Disclaimer: do not own any of the SVU characters. pouts
A/N: thanks for all the help viol8dbyalizzard! and for everyone else who reviewed! (by the way, onlyonceinforever yes I finally posted it!)
St. Patrick's Hospital, 11th Avenue. Wednesday, March 3rd.
Fin and Munch walked up to Karen's room, only to find that Elliot and Olivia were already there with the Assistant District Attorney, Casey Novak. "What's going on?" Fin asked.
"Karen Barley has a Living Will," Casey told them. "She says if she has a less then ten percent chance of waking up, she wants the plug pulled right away."
"So, you can stop it right?" Elliot asked.
"I can try, and get it delayed, but there's no guarantee that I can stop it," Casey told them.
"You try and stop it, and I'll fight you to the teeth and bone," a woman, dressed in a black pants suit with a cream yellow colored shirt, told Casey.
"And who are you?" she asked the woman.
"I'm Jacqueline Jackson, Ms. Barley's legal representative," Jacqueline told her. "And if you try and stop this, I'll see you in court."
"You can't pull the plug," Fin told her. "She was just raped; she could still have evidence on her."
"So just because she's unconscious, she is denied her rights?" Jacqueline asked innocently.
"That's not what he said," Casey told her.
"I think it will be up to Judge Wheeler to determine that." Jacqueline handed Casey some blue papers and said, "I can't wait to see you in court."
As Jacqueline walked away, Casey gave Fin an annoyed look. "Thanks, now she's going to try and get Judge Wheeler to think that the police only see her client has evidence and is trying to take her rights."
"You can't just let them kill her, though," Fin said.
"She has a Living Will," Olivia told him, "it's perfectly legal."
"That's bullshit," Fin said taking one last glance at Karen's pale, fragile, lifeless body, before storming off.
Olivia sighed; this job could be hard and demanding sometimes. They had to deal with more things then any other person, and they always had to not let it get personal, even though that was hard to do. She understood where Fin's concern was coming from, but also knew he was starting to take this personally and how badly that could turn out.
"So, what did you find out about the ex?" Elliot asked Munch.
"He's a star reporter, and his editor says that Karen only came into his office once, six or seven months ago," Munch informed him. "However, a copyboy told us that Ron had seen her while he was on report."
"So?" Olivia asked.
"So, Karen tried to avoid him, but Ron tried to get her attention."
"Sounds like Ron did something to make Karen uncomfortable around him," Elliot said.
"What did you find out with the kid?" Munch asked.
"She said her mom and dad got along fine at Parents' Day," Olivia told him. "However, that was five weeks ago."
"Around the same time the mom got pregnant," Elliot told Munch.
"She's pregnant?" Fin asked shocked, coming back after he let himself cool off.
"If she's pregnant, then I can get the Living Will thrown out," Casey told him, hoping rising in her voice.
"She had a miscarriage," Olivia told her.
"So she got pregnant on the same day she saw her ex?" Munch asked to no one in particular.
"The son of a bitch," Fin said. "He raped her before."
"Now we don't know that for sure," Elliot told Fin.
"Oh yeah?" Fin asked. "CSU just called and said they found unidentified fingerprints all over Karen's apartment. How much you want to bet they are Ron's?"
"I say we bring the ex down town for a friendly little chat," Munch suggested.
"You don't have enough to go on yet," Casey told them. "If you can prove that the fingerprints belong to the ex, then bring him in. Till then, go to her work and talk to her friends."
"She's got a friend named Cynthia Alvaro on west side," Olivia told them.
"We're on it," Munch said.
"Then we'll check out her work," Elliot said.
"Work fast," Casey told them. "I don't know if I can stop the Living Will."
The apartment of Cynthia Alvaro, 46th Street. Wednesday, March 3rd.
Cynthia was petite woman, in her late twenties. She had dark wavy hair, with fair skin. Her big, dark brown eyes that were filled with worry as she talked to the two police officers. "Why do you want to know about Karen? Is she in some sort of trouble?" Cynthia asked.
