Alexis Rodgers
Chapter 26
They had a new case and while Eva was the lead Kate had an interest in this case. It had something to do with her mother. She knew it, she could feel it.
"So what have we got?" Kate was looking at the board.
"Eastwood rented several cars last week. Our suspect is going under the name Cole Maddox. He's using a Kansas Drivers License," Kevin informed her.
"It's a cover. That address doesn't exist," Javi added.
"Did he return the car?" Kate inquired since if he didn't that might mean he was still here.
"No. We've learned that Eastwood uses built-in GPS on all their cars as a precaution. His car is presently located on the lower east side." Javi had done his work.
"Kevin, you stay here and keep searching. Javi, you're coming with me." She was going to personally get this guy. If he had anything to do with her mother's case she was taking this guy down and alive so he could talk.
"Hey wait." Kevin didn't like this plan. "That's not how we do things. We put a team on that car and we watch everything he does. If you go after him, you go with backup. That's how we do things." Kevin hated this idea with a passion.
Kevin watched Javi walk out with her. What could he do know? Eva was off today and Beckett was the captain. He didn't have anyone to call. Even going way over her head to the Police Commissioner might cost her her job and end up being too late if this guy was what they think he was. A hired killer and well trained at that.
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"Found him and the car. The front desk confirms that Mr. Maddox is here on a one month lease. We even have a room number." Javi joined Kate who had been doing some looking of her own.
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"Clear," Javi called out since the room was a studio and small.
"Clear," Kate added and looked around.
"I've got files here. Lots of files." Javi began looking them over and Kate soon joined him.
"Bingo, the wedding album Evelyn called to tell us about even if she won't tell us where she and Roy are." They were working a break-in for Evelyn behind Roy's back as a favor. Which wasn't easy when you didn't know where the break-in took place. Worse Evelyn refused to explain why she was calling. Then she had suddenly hung up on them.
"So what is our guy looking for?" Javi didn't get why a wedding album of Montgomery had anything to do with this.
Kate leafed through the book. "Not what, who. There's a picture missing. But if Evelyn knows why not just tell us?" It didn't make any sense to Kate.
"Eva did say she suddenly hung up on her. Maybe Roy walked in on her and doesn't want her involved." Javi shrugged.
"So how does this fit into my mother's murder?" Kate felt that it did.
"Maybe it doesn't. You really think Roy would have anything to do with that?" She knew Roy just as well as he did if not better.
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"Rodgers." Alexis pulled out her cell phone as she and Ray drove around looking for anything. And anything could mean expired license plate, drug deal on a corner, someone running with a stolen purse, anything.
"Alexis." Alexis was Kevin's last hope. He was just thankful he had her cell phone number. Alexis listened then hung up and gave Ray an address on the lower east side. Then she, instead of Ray, turned on the lights and siren.
"Kate's in trouble and we're her backup," Alexis told him and that was all Ray needed to know. The 12th had gotten so much better under Kate and if she needed help he was going to give it.
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Suddenly Kate was being spun around. She lost control of her weapon and ended up on the floor. Javi barely even knew what hit him and he was on the floor unconscious a second or two later.
Kate saw her weapon and saw a man running so she grabbed it and went running after him.
Her first two shots at him hit nothing but stairs that led to the roof. Busting out the door, she had him dead to rights if she would just stop and shoot him in the back, just like she had already tried to do but missed. Instead she ran after him. He had answers and she needed him alive.
Then she lost him and didn't see him so she started a search.
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Ray stopped and turned off the car just as Alexis jumped out and slammed the car door closed which locked it. She ran as fast as she could to the front door. Ray was a little behind her.
"Police!?" She saw a guy behind the glass and all he did was point at the stairs. So up she ran.
Alexis could hear Ray on the stairs behind her as she went up and looked both ways on each landing. Then she saw a body and ran to him. "Javi." Two fingers to the neck told her that he was alive.
Alexis felt and saw Ray. "He's alive. We need backup and an ambulance. Javi's in the hallway so where is Kate? …ROOF!" She hadn't seen anything on her way up and they were on the top floor.
