“What the hell happened to him?” Cragen asked as Olivia and Munch came into the observation room after delivering Matic to interrogation. The bruising coming up on Matic’s face and arms was only too apparent. Munch shrugged.

“He fell over. A lot.”

Cragen groaned softly.

“Wonderful.”

“Don’t look at us,” Olivia protested. “We never laid a hand on him other than to escort him here from the One-Nine. It was the Jersey cops who laid into him. They said he resisted arrest. Apparently he broke the jaw of one of the cops that collared him, and head-butted another.”

“As long as we don’t see repercussions when it goes to court,” Cragen growled.

“Elliot and Fin get anything from CSU?” Olivia asked in an effort to change the subject, and also because she was still quietly annoyed that she was stuck doing the grunt work with Munch.

“As a matter of fact,” Cragen answered, “yes. CSU found a second sample of seminal fluid. They’ve matched the DNA to Richard Cozza. And they found a fingerprint belonging to Richard Goren in the bathroom.”

“That’s not going to prove anything,” Munch pointed out. “He’s Goren’s brother. It’s a totally reasonable possibility that he used the bathroom while he was there earlier.”

“They found it imprinted on the basin over the top of the sample of semen they found that came from Cozza.”

“Oh, fuck,” Olivia whispered. Cragen nodded.

“Exactly. The lying son of a bitch was there either during or after his brother was attacked. I’m betting it was during. Now, as soon as Matic’s lawyer gets here, I want you two to get stuck into that monster in there. Goad him, bully him, do whatever you have to, short of actually slapping him around. But I want something solid out of him.”

Olivia nodded.

“We’ll get it. Don’t worry.”

“Simon Matic,” Olivia said calmly as she and Munch walked into the interrogation room. Matic looked sullenly up at the two of them.

“You have no cause to be holding my client,” Matic’s lawyer stated primly. “You have no evidence of him having committed any crime, let alone assaulting anyone.”

“Well, let’s see here,” Olivia said as she sat down and began flipping through the file on the desk in front of her. “We have a victim statement here that identifies your client as one of the people who assaulted him.”

“A judge will never commit my client for trial on the basis of a statement from an assault victim who can’t even see.”

“We also have a statement from the victim’s brother,” Munch added blithely, “testifying to Mr Matic’s direct involvement in the assault on Detective Goren.”

“Hearsay,” the lawyer shot back. “You have no solid proof that my client was even inside Detective Goren’s apartment, let alone that he had anything to do with the assault.”

Olivia closed the file, and turned her full attention onto Matic.

“You must have been pretty pissed when you realised Detective Goren had nailed you for raping that little girl.”

Matic stared at Olivia, his jaw twitching just slightly.

“Be quiet,” his lawyer warned him in a low voice. “You don’t have to say anything. Don’t give them ammunition.”

“Funny,” Munch mused. “Isn’t that more or less what your partner in crime told you when you couldn’t keep your trap shut? When you leaned in close and whispered into Goren’s ear? What was it that you said again…?”

“I got you,” Olivia said. Munch nodded.

“That’s right. I got you. You know something? That’s how he knew who you were. Even though you had him blindfolded at the time, and then you tried to blind him by burning his eyes, he still recognised your voice, because you just couldn’t resist rubbing it in and gloating. That was really smart, wasn’t it?”

“You’ve got nothing,” Matic snapped. “Not a goddamned thing.”

Olivia and Munch glanced at each other, small, tight smiles on their faces at Matic’s heated reaction.

“Actually,” Olivia said, “I think we have more than enough without you having to ever say a word. Let us give you a rundown of what we know.”

“Oh,” Munch said, “and feel free to correct us if we have anything wrong.”

“You met Detective Goren’s brother, Richie, in prison,” Olivia went on, sounding casual but watching Matic with an eagle eye. “You found out who he was, and decided you’d take advantage of a golden opportunity. Instead of trying to kill him, like everyone else was doing, you offered to protect him. You made friends with him, earned his trust. Then, a couple of years later, Richard Cozza arrived on the scene, and you brought him in on the scam, too. The two of you acted like Richie’s personal body guards until you were all released from prison. Then, you tracked him down. You told him he owed you protection money, and when he said he didn’t have the money, you suggested that maybe he could get it from his little brother. Or maybe, if he couldn’t get his brother to pay up, then maybe you could get your dues another way.”