"She was raped, and we're trying to find out by whom," Munch told her. "So we need to ask you some questions."
"Uh, sure," Cynthia said in a dazed tone, with a surreal look on her face.
"When was the last time you spoken with Karen?" Munch asked.
"On the phone, a couple days ago," Cynthia told them. "We were planning on having tea together this Saturday."
"When was the last time you saw Karen in person?" Fin asked.
"About four weeks ago. She was always busy with work," Cynthia told them.
Four weeks, that's one week after Parents' Day, Fin thought to himself. "Did she seem strange to you?"
"How so?" Cynthia asked.
"Fidgeting, unsocial, did she have any strange bruises?" Fin suggested.
"She seemed distant, I thought it was just because she had to see all those happy, unbroken families at Parents' Day," Cynthia recalled.
"Is that the reason she gave you?" Fin inquired.
"No, she didn't really give a reason, I just knew after all those years of being friends."
"How long have you been friends?" Munch asked.
"Junior High, but we faded apart once I moved from London," Cynthia told them.
"Did Cynthia ever mention a boyfriend?" Fin asked.
Cynthia thought for a minute and then said, "No, she was a workaholic, except when it came to her daughter. Nothing was more important then her daughter."
"Did she mention anyone harassing her?" Munch asked.
"No, she hasn't had a problem with anyone since the tenth grade," Cynthia told them.
"Did you ever get the feeling that she was in trouble?" Fin asked.
"When she called the other day, her voice sounded distressed," Cynthia said, suddenly remembering. "I asked her what was wrong, and she said she just came back from the doctor's office and said she needed to talk to me in person. I couldn't get anything else out of her."
"Thanks, we'll give you call if we have any other questions," Fin told her. As they left her apartment, and walked down the hall, he muttered, "So she didn't tell her friend about what happened. That was waste of time."
"Not necessarily," Munch said. "We learned that she knew she was pregnant. That's what must have sent Ron over the deep end."
Fin just grumbled and had a face of discontent. "Let's go see if we can connect him with the finger prints," Munch suggested, which got Fin to grin wildly.
The Sindicto Corporations, 23rd Floor, 27th Avenue. Wednesday, March 3rd.
Elliot and Olivia were standing in the middle of a busy office, trying to find someone who wasn't on the phone, or on their way to a conference. The saw a woman, in her mid-thirties with dirty blonde hair, shoulder length, half pulled up in a ponytail, put hang up her phone. Elliot went over to her and pulled out his badge. "Hi, we're trying to ask some question about Karen Barley."
A man, in a dark suit came over to drop off a folder, when he over heard. "That bitch, what's up with her now?" the man asked bitterly. "Did she become Co-President of this place?"
"Why is she a bitch?" Olivia asked.
"She hops off a plane, handles one client and all of a sudden gets the promotion I've been working three years for," the man told her.
"Maybe you shouldn't have lost the company half a million," the woman at her desk teased him.
"Honest mistake," the man defended, before walking off.
"He seems not to like Karen Barley too much," Elliot observed.
"He's just bitter that this company gives females equal rights and opportunity," the woman told them. "My name is Mindy, by the way."
"Mindy, would that man be angry enough at Karen to try something?" Olivia asked.
"Tommy, nah," Mindy answered. "He's harmless, why do you want to know?"
"We're investigating the rape of Karen Barley," Elliot told her.
Mindy gasped and said, "We knew something bad must have happened, but we never thought that."
"How did you know something happened?" Olivia questioned.
"She missed a conference, and she never misses one. We really need her there too; finances screwed up on their report," Mindy explained. "I think Billy went over to her apartment to check up on her and get some help."
"He must have been the one who called 9-1-1," Olivia said. "Tell us, did Karen have any problems with anyone else in the office?"
"No, we all thought she was a doll. It was weird though, having someone younger then you be your boss," Mindy confessed.
"How much younger was she?" Elliot asked.
"She is twenty-seven, I'm … defiantly older then her by at least five years," Mindy told them with a sheepish smile. "And I'm one of the youngest on this floor, except for the interns."