For what was the first time in her life Alexis pulled out her weapon, disengaged the safety, and looked for the door to the roof.
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Kate was taken by surprise from behind somehow and lost control of her weapon. She was fast and soon had him in a choke hold. Yet just as fast he threw her across the roof.
She was back up and charged him, getting in three really good hits. But he had her this time. A knee to the midsection and a blow to her nose and she was down and hurting.
Kate kept an eye on him as he circled her. Most men would have gone down by now after those three hits, but not this guy.
"You're wasting your time, Detective. You have no idea what you're up against. You can't even handle one little fight." He looked down at Kate who was still on the roof top trying to get enough air in her lungs.
"Neither do you." Kate wasn't giving up or backing down and rushed him. In just a second she found herself flying across the roof and over the edge. She could count herself lucky that she had two hands on the edge of the building but her feet were dangling.
Kate could see him standing over her and looking down at her. "Actually, we know exactly who we're up against." He just stared down at her.
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Alexis cleared the door and looked around until she heard Kate screaming. HELP! So she ran that way and saw just a guy standing at the edge of the building looking down.
"POLICE!" Alexis yelled and leveled her weapon on him. Kate had taught her what to do and she instinctively controlled her breathing and stayed focused.
"ALEXIS!" Kate knew that voice. Damn but she was glad to hear that voice.
The guy above Kate decided it was time to run so she did.
Alexis wasn't yet ready to kill someone so she lined up her perfect shot and fired twice. She was almost instantly rewarded with watching him stumble badly and fall to the ground.
That had Alexis running for the edge of the building. Once she was there and looked down she saw Kate barely handing on, her feet trying madly to find a foot hold.
"Kate!" Alexis put her weapon away, fell on her stomach, and reached with both hands to grab one of Kate's. "I gotcha!" She had a firm hold using both hands. Except she didn't have the strength or the leverage to lift Kate up.
"I gotcha." It was all Alexis could do. Then suddenly two larger hands were added and between them, though Alexis had to admit it wasn't her doing it, they lifted Kate up onto the roof.
"RAY!" Damn but Alexis was glad to see him. She would hug him and kiss him if it wasn't for two things. Kate wouldn't like it and his wife would kill her.
"LEX!" Kate wrapped her arms around her and tried to calm down. Meanwhile Ray went to look over this other guy that was bleeding onto the roof.
Alexis and Kate soon joined him. "So who is this guy?" Alexis looked him over.
She was actually a little impressed by her own shooting. One round had gone into his right leg just below the knee while the other round and almost blown his knee wide open. His left leg was barely hanging on as he started to bleed out.
"Cole Maddox. Part of our new case involving Roy." Kate looked at him and he looked defiant lying there with his leg almost blown off and bleeding his life away.
"Dad's old friend. But Roy quit and moved to somewhere." As far as she knew even her dad didn't know to where.
"I think our friend here has something to do with my mother's death. He knows something." She was convinced of that now. His taunting of her had proven that.
"Does he now." Ray knelt down and used his right had to grasp what was left of Maddox's left leg. The result was hearing Maddox scream until Ray released his hold a little.
"Tell the Captain what she needs to know," Ray instructed him but Maddox remained silent, so Ray squeezed this time and dug his fingers in nice and deep. Maddox instantly screamed from the intense pain.
A new noise had Kate and Alexis looking. It was the backup Ray had called for.
"Sergeant." Kate got him to back off. She could doctor the reports about this if it was just the three of them, but it was about to become too many so he had to stop.
Ray wiped the blood off his hand on what was left of this guy's pants and stood up. "He's going to need a fake leg after this anyway if he ever hopes to walk again. Since his knee is gone I'm guessing from just below the hip down."
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Hours later and most of them along with CSU and Internal Affairs were still on the roof. Maddox was long gone and under guard. Kate was talking with Internal Affairs while Ray and Alexis were standing side by side.
"That was nice shooting." Ray was proud of her.
