Loose Ends and New Beginnings
Summary: See ch1
Disclaimer: Not mine
A/N: Here is a slightly longer chapter since I haven't updated in a few days
Trouble
The next morning Olivia heard Much, Fin, and Elliot all rise and make their way back down to work. Elliot told everyone to let her sleep. Little did he know that she had gotten absolutely no sleep that night. She still had no idea what to do about that file.
She just wanted to lie in that bunk all day, and pretend the file that was hidden deep in her desk didn't exist. She wanted to pretend Judge Anderson didn't exist; wanted to pretend none of this had happened. She probably would have laid there until someone came to get her, except a wave of nausea hit her suddenly, and she sprang up for the bathroom.
"I have to do something about this file." She said to herself as she stared into the mirror, noticing how warn she looked.
When she finally did make an appearance in the bullpen, she noticed all that was going on.
Much was escorting Jordan O'Neil into a room to question her. The men had tracked down the victims that lived on the east coast. Fin was already talking to Nora, and Elliot was on the phone with Francis setting up a time for her to come down. Olivia felt her stomach sink at the realization that by keeping quiet, she was responsible for making these women re-live their attacks. She felt horrible.
As Olivia took her seat, Caroline Conner came in, and Elliot greeted her. He took her to the back to talk to her. The pit in Olivia's stomach just got bigger.
Cragen walked out of his office with a sullen look on his face. He made his way over to Olivia's desk.
"Olivia, can I see you in my office for a moment please?" He asked. Olivia could tell something was wrong. He usually yelled out of his office door if he wanted to see one of them. He was never this discrete.
She followed him back into his office where a man in a suit, with a badge clipped to his belt was waiting for her.
"What's going on?" Olivia asked Cragen as he closed the door behind him.
"Detective Benson, this is Detective Myers, IAB." He told her.
"Hey, I'm clean." She said, putting her hands up. "What does IAB want with me?" Her marriage suddenly popped into her head. If IAB picked now to give her a hard time about that, she was going to go off on someone. But if that was what they had wanted, why wasn't Elliot here?
"I understand that your squad has been investigating the Anderson murder." He said.
"Yes, but what has that got to do with me? I'm not even on that case." She said defensively.
"You were lead detective." He told her, as if she didn't remember. "If my sources are correct, you were taken off the case because of the personal history Anderson had with your mother." He informed her.
Cragen stood behind Olivia, wishing he could do something to stop this. He would give anything to know who IAB's source was so that he could personally bring that person pain for what was about to happen to Olivia.
"If by 'personal history' you're referring to the fact that he raped my mother, than yes." Olivia answered, her voice full of disdain. How IAB knew this, but were still in the dark about obvious things, like her marriage, she would never know. Maybe Munch was right about some of his spook theories. "However, I was not taken off the case, I excused myself." She added, correcting him.
"Detective Benson, did you know the victim prior to being sent to his residence after his death?" Detective Myers asked.
"He was the judge for my step dau…. Uh partner's daughter's claim against her history teacher." She told him, almost slipping up. "The man sexually harassed her in school."
"You took a bullet for him, didn't you?" Myers asked.
"If you already know the answer, why are you asking me?" She asked, crossing her arms across her chest. She was growing annoyed.
"When did you first find out that he was your father?" He asked.
"When I was going through some boxes in his closet after I was sent to his house to investigate his murder." She told him, finally realizing where this was all going.
"Really? So he was nothing more to you than some judge?" He asked.
"No." Olivia answered sharply.
"Then why risk your own life to save his, and then invite him to your wedding?" He asked.
"I took that bullet because it's what I have been trained to do, and I didn't invite him to my wedding; would you like to see the guest list?" She spat.
"If you didn't invite him, why is there a picture of you on his mantel?" Myers asked, he clearly thought he had caught Olivia in a lie.
"Anderson invited himself." Olivia answered. "I didn't even know that he was there until I found the photo myself upon investigation of his house."
