Couples
Chapter 79
Storms coming up from the Gulf of Mexico usually dump their dregs in Ohio, not New York. And those that do hit New York very rarely have much oomph left. The one pelting Colbert Hall and the whole campus of Hudson University is an exception. Despite the best efforts of the sump pump, the dorm's basement rooms are flooding. With their apartment right off the main entrance, Alexis and Dana have dry floors, but a lot of work to do.
Alexis organizes parties of students with mops and buckets while Dana is out rounding up every wet-dry vacuum he can get his hands on. It's not an easy task. Several academic buildings, including physics and the humanities, are flooding as well, and the machines are in short supply.
Once she has her mop squads going, Alexis studies the room assignments. A few of the doubles only have one current occupant. If necessary, she can put students from soaked quarters in them until they get things dried out. But it won't be enough. The upstairs lounges can accommodate sleeping bags. She might even be able to scare up cots or portable beds from somewhere. She gets on her phone to give it a shot.
The rain is a boon to most of the N.Y.P.D. The level of purse-snatchings and other street crimes is down, at least temporarily. At the start of the downpour, marked units were dealing with an uptick in traffic accidents. But by now, any oil slicks have washed off the roadways, and drivers are wary of hydroplaning.
One thing that hasn't fallen off is paperwork. Montgomery took advantage of an almost full complement in the bullpen to launch a review of the last year's files to generate suggestions for improvements, particularly to the case closure rate. The more cases his people close, the more money he gets for his budget. When he thinks about it, the allotment of funds is upside down and backward. Precincts that can't close their cases probably need more funding, not less, for training and personnel. But for once, Roy is glad that the bean counters have a skewed view of the law enforcement universe. Thanks in no small part to Kate Beckett and even Rick Castle, the 12th is a top performer. That doesn't mean it can't do even better.
Amid piles of reports, Kate makes her mid-morning check-in call to Rick. He picks up on the first ring. "Tell me you have an interesting clue or some quirky witness. I'm trying to start a new book, and I'm devoid of inspiration. Even Lily is bogged down by the deluge. She hasn't done anything outstandingly cute in hours – except demanding a 'rabow.' And I don't see one of those showing up anytime soon. Oh, wait! My Captain Photon costume!"
"I don't remember that one," Kate admits. "I don't even recall hearing about the character. Was he a hero in some obscure limited comic?"
"No, he was a hero in Alexis's fourth-grade science class. The kids were doing a unit on light, so I came in with a costume, complete with a utility belt full of lenses and prisms. I've still got the whole rig in a box in the top of my closet."
Kate smiles into the phone. "Of course you do. Go into your act and give our daughter her 'rabows.' If I uncover anything inspirational, I'll let you know."
"Deal," Rick agrees.
After stuffing her personal phone back in her purse, Kate returns to the work covering her desk. She initials the last page of one of Esposito's reports and reaches for the next write-up. It's from Detective Dimmer. She remembers that he took the sergeant's exam and jumped on a slot that opened up in missing persons. The report she's reading is about his investigation of what he decided was a non-case. Several residents of an apartment building reported hearing cries for help coming up an airshaft. But Dimmer could never find a crime. He speculated that someone had a T.V. cop show turned up too loud and dropped his investigation.
Kate thumbs through Dimmer's interviews. No one admitted to watching anything on T.V., D.V.D., or the web that fit the bill. Dimmer never checked the schedule of the building's cable system to see if a show with that type of dialogue was being broadcast at the time the witnesses heard the pleas. That was sloppy. Kate's hoping that the cable company keeps records. She'll find out. Dimmer may have dropped a ball that she should pick up. And mysterious cries for help are the kind of story Rick can get his teeth into.
One corner of the file Kate brought home is soaked where it stuck out of her bag, but Rick has no trouble paging through Dimmer's notes and taking in the ones Kate added at the end. "So nothing broadcast at the time the neighbors reported hearing the calls for help accounts for them. I'm surprised. I thought that Law and Order runs on one channel or another 24/7.
"Oh, there was an episode on," Kate confirms, 'but it was the one where Detective Briscoe was struggling to stay on the wagon. Different kind of cries for help."
"Ah, that makes sense. So, someone was actually in trouble, but you have no idea who, or what happened," Rick summarizes.
"Right, except that most of the witnesses were sure it was a female. But one of them just said someone with a high voice."
"Which some men have," Rick adds. "So, if Dimmer is in missing persons now, he should be able to tell you if anyone disappeared within that time frame. Wouldn't it be his duty, considering that he left a thread hanging like that?"
Kate fingers damp page corners, trying to keep them from curling. "Maybe, but I'm not going to put it like that when I ask him. If Meryl can stay with Lily tomorrow, you want to come along?"
"Are you kidding? A slacker like that would make a great character. I wouldn't miss it."
Alexis sinks down onto a couch Rick donated for the Castle-Wygard apartment. "At least it stopped raining. If you hadn't brought that huge shop vac, I don't think we ever would have gotten the basement close to mopped up. Anything that was near the floor is still pretty damp. The washing machines are going to be working overtime with bedspreads and whatever else dipped into the water. Still, at least most of the students can stay in their rooms tonight, and I have enough space upstairs for the ones who can't."
Dana plunks down beside her. "You did a good job, especially since some of the residents you were supervising are older than you are. They're older than both of us. But you have an air of authority that works."
"I think I picked that up from Kate," Alexis confides. "She works with a lot of cops who are older and more experienced than she is, but they follow her orders. Dad says she's very good at bossing men around. I don't think she's bad with women either."
Dana tucks her against his side. "However you learned it, it works. So I guess we survived our first house parent crisis."
Alexis toys with the edge of her slightly damp T-shirt. "Yeah, I guess we did. But we aren't even through our first month yet."
Dana kisses the top of her head. "So, imagine how good we will be when we actually know what we're doing."
Alexis snuggles deeper into his body. "I hope so."
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