A/N: Hey guys, listen I know it's been forever. Unfortunately school takes priority over fics… Anyways, I've finally gotten this chapter finished. I'm pretty happy with how it came out - I hope you guys like it. Thanks so much for all the great reviews! chloe, crazedphsycooffics, Alaska, Riker15LuckyDucky20BrittanyLSMiss DeedsStratocruiser, DKG, hpjsrrosa lunaeYankeesLoverLady Padfoot II, BriBri, christopher-meloni-freakvolleyloverDucky Burt 00psalm57tia-ballerinaSVUlover18SouthrnBellePoetryxxPrincessLivElRocks a lotFoxyWombat, Scarlette O'Hara, Tennessee and Dramawitsvu17
You guys are awesome…hope to you hear from you again. Anyways, on with the story - enjoy!
P.S. My beta has been out for forever and I really wanted to post this so please forgive any mistakes…I tried my best to edit it. Feel free to lemme know if there's errors.
2:00 p.m.
Apartment of Sophia Bendez
Tuesday, June 28
Mouth open, eyes wide Elliot stood gaping at the mirror. Slowly the shock gave way to full-scale panic. He groped around wildly in his pockets until his fingers found the smooth cover of his cell phone. He snapped the phone open, his fingers hurrying to dial the familiar number of Olivia's cell. It rang. Once, twice, three times. "C'mon 'Liv…pick up the phone…pick up the phone damnit!" She didn't.
Trying vainly to calm himself Elliot took a deep breath and decided to call Cragen. After all Olivia could still be in the office, or maybe she simply hadn't heard her phone…for the first time…ever.
"Capt. Cragen, Special Victims Unit."
"Cap it's me."
"Elliot." Cragen's voice was cold and stiff. Elliot failed to notice or at any rate, didn't care.
"Where's Olivia?" The words came out tight and strained.
"Wh…"
"Olivia! Is she there? Where is she?"
"I sent her to investigate a call that came in about half an hour ago. Why?"
"Alone? You sent her alone?"
In his former anger Captain Cragen had hardly noticed the flaw in his thinking. Now however, his decision to send an unsupported detective to a warehouse to investigate an anonymous call seemed completely ridiculous. "I…what's the matter Elliot? What's going on?"
"Cap we gotta find her. Where's the warehouse?"
"Elliot. What is - "
"There's no time!" Elliot Stabler had abandoned all reason. "Tell me where the warehouse is!" he shouted into the phone as he bolted out of Bendez's house.
"34th street, number 452." Cragen replied calmly. "I'll meet you there." But Elliot had already hung up the phone.
2:20 p.m.
Abandoned Warehouse
Tuesday June 28th
"Police open up!" Elliot flung open the warehouse door and entered, gun at the ready. He stepped into the dark warehouse flanked by his Captain, also with gun poised. Cragen fumbled along the side wall with his free hand for a short while and by some miracle came across the power switch. The large room slowly came to life as the fluorescent bulbs flickered on.
"Detective Benson?" Cragen called out, straining to see Olivia in the slowly-lightening room. "Benson?"
Elliot hurried forward. "Olivia? Olivia are you here?"
Even as the lights struggled to reach their full potential the men knew their calls were useless. Olivia wasn't in the warehouse.
3:20 p.m.
Special Victims Unit Squad Room
Tuesday, June 28
Captain Donald Cragen looked solemnly from one detective to the next. "We're gonna find her." None of the four so much as flinched. The whole situation seemed so…surreal. Olivia wasn't missing…she couldn't be. That sort of thing didn't happen to people as strong-willed as her.
"What does he want with her?" Munch's strangely smooth voice broke the silence.
"We don't know…" Cragen began.
"Well we certainly know what happened to Ainslie White!" Elliot snapped, gesturing wildly at her photo on the whiteboard.
"Elliot man, we can't be sure why he took Olivia." Fin said, standing slowly.
Elliot was furious. "He kidnapped Ainslie White, made her look like Olivia and killed her! I think we can be pretty damn sure!"
"Elliot, this wasn't your fault." Dr. George Huang had entered the room completely unnoticed by its frantic occupants.
"What?" Elliot spun around to face the FBI psychiatrist.
"You're angry because you think Olivia's disappearance is your fault. You're blaming yourself for what's happened." Huang's matter-of-fact voice seemed to push Elliot over the edge.
"I'm angry because some sicko has my partner God only knows what he's doing to her! She'll be dead if we don't get our asses moving and find her!"
"Elliot!" Cragen boomed. "We all want to find Olivia. Now sit down and listen to my instructions." Amazingly, Elliot did as he was told. "Munch, Fin tell me you got something out of those letters…"
"Lab managed to pull a print off the envelope of one. We ran it through AFIS and got a hit off a workplace card…a Jackson Crane from Manhattan." Fin could hardly conceal the excitement in his voice. This was the first solid lead they'd had in the case.
