I am SOOO sorry it's taken a week to do this...I am now doing my second year of university and turns out the first semester is REALLY busy so I will try to post when I can :) hope you are still enjoying this fic!
x C
"We've got a positive ID on the third DNA and fingerprints at the scene and on the photographs." Melinda told them with a sense of achievement. She had worked all night trying to match up anything she could find in order to bring the case forward. "I think you're gonna like this" she added as she stepped towards her computer and clicked a few buttons. Fin and Munch were intrigued. What was there that she could have found overnight that they hadn't found already?
"Put a smile on our faces" Munch stepped forward, ready to hear whatever it was Melinda thought could drag them out of their angry obsessions with putting Lowell Harris behind bars. They didn't get to do it years back, so every one of the team were itching to get him this time.
"Peter Forsythe" she said with accomplishment. Fin and Munch looked confused, they didn't even recognise that name; how could it make them happy?
Melinda shook her head, knowing what both men were thinking "Peter Forsythe is a night janitor at Sealview" she finished with a hopeful smile, maybe this would help them.
"You're sure?" Fin asked.
"Positive. Each member of staff at the prison go through a prints and DNA procedure. He's an exact match" Munch gave his partner a wary glare, if what he was getting from this was right then things weren't quite as simple as Louise Raymont's murder being spontaneous and Danielles boyfriend and his father trying to scare her. This went deeper than that.
"You know if the two worked alongside each other? Friends or...?" Fin questioned, to which Melinda gave a shrug and a slight shake of her head.
"I couldn't tell you, I'm sorry. All I know is that both men work there and both men's DNA or fingerprints have been found each at the scene of our vic's murder or on the items left for Danielle to find" she was thinking the same thing, who would be the one to say it though?
"This isn't a coincidence, no way" Fin commented and turned on his heel to leave the lab.
"She isn't even answering the phone to me." Liv frowned, putting her cell phone back down on her desk. She had tried calling her 4 times that morning and now again at 1pm, she hadn't expected it to be easy to get through to her daughter; after all she was just as stubborn as Olivia. She hadn't imagined it would be this hard though.
"Let her cool off" Elliot told his partner "She's a teenage girl and if there is anything I am an expert at its judging what mood my teenage girls are in and at what point to intervene. Give her until this evening, if she hasn't answered the phone or called you back then go and see her at home" he advised. Liv pursed her lips, it was usually her giving Elliot advice not the other way around. But all the same she nodded and feigned a smile in agreement.
"You're right, thanks" was all she said before Fin and Munch entered the squad room.
"I hope y'all aint comfy on your behinds, coz we got another perp to add to the equation" Fin spoke half jokingly to raise the mood and half insistent so as to get his team moving.
"Who?" Olivia asked, standing up fast from her chair and eager to get her teeth into part of this case. Maybe she would be allowed to bring this one in? She hoped so, she thought she would go mad here with little to do and with Danielle playing so hard to reach her one small job wasn't working out so well.
"A Peter Forsythe, works at Sealview. DNA found at the scene match our mysterious third DNA and prints on Danielles 'goodies'." Munch informed them, to which the squad room became temporarily silent before Cragen opened his office door to be facing his team.
"Melinda called in the details..." he started "Olivia, my office please" he requested, Liv was confused; what had she done now? But through sheer commitment and now boredom she walked towards him as she was told and shut the door behind her as she entered.
"Captain?"
"Liv, now I need you to tell me if what I am about to ask is above and beyond the call of duty" he began, she looked him straight in the eye...was he about to ask her a favour? Whatever it was had to be better than sitting in this building all day and making endless calls to her 18 year old daughters answer phone only to get no reply. "...if you are not comfortable with the position this would put you in then I absolutely need you to say so" he carried on. She just wanted him to get on with it so she could do the same. "I'd like you and Elliot to be the ones to pick up Forsythe" Benson's eyes lit up momentarily; finally a REAL job! Then she realized what it entailed and why Cragen was being so gentle with his request. "he is in work today, so it would mean going into Sealview, I don't know what part of the prison you would have to be in in order to bring him in. If you feel you can't take it then I fully understand" he finished. She thought for a moment and swallowed hard, she was determined to do something for this investigation and if that meant being miles out of her comfort zone then that was what she would have to do.
"I'll do it" she replied in a steely tone, insistent that she could not let her fears override the need to catch whoever murdered her daughters friend.
"Are you absolutely sure Olivia? You don't have to" he reassured, but in true form Liv was sticking to her guns.
"I'm gonna do this"
"Come on Greg we're picking up Forsythe, he's gonna tell us how you and daddy thought it a great idea to terrorize one teenage girl and rape and kill another. He's not exactly gonna drop himself is he now so why don't you just tell me what's been going on and save us some time" Fin requested. Greg looked confused, a lot of what he said didn't make sense to him. "If the photos and Louise death really do have as much of a connection as we think; and believe me Greg we're looking at a charge of rape murder and stalking, someone's going down for a long time. You want it to be you?" he threatened, but in such a calm tone that it unnerved the 22 year old.
