After spending nearly five hours in the box with Chief Peter Karaway, Kate stepped away from interrogation and let uniforms take him back to holding.
"I need a break." She murmured as she strode past the boys' desks towards her own. "I'm gonna go get lunch, spend some time away from here. You guys okay if I do that?"
Both men nodded.
"Yeah Beckett, we've got it covered. Go enjoy the sunshine for a bit." Ryan smiled, gaining one back from his lead detective.
"Thanks guys. I have my phone." Flashing them one last smile, Kate grabbed her things and made her way out of the precinct.
She had barely gotten out of the door when someone grabbed her left hand. Her right immediately flew to her hip, her fingers closing around the trigger of her gun before she realised who it was now attached to her arm.
"Jesus Rick I could have shot you!" She cried, garnering an odd look from the pedestrian walking past. "You should know better than to sneak up on someone who is carrying a weapon."
"I'm sorry, but Kate, you arrested my chief. You can't expect me not to have questions. How can you think he'd do something so heinous? He's known us for ten years! Buzz and him were tighter than brothers. How can you accuse him of this?"
Kate's head was spinning at the rate of his questions. "Rick, slow down jeez!" She shook her head, taking a deep breath before setting her expression. "I can't talk about it, it's an open investigation. It would be unprofessional, not to mention potentially damaging to our case."
"But Kate, he's my chief! You can't just arrest him! You have to have evidence!"
Kate took his elbow and dragged him with her towards her car, opening the passenger door and slamming him into the seat before closing to door on his protests. She rounded the car at a jog and got in before pulling away from the curb at speed.
Rick sat stock still in his seat once he'd strapped his seatbelt in, watching her warily. "People know where I am you know. You can't just kill me and dump the body, people will know." He warned her in all seriousness, slightly affronted when she snorted.
"I'm not going to kill you Rick." She chuckled, her posture finally relaxing into something less terrifyingly poised. "I was serious about not being able to discuss open cases though. But I need a break from interrogation and it seemed rude to just leave you on the side walk, so we're going for lunch." She changed gear and pulled up at the red light before turning to him. "Oh, and for the record, never accuse me of arresting someone without evidence ever again. If I get as far as arresting someone, I have good reason too."
Rick nodded, shrinking back into his seat a little.
"So," Rick started, watching Kate as she smiled at the waitress once she'd placed their plates in front of them.
"You can ask Rick, that doesn't mean I'm gonna tell you." She smiled as she sipped her strawberry milkshake, fascinating the fire-fighter as he watched her posture relax and her face brighten as the flavour burst across her tongue.
"You said you had evidence." He worked through it slowly in his own head, thinking out loud.
Kate nodded, not yet releasing the straw from between her lips.
"I don't suppose you can tell me what type of evidence?" He asked, not hoping for any answer from the beautiful detective. But Kate, after a moment's hesitation, tapped her index finger against the side of her cup. In the few short days he'd known her, he'd never seen her do anything so deliberately. "Fingerprints?" Rick asked, slowly, gathering that she was moving for his benefit.
Kate smiled, confirming it without really confirming it. He got her game, she couldn't tell him, but this way, she wasn't really telling him.
"You found the chief's fingerprints." He nodded. "On Buzz?"
Kate shook her head, putting down the glass and taking a deeper than necessary breath in through her nose.
"Somewhere on the breathing gear." He stated, it wasn't a question. He could read her like a book, especially when she was dictating it for him.
Kate swirled her straw with her finger.
"The O2 tube." He nodded. "Not all that unusual though. We've all touched everything at some point. If you were going off that alone, half the station would be in your lock-up."
Kate tilted her head, eating a few fries while he mulled that over.
"So there's gotta be more." Rick probed, watching her closely for the tiniest of movements.
Kate flicked her eyes to the ceiling, finding the camera she had spotted on her way in, cop habit, and let her eyes linger.
Rick followed her gaze. "You've got him on CCTV doing something." He paused to think. "It's gotta be big enough for you to consider it a lead, but not so big that it nails him, otherwise you wouldn't be so concerned about his confession." He thought aloud. "So, he couldn't have cut the line, or you'd have him dead to rights. But it has to be something. And it's gonna be hard to act out so you may be a bit stuck." He mentioned.
"How do you get your breathing gear Rick?" Kate asked quietly.
"We collect it from the gear room before we go out and put it back when we get back, we each pick up our own..." Rick's voice trailed off.
"Penny in the air." Kate murmured more to herself than him.
"Chief passed Buzz his pack." Rick gasped, clocking their eyes together in horror.
"Penny dropped."
