DISCLAIMER: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and all characters are
property of NBC and Dick Wolf.
SERIES: This story is the second in the 'Secrets and Lies' series following Bell's Dilemma.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
The Thing You Most Desire
By Ruby
Part One
The girl ran onto the dance floor, searching the room through the strobe lights and heaving bodies. Seeing someone she knew she pushed her way through the crowd, "Linda, I need your phone."
"What?" even had the girl been sober she wouldn't have heard above the music, she might have been able to tell the girl had been crying, but she was too wrapped up in the vibe.
"Linda… Linda" she shouted before giving up and fishing the phone out of the girl's pocket and retreating back to the stairwell frantically dialing.
"Hey, wait…"
The sun streamed through the open window, the nets moved gently in the breeze, and the birds could be heard twittering in the trees outside. The woman in the bed woke slowly, her blonde hair caught by the sunlight looked golden. Realizing she was alone she sat up, rubbed her eyes and got out of bed. Putting on a robe and belting it loosely she wandered out of the room, finding no one inside she went on to the porch; noticing the tray with coffee as she walked up behind the figure looking out over the garden. Putting her arms around Olivia's waist she said, "What are you doing up so early?"
Olivia, who had been quietly appreciating the beauty and the solitude, smiled and said, "It's so beautiful out here, I don't think I ever really appreciated the countryside before."
"We used to spend school holidays here when we were kids" Alex said pouring herself some lukewarm coffee and grimacing as she tasted it, putting the cup back quickly on the tray, "I haven't been back in years. Where did you go?"
"Nowhere" Olivia said turning, "let me make you some tea."
Moving to pick up the tray Alex caught her hands and smiled, "I've got a better idea," she said putting Olivia's arms around her waist and keeping them there. Looking into her lover's eyes Olivia smiled fondly and moved her head, she could taste coffee and sweetness and something else, something she had become addicted to, something indefinable that she only found in Alex. She moved away and Alex, taking her hand led her back into the house and up the stairs.
Later that evening, Alex, not being able to persuade the detective to stay when she had dropped her at her apartment, sat in a chair idly twirling a glass of wine when her phone went. "Hello Daddy" she said hearing the voice on the other end.
"You sound relaxed, how was the cottage?"
"Wonderful thank you, it was just what I needed." She had borrowed the keys from him on Friday, forcing the detective to go away with her for the weekend. They had been working hard recently and the long hours had taken its toll on Olivia. Alex had decided they needed a break with no interruptions, which they couldn't get in the city.
"Did you get the messages from your mother? She was most annoyed that you went away without telling her," Alex could tell he was grinning.
"She almost filled my machine, anyone would think I'd been gone for months!"
"Ah well" he said "she'd been planning that dinner party for weeks now and I think she was hoping you and Josh would be there."
"Daddy" Alex sighed, "I've got nothing against Josh but I only ever see him at mother's instigation. I have no interest in him, or for that matter in any of the other men she tries to foist on me. I wish she'd stop interfering with my personal life."
"I know kitten, but she means well, she just wants to see you happy."
"I am happy" Alex replied the frustration in her voice evident. "Happiness to me doesn't mean marriage and 2 kids, lunches at the country club and being on committees"
"I know Alex, I'm afraid you're too much like me and that frustrates her. Well I just called to make sure you had a good time, how about lunch one day this week?"
"That would be perfect, I'll ring your office when I know what I'm doing, ok?"
"Sure, take care"
"And you Daddy, bye"
Alex sighed, Josh had filled the rest of the machine, he had been bothering her more and more over the preceding weeks, clearly being politely indifferent was not going to work.
Olivia walked into the squad room the following morning feeling relaxed, Alex had been right about their need to get away, the weekend had been perfect. She had been able to forget everything for a while and simply enjoy being with her lover without going over cases, a topic of conversation that had been banned on the drive out. Since they had started seeing each other they had tried to spend as much of their spare time together as possible and while they tried to avoid it, work invariably crept into the conversation.
"I'm glad you're in such a good mood" Cragen said grimly "Elliot, get Olivia up to speed."
Stabler put down his coffee, "There was a rave in a warehouse near 14th street, Saturday night" he explained, "the body of an 18 year old, Laura del Vecchio was found in a bathroom on the first floor at 1am. Cause of death was ligature strangulation. No obvious sign of rape but she had recently had sex and when she was found her underwear was across the room, which is why we got called in.
"Who found her?" Olivia asked.
