Life Among the Dead
-by Baron Karza von Karnstein
-dedicated to Diane Neal
N.B. I do not own any of these characters. Dick Wolf owns all the SVU characters. Joel Soiβons and Patrick Luβier own the Dracula II: Ascension characters.
I
"John!"
Munch looked up from his desk.
"Casey!" he responded in a low, almost hushed, voice, as he rose. "Come this way, please!"
"What's going on John?" asked Casey as Munch led her to the hallway between the interrogation rooms from which the insides of these rooms could be seen from the one-way mirrors, "What's with all the cloak and dagger stuff?"
"You'll see!" responded Munch.
Munch opened the door to the hallway and indicated that Casey should enter. Once she had, he followed her and closed the door behind him.
Cragen, Elliot, Liv, Fin and Huang were waiting in the hallway.
"Guys, what's going on?" asked Casey, a quizzical and concerned look on her face.
"Counselor," began Cragen, "We have a problem. Could you tell us where you were between eight-thirty last night and five-forty-five this morning?"
Casey was perplexed by the Captain's question, but she responded immediately.
"I got home at nine, made myself a sandwich and turned on the TV. I fell asleep halfway through the late night show, and I woke up around seven this morning…"
"When did you leave the office?" asked Elliot.
"Around eight-fifteen…"
"Did you drive home?"
"No, my car's in the garage. Brake problems. I took a cab."
"The usual company the DA's office uses?"
"Yes…"
"Can anyone verify that you were home from nine until you came in this morning?" asked Fin.
"No…I was alone. But the security camera at my place should have picked me up as I came in and as I left. They should have a time stamp. And the security camera at the office should have me leaving last night and coming in this morning…
"But guys, why are you asking me this? What's wrong?"
"You know the Fenet case?" responded Cragen, looking down, "The guy we liked for it, Benjamin Kun?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, Kun just came in, and confessed to the whole thing. Completely waived off his Miranda rights, signed the form to that effect, and wrote out a full confession, which matches everything… forensics, what Josephine Fenet said, everything!"
"So?"
"The Microtome Man." interceded Liv, referring to the on-going—at least Casey, up to this moment, believed it to be on-going—investigation into the rape/sodomy/murder of five teenage blonde runaways who, after they had been so brutally violated and debased, had had their throats slit by a microtome blade of the type used to slice specimens to produce sections for pathology slides.
Liv went on "There is this highly esteemed Chairman of Pathology at the local medical school named Professor Howard Kaganovich who just came in and, just like Kun, waived his Miranda rights, signed the form, and wrote out a full confession, all of which matches all the forensics to a T—EVEN the details we didn't release to the media. Not only that, but he also told us that where we could find the bodies of his thirty other victims from New York."
The room fell silent.
"OK…" Casey finally started "What do Kun and Kaganovich's confessions have to do with my whereabouts last night?"
Elliot took in a deep breath. Finally, he responded.
"Both of them were scared shitless when they came in, Casey." he declared. "Not only that, but when we read them their rights and strongly advised them to seek counsel, they started screaming. Kun grabbed Fin and begged—I mean REALLY begged him—not to call in a lawyer. He said he just wanted to confess and 'be done with it.' "
"Kaganovich knocked back his chair" stated Munch, "and started hitting the table so hard he left dents in it. He also screamed 'PLEASE! PLEASE! JUST DO WHAT I SAY!' "
"And you…took their confessions nevertheless?" asked Casey. "You didn't think that something might be fishy here, the way they were reacting?"
"What they told us matched the forensics perfectly." answered Cragen "And with Kun, like I said, everything he said dovetails perfectly with what Josephine Fenet told us.
"But, I had my doubts about them, after they reacted to their Miranda warnings, too. So, I locked up the confessions, and I called in Huang to make sure that they were capable of understanding what they were copping to."
"I talked to them," began Huang on cue, "Both are extremely agitated, scared out of their wits as Elliot said. They are both aware of the seriousness of what they admitted to, but there is something that terrifies both of them far, FAR more than a needle in the arm…"
"Yeah?" Casey prompted after a tense silent ensued when Huang hesitated.
"Casey," continued Huang, "Both of them said that you visited them last night, and that you threatened to send them to an eternal hell if they didn't confess…"
"What?"
