Notes on an Aftermath
Chapter Seven: Verdad, Part II
Fin waits in his car for Chester to exit Riker's. He's been waiting for about forty minutes now, and he looks at his watch, wondering how much longer Chester is going to be. He grins, thinking that for the next few weeks, he's got a lot of time on his hands. He still hasn't made a final decision about leaving SVU for good yet, but some part of him knows that he will be returning. The words of his son are constantly echoing in his head.
It feels good to know that being a cop means something to his son after all these years. He freely admits that he hasn't been the greatest father to Ken, but he is trying like hell to forge the fractured foundation and establish himself as someone his son can trust and come to when he can't go anywhere else. Of course, sometimes, Olivia makes that difficult, only because Ken leans on her so much to get through to him. He knows that on some level, it makes Olivia uncomfortable to be in the middle, and he probably should tell her not to be because if Ken trusts her, then he's okay with that, but he wants to be the one his son trusts.
Lately, he's seen the pain in Olivia's eyes over almost every aspect that he knows of that she deals with in her life. He knows that Lowell Harris definitely screwed her up in her head. He can see that she hasn't been getting any sleep or rest for that matter, and she walks with her shoulders slumped slightly. He doesn't think that Harris raped her, but he definitely had himself exposed to Olivia, showing an intention of violating her in the worst of ways.
She is compensating for everything Harris took away by putting her all into helping others, like his son and him.
And Elliot.
For the last few years, he's come to think that Elliot and Olivia have an almost unhealthy connection between the two of them. The way she takes his crap, the way he treats her sometimes, and how he's so protective of her and caring one minute, then dismissive and cruel the next. Still, she always stands up for him, and she's there for him unconditionally.
She's loyal like that, and now he thinks its time Elliot pulls his head out of his ass and helps Olivia pick herself up and beat the demons in her life and be strong again.
Fin sees the front gate leading into the prison open up and a few moments later, Chester walks out, looking worse for ware and beat to hell. He is looking around, and Fin honks the horn and Chester spots him, making his way over and then getting into the car.
"Thanks for picking me up, Fin," Chester says. "I really appreciate it."
"No problem," Fin says.
He pulls out of the parking lot then heads onto the freeway.
"Where do you want me to drop you?" Fin asks.
"My apartment," Chester says.
Fin nods.
"Case is really pissed at me," Chester says.
"Good," Fin says. "You really fucked things up with her."
"I know," Chester says. "I can't believe she's pregnant."
Fin looks over at the younger man. "You should believe it, considering you're the one that got her that way, dumb-ass."
Chester scowls at Fin. "We didn't plan it…I mean…it just happened. I wouldn't get her pregnant and then leave her."
"The point is, you've got to fix this mess you've gotten yourself into," Fin says. "This whole thing stinks to high heaven."
"I know, and you're right," Chester agrees. "I do need to fix everything, especially with Casey because I love her. I'm in love with her, and I want to be with her and be there for our baby. I don't want her to be alone."
Fin looks at Chester, then he turns his attention back to the road.
"So how'd you pull it off?"
"What?" Chester asks.
"Getting Casey to go out on more than one date with you?" Fin asks, chuckling.
Chester shakes his head. "I didn't have to pull anything off…Casey and I just connected and we wanted to be around each other whenever we could. I think that she's brilliant, beautiful, a great lawyer, and she's gorgeous and funny…I love her, and I hate myself for bringing her into this and ruining her career."
Fin sighs. "Look man…blaming yourself isn't going to get the two of you through this. But you better give Case a few days to cool off."
Chester nods, then he sighs.
"I don't know the first thing about babies," he says. "Or how to be the kind of father I want to be…you've got a son. Got any advice for me?"
Fin glanced over at Chester and then turned his attention back to the road.
"Fatherhood…it's a journey, and the only way to be a good father is to be there for your kids for every moment…don't miss out on anything, and love them with everything you are."
Chester nods. "Thanks."
