"So you guys didn't really...get anything, did you?" Montserrat couldn't help ask Amanda as they walked down the corridor of Riker's. At Murphy's command, the two detectives were supposed to visit Gordon and extract more information on Wilkes.
Amanda's bob of head said exactly what she thought about their undercover job. They hadn't really gotten anything from Wilkes directly, so now they were supposed to get Gordon to talk again. "We tried. Murphy tried."
"Hm…" was all Montserrat had to say.
They stopped at the front desk where they had to sign and relinquish their guns.
"I get that you don't like him, but he is trying to do his job," Amanda leaned against the desk while Montserrat finished writing her last signature.
"Oh, I can't say that I don't like him this early in the game," Montserrat looked up with an expression that read 'But I'm close to saying it'. "I just feel like he needs to sit back and let us show him how we do things. He should be taking notes from Olivia. She's practically a Lieutenant already."
"Well, as long as you don't say it this early," Amanda's light sarcasm made Montserrat roll her eyes.
The two detectives were allowed into the visitor's ward a short moment afterwards. Gordon was brought out and immediately had something to say to them.
"Can you get me into solitary? Everybody's looking at me all the time."
Montserrat so badly wanted to respond with 'Why do you think?' but knew it would hinder their investigation. So, she kept her mouth shut until she had something better to say.
"Might be able to do that, but you gotta stop holding out on us," Amanda was the one to respond. "Your pal Erastes, did he ever talk about actually hurting boys?"
Gordon shook his head. "No, I'm not a part of that, okay? I-I-I just like to watch. He is into things that I would never do."
"Hm, like what?" Montserrat gave him a hard, levelled look warning him he better not lie.
"Well, there was this live-streaming Webcast from Estonia a few months ago. Erastes kept sending messages to the master asking him to hurt the boy...make him bleed. Now, I-I turned it off, but then later, Erastes bragged that he had watched the boy die. And then he said to me that we should find a boy that nobody would miss."
Montserrat exchanged a glance with Amanda. This could be exactly what they were looking for.
"Listen to me very carefully," Amanda leaned forwards, "What was the name of that webcast?"
~0~
Once they had gathered sufficient information from Gordon, Montserrat and Amanda reported back to Murphy about what they learned.
"Gordon told us about a Webcast for something called 'damage groups'", Montserrat said, though the more she explained the more uncomfortable she looked. And that was saying something considering what they worked at. "They take live requests to torture young kids. The darker the skin, the worse they get it. Bruises don't show."
"Okay, any way to access it?"
"It streamed live three months ago," Amanda replied. "And everything's been turned over to interpol."
"That won't help," Murphy turned to the other detectives in the office. "Take over Gordon's chat room accounts. Keep fishing."
The detectives filed out of the office with their new tasks. Though at the end of the day, they really didn't come up with much to work with except for another UC job.
"How about tonight?" Nick was asking the others as they left the precinct.
"Tell me where," Olivia agreed.
"No, I got to head uptown, going to a meeting," Amanda said as she backtracked in the opposite direction.
"Okay. Safe home," Olivia waved her off.
"She's really working her program," Montserrat was happy to see. It wasn't too long ago that Olivia was threatening to transfer Amanda and now here she was doing better than ever.
"Least someone's doing good around here," Nick shrugged, though his attempt at being casual failed miserably.
"Jesus Nick, you could at least pretend to be civil with Murphy," Montserrat turned to him. "You know, like the rest of us do. Right?" she glanced at Sonny, but the detective just shrugged.
"He's alright," his choice of words prompted Olivia to make a 'thank you' motion at him.
"Guys, I think you all just need to give him a chance," Olivia felt tired of having to repeat herself. Everyone just seemed on the plan to hate Murphy.
"You should be C.O. now," Nick said, "He comes in and…"
Olivia was not interested in hearing the same thing again tonight. She guessed why Nick seemed more on edge today. "Maria and Zara are in town, right?"
Nick knew where she was going and shook his head at her. "Yeah. I'm not crossing the line. Maria asked to see me. She got a job offer in California and wants to take Zara with her."
Now it was really easy to understand why and Nick was so on edge.
"And she brought up the idea of me going with them."
"What?" Olivia blinked.
"Yeah, I know. I mean, a month ago, she's calling you, telling me to back off. I do, and then…"
"Are you thinking of going?" Montserrat had to wonder. It wasn't easy separating from your child, much less when that child would be going to the other end of the country.
"My life is here," Nick said without a moment's thought. "I don't want to fight, but Maria's not taking my daughter away from me."
"We're here if you need anything," Sonny said. Nick thanked him and the others. "Hey Montse, Kara just texted me saying you weren't answering her."
