My Grandmother was a Witch

Chapter 6

Kate didn't graduate at the top of her class but she wasn't at the bottom, either. She had, though, surprised herself at finding out how easy using a weapon was. She was the best shooter in her class. She just lagged in other areas. However, she had graduated.

She knocked on his door frame. "Officer Katherine Beckett reporting as instructed."

Kate saw his name and wasn't surprised that he was a black man. She had seen her fair share in the Academy and not just potential new officers.

"Officer Beckett. Your first day out of the Academy. Meet Mike Royce. He'll be your training officer. He's going to teach you what you didn't learn in the Academy and tell you what to forget that you did learn," Roy told her.

"You two start immediately. Welcome to the 12th Officer Beckett." Roy was dismissing the two of them.

"Let's go, kid." Mike was ready to get started. He didn't mind working with a woman though having one that was so damn pretty certainly didn't hurt.

"How long have you lived in New York City, kid?" Mike asked her as they headed to a car to start their patrol.

"All my life, I was born here. …Why kid?" She was still 20 years old but that would change to 21 soon.

"All rookies are kids. You might as well forget what they taught you in the Academy. Trust me. What you learned is useless out here. The sooner you do that the better off we're both going to be," Mike told her.

_/\_

"You look happy," Jim said sarcastically since she looked anything but happy. "You started your new job so you should be happy. … And what's that smell?" Jim made a face of disgust.

"That smell is me. I'm the kid who got to search a dumpster that was being used by a restaurant. I have everything they didn't want on me. Dinner's going to be late if I feel like eating anything at all. I'm going to go shower and burn these clothes. …If it doesn't come out in the wash." She couldn't afford to buy a whole new uniform.

Jim grinned as he watched his daughter leave. He still had one problem and didn't know what to do with it. Being a police officer was a potentially dangerous job and he still didn't know how he was going to deal with that. His daughter was too damn stubborn to listen to reason. He just hoped it didn't get her killed.

_/\_

Kate was learning fast that how things worked in the city didn't have anything to do with what the Academy taught her. But at least there was one bright thing in her life. She had met someone and he was kind, funny, handsome enough, and maybe just a little thin.

They had dated four times till Kate let him take her to his apartment where they had sex. Just like the first time and this was her first time so she had given him her virginity. Yes, it had hurt and there was blood and he hadn't said a thing. He hadn't laughed at her but he hadn't actually said anything at all.

She had shown up at his place uninvited with the intention of asking him out on a date and to maybe come back and have sex again. She wanted to see if the second time was better than the first.

A woman just about her age but likely older answered the door. "Can I help you?" she inquired.

Kate was taken aback and couldn't answer immediately. "I'm looking for a Dennis Wilder."

"My husband is out at the moment. I finally got some extra time off of work and he wanted to get me something special. Why do you want him?" she questioned Kate.

Kate was still stuck on the husband part. THE ASSHOLE WAS MARRIED! Her first thought was to tell her so he would get what was coming to him. But that might hurt her and she couldn't do that.

Her next thought was to go back one hour so she could do something else. But she had lost her virginity to him days ago, not just one hour. So that was out. Maybe show up before he left?

Why waste the item on him for a week? Instead Kate pulled out her badge that she always carried with her. "Officer Beckett. Tell him I'll be back to question him later. Thank you for your time." Kate left off, "And when I do come back I'm going to kill him."

"I'll tell him." Kate heard the door close behind her as she left to go home. However, on the way home she seriously considered getting a bottle of vodka and drinking it when she got home.

Then another idea came to mind. Her first time the jerk had been turned into a penguin. So what would Dennis turn into? Except her grandmother warned her about going down that road. She didn't want to be a dark Witch. She was a white Witch and wanted to stay that way.

"ASSHOLE!" Kate fumed all the way home. She never heard from him again. He had gotten what he wanted and had gotten even more. He had her virginity.

_/\_

"Going somewhere, Katie?" Jim was sitting out in the living room watching TV as Kate came out of her bedroom dressed up a little.

"I have a date." She was proud of herself that she had gotten over Dennis and had accepted an offer for a date. Granted she had checked him out while out driving with Mike. He had been kind enough to take her that way for a quick look.

A couple of quick questions and she was convinced that he was indeed single instead of married. She had also taken a good close look at his ring finger to see if that finger didn't have a tan.

"A date? A first date?" Jim questioned her.

"Yes." Kate looked at him. "He's a pharmacist, Dad, so it's safe." She also knew he was a new hire so it helped explain his age of 26. Six years older than she was though five years older was coming up fast. Really fast.

_/\_

Kate was home and found the place dark and her dad in his room sleeping peacefully. She wanted to trust him that he wasn't drinking but she couldn't.

