Law and Order SVU: Duty Calls
Chapter Eight: Masks
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Last time…Suddenly, Olivia felt the end of a gun jammed up against her temple. Her blood ran cold as she realized why his voice was familiar.
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Elliot felt his lungs burning for air as he sprinted after the shooter. Right before his eyes, Olivia's other bodyguard tackled the man to the ground. "Yes!" he hissed. He threw himself down to the ground next to the two of them as the other officer cuffed him and took his gun.
"Finally, I've got you, you bastard!" Elliot cried exuberantly, yanking off the ski mask. His rush faded instantly.
Under the mask was a young teenager, looking terrified, not a single bruise on his nose.
"What the hell? Who are you, kid?"
The boy almost started crying. "I'm really sorry! That guy told me to do it! He said he'd hurt my mom if I didn't!"
Panic began to take over Elliot. His heart began to pound frantically against his ribs. "Who! What guy told you to do it?"
"Back there! One of the police guys!"
Elliot shot to his feet. "Take this boy in! He's my witness!" he ordered a nearby officer. "You! Come on!" He grabbed Olivia's other bodyguard and took off running.
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"Not a word, Olivia. Not a single sound, not a single movement." The cold voice that had been torturing her on the phone for the past few days was now sending hot air into her ear. The hair on her neck stood on end. "Don't think I won't kill you. All the nice officers have chased my shooter off, and no one will think anything of a detective being pulled into a car by her bodyguard. There's no escape."
Olivia glanced at the injured man on the ground in front of her. He seemed to be unconscious, but she could see his heart pounding frantically under his shirt. A vein in his neck was agitated and his eyes were moving rapidly under his lids. He was definitely awake.
"Where are you taking me?" Olivia hissed desperately.
"All in good time, Olivia. All in good time. Now," he moved the gun to a more inconspicuous place. At her back. "Get up."
Olivia stood, looking around frantically. "Eyes straight ahead!" he barked in a whisper. "Walk. Your car. Now."
Olivia let out an angry breath, and walked towards the car. They stopped at the door. "Very good." With that, he yanked off her gun and handcuffs and tossed them on the ground. "You won't be needing those."
Olivia cursed inwardly.
"However, these might come in handy." He removed her radio and cell phone from her belt and tossed them onto the front seat.
"Okay. Don't move."
Suddenly, a cloth with a sweet smelling odor was shoved against her mouth and nose. Grimly she recognized chloroform. She held her breath as the world began to sway.
"I don't think so, Detective." He dug his nails into her arm, causing her to gasp in pain. As soon as she did, the chloroform rushed into her lungs, and immediately dizziness overcame her and her knees caved in. "Elliot…" she whispered as the world went black before her eyes. The last thing she felt was being thrown into the back seat, and car door slamming into her ankle.
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"God, please, no!" Elliot panted as he ran back toward the parking lot in front of the crime lab. The injured man was alone, and an ambulance was just driving up.
Elliot knelt beside him. "Where's Olivia?" he asked desperately, out of breath.
"Her bodyguard…" the man gasped painfully… "took her away…"
Elliot was about to sigh in relief, but two more words made it out of the man's mouth before he passed out.
"… at gunpoint."
Rage and frustration and guilt and fear overcame him. "NO!" he yelled furiously, tearing to his feet. "NOO!"
"Elliot!"
He whirled frantically towards the sound of the familiar voice. Munch and Fin were running towards him from their car, their light still flashing and the siren still screaming.
"Munch! Oh, god, she's gone! He's got her! It's all my fault, I shouldn't have left her alone!"
Munch paled visibly. Fin's eyes widened, and he grabbed Elliot's shoulders and shook him until he was quiet. "Elliot! Come on, now, man, calm down! Tell us what happened!"
Elliot took a deep breath, eyes wide, fighting his panic. "There was a shooting. Some kid said one of the officers told him to do it. One of the guys from the crime lab got hit. Olivia couldn't help me chase after the shooter…" he clenched his eyes shut, as if it pained him, "because her ribs hurt too much to run. She stayed after to watch over the shot officer with her other bodyguard. When I got back, she and the bodyguard was gone. The wounded guy said that her bodyguard took her away at gunpoint. Her bodyguard! The guy was a cop all along!"
Munch was shocked. "How the hell didn't Olivia notice one of her protective detail guys had a shattered nose?"