"My phone's dead,"Montserrat shrugged.
Sonny gave her a look that indicated how irresponsible that was, but all the ginger did was shrug. She was going home anyways, what was the point?
"She's having dinner with her brother and wants you...and me…there…"
Montserrat gave him an amused look. "You, uh, don't sound so excited about it."
"Having dinner with your girlfriend's brother isn't exactly what I had in mind when I asked her to have dinner with me," he said in a straight face, one that made it incredibly hard not to laugh.
"Damian is nice and you're going unless you want to die by Kara's wrath."
Before Sonny would answer that, he briefly looked to Olivia and Nick. "Now you know who did it if I ever disappear."
Now Montserrat had to laugh. "C'mon!" she grabbed him by the arm. "I wonder what she made for dinner? I hope it's not pasta again. She's the one dating the Italian, not me." Sonny rolled his eyes while Montserrat dragged him away then waved goodbye to the others.
When the two got home, they found Kara in the kitchen, taking something out from the oven. She was dressed in a nice sleeveless, purple jumper. Her hair was pulled into a high ponytail and when she turned around they saw her light make-up.
"Don't you look nice," Montserrat remarked. She began to take off her blazer. "Making me feel underdressed."
"Makes 2," Sonny said rather self-consciously as he fixed the collar of his button shirt.
Kara set down the tray of casserole on the table and smiled. "You guys are fine. It's just a casual dinner."
"It's never casual for me," Sonny said with a frown on his face.
"Jesus, you are so dramatic," Montserrat patted his arm and went straight for the table.
"Ah! Don't touch!" Kara smacked Montserrat's hand away from the food.
It was always the rule: don't touch the food until every guest is there. Lucky for Montserrat, who happened to be starving, Damian arrived only 5 minutes of waiting.
"Oh thank God, sit down!" Montserrat gave Damian a quick hug then yanked him towards the kitchen.
"Hello to you too," Damien said with a laugh. "Guess we're not giving hugs to anyone else?"
Kara stood by the table with her hands on her hips. "Guess not." Her disapproving look on Montserrat didn't faze the ginger at all.
"It's fine. She gets a pass," Damian smiled at Montserrat.
"I do? Why? Just so that I know how to use it when I need it," Montserrat pushed her chair in and signaled Kara and Sonny to do the same.
"Because you're you," Damian looked at her with type of expression that almost made Sonny do a double-take.
Was he seeing right? Was anyone else seeing right?
They started eating together and having conversations. It started with Kara's day which, as it turned out, had been stressful.
"This lady was just so difficult to work with! She asked for a bob and I gave her a bob but then she started saying it wasn't!" Kara huffed angrily. The mere reminder of the frustrating woman made her blood pressure go up. "How do you not see what a bob is!?"
"You want more to drink?" Sonny asked her, making Montserrat and Damian laugh on the side.
Kara pointed but nodded her head. "Yes, please. I really hope I never see her again."
"If you pissed her off that bad then she won't be coming back anytime soon," Damian pointed his glass at her. "Drink up, little sister." Kara all but drowned her glass that Sonny had just filled up.
"Dare I ask how was your day, then?" Damian looked to Montserrat.
"Eh, I don't think you would want to know," Montserrat crossed gazes with Sonny. Wilkes was quite the man and his doings weren't something you'd want to talk about at the table.
"Gloomy, got it," Damian nodded. "I don't know how you guys do it, honestly. Seeing all that stuff…"
"We do it for the victims," Sonny said without a second thought.
"So what do you prefer doing?" Damian asked Montserrat. "Homicide or SVU?"
Montserrat bobbed her head while she thought about it. Each time she did, though, she always came up with the same answer. "SVU. Homicide gave me the luxury of not having to deal with live victims, but SVU gives me the ability to get full justice for victims. They're here to see it be done."
"And I guess you get to talk to them and make them feel better?"
"Well, gotta admit sometimes it feels like there's not a lot of words we can say to make them feel better," Montserrat said with a small sigh. "Though it does get better when they get to hear the guilty verdict."
"But you're there, helping them through the process," Damian gave her a soft smile. "I'm sure you give them a lot of comfort."
Montserrat automatically smiled back. "Thanks."
Whether or not he planned to, Sonny looked over to Kara. He wondered if she saw the same thing he was beginning to, but Kara looked none the wiser. She ate and laughed along with them. But another thing Sonny saw was that Montserrat didn't even appear to notice anything.
Maybe I'm overanalyzing things, he thought after a moment. This was meant to be a dinner, after all. Just a casual night with his girlfriend and friends.
