No Pets Allowed

Cragen completed the circle of detectives that sat around their desks and discussed the case. "So, we know that Christopher was at work until 5:30 and then had his son for the rest of the evening until his wife got home. Where was she yesterday?" His tan business suit had been pressed and freshened for his meeting with his superiors on the updates of the case. He found that keeping his bosses in the loop could be more of a distraction than anything on cases this intense but it was his job and he was not about to lag on any detail.

"Mrs. Jakosa was at work from noon to 9PM. She had the whole morning free, after Chris left to drop their son off with the daycare and then sort out a plan to kill the judge that gives them both alibis." Olivia stood up from her chair and came to sit on the edge of her desk, next to Elliot.

Elliot pulled out his notepad from his pocket and flipped through the pages to find the statements of Mr. Jakosa's boss in hopes of finding something to help. "I went to the bar where our boy works and had a talk to the owner. I spoke with a Mister Russell Kirsch. He mentioned that Christopher took an hour lunch at 1:30 to 2:30 and when he came back to work, Mr. Kirsch also noted that Chris was upset and shaken but was able to finish work. That could have given him ample time to get together with an accomplice and murder the Judge. His wife helped him, or another ex-pet? His work is only 15 minutes, by expressway, to where the judge lives. If he didn't do it at lunch, he still had time to start something afterwards, on his way to pick up his son at daycare."

Olivia raised an eyebrow and shook her head slightly, letting the jumble of thoughts roll around and fall into places. "What's to stop the wife from killing her? They both were prior 'pets' and she was the only one who worked late the night of the Judge's death. Not to mention, Voorhies claimed to have busted a few patrons of the auctions last month. Maybe one of the ex-pets came back after a patron pushed the wrong buttons?"

"If the 'ex-pets' are out on their own, they might not have stayed in New York. It's possible they've changed their names, appearances, anything to discourage memories of what they'd been through." Cragen shoved his hands into his pants pockets and agreed with Olivia but something didn't sit right with the whole investigation. "If Christopher and his wife were afraid of the Judge, it might not be possible for either of them to overpower her and mame their former keeper. Elliot, you and Olivia talk Chris again and find out what went on during his day that made him so upset. If he was holding anything back when his wife and child showed up, I want to know why. Munch, you and Fin talk to the other 'pets' and find out how many and who these 'owners' were that attended the auctions. If it wasn't the Jakosas, maybe it's in the list of names."

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Mercy General Hospital
Yonkers, NY
Room 202

Fin and Munch stood in the middle of the room, at the end of the bed that the pet "Whiskers" occupied. Fin opened his small notepad to take notes but as be began to write her information down, he looked up and met her scared expression. "Can you tell us your name?" His nasally voice was unalarmingly soft as he fought back his coplike attitude.

"Whiskers." Long blonde hair had been cleaned and left to dangle over her shoulders as it dried. Her thin features and pale complexion gave her hospital gown competition for colour. Huge blue eyes watched the two men like a cat at night. The young woman blinked and cringed as Munch took a step towards the side of the bed but didn't say anything yet. She kept her eyes focused on Fin, looking him up and down, noticing his musculature and tone, the same way Christopher had. She wanted to speak again but it had been drilled into her not to speak unless spoken to.

This time, Munch spoke softly, matching Fin's tone. "You can tell us your real name. We aren't going to tell anyone that doesn't need to know."

The girl managed to tear her eyes away from Fin's torso to look up at Munch and answer, "Julie. Julie Spearling." Eyes darting back and forth from one detective to the other, she watched what Fin was writing, eventhough she couldn't see the words from her angle.

"How long have you been at Judge George's apartment?" If Fin felt uncomfortable at all by being stared at like an abuser, he didn't show it outwardly. Inwardly, he was starting to see what kind of a hold the late judge had on the few "pets" they had talked to throughout the day. When he looked up from his writing, as she hadn't answered, he saw the terror of his question and secretly, his heart sank and anger swept quickly in. He was angry not from the unanswered question but from the state of panic each hospitalised pet had been in after hearing about anything that had to do with where they had been kept.

Julie's breathing became labored and her heart rate went up several degrees though she kept her eyes focused only on Fin's expression. "This time will be about four months." Wiping a shaky hand at her tears, she wanted this to be over and for the detectives to leave her alone.

"What do you mean, this time?" Munch watched her carefully.

