play."
"And Kressler's going to play hard," I said, pouring myself another glass of beer.
A pitcher and a half later, we decided to call it a night. I went to pay, but Munch offered to cover for me.
"Thanks. Uh, I guess I'll see you Monday."
"Bye." I turned to say goodbye to Munch.
"Are you okay to drive?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I lied.
"Let me drive you."
I hesitated. I had had four beers, and I probably wasn't okay to drive. "Fine."
"What Munch said, it's getting to you, isn't it?" he asked when we were on the way back to my apartment.
I shrugged. "He didn't know what he was talking about."
"And the case?"
"It sucks. It always does. The job never really grows on me."
"I know the feeling."
"It just takes so much out of you. I mean, we spend all our time working, and when were not working, we're obsessing about a case. And I don't know about you, but I haven't had a nice date in almost a year."
"What happened to that guy. . . Kyle, I think you said."
"Kyle was a long time ago. Then there was David, and Rick. None of them could deal with the fact that I'm a cop, or what comes along with it."
"That suck 'Liv," he said in an almost sympathetic tone.
"What about you?" I asked.
He smiled. "Getting a date isn't a problem."
"Ever so modest."
"It's keeping them." He pulled into my parking lot.
"How are you going to get home?"
"Subway station's around the block. It's not far to my place." He turned the ignition off and handed me my keys.
"Thanks," I said softly, taking them. "And Fin?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for driving me home."
"No problem."
"I'll see you Monday?" I asked.
"Yeah."
Lauren
Sunday, February 9th
"What wrong?" my sister in law, Amy, asked, sitting down beside me. She and my brother had come down for the weekend to announce that she was expecting.
I looked up from the magazine I was reading. "Kevin hasn't told you?" My brother usually told her everything that had to do with me. He was really overprotective.
"Told me what?"
"I had to testify at my best friend's trial on Friday. I screwed up the whole case."
"What's she on trial for?"
"She's not on trial. She was raped, and the guy who raped her killed her boyfriend."
"Why do you think that you screwed up the case?"
"When the other lawyer was cross-examining me, he made it seem like I was trying to get revenge on this guy."
"Why would you want revenge on this guy?"
"He had been one of my judges. Uh, this happened at a debate. I hadn't made the top fifteen speakers because of the score that he gave me."
"Is he claiming the same thing about your friend?"
"He can't. We weren't working together on that debate, and his score put her up in fourth place at the tournament. He just says that the sex was consensual."
"I don't think that you screwed up the case. Honestly, I don't. Defence lawyers blow a lot of smoke around, but it doesn't matter with the jury in the end."
"Did they do that at your trial?" I felt guilty about asking, about bringing that up. She took a deep breath.
"Yes. The defence was a real jerk. But the guy got convicted, and hopefully I'll never have to deal with him again."
I nodded. "I don't know if it's going to happen with this guy. His lawyer's really good."
"Who's his lawyer?"
"Um. . . Chrysler or Chreston or something like that."
"Kressler?"
"Yeah, that's it. Do you know him?"
"I've heard about him. He's a high-priced bully."
"I just. . . I just hate that this happened to Jamie. I mean, if what happened to her wasn't enough, she lost her boyfriend as well. And now the guy who did it might get away with both."
"Did you know her boyfriend?"
I nodded. "We were friends. Josh was a great guy. He was totally supportive of her. They were so happy together."
"How close were they?"
"Really close. The day after he was killed, it was going to be their one-year anniversary. I don't know exactly what he was doing, but I know he had something really romantic planned." I looked at my clock. "Oh my God!" I jumped off the sofa and pulled my coat out of the closet.
"What's wrong?"
"I promised Jamie I'd go shopping with her. The guy who did this, he broke into her house when he was on bail, and doused her clothes in gasoline."
"Do you want a ride?"
"Do you mind?"
"No. Come on."
"I think that you should get some more stuff. This won't even last you the week," I said to Jamie as we sat down at the food court. After an hour, we weren't having much luck.
"I guess. I don't know what I'm supposed to wear. I know that whatever I wear is going to make an impression on the jury." She looked so drained. The past few months had been so hard on her. I hadn't seen her like this before. I looked down at her salad and noticed that she hadn't eaten any of it, only pushed it around.
"You'll do fine," I promised. "You haven't eaten anything."
"I'm not hungry." She put down her fork.
"When was the last time you ate?"
"Lauren, I appreciate your concern, but I'm not hungry."
"When you were staying at my place, I didn't see you eating much."
"I'm just. . . I'm nervous. I don't know how this is going to go. I could put Josh's killer back on the streets. I was the one who got him killed anyways."
It hadn't occurred to me until then that she blamed herself. "You didn't put him behind the school. You didn't hit him on the head. You didn't stab him."
"But why was he there in the first place?"