"A friend who was there with her, Joey Chappell", he said consulting his notes, "she had to be sedated, she's coming in today to make a statement, Fin and Munch are interviewing anyone who stayed around long enough to give a name."
"Have you got a CSU report back yet?" Cragen asked.
Elliot glanced at his desk, "Lots of fingerprints, purse was untouched, no fluids on her panties and whatever she was strangled with is still missing" he replied "and I got in touch with the organizers, basically they don't know anything and don't want to know anything, they hold raves where ever they can get permission, there was security on the door but it's not in their interests to make it too heavy."
Olivia nodded towards the door, Elliot turned and then got up, "Joey, Mr. Chappell," Showing them into an interrogation room he said, "Please take a seat, this is my partner, detective Benson," before continuing to address Joey "How are you feeling?"
"Ok."
"We just need to go over what happened ok?" Joey nodded, "What time did you get to the rave?"
"About 11" she replied.
"I didn't know she was going otherwise I would have…" Ian Chappell butted in.
"Mr. Chappell" Olivia interrupted, "I'm sorry but it would help us if we could just talk to Joey."
He closed his mouth and folded his arms looking cross. Turning back to Joey she continued, "Did you go anywhere before that?"
"I was at Laura's."
"How did you get to the rave?"
"She has a car."
"And you met up with friends when you got there?"
"Yes."
"Was Laura with anyone, a boy perhaps?" Olivia asked.
"She didn't have a boyfriend" Joey replied nervously.
"How about you?" the detective continued.
"No," Joey replied her eyes flicking to her father.
Elliot glanced at Olivia, "you're both attractive girls, are you telling us no-one was interested?" he said with a smile.
"I don't know" Joey's voice was getting tense and she was fidgeting again.
"Did you see anyone else paying attention to Laura?"
"No, I don't know!" Joey almost shouted, "I didn't see anyone Ok."
"Ok, it's ok, I know this is difficult Joey" Olivia tried to calm her, "but we need to know everything so that we can find the person who did this."
"Now you stated that you walked into the bathroom and found Laura, is that correct?" Elliot asked.
"Yes."
"Why did you think to look there? That floor wasn't in use," he asked sitting down.
"I don't know" she looked down at her hands, "I'd just looked everywhere else."
"And you saw no-one, heard no-one?" he continued, watching her.
"No."
"Did you touch the body at all?"
"I…" she started to cry, "I…" her father took her hand.
"It's ok, take your time" Olivia said gently.
"I pulled her skirt down" she whispered at last.
Olivia leaned across the table, "this can get a bit overwhelming, you should have someone you can talk to. Is your mom at home?" Joey said nothing but pulled her hand free and gripped her fingers together and began twisting them nervously.
"My wife and I split up detective, but Joey can talk to me" her father answered for her.
Having got no further with the questions, they asked Joey to make a list of everyone she could remember being there. "She's holding something back" Elliot mused.
Olivia nodded in agreement, "maybe if we can get her without her father we can find out what it is."
Alex was in a very bad mood, Josh had already rung to ask her out to dinner and hadn't liked being told no, and evidence that she had been relying on for a case she was working had been thrown out that morning; she needed to let off steam. Walking into the squad room she noticed that for once all the detectives were at their desks. Heading for Cragen's office she stopped as she saw it was empty and turning, saw him coming into the room behind her.
"Something I can help you with?" he asked noting the look on her face.
"Yes, how about asking your detectives to collect evidence I can use?"
"What's happened?" he said frowning.
"The knife and hair found in Michael Cruz's apartment have been deemed inadmissible, and as I only have circumstantial evidence apart from that, I can tell you now the guy will walk."
"We had a warrant," Fin said.
"You certainly did detective, unfortunately you also…" her cell went, which annoyed her even more as she was on a roll, "Cabot" she said irritably. Her face diffused into a smile as she heard the voice on the other end. "Hey, where are you?" Turning away from the detectives she said, "I can't I'm in the middle of something," then, "You've still got a key to my apartment right?" She looked at her watch and sighed, "Believe me, the way today's going I will be quitting very soon!" She listened for a minute and then laughed, "you are wonderful and that sounds like heaven … see you later."
Putting her phone away she turned back to Cragen, "Where was I?" she said noticing that the detectives all appeared to be doing something industrious. However, from the smirk on Elliot's face and the carefully blank expression on Olivia's it was clear that they had listened to every word.
