Story 1: The Echoes of Power
The party was being held in a penthouse in Manhatten, it was already in full swing by the time she arrived, the gorgeous skyline glittering through the wraparound windows. The music was pulsing and glasses were being clinked. She moved to the dance floor where she could see her boyfriend. They danced for an hour or so before he left. Her head was spinning so she went to a darkened room - no one heard her scream...
In the squad room of the Special Victims Unit, Olivia Benson and Amanda Rollins were sat talking about previous cases they had worked on together. Olivia Benson had seen it all the gathered. Or so they thought.
The call came in at 3:04am. A body had been found behind the Hudson Plaza Hotel, dumped like trash. The only things known about it, female, mid 20's. The woman was unconscious with signs of sexual assault, and bruising around her neck. There was no ID.
By the time Benson and Rollins arrived at the scene, the victim had already been rushed to Bellevue.
"Who found her?" Benson asked, looking around the scene.
"Hotel Valet," replied the responding officer. " Said a black SUV pulled into the alley, stopped for about five seconds and then peeled out. Didn't get registration plates or any looks at the people in the car."
No plates. No witnesses. And no security footage - they were told that the security cameras were 'under maintance'. The twisted feeling in Benson's gut grew stronger every second.
At Bellevue, the Jane Doe stirred. She blinked a few times trying to get her eyes to focus and to work out where she was. Her eyes flicked to where Olivia was standing against the wall watching her. The first thing the Jane Doe said, well more whispered, was "don't tell anyone I'm alive."
Amanda slowly moved towards the bed before sitting down in the chair next to her, and leant in. "You know who did this to you?" she asked.
The girl looked at Rollins and nodded. After a few more questions they gathered the girls name was Chloe Mercer, and she wasn't just anyone - she was a congressional intern. More importantly, she had been dating Elliot Nash, son of Senator Howard Nash, a powerful New York figure with presidential ambitions.
"I was at a party," Chloe whispered. "There was this room.... upstairs. They called it The Theatre Room."
Benson, who had been moving forward, froze. That name.... it had come up before. Years ago. She couldn't remember clearly from which case but she knew it had been buried fast, sealed with nondisclosure agreements and private settlements.
"Who was in that room?" Benson asked gently.
Chloe hesitated, looking like she didn't want to say anymore. Then: "There were four men. Elliot was one of them. And........ someone they called The Director."
Benson and Rollins left Chloe to get some rest and drove back to the precinct, their heads spinning. Benson trying to work out what was up with that room that had been hidden so well from everyone else. Rollins going through the little, but helpful information Chloe had given them.
Once back they briefed the rest of the squad on the situation and then everyone was in action. Carisi pulled some favours with the U.S. Attorneys Office, digging into rumours about 'The Director'. It had once been a joke to Capitol Hill - a nickname for a mysterious political strategist known for arranging 'cleanups' for the rich and powerful.
No one knew his name. But Benson had cracked cases like this before. It was a bit like the case with the guy known as 'The Ghost'... but she'd had help on that one as she was going to need to have help on this one too.
But Fin, digging through old cases, found a sealed file. Case #01987-V: sexual assault allegations made at an NYU donor gala five years ago. Victim? Anonymous. Accused? Never named.
Benson remembered that victim. She had recanted. Overnight.
Barbra, back in town, consulting another case, took one look at the film and muttered, "this one had strings attached all the way to the White House."
Back at Bellevue, Benson and Rollins had gone to interview Chloe again, she confessed she had been threatened. "They showed me a photo," she said. "It was my younger sister. At school. They said, if I talked, she'd disappear." A single tear slipped down Chloe's face before she quickly rubbed it away.
She handed them a burner phone. It had one text that had survived deletion: 'You weren't supposed to wake up - D'
The team scrambled. Who was D?
Carisi spent hours tracking the burner phones last ping to a private room in Tribeca: The Obsidian Room. It was a members only room, no public records. Hard to get in, but they had a way. Rollins. With a borrowed name and an alias, she could get in.
That evening, Rollins walked up the stairs to the club, glittering, red dress fitting perfectly to the curves of her body, fake ID in hand. The name was one of a member, meaning she managed to enter the Obsidian Room. Inside, is what chilled her. The club had a back room... Glass walls, and cameras. High-profile men wearing masks. But the worst part... she recognised one of the voices. Judge Horace Pennington, whom she'd seen preside over a trafficking case last year.
After leaving the club, she made her way back to the squad room where the rest of the team was waiting for her. They looked at her pale face and knew whatever she was about to say was bad. They sat her down and she looked up before speaking.
"Sex tapes..." Rollins said. "They record them. It's all blackmail."
With the help of Barbra, they managed to secure a warrant to search the club. What they found wasn't their typical assault gone wrong, it was much worse to the point that even seasoned detectives were made nauseous. Dozens of encrypted hard drives, more hidden rooms, a ledger with names of victims and guests alike - some marked with a skull, some with a dollar sign.
All the evidence was taken back to the squad room to look through it all properly. They went through the list of names to see if they could work out any of the members of the circle. And that's when they saw it. The name under the alias of The Director. Assistant U.S. Attorney Malcom Greeley. He'd overseen multiple SVU cases. Yet he had been protecting predators and was one himself.
They started to investigate Malcom for other crimes he may have committed and through the investigation they found he had orchestrated cover ups, using federal immunity to shield clients in exchange for political favours.
Barbra whispered, "this is cancer."
Benson nodded, "and we're cutting it out."
***
Chloe despite having received many death threats and surveillance she chose to testify. The DA's office offered her full protection. She named names, and described the room in detail, the types of drugs that had been used. The laughter from the men as they made her do things and the flash from the camera every few seconds. She described how embarrassing and humiliating it had been for her.
And when Elliot Nash got arrested, the whole country watched.
Senator Nash went on live National TV and declared, "My son is innocent. This is a witch hunt."
But SVU had tapes and lots of them. They played out in the courtroom in front of the judge and the jury. Except the jury never got to deliberate. Elliot Nash pleaded out - twenty years in federal prison.
The bigger fallout came next - three federal judges resigned, two lobbyists were indicted, and Malcom Greeley fled the country before Interpol caught him in Monaco. The Director was done.
Later on Chloe Mercer now runs a nonprofit for survivors of political abuse. She lives in D.C. under a different name. Barbra took on a permanent position as a federal oversight council for DOJ reform. Carisi was promoted to ADA of High Profile Crimes. Rollins transferred to FBI.
And Benson? As always, remains heart of the squad. Weathered but unbroken. Because crimes go all the way to the top. And SVU always follows the truth. No matter who it destroys.
