7
Olivia watched intently as the pair of glasses were carefully dusted—up down, up down—ever-so-slowly. The forensics lead of the crime scene unit, a handsome, mid-thirties strawberry blonde named Jason McAllister, gently set the brush down and held the pair of specs up.
The brunette had her arms folded as she fought every ounce in her being to grab them and run the prints through the fingerprint scanning machine herself. Instead, she felt her right knee shake slightly, vibrating with the impending results of the scan, content in the fact that McAllister was the best at what he did and that this whole process was extremely delicate and needed to be handled with extreme kid gloves.
"Looks like we have some smudged partial prints on the front of the glasses." He held them up to the light and tilted them back and forth. "See them?"
Olivia squinted and nodded, her mouth open. "Yeah…but I see something else on the other side." The brunette narrowed her eyes even more. "Is that…?"
McAllister placed the glasses back onto the surface and then repeated the same motion with the same white dust, dipping it into the container with care and then lightly and carefully brushing the inside of the lenses. He smiled and held them up then, looking at Olivia. "A perfect thumbprint."
Olivia's heart rate increased slightly as the adrenaline began to stir inside of her. She watched him carefully press the fingerprint lifting tape to the inside of the lens and finish the entire process. She looked at Fin, her hands going to the top of her head and running her fingers through her locks, the two just looking at each other.
"This is it, Liv. We're gonna find her," he offered with that quiet, smooth confidence.
Olivia only nodded and took a deep breath before returning her gaze to Jason. She watched as he placed the clear strip along the edge of the scanner—connected to a laptop—and then pressed a button with his gloved finger, the prints slowly being rolled downward into the device.
"If there's a match, and they're in the system, we got 'em," Fin offered.
"I know…" Olivia said softly.
The strip continued through, painstakingly slow, until it settled on the output tray and then McAllister moved to his computer, typing in a few things before a flurry of images began blinking across the screen—fingerprint, matching points of minutiae, face; fingerprint, matching points of minutiae, face—over and over again, each flash not more than a quarter of a second in length, hundreds flashing in front of them as they all stared at the screen.
And then the screen froze, a face appearing immediately. And it was a mug shot.
Raul Carlos Moreno. Born 3/4/1990.
And it went on to list his offenses: Aggravated sexual assault. Larceny. Possession and distribution of drugs. And on and on and on.
And there was his address.
Right there.
And, at that moment, Olivia had the feeling, a sensation when she looked at that particular address—621 Manida Street, Apartment. 441, Hunts Point, Bronx—and she felt her energy, her electricity, kick into overdrive and she was ready to go.
"Send that to my phone," she ordered, pointing. She turned and began to walk briskly down the hallway, Fin right next to her. "We'll take the FDR to the Robert Kennedy Bridge. It's about forty-five minutes."
"I'll call local Bronx PD for back up," Fin offered.
Olivia stopped and faced him. "This can't go wrong, Fin." She furrowed her brow.
"It won't, Liv. But we can't wait until we get there, who knows…she'll be there longer and…"
Olivia felt her eyes fill with tears then and she swallowed, nodding. "You're right. As much as I want to cuff this bastard myself and pull his balls through his throat, she needs to get out of there as soon as possible…" Olivia thought for a moment, "…that is…if she's even there."
"She'll be there, Liv."
Olivia steeled herself and took her walkie-talkie from her back pocket, beginning to jog and speak into it. "This is Detective Olivia Benson-Cabot with SVU. I have a 10-72 at 621 Manida Street, Bronx, and I need officers on the scene. Please be advised, the suspect's name is Raul Moreno. He's armed and dangerous. There is an abducted woman inside the apartment. We need a bus at that location, too. Once again, the address is 621 Manida Street, Apartment 441."
They reached the car and Fin got in the driver's seat and Olivia in the passenger seat, both buckling up quickly, the car peeling out, sirens blaring, within seconds.
"Detective Tutuola and I are on our way. I repeat. Suspect is armed and dangerous. Please take precaution."
And the speed of the Caprice picked up, Olivia's body being instantly propelled backward as she held on to the door rest, and they were off to the Bronx to arrest the criminal who took Alex, rescue her wife, and bring her back home, once and for all.
"Let's get this bastard, Liv."
Olivia nodded, not able to keep a slight smile from creeping on her face. "Let's do this, detective."
Love has gone and left me and I don't know what to do;
This or that or what you will is all the same to me;
But all the things that I begin I leave before I'm through—
There's little use in anything as far as I can see.
Alex felt her eyes fill with tears once more, remembering that poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay called "Ashes" that she had memorized in college. It had always struck her as hopeful before, perhaps the person writing it just stating the obvious fact that nothing stays the same, that all things change.
