Law & Order Special Victims Unit s12e16 Episode Script

Spectacle

In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous.
In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as The Special Victims Unit.
These are their stories.
Oh, please, don't hurt me! Don't hurt me, don't hurt me, please! Let me go! Stay down, bitch! - Holy crap.
- Is he gonna rape her? - No! Don't hurt me! - Got to be a joke.
- Help me! Please! - You guys watching this? Hell, yeah.
Where's it coming from? I just logged on, and there it was.
This is sick.
I can't watch.
I bet everyone on campus is watching.
- Oh, my God! - We gotta do something.
- Help me! Help me! - Someone must have called the cops, right? I'm begging you! - Freeze it.
- Nope.
Not one call till after the damn video ended.
Can you play it from the beginning? Your I.
T.
People know where it came from? Well, they say it was routed through one of their servers out of the university's intranet.
So it was only played on campus.
As far as they can tell.
But still no idea where the feed originated.
Cinder block walls.
Could it be an empty dorm room? Yeah, now that you mention it.
- How many of those on campus? - The residence halls are full, except for Pembroke.
It's closed for renovations this semester.
This is it! Perp and victim long gone.
But he left us a message.
"See no evil.
" Are you sure there's no prints? The video shows the girl and the rapist - grabbing the bed frame.
- Perp wiped it clean.
- No hair, fluid, fibers? - Not even dust.
He must have vacuumed and sanitized the place.
I can still smell the bleach.
It's been less than an hour since half that campus watched him attack her.
- This bastard is quick.
- Or it wasn't a live show.
You think he recorded it here earlier and played it back from somewhere else? All he needed was Internet access, basic hacking skills.
Olivia, cops in Cleveland just picked up Nigel Clemens.
You better go pack.
Captain, I can't leave now.
Hardwicke has the extradition order.
Munch has the tickets.
You are on the next plane out.
- Good luck, guys.
- Right.
So he obviously wanted us to find that, the arrogant prick.
So arrogant, he paraded her in front of the security cameras outside the building.
He had one hand on her arm, probably held his blade to her back.
Gotta be miles away.
Unless he stashed her somewhere on campus.
I'll get patrol to start checking the buildings.
You two get screen grabs from the video.
Track down every student who saw it and see if anybody recognizes our victim.
I've never seen her before, but I'm pretty sure she's not a student here.
You know everybody on campus? It's a small school, and I do my work-study in the admissions office, so But still, you saw this going down, and you didn't call the police? I guess I figured someone else would.
Even though it looked like she was being raped.
Pretty lame excuse, right? And what's your excuse? I have a huge midterm this afternoon, okay? We need your help now.
Anything about him look familiar? He's wearing a mask.
I was talking about the tattoo.
Yeah, sure.
I've seen it before.
- Where? - Around campus.
Couple guys have 'em.
Any idea what it means? I was stupid enough to ask once.
Ass-clown told me to piss off like it was some kind of ancient Chinese secret.
I can't believe a student would do something like this.
It wasn't necessarily a student.
Hacker didn't use any of the terminals on the university's intranet.
He broke into their system from the outside.
- Any way to trace it? - I tried, but he's a pro.
Made himself a system administrator and set it up so the I.
P.
Address scrambled the moment the feed stopped.
- Real black-hat stuff.
- Anyone see it off-campus? Only if they were accessing the university's wi-fi.
Well, that's why we didn't get any 911 calls from off-campus.
So our rapist wanted to make sure his crime was only seen at the university why? To create a spectacle.
He's raping her to get attention.
Okay, is there any way to narrow down his intended audience? He might be doing it to impress his friends or scare an old girlfriend or just to create mass terror because he has a bone to pick with the school.
Doc, can you tell us what the tattoo means? I think they were going for "try or die.
" Going for? Actually, it reads "pie or die.
" The tattoo artist was having some fun.
Or he flunked Chinese spelling 101.
The kid I talked to said he's seen it on more than one male student.
Well, it's not in the gang database.
I ran a "bads" search on a specific image.
Hit the jackpot.
There was one match with that tattoo Carl Cooper, age 22, junior at Westmore university till he was expelled last year.
- For what? - They didn't say.
But he got collared the next day for sexual abuse three.