/\/\/\/\/\/\
O'Halloran looks around the lab, making sure that no one is heading his way or coming in to his domain, then he discreetly plugs in his flash drive. He enters the folder with all of the evidence from the Crane murder and then downloads it onto his drive.
He saw the desperation in Casey's eyes, and he could also see that she felt that she was on the right track. She's always been like that though…she's a gumshoe in her own right sometimes, so he is willing to do her a small favor, because he is curious as to who the real killer is himself. Of course, he doesn't want to get his ass in a sling along with Casey for showing confidential evidence to her when it's not her case. But she is a good friend, and he will do this for her.
Once all of the information from the case is completely downloaded, he takes the device out of the port and he puts it into his pocket. He can only hope that Casey knows what she's doing.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Chester is beyond relieved to be back in his apartment. He hangs up his keys on the key hook, then he heads into the kitchen and he opens up the freezer. He finds a Tupperware container with lasagna in it, and he takes it out, pops the top in it, then he puts it into the microwave. Putting food in the freezer is Casey's habit. When she cooks, she often makes too much, and she puts the leftovers in the freezer so that it doesn't spoil quickly. At least she had the wherewithal to put the lasagna in a plastic container. Most times, she puts food into gallon bags.
He can't stand it, especially when she uses the gallon bags, but he lets her get away with it because neither of them can stand to waste food.
He heads to his bedroom and he takes out some clean clothes, then he goes into his bathroom and turns on the water for a shower. He begins to undress then he stops when he sees Casey's personal hygiene wares occupying a little more than half of the counter space in his bathroom. He thinks that perhaps they should have considered moving in together. They both have parts of themselves at each other's respective residences, and yet the thought never crossed his mind. He thinks about how many tiffs they've had in his bathroom over space and elbow room. She multitasks, so she'll be doing her hair and somehow managing to brush her teeth at the same time, and she would need the mirror, but he would need the sink. She would move, but complain about not seeing what she was doing, and they'd bump into each other. It was the same story with her bathroom as well, where he has his own single shelf, while she has the rest of the bathroom.
He undresses then he steps into the shower, glad to get the grime and stink of prison off of him.
Once he showers and gets dressed, he goes into the kitchen and retrieves the lasagna. He eats some of it, and he leans up against the counter. She is a good cook, and she enjoys cooking. Another one of her quirks is the kitchen. She's very particular about her kitchen, and she doesn't like for people to come in and piddle around. It was months before Casey allowed him to be able to become familiar with her kitchen and of course, she's taken over his.
He's completely in love with her, and he loves everything about her. He loves how she dances like a fool while she's cleaning and listening to her iPod when she thinks he's not looking because she can't dance to save her life, and neither can he. He loves it when she furrows her eyebrows and tilts her head to the side when she hears someone say something stupid, he loves it when she is just mellowed out and relaxed, he loves her smile and a myriad of other things he loves about her.
Chester knows that he has betrayed Casey's trust in him, and he will do whatever it takes to regain her trust because they need each other, and soon, there will be an infant that needs them. He knows that she'll be beautiful pregnant and that she will be an excellent mother. She is good with children, and whenever she's around kids, the most gorgeous and bright smile forms on her face, so he's known that she's had a desire to have children, even though they've never talked about it before.
There is a knock at the door, and he puts the bowl down and goes over and looks out the peephole.
"IAB, open up."
He opens the door.
"I'm Agent Mila Fischer, this is my partner Ham," Mila introduces. "You need to come with us, Detective Lake."
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Lohman dials Dave Foster's cell phone number.
"Foster."
"It's Lohman."
"Did you do the job?" Dave asks.
"I didn't get the chance," Lohman sighs, leaning up against his locker.
"Lake's still alive?" Dave asks. "What the fuck, Lohman?"
"Look, I was about to do the bastard but I got stopped," Lohman huffs. "Look, you tell Bill that whatever the hell it is he's gotten into, leave me out of it. Lake has been released, so you guys figure out what the fuck you want to do. Far as I'm concerned, my job's done."