Elliot was getting slightly delirious. "She stayed the hell away from them. Ignored them. Didn't look at them. And this guy always had on dark sunglasses and a hat."
Fin's eyes was wide, furious. "Well, get in the car. We got no time to lose. We need to find out who that other guard was. You," he pointed to Olivia's other guard, "come with us. And you," he motioned to a nearby officer, "have those other uniforms bring our shooter in too, ASAP. And see if we can get some security camera footage of the parking lot! And get a CSU unit over here now!" A younger officer scurried off with the instructions.
The three began to walk swiftly towards Fin and Munch's car. Munch was already on the phone.
Elliot looked to where Olivia's car was. Fresh tire marks evidenced a quick getaway. But something else caught his eye. He felt bile rise in his throat. He swallowed, then yelled, "Munch! Fin! I need gloves!"
On the parking lot, on the yellow line was a wet cloth. One whiff told him it was chloroform. And the yellow line of the parking space was speckled with the dark maroon of blood.
"We need CSU here now," Elliot muttered as Fin and Munch ran up.
"Son of a bitch's already hurt her," Munch hissed murderously. He remembered his phone. "Yeah, Cap, I'm still here. We got chloroform and Olivia's blood. I'd get over here now."
Elliot knelt, studying the pattern of blood on the asphalt, comparing it to the tire marks. He stood, and pointed. "Ok. Tires are here. Here's the blood. Looks like he threw her into the back seat, and went to slam the door. He probably slammed her foot in the door."
"Bastard," Fin muttered. "Tell Captain to get roadblocks up. This couldn't have been more than like 15-20 minutes ago. Get Olivia's sedan tags and car picture on the news. He can't be far."
Elliot stood, and wavered a little. "Whoa, Elliot," Munch said, steadying him.
"She was drugged. She couldn't even put up a fight this time and he still slammed her foot in her own car door."
Munch clenched his jaw. "Yeah, I know, Elliot. You better get a hold of yourself before Captain yanks you off this case."
"This case is my partner!" Elliot yelled furiously. "Where the hell is CSU!"
"Chill out, Stabler," a familiar voice came. Elliot whirled, and he found himself face to face with a bruised but smirking Jordan McKinley.
"Jordan? What the hell are you doing here?"
She crossed her arms, and directed her team to around the car and the area where the other man had fallen. "I needed to work. I didn't care what my boss said. And I heard what happened, and I had to be here. Benson took a bullet for me. I may not be able to do the same, but I sure as hell make sure I'm on the crime scene crew."
Elliot sighed. "Yeah. You guys, have at it." He turned on Olivia's other bodyguard, a big, intimidating man who at the moment was pale and trembling with guilt.
"What's your name, man?"
"Officer Jim Burns."
"What's your partner's name?"
The man ran a hand through his hair, looking distressed. "I knew him as Oscar Bane. God knows if that's his real name."
Fin's head jerked up from his notebook. "Same alias as the one the he purchased the phone under."
"What was he like? How did he get put on Liv's detail?" Elliot demanded.
Jim winced. "He… requested it. Said he wanted to protect her. He was usually a quiet guy. Stayed away from people. But he was a brilliant cop though."
Elliot crossed his arms. "Maybe Olivia saw him betraying his badge. Or he thought she did. God, her own bodyguard! This is unbelievable."
"No kidding," Jim Burns said angrily. "I feel like shit! I should have stayed with her. It was my job."
Although Elliot wanted to wholeheartedly agree and pound the poor guy into the asphalt, he sucked in a breath. "Well, blaming yourself won't help Liv. You had no way of knowing. She was… she was with her other guard, and you had no reason to suspect. Plus, you caught that kid. And he could be a link."
Fin shook his head incredulously. "No wonder he knew exactly how to play us. He's a cop."
Munch slapped his forehead suddenly, shouting a curse. "And that's how he knew her cell phone number. Olivia said only other cops knew her cell. He's a cop."
Very suddenly, a black sedan screeched to a halt just outside the crime scene tape being put up around Olivia's parking spot. Captain Cragen jumped out of the car, paler and more furious than anyone had ever seen him. Novak stepped out of the passenger side, looking frazzled.
"All right, someone tell me what the hell is going on," he ordered tersely.
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The first thing she felt was pain. Coming from her ankle. If she moved even a fraction, searing pain shot up her whole leg. Had to be broken.
