Chapter 20 - Munch
Lyrics by Simple Plan - Shut Up
Try to tell me what I shouldn't do
You should know by now I won't listen to you
So shut up, shut up, shut up
Don't wanna hear it
Get out, get out, get out
Get out of my way
Step up, step up, step up
You'll never stop me
Nothing you say today
Is gonna bring me down
Don't tell me who I should be
And don't try to tell me what's right for me
Don't tell me what I should do
I don't want to waste my time
I'll watch you fade away
So shut up, shut up, shut up
Don't wanna hear it
Get out, get out, get out
Get out of my way
Step up, step up, step up
You'll never stop me…
Munch
I could still feel the eyes of my partner and captain boring into me long after Olivia had gone into Elliot's room. I knew they thought I was insane for bringing her in here and talking her into seeing him, but I didn't care. I did what I thought was best. Or at least, what I think I thought was best. I was still unsure if I did the right thing. I supposed my reasoning had a lot to do with the guilt I was feeling and the guilt Olivia was expressing. No matter what, the damage, assuming there was any, was already done.
"You think something's wrong? She's been in there awhile." I was pulled from my thoughts by Fin's voice. I started to answer, but quickly stopped once I realized he wasn't talking to me, but Cragen. I quietly sighed as I went to face them again. The slight accusation in his voice was all too obvious to me.
Cragen stared at the door, appearing to be studying it. A look of uncertainty settled on his frowning face as he made a decision. He was completely silent as his hand wrapped around the doorknob and pulled.
Just as quiet, Fin and I followed in one after the other with me pulling up the rear. As the three of us filed into the room, our stares instantly focused on the bed.
Elliot was on his back, fast asleep, with Olivia next to him, lying on her side, facing us, asleep as well. Her head was against his chest, slowly rising and falling with each breath Elliot took. His arms were around her shoulders, as if protecting her. Something neither of us was able to do the night she was attacked.
Watching the scene in front of me, my stomach twisted into knots – knots of guilt.
I felt guilt for accusing Elliot, for attacking him, for yelling at anyone that got in my way, for having to doubt Olivia, for dragging her here, and for not being able to prevent this from happening in the first place. It may not have been rational, that's the last thing adjective anyone would use to describe me anyway, but I felt like this was my fault. Not just Elliot being in the hospital, but everything. All I could think was that this is all my fault.
"Come on John. You can't blame yourself for this." My eyes were torn away from Elliot and Olivia by the sound of Fin's voice. "It's not your fault."
For a moment, I stared at him with a deer-in-the-headlights look. It was like he'd just read my mind. Though we thought alike, I don't think he'd ever been able to pinpoint what I was thinking.
"Since when did you become a psychic?" I joked, as if I hadn't just slipped up a second ago and shown him a vulnerable side of me. I quickly built up my comedic wall again.
"How long have I been your partner?" He raised an eyebrow in that creepy way I'd grown so accustomed to.
"Too long…" I sighed, turning my gaze back to Olivia's placid face. This was the first time she seemed so peaceful and composed since she stumbled into my house at two in the morning a few days ago.
"You guys up to working?" Cragen turned to us, his hands in his pocket and authority written all over his face.
Fin and I first looked at Cragen, listening as he spoke. Once he was finished, we glanced at each other. One moment of reading each other's faces and we both turned back and nodded.
Fifteen minutes later, my partner and I were already at Olivia's apartment building. I wasn't sure how much luck we'd have finding anything out, but no one could have been more determined than me.
"Where should we start?" Fin wondered aloud as we bounded up the front steps.
"Her apartment," I flatly stated. As we continued, I steadily increased my pace until I was almost flying over the stairs and floor. Once we finally got to her apartment, Fin was trailing behind, slightly panting from having to keep up with me. Normally, he probably would have yelled at me with some smart-ass comment, but today he said nothing.
"You think it's unlocked?" He breathlessly asked me.
No, I answered sarcastically in my head. Even after someone broke into her apartment and raped her, Olivia still managed to lock her front door before she left. Instead of saying my thoughts, I bit my tongue and responded by twisting the knob and effortlessly shoving the door open.
--XXX--
After a good half-hour or so of searching through Olivia's apartment, we didn't really find anything. I'd noticed blood on her bed sheets and an image of her face covered in those cuts flashed in my mind. I'm not sure what I was expecting to find really, a three by five snapshot of the guy and a written confession? We already had the guy's DNA. That was a lot more than we would have had in most cases.
"D'you find anything?" Fin and I met in the living room.
I shook my head. "Other than dusting for prints on the doorknob, I don't think we're going to find anything."
Fin's eyebrows suddenly scrunched up in thought, like he'd just been hit with the realization of something.
"What?" I had barely gotten the word in before he took off towards the front door. I quickly high-tailed it after him, not sure how far we were going. Luckily, he stopped in the hallway, right outside the doorway. "What is it?" I repeated.
"The doorknob." He pushed the door back far enough so that he could get to the front. Sitting on the back of his heels as he squat down, he looked at the keyhole in the center of the cheap gold-colored knob. "I knew it!" He announced triumphantly.
"What?" I leaned over, almost laying my chin on his shoulder as I stared at it, trying to see what he saw. "What do you see?"
"Nothing," he half-smiled.
"I knew you were too tired to think straight," I breathed, rising back up.
"Think about," he ordered me. "You know Olivia would always lock her door, considering," he started.
"Yeah," I shrugged, still indifferent and not putting two and two together.
Fin rolled his eyes and stood back up. "So how'd he get in?"