"Why would he do that?" Myers asked.
"He probably recognized her name when she testified in his court." Cragen answered for her. Olivia had been through enough, she didn't need this.
"With all do respect Captain Cragen, I wasn't asking you." Myers told him.
"Look, if you want to accuse me of something, do it. I'm busy." Olivia stated bluntly, taking the attention off her Captain.
"Did you kill Judge Anderson?" He asked.
"Anderson was killed with a .5 millimeter (A/N I don't know guns at all so I just made that up sorry if it's not right!) pistol. The only gun I have is my .9 mil, and it hasn't been shot recently, you can check it." She began. He was killed the night before I was sent to investigate. That was the first night my husband and I spent in our apartment after out honeymoon, so you can imagine that I was a little too busy to have killed him. That is all beside the fact that our ME believes he could only have been killed by a man that was around his size or larger considering the bruise patterns on the body. Finally, I had no idea who Anderson was until after I found my mother's ID in his closet after he was already dead. You can ask my partner how I reacted to that." She said. "If you could find any evidence that even remotely pointed to me as a suspect we both know that we would be having this conversation in your precinct and not my Captain's office, so if there's nothing else, I'd like to get back to work and take actual criminals off the street."
"One more question Detective Benson, a Detective Colberg from the 15th precinct took out a sealed file on Anderson last night. In the log he wrote that it was requested by you for a case you're working. Now, being that you just told me you were off that case, would you care to explain?" He asked.
Olivia silently cursed herself for lying to Keith. Had she told him she needed the file off the record he never would have logged it out. Damn protocol.
"It's for the detectives working the case." She lied.
"Then why didn't one of them request it?" Myers asked.
"Because it was on my hunch. I didn't want to add to their load until after I was sure if I was right or not." She said as a quick excuse. "Besides, I was the one who had a connection in the 15th precinct. It was easier for me to get the file."
"And just what was this hunch Detective Benson?" Myers asked.
"You know she can't disclose any information about an open case Myers." Cragen said, quickly deflecting the question. "She answered your questions. She clearly had nothing to do with Anderson's murder. Now arrest her or leave." He added.
"Thank you for your time." Myers said to both Cragen and Olivia. "I'll be checking your story Detective." He added over his shoulder as he let himself out of the office.
"Thanks for having my back Captain." She said after the IAB detective had left.
"I know that you didn't have anything to do with this Olivia." He answered scratching his bald head. "But, I would like to know what hunch you had that made you go looking for a file you had no way of knowing existed." He added.
Olivia didn't know what to say. She hadn't even decided if she was going to disclose the information in that file yet. She could lie to him, and tell him that her hunch was wrong, and that the file contained no useful information, but he had just stuck his neck out for her. Besides, he would probably ask to see the file anyway, and discover the contents that gave Jim Corrigan motive. She could tell him that the file was locked in her desk, and that she lost the key, but then he would just jimmie the lock, or call a lock smith. She could pretend to faint right here, but that would only buy her time.
"Olivia?" Cragen said when she didn't answer him. "Are you going to give me an explanation?"
She knew what she had to do. "Samantha Corrigan's husband said something to me yesterday in the hall that just didn't sound right." She told him, choosing her words carefully.
"What did he say?" Cragen probed.
"He asked if we got the guy who raped Samantha. Then he asked if we were going to hold him or let him go again." She said. "I wasn't sure why he had said 'again', we checked his records, and Anderson was clean. I checked what precinct was responsible for Anderson's house, and found out that it was the 15th. I knew a detective in the 15th, so I called in a favor to check if there was anything there." She admitted.
"And I assume that he found something." Cragen pushed.
Olivia was silent for a moment.
"Detective?" He pressed her.
"Two years back, Samantha saw Judge Anderson when she was at the park with her son. After following him home, she went into the precinct and told them where they could find her rapist." Olivia told him. "According to the file, they brought him in, but didn't feel there was enough evidence to hold him, so they let him go." She explained.
