Part One - Long Road Home
Okay, here is the first part of my new story.
Thank You all so much for the comments and keep them coming.
I hope you like this, but please, i take critisim well.
Long Road Home
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Part One
~Four Months Earlier~
The bullpen was crowded, and Olivia had to push past a few people, her coffee held high over her head so she could reach her desk without spilling it.
With a sense of relief, she sat down in her chair, detectives and uniforms walking all around her, the tension level in the office was on high, but the detective found it freeing to have two square meters of her own space.
Her coffee was bitter and almost cold by the time she took a sip, and the minute she did, closing her eyes at the caffeine running through her system, it was plucked out of her hand.
Opening her eyes, Olivia couldn’t help but smile at the scene in front of her. Alexandra Cabot stood before her, a stern look on her face, although the slight grin edging the corners of her lips gave away her amusement.
“How many cups have you had today?” the blonde ADA asked a twinkle in her eye.
With a grin, Olivia stood, and plucked the cup back from the attorney, and leaned in, so that her face was just a few centimeters from hers, “Probably as many as you’ve had Miss Alexandra.”
Alex grinned at the new pet name, and leaned in the rest of the distance to kiss those full lips, “Good call, Liv. Now tell me, any progress, Liz is on my ass for an update.”
Olivia looked around the bullpen, and spotted Elliot chatting with Detective Goren from the Major Cases squad about twenty feet away. A look between them had him making his way over, and he smiled at Alex in greeting. “Something wrong?” he asked his partner.
“No. Our wonderful ADA is looking for an update; I was wondering if you knew where the captain was.”
Elliot shook his head, “Cap left a few minutes ago. He’s taking this pretty hard, his wife was a flight attendant, apparently he knew the last Vic.”
Alex shook her head, closing her eyes and sending her sympathy out to a man who had been like a father figure to her since she joined the squad. “No more Vics? Apparently the media is playing this up, and using it to take the mickey out of the Police force. That journo, McGuire has a problem with SVU now, since I told him I was seeing someone from the squad,” she grinned at Olivia, “He thinks it’s Fin.”
Olivia chuckled, “Well, if the Cap’s gone, is Captain Deakins coming over to run this thing?” she asked, looking over to where Goren now stood talking to his partner.
Elliot shook his head, “Well apparently, Liv, Captain left you in charge.”
Her eyes widening, she looked around the crowded room and noticed that more than a few of the detectives were watching her, waiting for something. “What? Why would he leave me in charge?”
Her partner just shrugged his shoulders, taking the cup of coffee still in her hands and taking a sip, then screwing his nose up at the taste. “I guess you’ll need an update, then you’ll need to assign something to these guys.”
Olivia just nodded, and next thing she knew, Alex was leading her into Cragen’s office, Elliot following with Fin, Munch, Goren, Eames and Captain of the Narc squad behind him.
The door was closed, and Alex led her over to take a seat at Cragen’s desk, and she squirmed at the feeling it brought her. “Okay. Tell me what you know,” she said a false confidence in her voice.
Goren was the first to speak, pacing slightly at the closed office door. “Eames and I went out to the Airport, apparently they are canceling flights all round because their female flight attendants are refusing to come into work. Turns out, the last three were all killed after flights from LAX into JFK, all were Captained by a guy named,” he pulled a note pad from his pocket, but Eames spoke before he had the chance.
“Gary Goldman. Forty-Six years old, been a Pilot for going on seventeen years. We went to talk to him, but he’s called in sick the last two days. We sent some unis over to his place on the corner of West 104th and Manhattan, nobody home. Neighbors say he hasn’t been home for a couple of days at least.”
Olivia nodded, furrowing her eyebrows slightly at the new information. “Could just be a coincidence, but check it out. Have someone pull his cell phone records, and get some unis watching that apartment. Find which bank he uses and have someone go and talk to them. Put a trace out on his Credit card and check his records to pinpoint any suspicious behavior. Someone might have paid him just for information. Besides all that, I want to have a talk to this guy.”
Eames and Goren looked at each other, and then Eames nodded, walking out of the office, leaving Goren to get further instructions.
“Anything else?” she asked Goren in particular.
He stepped forward, raising his hands, “The guy we talked to has been a flight attendant for going on ten years, he mentioned that he wanted to be a pilot, but has failed to get his license on a few occasions. I checked out our Vics, all five of them had recently been taking classes to get their pilot’s licenses. Maybe we’re looking at a sexist here, someone who thinks women shouldn’t be flying planes, someone who’s sees women as property, and not as people who excel at things.”
