Behave - Recap

A man with 80’s style metal rock hair gets on the bus, proselytizing as
he goes. He finds a young lady at the back of the bus who he first
thinks is drunk but then realizes something is really wrong. When she
turns her head, the left side of her face is bloody. She says “He raped
me. Again.”

Elliott asks Liv if the victim knows who the guy is. A doctor states
that she told the EMT’s he has raped her four times over the last 15
years. The victim’s name is Julie McManus and she presented as
disoriented, with numerous scalp lacerations. They removed a dozen glass
shards from her head. The doctor thinks she may be lying, because she
reeks of alcohol. He’s waiting for the results from her blood-alcohol test.

Julie comes running out of her room, alarmed and saying she was not
raped. She asks an older woman if she called the police. Olivia tells
her the doctor took glass shards out of her head. Julie claims she’s
fine, she just fell and she needs to go home. Benson tells her she needs
a rape kit, there could be evidence on her. Julie says she just has to
get home, and runs for the exit. Benson yells after her not to take a
shower, in case she changes her mind.

While investigating the crime scene, a broken bottle of booze is found,
same color as the shards found in Julie’s scalp. They think maybe Julie
and another person were fighting over the bottle. Two things, though:
Julie’s blood-alcohol level was 0, and her name’s not Julie. She gave a
false name to the hospital. Her name is Vicky Alicia Sayers. The address
on her license is midtown, but there’s nobody by that name in the
tri-state area. Her thumb print was on record because she applied for a
civil service position.

Captain Cragen says if they can’t find her the old-fashioned way,
they’ll go through the tax man. She has to pay the piper, so he says
they should get a subpoena for the City tax rolls.

They find her address, and Elliott & Olivia land on her doorstep,
buzzing her buzzer. Olivia announces their presence, stating she met her
at the hospital last night. As Liv is walking away, Elliott sees Vicky
peeking through the curtains. Vicky asks how they found her and Liv says
because she paid her taxes. Vicky insists nobody can help her and they
should go away.

A lady delivering groceries and office supplies knows the code and goes
in at Vicky’s. When she comes out, Benson questions her. Vicky does
medical coding at home, only goes in to the office once a month. The
delivery lady even pays her bills for her so she can’t be traced by her
money. She refuses to say anything more and hurries away. Benson talks
to Vicky through the window again, but there is no response. Elliott has
to get the car back, so Liv stays put, and Stabler says he’ll call Fin
and have him spell him.

Fin isn’t there yet when Vicky leaves in a black sedan with a driver.
Liv hails a cab and has him follow her. Vicky is running to a man who
gives her a package - and then she sees Liv. The package contains a gun.
Liv orders her to drop the gun and she does. Liv tells her she is under
arrest for criminal possession of a weapon.

In custody, Vicky wonders why she, who was raped, has been arrested. Liv
tells her she’s lucky she didn’t shoot her, with that gun in her hand.
Vicky says Liv is stalking her, just like he is. Liv apologizes for
pushing her but tells her she can help her. Vicky has to tell her who
did this. Vicky says he’s too smart, you won’t be able to get him. Liv
says she’s not sure how much time they have left because he nearly
killed her with that bottle, and next time, he will.

Because she never showered or changed clothes, they can still recover
the evidence. She starts talking. Vicky says the first time, she was 16,
and a candystriper. He pushed her into a storeroom closet, pulled up her
dress and looked her in the eyes while he raped her. Liv questioned her
and Vicky responded that she’d never seen him before. When asked if he
said anything, she responded that he said “You’d better be a good girl.
And behave.” He told her that he would kill her mom and dad if she told
anyone. He took her driver’s permit, so he would know her name and where
she lived.

The next attack was November 14, 1998, when Vicky was a sophomore at
Hudson. He held a knife to her throat and said “I’ve been looking all
over for you, you’ve been a very bad girl.” He broke into her apartment
from the fire escape. He tied her up and made her get on her knees. He
raped her over and over again, and the whole time he was whispering
“You’re mine, forever.”

She called the police and they did a report, but she didn’t go to the
hospital. She just wanted to forget it ever happened - until her 20th
birthday. A package waiting for her contained a Jack-in-the-Box that
sang Happy Birthday. The card attached said “I’m watching you. Behave
yourself.” She was too scared to tell the police, so she ran. Liv asked
where she went, and she said Los Angeles. She got a job, met a nice guy,
Scott. She loved him. But the rapist followed her 3000 miles.

Vicky said July, 2000. One week before her wedding, she came home from
her bridal shower and he was waiting for her. He punched her in the face
and broke her nose. He said she was a bitch for moving without his
permission. And after he raped her he took her engagement ring and her
California driver’s license and he said ... then she cried out, because
the person doing the rape kit was hurting her.

The neighbors heard her crying and called the police. She was taken to
the hospital, and a rape kit was done. She couldn’t eat, she couldn’t
sleep, she couldn’t stop crying and Scott kept asking if she still loved
him. She told him of course she did, but every time he touched her, she
thought of the rapist. Liv asked if Scott broke off the engagement and
Vicky said no, she did. She moved, and found a job she could do from
home. She became a hermit, until one day she left home to talk to her
boss, and when she came home - Live said he was there. Vicky said no,
but he had been. Her underwear were gone and she just freaked out. Liv
asked if that was when she came back to New York. She said yes, she was
living with her mother, but she had to move seven months ago when she died.

Liv asked her what happened last night. She said that when she came out
of the subway, he pulled her into the alley and shoved her face-first
into a brick wall, and raped her. Liv asked if she is absolutely sure it
was the same guy. Vicky says that he said “If you don’t behave yourself
again, you’re going to die.” She started to scream, and he hit her with
the bottle. Benson promises Vicky that he will never hurt her again.

