Chapter Forty One – Rain

When it rained cases, it poured cases. That had seemed to always be the reality, even from when she was working in SVU. Only a week after she'd first gotten the call about her former victim being raped again she'd received another call. That one hadn't come at any more of an opportune time than the previous one had. She'd been halfway through a trip at the grocery store when the request from homicide had come. Homicide wasn't a unit she got called for very often, but when they'd explained the situation she understood why they'd called. A six year old boy was the only witness to his parents' murders, and the trauma had forced him into silence. So far he hadn't said a word. Not wanting this little boy to be alone and scared any longer than he needed to be, Olivia dropped her shopping trip and headed right to the precinct. Groceries could wait. Besides, she had more than enough experience living off take out if she ended up needing to do that for a few days.

When she stepped into the precinct she clipped her consultant's badge on and headed for the homicide division. The uni at the front desk eyed her as she went by but didn't bother her. Olivia had learned that if she didn't want to be called out on her way into a squad room she needed to look like she belonged there. With the number of years' experience she had all she needed to do was lock down her nerves and put her cop face on. It really wasn't all that hard. She didn't end up getting to the captain's office like she'd been intending before she was flagged down.

"You Benson?" Detective Dorian asked once she'd reached him.

"Yes. Is it your case?"

"I'm the lucky one, yeah. We haven't had any success with leads so far."

"It's still early," Olivia reminded him. "Hopefully you'll get something from forensics."

"Probably our only chance."

He obviously didn't think she was going to have any luck getting the witness to talk. Since she hadn't even met the boy she wasn't sure if she would be able to get any information out of him, but she was more hopeful than this detective looked. The only way to find out how hard it would be was to try.

"He's in here," Dorian told her as he motioned toward an interview room.

Olivia peered through the wide window and found the little boy sitting in a chair with his legs tucked up and his arms wrapped around them. He was completely ignoring the woman sitting across from him and attempting to entice him with some crayons. In fact, he wasn't even looking up at her. The sight wasn't reassuring. She considered her options for a few minutes. Traditional methods didn't look like they were having even minute success, so she decided to try something a little non-traditional.

"We'll see if I have any luck."

She unclipped Suvi's leash and moved toward the door. There was no command to ask him to visit the boy, but she was hoping he would react the same way he usually did and simply go over. Kids typically meant petting, and Suvi loved petting. When she opened the door and gave him permission to enter he did exactly what she wanted him to. He trotted in and sniffed around the room for a second before heading toward the six year old. The woman in the room noticed Suvi and was about to point him out until Olivia held her hand up to still her. Suvi could do this on his own, and it would be a lot more effective. He sat down next to the boy's chair and stared up at him in hopes of being noticed. When that didn't get him anywhere he poked his nose under the arm rest and nudged the boy's arm. It took longer to receive a response than Olivia had expected. Suvi didn't give up until he got one, and every second he didn't made him more insistent. Finally Olivia spotted a change. The little boy shifted slightly and peeked under his arm to see what kept touching him. He stayed that way, head tucked between his knees and arms, and stared at Suvi for a long time. Slowly one hand released his legs and dropped toward Suvi. His hand remained inches away, but that was as close as he needed to get. Suvi took the opportunity to press his wet nose into the boy's palm. That was enough to get him to start tentatively petting Suvi's nose. The movements were tiny and barely visible, but one finger was slowly rubbing up and down the length of his muzzle.

With Suvi now in place and the little boy at least minorly interacting, Olivia felt it was alright to enter the room. For the entire way over to the table she did nothing to draw attention to herself. She sat down in a nearby chair and leaned forward, elbows on knees. She was hoping the little boy would look up at her at some point, but it didn't seem like that was going to happen any time soon (if it happened at all).

"You know, Suvi's favorite place to be pet is his ears," she said softly.

Again she'd hoped he would look up at her, but he didn't. Instead he paused in his petting for a moment before inching his hand out further so he could touch Suvi's ears. At first his fingers barely ghosted over Suvi's creamy fur but slowly the petting became stronger. Olivia smiled. At least he wasn't so shut down that he was completely unresponsive to her. It was a good sign.

"I'm Olivia, and you've already met Suvi. Could you tell me your name so I can introduce you to him?"

He ducked his head a little bit more, but that was all the response she got.

"Should I guess?"

She received a tiny shrug that time which was at least a little bit of improvement.

"Hmmm. Tyler? Andrew? Nick? Joey?"

Olivia had known the effort was pretty much futile even before he shook his head after each name. Hopefully when she started suggesting ridiculous options he would decide to simply give up his name instead of making her continue to guess. If he didn't she really wasn't sure what would happen. It definitely wouldn't bode well for later though.

