196. Chapter 196

Chapter 196

Castle was up early with his wife the next morning. Since her transfer, she had to leave before the children were awake. He put their coffee on the breakfast bar as she took bagels from the toaster and sat down with her to share them. "Do you want to talk about it before you have to fight traffic to get back to it? What's going on at work that you needed to escape from last night?"

"Things are about the same. It's just that more keeps finding its way to the surface. I discovered yesterday afternoon that the women have had to develop methods of avoiding some of the men who apparently feel free to touch them inappropriately. It seems they have a warning system if those men are in their area. A text system. The man Wong mentioned, the one on leave to be with his father...his name has been brought up several times as the worst offender. I was told that, especially when he's in their area, the women won't even go to the restroom alone."

"Didn't they file complaints?" Castle asked. "I can't imagine if it were that bad that someone higher up the food chain wouldn't do something about it."

"I asked the same thing, and several women and a few of the men agreed that would probably happen…if the complaints they turned in had ever made it past the captain's desk. It seems this guy on leave is the fifth musketeer. I'm not looking forward to having him back. Two of these guys are assigned to Vice, along with the one who's on leave. There were a few people I had to work with when I was undercover for Vice who were like that…we always had to be on guard when they were around… again the minority making us wary of everybody. The more attractive young female officers are always called for those assignments, and they're at a disadvantage because if it happens and they fight back too much, they'll blow their cover. There's another team in Vice who are as uncooperative as the captain's pets, and I'm concerned about the young women who have to work with any of them. I'll need to find a way to take some of those women aside and talk to them about what's happening. Apparently there's one of the newer female officers the guy on leave is obsessed with. I'll have to keep an eye on that when he gets back, too."

"So how bad does it look…what percentage of the men at your precinct fall into that creepy category?"

"Maybe ten percent, and a few others who may not actually be involved, but are still complicit in allowing it to happen and thinking it's entertaining. Like Kaufman said, it's a minority giving the others a bad name. The trouble is that some of the others haven't been willing to stand up to the ten percent because they were the captain's buddies, and the captain wasn't going to do anything about it…and the captain is responsible for their evaluations. Ervin set an atmosphere for the offenders that said boys will be boys and there's no need to punish them for having a little fun. I haven't heard anything that tells me the captain did any more than make crude remarks, but he didn't discourage others from doing more. These are women who know how to defend themselves and get past guy talk all around them, but random, unwelcome touches and crude comments toward them personally happen so fast sometimes it's hard to be prepared for it. Within the last few months, there were six women who had turned in requests for transfers; and that doesn't appear to be unusual, but I can't find record of the requests being processed. Alvarez wasn't kidding when he said this place needs a better environment for women.

"I'm pretty certain you're going to change the atmosphere."

"Oh, speaking of a more pleasant atmosphere, my community meeting yesterday was at an old church only a block from the precinct. I think you'd love it. It was built in the eighteen hundreds, and a lot of what I saw looked like it could have been original to the church. I told Reverend Willows I'd call today to schedule another meeting next month, and he said I could bring you by for a tour if you're interested. I thought maybe you could drop the kids off at school one day and use the time before you have to pick Jo up."

"I'd like that. Do you have a date in mind?"

"I printed my schedule and left it on your desk. Why don't you check yours and send me a text with a few choices."

"Does it have to be a month from now? I think I'm excited about this."

"No. We didn't talk about a time for the tour. Spread the dates out a little bit so I can give him some choices."

"Okay. It's nice you thought about me."

"I think about you a lot," she answered flirtatiously. "But right now, I think I need to get to work. Somebody mentioned changing the atmosphere there."

"Which I'm sure you'll do."

"My cheerleader is back," she said with a teasing smile. "I love you. Gotta get moving. Thanks for listening."

He gave her a long, slow kiss and said, "Always." After she gave him one more quick little kiss, he let her go.

xxxxx

When she reached the precinct, she smiled as she walked into her fresh, clean office and sat down in her fresh, new office chair. After a couple of minutes, she took out the papers with her notes from the community meeting, her visits in the precinct, and her calendar. Then she went to the storage room Hart had shown her and gathered the rest of the office supplies to stock her office needs for the time being and emptied the box she had brought with her that morning,

The picture of her family and the little porcelain statue of the four elephants went on her desktop, and she organized her notes. When her family gave her the elephants to replace her mother's, it was to represent the family of four they had at the time. "I need another elephant for Jo," she said quietly to the empty room, smiling and trailing a finger down the trunk of one of the adult elephants. Then she pulled herself back into her work.

