Disclaimer: Law and Order SVU and its characters are owned by Dick Wolf and Wolf Entertainment.
When Partners Collide
Chapter 1
Captain Olivia Benson signaled to Sergeant Fin Tutuola, they paused at the corner of the abandoned Red Hook grain factory in Brooklyn. The Loujaine, a former cement and dry cargo ship, loomed in the background. They both had their Glocks raised. The damp smell of the building brought back memories for Olivia of the last time she was at Red Hook, along with other memories - the smell of burning metal and gun powder, the memories of William Lewis the sadist who kidnapped her laying in front of her dead, the feeling of his blood running down her face. She jumped as Fin touched her arm gently bringing her back to her senses. Taking three deep breaths Benson nods and signals to move. As they rounded the corner, they both freeze with their Glocks still raised.
In front of them stood two men also with their Glocks raised pointing straight at them. But it was not the gun that Olivia was focused on, it was the man nearest her. He was 6ft with short greying hair that was receding and piercing blue eyes that she could never forget, even though she had not seen them in 11 years - it was her old partner and best friend Elliot Stabler. A voice suddenly brought her back to reality.
"Clear"
Olivia looked around to see more people appear, all wearing navy windbreakers with ATF in gold letters. Then she looked back at the two men in front of her, both were returning their guns to their holsters. Olivia slowly did the same not taking her eyes off of Elliott. "Liv" he said, looking as shocked as she was. At that moment Olivia felt rage course through every vein in her body and eleven years' worth of anger, hurt and betrayal came to the surface as she launched herself at Elliot landing a right hook in his eye socket. Without saying anything Olivia walked away, still in shock and shaking with adrenaline.
Elliot signaled to his partner to do nothing and at the same time Fin turned to Elliot
"You deserved that."
Elliot tenderly prodded his fast-swelling eye
"Yeah I know"
Earlier In the day
"Noah, have you got your dance gear?" Olivia called as she ran around the apartment picking up the files she was reading before bed last night.
"Yes Mom" came a voice from the bedroom,
"How about your sports kit?" Olivia asked while zipping up her black heeled boots.
"Already in my locker mom" Noah answered, his voice growing louder. "Can we go now?" he asked standing at Olivia's bedroom door "I don't want to be late!"
"Sorry sweetie" Olivia said. She grabbed her blazer and purse, while Noah carried his backpack as they headed out of the door.
They pulled up in their black SUV at a modern brick building with yellow windows, Noah opened the door and jumped out "'Bye mom"
"Noah" Olivia called after her son, he turned and returned to the passenger side door. "Don't forget Lucy's picking you up to take you to dance and will stay with you till I get home tonight."
Noah rolled his eyes "I know mom, it's been the same routine every day for as long as I can remember. Now can I go?"
Olivia smiled and nodded; Noah smiled back turned to run off towards his friends.
Olivia watched him as he headed into school laughing and chatting with a group of boys he met at the entrance. She was just about to close the window when a voice called out.
"Ms. Benson, Ms. Benson"
Olivia turned and saw a woman in her mid-fifties running towards her dressed in a school crossing guard uniform holding a large manila envelope.
"A girl stopped by earlier and asked me to give you this. Sorry got to go!"
The crossing guard handed the envelope to Olivia and then rushed off to usher a dad and his three children across the road. Olivia opened the envelope and looked inside, there were a number of photos of girls and a scrap piece of paper asking for Olivia to help them. Olivia had no idea that this envelope was about to change her life forever.
Olivia entered the squad room clearly preoccupied, Amanda Rollins - a second grade detective within the Manhattan Special Victims Unit which Olivia was in charge of - came over with a mug of coffee.
"Liv what is it?"
With most of the squad having worked together for many years' formalities were rarely used. Olivia put the envelope in a plastic evidence bag and asked one of the uniform officers to take it to forensics to dust for fingerprints.
"Don't leave until they do it" Olivia instructed whilst accepting the mug of coffee from Amanda who looked puzzled at Olivia's command to the uniformed officer. Olivia called her squad over and to tells them about the envelope she was delivered.
"Captain, do you want me to go and interview the patrol guard?" volunteered Officer Katriona 'Kat' Tamin the youngest member of the squad. Olivia smiled at her recognizing a lot of her younger herself in the officer and signaled that that would not be necessary. Sergeant Odafin 'Fin' Tutuola looked at Olivia with the expression of a worried big brother.