"Dammit," Dave growls into the phone. "Okay."
Lohman hangs up then he begins to undress to go home to his wife and children.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Dave Foster ends the call with Lohman, then he dials Bill's number.
"What, Dave?"
"Look, we've got a serious problem," Dave sighs. "Lake is still alive."
"What?" Bill asks.
"Yeah," Dave huffs. "Lohman fucked up and now Lake has been released. What are we going to do now?"
"First, you're going to calm down," Bill says. "Either way, Lake is going to end up dead. I don't care how we do it, he's going to pay for what he did to Tommy. He's a resourceful bastard, so we've got to bring him to us, instead of us going to him."
"Oh," Dave chuckles bitterly. "That-that's just dandy, Bill. How do you propose we do that?"
"Don't be a smartass," Bill huffs. "To draw Lake out, we gotta go for his heart."
Dave furrows his eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"
"Meet me at my place and I'll tell you what we're going to do," Bill says.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
After riding in the sedan to IAB with Mila and Ham, Chester is now sitting in a conference room, waiting for Mila and Ham to begin speaking. The agents are outside the room, conversing with another man about something. Chester runs his fingers through his hair, knowing that they are going to ask him about Thomas Crane. He isn't sure what is going on, and he knows that whatever they ask, he won't have a straight answer to.
After a few more minutes, Mila and Ham walk into the room and close the door. Mila slides a file over to Chester and he opens it up and sees that it is his case file. He looks up at Mila and Ham.
"Start from the beginning," Mila says as she sits down.
Chester sighs. "Alright…ten years ago, I'd just made detective, and this was my first case. I was called to the scene of a murdered girl, Alyssa Hernandez. She was raped and then strangled to death and dumped in an abandoned lot."
Mila nods. "Explain the notes you made."
He flips through the file and he finds his notes.
"Um…when I got to the scene, I remember that when I interviewed the responding officers, something just wasn't right."
"Kralik, Crane and Janssen?" Ham asks.
"Yeah," Chester recalls. "Janssen was in his patrol area, but Kralik and Crane were half way across town. There's no way in hell they could have been there in the time they said they did. It just didn't add up, but I let it go. I ran into a wall because the DNA from the rape kit didn't match any perps in the system, and there were no eyewitnesses at the time. Then, Cecelia Cruz came forward and said that it'd been two cops and she described them to me."
"That's when you approached Edward Kralik at his precinct?" Mila asks.
"Yes," Chester nods. "I went to his precinct, caught him during a smoke break. We got into an altercation and I took his cigarette to be tested against the DNA in the rape kit. Everything went downhill from there."
Mila sighs. "The reason you were released is because we know that you didn't kill Thomas Crane. There were traces of blood on the underside of the barrel, indicating a slick back. You're a cop, so you'd know how to hold a gun correctly."
"The blood that was found was female," Ham says. "We're looking for a lady killer…no pun intended."
Chester furrows his eyebrows. "The killer's a female?"
"Yeah, with size six Jimmy Choos," Mila nods. "At first, we were thinking that it might have been a woman known to Crane, but we didn't think that it might be a woman known to you…"
"I wouldn't know either," Chester says. "I thought that the killer was the victim's father, but obviously I've been on the wrong track…"
Ham sits down and he looks at Chester.
"Tell us what happened the night Crane was killed," Ham says.
Chester sighs. "I was pissed that he got off and I admit, I was tempted to kill the bastard myself, but…"
"What?" Mila asks.
"I had too much to lose," Chester explains. "But I followed Crane around most of the evening, contemplating it, but I couldn't do it. I finally followed him to a bar."
"Which bar?" Ham asks.
"Uh…a place called Opal Lounge," Chester recalls. "He stayed for a few hours then he came out, talking on the phone to somebody…"
"Where were you?" Ham asks.
"I was still in my truck," Chester says. "I decided to go home and that's when I heard a gun go off."
