CH36
It was now 1 year later:
Kate and Rick were still going upstairs to the weight/workout room at the 12th precinct roughly every 3 days. They had added hand to hand combat to their training regimen.
Rick had found out fast just how good Kate was. Rick was still working out with her and Kate was still drooling over seeing Rick shirtless while doing much of anything, especially working on the bag.
Royce had caught them a few times. He had been standing off to the side watching until he was noticed. "You've got skill kid." Royce had learned not to piss Kate off, she could kick his ass. It was likely possible her husband could to as he watched them train together.
Royce had however taken some time to give Rick a few pointers on the bag and had even held it for him a couple of times.
Neither Rick nor Kate ever saw Tom again, not that Kate even thought about it. She was still never down on the robbery floor.
Neither of them ever heard from Gina or Meredith again. Neither Meredith nor her lawyer had made it to the hearing concerning her suit. Without them the suit was dismissed and Johanna had delivered the good news the very same day.
Kate had done everything she could to be on the homicide floor as much as she could. Royce was still taking her out to sites and teaching her what to look for. Taught her how to follow procedure and work with the ME.
With Lanie's help she was learning a lot. There were a lot of new terms to learn, what procedures are done. Kate had even helped do a few autopsies so she could see what happened to a body.
Rick, Kate and Alexis had gone for a bike ride wearing their leathers when the weather warmed a little but was still cool outside.
Alexis had done what she did last time. Sitting just in front of Kate on her bike with her hands up in the air screaming. Rick had enjoyed himself, Alexis had obviously enjoyed herself. Kate however was grinning wide the entire time.
Kate enjoyed the ride, however Kate had enjoyed the vision in her mind of the three of them riding down the road together. Then they stopped for lunch at a little road side place. Kate again could visualize them walking in all dressed in leathers with Alexis in her leathers between them.
Kate wished she had pictures.
Royce came out of Captain Montgomery's office. "Let's go kid." Forcing Kate to hustle to catch up to him.
"Where are we going?" Kate was curious.
"We've got a missing child with a ransom demand. The FBI handles all kidnappings when there is a ransom, so we will be doing all the leg work for them on this one." Royce informs her as he drives.
"How old?" Kate was pretty sure she didn't want to know.
"He's 5." Royce answers.
Five! Just one year older than Alexis was, who had only had her birthday a few weeks ago.
"Why me?" Kate asked. She would have preferred to have missed this one.
"Captain Montgomery selected you because you're married and have a kid. That built in knowledge may be of help in finding him.
Usually the time window in finding the kid alive on a ransom demand is very tight, so the sooner we figure this out and get him home safe the better." Royce tells her.
There were already two people from their precinct that Kate recognized but didn't know their names. She also saw two other people. One was in a suit, like the ones from the 12th and another in a suit setting up phone monitoring and recording equipment.
Royce talks to the ones from the 12th first, and then escorts Kate over to the one wearing the suit.
Kate found out his name was Will Sorenson and he was with the FBI and so was the guy working the equipment. Kate listened to him explain standard operating procedure in these types of cases.
"What if this wasn't a standard child kidnapping?" Kate had asked him.
Sorenson had assured her it was and to let the FBI handle it.
Kate walked away, fuming. Standard Operating Procedure her ass. Kate then decided to do some snooping of her own.
His room looked like a typical standard room for a 5 year old boy to her. Unlike Alexis's room, there were no stuffed animals or dolls or horsies. The pictures on the wall were not unicorns and there wasn't an ounce of pink to be seen.
It was all toys geared around robots or dinosaurs. There was a picture of a space ship on one wall and a railroad on another. Kate started taking his bed apart since no one else had obviously. It was here Kate found something but didn't know what it was. Reading it didn't help her any either, but it did give her a clue.
Kate pulled out her phone. "Lanie you got a minute? …. Good, can you tell me what, … Dulera is?" Kate was thankful the name was short and easy to pronounce. Some of the one's Lanie had shown her were near impossible to pronounce.
"DULERA 100 mcg/5 mcg did not have an asthma flare-up* — compared to 66% taking mometasone furoate 100 mcg, 46% taking formoterol 5 mcg alone. … "It'sprobably an inhaler. Look around, see if there are any pills too. Try the closest bathroom." Lanie tells her.
Kate found a bottle in the bathroom just outside his room. Kate tried to pronounce it but was stumbling all over it.