I instantly knew where he was going with this, but I still didn't see the big deal. "He picked the lock or something," I shrugged. "It's not that hard."
"That's what I thought." He pointed back at the doorknob. "But this lock hasn't been picked. It hasn't even been touched."
"Then how'd he get in?" I didn't even bother to question him. He knew a lot more about that kind of stuff then I did.
"How do you get in your house after you lock the front door?" He folded his arms and glared at me
"A key." It clicked instantaneously. "He had a key to her apartment."
Fin nodded and an obvious look crossed his face. "Glad to see you're still sharp."
"I'll pretend I didn't hear that," I said in a warning tone, knowing full well that I was the last person Fin would ever be scared of.
"Right, so who would have a key to her apartment?" We both needed only seconds to answer that.
"The super," we said in unison.
"So where to first?" Fin followed me as I started walking down the hall.
"To see if we have any witnesses." I knocked on the door of the apartment next to Olivia's. "Hello! Is anyone home?"
"Who is it?" The door opened a few inches and was suddenly halted by a sliding lock, leaving enough room to reveal a young woman on the other side. Her blonde hair lay on her shoulders in curls around her deeply tanned face. She had to be in her early twenties, if that.
"Detective Munch and Tutuola with the New York City Police." I flashed my badge at her. "We just want to ask you a few questions about an assault that took place in this building a few days ago."
"Ah, sure." Flustered, she closed the door and I heard the sound of metal scraping as she unlocked her door and opened it again. "Come in."
Her apartment was completely bare. There was a small love seat in the middle of the living room, facing a TV set propped up on a brown cardboard moving box. Everything else was in matching boxes, like she's just moved in.
"I'm sorry there's really no place to sit," she waved her arm around, "but I just moved in a week ago and things have been really hectic."
"Did you just put that lock on your door?" Fin was admiring the door.
"Yeah." She nodded, sending her blonde hair bouncing. "I didn't think I needed it, but I met the woman in the next apartment over. Olivia, I think her name was. She saw me in the hallway when I first moved in and helped me with some of my boxes. We got to talking and she told me she was a cop and said I should get another lock for my door. Can't be to careful, right?" She smiled, her personality bubbling.
I just wish Olivia would have followed her own advice, I sighed to myself.
"Were you here on Tuesday night?" I pulled my note pad out.
She thought a moment before answering. "No." She blushed. "I was at my boyfriend's."
"Between mid-night and two?" Fin asked her.
She nodded, confirming the fact that she couldn't have heard anything. "Is that all?" She turned to me, as if wanting to be of more help.
"That's all," I smiled politely. "Thanks for your help." Just as I turned to leave, another question came to mind. "Actually, there is something else. Do you know where we could find the superintendent?"
"Yeah." She smiled and leaned out into the hallway and pointed. "Right at the end of the hallway. The last door on right."
Fin and I thanked her and let ourselves out.
"Pretty convenient," I remarked once the girl was out of earshot.
"Let's go visit Mr. Superintendent," Fin suggested.
"Hello? Is anyone home?" It took me only seconds to fly over to the apartment room door that we'd been directed to. When no one answered, I placed my ear against the door, straining to hear if anyone was inside. Sure enough, I heard shuffling around inside. "NYPD!" I growled. "Open up!"
"John!" Fin hissed at me. "It's not like we're arresting anyone!"
"Not yet," I retaliated, knocking at the door again.
"Hold on please!" A woman's pleading voice came from inside the apartment, freezing my hand in mid-air. I turned to Fin, confusion on my face. I suddenly heard metallic noises followed by the creaking of the door opening. "Hello?" I found myself standing face to face with a woman in her thirties with a black eye, leaning on a pair of crutches. "Can I help you?"
"Hi, we're with the New York City Police." Fin politely greeted her while I remained silent and somewhat in shock. "We're looking for the superintendent of this building."
"That's me, Molly Bates," a look of uncertainty across her face still. "Can I help you?" She repeated, flipping her dark brunette hair out of her face. "Wait, is this about Brent? Did you find that sonofabitch?" She demanded, anger piercing her every word.
"Who's Brent?" I asked her, coming out of my temporary coma.
She rolled her tongue under her bottom lip, obviously becoming very aggravated and annoyed by us. "So you're not here about him," she groaned. When she was only met by silence, she spoke again. "The bastard was my boyfriend."
"What happened?" Fin asked her.
She scoffed, as if she thought he didn't really care. "This happened." She motioned to her leg and black eye. "We come here after dinner this past Tuesday and he starts making a move on me. I tell him no, and he flips. Sonofabitch starts throwing me against the wall like a rag doll. After he got bored of beating the crap out of me, he ran off."
"When did he leave?" A memory of Fin telling me that Huang said he'd have an abuser profile came to my mind immediately.
"I don't know. I was unconscious about five minutes into it. When I came to, my wallet and keys were missing."
"Your keys?" I repeated. "Keys to what?"
"My car, my apartment, my job-"
"Your master key to all the rooms?" Fin interrupted her. He was on the exact same path as I was.
She nodded. "Now the bastard's still out there somewhere. The police never found him. I'm having security cameras installed at all the entrances and hallways tomorrow, police suggestion."
"Is this him?" Fin picked a picture frame off of the coffee table right next to the door.
"Yeah. I was just getting around to burning those."
"Do you mind if we take this with us?"
"Go ahead."
Fin glanced from the picture up to me, his face pale. He handed the frame to me.
As soon as I looked down, I felt my face lose all color as well. On the left was Molly, all smiles, with her arm arounda man who easily could have been Elliot's twin.
