I can't quite believe how many of you are following this! Thank you all so much.

Chapter 3

After they'd eaten, Kate and RJ returned to the couch to continue the interview.

"So after your graduation you went through the Police Academy, what happened after that? How did your career with NYPD progress?"

After the academy I was assigned to the 12th Precinct. I guess it's quite unusual but I've actually spent my whole career working out of that building. I was partnered with my training officer, Mike Royce. He was great. I know it's not uncommon for rookies to have problems with their training officers but Royce and I seemed to hit it off right away. At the academy all they really taught us was how to do the paperwork, dot the i's and cross the t's but Mike Royce taught me how to be a cop. He was the only one I trusted enough at that time to tell about my mom; he was dry land to the drowning woman I was right then; he gave me the strength I needed to deal with the job. At first I was in awe of him and then later I thought I was in love with him but in truth it was just youthful infatuation. In the end, I moved up and he retired after he'd served his twenty.

We lost contact but years later we met up again. He was working as a bounty hunter by then and the guy he was after just happened to be a person of interest in a case I was working. We both caught him at the same time but later in that case he betrayed me. It turned out he was just after the buried treasure. Yeah, we were on a treasure hunt during that case – found it in the end, too. But I had to arrest Royce and because of that incident he lost his licence. He made a fresh start out in LA but ended up dead in an alley back in New York. That was one of the few times I've really gone against orders (okay so that's probably a lie if I think about it, I guess I've broken the rules quite a lot over the years) and I'm not quite sure how many times I did it to find Royce's killer but I caught the guy out in LA which was not exactly within my jurisdiction, and even managed not to put a bullet in his brain, although the temptation was certainly there.

Royce had a letter on him when he died, a letter addressed to me. In it he asked for my forgiveness and I gave it to him. I know he was already dead but I forgave him; I think my actions at the time proved that.

"Apart from Mike Royce was there anyone else who helped you become the cop we all know today?"

Oh yes. Captain Roy Montgomery. He was my mentor, no doubt about that. He helped me so much early in my career; put me onto the path that I've tried to follow to this day. Yet the first time we met, well let's just say, if he'd wanted to, he could have ended my career before I'd really even got going! I was still in uniform but I spent as much time as I could down in records pouring over the files on my mom's case, trying to find that one thing, one clue that everyone else had missed. Stupid, I know. The fact was, I wasn't even authorised to be down there and one day Roy Montgomery caught me. He could have given me a formal reprimand there and then but he didn't. He asked me what I was doing and after I'd told him he simply accepted it and walked away. I think from that moment on he kept an eye out for me and did all he could to help my career along.

It was his suggestion that I tried for my detective's shield even though I was really far too young and thanks to his guidance that I actually managed to get it. I believe I became the youngest woman to earn that gold shield at the time although I didn't find that fact out until years later. In the end, I owed him my life because he was killed protecting me. Almost everything I have today is in no small part due to Roy Montgomery.

Kate sighed and wiped away a tear that had escaped down her cheek. It had been a very long time since Roy Montgomery had died but even after all these years, she had no intention of revealing the truth behind his death. She would take that truth to her grave as would the only other three people who knew the full story, her husband and her two best friends and colleagues, Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito.

"You okay, mom?" RJ asked, well aware of how reliving this part of her story would always cause great sorrow. He reached out and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. As Kate took his hand in hers she quietly replied,

"Yeah, I'm fine."

She then paused for a moment and took a deep breath as she prepared herself mentally for what she was about to say,

"I think we should cover your Grandma Johanna's story before we go any further."

RJ was taken aback by her statement. He knew that part of his mother's life would have to be covered at some point but had always anticipated that he would have to gradually build up to it and would even have to cajole the information out of her. To find her willing to approach the subject so early was a surprise to say the least. When he'd spoken to his dad about this idea, he'd asked him how best to go about the subject of Johanna Beckett and his advice had been to play it by ear and allow Kate to lead the conversation. It would appear that the time was now right but he needed to be certain,

"Are you sure, mom? We can do it later if you'd prefer."

"No, we'll do it now because otherwise I'll be forever tiptoeing around the subject. I've already done that a couple of times. I've mentioned it without detail or context. It's so much a part of my story that I can't just ignore it. If we get the whole thing out there now everything else will fall into place that much easier. Let's just do it, okay?"

RJ closed his eyes for a moment and prepared himself for the part of the interview that he'd always known would be the most difficult.

"You mentioned your mother's case, could you tell me more about that and how it has impacted upon your life?"