Chapter 7
Casey Novak strode triumphantly into the SVU bullpen and headed directly for the conference room, fumbling with the latch of her briefcase as she moved. She had it open by the time she reached the conference room door and had pulled a file out of it by the time she reached the table.
"Where's my complaint?" she barked.
Stabler handed her the document and she scanned it quickly, doublechecking that all the required signatures were in place, then smiled like a lioness preparing to do battle.
"Good. Here's your search warrant for the fraternity house," she said shoving the document across the table to Stabler. "And your arrest warrant for Justin Graves," she added passing that document to Benson. "And just to prove I'm really getting in the holiday spirit, I submitted the TRO papers and got an emergency hearing set for first thing tomorrow morning. Depending how quickly you're able to pick up Justin and whether he's granted bail at his arraignment, it may end up being unnecessary, but from what you told me about the way he's been acting, I think it's better to play it safe on this one."
"Excellent!" Capt. Cragen boomed, grinning from ear to ear as he began barking out assignments. "Benson and Stabler will lead the search detail at the frat house with Munch and Tutuola as back up. Hopefully you'll be able to pick the kid up there but, if not, hammer the other guys until they tell you where to find him. I want that little bastard in a cell by nightfall."
"Yes, Captain," the detectives replied almost in unison, as they began rising from their seats.
"Captain," Stabler added, "If we don't find him by nightfall, we should probably post someone outside David's building in case he tries to make contact again."
"I'll keep it in mind, but since we know we'll have a shot at him at the TRO hearing tomorrow morning, I'm not sure I can spare the overtime on the basis of some harassing phone calls. Do we think his conduct might escalate?"
"I can't rule it out," Dr. George Huang said. "Right now Justin seems intent on appeasing David, fixing the situation with him. Restoring the love relationship he believes exists. You can see from the content of the phone messages that the more David refuses to talk to him, the more insistent Justin becomes that they have to talk. He's supremely confident of his ability to manipulate David into accepting any story he comes up with as long as David allows a conversation to take place.
"Justin needs to exert control, wield his own special kind of power -- his power of persuasion. If David continues to rebuff him, continues to reject his attempts to manipulate him, Justin may lose control and lash out at David for refusing to accept that control, for basically rejecting him and his 'love'."
"How's David holding up?" Novak asked. "I"m going to need him to testify at the TRO hearing tomorrow. Can he keep it together?"
Huang looked thoughtful for a moment. "It's hard to say. He seems to be okay right now, but I'm troubled by what Elliot and Olivia told me about his breakdown at the school. The fact that he seemed childlike part of the time -- that worries me a bit. If David's been burying the memories of the time he was kidnapped instead of dealing with them, the stress of this situation and the amount of pressure he's under to testify about what happened to him might dredge up even more memories of that time. That could lead to extreme fear, depression, sleeplessness or, if he does manage to sleep, nightmares.
"The thirteen year old who was left at the mall was actually better equipped psychologically to deal with what's been happening to him. The adult David is far enough removed from that abused child, and has buried those memories deep enough, that he no longer remembers how to cope with the levels of stress and fear he's experiencing now. If the situation continues to escalate, another disassociative break is very possible."
"Then we definitely need to keep Justin away from him tonight, Captain," Stabler said.
"I'll have to crunch some numbers to see if I can squeeze out the overtime," Cragen said with a heavy sigh.
"Who said anything about overtime?" Benson said casually and received a grateful smile in return.
"Where's my complainant?" Novak interrupted.
"He's in the Captain's office studying," Stabler replied. "I'll go get him. Are you sure you don't mind staying with him til we get back? I'm worried about leaving him alone while Justin's still on the loose."
Novak smiled, but her eyes were tinged with worry. "It's not a problem. We have a lot to go over to get him ready for the TRO hearing. I'm not sure we'll even be done by the time you get back."
"If it wouldn't be an intrusion, Casey, I'd like to sit in on your meeting with David," Huang said. "I have a conference scheduled with his psychiatrist later this afternoon, but hearing what he has to say now might give me better insight into his state of mind."
"It's fine with me," she responded, "as long as he doesn't mind."
It was just after 4 p.m. when Benson and Stabler directed their team to the various entrances of the frat house before moving to the front door. Benson hammered on it three times, shouting, "Police! Open up!"
They tensed at the sounds of running feet and frantic whispering behind the door.
