The Santa Incident

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of LO:SVU or any other show mentioned here. I don't own the rights of the songs either. I'm making no money out of this whatsoever. Don't sue me, I have no money.

6

Shivering with cold and, she had to admit, with fear, Olivia lay in the open van and stared out at the people she could only perceive as grey shadows in the increasing snowfall. Her hands were cuffed behind her back and one of the men had taken out his belt to tie her feet. She could not recognize everything but she was sure that she saw someone being beaten down by a giant. So it must have been Elliot and Cornwell.

Elliot, she wanted to scream, but a glove stuffed into her mouth muffled it to an unintelligible sound.

Her cheeks still burned from the slaps she had received. Everything else was freezing in the icy cold of the beginning storm. Still she felt dizzy.

The figures approached the van. One of them was bent forward and more dragged along with the others as walking on its own. Together with a harsh blow of snow this man was shoved inside and broke down next to her. He grunted. His arms, too, were tied on his back, Olivia noticed, and her heart ached for her injured partner.

Cornwell and two other climbed in behind him and one took the driver's seat. Slowly, due to the heavy snowfall, the van left the park and returned to the streets.

"Something new?" Cragen asked for the fourth time.

"Not during the last five minutes," Fin replied. "The phones are not working and no one who's in his right mind would drive now…" He eyed his captain suspiciously. "And anyone who should dare to walk out in this storm should be shot according to martial law," he added because Cragen looked like he would go and try just that.

"You would not find the end of the block, let alone the 119th Street," John said. "They will have taken this jerk and went to the next precinct. Now they'll stay there until the storm's over."

"No one needs to endanger his life just to get back to his office." Fin glanced at John. Still, the captain looked worried enough to run out on the streets to search for his detectives. "And no one at the office should do the same to find the ones who aren't here."

"Normally you would be the guys scraping their hooves to go get searching." Cragen shook his head. "You're right. We would freeze to ice pillars before we could cross the street."

"We shouldn't assume the worst before we don't know all the facts."

"As we're talking about facts… what do we know about this Paul Cornwell?"

"It wasn't much we could get before the lines were dead," John told him. "He's matriculated at Columbia University, studying journalism. Age 29, Caucasian, brown hair, blue eyes, height six foot five, played basketball in high school. His parents are Jane and Conway Cornwell, living in Oregon. He has a sister, Caroline, and an older brother, Richard. Paul left after high school to join the army. He resigned barely a year later. The reason of his resignation is not stated here, but I would guess that they asked him to leave. Olivia told me that he also has a reputation as trouble-maker at Columbia. They warned him to expel him. His next offence would be his last at the University."

"Find out why he left the army," Cragen ordered.

"Well, as long as the phones won't work this will be difficult," Fin said.

Cragen looked at him slightly dumbfounded. This was a problem he had not to deal with very often.

Outside the wind was howling like a hungry pack of wolves. It was almost as dark as midnight, the city illuminated only by thousands of street lights and the warm glow that shimmered through millions of windows.

"We will have to wait until the storm settles down," Cragen admitted.

Another heavy squall rattled the windows. The lights flickered. Darkness.

They waited for the generator to take over, but nothing happened. Someone put his head through the door.

"We're working on the problem, sir," he shouted and was gone before Cragen could react.

Silence fell over the squad room. As they looked outside they saw that the precinct was not the only building without electricity. Not a single light could be seen through the white wind.

"Now we are working under the same conditions as Sherlock Holmes," John said dryly, lighting the candle onto Fin's desk.

"Yeah?" Cragen mused. "But skip the drugs, please."

"I can live with that. Does somebody have a violin?"

The squalls shook the van as it drove down the freeway.

"I don't know if it's such a good idea to leave the city," the driver shouted over the storm. "We should turn back."

"Don't be such a baby," Cornwell grumbled. "You know the way by heart."

"Yeah. But I can't see it."

Cornwell looked over his shoulder. Thick white flakes clashed against the windshield. The wipers were flapping as fast as possible but could hardly keep the glass free.

The broad stripe cleared by a snowplow quickly was covered with fresh snow and the headlights reached barely five yards ahead.

"This is crazy. We've already lost the others. I will leave the freeway the next exit I can find."

"To do what?"

"To park somewhere and wait until the storm's over."

"Dom's right," the man in the passenger's seat agreed.

"Since when do you have something to say here?" Cornwell slapped him on the back of the head. When he turned he surveyed his captives suspiciously.

The man lay on his right side, eyes closed. She lay on her back and was watching him.

He acknowledged the way her jaws were set. Proud bitch, he thought. You will be mine. And you will obey me.

"Don't pretend to be asleep," he said to Elliot and kicked him into the calves. "I know, you're not."

Elliot sucked in a sharp breath but did not so much as glance at Cornwell for a second.

The giant went down on his knees over Olivia's legs and took out his belt to grab Elliot's legs and bind them at the ankles with it. Then he bowed over Olivia and lifted her upper body to reach for the cuffs. He opened them just to close them again in front of her. Now he pushed her back and pressed her arms down, above her head, with his left. The right hand found the zipper of her trousers and opened it slowly. Something splashed in his face.

"You whore!" he swore. "You spat at me!"

Once more he slapped her in the face. Her cheeks reddened and her eyes spread fire. But she was not able to defend herself.

Olivia felt him fumble with the zipper again. It opened together with the button and he pushed her pants down. Then he reached for his own jeans.

That was when the van slid into a curve. The driver had found an exit and tried to leave the freeway. On a plate of ice beneath the snow the van lost its grip and skidded to the side. It crashed sideways against the guardrail and began to spin.

It was enough to knock Cornwell off balance and Olivia hit him hard in the face with the cuffs. Cornwell swore again.

Then the van lost its balance, too, and turned right over.

Olivia felt herself be thrown in the air and tried to hold on to something but to no avail.

The van rolled down the ramp and stopped laying upside down.