Olivia whipped her head over her shoulder, her breath coming out in sharp pants as she scrambled down the rocky slope. She knew what would happen next if she got caught and she could not let that happen.
She let a small yelp as she slipped on some loose rocks and landed flat on her back, her head colliding hard with the sharp edge of a rock, the wind knocked out of her. There was a blinding flash of white along with the dull cracking sound of her skull and she let out a quiet groan blinking until her eyes finally were able to focus somewhat on the night sky above her. Olivia brought a shaky hand up to touch the back of her head and drew it away quickly, hissing at the pain. She felt the sticky warmth of blood coat her fingers.
Well fuck. That wasn't good.
Wincing and gasping, Olivia pulled herself up into a seated position and watched the dark trees sway around her, feeling extraordinarily dizzy. She squeezed her eyes shut, clutching her head, and willed for the world to right itself so she could put as much distance as she could between herself and that dilapidated shack.
Through the pain, she vaguely heard the sound of footsteps and she froze. With the way the hill sloped maybe if she stayed still, he wouldn't see her in the darkness.
If only she were that lucky.
The man let out a delighted cry and Olivia could see the brightness of a flashlight fall on her face through her closed lids. No, no, no, no, no!
Ignoring the pain of her head, she pushed herself up from the ground only to fall as she saw white again, the ground refusing to stop swinging wildly.
The man laughed at her, his voice much closer now as Olivia violently threw up. Still retching, she was yanked onto her feet. Fingers prodded the wound on the back of her head causing her to cry out.
"You really did a number on yourself Detective Benson. I did tell you not to run."
"Yeah well, can you blame me?" she asked, surprising herself.
The man let out a startled laugh. "No, I can't say I can. You know, I was worried about switching things up with you, but I think I like you mouthy."
"You're welcome then."
He started dragging her back up the slope, eyeing her suspiciously. "You really did hit your head hard, huh Detective?"
She gave no comment. The combination of his rough jerks and the way she was dragging her feet, trying to gain enough traction to slip free of his grip, was incredibly disorienting and only added to her dizziness. Her movements were proving to be futile and her thoughts were starting to swirl together. As she struggled against him, she could feel herself becoming more and more lightheaded. When her vision finally began to fade, she found herself wishing for the very thing she'd been trying to forget. His intense green eyes inches from hers. As Olivia finally succumbed to the dark of unconsciousness, she could've sworn she smelled the sweet scent of scotch...
Four days earlier…
"Son of a bitch." Olivia stared down at the naked body in the dirt with thinly veiled anger and disgust. Her eyes had bypassed the bruising, bite marks, and beat up face, immediately zeroing in on the woman's right hand. Nick knelt next to the brunette to examine her fingers up close. Her four fingers.
"Yep. Ripped off just like the others," Amaro said with distaste before standing back up to scan the ground around the body.
Olivia shook her head, "Yeah only difference is this one is dead."
It had been a little under a month since they had been called in to the ER for a particularly chilling case where a 24-year-old aspiring artist had been found unconscious in a mall parking garage naked, beaten up, and missing a pinky finger.
Olivia took in the woman's brutally beaten face. "He's escalating. This won't be the only body we find if we don't track this guy down."
Amaro nodded, looking contemplative. "Hopefully, this dump site isn't as clean as the others."
Despite three living victims and three separate dump sites, the perp still hadn't left anything that could lead them to who he was or where he took his vics. The best lead they'd gotten so far was from the garage security cameras where the first vic was dumped but unfortunately, the car the perp used had turned out to be a rental. Olivia had talked to the owner who could only remember that the man who rented the car was average looking and paid with cash.
It was Olivia's turn to kneel down this time; she had caught sight of something. "Hey Amaro, come look. Her other pinky… Looks like it was broken."
"Well that's new," Amaro said with mild surprise. "Guess one finger wasn't enough this time."
"Between this and the state of her face, it definitely looks like he needs more pain to get off," Olivia mused, "but why break this one if ripping off pinkies is his thing?"