"He was there because he wanted to be there. You did everything you could to stop him. It's not your fault, Jamie."
She looked down. "I don't know how I'm going to do this," she said softly. Jamie didn't usually show when she was that upset, even with me. "I mean, this was hard enough to deal with when Josh was here, but now he's gone, and I don't know how I'm supposed to deal with everything. I know I sound crazy, and you can skip your lecture about how I shouldn't have been so involved in a relationship when I'm still so young, but I was. And I loved him Lauren, God, I loved him."
"I know. You know, Josh once told me that he felt like you two had known each other forever, and he didn't worry about your future because he felt like he knew you'd be together. I told him he was crazy."
"He was crazy."
"And proud of it," I laughed. Jamie smiled.
"Did you know that he snored?"
"Josh?"
"Yeah. We used to fall asleep while we were talking-"
"So that's why I could never could never get through."
"I had fallen asleep one night, and I woke up for some reason or another, and he was snoring. At first I couldn't figure out what it was, but. . . He sounded like a jack hammer."
"I can just picture that," I said, cracking up.
"When I stayed the night," she continued, beginning to laugh, "there was nothing. I didn't hear a thing. But on the phone. . ."
"He woke your neighbours."
"Nope. That was only when we were-"
"That's enough details." She finally took a bite of her salad.
"We should get going again."
I had to be honest. This case sucked. There were awful cases when a teenage boy was killed. Then there were awful cases when a girl was raped. But when you combined the two, the case just plain sucked.
"Come on, Olivia, don't do this to me now. I get off in ten minutes, and I was in court all morning," the lab tec said as I walked in holding an evidence bag.
"Sorry, looks like you're going to have to pull overtime. I need you to test these sheets," I told him, pulling the sheets out of the evidence bag.
"What are you looking for?"
"DNA on the bloodstain and test the sheets for semen. The perp didn't use a condom, so we have a shot."
"Is this absolutely, positively necessary? Or can it wait until Monday morning?"
"This could put a rapist currently on trial away for a long time."
"Is this the Laurence kid?"
"Yeah."
"I thought that there was no physical evidence of the rape."
"We were wrong. The girl who testified after you came forward and said that she kept the sheets that had been on the victim's bed."
"I'll see what I can do."
"Thanks."
"Glad you could take time out of your busy social calendar to join us," Munch said, filling up a glass from the pitcher of beer he had in front of him and Fin when I got to the bar.
"I was at the lab," I explained, setting my jacket on the empty chair beside me. "Elliot didn't come?"
"He went home," Fin explained. "What were you doing at the lab?"
"Lauren found me after court today. Apparently she saved the sheets that were on the bed when Jamie was allegedly raped."
"Won't help us much. Kressler isn't denying that they had sex. He's just saying that it was consensual."
"I don't know. We can figure that out when we get the results."
"Do you think we have a chance at winning this case?" Munch asked.
"I hope so. Jamie's testimony is going to put the final nail in his coffin," I said.
"Do you know if the DA has approved Alex's death penalty motion?" Munch asked.
"Last I heard it's still undecided. I think he's going to go for it." I took a long sip of my beer.
"If anyone deserves it, it's this guy," Fin muttered. "Three years in SVU and I still can't understand why people would do something like this."
"Doesn't get any clearer. I spent most of my career in homicide, and I don't get how anyone could kill someone else."
I looked down at my drink, ignoring his comment, the face of Eric Plummer coming back to me. The man who's life I took.
"How long do you think this trial's going to take?" Fin asked, noticing my expression.
"Depends on how hard the defence is going to play."
"And Kressler's going to play hard," I said, pouring myself another glass of beer.
A pitcher and a half later, we decided to call it a night. I went to pay, but Munch offered to cover for me.
"Thanks. Uh, I guess I'll see you Monday."
"Bye." I turned to say goodbye to Munch.
"Are you okay to drive?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I lied.
"Let me drive you."
I hesitated. I had had four beers, and I probably wasn't okay to drive. "Fine."
"What Munch said, it's getting to you, isn't it?" he asked when we were on the way back to my apartment.
I shrugged. "He didn't know what he was talking about."
"And the case?"
"It sucks. It always does. The job never really grows on me."
"I know the feeling."
"It just takes so much out of you. I mean, we spend all our time working, and when were not working, we're obsessing about a case. And I don't know about you, but I haven't had a nice date in almost a year."
"What happened to that guy. . . Kyle, I think you said."
"Kyle was a long time ago. Then there was David, and Rick. None of them could deal with the fact that I'm a cop, or what comes along with it."
"That suck 'Liv," he said in an almost sympathetic tone.
"What about you?" I asked.
He smiled. "Getting a date isn't a problem."
"Ever so modest."
"It's keeping them." He pulled into my parking lot.
"How are you going to get home?"