But now, as she recited it inside of her head once more, lying here in the darkened living area for the past twenty-six hours, it had taken on a whole different meaning. It spoke of despair. It spoke of things that would never happen. It spoke of an untimely end.
Alex felt a tear roll down her right cheek and her lower lip tremble as she thought of her wife.
Olivia.
They had been through so much together. They had met and there was instant magic on both sides. Their friendship grew, along with their attraction to each other and once they had consummated and professed their love, they had been unexpectedly separated. They got through that, through those five years, only to be reunited again, stronger than ever. Engaged right away, neither wanting a moment away from the other and, within a few months of marriage, they were expecting their first child.
The idealistic fantasy aspect of it was unreal. The part where they lived happily ever after had come so quickly and the blonde thought it would be that way until they were old and gray, helping each other up from chairs, laughing about their youth, watching their children grow, flourish, and create their own paths of life.
Alex's eyes filled with more tears now, her hope having dwindled, her thoughts of being saved now replaced by memories of her wife, of her children.
She smiled as she thought of her wife and her affinity to water. How Olivia, no matter the circumstance, the situation, once she became submerged in an ocean, a hot spring, a bathtub, her wife became a sex maniac. Alex couldn't help but giggle—a sad, longing happiness—at the face her wife made when she was turned on. It was the most beautiful expression Alex had ever seen and every time she had it on that amazingly flawless face, she couldn't help but fall in love with her just a tiny bit more, if that were even possible.
She had been married to Olivia for almost ten years now. And in those years, they had lived their lives, expanded their family, grown their careers into different branches. But in that time, they had all been existing in sheer bliss and the blonde wouldn't trade any of the moments for anything.
And all she wanted was to have them back. To see her wife's amazingly gorgeous eyes. To feel her embrace, her arms around her. To feel her kisses again. To have the little arms of her children around her again. To hear their laughs and uninhibited freedom of happiness.
That was all she wanted. Not much really.
But as she lay there, looking up at the ceiling once more, she felt nothing but desperation and anguish. She felt she would never be found. She felt she would be here, tied to this bed, until she drew her last breath.
The children would live without her and Olivia would go on. Olivia was an amazing mother and Alex knew that she would do an incredible job with the kids. She had no doubt of that.
Her mind jumped back into present reality and she remembered that she was in excruciating physical pain in more than one area of her body. At this point, she dare not move her arms or legs. Any motion of her wrists or ankles would remind her of the raw skin that was now there. The coarseness of the rope had been rubbing through the first layers of her skin, and she felt the exposed, wet, bloody layers beneath.
Her backside was completely numb, but the pain along her spine and shoulder blades was indescribable—a stabbing, burning, throbbing ache that never stopped.
But it wasn't just physical.
The cracks and water stains on the ceiling had become a sort of art work to her, now having taken on shapes of animals—a goat and a turtle—and one of an old man's face—perhaps Van Gogh? —and she swore that now she could hear the Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos No. 2 in C Minor playing somewhere in the room. She felt like she was losing her mind and, in all honesty, she very well could have been.
But she had a plan. A last resort of sorts to try and save herself. But the conditions would have to be just right.
It was something she hesitated to do because if it went wrong, it would go terribly wrong and she wasn't sure she would be able to handle the outcome.
She knew that Raul was sleeping in the bedroom and Rosa was out. Pedro was coming back any minute with some of their usual convenience store items, so she had to put the plan into effect as soon as Pedro got back and before Raul woke up.
Alex looked toward the door as she heard the lock turn and the piece of wood squeak open. Just as expected, Pedro with two brown grocery bags.
She smiled at him and the look on his face was priceless—surprise, disbelief, elation.
"What'd ya get?" she asked cheerfully.
Pedro set the bags on the kitchen table and then turned and looked at the closed bedroom door before moving slowly towards her. "Uh…I got…" he looked back again, "…some rum and more beer and some chips…" He stepped even closer then and looked back once more before standing at the foot of the cot.
"You still have those condoms?" She raised her eyebrows.
His face lit up, a goofy grin covering his perspiration-covered skin. "Y-yeah…I got 'em right here…" He pulled one out of his back pocket. "I thought you—?"
"Well you thought wrong," Alex smiled, moving her wrist and feeling the jute cut further into her skin. She fought the urge to moan. "Someone's sleeping and I thought maybe now would be a good time, Pedro. We have some privacy." She smiled at him once more.
"Yeah?" he questioned, sitting next to her legs. "Do you think we have time?"
"How long do you need, baby?" She batted her eyes at him.
"Uh…" Pedro looked at the closed door again before his gaze went back to her, his eyes running along her body, "…I don't think I need long…"
"Perfect," she winked. "Then let's get to it. Take your pants off, big boy."
