129. Chapter 129

Chapter 129

Jamal left early that morning, and he stopped in at the precinct on his way to school. "These are for you," he told Sergeant Wesley and handed him two sketches. Officer Chappell was on security duty again that morning and wanted to see, too. The first sketch was of the sergeant sitting at the desk. The second was the silly pose, and Chappell burst out laughing. "I can almost see your eyelashes fluttering," he said.

"Sergeant Wesley laughed almost as hard. "These are great, Kid. But I'm never going to live this one down. What's the other one on that sketch pad? Is that one of those comic villains or something?

Jamal wasn't anxious to show them the other sketch, but both men were interested, and Chappell was suddenly serious when he got a better look. "Sarge, I think you should see this," he told Wesley.

Jamal reluctantly handed it to him, and the sergeant asked if he could keep it. "I don't want to cause trouble," Jamal answered.

"Son, if you drew this one from memory… Well, I'd just like to hold on to it…please."

"Yes, Sir," Jamal agreed, looking concerned. He turned to leave, his good mood not quite as intact anymore, but he still turned back and said, "Would you tell Captain Beckett I had an interview last night, and I got the job."

"I'll be sure to let her know. Congratulations. And thanks for all of this." Wesley answered.

After Jamal left, Sergeant Wesley asked Chappell, "That's Patton, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Looks pretty bad, doesn't it? Are you passing it on to the Captain?"

"I think I have to. Don't you? She had a meeting this morning. I'll hand it to her when she comes in…maybe put it in an envelope so it isn't public."

"Good idea."

xxxxx

Byron Salter looked very much like the soldier of his social service mission that he was. In their brief encounter up to this point, he seemed to be a kind man who genuinely cared about the families in his care, in spite of being worn down by his efforts on their behalf.

Beckett sat in a standard city government issue arm chair across the small office from him.

"How can I help you, Captain Beckett?"

"I'm looking for information on the mother of a teenager who was placed in foster care almost five years ago. The child's name is Rebecca Faye Patton."

Salter said, "I know that name." He pulled up records on his computer and looked absolutely defeated. "I don't even have to look at the records. It's etched in my memory. This is one of the saddest set of circumstances I can remember. The way it was handled was a travesty, but the reason for that was another sad situation."

"What happened? Was there a death involved?"

"May I ask, Captain, what brings you to this case?"

"Rebecca Patton is one of my newest officers. I don't want to get into personnel matters, but suffice it to say, I'd like to help her succeed. Every time I ask questions about her background, though, I leave with more questions than I had when I started. I've been a good detective for a long time, and this doesn't have the feel of a normal CPS case."

Salter sighed deeply. "That's because it isn't."

"Explain."

"I have to start with one of the best case workers we've had in the department, Faith Jordan. The vast majority of her career here, she was a model of efficiency and dedication. She cared about the children and families in her care and did her best for them. She was a professional in every regard…demeanor, interactions with children and foster parents, required reports, appearance, you name it. She had a number of opportunities for advancement, but she preferred to work directly with the children and families. Her files were as meticulous as her appearance, and that was striking. She was very attractive, well-dressed, confident…had a presence about her that spoke of competence…very much like you, Captain Beckett. Some of us were surprised that she stayed with us as long as she did. She was the kind of woman who could have risen through the ranks of a corporation and become one of the executives.

"Are you telling me that this paragon of competence was in charge of Rebecca Patton's case?"

"In a manner of speaking."

"How can that possibly require anything but a yes or no answer?"

"The case worker was Faith Jordan, but unknown to us at the time, not the Faith Jordan all of us were familiar with. I was her supervisor from the time I was promoted to the position in 2004, and her records and the work she did with the families was compassionate and meticulous…every 'i' dotted and every 't' crossed. I never had to worry about her work. If I ever caught anything, which was extremely rare, she immediately let me know when it was corrected; and when I followed up, it always was...

"But Rebecca Patton's case wasn't handled that way?"

"No. Far from it."

"What changed? Something must have happened."