"What is it Fin?" Olivia recognized Fin's look and, though she would never admit it, Olivia appreciated Fin's protectiveness of her.
"Liv don't let this case become personal."
"But this case is personal Fin, I want to know how someone found out what school Noah goes to" Olivia said, not hiding her frustration that Noah was being indirectly dragged into her work, again.
"So, what's the plan?" Amanda asked, attempting to bring Olivia back to the case and to give her something to focus on. Olivia took a deep breath and answered.
"I'm going to drink my coffee and you're all going to give me an update on where each of you are on your cases, because when the officer returns with the envelope our focus is going to be solely on that case."
A couple of hours later, the uniformed officer returned and gave Olivia the envelope.
"Sorry Captain there were three sets of finger-prints on the envelope - yours, and two others neither in the system."
Olivia thanked the officer and walked out to the squad room. Standing in front of the notice boards she called the squad together.
"This morning a young female gave the crossing patrol guard at Noah's school an envelope containing photographs of young girls performing sexual acts, and a note asking me to help them. We need to identify who these girls are, and I want the people who are behind these photos in the pen sooner rather than later. Finally, I want the young woman who gave these photos to the crossing patrol guard. Kat can you put out an alert to all SVU's across the US and also Canada, then look through all available databases including missing persons and Interpol - see if you can identify any of the girls. Fin can you take this to TARU and see if they can identify where these photos were taken and if they can see something we can't. Amanda can you please go and talk to the school's crossing guard and see if you can get more information on the female who handed her the envelope. She might be more inclined to talk without me there."
"Ok" Amanda nodded, picked up her keys, and walked out of the squad room.
Olivia went into her office, closed the door, and sat down putting her head in her hands, after more than 21 years working in SVU she knew this was going to be a hard case, she could feel it in her bones. For just a second she wondered if she was getting too old for the job, but then she thought of the girls in the photos and knew she needed to find them and bring the people behind the photos to justice.
Olivia mindlessly flicked through the various files on her desk but wasn't really paying attention to what she was reading. Amanda knocked on the office door, and walked in.
"Liv, I have spoken to the crossing guard and she has agreed to meet a sketch artist and describe the girl who gave her the envelope. But all she could say was a girl in her late teens and she thinks European. Apparently, she stopped the patrol guard and asked her to pass the envelope to you, because she couldn't wait as she was late for work."
Olivia stood up and headed out of her office, closely followed by Amanda.
"Thank you, Amanda, let's hope she can get somewhere with the sketch artist. Where are we people?" Olivia said addressing the squad. Everyone looked up from their desks.
"I have put an alert out and, so far, no-one has any information on these girls, I am currently going through missing persons, but there is a lot.' Kat said getting up from behind her computer monitor and leaning on the corner of her desk.
"Try putting 'European' as ethnicity, see if that narrows our search down." Olivia responded. Kat nodded but looked puzzled, Amanda noted Kat's puzzlement
"Apparently the school patrol guard thinks the girl who gave her the envelope was European."
Fin jumped up next and filled up his coffee from the filter and another one for Olivia knowing she would forget to drink, he walked over and handed it to her.
"I went down to TARU and persuaded them to move the photo's up to the top of their list."
"Do I want to know how you managed that?" Olivia asked knowing all about Fin's persuasion - when he passed his sergeants exam he was transferred out of the unit, only to her surprise finding him transferred back in within a week. She never did know how he managed it.
"Probably best you don't" Fin responded with a smile and a mischievous twinkle in his eye. Olivia could not help but smile. Fin was a very different cop to Olivia but one she definitely wanted on her side. But then she realized that they had hit a dead end and were having to wait for TARU and whether they could make an ID through the missing persons database. Suddenly an idea came to Olivia
"Kat, how many European girls on the Interpol yellow notices database."
"Too many" Kat responded dejectedly. Olivia thought for a second
"Have you narrowed the search down via age?"
Kat, intrigued about Olivia's question, answered "No, we don't know the ages of the girls"
Olivia flicked up the photos of the girls on the main screen in the squad room.
"Approximately what age do we think these girls are?"
Amanda immediately walked over and started peering at the photos, she knew as the only mom with girls she had the best eye for guessing the girls ages.
"I reckon they're each a little older than Jessie, so my best guess – they range between 9 and 12 years old."