He lives a couple of blocks from Westmore university.
Carl Cooper.
You got a second? It's too cold for this! Carl, where you going back to school? - I didn't do anything.
- Right.
Check his apartment.
After I walk back.
There's nothing in my apartment.
Really? Except maybe more of these? It's Adderall.
I have a prescription.
Yeah, I bet you do.
All right, let's go.
Easy, right? You just text some shrink, and you tell him you have A.
D.
D, and then he writes you out a script, no questions asked? It's legit.
I couldn't concentrate enough to study.
Oh, okay.
What's your excuse for sexual assault? Total misunderstanding.
- I kissed a chick at a spring fling.
- You kissed her? She says that you jammed your hands down her pants.
Dude, she wanted that and more until her boyfriend found out I was macking her, and the bitch cried foul.
The university booted you out of there, huh? It was payback time? Am I close? What are you talking about? Carl - where is she? - More like who is she? Wasn't enough just to rape her? You had to broadcast it to all your friends? You're crazy.
I'm still crazy? And you're busted.
I was in a fraternity.
This tattoo was part of the initiation.
It means "try or die.
" Did initiation include rape and kidnapping? Dozens of guys in the frat have the same ink.
And I haven't been to that dump of a university since they kicked me out.
I didn't rape or kidnap anyone.
I tossed Cooper's apartment and the whole building no sign of the girl.
Well, maybe one of his Phi Delta brothers is hiding her.
They all got the same tat.
We need a search warrant for the frat house.
The tattoo alone isn't enough probable cause for a warrant.
And your perp was wearing a mask, so a positive ID is impossible.
Give me a name.
By the time we get that, she may be dead.
I don't make the laws, Elliot.
Can we hold him on the Adderall? He has a legally obtained prescription, and you didn't catch him in the act of selling it.
We found 'em packaged in baggies for sale.
I'll see if it holds up at arraignment.
You think Carl's Phi Delta brothers would be any help? Wouldn't hurt to ask.
Carl Cooper's a douche.
We booted him right before the university did.
Couldn't keep his hands off the ladies? Yeah.
It got so bad, we started calling it "copping a feel.
" I mean, we got a code of conduct here.
Yeah.
You conduct yourselves like idiots.
This place reeks of beer and bong hits.
Well, there's no underage drinking or drugs in the house.
Well, not since you kicked Carl to the curb, anyway.
What? Oh, you mean the Adderall? It's the new caffeine.
When's the last time you pulled an all-nighter, brah? Last night, brah.
Look, what's this all about? This guy with your rite-of-passage ink on his arm.
Yeah.
I can't tell who that is just from his arm.
What about her? Your brothers ever bring her by to meet the family? So she was here.
Yeah, right here.
- Posing with you.
- Just for the photo.
No one invited her to the party.
She just walked in the front door.
- Get a name? - Lizzie Harmon.
Said she goes to Juilliard.
No sign of forced entry.
He either talked his way in here, or she knows him.
He attacks her Drags her off while she tries to fight him off.
Knowing full well we'd be here soon enough.
"See no evil, hear no evil.
" Guess we know what comes next.
Yeah, but what the hell does it mean? A couple neighbors thought they heard a scuffle in Lizzie's apartment two nights ago around 8:00 no one's seen her since.
Yeah, and nobody bothered calling 911.
See no evil, hear no evil.
But instead, they call the media.
That's all we need right now.
What do you got? Hairs, fibers, fingerprints galore, but no blood or anything to indicate the victim was hurt in the apartment.
- Or where the perp took her.
- I'll process what I got and get back to you with the results.
Anything from the neighborhood? I showed Lizzie's picture around to the stores, restaurants, doormen.
They all know her by name, but nobody saw her getting dragged out.
Maybe their cameras caught something.
There's our man in the mask.
A camera from the building next door caught him going into Lizzie's place two nights ago before 8:00.
Well, that's right before the neighbors said they heard the ruckus at her place.
- When did they come out? - Well, there's the problem.
They never did.
Is there any way he could have gotten her out unseen? Service stairs Leads out to the back service entrance.
There are no cameras back there.
Can we put Carl Cooper under that mask? No, we can't.
He was busy getting high at home with some buds when Lizzie was snatched.
Landlord confirmed it.
