CH46
Kate was downstairs in a flash. "Hey Lanie."
"Katherine Beckett, who do you know? I thought that guy was going to hit me with him when he dropped him off." Lanie tells her.
"Never mind him. How's our guy here?" Kate is dying for Lanie to tell her something, anything.
"I just got him girlfriend, give me a chance." Lanie chastises her.
"Sorry Lanie. I just want to know what's so special about this guy." Kate tells her.
"Come back tomorrow and I'll tell you everything I know." Lanie tells her.
"I'll be down here before I go home tonight, how's that?" Kate was in a hurry.
"Well I should know something by then." Lanie tells her.
"Thanks Lanie, I'll see you later."
Kate went back to her desk and did what she could on the case with that kid and the 'BOO' email. Problem was he was too badly damaged to get any prints off of him. And his teeth looked like they had been ground down to stubs. So dental matching was out. Maybe they would get something off his DNA in a few days.
He really was shredded to pieces. Even some of his internal organs were missing.
Kate mostly stared at her phone on her desk willing it to ring.
Kate skipped lunch. She was just too wound up to go out and eat.
Finally she grabbed her phone on the first ring. "Beckett. … I'll be right down." And Kate ran for the stairs.
"What have you got Lanie?" The second she is thru the door.
"I haven't got a clue girl. Come on, let me show you something." And Lanie takes her over to a microscope and puts a slide under it. "Here take a look at this."
Kate looks. "Ok what am I seeing?" She was a cop, not an ME.
"That is my blood. I poked myself so I could get a fresh sample." Lanie moves in and removes the slide and replaces it with another one.
"Now look at this one." Lanie tells her.
Kate takes a look. "What the hell are those things?" Kate asks while trying to make it look closer still.
"I have no idea. I've never seen anything like it in my life. … And come look at this." Lanie walks over to Frankie and lifts up one of his hands. "You see these."
"Wow, are those his nails? …. I haven't seen anything like those except in some cheap Sc-fi vampire movie." Kate comments.
"And their strong too. I tried cutting off a sample but I couldn't make a dent. So I ground one of them down. The powder is over there, it's still working on it." Lanie points to a machine.
Kate reaches out to take the hand and gets too close to one of the nails. "OWE!" As Kate takes her hurt finger and puts it in her mouth. She can taste blood. Pulling it back out, she is bleeding a little.
"Oh yea, did I mention they are sharp too?" Lanie mentions a little late.
"No, you didn't." Kate tells her and puts her finger back in her mouth.
Lanie hands her a cloth. "Here use this." And Kate takes her finger out and applies pressure.
"Oh and there's one more thing so far." Lanie goes moves to draw the big black coat that he is still wearing open to expose his torso.
"Come over and take a look at this." Lanie tells her.
Kate steps over and starts looking. He had a shirt on so she didn't see skin., but since his hand was a dark black she assumed his torso would be also.
"What am I looking for?" Kate asks.
"Well you said you emptied your weapon into him, right?" Lanie questions.
"Yea the uniform and I emptied two whole magazines each into him." Kate confirms.
"Right! See any holes?" Lanie asks her.
Kate's mouth falls open and her eyes bug out. "That's not possible. He should look like Swiss cheese. We put 48 rounds combined into him. Not to mention the clip Ryan emptied into his head."
"Yea about that." Lanie tells her.
"NO! Can't be? I watched Ryan empty his weapon into this guy's head. Every single round went in his head."
"I can't find a single hole in him. And the x-rays over there don't show any bullets in him anywhere." Lanie points to the x-rays on the light wall.
Kate walks over still holding her finger to look at the x-rays and Lanie goes with her. Kate looks at all the x-rays. "I'm telling you Lanie. This guy should have 60 plus holes in him."
"I believe you girlfriend, but right now he doesn't have a one." Lanie tells her.
Kate's mouth is still hanging open while she looks between the x-rays and Lanie.
"DNA?" Kate asks.
"I've got samples off him to match to what I found on the sword. We should know in a few days." Lanie tells her.
"Keep at it Lanie, I'll be at my desk." And Kate turns to leave.
"Kate! …. Can you send someone down here. This guy gives me the creeps." Lanie is forced to tell her.
Kate had never known Lanie to be scared of anything. "Sure I'll get a uniform down here."
"Thanks Kate." Not that Lanie felt any better.
Kate had been at her desk for a couple of hours when all hell broke loose. She could hear gun fire and a lot of it. But it was muffled somehow.
