My Grandmother was a Witch
Chapter 7
One year later
Kate knocked on his door frame and stepped in. "You wanted to see me, sir?" Kate didn't think she had done that badly. Yes, he'd been right. The Academy hadn't really prepared her for what she was going to find out here in the real world.
The general public was just so…well, STUPID came to mind along with a few other choice words. She had never really thought of people as being stupid. At least not until she was a police officer who carried a gun and a badge and got to see the underbelly of life in the city.
Sadly it wasn't just the people that had so little that were stupid. No, they didn't have anything on everyone else. If the whole world was like this she was beginning to have concerns regarding the entire human race.
"Officer Beckett, effective as of this moment you are officially transferred to Vice. Your time in a patrol car with Royce is over. Take the rest of today off and report to Sergeant Kendall in the morning. Better dress casually. I don't think that uniform will last long," Roy informed her.
"Vice!?" Kate knew what it was but didn't really know all that it did. Mostly she thought it was all about catching men offering to pay hookers on the street money for sex. Beyond that she didn't know. "Yes, sir." OH, BOY!? Or maybe it was more…OH, DEAR GOD!
"You also advance two steps in rank. That's all." Roy had plans for her yet he couldn't just do what he wanted. He had to make sure she earned it or she would crash and burn and he might get a written reprimand.
"Yes, sir." Kate caught sight of Royce who grinned at her and went a different direction. "He already knew. Why am I the last one to know?" Kate sighed. She had to go home and get changed and figure out what to wear for work tomorrow.
_/\_
Since her dad was at work it gave her a chance to search his bedroom for hidden alcohol bottles. She also wanted to pick up his dirty clothes and start a load of wash. It looked like being home early was a good thing. Somehow she was up to five loads of laundry. Colors, blacks, whites, towels, and her delicates. She just had to sort out later whose was whose.
Thankfully she came up empty for those bottles, be they big or really small like those on airplanes. So just maybe she was finally making progress. He hadn't been totally sober for an entire year yet but they were getting closer.
She was even 21 years old now with 22 coming up fast. Her dad either hadn't remembered or hadn't wanted to celebrate her 21st birthday. Her only splurge was coming home from the grocery with six little cupcakes. She hadn't even gotten herself a present.
That wasn't entirely true. She had started looking into finding a place to live. She couldn't or didn't want to live with her dad her entire life. She was growing up and wanted her own place. However, she learned fast what the cost was to live in the city and just what you got for that money.
She needed to be close enough to the 12th that it didn't take forever to reach it so that limited her search by a lot. It also meant it increased her costs for a place. It was going to mean using up almost all of her mother's money or what was left of it.
Yes she owned that house that was her grandmother's but she would sell that over her dead body. Right now it was the only place that was truly hers and she was keeping it. Besides, if she sold it to someone her grandmother might never forgive her and vanish forever.
What she really needed was a couple of days off straight so she could drive out there before it got too cold and started to snow, making that dirt road impossible.
_/\_
"Hi, Dad!" Kate was in the kitchen making dinner when he walked in.
"You're home early." Jim walked up behind her to look. Dinner was pretty far along and not just started like usual.
Kate nodded briefly. "I got transferred to Vice today and was told to go home. I start my new job tomorrow. I'm not really sure just what to expect."
"My daughter walking the streets as a hooker." Jim could see it now. He also knew he was teasing her.
"As a cop, Dad, not a hooker." Kate took exception to being called a hooker. "Wait, was that some kind of a joke?" Maybe he really was getting better.
"Apparently a bad one. Let me wash off today and I'll be right with you." Jim made his way to his bedroom.
"Ten minutes, Dad," Kate called after him.
He came back in different clothes. "You did laundry." He found his clothes, sheets, and his en suite's towels all clean, folded, and sitting on his bed.
"One of us had to and you're welcome. Here's yours." Kate handed him a plate with his food while Kate dished out a much smaller portion and joined him at the table. "Your juice." She had forgotten his drink.
"So what is it this time?" It had a different color and a quick sniff said it was different. Not bad, just different.
"Guava, It's Hawaiian," Kate responded.
"Is this you giving me a hint about a vacation destination?" Jim asked her.
"No, I need vacation time for that first and the money. Hawaii's expensive, Dad. Just getting there takes forever. New York to LA is I don't know how many hours and then LA to Honolulu is another I don't know how many hours. I think I'd rather kill myself." Kate was joking with him.
"Well if you'd been an engineer instead of the Police you could've invented that transporter in Star Trek. Be there instantly," Jim razzed her.
"More likely I'd have ended up like that guy in The Fly," Kate countered. "HELP ME!" she screeched in a high pitch voice and listened to her dad laugh. It was a good sound to hear. Just a couple more months and he would be clean for one whole year.
"I've been thinking about something, though." She needed to gauge her dad's reaction to this before she actually did this. "I started looking into the costs of getting my own place."
"FINALLY! I thought I was never going to get rid of you." Jim was in a good mood and teasing his daughter was so far turning out to be fun.