"That's a corticosteroid, you're kid has severe asthma attacks if he has both of those. He doesn't have that inhaler when he has an attack, he could go into respiratory failure. You need to find him Kate, and fast." Lanie warns her.
"Thanks Lanie." And Kate hangs up and takes her finds to Royce and explains what Lanie told her.
Royce grabs her and takes her over to the others from the 12th. "They knew enough to select him, which likely means they know he has a condition that needs treatment. Since they didn't take these with them, they will need to find them or steal them." Kate points out. "If they want him alive long enough to get their money."
This got Royce and the other 2 to take out their phones. It was at this time the kidnappers made a phone call placing their demands.
"Did they tell you they had his medicine?" Kate holds up what she had found.
"It's not important." Sorenson tells her. "We have their demands, after we make the drop, we catch them and get the kid back and it won't matter."
"Procedure." Kate spit it out like it tasted bad.
"YES procedure. We know what we're doing." Sorenson counters.
Kate hated this guy, he was an idiot. Flat face, flat jaw, flat head with nothing between the ears. What was he, straight out of the academy? Even she wasn't this stupid straight out of the academy.
Kate watched them arrange for the drop and was left behind while it all took place. Kate walks up to Royce. "Anything?"
"They are still at the drop sight waiting." Royce tells her.
"What about the medication?" Kate counters.
"Robbery has found a pharmacy were both of those medications were stolen 2 days ago, except according to the pharmacist, the dosages don't match." Royce tells her.
"So if it's too high, they'll give him an overdose and if it's too small it won't do him any good. …. Video?" Kate hoped they at least had a clue.
"Masks and they spray painted the cameras. According to the video they were wearing gloves." Royce tells her.
"So no prints. …. Surveillance cameras outside the building?" Kate was grasping straws and she knew it. Only to see Royce shake his head.
"TV store across the street or next door?" Kate was reaching. Something, anything.
That however got Royce to make a face and pull out his phone. Turned out it wasn't a TV store Royce was thinking about. It was a Hotel that had valet parking, packed with surveillance cameras.
The guy monitoring the recording equipment. "We've got a pick up. It's a guy on a bicycle."
Kate and Royce cursed. Those guys could weave through traffic leaving everyone in the dust. Even down sidewalks or alleys too narrow to follow down in cars.
"Doesn't the NYPD have guys on motorcycles, horses or bikes?" Kate suddenly asked.
None were assigned to this case. The FBI was in charge!
It got Kate cursing; she hated this Sorenson even more now.
"The tracking device is on the move." The FBI guy at the monitoring equipment tells them and is soon relaying where it goes to those in the field.
"It's stopped and is stationary." He tells them.
Sorenson and his group move in and find the bag the money was in, along with the tracking device attached to it. The money however was gone.
"YOU LOST HIM?" Kate screams at the FBI tech guy. "How could you lose him?" What were these guys? IDIOTS?
"We need those surveillance tapes." Kate tells Royce. And together they leave and head for the 12th to go over them.
Kate and Royce had split up the different cameras to go over the tapes.
It was taking too long in Kate's mind. They should have been done with this already if the stupid FBI wasn't in charge.
"THERE!" Kate suddenly screamed out. Royce was immediately behind Kate looking.
"It has a plate number." Royce points out and pulls out his phone. The NYPD had local police cruisers on the scene in minutes, leaving Kate and Royce along with a now very interested Captain Montgomery waiting for word.
About this time Sorenson and his tech guy along with the parents in tow show up at the precinct.
The units report back. They have called for an ambulance. They have found a boy and he is unresponsive.
Kate was fuming. "You, this is all your fault. You and your damn procedures!" Kate screams at Sorenson.
Sorenson however just ignores Kate. She's just a stupid officer, low man on the totem pole. He was an FBI agent following protocol.
What Kate really wanted to do was launch him into orbit with a broken jaw. It might actually improve his flat face, flat jaw and flat head. But she didn't. And Sorenson walked away secured in his superiority and had done everything he could to find the boy.
Kate went to the women's restroom instead and punched one of the stall doors instead. "OWE, … owe, owe, owe." The door was damaged but so was her hand.
Alexis was dancing at the top of the ramp. Her mother was home from work. "Hi mom." As Alexis launched herself at Kate as soon as she made it to the top of the ramp.
"Hi pumpkin, how's my girl?" Kate hugged her, being careful with her hand. Kate would have picked her up except her hand still hurt.
This was when Alexis noticed her hand was wrapped up. "You're hurt." Alexis touched it softly.
