“What would you have me do? Turn this over to someone else and hope it gets done right? What if it gets bungled and she ends up charged for a murder she couldn’t possibly have committed when she was out of her mind on drugs and booze?”

“If that’s the case, how could she be charged?”

“I just watched a video that put her at the scene of a crime in which everyone else who was in the video is now dead. What if we can’t find the people who brought her here and Springer tries to pin the whole thing on her because she got out alive? What if he tries to say she was faking being stoned while they raped her, and then she lost her shit afterward and killed the whole lot of them?”

“You really think that’s what happened?”

“No. I think she got in way over her head with kids who are far more experienced with the drinking and drugging and sexing scene than she is. I think she took shit her friends gave her, and she drank too much on top of it. I think someone slipped her something extra, and those boys took advantage of the fact that she was out of her mind. I think she’s the tenth victim, only she didn’t die. Now all I have to do is prove it and figure out who dropped her here and whether they’re the killers or if it was someone else entirely.”

Sam’s phone rang and she saw Mike’s name on the caller ID. “What’s up?”

“A Detective Ramsey is here from special victims. He wants to take a statement from us and from Brooke.”

“Let me talk to him.”

“My sister-in-law,” Sam heard Mike say. “Lieutenant Holland.” She thought she heard Ramsey mutter something under his breath, but she didn’t catch it. She never had figured out what the SVU detective had up his ass where she was concerned.

“This is Ramsey.”

“The victim is my niece. I’m handling it.”

“I don’t think you are. We got called in on this.”

“I’m calling you out of it.” Even though she was twenty years younger than the detective, she had two ranks on him, and he knew it. Sam suspected that was the source of his animosity toward her.

“You ready to explain this to the brass?”

“I’ll take care of them. You leave my sister and her family alone. Got me?”

“Yes. Ma’am.”

The condescension in his voice was hard to miss.

“Investigating a crime involving your own family is a conflict of interest.”

“Is it? I had no idea. Thanks for the clarification. Now stand down and back off. That’s an order.”

“You’re not my boss.”

“I’m a lieutenant. You’re a detective. Any questions?”

“Yeah, just one. Where do you get off?”