Disclaimer: I do not own "Law and Order: SVU" or any of the characters that have not appeared on previous episodes.
CHAPTER ONE
DOINK-DOINK
"John, you free?"
Detective John Munch of the NYPD Special Victims Unit looked up. He had been occupied with refilling his coffee mug in hopes of getting a caffeine jolt to help him burn the night oil. His fellow detective, Elliot Stabler, was hurrying toward him, and Munch spilled the hot coffee over his hand.
"Little bastard," he said to the coffee pot. "What?"
"Just got a call from a guy who needs someone at the Descartes Lecture Hall. You up for it?" asked Elliot.
"Sure. Where's Olivia?"
"Still with that girl from Peru."
"Right. How's she doing?"
"She'll be okay. Liv's made her more comfortable, speaking Spanish with her and all that. Ready to go?"
"Okay," Munch stole one last gulp of his coffee and jammed his hat on. "Let's go. Only…"
"What?"
"It's not that guy talking about how the uninformed way is the only way, is it? He's the one who says sex education shouldn't be taught in schools…what's his name? Tobey Marks?"
"Yeah. I hope not. I'd hate to have to retrieve your flashlight from his tonsils," said Elliot as the men exited the station house.
"He's the same idiot who rambled on the radio for about an hour about the same topic. Said that kids don't need to learn about rape and assault in school because it just gives them ideas," said Munch, starting the car.
"I know, John. He's a jerk."
"And he's the same esoteric fanatic who said that if a girl gets raped, that's her problem for dressing provocatively? And he's the one who verbally attacked that girl in Virginia because she started a charity that advocates sexual assault prevention education. He called her a 'liberal floozy who just wants to be able to tell any girl it's okay to cry rape when she makes a bad judgment'. Can you believe that? The girl's only seventeen. I say good for her for doing all that. I want to just strangle that Marks guy. He's so –"
"John, shut up. I know. I can't stand him either. But he's not the one speaking tonight and that's not the point anyway," said Elliot, finally having enough of Munch's rambling. "Let's just focus on the vic, okay?"
"Okay," said Munch. "But we're agreed that Tobey Marks is a first-class dim-witted boorish rogue?"
"Yes to all of the above."
DOINK-DOINK
"Detectives Stabler and Munch, Sex Crimes," said Elliot, flashing his badge at the security guard. "What happened?"
"I don't really know. I mean, it's all confusion. The lady didn't make a lot of sense," said the guard. "I didn't think anyone here could have hurt anyone else."
"What do you mean?"
"Most of the audience tonight is disabled in one way or another. A lot of folks in wheelchairs, some blind, deaf, sick, whatever."
"Why's that?" asked Munch.
"Speaker tonight was Phillip Cornell."
"Oh yeah…that 'Re-able Yourself' guy. I read something about him. Who's the vic? Did she say what happened?"
"I dunno. She's deaf and really upset, so it was hard to understand what she was saying. She was screaming and signing at a million miles an hour, but I couldn't make any sense of it. We don't know where her translator went and most of the audience was gone by the time we got to her, so anyone who could have helped is long gone. Her name's…I dunno, Allie? Annie? Something like that. Ran over my feet with her wheelchair when I tried to take her hand."
Elliot looked at Munch and knew what he was thinking because the same thought had crossed his mind. Munch slowly took off her hat.
"Where is she now?" he asked.
"This way," said the guard. "Kinda pretty girl. Shame something like this happened."
Elliot and Munch followed the guard to a small room off of the main hallway. They could hear two voices arguing – one clear as a bell, the other slightly slurred. Munch opened the door and felt his heart stop as his fears were confirmed. There, sitting in her wheelchair, signing and yelling angrily at another security guard, was none other than Amy Solwey.
