A/N: Once again I'm so sorry for the huge delay on updating. I've been SO busy I could barely log online. But things will be better from now on (apart from this terrible sickness I just got, but it shall pass!). I'd like to thank everyone who showed their appreciation to this story, this feedback is fuel to me. It's really so important, I think every writer thinks the same way, the feedback is something that keeps us going. I hope I have clarified the message about more Casey and Olivia interations on the comments, but I'd like to also explain that just because they don't interact as much on this story it doesn't mean we won't get to see a relationship growth - along with the individual growth - during the course of "Serendipity". I hope my reply hasn't put any readers off. I think this story is very interesting, in the perspective of the characters, who they are and how they deal with each other. Anyway, I'm babbling! Here goes chapter 5.
Feedback always appreciated and longed for!
Chapter 5
Elliot and Olivia were assigned to pick up Dr. Newlands and bring him to the precinct for interrogation while the other detectives, the Captain and A.D.A. Novak analyzed the new found information and tried to place together the pieces of the puzzle.
Casey stirred up the dark brown suspicious looking coffee before unwrapping the second sugar package and letting its full content fall down inside the warm liquid, she then placed the styrofoam cup down with a thump and sighed deeply, placing the heels of her opened hands on the table behind her while anxiously shuffling her body weight between one leg and the other. Her eyes were now a shade darker, and despite appearing to be focused on a spot far away from where she stood they in fact converged to nowhere in particular, if not to a place wide into her thoughts, which now disturbed her greatly.
"Is everything okay, counselor?", Captain Cragen asked, the sympathy in his face not unnoticed to her.
"Yeah, everything is okay", she answered, straightening her posture and trying to shake the pensive expression away from her face, "This case took quite an unexpected turn, hun?".
"They usually do that", he replied with a nod.
"I guess this is the moment when you say 'Welcome to SVU', right?", she attempted a smile, certain that it was anything but convincing.
"This is definitely not the best case to start off", Cragen sounded apologetic despite the clear knowledge he had nothing to apologize for.
"No A.D.A. likes to start off with a case where your prime suspect suddenly is not a suspect anymore but a pedophile protected by the statues of limitation. Definitely not the best case. And it's not moving anywhere forward. We need to at least catch the bastard who killed Brianna and her baby", her voice went from defeated to exasperated but determined. Cragen smiled compliantly, understanding why the D.A.'s office had nothing but compliments to say about Casey Novak. The woman sure knew how to turn a situation around, regardless of it being one she wasn't familiar with.
"We will", Captain Cragen replied, nodding his head towards the interrogation room where Elliot and Olivia, who had just arrived, were taking the doctor.
Casey gulped in the coffee - more out of politeness than out of desire for caffeine - thanking herself for adding that extra packet of sugar to that bland brown colored water, and followed the captain towards the secluded room from which they would watch the interrogation. He closed the door behind them and turned up the audio so they could hear what was being said on the inside.
"Welcome to SVU, Novak", he declared to her, with a smile.
"There must be some mistake", the doctor announced, sounding incredulous but tired.
"DNA doesn't lie", Olivia replied, her chin locked and her features too appearing to be tired.
"Well, then you have to know that I'm not the father of that dead girl's baby", he said, as if this affirmation made everything crystal clear.
"Doesn't mean you didn't kill her", Elliot said, unmoved by whatever logics the guy seemed to be following.
"Why on earth would I?", he confronted the detective.
"Brianna making all those wild accusations. That could have ruined your practice, broken up your family", Olivia stated matter-of-factly, crossing her arms in front of her body.
"I see what you're doing. You can't get me on murder, so you frame me for this other thing", he said flatly.
"Hey, you, this other thing, is an innocent girl whose childhood you stole", Elliot feverishly altered himself, and by this point was already pointing fingers at the doctor and waving the victim's picture to his face.
"I didn't".
