What's Next?

Chapter 16

I was extremely nervous. We hadn't done anything wrong, had we? All I can think about is if Munch would've kept his big mouth shut. Elliot and I haven't made it obvious enough for someone to tell that we are talking.

"Yeah, Cap?" I ask with a sense of nervousness in my voice.

"Are you two involved?" he asked us.

Ugh...I hated that word. Involved. All I could think about was how they were going to move one of us somewhere else. There was no was I was going to work at SVU without Elliot. I couldn't do that. So, I froze, not saying a thing. I didn't want to word it wrong or say the complete wrong thing.

"We aren't really involved but we have been hanging out. As friends. We had a drunken kiss and let's just say that led somewhere else...so now we don't really know where we are," Elliot told him.

Then, looked at me. Cragen looked at Elliot, then at me, then down at his desk.

"Well, I'm not gonna say that hasn't happened to me before," he said to us. I was so relieved.

"Thank you so much for understanding," I say to him.

"Anytime. Now you two get back to work," he said as we all laughed. Elliot and I walked out. The first thing I heard was laughing and then Munch's voice.

"So, you two finally have to confess the relationship?" he asks us while doing that smile he does.

"No, as I said before we aren't involved," I said to him, making it clear of what I said. I was more agitated than I meant to me.

"Well then...someone hasn't heard of morning sex," Munch replied. We all laughed.

"I'm sorry, just this case is getting to me. I guess," I say, but we are all still laughing. "I can't believe you would say that," I add on as we continue to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Cragen said as he came out of his office. We immediately stop laughing.

"Nothing, Cap," Fin says. Elliot and I both look away, trying not to laugh.

"Get back to work," he says to us all. When Cragen walks away, El and I turn around and Fin flips us off.

"Hey, not our fault," I say and we begin working.

"You might want to hear this," Fin says as he turns up the TV, which was on the news.

"Rayleigh Thomas, Veronica Wood, Hayley Reed, Terra Hanson, and Kelsie Travis were all found dead in an alley this morning around 6:58 A.M. They were shot twice, stabbed multiple times, and the police believe they were sexually assaulted," the news reporter from TV said.

"Hey, I know those names," I say as I dig around my desk. I finally find my notebook. "You're kidding me? Those were the other 5 girls with Ally and her sister, Jessica that night. We just lost any help we might've had. Unless, Jessica was with them," I say to them all.

"These guys knew exactly what they were doing," Fin says. "But why rape and kill them and not the sister?" he added on.

"That's why we are going to go talk to her now," I say to Fin. I pause for a moment. "Do you believe me now when I say there's something up with all of this?" I say to Elliot. He nods.

"Let's go," he says to me. We get on the elevator and go to the first floor. We were walking out to the car.

"If Jessica is dead, we lose our lead," he says to me.

"I hope she's not dead. If she's not, we need to get her in custody as soon as possible," I say to him. "El..." I say. "I think I just figured something out," I add on.

"What Liv?" he asks me.

"Okay, so if they killed all those other girls that means they had to have heard names. The only times those names were said was..." I say. We look at each other.

"The crime scene," we say in unison.

"Liv, you're a genius," he says and sped off to Jessica's house. I smile at him.

"They never would've killed them if they hadn't known. Elliot...this means that the perps have been following us. They were at the crime scene, so that means they had to have been at Jessica's as well," I say to him. "Or..." I begin to say.

"The perps are cops," he says, finishing my sentence for me. "4 dirty cops, that's crazy," he says. We reach Jessica's and knock on her door.

"Jessica, it's Detective Olivia Benson, SVU!" I say. Nothing. "Jessica open up!" I yell a little louder. Nothing. We were fixing to break the door down right as she opened it.

"Come on in Detectives," she says.

"How are you?" Elliot asks her.

"I'm okay. I guess," she says to us.

"Jessica, do you remember anything at all about these men?" I asked her. She thought.

"Well, I do think that they stopped us a while before we all split up. They shined a light in our faces and started asking us if we had seen some little girl.  I thought it was just a trap and I think I was right," she said as she broke down.

"Jessica...you said they shined a light in your face?" Elliot asked her.

"Yeah. I put my hand up over my face, but not straight up. I had my hand diagonal," she replied back. Elliot and I looked at each other.

"Thank you so much, Jessica," I say as Elliot and I leave her building. We were standing by the car.

"So if someone shined a light directly in your face, what would you do?" he asked me as he shined a flashlight in my face.

I threw my hand directly in front of my face. He then shined it as a cop would. Sideways. I threw my hand up diagonally, the way Jessica had.

"The perps are definitely cops," I say to Elliot as we drive back to the precinct.