He's not our guy.
Then we're gonna have to track down every member of Phi Delta past and present - who's got that ink.
- I called the frat president.
He's making up a list right now.
Patrol just brought in Lizzie's mother.
Mrs.
Harmon? I'm captain Cragen, and this is detective Stabler.
All this is for my Lizzie? We're doing everything we can to find her.
When was the last time that you heard from Lizzie? Two nights ago.
She have a boyfriend? No.
I don't think so.
She practices so much.
She's studying piano at Juilliard, and what is it, Mrs.
harmon? - There might be someone.
- Okay, someone she's seeing? She said that she had met a boy a week ago But she wasn't so sure that she liked him.
- Did she tell you his name? - No.
But she said he kept calling her.
Could he have taken my little girl? I dumped Lizzie's cell dozens of calls to the same five numbers.
All of them unregistered disposable cell phones.
- So we can't trace 'em.
- Not the calls, but we traced the numbers back to the manufacturer.
The phones were shipped to a check-cashing place on the Upper West Side.
Store owner emailed us some surveillance pics of people who purchased those cell phones in the last week.
- I know him.
- From where? Westmore university.
He's one of the students I talked to.
Engels, Gregory Engels.
I'll have campus security detain him.
She's back.
Lizzie's online.
Right after we ID'd Engels? Is this guy watching us or something? Feed's streaming live.
- Can you run a trace? - I'm on it.
Help! Somebody help me! Campus cops say Greg Engels is a junior in computer science.
Nobody's seen him since early this morning.
Well, he just flunked this class.
He didn't even put up a firewall this time.
Hell's kitchen four blocks away.
This place is empty.
Where's he got Lizzie? Maybe we hit the wrong apartment.
Or maybe Greg set up.
"See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
" How in the hell is he doing this? Easy.
Engels set up the laptop and broke into the wi-fi network of a law firm in one of the buildings next door.
That's as far as you could trace it? I cloned an I.
P.
Number from one of the law firm servers onto the laptop.
Didn't leave me anywhere to go.
Son of a bitch gets off on manipulating us, sending us on a wild-goose chase.
Not exactly.
That brownstone is significant to him.
It's where Engels and his brother lived with their foster parents.
What happened to their real ones? They died back in 2001 when their plane to the Caribbean crashed.
Maybe Greg's brother knows where he is.
Well, I doubt it, because nobody knows where he is.
Jason engels was abducted outside that abandoned brownstone two years later.
I remember that case.
Went cold he was never recovered.
And then Gregory finally snapped.
And there's your monkey.
I-I get that Engels is traumatized.
- Why kidnap the innocent girl? - Control.
His parents death and his brother's abduction took it from him, and this is his twisted way of getting it back.
A-hole couldn't get a hobby? CSU says Greg Engels' fingerprints are all over Lizzie harmon's apartment.
Great.
Now all we got to do is find him.
Have patrol interview all Greg engel's friends.
See if any have seen him.
Check where he hangs out.
Talks to each of his professors.
I want to know his daily routine.
Be careful with this kid.
He's smart and he's obsessed, and that makes him dangerous.
I can't predict how he'll react if we back him into a corner.
Freaks like him always make a mistake.
Gotta be some way for us to trip him up, make him think we're on to him.
If he catches on to us, he could carry out his threat.
Gregory Engels! I don't have a weapon.
You're not in any danger.
Yeah, well, you're under arrest.
Put your hands in the air.
Put your hands in the air.
Where's Lizzie Harmon? Right here.
.
I see that you have an accomplice? My little monkey.
If life doesn't get a signal from me every two minutes, he's gonna kill her.
How do I know you didn't film that hours ago? How do I know she's still alive? All right, enough.
What do you want? I want you to find my brother.
- You crack that laptop yet? - No, still trying.
This Engels kid knows how to encrypt forward and backwards.
Hopefully, this'll work.
Damn it! - Another minefield.
- Well, get through it.
I need to know why this guy went after Lizzie.
Does he hate her? Is it money? What does this joker want? Whatever it is, I'll find it.
Hey, Fin.
Where's Elliot? I turned around a half hour ago, he was gone.
As in left the building? You got me.
It went straight to voice mail.
Well, he's either in a dead zone, out of juice, or he turned it off.
