Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

In the criminal justice system,

sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous.

In New York City, the dedicated detectives

who investigate these vicious felonies

are members of an elite squad

known as the Special Victims Unit.

These are their stories.

Everyone nods and smiles and probably will screw

the entire deal before my flight lands at JFK.

Yeah, hang on.

How are you doing, Lien?

Good morning...

Mr. Hartwell.

I hope you've enjoyed your stay in Hong Kong.

Talk him off the ledge. It's only 6 million.

All right, yeah.

Yeah, look, I gotta jump.

My wife wants to video chat before I board.

Yeah. No, she'll go for that.

You know, why don't you try asking her?

Right. I'm hanging up.

- Hi, honey, how was Hong Kong? - The usual.

You know they, uh, all smile and nod.

They'll probably screw up the whole deal

before my flight lands.

What's going on there?

Nonstop school stuff, the house, oh, and don't forget

next weekend we have that preschool benefit at Cipriani's.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Uh, Madison in bed yet?

Let me talk to her.

She's at your mother's.

I wanted to catch up on some sleep.

Let her stay.

Surprise, I canceled London.

I am coming straight home. Happy Valentine's day.

- Really?! - Yeah.

- So you'll be here tomorrow? - Uh-huh.

You know, I didn't get you anything.

Well, you know what I like.

That, um, see-through thing with the garters that I got you.

What do you have on now?

I took a little cruise through Barney's lingerie department.

Why don't you... take it off?

Oh, you missed me.

There you go.

A little lower, let me see.

Hmm, nice timing.

Cleaners.

Come back.

No, stop! Get away from me!

- Shut up! - No!

Christine?

- No! - Christine, what's happening?!

No, please, no! No!

- Shut up! - Aah!

Oh, my God, some--somebody please help!

- Somebody call 911 in New York! - Get over here!

- Bend over! - Christine!

No!

Oh, my God. Christine!

No!

You call the cops, she's dead.

Alleged victim is Christine Hartwell.

- Alleged? - Yeah.

The husband, Boyd Hartwell,

says he saw someone break in, rape his wife.

I mean, witnessed the whole thing on vchat.

- Okay, where was he? - Hong Kong International.

He called his mother, told her not to call the police.

She couldn't sleep, calls an hour ago.

Unis get here, there's no Christine.

No sign of forced entry.

Both doors look untouched. Someone she knew?

Well, maybe not. Video cam's out.

She opens the door,

he pushes in, sign of a struggle.

They have a daughter.

- Where is she? - Madison, five.

Grandmother said she stayed with her last night.

Okay.

Get CSU in here.

And TARU, see if they can retrieve

an image off this laptop.

We got some blood.

So he rapes her here on the counter

in full view of the screen.

Yeah, shows the husband he means business.

It's deliberate, could be personal.

And he forces her to leave with him?

The neighbors didn't see or hear a thing.

No one coming in or out of this house last night.

This door's open.

They left out the back.

Husband say anything about a ransom demand?

Nothing we've heard.

No one's been able to reach him.

- His plane lands at noon. - 16 hours.

Gotta be the longest flight of his life.

When's mommy coming home?

Soon, sweetheart. Isn't that Bella?

Go--go play princess with her.

My son told me the intruder said if I called the police,

they'd kill Christine.

I hope I've done the right thing.

You did, ma'am.

Now when's the last time you saw your daughter-in-law?

Yesterday. Yesterday afternoon.

She dropped off Madison.

- Did she seem upset or anxious? - No.

Christine is always so bright, so full of life.

Everybody adores her.

Now what about Boyd?

Been any problems?

Boyd works a lot.

But his family always comes first.

After ten years of marriage, those two are still so in love.

All we know for sure is that Christine's been missing

for 12 hours, and our only witness is still in the air.

No activity on her credit cards,

her cell's off, TARU's checking it.

All right, if this is a rape-abduction,

odds are it's somebody she's crossed paths with.

What do we know about this couple?

Well, they're living the Upper East Side dream.

I mean, Boyd and his partner Justin Geld,

they left Morgan, started up new markets hedge fund

a couple years ago.

Christine's a stay-at-home mom.

She's on the parent's board

of her daughter's preschool.

They do the regular rich people mambo.

Winters in Vail, summers in the Hamptons.

His hedge fund--this economy can be a high-wire act.

Any angry investors?

Yeah, there were a couple of complaints

filed against Boyd's partner.

So the company and Boyd paid some fines,

admitted no wrongdoing-- the complaints were withdrawn.

Well, that's gotta be hard on a partnership,

and this might be too.

Now, according to Christine's calendar,

she had lunch with Geld on Friday.

A month ago, her husband's in Brazil--another lunch.

Okay, Fin, Rollins, find out

what's up with the lady and her lunches.

You two, meet the husband's plane at JFK.

He didn't want NYPD called.

Let's not give him a chance to go rogue.

When's the last time I heard from Christine?

My wife saw her at the planning meeting

for the preschool benefit.

Was that before or after you

and Christine had lunch on Friday?

I don't know about the SEC, but it ain't a good idea

to lie to NYPD.

What's this about?

When's the last time you saw Christine?

Uh, we had lunch, Le Cirque's, Friday 2:00-4:00.

Yeah, that's a late lunch. You walk her home?

I got her into a cab.

She'd had a few and... I went back to work.

Hmm.

Look, I don't know what Christine told you,

but nothing inappropriate happened on Friday.

Okay, what about last night?

You mind telling us where you were?

I was at the Waldorf with my wife.

We don't like restaurants on Valentine's day.

It's a sucker play.

So we hole up for a few days and order room service.

That's sweet.

And how about you and Boyd? How are you guys getting along?

We're best friends

since prep school, like brothers.

So he didn't mind bailing you out

when you got jammed up by the SEC?

No, it just gave him something else to rag on me about.

When's the last time you spoke with him?

Last night.

He was at the airport.

He had to jump because Christine

wanted to video chat.

When she says jump...

I'll get 'em the money, I'll-I'll...

I'll do whatever they want. Just tell me you're okay.

- Boyd Hartwell. - Yeah?

We need you to come with us.

Christine, I gotta go.

Boyd, Boyd! Wait. We're here to help you.

Honey, listen, just tell them

I'll get the money, okay?

No cops, I hear you!

All right, I love you, I gotta go!

- Stop! - You don't understand!

Take it easy, pal. I don't wanna cuff you.

I don't need your help.

Listen, that was my wife.

They said no cops.

They're gonna kill her.