"Faith was always something of a loner. She wasn't really unfriendly, just not interested in extraneous conversation. She was here to do the job. She wasn't married and had no close family that any of us are aware of; so when she withdrew a little more into her own space, no one thought much of it, and there was no one at home to notice any changes. That was a little while before Rebecca Patton's mother disappeared in August of 2011…and Rebecca was assigned to Faith. We discovered much later that was when Faith was probably experiencing the early stages of dementia…and forgetting things. She wasn't accustomed to being reminded that she had forgotten something. That wasn't how she worked. From what we've learned since then, several other cases around that same time were also handled badly. The others eventually had better outcomes, but Rebecca was lost. Faith was a very intelligent woman. When she realized she had a problem, she devised a system of checklists and to do lists to help her cope and to cover the problem until she could retire. Which would have been this year.

"How does someone lose a child with records like the ones you say she kept?"

"A neighbor called in to let us know Rebecca's situation, and Faith took her from her apartment almost a week after her mother had disappeared. That was shortly after Rebecca's sixteenth birthday and a couple of weeks before she entered her junior year of high school. Faith only allowed the girl to take a suitcase with enough clothes for a week or so, promising to take her back to pick up personal things later, but she apparently forgot…in any case, didn't follow through. Rebecca had no information about her mother, no follow up on returning for her things, no assurance of her future, was living with strangers and entering a new school where she knew no one, and was understandably upset…to the point that she was frequently distraught or crying, or angry and hard to deal with. The foster parents would call Faith, Rebecca would make demands, Faith would put her off again, and they'd argue. After a couple of months, the foster parents called Faith and asked that Rebecca be assigned to another family with older children because her behavior was upsetting the little ones. Faith reassigned her. Just came to the house one afternoon after Rebecca got home from school, told her to pack her things, and uprooted her with no warning a second time. Rebecca argued and was told in no uncertain terms that she had no choice, that it was because of her behavior and she brought it on herself. The version of Faith I had worked with for over a decade would never have handled things that way. Faith made the appropriate arrangements for the second family to be paid for the expenses of another foster child, but there was neither a notation in Rebecca's file that she had been reassigned nor an indication that someone other than the original family was being reimbursed for her care.

"Well some of my reason for pursuing this is beginning to make more sense. Didn't anybody check behind this woman?"

As I said, she had always been meticulous, and when I asked about something and she assured me it was taken care of, I took her word for it. Faith notated visits for all the cases around the time of Rebecca's; but we have no indication that she actually made them, just made the notations to cover herself, again not like her. She hid the problem well enough for well over a year that she got by with it. When we began to suspect a problem and looked into it, a couple of her neighbors said they had seen occasional behavior that was out of character enough to worry about, like being out on an unusually cold night without a coat or seeming lost or confused when she came home. A police officer noticed her out one night and took her to the precinct to warm up, and she told him she worked here. To make a long story short, by the time we realized there was a problem and started going through her files and following up on the facts, there were a lot of files to review. We started with the most recent, and it took a while. Rebecca's case came to our attention when she aged out of the system at eighteen and the second foster parents called to let us know that they were willing to take another teenager. They were getting their checks each month, and Rebecca was happy not to have to see Faith again. Being left alone was working for all of them. By then, Rebecca had saved money from the job she had in high school, graduated, found a full time job, and moved out without leaving her new address.

"That doesn't surprise me. Shouldn't someone have been contacting her school on a regular basis?"

"Another bad situation. That was one of the more overcrowded schools in the city. The counselors probably didn't notice when no one came in...or may have been relieved."

"She never talked to a counselor or a teacher for help?"

"In Rebecca's position, would you have trusted another adult you didn't know to do something in your best interest?"

"Point taken."

"We contacted the super at Rebecca's last known address, a Mr. Chadwick, and had to calm him down before we could get any information out of him at all. He was furious with Faith and anybody who had anything to do with her. When he realized the records indicated that there were no known relatives and that her mother was using drugs, he was off again. He said he cleaned that apartment from top to bottom, and there was no sign of drug use in either her apartment or her behavior. Her mother had mentioned a sister to him, somewhere out west, he thought. He said Rebecca was a sweet, happy girl, and she and her mother had a close, loving relationship. Faith explained the situation and told him she'd bring Rebecca to pick up more of her personal belongings in a week and help her find any important papers she might need later, but she never did. The apartment rent was paid through the end of the month, but after that, the owner had to empty it and rent it again. Chadwick said it was the hardest thing he ever had to do at work. He took time to separate anything that looked like important papers, photos, or things that looked like they might have sentimental value for Rebecca, boxed them up, and saved them; so we have those now if she wants them. We just didn't know where to find her."