Pedro's eyes went wider then, his gaze still on her body and he stood and unbuttoned and unzipped his pants. Then a look of confusion washed over his face. "Uh…" he looked at her ankles tied together and then back at her and then her ankles, and then around the room.
"Use that knife over there," Alex encouraged. "The one on the counter."
Pedro looked behind him and then hastily moved a few feet away and grabbed the pocket knife before returning to Alex.
"Hurry, Pedro. I'm ready now…" Alex cooed. "I gotta have you…"
Alex watched as he opened the knife and then placed it against the rope in between her ankles and began sawing, his face now dripping with perspiration, one drop forming on the tip of his nose, threatening to fall.
"That's it, Baby. Almost there…" Alex coaxed, watching his face, his every action.
Halfway through the half-inch rope and he was still working on it, even more beads forming along his forehead now.
A few more back and forth motions and the rope was separated, her ankles were detached, and Pedro closed the knife and stuck it into his back pocket, smiling at her.
"Let me see what you have, Baby," Alex cooed.
Pedro pushed his jeans down then, his large shirt falling at his upper thighs. He hiked it up, revealing that rotund midsection, and Alex let her eyes go to the area in question. And she didn't see anything. Only the bottom hem of his boxer briefs.
"Come here, Pedro. But you have to be gentle. I haven't done this in a long time."
"Oh, right. Cuz…"
Alex nodded. "Right."
He moved closer and placed his left knee on the bed and then hiked his right leg over her, his knees now on either side of her hips.
"Want me to help you get ready, Pedro? Because I'm already there." Alex swallowed as she looked at the massive man hovering over her, feeling her eyes burn with emotion now at the reality of what she had put into motion for the sake of one last ditch effort, the sickness in her stomach.
But this was the plan.
Pedro nodded adamantly, his face glistening.
"My hands, Pedro..." She looked at him with expectant eyes and he reached into his back pocket once more and then moved the blade to the rope on her wrists, beginning the same back and forth motion.
Once the ropes were cut from either side of her thighs and her arms and legs were now mobile, it was tempting to just run, head for the door and leave. But she knew, unless incapacitated, he would over power her and she would be in an even worse situation.
She needed to continue.
Ands so, with trembling hands, ropes still cuffed and dangling from her wrists like bracelets, now able to see the damage they had caused, Alex reached for the waistband of his boxer briefs and tugged at the elastic.
I need you to move backward, Baby." Alex smiled up at him, feeling her mouth tremble, the bile rising up into her throat.
He smiled and leaned forward then, his face moving to just millimeters in front of her own, his hot, sour breath hitting her space, and she fought her gag reflex. And, instead of moving down just yet, she felt him move closer, his hot, fleshy mouth being pressed to her own, his probing tongue instantly inside her mouth, his acrid taste suddenly becoming her own taste.
And she wanted to vomit right then and there.
Roughly, he broke the kiss and he now inched slightly downward then, his large hand tugging her sweat shirt to her cleavage, to place a hard, rough kiss on her upper chest, Alex gasping and panting as he did so, fighting the urge to cry, but feeling her eyes well with tears.
He then moved slightly further down and lifted her shirt upward, kissing her breastbone with force, his stubble painfully scraping along her flesh.
And now was her chance. She saw the window as clear as day at that exact moment. The right alignment. The correct position for what she wanted to do.
And with all of the force she could summon, she let her right knee make impact with the obese man's crotch, his face immediately twisting in pain, his hands going to his groin, his body cowering into itself as he struggled to even breathe.
"What the fuck?" Pedro huffed, confused, his large body falling off to the side and onto the ground in a ball.
Raul now. "It's the last time, man. I told you already." He pulled a whimpering Pedro by his shirt then, pulling him to a standing position and shoving him toward the front door.
A loud banging sound. Deafening.
The whole front apartment door was suddenly horizontal, teetering halfway on a kitchen chair, and five officers were suddenly inside the room with them. Raul with his hands in the air, Pedro still holding himself and grimacing.
Alex gasped, attempting to sit up, but being encumbered by her own pain and weakness. "Please…" she said softly, feeling her face twist with relief, holding her braceleted wrists up "…please get these off of me…and get me out of here..."
A female officer approached her slowly, hands slightly raised. "I'm Officer Darwin. Are you OK?"
Alex nodded quickly, watching as Raul and Pedro were cuffed and led out of the apartment.
"An ambulance is on its way and we're gonna get you out of here," Officer Darwin informed her.
The squealing siren of an ambulance was heard now, getting closer, and Alex couldn't help but sob harder as Officer Darwin cut the remainder of the ropes from her, setting her free, and finally ending this twenty-six hour-long nightmare.
And all she wanted to do was see her wife. And her children. She closed her eyes, beginning to cry even harder from relief, from her prayers and wishes coming true, as the EMTs rushed in with their equipment and bags and she thanked God that she had been found.