After calling Reverend Willows and scheduling both the next month's community meeting and Castle's tour, she turned to the mundane matters of reports and scheduling.

Over the first two weeks at the eighty-fifth, she found that she was commanding mostly hard working, respectable police personnel. A minority still resented her, especially the former captain's friends, and others seemed to still be assessing her, but for the most part there was reasonable cooperation. On one of her visits to Vice, as she looked at a new case a team had just been assigned, she felt a hand cup one cheek of her backside and slide toward the upper part of her inner thigh. When she angrily wheeled around to look at the perpetrator, it was one of the unholy four as Castle had been referring to them, he held his hands in front of him with a smirk on his face and said, "Sorry. It was an accident."

"How old are you? Twelve?" she asked, with a dangerous looking calm about her. "Do you seriously think there's a woman in this precinct who would have bought into that accident garbage in junior high, let alone as an adult? You do realize you just groped your Captain in front of witnesses, right?" The man paled a bit then, as if he'd just realized who he had lost his mind enough to grab. With the same deadly calm, she promised convincingly, "You ever touch me like that again, and I'll break your arm, or maybe some other body part you're probably a lot more fond of. "That will happen right before I call EMS for you, write up the complaint, and hand deliver it to Chief Dawson…with the full explanation for why you have a broken whatever. Then I'll press charges. You were there to see how much patience the chief had with Captain Ervin when he didn't even touch anybody. Is all that clear…Detective?"

"Yes, Ma'am," he said grudgingly.

"Since all the complaints that were filed mysteriously disappeared under your former captain's watch, I'll only write the complaint and suspend you for the other two days of this week and see that HR has it permanently in your file. That will document a problem. After that you're fair game. I've already let the women here know that the complaints will no longer stop at the captain's desk. She looked around at the two teams who were still resentful and uncooperative; but at the moment they were all quiet and looked shocked. "Watch yourselves," she warned. "I've heard the stories about all of you, and now I'm inclined to believe them. No woman in this precinct should have to tolerate that kind of behavior…no man should have to tolerate it from a woman, either." Turning to the offender, Detective Leavitt, she ordered, "My office in half an hour to sign the complaint form." Then she moved well out of Leavitt's reach; and for another couple of minutes before leaving the bullpen, she returned to the case she had been discussing.

When she was gone, Lieutenant Clement, whose team Beckett had been talking to when the incident happened, looked at Leavitt and said, "You're lucky she didn't break your arm or anything else today. You deserved it, and I'm pretty sure she could do it. She's in a lot better shape than you are." Indicating the members of the other two teams not included in Beckett's warning, he added, "I spoke to Captain Ervin about you before and got nowhere; but your protector is gone now, and none of us would have stopped her."

Beckett went back to her office, took a few deep breathes and wrote the narrative part of the report several times, each time getting a little farther past the angry tone of the narrative and closer to the objective tone a disciplinary report should reflect. By the time Leavitt sullenly arrived at her door, the report was properly presented. The witnesses listed were all seated where the groping was easily visible, and his usual witness cronies weren't. He didn't bother to sign with a disclaimer of disagreement with the charge, just signed it.

"You know what this tells me about you, Detective?" she asked as she picked up the signed form.

"What?"

"It tells me that if you can forget you're groping your captain, you must do this so often that all you think about is touching the closest female body. I'll expect you to get that under control from now on, whether it applies to me or any other woman in this building. It isn't remotely fun or funny from our side. You're suspended for the rest of this week. Your suspension starts now. Get your things and leave. I don't want you here before Monday."

There was an angry sound that vaguely resembled an acknowledgement as he left.

xxxxx

"Hi Guys." Beckett said as she walked into the loft. "Anybody interested in the park?" Hearing affirmative sounds from her children, she said, "I'm going to put on some jeans and a T-shirt. Find your shoes. I'll be right back. Where's your dad?"

About that time they heard a flush, and she said, "Oh. I guess I know now."