She had agreed to another date and that was after she had given him a blow job. She had given her fair share with her previous boyfriends. Those were safe. She couldn't get pregnant doing that. She was even thinking of sex after the second date.

_/\_

Mike and Kate were responding to a call about a dead body. It was going to be her first. She hoped she was ready for this. By the time they got there they weren't the only officers on the scene. "Follow me, kid."

"Doctor?" Mike saw a woman looking over the body.

"Lanie Parish, Officer…?" Lanie questioned him.

"Royce, this is Beckett." Mike moved in closer to take a look. "Body dump?" he queried since it wasn't hard to guess.

"Looks that way. The store owner was taking out the trash when he found the body in his dumpster. Once I'm done with him you can take him out and then search the dumpster," Lanie told them both.

"Got a job for you, kid." Mike grinned at Kate.

Kate rolled her eyes. "Wonderful! I can't wait."

"You've done this before, I take it?" Lanie asked her.

"I'm the new kid on the block. I get all the good jobs," Kate confirmed.

Lanie looked her over. "I don't see many female officers. Are you up for drinks after your shift?"

Kate shrugged. "Sure. I may need something to kill the smell of this so I'm in."

"Since this is the 12th's territory I'll come find you when I'm done." Lanie went back to her body and Kate followed her. She needed to get used to this so she might as well start now.

Kate clapped a hand over her mouth when she saw him and felt sick.

"Breath through your mouth, it helps," Lanie advised only to see her shake her head and rush to the far wall where she threw up against the wall.

"You okay? First dead body?" Lanie was next to her.

"I know him! I dated him a couple of days ago." She had even given him a blow-job.

Mike was right there. "Name?"

"Kevin…Kevin Harmon. He said he was a pharmacist. I don't know where," Kate told both of them. "He was nice."

"Stay here, kid," Mike ordered and headed for the dumpster with Lanie right behind him. "We need ID if he has any."

_/\_

The body was out of the dumpster. Kate was feeling better and was looking at her last date. "He was stabbed in the kidney on this side. He went immediately into shock and bled out somewhere. Definitely looks like a body dump unless you find a lot of blood at the bottom," Lanie told the homicide detectives that had shown up as well as Kate and Mike. "I'd place the time of death somewhere between 1:00am and 4:00am. I'll know better once I get him on the table. I might even get you a model of what the knife looked like."

Kate was questioned about when she last saw him. Where they went and what they did. "Yes, I gave him a blow-job." They might find her on his body so she had to. "And I was home sleeping with my dad last night." She hadn't killed him. "We had another date scheduled when I had my next day off. He was nice enough."

Kate saw the look on the detectives' faces. "In my bedroom alone. Not with my dad." Kate glared at him so he knew if he opened his mouth she was going to hurt him bad.

_/\_

Kate ended up explaining all this to Captain Montgomery. He hadn't suspended her but told her she was off duty until she was cleared and found herself sitting at an empty desk, thinking. She wanted to make it to a homicide detective so she was watching these two and what they did.

She was learning a lot about Kevin when Lanie suddenly showed up. "Ready? I feel like a drink. You can tell me how good he was while we have a drink." Lanie grinned at her.

"We didn't have sex," Kate reminded her.

"Perhaps not but you can tell me how big he was and if I've missed out on something. Come on, I know just the place. It's a bit of a walk but not bad. Nice and dark and all wood. Maybe a piano player. You can test your vocal cords," Lanie teased her.

"No one wants to hear me sing." Kate got up, followed her downstairs and outside, and down the street.

"The Old Haunt?" Kate questioned her since it looked like it was in the basement of a building.

Lanie explained about her place of choice. "It's not a cop bar so they actually serve drinks, not just whiskey straight from the bottle. Unless that's what you want. It's not well known being in a basement. I found it by accident."

Kate had her desired drink and because of her dad it was a fruity drink. She just couldn't bring herself to drink the straight hard stuff. Right now she was wandering around since Lanie had excused herself to use the restroom.

She stared at this picture on the wall. She thought she knew him but he was younger in this picture. A lot younger.

Lanie caught up to her. "Found someone?"

"I think I know him. I mean I don't know him but I think he's a writer and I've read a few of his books." Kate told a white lie since she had actually read all of his books. Every single one he had written.

"Does this mystery writer have a name?" Lanie inquired.

"Richard Castle, but he's really young in this picture. I think he was sitting right over there." Kate looked and tried to line up the picture with the booth in question.

"Good. We can sit there." Lanie went over there, sat down, and waited for Kate to join her. "Now you have something in common with him. …So how big was our dead guy?"

