She walks in with authority, the way she always does. And yet he just marvels and says nothing, the way he thinks he should every morning. "You gonna stare into space like that all day Elliot?" Olivia smiles, snapping him out of his gaze. "Huh? Oh yeah, fine…" Stabler waves her away, sitting down to his desk. "It's because someone's got an eye set on you." Fin smirks, heading to his desk with a cup of coffee. "Hey, pipe down will ya Fin?" Elliot glances over at him as if he's trying to hide something. "Is there something I'm supposed to be getting here?" Olivia stares at both men. "Nah", "No" Fin and Stabler say in unison, Stabler flashing Fin an annoying fake smile.
"Geez Fin, it's almost 8. You think you'll be a 1-man show today?" Olivia glances at a clock, rubbing her chin. "Ah, I'll be alright." Fin sighs, lying back in his chair, arms behind his head, "No one replaces Munch." It's at that exact time that Captain Cragen enters the room, with Joan Carradine next to him. "Alright team, this is one of the Bronx Precinct's finest; her name's Joan Carradine. I imagine that she won't make up Munch's quick-wit, but we better all get along for these next few days." Cragen announces, passing up his team to answer the phone that's now ringing in his office. This leaves Joan, who's still standing in the doorway, feeling awkward at the very least.
Fin's dark eyes burn into her green ones. Tutuola. She can't tell if it's a look of disgust or intrigue. But he's her partner damn it and she's gonna have to put up with whatever is thrown her way, petrified by him already or not. "Hi I'm detective Olivia Benson." Liv introduces, heading Joan's way to shake her hand. Gratefully, Joan accepts and nods, murmuring her name as well. "Detective Elliot Stabler, and your partner Fin Tutuola." Liv adds on. "He always this pissed?" Joan questions, glancing at Fin once again. "Yeah, he's fine." Olivia replies, heading back for her desk. Joan, reluctantly, heads for the desk by Fin's.
Setting her purse down on Munch's desk, she begins rummaging through it. For nothing in particular, but she wanted to feel like she wasn't being watched for the first time today. Just when Joan thinks she's hit the jackpot from finding an old pack of gum deep down, a shadow appears over her. "Yeah?" she says tensely without looking up. Damn him. "Relax, I won't bite." Stabler responds teasingly. "Oh, thanks." Joan looks up at him with a half-smile. Going back to her purse, she slightly sighs when Stabler walks away, even though that's not who she was intimidated by. But what she did know was that Stabler was known for his annoying anger issue.
"Alright, there's been a woman found dead behind a brothel on Grand Street. It's called Legs Akimbo. Go check it out." Cragen strolls out of his office. Immediately, Joan zips up her purse and walks shoulder-in-shoulder out the door with Fin. "You gonna freak out, fresh meat?" he asks carelessly. "Relax hard-ass; I'm not that new, being on the force for 14 years." She retorts in a slightly more reasonable tone. "Right, and how old are you again?" Fin demands, taking the wheel of one of the squad cars and pulling off just as Joan buckles up. "Well I don't believe that's any of your business Fin; but if you must know, I'm 32." She explains coolly, rolling down her window, resting her arm on the frame.
"Yeah, you really are fresh meat. Shouldn't you be somewhere learnin' the ropes still?"
"No sir, in fact I learned the facts early-on: my mother was a medical examiner for Baltimore SVU."
"Baltimore SVU huh? So you're from there?"
"Yeah, born and raised."
"So how long you been in New York?"
"5 years. What's it to you?" Joan interrogates, watching Fin now. "I uh, know a guy who used to work down there. You're fillin' in for 'em oddly enough." He answers, no facial expression whatsoever. "Hmm, interesting." Joan nods, glancing out of her window once again. It's him; I can feel it. She secretly smiles on the inside.
After riding in awkward silence for no more than 5 minutes, Tutuola pulls over, parking the squad car, and he and Carradine rush onto the scene. "What've we got O'Halloran?" Stabler asks as he, Olivia, Fin, and Joan follow behind the forensic tech. "24-year old female; Nose bashed in with something flat, a shoe maybe. Bite marks all over the victim's breasts. But here's the worst part…" Ryan O'Halloran explains, showing the detectives to the woman's slain body. As they all near closer, Elliot's the first to notice the impressions on her arms, legs, and neck. "Oh my God." Benson takes a small step back. "Yeah, this guy made her his slave." O'Halloran adds.
