Together Again

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I own none of this and there's a lot I don't own here. Rating: K Time: After Infinite Kates, which is here on FF dot net.

"What did you find out?" Raina demanded as soon as they got in the car.

"According to the sales lady, Sylvia Vadalos is dead. She killed herself on Virgil Vadalos' grave. And she used the gun that dirty detective used to kill Virgil."

"Bullshit. Sylvia has children. She'd never leave them like that. She's no more dead than I am. She's just using that to go underground with Taysa."

"We'll have to check." Collette said. "Do you know how to get to Venice Beach?"

Rita shook her head. "I don't, but I'm pretty sure the car's GPS can find it. Why?"

"We need to find out something that people don't want us to know. That's what I used to do. But I need some things."

Venice Beach was full of surgically enhanced blondes in bikinis trying to get discovered and muscular, basketball playing young men, trying to convince the blondes they were producers.

"Looks like Miami.' Rita sniffed.

"Park over there. I could be a while, I'll have to convince someone I'm not a cop."

Several young men came over to talk to the two women. Rita smiled at them and asked sweetly, "Have ya'll accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior?"

After that, the number of young men approaching them declined, but never quite stopped.

After an hour and a half, Collette came out, carrying a laptop.

"We could have gotten a computer anywhere." Riana said testily.

"But we couldn't have gotten the programs we need just anywhere. Back to the hotel."

Once in the hotel, Collette began to work. "The death certificate is a matter of public record and I can get it online without having to hack anything." She looked over the form that came up. "Okay, Sylvia Vadalos, cause of death, self inflicted gunshot wound to the right temple. Raina, look it over. Do you see anything that shouldn't be there? Or something that should be that isn't?"

Raina carefully looked over the death certificate, reading it twice. "As far as I can tell, everything is correct. I don't know things like her date of birth, or her parents. Next of kin is listed as her Uncle Augustus Vadalos, but he was Virgil's uncle. Tough old bastard. I don't see her children mentioned."

Collette shook her head. "There's no place on the death certificate for children of the deceased. So, everything looks okay."

"But I know it isn't."

"But it looks okay, which would have to mean that someone went to a lot of trouble to set this up. Let's see what the coroner's report look like. I'll have to do some hacking on this, but the security for them shouldn't be too tight."

It took about ten minutes, but Collette soon found Sylvia's autopsy report. "Damn. I don't know enough about medicine to tell if something is off on this report."

Both Rita and Raina looked over Collette's shoulder.

"Sorry." Rita said. "It's just a bunch of medical double talk to me."

"It'll be perfect. That bitch paid off someone high up and they'd have made sure that a real doctor did the report and did it right."

"Let's see what we can find out about the good ex-Detective Beck." Collette went back to work on the laptop. She took longer this time.

"Okay, he's in Folsom Prison. Not in the general population, which is common for ex-cops."

"The bastards stick together, don't they?" Rita said bitterly.

"Convicted of the murder of Virgil Vidalos, obstruction of justice….Hmm. Apparently falsified evidence concerning the murder of his partner by some Nazis. Doing twenty five to life."

"I was there. She was going to take us both in, but some Nazi bastard shot her in the head. Beck dropped the guy."

"This is interesting." Collette said.

"What?" The two other women said.

"The most he's ever had in his prison commissary account is seventeen dollars."

"So?" Raina said.

"So, no one is paying him to keep quiet about anything. Or talk about anything. You'd think that Sylvia would want the one living man who knew you best in a talkative mood in case he knew anything. Apparently not."

"Maybe she promised him a ton of money and then welshed on the deal. What's he going to do? Call a cop? And remember, he killed her husband."

"Do you mind if I look at your records, Raina?"

She laughed. "Are you afraid you'll find out I've been a bad girl?"

Rita put her hand on Raina's shoulder. "We've all been bad little girls. But we're different now."

Collette worked at hacking into the LAPD's database. "You have been a bad girl. You were a suspect in a bunch of murders, including Virgil's."

"The bastards raped Staysa and beat her into a coma. I'd do it again and I'd do it slower and more painfully."