"It's my fourth time. My master dumped me there for 'training' because I had put on his bathrobe. I was cold." Julie hadn't moved to make eye contact but merely dropped her gaze from Fin to her blanket, pulling it up close to her chin. She blushed and nodded as she was asked if she had been forced to live naked.

Fin wrote down what she said, in his notebook, and had only a few more questions before ushering Munch out of the room. "How long have you been in captivity?" His voice was harsher with the question but still gentle and low, remembering that she was a victim.

"Five and a half years."

"Ever meet Chris Jakosa or Karen?"

Julie nodded and lifted her eyes back to Fin. "He stepped in and saved my life, one day."

Munch sounded interested. "How'd he do that?"

She smiled and quickly recalled that day in detail. "When I was new, Chris explained to me what we were allowed to do and not allowed to do. We had to crawl around, on our hands and knees, like animals. She had tile floors in some rooms, and they would hurt my knees. I stood up for a bit and she walked in the door and caught me. She was livid. Chris spoke out of turn and said it was his idea. And that he wasn't sorry."

Fin listened intently. "What did she say?"

Julie shook her head. "Not what she said, what she did." Downcasting her eyes to her blanket, she continued with her story. "She had this level of punishments. She would paddle you if you made the smallest mistake on something. Or, she would ask Mistress Simone to help 'retrain' the pets when they didn't appreciate their masters and were brought back. But, Mistress Tanya loved to torture Chris." Pausing and shuddering, Julie took a ragged breath. "She had this dog, a big dog, that she loved to use to remind us of our place. That day, she decided to use him."

"So, Chris was her prized possession and he got up the nerve to say something?" John Munch couldn't believe was he was hearing. All of his conspiracy theories seemed to string together at times but this subject he couldn't piece together.

"Not the first time. He hated to watch the others get punished like that."

Still writing in the notepad, Fin looked up from the paper. "How'd she use the dog?"

Taking a long breath, Julie started to shake visibly but forced out the climax of the story. "If a pet was bad, she would bend them over a footstool and have the rest of us watch while Husband did-- um,..." the humiliation and blushing in her expression spoke volumes and finished the story with a bad taste in both Fin and John's mouths. Drawing her legs up close to her and wrapping her arms around them protectively, Julie didn't dare look up at their faces to see if she had disgusted them.

They thanked her and left quietly but their minds had wanted to say volumes that were better left for their ears only. It wasn't that people were being treated like animals that bothered the two well-seasoned detectives but, that the people were being told they were animals. For sex crimes detectives who have practically seen and heard it all, today was the day that left them both speechless.

Munch had thought of at least 50 theories why someone would name their animal something that didn't make sense but he was having trouble figuring out why the judge named her dog, "Husband." Better yet, where was the dog now? "From what it sounds like, Chris is either in on it or that's what gets him off, is playing 'big dog' to the understudies." He spoke his thought over the roof of the blue sedan as he opened the driver's side door.

As Fin opened the passengar door, he shrugged and asked the other side of the coin on what he was thinking all the way down to the car. "Why would a guy let his girlfriend treat him like an animal and then bring others into it? That's some dangerous kink if you gotta fuck a dog just to get your girlfriend off." Both getting in and shutting the doors, they headed back to the precinct.

"Maybe he liked it, too."

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SVU Interrogation Room 2
Chris Jakosa

Elliot paced the length of the room with his arms folded on his chest. "How long were you and the judge an item?"

"About two years." Chris sat shivering in the padded metal chair. He watched Elliot's movements, heart quickening everytime Elliot stopped to hear the answer. Still wearing his work shirt and pants, he glanced down at himself and felt uncomfortable in them.

"That's when you two decided to get into the kink, right?"

"No."

Elliot stopped in front of Chris and leaned forward to place his hands on the table that sat between them. "So, whose idea was it to run around and act like dogs and cats? Would a brand new judge really think of that on her own?" Staring at Chris's expression, he looked deeper and saw total fear in the other's eyes.

Chris shook his head as he spoke. "It was all her. I wanted to split when she told me what she was into. She kept me there, locked me in her closet until I swore I wouldn't run. The next thing I know, she's bringing home two more people."

Straightening, Elliot started again with walking around the room while talking. "It was her idea for the kink and other people?"

"Yes."

A knock on the glass interrupted Elliot's next question. He excused himself to talk to Fin and Captain Cragen, who were listening via the speaker.