"Hmmm, how about Edgar? Stan? Jasper? Nelson? Katie?"

A tiny smile had been tugging at his lips. By the time she got to Katie he actually met her eyes.

"That's a girl's name."

"I guess you're right. How about Susie?"

"That's a girl's name too!"

"Well, I'm just not doing very well at this guessing game. Maybe you should help me."

"Todd."

That admission was a major victory, and Olivia had to fight not to revel in the moment. They'd only broken the ice. There was a lot more work to be done.

"Suvi," she began, and his head turned toward her before she got any further. "This is Todd. He's been really brave today."

"No I haven't," he whispered. "I'm scared."

"Even people who are really brave are still scared sometimes, Todd."

He shrugged and seemed to close up again.

"Could you tell me why you were so scared?" she pressed incredibly gently.

"It was scary."

"I know, but I think you can be brave a little bit longer."

"He hurt mommy and daddy."

Olivia knew that more had happened than simply his parents getting hurt. They'd been killed, possibly violently and possibly right in front of him. She had gained some new information however.

"He? Did you see him?"

All she received was a nod, but that was alright.

"What were you doing when you saw him?"

"Playing in my room. I heard yelling so I came out to peek."

After leaning down to get closer to him she whispered almost conspiratorially.

"And what did you see?"

"Mommy and daddy were arguing with a man. Mommy saw me and did this..." He held a finger to his lips and motioned with his hand in a "go away" or "hide" gesture. "So I went back to my room and watched from behind the door."

"Did you hear what he was yelling about?"

"Money. He was mad at daddy."

Olivia nodded and eased off on the questioning for a bit so Todd could sit and pet Suvi. It would give him a chance to calm down so she didn't overwhelm him. The pause also allowed her to consider everything she'd learned so far and decide which questions she needed to ask next. She'd given the homicide detectives more to work with than they had initially, but it still wasn't enough for them to solve the case. There was more to find still. When Todd was relaxed again Olivia asked the next question.

"Todd, did he know your mom and dad?"

He frowned and shrugged before burying his hands into Suvi's fur. Suvi stepped closer and plopped his head onto Todd's knee.

"Did he call them by their names?"

She got a nod in return and moved on to the next question.

"Did you know him?"

"Uh uh."

"Did your dad say his name?"

"Yeah. He called him Riley."

Olivia glanced behind her at the glass viewing window where the lead detective was watching. She lifted an eyebrow in question, and he nodded at her. That was good enough for now. They had a name and a possible connection to work. Together the detectives working the case should be able to use the information to identify a suspect. Olivia didn't need to push harder. When she looked back over Todd had his arms wrapped around Suvi and his face buried in her dog's neck.

"Todd?"

He sniffled and held on tighter to Suvi so Olivia reached out and gently rubbed his back.

"I tried to do what Mommy said. I tried really, really hard, but it wasn't good enough. Mommy and Daddy still got hurt."

Olivia felt her heart squeeze in sympathy. Todd had been through so much. Losing his parents was hard enough, but he was going to have to fight through the guilt and the images of what he'd seen too. There wasn't much she could do to ease his suffering, but she was going to try whatever she could.

"Sweetheart, they didn't get hurt because you weren't quiet enough. You did a really good job of being quiet, just like you did a good job now. Thanks to you the police can find who hurt your parents and will make sure he never hurts anyone again."

"Will Mommy come back when they do?" he asked hopefully as he looked up at her with tears in his eyes.

"No, honey. Your mom and dad died. Even if we catch the man that did it they can't come back."

"How do you know?"

"Because the same thing happened to my mom, but you know what? My mom is still watching over me even though I can't see her. Your mom and dad are doing the same thing for you."

A few tears trickled down Todd's face.

"I want her to be here instead."

"I know, Todd. I know."

Only a short time later Olivia slipped out of the interview room. She remained in the doorway since she had left a finally sleeping Todd and a vigilant, live stuffed animal in the form of Suvi behind.

"His grandparents should be landing pretty soon," Dorian told her.

"Okay. I'm going to stay with him until they get here. I don't want him waking up alone."

He'd lost too much already, and she wanted to provide what little stability and comfort she could.

"Alright. Nice work."

Olivia offered him a weak smile before glancing back at Todd where the smile quickly faded.

"Find this guy."

"We will," he promised.

Author's Note: I know, I know. It's been forever, and I'm sorry. On top of the bird coaching started which always takes over my life. Plus, the section I was working on needed way more than five chapters to finish and I didn't want to stop in the middle of it.