131. Chapter 131

Chapter 131

On Monday, Beckett went to see Sergeant Kirst early and asked him to have Patton come to her office again before she went home. "And, Kirst, let her know it isn't another disciplinary action; but I do need to speak to her."

"I'll tell her, Captain."

Then she went back to her office and was stopped by McCade as she left the elevator.

"We think we got the guy. Vice found evidence that will close the escort service. We got wind of sex trafficking for the business, and it looks like the guy who runs the local end of that operation is our man. Soltan is writing up the warrant request now. I'm on my way to see Nixon."

"You know how to find me," Beckett told him. "Let me know what you need. Good work."

After checking her email and messages, Beckett started her morning rounds, this time in Narcotics. When she reached Santiago's group, there was a picture taken by a surveillance team the night before, showing three men.

"We can identify these two, but we're just now looking at this one."

She looked closer at the picture and took out her phone. "McCade, I need someone on your team to meet me in Narcotics with the picture of your suspect."

"Be right there," he responded. Most of the detectives had learned by now that the tone of voice Beckett had just used often meant a break in a case.

McCade was there a couple of minutes later, and by then, Beckett had explained to Santiago the reason for McCade's presence. They compared the picture to the surveillance photo, and suddenly there was the possibility of a third element to add to the other two cases.

"We need to know how these guys are connected," Santiago answered. "Your guy's name hasn't come up in our investigations. Tell me about him," he said to McCade. "Captain Beckett says he's a murder suspect?"

"He runs the local end of a sex trafficking ring, and we're sure he killed one of the owners of an escort service that vice is investigating. Apparently the victim had been talking too much. All we need is the search warrant. Vice is down to just needing warrants, too. Who are your other two guys in the photo?"

"Drug dealers…high up in the local food chain. Based on yesterday's surveillance and some undercover work, we think there's a shipment coming in Wednesday night."

"Do you think the drug traffickers and the human traffickers are using the same transport?" Beckett asked. "Could somebody higher up be coordinating both? I've seen it happen."

"We could have two shipments coming in tomorrow," Santiago agreed. Turning to McCade, he asked, "Can you go ahead and get your warrants but wait to serve them until we can see if this is related to the other cases?"

"Call Vice and get Nixon up here," Beckett told them. "See if anything else connects…and keep me informed."

By the end of the day, they had found their connection and Beckett had made the contacts necessary for the support they would need. Maguire, the captain of the tactical team that would support them came in, they both contributed information, and they laid out a plan they believed would allow them to intercept the drug shipment, and hopefully a human shipment as well. Then they called in the three team leaders and discussed it.

"Are your Detective senses twitching again, Captain?" Nixon asked before he left.

"Oh, yeah," she answered with a little grin. "At least I get in on the some of the action this time."

Nixon chuckled. "Gotta get back to work," he said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder.

Beckett barely had time to unwind a few minutes before Patton came in after her shift, looking nervous.

"Close the door and sit down, Patton." Rather than at her desk, Beckett sat in the other guest chair, facing her officer and putting them at the same level. Looking down for a moment before she spoke, she said, "There isn't any good way to start this conversation."

"Did a video go viral? Am I fired?" Patton asked…surprisingly quietly for a change.

"No. Nothing like that. So far I haven't heard anything at all about that yet, and if our luck holds out, I won't. This isn't about any of the earlier incidents. I want you to know that this time you have every right to be angry with me, but I hope the end results will allow you to forgive me." She paused for a moment and then plunged in. "Originally I only intended to ask about enough of your background to see if I could figure out what made you tick. Or, I suppose it was more to find out what made you tick, tick, tick, boom." She made an explosion movement with her fingers. "But it left more questions than answers. So I looked farther, and then farther."

"You had no right. It's my business." Her voice held a mixture of anger and anguish.

"I think the reason I did it is that I can see a little of myself in you. I handled my problems differently, but all the anger was still there for a long time."

