Chapter 5

Back at the precinct, they were met by many surprised looks when they returned with an unknown detective and two NCIS agents on their heels. But Kate ignored that and headed straight for Gates' office in the futile hope that her orders might have changed.

Castle meanwhile pointed out the break room to their 'guests'. "Coffee is right through there."

"Great, I've been up since six a.m.," Tony replied and entered the small precinct kitchen.

"Why did you get up so early?" Ziva asked, following him.

"Didn't want to be late for… work," Tony said hesitantly, not quite sure whether it was wise to admit how anxious he had been to see her again. Ziva still looked like she knew, but didn't say anything, so he didn't either. Instead, he gaped at the state-of-the-art cappuccino maker in front of him.

"Hey! How come these cops have a better coffee machine than we do?"

"They have superb connections to the mayor," Jane explained. She had followed the two NCIS agents since she had no better idea what to do or where to stay. She hated feeling so useless and dependent on Detective Beckett's cooperation since this wasn't her precinct.

"Figures," Tony said and studied the huge coffee machine. "And how the hell do you actually make coffee with this thing?"

Ziva joined him and tried to shove him aside. "Let me handle it, Tony."

But Tony refused to budge, so their bodies got pressed against each other. "What makes you so sure you can do this, Zee-vah?" he asked, mockingly raising an eyebrow.

Ziva looked him straight in the eyes and tried not to be affected by the closeness of their lips. "I could build a bomb with whatever I would find in this room, so yes, Tony, I'm sure that I will manage to use that machine to make coffee."

Tony felt absolutely no desire to lose the feeling of Ziva's warm body pressed against his, but her voice had been a little more harsh than playful, so he backed off. "Knock yourself out."

Jane suddenly felt all the more out of place and also a little annoyed. Seriously, how could all these people be in love with their partners, and how the hell would she get anything done, surrounded by couples who had only each other on their minds?

Nevertheless, Jane thought it wise to remind those two that she was still there. "I didn't know you learned to build bombs at NCIS."

"I told you not to provoke her," Tony replied while Ziva went to work with the coffee machine.

"I did not learn that at NCIS," she explained, but kept her back turned to Rizzoli.

Still, Jane thought she remembered seeing a Star of David around the woman's neck and ventured a guess. "Mossad?"

Ziva did look at her now because she hadn't expected Rizzoli to have the guts to ask, but she quickly turned around again to make it clear that she most certainly wouldn't discuss her past. "Not anymore."

"Nope, our Ziva is living the American dream now," Tony joked, but was still glad when Detective Beckett and her novelist showed up to end the conversation.

"Ryan sent the stuff they found in the hotel rooms. I thought you could take care of the Petty Officer and we'll deal with Frost and his mystery woman," Kate suggested, since Gates had once again confirmed that she wanted them to cooperate.

Tony nodded. "Will do," he said and sipped at the coffee cup Ziva had offered him. "Man, this really is great coffee. No wonder you're so wired."

"Hey, how'd you figure out how to use that?" Castle asked, a little miffed, since he had always prided himself in being the only one in the precinct who could really do that.

"Please. We are federal agents. Give us some credit," Tony replied.

"Or," Jane said, heading back towards the bullpen and nodding into David's direction, "just give her the credit."

"Hey!" Tony yelled after her, but Jane ignored him and grabbed the laptop she identified as Frost's.

After she had sat down, though, Castle started hovering next to her. "What?" Jane snapped.

"You're kind of sitting in my chair," Castle explained.

"Just leave it, Castle. You can have my chair," Kate said, exasperated, and started filling the murder board with what they knew so far.

"Sweet," Castle said and grabbed Frost's cell phone before settling down. "There's a number here he called last and repeatedly the day of his murder. Could be his mystery date."

Kate looked up and spotted Ryan across the bullpen. "Hey, Ryan, could you check out that number?"

"Sure," the young detective replied, but stopped hesitantly when he found that Ziva had settled at his desk. "Uh, sorry, Ma'am, but I need to use my computer."

Tony started laughing. "Ma'am? Well, that's new."

"Jeez, Ryan, can't you just use Espo's computer?" Kate suggested, feeling as if she was babysitting a bunch of kids, which reminded her of something she didn't want to be reminded of.