"Subway station's around the block. It's not far to my place." He turned the ignition off and handed me my keys.
"Thanks," I said softly, taking them. "And Fin?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for driving me home."
"No problem."
"I'll see you Monday?" I asked.
"Yeah."
Lauren
Sunday, February 9th
"What wrong?" my sister in law, Amy, asked, sitting down beside me. She and my brother had come down for the weekend to announce that she was expecting.
I looked up from the magazine I was reading. "Kevin hasn't told you?" My brother usually told her everything that had to do with me. He was really overprotective.
"Told me what?"
"I had to testify at my best friend's trial on Friday. I screwed up the whole case."
"What's she on trial for?"
"She's not on trial. She was raped, and the guy who raped her killed her boyfriend."
"Why do you think that you screwed up the case?"
"When the other lawyer was cross-examining me, he made it seem like I was trying to get revenge on this guy."
"Why would you want revenge on this guy?"
"He had been one of my judges. Uh, this happened at a debate. I hadn't made the top fifteen speakers because of the score that he gave me."
"Is he claiming the same thing about your friend?"
"He can't. We weren't working together on that debate, and his score put her up in fourth place at the tournament. He just says that the sex was consensual."
"I don't think that you screwed up the case. Honestly, I don't. Defence lawyers blow a lot of smoke around, but it doesn't matter with the jury in the end."
"Did they do that at your trial?" I felt guilty about asking, about bringing that up. She took a deep breath.
"Yes. The defence was a real jerk. But the guy got convicted, and hopefully I'll never have to deal with him again."
I nodded. "I don't know if it's going to happen with this guy. His lawyer's really good."
"Who's his lawyer?"
"Um. . . Chrysler or Chreston or something like that."
"Kressler?"
"Yeah, that's it. Do you know him?"
"I've heard about him. He's a high-priced bully."
"I just. . . I just hate that this happened to Jamie. I mean, if what happened to her wasn't enough, she lost her boyfriend as well. And now the guy who did it might get away with both."
"Did you know her boyfriend?"
I nodded. "We were friends. Josh was a great guy. He was totally supportive of her. They were so happy together."
"How close were they?"
"Really close. The day after he was killed, it was going to be their one-year anniversary. I don't know exactly what he was doing, but I know he had something really romantic planned." I looked at my clock. "Oh my God!" I jumped off the sofa and pulled my coat out of the closet.
"What's wrong?"
"I promised Jamie I'd go shopping with her. The guy who did this, he broke into her house when he was on bail, and doused her clothes in gasoline."
"Do you want a ride?"
"Do you mind?"
"No. Come on."
"I think that you should get some more stuff. This won't even last you the week," I said to Jamie as we sat down at the food court. After an hour, we weren't having much luck.
"I guess. I don't know what I'm supposed to wear. I know that whatever I wear is going to make an impression on the jury." She looked so drained. The past few months had been so hard on her. I hadn't seen her like this before. I looked down at her salad and noticed that she hadn't eaten any of it, only pushed it around.
"You'll do fine," I promised. "You haven't eaten anything."
"I'm not hungry." She put down her fork.
"When was the last time you ate?"
"Lauren, I appreciate your concern, but I'm not hungry."
"When you were staying at my place, I didn't see you eating much."
"I'm just. . . I'm nervous. I don't know how this is going to go. I could put Josh's killer back on the streets. I was the one who got him killed anyways."
It hadn't occurred to me until then that she blamed herself. "You didn't put him behind the school. You didn't hit him on the head. You didn't stab him."
"But why was he there in the first place?"
"He was there because he wanted to be there. You did everything you could to stop him. It's not your fault, Jamie."
She looked down. "I don't know how I'm going to do this," she said softly. Jamie didn't usually show when she was that upset, even with me. "I mean, this was hard enough to deal with when Josh was here, but now he's gone, and I don't know how I'm supposed to deal with everything. I know I sound crazy, and you can skip your lecture about how I shouldn't have been so involved in a relationship when I'm still so young, but I was. And I loved him Lauren, God, I loved him."
"I know. You know, Josh once told me that he felt like you two had known each other forever, and he didn't worry about your future because he felt like he knew you'd be together. I told him he was crazy."
"He was crazy."
"And proud of it," I laughed. Jamie smiled.
"Did you know that he snored?"
"Josh?"
"Yeah. We used to fall asleep while we were talking-"
"So that's why I could never could never get through."
"I had fallen asleep one night, and I woke up for some reason or another, and he was snoring. At first I couldn't figure out what it was, but. . . He sounded like a jack hammer."
"I can just picture that," I said, cracking up.
"When I stayed the night," she continued, beginning to laugh, "there was nothing. I didn't hear a thing. But on the phone. . ."
"He woke your neighbours."
"Nope. That was only when we were-"
"That's enough details." She finally took a bite of her salad.
"We should get going again."