Love on Ice

Chapter 39

Getting Rick to tell her who it was interrupted by a knock on their door. Rick went to answer it. Turned out it was a biohazard remediation team ordered by her captain to clean up the blood in her kitchen.

The Crime Scene Unit had found the two bullet holes but it was left to Rick and Kate to have the damage taken care of. The bullets, though, were removed for analysis.

"What are they cleaning?" Alexis was curious since part of the kitchen floor was dark red in color.

Kate lied to her. "A bottle of ketchup broke so we're having the floor cleaned." Then she took her into the living room where she couldn't see them removing the blood.

Rick stayed behind to watch them, thanked them, and even gave the team a tip for their work. He watched them get into their van then he closed and locked the door.

While he was watching, he'd called the power company and found out when they thought the power would be restored. He was hoping their refrigerators would keep everything cold long enough so they wouldn't have to throw anything out. But they would have to see.

Rick found Kate sitting on the floor playing a game with Alexis so he sat down in a chair to watch. He didn't miss Kate looking at him. He had yet to tell her the name he had gotten from the man who had been in the kitchen. He was a little worried at what Kate would do once she learned the name.

"We're going to need a security system and a backup generator." Last night's event had showed him that their house was lacking. There was no security nor safety measures of any kind. They didn't even routinely lock the doors leading to the backyard.

Kate looked around and didn't see anything overly different. She had to look really hard and know where to look to find either of the two bullet holes. The bodies were gone, thankfully, and the blood should be gone by now. And since the sun was up they weren't sitting in the dark.

Her captain had given her the day off, but she still had to go into the office and write up her official report.

"You need to take over my space. I have to go into the office and write up my report before my captain calls and tells me to." She meant for him to take over her game position and keep playing with Alexis. Kate pointed at him. "And I still want that name!" Then she headed for their bathroom to get cleaned up.

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Rick was sitting outside watching Alexis play on her playset and play with Snow, too. The power was back on and Kate was still gone. Given just how much had happened he was betting it would take her hours to write it all up.

Thinking about it, he got out his cell phone and made a call. "Hi, Roy." Rick hadn't talked to him since he had quit playing hockey.

"RICK! How are things in Vancouver? More importantly how is life without hockey?" He knew hockey meant a lot to him.

"Very different." Rick chuckled a little. His plan to be a writer was supposed to be a future plan. It was just that the future had gotten there just a little fast. "I need some information, old friend."

"Name it. I owe you one if not two. Oh, and a little birdie tells me you two are planning on getting married again." Lanie had blabbed to almost everyone in the precinct. Lanie, he was sure, couldn't be more happy if she tried.

Rick laughed. "Lanie spilled the beans, huh? Yeah, we're getting married again. We've only just got the space and it's in Victoria, Canada. It's limited to forty-five people so it's going to be small. We still have a lot to do, though."

"Evelyn and I and the girls will be there." Roy would find a way.

"I need a favor. We had an incident last night." Rick proceeded to tell him his side of what had happened.

"Jeez, Rick. What have you two done now?" People didn't just randomly attack a house with that much precision. Not plan it all out and have weapons with silencers. Gangs just busted in, shot the place up, and made all the noise they wanted to make. That was part of the intimidation.

"Kate has a case that might deal with a Chinese gang, but these guys were not Chinese and not gang members. These three were pros. Since I didn't hear a Canadian or French accent I'm guessing they were US citizens.

"So what've you been up to that might involve Kate in some way?" Rick was thinking they came from New York City, but he didn't know why. And having a US senator involved was a dead giveaway.

Roy told him what he could about the Coonan raid since it was still an ongoing investigation. Plus he still had FBI people in his precinct. They'd found thousands of CDs that held heroin in that place.

Rick decided it was good news for Kate and her captain. If they had the drugs from the source no more was going to enter Vancouver. At least not from there.

Rick chose not to ask him about Bracken. Roy might know something but what he needed was more information first so he told Roy the wedding was scheduled in three months and expected to see him there.

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Kate was writing her report and had to keep backtracking a little to account for things she had missed. And her report kept getting longer and longer.

She knew nothing about who had sent the men or why they came to their home. Rick hadn't yet told her how he knew who had sent them. He'd stated that he didn't know why. So she left all that out.

A review of what she knew about the Ming case just didn't add up to them being attacked. What did the Chinese gangs have to gain by attacking her at her home? They hadn't attacked anyone else on her team.

The more she thought about it the only obvious conclusion she could reach was that her mother's case was involved in this somehow. But she didn't know anything so why attack her?

She had reached the point where the man who had ultimately shot Maria and attacked her personally had told her it was time for them to have a nice long talk. It told her he was there looking for information. To find out what she knew. It was just that she honestly didn't know anything.

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"Hi, Jim." Rick was glad that he had answered his call. Hopefully that meant he had time to talk.