Stabler took a turn pounding on the door, "Open up before we break it down."
The frantic whispering ended with a muffled, "Fuck! I don't believe this shit," from behind the door, then there was the sound of the lock being turned and the door was pulled open by a very dazed looking Gregg Peterson; Peter Bishop was standing behind him glowering.
"Yo, Detectives, what's the deal? No need to be banging so hard. I was coming." Peterson was trying for casual and unconcerned, but he couldn't hide the shocked surprise in his eyes when he saw the half dozen officers accompanying them.
Bishop stepped forward and pushed Peterson out of the way. "What's the meaning of this? What do you think you're doing?"
Stabler illustrated he was in no mood for the pre-law student's bravado by pressing the search warrant against his chest as he announced, "Gentlemen, we have a warrant to search these premises, and we have another warrant for the arrest of Justin Graves. If you try to stop us from executing either, you'll be arrested for obstruction."
"Where's Justin?" Benson snapped.
The men looked at each other and she registered in their eyes the exact moment they realized this was no longer a game and they were in serious trouble.
"He's not here," Peterson said nervously. "I swear. We've been waiting for him to come back all day so we can ream him out about all the trouble he's caused."
"Yeah, we were going to give him til the end of the week to move out," Bishop added sullenly. "We were only trying to have some fun. We never wanted this kind of trouble."
"Life's a bitch sometimes," Stabler snapped contemptuously. "Now tell this officer who else is in the house and where they're located. We want everyone gathered in one room where they'll be interviewed while we conduct the search. We have teams at the side and back entrances to keep anyone from leaving. One of you take an officer to those doors to let them in."
"Where's Justin's room?" Benson asked.
"Second floor. From the top of the main staircase it's the third door on the left," Peterson mumbled unhappily.
"We'll take Justin's room," Stabler said to the assembled officers, as he pulled on a pair of gloves. "I want someone with the residents at all times. None of them are to leave until we're finished, no matter what sob story they try and give you. Find out what they know about Justin's habits - where he likes to go, hang outs, places he goes to think. The rest of you spread out in the first and second floor rooms. Make sure someone checks the third floor for Justin but save it for a full search later. I don't want our guys spread too thin. You know what to look for. Radio Benson or me if you find anything."
As the officers turned away, he activated his radio, "Munch, Fin."
"Waiting not so patiently outside the kitchen door," came Munch's slightly annoyed voice.
"Someone's on the way to let you in. The guys in charge say Justin's not here, but don't take any chances. Keep someone outside each exterior door to make sure no one tries to enter or leave. Liv and I are going upstairs to start on his room, and our team is spreading out on the first and second floors and checking the third. Have one of the frat guys take you to the room where the assault took place and start your team there. If the camera's in a separate room, make sure you hit that one first. They've probably cleaned it out already, but see if they missed anything. If you've got anyone to spare, send them upstairs to help out."
"Our guide's here now. We're on it," Munch responded.
Benson and Stabler watched their team disperse efficiently throughout the house as they made their way up the front stairs. When they reached Justin's door, Stabler pounded on it. "Open up! Police!"
When there was no response, he tried the knob and found the door locked. The two detectives pulled their weapons, as Stabler pounded again. "Open up, Justin, or we'll break it down!"
The detectives waited ten seconds, then Stabler aimed a solid kick at the door near the lock. There was a splintering, cracking sound before the lock gave way and the door flew open. Stabler entered the room with his weapon at the ready, while Benson covered him from the doorway. Stabler quickly checked the closet and under the bed, but there was no sign of their fugitive. Benson went to the window and found it open about an inch despite the chill air outside. The storm window and screen were both up.
"Look at this, Elliot. He's probably been sneaking in and out this way to keep anyone from seeing him."
"Yeah? Well we can stop that easily enough," he said with a malicious grin, as he went to the window, lowered the storm window, then closed the inner sash and locked it.
"I'll take this side of the room," Stabler said. Why don't you start on the dresser and closet?"
"Okay." Benson moved to the dresser and began opening drawers, running her gloved hands through the clothing to see if anything was hidden underneath.
Stabler moved to the small desk under the window and started opening drawers. "We'll need to take his computer in, see what we can find on it," he said absently as he rifled through the drawers.
Finding nothing relevant in the desk, he moved to the small bedside table. "Well, well, looky here," he said as he opened the drawer. "We've got us a regular pharmacy."