But Ziva rose from the chair anyway. "That is not necessary. I have just pulled Petty Officer Umar's service record," she said and pinned a print-out to what she had quickly deduced served as this precinct's not yet electronic murder board.

"What are the highlights?" Beckett asked.

"The Petty Officer has no more living family to speak of and had been serving on the USS Ronald Reagan that made port in Norfolk a couple of days ago. His service record is unremarkable except for a punitive letter of reprimand for disorderly conduct and another incident where Umar received non-judicial punishment for misconduct ill-befitting of a Navy officer."

Kate sighed. "Disorderly conduct. That's Navy talk for what exactly?"

"He got into a fight with a fellow officer and reported to duty while he was drunk," Ziva explained.

Castle snorted. "Talk about 'our brave men and women in uniform'."

"Yes, well, looks like Umar was one naughty boy," Tony said, also rising from his chair to join Ziva. "Just got off the phone with his CO who told me that he had just filed the UA paperwork on our dear Petty Officer… meaning that he didn't actually have permission to leave the ship and come to New York."

"Yes, thank you, Agent DiNozzo, I know what unauthorized absence means," Kate replied, shaking her head.

Tony decided not to comment on that. "His CO also told me that they are currently investigating a break-in into one of their laboratories. Security footage connects Umar to the theft."

Jane looked up from Frost's laptop after failing to guess the right password for what felt like the umpteenth time. "What did he steal?"

"Don't know yet. CO will call me back once they've completed their inventory. But whatever it was, it could have been in that suitcase the concierge saw Umar leave with."

Kate shared a look with Rizzoli. "Seems like your partner really was on to Umar."

"But how would he have known that he was dealing with a deserter and a thief?" Castle mused. "Leaving a hotel with a suitcase is not exactly a capital offense."

"But they were staying at the same hotel. Perhaps Frost overheard something. Hopefully, we'll find something in his phone records or on his computer."

"Yo, Beckett," Esposito called and walked towards them. "Detective Frost's father is here." He nodded in the direction of a black man in a Navy uniform that was adorned with so many ribbons that Kate couldn't have failed to notice that he was way up the food chain, even if she hadn't already known that he was an admiral.

"Thanks, Espo," she said and as always Castle rose to accompany her, but so did Rizzoli.

"I'd like to be there," she explained.

Kate realized that she wouldn't want anyone else to tell Martha if, God forbid, anything were to happen to Castle, and nodded. "Of course. Castle, you stay here. Three's a crowd," she said and walked away before he could even begin to protest. Rizzoli followed her.

Even though Jane had never met Frost's Dad and had only heard from Korsak that he had been at the precinct once, the admiral seemed to know who she was because he looked straight at her instead of Detective Beckett. "What happened to my son?" he asked.

"I'm very sorry for your loss, Admiral," Jane began but was immediately cut short.

"I don't want your sympathy. I want to know what happened!"

Jane was a little taken aback but quickly tried to hide it. She had known that Frost's relationship with his father had been bad because he hadn't approved of his career choice, but she still hadn't expected this. "Why don't we sit down first, Sir?" she offered because Beckett was already opening the door to a small room with a couple of cushioned seats inside.

Admiral Frost did walk inside, but he didn't sit down. "I don't want to sit, dammit, I want to know why my son is dead!"

"He was shot last night, but we're still trying to figure out why," Jane replied, fighting a growing anger inside of her.

"Well, I know why. He got shot in a gutter because he thought he had to throw away all his potential and become a cop."

Now that was simply too much for Jane. "Frost was one of the best cops I have ever known, and he loved his job! And if you had ever really known your son, you would know that, too!"

Kate cleared her throat and suddenly realized that it might not have been such a good idea to allow Rizzoli in on this after all. In a way, she was family, too, even though Kate didn't know how close she had been with her partner. But at the very least, she seemed to have respected him a great deal. Still, there was no sense in picking a fight with the father.

"Sir, we have only just begun our investigation, so is there anything in your son's life you could think of that might be relevant to this case? Did he have any enemies or do you know of any old friends he might have come to meet with here in New York?" she asked.

"No… I haven't spoken to him in months," the admiral replied, and that realization seemed to humble him a bit.

Kate sensed that and softened her voice a little. "I know how difficult this is, but we have two departments and NCIS cooperating on your son's case, and you will be the first to be notified when we find the one responsible for your son's death."

"Thank you," the admiral said honestly before he excused himself.