"How could I remind anybody of you?" she asked, anger creeping back into her question. "You have a perfect life, and…"

"Your mother disappeared, and you were left alone when you shouldn't have been. You've had no closure and no explanations, but I have those for you if you want them. When I was about a year younger than you are now, I was home from college; and my mother was murdered the night before I was supposed to go back to school. It was over a decade before I knew who did it…or that it was a contract killing…and longer than that before I knew who hired him to kill her. My dad took it hard, and I spent most of the next five years unsuccessfully trying to get him to stop drinking. He's been sober since then; but at your age, I didn't have anyone to count on, either. It's lonely and it's scary, and I wanted you to have some answers because I know what it's like not to have them.

"I didn't know."

"The information is out there, but I don't talk about it much. When we leave here, I'll respect your privacy and you'll respect mine. I just wanted you to know that my intentions come from understanding some of what you've been through." Beckett explained about Faith Jordan and her problems and CPS's ensuing difficulty in finding Patton. "Do you remember a Mr. Chadwick?"

"He was the super for the apartments we lived in. Everybody loved him."

"When he cleared out your apartment, he was thinking of you. He separated all the important papers you should have had access to by now and all the things he thought you might want to keep, and he saved several boxes for you. Mr. Salter at CPS has them now and is going to send them to you soon. If you need any help with handling legal papers, insurance questions, or whatever, let me know. We have lawyers who can help you with that. And I have a report on what happened to your mother. She was never reported missing, so I asked another captain, a friend, to discreetly look into matching your mother's picture to any reports from around the date she disappeared. Handing Patton the envelope, she recommended, "I'd wait until you get home to open it, if I were you." She sighed in resignation. "I can't change the past for you, but I hope some answers will help. We can talk another time if you want."

"I'm getting some of our things back?"

"Mr. Salter said there were photo albums and papers…probably things like birth certificates, social security cards, bank records, things you probably wouldn't have paid much attention to at sixteen. And Mr. Chadwick saved things he thought might have some sentimental value. I didn't see the boxes, but you should have them before long. If you don't, let me know and I'll go over there and get them myself. I know exactly who to look for this time. If you're anything like me, you don't want people feeling sorry for you. You want action that should have happened before now."

"I've been hard to get along with ever since you got here. Why would you go to this much trouble for me?"

"It was high time somebody did. And that little bit of myself I saw in your situation kept egging me on. I wasn't as overt about my anger most of the time, but I did spend some time being my own worst enemy in other ways. Maybe you can start correcting that earlier than I did. I've told you already, you have potential, and I'd like to see you succeed."

"I'm sorry about what I called you in the video. Nobody else has ever cared enough to snoop around and find out anything before. How long did it take you?"

"Me personally? Three days. I spoke to Sergeant Kirst last Monday and HR on Tuesday. The HR manager and I both thought something about the CPS report looked off, so I met with Mr. Salter at CPS on Wednesday. He found a picture of your mother and sent it to me, but I didn't do anything else from here at the fifteenth. The other captain's precinct is next to the one where you and your mother lived, and I know people there. The investigation was kept between the captain and one other person in his command, so your privacy hasn't been too compromised. He sent me the information in that envelope; and hopefully Mr. Salter will come through with delivery of your boxes in the next few days."

"All this time, and you found answers in a week. I haven't had anybody go to that much trouble for me since my mother. The foster families didn't mistreat me, but the one where I spent most of the time always had three teenage girls. The foster parents weren't exactly loving, but they weren't monsters, either. They treated us okay…let us do after school activities if we wanted to, or have jobs to earn our own spending money. They scheduled us carefully, though. They had us there mostly so they could spend as little of the CPS money on us as possible and pad their budget while they had help with housework and built in babysitting. We all knew why we were there. Eventually I just accepted it and got out as soon as I could.