"Look, just come down to my level for a second." he said in a dull tone, maybe he was cracking. Fin sat back down next to Munch and opposite from young Harris, who was now donning the most serious expression they'd seen on him yet. "He never said anything about raping her"
Well that wasn't what they'd expected! The detectives stayed silent, they knew he was more likely to keep talking if he was left to do it himself. "I swear to god I didn't know he was gonna do that!" he almost pleaded, he face finally scrunching up in what could be taken as guilt. "He just said he was gonna rough her up, make her mom pay" he told them as if the last part was recited, like he had heard it said a hundred times over. That was when Munch and Fin had to step in.
"Make her mom pay? Who are we talking about here?" Munch asked. Half of what the young man was saying sounded like he was talking about Louise and the other was a dead ringer for their 'Big Benson/Little Benson' situation. Greg looked him straight in the eye, he looked like he was psyching himself up for something and after a moment he took a deep breath in.
"Ever since dad got demoted and transferred he hasn't stop moaning about Detective Benson and how she was still up there with her big job and getting all the sympathy." he began to tell them.
"You know that it was actually your father in the wrong! He sexually assaulted Detective Benson and raped countless inmates! She WAS the victim!" Munch insisted, the boy lowered his head as if what the man had said hurt him.
"Don't you think I know that?! I've had to live with people talking about me behind my back and whispering and no one will hang out with me coz all they think when they see me is 'his dad's a rapist'! Dad has drummed into me that Detective Benson is the reason we didn't have as much money and that it was her that made my mom leave us! I had enough! I met Dani and she was a way out, she only saw me and not my dad. I didn't want to use her and I hate that my dad even managed to make this dirty! I feel awful that I dragged her into this. I thought telling her I didn't care would make it easier for her to hear that it was my dad that was doing this" he explained to them desperately "I didn't ever want Dani to get hurt, but you gotta believe me my life wouldn't be worth living if I didn't go along with it" he explained with a hint of desperation. "I was angry at her for making it look like I did this, I hit her; I regret that! I really do! You have to know that what I did wasn't with the intent of getting anyone hurt...well not killed" he finished, his expression was genuine. To the detectives that meant they should start putting the same questions to someone else.
"Greg, either way you are going to get charged with something, you know that?" Munch asked, the man nodded sadly. "But at this point it is up to you to be truthful. If we find out that you have co operated with us then those charges can be made a whole lot smaller, you understand?"
Again, Gregory Harris gave a small but this time nerve racked nod.
"So, tell us what you know" Fin looked him straight in the eye...Greg opened his mouth to speak.
She was scared, her colleagues could see that plain as day. She hadn't been back in this building since being beaten and handcuffed to the door in the basement by the man her team were now questioning. It gave her shivers thinking back about what had gone on inside these walls.
"You okay Liv?" Elliot touched her shoulder at seeing her glazed stare and shaking hands. She snapped out of that horrid day dream and looked at him, blinking fast.
"Yeah, I'll be fine" she feigned a smile and they carried on walking down the corridor and towards the main desk.
"Look, Olivia if you can't do this no one is going to think any less of you. You know we all think you're already being incredibly strong having anything to do with Harris and his kid. If you want to wait outside that is absolutely fine with me" he spoke softly and so quietly that only she could hear him; he knew she wouldn't want anyone within earshot knowing of her 'insecurities'. She didn't even turn her head towards him. She was doing this as much for herself as she was for the case, she had to prove to herself that she was strong again.
"I'm fine El, let me do this" was all she said, he nodded biting his top lip in momentarily; he knew that once she had spoken those 'be all and end all' words 'I'm fine' then there wasn't a chance in hell that he could change her mind.
When they got to the main desk a strong, almost manly looking woman stood to her feet to greet them. The two flashed their badges and nodded their heads out of politeness.
"We're looking for a Peter Forsythe please, we're with NYPD special victims unit" Olivia told her, an introduction that she could recite in her sleep.
Without a second thought the woman typed in the name Olivia had said and soon gave them an unsure gaze.
"I'm sorry we don't have any inmates by that name, are you sure this is where you are meant to be?" she asked, Elliot and Olivia exchanged a raised eyebrow glance then Olivia turned back to the woman at the desk.
"I'm sorry I don't think I was clear enough. The man we are looking for is a member of staff here; a janitor. We've been informed that today is the only of the week he works day hours" she explained in more detail, in response the woman bobbed her head lightly in understanding and once again tapped the name into the computer.
"Uhh, yes here we go." she began "Oh, it says here that Peter Forsythe never turned up for work today"
