The alarm sounds and Kate hits the snooze button but with no result. That's when she realizes it's not the alarm going off but her cell phone ringing. She makes a quick grab for the phone, ripping it from the charging cord and as she does, the wire falls to the floor.
"Beckett," she answers.
"Detective, this is Dispatch. We've got a body for you."
"Okay, just text me the address and I'll be there in twenty minutes."
She ends the call; Dispatch sends a text that she hears pinging on her phone two minutes later. She looks over at the clock: 4:23 in the morning. She drags herself out of bed and jumps in the shower quickly to rid herself of the lingering effects of sleep. In less than ten minutes, she's dressed and out the door; pulling out her phone to read the text that Dispatch sent, she notices that the crime scene is not far from Castle's loft, so she shoots him a quick text telling him they have a body. She's not surprised that she doesn't get a response. It's early, after all.
She pulls up to the crime scene, which is already roped off with yellow caution tape. She walks toward the M.E.'s van and sees that Lanie is already here processing the body.
When Lanie hears the distinct sound of Kate's heels on the cobblestone alleyway she looks up.
"No way, girl. Don't tell me you got the shitty end of the stick on this one?"
"Yeah, Lanie it looks like I drew the short straw on this one. Karpowski's team is still working on that double murder. The one that they haven't gotten anywhere with yet. So, it's just me and the boys on this one."
"Speaking of the boys, where are they?"
"Last night was Madden night at Javi's place. And you know they consumed at least a case of beer between the two of them."
"Yeah, I can never understand why they would intentionally want to do something like that," Lanie sniffs. "It's only a video game for God's sake. You'd think their lives revolved around it!"
"So what do we have here?" Kate asked.
"Hard to say. His body was found behind the dumpster in the fetal position. We just pulled him out from behind it about 15 minutes ago after CSU took pictures and collected some evidence. But what I can tell you is that whoever this is, he took a hell of a beating. His chest was practically crushed by something. And I'm not too sure of what it was. But it's his face that really makes me nauseous. It looks like someone put him through a meat grinder - I've been dealing with dead bodies for over ten years now and this disturbs even me. Whoever killed this man did it with his fists and that pipe leaning up against the wall. I'm guessing that's the murder weapon, but I can't be sure until CSU runs further tests on it. I hope that you haven't eaten anything yet.
Kate looked over to where the pipe was leaning against the wall, already in an evidence bag. She knew that Lanie wouldn't move it from where it was until she saw it. She walked over and picked up the bag and looked at the pipe, noting the amount of blood all over it.
"Lanie, any I.D. on the body?"
"I was just getting to that. Just let me finish taking these notes and you can help me roll him over to see if he has a wallet in his back pocket."
Kate nodded in agreement and Lanie finished up her notes. Taking hold of the man's shoulder and hip, Lanie rolled him towards herself. Kate fished around his back pocket and pulled out a black leather wallet. Lanie, who already had the body bag in place, rolled him onto it and got ready to transport his body back to the morgue.
She stood up and looked at Kate as she was going through the man's wallet trying to find his I.D. What Lanie saw next was something she never expected to see. Kate's body started to shake. She'd never done this at a crime scene before and Lanie couldn't imagine why she was doing it now, so she took Kate's hand and gently turned her towards herself. That's when she saw the driver's license Kate held in her hand.
Lanie was looking at a picture of Dr. Joshua Davidson.
"Kate?"
"Lanie?"
The ME really didn't know what to say. She'd only been with the body for 45 minutes, and as she looked at him again, the height and weight looked like it could be him, but she wasn't a hundred percent sure - and she was still at a loss as to what to tell her best friend.
"Kate, I don't know what to say. It could be him but I'm not sure. Do you remember what he was wearing last night when he came to see you at the 12th?"
"There was just so much going on. Fallon left us with the paperwork on our end, Rick had just left, and Josh just showed up out of the blue. We had a disagreement and before I knew it he left. So, I never really got a good look at what he was wearing. Not that I'd notice, anyway."
Kate turned away from the body, not wanting to know if it was really him or not. Just then Esposito and Ryan showed up.
"What do we have, boss?" Esposito asked.
"Javi, Kevin - I'm not sure what we have yet. The body over there could be my boyfriend. And then again, maybe not. Identification will be tough because he's got no face left. Literally. Lanie is going to have to use dental records and his DNA on file with the hospital in order to make a positive I.D."
"Beckett, wasn't he supposed to have dinner with you last night after you finished the paperwork for the feds? And if I'm not mistaken he's right behind a seedy bar. Not to say that he would do something like cheating to you, but why was he down here in the first place?" Javi asked.
"I don't know. But what I do know is that whoever that is over there died a very horrible death. And it's our job to find out who killed him."
Lanie zipped up the body bag and two of the techs lifted the body and placed it on the gurney. They brought it back to the ME's van and Lanie said to Kate, "I'll have a solid identification for you in less than 2 hours. Then you can make the call to inform next of kin."