But then Damian pointed out the watch Montserrat was wearing around her wrist -- it'd been his gift for her on her birthday. It was a beautiful Kate Spade watch with light pink crystals over the hour the glass. Sonny, as well as the others back at the precinct, had remarked over the elegant watch when they first noticed it. Montserrat absolutely loved it.
When Damian remarked he'd gotten the watch on a good deal, as a joke of course, Sonny went into shock with his realization.
~0~
Thanks to the latest UC job Murphy conducted, SVU had been been led straight to Wilkes' torture room that turned out to be quite supplied.
"Oh, this is horrendous," Amanda was just one of the people completely stunned by Wilkes' "torture room" and what it consisted of.
Montserrat felt like she wouldn't be able to walk further into the bright, white room for fear that something might snap her ankles. Every part of the room seemed to be part of a torture instrument. Who's to say there wasn't anything on the floor ready to capture their ankles and keep them still?
"Well, that's the view he talked about," Fin stood in front of the small window that gave the perfect view to a school across the street. "Right out onto the school yard."
"Gordon was right," Sonny said with a scowl.
"Luminol every inch. Check all film and storage spaces," Murphy was busy giving orders to the incoming forensics. "Pull up the floors. Knock out the walls."
"This place is pristine," Nick stopped by Murphy and gestured to the cleanliness surrounding them. It could almost sparkle from how clean it was. "He brought boys here?"
"So he scrubbed it clean. He's careful," Murphy moved past him.
"So what does he do with the bodies?" Olivia dreaded to think the more she gazed around the room.
"Open up the drains and test for chemicals," Murphy called to the nearest forensic. "I want a drop of blood, a shard of bone, something, anything."
"Lieutenant," another forensic's walked up with several pictures in hand, "CSU found these hiding behind a fake wall."
Murphy all but snatched the pictures from the woman. He flipped through them in disgust. "Sick son of a bitch. Pick him up, now."
And that was one order none of the detectives minded following.
~ 0 ~
Wilkes had his face buried in his hands, rubbing from his forehead to his chin while he listened to Olivia's and Amanda's findings in the interrogation room.
"It was all fantasy!" he tried arguing for the tenth time since he was brought in. "Nothing happened."
"Nothing?" Olivia gaped at the blight lie being thrown her way. "Found your little…" she scrambled to find the right pictures for him to see in case he'd forgotten he owned a torture room. "We found your room! Photos of boys being tortured in that room? Who are they?"
"What? No, I photoshopped those," Wilkes tried to reach for the pictures but Olivia snatched them from his reach. "I'm an art photographer. I took photos off the lnternet and manipulated the images."
"Yeah, stop lying now," Olivia let the pictures fall back to the table. She felt Amanda's hand on her arm and was overly confused to see her not appearing to be as frustrated as she was.
"Let's hear his side."
Now Olivia was convincing herself she was hearing wrong, but Amanda looked dead serious. "His side?" she repeated, almost tapping her ear so she could see what she was doing. "We have him on tape, negotiating to buy a boy that no one would miss from Mexico, El Salvador." She settled a death glare on Wilkes. "Does that ring a bell?"
"That was just a game-"
"-A game? Do you think it's a game to torture young boys, huh?" Olivia practically slammed her hands on the metal table, creating a loud clang that made Wilkes flinch in his seat. "You like to be in control? Well, guess what, that game's over. New game, my MY rules, not yours." Amanda knew that the closer Olivia got to Wilkes' face, the less willing Wilkes would be to speak without a lawyer but Olivia seemed hellbent on making Wilkes realize his situation.
Outside, on the other side of the glass, were the others watching keenly.
"If she keeps this up, we'll have nothing," Rafael warned Murphy, practically telling the man to pull Olivia out already. He was already on edge from this difficult case considering there was, so far, no concrete evidence except for those pictures.
"I know," Murphy said, his hand already nearing the door. He just wanted to give Olivia a chance to reclaim her control...but it didn't look like it was coming back anytime soon.
She was face to face with Wilkes, spewing out some hard threats. "How about we play this game? You start talking now, or I'm gonna take you back into that room, and I'm gonna strap you into that chair, and I'm gonna slice you open until your blood runs out-"
Murphy flung the interrogation room's door and shouted for Olivia, "Sergeant!"
Olivia basically ignored him and continued with Wilkes. "How about that game?"
"Hey!" called Murphy again.
"I need a minute!"
"Take a break!" Murphy commanded and left no room for arguing, especially in the vicinity of a suspect.
Olivia withdrew from the table and turned away, storming out of the room. At Murphy's second order, Amanda was brought out as well. The blonde might have been a bit pissed Olivia went overwhelmingly head-on with their suspect that now she too was being pulled out of the interrogation.