Why the hell would he do that? It's off, okay? Satisfied? Now they can't track you here.
I still got my gun, pal.
And I still have the girl.
Is that how you get off - abusing defenseless women? - Shut up and sit down.
Don't even have the balls to do it yourself.
I said shut up! Now read it.
You went to an awful lot of trouble to get me here.
Why? I did my homework.
Special Victims has one of the NYPD's highest clearance rates.
So if you want help, why don't you just pick up the phone and call? What's all this crap with the monkeys? To frustrate you.
Give you a taste of what I've been going through for years.
Read.
Read.
"Three-year-old Jason Engels was abducted 10:32 A.
M.
, July 24th, '03" "From the corner of West 37th and 10th Avenue.
" Why I sent you there.
"Lead investigator, Detective Fiddler, logged hundreds of man-hours on the search" for all of two weeks! Until some other tragedy knocked my brother's case off the front page.
And you cops just walk away? File some papers, and the whole mess gets labeled a cold case? Not this time! I want to help you.
I can help you.
But not like this.
Now, for every cop who is out there looking for Lizzie, they could be searching for your brother.
They don't give a damn about Jason! But as long as I've got Lizzie I'll make you care.
You like to make people feel pain? I can do that too.
Break my neck.
Break my neck.
Anything happens to me She's dead before you step into that elevator.
- El's car is gone.
- You try Kathy? She says she hasn't spoken to him since he left the house yesterday.
Elliot just doesn't walk out on a case.
Unless he has a damn good reason.
- Like what? - The last time I saw him, he was staring at his cell phone with a weird look on his face.
All right, I'll call his provider, get them to cough up his text logs.
Fin, I broke Engels' code and found a lot of stuff on an abduction, but not Lizzie Harmon's.
You mean his kid brother, Jason.
Greg wrote emails to every law enforcement agency in New York, asking for follow-ups, offering tips, begging for help.
You did everything right, covered all the bases, called everyone you could think of.
You've been a one-man crusade since the case went cold.
I wrote a million letters to every precinct I could find, - even hired a PI.
- And? First people were polite, then they stopped paying attention, then, uh Then I became a nuisance.
Well, you never gave up.
And I never will.
Would you? No.
I'd do the same thing.
My parents are dead.
Jason's all I've got.
Okay, so the day he was taken, the both of you were out on the street alone? Yeah.
Where were your foster parents? Getting high off the money they got for supposedly taking care of us.
All right.
Where were you and Jason going? A neighbor gave me a couple bucks for taking out the garbage.
There's a bodega on the corner that sold Italian ices.
- And Jason loved cherry.
- And Jason was 3.
- That made you - 12.
You told Detective Fiddler that you were knocked down from behind.
By the time that you got up, you saw a car moving away from the curb.
I ran after it, but it didn't have a license plate.
So who was out on the street? - You have Mr.
Davidson.
- Yeah.
He was down the block.
- Down the block.
- He was walking Apollo, his German Shepherd.
Mrs.
Gann was sweeping the steps back on our building behind us.
- Anyone else you remember? - There was a guy weird-looking, stringy hair.
I think he was scoring pot off the guy my foster parents bought from.
Yeah, here he is Jack Delmar.
The only other person I saw was the daughter of the super in our building coming home from summer school.
- Mindy Sherman.
- Yeah.
Every one of them saw the whole thing Me being knocked down Jason thrown into the car.
Me screaming.
It's called the bystander effect.
Nobody does anything because they think someone else will.
Jason must have been scared to death.
Just like Lizzie is now.
- What? - Well, you're doing to her what the kidnappers did to your brother.
- Shut up.
- Let her go.
I swear, I'll work Jason's case, and I won't stop until I find out what happened.
I promise you.
I-I promise you She's dead unless you find my brother first.
She's dead.
- You find Stabler yet? - No, but his service provider said he got a bunch of texts.
We can track Elliot's movements by matching the texts to his GPS.
He got the first three texts when he was still in the precinct.
Okay.
Those are the ones that lured Elliot out the door.
Elliot was uptown when he got the next one.
He turned and headed east.
So Engels was giving him directions on the fly.
Where's the next one from? Middle of 59th Street bridge.
