Hunting Grounds

Chapter 26

"Officer Hastings, what's this all about?" The press was out front which, while not a first, didn't happen often.

"You really need to see this one." She moved the barrier that had been set up in case a reporter made it past the officers out front.

"OOO!" Rick thought he saw it and he wasn't paying attention to the blood.

Espo was there. "Yeah, tell me about it."

Just about then Kate saw a bag covering two sections of the body, and each section had a shoe. "So he was…"

Lanie nodded. "Split right down the middle. Right from the top of his head, right down to his…unit."

"Then what was the murder weapon? A guillotine?" Kate asked incredulously.

"A sword." Lanie showed her a sliver she had of it. "The killer took off his hand first and then cut him in half."

Rick took the bag. "This is from a single edge sword. A saber, perhaps. It doesn't look quite wide enough for that." He handed it back to Lanie. It was just a sliver however.

"Maybe ritual killing, so make sure we get pictures of all the bystanders," Kate told Espo.

[_] /\ [_]

They were all sitting there watching a video that was showing them nothing but an empty shallow dock and a space between two panel trucks. Then somebody ran through there.

"Wait!" Kate played it back because it was so fast. "Is that?" She rewound it again and finally froze it.

"No way!" Espo exclaimed. "Is he wearing a costume?"

"Our killer is a vigilante right out of comic books?" Rick was speechless. He had an outfit complete with hood and a sword across his back.

[_] /\ [_]

"A super hero?" Gates questioned Kate in disbelief. Kate showed her the picture she had gotten off the video.

"Our witness finally confirmed that the person that saved her looked like this guy," Kate said.

"So why didn't she say that before?" Gates demanded.

"Because she didn't think we would believe her. And to be honest, she's right." Kate saw it, but that didn't mean this guy did the killing.

"So we have a vigilante on the loose. Tell me what your plan is to apprehend this individual."

"We're trying to track down the sword and what type it really was. Any enemies our vic and Tony had, and someone had to have made that costume," Kate told her. "Even if it was handmade he had skills so where did he get them?"

"Reach out to Bellevue, too. Lord knows they have a few that might have escaped. Keep me up to date, Detective." Then Gates hurled her first insult of the day at Kate. "And I use that term loosely."

"Yes, sir." Kate growled once she was far enough away from her.

"You look angry," Rick commented.

"I am angry. I've got a nut running around in a costume with a sword capable of cleaving a body into two pieces in one swing and Gates is…" Kate growled again.

"I'm still sorry." He hadn't meant for Gates to make her life miserable.

"I don't think you're the cause, Rick. Gates hated cops before she even took this job."

Ryan came over to them. "I talked to an old contact. It seems a while back there was this guy in a costume carrying a Samurai sword that was rousting drug dealers and dumping their stash. So this is possible. AND that costume is not available in any stores. Definitely handmade."

"I do have an idea of where to look for him," Rick added.

Gates heard him as she came out of her office. "Are you still here, Rodgers? Just what do you think you can contribute to this investigation?" Gates was still working out how to get rid of him.

"Our killer is wearing a costume. If he thinks of himself as being a superhero, there's only one place a wannabe super hero would go: the single largest comic book store in the entire world." Rick knew exactly where that store was located.

The team looked at him skeptically, and Rick defended himself. "What? I was a kid once."

"You should have stayed a kid," Gates told him and went back to her office.

"Did she learn to be like that or does it come naturally?" Rick wondered out loud after Gates was gone.

"Every cop is dirty till proven innocent," Ryan reminded them since he hated her, too.

[_] /\ [_]

"Lone Vengeance!" Kate and Rick saw it. "I've never seen this before," Kate said and saw the look on Rick's face. "I used to be a little girl, too, you know."

"This guy is online only. Not much of a following, but he has fans," the store owner said after they showed his picture.

"I've seen this before." Rick pointed at his hand.

"Knuckle guards?" Kate asked him.

