Law and Order: SVU
Duty Calls: Chapter 9 Family TiesXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Elliot felt the temperature of the room drop several degrees. The four of them were silent, stunned. Time almost slowed to allow their fear to get its foothold.
"Oh, god," Elliot whispered. "What the hell are we up against!"
"We're up against a sociopath with a strange fixation on Olivia with knowledge and probably access to explosives. A dirty cop can get almost anything he wants." Huang observed grimly. "So when you guys find where he has Olivia, you better walk on eggshells. Because if he even feels the least bit threatened…" he trailed off. The three detectives nodded.
"The question is," Fin said, fighting for his cool, "how do we go about finding where he is?"
Cragen sighed haggardly. "Olivia's picture is all over the 11:00 nightly news, alone with her license plate numbers and a photo of her car."
Munch crossed his arms. "I don't think this guy is one to make mistakes like that. Even if they find the car, the might be a dead end. He knows exactly all the things we'll do to try and find her, and he'll block us every way."
Elliot crossed himself, unashamed, and met eyes with all of his colleagues. His brothers. "Then that means we're counting on divine intervention. That or Olivia waking up. Maybe both."
Suddenly, one of the crime lab techs came bursting through the double doors. One of them put a little dent in the wall.
Elliot whirled on him. "What is it! What have you found!"
The young man looked puzzled and nervous all at once. "We've got prints off the perps phone. He must have slipped up once. But they're a 4 point match to someone in the computer."
Elliot's eyes lit up at that piece of evidence. "Bane?" he demanded hopefully, eager to give it to Novak to fuel the fire.
The tech frowned. "Whose Bane? The prints are Benson's!"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Olivia felt her body stiffen in reflex to being near the abhorrent creature who had tortured her for so long. And more than anything, she hated the gag in her mouth. She wanted to mouth off to him bad. What did she have to lose? She'd already had the crap beaten out of her, and he'd never shown desire to kill her. Well. He was probably just biding his time.
Only a low, muffled growl came from her throat.
"I really didn't mean to slam your ankle in the door," his voice was slithery smooth. Calculating. "But it's convenient for me. It means you won't get away."
Olivia wanted so bad to appear confident, but she knew she couldn't. Busted ankle. Busted shoulder. Sore ribs. Black eye. Gag, blindfold, cuffs, ropes. She was utterly helpless.
Knowing this, she gave him no response. No sound, no movement.
She heard him move, but she couldn't even brace herself before he ripped the tape from her mouth and jerked the gag from her mouth. She winced in pain, but her lips twisted in a scowl.
"You'll never get away with this!" she hissed furiously, wishing she could see what she was dealing with. "They'll find you. And if you kill me, you'll get the needle, you bastard!"
"Now, Olivia. Is that anyway to speak to your own flesh and blood?"
In an instant, he ripped the blindfold, jerking some of her hair out with it. When her eyes adjusted, Olivia found herself looking into her own eyes.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Elliot grabbed the scrawny first year tech by his collar and lifted him off the ground, flashes of red clouding his eyes. The guy's eyes widened, and he slapped at Elliot's hands desperately.
"What are you saying, you little prick!" Elliot snarled.
"Elliot!" Cragen bellowed. "Put him down, NOW!"
Elliot sucked in a breath through his teeth. He put the guy down, and walked off, rubbing his hair restlessly.
"Bane is our suspect," Fin supplied as Dr. Huang moved to calm Elliot. "Did you compare the prints to him?"
The poor guy was shaking. "I… I didn't know about a suspect."
"Okay, it's not your fault," Fin said calmly. "Just get your superior so we can have a second opinion okay? You did fine."
The tech tried to regain a sense of formality. He straightened his lab coat, and stood up straight. "Okay. Follow me."
Dr. Huang and Elliot were left alone. Elliot was breathing hard, clutching his head with his hands.
"I can't do this, Doc. I would have killed that kid, I know it. I can't hold it together. God, what if he's killed her already? I already know she's hurt, and I can't do a damn thing, and I can't take it!" he ranted.
