Author's Note: Thank-you all for your positive responses! I am going to try and upload at least twice a week, if not more frequently when I can. I know there aren't many Venson fics available at the moment but I will gladly keep writing this and my one shots because I really like writing them. Let me know what you think of this chapter. x
February 2008.
Hank was frustrated, his supervisors had made him let Frankie go home, they couldn't hold him any longer without sufficient evidence to hold him, right now a few angry blog posts weren't enough to nail him to the crime.
He was determined to find the killer; he needed to pin this murder on the killer before he strikes again. This is his city, and anyone who hurt his city deserved to be locked up for good.
He was fussing over paperwork when a call came through. He rushed to his feet and slung on his jacket. Another body had been found.
"Missing a heart." His partner spoke with a cautious tone. He knew this was going to make Hank mad, he knew him better than most people.
He wasn't wrong, Hank Voight covered that girl over and marched right out of that crime scene. The look in his eye, the fire filled expression that sent shivers down anyone who managed to look. He wasn't going to let this happen again.
February 2015
When Hank Voight walked in, the atmosphere changed. Everybody remembered him as the sergeant who took things to the next level, he'd made quite an impression the last time he'd set foot in New York, and the that fact that he was there again meant that this case must need a different approach. An approach Olivia Benson wasn't angling that way herself.
The two sergeants met face to face, no words between them in that very first moment. She turned, and he followed. The door to her office closed shut behind them leaving her team to share concerned looks between them.
Olivia sat down on her side of the desk, Hank stood leaned against her door. She would have asked him to take a seat, but she knew there were more pressing conversations to be had. Small talk would be wasted.
"There are things we need to discuss." She started, pulling a file out of her drawer, he walked over to her and took the folder from her hand.
"Rebecca Samuels, 23. She was meeting up with a man she met on a dating website, a cat fish." Olivia recited off the top of her head, as Voight read the words of the pages silently.
When he had finished, she noticed the look in his eye. She'd seen it only once before, when he was in the interrogation room.
"Did she cheat on her boyfriend?" He asked, clenching his jaw tightly.
She looked confused, and scanned over the file figuring she must have missed something, she hadn't.
"As far as we know she was single."
Voight shook his head, "Sergeant Benson, you asked me here for a reason. What was that reason?" He asked her, sitting down on the spare seat opposite her.
"It had come to my knowledge that this type of crime has happened before, in Chicago."
Voight nodded, "And did your source forget to mention the detective who was on that case seven years ago?" He asked her, their eyes met and neither of them were about to stand down.
"No, she did not." Olivia had a feeling he was about to tell her now.
"Well now you're looking at him." He cracked a smile, closing the case file without leaving her gaze.
"So the other women, they cheated on their boyfriends?" She asked, wanting to know more. This case was unusual, and horrific.
Voight stood in front of everyone, he had scribbled everything he knew onto a white board and was explaining the case he had been on all those years ago. "Miranda Johnson was a respectable lawyer, she was married but she slept around, her husband found her with one of her guests, he filed for divorce and she cleaned him out."
"So her husband had motive." Amanda interjected, but Voight wasn't finished explaining.
"She was the type of woman who always needed someone around her to make her feel loved. Her reputation had got around her office, so she turned to a website."
"Let me guess, her date was another cat fish." Fin spoke up for the first time.
"We called it something different back then, but yes." Voight answered, he had to admit working with the SVU team was a lot like working with his intelligence kids.
"He raped her outside their meeting place, and cut out her heart." Nick concluded.
Voight nodded, "Her heart was sent to her e husband, dropped off at his front door wrapped up in newspaper."
"We haven't heard of any hearts being left on doorstops." Amanda informed him, she looked over at Olivia who nodded to confirm that she hadn't heard of anything either.
"They don't always turn up straight away." He told her, turning back to the whiteboard.
Olivia took over as Voight added his final touches to the board. "Nick, you and Fin track down anyone who Rebecca could have been seeing, Amanda, we're going back to that preschool."
Amanda walked into Tricia's office with Olivia on her tail. She knocked on the door as she entered, but Tricia wasn't inside. The two women shared a confused look before walking down the hallway and searching classrooms.
Tricia was sitting alone in one of the empty classrooms, tears streaming down her face. She was a complete mess, and it was understandably so. Amanda was the first to approach her, she sat down on the floor beside her. She let her be the first to speak, not wanting to push her into talking.
"She was my friend." Tricia sobbed, trying to hold back her emotions so she could speak. Amanda rested her hand upon her shoulder and told her it was alright.
"I should have told her that internet dating was dangerous, but I didn't."
