Pursuit - Recap

A man arrives at an apartment, and a young teen lets him in. He asks
where her parents are, and she says 'out'. He has a six pack and a bag
with something in it. He suggests they watch TV together and get
acquainted. She's obviously uncomfortable. He says "We'll go as slow as
you want, baby doll. Just like we talked about." A woman comes from the
dining area, trailed by a cameraman. The teen leaves the room. The man
recognizes the woman, and she identifies herself as Alicia Harding, host
of "Neighborhood Predator." He says it's not what it looks like. She
points out that since he's a father, a husband and a schoolteacher, can
he explain why he sent emails and child porn to a minor? The SVU is
watching, and Liv radios "get ready to move in." He claims he's been set
up, so whey did he bring beer, condoms and lube?

He starts to run, but she informs him that the room is wired with
cameras, and they have him on tape. He continues trying to run, so
Alicia tases him. Fin is angry. Alicia tasing Carlton could mean he
walks. Sonya says the case is solid.

A package is delivered to Alicia. She makes a self-deprecating remark as
she walks away, but turns back when she realizes there is blood on her
hands from the package. Liv opens the package and finds Alicia's lucky
scarf soaked in blood. She last saw it on her bed that morning. Liv
announces that Alicia has a stalker.

Alicia doesn't believe she has a stalker. She's on TV, she gets emails
all the time. A few that say "I'm watching you" are hardly cause for
alarm. Liv asks about the bloody scarf. Is that cause for alarm? She
says she'll double her security, but she won't stop doing her job. Sonja
says Alicia should have told her what was going on. Liv asks about a
personal life, and Alicia says she doesn't have one. When she's not
working on the show, she's following leads from Vanessa's abduction.
Sonya answers Liv's quizzical expression with the news that Alicia's 13
year-old sister went missing 25 years ago. All they found of Vanessa was
bloody clothes and a few knife cuts in her t-shirt. Liv asks how the
stalker could know that the scarf was special. More than once, Alicia
said on air that the scarf belonged to her sister.

Liv digs some more. Alicia has a journalist friend with benefits who
hopped a transport a few days back. She hasn't fired anyone in six
months. Liv says this isn't a stranger, it's someone who knows her
routine. Someone she trusts. That means 'almost no one.' Sonja joins in.
Threats were sent to her personal email. The scarf was taken from her
bed. They are close. She's not missing any cell phones, PDA's; nothing
that could give the stalker access to her personal email information.
Liv's going to get to work.

Fin fills Cragen in. The lab is still working on the scarf. The blood is
human, no more than two days old. Cragen says Alicia Harding doesn't
report the news, she makes it. He thinks she may have made this up. The
emails were sent from a bogus IP. It wouldn't be the first time a
reporter made up something like this to boost the ratings.

Cragen sent the emails to Elliot, asking him to work up a threat
assessment while he's training at Quantico. Cragen wants CSU to check
out Alicia's apartment.

One of the investigators find a pair of Alicia's panties soaking in the
sink, so full of bleach there won't be any evidence remaining. Fin finds
a shrine to Vanessa. He notes that it's like her sister disappeared just
now instead of 25 years ago. Liv can't figure out how Alicia got
evidence from an open murder. Alicia has a scrapbook full of it. She
turns another page, and Fin sees Sonya's picture. She's been following
the case for decades, plus she's close to Alicia. She could have handed
the files right to her. Liv hopes that they're lucky, and the stalker
handled the book or one of the photos. He's obsessed with Alicia. He
gets off on scaring her.

Liv and Elliot touch base by web cam. He says that the behavioral people
at Quantico went over the case, too. This is the worst kind of stalker.
He's smart, resourceful and experienced. They think he must be in the
system, since he was so very careful in cleaning up after himself.
Elliot says this guy is hard-core, and doesn't get much of a challenge
out of stalking. He'll show himself soon. Elliot offers to come home,
and she says she's good. Elliot says Fin's good, but he's not Elliot.
Fin says that's true; he's better. He actually watches Liv's back and
not her backside. He abruptly ends the call and then shares some
information with Liv. Some guy keeps showing up in various group footage
from neighborhood predator stings. He's an IT engineer, Scott Laskey. He
got caught in a net last year. One arrest, no convictions.