"Yeah, it was at the crime scene. I thought it was just a stray button. It was a dirty alley, after all. Hopefully it's still there. If we're really lucky, it will have DNA on it. Broke it off and cut his hand."

[_] /\ [_]

Rick and Kate were back in the alley looking for a button. "It was right around here somewhere. Ha! There!" Rick pointed at it and Kate pulled out gloves to pick it up and look at it. There was maybe just enough light.

"Rick, I think I see a partial print on this." Kate had a clue to put to use. Then suddenly it was hit out of her hand; someone caught it and used the alley walls to jump over things.

"HEY! POLICE! STOP!" Kate yelled at whoever it was.

They both saw him land on a motorcycle, start it, and drive off.

"What the hell was that?" Rick had gotten taken, and that didn't happen often. He must be getting soft, not having daily workouts like he would on base. It was time to add trips to the gym.

"That was our killer getting away with evidence. I'm calling this in." Kate pulled out her phone.

[_] /\ [_]

Gates didn't like what she was seeing. "This kid is our killer?"

"Well, he did look more imposing in a dark alley," Rick said defensively.

"Get me a confession, Detective, if that isn't too much trouble for you." Gates left them.

Rick saw something on this guy or more accurately what he didn't see, and he didn't like it. "We have a problem, Kate."

"Besides Gates?" Kate asked him. She was about at the end of her rope with Gates.

"His costume is right, but where are his knuckle guards? He isn't even wearing gloves. He would leave fingerprints everywhere," Rick explained.

"Yeah, but he's all we've got, so we have to either make him our killer or eliminate him." Kate kept watching that idiot doing fake kicks and punches.

[_] /\ [_]

What do you mean you can't make a case against him? He's wearing the same suit!" Gates all but screeched at Kate.

"Apparently he was in his apartment making that suit the time of our killing. The neighbors filed a complaint because of the noise from his sewing machine. The police responded and made a report about it."

"I told the mayor we had our man!"

"Well, you shouldn't have done that," Kate told her. She wouldn't have until she had actually managed to arrest him for something.

"Perhaps what I shouldn't have done was place some faith in you, Detective," Gates fired back at her.

"I'm not the one that made a mistake." Kate picked up her paperwork from Gates' desk, left her office, and headed for Espo and Ryan.

[_] /\ [_]

It was likely their apartment was bugged again. And they knew for certain that the living room still had a listening device in it. The only place to talk was the train. Rick found himself holding her because she had walked into him.

"I hate her, Rick, I really hate her. She tells the mayor we have our guy before we even have a case against him, and suddenly that's my fault."

Rick rubbed her back. "I have no authority over her, Kate. And as much as I wish I could, I can't get her fired."

"I know. I just don't know what to do with her. She is automatically so hostile. I'm a dirty cop, we all are; she just has to prove it to everyone else." Kate buried her face against his chest.

"I got a call from the real estate agent." That had her lifting her head to look at him.

"He didn't accept our offer. He came back at full price. However, he is going to take out that tiny window and put in a larger one with a window well so we can escape through it in case something happens in the basement."

"Well that's helpful. What did you do with my laptop?" Kate asked him. "We need to talk to Rosie."

"I changed the laptop's login password and gave it to Lanie keep for a while." Rick scrunched his face and waited for her to erupt since he bet Kate wasn't going to like that.

"YOU DID WHAT?" Why in the world would he do that?

"Did you want me to leave it behind so that whoever it is with the new bugs can maybe hack it and find her emails?"

She sighed. "No." Kate buried her face against his chest again. He had just involved her best friend in this mess, and Lanie would question her till she couldn't think straight.

[_] /\ [_]

They finally reached the front door, and Kate watched Rick bend down and saw him pick up a tiny piece of paper.

Kate put a hand over her mouth. "DAMN IT!" Someone got in and replaced the dead bug, and now they probably had more than two. Maybe in the living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, or somewhere else.

