Over the next three months, Alice's calls coincided perfectly with competing court filings and hastily arranged news conferences commenting on whatever salacious details the new documents revealed. Both Kevin and Kate were repulsed by the vitriol spewing from both sides, and neither had any interest in staying around for the remainder of the day. Lara, on the other hand, jumped at the chance. A day away from the demands of Beckett and the very likely possibility of some alone time with the Senator were far more appealing ways to spend her days protecting the people of New York.
At work the mentorship with Kate was paying off. She was now a regular in observation and took copious notes about how Beckett and Castle unarmed and broke a suspect or witness. They were both generally cool, calm, and collected except once. In that instance, a young rather chippy female brought a handgun to a fight with her lover and ended up pointlessly wounding three innocent bystanders. Luckily they had recovered the weapon, and a victim had identified her out of a lineup. Most know this is going to end badly and start cooperating hoping for some leniency down the road.
This woman was the exception. When presented with the damning evidence, she was still putting up a belligerent front and accepting no responsibility. That bit of arrogance brought Beckett to her feet where she yanked the suspect out of the chair and jammed her hard against a very unforgiving wall. The suspect was visibly unnerved by the sudden rough manhandling and returned to the chair far more somber and respectful.
The confession that followed sealed her fate, but the demonstration of Beckett's effortless use of force was what stuck with Lara. Sparing with Beckett would be no picnic, but it would make her a better cop. That week she challenged Beckett and was pleasantly surprised that she found a receptive audience for ongoing engagements. The first sessions were awful. Kate Beckett had only one speed, and it wasn't for sissies. Even Dale noticed the blemishes and wondered what the hell was going on. Lara, on the other hand, was unconcerned because she was confident Castle was noticing the same thing.
In her opinion, the chance to work with Kate Beckett had turned out much better than she expected. During the early days, her close study revealed a confident kick-ass detective with a rich boyfriend who obviously pleased her both in and out of the bedroom. She wouldn't characterize it as envy just yet, but it was getting close. Her marriage to Dale was supposed to guarantee her a solid middle class life, but now, that was looking a bit shortsighted. Wealth always helped, and observing both the Senator and Castle up close had given her a glimpse of a lifestyle she could get used to.
Her regard for Kate grew exponentially when Beckett finally invited her in for her first live interrogation. Castle was off at Black Pawn, and Kate felt that day was as good as any. The suspect was way out of his depth and kept telling them it wasn't at all like it was portrayed on TV. They got that a lot from the ones who basically let their emotions get the best of them. In the end, she and Kate tag-teamed well inching ever closer to the truth they already surmised. When he cracked, Kate told Lara to write it up, and Lara went home a very happy camper.
By now Kate and Castle had very diverging opinions about Lara. Kate liked her gumption and saw a bit of her early self in Lara's willingness to do the work - no matter how onerous. Castle saw her quite differently. He could not get past her cold ultimatum about the deal. He had seen that kind of selfishness with Meredith and understood Lara would never change her spots.
What both would not appreciate until much later was that their correct opposite assessments of Lara would lead to an outcome none saw coming. It all started with the gruesome murder of a bank employee. Her name was Emma Rains, and she had started with the bank nearly four years earlier as an intern in their records department. Her skull showed signs of blunt force trauma, and Lanie guessed time of death to be around midnight. Their initial contacts found no relationships romantic or professional. In her apartment they noted top drawer bottles of scotch, high quality weed, and expensive sex toys. She wasn't missing out on pleasures of life, but it seemed none of it was being shared.
Like usual, Lara immersed herself in the canvas follow-up, and it was an uneventful slog. The commercial places near the scene were only concerned about events in their establishments and wouldn't notice a bomb going off on the street just outside their door. The residents were working people, and most were in their beds well before the current TOD window. At her work and residence no one reported any real personal interaction with her, and none seemed to regret the sorry status quo.
The odd sock for Lara was no reported sightings of her on either Saturday or Sunday mornings. If she wasn't around, where was she? Her inconclusive report to Kevin, Kate, Castle suggested it was time to scour street video near her apartment for some evidence of her activities for Fridays and Sundays. With the help of Tori, the mystery was soon solved with visuals of her at Port Authority boarding and exiting an express bus headed to Warwick, New York. A call to the locals got a surprisingly quick response. Yes, according to the station manager, she was a frequent fare often met by a much older man who was not bashful about embracing her.
That bit of news was worthy of some follow-up, and Castle and Beckett arranged to meet the stationmaster with a sketch artist the next afternoon. The town was about sixty miles out of the city and nestled right next to lakes in both New York and New Jersey. Castle had done a bit of research and determined that an early lunch in the hamlet could be quite rewarding. The interview with the agent was a bust, but his recollections for the sketch created a rather good composite. With that done, they did a courtesy call at the local police HQ and asked them to see if they could associate a name and address with the face now in their possession.
The next day they got the response they hoped for, contacted Mr. David Wilburn about an interview, and tasked Lara with getting a full background check on this new person of interest. Upon arrival, they found his townhouse in a well-manicured development south of the city center, and the furnishings suggested Mr. Wilburn was living a rather frugal life. Mr Wilburn was at least a decade older than the victim and remarkably forthcoming for someone who had just received devastating news. He openly admitted to his relationship with Emma and the rather fanatical lengths she went to to keep it secret. He was not happy about that and was trying to coax her into going public. She was not having it, and he suspected there was another rival in the picture who could impress her in perhaps material ways he could not.
They had met at her current employer in the records department when they both worked on a due diligence report for a secret mercy takeover of another bank that the Feds were keen to off-load. It was sixty days of monotonous due-diligence work where the key focus from the top was finding any litigation or reputation risk. The data dump from the Feds was massive, and there definitely were some questionable transactions. Those revelations killed the deal, but not their budding relationship. Bank policy precluded them from going public, and Emma demanded it remain that way even after he left the bank.
Kate and Castle barely comprehended anything after the bank name was divulged. The name was very well known to them. It housed the account number they had disciphered from the now obliterated file Smith had kept. Caught totally off guard by this discovery, Kate quickly concluded the interview claiming an unforeseen scheduling problem had cropped up.
TBC