"What's there?"
"A bunch of prescription bottles with his name on them - some antidepressants, valium, a few different antibiotics. Wait a minute. . . . Well, our boy isn't as dumb as he looks after all."
"Really? That's hard to believe."
"The prescription bottles are a cover. What's actually in them is not what's listed on the bottle."
Benson glanced over just in time to see a wide, triumphant grin split her partner's face. "And look what's in this one."
"What is it?" she asked, but the smile was already spreading across her own face because she thought she already knew.
"Looks like roofies to me. Pass me an evidence bag so I can tag this stuff for analysis."
The detectives worked in companionable silence for another ten minutes before Benson came out of the closet with a small wooden box in her hand.
"What's that?" Stabler asked, looking up with interest.
"We shall soon see," his partner said with a smile, "but look at the label that's been taped to the top."
Stabler leaned over to read it. "Our Life."
Benson sat at the desk and went to open the box. "It's locked."
"Don't break it unless you have to. Do you need a lock pick."
"No, I've got one. It's a pretty basic lock. It shouldn't be a problem."
A few moments later she lifted the lid and stared.
"What's in it?"
"Looks like memorabilia - ticket stubs from movies, ball games, the theater; match books from hotels and restaurants; hotel room card keys, that kind of thing. They all have dates on them."
"Anything local that might indicate a favorite hang out, someplace we could look for him?"
"Give me a few minutes to sort it out and I'll tell you."
Silence fell over the room again as the two detectives continued working.
"Eww," Benson said a few minutes later.
"What?"
"A condom wrapper."
"What?"
"There's a condom wrapper in here."
"Is there a date on it?"
Benson turned the wrapper over, her face twisted into a grimace of distaste. Then her eyes widened in surprise. "Shit."
"What?"
"The date he wrote on it - it's from last Friday."
"The ultimate trophy. I'm surprised he didn't keep the condom itself."
"Eww, I don't need that picture in my head, Elliot, thank you very much," Benson said, shaking her head in disgust.
Stabler had finished with the bedside table, so he got down on his hands and knees to check under the bed - some shoes and a few stray items of clothing, but nothing else. He stared at the bed for a moment then began stripping the sheets and blankets from it, checking inside the pillow cases. It was when he started lifting the mattress from the boxspring that he finally hit paydirt.
"Olivia!"
"What?"
"Grab that while I hold the mattress up."
Benson crossed over to the bed and leaned over to pick up the scrapbook and notebook that had been shoved between the mattress and boxspring. Stabler dropped the mattress back in place and took the books from her.
"Bingo!" he said with enthusiasm as he opened the notebook and several news articles that had been printed from microfiche started to slide out.
"Is that the notebook Nick told us about?"
"I think so. Look." Stabler held up a clipping with the headline 'Boy Missing for 5 Years Found Alive and Well'. There was a headshot of a boy who appeared to be 7 or 8 years old next to the article.
"Hmm. I'd say that looks enough like David to be his younger brother. I still can't believe Nick has been friends with David for three years and doesn't know anything about the kidnapping."
"I think it's pretty clear Nick is only interested in David as a means to get to Jessica."
"What are the rest of the clippings?"
"One about the kidnapping itself. Hmm, this is interesting. It's an obituary. Looks like it might be for his father. Ralph Mitchell Graves, prominent businessman, civic leader, active in the community, blah, blah, blah."
"Guess they forgot the part about pedophile."
"We don't know that for sure yet."
"Come on, Elliot. This kid's behavior screams 'abuse'."
"Sorry, but you're not going to get any sympathy from me on this one, Liv. David was abused and he's not running around pulling this kind of crap. Justin had a choice about what he did to David. He made the wrong one. And now he has to pay the price for it. End of story.
"This one's about the accident that killed his father. Says he was on medication that made him drowsy; he lost his balance, fell down the steps and broke his neck. Tacked on at the very end is the sentence, 'Tests indicate that consumption of alcohol in conjunction with the medication may have contributed to the accident.' Sounds like daddy dearest had a drinking problem. Seems the fall happened late at night. Justin found him dead at the bottom of the steps the following morning."
As if reading her partner's mind, Benson said, "Pretty convenient accident if the father really was an abuser."
"Yeah," Stabler answered absently. "The book itself looks to be some kind of journal. Not a full fledged diary, but random thoughts and ideas."
