1Outside the 16th precinct.
7:22 A.M..
Dammit. I feel for the wall of the precinct house, unsteadily. Her name was Nora. Nora Ross. We didn't graduate together - she'd jumped into the Academy at eighteen, when I went to college. But I met her on my first day and we hit it off. She got married a couple of years after to this guy named Dave. She had two daughters, in that marriage, Alison and Emma. We hung out - shot pool, knocked back a couple of beers once in a while, even worked together a couple of times. One day she came in to work, attempting to hide this giant purple bruise on her face with makeup and my boss sent me to corner her, try to figure out what was going on. Her husband had been beating the shit out of her ever since she'd had their first daughter. I cuffed that son of a bitch myself, for what he did to her. Then, she divorced him.
She was pretty and smart - a brunette like myself, a couple of inches shorter, with hazel eyes. She was a good cop, juggling her shifts and trying to raise two girls on her own.
Now she's naked, lying beside the dumpster behind the precinct, with the tell-tale bruises around her throat - he choked her, again. Her kids - oh, God. I can't let the kids see her like this. Alison's fifteen and Emma's twelve - just when they need their mother the most, this sick prick has to take her from them. Tears fill my eyes as I recall how hard it was to be a teenage girl without a mother.
Munch doesn't have anything to say or any kind of quip to make for once - he just stands there, eyes hidden behind his dark glasses. Fin, on the other hand, looks outright dangerous. Elliot looks like he'd gladly punch a wall right about now. Cragen just looks pissed. And I'm practically crying. Shit.
"You know her?" The boss finally breaks the silence, reaching to touch my shoulder.
"A friend of mine. Oh, God." I rub my hands over my face and walk off, unable to stand there and look at her body. I can't.
"Liv, it's okay." Elliot's followed me.
"This sick bastard - he's killing the people around me. I"- I turn back to him, a tear rolling down my face. He reaches for me, pulling me into a hug, again. "It's okay."
After I manage to pull myself together, I fill Cragen in on my friend's background and her family - just her mother in Jersey and the kids. After we process the crime scene - again, it's a dump job with little evidence at the site where the body was left, I throw myself into paperwork. It's the only thing I can do, right now. The phone rings and I force myself to pick it up. "Benson."
"Did you like my little surprise, Detective?" It's the same guy from this morning.
"She had two kids, you prick!" I can't hold it in. "Two girls! What the hell did I do to you to make you take their mother from them!"
He chuckles, quietly. "I always thought you were the calm one. I guess I underestimated you, Detective Benson."
"You're damn right you did. 'Cause when I find you, I'm gonna come through your door. What'd I do?"
"Who says you did anything?"
"If I didn't do anything, then why would you be calling me?"
"I like playing cat-and-mouse games. It's fun. Your friend was a mother?"
"Two girls."
"They must be growing up, now. Seeing one of them hurt would get to you, wouldn't it?"
"You son of a bitch!" I want to hang up, and end this conversation with this nutcase, but he might give us something we can use. "Okay. The first woman you killed, the one you dumped in my grandparents' old house - we know who she is. The second one you left where my relatives are buried - who is she? I just wanna know who she is, so I can give her to her family for a decent burial. Tell me who she is."
"Do you think I date my victims, Detective? I don't know anything about her."
"Yeah, you do. You must. I think you stalk 'em before you kill."
He laughs. "You're smart. You live alone?"
"No." I'm not taking the risk of telling him the truth. And it's not like I do live alone anymore, now.
"Aww, too bad. I wanted to get to know you better. Because I knew a young lady, a long time ago - you remind me a lot of her."
"We can talk. Tell me where you are." I cross my fingers under the desk. It's a half-assed tactic. He's too smart for this. But I want to try it, anyway.
"You're disappointing me, Detective. If I tell you where I am, you'll come through the door with about twenty cops. I know what's going to happen if I tell you."
"Okay. Is there anything else you want to"- I'm cut off, as the line goes dead.
"Olivia"- Cragen looks in my direction.
"That psychopath just called me, again. Cap, the guy's smart."
"Yeah. We know." It's one of TARU's techies, as he steps in the door. "He called from a payphone, both times - 86th and Lex."
