Just as Fin pulled the crown vic up outside the sixteenth precinct, Amanda felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. It was almost 6.30am now, and the only people she knew that would be up this early were her colleagues. Sure enough, looking at the screen, she had one new message from Lt. Benson. As she entered the elevator, she unlocked the phone to read the message.
Amanda, please call me as soon as you get this message. Liv x
She was instantly worried that something was wrong with Noah or Frannie, but didn't want to alert her partner to the fact she had been staying with their boss. As soon as the elevator opened on their floor, she muttered to Fin that she would be right back, then made a dash for the stairs up to the cribs, already dialling Olivia's number.
Liv answered just as Amanda shut the door to the cribs behind her.
"Benson." Came the curt greeting.
"Liv, it's me," Amanda said quickly. "What's wrong? Are you okay? Noah? Frannie?"
"We're all fine." Liv replied.
"Then what's with the urgent message?" Amanda breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought one of you must be hurt, or sick or something, you had me worried."
"Back atcha, Rollins," Liv said, "Fin told me you were attacked, are you okay?"
Pulling her phone away from her ear, Amanda cursed her partner under her breath, "what the fuck Fin? Not cool, man." Then she replied to Liv. "I'm absolutely fine. I just hit the wall and got the wind knocked outta me. Didn't even hit my head."
She loved that Olivia was so concerned about her, but at the same time it frustrated her that this woman only seemed to see the weak side of her character these days. She was starting to worry that Liv thought her completely incompetent.
"Do I need to come down there?" Liv was asking now.
"No!" Amanda exclaimed, then cleared her throat. "I mean, uh, no." She corrected in a calmer voice. "Honestly Liv, I'm fine. Make the most of your time with Noah, Fin and I have got this handled. It's pretty cut and dry to be honest. The victim's statement is enough to compel a DNA sample, and that combined with my experience with the perp should be plenty to get an indictment. Although Barba may have to plead him out. He's a schizophrenic, so his attorney is gonna go straight for an insanity defence."
"As long as he's off the street I don't care if he's in prison or a psychiatric facility, but he is a danger to society." Olivia said with an authoritative tone that sent a shiver down Amanda's spine.
"Mmm-hmm," the blonde agreed, then cleared her throat. "Anyway, I better go, Liv, Fin is waiting for me so we can interrogate this guy. He hasn't invoked yet, so we're gonna take a crack at him."
"Keep him restrained," the brunette advised, "just in case. I don't want you thrown into anymore walls!"
"Will do, Lieutenant," Amanda replied, rolling her eyes. "See you later, say hi to Noah from me."
She hung up, and headed back downstairs. Punching Fin on the arm as she passed by his desk she said, "What did you have to go and rat me out to Benson for, huh?"
"I just told her what happened," he said defensively, rubbing his arm where she'd hit him. She'd have found out from the reports anyway, it's better to be honest and upfront with Liv, she hates surprises."
"Noted," Amanda said, grumpily. She turned to a pair of uniforms instructing them to move Turner into interrogation one, and to cuff him to the table.
When Fin looked questioningly at her, she shrugged, "Liv's idea. Wouldn't want it getting back to her that I went against her advice now, would I?" She gave her partner a mock glower. He just rolled his eyes at her, shoving her playfully.
They left Cole to sweat for a while in the box, while Amanda wrote her report on the interview with Phoebe Turner, and Fin searched for some background information on their perp and rang the victim's family to inform them where she was.
After an hour or so, Fin got his partner's attention by tossing a balled-up bit of paper across the pair of desks they shared, it bounced once and hit her right forearm where it rested on the desk, before falling to the floor. "Come on, Rollins," he sighed, standing and moving towards the door of the interrogation room. "Let's get a confession outta this dirtbag so we can try and salvage what's left of our weekend."
Amanda gave him a quick nod. She stood, grabbing the file from her desk. She wondered briefly what Olivia and Noah would be up to right now. It was still fairly early, but Noah was probably already up causing trouble with his canine sidekick. She smiled to herself as she imagined Liv trying to wrangle the pair of them long enough to get Noah to eat some breakfast.
Fin gave her an odd look as she passed him, walking into the interrogation room but said nothing. When they were both in the room and the door closed, Fin stood back against the wall just inside the door, whereas Amanda approached the table, taking a seat opposite the black-haired man who was currently sat muttering to himself.
They went at him for almost half an hour, but they got nothing from him. He didn't seem able to comprehend their questions, just kept muttering about demons and not going back.
Giving up, the two detectives left the room, Amanda running her hand through her hair in frustration. She turned to her partner, "I think we need a psych eval on this guy. Can we put him on a 24-hour psych hold until we can get him medicated or talking to a shrink?"
"I'll call Barba," Fin said looking at his watch. "'Bout time his lazy lawyer ass did some work. I'll see if he can get a judge to sort out a 51-50 psych hold, should be pretty easy, this guy clearly fits the criteria."
They watched as two uniforms took Turner from the interrogation room and returned him to his holding cell. The guy looked strung out, still muttering to himself.
It was a difficult situation, the man clearly was not in full control of his mental faculties, but Amanda remembered the broken and bruised body of his wife, laying shrunken in a hospital bed. She shook her head to herself, maybe this case isn't so cut and dry as we thought.
Fin made the call and within the hour they had Cole Turner transferred to Bellevue prison ward for a mandatory 72-hour psych hold. Barba had managed to get in touch with Judge Barth, who, upon hearing what had happened, immediately signed off on the 51-50.
Knowing there was nothing more they could do until they had the man evaluated, they called it a day and headed home. "I'll call Liv and give her an update," Fin said, reaching into his pocket for his cell phone as they headed for the elevator.
"No need," Amanda said without thinking as she reached for the elevator call button. "I'll just tell her what happened when I get h— there." She managed to catch herself at the last second, having almost said 'when I get home.' It surprised her to realise how quickly she had come to think of her lieutenant's apartment as home. She looked up to see Fin giving her a suspicious look.
"You headed to Liv's now?" He asked as they stepped into the elevator car. He pushed the button for the first floor then turned back to the blonde. "When did you two start hangin' together?"
Amanda had to think quickly. "She, uh, she's lookin' after Frannie for me." She said, "When she called earlier to see if I was okay, she volunteered to pick her up, 'cause I didn't know how long we'd be."
"Hmmmm." Fin still looked suspicious, but then he shrugged and didn't say anything more on the subject. As they left the building, he headed to his car which was parked right outside. "You need a ride, Rollins?"
Amanda was intending to drive her truck, which was still in the car park around back from Friday night. If she told Fin, that would lead to more awkward questions. Instead, she simply answered, "Nah, I'm good, thanks man. I'm just gonna hop the subway. With Sunday traffic, it'll probably be quicker anyway." She winked and laughed at the scowl on the older man's face.
"Fair point," he grouched, "well, I'll catch you tomorrow then, partner. Enjoy the rest of your weekend."
"Yeah, you too, Fin." Amanda smiled and waved, watching him drive down the road and around the corner, then headed round back to her truck.
She didn't like lying to her partner, but it was embarrassing enough that Liv knew about her situation, without the rest of the squad finding out. And Liv didn't even know the whole of it. Amanda stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets, resting over her belly as she walked, lost in her own thoughts. She was preoccupied the whole way back to Olivia's place thinking about her next move.