Stabler leafed through the notebook while Benson continued sorting the items from the memorabilia box.
"Look at this Liv. All the sudden, starting from this page onward, every page has this at the top."
Benson leaned over to look. "Can anyone say 'obsessed,'" she said giving her partner a troubled glance as he kept turning the pages, each of which had 'Justin & David, together forever,' written at the top. "At least he didn't put a little heart around it," Benson added, "then I'd really be scared."
"We need to get this stuff to Casey. It'll be a big help in the TRO hearing."
"What's the other one."
Stabler put down the notebook and picked up the scrapbook. The first page held Justin's birth announcement and hospital baby picture. The first few pages contained photos of Justin as a child - some alone, some with family members or friends. A careful hand had added the names, dates and locations of the subjects under each picture. About the time Justin turned 7 the contents of the book changed. Instead of pictures featuring Justin with family and friends in homey settings, the pictures were only of Justin and his father taken in exotic locales. The handwriting changed to a child's barely legible scrawl.
"Wait a minute, Ell. Some of these dates and locations correlate with stuff that's in the box." She went back to the neat piles of items she had started making on the desk which had been sorted by date. "Here's a hotel card key that matches the dates of the Hawaii trip, this pack of matches is from the France trip. It looks like he kept something from every place he went with his father."
"So by 'Our Life' he meant him and his father, not him and David?"
Benson shrugged, "Maybe once his father died, he felt the need to replace him. Then he found David."
"Yeah, then he found David. But exactly when did he find David?" Stabler asked thoughtfully.
"At school," Benson replied.
"I don't think so, Liv. Look at this. There's another section after the trip photos."
"Newspaper articles about David's kidnapping and recovery."
"Yeah, but look at them. Most of the ones about David's recovery aren't printouts from microfiche like the ones in the journal. They're actual clippings from the newspapers themselves."
"Wait a minute. You think Justin knew David back then?"
"I don't know. But he obviously knew about him. Why else would he have collected the clippings and put them in the book."
"Maybe he saw the stories about David's recovery and felt a connection to him when he read about the abuse he suffered. He could have become obsessed with finding David so they could share their experiences. That would certainly fit with George Huang's theory about Justin seeing David as his twin or soulmate."
"Maybe," Stabler muttered as he peered intently at one of the clippings. "Wait a minute. Where's that clipping about his father's accident?" Stabler found the clipping in the journal and placed it next to a clipping about David's recovery. "Look at the dates, Liv. Justin's father's 'accident' was less than a week after David was recovered."
"Maybe Justin was inspired by David's story to get rid of daddy dearest."
"Could be. I think we need to get copies of this stuff to Huang right away. I'd like his take on it. I want to know just how unstable Justin is right now before we risk leaving David alone tonight."
"Is there anything else in the scrapbook?"
Stabler turned several more pages until he passed the last of the newspaper clippings and reached another section of photos. "Oh yeah." He turned the book toward Benson so they could look together as he flipped the pages.
"Now I'm scared," Benson said.
"Justin just started at Elmhurst this year, but some of these shots are older than that."
"Do you think he took them himself or got somebody else to do it for him?"
"No way to tell. We'll see if the lab can come up with anything."
Stabler turned another page and Benson let out an emphatic, "Holy shit!"
"What?"
"He followed them to Maryland."
At her partner's blank look, she said, " Oh sorry, you weren't there for that part of the conversation. Jessica told me she and David went to Maryland together for a week this summer. These pictures are obviously from that trip."
"Except she isn't in any of them."
"He photoshopped her out. Look how the background here isn't quite right. And here."
"We need to find out exactly when the trip was, see if there are any trophies in the box that correspond to those dates."
Their conversation was interrupted by their radios flaring to life. "Elliot, Olivia, it's Munch. We need you down in the basement right now."
"On our way," Stabler responded as he slid each of the books into an evidence bag and labeled it while Benson did the same with the wooden box and its contents.
An officer met the detectives at the bottom of the basement steps and led them through the main basement area, a large open space that had been fully finished into the greek styled playroom they recognized from the video. As they followed the officer around the corner and into a maze of storage areas at the rear of the basement, Stabler was grateful for Munch's foresight in sending the man to guide them. Finally the officer stopped in front of a door which had been deliberately camouflaged to blend into the surrounding wall and knocked on it briskly.