Dr. Huang put a hand on his arm. "Calm down, Elliot. Take deep breaths."
"Doc, you don't understand. I love her!"
A slow, strained smile spread across the oriental man's thin lips. "I know, Elliot."
Elliot froze. He turned slowly. "What?"
"I said I know. I'm a psychiatrist. But I think everyone can see it, Elliot. Everyone but you and Olivia for the longest time."
Elliot was stunned. "It was that obvious?"
Dr. Huang nodded, the ghost of a smile still playing on his lips.
Just like that his rage was gone. Though he was still worried about Olivia so much it was causing him physical pain, a weight was lifted off his shoulders. But he couldn't focus on that. Not with Olivia in danger.
Dr. Huang moved to follow the others in to the crime lab. Elliot stopped him.
"Doc, something is really bothering me about this guy. Why would a cop, who knows exactly how to stay under the radar, drop his phone, leave a print on it, and use his own name in buying it?"
Dr. Huang froze. He thought for a moment, and when he turned back to face Elliot, his face was pale. "He wouldn't. Honestly, I think the print must have been a mistake. But using his own name? It sounds almost like he wants you to find him. It also sounds like he doesn't fear you in the least. It's taunting. Daring. Reckless. Almost like a man not afraid to die." His narrow Asian eyes widened just slightly. "You guys better hurry. I bet he's planning to kill himself and Olivia. Right in time for you guys to get there to see it all."
The theory made Elliot's blood run cold. "Then we just have to get ahead of him. Somehow. Now let's see this print."
The two of them entered the lab, and found a senior lab technician typing on a computer. The first year tech was hovering over his shoulder, with Munch shooting him annoyed glares.
"Here we have the print on the phone. A thumb print. And here we have Detective Benson's and here is Oscar Bane's." The senior technician narrated as he pointed, clicked, and typed.
"If you compare, there are 4 points on the print that match Detective Benson. But there are 7 that match Bane."
Elliot could feel his head swimming. "What does that mean?"
The technician looked up, his eyebrows knit together, nonplussed. "It means they're related."
The SVU boys all paled instantly. Elliot locked eyes with the other three. Fin's brown eyes were swimming with anger. Cragen's were filled with guilt. And behind Munch's glasses was silent, grim acceptance.
Elliot felt all of these emotions, but the only one that showed in his eyes was raw anguish. He could only imagine the agony in Olivia's heart when she found out.
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Any daring defiance she had died in Olivia's throat as she looked up into the face of her kidnapper. Her attacker. The rapist.
Her father.
"That's right," he sneered, enjoying how her eyes widened and her mouth dropped. "I'm your father, Olivia."
She couldn't speak. She had his eyes. The same piercing, dark, brash eyes. The narrow nose. The olive skin tone. Even his actions proved the heredity. He was daring, cunning, even reckless. Just like her.
Only… he was a criminal. She was a cop.
Fire lit her eyes. "You're not my father!" she snarled. "You may have given me half my chromosomes, but you'll never be my father!" With that, she reared back and spit in his face. Instantly, he backhanded her, sending her head crashing into the column. The world shook in front of her eyes, but the fire didn't die.
"I wouldn't think twice of arresting you and seeing you rot on Death Row!"
The man's lips curved into a wicked smile. "You? Arrest me?" With that, he reached into his jacket, and pulled out his badge.
"Seems law enforcement runs in both our veins," he hissed in her ear. He tossed the badge into her lap.
Officer Oscar Bane: Protective Services"You're a dirty cop." The words fell like a guillotine from Olivia's pursed lips. Fury and shame washed over her like tsunamis, and she felt physically sick. And it wasn't because of chloroform.
