A/N: I know someone commented on their interest in the case as well as the personal relationship. I have attempted to write more detail on the case, but I don't think it's one of my strong suits. The goal of my story was always to develop Amanda and Olivia's relationship, so apologies if the case seems a bit lacking...
The Jamie Stevens case kept the squad busy for the rest of the week. It took two days for them to track down Sean Perry for an interview, as he had been out of state. When the patrol car posted outside his residence called to say he was back, Fin asked the unis to pick him up and bring him down to the one six.
The young man was confused but co-operative, and came willingly to talk to the detectives who wanted to know his whereabouts for the last few days. According to him, he was visiting family in Boston. His claim seemed to be backed up by his train ticket and footage from Grand Central Station showing him leaving early Monday morning.
"So Sean," Rollins started, "how do you know Jamie Stevens?" The blonde detective sat in the chair opposite the nervous young man in the interrogation room. He kept glancing over his shoulder to look at Fin, who loomed against the wall behind Perry.
"Jamie? Um, Sh-she works for the same company that I do." Sean picked at his nails, nervously, not meeting the detective's eyes as he mumbled. "I don't really know her, not well anyway, but she is always really nice to me."
Amanda studied the young man. He wasn't bad looking, a little skinny, and slightly nerdy with his oversized specs and comic book themed t shirt. He seemed a little too meek and mild to fit their perp's profile. Amanda looked behind her at the two-way mirror, where she knew Liv would be stood watching, and cocked her eyebrow briefly before turning back to the sandy haired man.
"What were you doin' at Bar 13 on Sunday night?" She asked him now, mildly surprised when his expression clouded over with something like anger.
"Hmph," he snorted, "wasting my time is what I was doing." He folded is arms across his chest and slouched down in the seat, reminding Amanda of a moody teenager more than anything else.
"What d'ya mean by that?" She asked, curiously.
He huffed again. "I was supposed to meet someone to buy… something," he said hesitantly, his face turning pink. "But they never showed."
Intrigued now, Amanda sat up, leaning forward and looking the kid in the eye, "what were you buying, Sean?" She asked, her voice a low seductive purr.
Outside the room, Liv turned up the speaker of the intercom, listening intently for the answer.
He swallowed audibly, glancing around once more at Fin, who cracked his knuckles, but said nothing. Sean's voice trembled now, "i-it was a comic book. I collect them. I met a guy online that said he had a copy of 'the Amazing Spider-Man #9' and he would sell it to me if I met him there."
Liv let out a sigh of disappointment. This guy was no predator, but they still had to cover their bases. Besides, he may well have seen or heard something they hadn't managed to pick up from the security tapes.
Inside the room, it was all Amanda could do not to roll her eyes. "But this guy never showed?" She confirmed. He shook his head. "So when did you approach Jamie?"
"Her friend, Amy or Andy or something, the one that goes out with Handley," he waved an impatient hand. "She came over to me. Said they were out celebrating Jamie's promotion, and that Jamie liked me, so I should go buy her a drink."
"Amber told you to buy Jamie a drink?" Amanda asked, when he nodded again, she glanced pointedly at her partner before continuing, "so you like Jamie?"
"I mean yeah, what's not to like?" He shrugged, "she's smart, funny, and pretty. To be honest I was surprised when her friend said she liked me. Girls that hot don't tend to go for guys like me, y'know?"
"Carisi," Liv called out to her younger male detective, having picked up that little bit of information about Amber initiating the contact from the seemingly clueless suspect in the interrogation room. "Look closer at the footage from the bar and tell me what you find. I want to know if he approached them or if it was the other way around."
"On it, Lieu," Carisi nodded and hurried to his desk to watch the surveillance video again.
Fin, losing his patience with the young man at the table, pushed off the wall and strode to the table. He slammed his palm down and got in Sean's face, making him flinch. "You and me got a problem playa," Fin snapped, "you were the last person seen with Jamie before she was raped, beaten and left to die in an alley. So tell me why I shouldn't throw your ass in a cell right now!"
"Wh-what?" Sean stuttered, "J-Jamie's dead?" His face showed pure shock.
"No," the older man growled, "lucky for you, or you'd be facing a murder charge as well as rape and assault."
"Hey I didn't rape or assault anybody," Sean said quickly, "Jamie started acting kinda weird, like super drunk, Amber took her to the ladies' room. I waited like twenty minutes and when they didn't come back, I figured they left. So I went home."
Fin and Rollins looked at one another, then back at Sean. "I swear, look I took an Uber from the bar you can check my Uber trip history if you don't believe me." He pushed his phone across the table towards Amanda the Uber app open on the screen.
Just then there came a rapping of knuckles on the glass of the mirror, Benson's signal for the detectives to leave the interview. They made their way out of the room, Amanda bringing Sean's phone with her, into Liv's office.
"He checks out," Liv pointed to the laptop on her desk, that Carisi had just placed there. Rollins and Fin leaned over to watch, the time stamp in the corner read 11.09pm, they saw Amber take out her phone and leave Jamie and Sean talking at the bar, Carisi pressed fast forward, skipping a couple of minutes, Amber came back and Jamie leaned heavily on her friend's shoulder. At 11.12pm the two girls stagger out of frame. Playing ten times faster again they see Sean still sat at the bar drinking his beer at cartoon speeds. When the time stamp showed 11.28pm, Carisi let the video play at normal speed. They saw Sean take out his phone, then leave some money on the bar and walk away.
Amanda looked to the phone still in her hand, checking the history and sure enough, Sean had been picked up at 11.36pm outside Bar 13. "Eight minutes between him leaving the bar and getting picked up outside," Amanda said to the room at large, brandishing the phone. "Not enough time to inflict the damage Jamie sustained. Not to mention, he doesn't have a scratch on him."
She moved over to the window, observing the suspect as he picked at his nails once again. "I can't see him attacking anyone," she added quietly to Liv, who had moved to stand beside the blonde detective, arms folded across her chest, brow furrowed, deep in thought.
"Ask him for a DNA sample, so we can exclude him." Liv said after a moment, she looked sideways at her female detective, doubt in both their expressions. "It's tight, but not an impossible time frame. If he really is innocent, he shouldn't have a problem giving us his DNA."
Amanda sighed and re-entered the interrogation room.
"Hey, is Jamie okay?" Sean asked as soon as she reappeared. "I don't know her all that well but I would never want her to get hurt."
She passed the phone back to the man sat at the table. "She's gonna be alright," she reassured him, "some cuts and bruises, but she'll make a full recovery."
When she asked him about the DNA sample, he was more than happy to give one. She collected a testing kit from the supply closet and a few minutes later, Amanda left the interrogation room, sealing the swab in a plastic evidence bag, removing her latex gloves, and thanking Sean for his time, telling him that he was free to go.
It was nearing 6pm and Liv could see Amanda was getting tired. The lieutenant turned and spoke to the team as a whole. "I think we'll leave it there for today. We can't get much further without the lab results; I just spoke to them and the reports won't be ready until tomorrow lunchtime. Go home, rest up, we'll get back to it tomorrow."
She turned to the younger woman beside her, "c'mon," she nudged Amanda gently with her shoulder, "I'm wiped, so I bet you are too." Amanda nodded in agreement as she rubbed a hand over her tired eyes, "what do you say we call for pizza and let's get home to the 'alarm clock'," Liv grinned. Amanda laughed as she went to collect her belongings from her desk.