"Rick! How are you doing? How are Katie and Alexis? Katie called earlier to tell me you two were getting married again." He was itching to walk Katie down to the aisle to him.

"Kate is why I'm calling. We had an incident last night." Rick proceeded to tell him most of it but tried to keep it short.

"I don't understand. Why attack you? Did Katie catch a case and they want to fight back or something?" Jim hadn't heard anything in his story that explained why.

"She does have a case that possibly involves a Chinese gang, but these guys weren't Chinese. However, I did get one to tell me who sent them and it has nothing to do with a Chinese gang. It has a lot to do with New York." Rick wasn't yet ready to tell anyone the name he had gotten.

Jim was silent for a time. "Jo's case." It was the only thing he could think of that might follow his daughter from New York.

"That's what I'm afraid of. I just don't know what to expect." Rick understood the case was important to her but not how she was going to react.

"I know you know that I lost myself in the bottle, that it took me a few years to get clean. I actually still fight it every day but it's getting easier. Katie lost herself in her job trying to chase down who killed Jo." Jim sighed. "I went to AA and finally a better place to get clean. While I spent the time and found the courage to do it, Katie never has. If this has anything to do with her mother's case it's like a drug to her. One she can't get free of and one that will make her do almost anything or everything."

"Thanks, Jim." It was just what Rick feared and didn't know how to get past if she did go off the deep end.

"Good luck, Son, and I'm still looking forward to walking her down the aisle. You're perfect for her and hopefully she'll realize that." Like get over her dead mother.

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Kate knocked before handing over her report. "Every last detail that I can remember, sir."

"Excellent, Beckett. Now go home and take care of your family. There's nothing more important than family. The dead deserve the best you can give them, but they don't deserve your life. And you're off tomorrow so I suggest you put the time to good use."

"Yes sir, thank you, sir." She wasn't even sure how much a home she had to go back to. The place was a mess and Rick knew something she didn't.

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A team had come and gone and cleaned up their kitchen so now Alexis was allowed to all parts of the house. Rick didn't need her thinking it was blood on the floor instead of a broken bottle of ketchup. Even if the actual bottle was made from plastic.

But without Maria he couldn't write since Alexis needed to be entertained. That and he had phone calls to make and make arrangements. He needed a hotel room and a rental car and airline tickets.

Then he made a phone call to have someone come out to survey their home to have the very best security system money could buy installed. Those three had gotten inside much too easily. That was followed by having someone come out to determine what it would take to install an emergency generator.

He was just getting off the phone when he heard Alexis. "IT'S MOMMY!" Kate was home. He intercepted her and saw their daughter in her arms with Alexis wrapped around her neck.

"Let's go." He turned to go to the garage that she'd just come from.

"Go where?" She had just gotten home and Rick knew something that she didn't; she wanted that name.

"To the hospital to check on Maria." Rick thought that was obvious.

"Maria!" Kate could kick herself. She had totally forgotten that Maria had been shot.

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They were just reaching the hospital in Rick's car. "What are we going to tell her family?" She wasn't sure just what to tell them.

"I've already been in touch with them. Her two daughters are flying out tomorrow. I got them first class plane tickets, a hotel room in the Park Inn and Suites by Radisson which is right next to the hospital, along with a rental car with GPS so they can get around." Rick was prepared.

Kate looked at him and realized that somehow she loved him even more.

Initially they weren't going to tell them anything since they weren't family. Then Kate showed them her badge and they could easily see that she was armed. The fact that Maria was involved in a shooting got Kate access to her. However, Rick, and especially Alexis, were denied access to her.

Maria was still in ICU after undergoing surgery. Kate saw she was sleeping. "I've called for the doctor," a nurse told her and left her to stay with Maria.

"I'm so sorry, Maria." Kate took her hand in hers and looked her over. As she expected she didn't look all that great. It was one of the reasons she hated hospitals. It was almost as if you had to get worse before you got better. So many tubes. Two IVs, a nasal gastric tube, and a nasal cannula that provided oxygen. Thankfully she wasn't on a ventilator.

"Inspector, I'm Doctor Fyth. I wasn't the surgeon but I'm the attending doctor for her recovery." He shook Kate's hand.

"How is she? I know it was a through and through so there was no round to be recovered." She didn't have a bullet in her that needed to be removed.

"It was; the bullet struck a part of her kidney and we were forced to remove a small portion of it to keep it from affecting the rest of her kidney. Hopefully she doesn't like drinking alcohol since we would advise that she stop or drink in very careful moderation.

"Pending any infection, which shouldn't happen but we can't guarantee it, she should make a full recovery. We'll release her from the ICU tomorrow and put her in a standard room. What can you tell me about her family?"

"They're flying out from Connecticut tomorrow. Both of her daughters are coming. They plan on being here for a week and will come back again as necessary." It only now struck her that she'd never met her family. She didn't know what was wrong with her.

