Disclaimer: Not my characters. Blah blah blah.

Note: Rated for language, sex crimes, sexytimes, violence, etc. Not for kids nor the faint of heart. This takes place sometime after episode 12.21, "Reparations" (AKA the episode where Casey comes back after being suspended). I've taken some liberties with other odd facts here and there and I was also compelled to consider the awful show "Conviction" that Alex was on. There are some references to the show, but nothing too important and not enough to consider this novel-length beast a crossover.

Trigger Warning: Torture in later chapters as well as mentions of rape, pedophilia, and other topics addressed on SVU.

Prologue

"Where the hell is Becker?" A typical bureaucratic businessman screamed at his secretary, his fat chin shaking with his booming voice that was already hoarse from yelling at everyone since he came into work, "That shithead has been late everyday this week and better have a damn good excuse today!"

The mousey woman cowered behind the lenses of her huge glasses, "Sir…he didn't answer his phone, sir."

"That's it! When he gets in, send him to my god damn office, so I can fire his stupid ass! He's an expendable little shit and needs to know that!"

"Yes, sir," she backed slowly out of the room, not making eye contact with the man who had gone completely red in the face, a vein bulging from his neck.

At about that time, a scrawny younger man in an unkempt suit plowed through the main door to the office. He panted and one of the other office peons squealed and pointed, noticing the blood on his hands.

"There's…there's a dead girl…on the stairs!" He managed to get out between frantic gasps.

…

"What a weird place to leave a body…" Detective Elliot Stabler observed, looking down at the small heap. The little girl, no more than ten, had been propped up in the corner between the sixth and seventh floors in the back stairwell of this office building. She looked like an oversized doll if you could ignore the blood.

His partner Olivia Benson nodded, feeling a knot in her stomach from the sight. "I wonder if leaving her here was intentional or convenience…"

The Medical Examiner, Melinda Warner, was crouched down by the body, poking around nonchalantly, "There are definitely signs of sexual assault, and my best guess right now is that she died of exsanguination...not more than a few hours ago. There are at least twenty-seven stab wounds, not to mention her eyes…I won't be able to tell what actually did her in until I get her back to autopsy."

The eyes were haunting; they had been gouged out, leaving gaping holes of flesh and eye matter, accompanied by trails of red tears down either cheek.

"She wasn't killed here…" Benson stated, "Not enough blood."

Warner nodded in agreement, standing and taking off her latex gloves, each snapping loudly and echoing in the solemn quiet of the stairwell. "I keep thinking that one day I won't be able to take anymore of this, but that'll be the day that I stop wanting these bastards put away."

The two detectives sighed, and then looked toward the CSI approaching.

The man shook his head, "No sign of blood going up or down the stairs. She must've been carried up here in something. We're checking the dumpsters and the parking deck."

"The security cameras get anything?" Stabler asked.

"No cameras in this stairwell…but…you do need a keycard to get in…" The man's voice perked up a bit at the end with a hint of hope.