"I couldn't kill him. I just couldn't. Not like that, but I couldn't let him get away either. …Fake leg, huh?" Alexis looked at him instead of Kate.
"Hopefully a peg leg right out of that Moby Dick movie. He'll hear himself walk everywhere he goes. Like between meals and his prison cell," Ray said and Alexis laughed.
Kate was still captain even if Internal Affairs was there. Thankfully Alexis and Ray had been released. They both still had to fill out a lot of paperwork but they could do that tomorrow.
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It was late and Kate was dragging herself home. Alexis wasn't answering her phone or her text messages so Kate could only hope she was home already since she wasn't in the Precinct like she always was. Even after her shift she would sit in her chair and help Eva solve whatever case she had until Kate decided it was time to go home.
Unlocking the door and going inside, it was dark and empty even up on the second floor where she didn't see any signs of Alexis.
Turning on a night Kate decided it was time for a drink. They had one bottle of Grey Goose Vodka and one of Casa Dragones Joven Tequila, one of the best. But she chose the vodka and had just found a glass when she heard Alexis coming down the stairs and turned to see she looked as sexy and desirable as ever.
But the closer she got the easier it was to tell that she had been crying. Heavily even, based on the way she looked.
Alexis walked right up to her and jabbed a finger between her breasts. "You scared the shit out of me! What the hell did you think you were doing? You and Javi could be dead right now if Kevin hadn't phoned me to tell me you two had gone off the reservation and tried to get yourselves killed." Alexis was furious with her.
Kate began to try and apologize. "Lex."
"Don't LEX me. I'm just a rookie but even I know you don't do what you two did. You start surveillance and if necessary or when that time came you went in with backup. You're the captain, if I know that you certainly do.
"You even left Javi behind when you ran for the roof, didn't you? Didn't even think to call for an ambulance of backup now that you two had screwed up so badly. Didn't even know if he was alive or dead did you? DID YOU?" Alexis yelled and this time hit her in the chest right between her breasts.
"No." Kate hung her head. She had done everything so very wrong. The second she had added the word mother to this case she had done everything wrong. She counted Javi as a friend even and she had just up and left him behind.
"He threw you off a roof! You could have died today. I wasn't strong enough to lift you up back onto the roof. If he had had a partner we would all be dead right now. But no, you didn't think of that either, did you? DID YOU?" Alexis yelled at her yet again. Damn but she was beyond furious.
"No." Kate hadn't felt like shit like she did now for a really long time.
Then all of a sudden Alexis took Kate's hand and placed an open little black box in it so she could see it. Inside she saw a ring. It didn't have an ordinary diamond on it but her heart, or what was left of it with Alexis yelling at her, it was an engagement ring.
This is a black tungsten carbide wedding band that is simply a classic and timeless style that will never become dull. This black tungsten ring is created with 3 white diamonds set diagonally across the width of the ring. The 3 slanted white diamonds combines perfectly in a slanted steel frame in the black tungsten ring.
"New York allows same sex marriages so I was thinking of asking you to marry me right after my 19th birthday which is next month," Alexis told her and even after everything Kate found her damaged heart soaring.
"But you tried to get yourself killed instead. I wouldn't marry you now if you were the last person on the planet" Alexis snatched the box out of Kate's hand and stormed up the stairs.
And just like that Kate's heart shattered and crumbled in pieces to the floor. "OH GOD!" Alexis wanted to marry her and look what she had done.
Kate looked at the staircase and wished Alexis would come back down. She so badly needed to hold her and tell her how sorry she was. That it would never, ever happen again. Life had been so good since she became involved with Alexis and just like that she had thrown it all away. "Married."
Then she saw Alexis on the stairs and a piece of her shattered heart lifted up off the floor. Then Alexis threw a comforter and a pillow down the stairs. "You're sleeping on the sofa until I move out." Alexis looked her for the space of ten heartbeats and Kate watched her stomp back up the stairs.
"Move out!?" Alexis couldn't move out. She loved her. Loved her like she had never loved anyone before and that included her mother. "No, please no."
