Olivia sighed as Casey's phone went to voice mail yet again. This was ridiculous. It had been the same routine for three months now, and Olivia felt like she was losing her mind. She missed her wife, that much was obvious. She missed the beautiful redhead's sexy voice, the cute detective v. attorney flirting, and telling the woman she loved how much she meant to her. Her greatest fear was that they would never share those special things ever again. Now, as she attempted to call Casey again, Olivia counted how many times the other line rang before the voice mail message played. The number of rings had varied between two and five each call, so Olivia knew that Casey was hitting the ignore button. Sighing, the detective tossed her phone onto the dresser and rummaged through her suitcase for several minutes before choosing an outfit for the day. Heading into the bathroom, she closed the door, locking it, even though Courtney was long gone. It had been months since that incident.
After a twenty minute shower consumed with guilt and anger with herself, Olivia towel dried her body and dressed in her signature clothes: a pair of black slacks, a button down blouse, and a black jacket. After quickly brushing her shoulder length hair, she tied her shoes, grabbed her purse (which she was not used to carrying), and, keys in hand, headed out of the hotel room and out of the hotel and to the car she had rented.
Arriving at the club, Olivia found her partner standing by the bar talking on the phone. She waited patiently for him to finish, then planted herself in front of him. Nick looked over at her. "You're here early. And aren't you supposed to be in a dress?"
Olivia glared at him. "It is only noon," she snapped. "I will go back to the hotel and change before my shift. Meanwhile, I have every intention of sitting here and keeping myself busy so I don't completely lose my mind." The detective paused, mentally kicking herself for being so candid. But ever since she had admitted to Casey what she had done, the fact that her wife was ignoring her had her on edge and freaked out, even more so than usual. "What are you doing here so early?" Olivia asked, attempting to steer the conversation away from herself.
Nick pointed to the enormous stack of posters in front of him and replied "I'm hanging posters for tonight's benefit. It's for singles."
Olivia sighed, folding her arms across her chest. "Perfect. Just what we need...being surrounded by a bunch of people desperate to find someone to drag into their bed."
"Olivia, are you okay?" her partner asked, his brow knitting in concern.
"I'm fine," Olivia answered quickly. She grabbed the tape and a chunk of the posters and added "We have work to do." She carried both into the back of the club and set to work hanging the posters, one on each wall.
Olivia had just finished with the last poster in her stack when she heard a scream from the front of the club. She placed the tape on the circular table in front of the row of couches and raced out of the back room and out to the main dance floor. There stood their suspect, in the flesh, attempting to grope a young girl, who couldn't have been more than fourteen. When the girl looked up and saw Olivia, Olivia placed her finger to her lips, indicating that she wanted to take full advantage of the fact that the suspect's back was turned to her. Olivia aligned herself directly behind him, and just as he spun around, aiming his knife at her, the detective knocked him to the floor and pinned him, quickly disarming him.
Nick chose that minute to enter, snacking on a doughnut. He paused, chewing as he looked from Olivia to the suspect to the young girl, who was hiding behind a pillar on the side of the dance floor, peeking out. "Did I miss something?"
Olivia kept her knee in the suspect's back, looking up at her partner. "No, I'm just down here for my good health," she snapped. As Nick shrugged, Olivia shook her head. Nick placed his snack on the bar table and switched places with her, lifting the suspect and holding his hands behind his back. Olivia slowly approached the potential victim and paused a few feet from her so she would not freak her out even more than she already was. "Are you okay, sweetie?" the detective asked.
"He tried to rape me!" the girl cried, ducking behind the pillar again. "Go away!"
Olivia sighed deeply, taking a few steps to the right so that she could keep her distance, and still keep eye contact with the young girl. "I know, honey," she answered, "but we're here to help you."
"You can't help me," the girl replied in a terrified whisper. "Nobody can. He owns me now."
"He will never own you again," Olivia assured her, holding out her hands so that the girl could take them if she wanted.
"He gave my mom five thousand dollars as a down payment for me. He can do anything he wants with me. I'm his girl now."
That caught Olivia off guard. She had been expecting the victim to tell her she was owned because the guy was her pimp, or something like it, but hearing that her own parents had sold her, the detective felt her blood boil in anger. "He can't hurt you anymore," she responded, this time not moving as the girl moved to another side of the pillar.
"Don't listen to her, baby, you know you're my girl," the suspect called out. He was quickly silenced by a slap upside the head, administered by Nick, who had already handcuffed him and was currently holding onto him, despite the suspect's struggling.
Olivia sighed, biting her lip thoughtfully. She had just come up with a potential solution to the girl's fear when the girl broke free and ran to her rapist, hugging him and kissing him, crying "Don't leave me. I'm sorry!"