"That's like a block and a half from my place." I rub my forehead. "But we don't know where he's coming from - there's a subway station on that block"-
Cragen thanks the guy and I hear him say something about how CSU's down there, dusting the phone for prints. "Our new vic - you say there's an ex-husband?"
I nod. "She married him, had two kids, but he beat the shit out of her. She came to work one day, with this massive bruise on the side of her cheek. I don't think she was trying to hide it, but I think she was too embarrassed to admit that she was letting him beat her around. He got probation, and when he was on probation, she divorced him. He took off - I think he landed in Vegas or LA and no one's heard tell of him since. Besides, when I was talking to the guy - he asked me if I liked my surprise - I think he meant that."
"How old are the kids?" Cragen questions.
"Fifteen and twelve. I wanna get a detail on them at her mother's place. He asked me what it would do to me if one of them got hurt."
"Done."
I comfort my friend's mother as best as I can. She knew the risks of her daughter dying in the line of duty, but this is different. And the kids - when they're brought in, the younger one throws herself at me, sobbing and crying. I know I can't calm her down - nothing I can say will help her, so I just let her cling to me, as her older sister clings to their grandmother - all they have left in the world.
After I show them out, making sure the kids have my number, I come back to the squad. Munch and Huang are standing there, in front of the board. "Any insights for us, Doc?" I question, joining in.
"These women are completely different - they didn't know each other, no connection in their personal lives - right?"
"Amanda was an Assistant District Attorney in Queens. Nora was a beat cop from Manhattan. No connection there. Our second vic - we still have no idea who she is." I rub my eyes. "The only connection between Nora and Amanda is that they both knew me."
"Exactly. So the common factor in there"-
"Is me." I sigh. "This is gonna be fun."
"We think we've got a lead on our Jane Doe." Cragen comes from his office, file in hand. "Missing Person's report. Filed three days ago on a Julie Carter. Twenty-four, a med student at NYU."
"Who filed it?" Elliot questions.
"Her mother. Warner's got the dental records and she's checking them now. She'll call when she's got something solid." Cragen turns to Munch and Fin. "You two go talk to the mother."
"Where's Mom at?" Fin questions, leaning on his desk.
"East Side." The boss hands the file to Munch.
"You drive." Munch instructs Fin, as they leave the room.
"Yeah. Like I'd let anything else happen - with you, you might run the damned car into a pole."
Munch scoffs, at that. "I can drive, you know."
"Yeah. When you give the aliens and the Federal conspiracies and the rest of that shit a break. Man, how the hell do you ever think about anything else?"
"I'll have you know"- Munch begins, as the door closes.
I shake my head, slowly. Sometimes my only motivation for coming to work is to watch those two bicker like an old married couple. And to bounce paper balls off the back of Munch's head to get him to shut up, when he and Fin are bickering at their desks. They argue more than they actually talk, I think.
"You know, bouncing paper off Munch's head has improved my accuracy on the firing range." I comment to Elliot, who grins at me. "It does. I used to do that before you were here. It's a way to amuse yourself on the slow days."
"Sometimes you just want them to shut the hell up and stop bickering about every little thing. But sometimes it's the only thing that keeps me here." I murmur, absently twirling a pen between my fingers. It's a bad habit I picked up from a reporter friend of mine who does that, constantly.
I turn back to the stack of unfinished or half-finished reports in front of me. Paperwork. It never ends. Ever. I don't like it, but it's a part of the job. I push my hair back, out of my face and set to work. At least I don't have half of what my partner does - he has this habit of leaving his paperwork to the last minute.
"Liv, do you eat paper or something?"
I throw my pen at him, rolling my eyes at the stupidity of that question and reach for another. "No."
"How the hell do you do it so damned fast?"
"Practice. When I was a rookie, I always got stuck doing the booking. And how many nights have I stayed here and covered your ass for you?"
He grins and holds up his hands. "Okay. You win."
"Detective Benson." A uni is standing at the side of my desk. "This came in for you. The sergeant asked me to bring it up."
I nod my thanks and take the brown envelope from him.
"You expecting something? A file?" Elliot questions.
"Nope." I shake my head, cracking the seal. "Feels like paperwork, though." I slip a hand inside of the envelope and pull out whatever's inside. I let it drop on my desk and bite my lip to keep from gasping.
I hear my partner shove his chair back, as he sees the look on my face. He comes around and leans over my shoulder, shaking his head. "Oh, shit."
