"You're telling me that some bastard raped my daughter?" Buchanan asked Olivia and Fin.
"That's what we're here to find out, we have to ask Alexis about what happened tonight," Olivia said.
"You are not going anywhere near my daughter," he told the SVU detectives.
"All due respect, that's not an option," Olivia told him, "We're here because the doctor who examined her said she was raped, and we're not leaving until we talk with her."
"No way," the defense attorney shook his head, "She's a minor, I won't allow it."
"John, somebody did something horrible to your daughter," Olivia said, "don't you want the son of a bitch who's responsible for it to be arrested?"
"It's not that, Liv," Fin told her, and looked at Buchanan, "he thinks because of our history in the courtroom that we're not going to help his kid. Relax, counselor, incase you forgot, we're the ones that make a habit of believing the victims."
"You can try and go over our heads on this," Olivia said to the lawyer, "but even if you get us taken off of this, somebody is going to come and question your daughter and it will be somebody from our office. If you want to help your daughter, the best thing you can do is let us talk to her."
It was obvious from the look on Buchanan's face that he wasn't entirely sold on that idea, so Olivia decided to try another approach.
"You do want to help her, don't you?"
For the first time since they'd dealt with him in court, gone was the smug lawyer exterior, now he looked like a hundred other fathers they'd seen in their work, all in the exact same position he was in now.
"Of course."
Olivia looked him dead in the eyes to get her point across. "Then trust me," she told him, "and let us do our job."
Buchanan inhaled a sharp breath as he thought about it. He told them, "I'm staying for the interview."
"Alexis is the victim," Olivia said, "It's her wishes we need to respect right now. If she doesn't want to talk with you present, you're going to have to leave if you want us to catch this guy."
He merely nodded, and headed for the door. Olivia and Fin let him enter first and stepped in behind him.
Alexis Buchanan was, just a few hours ago, a beautiful, tall, thin girl with long blonde hair. Now she was dressed in a hospital gown and a mess of bruises and stitches, a cut over one eye had been sutured shut. Somehow she had managed to fall asleep once the doctor left and was curled on her side in a ball on the hospital bed.
"Alexis, honey," John approached the bed and hovered over her, "can you hear me?"
The teen girl's eyes fluttered, then they opened, and recognition started to come back to her.
"Dad," she said in a low voice as she moved onto her back and stretched her body straight. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and told him, "It wasn't my fault, I didn't do anything."
"Of course you didn't, sweetie, I know that," Buchanan told his daughter.
Alexis's eyes roamed to the people standing behind her father. "Who's that? Are they cops?"
"That's nobody, honey," he said, "they were just leaving."
"No, no," Alexis sat up straighter and groaned, "I have to give them a statement or something. I want them to find the bastard who raped me and throw his ass in jail."
"Alexis," Olivia went over to the hospital bed, "My name is Sergeant Olivia Benson, this is Detective Odafin Tutuola, we're from Special Victims."
"The sex cops," she said, "Somebody already took my clothes for testing."
"We know," Olivia said, "we need you to tell us what happened tonight."
She shook her head, "It wasn't my fault, I wasn't drunk, I didn't take any drugs…I…don't know what happened."
"Okay, we'll take it one step at a time," Olivia told her, "where were you tonight?"
"She was at the library," Buchanan answered.
"Till midnight?" Fin asked in a 'even you can't believe that' tone.
Olivia shot him a warning glare, then returned her attention to the teenager laying in the bed.
"I was at the library," Alexis told them, "at first."
And that was where Buchanan's knowledge of his daughter's activities for the night ended.
"What do you mean at first?" he asked her.
Olivia saw the girl tense up. Fin put a hand on the lawyer's shoulder and suggested they move outside.
"No, wait," Alexis said, and after a slight hesitation she told them, "I left the library at closing…then I went to hang out with some of my friends. They were going to a party, and I went with them."
"Which friends?" Buchanan asked, "What party?"
"Mr. Buchanan," Olivia turned to him.
"I don't know, we just showed up," Alexis told them, "I didn't know anybody there…no wait…Sky was there."
"Who's Sky?" Olivia asked.
"A boy in her class," Buchanan answered for her, "she's had a little crush on him for months, but they're not serious. There's no way he did this, he's a good kid."
Olivia was very close to losing it with him. "Okay, Mr. Buchanan, I need Alexis to tell me everything she knows, so why don't you and Detective Tutuola go outside and you can answer some of his questions?"
"Think that's a good idea," Fin said, grabbing Buchanan before he had a chance to protest, "We'll be right outside."
"I didn't say yes!" Alexis screamed out of nowhere.
All three adults turned to look at her.
"You told him no?" Olivia asked.
"At first," Alexis looked to the ceiling, "I tried to get away, but I couldn't. Then I just stopped fighting, there wasn't any point. I didn't say no again, it didn't help."
"Alexis, do you know who it was that attacked you?" Olivia asked her.
"I know him," she answered distantly, "but I can't remember his name."
Olivia and Fin looked at each other.
"I'm not lying," the teenager told them weakly, "I just can't remember."