That must be where he sent El the address, 'cause that's the last one.
So he's with Engels somewhere in queens.
And we're screwed.
- Him and us.
- Maybe not.
This number's for the burn phone that sent Elliot the texts.
With a little luck We can trace it.
I can't see the answer in here.
So you're giving up too, huh? No.
Tell me about your brother.
Anything you remember.
Brown hair.
Blue eyes.
We used to make forts with our blankets and pretend we were living back home.
He always called me Gig.
Why Gig? When Jason was little, he couldn't say Greg.
So instead he said Gig.
Last thing I heard him yell as the car drove off.
Why does any of this matter? Greg You were 12 years old.
It's not your fault Jason was kidnapped.
You think I'm doing this 'cause I feel guilty? We all do a lot of things out of guilt that cloud our judgment.
W-what's your point? What is this? What are you doing? You lost your little brother, the only person you loved in this world.
I can't imagine that pain or what it would make me do.
No.
You can't.
I'm guessing Lizzie's mother can.
This isn't about Lizzie's mother.
Well, she's going through the exact same agony you've been going through for eight years.
Now, you've gotten what you want.
You have my attention.
Let Lizzie go.
Tell me where she is.
Spare her and her mother your pain.
Just tell me where she is.
You promise you'll work Jason's case? You have my word.
You have my word.
Okay.
Okay? - What's that? - I don't know.
They tracked you here.
I turned off my phone.
I gave it to you.
Did you turn yours off? Elliot, you down here? Captain? I'm all right.
Back off.
- Where's Lizzie? - Go to hell.
Don't shoot! He's not armed.
You hands up.
She's dead.
You killed her.
Where's Lizzie's body? At least give her mother some peace.
- Find anything? - No.
We searched the building top to bottom No Lizzie, and no telling where Greg's ski-mask wearing partner has her.
Any way to trace the video feed? No.
It went offline when he smashed the iPad.
He said the moment that he stopped communicating with his partner Lizzie would be dead.
We still gotta find her.
What happened in that room downstairs? Nothing that can help us.
I was getting into his head, though.
I mean Is he that screwed up? Is he that beaten down that he would take Lizzie's life? Officer, wait yo.
Give us a minute, will you? Move over.
So why are you frowning? It's over.
You smashed your iPad.
Your monkey murdered Lizzie.
What what do you think, I like having to do this? I think you had no intention of telling us where Lizzie is.
All you wanted was revenge.
- On who? - The NYPD.
That's why you've been leading us around for the past two days by our nose.
That's why you tortured that girl, because we couldn't find your brother.
- That's a lie.
- Is it? I just wanted someone to pay attention.
To care about Jason.
Well, you got a sick way of showing that.
What do you know about what I've been through? I don't care about anything anymore.
I don't care if I live or I die.
So why are you crying? I never wanted to kill her.
She's still alive, isn't she? Yeah.
Where is she? Find out what happened to my brother.
Only thing colder than this case is you making us start from scratch.
When we find Jason Engels, we find Lizzie Harmon.
Doc, can you pull and profile all known sex offenders living in Jason's neighborhood in 2003? - On it.
- All right.
The rest of us will track down and re-interview the original witnesses.
I was out walking my dog Apollo when I heard a ruckus.
I saw this little kid being dragged into a car.
I thought he was having a tantrum.
Mr.
Davidson, do you remember the color of the car? UhGreen.
It was a station wagon.
It was a beige sedan.
Did you see anybody sketchy nearby? Guy was across the street.
Seen him around before.
I think he was buying marijuana.
What was his name? - Jack Delmar.
- Mr.
Delmar, you recall being on West 37th and 10th the day Jason Engels was abducted? Yeah.
I stayed to visit a player on my soccer team.
We heard you were in the neighborhood copping drugs.
Who told you that? The boy got a concussion the day before.
Y-you coached soccer? Still do.
What can I say? I love kids.
I saw the kid get shoved in the back of a car.
My instincts told me something was off.
But you didn't intervene.
I thought someone else would.
And you're sure that it was a man who shoved Jason into the car.
Positive.
Anyone or anything else seem off to you that day, Ms.
Sherman? No.
Mrs.
Gann was out on her stoop.
I saw Mr.
Davidson, Mrs.
