In the criminal justice system…. sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous; in New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit…. these are their stories….
The city of New York holds many criminals. Among the worst is a man feared by all. The highest-ranking crime lord for many years, he has gathered many allies. Not once could he be directly tied to any crime. Not once was anyone willing to testify against him from fear; until the slip was made.
" Hey, what's going on?" Detective Stabler walked into the squad room with Olivia close behind him.
" Didn't interrupt your beauty sleep, did we?" Elliot smiled at Fin across the room and looked over to Cragen.
" I'm sorry to call all of you in here at this time of night, but we just received a fax from another precinct. You know the killings that have been going on lately? Well, they just informed me that they think they know who is behind it. A man from their department will be coming over with all their files on the case in a few minutes. We are immediately taking charge of the investigation."
" No offense meant, Captain, but why couldn't you have told us this in the morning?"
" Stop whining John." Fin looked at the captain. " Are you gonna give us any details now?"
Looking behind them, Cragen shrugged. " I don't have to." The rest of them turned and saw a young officer rush in, dripping from the pouring rain outside.
" I have several cases of files for the SVU squad."
" Yes, just bring them in here and put them on the floor."
The young man nodded, put down his box at Cragen's feet and turned to retrieve the rest.
After the younger officer had left, the boxes were transferred to an interview room where a board was set up. Olivia, Elliot, John, and Fin sat at the table across from the captain who was standing on the opposite side, writing on the board.
" Netro Cantanova?" Olivia looked at the name on the board. " Who's he?"
" That's what we need to find out. Each of you, take a box and write down any important facts on the board. I'll come back to check on you in an hour."
Papers lay scattered over the table as they were taken out of the box, read, and discarded into one of two piles, "Useful Information" or, as Munch called it, " The Useless Crap". Occasionally someone got up and wrote on the board, but it was mostly silent.
" Man." Elliot sat back in his chair, rubbing his hands over his eyes. The others followed suit and sat back. " This guy is unbelievable."
" He's a crime lord. No matter how many times he kills, he gets away with it." Olivia glanced at the board. " Of course a lot of the time one of the members of his 'inner circle' did the actual killing."
" Yeah, but for once there's no definite pattern to his movements. He dabbles in every crime that has ever existed. People, I've read, will pay huge amounts for what they call, 'protection'. Supposedly this guy has a close circle of people he actually speaks to, then word is passed down to lesser cronies." Munch put down the file he had been reading from.
" He owns a series of nightclubs and other organizations. He has more money than he knows what to do with. However, nobody seemed able to come up with an adequate description of him until this picture was taken by an undercover cop two years ago at one of the nightclubs." Olivia held up a picture. " This is him." She pointed to a man seated in a chair on the balcony overlooking the dance floor.
" That's hardly what I'd call a good picture. It's dark and you can hardly make out the guy."
Olivia glanced at Munch before pulling out an envelope. " Yeah, but these are more pictures. The same guy took them. As each one was taken with a camera that was hidden in his jacket material, it was transferred to a computer and printed out, which is lucky because, Netro knew. Once the pictures stopped coming another undercover cop confirmed that the guy had been shot."
Elliot sat forward in his chair and looked at the pictures spread over the table. " Here are others that were in my file. Same situation, it was dark, you can hardly make anything out. The cop that took these pictures I found, was assumed dead."
They all stared at the pictures for a few minutes before Olivia spoke. " Look." They all looked at where she pointed in several pictures. " That girl. She can't be that old, but she's on the balcony with him. Obviously a member of his inner circle and," Olivia pointed to a picture where Netro had stood and, unlike his whores, was kissing the girl's head gently before walking away, " he seems to actually care about her."
" Hold on a second." Fin looked through the papers on the table and took one, reading it. " That girl is probably what he refers to as his daughter, Avita Cantanova." He pushed a snapshot of a young girl to the center of the table.
" Are they actually related?" Munch picked up the picture and studied it before passing it to Olivia.
" No. He legally adopted her twelve years ago, look."
" You mean he actually did something legal?" Elliot took the file that Fin passed to him. " This girl was three when he adopted her which means she's fifteen now, right?"
" Fifteen?" Olivia took the file and read. " You're saying a fifteen year old girl he calls his daughter is included in the stuff he does?"
" Not only included. She helps." Munch placed a paper down on the table. " Roughly six months ago a cop came upon Avita and Netro interrogating an undercover agent at gunpoint. Once they saw him, Netro ran and Avita, who had been holding the gun, I quote " smiled and shot first the officer then myself"."
" Quote? So the guy lived?"
" Surprisingly, yes. Avita is very good with guns, but apparently, that day she was in a hurry and missed his heart."
" So what do we do? How are we supposed to catch this guy and why us?"
" Because there are alleged clues that Netro Cantanova has been having sex with a minor." The detectives looked over as their captain entered the interview room.
" Sex with a minor?" Olivia stood up. " Any idea who?"
" Yes, that's what's disturbing. His daughter."