Author’s Note: I don’t own Law & Order: SVU
They pulled up to the apartment. Chris exited the car first and without looking back headed for the front door. Elliot locked up the car and made his way up behind her. She had obviously beaten him to the door of the apartment, but she didn’t say a word as he came up behind her. He placed the key into the lock and pushed the door open. She walked in first approaching the breakfast bar. She removed the pill bottles from her pockets, took off the jacket and threw it on the stool. He shook his head as he let her put some distance between them. Beep. Beep. Beep.
He grabbed for his cell phone as she turned on the TV. He gave his normal greeting “Stabler.” “Guess what little tip Dent fessed up to,” Olivia blurted out as soon as he answered. “Olivia, I’m not really in a guessing game mood,” he responded staring in Chris’ direction. “Sorry,” she stated, “After we told him Shondra had IDed him he told us a little story. Martin Pinhero found Shondra. Apparently he specializes in finding prostitutes with S&M fetishes.” Elliot’s thoughts were now quieted by this new information, “So Shondra isn’t as innocent as she wants us to believe. What about Pinhero?”
“Dent gave a pager number so Munch and Finn gave it a little call. They should be picking him up shortly. I took Shondra back to the hospital. She’s still in a lot of pain. She has security posted at her door. I still don’t think what happened with her was consensual, working girl or not.” “Hold off on Pinhero until I get there,” he commanded. Olivia tried to add some reason “Elliot, this is taken care of. I really think you should…” but Elliot cut her off. “I’ll be there in 20.” Not waiting for a response he closed his phone and placed it on the coffee table in front of Chris as he caught her eye. She just stared blankly at him then returned her attention to the television.
He removed his attention from her and walked to his bedroom. He quickly changed in to the last clean suit he had and headed back to the living room. He noticed her trying to get comfortable on the couch, but she couldn’t seem to sit still. He had noticed it the first day she was here, but he didn’t really think anything about it. Now it made sense. No matter how angry he was that she was shutting him out, he still understood that she had gone through something horrible and he was going to do his best to help her.
He walked up to the bar and grabbed her pills. Reading the labels, the word Vicodin, jumped out at him. He walked over to the sink, pulled a glass out of the cabinet and filled it with water. He walked the bottle and the water over to the coffee table placing them in front of her where he knew it would get her attention. Without saying anything, a looked passed between them and she reached for the bottle. “Thanks,” she said. At least now he finally felt like he did something right. He walked to the front door and turned back to her, “Try to take it easy.” She just nodded to him as he shut the door to the apartment behind him.
When he arrived at the station he found Olivia gazing at the case file on her desk. He had to smile as he noticed how intently she seemed to be staring. He came around to his desk and placed his jacket on the back of his chair. “Any word about Pinhero?” he asked breaking her concentration as well as sending her into a state of alarm. She jumped and then settled down, “Don’t sneak up on me like that.” He shook his head, “I didn’t think walking to my desk was sneaking.” She smiled at him, “How’s Chris?” He lost his friendly demeanor in response to the question, “Still not talking. What about Pinhero?” He made it very clear it wasn’t a subject he was really interested in tackling so she let it slide. “Finn just called, they picked him up outside the club. They should be in any time.”
Before she could finish the sentence the front doors burst open. In walked Pinhero, greasy as ever, with Finn and Munch close behind. For fear that he might get a whiff of the foul odor radiating off of their greasy friend he pointed in the direction of the interrogation room. Finn pushed Pinhero towards the back room as Munch kept a decent distance. Elliot looked over at Olivia, “You think he’d be offended if we walked in with a can of air freshener?” Olivia just raised her eyebrow as she rose from her chair. “Come on,” she said.
As they came to the first set of doors, Munch was heading out, “He’s all yours,” he added as he tried to get as far from the room as he could get. Olivia and Elliot held their breath as they made their way through the second set of doors. Finn quickly got up without breaking his cool and walked out, but Elliot could hear the intake of a deep breath as he walked out. It was time to put on a game face and at least pretend they had no fear of being in that room with him. Olivia started, “So Mr. Pinhero, we hear you have a thing for beautiful girls.” He looked up at Olivia, the fear evident in his face, “What man doesn’t?” he asked. Elliot interjected, “See, but with you, its girls who get into the S&M kick. Jack Dent told us you know where to get a girl like that for a price.” He shook his head, “I don’t know what he’s talking about.”
It was Olivia’s turn to add a question, “Really? Well, we hear differently and I figured you would want to know that if we find another girl in the same situation as Shondra Wallace, mounted to someone’s wall, we’re going to come calling on you. See, right now, you’re an accessory to assault, but what about the next girl things go bad with? What happens when you become accessory to murder?” The ping pong of questions was having it affects. The fear in Pinhero’s face deepened with every question, “You know it will happen and you know who we’ll come looking for,” Elliot added. This shook him, “I have nothing to do with what happens to those girls. They sign up to do the business, I just find them clients,” he stated, his lip beginning to quiver. “You just happen to find these girls walking the streets?” Elliot questioned. “No,” Pinhero yelled, “they all work for one man. Rubin Marcus. He recruits them. I go to him, tell him I need a girl and within an hour I’m dropping her off.” Olivia’s turn again, “So, this Marcus is pimping out bondage prostitutes?” Pinhero nodded.
Olivia and Elliot finally exited the room. Now they had a solid lead into a possible human trafficking situation. Bondage play for money was not the normal prostitution ring. Besides picking Marcus up they now needed to do some serious research. Who’s to say this doesn’t go back before Shondra and no one ever made the connection? Olivia hit the computer as Elliot started digging through some of their more recent paper files. “Elliot,” a groggy voice called out from the back of the station. Elliot turned around putting Chris in his sights, “What are you doing here?” he asked as he walked up to her helping her steady. She held up her hand revealing his cell phone, “You forgot this on the table and I tried to call. You’re out of juice.” The whole squad watched as he led his loopy sister to Olivia’s chair. He helped her sit down.
“How did you get here?” he asked. “I took a cab,” she replied with drowsy tone. “Chris, you should be asleep,” he spoke shaking his head. Olivia gave him a confused look as he mouthed the word ‘vicodin’ to her. She nodded understanding that Chris was feeling the effects of the heavy pain medications she was on. Elliot knelt down beside her taking the cell phone from her hand. From behind, Elliot didn’t notice that Pinhero was being moved from the interrogation room to lock up. As he was about to continue to scold Chris her reaction caught his attention.
Her eyes were dead set ahead and he turned up to find her staring at Pinhero. Pinhero’s eyes shifted down to her as she tried to now shift her eyes away. “Hey,” Pinhero remarked, “Chrissy. How’d they get you in here so fast?” Elliot stood up as he realized what Pinhero had just said. He looked down at his cringing sibling and back at Martin Pinhero. As the confusion finally wore off, he looked down at Chris putting together the significance of that unexpected meeting. The bruises on her back. The rope burns. The secrecy. It all made sense now.
Elliot stood lost in his thoughts as Olivia approached the two. “Chris, is there something you want to tell us?” She shook her head. Elliot retrieved his wits and looked down at her, “You’re going to be telling us how you know him.” She looked into his eyes ready to make any snide comment she could think of, but one didn’t come. This was serious and she was caught. All eyes were on her and there was no running anymore. Chris looked up at Olivia as Elliot continued to glare at her. Image upon image ran through his mind. Questions continued to pile up and now he wasn’t sure if he should feel anger or guilt. “I’ll talk,” Chris stated, “but only to Olivia.”
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