"So would any of the guys try and make a pass at her?" Olivia asked.
Mindy let out a chuckle and said, "Have you seen her? Of course they have. It was always a no go. Some people started to wonder if she was a sister."
"A sister?" Elliot asked.
"If she was into women," Mindy clarified.
"Did you ever see anyone who Karen could have been involved with, personally, come by?" Olivia asked.
"No, but there was this girl named Hannah, something that began with a W, who kept calling for a while," Mindy said. "She was really harassing Karen, and it started to piss her off."
"Do you know what the phone calls were about?" Olivia asked.
"Karen got so mad one time that she picked up the phone and yelled, 'Hannah, I don't care what you think. Stop calling me on this number, unless it is an emergency.' Then she hung up the phone."
"Did Hannah ever call back?" Elliot asked.
"No, I wouldn't either. Karen sounded really angry," Mindy told them.
"How long ago was this?" Olivia inquired.
"Little bit more then a week," Mindy told them.
"And you saw no one who didn't look like they didn't belong?" Elliot asked.
"Nope, just the normal crazies who work her," Mindy told them with a small smile.
"Can you show us which desk is Karen's?" Olivia requested, looking around the cubicles.
"Sure, but it's in her office," Mindy told them. She led them to a large office with glass windows as a wall. The office was painted an ocean blue, and had a small black couch in it. Mindy opened the door with a spare key and said, "Here it is. Now I really have to go back to work. Lock up when you're done."
As Mindy walked away, Elliot shut the door and asked, "What twenty-seven year old do you know with their own office?"
"One who went to college and took summer courses so she could graduate early," Olivia said, picking up a letter from a college. She showed it to Elliot and said, "Apparently some college wants her to talk to students about her college plan."
"Interesting," Elliot mumbled, as he searched through Karen's desk. There ware pictures of her daughter, and an old family portrait of her family when she was in high school. There was some mail and a sticky note on the phone saying to call Hannah. He picked it up and wondered, "Now why would Mrs. Weston be harassing her husband's ex-wife?"
"Maybe Krystal got into trouble at school and forgot to tell us about it," Olivia suggested. She pulled out some folders and looked through them. "Hey El, look at this."
"What is it?"
"These folders, they have numbers from Finances, Human Resources reports, and Managing reports," Olivia told him, looking through the folder. "I thought she was in Marketing. Why does it look like she was trying to run this whole company?"
"Maybe she's an overachiever."
Olivia shook her head and kept looking through Karen's papers. Elliot had moved on the cabinets, and neither of them was finding anything suspicious. He sighed and said, "I'm not finding anything except more papers."
"I have nothing out of the ordinary either, but I found her appointment schedule," Olivia said, holding it up to show him.
Elliot looked it over and noticed the last appointment was to man named, Jonathan Marcelo at eight o'clock. Elliot pointed to it and said, "Cletus Marcelo owns a chain of hotels. If Jonathan is the son, what would he need with marketing advice?"
"Think it was a personal appointment?"
"I don't see what else the son of a wealthy father would be doing with business," Elliot told her.
"Let's get his number then," she said.
"Don't need it," Elliot told her. He pointed to the appointment and she saw that the number was already on it.
"Should we call him now?"
"Let's find out why Hannah was calling Karen first," Elliot told her.
Judge Wheeler's chamber. Wednesday, March 3rd.
Judge Wheeler was an old man, with thick glasses, and his white hair was always tangled and awry. He sat behind his desk, as Casey Novak and Jacqueline Jackson were trying to settle the argument without getting the court involved. "Judge Wheeler, Ms. Barley was the victim of a rapist. She could still have evidence on her," Casey defended. "If she dies, then the chance of catching her attacker gets lowered considerably."
"I am under the impression that the SVU detectives have caught many rapists, even when the victim unfortunately died," Jacqueline refuted.
"What do you have to say to that Ms. Novak?" Judge Wheeler asked.
