The Path to Love: A Sonny Carisi Love Story

50: Changing Stories

We get the three boys to come in the next day. Two lawyered up for interrogation and one sitting out with Sonny. I sit in the room with Connor, asking him questions, trying to get him to slip up. "So, no relationship with Heather?" I ask him after he went over his nights events.

He respond "Not me. I told you, I don't want to be Brian's Eskimo brother."

I call him out "you're lying, Connor. We have your DNA on Heather Manning's underwear from that night."

He spits back "my DNA's all over that place. I live there."

His lawyer piggybacks him "this underwear has an evidentiary chain of custody from three months ago?"

I push "ask your client. He handed it back to her in class, in front of 20 students." He smirks at me, as if he's trying not to laugh about it.

His lawyer takes that statement and tries to run with it "which explains the DNA, doesn't it?"

I clarify "doesn't explain his semen."

His lawyer looks at Connor and moves in to whisper into his ear. Before they could say anything back to me, Sonny comes into the room and leans down to whisper into my ear. I laugh, knowing someone would turn "Hey, Connor, I was just telling detective Grey here that we don't need to talk to you anymore." The lawyer and boy look at each other for a moment, Sonny goes on "between the DNA and one of your buddies putting you in the room with Heather, you're done."

They whisper to each other again and then Connor finally confesses to sex with Heather "Okay, look, I didn't want to say this before, because I thought it would look bad."

"Mm-hmm?" I utter, as if i'm interested in what he has to say.

He elaborates "but after she finished with Brian, she moved on to me like that." He snaps "her idea. Totally consensual. I didn't rape her. Ask Brian."

"So he was there? He saw you?" I ask. He nods back and I look to Sonny who nods. I move out of the room to fill Finn in on our new information.

I go into the other interrogation room and whisper to Finn what Sonny told me and what Connor told us. Finn nods, sits up further in his chair "oh, Brian, you forgot to tell us about your boy Connor."

"What is this about?" Brian's lawyer asks.

"Connor just admitted that he had sex with Heather right after you did." Finn answers back.

The lawyer questions "how is that my client's problem?"

I explain to him, but mostly to Brian "he said that you knew about it, which means you lied to us. So what else you been lying about?"

"Brian, you don't need to answer any more questions." Mr. Wolf encourages Brian not to engage with us.

Brian argues "no, I want to explain. I did see Connor with her, but she w--"

Wolf interrupts "enough."

Finn opens his hands a bit "let him finish."

"For her to be acting all prim and proper now?" Brian spits at us, clearly a nerve hit "she wants to act the whore on Saturday and play the virgin on Sunday."

His lawyer calls it "there you have it. Detectives, so far we've extended every courtesy. But now it's time for us to go."

I speak up before they can stand, looking directly to Brian "or let's say you could sign this, we could keep talking, and you can tell us your side. And maybe we could clear this whole thing up without it having to go into the system, okay?"

Mr. Wolf looks over at it and scoffs "a temporary arraignment waiver? Get out of here with that." He pushes it back towards us "unless my client's under arrest, we're leaving."

"Okay, you two stay here. I'll see what my D.A. wants to do." Finn says upfront, and the two of us leave the room.

We all meet in Olivia's office, Finn and I come in after Sonny "So, all three turned down the waiver."

Sonny elaborates "their lawyers think letting them talk's just going to make things worse."

Barba doesn't deter though, directing us "good. Arraign them."

Olivia catches on to his play "the deeper into the system they get, the harder it is to pull them out."

"All right, we'll load them up now.' Finn says pushing off the wall.

Barba stops him, stops us "you know what? Hold up a half-hour." He turns his attention to Olivia, a small smile forming on his face "Connor's a handsome boy with a smug smile."

"Be good to get that face on the 11:00 news." She agree's, a smile forming on her own face.

We get the word out of the boys being arrested at 11 and as soon we open the doors to bring them to the van the lights start flashing and the reporters and activists start calling out "why did you rape Jane? Are you pleading guilty? What do you have to say?"

We push them into the van, one at a time, and close the doors, walking back inside to finish our shift and get ready for tomorrows events.

I manage to leave the precinct before Sonny does, wanting to continue to avoid him and any conversation he wants to have with me. The next morning, I arrive with everyone's coffees and see what Finn and Sonny have on the T.V. "Ugh, this is everywhere." I pass out the joe to them and Sonny turns the volume up of the interview being held "I  understand that the school has since suspended all fraternity activities?" He is asked.

Skip, the reporter who first broke Heather's story says back "yes they have, and last night NYPD arrested and arraigned three of the accused rapists: Brian Mackey, captain of the hockey team, and his teammates Connor Howell and Lance Mosconi."

"And you had a chance to talk to the victim, Jane?" The reporter asks.

"She's now bravely come forward. Her real name is Heather Manning." He informs her.

The women then states "we caught up with her at a campus rally late last night."

The video switches to one of Heather from the night before "I am gratified to hear that three of the six men who attacked me were arrested tonight by NYPD."

"Wait, what did she just say?" I ask.

Her voice continues through the room "what they did that night was meant to dehumanize me. When they said, "who else wants to rape that?" They weren't just assaulting me. They were assaulting every woman on this campus.

"Did she just say six men raped her?" Sonny says "I thought it was four."

"Yah, I heard that too." I get out.

Sonny starts to look at the papers, Finn offers up "maybe she's counting the guys in the video, the ones in the hall."

"I don't know. Something feels off. " Sonny responds ""Who else wants to rape that?" Does that sound like something even a frat boy would say?"

"It's not what they said, it's what they did." I remind him.

"DNA don't lie." Finn adds on.

"And you say there's more information still to come?" The reporter asks, now returning to the live interview.

Skip answers "sources have told me that police confiscated a video of the assault, and that hockey sticks used on her have tested positive for DNA."

I grab the remote from in front of Sonny and turn it off "enough of this. Let's see what Liv wants us to do."