"You didn't know this was going to happen, you couldn't have." Amanda assured her, Olivia walked over and sat down on Tricia's other side.
"Tricia, this is Sergeant Olivia Benson, she's here to help us find out who did this to Rebecca." Tricia's eyes were still on the ground, until Amanda pointed over to Olivia.
Tricia nodded and looked Olivia up and down. "I'll try my best."
Olivia smiled, "That's all we ask."
"Did Rebecca have a boyfriend recently?" Amanda asked, she needed to start somewhere.
Tricia looked like she didn't want to answer, like she was hiding something, the two detectives shared a look between them; Olivia was the first to speak. "Tricia, we need to know if Rebecca was seeing anybody because there are other girls like her and we don't want this to happen to anyone else."
"She never told me specifics, but there was this one guy she was seeing for a while, his name was Christopher. But they broke up a while ago. I never knew why, but I did notice that it was around the same time she started seeing another guy, she called him Lewis."
Olivia smiled, "Thank-you for helping us. I know it's not easy losing someone but you're going to help us prevent others from losing someone the same way."
"She was so young. I want the people responsible to pay for this." Her voice was filled with pain and passion, she really wanted to nab those guys.
Amanda smiled, "They will, we have the best guys on this case."
Olivia smiled, they really did.
February 2008
Hank Voight hadn't slept in days, he had been going over the case files determined to figure out what he was missing. Was there a link between the victims? Something he had overlooked? The other detectives had started talking about him, calling him obsessed. He didn't listen to any of their chatter, neither of those girls deserved to die, especially not over stupid mistakes.
The first victim, Miranda Johnson, the second was Holly Jones. Neither woman had met each other or each other's spouses. They were both living in Chicago, and were looking for a date for Valentine's Day, but that's all Voight could think of. There had to be something else, someone else to tie them both together, sickos like this never killed out of spontaneity, they always killed with a purpose. So far he was coming up with complete blanks.
There were so many unanswered questions, which only determined him further. He rose to his feet and rushed out the door. He needed to talk to Holly's girlfriend, perhaps she could shed some light on why Holly would have been targeted.
He went through his files and found her details, Bethany Holmes.
February 2015
Nick was scrolling through Rebecca's Facebook, nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be catching his attention, posts from friends, photos of kitten's and funny YouTube videos flooded her profile, nothing about her love life. He checked through her friends list, looking closely at her recent friends.
He clicked on a profile, one that only had one friend. "I might have something." He called Fin over. Fin walked over, a mug in his hand.
"Who is this yahoo?" He asked, looking over Nick's shoulder.
"I don't know, but don't you find it strange that Rebecca is his only friend?"
"I'll get an address."
Dennis Parker lived downtown, when Nick and Fin arrived at his address, it looked like nobody had been there in weeks. Newspapers were stacked messily up and down the front stairs, as they walked to the front door, they both reached for their guns just in case.
Nick walked slowly towards the front window, peeking in subtly. He spotted a leg, it appeared a man was laying face down on the floor. He signalled to Fin that they needed to get inside and fast.
The door was bashed open, Nick rushed to the man who was passed out on the ground, "He's overdosed." Nick commented, calling for an ambulance, he held his fingers to Dennis' arm looking for a pulse, before moving to check his neck. "He's still alive." He called out to Fin who was checking the house to see if they were alone.
"We're all clear." He reported as he walked back into the room.
"Why would you do this to yourself?" Nick asked the air; Dennis looked like hell, despite being passed out. His hair was a shaggy mess, he had tracks along his arms and his body looked drained.
He stepped back when the paramedics moved in, he watched as they carried him out on a stretcher. If what Voight said was true, and if this guy was Rebecca's boyfriend, being cheated on could have been the very trigger that might cost him his life.
As the pair of them walked out of Dennis' apartment, it was Nick who spotted something he hadn't noticed on the way in. He pointed, and Fin watched his finger. "Was that there before?"
"I don't know."
He moved over to it, the box that was sitting not too far from the front door. He leaned down and opened it up, shock took over his body when he laid eyes on what was inside.
A human heart
"Call Liv, this was the boyfriend."
February 2008
Bethany Holmes was sobbing on her sofa, she'd been in bed when the policemen had come to her doorstep. They didn't know that Holly had moved out, that she'd been sleeping on friend's couches for the past two weeks. She didn't have the heart to tell them that she was no longer Holly's girlfriend, not after they'd shared the news. She'd broken down right there on her doorstep; despite what Holly had done to her she was still madly in love with that girl. So knowing that she'd been murdered, that was just devastating for her.