"Oh yes, searching an apartment before the warrant arrived, keeping the owner outside waiting until it did!" Alex finished, regaining some of her former anger, "it would make my job slightly easier if we didn't help the defense by getting our own evidence thrown out!" With that she stalked out of the squad room, a performance that would have been much more dramatic, she conceded, had she not had a warm and fuzzy phone call in the middle of it.
"You'd better get on with the names on Joey Chappell's list" Cragen said to Benson and Stabler, "and you two," he said turning to the other two detectives, "had better see if there is any way you can get back into the good books of the District Attorney's office."
Elliot knocked on the door, and showed his badge to the woman who answered, "We have a few questions for Linda Reynolds?"
"Well good luck," the woman he took to be her mother replied before saying, "You'd better come in" and screaming "Linda" up the stairs.
Having finally roused her Elliot asked, "You want to tell us what happened at the rave?"
Linda was sitting at the kitchen table with a large cup of coffee, Olivia thought she'd seen corpses with more signs of life, "I was pretty out of it, Joey ran off with my phone. Gave it back later though, then the ambulance came. I tried to find out what was going on, but I guess I passed out."
"What were you drinking?"
"Vodka" she paused, screwing her eyes up, "I think."
Elliot was getting irritated, "Did you see Laura del Vecchio?"
"A bit earlier, we we're hangin' out, dancing and stuff."
"Anybody paying attention to her?" he asked.
The girl snorted, "Only Joey."
"Was she drinking a lot?"
Linda shrugged, "No more than normal."
Moving through a list of less than great witnesses they reached Debbie Tanner, a girl who evidently had a stronger head than the rest who they eventually tracked down working at a diner in the village. "So Debbie, do you know Laura del Vecchio?"
"Dead girl?" Olivia nodded, "No, I do a class with Joey though, the one who found her."
"Can you tell us what people were drinking at the party?"
She shrugged "How should I know? Beer, Spirits, the usual."
"How about drugs?" Elliot asked. The girl raised an eyebrow, "Come on, we're not trying to set you up, we're trying to find out what happened."
Debbie thought for a moment and then said, "Look it was a rave, I don't know what anyone else was doing, but I know Derek had a few E's with him."
"He got a second name?"
"Gibbs, Derek Gibbs."
Elliot drove while Olivia got on the phone. Arriving at the correct apartment they bashed on the door. Derek, predictably was still in bed. Having been let in by his roommate, the detectives walked in and woke him up, finding him a few years older than anyone else they had interviewed. "You were at the rave on Saturday night?" Elliot asked, eyeing the mess with distaste.
"Yeah, so?"
"Girl was murdered."
"So I heard."
"Do yourself a favor Derek" Elliot said throwing him a pair of pants from the floor, "we've got a witness that says you were there pushing pills."
"Must have been mistaken" he replied, pulling on the pants.
"Really?" the detective picked up the clothes on a chair and began to go through the pockets, "so the previous arrests you've had, the police were mistaken too?"
Derek looked nervous, "Look, I don't deal, they're for personal use, I was just giving freebies trying to get laid."
Olivia was in his face, "Did you have sex with Laura del Vecchio?"
"Who?" he replied trying to back away.
"Dead girl" Elliot helped him identify her.
"No way!"
"Did you give her one of your pills?"
"No."
"If we find E in her system it's going to look real suspicious, so now would be a good time to start telling the truth" Olivia said getting so close Derek had to look at her cross-eyed.
"Look man, I went there to get laid, only one looked like they were getting any action with her was the dyke she was with."
Elliot stopped what he was doing "Sorry?"
Derek looked confident again, "Her and that friend of hers, what's her name…Joey, yeah Joey, that's right. They were chewin' each other's faces off, kinda hot looking too" he grinned, then looked uneasily at the detectives.
Finishing with Derek Gibbs the detectives decided to call it a night, taking a rain check on Elliot's dinner invitation Olivia decided she needed a beer. Sitting in a darkened corner of a non too salubrious bar, she stared at the bottle and thought about Alex. More specifically she thought about the phone call she'd had and who the hell else had keys to her apartment. The beeping of her phone brought her out of an unpleasant reverie as the object of her thoughts said hello in her ear. "Hi"
"Listen my brother's dropped in and we're going out to dinner, want to join us?"
"Your brother?"
"Mhmm" Alex laughed, "who else did you think had keys to my apartment?"
Olivia debated the question before saying, "Where shall I meet you?" Walking out of the bar having got the directions, the detective berated herself for always assuming the worst.
"Did you get anymore out of Joey Chappell?" Cragen asked crossing the room the following morning.