They bring Scott in, and he is not amused. He's invoking. He doesn't
care if he's not under arrest. They showed up at his job and took him
in. Liv tries telling him that they're just looking for answers. He
doesn't buy it. They're trying to close a case. Big difference. He's
very angry because he claims that he never tried to have sex with a
minor. That's why he wasn't convicted, he's innocent. Alicia ruined his
life, so Liv figures it makes sense that he'd try to return the favor.

Fin plays the raw footage involving Scott in an attempted sting. They
tried very hard to set him up, but he didn't bite. He's worried about
the girl, and shows up to warn her not to talk to men like she did in
those emails. He repeatedly implored her to call the police. Then Fin
plays how they twisted around everything he said to make it look like he
was really going to have sex with an underage minor. Certainly explains
the anger. Sonya disagrees. She sees what she wants to see, which is not
what everybody else saw. Sonya says if he's not stalking Alicia, then
some other guy is. Cragen points out it might be "some other guy she
framed." Olivia comes to the realization that the suspect pool probably
just got deeper.

Scott's attorney is ready to bring suit against the NYPD for harassment.
Liv counters with what they would charge Alicia's stalker with (assuming
that to be Scott). What do they have for evidence. Nothing? That's what
he thought. The attorney is ready to clear out, but Scott refuses. Liv
says they saw the tape, and he asks which version? The one his ex-wife
saw, the one that aired? He has a 12 year-old daughter he won't see
again until he's exonerated.

Liv sits down and questions Scott as to how the situation actually
unfolded. He was worried about what a young girl, such as his daughter,
would be exposed to if he allowed her internet access. He went online,
and found a young girl in a chat room. He didn't talk to her. But he did
see men offering her cell phones, iPods, and more. He didn't want to
stick his neck out. But what if it was his kid!?

Liv asks how he got the girl's address, and Scott admits he hacked the
server. His attorney announces the interview is over unless they read
Scott his rights or decline to file. Sonya doesn't want the paperwork,
so she declines to file. He didn't go to her apartment until he went to
her local precinct and handed a copy of the chat log to a desk sergeant.
When said sergeant called Scott a "kook", he went to the house.

Cragen tells Sonya that Scott does have a wrongful arrest case. Fin has
gone to the 7-2 to find the sergeant Scott spoke to. Sonya can't believe
Cragen is blaming Alicia. Cragen tells her that playing cop doesn't make
Alicia one. Sonya continues to tap dance around the truth in honor of
defending Alicia. Scott was arrested based on fabricated evidence Alicia
handed them. Liv tries to point out that Sonya is probably too close to
Alicia and her sister's case to remain objective. She says it's not
healthy for Alicia to still be working her case, and Sonya asks how long
Liv looked for the man who raped her mother. Liv and Cragen exchange
looks as if to verify that Sonya actually went there.

Fin interrupts this incredibly awkward moment. The desk sergeant
verified his story, but they jacked Scott anyway, based on the
manipulated video. Cragen orders Fin to void Laskey's arrest, and go
shake Alicia Harding's tree. Liv walks out as Sonya sits there with her
mouth hanging open.

Rachel tells Alicia she changed her locks, and asks who gets copies. Liv
says no one, and asks for a moment alone with Alicia. She asks who all
has keys to Alicia's apartment. Alicia rattles off her staff titles, and
Liv says she'll need names. Alicia claims they're all trustworthy, and
Liv reiterates that somebody is after her. At least now they know why.
How many men has she railroaded into prison? Alicia says mistakes were
made with Scott Laskey, but there weren't any others. She tries to
explain. The night Scott arrived, men just kept arriving, one after the
other. And then the cops brought them in before she had a chance to
interview them. Liv points out that that doesn't explain how the video
of Scot was altered and aired. She blames a producer. Donny Spencer.
Rachel can get her his contact info. Since he was fired, he's not
Alicia's biggest fan. Liv points out that she seems to have that effect
on everyone.

Liv questions Donny, telling him Alicia has a stalker. He retorts that
it couldn't happen to a nicer sow. Liv says "Nice way to implicate
yourself." Donny says he did her a favor, and she canned him. She asked
him to alter the footage. Not only that, but now she's sandbagging him
for job interviews. Liv figures if he stalks her, she's too busy
watching her own back to stick a knife in his. He says "The whore gets a
few emails", but Liv never mentioned any emails.