"None of us are condemning you for what you did." Collette said gently. "But, you lucked out. All of the evidence was considered tainted because it was furnished by either Beck or Hanover, his partner, or they had access to it. Hanover was apparently sleeping with Beck and no one knew how involved she was. Once Beck went down for Vadalos' murder, and Hanover was killed, the rest of the cases were dropped for lack of evidence."

"Let's see what we can get from the LAPD's organized crime folks." Since Collette was already in the LAPD's database, she had little trouble breaking into the organized crime task force's records. The record for Virgil Vadalos went back decades, so Collette and Raina sat at the computer and went over what had happened to his criminal empire after his death.

"It looks like you were right." Collette said. "Sylvia couldn't keep his illegal operations. M 13, a Central American gang got most of the drugs. The prostitution went to a number of LA based black gangs. Gambling was taken over by two of Virgil's people and one of them got his head blown off shortly thereafter. Illegal weapons sales….It looks like a dozen or so people grabbed pieces of that."

"What does Sylvia have left?" Raina asked,

Collette ran through the file. "There's not much here about her. Or her finances. Let me check the Vadalos' financial records. Do you know anything about where Virgil kept his money?"

Raina shook her head. "He always either gave me cash, or bought things for me using his own credit card. I really never paid any attention to the money. We were in love. Or at least I thought we were."

"We all were all really in love." Rita said softly. "Just with the wrong guys. We'll find someone who loves us back. You just wait and see."

Collette smiled at her. "You're an incurable optimist."

"I don't think pessimists ever have much fun."

"Hey, we've got something. It's from the courts. All Sylvia's money is in trust to her kids. That Uncle Gus and some lawyers control the trust. Let me dig into this."

An hour and a half later, Collette threw up her hands in disgust. "The problem is, I have no idea what Virgil had before he got killed and I have no way to trace it. The bastard was hiding his money from the government, the police and apparently from his wife."

"His wife?" Rita said.

"Duh! He had a girlfriend. You think he wanted his wife to look at his credit card bills and wonder why she hasn't gotten all of that jewelry he's been buying?"

"It doesn't make any difference. "Raina said quickly. "We know she has enough money to hire people to kidnap Staysa and to go underground. And enough to hire plenty of muscle."

"We have two advantages." Collette said thoughtfully. "She doesn't know about us." She laughed. "You know, Raina really can be in two places at once, or even three. We just need some wigs or maybe a dye job. And she doesn't know we have money, too."

"Sylvia doesn't want money. She wants to kill me and to kill poor Staysa as well."

Collette leaned back and stretched. "There's a thought. She doesn't know where Raina was, because if she did, she'd have sent a couple of killers to Cabo to take you out. So how does she get you to come to her?"

"She's going to tell us." Rita said suddenly. "She'd have known that Raina would go to the nursing home they took Staysa from. They stake out the place and when they see Raina, they follow her."

"Shit!" Collette muttered. "Then they know that Raina has two friends."

Rita looked puzzled. "If she wants the two of you dead, why not post a sniper at the nursing home to drop you and then do away with Staysa?"

Raina laughed bitterly. "She wants me to suffer. Really suffer. Her plans for me don't include a quick death."

Collette took out her pistol and examined it. "My plans for her include just that. Remember, if you ever get a chance to kill her, just kill her. Don't waste time telling her how much you hate her or anything else. Just kill her."

"You've killed before?" Raina asked. Neither of the three had gone too deeply into some parts of their personal lives with the others.

"When I had to. The ones I killed deserved it. In fact, they deserved to die very slowly and very painfully. Not that I was acting as some sort of avenging angel. That wasn't who I was back then. They tried to double cross me to avoid paying my fee."

"Why did Sylvia fake her death?" Rita suddenly asked. "There'd be no need for it. She grabs Staysa, lures you to your death and then goes back to her normal life. Why fake her own death?"

The three women stopped and thought about that for several long minutes. Then Raina nodded to herself.

"The Castles. If Staysa and I "disappeared" or even turned up dead, the LAPD and the FBI would look at Sylvia pretty closely. But she'd be surrounded by lawyers. They push and she'd push back. After a while, they'd just put it in the unsolved box and move on. But Sylvia must know that the Castles were paying for Staysa's treatment. I looked into them after they moved Staysa to a top of the line facility and paid for it. They don't give up. They took down a sitting US Senator who was damned near President. They killed a pair of notorious serial killers. Sylvia would know they'd be after her forever. But if she's dead….?"