Kate stared at her. "He's dead! Don't you have any boundaries?"

"Nope! Where's the fun in that? So give. I want to know everything." Lanie arched her eyebrows.

Kate gave her a little but Lanie's questions took a mile. "He was a little more salty than usual, about normal in size based on what I know, and no, we didn't have sex."

"But you were going to. I can tell," Lanie pressed her.

"Maybe, not now though and I'm sorry for throwing up at your crime scene," Kate said apologetically.

"No worries. Wait till you see me cut a body open. I've had these tough cops or kids dropping like flies. Pull a liver or kidney out of a body and drop it in the weight bowl and watch them hit the floor. So much fun!

"Oh, the best part? Cut the head open and pull out a brain and squish it a little and listen to them hurl. God, I love my job!" Lanie had found the perfect job for her.

Lanie studied her face. "Are you turning green on me already?"

"No, I'm fine. I'm just not into drinking," Kate admitted.

"You could've said something. Stomach trouble?" Lanie might have something for that back at her office.

Kate shook her head. "My dad turned himself into a drunk so alcohol isn't high on my list of favorite things."

"I'm sorry, we can go somewhere else. I just assumed. So why police officer? You're way too pretty to be a cop out on the streets." Lanie was thinking she was gorgeous.

"Long story," Kate shrugged a shoulder.

"Good thing I have all night then. I'm off tomorrow so I can stay up all night." Lanie was willing to listen.

"I don't, though. I have work tomorrow and I need to get home and check to see if my dad has been drinking. I thought he had it beat last time but he didn't," Kate admitted tiredly.

"So when's your next day off?" Lanie asked her.

Kate needed to think about that a moment. "Thursday."

"Perfect." Lanie picked up a napkin and got a pen out of her purse. "My phone number. Call me when you're off and we can spend the day together. I can sense we're going to be friends and it sounds like we could both use one." Lanie pushed it across to her.

"Thanks." Kate didn't even have one friend now. Not since college and she had left them behind and might not ever see them again.

_/\_

It was just a few days later and Kate was meeting Lanie at a small sandwich eatery of all places. Kate tilted her head. "Why are we eating here?"

"Because I live on a budget and I can afford this place. Then we can go window shopping since it doesn't cost me anything and it's safe. Haven't seen a mass murder in a mall yet," Lanie replied.

"Good point." She had her there.

"So why police? You don't look the type and yes, I know you said long story but I have all day so hit me with it." Lanie popped a chip into her mouth and munched while she waited.

"I don't..." Kate wasn't ready to just talk about it to someone knew that might be a new friend but was she really one yet?

"Fine, I'll go first. My father's dead and my mother, though still alive, became a domineering bitch. I'm the only one that resisted of all of us. So I ran away and made it to a friend's house in a different state. I explained my life to her parents and instead of calling my mother or the police, they took me in.

"I had my mother's credit card. So I used it to get the maximum allowed in cash and lived off of that. I'd finished high school and attended a community college. I found I liked medical. That was when I got lucky. I met someone and he taught me on the side. Took me into work and taught me.

"Through him I graduated early and he got me a job in a hospital. The idea was to make it to residency but I liked dead people. I moved again and ended up here. With my references I got this job about 4 months ago. Your case, the case we met on, was my first case on my own. We're short-handed so they had no choice." Lanie gave her the short version. It was a lot more complex than that.

"My turn, I suppose. I was attending Stanford and taking pre-law classes. Mom got me to come home on Christmas Day. A little after New Years I was supposed to go back the next day. Dad and I were supposed to meet her at a restaurant. She never showed.

"Dad and I found detective at our home. Mom had been stabbed and left to die."

"OH NO!" Lanie reached across to take her hand in hers.

"They told us it was a random act of gang violence. Basically the wrong place at the wrong time. They never found who did it and didn't really try. So I quit college and finally entered the Police Academy. The idea is to someday make it to Homicide Detective and figure out who killed her. So that's my story." Of course Kate didn't tell her that she was also a witch.

"I'm so sorry, sweetie. If you need anything that will help you just let me know. Come to my work on your days off and I can walk you through dead bodies. Get you used to seeing them and all of the organs. Puke all you want. I won't judge," Lanie told her.

"Thanks, maybe." Kate could use a helping hand. She was in a man's world and women didn't become Homicide Detectives so she needed to be better than them to even get recognized.

"You'll do it. I'll even call you to make sure you show up. We're going to be great together. I tell you how and you find them. This city will never know what hit it!" Lanie had great plans.

"Now tell me about Kevin. I want details. I want to know everything about his cock." Lanie saw the look on her face. "I love men, so shoot me."