Now she was sitting across from a detective who told her that he was going to help bring Holly's killer to justice, she wanted to believe him, but a part of her knew that the only justice Holly's killer deserved was to have his own heart ripped out.
She hadn't said much, because she knew if she opened her mouth she'd scream again, she wouldn't be able to keep herself together. The detective, Hank Voight was kind enough to let her take her time, he was sitting there patiently telling her that he was going to be there for when she was ready, she appreciated his kindness but he had to know that nothing he said could ever change the way she felt. She was hurting in the worst way.
The doorbell sang, and Voight turned to her. "Do you want to answer that or should I tell them you're busy?" He asked her sincerely. She looked at him through her teary eyes and said softly, "I should see who it is."
Voight nodded, and stayed where he was as she left to check on the door.
He rushed to his feet when he heard a blood curdling scream coming from Bethany's lips.
She was standing in her doorway, stunned to silence by the time he'd rushed over to her. Sitting at her feet was a package, Voight lifted up the wrapping. Inside was Holly's heart.
February 2015
"Are you sure that box wasn't there before you went inside?" Olivia asked Nick who had told her exactly what happened at Dennis' earlier.
He shook his head, "I don't know! All I know is that sick bastard delivered a human heart!"
"Hey settle down." She warned him, resting her hand on his shoulder. He nodded, but she knew he wasn't anywhere near calm.
Amanda walked over, she'd just been on the phone. "There was a security camera from across the road, one of the home owners was convinced that their neighbours weren't to be trusted. They're sending over the footage now."
"Thanks, I'm going to go check on Dennis at the hospital." She turned to Voight, her eyes asking him if he was coming. He nodded and followed her outside.
"When I was interviewing the girlfriend of one of the victims, they delivered it when I was inside." Voight shared as they walked down the halls of the hospital.
"They were taunting you."
He nodded agreeably. "She never recovered from that, committed suicide three months later."
"Why are people so cruel?" She wondered aloud as they reached Dennis' room.
He was awake, hooked up to morphine. He watched as the two sergeants walked in.
"I won't do it again." He told them, fear in his voice. He had assumed they were there to bust him for his drug habit.
"Dennis, I'm Sergeant Benson, and this is Sergeant Voight. We're here to talk to you about your girlfriend Rebecca Samuels."
"Rebecca? We broke up months ago."
"Well, care to explain why her heart was on your doorstep?" Voight asked him, giving him one of those menacing faces he was so famous for.
"I-I don't know anything about that! I swear!"
"We know, but the people who do chose you because Rebecca cheated on you. They wanted to rip out her heart like she did to you."
"They did that because of me?" He looked horrified.
"Now, we need to know if you've ever blogged about Rebecca. Or did you tell anyone about her cheating on you?"
"It wasn't like that! We weren't all that serious, only dated a few months but she left me for another guy."
"Do you know who the other guy is?" Olivia asked, Voight had been relatively silent since his one liner a few moments prior.
He shook his head.
Now it was time for Voight to speak, "You were clean when she was with you weren't you?"
Dennis nodded, "I started shooting up after she broke up with me, but it's not like I was pining after her."
He was embarrassed, Voight could hear it in his voice. He had been upset about the break up he just didn't want to admit it.
"So what she did affected your life, you started taking risks because she dumped you." He turned to Olivia, "Sounds like he took it hard to me."
She nodded, "Sounds like it."
"Now did you tell anyone about what Rebecca did, or am I going to have take you before a judge for possession and drug use?"
"Okay! Fine! I told a few people, but I never said she ripped my heart out!"
"But you did say that she hurt you." Olivia pointed out.
"That's all you needed to say." Voight added.
Amanda was sitting at her desk when her phone started ringing, she answered without checking caller ID.
"This is Amanda."
"Hey, Amanda, it's Erin Lindsay from Chicago."
"Erin, it's been a while." She smiled, even though they only seemed to see each other during horrific cases, it was nice to hear a familiar voice.
"Don't tell Voight that I called, I just wanted to check up on him and everything."
"It's our little secret." Amanda promised, "But he's good, he's been a real help. He's worked on these guys before so he's teaching us a lot."
"Hopefully you catch these guys this time."
"Yeah, hopefully."
"Just keep an eye on him for me. He kind of just rushed off without telling anyone. We've been kinda just taking on small cases on our own."
"Waiting for his call?" Amanda asked, knowing Erin would jump at the chance to come and help them.
"Well if you need us, you know our numbers." Erin laughed awkwardly. She was worried. She was there the first time Voight worked this case, it had been hard on him when he couldn't solve it. It had been years and he was still going at it.
"I'll call you if anything happens."
"Thank-you, I appreciate it."