I own nothing. Be warned, this will be sort of graphic. I suppose if you watch SVU serial rape/murder stuff doesn't freak you out too much, but that's what chapter two is going to be. Please R and R! I promise there will be a happy ending!
Elliot and I had been working on the hardest case I can remember when it all happened.
Usually, the perps seem to go after one specific group- children, women, people of a certain race. This guy was not like that. He targeted everyone, which is why it took us so long to connect him to all the victims that kept showing up. By the time we got him, he had at least twenty deaths to his name.
The victims ranged in age from eight to sixty-three; the majority were female, but some of the children were male. People of all races were among the dead, so it was not a case of hate crimes. We couldn't classify it. It was just horrible.
When we finally nabbed the guy and told him that he was under arrest for the raping, torturing, and murdering twenty-two people, he just laughed. I remember looking at Elliot, both of us thinking the same thing. Was this maniac responsible for every open case on the books?
We decided not to wait to tie him to any other crimes, but just to get him sentenced with what we had. Casey assured us he would get the death penalty no matter what, and we all wanted him put away as soon as possible.
Cragen wanted Elliot and me to talk with him and try to get the names of the remaining victims. Neither of us was at all happy to do it, but we both had a sense of duty toward the families of the unknown victims. It would be better for them to know.
One of the guards led the two of us into an interrogation room, while Cragen and Huang stood outside, watching. I forced a smile. "Huang doesn't want to risk being with a death row guy again?" I asked.
Elliot smiled back, equally tense. "No." We both remembered all too well the time Huang and Elliot were attacked in the middle of their meeting with a man hours from being executed. I hoped that, this time, the perp would not only be unarmed but also restrained.
I sat at one end of the table and Elliot stood at the other. I saw him taking deep breaths, and knew how hard this was for him. Of course, it was hard for all of us, but Elliot always got particularly upset during the multiple-victim cases. I could almost feel the hatred radiating from him.
The perp was escorted in, held securely by two guards. They did indeed use manacles to attach his arms and legs to his chair, which was bolted into the ground.
As soon as they left, I forced myself to look at him. Peter Strapp.
It is when men look like him that I question their sanity. You can just tell which ones are serial killers and which ones are simply killers, or rapists. In fact, it seems so obvious to me that I am always shocked that it takes us so long to find them, that they seem to be the last people we ever suspect.
Strapp had a facial tic that became more exaggerated when he got emotional. That turned out to be the break in the case. One victim managed to get away- the only one, as far as we knew- and she told us that her attacker's face had been positively convulsing by the time he finished raping her. We were out canvassing when we ran into Strapp. Elliot started giving him a hard time about something, I don't even remember what, but his face started twitching so much that he could hardly talk anymore. We immediately brought him to the station and booked him after the victim picked him out of a line-up and we got DNA confirmation.
He also had the weirdest light green eyes. I know, I know, that's just something genetic and I am not saying that serial killers all have light eyes. I'm just saying that all in all, he looked deranged.
And he was.
Elliot started the questioning. "So, Pete…how does it feel to know you are going to die?"
He said nothing in reply. We expected that. Ordinarily Elliot wouldn't have come on so strong and so ruthlessly, but we didn't think we'd get a thing out of him until we angered him. As such, I wasn't going to be saying much. We didn't think he would bother to be angered by a woman.
"Look at me," Elliot commanded. Strapp did not move. "LOOK AT ME!" Elliot walked over to him and leaned down. "You're a sick bastard, but before you go burn in hell, we need to know who your other victims were."
Strapp seemed to still be completely ignoring Elliot, but he raised his eyes to my face. It was hard not to shudder. He was looking at me sadistically, probably the same way he had looked at all of the victims before he went after them. I did my best to stare back condescendingly.
Elliot continued trying to get Strapp to talk for about ten minutes, but nothing was working. He was still staring at me, his eyes roaming all over. I glanced at Elliot, telling him I was going to try.
"How many people did you kill?"
He gave me a horrible smile. "Thirty-three," he said casually.
"God damn it," Elliot muttered. I shared his sentiments. A third of the victims were still unnamed. Eleven families still had no idea what had happened to their loved ones.
Elliot motioned to me. He was wearing an earpiece, and I gathered that Cragen and Huang wanted to talk to us. We left the room, leaving Strapp behind us. I could feel his eyes following me.
"That son of a bitch," Elliot said as soon as we were out. We met Cragen and Huang.
"That's a lot more victims than we expected," Cragen said tiredly, rubbing his neck.
It sure as hell was. We had hoped it would be around two more, four or five at the most.
I turned to Huang. "Any ideas?"
He glanced at Strapp. "He won't talk until he sees a reason to. For a man like him, reliving the violence is exciting, but not enough. His greatest pleasure comes in imagining new crimes, things he could do differently." Huang looked at me and my heart fell. I knew what he was thinking, because it was the same thing I had been considering. I had just hoped he would have a different idea.
Cragen and Elliot saw that some understanding had passed between us. "What?" Cragen asked. Elliot just looked worried.
"Me," I replied.
Elliot's eyes shot to Huang, then back to me. "What?!"
"He's been staring at Olivia this whole time. He would only answer her. If she asks him what he did to the victims, he wouldn't say anything. But if you find out what he would do to her, and get him to reference the names of the victims, we'll get what we need."
Elliot was facing the wall, shaking his head. "No. No. No way."
"Elliot-" I began, but he cut me off.
"No. It's not worth it."
I put my hand on his arm. "Elliot. There are eleven families who are missing their wives, their kids, their siblings. That's more important. It's not like he'll actually do anything to me."
He shook his head and opened his mouth to argue again, but I stopped him. "Elliot. Come on."
He looked at me, his eyes shining. "Liv," he said desperately. I squeezed his arm, and he closed his eyes. "Fine."