Everyone looked at the girls and nodded in agreement with Amanda. Olivia turned to Kat
"Can you narrow down the age then print each of the girls. Everyone take part of the pile and then see if you can match them to the photos of the girls."
Kat printed out the photos and Fin shared them out among the squad while Olivia made sure everyone had coffee, then joined them going through what seemed like countless missing girls. Every so often someone would jump up and say "I think I have one" and the squad would look and agree or disagree, until finally they had possible matches to half the girls. Suddenly the phone rang, Fin answered it while the others continued through the pile. After he put the phone down Fin announced
"Liv, that was TARU they have something and want to me to pop over"
Olivia, whilst taking down the possible matches, asked Fin while he was over there if they could use their software to match the possible IDs to the girls in the photos. Seeing Kat was desperate to go with Fin, she gave permission, thinking it would be good for the young officer to get out of the office but also to get more experience of the inner workings of TARU, though she did worry that Fin's unorthodox approach might rub off on the already overzealous officer.
After they had gone, Amanda feeling her stomach rumble, looked at her watch and realized it had gone 3pm. Knowing Olivia hadn't eaten either she suggested they go to the local deli and get some lunch to bring back to the office. Olivia agreed knowing there was nothing they could do but wait. After she had grabbed her purse, they headed for the elevator.
Soon they had returned and were eating lunch, swapping stories about motherhood. Olivia enjoyed these rare conversations with Amanda as it was a few minutes when she could forget the horrors that she and Amanda dealt with daily. However, it was soon interrupted when Fin and Kat walked back in and Olivia indicated they should all move to the main squad area for Fin to share what he had learnt
"Firstly, we have names for three of the girls: Jane Doe A is Amelia Kowalski a Polish national who was six years old when she disappeared from outside her house in Zamosc where she was playing with her friends. That was five years ago making her around eleven years old in this picture."
Olivia nodded her head, pleased they were starting to make some progress with the case, or at least identify some of the girls.
"So, we think this is a recent photo, Kat can you get everything you can on Amelia Kowalski and contact the Policja and see if you can speak to someone who was involved with the investigation into her disappearance. I'll authorize the use of a translator if you need to."
Kat nodded, thrilled the Olivia was trusting her to look into Amelia's case on her own, especially as it was her first international case. She also tried to keep her frustration from her face that she had to listen to the rest of the briefing before she could get started. Fin continued
"Jane Doe B: Charlotte Walker a British national who disappeared while her family were on holiday at the Playa Blanca holiday resort in Lanzarote when she was three years old, this was six years ago making her nine years old now."
Amanda suddenly became animated
"I remember this case, it was headline news at the time, the Walkers went out with extended family and Charlotte went missing while they were sunbathing by the pool. They thought Charlotte's cousins were playing with her in the splash pool, but they got bored and sent Charlotte back to her parents, however she never made it. Every year on the anniversary of Charlotte's disappearance they make a fresh appeal. I always remind myself not to ever let Jesse or Billie out of my sight at a swimming pool no matter how tempting it is to get some rays."
"Ok, Amanda, how about you take the Charlotte Walker case, tread lightly especially as this a high-profile case. I don't want to have to get dolled up in my uniform and parade around in front of the media before I have to."
Olivia knew that once the press got wind of this case there was going to be a lot of media interest. Fin carried on to Jane Doe C
"Mirabella is Italian and disappeared last year, aged 9, from Rome where she was staying with her grandparents. They were in a shopping mall when they lost sight of her. The store had no CCTV but the mall has footage of a man in a Trilby hat carrying an unresponsive Mirabella towards the parking lot. That's the last anyone saw of Mirabella. But there's another thing TARU found in this photo of Amelia - if you look at the reflection what do you see?"
Olivia and Amanda peered closely at the photo
"I'll be dammed - it's a man in a Trilby hat" Amanda exclaimed, "If only he didn't have his face hidden by a camera!"
Olivia thought quickly, knowing potentially this might be a bigger case than she originally imagined. "Fin can you take the Mirabella case, all of you when asking about the girls can you also check if anyone mentioned seeing a man in a Trilby. I need to go upstairs and warn the chief that we have circumstantial evidence that three high profile missing children are here in New York and they could potentially all be connected."
"That's going to make his day," Fin answered walking back to his desk, he sighed accepting his fate that there was no way he was going to get out on time tonight to play 'Kill Or Be Slaughtered 2' - his new video game would have to wait in its cellophane till this case was over. Like Olivia, experience told him this case was going to be a long haul.
