Chapter 6: Fear and Loathing in The Big Apple

Dorm Room of Mia Harris and Rachel Henton
Hudson University
The Next Morning
7:30 AM

Deliberately hoping to catch Mia Harris off guard for a second impromptu interview, Captain Benson and Detective Stabler arrived at her Hudson University dormitory as soon as campus security opened the front doors for the day.

The first floor of the women's dorm building was a veritable ghost town at this earlier morning hour with its hallways essentially being completely empty.

Stabler knocked loudly on the door of the room Mia shared with her fairly new roommate, Rachel Henton. He was dressed in a plain gray long-sleeved cotton shirt, gray slacks, and gray running shoes.

"Who is it?" an addled female voice said from the other side of the door.

"Mia Harris?" Stabler inquired.

"Yes," Mia replied from behind the closed door.

Benson, now dressed in a dark blue blouse, blue slacks, and black loafers, took her cue to chime in. "Mia," she said, "It's Captain Benson and Detective Stabler from the NYPD. Can you open the door, please?"

The door came open slowly, revealing Mia standing there with her distinctive red hair in a very unkempt state and wearing nothing but a white sports bra and black athletic shorts.

Stabler managed a nervous smile at the sight of the disarrayed young lady. "Did we catch you at a bad time?"

Mia sighed in retort. "I just woke up, Detective" she said, "What do you guys want?"

"First and foremost," Benson replied, "Can we come in for a minute?"

A now acquiescent Mia pulled the door open even further and gestured for them to enter. The 2 officers did so, at which point Mia's roommate promptly got up from her bed and collected her shower supplies.

"Is everything okay, Mia?" Rachel Henton asked. Mia's roommate was an athletically built, long-haired brunette 19-year-old white Hudson freshman with stunning green eyes.

"Yeah," Mia told her, "They're just here to talk to me about jumping the subway turnstile last week."

Catching on, Benson nodded. "That's right," she said to Mia, "The Transit Police aren't too happy with you right now, Mia."

Rachel shrugged before picking up her portable shower basket. "Whatever," she said, "I'm going down the hall to take a shower. I'll see you later." The evidently very uppity young freshman then left the room, shutting the door behind her.

Stabler and Benson then looked back at Mia. "So," Stabler said to her, "Let's address the elephant in the room first. What's with that little fib?"

Mia sighed. "Rachel doesn't know anything about what happened to me in the past," she forthrightly replied, "That was my not-so-easy attempt at trying to keep it that way."

Benson nodded. "We get it," she said, "And we know that you've talked with our colleagues Sergeant Tutuola and Detective Slootmaekers already..."

"Yeah," Mia interjected, "That was a nice ploy showing up at the school like that. Thanks a lot."

"It wasn't intended to be a ploy, Mia" Stabler said, "We're just here to clarify a few more things."

"Like what?" Mia asked.

"Well," Benson replied, "For one thing, you told them that you were concerned about how Enzo Ricci was treating Perry Gilbert, that he was controlling."

"Right," Mia said.

"The thing is though, Mia" Stabler added, "If a potentially abusive relationship had been going on between them, there would be some signs, even if Perry was too scared to officially file a report on him.

Mia noticeably bit her lip uncomfortably, knowing that whatever amount of confidence she once had in her prior falsification was starting to crumble.

"My point being," Stabler continued, "Is that there hasn't been any record of the Fifteenth Precinct sending any officers out to their apartment on any domestic disturbance calls. Not at any point during the two-month period that they've been living together."

Mia sighed and closed her eyes for a minute in response. "I'm sorry," she said in a very sheepish tone, "I just don't like the guy."

A now frustrated Stabler scoffed. "I know better than anybody not to speak for Captain Benson over here," he replied, "But I think we both can agree that it doesn't matter if he slashed your tires and set your grandmother's couch on fire."

"Yeah," Benson added, "You shouldn't point fingers at someone like that, let alone paint him as a domestic violence suspect to the police."

"Are you going to arrest me?" Mia asked.

"Unlike you," Stabler replied, "I'm not going to lie. There's a part of me that wants to cuff you, read you your Miranda rights, and haul you out of here."

"But" Benson interjected, "There is a way we can avoid that. Just tell us where you were when Enzo was attacked."

"At my boyfriend's house," Mia explained, "We went on a date earlier that evening and I didn't feel like taking the train or paying for an Uber back all the way back here from Brooklyn, so I stayed over at his place."

"Okay," Benson said, "What's your boyfriend's name?"

"Steven Zhang," Mia replied, "He lives on Windsor Place, near Prospect Park."

15th Precinct
8:30 AM

An hour later, Lieutenant Dani Beck was assisting a pair of patrol officers with escorting a young, strung-out white man into the precinct. This gentleman had been known to the 15th precinct for some time due to his terrible habit of skipping out on his court dates.

"How many times do we have to tell you, Lloyd?" Beck asked the suspect, "If you want half the cops in Manhattan to stay off your back, you're going to have to work harder to make your damn court dates."

Lloyd, a 29-year-old who looked to be in his mid-60's thanks to years of heavy methamphetamine abuse, hung his head in a pitiful attempt at feigning shame. "Sorry Dani," he muttered as the lieutenant and the officers continued walking him inside to be processed.