Munch took over smoothly.

“You told Richie that if he couldn’t get the money, then you’d take your payment in the form of a little payback. You told him that you just wanted to smack his brother around a little, right? That you wanted to just give him a scare. Except, you planned on doing more than just scaring him, didn’t you? Cozza got a hold of some chlorphenesin, and he tells Richie to dope his brother’s drink if he won’t come up with the money.”

“Then, you waited for Richie to come out of his brother’s place on Saturday night,” Olivia went on. “You knew already he was going to say he couldn’t get the money. You counted on him saying that he couldn’t get it. So now you figure you have free reign. You make sure he doped his brother up with the chlorphenesin, and then you tell Richie to get lost. Then you let yourselves into Detective Goren’s apartment, and you don’t leave again until some time between ten and noon the next morning.”

“And before you protest, Counsellor,” Munch cut in even as the lawyer opened his mouth to argue against their interpretation of events, “we have a positive ID of your client from the superintendent of Detective Goren’s building. He’s already provided a statement saying that your client threatened to kill him if he didn’t make sure the security systems and the sprinkler system was switched off overnight, and turned back on again at noon the next day.”

The lawyer took the copy of the statement from Munch, and read through it briefly before sparing Matic a worried glance. Olivia smiled sweetly.

“How are we doing so far?”

Matic turned a dangerous look on Olivia.

“Richie talked to you?”

“Yes, he did,” Olivia confirmed.

“That’s what he told you? That we planned it all? Me… and Chops?”

“That’s what he told us,” Olivia answered. “He’s put it all on you and Cozza, Simon. He grabbed a deal for himself, and put all the blame on the two of you. He said you manipulated him into giving up his brother to you.”

Anger flashed across Matic’s face.

“That piece of shit. That lying piece of shit!”

“You have a different take on things?” Munch asked. Matic glowered at the two of them.

“It was his idea,” Matic said in a soft, tense voice. “Not ours.”

“Whose idea?” Olivia asked. “Richie’s?”

“Yes,” Matic spat. “That lousy lowlife. He planned it. He planned everything.”

Munch leaned forward across the table.

“Convince us.”

For nearly a minute, Matic said nothing. Olivia and Munch waited patiently, knowing they’d sufficiently pushed Matic’s buttons to get something out of him. Alex’s advice on how to deal with Matic when they finally caught him had paid off, although the allegation that Richie had planned the attack was a disturbing development.

“When I got to prison, I found out about Richie from the other inmates. He was in protective custody then. I pushed for the warden to put him in with me. I was going to hurt him… I wanted to kill him… because I couldn’t hurt his brother. When the warden finally put him with me, I told him who I was… that his brother was responsible for putting me in prison. He asked what I’d done, and I told him. Then he asked if I’d like to help him out with a little bit of payback.”

“He asked you,” Munch said flatly. Matic nodded, scowling.

“That’s right. He asked me, and if he’s told you any different, he’s a liar.”

“What, exactly, did he say?” Olivia asked softly.

Matic stared at the table top, scowling.

“He said he owed his brother. That he went to prison because his brother wouldn’t speak for him at his trial… that he refused to act as a character witness. Some bullshit like that. Richie blamed his brother for being in prison… He blamed him for everything that had happened to him while he was in prison. He said he wanted a piece of his brother, and he was happy to let me in on the action, if I wanted.”

“And you figured, why not?” Munch said. Matic looked up at him, and then smirked.

“Sure. Why not? Seemed like a good idea. My lawyer said there was a good chance I could get my sentence reduced, to be patient.”

“So you had plenty of time to plan what you were going to do,” Olivia said, fighting to suppress her disgust. Matic snorted derisively.

“Plan? We didn’t plan anything. Richie already had it worked out.”

“The attack?” Munch asked, and Matic nodded.

“Yes. The attack, and how to get into his apartment to start with. He had everything figured out. And he couldn’t wait to get out of prison to put it into action. Me? I didn’t really care either way. I liked the idea of getting back at Goren. But I wasn’t holding my breath. I looked out for Richie because I liked him. He was… funny. And it was… amusing, listening to what he planned on doing to his brother. But when I got out of prison, I didn’t care about revenge so much. But then Richie found me. He came after me. He said he and Chops were ready to go ahead with the plan, and they were just waiting for me. I thought about it… and I thought, why not?”

