Four hours later they had Amber and Jason sat in separate interrogation rooms at the precinct. Liv had put a call in to Barba, who was happy to get a court order for Handley's DNA based on the ATM footage. The swab was taken when he first arrived at the station, but it didn't seem to rattle him. They were now awaiting the results to see if it was a match to the rape kit.
Carisi and Fin had been talking to Jason on and off for the last few hours, trying to get him onside with a 'good old boy' routine, not wanting to rile him up too much and make him lawyer up.
Benson and Rollins had also been treading softly with Amber, trying to avoid her shutting down, as a result they had made very little progress. So much of their case was circumstantial that short of a confession, it was unlikely that they would even take it to trial.
The detectives regrouped in Liv's office to discuss next steps, Barba joining them.
"Let's swap," Amanda said immediately. "He is clearly a misogynist, I think if Liv and I can provoke him, he will slip up."
Liv nodded her agreement. "You're right, and I think a little fear might help roll Amber."
"Fin," Barba began, turning to the older male detective, "tell her we already have the DNA results and that we know Handley is guilty. Tell her she is going down for facilitating a rape, but if she cooperates and gives him up, we might be able to help her."
Fin looked at Liv for confirmation, and she nodded again. The team split up, this time the guys heading for the room with Amber inside, while the ladies headed for Jason's interrogation room. Barba moved to stand in front of the two-way mirror outside the latter, flipping the speaker on so he could listen to Benson and Rollins work.
They entered the room and Handley immediately looked suspicious as he eyed the newcomers. Amanda took a seat at the table across from their suspect, but Olivia opted to stay on her feet, strolling casually around the table to stand behind Handley, out of his field of vision, with her hands in her pockets.
"So, Mr Handley," Amanda started with a friendly tone, as Liv began to pace silently behind the man sitting at the table. "I know you have been talking to my colleagues about the events of Sunday night, but I was wondering if you could walk me through it?" she smiled coyly, a slightly flirtatious tilt to her head. She was playing the ditzy blonde angle, lulling him into thinking she was a little slow.
Handley considered the blonde before him. Amanda had to suppress a shudder as she felt his gaze sweep over the parts of her body he could see, a predatory glint in his cold grey eyes. "Look, sweetheart," he sighed, crossing his arms over his chest in an impatient gesture, "I've been here for hours. I've already told the two detectives everything I know, now, how 'bout you let me speak to the guy in charge around here?"
"You want to speak to Lieutenant Benson?" Rollins asked, feigning confusion at the simple request.
Handley rolled his eyes at her apparent inability to keep up. "Right, where is he?" Clearly the man had not deigned to pay attention when Liv had introduced herself earlier at the man's office.
Olivia came up silently behind the young man, leaning low she spoke into his ear. "That would be me." She said in a firm voice, making Handley flinch from her proximity. "So, why don't you tell my detective and I where you were between 10pm and midnight on Sunday?"
"As I explained earlier, I was at my parents' house in Lennox Hill." His tone was bored, and he rolled his eyes at the repetitive questions.
"You called your girlfriend just after 11pm," Amanda showed him the print out of his call log, "What did you two talk about?"
"I was saying goodnight," he sighed again, a bite to his tone now, "I decided to stay at my folks' place because it was late, I was tired. May I ask why any of this is relevant?"
"We'll get to that in a moment," Liv brushed off his question, as she rounded the table behind Amanda, "but you're saying you didn't leave your parents' house that night, you were nowhere near Bar 13?"
"No, you can ask them, I was there all night." He scowled at the lieutenant.
Amanda, deciding to have some fun with the arrogant son of a bitch in front of her, switched tactics. She picked up the case file from the table and pretended to point something out to Liv. "See, Lieutenant, this is what I was telling you about earlier, 'victim shows several external injuries, contusions and abrasions consistent with violent assault, however, little to no internal injuries were present'. Clearly whoever attacked Jamie wasn't packin' much down there." She smirked with an exaggerated drawl, as Liv feigned a giggle.
This, of course, wasn't true. Poor Jamie had some serious vaginal bruising and tearing, but Amanda knew that insulting Handley's manhood was a sure-fire way to rile him up. If he got angry, he would lose focus, and if he was unfocused, he would slip up in his story.