Penner.
Other than that boy getting grabbed, it was a normal day.
Captain, that's the last one.
And their stories still hold up.
Dead on to what they told detectives after Jason Engels was kidnapped.
Welcome back.
Nigel Clemens is at central booking? Hand-delivered.
You two look like you haven't slept since I left.
Pretty damn close.
So you still haven't found the girl.
Only her kidnapper.
And he just sent us back to square one.
Cops back in '03 brought in every registered sex offender in Manhattan and came up empty.
And three different descriptions of the kidnap car.
Green, beige, and midnight blue sedan, station wagon, and hatchback.
So the only thing that our witnesses agree on is that Jason was shoved into a car by some guy.
What if the taker wasn't a guy? What, your gut telling you it was a woman? No, something Mindy Sherman said that she saw a Mrs.
Penner out there that morning.
Now, there was no Mrs.
Penner in the account she gave cops back in '03.
I haven't come across that name in any of the reports I've seen.
And no Mrs.
Penner on the list of witnesses brought in for questioning.
I'm gonna ask Greg if he knows who she is.
I used to babysit Mrs.
Penner's kid, Danny.
What about her? Her name came up in the investigation, but the cops never interviewed her back in '03.
Because she wasn't there the day Jason was kidnapped.
- How do you know that? - Her parents lived in Staten Island.
She was all broken up after Danny died.
She moved back in with them.
- Danny Penner died? How? - Leukemia.
He was only three.
I remember the day Mrs.
Penner moved off our block.
Crying and screaming.
Saying all she wanted was her little boy back.
Hey.
Where are you going? Miriam Penner spent six weeks in Bellevue psych ward after her son died in April, '03.
And her DMV records show she's owned a green '99 Subaru wagon since before Jason Engels disappeared.
A green station wagon.
One of the witnesses had it right.
She loses her son.
She's stewing in Bellevue.
When she gets out, she decides to go back to the old neighborhood and replace him with Jason.
How does she explain him to her parents? I checked.
Parents in Staten Island are a croc.
Miriam's folks live in Boca Raton.
- Okay, great.
- Called Miriam's number.
I said I was doing a survey, and the woman who answered the phone said she was a babysitter.
I think it was her.
Look, if she's been watching the news, - she may know we're on to her.
- I'll have patrol sit on her house in case she tries to bolt.
Hey.
Manhattan SVU.
Which one's the house? Two down on the right.
Not a creature is stirring.
There is now.
Miriam Penner! Police! Put your hands on the wheel.
Put it in park.
Get out! Get out! Get out.
Get out.
- Where are you off to today, Miriam? - To visit my mother in Florida.
Really? You gonna stay with her for real this time? Miriam? Miriam.
Where is he? - Where's Jason Engels? - I don't see him! Jason who? - Found him.
- He's my son! He's my son! You can't take Danny! Jason? Jason.
- Jason, wake up, honey.
- He's my son! - He's breathing.
- You can't take him! - He's sedated.
- Please, please, don't take him.
He's my whole life! Miriam Penner, you're under arrest for kidnapping.
My baby! My baby, God! - Don't take away my baby! - I'll ride with him.
My baby! Don't try take away my baby! Get up.
Where are we going? We're gonna go see Lizzie.
We found your brother.
You have Jason? - Where is he? - He's being checked out by a doctor, and now you're gonna keep your word.
Police! Show us your hands! - Don't shoot! - Lizzie Harmon, you all right? Yeah.
What the hell is going on here? - Hey, brah, you could have knocked.
- Shut up, Phi Delt! What's going on? - Hope they didn't freak you out.
- Who, me or them? All three of you are in a hell of a lot of trouble.
Lizzie wasn't raped.
Doug never kidnapped her.
- No harm done.
- Yeah? Tell that to Lizzie's mom and the dozens of cops - you sent through hell.
- Greg needed our help.
We wouldn't have done this if you guys had found Greg's brother eight years ago.
- Can I call my mom? - You gonna bust us? They're gonna bust me.
I'm responsible for all this.
But it was worth it.
Just let me see my brother before you take me in.
Turn around.
Jason? Jason.
Jason, it's me.
- Gig! - Yeah.
Yeah, it's Gig.
It's me.
It's Gig.

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