“Tell us about the assault,” Olivia said quietly. She was feeling sick to her stomach by now, nauseated by the thought that Richard Goren had orchestrated the assault on his younger brother. She hoped desperately that Matic would say something to contradict himself, but she knew that wasn’t going to happen. Something in his story rang true, as little as she wanted to admit it.

Matic sat back, his expression becoming guarded.

“I tell you… and what do I get? Life? Death, maybe?”

“You violently assaulted and raped a police officer,” Munch growled. “Don’t think you aren’t going to get life for this. But you cooperate now, and the DA might just be convinced not to ask for the death penalty.”

Matic looked across at his lawyer, who in turn spoke to Olivia and Munch.

“Could you give us a few minutes, please?”

Olivia and Munch exited the room without a word of protest.

“Nice job,” Cragen commented wryly as they joined him and Casey Novak in the observation room. “Even if he won’t say anything more, we still have plenty to formally charge him, and send him to trial.”

“He says Bobby’s brother planned the whole thing,” Olivia said softly, worry creasing her forehead. “If that’s true…”

“If it’s true,” Casey said firmly, “then Richard Goren can kiss his life goodbye. I’m not going to let him skate through this just to nail Matic and Cozza. Not if the assault was his idea to begin with. Even if Branch won’t agree to the death penalty, I won’t accept anything less than life in prison.”

“Never mind that,” Munch said quietly. “It doesn’t matter what Matic will or won’t say. CSU have Goren snr at the scene with that fingerprint they found in the bathroom. So even if he didn’t physically partake, he was still there. We can nail him for conspiracy at the very least. What this is going to do is just about finish Bobby Goren off. Sooner or later he’s going to remember everything, and that includes his brother’s… participation. When that happens, it ain’t gonna be pretty.”

“We’ll deal with that when we have to,” Cragen said in a noticeably more subdued voice. “Right now, we have this mutt to deal with. It looks like they’re done talking. Get back in there and seal this one. I don’t want any holes showing by the time we find Cozza.”

Olivia and Munch left the room silently, leaving Cragen with Casey.

“You’re really going to push for the death penalty for Richard Goren?” he asked quietly. Casey nodded decisively.

“Richard Goren wasn’t the innocent victim of circumstance that he wanted us to think he was, Captain. If Mr Matic is to be believed, he’s been planning this assault for most of the time that he was in prison.”

Cragen sighed softly.

“Munch is right. This is going to just about kill Bobby Goren.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Casey asked. “I’m well aware of how this might affect Detective Goren and I’m going to sound like a bitch for saying this, but you know I have to consider everything. And my biggest worry is that Detective Goren will refuse to testify against his brother.”

Cragen nodded, understanding immediately where she was coming from with that.

“If he won’t testify, we may not get a conviction.”

“You said earlier that he seems to trust Elliot.”

A grimace passed over Cragen’s features.

“Yes, that seems to be the case.”

“Then have Elliot push the importance of him being willing to testify against his brother.”

Cragen turned to face her, his expression tired and grim.

“This is Detective Robert Goren you’re talking about, Casey. Not some green rookie. He’ll already know how important it is to getting convictions that he testify, even if it’s his own brother that he’s testifying against. No matter what emotional state he’s in, don’t think he won’t already be aware of that. You need to give the man a chance to pull himself together some. Once he does, I don’t think you’ll need to worry about whether or not he’ll testify.”

Casey looked sceptical.

“You really think his brother means that little to him, Captain?”

Cragen answered that question with silence. For nearly a minute, he stood and watched his two detectives as they listened to Simon Matic tell his disturbing tale. Finally, he turned to the door.

“I have a phone call to make.”

Then he was gone, leaving Casey alone in the observation room.

Back in the privacy of his office, Cragen called his colleague at Narcotics, Captain Bill Dodson.

“Hey, Don,” Dodson greeted him cheerfully. “How’re you doing?”

“Not too bad,” Cragen answered.

“How’s it coming with the Bobby Goren assault case?”

“Ah, we’re getting there slowly. I need to ask you something, though. You handled a case about four years ago. Richard Goren…?”