Kate kept her hand close to her mouth. "Now what the fuck do we do?"

"Use the bathroom and then go out to eat dinner and talk." It was all Rick had for now.

Kate took her hand down. "I hate this," she whispered to him.

"Join the club." Rick unlocked the door and they went inside. "Do you feel like we forgot something?"

Kate shook her head. "No. Unless you mean stopping for takeout since we, or at least I, didn't eat lunch, and we don't have anything here for dinner."

"Go freshen up while I think about where to go eat unless you have a preference, and please don't say Chinese."

"But I like Chinese," Kate asserted since that was what she wanted to eat.

"How about we talk about it while we walk?" Rick didn't want to say a restaurant's name and give them a chance to send someone to watch and listen to them.

"Fine, but we're taking the Metro wherever it is." Kate wanted to get far away from their bugged apartment.

"Works for me. Do you want some help getting clean?" Rick grinned at her.

"As a matter of fact, I do." Kate swung her hips on the way to the bathroom. She knew they had to give the people listening something.

[_] /\ [_]

"So where are we going?" Kate decided she would listen before she shut him down.

"Just outside the Bowery. Mother found this place by accident while I was here for a visit once. You're going to be pleasantly surprised. The food was pretty good."

She frowned. "Have I ever told you that I hate surprises?"

"Have you? I don't remember that," Rick teased her, but at least she didn't hit him.

[_] /\ [_]

"Zooba? What's Zooba?" The name didn't tell her anything.

"Egyptian."

"Really?" Kate looked the front of the restaurant over and still couldn't tell. "I can honestly say I've never had Egyptian."

Rick opened the door and bowed. "Ladies first."

"Thank you, sir." Kate stepped inside and the smell of food hit her. A split second later, her stomach told her just how hungry she was.

A short time later they were seated and given menus. "What am I looking at?" Kate queried.

"Hawawshi and Taameya are wraps. Salads and plates are obvious."

"Okay." Kate paid attention to that then.

"Do you trust me?" Rick asked her.

"You know I do." Kate put her menu down and waited for their server to come back.

Rick looked up at him. "We'll take two Tamarind Chicken, Baladi bread, and two Hibiscus Limeades, please."

"So what am I eating?" Kate asked him after the server left.

"Marinated chicken served with tomato-onion relish, pickled beets, pickles, and classic tahina. Served on your choice of vermicelli rice or seasonal greens."

"Pickled beets?" She knew she had never had any, but they sounded terrible to her. "You can have my beets."

"Alright, but only after you taste them."

Kate shook her head. "No promises."

[_] /\ [_]

"Do we have a plan? I'm betting there are more than two of them now," Kate said and taste tested her first bite.

"Sadly, no and no bet here. Worse, I can think of far too many people that would want to bug us." Rick studied her face as she chewed. "And?"

"Amazingly enough, it's pretty good." She took a breath and sighed. "We're trapped in our own apartment, Rick. I'm not making love to you and letting someone record it so they can get off listening to it over and over again." Kate dropped her gaze. "I love you but not enough to do that."

"Look at me, Kate." She did and Rick could see the pain in her eyes. He reached across the table and took her hand in his. "I understand and I know that you love me. We'll get through this, I promise you."

Rick brought up something else they needed to deal with. "I hate to dump more on our plates but we have to arrange for the house to be inspected and have it appraised, so we know we aren't paying too much. Have him provide a termite inspection showing that the house presently doesn't have live termites. We need to add that he has to have the place professionally cleaned. We're not buying a dirty house. That solar power system needs inspected, as well."

"This is going to take months, isn't it?" Kate was thinking three or at least four months minimum.

"Probably. Just hope we have the time for it. The longer it sits out there where we can't even put an eye on it worries me," Rick told her. "Rosie may send an email if someone has gained entry, but it will take us hours to get there to do anything about it.