"Time of death?" Joan questions. "About…10 pm, last night." Ryan says back.
"So who found her?" Fin asks. "One of the women who works here who goes by the name 'Tammy Rainbow'." He responds.
"Yeah, her name was Rebecca. Rebecca Bourne if I'm right; but she went by 'Cherry Bomb'." A brown-blonde haired woman with feisty blue eyes and pointy nose with a scratchy voice explains, lighting up a cigarette outside the brothel. "So tell us Tammy, were you and Rebecca friends?" Elliot questions, staring at her closely. "No, not really. We worked the same shift and that's about it. She never was the talker; always more of the doer if you know what I mean." Tammy teases, then chuckling a little. "So there aren't any women who have a thing against Rebecca?" Olivia questions next. "Well I would never say that toots. Talk to 'Bunny'; she works in the fifth door down to your right."
"…Thank you for your time ma'am." Stabler nods, giving Tammy a false smile.
"No problem." She smirks as the detectives walk away from her, "And hey? When this investigation's done, tell me who did it."
"Alright, me and Olivia will pay the owner of this dump a visit." Elliot murmurs as he, Benson, Fin, and Carradine head inside the front of the brothel. Fin glances over at Joan saying, "Fine by us. We'll grill Bunny." Without any bad intentions inside, Joan nods her head.
Since no one's at the front of the building, Olivia and Elliot follow behind Fin and Joan and pass them up to venture to the heart of the brothel. Joan knocks first at the door Tammy directed them to, adding, "Alright clean it up! Police wanna talk with Bunny!"
After waiting for nearly 2 minutes in silence, Fin knocks again, yelling, "You heard us out here Bunny now open the damn door!" "Uh…Relax, I heard you the first time!" someone yells on the other side.
Seconds later, a woman about 5'5'' with messy black hair and icy green eyes cracks the door open just wide enough for her to poke her head out. "What do you want?" she asks quietly. That's not her.
"You seen a chick who goes by Bunny?" Fin narrows his eyes at her. He knows something's up with this girl too.
"No, haven't seen her all day." The woman shakes her head.
"So who're you hidin' inside?" he retorts.
"Don't you see where I work? It's a client!" she whispers back angrily, almost ready to close the door.
"What's your name?" Joan questions quickly, catching the door with her hand.
"Candy." The woman grimaces, closing in the door despite Joan's hand.
Catching it again, Joan pokes her head in closer to Candy's. "So your boss know that you're sleepin' with females on the side?" she demands quietly. Before Candy can respond, Joan silently kicks the door back and rushes in to catch her before she falls backwards. This leaves Fin to take in what Candy was trying to hide. And surely enough, Joan was right; there's a skinny woman with scraggly blonde hair and wretched blue eyes smoking lying in bed smoking a cigarette. Joan looks over and sees her as well. That should be her.
"Smooth move." Tutuolamurmurs walking a few feet past Joan, who's unwrapping her arm from around Candy.
"No problem." She replies quickly as they both watch the woman presumed to be Bunny, sit up in bed with an amused look on her thin face.
"You caught me, now what do ya want?" she whines, staring at Fin in amusement.
He ignores that and asks, "We heard you and Rebecca Bourne didn't get along so great. You mind tellin' us about that?"
"Yeah it's true I couldn't stand old Cherry Bomb, but what do you mean didn't? We're not exactly buddies right now either." Bunny rolls her eyes.
"She was found dead this morning behind this dump. You know anything about that while you're at it?" Joan answers grimly.
A pained look flashes across Bunny's face. Then there's rage. But it ends with a blend of horror and confusion. Would anybody find out about what really happened yesterday? Or about the guilt that bubbled inside of her now that she'd found out about Rebecca's death? Oh God she hoped not. "Well I don't know nothin' about that…Yeah it's true I couldn't stand that girl but I don't have the time to kill nobody."
"Relax; no one's accusin' you of anything, yet. We just wanna hear what you know about her." Fin says gruffly.
"What can I say? She was a bitch; But charming I suppose. There were like 4 guys looking for her the whole day." Bunny sighs.