She was tied. No. Cuffed. Probably her own cuffs. Her arms were around a column. She could feel her ankles were tied together, too, and that was more for torture than containment. She was blindfolded. A gag was stuffed in her mouth. Tape over her mouth. Her head was throbbing, and she could feel the stickiness of blood on her ankle. Dizzy. Damn chloroform.
She shifted around. She was still dressed. Thank God.
She remained completely still, trying to figure out where she might be. There was no breeze, no birds, so she was inside somewhere. The smell of the place was slightly familiar, but stale. Old. Abandoned. It was so different than in the confines of her memory, she couldn't place it.
Elliot. She winced as the sudden thought of him made her jerk. Pain shot up her left leg. Elliot was probably going insane. Probably going to kill someone.
Even the darkness under the blindfold seemed to sway because of the aftereffects of the chloroform. Olivia swallowed a bitter wave of nausea.
She listened closely. She couldn't hear any footsteps or breathing. She was alone. For now.
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"I don't care about your damn 5:00 traffic! My detective has been kidnapped by a serial rapist whose made several attempts on her life! Move my roadblocks and I'll have you arrested for obstruction!"
Captain Cragen slammed down the phone, then ran his hands over his head. "God, Liv," he whispered to himself. It was as close to prayer as he'd been in years.
Fin burst through the doors of the crime lab. "The guys in tech were tracking her phone. The guy turned if off after the first two calls without answering. The last place they were was some back street in East Side."
Cragen crossed his arms. "They got out before the roadblocks were put up. Damn."
Munch sighed haggardly. He took his glasses off, rubbed his eyes, then replaced them. "And Liv can't help us any. He drugged her."
"Then busted her ankle. CSU confirms that it's her blood and that judging by the pattern of the blood and the placement of the tire marks that he probably did slam her foot in the door," Elliot relinquished helplessly. "God, it's my fault. I never should have left her."
"Elliot, Olivia would kill you if she knew you were blaming yourself. So stop. When she gets back, she'll kick your ass," Fin ventured.
Elliot's lips twitched, but no more than that. "What do we know about Officer" he spat the word, "Oscar Bane."
Munch answered this one. "Squeaky clean as a cop. But hardly any of the others in his precinct could tell me much about his personality or his home life. He was quiet. Kept to himself."
"Sociopath," Dr. Huang supplied. He'd arrived shortly after the news of Olivia's disappearance hit the 1-6.
"And we found out something you aren't going to like," Fin added, reluctantly.
Elliot's eyes narrowed. He didn't like the sallow look on Fin's face. Almost like… fear. "What is it, Fin?" he demanded anxiously.
Fin glanced around, and leaned in close, his eyes grim. "Bane formerly served on the bomb squad."
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Olivia cursed her training silently, as she desperately pulled against the handcuffs. Sure, they'd taught her how to get her hands out of rope, but cuffs? That was a whole different story. And though she'd tried to pull the blindfold off by rubbing her head against the column behind her, she was dismayed to find that it too was taped down.
How long had it been since she'd been snatched? Where the hell was she? What was he planning to do to her?
That one I could almost answer, she thought grimly.
She knew Elliot would find her. Munch, Fin, Captain. They'd find her. She could feel all the things she'd never told them burning her throat.
Munch, you crack me up. You're like a brother to me. Despite the jokes, the cynicism, the conspiracy theories, I always knew you cared. Without you, every case might suffocate me.
Fin, I know you'll always have my back. You're my brother, my colleague, my fellow cop. I'd be lost without you.
Captain, I've always admired you. You're like…a father to me. The father I never had. Without you, I couldn't have done the job.
Elliot. God, Elliot. I love you. I've always loved you. Sure, maybe I haven't always been IN love with you, but I've always loved you. You can complete my sentences, you always know what to say to make me feel better. You are the other half of my soul. Without you, I'd be incomplete.
Olivia sighed haggardly, wondering if she'd ever get the chance to tell them what she felt. But that was dreamland, a world of hope.
The searing pain in her ankle and the sticky blood running down her foot was reality. The bitter nausea because of chloroform was reality. The throbbing in her stitched arm, the bruise on her eye, the ache in her ribs—they were all reality. The casual, deadly deliberate footsteps sending chills down her back were reality.
"Hello, Olivia. We meet at last."
That cold voice, the hand viciously gripping her wrist, the bitter smell of his sweat and her blood… that was her reality.