"True, detectives can find a rapist when the victim is dead; however, this victim still has a chance to wake up. If she does, then she can help the investigation," Casey said.
"Chances and ifs are not certain," Jacqueline reminded the Judge.
"But death is," Casey retorted. "Your Honor, we understand that Ms. Jackson's client has this Living Will to help protect her rights, but there has to be exceptions to it."
"Your Honor, how does Ms. Novak know if my client would want there to be exception?" Jacqueline asked.
"True," Judge Wheeler said with a nod.
"I think the fact that she was pregnant would have been what she considered an exception," Casey told him.
"She was pregnant; why hasn't that been brought to my attention before?" Judge Wheeler asked, angry.
"Because of the fact that she had a miscarriage and I see no relevance of it to this case," Jacqueline told the judge.
"But it does matter," Casey said. "The doctor said that there was a chance she had a miscarriage after she became unconscious, which clearly cancels the Living Will on the grounds that Ms. Barley was unaware that she would endangering the life of her unborn child."
The judge nodded and looked to be pondering this thought. Jacqueline quickly said, "However, the doctor said it could have occurred when my client fell, which happened while she was conscious, thus the Living Will would still apply."
"You both make impressive arguments," the Judge told them. "However, since the time of the miscarriage can not be determined, and the fact that Ms. Barley is a rape victim, I have made my decision. The DA will have forty-eight hours to run any test they need on Ms. Barley and Ms. Jackson will not interfere. However, seeing how Ms. Barley still has rights, after the forty-eight the Living Will will be reactivated without any intrusions from the DA office. Understood?"
"Yes Honor," the two lawyers said in unison.
As they were walking out the judge's chambers, Jacqueline said, "Trying to use the baby, you must really be desperate."
"I'm just trying to help catch a rapist," Casey told her. "Your client's rapist."
"I just want to thank you for bring the miscarriage into it," Jacqueline told her sarcastically.
"I don't see what you're so upset about," Casey said. "Your client's Living Will is going to come back into play in two days, I think she can wait two days to die."
"The thing is she shouldn't have to wait," Jacqueline told her angrily and then turned to walk away. Casey rolled her eyes and walked away also.
Crime Scene Unit Department, 59th Avenue. Wednesday, March 3rd.
Fin and Munch were sitting in a science lab, waiting for the forensic of Karen's apartment to come back. Fin was absently tapping his fingers on a table, which got on Munch's nerves. Every time Fin's fingers dropped on the table, Munch ground his teeth. Soon, Munch felt he would grind his teeth away if Fin didn't stop.
"Stop it will you," Munch snapped, as Fin went to tap his fingers again.
"Fine," Fin told him like a defeated five-year-old.
"All right officers, we have the results," a young man named Ray, wearing a white lab coat said and had a folder in his hand. He had short light blond hair, and hazel eyes. "We found one set of unidentified fingerprints and one partial unidentified fingerprint."
"They don't match at all?" Fin asked.
"Not even one point," Ray informed them.
"Where were the fingerprints?" Munich asked
"The fingerprints were all over the apartment, and the partial was on a piece of mail," Ray told them.
"Mailman's?" Munch suggested helpfully.
"It would be on all the mail, not just one piece," Ray corrected him.
He held up a plastic bag with a brown envelope, which Fin took. He investigated it and asked, "How about the hair, any matches on the DNA?"
Ray held up another plastic bag, with an ultra fine blond hair in it. "No match, but the hair is blond and that narrows down the search."
"Why, just because it's blond?" Munch asked. "Your hair is blond."
"But not ultra blond," Ray told them. "Has either of you two seen the show Buffy?"
"No, missed that one," Fin told him.
"Well, there is a character called Spike who has hair blonder then blond," Ray explained. "Judging by the hair, I would say there is a high chance that the owner was albino, or had bleached it."
"Did you try and run test on the hair products from the hair?" Munch asked.
"Yeah, just some mousse, and hair gel, and hair spray," Ray told him.
"Girl's hair?" Fin asked.
"Nope, defiantly a guys hair. We ran DNA test and we found the Y chromosome."