"There's more…Howard Kaganovich was hyperventilating when I talked to him. He loosed up his tie, and he opened his collar. I saw, he had these fresh puncture wounds on the left side of his neck. When I asked him about it, his agitation increased ten times. When I asked to see them, and made to look at them, he shoved me away and covered his neck. He knocked back the chair, and backtracked to the corner of the room, and he just squatted there, left hand over his neck, right hand flailing out, eyes as wild as if he was on meth…"
"Kun told us the same thing." added Elliot. "And he was as physical when Huang asked if he could see his neck. Just like Kaganovich, he hauled ass to the corner of the room and just squatted there, eyes coming out of their sockets. And there's more…"
"What?"
Elliot exhaled as he looked down.
"This morning, I got a call from a Marine Corps buddy of mine who's a CO at Rikers. Do you remember Nina Zegrin's brother?"
Casey hissed in a sharp intake of breath as the memory of that horrible assault came flooding back.
Elliot seemed to ignore her. "He was found with his throat slashed at five-twenty this morning. His cellmate said he did it. He even had a shiv with Zegrin's blood on it. Said Zegrin tried to rape him. But, the CO who found him said the cellmate looked like he had just seen a ghost. And, the prisoners on that block all said they heard Zegrin's screams. One of them in a cell just opposite Zegrin's said he thought he saw a woman with long red hair dressed in black from neck to toe just walk into Zegrin's cell."
Casey had recovered her composure.
"A woman…just walked through the bars of a locked cell?" she asked.
"That's what the prisoner said."
A silence fell on the hallway. Casey lost her force, and began to fall back against the wall. Huang and the detectives made as if to try and help her.
"No, no! I'm OK!" assured Casey. "It's all just…so unbelievable! I don't understand…"
"None of us do, Casey." said Cragen. "I know you didn't do any of these things, and I know the security tapes and your place and the office will back you up. Besides, Kun and Kaganovich were at opposite ends of the city at the time they said you attacked them last night. No way you could have showed up at both their places and at Rikers within the timeline.
"But, both Kun and Kaganovich identified you specifically. Their exact words, in both cases, were 'That lady DA that got beat up a couple months ago.' So, you can see why we're concerned."
"I mean," took over Elliot "Since they both confessed and refused their right to counsel, we could have just let them go to arraignment and have the judge sentence them there. But, with the publicity over the Microtome Man, if ever what Kaganovich said got out…you would be in a tight spot."
"Never mind that, Elliot!" responded Casey. "That's the least of my concerns! I mean…"
Casey had dropped her briefcase when she fell backwards against the wall. Now, her forearms shot out in front of her, and began to flicker inwards and outwards.
"Who…or what was it that attacked these three men? And why did she, or it, look like me?"
"Do you have a twin sister who happens to be a vampire?" asked Munch.
"Munch!" barked Cragen, "This is no time for your conspiracy theories!"
"No, no, John, I don't have a twin sister!" Casey seemed not to have heard Cragen, but her eye muscles contracted. What Munch had just said had turned on a light.
"What is it, honey?" Olivia had noticed Casey's reaction to Munch's question.
Casey took in a deep breath, closed her eyes and exhaled. Then, she slowly opened her eyes again.
"I had this cousin named Lizzie…Elizabeth Blaine. She was a medical student at one of the med schools in Louisiana…"
"And?" asked Fin after Casey hesitated.
Casey looked up at Fin, looked him directly in the eyes.
"She disappeared without a trace three years ago…Apparently her lover, one of her professors, died as a result of some experimentation, as did a couple of Lizzie's friends. The only one, it seems, who survived that experiment, disappeared without a trace as well."
"So?" asked Elliot.
Casey turned to him. Then, she reached down into her briefcase, and pulled out her wallet. She flipped it open, and pulled a picture from the plastic. She handed the picture to Elliot. The other detectives and Huang crowded around Elliot to have a look.
"That was taken in Panama City, Florida during spring break in 1999." commented Casey. I'm wearing the tee that says 'Harvard Law.' Lizzie has the tank top that says 'Property of the LSU Athletic Department.' "
"Oh God!" exclaimed Elliot.
"What? What is it?" asked Cragen, who did not have a clear view of the photograph from where he was.
Elliot handed the photograph to him. Cragen's eyes widened as he suddenly and reflexively inspired.
Elizabeth Blaine was a spitting image of Casey Novak.