"Elliot questioned Samantha; her mother corroborated her alibi." Cragen said.
Once again Olivia was silent. She disclosed everything that was in the file, there was no way he could find out about the extra information that Keith had told her.
"Like I said, it was just a hunch." Olivia offered as an explanation
"I want to see that file." Cragen told her.
"I already told you everything that was in it." She argued.
"I don't care Detective. You are not on this case. I appreciate that you did this on your own time, but if it is pertinent to an ongoing investigation, I need to see it." He said sternly. When Olivia didn't move he added, "That was an order Detective, not a question."
Olivia just nodded her head and silently went to her desk to retrieve the file. She unlocked her desk, took the file out, and brought it back to Cragen's office.
He took the file from her and started looking through it. "This makes Samantha a suspect again." He said. "Why didn't you bring this to light sooner? Do you realize how much time was wasted tracking down Anderson's other victims? How many more women were you going to subject to our questioning before you brought this piece of information to light?" He scolded, making Olivia feel ashamed for withholding it from everyone.
"I'm sorry. Considering Samantha's Alibi checked, I didn't think it was pertinent." She lied.
"I wasn't aware that you took command of this unit Detective." Cragen said, clearly annoyed at her actions. "In fact, I wasn't even aware that you were still on this case, because that's the only way that you would be qualified to make those kind of decisions."
"Captain…" Olivia began, but was stopped by Cragen's angry tirade.
"No, I don't want to hear it. You're not on this case anymore Olivia. You asked to be taken off, now you live with your decision. We have wasted time tracking down possible leads when we should have been looking closer at the Corrigans. If the husband said something to you, that means he knew who her attacker was, and where he lived. That's motive and opportunity Benson. You're lucky I don't call IAB back and have them nail your ass for obstruction. Is there anything else you've failed to tell me?" He asked.
"No Sir." Olivia said quietly.
"Good, then get back to work." He told her.
She left the office, but bypassed her desk. She made her way to the roof instead. She needed to get some air.
Cragen ignored her. He hated being hard on her, but this seriously hampered his case. He instead went into the interrogation area, and knocked on the door of the three rooms where his detectives were to get their attention.
"What's goin on Captain?" Fin asked when he exited the room to see both Elliot and Munch also exiting to join Cragen.
"Some information has been brought to my attention that points to a possible lead in the case." He told the men, deciding to leave out just where he got his information from.
"What kind of information?" Elliot asked.
"Well, it seems that two years ago, Samantha Corrigan saw Anderson on the street, and followed him to his home. After finding out where he lived, she went to police, and told them where they could find her rapist." He informed them.
"Why didn't we find anything on his record?" Fin asked.
"Because, after being questioned by the 15th precinct, they decided that there was not enough evidence to press charges, and erased the whole ordeal from his record because he's a judge. Seems they thought Samantha was just an unhappy critic concerning a ruling he made at the time." He told them.
"So Samantha knew Anderson was her rapist the whole time." Munch noted. "What about the rest of the family?" He asked.
"We're pretty sure that her husband at least knew. We need to re-examine the Corrigans a little closer." Cragen ordered.
"But her alibi checked out. I spoke with her mother, and her son's pediatrician. She was at home at the time Anderson was killed." Elliot said.
"What about the husband?" Cragen asked.
"Samantha mentioned that he was home with her." Elliot told him.
"Are we sure about that?" Cragen asked.
"Samantha said that we could check with her husband on her alibi." Elliot said.
"Well get me something more substantial than that. Elliot and Munch I want you two running down this lead. Get over to the 15th; see if the Corrigans had any other complaints against the judge, and whatever else you can find out about the initial arrest. Fin, I want you to continue with the other victims, I'll bring Briscoe in to give you a hand." Cragen ordered.
The men just nodded their heads, and broke in different directions to follow out with their orders.
TBC... tell me what you think, I love feedback!!