"No" replied Elliot, "but she's not telling us everything, and at least 2 witnesses have independently stated that she may have had a more intimate knowledge of the victim than daddy would probably like."
Cragen looked puzzled, "But Laura had sex with a guy, so what are we looking at?"
"She could have swung both ways," Elliot cut in, "Someone gets jealous…" he shrugged.
"Or she could have been raped" Olivia said.
"OK, Chase up DNA and Toxicology, and speak to Joey again, is she over 18?
"Not for 2 months" Olivia replied.
"Well try and get her without the father around."
Benson and Stabler found Joey sitting on the bleachers at school. There was a problem with the tox screen but the DNA results were back and showed a mixed sample, they were looking for two different males, which pretty much ruled out consent.
"Give me a minute?" Olivia said to her partner when they reached the bottom.
"Sure" he said as she started to climb.
"Hey Joey," the girl looked worn out, hardly surprising she thought, knowing what she would be like if it was Alex.
"Hi" the girl said, pushing hair off her face and attempting to look less upset.
Olivia sat down next to her, "Joey, I need to know if you want to add anything to your statement" she said gently, looking into the girl's face.
Joey's face crumpled, "You know about Laura and me don't you" she said and burst into tears.
"Yes" Olivia said putting her arm around the weeping girl and letting her cry.
"I knew someone would tell you" a voice buried in her jacket said.
Olivia released her and made her sit up, "Why didn't you?"
Joey sniffed and dried her eyes on her sleeve "My father kicked my mother out when I was 8, he got custody because he convinced the judge that being a lesbian made her an unfit mother, she wasn't even allowed visitation rights. What would you have done?"
Good question Olivia thought, "Will you tell me what really happened?"
The girl's face crumpled again but she kept the tears at bay, "I don't remember. We were drinking, having fun, then I was in a bathroom feeling ill, my jeans had been pulled off, I sat up and saw…" she trailed off, the sight of Laura floating in her brain.
Wishing the creeps who did this were in front of her now Olivia said, "You need to go to the hospital, Joey."
Joey was horrified at the thought, "No" she almost shouted.
"Why let someone get away with this?"
"Can you imagine what my father would do if he found out?" she looked panicked "I don't have anywhere else to go" she whispered almost under her breath, "Someone murdered Laura, and had sex with me, I don't remember who it was and I don't remember what they did to me, but I know why," she looked into Olivia's face before pulling a Polaroid out of her bag and showing it to her, "this was on her body."
The detective studied the photo, it was of Joey and Laura kissing, "Was it taken that night?"
"Yes."
"Joey," Olivia said gently, "you didn't have sex, you were raped. What ever your father feels about your sexuality he's got to be concerned about that." She paused to let her words sink in before saying, "Do you know where your mother is?"
The girl shook her head, "I think she went to Pittsburgh, but now?" she shrugged.
Olivia considered the possible professional implications for a moment before saying, "Do you want me to try and find her?"
"Can you do that?" Joey's asked, hope in her eyes.
"I can try" she replied. "I know this is hard Joey, but I need you to help me, ok?" the girl nodded. "First you need to go to the hospital. Then if I can find your mother and you have a safe place to go, will you make a statement?"
"Yes."
"Do you know your mother's maiden name?"
"Bower, Jacqueline Bower" Olivia took out her notebook and wrote it down.
"Ok, now that picture, do you know who took it?"
Joey tried to think back, they sat for a while in silence before she said, "Luke Walker was taking photo's, I didn't see anyone else with a camera" she looked as if she was going to say something else, but then changed her mind and closed her mouth.
"What is it Joey?" Olivia turned so she could look fully into the girl's face, "I can't help you unless you tell me everything."
"Matt Harmon" Joey said, "he was always asking me out, I told him to get lost, that I was with Laura, but he wouldn't take no for an answer, said I'd change my mind," her voice had dropped to a whisper again. "I don't know if it's important, but he was there and he hangs out with Luke."
Olivia, wrote their names down and scrawled a note to Elliot, looking up she said, "We need to test that photo for fingerprints Joey, will you let me have it?" handling it around the edges she slipped it between the pages of her notebook until she could get to an evidence bag. "There's a scarf around Laura's neck in the photo, think carefully Joey, was it there in the bathroom when you woke up?"
"No" Joey said definitely.
Olivia hesitated, "I want to take you to the hospital, we need to get you checked out. Will you come with me?" Joey looked at her hands, then nodded and the two of them walked down to meet Elliot.