She thought about him every once and a while. But she tried to keep from dwelling on what he was doing every second of her day. The only reason she can do this is that she did something she shouldn't have. They had no workable case at the moment so she had some spare time to run his name through the SCIC/NCIC database. When the system pinged with the results she was a little happy with what she read about him. He was never arrested in the State of New York or with any other law enforcement agency in the nation.
Her next search is for his employment history, DMV records, phone numbers, past addresses, and if he had an email address. Getting the results of the name search she found out he had a very colorful history. She starts with his employment record first.
When he was eighteen and the carnival was in Tallahassee, Florida he decided to leave and strike out on his own. He went West at first and then she sees in his employment history that he ended up near Mobile, Alabama for a brief time. He worked in a seafood restaurant called J&D Seafood as a dishwasher. He worked there for about nine months and then picked up and moved West again.
His next stop was on the outskirts of Houston, Texas. It was here where he had spent the most time. He found a job at Morton's The Steakhouse. She's putting together a theme here and it seems that he likes to prepare and work in the food industry. He spends just under two years in Houston and in that time he had gone to two culinary classes to hone his knowledge of cooking. She reads on further and there is a commendation from one of the patrons about his bravery and quick thinking. It seems that he was bussing a table and a man in the booth across from the table he was bussing started choking on his food. His wife started yelling out for help because her husband couldn't breathe. Rick has seen the threat long before it really happened and had already moved into position just as the woman was beginning to scream. He pulled the man out of the booth raised him to a standing position and started performing the Heimlich maneuver. Within fifteen seconds of Ricks's assistance, the man spat out a large chunk of meat that was clogging his airway. After Rick set the man back down on the seat of the booth he nonchalantly went back to pick up the tray of dirty dishes and head back into the kitchen as if nothing had ever happened.
The head chef whose name was Carlos was in charge of the entire kitchen as well as cooking and preparing all meals going out the door. When he heard the commotion out in the dining room he immediately sprang to the door to see what the commotion was. As he peered through the circular window to the dining room he notices Rick performing the Heimlich on one of the patrons. He is proud of him for identifying something that could potentially take someone's life and doing something about it when everyone else just sat there gawking at the man. He sees this man going places and he will make note of it.
Carlos watches Rick as he walks through the doorway and to the tub sink to drop off the dishes to rinse off before he puts them in the dishwasher. He walks up behind Rick practically startling him while he was doing his job.
"Rick, I have a proposition for you. From time to time we are asked to give our suggestions to management about who would be one to benefit the most from additional schooling. I think that you could be that person. What I am suggesting is that you take two courses to give yourself a head start on a cooking career. Granted the first course deals with being a short-order cook which would help out immensely in the kitchen no matter where you go and the second course would be more of a finishing course. What I mean is the second course would give you an edge on your culinary skills. Mostly with food presentation and delivery. Would you be interested?" Carlos asked.
Rick had never been given anything in his life other than this gift that he possesses so he agreed wholeheartedly.
"Yes, I would like to take you up on this offer Chef." He replied.
"Good, then it's settled. The class starts in two weeks and runs for about a month and a half. Once you've completed that we will set you up in the kitchen to take care of the short orders that come in working side-by-side with me to give you additional support."
"So I would still have to come to work in the evening and then take classes in the morning before the restaurant opens?"
"Yes, that would be the schedule. If you attain and maintain a grade of B or better in both classes the owners will pay for your schooling 100%."
Rick thought about what would happen if he becomes a chef. A short-order chef. It would be a bump up and pay better than what he was doing now but he wasn't sure how long he was going to want to stay in Houston before he moved on. His goal was to see as much of the country he could before he had to find a solid source of employment. He's seen to what Chef Carlos needed for the night and since his shift was just about over Carlos told him he could go home early because of his extraordinary life-saving skills.
Xx
His days were filled with classes in the morning usually from 7 a.m. until noon and then he had a short break until we had to be to work at 2:30. It was a hectic schedule but he was able to pull it off and he ended up being a star student. Chef Carlos was so proud of him and until his next class, he was side-by-side showing him the ropes of how to become a better chef.
His next class was a finishing class. It gave him an edge on the dishes he was creating but for a short-order cook it was mostly just getting the order correct, making the customer happy, and getting them their food out hot and quickly. After his three-week course, he ended up with the B-. The owners were true to their word and paid for all his schooling.
Xx
Kate was about to read what happened next in his life when Esposito came in with Ryan and sat at their desks. Espo turns to face her and says this,
"Yo Beckett, why are you still here?"
"What are you talking about Espo? I work here."
"That's not what I mean. Look at the time. You've been sitting here since we've been down at the motor pool waiting for our unit to be fixed. We left you in the same position you're in now. Only now it's 5:45 at night."
Kate never knew that time could fly by so quickly. She looks at her watch quickly and realizes that she has been here for the past four and a half hours reading about Rick's life. She looks back at her computer and saves what she has read so far planning on coming back to it tomorrow.
"I'm guessing that your car is back in service now?"
"Yeah, we're good to go. They did their basic maintenance and it's downstairs."
"Okay good. Call it a night and I'll see you guys in the morning."
Kate shuts down her computer, locks up her desk, grabs her purse, and heads to the elevator. Within fifteen seconds she's on the elevator heading down to the lobby.
Ryan and Esposito just look at each other wondering what the hell happened. She didn't even say goodnight to them. She only told them that it was okay for them to leave.
"Bro, what was that all about?" Esposito asks Ryan.
"I don't know. It can't be anything that we're working on because we don't currently have a case. I don't know her password so I can't get into her computer."
"I know it," Espo admits.
"Do you really want to do something like that? Go into her computer, read what she was reading, and face her wrath tomorrow? Because you know she'll know that you were looking at what she was reading before she left."
"Yeah, I can see your point. So what do you say we go down to McCluskey's and grab a beer together?"
"I'm in as long as you're buying," Ryan tells him.
"Yeah, I'll buy…. the first round."
The boys shut down their computers and leave for McCluskey's which is about two blocks away. Esposito thinks that something is going on with Beckett but on the other hand he doesn't want to do anything that'll be pissing her off. They're both at odds with each other but at least they're still talking.
TBC
A/N: This chapter and Thursday's chapter will be posted about 12 hours earlier than the schedule says. I will be traveling to Norfolk Va. to help my son the Navy pilot. Thanks!