Watching the rapist return his victim's kiss, Olivia cried "That's enough!" She closed the distance between them in a matter of steps and pulled the girl away. "Nick, would you escort our lovely bottom feeder to the car please?" she asked.
Nick nodded and roughly turned the rapist around, leading him to out of the club, reading the suspect his rights as he did so. "You are under arrest for rape and the attempted murder of a police officer. You have the right to remain silent. If you give up that right.."
The rest of the speech was inaudible to Olivia, as Nick had already exited the club by the time he finished the recitation. She turned back to the victim. "What is your name?" she asked.
"Why do you care?" was the catty response she received.
"Because it is my job to help you," Olivia answered. She gestured for the girl to sit down at the table in front of them, and took a seat across from her, folding her hands on top of the table. "Why don't you tell me what happened? First, let's start with your name."
The girl sighed, looking out the window, where she could see Nick place her rapist in his car. "Vanessa. Is James going to jail?" she asked, sounding genuinely concerned. "I want to see him."
"You can't see him, Vanessa," Olivia responded. "He is going back to New York. He hurt a lot of other girls there, and it is my job to make sure we put him away so he can never hurt anyone again."
"Are you a cop?" Vanessa asked, raising her eyebrows curiously. "That is so coo! I've always wanted to meet a cop. So do you get like tired running all the time, and is it fun hitting people?"
Olivia shook her head. "Vanessa, focus, please," the detective answered. Meanwhile, she thought Why does everyone think all we do is hit people? "How old are you?"
"Fourteen," came the surprising answer.
Olivia nodded, sighing deeply. "How did you get involved with James?" she questioned, wondering how a creep like that seemed to attract so many innocent girls.
"I met him online," Vanessa answered offhandedly. "He was so sweet, and after we talked for a while, he asked me to marry him! And I said yes. He paid my mom five thousand dollars. Lucky for me, that bitch will do anything to feed her cigarette and coffee diet. We haven't gotten married yet. He said he wanted to show me something first. So he brought me here, and when we got here, he kissed me and pushed me against the wall, kissing me...it was so hot..."
Olivia tried to keep up with the way the young girl kept switching between personalities. So far she had seen a terrified victim morph into a cold hearted bitch, and then from that into a lovesick schoolgirl. "Vanessa, you screamed," she pointed out.
"In pleasure," she answered casually, flipping her long blonde hair over her shoulder in a manner characteristic of a valley girl. "See, he had me against the wall, and while he was kissing me, he took his hand and-"
"Vanessa, why did you say he tried to rape you?" Olivia asked.
Vanessa sighed. "I freaked out, okay? What would you do if you were with your boyfriend and then all of a sudden, a cop runs in and interrupts you? Besides, I was afraid of getting in trouble."
"Crying rape is a serious crime," Olivia replied. She sighed and looked again at the underage blonde. "Listen to me. I am going to take you to a friend of mine who helps girls like you whose parents sell them for drugs or sex or whatever the case may be. She will help you reconcile with your mother."
"Am I in trouble?"
"That is not really up to me," Olivia answered truthfully. "It is up to whoever takes control of your case. But I doubt they will do anything worse than warn you about the punishment for crying false rape."
"What about James?" Vanessa asked quietly. "I'll miss him."
Olivia sighed. "James is going to prison in New York for raping and killing four other girls. By the time he gets out, if he gets out, he will be too old to rape anyone ever again."
"He raped someone?" Vanessa asked. "But he said I was his one and only. He said he loved me, and that he would never ever do anything to hurt me."
"He lied to you, Vanessa. Just promise me that you will never say yes to a strange man you meet online. You're a bright girl, honey. I don't want to receive a call informing me that something happened to you."
Vanessa nodded, dropping her gaze to the patterned floor below. "I promise. I'm sorry," she whispered.
Olivia placed her hand on top of the young girl's to reassure her. "You will be fine," she promised. "Just be safe." She smiled softly. "Protect yourself, and I promise you will be okay."
Vanessa stood up and walked over to Olivia, hugging her tightly. "You saved me," she murmured.
"It's my job," Olivia answered, returning her hug. She retrieved her business card from her pocket and handed it to Vanessa, who took it. "Call me anytime you want to talk, alright?"
"Okay," Vanessa replied, reading the card. "Thank you, Detective Benson."
Olivia nodded and led her out and to the car, making sure she was comfortable in the passenger seat. She looked at Nick, who was guarding the car that James was locked in. "I'm going to take her to a friend of mine. Why don't you take him to the local precinct? I'll meet you there. Once the loose ends are tied up, we can pack and then go to the airport, book a flight, and go home."
Once she was in her car, Olivia shifted it into drive and headed towards her friend's house. That was one issue taken care of. Now she just had to do the impossible, and get her wife to forgive her.