Castles in the Closet

Chapter 21

"Espresso said Ryan had three coffees this morning," a crumb-laden Maggie reported when she was stashed back in the closet. "Esposito told him he looked like hell and asked what he'd been up to. Ryan admitted that he'd been working as a bouncer at a male stripper bar again and the women had been really crazy. He showed Esposito a couple of places where he'd been scratched, but then he told Esposito, who was on his second coffee, that he didn't look too great either. But Espresso said Esposito seemed proud of how he looked. He said he'd found himself a stripper and her equipment definitely wasn't male. Esposito did a funny thing with his hips and made strange noises. Then Kate stuck her head in the door and asked Ryan to come to her office."

"What did she want?" Broomie asked.

"I don't know," Maggie replied, "but she didn't look mad. Maybe Rick found something else on the case Kate wanted to tell Ryan about."

"Wouldn't she have called Esposito too?" Broomie wondered.

"Sooner or later we'll find out," Broom assured them.

What did Ryan need you for?" Broom asked Mop after Ryan had carefully hung him on a hook to drip into Bucket.

"He was cleaning up the area around Vikram's chair," Mop explained. "There were a lot of dried drops from those sodas Vikram drinks, on the floor. Ryan was muttering something about not wanting to work in the lying slob's mess. He seemed to be pretty happy though. When he was bringing me back he said something to himself about being able to buy baby some new shoes. Then he whistled a little, like Boomer does."

"What were you doing in Kate's office?" Mop asked, after a feminine hand returned Broom to the closet.

"Kate found more of those little pieces of paper Rick surprised her with on her anniversary. They were all across the tops of the procedure manuals she keeps in one of her bookcases. She used me to get them, but she didn't want Dustpan. She brushed them right into her hand and then put them into an envelope where she was keeping all the other ones," Broom explained. "It took her some time, so I got a chance to talk to Wastebasket. He said Rick was in Kate's office this morning."

Oh," Mop inquired, swirling his tendrils in anticipation, "what happened?"

"Nothing to make you happy," Broom replied drawing his bristles together. "But I found out what she was talking to Ryan about. She told Rick that she would authorize as much overtime as she could for Ryan, doing things like scrubbing video, like Vikram had been doing. That way Ryan wouldn't have to get other jobs to make more money."

"Was that it?" Mop asked disappointed.

"No, but still no more of your fun stuff. Rick said Hayley had made some progress hacking Sheila Bracken. She'd found some connections going to Langley Virginia. Then Kate asked if Sheila had been in touch with the CIA. Rick said Hayley couldn't tell, but whomever Sheila was talking to was in that general area, so it wasn't a bad guess. Putting that together with Sheila's connections in Afghanistan, he thought there was definitely some spy stuff going on. Whatever Sheila was up to, she was much more than just a senator's wife. Then Kate made Rick promise again that he and Hayley would be very careful, and Rick left. He said he had last minute shopping and baking to do."

"He didn't even kiss her goodbye?" Mop prodded.

"No, but Wastebasket said they did one of those things where they rub each others' hands and say things about kissing," Broom admitted.

Mop's tendrils drooped. "Better than nothing."

"Did you hear anything from Board?" Broom asked after Broomie was shoved back in the closet with fragments of tortilla chips from Esposito's desk snack of nacho's still clinging to his straws.

"Uh huh," Broomie acknowledged, trying to flick himself clean despite the sticky cheese. "Melvin, Savannah, and Corby all have solid alibis. Esposito and Ryan have been talking to everyone they could who worked in the offices where Dolly Steen sold sandwiches. They're trying to figure out what might have gotten her killed and who would want to do it. Ryan noted that there were a lot of people who traded stocks, like he was thinking of doing, only way more of them. He was wondering if Dolly had been picking up tips from any of the traders. But all of them denied telling her anything. They said it was against S.E.C. - whatever that is - regulations."

Did Ryan and Esposito believe them?" Maggie wondered, rubbing the edge of her cloth against Broomie to try to help him get clean.

"Board doesn't think Esposito really believes anyone unless he has proof they're telling the truth," Broomie responded.

"Well, Board's got that right," Broom agreed. "Esposito is suspicious. What about Ryan?"

"He wasn't sure," Broomie related. "He thought that some of the people he talked to looked very nervous, but it might just have been because traders are like that. As things are right now, they don't really have a good suspect in their case. Ryan said he was glad he was going to be able to work on video for other cases though. He told Esposito that Kate assigned him several robberies to work on and there was a lot of traffic footage to go through. He thought that would certainly help out making ends meet for Christmas and maybe even give him a few dollars toward starting a college fund for the new baby. But he said he wasn't working tonight because it's Christmas Eve and Jenny would kill him. She's getting the Jewish girl - I'm not sure what that means - who lives in the next apartment, to watch Sarah Grace so she and Ryan can go to something called midnight mass."

"Oh I know what Jenny meant. Some of the detectives here are Jewish. They don't do Christmas. They have a different holiday," Broom explained. "I've heard them talk about it. It's longer and instead of giving a whole bunch of presents at once, they give one a day. They've already had it this year I think. They're going to be working shifts tonight and tomorrow so the cops who celebrate Christmas can have the time off."

"That's really nice," Maggie decided. "I wish Master Cleaner had a holiday. Holidays seem to make the humans so happy."

"Except when they have to worry about paying for them," Broom reminded her, "like Ryan did until Kate gave him that extra work. We get extra work too, cleaning up after all the food they bring in and that shiny stuff that falls off the tree. Vacuum says that really clogs his head up."

"You're just being a grouch," Mop accused. "All sorts of nice things happen when humans celebrate holidays, especially under that plant they hang up. I bet Kate and Rick are going to have a fun time tonight. And with any luck Lucy and Hairbrush will see everything and I'll hear all about it."

"Well I hope they do," Maggie agreed, settling on her base. "With all they've been through, they deserve it."

A/N Happy everything readers! I hope your prayers and wishes come true.