Beck stood aside and observed as the 2 young male patrolmen began formally booking Lloyd. Sergeant Quincy Ming then entered the room and came over to his lieutenant's side.

"Hey Lieutenant," Ming said, "Sorry to interrupt, but there's a young lady waiting to talk to you in the lobby."

"Who is she?" Beck asked.

"Her name is Perry Gilbert," Ming replied, "She showed a valid ID and everything."

Though she was surprised that Perry made the effort to show up, Beck nodded. "Okay," she said, "Escort her to our interview room and I'll be there in a minute. I'll give Stabler a call and have him come down."

"Yes ma'am," Ming said.

About 15 minutes later, Detective Stabler entered the interview room to find Beck already talking to Perry, with Sergeant Ming and Detective Tamin in the Observation Room watching from the opposite side of the two-way mirror that was mounted on the farther right side of the room.

21-year-old Perry Gilbert was a short dark-haired, blue-eyed young white woman. She was dressed in a black hooded jacket, a white cotton tank top underneath, black wind pants, and white running shoes with white stripes on the sides.

"Hello Perry," Stabler said as he sat down on the opposite side of the table beside Beck, "I'm Detective Elliot Stabler, and I believe you've already met Lieutenant Beck."

Perry nodded. "I have, yes" she replied in a deadpan tone, "You're the officers who showed up at my mom and stepfather's house this morning. I want to apologize for how they treated you. Ever since what happened when I was young, they've been very overly protective of me."

Beck held her hands up in retort. "That's quite alright, Perry" she said, "The question is, is there something they should be protecting you from?"

Perry blinked, as if she was pondering the question. "I suppose that the two of you are curious as to where I was when Enzo got attacked", she said.

"Actually," Stabler replied, "No, we aren't. Two of our colleagues have already confirmed that you were covering a shift for a sick coworker at the Park Milano Hotel, so for the sake of full transparency, we aren't considering you a suspect for the time being."

Perry nodded. "Well," she said, "That's refreshing, considering that so many other people in this city have been complaining that the NYPD is usually so lacking in transparency these days."

Beck mustered a bit of nervous laughter in return. "Very true," she said, "I do want to say one thing though, Perry. You really don't seem to act like someone who's boyfriend is in the hospital."

"On the contrary, Lieutenant" Perry replied, "I was just at the hospital with Enzo for over an hour. You can feel free to call and ask."

"I see," Beck said, "And how's he holding up, if I may ask?"

"The nurses have got him up and around with the help of a walker," Perry explained, "It's been painful for him so far, but he's putting on a brave face."

"That's good to hear," Stabler said, "There is one more loose end that we'd like to have tied up, then you can get out of here if you want."

Perry shrugged her shoulders. "Shoot," she replied.

"Why didn't you stick around after you found out Enzo had been stabbed?" Stabler asked.

"Fair enough question," Perry said, "And I know that to you two, it seems cold, but I knew that I would be one of the first people you'd want to track down, and I didn't feel like answering a hundred questions, so I took the day off from work and headed to Prince's Bay for a bit to collect my thoughts. The whole reason that I'm sitting here right now is because I do want to set things straight."

"And we appreciate your candor," Beck replied.

3 knocks then came at the Interview Room door, at which point Stabler excused himself and opened the door slightly to find that Desk Sergeant Dan Carver was at the door. Sergeant Carver was a bald African American man of medium height in his mid-50's, dressed in his NYPD uniform attire.

"Sorry for the interruption, Detective" Carver said softly but with a sense of urgency in his voice, "But I need to speak to the lieutenant."

Overhearing what Carver had just said, Beck excused herself as well and stood up from the table. "What's going on, Sergeant?" she inquired.

"Ma'am," Carver replied, "We have a problem. Central just patched a call through to my desk. One of Enzo Ricci's nurses is on the line from Presbyterian Hospital. She says there's an unauthorized visitor on their unit looking to find Mister Ricci."

"Okay," Beck said before looking to the two-way mirror. Ming and Tamin hurried back out into the squad room accordingly. "Stay with Perry," she whispered to Stabler before hurriedly walking out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

"Sergeant," Beck said to Carver as she walked with him, Ming and Tamin back towards her office, "I want you to call the Thirty-Third Precinct and tell them to send two units to New York Presbyterian right away."

"You got it," Carver said.

"What line was that call on?" Beck asked him.

"Two, ma'am" Carver said before hurrying back towards his desk.

Beck then looked to Ming and Tamin. "I want you guys to haul ass over there now and meet up with those blue-and-whites," she said to them, "Lock that hospital down if you need to. If this person is looking to finish the job they started yesterday morning, it goes without saying that we need to keep Enzo safe."

"Got it," Tamin said, "I'll loop in Benson and the others by phone on the way."

Ming nodded. "I guess I'm driving, then" he said before the two of them headed out.

Beck, meanwhile, entered her office and picked up her desk phone, pressing the appropriate extension button for the call that was on hold.

"Hello," Beck said into the phone, "This is Lieutenant Beck. What's your name, miss? Rhonda? Okay, Rhonda? I have two uniformed officers and two detectives on their way to your hospital now. I'd like you to keep things like it's business as usual for now but try to keep as close of an eye as possible on this unknown person for now."