After the Fall
Chapter 14
Journal of James Beckett
Dearest Johanna,
Katie is pregnant. It is very early days yet, and it may be a risky pregnancy, so things are being kept within the family, at least for the first few months. As it is, the doctors consider it something of a miracle. They were very much afraid that adhesions caused by her trauma would compromise her fallopian tubes. Apparently, that didn't happen. There is another concern. There is a point of weakness in her heart from the first time she was shot. As yet, it does not appear to be causing any difficulties, but she will be overseen very carefully. I doubt that Rick will take his eyes off her at all. He'd probably sleep with them open if he could. He will be her shadow now, even when she is doing paperwork. She'll still be spending time in the field, but just giving orders. I expect that if she even looks like she's going to try to go after a bad guy, Rick will have a melt-down. I'm saying every prayer that I know and making up a few that she can carry a healthy child to term. I hope you'll do whatever is in your power to help our little girl.
Victor Baron has finally turned up, in a way. I've told you about social media. There's one called Twitter where people post short messages and pictures. I don't use it myself, but Rick is very involved. He's said he has over a half million followers, whatever that implies. From what he tells me, when Twitter users follow someone, they may tweet about sightings to their own followers. Usually, that concerns a celebrity of some sort, like a television or movie star. However, there are also people obsessed with the infamous. Baron certainly qualifies. He was spotted at a McDonald's drive-thru in Chappaqua. You know what a lovely area that is. A former president lives there who I understand is rather fond of burgers himself. Typically, the residents of the region are discrete, but not in this case. There was a picture of Baron stuffing fries into his mouth before he'd even left the parking lot. I told you about going viral, and the image of Victor Baron wolfing down his food did just that.
Now everyone in the area where he was seen is on the lookout for him, especially at fast food restaurants. He may not even be anywhere near Chappaqua anymore, but if he wants to avoid another sighting, he'll have to get his groceries delivered or have someone pick up his food for him. He won't be able to use Burt Willig. Baron-watchers are on the look-out for him too, but somehow charismatic personalities like Baron, no matter how evil, seem to find toadies to do their bidding.
Alexis and Gus have almost finished furnishing their apartment. Between the things Rick had in storage and some contributions Katie gave them from the place she had before she married Rick, they did pretty well. Some of the rest of the furniture and miscellaneous items came from Alexis's dorm room and Gus' former apartment in what is colloquially known as a student slum. They made the rounds of the thrift stores too.
Martha contributed a few plants. She says that in New York one can always use a little extra oxygen. It's nothing like it was when we were growing up in the era when a fine layer of soot coated everything, including, most likely our lungs. Back then, the snow really did turn black if it stayed on the ground too long. There are still places that look like they could use a good sandblasting. I notice the dirt the most when I've flown in from other cities, but for the most part, New York is cleaner. Still, Martha is right, between the fumes from the cars and the crush of humanity, genuinely fresh air is at a premium.
Martha may find some soon. She is ready to go on her tour with Gypsy. Production planning for Breaching the Walls is still in the relatively early stages. From what she tells me, work has yet to begin on set design, which will have to be quite different to play on the screen. The costumes will also be changed to relate to a more diverse audience, and some roles will be recast. Martha will return whenever she is needed, but in the meantime will be belting out Mama Rose all over the country.
Katie has made some progress solving the murder of Angela Boatwright. The lab was able to pull some DNA off Angela's clothes. There is no match for it in the system, not surprising considering the year when the crime took place, but the analysts were able to do what they call phenotyping, developing a profile of the general characteristics of the suspect. They came up with dark hair, dark eyes, and relatively short stature. After all this time it amazes me that they were able to come up with that much. There were some indications of Eastern European ancestry as well, but that is still a huge slice of the population.
Rick had a novel way of tracking down Angela's school friends. He put a notice on the Richard Castle website. He also put queries on Twitter. It turns out that several of his fans in New York were Angela's classmates. He and Katie interviewed them together.
No one had a bad word to say about Angela, but some of their parents had not been too fond of her mother. It was a little odd for a woman of the period, but Margaret Boatwright was quite the corporate go-getter. She was in charge of acquiring properties for a conglomerate that owned supermarket and department store chains. Her organization had put more than one small business into bankruptcy. Some of Angela's friends had to leave private school when their parents fell on hard times and blamed their misfortunes on Margaret.
Katie has one of the N.Y.P.D's forensic accountants going through old records to see who would have had enough of a financial grudge against Margaret to take Angela. It is a long shot at best. Many of the documents have been lost or damaged, and many of the people involved have passed on.
There is also the angle of who might have had it in for the father. He is still living, but the years have taken their toll. Katie and Rick talked to him. He drifted in and out, but eventually, they got the jist of what he was trying to tell them. He was in construction at the time Angela was taken; in charge of putting up an office and shopping complex. As you might remember, organized crime is always trying to stick its tentacles into projects like that, either by way of providing materials of questionable quality or contracting for waste disposal. It attempted to muscle its way into the unions too. Gerard Boatwright was having none of that. He ran a straight-arrow operation, which did not sit well with certain people. The police back then did some cursory checking into the local families but were unable to come up with any evidence. What happened to Angela bore no resemblance to the hits of the time, which tended to entail bullets and trips to the East River. That aspect of the investigation was dropped. Rick has some contacts he is going to talk to that may have some insight into whether the police quit looking into mob connections too soon. Rick has some of the strangest friendships, but somehow, they seem to work out. I'm hoping everything works out as well with the child Katie is expecting.
Forever love,
J.B.
A/N Guest, I meant that the mother was dead too, but while she was alive, never stopped looking for Angela. I'm sorry if you were confused.