Kate left the bottle and glass behind and walked to the stairs to look up them. She didn't bother trying to wipe away the tears that were flowing freely down her face.
Kate knew she hadn't felt this bad even after finding out her mother had been killed. Alexis was all she had and she couldn't lose her.
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Even in the dark Kate knew each and every step by heart until she reached the very spot. It was late and it was dark and there was no one here.
"I screwed up big, Mom. I screwed up really big this time. I love her with all my heart and she wants to marry me. I don't know what to do. Please tell me what to do." Kate broke down, fell to her knees, and sobbed.
Vincent Omnia Veritas (Truth conquers all things)
"Truth conquers all things." Kate found a spark. One teeny tiny little spark. The tiniest little piece of her heart that she still had possession of. "The Truth." She knew one truth and she needed to prove that she knew what that truth was.
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"Thanks for this, Castle." Kate had made one call from the graveyard and it wasn't to Alexis or Lanie or her dad. It was to Castle.
"He owes me a favor," Rick replied as they both watched the owner of the jewelry store walk up to them, unlock the door, turn off the alarm and ask what they wanted. Everything was in the vault and he might owe Rick a favor but he wasn't interested in bringing out everything for them to look over.
"I need a black engagement ring. The very best you have." It might destroy her checkbook but Alexis was worth it.
"Black, don't get much call for black but I can show you what I've got." He opened the vault and came out with a single tray for her to look over.
The most expensive one he had turnout to be $4,800 and that was too expensive for her.
"This is for Alexis?" Rick was catching on and watched her nod. "I'll pay half in that case," Rick offered.
"I can't let you do that, Castle. This is my heart I'm offering Alexis. It needs to come from me." Kate thought it was sweet of him given their history but she needed to do this. "What about this one?" Kate touched it since it looked nice.
Black Diamond Ring 1.50 Carat Princess Cut Natural Black Diamond Engagement Ring In 14k or 18k Black Gold. $1,870.00.
The store owner watched Rick slash his neck with his hand. He had already heard Rick offer to pay half. "It's yours for $999.99 plus tax. The ring size adjustment is free of charge."
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Kate was happy. She had her own little black box as she unlocked the door, went upstairs to their bedroom and skipped sleeping on the sofa.
The bedroom door was closed but not locked. Kate chose to strip naked now save for her little black box and opened the door. The second she did she could hear Alexis still sniffling. She was clearly still awake and had been crying.
Kate felt the last piece of her heart fall to the floor and shatter. She had done this to her. The one person she had never wanted to hurt and yet she had. Alexis owned her heart and she had taken it and destroyed it for her.
Kate saw Alexis's little black box on the floor so she picked it up and carefully got in bed. "Lex." Kate said so very softly, not sure what to expect. In an instant Kate found herself being enveloped by Alexis who started crying in earnest yet again.
"I'm so sorry, Lex, so very sorry. The one person I never meant to hurt was you and yet I did. Please tell me what I can do to fix this. Fix us." Except Alexis just kept crying but she didn't let go, either.
"I called the FBI. They're sending a team out tomorrow to take over the case. The 12th and I are out of it now and we're staying out." Kate tried again. "Please, Lex. I love you."
Kate heard Alexis stop crying but she was still sniffling heavily. "You loved me when you did this, too." Alexis didn't believe her.
"Yes I did and I screwed up. But I got you something." Kate made sure it was the right box and not Alexis's box. Then she placed it in front of Alexis's face so she could see it. "My heart is inside it."
Alexis saw a little black box and assumed it was hers. "You can't have it." She was still beyond pissed at her. She had destroyed what they had. Kate had said that she loved her before.
Since Alexis wasn't going to open it Kate opened it for her. Alexis saw a black ring except it didn't look like her ring. It was different. It had an incredible black diamond in the middle and two smaller white ones to either side.
"You're sure you don't want to marry me? I certainly want to marry you. Please, Lex, marry me. I only want you. I got your dad to help me pick it out." That wasn't the whole truth but for now it was close enough.