Chapter 21
Two days later, Olivia and Elliot stood outside the interrogation room, looking at the lady that had come into the precinct. They had picked her up after confirming the person on the DVDs and in the video files were indeed the same person. The team had called around until they found out a Connie Baden had set up Alan's funeral. The funeral home gave them the phone number and address of the woman and they had reached out.
"Ready?" Elliot asked.
"Hopefully she knows something or can help us identify some people from the videos because we're getting to the end of our leads," Olivia frowned.
"Come on. You play bad cop," he smirked, knowing that his partner was already on edge. They'd been unsuccessful in finding who had attempted to kidnap Calvin and harmed Sally. The latter was doing better now but would not be coming out of the hospital for a few more days. Fin had returned to work, ready to do some damage, and Cragen told him to take a few days off.
"Let's do it," Olivia said. She went into the room before her partner could move.
"Connie, we have some serious questions that require serious answers and I suggest that you do not try me," Olivia put her hands on the table and narrowed her eyes at the younger Asian woman.
"Her friend was just murdered, a little sympathy, Benson," Elliot said, taking a seat across the table from their possible suspect and put down a box of tissues.
"I'm not sure how I can help. You arrested Linda," Connie seemed confused.
"We found those DVDs and videos. We all know what you were doing with Alan and a few other people at the same time," Olivia said. At this point, she stood up, moved to the wall behind Elliot and leaned on it. Crossing her arms over her chest, Benson kept her eyes narrowed.
"You'll have to forgive her; she's not in a good mood. Now we know you and Alan liked to have fun. What we'd like to know is who is the guy in the picture? His initials wouldn't happen to be RJK, would they?" Elliot wanted to know. He handed her a printout from one of the video files and he could see her cheeks turn red.
"That's Ralph Kenda. I think his middle name is Joseph. We all had a lot of fun. Alan was a great guy," Connie explained.
"So, you were all consenting adults?" Olivia asked.
"Yes. There was no forcing anyone," the younger woman said.
"Do you know all of the different partners that Alan had?" Elliot hoped they were using protection.
"Yes. We used protection, just to be on the safe side. Only time we didn't was when it was already agreed upon ahead of time. I'm on the pill so really the protection is mostly against anything that could be transmitted. Though we made sure we all got tested before we started this whole thing," Connie explained.
"So, you had nothing to do with the kidnapping of Stephanie Sherman, the murder of James Lorigo, the attempted kidnapping of Calvin Arliss, and the attempted murder of Sally Walden?" Elliot just dropped that question like it was no big deal. Connie looked like she was going to be sick and immediately denied it,
"I would never! Who are those people?"
"Stephanie is a mentally challenged woman who was living in Alan and Linda's apartment. They weren't her legal guardians. You were in that apartment and you knew nothing about it?" Olivia found this hard to believe and moved off the wall and got closer to Connie.
"She was never there when I was. Alan was helping her. He said that she wasn't getting enough help from the group home and that she was about to be kicked out because her uncle couldn't pay. He didn't say anything about kidnapping," the younger woman said.
"Where would she be when you and Alan were busy sweating up the sheets?" Elliot pressed.
"At Doug's house. Those two would play games for hours, non-stop. Alan confided that he was worried that Linda was not treating Stephanie right. He said he was going to confront her when Stephanie went for her sleepover at Doug's. He confronted her and it got him killed," Connie admitted.
"And James, Calvin, and Sally?" Olivia demanded.
"I have no idea who those people are. I swear," the younger woman said. She seemed to be telling the truth. Given the descriptions of the attempted kidnappers that Calvin gave them – Connie didn't match. Calvin figured they were two men around six feet tall and white. Connie was only five and a half foot tall and was definitely not white.
"Ok, now you're going to help us identify the rest of the people in these videos. We think someone in your little group helped commit those other crimes. Someone who didn't want their name tossed about. But if we find out that you were in on it too, well let's just say you'll see the even worse side of Detective Benson," Elliot said. Connie swallowed hard and nodded. She would help them.
To Be Continued…