CH36
Javi wasn't having any fun. It looked like fun in those movies and cop shows. Sitting in his car all alone not far from Ripley's apartment. There was only one way in and one way out of her apartment. There were two ways into her complex and parking was a free for all. First come first serve.
Javi and Kevin had been switching nights watching her.
Javi was doing his best to keep from falling asleep.
Then someone stepped out of her building, dressed very casual. It looked like sweats. Lifting his binoculars, it was Ripley. At 1:32 am in the middle of the night. Javi made a note in his book.
He watched her start her car and leave. Javi knew she wasn't pregnant so it wasn't a craving.
Javi started his car and started following her with his lights off at first. When he reached the street he turned them on.
He watched Ripley pull into a Walgreens and stop. She seemed to delay doing nothing. Waiting for someone perhaps? Then she got out but didn't go inside or even try.
Javi had his little Cannon camera and was taking pictures like crazy.
She had something in her hand while she walked. Javi watched her walk to the edge of the parking lot where there was a green space. He watched her kneel down and search for something. Finding it she pulled the little colored flag that was stuck in the ground and left her own. Of a different color.
Then back to her car where she sat for a few minutes before starting her car and leaving. Except she didn't go straight home. Instead she drove to a movie theater and parked at the back.
Javi parked and started taking pictures. He watched her go straight to the dumpster and throws two somethings in, one being the flag, and walk back to her car. Then immediately drove away.
Javi groaned. Couldn't she throw it away in something smaller? Javi sat there and waited 20 minutes before he got out and went dumpster diving with his flashlight. Javi wasn't sure if he was being paid enough for this.
He had watched her and she had only spent a second at the dumpster. So he was hoping he could rule out what was at the bottom.
After opening it he found the little flag almost straight away, so he started searching. As he was moving stuff around he saw something fall further in. So he chased it carefully. And there it was, sitting on an empty bag of M&M's.
It looked like a giant horse pill. He pulled a glove a blue glove out of his pocket and put his hand in and snapped it in place. Then carefully picked it up and looked at it. It had a seam telling him it was hollow.
Javi pulled out a baggie and put it inside and sealed it closed.
Javi went back to his car and drove to the office. After letting himself in and turning off the security he went into Kate's office and opened the mini safe sitting in the closet and left the horse pill and flag inside.
After re-locking the safe, turning the security back on and locking the front door, he went home to get some sleep. Once in his car he sent Kate a text about the item in her safe. Then he sent the same text to Kevin.
In the morning Kate found the text and couldn't wait to get to the office to see what Javi had left for her. Kate checked with Lucy about what she would need, then kissed Rick and Alexis and took a taxi to the office.
Once she made it to the office she made a beeline to the safe. Using gloves she pulled everything out and started taking pictures. Blew some powder on everything and took still more pictures.
While opening it Lucy went to work running finger prints.
Kate opened it and found a tiny piece of paper. Rolling it open she took more pictures of both sides. Then blew some powder on both sides and took still more pictures.
Then she started looking at the paper to see what it said or had on it.
"Kate there are prints of Ripley on the outside as well as a partial of someone else. The pictures you have show there is a partial hair that was caught in the seam of the container. It does not have a follicle on it so DNA matching will not be possible. However the color does not match Ripley." Lucy tells her.
Kate is paying attention to what is on it. It had words and diagrams of things. It looked a mess.
"Lucy?" Kate needed her.
"It appears to be a code of some type. I'm still running finger prints of the paper itself. There is a clear one of Ripley and one of someone else.
Beginning analysis of the code." Lucy tells her.
"I have a match to the finger print that is not Ripley's. " Lucy tells her and puts his picture up on the monitor.
"His name is John Bigbooté. He used to be in the Army Reserve so his prints are on file. He is presently the chief of operations of the company that the worm Ripley is using to send information to." Lucy explains.
"Analysis of the code is complete. It is instructions for her to download a new program into your client's server." Lucy tells her.
"Does it say what the program is?" Kate asks.
"No. Presumably she already knows where the program is located and simply has to copy it into the server." Lucy guesses.
