He's a bit nervous when he steps up onto the first step of the stairway leading to the 12th precinct. When he finally gets to the top step he looks around and sees the doorway and enters through it. Once through the doorway and over the threshold, everything changes. People are moving around so fast that he can't keep up with the way things are moving. He stands there until someone asks him a question.
"Sir, can I help you?" A very boisterous man asks sitting behind a desk.
"Yes, I'm looking for a detective Beckett she works in homicide." Rick answers.
"That's right she does can I ask who you are, please?"
"Oh, I'm sorry my name is Rick Rogers. I need to talk to her about the case she's currently working on."
"Hang on a second I'll call the captain to see if she's upstairs or out in the field."
After a brief phone conversation, Sergeant Murphy calls Rick to his desk.
"You're in luck Mr. Rogers she's upstairs as we speak."
Rick sees him writing furiously on something but he can't figure out what it is until he tears off the paper he was writing on and hands it to Rick.
"Mister Rogers I need your signature on the bottom of that form and once you sign it you will be issued a visitor's pass that you will clip to the lapel of your jacket. You will not deviate to anywhere other than the homicide floor which is on the 4th floor. Walk over to that elevator behind you call the car and head upstairs. There'll be a uniformed officer up there waiting for you to arrive and once he does he will escort you to detective Beckett. Do I make myself clear?"
"You do sergeant Murphy."
Rick signs the bottom of the form and hands over the pen and the form he signed. Murphy pulls out a visitor's pass and hands it to Rick who clips it to his lapel. He turns and walks to the elevator and pushes the call button. Within a minute the elevator is on the lobby floor.
He steps on the elevator and as he does so his phone starts ringing. It's a number he knows well but he needs to take the call hoping it'll be done very quickly.
"Hey, John how are you?" Rick asks.
"Very well Rick, very well. Listen I just called to go over the preliminary numbers for your second book It seems that the first one is a gold mine. Who would have thought that this book would sell the way it has?"
As Rick listens to John rattle off numbers about the second printing of his first book he's amazed at the amount of hype it's getting. It's basically a book about himself. The fact that he can see into the future for 3 minutes and 22 seconds. His first book is based on a precocious 8 year old named Charlie. He has the ability to see 3 minutes and 22 seconds into the future but he keeps it to himself. In the book which is a child's book by the way he makes sure that he's in the right place at the right time to stop anything bad from happening to any of his friends. The book itself is only one hundred and sixty-four pages long not quite a Nancy Drew mystery, but not quite a toddler's book either. It is for more an adolescent or pre-teen if you will.
"Rick, according to my calculations you should be very proud of what you have accomplished here. The book is a hit with adults and children alike. But what we need to talk about now is the second book in the series. I'm just wondering if you gave it any thought."
"John I have given thought, but right now I'm in the middle of something very important. If you have time this afternoon say around 1:30 or 2 o'clock I would like to meet with you and talk it over."
"Could I interest you in a late lunch? I can have it here by 1:30 if that gives you enough time."
"Actually by the time I get uptown and get finished with what I need to do now that would be perfect. I'll see you then."
Rick ends the call just as the elevator doors open. He steps out onto the floor and it's even more hectic up here than was downstairs. Just then he is confronted by a very large African American man in uniform.
"Can I help you, sir?" LT asks.
"Yes, I am here to see detective Beckett.
"I understand. Sergeant Murphy called up and told us you were coming so I will take you directly to her."
"Thank you," Rick replies.
The second he stands in front of her desk he can tell that she's very dedicated to her job. Not that she takes everything personally but he can tell that she gives every family the closure that they need.
Not wanting to disturb her, LT waits for her to finish typing up what she was working on. When she looks up she sees him and then their eyes lock together once more.
"Detective Beckett a Mister Rogers here to see you."
"Thanks, LT," Kate says.
LT nods his head in acknowledgment and turns to head back to his post in front of the elevator.
"So Mister Rogers, what brings you here?" Kate wonders.
"Detective Beckett, I need to explain something about myself. Once I get word that one of my closest friends or anyone I care about for that matter is in crisis I am a very unwavering supporter of their needs. I can tell you for a fact that Damien is not a murderer. He just doesn't have it in him. So please is there anything you can do to look for a different suspect?"
"Mister Rogers I appreciate you looking out for your friend. But my job is to follow the clues wherever they may lead me. It just so happens that we closed the Victoria Westlake murder case just this morning. And you were right he wasn't the person who murdered her. But he was arrested on a charge of grand theft. You see he had replaced his wife's diamonds with fakes. The ring she had was a family heirloom. He had no right to do what he did."
The second she mentioned the ring he knew exactly what she was talking about.
"Her mother's ring," Rick said somberly.
"Correct Mr. Rodgers. It seems that he claimed to have paid a small fortune for this ring but after further investigation, we found out that he never bought the ring. He simply stole sixteen point four million dollars worth of diamonds. While he was your friend, I'm sure that greed was a factor in this more than anything else. I really am sorry Mister Rogers."
Rick thanked her for her dedication to the job she did and left her workspace heading back towards the elevator. As he steps on the elevator he remembered the images he saw in his mind 3 minutes and 22 seconds in her future. But he just couldn't remember or pinpoint when it exactly took place. That was the only drawback of having this gift. He would get a few snippets of history so to speak of the person he was able to see but it could be any time frame it might be a day or even a year.
Xx
As he leaves the 12th Precinct in the back of his mind long ago he always thought it was convenient that Damien lost his father and mother because he inherited a 10 million-dollar life insurance policy. Now he knows why. He hails a cab and gets in giving the driver the address for his publishing company in Midtown. Twenty-seven minutes later the cab pulls up to the building he will spend the next two hours at. The fare for the trip was and eighteen dollars and Rick gives the cabbie two twenties and gets out of the car. He inhaled deeply clearing his head and then enters the lobby of his publisher.
Xx
"Rick you've got to understand that we completely sold out of the first printing which was only a mere 1,000 books. The second printing will print somewhere in the neighborhood of about 7500 books. If those sell out in a matter of weeks as I predict they will, I'm going to order a third printing of 10,000 more books."
"Wow. I never thought that this book would take off the way it has. I do have an idea for the second book but let's finish eating first and then we'll talk about it. Rick and John sit across from each other eating spaghetti meatballs above all things from Mama Leone's. Soon their lunch is finished and they start talking about ideas for the second book until Rick interrupts him.
"John the second book is complete and you need to read the manuscript."
"It is?" He looks dumbfounded.
"John the manuscript is in my safe in my apartment. I'll messenger it over to you tomorrow but instead of you choosing the amount of the first run I would like to ask you to initially print 10,000 books right from the start. I know it's odd for an author to do that but I have a feeling about this book and it will sell better than the first one.
John looked at Rick and thought about his last request. Many times he gave writers a small amount of leeway with their content, but Rick had a contract for one book and that was satisfied. Knowing that this book could make him a lot of money he agrees to his request.
"Rick I will agree to your request on one condition. The condition is that if the second book sells as well as the first, the second printing will be fifty thousand books. And, and if there is a call for a third printing we will talk again but the way the numbers are climbing for this book I would say that we are talking about a hundred thousand copies.
All Rick can do is say "WOW"!
A/N: Due to FF issues stopping me from posting (which were just fixed) I was not able to post at my usual time. Please accept my apologies.