"I've been here for 15 years. And you've been here for two minutes, and you're pulling me out of an interrogation?" Olivia was right in Murphy's face, much to the surprise of the others.
"You weren't asking him questions. You were yelling at him," snapped Murphy. "You do know the goal is to align yourself with the suspect, not to judge him?"
"Yeah." Olivia released a small breath, probably the way to begin calming down. She crossed glances with the rest of the squad and realized they were all giving her strange, startled looks. She might have gone a little overboard, but had Wilkes not done enough things to provoke it?
"Then what the hell was that?" demanded Murphy.
Olivia wouldn't bother answering because no matter what she said, it wouldn't be right. "I'm going to take that break," she muttered and turned to leave.
"Don't be hard on her, it's not like the guy doesn't deserve it," Montserrat folded her arms over her chest.
"You better not show that type of feeling when you get there," Murphy's subtle order startled Montserrat. She blinked and even pointed at herself, asking if he really meant her. "Go in there and align yourself."
"Are you kidding? I go in there, I cannot guarantee I won't follow in Liv's footsteps."
"I can go back," Amanda volunteered but Murphy shook his head.
"No, I need someone fresh. Someone he hasn't seen yet," Murphy pointed at Montserrat to go. "Amaro, you too."
"Fine, guess we can kill him together," Nick mumbled under his breath, though not as quiet. Still, he didn't look so bothered by the disapproving looks.
"Detectives," Rafael's warning voice stopped the two in front of the door.
"We'll tone it down," Montserrat promised but then mouthed a 'maybe' at Nick. They shared a smile before going into the interrogation room.
It irked Rafael how close those two were acting lately. And he was going to be sticking to the 'irk' description because there was no way in hell he would be admitting to anyone, even himself, that it was more jealousy than annoyance. Just...where did that closeness come from? When -- You need to stop, Rafael berated himself when he realized he was letting his thoughts get to him. He wasn't even paying attention to the interrogation happening in front of him.
The irony is that this was one of the reasons why he told Montserrat they couldn't be together, because their jobs would be affected. If they clashed before, then who knows what could happen if they got together? And yet here they were, not together, and he still couldn't focus on his job. Great.
Inside the interrogation room, Montserrat and Nick weren't exactly getting much from Wilkes. And it was a real struggle to keep trying to bond with Wilkes over his "Photography".
"It's true," Wilkes kept insisting over his photography. "I have images in my head, and I try to re-create them, but it's digital trompe I'oeil. I don't expect you to understand."
"I don't think we do," agreed Montserrat. She sat across Wilkes but, probably like Olivia, she would really like to climb over it and slam Wilkes' head against the table.
"I imagine your jobs-" Wilkes made a gesture at her then Nick, "-often times put images in your head...from everything you've seen. I just get those images...and I watch videos at night...as an outlet."
Nick wanted to scoff but if he did that then his 'bonding' would end there and then. So, he kept it cool. "That's what you're saying this is, a release?"
"Yes, I swear!"
"But you crossed over when you started talking about buying a boy," Montserrat snapped. Her hands on the table started gripping the edge of the table, something Nick caught. "Literally... buying…" she struggled to say the sentence in one go, "...a boy."
"Your guys were talking about that!" Wilkes argued. "There was no boy. There never has been one. I didn't give any money!"
"Yeah, but, Simon, that chamber…" Nick reminded, but Wilkes shook his head and refused it to be true.
"That's...My meditation room. I'm the only one who's been in there. Tear the place apart. You won't find anything."
Montserrat's lips curled into a humorless smile. "It's a meditation room," she repeated sourly. "Sure."
The door flung open to let in a woman who made a beeline for Wilkes' side. "Mr. Wilkes, I'm Minonna Efron. Your wife's waiting right outside. She's retained me as your attorney. Detectives-" the woman gave Montserrat and Nick a look, "-give us the room."
Montserrat figured it was better to give space before she lashed too. She left the room first and glared directly at Murphy. "Cannot believe we had to bond with that guy."
"Nothing you haven't done before," Murphy said. "It's called doing your job."
"Hey, I've got two kids," Nick reminded. "A ten-year-old son. I want him gone."
And for that, Montserrat turned to Rafael. "Get him gone."
Suddenly Rafael's irkness - that was not jealousy - disappeared. There was a certain feeling that usually came when Montserrat laid her absolute faith in his prosecuting abilities. "I'm going to need evidence," he warned, but Montserrat didn't care. She needed to see Wilkes behind bars.
"I'll get it done," she promised and took off.
~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~
Author's Note:
Angst is coming guys... it's coming :)