"What've you got?" Stabler asked as the door opened and he and Benson joined Munch, Tutuola and O'Halloran in a mid-sized storage room packed with electronic equipment and lined with audio and video storage units.
"We got lucky," Fin replied. "Those idiots really believed we'd buy their bullshit story about getting rid of the camera and tapes. I don't think it ever occurred to them that we'd actually search the place, or, if we did, that we'd find this room. Did you see the statue they had pushed in front of the door?
"Anyway, it looks like the camera and recording equipment haven't been touched and there's a cabinet full of videotapes and dvds that, from the handwritten titles, are from past parties. The other cabinets are commercial videos and music cds -- most of it pirated copies."
"Is the tape from the last party still in there."
"Yep."
"That doesn't make any sense," Benson broke in. "This looks like a regular camera to videotape set up to me. I don't see a dvd recorder in here. If the original tape is still in the machine and hasn't been touched, where did the copies come from?"
"I asked myself the very same question," Munch said with a self-satisfied grin.
"It's a pretty elaborate set up. This guy knows what he's doing," O'Halloran chimed in excitedly. "Another feed directly from the camera would have been too obvious, so your natural inclination is to look at the vcr. Again you'd find nothing. With all the equipment hooked together in this room, who would bother looking at all the cabling, right? Lucky for you, me. It looks like our guy got a second cable, slid a t connector with a transmitter between the two segments, and, voila, he got to have his very own original recordings of everything sent to this vcr without anyone suspecting a thing."
"Where's the second recording unit."
"That's the hard part. Since there's no cable to track, we have to do a room by room search. There's a limited transmission range and we're most likely looking for a laptop computer with wireless access as the receiver, but it could be something else."
"It's possible he already removed it," Benson suggested.
"I don't think so," Stabler said thoughtfully. "If Justin is responsible for this and he thought he needed to cover his tracks, the first things he would have taken are the notebook, scrapbook and trophy box. Since they're still here, there's a good chance he hasn't removed the recording equipment either."
"Detectives!" came a shout from the direction of the basement stairs.
Benson and Stabler rushed out of the room and around the corner with the others at their heels. One of the uniforms was pointing to a small door behind the basement steps.
"It looks like it used to be some kind of storage room or wine cellar," the officer said. "The equipment's in here."
The detectives had to stoop to enter the small room and only two of them could squeeze in at a time. Benson and Stabler went in first and examined the setup. The only furniture in the room was a small tray table with a laptop computer perched on top of it. A portable rewritable dvd drive was connected to the laptop by a cord, and an empty container of dvds was on the floor underneath the portable drive.
Benson leaned over and picked up the container. "Label says it held 10 blank dvds."
Stabler looked around the room, a pensive expression on his face. "Jessica was right. He planned this. He set up the entire thing to get David on video, then he made copies to dvd and passed them around anonymously. He wanted people to see it, to turn against David."
"Then he could swoop in and be David's savior," Benson added. "The only one who loves him and understands him. The only one willing to stand by him in the midst of such humiliation and embarrassment. But why not just put it on the web. Why take the chance of distributing the dvds?"
"He probably thought it would be harder to find him that way. He may not have the hacking skills to cover his tracks effectively using the web. And as long as he was wearing gloves when he made the dvds, it would be very difficult to trace them back to him unless he handed one directly to somebody, which I seriously doubt. I'll bet they were left in mailboxes or tucked into books or backpacks of people he expected would enjoy the show and share it with their friends."
"He probably figured no one would suspect him since he'd be taking just as much heat as the other guys, maybe even more, for what was on the video."
"I'll bet it never even crossed his mind that David would turn against him," Stabler mused. "Or that Jessica would stand by him even after it became public knowledge that all those guys had done him."
Benson looked up. "Yeah, that part of it never made sense to me. Justin's so egocentric. Why make him run the gauntlet like that? Having the normal five guys do him, or even a couple more, would have been enough for the shock value he wanted and he would have held on to his own record. But that wasn't enough to rub Jessica's face in it, especially after she turned the tables on him during their last confrontation. He couldn't help himself. He had to stick it to her."
"I think we've found all we're going to find here," Stabler said. "We should leave Munch and Fin to finish up and get this stuff back to the house. We need to finish cataloging the contents of the box and cross referencing them to the entries in the notebook and scrapbook. Novak and Huang are going to need time to look through all of it too."