“You mean Bobby Goren’s older brother? Yeah, drug bust and violent assault. Two for one, that was. Son of a bitch got off easy. Why the interest now? Don’t tell me he had something to do with the assault on Bobby?”

Cragen carefully evaded answering that question for the moment.

“Can you tell me whether Richard was in contact with his brother in the lead up to his trial?”

“Yeah, I remember it clear as day. Bobby came across to our squad room. He said he’d had a call from his brother’s lawyer asking him to testify on his brother’s behalf, and act as a character witness. Bobby came and saw me about it, and when he told me what the lawyer wanted him to do, I thought great, there goes our case. With Bobby testifying on that mutt’s behalf, we were screwed.”

“But he didn’t, did he?”

Dodson gave a short laugh.

“No. He said he couldn’t in good conscience be a character witness for someone who he… quote, knew for a fact didn’t have any character, unquote. I admit I was surprised. After the incident a few years previous, I thought he’d consider this hardly a spit in the ocean.”

“What incident was this?” Cragen asked.

“I got a call from the hospital one night… This was around two years before Bobby joined Major Case. He’d admitted himself to hospital with five or six stab wounds. Turned out his brother came to him for drugs, and when Bobby refused, Richie attacked him. I tried to get Bobby to press charges, but he wouldn’t do it. Anyway, I guess Bobby got his own back when Richie landed in hot water a few years later. There was no one else Richie could rely on to testify for him at his trial. It was an easy conviction. Too bad the sentence didn’t match the crime.”

“You think he was pissed off at his brother?”

“Hell, yes. He blamed Bobby exclusively for being sent to Rikers. He may be right, too. I think we still would have gotten a conviction, but Richie probably would have ended up with some sort of suspended sentence if Bobby had testified for him. Richie knew it, too. He was spouting all sorts of bullshit against Bobby when they hauled his ass out of the courtroom that day. Said that everything that happened to him in prison, he’d visit it back on Bobby tenfold… all that crap. Bastard was full of hot air, and then some. Why are you asking, though? Have you nailed Richie for something?”

“Yes,” Cragen answered, feeling sick to his stomach. “We have him for the assault of his brother.”

There was a long silence on the end of the phone.

“Richie was responsible for the attack on Bobby?”

“One of three, actually. The bastard recruited a couple of perps in prison that Goren had put away.”

“Oh… fuck…”

“Bill, if we need you to, will you be willing to testify in court to all of what you just told me?”

“Hell, Don, you don’t even have to ask. You think Bobby won’t testify, though?”

“We don’t know. Truth is that I don’t think he’s doing too great at the moment, Bill. I honestly don’t know how he’s going to react when it comes to actually getting onto the stand and giving evidence against his own brother.”

“Okay, well, you know you can rely on me. And I might go and pay Bobby a visit in hospital, too.”

“Go easy with him, Bill. It’s worse than you probably realise.”

“How much worse?”

“How much do you know?”

Dodson hesitated in answering.

“All I know is that he got the crap beaten out of him. Tell me, Don… Was he raped? I mean, with your team investigating…”

“Yes,” Cragen admitted softly. “He was.”

“Damn. Goddamn it…”

“I know,” Cragen said quietly. “Bill, I have to go…”

“Sure, Don. Bobby’s at St Clare’s, right?”

“Yes, in the ICU wing.”

“Okay. I might give Jim Deakins a call, and see if there’s anything I can bring him.”

“Books,” Cragen said abruptly. There was a long silence on the other end of the line.

“Books?”

“The bastards that attacked him burned all of his books,” Cragen answered. “They trashed pretty much everything he owns.”

“I see. Okay, then, I’ll see what I can do. I’ll talk to you later, Don.”

Cragen murmured a goodbye and hung up the phone. Dodson’s words confirmed his suspicions that Matic had been telling the truth. It sounded as though Richard Goren had a long history of potentially violent disagreements with his younger brother, and it definitely looked as though he was holding a seriously big grudge.

Cragen could only hope that Bobby remembered something to place Richie at the scene, and actually participating. He hoped that Bobby didn’t already remember, and was just covering for his brother. He didn’t think that was the case. He doubted that Bobby had enough consideration for his brother to do that, but there was just no telling.

Grimacing, Cragen rose out of his seat and hurried from his office. He had people to see.