Fin read off a few of the statements from the other pets that he and Munch had interviewed, repeating a few facts that put Chris in a positive light. "Julie or 'Whiskers' went as far as to describe in detail what the judge would do to her prized 'Princess' when he would take the blame for the others. There's cruelty to animals but this lady was sick. The dog's name was 'Husband.' Munch is hunting down just where he ended up."

As Fin finished speaking, Munch joined them at the window and shared what he had found out about the missing Great Dane. "Just got off the phone with Waste Management. It appears that one of their trucks came across the body of a large black and white dog with a plastic bag over its head. Multiple stab wounds to the body and the collar, although covered in blood, said one word, 'Husband.' Whoever killed the judge and the dog has major issues to deal with." John glanced through the window at the trembling young man in the chair before turning back to give the last update. "Forensics is bringing the body back for an autopsy. When dogs and cats are living together in sin, it gives way to raised eyebrows but when people and dogs are getting hitched, there's room to be appalled."

Cragen swallowed dryly. "Get everything out of him. If he doesn't cooperate, we have grounds to hold him for possible accessory to human trafficing." He looked from Elliot back to the man in the room and prayed he was wrong in his suspicions.

"If this isn't an act, then we've just destroyed this young man for no reason." Elliot kept his eyes on Chris, watching his trembling and jerky movements as he still sat at the table.

Fin narrowed his eyes in thought. "Let me ask him. He was sizing me up, yesterday. Maybe that'll gain us some ground." Walking to the door and opening it, he entered and let the door shut behind him with a firm close. To his advantage, he had been right in thinking that Chris' fear of him was in body language. He remained straight-faced as the young man jumped off of his chair and scoot back to the corner to cringe in terror.

Blue eyes stared widely at Fin as the self-assured detective sat down in the chair, with his back to the window. A shiver raced through him as the detective tapped a finger on the table and stared at Chris with a serious tone. Chris was afraid to move from the corner.

"Sit." Fin's firm tone had done what he wanted it to do. "Now."

Chris had obeyed the man and sat down in the chair, shaking visibly. His breathing had become considerably laboured since the detective came into the room.

"What kind of relationship did you have with the Judge?" Expressionless and toneless, Fin kept his gaze fairly on Chris.

With a deep breath and audible release, Chris calmed himself before answering. "It started out as fine. Then, it got weird."

"You start it?"

Chris shook his head. "No."

Fin folded his hands on the table. "After she laid down the rules, what happened?"

"She started bringing people home every night. Sometimes they'd be other pets, sometimes not." Chris gripped the sides of the chair and desperately tried not to shake in front of the detective. He began to sweat in the cool cement room, wondering if he would walk out of it alive.

Nodding, Fin continued. "So, she'd bring clients home? Know who they were?"

A nod. "A few."

"Can you name them?"

Another nod.

"What were they there for, exactly?" Fin's interest peaked and he leaned in, making the young blond plaster his back against the metal backing of the chair.

"Sex." Chris's voice had flattened as he said the word. "Mistress Tanya and Mistress Simone would acquire pets to train and then show off before they'd have an auction. They'd punish us, make us have sex with other pets- like animals, or we would have to give demonstrations to prospective masters." His eyes involuntarily travelled down to Fin's chest and arms as his white dress shirt barely concealed his muscles.

Fin noticed the eyes on him. "Did you ever go home with any of them?"

"No." A nervous shake of the head. "I was Mistress Tanya's. Often the demonstrator."

Opening his mouth to ask another question, Fin paused as the door opened and an older woman in a business dress suit entered and told Chris not to saying anything else.

She was a short woman of medium build and could easily carry her firmness. Short brown, curly hair and thin-rimmed glasses had silently said that she meant business. "I'm Charlene Harrod and I am Mr. Jakosa's attourney. This conversation is violating my client's right for counsel and therefore, he does not have to say anything further."

Fin leaned back in his chair and looked at the woman. "We're just having a chat. He didn't ask for a lawyer."

"I am aware of what goes on in an interrogation room, detective. His family was notified of his being brought down here and therefore, they called me. He's been through a traumatic experience recently and that does not entitle you to harrass him. Chris, come with me, please." Chris looked at Fin and then stood up to walk out of the room with Ms. Harrod in tow.

Fin followed them out but stopped in the doorway as the captain and Elliot met him. "What do we do, now? He knows who was at those parties but wouldn't say."

Captain Cragen watched Chris and his lawyer leave the squadroom as he thought. "Bring back Miss Harris. She neglected to mention that she was in on what the judge was doing. Let's hear what she has to say."

Continued.....