SVU in Chicago

A Suspect

I arrived with Fin at Chicago Animal Care and Control at 8 am sharp. Amanda and Nick stayed back at the precinct with Voight and Lindsay to research current and past employees to see if there was a connection to the rapes. Elliot, Olinsky, and Dawson arrived at the shelter shortly after us. We decided to split up and have one team explore the area for possible abandoned buildings or hiding areas that someone could keep a person hidden for several hours and the other team to interview employees at animal control to see if they had seen anything.

Olinsky then spoke up and said he would go with me and interview the employees while Fin, Dawson, and Stabler should look around the area. I was a little surprised that Olinsky spoke up and determined teams since he had been so quiet so far. I glanced over at Stabler who had a small flame present in those blue eyes and a clenched jaw. It irked me that he was being a jealous idiot for no reason, so I smiled at Olinsky and said, "Sounds great, let's go."

Olinsky and I walked into Animal Care and Control. We introduced ourselves to an older lady sitting behind the counter and showed our badges. We asked if we could talk to the director and told her we just had a few questions. She smiled and told us to hold on for a second as she picked up the phone. A few minutes later a middle-aged woman with dark shoulder length hair greeted us in the lobby. She reached her hand out to me and said, "Hello, I am Director Maria Esperanza. How can I help you?"

I smiled back and replied, "We would like to ask you a few questions about your employees and if anyone has noticed anything strange happening in the area lately."

She looked concerned and said, "Ok, I can't imagine anyone that works here is involved in any kind of crime but let's talk in my office."

As soon as we took seats in her office Olinsky spoke, "So, do you have any employees that have started here recently as in the last three months?" She paused and then said, "Yes, we have several since there is a large turnover rate in the field of animal welfare. All the employees are background checked and drug tested before being hired so everyone is clean."

Olinsky smiled, "Well, passing a background check and drug test may just mean someone hasn't gotten caught yet. We need a list of all the new employees that have been hired here in the last three months."

Director Esperanza suddenly seemed to stiffen and responded, "I can't give out that information without a warrant. If you want me to cooperate, I need to know what this is about before I invade someone's privacy."

I leaned in closer to her desk, "Listen, we don't want to invade anyone's privacy. We have a serial rapist who may have kidnapped and tortured a woman near this building. We just need to know if anyone has seen or heard anything out of the ordinary that may help point us in the right direction." I noticed a picture of a young woman sitting on her desk and assumed it was her daughter. I asked, "Is that your daughter? She is beautiful." She smiled at me and nodded yes. I said, "Any information you can give us will really help us catch this creep who is still at large. We want to prevent him from raping any more young girls."

She seemed worried and concerned then and replied, "I will ask around to see if anyone has noticed anything, but I can't imagine something horrible like that happened here. We have about 30 employees so someone would have said something."

"Wow, thirty employees are quite a lot. I would love to be able to speed up the process and only question the people who have been here for some time. Can you give us the names of the employees who have been here under three months, so we exclude them?"

She hesitated and said, "Well, I guess if it will help speed up the process. Let me check the computer and I will print out those names for you."

I answered, "Thank you so much. I promise we will be discreet and just need to find out what anyone may have heard or seen."

I glanced over at Olinsky as the director was clicking away on her keyboard. He smiled back at me and mouthed "Impressive." I smiled back grateful for the compliment. I noticed just then that he is quite handsome in his newsboy hat, dark brown eyes, and clean-cut goatee. My wandering thoughts were interrupted when Director Esperanza cleared her throat and said, "Here is the list of employee names. I really hope you catch who is doing this." I grabbed the list and then asked if it was ok if we looked around some. She said she had a meeting to go to and I told her that we could find our way around and promised we wouldn't bother anyone. She hesitantly agreed to let us look around.

Olinsky and I began looking around to see the layout of the facility and to see if there was anyone we could talk to. The place was like a maze with rows of dog kennels interspersed with dark hallways that had locked doors. I told Olinsky that any one of these rooms could be where the victim was held, and no one would know especially at night if the place was empty. Just then a lady in scrubs and a stethoscope around her neck walked by us. She stopped and said, "Can I help you? Are you looking to adopt an animal?" I pulled out my badge and introduced Olinsky and I. The lady then had a concerned look on her face. She replied, "I'm Dr. Sumwalt. I am the veterinarian here at the shelter and run the medical clinic. Are you investigating a crime associated with the animal shelter?" I answered, "We aren't sure yet. Can you tell me if controlled drugs are kept here on property, specifically Ketamine and Xylazine?" Dr. Sumwalt scrunched her brow with concern before answering, "Yes, we use both of those drugs to sedate animals that are aggressive or before we humanely euthanize them. They are locked in a safe though and only certain employees can access them." Olinsky quickly spoke up, "Who has access to them?" Dr. Sumwalt placed her hand on her chin as though trying to remember a list of names. She answered, "All of medical staff does which is five people and all of the Animal Control officers do."

As she was speaking, I noticed a young white male, probably in his early twenties, blonde hair, walking up with a hose starting to clean one of the kennels. He looked over at us and I saw him look down and notice both of our badges. His eyes went wide, and he suddenly looked very anxious. He then looked up and caught my gaze. He turned the hose towards us sprayed us for about three seconds and then took off running. Olinsky and I glanced at each other, now both soaking wet, and took off running. We ran through the maze of kennels and hallways until we were outside in the back of the building which was a narrow alley way. I glanced left and saw the kid running and I followed. I could feel Olinsky right behind me. He then darted left down another alleyway probably to try and cut the kid off. I kept running as fast as I could behind the kid. I saw him dash towards the right after the alley way opened to a street, so I went that direction. I then looked up and could see Fin, Dawson, and Elliot at the corner. Elliot looked straight at me, could see I was out of breath and then noticed the kid running straight towards him. He then reached out and knocked the kid to the ground and quickly handcuffed his hands behind his back. Olinsky caught up to me and we both walked over to Elliot and Fin both trying to catch our breaths.

Elliot picked the kid up by his arms, so he was standing facing us. He looked the kid in the eye, "Hey, what's your name and why are you running?" The kid answered, "This is police brutality. I didn't do nothing." I spoke up then, "Why the hell did you spray two police officers with water and take off running? I could charge you with assault." Elliot then looked over at Olinsky and I and had a slight smirk on his face suddenly realizing that we were both soaking wet. I glared back at him with a look that said he better not say a single word. He got the message and looked back at the kid. "Tell us your name." The kid responded, "Matt Lynch." Elliot began patting him down to check for any weapons when he found a bag of white powder along with another bag of miscellaneous pills. Elliot held the bags up in front of Matt's face, "Is this why you ran? Over some stupid drugs?" Matt glanced over at Olivia and Olinsky and said, "I saw them talking to Doc and assumed they had found out about my stash. I didn't want to go back to jail so I took off." Olinsky walked over and got right in Matt's face, "Well, you didn't have to spray us with water!" I pulled Fin aside and said, "This isn't our perp. He is too squirrely and doesn't fit our profile. Let's take him in to find out if he knows anything."

Dawson grabbed a couple of towels he had in his car and handed them to Olinsky. Olinsky walked over to me, handed me the towel, and said, "This should help get some of the water off. Do you need any help?" I smiled back at him wondering if he was trying to flirt, "Uh, no, I'm good." I glanced over at Elliot who was now standing almost right next to me. He had witnessed the interaction and was going to chip a tooth if he clenched his jaw any tighter. I sighed and walked off to get into the car. The amount of testosterone was too much for me right now.