"That's okay," Olivia said, "that's why we do follow-up interviews, so we can get all the information and put it together."
"Can you record me?" she asked, "Can I make a statement for the record that I'm not lying if I remember things differently later?"
"That's not really necessary," Olivia answered, "but we can do that if you'd like."
"I know," Alexis sounded like she was drifting away, but she persisted, "I know it's illegal to lie to police…I'm not lying, I just can't…remember everything."
"We can come back in the morning and see how you're doing," Olivia said, "your memory might be better after you get some rest. Alexis…" the girl had just closed her eyes and looked asleep, at the sound of her name she opened them and looked at the sergeant. "Did you take the doctor's cell phone?"
"What?" Buchanan asked, "You're not seriously…"
"She called you, didn't she?" Fin asked, "Her phone's gone, so's her purse, how do you think she contacted you?"
The defense attorney slowly took in everything that Fin was saying. "My God!" he said in a low tone so his daughter wouldn't hear.
"I couldn't find my phone," Alexis closed her eyes again, "I wanted to call my dad…" she reached under her pillow and took out the phone she'd hidden.
"I got this," Fin took the phone and headed for the door.
"I'm so tired," Alexis said as she pulled the blanket up, "I want to sleep."
"Alright," Olivia told her, "We'll come back tomorrow and see what's changed."
Buchanan's daughter was dead to the world as soon as Olivia finished talking. She turned and saw the girl's father standing a few feet back from the bed, looking absolutely lost. But Olivia knew, she knew that Buchanan knew exactly where this was going to go, and that's why he was so worried now.
"Alright," Rollins said as she put a picture of Alexis up on the board, "Alexis Buchanan, 16 years old, raped sometime between 10 and midnight last night at," she then put up some pictures they'd gotten from a canvass of the block the house party was at, "this party, with about a hundred other people there, and no witnesses."
"People saw her come in with her friends," Carisi added, "but after that nobody remembers seeing her until she left, which was quick and unannounced, even her friends hadn't noticed she was gone."
"Some friends," Fin commented.
"She's a good kid," Rollins said, "Buchanan has her enrolled in one of the most expensive private schools in the state, she's a straight-A student, we talked to her teachers, the principal, nobody had any problem with her."
"What about this boy, Sky?" Olivia asked.
"Richard Schuyler, also 16 years old," Fin explained, "Not the best student but he's not looking good for the rape, we went out to the school to speak with him and he about wet himself when he heard we were cops." Fin shook his head, "no way this punk's got it in him to rape a girl."
"Did he see anything at the party?" Olivia asked.
"Too much smoke and flashing lights," Carisi explained, "and apparently Alexis didn't announce her arrival to him, he didn't even know she was there."
"That or," Rollins offered, "They could've cooked that story up so Buchanan wouldn't find out they were together. He thinks his daughter's Snow White."
"So far we don't have any evidence to the contrary," Olivia pointed out, "The tox screen did come back negative, this girl was stone cold sober when she was raped."
"So what happened?" Carisi asked.
"Trauma and shock can do…unbelievable things to a person," Rollins explained, "as soon as the rape's over and she's alone, she's in survival mode, her only thought is to get away, she gets in the first car she finds and drives out of there."
"And when she's in the hospital, she calls her dad," Fin pointed out, "Who didn't know what happened to her, all he knew was she was in the hospital…and if she was in such shock, how did she know what hospital to tell him?"
"No drugs, no alcohol, no GHB," Carisi said, "Either she's a damn good actress, or something else happened we don't know about."
"Well she's not faking a concussion," Olivia said, "Or the stitches she had to get, or the bruises, or the blood that CSU has been tearing apart the stolen car to analyze. There's no way anybody could write this one off as just rough consensual sex."
"Won't stop them from trying," Fin said.
"Assuming this even goes to trial," Carisi said, "This guy Buchanan's trying to stonewall every inch of this investigation."
"Because he knows if it goes to trial," Olivia explained, "Somebody is going to do to his daughter what he has done to all of our victims over the years."
"Makes sense why the expensive private school," Rollins told them, "You can't get any lesser likely place where any of the kids could be related to any of the victims her father's screwed over on cross."
"I really don't get it," Carisi said to the others, "I mean I'm planning to become a lawyer but…defense attorneys, how the hell do they live with themselves? How do they explain to their kids what they do?"
"I don't think John has," Olivia answered, "Otherwise Alexis wouldn't be so willing to talk to us. She honestly thinks as long as she tells the truth, she won't have anything to worry about in court."
"No 16 year old is that naïve," Fin said.
"Buchanan seems to have gone to a lot of trouble to keep his daughter sheltered from a large part of reality," Olivia replied.
"Well, her ignorance gives us a stronger case," Rollins said, "It's just too bad once she's on the stand it's all going to blow up in her face."
"One step at a time," Olivia told her, "First, we have to find the son of a bitch who did it. Alexis said she knew her attacker."
"Now comes the fun part," Fin dryly commented, "Ripping apart this family to find their dirty laundry."