Bobby Goren’s apartment

Deakins paused in the doorway of Bobby’s apartment, looking inside with a grimace. The scene had been thoroughly processed and cleared by CSU, but it was still a disaster zone. It was going to take some tremendous effort to clean the place sufficiently, and even then Deakins couldn’t imagine Bobby wanting to come back here, ever.

He ventured inside slowly, not even sure what he was doing there, but feeling an insane need to see the place once more, to take everything in.

He walked across the floor, treading carefully around the over-turned furniture, and the pile of ash that had once been Bobby’s treasured collection of books. His gaze went to the floor, the only space that was clear of ruined furniture and anything similar. There were, however, bloodied marks on the carpet, along with very distinct drag marks.

Deakins shuddered. He’d seen plenty of awful things in his time as a cop, but there was something particularly awful about the situation when the victim was a friend or a colleague. In this instance, in Deakins’ opinion, Bobby counted as both. He didn’t always agree with the big detective, but he’d learned over the last five years that if he gave the guy plenty of space, the result generally turned out to their benefit. He’d learned to respect Bobby, and respect the way he worked, and Bobby had gradually come to respect him in return.

Deakins turned away and followed the drag marks across the floor to the bedroom.

Here was the worst part of the scene. If it was hard for Bobby just to come back to his apartment, it was going to be near to impossible for him to set foot inside this room again.

His gaze went automatically to the bed, to the ruined sheets and blood-stained mattress. There was nothing left of the tools with which Bobby had been tortured – CSU had collected all of that as evidence. But the telltale signs remained that indicated only to clearly what had gone on inside the detective’s bedroom.

Torture… The word sent chills down Deakins’ spine, and yet that was exactly what had happened to Bobby. He had been tortured.

Suddenly feeling sick, Deakins backed quickly out of the room, and headed for the front door. He didn’t know why he had come here. With the exception of a few pieces of clothing, which Alex and Lewis had collected the other evening, there was nothing salvageable in the entire place. He was almost to the door when the phone rang.

Deakins froze, caught off-guard by the unexpected sound. For a moment he was confused. Then he remembered that Bobby’s attackers hadn’t actually cut the connection, they’d just left the phone off the hook.

Sly, Deakins remembered thinking when he’d been told about it. Cutting the line would have set the alarms ringing with someone, but in leaving the phone off the hook it gave the impression that Bobby was home, but unwilling to talk to anyone.

He stood in silence, listening to it ring five or six times before some indescribable force led him to walk over and pick it up.

“Hello?”

There was a brief, somewhat startled silence on the other end, and then a voice spoke tentatively.

“Could I speak to Robert Goren, please?”

Deakins swallowed hard before answering.

“He’s unavailable.” God, what an understatement…

“Who is this?”

“This is Captain James Deakins. I’m Detective Goren’s supervisor. Who am I speaking to?”

Again there was a brief silence before the voice replied.

“I’m Dr Derek Shimo. I work at the Carmel Ridge Centre. Robert’s mother is in my care.”

Deakins drew in a sharp breath. Sure, Bobby had only been in hospital for a couple of days, but not one of them had thought of his mother. And hadn’t Alex said once that he phoned his mother every day…? Dr Shimo went on in a tone that reeked with displeasure.

“I’ve been attempting to reach Robert for two days now regarding his mother.”

Deakins felt his stomach drop unpleasantly. What more was going to go wrong for Bobby?

“What’s happened to her?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t discuss that with anyone other than Detective Goren. Do you know where he is? Because he seems to be trying very hard not to be contacted, and I would have thought he’d have more consideration for his mother than that.”

Deakins bristled at the hurtful barb.

“As a matter of fact, I do know where he is,” Deakins answered sharply, “but I can also tell you that you won’t be able to get through to him, because I don’t think they have phones in the room in the ICU wing of St Clare’s.”

A lengthy silence followed the statement.

“I… I’m sorry… Are you saying Robert is in hospital?”

“Yes,” Deakins answered after taking a moment to draw in a calming breath. “He was assaulted in a violent home invasion over the weekend, and he’s been very severely injured.”

“Oh dear God…”

“Now,” Deakins went on tersely, “I’d appreciate it greatly if you would tell me what has happened with Detective Goren’s mother, so that we can work out a solution that will be beneficial to both her and her son…”