"I can't imagine that she wouldn't want them. If I send you her present address, can you arrange to have them delivered to her, signature required, to be sure she gets them. I think that's the least the department can do for her. And a letter of apology wouldn't be an unreasonable expectation, either."

"I'll see that it's done as soon as I have the address, Captain, even if it has to be an out of pocket expense for me. I feel some of the blame for this, and I'm happy to know there's someone on her side now."

"And there was never any information about her mother's disappearance? I'm assuming someone filed a missing persons report."

"Nothing in her file…but…"

"There's no way to be sure?"

"Right."

"What happened to Faith Jordan?"

"We got elder care involved, and someone here is married to an attorney who volunteered to handle the legalities of getting her into an assisted living facility. If it's of any comfort to Rebecca, Faith was no happier to live somewhere else than Rebecca was; but she's being cared for where she'll be safe."

"I need a good clear picture of Patton's mother from around the time when she disappeared. I need you check the photos and see if you can find one. If you do, would you send a copy to me as soon as possible?" she asked, handing him a card where she had jotted down her cell number. "I don't want to mention any of this to Patton and get her hopes up for nothing."

"I'll take care of that right now."

"Thank you for your help…and for your candid answers, Mr. Salter."

"I wish I could have given you more pleasant information."

"Just get her papers and her memories back to her and send me that picture. I'll see what I can find out about her mother. Some closure might be helpful."

"If there's anything else you need, let me know. I'm so sorry this happened."

Beckett nodded, shook his proffered hand, and left.

xxxxx

When she entered the precinct, Sergeant Wesley called her. "I got a couple of things for you, Captain. Jamal came in this morning on his way to school,"

"Yeah," Chappell chimed in with a teasing sound. "He brought a couple of pictures. Show her, Sarge…both of them."

"The kid really does have a gift. I kinda wish he'd kept a little of it to himself, though. He handed her the two sketches of himself and said, "I don't know what possessed me to give him that opportunity," he added as Beckett saw the second one.

She laughed out loud, a full sound that made both men grin and a couple of others in the lobby look up with interest. "I think we should put this one on the bulletin board in the mail room. What do you think, Chappell?"

When Chappell snickered, Wesley snatched the sketches back and said, "I think those are mine, and they go where I want them to." And they immediately were closed in a drawer. "Oh, and Jamal said to tell you he had an interview last night and got the job…didn't say where, though."

"That art supply store a few blocks from here," she answered.

"He had this, too, and we asked if we could keep it. Not as much fun as the other one, though. He was worried about causing trouble…would probably rather have kept it; but we thought you should see it, and figured it was better here than out in public."

He handed her a manila envelope, and she answered, "Thanks…I think," and headed for the elevator.

Once she was in her office, she took out the sketch, obviously Jamal's memory of Patton grabbing him to slam him into the wall. Beckett groaned and sat down, putting the sketch back into the envelope and placing it in her desk drawer before rubbing her temples with her fingertips.

Taking a deep breath, she embarked on a different mission, more of a self-defense mission. She closed her door, dialed her phone, and waited.

"Gates."

"Captain Gates, is this a bad time? It's a personal call, so if you're busy…"

"I can take a few minutes, Kate. What can I do for you?"

"I was hoping to do a little bartering."

"The amusement and curiosity could be heard in her answer. "And what are we bartering?"

"Time and sanity?"

"Well, that's an interesting answer. What do you have in mind?"

"Both of us being able to get the hell out of Dodge for a couple of weekends this summer."

"You have my undivided attention."

"My family has a wonderful place at the beach that I can't enjoy with them unless I have someone here willing to be on standby for me in case some huge emergency arises. You can't go too far either for the same reason. If you would be willing to cover for me for a weekend, I would be willing to do the same for you. If you trust me to do that when I'm still so new at this, that is. I can even throw in a couple of weekends of nice, expense free lodging in the Hamptons with a private pool and a private beach. Ray did say not long ago that he loves the place."