Jamie's almost seven year old sense of humor kicked in, and he laughed. "Hurry up, Mommy."

"Hurry up for what?" Castle asked.

"Get ready for the park," Jo answered. "Will you tie my shoes, Daddy?"

"I get to go, too, don't I?" he asked as he sat her on the breakfast bar and tied her shoe laces.

"It wouldn't be nearly as much fun without you," Kate assured him as she came back into the living room with her sneakers. After she put them on, they left for the park; and while they watched their children playing on the slide, he asked what was wrong.

"How do you do that?" I hadn't said a thing."

"You're tense, even after being with the kids for a while."

She told him about Leavitt that morning, and Rick asked, "Is it okay if I go in and beat him down tomorrow morning?"

"No. Then I'd have to arrest you, and I don't want to have to do that. Besides I suspended him until next week. Would you consider dragging him into a dark alley on his way home?"

"Really?" he asked with exaggerated excitement, and she giggled.

Then Jo wanted to be pushed on the swing. Jamie was already there getting the swing moving higher all by himself. When Jo complained that she didn't know how to do that, Kate showed her how, and the parents could see the concentration on her face as she tried. She had a little success, but then she wanted to be pushed again so she could go higher.

On the way home, they went to a little salad and sandwich shop where there was outdoor seating and ate dinner where they could people watch. Rick assigned Jamie a man who looked about fifty. He was wearing a business suit and carrying a briefcase. "Tell me a story," Rick insisted.

Jamie watched the man walk toward them and check his watch as he moved to the next corner. Then the boy spun a story about a spy who had to meet someone to deliver the files in his briefcase in half an hour and was about to hail a taxi because the subway would take too long. Then he and his parents watched as the man reached the corner and hailed a taxi. All of them laughed, and Rick bumped fists with his son.

"I hope he's spying on our side," Kate commented.

Jo was oblivious to them, engrossed in coloring on her child friendly place mat with a few crayons provided by the restaurant; so when Jamie pointed someone out and told Kate it was her turn, they were off on another short imaginary adventure. By the time Castle had his turn, their meal was being served and Jo was being praised for her coloring before it was covered by her dinner.

When they were home again, everyone was relaxed and in a good mood, and they had a lighthearted family evening.

xxxxx

Telling Sergeant Young at the front desk only that she was meeting with Reverend Willows and would be back right after lunch, Beckett met Castle at the church for a tour. Willows was in his glory expounding on the physical history of the church as well as the general history it had seen over its years. It had once been a part of the Underground Railroad, and they were shown the hidden room used as a safe house for the slaves heading north to rest and replenish supplies on their journey. They were shown the community supported food pantry and the kitchen and cafeteria space where they served the homeless and families who had fallen into hard times, having to choose between food and rent. As they walked, he pointed out where additions were made and when and why, and they ended in the sanctuary, which was the majority of the original part of the building.

The woodwork in here looks almost pristine. How has the church managed to keep it in this condition all this time?" Castle asked. "And this altar table is beautiful workmanship."

"This was a proud old neighborhood, even as small as it was in the eighteen hundreds. It grew into a diverse working class area later. Some of the folks worked in the factories or did general construction work, but some of them were real craftsmen. Their work was in demand among the wealthy. The people they worked for took a large percentage of what was charged for the work they did, but they had the skills to build and finish the high quality houses, furniture and trim and masonery work that only the wealthy could afford. If you toured some of the small houses in this area, you'd see that some of them used their skills in their own homes. It was also a community centered neighborhood, and they used the same skills here in the church. A lot of those skills have fallen by the wayside these days, but there are a couple of our senior citizens who are mentoring a few apprentices in hopes of continuing the craftsmanship and the giving tradition…as well as offering them something to do and providing them with a marketable skill.

"There are journals here with records of who built what, who planted what…carpenters, masons, trim carpenters, roofers, gardeners. We still have a day each year to honor the volunteers from the church and any others who have helped us. It's to honor the individuals as well as the history of how our church community has worked together for over a century. The neighborhood lost most of its diversity after the thirties, but it's coming back. A lot of us have held on to that feeling of community and pulled in some of the new folks to be part of the same giving, supportive spirit."

"It sounds like a good place to grow up," Castle answered.

"We're trying to make it that," Willows answered.