"They were going to make me retire, Olivia. But they didn't know about you. Raping Serena was my one indiscretion. And they never found out, I made sure of that. I was a good cop. My first few years, I was a detective with the larceny division. But it wasn't exciting enough. So I transferred to the bomb squad. I was on the bomb squad at my precinct for 23 years, Olivia. And I was the best. But a year ago, I got sent to a bomb threat at a middle school. I thought it was fake. But still, I looked everywhere. I didn't find a thing. But the next day, a homemade bomb went off in the floor of the girls' bathroom. Two girls were killed, another burned so bad she would be permanently disfigured. I was the lead on the case. They blamed me. Said to prepare my retirement plans because in a year, I'd be gone. They moved me to Protective Services for the last year, and said I'd still retire with a good name if I did my job."
A strange emotion started to itch in the deepest corner of Benson's heart. She remembered that explosion. It was all over the news. She almost… she almost pitied him.
"I'd known about you for years. I came to your mother's funeral to see the threat to my reputation be burned forever. I saw you there. I thought when she died, my troubles were over."
"You did that to her, you bastard!" Olivia accused, her voice soft and shaking. "If you'd never raped her, she'd have never started drinking, and she'd still be alive! She never would have fallen down those stairs!"
"If I never raped her, you'd have never lived, Olivia. And besides. Serena was drunk, but she didn't fall."
Olivia froze.
He knelt, and the eyes so much like her own burned into hers, like the very fires of hell. "It was so easy, Olivia. She never even saw me. All I had to do was brush past her when she walked by the stairwell. She went tumbling. I kept walking. No one even saw me touch her. Not in the subway. Everyone in New York just keeps walking. Minding their own business. I was on a train before anyone even saw her hit the landing."
Tears of rage stung at Olivia's eyes, but she blinked them back. "You… monster! You swore to protect and serve!"
"And I did, Olivia! For 30 years, I protected! I served! And for what! A pink slip and an imitation watch! I did my job for 30 years, and I only made once mistake! I got junk and raped your mother. I didn't even remember it until a week later. But I didn't care. She was just some junkie back then. No one knew, and no one cared! But after that explosion, I had to protect and serve myself, because no one else gave a damn."
Olivia was unmoved. "Why Jordan? Why Latisha? Why terrorize the female police officers! They did nothing to you!"
Oscar Bane's eyes narrowed, and his pupils dilated slowly before her eyes. "You're wrong, Olivia. Women have been the bane of my life." He chuckled darkly at his own pun. "A woman was a threat to my reputation, my job. And then, my lieutenant, a woman, forced me to retire. She had a female ADA on her side; the bitch threatened me with depraved indifference if I didn't comply. And then there was you, Olivia. You are the only thing that could stop me from dying with a clear reputation."
Olivia's eyes widened. "Are you insane! Dying by lethal injection for murder, rape, and attempted murder of a police officer will definitely leave a mark on your rep!"
His smile was cold, cruel. "You forget Olivia, that you are the only one who knows about your mother's murder. And you won't get the chance to tell, I'm afraid. And I wasn't referring to execution. Look around, dear Detective."
For the first time since the blindfold was torn from her eyes, Olivia took her eyes off of the man in front of her and took in her surroundings.
It was a tiny, old house. Abandoned for years. All furniture and decorations were absent. Only walls, floors, dust and cobwebs made up the bare home. The smell was old and stale but somehow familiar. The windows were blocked.
Suddenly, she recognized where she was. "This was my mother's house," she whispered, as the irony and the memories, good and bad, washed over her.
"Yes. And this house is wired with many small explosives. We will both die here, Olivia. Father and daughter. And no one will be able to say anything more than I was your bodyguard desperately trying to disable the bombs threatening your life."
Fear threatened to suffocate her. Her words were hoarse. Desperate. "You're insane! My friends will find you. They'll stop you. And you'll rot in prison waiting on your needle while your precious name is torn to shreds."
He smiled, enjoying her fear, her hollow threats. "Well, darling daughter. You're right about one thing. They are going to find us. Eventually."
With that, he reached into his other pocket and pulled out a remote. Olivia's eyes widened and her breath was stolen as his thumb lingered over the button.