"You know what her biggest fear was before you? Starting the first grade", the detective said in disgust.
"She told her mom that she was ready for big girl clothes, so they drove to the mall in Paramus", Olivia chimed in, her accusing voice tone now mirrowing Elliot's.
"You were lurking in the children's department", Elliot said under his breath.
Casey lowered the speaker's volume and paced in circles inside the small, dark room she was in, her breath coming in shallow waves at each step. It was incredible how utterly contrastive it was to simply know what despicable acts the human being was able to commit and flat out listening to them being described like that. She watched Olivia move around Newlands and wondered how the detective could stand being in the same room with that guy and endure the dreadful task of confronting him with his crime. Nodding her head vehemently she agreed with herself that she could never be a detective.
What she failed to understand was why they persisted asking that vicious guy questions when Brianna's killer was out there - and he was the only one she actually could put behind bars for life, not this one. She thought that with the way things were going Stabler was bound to crash the guy's skull open at any given moment, apart from already being wasting their time on a dead end. "That's the law. This pervert can't be touched. And there's a killer on the loose".
"Detectives, a minute", she called, opening the interrogation room with a worried and questioning look in her eyes, that flickered from Elliot to Olivia.
Olivia was taken aback and incredulously stared at Elliot in hopes that he would do something or at least tell her what the hell was wrong with this new A.D.A., that once again insisted in appearing in the most inconvenient times, demanding and ordering things.
As confused as his partner, Elliot went out the interrogation room alone, wanting to bang the door behind him but abstaining from doing so for obvious reasons. Crossing the small room and closing the door that lead up to the squad, he was almost fuming.
"Where's Cragen?", he questioned her.
"I don't know", she replied casually.
"Then you don't interrupt me when I'm in there with a perp", he blurted out, pointing a finger to her face, "You stand here, watch through this one-way, and see where we are", he yelled.
"Where we are is three months past the 5-year statute of limitations. We can't touch him", she yelled back, eyes glued on his enraged face.
"I know that", he said mockingly, "He's technically not under arrest".
"Why is he in there?".
"He's a person of special interest in a string of other cases", he answered while walking away from her and towards the interrogation room's door.
"Yeah, which ones?", she dared him.
"That's what we're trying to find out", he bursted, growling at her again, this time leaning in closer.
"By the book?", she asked him bluntly, recollecting all the abuse and assault tags on his file as well as the gossips she had heard about how hot tempered he was and how it always ended up in trouble - specially for the A.D.A.s.
"Trust me, that guy in there has a lot of other victims, whose time hasn't run out. We still like him for Brianna", he replied with a slight grin on his face before pointing his finger at her once again and moving towards the door.
Before Elliot could get back to the interrogation the door of the room where they stood was opened. The detective smiled sarcastically before announcing the man who had just arrived.
"A.D.A. Novak, Trevor Langan. I assume you're here to protect your pedophile?".
"Alleged pedophile", he replied, changing his focus to the A.D.A. "And Casey and I go way back".
"To Wall Street. Most of his clients just screw employees out of pension plans", she commented in a sultry voice tone.
Langan gasped and smiled cynically, her reply reminding him how strong headed and tough Casey Novak had always been. His expression dramatically changed to a very serious and bitter one.
"Well, this one didn't screw anyone. If he's not charged, I'll be collecting him", he asserted, opening the interrogation room, "Detective Benson, my client has nothing more to say to you", he called her out.
Elliot sighed and paced back and forth, avoiding looking at Casey and trying to grasp control of himself.
"Not gonna be talking to him again", he remarked to her, clearly wanting her to feel guilty despite the fact she already felt it deep in her guts.
"Did you get anything?", Casey abruptly asked to an aggravated looking Olivia who had just walked out of the interrogation room.
"No, thanks to you", she answered with widened brown eyes focused on Elliot as she walked away on Casey, who stood in the dark room by herself, mind filled with guilt and shattered hopes.