"You mean clients or guys she knew outside of work?" Fin continues.
"Both. Boss was even on her tail. And some guy named Bryan who comes by every other day. Guy wouldn't quit comin' back when Becky's sister worked here too."
"Who else did you see?" Joan interrogates.
"Saw one of her old boy-toys too; he didn't have to say anything, but I knew he was lookin' too. Name's Andrew Simpson"
"Oh, a full name. How'd you manage that?" Fin raises an eyebrow.
"He was a client. Caught him hittin' on my lady yesterday." Bunny smirks, pointing at shameful Candy.
"And the 4th one?" Joan prods, rubbing her hands together.
"I don't know—didn't get to see him either. I heard him talking to the boss about her." Bunny shrugs.
"One more thing: where were you last night at 10pm?" Fin raises an eyebrow.
"A bar—the Glass House. Ask the bartender with red hair. We didn't leave until maybe 11:30." Bunny sighs, rolling her eyes.
"So what did ya get outta her?" Elliot questions as he, Olivia, Fin, and Joan head out of Legs Akimbo.
"Turns out she was a pretty big help. Said that there were guys lookin' for the victim all day." Carradine responds.
"Oh really? Her boss only mentioned one of 'em. What he wouldn't shut up about was Rebecca and Bunny getting' into a huge fight yesterday and that Bunny wouldn't let it go for almost the whole day." Olivia's eyebrows rise.
"Yep, and said that he was datin' Bunny and that Rebecca was always jealous of them." Elliot adds.
"So if both of them were at the bar, it had to have been one of the men who came by yesterday." Fin concurs.
"You get any names?" Olivia asks.
"Just one. But I know who to talk to for the others." Joan quips.
"And who's that supposed to be?" Elliot arches an eyebrow at her.
"Her sister, Jessica. She was involved in a sex-trade bust over in the Bronx. According to Bunny one of the guys who came lookin' for her sister was her ex." Carradine explains.
"Wow, bet she didn't expect for anyone to go after her sister right after she's almost killed." Olivia sighs.
"Neither did I." Joan says with a sudden pang of guilt surging through her stomach.
"When we get back to the precinct, we'll see if the guy's in our database." Stabler suggests.
At the very moment, Olivia's phone begins to ring from inside her coat pocket. "Benson." she answers. Within 2 minutes, she re-places the phone where she got it. "That was Cragen. He wants us to go see Warner." She sighs just like she did moments ago.
"Someone bashed her nose in with a gold and black heel." Melinda Warner says as she shows the 4 detectives a tiny Ziploc bag of blood-drenched gold and black material.
"What about the marks, on her arms and—"
"They're from bondage; she had to have been tied up for at least 20 minutes for the circulation to be cut off in her arms and legs." Warner explains, cutting off Benson.
"And what about her neck?" Stabler questions
"Look closely at the pattern on her neck and compare it to the one on her arms and legs." Melinda warns, picking up a small stack of photos and handing some to each detective.
While Olivia looks at the shots of one the dead woman's arms, Fin focuses on her legs, Elliot on her neck, but Joan stands there, holding the facial shot, looking into slain Rebecca's eyes. They're filled with confusion and seem distant. Why is she distant? Maybe…her bra? "Are there any marks on the back of her neck?" Joan outbursts suddenly.
"Just one." Warner nods, passing Joan a shot of Rebecca's neck. It has 2 skinny indentions connected together with smaller indentions inside of the first set. "Like little diamonds…" Joan murmurs subconsciously.
"What do you mean?" Olivia questions, peering over to glance at the picture in Joan's hand. "A bra…That's it—a bra! Rebecca was choked with her bra. That's why it wasn't at the crime scene. We've gotta find that bra. It has prints, I know it." Joan explains, her eyes widening.
"I'll call when I determine the cause of death, but good theory. I think you may be right detective." Melinda says back. "Carradine, Joan." Joan half-smiles, handing the M.E. a card with her name and number on it.
"Great, any prints?" Stabler asks.
"Yeah, her lips, neck, and inner thighs. Belong to a Bryan Mitchell." Warner replies.
"That's one of our guys." Fin concurs.
"Nice. Fin we'll go pay Mitchell a visit; you and Joan go check out Rebecca's sister."