As she's bringing him in, she tells Cragen that Spencer copped to
sending the threatening emails. Cragen thinks that's not the stalker,
because Alicia got another one while Spencer was otherwise occupied with
Liv. This one had a body dump photo of a young girl attached.

Fin shows the pictures as Elliot joins them. The lab at his end says the
pictures are real, and appear similar to a dump in MD. Sonja is at the
meeting, and Alicia joins them. He doesn't think they should be talking
in front of a civilian, but Sonya says Alicia needs to know what she's
up against. Elliiot says her stalker is a sociopath, far more deadly or
dangerous then the men she busts.

Alicia says that the picture is the last place her sister was seen
alive. A woman called it in. Alicia would recognize the photo anywhere,
since she searched every inch of it. Why didn't she call it in. Sonya
wants to know, more importantly, why Alicia didn't tell her? She erupts
in anger. It was actually one of the thousands of tips that the police
didn't have time to follow up on. It's a cold case. She's the only one
working it. Sonya retorts "the hell you are!" She's been working it
longer than Alicia! Alicia won't listen to reason, so Fin throws his
hands in the air and leaves. Alicia is absolutely certain that the man
stalking her is the one who killed her sister, and she won't hear any
different.

Elliot points out that the analysts at Quantico put him at early 30's to
mid-40's. That makes him too young to have anything to do with Vanessa's
abduction. Alicia says Elliot's analysts don't know dick, and Cragen
tells her that's enough. He wants to know where the body is. She refuses
to give them the information. They can either take her with them, or
follow her there. Those are her terms. She rides with Fin, and he orders
her to stay put. If she tries to follow him, he will handcuff her to the
damn car.

Alicia tries to reason with Liv, and Liv won't listen either. She's
there with them, because it was the only way to get there. But that's as
far as it goes. At Liv's demand, she hands over her cell with the
picture on it, and gets back in the car with Sonya standing guard. Fin
finds the body, and calls to Sonya to call it in. Olivia finds a second
body and Fin finds a third. They're going to need a forensic team.

Dr. Warner announces that they have five bodies all told, in various
stages of decomp. Dates vary from three months to two years. Cause of
death is homicide by undetermined means. She's looking for stab wounds,
because an unrelated Jane Doe died three days ago by that means. Sonya
rattles them off, and Melinda asks how she knew. That's the stab wound
pattern found on Vanessa Harding's t-shirt. Liv thinks it's a copycat,
but Sonya dares to hope it's possibly the same guy. Unless he makes a
mistake, they're not even going to get close to finding him.

Liv finds Sonya beating herself up. She made a deathbed promise to catch
the guy when Alicia's mom passed away. She thinks she has a second
chance to break this case. It's not cold anymore. Liv doesn't agree. She
asks Sonya what was the very last lead that Alicia followed. Sonya says
that three months ago, Alicia appealed to the public as to the
whereabouts of the kid who found Vanessa's clothes. Liv says they'll
pull the names on the volunteer sign-in sheet and compare them to the
witness statements. Sonya stops beating herself up and goes to work. If
they find him? He's hers.

Fin and Liv aren't getting anywhere, but he did talk to the retired
detective who worked the case. He's digging through his old spirals to
see if he can find the kid who turned in Vanessa's clothes. Liv says
Alicia stressed him out when she brought the past back to life. Fin
figures he used the body dump to misdirect the police, since murder
trumps stalking. Liv comes full circle to somebody affiliated with the
show having something to do with the killer/stalker gaining access to
Alicia. Fin already checked, though. They've all been with her for
years. So it's an outsider with access.

Rachel talks Liv and Fin through how things are handled. Visitors have
to sign in with ID, no exceptions. They're issued a temporary pass while
they are in the building. Fin wants to see records from the past six
months, and Rachel becomes very nervous. "Do you think the killer came
here??" Who said anything about a killer? Alicia. She taped a message
last night to the guy stalking her. As they watch the footage, it's
inclusive of the body dump, where she says six bodies were found. She
tells him "I know you're watching." The camera shows, and she
identifies, Sonya Paxton, who says he should be incarcerated for life.
Alicia disagrees. He should be put down like the rabid dog that he is.
Fin and Liv are aghast. This can't go to air. They're hoping Cragen can
prevent it from being aired in an hour.