"It's just a bruise, I'm fine." It was also swollen a little.
Rick came walking out of his office just as Kate and Alexis cleared the door to the living room. "Well what got you home early?" Rick walks up intent of giving Kate a kiss. "Wooo, what happened to your hand?" Rick lifts her arm up.
"It's just a bruise, I'll be fine." Kate tells him.
"And swollen by the look of it. Go downstairs and change, I'll get some ice for that hand." Rick shoos her down the stairs.
Kate is soon back in a baggy t-shirt and yoga pants and Rick has her sitting on the sofa while he unwraps her hand. "I'd say that's bruised all right." It was already turning colors.
"Does it hurt?" Alexis touches it softly.
"Not much pumpkin, I took some pain pills at work." Kate strokes her hair with her good hand.
"So what does the other guy look like?" Rick isn't convinced it was a guy. He's actually thinking brick wall, he was just teasing.
"The stall door in the women's restroom now has a hole." Kate states matter of factly. Mildly proud of herself.
"And what did this door do to receive the Kate Castle wrath?" Rick asks innocently.
Kate then explains what her day has been like. "And you let him walk away without decking him? You're getting soft on me." Rick teases. Since Rick was working on one hand and her free hand was busy with Alexis, Rick was spared getting punched in his arm for his comment. So Kate just glared at him.
"So how was the boy?" Rick asked.
"I don't know, I left before we could get updated on his condition." Kate had to confide since she didn't know.
"Sorenson huh, not a name I've heard before. I presume he's assigned to here." Rick asks meaning he wasn't flown in as some specialist.
"As far as I know he's assigned here. Maybe they'll send him to Nome now." Kate was hoping they did. Will was a first class jerk.
"There leave that on until dinner and it should keep the swelling down. Hopefully they don't stick you with more paperwork tomorrow." It was going to be difficult for Kate to write with a sore hand all day.
Then Rick kissed her head. "That's my girl. … I'm going to go start dinner; I've got a new recipe I want to try." Rick tells them.
Seeing the look on Alexis's face. "Not to worry, if we don't like it we can order pizza."
Kate was smiling as Rick left. He wasn't mad at her for not decking Sorenson when she had the chance. "Come on pumpkin, I'll play with you until dinner, so long as I only need one hand." Kate's other hand was about the size of a catcher's mitt now, with the bag of ice all wrapped up around her hand.
It turned out to be Spanish Cottage Pie and it was pretty good. No pizza tonight.
"Do you want to go to any of the refresher courses at Quantico this year? I know you don't take much vacation time since you are focused on making detective as soon as possible." Rick asks her.
Being a simple officer meant she was being out in the field long after the event had taken place. She so far had no reason to pull a weapon, drive a car (Royce did all the driving, even if she thought she was better at it) and the only hand to hand she had done was her training with her husband.
She had so far only hit one person and she had it coming for obvious reasons.
"Can we do something else this time?" Kate liked the idea of doing something as a family this time.
"Any preferences? …. Woods, beach, stay in the States, Canada, Mexico?" Rick offers.
"You probably know better than I do. Something a family could go to maybe." Kate offered.
Rick tried to think. Mexico meant Cancun or something similar. Not exactly the place for an almost 4 year old. Just one more month though. Canada could be pretty, but again, good for Alexis?
A beach meant he could get Kate into a bikini! Just that Alexis was prone to sunburns. That left woods. Someplace fun for them but entertaining enough for Alexis.
Walt Disney World came to mind, but was she tall enough to go on some of the rides?
Then Rick had an idea. "Wait here I need my laptop." Rick hops up and jogs for his office.
He is soon back. "How about this?"
Yellowstone National Park
It took them half an hour of searching to agree on a location.
Lodge at Jackson Fork Ranch.
World class fly fishing.
Fantastic bird watching.
Horseback riding.
Hiking and Mountain biking.
Wyoming wild flower.
There was also a list of things that the lodge itself would provide.
Daily breakfast, lunch (picnic or shore) and a gourmet three-course dinner
Daily housekeeping
Unlimited use of the jacuzzi and sauna on the decks and patios
After dinner activities like star gazing & s'mores by the fire ring
Room amenities include hair dryers, robes, Ranch Organics bath products, internet and computer access
Complimentary access to our facilities to do your laundry at your convenience
Free internet and computer use
One morning experience of getting up close and personal with the bison herd
One afternoon carriage ride with a pair from our World Champion Percheron team
Bentley Continental GTC for a car rental.