Looking around again, Castle asked, "Is that a pipe organ…not one of those electronic ones?"

"Yes, it is," Willows answered, as enthusiastic as Castle. "Want to see the pipe chamber?"

"Yeah. That would be awesome."

Captain Beckett," Willows said after she had time for a look at all the widely varied sized pipes, "Would you go out to the organ console and play a few notes on various parts of the keyboards, and maybe a few notes on the pedalboard."

She played a few notes or a chord here and there, starting with higher notes, and Castle looked for where they were sounding, Willows pointing them out for him. Then he called out, "Kate, play some really low notes." After she had pulled a couple of stops and played a few chords in the very lowest range and tried a few notes with her feet on the pedalboard, the largest pipes had sounded several times, and the two men came back into the sanctuary grinning ear to ear like a couple of little boys. "I think I'm still vibrating," Castle told his wife.

She smiled at both of them and thanked Willows, saying that both of them needed to have a quick lunch and get back to their responsibilities.

"I know you said you aren't church goers, but we won't hold that against you. You're welcome to come to a service and hear that organ," Reverend Willows told them. "We have a fine organist and choir and a friendly congregation." Then he grinned again mischievously and added, "And I've been known to deliver a decent sermon now and then."

"We'll consider that," Castle told him.

"Mr. and Mrs. Castle, it's been a real pleasure. Or, I suppose that should be Mr. Castle and Captain Beckett."

"Mr. and Mrs. Castle is fine. I'm Beckett at work, but legally Mrs. Castle. I like being Mrs. Castle," she said, taking her husband's arm. "Thank you so much for the tour. I thoroughly enjoyed it; and as a bonus, I learned more about the community. I could tell Rick enjoyed it, too."

"Yes, I did. Thank you," Castle echoed, shaking Reverend Willows' hand.

Before Beckett went back to work and Castle went to pick their daughter up at school, the two of them had lunch at the burger place Kate and Alicia had found.

xxxxx

Three weeks into her time at the eighty-fifth, there were still pockets of ill will, and some wariness, but the majority of the precinct was still as cooperative as could be expected in that short amount of time; and some were actually friendly and welcoming. It was part of a process Beckett had dealt with before. She was finally getting to a thorough investigation of what was in the file cabinet when, on a Monday morning just before the end of the month, a man she didn't recognize walked into her office unannounced and asked crudely, "Where did the captain find you? I didn't think he had it in him."

"You must be Detective Wilmer. I had word that you'd be back today."

"Did the Captain mention me?"

"No. Your friends didn't tell you? The captain retired while you were gone, but your reputation precedes you."

"Oh, yeah? What are they saying?" He looked pleased.

"Nothing good. I understand the women here don't want to be anywhere near you because of the way you treat them."

"I just have a little fun with them now and then," he answered with a little of the same swagger she had seen in Captain Ervin."

"Well they don't consider it even vaguely fun, and I'll expect you to stop all of it."

"And who are you to tell me what to do?"

Tapping the nameplate on her desk, she said, "Your new captain. I understand your father passed away last week, so first, let me say I'm sorry for your loss. I do mean that. However, before you get back to work, you need to know that the days of getting away with that kind of fun here are over. It was always unacceptable and grossly unprofessional. Women who work in a police precinct shouldn't feel preyed on." Sitting down, she told him, "You've officially checked in, so you can get to work now. Your team finished a case on Friday, so you'll be in on the next one from the beginning. I've already let them know you'll be back today."

Without even answering her, he turned and left, and barely audibly Beckett sang sarcastically to herself, "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood." Then she sent Detective Janet Hart a text that only read, "Wilmer's back." And she got a return that only said, "Thanks." That would initiate the text warnings she was now convinced could be necessary.

She took time to speak to Sergeant Loughlin, who was in charge of the uniformed officers, to ask that he keep an eye on the near obsession Wilmer reportedly had for one of the relatively new young officers, Holly Forster. She also asked that, at least for the time being, Forster not be assigned to undercover Vice operations where Wilmer was involved. "It just seems wise to be careful for now."