"Wonder what it does. …. Lucy can you put Rick on the monitor?" This was his planet and he had a better imagination than she did.
"Hi, did you forget something when you flew out of here this morning?" Rick guesses.
"Sorry about that. I have a text from Javi telling me he left something in the safe last night. I couldn't wait to see what it was. …. It was instructions for our mole to download a new program. I wanted to know if you had any ideas of what it could be." Kate was hopeful.
"Well, if I was writing a story about it. If I had a mole and a worm infiltrated into my competitor and they had just hired a new security firm. I'd be worried that this new firm would find my mole and/or my worm and trace it back to me.
So I would want to find a way to discredit this new firm so bad that they are forced to fire them, leaving the status quo. With my mole and worm still intact." Rick spins a quick story.
"I get fired and it would ruin me. I've only just started and screw up my first client." Kate could see where Rick's story could lead to disaster.
"You know who is going to do it. Couldn't you keep eyes on her; discreetly of course, can you isolate the computer she uses to download this program? Quarantine it like an Anti-virus program would?" Rick asks her.
"Lucy?" Kate passes on the question.
"Easily." Lucy responds.
"Thanks babe." Kate was happy.
"Anytime. I'll see you at dinner. There is something I need to talk to you about." Rick had a problem.
"I'll be there." Kate tells him and puts everything back in the safe and heads for this particular client. Leaving Lanie and Roselyn to work alone today.
Kate watched Ripley use Symmons laptop again to download this new program after lunch, when Symmons had finally stepped away leaving his laptop available.
As soon as Ripley was taken care of Kate was going to have a class on security and securing your computer if just to go to the toilet. And add a program to have passwords changed every few months. No wonder they had trouble being this lazy about it.
Lucy had easily quarantined the program allowing her to start analyzing it.
Lucy was still working on it trying to come up with options to make it work for Kate instead of hurt her when Kate had made it home for dinner.
Kate could tell Rick was cooking the second she opened the front door. Since she had skipped lunch her stomach immediately started to complain about being neglected all day. Alexis was even in the kitchen helping.
This got Kate to start questioning Rick's motives for this wonderful smell. She could smell a set up mixed in with the other smells.
Kate had finished eating, seconds, Rick had outdone himself. Kate was going to burst soon she just knew it. "Ok out with it." Kate tells him.
Alexis gathered up the plates. "I'll be in the kitchen." And Alexis made a hasty retreat.
"Rick?" Kate knew it was a set up now.
"I have to go on a book tour for two weeks starting next week." Rick drops his bomb.
"TWO WEEKS!?" Kate suddenly looked like a bomb had hit her.
"It was already scheduled before we even left here for summer vacation. The tour is meant to get interest in the Derek Storm books just before the new book comes out." Rick explains.
"Two weeks?" Kate couldn't get past that part. Then she gets up with renewed energy despite being full, and drags Rick down the stairs to the truck bay.
Alexis steps in front on the monitor facing the kitchen. "Lucy?" And Lucy puts them up on the monitor.
"Two weeks Rick! Really?" Kate knew it was going to be two weeks in hell.
"I'm sorry, but it's part of my contract. I don't have a choice." Rick wasn't looking forward to being away for that long either.
"I can barely last the three or four days each month as it is. Two weeks is going to be an eternity." Kate looks at him with pleading eyes.
Rick pulls Kate into him to hold her close. Kate melts into him easily. Two weeks without Rick. She was going to go mad she just knew it.
"You're going to make love to me every day between now and then." Kate tells him.
"We do that already." Rick reminds here which earns him a light slap to his chest.
"I'll come home for lunch." Kate was going to stock pile them if she was going to have to go cold turkey. "Two weeks." Two weeks of hell.
"You're wearing a t-shirt everyday between now and then. The same one day after day. And you're leaving it behind when you go." If Kate couldn't have him she was at least going to smell him. She was also going to need a new box of Kleenex.
"And if I see any pictures of you with women draped all over you, I'll break both your legs." Kate warns him.
"Not to worry, no women draped all over me. I'm all too familiar with the pain of cheating on someone." Rick reminds her.