"Thanks, Lanie," Kate replies.
"So Beckett, what do you want us to do now?" Ryan inquires.
"For any good it will do Kevin I need you to knock on doors in the surrounding area but only go a block in any direction. Whoever you find that far away probably wouldn't have heard what happened."
"Javi, I need you to run point on that bar. I know it's not open now, but when it does open I need you here first thing. Interview as many witnesses as you can; maybe we can get a lead on what happened here."
"Hey Beckett, where's your shadow?" Ryan asked.
"Not sure. I sent him a text earlier but didn't get a response back."
"Oh, okay." Kevin shrugged as he turned to canvas.
Kate headed out of the alley and watched as the coroner's van drove away, possibly carrying her boyfriend.
Xx
By about 8:00 am she still hadn't heard from Castle; she wondered if he was still mad at her from Josh showing up last night. She thought about it and shook it off, knowing that he was a forgiving man. Then her desk phone rang.
"Beckett."
"Kate, I need you to come down to the morgue."
"Okay, Lanie. Let me get the boys and we'll be there in…..."
"No, Kate. Only you." Lanie insisted. Then the line went dead.
Kate didn't know what to think. Lanie always wanted to share the results with her and the boys. Now she was worried. What did she find? Was it really Josh? If it was Josh, had he been with another woman and Lanie didn't want the boys to know? God, she really needed to get there. But first, she needed to tell Kevin and Javi.
"Kevin, I'm heading down to the morgue. Take Javi and see if the day crew for that bar are in it yet. Maybe we'll get lucky."
"Okay, Beckett. We're about to head out. But the Captain wants an update. Do you want Espo to give it to him or would you like to do it?"
Kate glanced at the clock on the wall and made the decision to have Espo update the Captain while she went to the morgue.
"Yeah Kev, have him do it. I'll meet you back here when you finish with the canvas."
"Okay, see you when we get back."
Kate made her way straight to the elevator and down to the basement where Lanie waited for her. She was still deep in thought about why Lanie wanted her alone. She walked out of the elevator and didn't see her best friend anywhere. Walking over to the exam table where the body was, Kate looked him over. Her friend did a lot to get the deceased looking better than he was when she first saw him. But she still couldn't tell if it was Josh or not.
"And you say it's creepy when Castle stares at you?"
"Lanie! You scared the shit out of me. Why the secrecy about me coming without the boys?"
"Well, there are some things that I still need to hold over Javi. That, and you are going to need to face some hard facts."
Lanie walked up to the body that was lying naked on the slab and Kate could have smacked herself in the head. She'd only just noticed it. On Josh's inner thigh, close to his groin, he had a tattoo that said in script if you can dream it, you can do it. When Kate looked up at Lanie she knew that it was Josh by the nod she gave.
"He died at the hands of a madman. Kate, whoever did this was ruthless. They pummeled his head and left it looking like chopped meat. Hell, his eye sockets were fractured so badly that they could not even hold his eyes in his head. That's some kind of brutality."
"So a victimized woman would be out of the question then?" Kate asked.
"Yeah. No question about that. But that's not why I called you down here." Lanie took the evidence bag and handed it to Kate.
"Look at the flecks of nail polish in the bag."
"Okay, what is that, fire engine red?" Kate guessed, looking at the small pieces of nail polish.
"No. Scarlet red. And it's pricey too. It's Tom Ford's brand. A .31-ounce bottle of his stuff goes for $37.00."
"Lanie, what are you saying?"
"Kate, I need to ask, were you with him at all last night?"
"No. I went to his place even though it was later than I promised but he wasn't home."
"So that's not your shade of nail polish?" Lanie asked.
"No," Kate scoffed. "I would never spend $37.00 on a bottle of nail polish."
"Kate, there's more. Come over here and take a whiff of his chest. Tell me what you smell."
She does and the odor is familiar to her but she can't quite place it.
"What is that, Giorgio Armani?" Kate asks.
"No, Kate, that's Chanel Coco Mademoiselle. It retails for $4,600 for a 7.6 oz bottle."
"Lanie, there's no way he was stepping out on me. I'd know if he was."
"Would you, Kate?"
"I'm sure of it." Kate turned to leave, thinking that her friend made her point and was done.
"Hold up a second there, detective," Lanie said, hating to burst her bubble right now.
"What is it, Lanie?" Kate turned towards her, and Lanie could see the tears that were about to break free.
"I have solid physical evidence that Josh was attacked and killed by someone we both know."
"Who, Lanie?"
A/N: In the first chapter I thanked the writers who helped me get this story off the ground. This was all well and good because they did help me immensely. But there was one very important person who I did not thank because without him this story would never have been written to start with. Islandjamie is the person who deserves credit for this story. He gave me the prompt to write this.
Thank you, Jim.
P2P