"Funny, Dad." Kate glared at him since that brought up a moment when he had yelled at her to get out and then hit her. Thankfully he didn't seem to remember ever doing that and she sure as hell wasn't going to bring it up.
"It's just it's all so expensive. They're barely bigger than a closet and the ones I can easily afford are in buildings so old they might have been built in 1910 or earlier. Probably have lead pipes, no A/C, no hot water, more cockroaches than I can count." If her grandmother's house wasn't so far away she would live there.
"I know someone if you want some help. He's a broker. He can find places people might not normally know about. He can't guarantee you'll like them any better but you never know till you try," Jim offered.
"Thanks, Dad." It might work. "You're sure you're okay with this? I can try and come and fix dinner occasionally. Maybe even do the laundry. Clean the kitchen," Kate suggested.
"There are maid services, you know. Show up once a week to clean. You need to start your own life." Jim changed the subject. "So how is your friend Lanie?"
"Lanie. If I left it to her I'd be married and pregnant all on the same day. Her choices in men are…different." Kate was still working out why she wasn't married or at least pregnant by now. Listening to her she went on more dates and she thought some men had little black books full of women to call and have sex with. Those guys had nothing on Lanie.
"But you like her." Jim could hear it in her voice.
"Yeah, I do. She just really knows how to push my buttons. My next day off she wants to take me to this club she knows about but has never actually been inside of. I can't even find it on the Internet so I don't know how she knows of it," Kate admitted.
"At least she's keeping you busy. Idle hands and all that," Jim said.
_/\_
"Beckett!" Kate heard her name being yelled which had her getting up. "Sir?"
"In your file it says you know Russian, is that right?" Kate was asked.
"Da. That means yes, sir," Kate told him.
"Good. We're going to change your clothes and wire you up. We've learned of an illegal Russian gambling hall. You're also going to have a video camera to record everything. You're going in with Alex here. If something goes wrong he's your muscle so try not to get too far away from him. Alex and the team will explain everything." Kate walked away with Alex to meet the team.
_/\_
"Let me hear your Russian," Alex asked her.
"YA vyuchil russkiy yazyk v techeniye semestra v Kiyeve," Kate said in Russian with the best accent she had.
"Kiev, not bad. I think you'll last. Now most people think Vice only does prostitution. That's wrong thinking. Yes, we do that and you'll get involved in that after we've trained you for that. We also do illegal gambling which is our job today. And we deal with illegal sales of guns, drugs, and alcohol. That includes things like common cigarettes," Alex informed Kate.
"Interesting." Kate didn't know that.
"Now illegal cigarettes, you may be shocked to learn, get caught at airports. They fly them in from literally everywhere. Places like Thailand where the cigarettes could be made from anything. They're also trying to avoid taxes. Chinatown's packed with these cigarettes. You may be down there one day soon.
"How's your Mandarin?" Alex smiled as he said it since what he had learned about Kate was that she didn't.
"Nyet."
"Good. Keep thinking Russian and let's go," Alex told everyone.
Kate knew her job. Her job was to get Alex in with her by playing up to the men at the door. Then she walked around pointing out men and any weapons she saw and boy, did these guys have weapons! They were ready for a goddamn war.
Now neither Alex nor herself had a weapon on them. Though Kate did have her wand which would never set off a metal detector since it held no metal of any kind. She was just loathe to use it where she could be seen using it. But if it saved her life she would use it.
_/\_
"Nice work, Beckett! You didn't panic and you even got your own collar that will go on your record. I think we'll keep you for a while." Alex patted her on the back. "Vernut'sya zavtra."
"Da," Kate answered in Russian. It had been a hard day and an exciting day. They presently had everyone in that one room in jail being processed. It had taken two squads of SWAT-like men to take that place and yes, there had been some weapons fire. Kate had even found a reason to use her wand while on the job. It had worked just like she had wanted it to.
That was followed by one full bus and that place was still being searched from top to bottom but she had done her job. Searching that place was someone else's job.
_/\_
"Hi, Dad. Is that takeout?" He was eating something and it wasn't something she had made for them.
"You're late so I had it delivered. So shoot me. …Just kidding." Jim raised his hands to show he was kidding.
"Don't tempt me. So where's mine?" Kate asked and saw him point to a bag in the kitchen. "All right, you can live," Kate teased him.
Kate sat down and Jim handed her a piece of paper. "What's this?" Kate took it. She saw a name and a phone number.
"That's that broker I told you about. He's expecting your call and when you have a day off he'll have two or three places to take you to see. I'm not trying to throw you out, but you asked so I'm helping you," Jim told her.
Kate smiled wide. "Thanks, Dad." She wasn't really ready to move out just yet but maybe if he found the perfect place she would think about it.
_/\_
"Paperwork, sir?" Kate came into work and found Alex handing over piles of paper and a pen to write with.
"Everything you did yesterday. You're the rookie so I let you go home before finishing your paperwork first. Today is paperwork day. Today you get to go home only after you finish. Tomorrow you'll show up at 3:00PM for a briefing. Your first introduction to prostitution. We'll supply the clothes you'll wear."