"Before we get too worked up" Cragen said, shooting a glance at Fin, "can we be sure the print is relevant? Maybe Jackson Crane is one of Sophia's ex-boyfriends and she just never ditched his letters…"
Munch picked a copy of one of the letters up off his desk and began to read. " 'I can not wait until we meet face to face. To have you at my mercy will make all the planning, all those nights spent watching, all my attention to detail worth while. I never stop thinking about you and the fun we'll have together. Enjoy your freedom while you can Olivia - I'm always just around the corner.' " The four detectives shivered involuntarily. "I think we can be pretty damn sure…" Munch finished.
After a pregnant pause Cragen finally broke the silence that had enveloped the squad room. "Please tell me you've got an address for this guy" he said quietly.
"24th and Lexington…apartment number 156." replied Fin.
"Right well let's get over there!" Cragen commanded. The three detectives were already out the door.
4:00 p.m.
Apartment of Jackson Crane
Tuesday, June 28
"Mr. Crane!" Elliot hollered at the closed of door of apartment 156. "Mr. Crane it's the police open up!" The door remained closed.
The detectives were in no mood to wait; Olivia could be in that very room. "Last chance Crane!" Fin shouted. Three seconds later the door was broken off two of its hinges.
The detectives were totally unprepared for the sight that met them inside apartment. The pungent odour of blood greeted them as they stepped through the doorway. Elliot flicked on a light switch. John inhaled sharply. Two large pools of blood were splashed across the floor. More blood was splattered against the back wall. In the center of the room sat a chair, remnants of duct tape still visible on the arm rests and front legs. On the floor beside the chair a lamp lay smashed on its side, blood and skin fragments noticeable on its broken pieces.
"Bastard." Elliot cursed under his breath.
"Looks like we found where Ainslie White was killed." John said solemnly.
Fin went ahead and cleared the room while Elliot radioed for a crime scene unit. All three detectives returned to the precinct disheartened. They had found a blood bath of a murder scene yes, but nothing that was bringing them any close to finding Olivia. So wrapped up in their own thoughts of worry and frustration were they that not a single man noticed the flaw in their conclusion about apartment 156.
7:00 a.m.
Special Victims Unit Squad Room
Wednesday, June 29
Munch, Fin, Stabler and Cragen sat in the precinct in silence. None had been able to sleep. Stabler hadn't even bothered to leave the squad room.
Munch stared at Olivia's empty desk. His thoughts fluttered back to that day so many years ago when he'd made a jab at why Olivia had left the "Father" side of her life insurance policy blank. He remembered Elliot pulling him to the side of the room and telling him to lay off. "All she knows is that her father is the man who raped her mother." God, he was such an idiot…John Munch, forever the cynic.
Cragen looked forlornly at the door, half believing Olivia would simply come bursting through any minute. He felt so guilty he could hardly stand it. Last night he had wanted a drink so badly. His last words to Olivia ran through his head like a broken record, each syllable punctuated with another nauseating wave of guilt. "…you're all I've got. I'm putting you on this one temporarily, get moving." Damnit! How could he have been so blind? Sure, send a lone detective to an empty warehouse to investigate an uncorroborated anonymous crime tip. This entire thing was his fault. He was the captain who had sent a detective to her doom.
Elliot stared at the whiteboard. 'Olivia Benson' was scrawled at the top. Beneath it was blank. Utterly blank. How could they not have a single lead? The love of his life was being held in the hands of a maniac and he didn't have a single lead. Wait. Love? He didn't love Olivia Benson. Not his longtime partner, best friend and closest confidant Olivia Benson. Never.
Elliot shook his head. Now was not the time to be confused. He turned his head to look at the board with 'Ainslie White' printed much more neatly on it. Olivia had written that one. Below the name was Ainslie's autopsy photo, the thin deep ligature marks a sharp contrast to the pale white of the rest of her neck. Hold on a second…ligature marks…
Elliot leapt out of his seat. "She was strangled." he muttered. The other heads in the room jerked to face him. "Wha-?"
"She was strangled." Elliot said more audibly, wandering towards the whiteboard. "All that blood we found in Crane's apartment…Ainslie White was strangled. There was no blood involved…"
Shock slowly registered across the detectives' faces. How in the hell could they have missed that?
A young brunette lab technician hurried into the squad room. "I don't mean to interrupt but Dr. Warner asked that I bring this to you right away" she began, waving a brown folder. Four heads turned to face the woman at once. "I'm sorry, but I've got some bad news…" Elliot cringed, his mind had already calculated what she was about to say. "The blood in the apartment wasn't from Ainslie White…it belongs to Olivia Benson."