7.
"Cabot." Alex's phone had been ringing off the hook since noon, and she had twenty minutes before she had to be in court.
"Alex. It's Melinda Warner."
Olivia is not in the morgue. Olivia is not in the morgue. Alex controlled her breath. "Hi, Melinda. What's going on?"
"Listen, Elliot thought you might want an update on Olivia's case. He said I should give you a call."
"What's happening?"
"Well, I've figured out—"
"Melinda. Is she all right?"
"Olivia is fine," the medical examiner said evenly.
"Why are you calling?"
Melinda took a hissing breath. "Elliot seemed to think," she said calmly, "that you had a vested interest in this case. So I am calling at his request, as a favor to Olivia. But I have had quite enough of being the whipping girl for this case. Stabler, Tutuola, Munch, even Cragen seem to think this is my fault, and I do not need it from you as well. I am a scientist, and I did not put Olivia's DNA on that knife."
"You mean somebody did?" Alex said, freezing in the process of stuffing two files into her briefcase.
"Yes. Somebody did."
As Alex absorbed the details of Melinda's explanation, she grew dizzy. Olivia had been framed. Melinda Warner could prove it. Trevor Langan could call Melinda Warner to the stand—her precision never failed to reel in a jury. She could hardly absorb it.
You thought Olivia could have done it, she reminded herself. You thought it was her blood. "Olivia," she whispered aloud, unable to control the emotion in her voice.
To Alex's surprise, Melinda chuckled. "It is true, isn't it?" she said. "The two of you have certainly been good at keeping it quiet. Even when Elliot asked me to call you, I thought it was for the sake of professional interest."
Alex laughed shakily. "I also have a professional interest." The number of people Alex had outed them to in the last two days … Olivia would have her head. If she ever spoke to Alex again.
"I don't know if we're out of the woods completely," Melinda said. "I can testify to the existence of the procedure, and the lack of methylation, but that's not going to tell us anything definitive." There was a knock on Alex's door, and Jack McCoy peered in, the fingers of one hand spread as he indicated the clock on her wall. Alex nodded to him. "The process is unfamiliar here. Inconceivable. You're going to need—"
"I'm not Olivia's attorney." Alex's cellphone began to buzz on her desk.
"Well, her attorney is going to need a credible witness to the procedure or at the very least—"
"Melinda, that's my other phone," said Alex.
The medical examiner's cool voice said, "All right."
"No—thank you. Thank you for telling me. I'm so grateful to know."
"And I'll keep any information I have gleaned from this conversation under my hat," said Melinda, sounding both pleased and miffed. Alex didn't even say goodbye, just hung up the receiver as she said into her cellphone, "Cabot," trying to buckle her briefcase as she did so.
"She's all right, Alex," said Elliot Stabler's voice. "We've got him."
"You what?" Just then Jack McCoy opened her door again. She held up one finger, trying to shrug her blazer back on.
"He came after Liv, he was at her place. She—"
"That fucking bastard!" Alex cried. Jack McCoy's eyebrows shot up, and Alex looked down in contrition.
"He put a uni in critical condition, we're still waiting to hear," Elliot said.
"Alex, we've got to go." Jack left no room for argument. Alex gathered her briefcase and followed her superior down the hallway, still clasping the phone to her ear.
"But Olivia—"
"Yeah, she's all right. I've got her right here with me. Here, Liv."
Alex heard scrabbling in the background just as she and McCoy reached Trial Part 44. "Liv?" she said. "Olivia?"
"Alex?" Olivia's voice was hoarse.
"Baby, I—"
Jack McCoy pulled the phone from Alex's hand and ended the call.
"Jack," said Alex as she followed him to the table, her eyes blazing.
"We're late, Ms. Cabot," he said crisply. "Your personal life belongs outside of this courtroom."
"It's an emergency."
"If that were so, you wouldn't be here!" he answered. "And I would appreciate it if your focus were with the people of the state of New York, who would themselves appreciate it if we were able to keep a rapist and murderer like Jonas Easton off the streets!"
It only took a quick glance at the crime scene photos for Alex to realize she needed her head in the game. Jonas Easton, who had been Fin and Munch's collar, had already taken two women's lives. She rose for Judge Preston, struggling in the whirlwind of her fear and her confusion and her relief.