Elliot, Fin and Munch were all out when Olivia showed up at work early the next morning, in hope that the Captain had changed his mind about her doing desk duty. She sat down at her desk after making herself a fresh cup of coffee and set to work, waiting for the moment the Captain walked in and saw her 'playing by the rules' it might make him believe she had learnt her lesson and re-assign her to White's case.
"Morning, Liv," Elliot's voice came from behind her.
She didn't look up. "Hey… how's the White case coming along?"
Elliot hesitated. "The Captain ordered us to keep you away from it, we're not allowed to discuss it."
"That's ridiculous, Elliot," she cried in fury looking up at him with disapproval. He owed her something, he was her partner. "It was MY case. Just tell me… have you got anything yet?"
"His alibi is shaky," he admitted.
"ELLIOT!" the Captain's voice boomed from behind him. Not even Olivia had seen him approach, he had come out of nowhere. "I knew I couldn't trust you to keep this case to yourself. Has anyone told you what a bad secret keeper you'd make," he said with a light sense of humor.
"Sorry, Captain," he mumbled looking down at his desk and pretending to look through paperwork.
"It was my fault," Olivia stepped in. "I demanded he tell me. Captain, I've learnt my lesson, can you re-assign me to the case?"
"No," he said without hesitation.
"Boss, we could really use an extra pair of hands on this?" Elliot added.
"Three of you isn't enough?" he asked with interest and suspicion.
Elliot tried to avoid the question and for his loyalty to Olivia, she wanted to reach out and hug him, but she refrained, they didn't do that sort of thing. It wasn't part of the job, or their relationship. "You know White, Captain, he keeps us all on our toes."
"Fine," he agreed looking down at Olivia. "But if you screw this up again, I'm suspending you… under-stood?"
"Yes, Captain I understand completely," she smiled standing to join her partner. "I won't let you down again."
"Where do you expect to start?" Cragen inquired.
"Elliot said his alibi was shaky, if we can get a warrant for his DNA, he's ours," she said believing it could be that easy.
Cragen shrugged. "Give it a shot."
An hour later Olivia and Elliot had gone their separate ways. Elliot had suggested he retry the few people who associated with White and inquire if he had an alibi at the time of the assault and murder and see if he could break them down if any of them were suspicious. Olivia was in Casey Novak's office arguing with her about getting the warrant for a DNA test.
"We can't take DNA from every former criminal?" Casey reasoned. "If we did that no one would get a fair trial."
"White doesn't deserve a fair trial, Casey, he raped and murdered several girls in the past, and only got 6 years in prison, he should have been executed! He's out of jail for less than 48 hours and he's already at it again, those victims are dead, where's their fair trial!" she flared. "I know he did this."
"How do you know?" she questioned sounding like the DA she was, always waiting on the facts of the evidence and not on a cop's word.
"It's in my gut," she told her.
"The judge won't buy that, he won't give me the warrant for DNA on your gut feeling…"
"There has to be something you can do to force him to take a DNA test?" she begged. "Please… Casey, this guy made my life a living hell for months, he rapes and murders women without remorse, and he's gonna get away with it. I want him."
"I'm sorry, Liv," she said without emotion. "My hands are tied."
"Can't you call in a favor?" she was desperate to prove White was the guy who did this, there wasn't a doubt in her mind.
"I'm out of favors since working with you people," she said with a tone of annoyance. "I have none left… I'm in debt." The SVU team expected her to do too much sometimes, and she was only one person.
Olivia sighed heavily. "Do you even care about White's victims?" she accused.
"Olivia," Casey was close to loosing her patience. "Do you know how many victims there are in the world?! I can't care about them all to the point of jeopardizing me career, and am I expected to save them all with favors?" she questioned.
"No," she said with a heavy heart. "Just this one. Get this DNA for me…"
"Sure and you'll tell me you'll never ask me to call in a favor again," she mumbled turning to leave. "I'll talk to the boss and see what I can do… maybe we can get the DNA for a suspicious alibi. Don't be disappointed if I get laughed out of the office."
Olivia trusted that Casey could pull this off, she believed Casey was as good a lawyer as Olivia felt she was a cop. Both got into the job for the same reason – to rid the world of injustice, even if it was only one person at a time.