"Got anything else for us?" Munch asked.
Ray pulled out some pictures of Karen and laid them on the table. He pointed to the picture of her deep bruised around her neck and said, "There's no bruises in the shape of a hand print. So if he strangled her, he used his forearm."
The detectives nodded and Ray pointed to the next picture. It was Karen's arms, which were covered in dark bruises. There were bruises in the shape of hand print on her upper arms and her lower arms were covered in defense bruises. "She put up one hell of fight. Judging by how dark the bruises on her knuckles, she got in a couple punches. Probably more then a couple."
"Good, she gave him a fight. That son of a bitch deserves it," Fin muttered.
Munch ignored his partner's obvious anger and asked, "Have any clue what the perp used to bash her head in?"
"Something light weight," said Ray. "That's good for her. The gash on her head was long, but not too deep. If it were any deeper, Karen would have died. I say maybe a large hardcover book could have been used, or her head bashed against the headboard."
"Anything else?" Munch asked.
"It could be nothing," Ray told them sheepishly.
"What?" Fin asked.
Ray smiled awkwardly and said, "It looked like she was making pancakes."
"That's it?" Fin gave him an annoyed look.
"I told you it could be nothing," Ray defended.
This is just wasting our time, Fin thought bitterly. "If you come up with anything else, give us a call. Till then, we'll be taking the evidence."
SVU Squad Room, 16 Prescient. Wednesday, March 3rd.
Elliot hung up the phone and sighed. Olivia noticed it and asked, "What's up El?"
"Hannah Weston called Karen Barley because her daughter got into a fight at school," Elliot told her.
"And she kept calling because of that?"
"No, she kept calling because of what Karen did at the meeting," Elliot told her.
"What, did she yell at her daughter?"
"No, she punched the father of the girl who was in the fight with Krystal," Elliot said with a smile.
"She did what?" Olivia asked with her mouth open.
"Apparently Mrs. Weston thought Karen's actions were inappropriate and a bad influence on her daughter," Elliot said. "So basically she was calling to harass Karen about her actions."
"So who was the guy she slugged?" Olivia asked.
"Jonathan Marcelo."
"The last meeting she went to, coincidence?"
Elliot smiled at her and shook his head. "Have you ever seen a coincidence in this line of work?"
Fin and Munch walked in the squad room. Fin greeted them with a sarcastically friendly, "We've got nothing."
"Not true," Munch corrected. "We found out from the friend that Karen never said anything about having a boyfriend or having sex. However, the friend told us that Karen said something was wrong after coming back from the doctor."
"So she must have known she was pregnant," Olivia said.
"Did you get anything from the CSU?" Elliot asked.
"One unknown partial finger was found on an envelope," Munch said.
"Could have been anybody's though, a neighbor who got it by mistake," Fin defended. "Like I said, we got nothing. How did you guys do?"
"We found out she was an overachiever at work, and was basically running the whole company," Elliot said.
"Also, her last appointment was with a man named Jonathan Marcelo," Olivia said.
"Son of Cletus Marcelo?" Fin inquired.
"Yes, and she knew Jonathan before their appointment," Olivia filled them in. "She punched him when their kids got in a fight at school."
"Wait, their kids get in a fight and she ends up punching him? I wish my mom had done that when I got in trouble with a kid at school," Fin said.
"Let's call up Mr. Marcelo and see if we can ask him some questions," Munch said.
"I'll do it," Fin volunteered. They all stared at Fin as though he had sprouted an extra head. He shrugged and said, "I dealt with the father when I worked in Narcotics. I just know how to deal with people like him."
"Calling him can wait," Casey said, entering the room. She looked every tired and annoyed. "We have forty-eight hours to run test on Karen, before they pull the plug."
"That's it? A lousy forty-eight hours?" Fin asked a scowling appearing on his face.
"We had a lousy forty-eight hours at four this afternoon." Casey looked at her watch and said, "Now we have a lousy forty-four hours."
Elliot let out a heavy sigh and said, "It's going to be a long night."