"It helps to have answers, Patton," Beckett told her. But none of this is going to solve your anger problem. So while you're still a little angry with me anyway, I might as well throw this out for you to consider. What you've been through is enough to set off some of the most stable adults I've known. You were barely sixteen when it all happened. I'm sure the department benefits would allow you to see a therapist…"

"You want me to see a shrink?!"

"I know a good one," Beckett answered calmly. "He helped me a lot."

"You?"

"I had to see him because I was shot…department regulations after that sort of thing. And I kept going…for other related problems. It helped. I'm just asking you to consider it. There would be no classes where everybody else in the class knows some of your business, and no group therapy where everybody hears everything. The doctor is legally bound to keep whatever you tell him to himself. I would get reports that say you're continuing your treatment, and he would tell me when he thinks you're in control of the problem. I imagine I'd know by then anyway. Nobody else gets all the details. I initially hated the idea, too, but it worked out well."

"You did that willingly? Was the shooting that bad?"

"Two other things I don't generally talk about, but yes. Willingly. And the shooting was bad enough."

"Why are you really doing all this?" Patton still looked a bit suspicious.

"I already mentioned the parts of your situation that I personally understand. And on top of that, you're one of mine. If I can help you get your head around how to do the job well, the department and I have another good officer. And I worked with two captains who thought I was worth their time. I'm passing it forward.

Patton stood with the envelope in her hand and her eyes down. "Thank you. I haven't said that very much in a long time."

"You're welcome. If you decide to see Dr. Burke, I'll make the necessary arrangements. And we both show some mutual respect for personal privacy, right?"

Patton nodded and walked away, seeming to be in something of a daze; and Beckett sat down at her desk to collect herself before going home.

xxxxx

"So how did it go with Patton," Castle asked after a kiss to her cheek when Kate got home.

"Pretty well, I think," she answered, bracing herself for the little brown-haired bundle of energy barreling at her from the study. "She actually thanked me. Ummph!" She picked up the little boy who had forcefully wrapped himself around her leg and showered him with kisses. "What did you do today, Sweetness?" She listened as he told her about coloring with Daddy and going to the park, playing with his trains, etc. "I think we have another storyteller in the family," she said to Castle.

"Would that be a terrible thing? It worked out pretty well for me."

"Worked pretty well for me, too. And I'm completely in love with my storyteller."

"There's a whole series of books on the market that make it clear your storyteller is completely in love with you, too."

"Story, Mommy? Read me a book?"

"Go pick one out. Just one," she agreed, and he bounded into the study as soon as she put him down. Turning to Castle, she said, "We have a third element in the Homicide/Vice cases I told you about. I was in Narcotics this morning, and the homicide suspect turned up in pictures there. We have a big operation planned for Wednesday night. I'll probably be home late, or possibly not at all, depending on what happens. I've called in support, and I think our plan is solid; so we have what we need to be as safe as possible."

"Just call me and let me know you're okay now and then. I worry about you, especially now that I'm not there to know what's happening."

"I will. It might be a text so I don't distract anybody from the work, but I'll let you know."

"As long as it's enough to know you're okay. I know how fast these things can turn into something you didn't see coming, and my writer's brain can come up with all kinds of possibilities…usually bad ones."

"I know, but I'll be out of the way of most of it, listening in and helping coordinate. We'll have plenty of support."

We were going to leave for the Hamptons tomorrow after lunch, but there's no way I'm leaving before I actually have my arms around you after this operation. The house will be ready for us, Alexis has a key, and everybody else knows which rooms they've claimed over the years. Jamie and I will wait and leave after we've seen you...and hugged you."

"You realize you might as well go to the Hamptons after the hug, right? Tomorrow could be a twenty-four hour workday, and then I have to get through another two days before the weekend. I'm likely to sleep for twenty-four hours on Saturday. I wouldn't be much fun anyway."

"I remember how these things go."

Then Jamie came back from the study and was looking up at her hopefully, again with a messy armload of books held against his chest."