"I have no problem with being your backup, but doing the same for me is enough."

"I'll bet Castle would insist. I may be new at the job, but I've been here long enough to know you could probably use a break by now. And it would mean I can spend at least a little time with my guys."

"You're dangling temptation way too close. I might have to take you up on one of those weekend retreats."

"Alexis is taking summer classes at Columbia, and we promised her that she and JD could have some time there when her classes allow it. I'll get her schedule and let you know when they intend to be there. Then you can choose your time, and Castle and I will work our time around it.

"Captain Beckett, this is the best phone call I've had during working hours in… Hmmph. This is the best phone call I've ever had during working hours. We have a deal. Thank you."

Beckett laughed. "Just thinking about some time away makes me feel better."

"It doesn't do my day any harm, either. Email me the beach house calendar when you can. Ray will be as delighted as I am."

"Will do. Bye," Beckett said and closed the call. Then she turned her attention to precinct business for the next couple of hours.

True to his promise, Byron Salter sent an email that included a good picture he had found in one of the photo albums in Patton's boxes. He said he there was a notation on the back indicating it was Patton's mother.

Since Patton's address at the time of her mother's disappearance was in the Bronx not far from the area served by the fifty-first, Beckett called Captain Doug O'Conner, who had replaced her there.

"Hey O'Conner, it's Kate Beckett."

"Congratulations on your promotion, Beckett. How are things at the fifteenth?"

"Mostly going well, but I'm working on one problem I was hoping you could help me with." She briefly explained the Patton situation and enough of her officer's background to elicit sympathy from the other captain.

"What an awful story…for everybody concerned. I can understand that you'd rather not handle it where gossip could get around your precinct. That probably wouldn't help the anger issues. What can I do?"

"I'm going to email you a picture of Beverly Patton. Her address at the time she disappeared was just outside the boundaries of your precinct. Could you discreetly look into missing persons reports and results around the date I mentioned? Given the circumstances, there's the possibility that it wasn't reported. If there's no record of a report, could you have someone check the photo against any Jane Does found around that time? My officer deserves closure if there's any to be had."

"Yes, she does. Send me the picture, and I'll see what we can find."

"I really appreciate this."

"Gotta take care of our people, right? Speaking of which, Mason has been working three quarters of the day and going to class starting late in the afternoon. He's excited, learning fast enough to be good IT help around here already, and hanging out with the tech people learning everything he can." O'Conner laughed. "He's like a computer skills sponge." Thought you might like to know."

"That's great. Tell him I'm glad he's doing well."

"I'll put him to work on the mother's records and picture. If I tell him it's for you, he'll work harder."

"He'd work hard anyway. That's why we wanted to help."

"I'll be in touch soon, whether we find anything or not."

"Thanks, O'Connor."

"No problem."

Her paperwork for the day being done, Beckett went to talk to one of the teams in Vice. "I wanted to run something by you," she said, and started a conversation about a possible connection between their case and a case McCade's team had just picked up in homicide. The team leader, Nixon, walked back to the homicide floor with her, and she returned to her office and left him to discuss it with McCade.

Nixon stopped at her office door and said, "Thanks for pointing that out. It does look like there could easily be a connection. We're pretty sure they had an information leak at the escort service, and the homicide victim may be the leak. We're going to coordinate our investigations."

"I hope it helps. Times like this, I'd love to be in the thick of it again. Sometimes the detective senses rise to the surface and try to take over."

"But your captain senses may have helped solve two cases. It's all good."

"Thanks, Nixon. Glad it looks like it might help. I'll try to tamp the rest down," she answered with a little grin."

Nixon laughed and went back to his unit to get to work, and Beckett answered her desk phone.

"Captain, it's Ben Kirst. We had another dust up with Patton this afternoon. It seems she has the impression that she doesn't need to check dumpsters anymore because, according to her, it's a rookie job; and she had a loud argument with Garrett in an alley near the crime scene. It was far enough from the street that the general public probably couldn't make out what was being said, but it was obvious that there was a problem. There weren't too many civilians around, and no one saw anybody taking video with a phone; but it doesn't mean it didn't happen. Since that could be a publicity problem, I thought I should give you a heads up. My paperwork and the notes from Chen's team will be in your box by the time you leave today. Vatter did record the incident, though, and he sent it to me. Shall I text it to your phone?"