“This guy you talked to, get him in here for a talking to, it’s doubtful, but he may be our guy. Also, see if you can get a list from these classes, we might just have a hit list, or maybe our guy is taking these classes too. At least it’s one theory.”
Goren nodded, and he too exited the room and closed the door behind him.
“Okay. What about everyone else?”
Feeling more comfortable, she leant back in the chair and saw a grin make its way onto Alex’s lips at the movement.
Fin stepped forward, setting a single piece of paper down in front of her. It was a drawn picture of a man with light hair nearly covering his eyes and a square-set jaw. “The witness that saw a guy running into the building just before the last body was discovered; she spent an hour with the sketch artist this morning. She said that it’s almost perfect. I’ve faxed it out to all the precincts, just asked everyone to keep an eye out. If anything, we might have a witness or someone who knows something.”
With a nod, she asked the room at large, “Anything from Warner?”
Elliot shook his head, “Rape kit on the last victim isn’t back yet. She said there are fluids, but she’s not sure if there was enough for DNA. This guy has been careful with the others, there’s not much hope.”
“What about from the lab?”
It was Mark Jackson, Captain of the Narc squad who answered this time. “I’ve got my guys testing the clothing of the last Vic. I’m expecting traces of Heroin like the other victims. Although we’re still not sure how this guy is getting so much on these girls, I’ve got a couple of my under-cover guys keeping their ears open. Could be, this guy is a smuggler trying to become a pilot. Pilots don’t go through customs, easiest way to sneak in drugs. He might be working for a dealer; we just can’t figure it out, all we know is that the amount of Heroin on these girls’ clothes indicates that it’s not just rubbing off on them.”
“Just let me know when the Lab results get in, we’ll go from there.”
Mark nodded, glancing briefly at Alex before exiting the room, back out into the see of officers.
“See if we can get the boyfriend of the last victim in here, ask him a few things about where she hung out, who her friends were, see if she was affected by the deaths of the other four. At the moment, this guy isn’t gonna stop, and we’ve got nothing. Munch, can you get on that?”
He nodded, giving her a wink before leaving.
“Okay. Now Fin, you know the drug world, right?” he nodded, “Okay, can you explain to me how most smugglers get through customs, especially after security was bulked up after 9/11. How do they get drugs into the country?”
“Usually, if the drugs are coming from poor countries, a lot of people over there will do anything for a bit of cash, and a free ticket to America. Sellers over there hire the mules and usually using the fingers of latex gloves, fill them with heroin, have the mule swallow it or… well, you get the picture. Border Security can’t conduct a cavity search on everyone who comes into the country.”
“Is that specific to Heroin?” she asked, her interest peaking.
“Any powdered drug really. Heroin can be hidden in anything, the DEA recently found heroin hidden inside lollipops coming from somewhere in Asia. They haven’t arrested anyone yet.”
Olivia scowled. This case was getting more and more complicated by the minute. It was one thing to have to include Major Cases and Narcotics in their investigation, but now, they might have to call in the DEA as well. It was too much.
“Do you know anyone in the DEA?” she asked.
“I have a couple of friends over there, yeah.”
“If this gets as complicated as it seems to be, if we cross the boundaries from drug dealing, to drug smuggling, then we’re going to have to let the DEA know. It’s not something I’m looking forward to handling. Do you think you could give them a call, ask someone to come down and have a chat to me?”
Fin smiled, “Anything you want Captain,” and he too, walked back into the bull pen.
Elliot smiled at her, and Alex lay a hand on her shoulder, “Liv, you handled that with more class than I have,” said the blonde.
Olivia let out a deep breath and smiled. She couldn’t help it, she knew, that the instruction she’d just given were just as good as Cragen would have done, and that made her proud. “Well, now here comes the hard part. Alex, do you think you could possibly set up a press conference, I want to issue a statement to the public about opening a tips hotline, and put this,” she motioned to the sketch, “to the people. We might get lucky. Also, I’ll need someone on setting-up the tip line, and we’ll get some of those guys out there to handle the calls.”
Alex leant down and kissed her on the forehead, “Leave the press conference and the hotline to me. Meet me at my office in an hour; I’ll walk you through it.”
With that, Alex left Olivia and Elliot alone in the room, looking at each other. “This is exhausting.”
Elliot grinned, “Congratulations, Liv. I’ll go tell this bunch what’s happening. You have a break, you deserve it.”
With a last smile, he was gone, and she was sitting behind Cragen’s desk, her mind racing with everything that had just transpired. A slow smile crept onto her face, and she could no longer suppress it.
She was now, even temporarily, Captain Olivia Benson.