Couples
Chapter 80
He looks like that Samuel T. Anders guy in Battlestar Galactica," Rick observes as Kate points across the room at Detective Dimmer. "What if he's a Cylon?"
"Anders was a good Cylon, Babe," Kate reminds him.
"I guess it depends how you look at it," Rick figures. "To the humans, he was a good guy, but not to other Cylons. What if he's part of a resistance against the N.Y.P.D.?"
Kate shakes her head. "Then he wouldn't be very good at it. He'd have to get assigned to 1PP, and with his work habits, he'd never make it."
Dimmer waves at Kate. "I haven't talked to you since I left the bullpen. But I have sneaked upstairs for coffee a few times." He looks at Rick. "I heard the machine came from you. Thanks."
"I bought it for the hard-working cops of homicide," Rick returns. "Of which Beckett is one. She may have to clean up after you."
"I didn't leave any messes," Dimmer protests, gesturing Kate to a chair by his desk. He leaves Rick standing.
"Let's talk about the cries for help you dismissed as T.V.," she proposes.
"There's nothing to talk about," Dimmer argues. "There was no body, and no one saw anything indicating a crime. The neighbors must have heard something from a show."
"Except there was nothing to hear. No one was watching a violent movie, not even on disc or on the web. And believe me, I had to sweet-talk someone at the cable company to find out for me, but nothing broadcast at the time the witnesses said they heard something had a scene like that. Something happened, Dimmer. So, when you canvassed the neighborhood, did anyone mention something about local trouble? How about the guy running the bodega down the street? The whole neighborhood would have come through there at one time or another."
"I didn't talk to him," Dimmer admits. "His place was closed for a funeral when I made my preliminary investigation."
"And you never went back to try again," Rick accuses.
"There was no case!" Dimmer throws back. "Anyway, I don't have to justify myself to you. You're not a cop."
Clenching his jaw, Rick pulls out the I.D. Montgomery gave him so he could help Kate. "I'm an official consultant."
"And I am a cop," Kate interjects. "And at this moment, Sergeant, you're a witness. If you never went to the bodega, did anyone else in the neighborhood suggest a possible bad actor?"
Dimmer stares at the floor. "Maybe."
Maybe what?" Kate presses.
Some of the shop owners said they'd observed gay men being harassed. "But they didn't report anything violent, just some name-calling. I've heard that kind of thing around here."
"Which you should have reported to H.R. or Captain Montgomery. Hate talk can escalate," Kate points out. "You know that."
Color rises in Dimmer's face. "But it was irrelevant. The supposed victim was a woman."
"Or a man with a high voice," Rick sticks in. "It's a stereotype, but nonetheless, some gay men have one. However, if someone was beating or doing something even worse to a gay man, what happened to the victim?"
"I checked the bottom of the airshaft for signs of a struggle. I didn't find any," Dimmer claims. "And the gate into that space was locked."
"Did you use luminol?" Kate asks.
Dimmer shakes his head.
"Who gave you the key?" Kate queries.
"The super," Dimmer replies. "He said he has to go in there sometimes to pick up garbage the tenants throw down."
"Then he can give it to me too," Kate declares.
Kate uses a pump bottle to spray liquid on an airshaft's cement walls and shines her UV light on the surfaces. "Nothing except a few random spots where bits of garbage would cause a reaction. No signs of blood spatter. "
Rick looks up at the windows interrupting the upward rise of the walls. "The sound could have come from any of those apartments. It's likely, really. Anyone looking for the source of the cries wouldn't have seen anything. And when Dimmer knocked on the killer's door, he could have played innocent. Dimmer wasn't exactly pushing for answers."
"No, he wasn't," Kate agrees. "So, are you saying that someone behind one of those windows lured a gay man to his apartment to beat on him?"
"Or kill him. Unless you're Lanie, Lorne, or Perlmutter, the dead tell no tales. The murderer could have had a body under his bed, and Dimmer wouldn't have known the difference."
"I need to question the tenants who live in those apartments," Kate announces.
An alarm goes off on Rick's phone. "Wow, I would love to see you further ply your craft, but I have to get home. Meryl's great aunt is in town, and she's coming to see Belle. Meryl wants to get her apartment cleaned up for the visit. Apparently, Auntie Mabel is into white gloves. Anyway, I need to take over with Lily. And Auchincloss gave me a recipe for a steak salad that I think you'll like. I'm going to try it out if I can get Lily down for a nap. Or maybe, even if I can't, I'll put her in her high chair with a pile of crackers. Our vacuum system can suck up the debris afterward."
Kate nods. "Sounds like a plan."
Alexis hears simultaneous wails with a few curses thrown in, emanating from rooms throughout the dorm. Almost immediately, an insistent fist pounds on her door. Alexis recognizes Jane Howe from the second floor. "My wi-fi is out," the student announces.
Alexis pulls out her phone, noting the lack of a wi-fi signal. It automatically switched to LTE. "So's mine. Give me a minute to check on what's going on." After pressing the contact for maintenance, she impatiently waits for someone to pick up.
"I know, your wi-fi's out," the voice at the other end says without introduction. "It's out on the whole campus."
"Do you know when it will be back on?" she asks.
"Annoyance roughens the answering voice. We don't even know what's wrong with it yet. When we find something out, we'll send out a campus-wide announcement."
"Without wi-fi, that won't be the easiest thing to do," Alexis points out.
A frustrated sigh comes through her speaker. "We'll do the best we can."
Alexis looks back at the questioning student, now joined by a crowd of others. "Did you hear that?"
"Yeah," one of the students answers, "but what do we do? I have work that needs the internet. We all do."
"Look," Alexis suggests, "It could come back at any time. It might just be a broken connection somewhere, or maybe someone pressed the wrong button. But in the meantime, a lot of our phones can be turned into hotspots. I know mine can. Spread the word that anyone who's able to, should create a connection. While you're working on that, I'll see if I can get my hands on something with more bandwidth than a phone. I know the school keeps some hotspots around for emergencies. I'll put my husband on it too. He knows where a lot of equipment gets stowed. One way or another, we'll get you back online."
"Please, Ms. Castle-Wygard, make it fast," A freshman entreats. "I have a paper due tomorrow, and I've hardly started to do my research."
"I'll do the best that I can," Alexis assures her. "I promise."