"Thanks, Kirst." There was a sigh. "It's getting late anyway. Send Patton home right now, and send her to me as soon as you finish your session with the officers tomorrow morning. I need time to look at what happened before I deal with her, so I'll check the reports and decide how to handle it before tomorrow morning. And yes, please send the video."

After hanging up the phone, she sat back in her chair, exhaled sharply, and let her head droop for a moment. Then she checked the clock, tied up a few loose ends for the day, and headed home, stopping to pick up Kirst's report from her mailbox. On the way home, her phone's text notification sounded, but it was ignored.

When she walked into the loft, Castle could see right through her loving response to Jamie and was immediately by her side when their son was back to playing on his own. "What happened?" he asked softly, handing her a small serving of wine.

"I spent the morning with a very nice man at CPS finding out what Patton has been through, which is enough to account for a lot of what I'm seeing." She told him about Byron Salter's explanation of the CPS situation, her call to O'Conner at the fifty-first, the new drawing Sergeant Wesley had given her that morning, and the new problem involving Patton. "I haven't read the report or watched the video yet, but I need to do that before I go in tomorrow morning."

"Too bad you can't wiggle your nose like Samantha in 'Bewitched' and make it all better."

"Yeah, it is. Are we ordering in?"

"I have dinner salads ready in the fridge. And there are leftovers of a couple of things Jamie likes for him…plenty of nutritional goodness."

"You're amazing."

"Why thank you, Mrs. Castle."

She captured his face in her hands and kissed him as close to senseless as they dared allow themselves with their toddler in the room and telling him fervently, "I don't ever want to know how I'd cope if I had to be without you."

He pulled her tightly against him and asked, "Was it that bad today?"

"There was a lot of emotional baggage and a lot of empathy for Patton's situation. Then there's this new problem, and I have to decide how to handle it while I'm still feeling sorry for her…" She melted into her husband's strong embrace. "I just feel so completely drained."

Castle kissed the top of her head and pulled her in a little more tightly. "Tell me what I can do to help."

"You're doing it already. You always make me feel better."

He held her a bit longer, and she said from where her face was nuzzled against his shoulder, "I bartered away a weekend at the beach house today."

He leaned back just far enough to see the mischievous expression on her face and asked, "You what?"

"I want to be able to spend some time at the beach with you and Jamie and the rest of the family, but it's hard to do without having some backup here; so I called Gates. I told her that if she'd cover for me, I'd cover for her, and throw in a nice, rent free beach house in the Hamptons for her weekends. Was that okay?" she asked, looking less than certain all of a sudden.

"Of course it was."

"I did think to tell her that I need to ask Alexis for her schedule first, though; and I said I'd send that as soon as I have it. I'm going to have the same scheduling problem no matter when we go, and except for the book signings later in the year and the meetings with Black Pawn now and then, your schedule is pretty open for a while. I thought we could let Gates and Ray choose their weekends after Alexis and JD choose theirs, and we can work ours out around them. Is that okay with you?"

"That's fine with me. It's our house now, and what you did means you have time to enjoy it with us. Why wouldn't it be okay?"

There was a little tug at their pants legs, and Kate looked down to see Jamie looking up at his father, seeming concerned. "Is Mommy okay?"

"I'm fine, Munchkin. Want to join the snuggle?" The two year old nodded and she picked him up and tucked him between them, the two of them taking turns kissing the top of his head.

After dinner, Castle provided some backup while Kate went over the Patton incident, and he acted as a sounding board for ideas on how to handle it. Then he called Alexis to explain the Gates-at-the-beach thing and ask for a schedule for when she and JD would be able to be there.

They had story time with Jamie with all three of them in the rocking chair and the parents taking turns reading. After the books, they just rocked and snuggled him before tucking him in. Then the couple watched a mindless rom com before bed and relaxed into each other for the night, forgetting any problems until morning.