"Did you hear or see anyone leaving the scene?"
"No," Chester says. "I stayed in my truck for about five minutes before I got out and I found Crane dead."
"If you didn't know who the killer was, why were you trying to take the fall?" Mila asks.
"Because I thought it was Hector Hernandez," Chester says. "Alyssa Hernandez's father. At the courthouse I told him to try and let it go, and I thought that he killed Crane. But like I said, I've obviously been on the wrong track since the killer's a female, and I couldn't even begin to tell you who the woman might be."
Mila and Ham look at each other then back at Chester.
"ADA Casey Novak prosecuted, right?"
"Yeah," Chester says. "So?"
"She withheld evidence and lost the case…" Ham hints. "I hear she gets pretty passionate sometimes and if she was trying to help you because-"
"I know for a fact that Casey didn't kill Crane," Chester says, interrupting Ham. "She wouldn't do something like that. Besides, she wears an eight and a half in shoes, not a six."
Mila furrows her eyebrows. "And how would you know that?"
"We've been together for over a year," he explains. "She wouldn't ruin her life like that. On top of that, she knows how to handle a gun and she's a good shot…she wouldn't have been sloppy."
"Oh, well that's romantic," Ham snorts. "Knowing how your girlfriend would go about killing someone. I wouldn't cross her, if I were you."
"Ham," Mila huffs, glaring at him. "Cut it out. "
Ham clears his throat.
"Beside the fact that an unknown female killed Crane," she begins with a sigh. "We've got an even bigger problem than that."
"What could possibly be worse than what's going on now?" Chester asks.
"Thomas Crane was guilty of murdering Edward Kralik," Mila explains. "But Dr. Warner compared a fresh DNA sample against the one from the rape kit, and they weren't a complete match."
"What?" Chester asks. "So what does that mean?"
"It means that Thomas Crane's got an insane relative out there," Ham says. "Whoever this relative is, is the one that raped and killed Alyssa Hernandez and raped Cecilia Cruz along with Kralik."
Chester shakes his head. "You're right, that is a huge problem."
"Let me see that file," Mila says. "There's gotta be something that you missed. You're probably the most prolific note taker I've ever seen…there's gotta be something in here."
Chester gets up and goes over to the other side of the table and looks at the file along with Mila.
"I don't know what else I can tell you," he sighs. "I mean…I looked at guys in the neighborhood, talked to Alyssa's father…Cecilia Cruz came forward and made a positive ID. She fingered Crane…"
"After ten years?"
"What woman do you know forgets the face of the man that raped her?" Chester asks.
"True," Mila shrugs. "But you have photos and signatures of the responding officers. Kralik, Crane, and Janssen."
"Yeah," Chester says. "I couldn't make anything out of the response time…their precinct was…hostile, to say the least."
Mila takes the photos of Thomas Crane and Bill Janssen out and she lays them out on the table.
"These two…" she begins.
"Yeah?" Ham asks.
"Take a good look, Lake," she says.
Chester looks hard at the two pictures and it dawns on him and he looks at Mila.
"Yeah," she says, grinning a bit. "Just remove the goatee and cut the hair a little shorter…see the resemblance?"
"Jesus," Chester huffs. "It's been right in front of my face for ten years. How the hell did I miss that?"
" Yeah well, you look like a glass half empty kind of guy," Mila quips and Chester rolls his eyes and walks out of the room.
"Hey!" Mila calls. "Where are you going? Lake, don't do anything else stupid!"
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Dave Foster knocks on the door to Bill's apartment.
A few moments later, Bill opens up the door. "Come in."
Dave steps in and he immediately makes himself comfortable on the couch. "The department is springing for Tommy's funeral. His son is real broken up, and his ex can't afford it. She came by to pick up his uniform for the coffin once the ME releases his body."
Bill sighs and sits in the armchair, a manilla envelope in his hand.
"This shouldn't have happened to Tommy," Bill laments.
"What about Eddie?" Dave asks. "It's been proven that Tommy killed Eddie."