Jane sighed when she watched him leave. "Sorry about that. You did good, though. Hardest part of the job."

"Also the most rewarding one," Kate replied before joining the others in the bullpen.

"The number Frost called belonged to a burn phone," Ryan immediately informed her.

"Dammit," Jane swore because that wouldn't get them anywhere.

"But Umar's laptop wasn't password protected," Tony reported. "He got an e-mail confirming a meeting in that alley around the time of the murder."

"Can you trace who send that e-mail?" Kate asked.

Tony raised his eyebrows. "Do I look like a McGeek?"

"What's a McGeek?" Castle asked.

"Ah, never mind. Mail was probably sent from an internet café somewhere. The text was too carefully phrased for the sender to be dumb enough to use his home computer."

Both Kate and Jane looked frustrated, but Castle said, "That could be a good thing."

"How's that good, Castle?" Kate asked.

"Obviously, the Petty Officer was involved in some kind of clandestine plot, including theft and secret meetings in alleyways. Frost and his mystery woman probably had nothing to do with that, especially since the unidentified blood at the crime scene belongs to a man."

Kate frowned. "How do you know that?"

"Lanie called," Castle replied nonchalantly.

"Lanie? Why didn't you get me?"

"You were busy. Plus, they're only just starting with the autopsy. She just wanted to let us know that the blood doesn't match our mystery woman theory. And that Dr. Isles apparently scared off Lanie's lab assistant by diagnosing him with some sort of rare congenital disease."

Jane moaned. "Oh boy, sorry about that."

But Kate was still focused on Castle. "I told you that you could have my chair, not that you could answer my phone, Castle!" she snapped at him, fully aware of the looks of varied surprise and confusion this earned her. God, she needed coffee or a break-through or both.

Nobody said anything for a while, so it was Jane who broke the silence with a triumphant 'Yes' when she finally cracked Frost's password. "Got something," she announced shortly after. "Frost emailed a Sarah Newman. They wanted to meet last night in a bar called 'The Old Haunt'."

"Hey, that's my bar!" Castle exclaimed, his surprise overpowering his brooding as to what might be going on with Kate today.

Tony looked up. "You own a bar?"

Castle nodded. "Got property on the moon, too."

"Wow, that is so cool."

"Yes, yes, could you two bond later? Whether she was involved or not, this Sarah Newman could have been the last one to see him alive, so we need to speak with her. Ryan, do you have an address?"

Ryan's fingers flew across his keyboard, but when he looked up again, there was a frown on his face. "Yah, she lives in L.A."

"Uh, great city," Tony said.

"Not so great memories," Ziva added, thinking of Jenny Sheppard's death that still stung because she and Tony had been her protection detail at the time.

Tony looked at her. "I was talking more about the part with you in a bikini next to the pool."

Kate started rubbing her temples. "What about her bank statements? Any credit card activity?"

Ryan's frown deepened. "Very few and often months apart."

"Anything recent?"

"No hotel or ticket bookings. She must have been careful to pay those in cash. There is only one thing, a coffee order at a Starbucks this morning."

"Starbucks? Seriously?" Esposito asked.

"Perhaps she ran out of cash," Castle mused. "And some people really need their coffee in the morning."

"Any hotels near that Starbucks?" Jane asked.

Ryan checked. "Three that are relatively close."

Kate nodded, thinking along the same lines as Rizzoli. It was a bit of a Hail Mary, but if they showed the woman's picture around those hotels, perhaps they would get lucky. "Alright, let's split up."

Ryan printed out the photo from her driver's license, kept one for himself, and handed one to the NCIS agents and one to Beckett.

Tony checked out the picture. The woman had a contagious smile on her lips, long brown hair, and mysteriously dark eyes. "Not a bad last sight."

"You're right, she's beautiful," Castle agreed, looking at the photo in Kate's hand. When he thought he felt her piercing eyes on him, he hurried to add, "From a single man's point of view, I mean."

"Since you're all so eager to meet her, let's go and get her," Kate decided, grabbing her gun and coat.

Jane hesitated for a second, feeling like the odd one out, since she was the only one present who didn't have a partner. But eventually she decided to hitch a ride with Detectives Ryan and Esposito because they weren't a couple as well as partners, or at least, Jane feverishly hoped so.

A/N: I know not a lot going on in this chapter, but bear with me please.