"Worse, they're likely to want it back." Rick still had to be careful with who might be able to hear them. He was sure they had lost anyone that might have followed them, but what about the people already here?

"That will be true even after we move it. Someone trespasses, hunters to go too far, Google satellite spots it and takes a picture of it. We need to figure out how to get Rosie off that thing and still keep her safe. Her battery will only last so long. And can we provide power for her? Do we have incompatible power supplies?" Kate didn't want to lose her. She was the reason they were safe and home.

"Can't do anything about it till we have somewhere to move it to, Kate. We still have to solve our immediate problem and we can't even do that." Rick was beginning to lose his appetite. "You're eating your pickled beets?"

"They're actually pretty good. Who knew? Kinda far for takeout, though." They were going to have to eat here.

"Is there a device that can counter them? A way to make them hear white noise, maybe?" Kate was trying to think of something.

Rick shrugged. "That's outside of my knowledge."

"Mine, too. Perhaps it's a question for Tori? A hypothetical question for her. She's good, Rick."

"If you trust her. But even then we have to get our hands on one. She might not be able to supply one of those," he warned her.

"Maybe not, but she might know where to get one if it exists." Kate was running out of hope.

"We can ask Rosie when we get a chance." Rick thought maybe she might have an answer.

Kate moaned. He had given her laptop to Lanie to keep Rosie hidden. That meant going to Lanie who would bombard her with questions, some of which she couldn't answer.

Rick heard her. "I thought Lanie was your best friend?"

"She is. But she also likes to insert herself deep into my personal life. She'll want to know absolutely everything about you. Where we met, how we met, a whole lot of personal things."

"She didn't ask me," Rick mentioned.

"Then you go and talk to Rosie," Kate snapped. She was so frazzled that she didn't know which way to turn. And right now, the last thing she wanted was to see Lanie.

"Kate, are you trying to hide from your best friend?"

"Yes, damn it!" She was and she knew it. Kate moaned again. "Fine. I'll go. But you're coming with me. I'll keep her busy while you talk to Rosie."

Rick liked that plan. "I can do that."

"You still don't look happy." Rick was starting to read her face.

Kate slumped in her seat. "I can't make love to you so long as that bug is there."

"I'm not happy about it either, Kate. Moving to a different hotel every night is out. Do you know anyone who left to go on vacation that left a key for you to use?" Rick inquired.

"Don't I wish." Kate didn't. Then she had an idea. "What about your mother? She lives in the city."

"In a tiny one bedroom apartment, you mean?" Rick didn't think that was going to work.

"Damn Roy." He was the cause of this.

"Don't curse him, Kate. He made a mistake long ago and has been paying for it ever since. He's done all he can for you since then, hasn't he? He helped make you who you are now. You're alive." Rick didn't want her to hate him.

"Besides, these bugs might not be because of him. There are a lot of people that don't trust us. Or they think we know more than we're saying.

"I do wonder one thing. What did the FBI do with him and his family? He has kids in school, doesn't he? Does his wife have a job or did have a job? Where did they send him and his family?"

"They'll never tell us that. If he's smart we'll never know." Of course Kate knew that he was very smart, so Roy was gone forever now.

"I would just like to know," Rick told her.

"I would like to know a name. I guess we're both going to have to do without." Then their server came back asking about dessert.

"A pint of Egyptian street ice cream, please." Rick grinned at Kate."You're going to love this."

[_] /\ [_]

"So we have a vigilante to find, we can't have sex, and we still can't get the house for months. Your truck needs a better cushion for my butt, we need to keep Rosie safe, and move the ship. I hate today!" Kate felt like the knot she'd tied at the end of her rope was slipping.

"We got off that alien planet, and we can solve this. I'm not used to losing. We just need to start being proactive instead of reacting to events." Rick put an arm around her and kissed her after leaving the restaurant. "We will win, Kate, you wait and see.

"Maybe we can spike Gates' coffee." He hated her. That had Kate laughing. She so hated Gates.