Cragen says this guy is the ultimate control freak, stalking her across
country for 15 years. Liv says he will continue preying on Vicky until
they lock him up. Cragen states that he is going to have patrol set up a
protective detail, get the sketch out to every agency in the tri-state
area, and Los Angeles. He asks if they know who handled the case in LA.
LAPD, a detective out there is pulling anything he can find. Fin says he
hopes he’s having better luck than; there was a precinct move, and her
records from the ‘98 rape are missing.

The captain says if there’s no DNA in the rape kit, they got nothing.
Ryan arrives with potentially good news. A bottle of moisturizer is a
match for the fluids in Vicky. The perp dropped it in the alley. It’s
from the Hotel Amsterdam. Liv & Elliott show the sketch of the
perpetrator to a hotel employee and she says it might be Mr. Harris, who
entertains guests in the hotel bar. She points him out, and the
detectives approach him. Liv tells him that he can clear this up quickly
if he wouldn’t mind coming down to the office, he says sure.

He is placed in a line-up and Vicky immediately recognizes him as the
man who raped her four times. Harris says it’s impossible, she must have
seen him someplace before. He shows surprise when he’s told the rapes
took place over a 15-year period. He gets up to leave, but Elliott tells
him to sit down and relax. Liv asks him about the moisturizer and he
says he’s never used it. He doesn’t stay at the Amsterdam, he lives
three blocks away. He says they definitely have the wrong guy.

Elliott asks Harris what he does for work. He says he’s a product rep,
surgical equipment; higher end. He has an alibi, as hotel cameras show
him arriving, checking out, and never leaving his room. This means Vicky
was wrong. As they are releasing him, Vicky rushes him. She begs him not
to hurt her anymore.

Liv works all night. She believes Vicky is right, Harris did it. She
gets an email from the Providence, RI hotel clerk. Harris had a room on
the first floor, and he had taken apart a window because it didn’t open
all the way. His rental car had enough miles on it to make a round-trip
to Manhattan, with three miles to spare.

Liv advices Vicky to take her power back, away from Harris. Liv promises
Vicky again that he will never touch her, even if she has to live with
her for the next 20 years. They are going to give Harris a taste of his
own medicine. Everywhere he goes, he sees one of the detectives. Elliott
goes so far as to stand up in one of Harris’ presentations and
repeatedly ask him why he raped Vicky. Fin hands out flyers with Harris’
picture on it, and “Rapist” written underneath. When Liv confronts him,
he tells her to get out of his face. She gets further in his face and
says “You’re my bitch now.” He says “You’re all the same, every last one
of you.” Liv goes back to the precinct, quotes him and says that anybody
who hates women that much can’t stop at hurting just one. They
subpoenaed his frequent flier accounts and compared his trips with
attacks in the cities he went to - they found ten rapes with the same
MO. Cragen asks how he picks his victims. The answer? He hunts them in
his comfort zone. They are all hospital employees. Doctors, nurses, a
pharmacist, an administrator and even a patient. Harris has been
terrorizing women across the country for 20 years.

Liv confers with Sherry about the case. Since Vicky didn’t see her
attacker during this last rape, her records were lost for one rape and
the other is ruled out by the Statute of Limitations, they can’t
proceed. Liv says that if they use the DNA from other victims, then they
can use them to prove Harris’ ID in Vicky’s case. Sherry says Liv has
some calls to make. Liv makes the calls, but every single city has a
backlog of untested rape kits, some as far behind as 4000. She says
she’s going to go give them a hand.

In Detroit, the first victim was raped twice, in 1999 and 2003. Her name
is Danielle Taylor. The detective she’s working with points to rows upon
rows of boxes, and says what they need is in there. Liv says you gotta
be kidding me, and he retorts “See me laughing?” He shows her where the
kits in question should be, but they aren’t there. Liv asks where else
they could be and he says at the precinct where the rapes occurred. Said
precinct has been boarded up since it burned to the ground. He tells her
maybe she’ll have better luck in Chicago.

In Chicago, they find the rape kits. But one has a broken seal and is
empty, and the other is covered with mold. Liv’s cell phone rings and
it’s LAPD. They hit the jackpot on her victim’s previous rape. She and
Detective Rex Winters discuss backlogs, and she informs him they don’t
have one. He says on another note, Harris has had a storage locker since
2000, and he already has a search warrant. They go check it out.
Pictures of his victims are all over the walls, and he has a photo album
which contains all of their ID cards that he took. Vicky’s has both
photo ID’s and her engagement ring. He even posted the dates he attacked
her. He’s got home movies, and they see a young Vicky eating an ice
cream cone.

Winters takes a call, and yells “Benson!”. He tells her that the DNA
from the rape kit is degraded, but the tech is willing to testify he has
enough matching to ID Harris. Winters can’t do anything with it; the
statute of limitations in California ran out three weeks ago. But Liv can.

The judge says that because the DNA was significantly degraded and
because chain of evidence was not maintained, she cannot charge William
Harris and he is released without prejudice. Vicky tells Liv to stop
making promises she can’t keep.

When they’re looking at all the evidence, Liv finds a roll of duct tape
and inside it shows years (1997-1998). She goes and asks Vicky what he
tied her up with. Vicky says duct tape. He left it on her when he left,
and the police have it. Fin finds her evidence box and the duct tape is
in there. They arrest Harris for kidnapping, and there’s no statute of
limitations on that.

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