After the Vows

Jim Beckett's Journal

Chapter 2

Dear Johanna,

To make up for the size of the wedding, the kids did throw their party. It was at the Old Haunt, the bar Rick owns. Being in bars continues to be difficult for me, but the kids are forever cognizant of my situation. At the wedding there was sparkling cider so that I could participate in the toast and there was a whole raft of non-alcoholic selections at the party, so I didn't really have to bump up too hard against temptation.

They made the whole affair like a wedding reception. Lanie got to wear her maid of honor dress again and she looked stunning. Esposito couldn't keep his eyes off her. Something has got to happen with that relationship soon. Even an old fogy like me couldn't miss the heat building between those two.

Kevin and Jenny Ryan came. They brought their daughter, Sarah Grace. She is walking now, or more accurately running. She reminded me of Katie. She kept both of them busy. From the conversation I heard, the Ryans are having a hard time of it financially. Jenny stopped working to take care of Sarah Grace, so Kevin has been moonlighting as a bouncer in a male stripper bar. He seems reluctant to talk about it but did tell some stories to Esposito and after a few beers, Esposito started passing them on. I heard one.

A group of more mature ladies reserved some tables in the bar. They were celebrating the 40th anniversary of something. Ryan never did hear what. I guess the ladies didn't get out much and they were very eager to go full out. They had an endless supply of dollar bills and were enjoying stuffing them wherever they could on the dancers. That was fine until there was some kind of group number involving whipped cream. They decided they wanted to lick it off the dancers and the whole group stormed the stage. Ryan was almost run over and some of the dancers had to hide in their dressing rooms. Eventually the ladies were calmed down and some of them were escorted out but Ryan ended up covered in glitter and whipped cream. Esposito thought the whole thing was hilarious, but I got the impression that Ryan didn't.

I truly feel sorry for Ryan. He has taken a lot on his shoulders. I'm giving some thought to how he might be employed as an investigator for my new projects. So far, the work has been performed by volunteers, but there is some grant money that I've applied for. If I can get it, I may be able to bring Ryan on board for something that will both be easier for him and make better use of his talents.

Getting back to happier thoughts about the party, our daughter was radiant. She wore the wedding pants she wore at the wedding and looked every bit as beautiful. She and Rick were never far from each other during the entire evening and spent most of the time actually holding on to each other. They were both acting as if the whole thing had been a dream and if they let go of each other they'd wake up. I actually checked to make sure the marriage license was signed off properly after the wedding. They are solidly married in every way.

Esposito fancies himself a singer, I can't say that he's really to my taste, but I suppose he's good. There was a band called Holy Shemp. Katie, Rick, Ryan and Esposito solved the murder of one of their members, so they all were acquainted. Esposito took the microphone and sang with them for a while. Lanie was very impressed but I got the idea Rick wasn't. It could just have been that Rick was so involved with Katie that he wouldn't have been impressed with anything.

As much of the 12th precinct as could escape duty was there, including Captain Gates and her husband. I gather that Captain Gates has never been greatly fond of Rick. She prefers that police work be done by police and there was some kind of incident with a collectible that Rick broke. She is, however, quite fond of Katie, and seemed to be very happy for her despite Katie's choice of husband. Gates and her husband were dancing up a storm and enjoying themselves immensely.

You know me, I'm more slow dance than rock and roll. Katie felt that she should have a dance with her dad and Holy Shemp did the best they could to accommodate us. They have a guitar player named Buck who has some kind of a back story I wasn't told. For whatever reason, he is particularly grateful to the 12th and he played a waltz on his guitar. I think he did it very well. One of the few times during the evening when Katie let go of Rick was when she was dancing with me. I confess I got a little teary eyed. So did Katie. In fact, Lanie whisked her off afterward to fix her makeup.

Of course the highlight of the evening was Katie's dance with Rick. They danced to the song Rick played on his cell phone at the wedding, In My Veins, but this time they had a recording of it, piped through Holy Shemp's speakers. I don't think that made it any better or more romantic than it was at the wedding. I can't imagine anything more beautiful than Katie and Rick dancing in the glow of that amazing sunset, but the crowd at the party loved it.

Whatever feelings may have been hurt by the improvised nature of the ceremony seem to have been soothed by the party. I doubt that Katie and Rick have lost any friends, certainly none worth having.

Martha was only able to drop in for a few moments. She got the part she was after and is already hard at work doing preparations for it. I can't say that I understand all that entails, but in addition to learning her lines she is creating some sort of back story that enables her to get more deeply into her character, whatever that means. She also seems to have increased the number of acting exercises she is doing. I don't know what those are, but I can say that whenever Martha speaks in a room, she is heard.

I've made a little more progress on my project with Alexis. We huddled for a while in a corner at the Old Haunt to put together a strategy for one of your old cases, a man named Joe Pulgatti. He claims that the bullet he's supposed to have fired came from a police gun. The bullet was recovered after the shooting, but we can't find any test data on it. We can't find the bullet either. It disappeared from evidence. A strange thing is that when Alexis brought up the case with Rick, he asked her to leave it alone. I don't know what that's all about. I'll have to talk to Katie about it. I certainly didn't want to ruin her evening by bringing up a case at the party.

It is my great joy, and I hope somehow yours, to see our little girl so happy.

Forever love,

JB