"We found that she had high blood pressure so we will be prescribing medication for that though she'll need to see her own doctor for a renewal," the doctor informed her. "If she didn't know it could have cost her her kidneys and put her on dialysis. Then on the waiting list for a transplant."

"I'll make sure that she sees a doctor." Kate made a mental note. "Anything else?"

"No, she'll recover eventually," he assured Kate. "She'll tire easily until she builds her strength back up. You may stay for fifteen minutes. She's expected to sleep until tomorrow." Kate shook her head and he left the room since he had other patients to see.

Kate stood there looking at Maria, wishing that she would wake up so she could say how sorry she was.

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Kate sat down next to Alexis with Rick on the other side. She hugged Alexis and took Rick's hand. "Maria is sleeping. The doctor said she'll be fine. They're going to keep her for a few days and that she'll tire easily after they discharge her."

"I want to see her," Alexis said. "Please, Mommy?"

"You can't, pumpkin. Maria's in a special room right now. But when she's moved to a different room then you can see her. Besides she's sleeping." Kate knew she wasn't going to like that answer but none of them had a choice.

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Rick went straight to his computer area when they got home. It meant Kate had Alexis and was keeping her entertained when what she wanted to do was find out that name. Instead she spent most of the evening taking care of Alexis until Alexis had a question or actually it was more a statement. "I'm hungry, Mommy."

Kate groaned. Without Maria it was up to her to make dinner. So she walked Alexis into the kitchen thinking maybe Alexis could help her with something only to find Rick in the kitchen, cooking. "What are you doing?" She had never seen him cook anything. With Maria around he didn't have to, but this was different.

"Cooking." He left off the DUH! But Kate heard it loud and clear.

"You can cook?" This was a surprise.

"I'm not sure this qualifies as cooking, but yeah, I can. It's just ground beef, a jar of spaghetti sauce, pasta, and some toast. I used a sauce that's full of vegetables so…" Rick stopped himself before he said it was good for them or Alexis might decide not to eat it. "Probably fifteen minutes or so." He put a lid on the ground beef, gave the spaghetti noodles a stir, and checked the sauce.

Kate decided that he was right. That wasn't really cooking but it beat having nothing to eat. She was sure she could have done better, but it was kind of him. Then she wondered if this was a ploy to get her to forget about asking who had sent those men.

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Kate read to Alexis and even sang a little, then tucked her into bed and kissed her sleeping head. Now she went in search of Rick to get an answer. She didn't find him in their bedroom or any other room; she finally found him typing away at his computer.

Kate placed her hands on his shoulders. "What's Derrick up to now?" It was going to be her only small talk question.

"Racing through Russia where he's stolen a car and has a beautiful young lady sitting next to him. She's a prostitute for a government official who wants her dead because she knows too much. Hm," Rick shook his head, "prostitute is the wrong word; she's his mistress."

"Russia." What did he know about Russia? She was the one who had spent some time in Russia. Why hadn't he asked her about Russia? Because you haven't told him yet, stupid.

"Name?" Kate asked him.

"Her name? Her name is…" Rick began to answer her question since his mind was still on what he was typing.

Kate made it plain. "Who sent those men?"

"OH, that name." Rick stopped and spun his chair around to face her. "What are you going to do with the name?"

"Find out why. They almost killed Maria, Rick. They might have killed all of us. Name." Kate knew they'd come for information. Then when they got what they wanted they would have killed them all.

"We're in Canada and he's a U.S. citizen. You have no jurisdiction and can't touch him." Rick knew that much.

"I. Do. Not. Care. Name!" Kate was ready to yell at him.

"You're not going to listen, are you? It's already too late." Rick realized that Jim was right. Kate was obsessed with finding out who killed her mother. Yet neither of them had anything that pointed at this guy being involved with her mother's murder. But maybe that didn't matter.

This time Kate did yell at him. "NAME!"

"He's federal, Kate. He's so far out of your reach that it's not funny." Rick tried one last time but she glared at him. He considered not telling her and only telling the RCMP, letting them handle it. It was just that he loved her and she wasn't going to stop asking him.

"I don't see how it's going to help you, but…it's United States Senator William H. Bracken. We're both way in over our heads here, Kate. A Canadian citizen can't just declare war on a U.S. senator."

Kate was actually shocked. It wasn't a name she was familiar with but having it be a U.S. senator wasn't something she was prepared for. But that wasn't going to stop her.

"Watch me." He had declared war on her and her family so she was going to fight back. She didn't know how just yet but she was and he was going to pay. She was also betting he was behind having her mother killed.

The look Rick saw in her face was what he feared most. This wasn't the Kate he knew. This was the obsessed Kate that he hadn't seen until now. Now he needed a plan to get his Kate back.