Back at work, her efforts to be an exemplary lead did not go unnoticed. Kevin knew her tells and realized what he was seeing was a genuine effort to accept her medicine and reform. He was convinced his close supervision could contain her impulses and wanted the temporary tag removed. After numerous contentious discussions, Gates finally went from outright hostility to maybe down the road. The grudging approval came only when he presented her with quarterly statistics showing her among the top three leads in the entire borough.
The next big hurdle was 1PP. The bureaucracy had a long memory. The biggest hurdle was her blatant disobedience of a direct order that put a fellow officer in harms way just to satisfy her personal obsession. It was correctly labeled reckless, and the idea of permanently reinstating her lead role seemed very premature to bureaucrats who felt anything that sullied the NYPD was a capital offense. In the end, her numbers and Kevin's constant advocacy won the day, and though hardly prompt by any measure, it was approved.
For Kate, the announcement was a step towards professional recognition she used to take for granted. To mark her return, she decided to reclaim her old desk. Her team member, Lynn, made no fuss about the change, and that's when it happened. It was all her doing. She had been in a rush to fill the flimsy box, and her prized set of elephants crashed to the floor. Her heart filled with horror as she looked down at the broken pieces of her mother's prized figurine.
As she and Lynn bent down to carefully retrieve the pieces, both saw the micro cassette that was about to change everything. Kate was at a total loss about its discovery and asked Lynn to rummage through the supply closet for a compatible player. When Lynn returned with a functioning machine, Kate asked for privacy and went in the interrogation room to listen. On the tape the clearly recognizable voice of Senator Bracken and another man were heard discussing the murder of Johanna Beckett. Kate shrieked, pounded her fists on the table, and started to cry all at the same time. Lynn came running in and was told to get Kevin immediately.
After Kevin listened to the tape, copies were made while the original was treated as primary evidence. Kevin's call to Gates went to voicemail so he instead contacted the Chief of Detectives. He instructed Kevin to confiscate everything and a team from 1PP would arrive shortly to collect statements and the evidence. He also ordered that the revelation on the tape was to go no further until he got back to him. The brass and the FBI all needed time to process this new and startling information in light of the charges already brought against the Senator.
Kate was catatonic, and Kevin ordered her to go home and stay mum until he contacted her. As she gathered her stuff, her forlorn face told everyone in the bullpen something terrible was on that tape. Once in her apartment, she shed her layers, poured a huge glass of wine and stared at the picture of her little family up at the cabin in happier times. A roller coaster of emotions went through her mind as she tried to come to terms with the fact that her family's long nightmare finally had some closure. It should have been a relief, but for now, she was in free fall. Crying, brooding, and remembering left her mentally exhausted as she darted from bed to couch fervently hoping the change of scenery would help quiet her whirling mind.
By the end of shift that day, the voice on the tape had been verified, and Jordan Shaw had heard everything. That evening Jordan did not kiss her child goodnight. At 9:00AM the following morning, she was mildly awake in a conference room at 1PP with lots of gold leaf, Kevin Ryan, and a very agitated, Victoria Gates. A number of next steps was discussed including having Kate in on the the arrest. The idea was rejected because Kevin felt the suddenness of the discovery left Kate too emotional and unpredictable to insure a clean pickup in what would no doubt be a media scrum. Instead Kevin and Karpowski would do the honors with Jordan Shaw and her team assisting very late that afternoon.
Kate was informed of the imminent public arrest early on her second day at home, and she was now free to contact her dad with the news . She chose to go to his apartment. This was not news you gave over the phone. When he opened the door, the look on her face told him to prepare. At the end, both were tearful, and she said, "It's finally over. He will be arrested in DC later today. The press will be all over this. You should let Aunt Sophie know, and Kevin offered to have an NYPD PR specialist help us through the media storm that is sure to follow." Now it was his turn to be silent, consider, and remember.
After sharing a second cup of coffee in awkward silence, he got dressed and asked her to follow him on the subway. She knew right away where they were going, and it seemed appropriate. They had both trudged this path hundreds of times over the years, but this time was different. This time they had news Johanna would want to hear. Maybe not why, but who was a huge development. Both said what they wanted to say and thought what they wanted to remember and silently confide. It was a long overdue closure - a husband to his wife and a daughter to her mother. Private, solemn, and perfect was how Kate would describe it later.
The next week was full of emotions and interruptions. The press had been parked by their different apartments hoping for some comment to supplement the tired loops that had lost their ratings punch. To weather the storm, she had temporarily decamped to her dad's place so they could split their exposure. The PR person reached out and gave them good advice. One joint news conference and then offer nothing more - no matter how provoked. As shrewdly foretold by the PR liaison, the press thrived on even the slightest new development, and without any, they began to decamp to the next horror or scandal at someone else's door.
Returning to work was understandably difficult for her. Kevin had graciously authorized her flexible release time to attend long and important sessions with Dr. Burke which were a godsend. They had a lot to work through. A huge void had suddenly opened up in her life, and she was floundering around just trying to survive each day. She was largely adrift where the only distraction was her duty to Kevin and her team who were trying to maintain a veneer of normalcy in understandably difficult times.