"Lovely. How cold does it get at night?" Kate asked him.
"You'll find out." Alex grinned and left her to start writing.
_/\_
Jim found her home when he got home and in the kitchen cooking. "You look happy."
"It was a paperwork day and I called your broker guy from work. He's all ready for me in two days. I won't be home tomorrow so you're on your own. They're going to introduce me to the prostitution side tomorrow night. I'm thinking that means standing on a street corner dressed in I don't know what trying to get picked up for sex. Though it might be something else." She was betting prostitution.
Still it might mean raiding a massage parlor that massages parts of you they aren't allowed to massage for a price. Possibly do even more than that.
"Lovely. Remind me again why you joined the Police," Jim questioned her even if he did know the answer.
_/\_
The sun was coming up the following day after her night of walking the streets wearing damn near nothing. What she was wearing was very suggestive. Right now she had never felt so dirty in her life even if there was little actual dirt on her. Her opinion of men just took a huge hit. Men were pigs. Honest to God pigs!
Kate was getting something to drink out of the refrigerator. It was one of her dad's. She had bought them for him but now she was hooked right along with him.
"You just getting home?" Jim was showered and dressed and leaving for work.
"I hate being a prostitute. That's a filthy job." Kate drank some more.
"And now you hate all men." Jim wasn't guessing or asking.
She nodded. "Pretty much."
"You're meeting the men you don't want to see or date, Katie. Give us a chance. There's someone out there meant for you. You just have to keep your eyes open for him." Jim hugged her.
"I leave it to Lanie and that won't be a problem." Lanie was continually trying to hook her up with someone. She'd had more dates in the last year than Kate had had her whole life. No sex unless you count a couple of blowjobs and that was it. One date and done.
"Speaking of Lanie, she called while you were out. She's expecting you in her morgue today. She has a new body to cut up and wants you there," Jim said.
"So much for getting any sleep. All right, coffee instead of juice then. Right after I take a shower to get those guys off me." Kate put the juice back and kissed her dad's cheek.
"Go get them, Dad." He was the only lawyer left in the house.
_/\_
"Lanie?" Kate found her bent over a dead body on her table.
"Girlfriend!" Lanie was happy to see her. "I take it your dad caught you?"
Kate yawned. "This morning. I was just getting home. I spent the night being a prostitute and before you say anything I didn't actually do anything. Though I did catch three for my night of work."
"So you got to meet the low lifes. Not all men are like that, you know," Lanie pointed out.
"I know but after last night I'm done with men for a while. So no more dates for a while, please?" Kate pleaded. She held her hands together and actually begged her.
"I hear you. So you came to see my new body?" Lanie was ready to show him off.
"Tell me what you've got." Kate stepped up next to her after putting on her gown.
"No, no. You tell me. What do you see?" Lanie had him lying there totally uncovered and naked as the day he was born.
Lanie watched Kate walk all the way around the body and she even lifted a foot that had her raising an eyebrow.
"He wasn't shot or stabbed that I can see unless it was in the back. Which is possible." Getting it in the back did sound like New York City.
Lanie shook her head. "Nope."
"Nothing around the neck that I can see. Did he choke on a hot dog or something?" Kate queried. But Lanie shook her head. Kate lifted up an arm and examined both it and the other one completely. "Not a junkie but still possible overdose."
Lanie shot that one down. "Nope."
"Then I don't see it." Kate didn't see why he was dead and he was clearly dead. Not that she had checked for a pulse but Lanie had obviously already finished her autopsy because he had a big "V" in his chest that was closed up again.
Lanie picked up his hand and showed Kate his fingertips. "They're blue. Why are they blue?" If he was cold he should be blue everywhere, shouldn't he?
"Poison," Lanie informed her.
"Poison? Someone poisoned him?" She hadn't heard of people poisoning each other except in some movie somewhere. "Isn't poison usually a woman's way of killing?"
"Vice, huh?" Lanie mentioned and saw Kate glare at her that harmlessly bounced off of her. "Typically, yes, a woman has poisoned this guy. Now why? That's where the homicide detectives come in. His internal organs are over here. These will show you just how long he was being poisoned." Lanie started walking.
"You mean not just one big poison like those pills Hitler and his wife took?" Kate was shocked yet again.
"Nope, she, if it was a she, has been at it for a while," Lanie confirmed.
_/\_
"Are you off tomorrow?" Kate inquired.
"Thankfully, yes. I may love dead bodies but it can get to you after a while. Why?" Lanie asked.
"I'm off tomorrow, too, and I have an appointment with an apartment broker my dad found for me. Want to see some apartments with me tomorrow?" Kate waited for her to answer.
"Absolutely. Maybe what you don't like I will. I could use a new place." Lanie was in. "So moving out of your parents' house finally."
"Finally!?" Kate glared at her but got nothing. Somehow Lanie was invulnerable to her glares which was a bad thing.