Chapter Seven

I wake to a ringing phone. My hand absentmindedly reaches for if and answers.

"Benson."

"Liv we got a case."

Of course we do.

I get up and shower quickly, rushing to get out the door. Just before I do so, I write on a piece of paper: Had a case. If you need anything call your sisters. Emergency, call me or Cragen. Love you guys. -Liv

They already know what to do for when I have to leave early and they have to take care of Eli. But I write it anyways.

I slide the note onto the dresser in the twins' room, go to my room to kiss Eli goodbye, then I'm gone.

~•~•~•~•~

"What'd'we got?" I ask, forcing the police tape up so I can walk under it.

Melinda is already at work. "Rape-homicide, I'm ruling it."

"Fluids?" Nick asks.

"Nope, he wore a condom. But there's severe bruising to the genital area. Bullet hole in the back of the head is how she died."

"Time of death?" I ask.

"Body temp puts it at around...10PM."

I nod and stare at this woman's body. She's blonde, skinny, dressed in only a tube top, panties around her ankles.

"Wait," I hear Fin say. I perk up and look over to him.

He bends down and moves the sheet. "Were there cuts on her inner thighs?"

"How did you know?" Then she has a look like an epiphany. "Our serial rapist is back."

Same MO as the perp who 'killed' Elliot: Blonde, young, raped and left under a ramp. He would cut the inner thighs in mirrored images. Bullet to the back of the head. I feel sick to my stomach.

He's back.

We all go back to the squadroom to fill in Cragen.

"So is she a Jane Doe?" is one of his first questions.

We all nod. "Just like all the other vics," I say. "Blonde, early twenties. Looks like that's still his game. Perp is Jonathan Marcos. He's been in for burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, harassment..."

Our new - well, not so new now - recruits, Amanda Rollins and Nick Amaro are sitting, reading the files of the pervious cases.

"Did they have any connection to each other other than Marcos?" Rollins asks.

"They all say they didn't know each other," Fin says.

"Well still. Maybe they all went on the same coffee shop or gym or something."

"Victim number one," John starts, standing up. "Is Trish Andersen. School teacher. Vic two is Linda Holmes, a waitress. Vic three is Hope Brown and she was a student at Hudson U."

"So? Look, there's gotta be something linking them. Did we name our Jane Doe?"

"Looks like we have a junior conspiracies expert over here," I comment quietly.

Rollins rolls her eyes and continues typing away at her computer.

A little while later, Rollins speaks up again. "I got something."

"What?" Fin asks.

"I went through the vics' medical records and all of them had given birth."

"So?"

"All children are either in foster care or were adopted."

~•~•~•~•~

"So did Marcos really have reason to kill just because his children were given up?" I ask.

"He's possessive. The women weren't his unless he wanted them to be. But the children are," Huang explains.

"Please tell me this isn't good for an insanity plea," I ask.

"Depends on how a jury sees it."

We start contacting all of the women who had any contact with Marcos...that we know of for now.

We get a description and get a sketch together. He's Hispanic and has dark hair and eyes. He could be anyone, though. Basic face and basic looks. But all perps have that aura that makes a chill work its way down my spine. So capable of terrible things.

And it's not like he hasn't proved that to the entire squad many times.

We get it down to two other women who had slept with our perp and had a child. For now they are sitting together in a room downstairs.

"So how do we go about handling this?"

"We wait."

"Wait for someone else to be raped and murdered?" I ask. "I don't think so."

"Well we can't offer up one of these women. Not yet anyways," Cragen says.

"Yet?"

"I deem it a last resort, to use those two as bait. Maybe if we wait it out a little-"

"So we're just supposed to keep uni's on them?"

"For now, yes."

I turn to go tell Marie and Ashlynn, the two women downstairs, when my phone rings. My feet turn back when Cragen says, "I got it."

"Dickie?" I hear him ask.

My feet turn around again.

"W-Woah, slow down. What?"

"What?" I ask, knowing its serious.

"Me and Liv will be right there," he says, hanging up.

"What?" I ask again.

"Lizzie never came home from school."

~•~•~•~•~

"Liz told me she was gonna stay after school for drama and then she was going to her friend's house to practice lines for auditions. I told her fine but come home before you did. I was bored and like I usually do when I have nothing to do, I took Eli to the park. I figured she'd be back by the time we got home but she wasn't. I called her and it went straight to voicemail. She turned her phone off so we couldn't track it!" Dickie explains awfully fast.

"We still can," Cragen says. "Which friend or friends was she with?"

He gives us a guilty look and shrugs. "She's so popular; I don't keep track of all the names. Her best friend is Taylor Vance but she's not in drama."

"I thought she was?" I say, confused. Anytime I saw Lizzie outside of the precinct, Taylor was with her. And I know she was in drama with Liz.

"Her parents made her drop because she did too much. Lizzie was going to do the same but Taylor convinced her not to. She said she'd keep doing cheer. Taylor is still a cheerleader."

"Would she know where Liz is?"

He shrugs again, still looking as guilty as ever.

"It's fine, bud," I tell him, pulling him to me. I wrap one arm around his shoulders, resting my chin on his head. "I'm sure she's fine."

"But what if-"

"She's her father's daughter. She's got the no-bullshit, tough as nails genes her father has."

We track down Taylor first, knowing where she is: home.

When me and Dickie go up to the front door, he doesn't feel any better. Taylor opens the door after I knock. She's still in her cheer uniform.

"Ew," she says, having sighted Dickie. "What do you want, Microbrain?"

"Yeah, I know, She-beast. Where's Liz?" he replies.

"How-" she was cut off by a text message. She glanced at it but put her phone on silent as she replied.

"Sorry it's my cousin. One sec." Another text came in. This time, no reply.

"So where is she?"

"With her drama group still. Chill."

Dickie's voice gets a little louder. "She said she would be home!"

I put my hand on Dickie's shoulder, drawing him back. He's got the anger streak exactly how Elliot does.

Just then, Dickie's phone dings. It was Lizzie. "Hey I'm staying over. Tell Liv not to worry." He relays this info to me.

"Ask where she is," I instruct.

He does so, but she doesn't reply.

"Call her."

Before the first ring, we get voicemail.

Before Dickie freaks out, I excuse us from Taylor's house and we get back in the car.

As we get going, get a call from Cragen.

"Lizzie just used her cell phone to send a couple texts," he tells us.

"I know," I reply. "Dickie and Taylor both got them. Taylor's lying to us, saying she doesn't know anything."

"Well you should be glad to know Lizzie's cell just pinged at the New York-Pennsylvania border."

She's going to see Elliot.