On Thursday, Lieutenant Clement came to her office to see her, looking concerned. "Captain, I didn't hear everything, but when he came in this morning, Wilmer was furious with Officer Forster. Something about her turning him down again and, 'not knowing she could be that nasty,' and something about a lesson. I thought you should know something happened, and that Wilmer sometimes doesn't handle anger well. And I thought if he's not aware I've talked to you, I might be able to pick up on other trouble before it develops into something bigger."

"Thanks, Clement. I'll look into it right now." She pointed to the empty coffee cup dangling from his finger and said with a smile, "Did you forget your coffee?"

"I guess I did. Yours smells better."

"I just made some. Help yourself."

"Is that a new sofa?"

"New desk chair, too. After my friend and I cleaned the office top to bottom and the new ones were delivered, we moved the old ones out in the hall; and I asked the custodian what to do with them. He said he'd put them in storage up in no man's land, that sooner or later somebody would be desperate enough to want them. With a name like that I had to see it, so Thompson showed me the storage floor. I didn't realize that floor was so separate. This must be one of the oldest buildings the department is still using."

"I don't blame you for replacing them. And it looks much better in here." He filled his coffee cup and thanked her before stopping in the bullpen to talk to Kaufman for a couple of minutes.

Beckett called Sergeant Loughlin to see if he had any insights into the situation between Wilmer and Forster.

"He had apparently caught her in various parts of the building and asked her out again every day since he got back," Loughlin explained. "I saw the incident this morning; and afterward, I talked to some of the officers who hadn't left on patrol yet. He stopped Forster again on her way out this morning. She told him again she wasn't interested and to leave her alone. Wilmer laughed and said she just needed to give him a chance; then she finally snapped and wasn't kind about it. Forster told him how much she had enjoyed her job while he wasn't here harassing her, that she was sick to death of trying to think of enough ways to say she didn't want anything to do with him to make him finally understand it, that if being older than her father wasn't enough, she would never go out with anybody who was trying to cop a feel of one of her body parts every time he asked her. She said she wasn't the least bit interested in him, didn't find him the slightest bit attractive, didn't want him touching her, and that he should find someone else to annoy. She wasn't quiet about it, and he was livid."

"Ouch."

"Yeah. I checked on the history there, and some of the other female officers had some problems with him, too. They all said it was worse for Forster, though. He just wouldn't leave her alone, even followed her into the women's restroom once and pinned her to the wall. Somebody else came in and he left. The other woman encouraged her to file a complaint. She told me she did, but when she checked with the captain later, he said he talked to Wilmer and she shouldn't have any more problems. Nothing else ever came of it, and in less than a couple of weeks it escalated again. She told me the women here don't go to the restroom alone anymore."

"I've heard that, too."

"I didn't realize it was as bad as it sounds. I talked to some of the male officers, too. If the captain didn't even listen to the men's complaints about the way the Five Stooges treated the women, I know he wouldn't have bothered with the women's. I'll see that she isn't assigned anywhere near Wilmer. She's a good officer, good head on her shoulders and well able to take care of herself in most circumstances; but she shouldn't need to continually fight off one of her own. We don't want her to leave out of disgust."

"No we don't. And thank you for taking the initiative to look into the background details."

"Yes, Ma'am. Glad to help. Oh, and I spoke to those officers whose names came up at the community meeting. I've had to speak to them before, and they usually have the good sense to dial it back...at least for a while. Captain Ervin wasn't too strict on that sort of thing, either. I told them if there are any more incidents, you would be the next person they'd be talking to."

She called Lieutenant Clement and asked him to send Wilmer to her office, and when he arrived, she told him that she had heard from several sources that he had harassed Officer Forster both before he went on leave and every day since he had been back. "You are to leave her alone. No contact of any kind. She will not be assigned to any operation you're involved with. And you are not to be within fifty feet of her at any time. That's an order."

"You can't do that," he answered angrily.

"I can and just did." This is a written copy of what I've just told you, and I'll need your signature. You can add whatever disclaimer you want about not agreeing. The signature is only to acknowledge that you are aware of the order."

He signed it after scribbling his complaint about it being unreasonable, unfair, and unnecessary."

"Why are you doing this? What do you get out of it?" he asked angrily.

"I don't want to lose a promising officer because a detective more than twice her age, above her rank, and old enough to know better, can't keep his hands or obsessions to himself."

"Captain Ervin underst…"

"Captain Ervin is not here now. You understand that I gave you an order?"

