Undercover

Chapter 15

WARNING: This Chapter is very graphic. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

It contains graphic depictions involving violence, rape, and torture

"When Cragen told me that you'd put your papers in, I didn't believe it. Each day I found myself eagerly looking at the door waiting for you to come waltzing in. Every day that passed I watched my phone anticipating a call or a text that never came, and every day my heart broke a little more in your absence."

He sighs as he feels his heart break a little but he remains silent waiting for her to continue.

"Cragen assigned me a new partner and I yearned for the safety I felt with you by my side. Nick was a very good man but he was never able to fill your shoes. I didn't want to accept that you weren't coming back and I clinged to anything that reminded me of you. I secretly begged and pleaded to any higher power that might be listening that you come back to me. Years passed and my life felt empty. And even though I thought it couldn't get any worse before I knew it, it did. "

She pauses terrified to explain the dark chapter of her life. She looks to Elliot who is attentively looking into her eyes trying to remain focused despite the concern riddling his mind.

"Amanda collared a man in the park who had flashed two young tourists who were sight seeing. She happened to be in the park when it occurred and gave chase. It seemed like a simple misdemeanor but when she tried to book him and realized she couldn't she called all of us in."

His face shifts to a state of confusion. "That's what we thought too until we arrived. We thought we had seen it all but none of us were prepared for the events that followed. Every single one of his fingers were singed. His fingerprints were completely burnt off." Elliot's eyes widen in shock.

"It was unlike anything we'd ever seen before. He claimed it was a kitchen accident but of course we didn't believe him. This guy had an unbelievably creepy insidious vibe that we couldn't ignore. Rollins was certain that he had deliberately burned them to hide his identity and not only did I believe her but I agreed. Every time I was in the room with him there was an eerie feeling that I couldn't shake. We couldn't prove any of it though and had to cut him loose while we worked the case trying to find any window into his past. 2 days later the only eye witness we had who was supposed to testify at Lewis's hearing didn't show. We went to find her and it was something out of a horror movie."

She pauses and takes a sip of her wine as the horrid details flash through her mind.

"He had beaten, raped, and tortured the 60 year old women for days at gun point. While we were loading her into the ambulance she told me that it was Lewis."

We tracked him down at a store he frequented and when we interrogated him about it he taunted me with the details of torturing Alice Parker- "Then you had him right? He admitted it" Elliot interrupts.

"I wish it had been that simple. Every word was phrased as a hypothetical. So we couldn't touch him. We finally uncovered his criminal history and found that he had used countless aliases and his name had been entered incorrectly in the system. There were countless allegations of rape and torture against him but each one he skated by on a technicality. We had all the evidence we needed and were determined to lock him away but we weren't any more successful than the others."

Elliots face yet again grows confused.
"He got off on another technicality. It was discovered by his lawyer that his DNA was tested in impropriety cleaned equipment and it forced a mistrial. We couldn't retry because the victim of his brutal assault, Alice Parker, who was also the only eye witness to the indecent exposure charge had passed away. She had sustained a heart attack during the attack that weakened her heart and when she later had a second one it killed her."