"Yeah, but he never meant to," Bill huffs. "He was trying to kill off Lake and Eddie…got in the way."
Dave shakes his head, then gestures over to the envelope.
"What's in that thing?"
Bill opens up the envelope and he takes out some papers and photos.
Since finding out that Thomas Crane had been his half brother, the mission to avenge Thomas's death had taken on a new energy. Meeting his father for the first time shocked him because he always thought that the father his mother described to him was dead. Instead of being upset at Lawson, he is proud of the man for taking responsibility and recognizing that they are a family and that something has to be done about the people that brought them down.
"I hired a PI to tail Lake before the trial started," Bill explains, spreading the photos out. "I got phone records too."
Foster looks at the photos.
"Who's the babe?"
"ADA Casey Novak," Bill says. "Lake's been fucking her."
"Lucky son of a bitch," Dave chuckles, looking at the pictures of Casey and Chester together in various photos. "I'd love a taste of that…"
Bill snatches the photo from him. "Stop ogling her."
"So, what are you going to do with all this?" Dave asks.
"I already know her address, phone number, make and model of her car…her routines," Bill says. "Like I told you before, in order to bring Lake to us, we got to strike his heart. She ruined Tommy's life with all the shit and the lies she told about him…we're going to get them both."
Dave puts the photos down. "Why are you so hell-bent, Bill? I mean, I thought this was just about Lake?"
"Not anymore," Bill says. "That bitch ADA tried to frame Tommy with botched evidence. She lied, Dave. Who knows how long she's been Lake's whore...that's probably why she did it to begin with."
"Look Bill," Dave says. "I'm not sure about this. Sure, she's doin' Lake, but she didn't have history with Tommy. She was doing her job…I'm all for taking Lake out but, do we really have to hurt her?"
Bill gets up and grabs Dave's collar.
"Someone's gotta pay for killing my little brother!" He yells, and it stuns Dave.
"What?" Dave asks. "Tommy was-"
"My brother," Bill finishes, shoving Dave back into the couch. "I didn't find out until a few days ago…Tommy was my little brother, and…they took him away from me. He didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve to pay for my mistakes. That's why either Novak, or Lake or both of them have to die."
Dave nods. "Whatever you say, I'll do, Bill."
"Good."
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Casey sits on the couch, her hands on her abdomen. It feels different, being pregnant, and she isn't even that far along. Already her body feels different, even though the differences aren't really that obvious. Despite the circumstances, her eyes are brighter than usual, her skin is now always flushed and hypersensitive, and she's a little bustier than usual.
She yawns and rests her head back onto the cushions. The television is on, but she is not paying attention to it because she is very tired physically. She's been waiting a couple of days for O'Halloran to get back to her on the evidence from the case. She's figured it out, but she needs to see the evidence to make sure that she has it right before she confronts the killer, who she thinks is otherwise harmless and in need of help. She's been anxious, but also angry. She's angry at herself, angry at Chester, angry at pretty much anyone else that crosses her.
She doesn't want to feel angry, but she can't help but feel this way. She has a right to feel the way she is feeling. She knows that career wise, she's made a terrible, costly mistake and she is prepared for the consequences, but everything that's happened since…it could have been prevented. Chester's wanting to go to jail for someone else and leaving her has made her question her worth to him. In the last month and a half, she's been through more ups and downs than she's ever been, all because she dared to let herself fall in love again. It's come with a price, and she thinks that it shouldn't have.
She's had to think of the worst case scenario over and over, thinking that she would have to prepare once again for being alone. Now, with her revelation about the murder, and Chester's being released, she can only feel anger because she's exhausted every other emotion.
Her phone rings, and she picks it up, looking at the caller ID. She sees that it is Chester calling her, and she presses the talk button.
"Case?"
She doesn't say anything.
"Casey, I know that I've hurt you and that you're upset," he begins. "But I really need to talk to you. Casey, are you there?"
She hangs up on him.