He can't. Cragen wants to know how Alicia filmed details of their crime
scene. Olivia doesn't know, as she took Alicia's cell phone away from
her when they arrived. Fin points out that Sonya still had hers, and
she's just as fixated on this case as Alicia is. Cragen wonders if Sonya
is so fixed on this case that she'd dump her own career to solve it. He
sends Fin and Live to bring Sonya in, and he'll handle it from there.

Fin tells Alicia that he doesn't know if she's brave, or just stupid.
She says she wanted her life back, and she's tired of waiting on the
cops, so she took it. Where's Sonya? She wanted a drink, so she went to
a meeting. She's not too happy with Alicia right now, either. They ask
Alicia where the AA meeting is, and head over to the church.

Her car is parked outside, but they don't see her. Liv checks the
ladies, and finds a shattered mirror over Sonya, who is clutching her
throat, and bleeding. Liv calls for Fin, and he calls it in. BOLO,
bloody clothes, approach with caution. Sonya says "It's okay, I got
him." Then she dies.

CSU arrives and starts processing. They need Olivia to get out of the
way, Dr. Warner gives a cause of death. Olivia is very upset. This
didn't have to happen. Sonya fought back hard, and the last thing she
said was I got him. The attack didn't go down as planned, and he lost
control. Liv figures she bit him. She knew she was going to die, so she
went for his DNA. That's what Liv would do. Melinda checks. There's a
hair in her throat. Dr. Warner will swab her mouth, and check her
stomach for his blood.

Elliot arrives, and Liv lands unhappily in his arms. He wishes he'd been
back sooner. She says she's fine, but he looks at her and disagrees. He
checked the logs at Alicia's office, that's why it took him so long to
get back. He found a name that rang a bell. David Adams, but he doesn't
exist. Liv asks who he was there to see, and Elliot says Rachel,
Alicia's assistant.

Rachel is in for questioning. She says David's a good guy. They've been
seeing each other for months. She's very protective of David, but Elliot
gets under her veneer. "I bet right now you're thinking about all the
times he asked about Alicia." Did he use her? Was any of it real? Her
eyes fill with tears, but she says she's not a fool. She knows where he
lives, but she's never been there. He doesn't have a phone, either.
They just text. She offered to get him one, but he was too proud to take
it. She liked that. He calls her, he checks in every day. Liv and Elliot
leave, figuring she'll call him now. Fin has things set up so that they
can trace the call if she makes it. He's using a burn phone. He's
uptown, near Riverside. Just a few blocks from Alicia's place.

Liv and Elliot wait out front as Alicia approaches. They're hoping to
smoke him out, and they do. He has a knife to her throat, and Alicia is
just making the situation worse. She keeps baiting him, and Liv tazes him.

Adam Grafton, 43. He lived eight blocks from the Hardings. He did a
five-year stretch for rape and aggravated assault. The short sentence is
due to the victim being a prostitute. He practically beat her to death.
Maybe that's why all the body dump women are unidentified. Working girls.

He's not going to talk to them, but maybe he'll talk to someone else.
Liv goes to get Alicia and finds her packing. She can't live there. He
was in her bed, touching himself. Liv reminds her to burn the mattress.
So, this is it? Alicia says he's caught, there's nothing left to do. She
finally finds this piece of garbage, and he gets gym membership and
cable, while his victims rot in the ground. She refuses to speak to him,
and Liv says well, at least you have closure. God knows his victims
don't. She wants to know where her sister's body is, and they both know
he won't tell her. Liv talks her into talking to him, and Alicia asks
Liv "Has anybody ever told you you're a manipulative bitch?"

He's still not talking. First he wants Liv to leave for saying that he
can only get it up if the woman is dead, then he tells them both to
leave, he has nothing to say. Alicia says fine. She can do the story
without him. He tries to swing the story to Vanessa, but Alicia won't
bite. She wants to know about the women he dumped in that field. Where
did he meet them. Liv puts a recorder on the table. He wants to know
where her camera crew is. Alicia says this is a pre-interview. She'll
check his facts. Plus, he needs a shave. He says this could take awhile,
since there's one for each year he's been living. He hunted in clumps.
Some years he didn't even hunt at all.

Liv says 43 women and he says no, 44 if you count Sonya. Liv tells him
Sonya is the reason he's going to death row. He says he'll die of old
age first. The only reason he killed Sonya was because Alicia lied, and
she had to pay. He still can't break her.

He starts talking. Vanessa wasn't the first.

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