"How many books do you have, Jamie?" Kate asked. He knew his letters, and his parents had moved to numbers and counting.

He leaned over the coffee table and let them drop before he counted them. "Five?"

"How many did Mommy say to choose?" his mother asked.

"One," he answered sadly.

"Then choose one. We'll save the others for later."

"Two?" he bargained.

"One. Pick out your favorite."

A miniature replica of his father's pout and sad puppy eyes met her, and she looked at her husband and asked accusingly, "Did you teach him that?"

"Why would I want to teach him that? He'll just use it on me, too."

She looked at him with mock suspicion as she settled Jamie into her lap for a story.

"What?" he protested, playing along with his signature smirk in place. "I didn't teach Alexis, either. I just father very perceptive children." Then he innocently walked by and kissed the top of her head on his way to the kitchen.

"Your father pushes his luck sometimes, doesn't he, Peanut?" Pointing out a letter in the book's title, she asked, "What's that letter?"

"B"

"What starts with B?"

"Bears," her son answered excitedly. "And Berenstian."

"That was a big word, and you said it so well. I'm proud of you."

"Daddy showed me."

She looked toward the kitchen where Castle was taking a perfectly timed bow that was worthy of his mother.

Kate laughed at his dramatics, all pretense of accusation gone, and tickled her smiling son's tummy as she said, "Let's read about these bears." Then they settled into story mode.

xxxxx

On Tuesday morning, information came from their audio surveillance that altered their previous knowledge about the logistics of the drug delivery. Therefore, the head of the support team was back at the fifteenth with Beckett to tweak the original plan. The two of them did some restructuring before they called the three detective teams to the conference room to take them through the changes and to hear their questions and comments. After some discussion, another alteration was made.

"Beckett warned them again not to mention the operation specifically any more than necessary. mentioning Bracken's moles at a number of precincts, specifically at the twelfth. There's no one here that I would suspect of such a thing," she told them, "but we didn't suspect the ones at the twelfth, either. You can talk when it's over. If we're right and there's a human delivery as well as a drug delivery, we could be risking innocent lives if we aren't careful."

The support captain reiterated her concern, saying, "Better safe than sorry."

The detectives acknowledged the need for confidentiality and went back to work.

The rest of the day was routine for Beckett until Patton knocked on her door as she was gathering her things to go home.

"Do you have a few minutes, Captain? You said we could talk another time if I wanted. Should I come back another time?"

"No. I have time. Would you like to sit?" she asked, indicating the chairs and closing the door. She again chose to sit in the chair.

Sitting down and looking uncomfortable, Patton said, "Last night was hard." After a deep sigh, she asked, "Does it ever get any better…after you know your mom is really gone…forever?"

"I'm sure that answer is different for everybody you ask. I can only tell you how it affected me. I didn't handle it well. As soon after I was out of the Academy and in uniform, I managed to illicitly get my hands on my mother's case file…crime scene photos, all of it; and I drove myself into the ground trying to find something the detectives had missed. I was angry about everything; and I could only see the loss, and the pain, and the frustration of not being able to find who killed her. It was years before the good memories began to outweigh the ones about her death and the investigations. I have a copy of your mother's case file, but I'd advise against looking at it. It provides the stuff of nightmares. You're hearing the voice of experience. The report I gave you has all the pertinent details without the graphic visuals and minute details. Your mother's case is closed and you know who the men were and where they're incarcerated."

"It looks like she was buying breakfast food. She mentioned needing to go to the store before I went to bed that night. The grocer closest to us closed at ten. She must have gone out late and walked about four blocks into the next neighborhood to the one that was open later. Neither one of them were bad neighborhoods. She wouldn't have expected it."

"I'm sorry, Patton. I wish I could have given you better news. Will you be okay? Do you have anybody to talk to?"