"Yes," he answered too sharply before he left.

Beckett called home and asked Castle, "How would you feel about bringing our babies and meeting your wife for another seafood dinner?" she asked.

"I think we would all love it." Then he chuckled. "We'll probably have a scallop stuffed son again."

"He was a happy scallop stuffed son. That would be okay. He's been eating more lately. I think he's building up to another growth spurt."

"So we should meet you at the precinct at five?"

"Yeah. It would be nice to just be Mrs. Castle as soon as the day here is over."

They talked for a few more minutes, and then Beckett sighed deeply and returned to her preparations for the community outreach meeting.

Castle and the children arrived at five on the dot and went straight to Beckett's office. She was ready to go and took Jo in her arms while Castle walked with an arm around Jamie's shoulders as he walked between his parents. Hart and Kaufman waved as they passed by.

The family stopped long enough for Beckett to call out, "I'm leaving for the night, Young. See you tomorrow. "'Night Medford," she said to the security officer.

"Goodnight, Captain," Medford said. He waved to the children and smiled, and they both smiled back, Jo adding a little wave from her mother's arms. Castle shook his hand quickly as they left; and when they were on the street outside the precinct, he and his wife glanced at each other with a look of freedom.

When they reached the restaurant this time there was still a short wait, but another family also waiting was that of a woman she had met at the last community meeting.

"Captain Beckett?"

"You run the shelter for women, don't you?"

"Yes. Sharise Johnson. I'm surprised you remembered."

"What I remember is sketchy. You guys definitely outnumbered me. This is my husband, Richard Castle and our children Jamie and Jo. And who are these folks?" she asked, smiling at the other two children.

"Keisha and Michael," the little girl told her shyly. She looked about ten and the boy looked about five.

Kate and Rick both shook their hands, and all four children smiled at each other.

"I'm Sharise's husband, Jerome."

"Rick Castle. It's good to meet you. So your wife runs a shelter for women? Are you part of that, too?"

Jerome chuckled. "I do get roped in now and then. Usually when they need somebody to haul supplies or fix something. I'm what most people call a handyman…spend most of my time fixing things, some big, some not so big. Sometimes I do some remodeling."

Kate was talking to Sharise, and the children were getting acquainted and seemed to be getting along, so Rick continued to talk to Jerome, asking about what he was working on, the biggest jobs he'd had to tackle and so on. He and his brother had built their own small business over the past decade.

"Rick, I told Mrs. Johnson about our tour of the church. Remember that altar table you liked so much? Jerome built that."

"That was some fine work," Rick told him. "Impressive."

"Thanks. I learned from my granddaddy. He could build anything. What do you do, Rick?"

"I'm a writer. Since I work at home, I'm Mr. Mom and write when they're in school or taking a nap, or after Kate is home."

"What do you write?"

"Mysteries."

Then the Johnson family was called.

"I enjoyed the conversation," Rick told Jerome before the Johnsons went to their table. "Looks like we all enjoyed the conversations," he added, indicating their wives and children.

Jerome answered, "Same here."

"Maybe we'll run into you again sometime while Kate is at the eighty-fifth."

"They were nice," Jamie said. "Will we meet them again?"

"Maybe. I'll be working in this precinct until September. I'll see Mrs. Johnson next week at a meeting, but Michael and Keisha will be in school then like the two of you," Kate told them Meeting them tonight was just a nice accident."

Not much later, the Castles were at a table. They enjoyed their meal just as much as the last time they were there; and as predicted, left with a happy, scallop stuffed little boy…and a box with the last few he couldn't eat…yet.

Once they were home, and had the children in bed, Rick asked what had her needing the family sooner rather than later that day.

"The fifth musketeer."

"So we're now talking about the Unholy Five?"

"Yeah, Loughlin called them The Five Stooges, but this one worries me. He seems more volatile than the others…underlying anger maybe? The others are sleazy but this one…I don't know…" She sighed. "Can we not talk about it tonight? It's enough that I'll have to deal with him tomorrow."

"Could I interest you in a shower…one where your husband would take your mind off sleazy detectives for a while? I can be very distracting when I want to."

"So many ways to answer that statement, Writer-Man," she teased, "but I do like your shower distractions. Come and show me what you have in mind for tonight."