Her partner could only shrug. "Who the hell knows? I mean the guy's thing is ripping off pinkies! C'mon, Liv, we gotta talk to CSU and see if they found anything that can help identify her."
"Or identify the sick bastard who did this," Olivia added. Her face was dark as she locked eyes with her partner. "I have a feeling he's just getting started."
Amaro frowned. "Then we gotta shut him down. Now."
Nick couldn't help but pace in front of the screens in the precinct as he spoke, "Four victims, consistent injuries, although the severity has increased…"
Olivia cut in, arms crossed, "All beaten, all raped, their pinkies literally ripped out of their sockets… This guy is a sadist. Not only that but no DNA, no fluids, no fibers! This guys a ghost too."
"We got to be missing something here," Munch complained. "No one just wakes up one day and decides to start ripping pinkies off women."
This fourth dump site had been just as clean as the rest of them and the squad was not having it. They were all standing in front of the screen with the ID photos of the 3 previous victims and a crime scene photo of their latest Jane Doe.
"Okay," said Benson, thinking hard. "Let's go over what our living vics could tell us. There's got to be a connection here that we're missing besides the fact that they're all brunettes."
"All curvy brunettes in their 30s to early 40s, actually," Amanda added.
"Looks like you're his type Liv," joked Fin.
"Oh, ha ha, Fin. Good thing I've always thought 10 fingers seemed a bit excessive," Liv deadpanned, wiggling her pinky at him while Amanda smirked and Amaro looked affronted. Four hours of sleep did wonders for Liv's sense of humor.
Munch let them at it for a few seconds longer before pulling them back on track. "C'mon guys, keep it together."
Olivia grimaced at the reminder, "That was in poor taste. Sorry, Munch."
Fin's smile faded as he clicked on the photo of the first vic, pulling her file up on the screen. His voice became serious as he examined the file. "Our first vic is Katherine Moss, age 34, single, lives in a tiny apartment in Queens. She recalled the most out of the three living vics but that's not saying much seeing one's in a coma. All she remembered was going to a bar downtown and then nothing but flashes."
Olivia, who had taken her statement spoke up. "Her tox screen showed traces of ketamine in her system which accounts for the memory loss. She said she couldn't place where, but distinctly remembered trying to run through trees in the dark. She was found in a parking garage in the West Side by a parking attendant at 4 in the morning. The security cams gave us nothing but a dead-end rental car."
Fin quickly pulled up the file for the second vic and continued,
"Emily Hardwick, age 38, also single, lives with her sister in Upper Manhattan. She was found in an alley in Downtown Manhattan 2 weeks after Kathrine Moss, almost dead from dehydration. She has no memory of where she was taken from but also recalled a forested area and laying on rocks. Tox screen again had ketamine."
Rollins spoke up. "Well, it's definitely not a lot to go on but supports the idea he takes them to the same place."
Benson nodded. "That's what we were thinking. Now our third vic was found a week after Emily Hardwick." The woman's photo popped up on the screen along with photos from her rape kit. "Sophia Waterhouse, 42, was found behind a rec center in the East Side. She is still in the hospital in a coma due to brain trauma. She lives in the Bronx with her husband who hasn't left her side since she was found."
"And today," Amaro said, "four days later, we found Jane Doe in a construction site in Midtown Manhattan. She was DOA and we're still waiting to hear from Melinda about anything that could help us identify her."
"We're thinking the guy lives somewhere in Manhattan, that's where all the dump sites have been." Fin pulled up a map with the homes of the victims and the dump sites clearly marked. "If you look, all the dump sites are centralized in Manhattan, but his vics live all over the place."
"Okay so we look at their activities then, see if there's any overlap," Munch said.
"That's what we've been doing, but so far we haven't found anything." Olivia looked vexed. "We've got to keep digging."
"Yeah you do!" An irritated voice called out from across the bullpen. The squad looked over to find Barba clutching a newspaper and his briefcase with a dangerously irate expression on his face. "Can someone explain to me WHY the DA's office wasn't informed about the… what are they calling him?" He brought the newspaper up, twisting his hand awkwardly so he could read it, "Oh yeah that's right. The 'Pinky Pervert'. Very catchy."