"Keep me in the loop on any developments you get in the case, and I mean any, not just the ones you think I need to know about." Chief Garland said as he leant back in his chair, Olivia could see he had that look that he pulled when apprehensive about a case. Olivia also leaned back slightly.
"Chief, if these girls are in Manhattan, we're going to need to let the Fed's know, but at the same time, I don't want them to come in and take over. They're heavy handed, and their line of questioning is not helpful - especially for traumatized children."
Chief Garland thought for a moment "You're right we should contact the Fed's, but I think we can hold off until we know for sure." Be careful Olivia we need to tread slow and make sure we do it by the book."
Olivia got up to leave "Yes chief"
Olivia returned to the squad room, on the way she phoned Noah, making sure he was doing his homework and letting Lucy know that she was going to be home late. On entering her office, she threw her jacket on the coat stand, then put her purse in her bottom draw. As she sat down at her desk, she saw a letter. Olivia opened the envelope looked inside and saw a piece of paper.
Captain Benson, you can save these girls Red Hook Granary, Brooklyn, New York, Post Code area 11231 Tonight 7pm.
Olivia picked up the letter and went out to the main squad room
"Who put this on my desk"
A uniform nervously raised his hand
"I did captain, it was handed in at the front desk and the desk clerk handed it to me when I was passing."
Amanda anticipated Olivia's next question and phoned through to the front office to get the name of the officer and the time the letter was dropped off.
"Also, can I get a copy of the security footage from that time period – now - thank you"
Amanda put down the telephone and looked up at Olivia who gave her a look of appreciation.
"They're going to run it up right away"
"Thanks Amanda, while we're waiting my letter writer has dropped me off another letter,"
Olivia pinned it to the notice board which Fin, Amanda and Kat came up and read. Fin and Amanda gave a collective gasp when reading the address, whereas Kat got excited
"Captain, the address, it gives the Zip Code as a postcode that's what England use for their area codes right?" This means that the writer is British.
Olivia looked at the note again "You're right Kat, our writer probably is British"
Amanda however was keen to address another matter "Olivia, you know this says Red Hook Granary right"
Fin joined in, backing up Amanda "This person is contacting you personally, knows where Noah goes to school and now is asking you to go to a place where you were held captive that's suspicious!"
"What happened at Red Hook?"
Kat asked intrigued when she heard the word 'captive' being used. She quickly shut up when she saw Fin and Amanda shooting her a look to stop talking.
Ignoring Kat's question Olivia turned to Fin exasperated.
"You think I don't know that? But what choice do I have when we can rescue these girls from whatever horrors they have had to endure?"
"Detective, here's the footage you asked for"
Amanda took the thumb drive from the officer and thanked him. Putting it into the computer, the footage appeared on the big screen within the squad room. Fast forwarding the footage she stopped as she saw a young woman entering the precinct. Re-winding, then picking it up again, they all watched a young woman in her late teens walk in, go straight past the queue and put the letter on the desk then walk out - the desk clerk never even noticed her. Amanda rewound again, pausing the footage on the clearest image of the woman.
"Ok, so we now know what our mystery writer looks like," Olivia said whilst still looking at the frozen image of the young woman on the screen. Addressing a couple of uniformed officers who watched the footage from their desks she added "Print out a copy of this image and then go through the missing persons again but narrow the ethnicity to solely British."
The two officers nodded and immediately got started. Olivia turned to the rest of the squad "It's coming up to 6, if we need to be in Brooklyn for 7. I suggest we best get a move on and I'll put in a courtesy call to Brooklyn SVU on route."
Kat immediately jumped up and went to fetch her vest and a bottle of water from her locker. Amanda and Fin shared a concerned look that did not escape Olivia's notice.
"Spit it out you two"
"Liv, we think you should stay here" Amanda said, despite knowing it would not go down well with Olivia. Fin backed her up
"Who knows what sick pervert is out there and what game he is drawing you into."
Olivia sighed, as she felt her herself getting annoyed at their concern, she had never shielded away from any criminal and she wasn't about to start now.
"I am fine, and I am coming, and that's' the end of it. Besides Fin, I know you have my back"
"Always" Fin affirmed
"Well let's get going then" Olivia said as she walked to her locker and grabbed her vest.