"Would she give up her children like that?" Collette asked.

Raina shook her head. "Good old Uncle Gus would take the kids to some nice, safe country with no extradition treaty with the US. Then when everything died down, Sylvia would show up. With a new ID, to be sure. Maybe even a new face. The bitch could use one."

"And live happily ever after." Collette finished for her.

"So, all we have to do is wait for Sylvia to let me know when and where the "ransom" for Staysa is to be delivered."

"I hate waiting." Collette and Rita said together.

They didn't have too long to wait. The next day Raina got a postcard under her assumed name. It as a picture postcard of Manhattan. Written in block letters was one sentence. "Wish you were here."

Kate Beckett opened the door to the loft, dropped her bags and sank gratefully into a couch.
"Thank you so much for the ride. After that God awful plane ride, I couldn't have taken a New York cab ride."

The brunette woman smiled. "I was happy to do it, Captain, considering all you've done for me."

"All I ever did was give you an opportunity. That's something I try to do for all of my people. You took the opportunity and ran with it. Now you're about to become a detective."

Officer Rachel Morgenstern shook her head. "Please, Captain. Don't jinx it. The list isn't out yet. I may not make detective."

Kate began ticking off points on her fingers. "One, I put you in civilian clothes. And, in case you haven't noticed it, both Lieutenants Ryan and Esposito think you're pretty good. Two, you aced the written exam. And three, I happen to have it on very good authority that you were very impressive at your interview."

"Still, I'm worried." Morgenstern giggled. "At least I didn't break your record for making detective."

"Someone will."

They were interrupted by a knock on the door. Kate began to get out of the chair, but Rachel Morgenstern headed for the door. "I'll get it, Captain."

She opened the door and smiled. "Mrs. Carsen. How good to see you."

Simone Carsen, nee Renoir looked around. "Mrs. Carsen? I thought we were friends, Rachel."

Rachel blushed. "It's good to see you, Simone."

Simone hugged the younger woman and entered the loft.

"Kate! You're back. How was your trip?"

Kate rose and hugged Simone. "The book fairs were wonderful. As always, I was so proud of Rick. But the plane flights were ghastly. Weather problems, mechanical problems, a medical emergency in flight, a fight between two elderly women….I've never been so happy to get home in my life."

Simone looked around. "Where are Lily and Rick?"

"Rick had to drop by Black Pawn. Gina wants an up to the date report on the book fairs we went to. Given Rick's mood, she'll probably regret it. And, since we really couldn't take Lily with us, her grandma and big sister are spoiling her rotten in Chicago. Martha's play is being produced there. They hope to get it to Broadway. And how is Big Flynn and Little Flynn?"

Simone smiled enormously. "Judson was right. Little Flynn is not the least bit vampire. He's one hundred percent human."

"As are you." Both Kate and Rachel said at once. All three laughed.

"Flynn is, as usual, down in the depths of The Library. He's supposed to be helping Judson and Charlene do an inventory and looking after Little Flynn, but I suspect that Excalibur is doing the actual babysitting. Why do they call it babysitting? They run around all of the time."

Before Kate could reply, they got a phone call on the landline. She answered it.

"Mrs. Castle?"

"Yes."

"This is Dr. Grivas. From LA? It's about poor Staysa Mavias."

"Did something happen to her?"

"She was kidnapped. Two men just grabbed her and took off with her."

"When was this?"

"Four days ago. We tried to call you, but your phone must have been off."

"Both of our phones were damaged. We haven't gotten new ones yet. Did you call the police?"

"Yes, of course. The police and the FBI have been here. The FBI, an Agent Moreno here in LA, wants to talk to you." There was a brief pause. "Oh, dear. I gave his card to Ms. Mavias. Raina, that is. Poor Staysa's older sister."

"She was there?"

"Of course. I had to call her, she's the next of kin."

"Thank you, Dr. Grivas. I'm a captain with the NYPD. I can contact the FBI here. Thank you so much for calling."