"Barba!" Munch said, clearly hoping to head off what was shaping up to be a long tirade from the tightly wound ADA. "We were just about to head over and fill you in."
Barba cocked his head to stare at him. "Oh really, you were? A little too late for that Sergeant, I just had to explain to my bosses why on earth I had no idea about the latest public menace terrorizing the city because your detectives couldn't bother to pick up the phone! Let me guess, the captain's at 1PP?" He didn't wait for a response. "Wonderful. Who's running point on this one?"
Olivia almost felt sheepish but held her ground. "Amaro and I."
"Great. Olivia, come with me, I need you to fill me in. I have a meeting with my bosses in an hour and I need to be, in their words, 'considerably more informed.'"
Olivia glanced back at Munch who shrugged unhelpfully. Guess this was happening then.
Olivia made a show of sounding irritable but secretly didn't mind getting out of the precinct. She'd been working double shifts since the third vic and had been here for far too long. "By all means, Barba. Let me just drop what I'm doing and fill you in."
"Why thank you!" he shot back with just as much sarcasm.
Olivia grabbed the file off her desk as Barba waited for her, looking at his watch impatiently.
As she walked past him, she shot a look at him and punched him lightly in the shoulder. "Sometimes you can be such an ass, Barba." He laughed a bit at that and followed.
Barba and Benson had an interesting dynamic that Olivia didn't like to think too much about because, if she was being honest with herself, it often toed the line of overt flirtation and that was something she just couldn't afford to unpack at the moment.
Barba, on the other hand, loved to think about it, especially on nights where he found himself alone and entirely too tense. He loved imagining her in his office, the two of them arguing passionately about something mundane (oh, it always started off with arguing) before she'd lean in closer to jab a finger at him. He'd grab her wrist and her breath would catch slightly, her eyes darkening with lust as she was left speechless by his bold move, her lips parting slightly—
"Barba!" He was pulled out of his dangerous thoughts immediately. Shit! They were standing in front of the elevator and Olivia was looking at him with a curious expression on her face. "Are you even listening to a word I'm saying?"
Olivia locked eyes with the lawyer for the briefest of moments and she could've sworn she saw a flash of desire in his intense gaze before he tore his eyes from her, shaking his head a little.
"Yeah sorry, no, you're going to have to repeat all of that."
She rolled her eyes. "Keep up will you."
They stepped into the elevator and turned to start their briefing when there was a sudden influx of people who crowded in, and they found themselves squished together in the corner. As he let out an irritated huff of air, her hair fluttered, and she was suddenly incredibly aware of how close they were. Like her whole side pressed into him, close. Her breath hitched.
Keep it together Benson. It's just Barba.
Barba seemed to be oblivious to her dilemma and pointedly glanced around at all the people surrounding them before rolling his eyes at her with exaggerated exasperation. Olivia could almost hear him pompously complaining about "allll the people in here!" He could be so charming sometimes it hurt. She shot back a smirk and gave her own little eyeroll back, shaking her head, clearly meant to agree with his unspoken sentiment. When he gave her a wide grin that made his eyes crinkle, so unlike the smug smirks she was used to, her heart skipped. What was this man doing to her?
The elevator doors opened with a ding and people shuffled out, effectively cutting their little moment short. Olivia let him get out before her, giving her a second to snap out of it. She was here to brief their ass of an ADA and nothing else.
Although, her eyes flicked downwards, I have to admit, the ass does have a nice one.
He turned to face her with a more serious expression and asked "So? The Pinky Pervert?"
Relieved he didn't catch her checking him out she spoke a little louder than she should've and with too much enthusiasm. "Of course!" She could slap herself. Ohh my god Benson! What is with you today!? Barba's eyebrows quirked a little at the light blush on her cheeks.
"I mean, yes. Let me fill you in." And so she did.