"Not really. I guess you've noticed I don't exactly attract friends." She took a shuddery breath. "It's stupid of me; but as long as I didn't hear anything about what happened to her, I could keep hoping that maybe she had been in an accident…that one day she'd wake up from her coma or regain her lost memory or something and come and find me, But deep down, I think I knew." She paused and said, "When I got home yesterday the boxes were waiting for me. The super had signed for them and had them waiting for me. I have some of our favorite things back…pictures of her…of us. It made me remember who I used to be."

"I understand that."

"I found my aunt's phone number in one of the boxes. It was so far to travel that I've never actually met her, just talked to her on the phone. But I'm going to try to go and see her sometime soon. I needed to tell her what happened to Mom.

"Let me know when you decide you want to go, and we'll make your schedule work around it. If you decide to see Dr. Burke, I'll do whatever you need to help. He's a good listener…attentive, calm, nonjudgmental, and he cares about his patients."

Patton started to leave, then she stopped at the door and said, "I might want to talk to him. I haven't decided yet."

"It's a lot to deal with overnight. I'll be here. If you stop by and I don't have time to talk, understand that you can come back later."

Thanks for your time. I know you probably need to get home. And thank you for finding answers for me…in spite of the way I've behaved."

"I'm glad I could find them," Beckett said as she also stood.

As she walked past the office window, Patton lifted her hand in sort of a wave and gave Beckett a sad version of one of her tiny almost smiles.

xxxxx

Castle called Alexis after he was sure her classes were over for the day and explained his change of plans. They had intended for everyone to leave for the Hamptons on Wednesday afternoon to avoid the July Fourth holiday rush, and to leave from the Hamptons early Monday morning for the same reason. When he explained Kate's involvement with the drug operation on Wednesday night and his reluctance to leave until it was over, Alexis offered to come over and pick Jamie up for a trip to the park, burgers, and ice cream.

"If she thinks it could turn into a twenty-four hour thing, tonight is the last time you'll have any real time together until you get back home on Monday."

"You wouldn't mind doing that?" he asked.

"JD loves Jamie as much as I do. We don't mind at all. What time does Kate usually get home?"

"Generally no later than six. Sometimes a little earlier."

"We'll pick him up at six."

Kate got home a few minutes before Alexis and JD arrived, just in time for Castle to tell her about the offer of some one on one time for the two of them.

"Thank you for this, Kate said as she opened the door for Alexis and JD. "It's been stressful this week, and a couple of quiet hours will be nice."

We'll all enjoy it," Alexis assured her. "Are you ready, Jamie?" she called out, and he came running out of the study to meet her, but he stopped to hug Kate's leg first.

" Hey, Munchkin," she said as she kneeled to hug him at his level.

"'Lexis an' JD came to take me with them," he said excitedly.

"I know. That sounds like fun, doesn't it? Are you ready to go?" He nodded enthusiastically. "Then give Mommy a hug and a kiss." He wrapped his arms around her neck, gave her a smacking kiss on the cheek, and she kissed his head before she stood and let him go.

JD scooped him up while Alexis got the stroller, and he asked, "Are you ready for the park, Kid?"

"Yeah." Jamie answered.

JD swung him up on his shoulders, holding on to him, and said, "Come on Alexis. The boys are ready to go play at the park."

She rolled the stroller out from behind the stairs saying, "Honestly, you're as bad as my father."

"Good, 'cause he's fun," JD answered, and he and Castle bumped fists and grinned at each other.

"We'll be back about eight, Alexis told him.

When the door closed, Kate looked at her husband and said, looking astonished, "We have two hours of uninterrupted time."

Alexis offered because she realized that with the operation tomorrow night, it's the last chance we have to be alone together until you get home from work on Monday. That's almost a week." With his arms around her waist, he gave her a little kiss and asked mischievously, "How hungry are you?"

"She smiled back playfully and answered, "Not terribly."

Castle grabbed her hand and said, "There are good leftovers in the fridge. We can eat anytime." And he pulled a laughing Kate toward the bedroom.