'Meredith'. Kate quickly reviewed some of the things she was going to do to that woman. "Two weeks."
"And when the new book comes out there will be another two week tour." Rick figures she might as well know now.
Kate grabs a hold of his shirt and clutches it in her fists, since her legs just turned to jelly. "Another two weeks?"
Maybe she should just kill herself now and get it over with.
"Come on, we're having sex, NOW!" And Kate drags him upstairs to their bedroom.
Alexis had run for the greenhouse as soon as she knew what they were going to be doing. Alexis didn't see the appeal in all this sex they were doing. But she did know it made both of them happy. And that made Alexis happy. Plus knowing that they loved each other also made her happy.
Having Kate had made her forget all about the pain of her real mother. Kate was her mother now and she wasn't going to lose her if Alexis had anything to say about it.
While up in her greenhouse she got Lucy to show her stuff about the options Kate had mentioned about what to be when she was older. She was going to take some of it and go over it with Kate and her dad.
Kate was on her way over to work with Lanie and Roselyn today after a little fun in the shower with Rick. So she was happy, in a good mood and glowing when she found Lanie.
"WOW, what have you been up to this morning, and does he have a brother?" Lanie asks.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Kate feigned innocence.
"Oh don't give me that. If your smile got any bigger and you glowed any brighter you'd block out the sun. So what's his name?" Lanie wasn't listening to Kate's attempts at deflection.
"My fiancé." Kate tells her.
"And does this fiancé have a name?" Lanie digs a little deeper.
"Rick Castle." Kate wasn't keeping him a secret, she just hadn't told these two yet.
"Richard Castle, the author. Mr. Rich gorgeous hunk Castle?" Lanie was impressed.
Kate could only grin and nod her head.
"Oh you go girl! Have you marked your territory yet?" Lanie knew someone like him would attract attention.
Kate instantly blushed. "Once or twice." Remembering the last time she had done so.
Roselyn steps up to them. "Lanie, boss."
"Did you know her fiancé is Richard Castle?" Lanie instantly spreads the word.
"Who?" Roselyn had never heard of him.
"Dreamy, rich, Richard Castle, the author?" Lanie tries again. Getting nothing out of Roselyn. "Don't you read?"
"Not much, no." Roseyln tells her.
"And I suppose you don't date either." Lanie was shocked. Getting nothing in return. "Oh we are just going to have to fix that. And I know just the guy for you too. You'll be drooling all over him in no time. Amongst other wet spots." Lanie was looking forward to finding Roselyn just the right guy. Even if she had to go through every man in New York that she knew.
Roselyn was about to get the full Lanie treatment.
"Ok ladies work first, sex later." Kate tells them and walks them inside.
"I'm headed for lunch ladies. Don't forget to go eat something, I'll be back in about an hour …. And a half." Kate amends a little late.
"Are you sure that's enough time?" Lanie asks with ulterior motives behind it.
"Yes an hour and a half will be just fine." Kate tells her and walks to her waiting taxi.
Lanie pulls out her phone and calls someone. "No you'll love her. She's very serious, loads of fun, you'll have a blast. Tomorrow eight o'clock." Lanie hangs up.
"You have a date for tomorrow night, eight o'clock. His name is Frank, you'll like him. He's a doctor." Lanie leaves out the fact he's a podiatrist. Just plain doctor sounds better.
"Lanie I don't need a date." Roselyn complains.
"Trust me he's just what you need. Nice dinner, nice wine, maybe a little something later. It'll be fun. … We have to go shopping tonight. Find you the right dress for tomorrow night." Lanie tells her.
"This is not a good idea." Roselyn is so not on board with this.
"You're going, it'll be great. Trust me." Lanie was grinning from ear to ear.
Kate had made it home. "Lucy where is Rick?" Not wanting to waste time. "Never mind I see him."
Rick was just stepping into the workout room.
Roughly and hour and a half later Kate was back with Lanie and Roselyn, smiling and glowing. Having left Rick thoroughly worked over. Which was fitting since he was still lying on the mat in the workout room, trying to figure out what or who had just ran him over.
Lanie had a knowing grin on her face as Kate walked up, getting Kate to blush brightly.