They both saw Jason's jaw clench in their peripheral vision, and he shifted slightly in his chair. Liv gave the blonde a shadow of a wink as they continued. "Yeah, I don't think he's packin' much up here either," the lieutenant tapped her temple with her forefinger as she circled behind him once more. "Did you read the next part? 'semen present in the vagina and in the underwear'. The guy is practically begging for us to find him."
This time they saw his lips twitch as he fought to keep the smile from his face. It looked like Liv's hunch was right, he figured that no sperm equalled no DNA, and was now silently congratulating himself on his genius.
"The problem we have is that there was no sperm in the semen sample," Liv continued, her tone resembling that of a kindergarten teacher, trying to explain that one plus one is two. "So that means no DNA, right?" she asked Amanda, setting her up to deliver the blow.
"Oh, you might think that," Rollins smiled sweetly. "but forensic science really has come a long way. They can get DNA from skin cells in the semen sample."
The subtle gloat vanished from Handley's face as she spoke, a flicker of fear in his cold eyes as he realised the truth.
"So, Mr Handley, you very kindly volunteered a DNA swab when you came in today, and our crime lab has pulled a DNA profile from the semen found in Jamie Stevens' rape kit." Amanda sat back in her chair crossing her arms with a smug smile on her face. "What do you think the likelihood is that they match?"
Handley swallowed hard, he knew he had messed up, but he wasn't going down without a fight. "You're lying." He spat, "you're just trying to get me to confess to something I didn't do." He was trying to sound tough, but there was a distinct waver in his voice.
"Of course we're not," Liv scoffed, sitting on the edge of the table next to Handley, looking down at him with contempt. "Even if we were, that's not all the evidence we have." She began to tick off on her fingers. "We've got you placing a call on your cell phone from somewhere you said you weren't. We've got you on a surveillance tape, entering the alley where Jamie was attacked, and we have your girlfriend, Amber." Liv leaned in close and whispered the kicker, "who, by the way, is in the next room telling my detectives how you orchestrated the whole thing."
Without warning, Jason let out a roar and launched himself to his feet. Time seemed to slow and Amanda watched in horror as he seized Liv by the throat, slamming her back into the nearest wall. Amanda heard the breath leave the older woman's body in a whoosh. Olivia was too stunned to react at first, but then her fingernails scrabbled uselessly at the back of his hands, gasping for air as she tried desperately to pull them off, but he was too strong.
Amanda reacted without thinking, jumping up from the table she side-tackled Handley, her shoulder landing squarely in his ribs, knocking the wind out of him and shoving him sideways away from Olivia. He landed hard on the floor with a grunt of pain, Amanda on top of him. She quickly righted herself and, while he was still stunned, she managed to pin her knee into his lower back, yank his wrists together and cuff him just as the door burst open. Fin and Carisi charged in, Fin pulled Handley roughly to his feet, slamming him into the wall, while Sonny helped Amanda up.
"Rollins, you okay?" he asked her, a worried look on his face, as he grasped her shoulders, bending to try and make eye contact with the petite blonde.
"I'm fine," she muttered distractedly, not really paying attention to the Italian detective. She could hear Liv coughing and wanted to make sure she was alright. She shrugged out of Carisi's hold and dodged around him, hurrying over to where the lieutenant still leaned against the wall, bent double, one hand at her own throat, the other on her knee supporting her weight. Her breathing was laboured and she kept coughing as though trying to clear an obstruction from her throat. "Liv are you alright?" Amanda asked quickly, "here, lemme see."
Amanda approached the brunette, and took her arms gently, helping her to stand upright. She pulled the hand away from Olivia's throat to reveal angry red marks on the soft olive skin of her neck. Amanda stroked over them with a featherlight touch of her fingertips, but even that light touch caused the brunette to wince, her face scrunched in pain.
Amanda's face hardened into an angry scowl she turned to face Fin who still held Handley by the scruff of the neck. "Fin, Carisi, get this bastard outta my sight and down to arraignment."
Barba stood in the doorway watching the scene unfold. "Arrest him on the charges of rape, attempted murder and assaulting a police officer."