Roy was out of his office in a second. "What the hell is going on?"
"There's gun fire downstairs." Someone near the stairs responds.
Roy goes back into his office and comes back out with his weapon. "Most of you take the back stairs. Beckett, you're with me." As Roy jogs for the front stairs.
Making it to the first floor they find chaos. There were three men down, one looked to be almost ripped apart. "What happened?" Roy asks.
"We heard gun fire downstairs. Then this big black guy dressed all in black comes bursting up the stairs. He did this and went out the front door. We emptied our weapons into him and he didn't even slow down.
Johnson, Rice, Stevens and Hall went after him. Hall even has a shot gun."
"You two are with me." And Roy jogs out the front door.
"LANIE?" Kate tells herself and races down the stairs.
Kate bursts thru the doors and finds the uniform ripped into three separate pieces. There were shell casings all over. Then she saw Lanie on the floor and there was blood all around her.
"LANIE!" Kate dropped her weapon on the ground next to her and checked for a pulse. She found one but it was weak.
"Lanie, don't do this to me." Kate started searching her for wounds. Finding a big one she got up and started grabbing wrapping and cloth and anything else she could find. Then started applying pressure.
Switching to one hand she pulled out her cell phone and called for an ambulance.
The ambulance ME tech showed up and started to work on her. They wouldn't let Kate go with her. She was already going to have to share an ambulance as it was.
Johnson, Rice, Stevens and Hall were all found by Roy and the two that went with him. They had all been ripped almost limb from limb. There were shell casings and shot gun shells everywhere.
Roy was on his cell phone in an instant calling in reinforcements and getting the word out. He wanted this guy and he wanted him bad.
After giving her statement about everything she knew, Kate went home.
"Hi Kate." Rick was happy to see her when she came in thru the door. Then suddenly not quite so happy when he sees the look on her face.
He goes over and takes hold of her and guides to someplace and dumps stuff on the floor so she can sit. Then rushes into the kitchen and comes back with a plastic cup and a bottle.
Pouring some into the cup he hands it to her. "Here drink this."
After Kate drinks it all down. "I think I'm in trouble Castle." Kate stares at him blankly.
And Kate begins her tale of what happened at the precinct today.
"It's not your fault Kate. The guy was dead. You said so yourself. You put 60 plus rounds into him." Rick tells her.
Then Kate tells him what Lanie found and what happened to Lanie. "Pumpkin!" Rick yells out. "Come on we have to go!" Rick yells out.
"Where are we going Castle?" Kate asks still a little in shock.
"To the hospital to check on Lanie." Rick tells her and lifts her up.
Alexis shows up. "What are we doing dad?"
"We're going to the hospital. One of Kate's friends was hurt today and we're going to go check on her."
Alexis sat with Kate in the back seat on the ride to the hospital.
Lanie it turned out had a very deep and long cut all the way down to the bone. There was some minor muscle damage. They had repaired the damage, sewn her closed and she was resting comfortably. She would need a little physical therapy but should be fine.
It was late by the time they all made it back to the apartment.
Closing on the new house was in 45 daysand Rick and Kate had already started on packing as soon as the apartment had been sold.
They had also informed Martha who had yet to make up her mind. Move with them or stay in her apartment.
Kate had finally had enough and sat down with Martha. "Martha we are not leaving you out here all alone while we move into a great big house that has more than enough room for you." Kate tells her.
"Katherine dear, it's your house. Yours and your family. You're starting a life together. You don't need me in the way to mess it all up."
Kate moves forward enough to take her hands in hers. "Martha you will not be messing anything up. You can take a taxi to get around out there almost as easily as you do here. And I'm not going to have Alexis sulking around the house for weeks because you didn't move with us.
So you are moving Martha. Rick will have movers come and pack everything and you are moving with us." Kate puts her foot down.
"Katherine dear, …" But is interrupted by Kate.
"You're moving Martha, or you can explain it to your crying granddaughter who loves you. And if you think you are staying you're going to find this place empty of everything when you open that door." Kate tells her, pointing to the front door of her apartment.
Kate gets up and hugs Martha. "You're coming with us Martha, and that's final." Kate whispers into her ear.
Martha hugs her back with tears in her eyes. "Thank you dear. I'm sure your mother is proud of you."
"I know she is Martha, I know she is." And this time Kate really does know.
Kate was just getting off the elevator the next morning to go into work and face the wrath of the FBI. Who probably wanted her head by now and was headed for her car when she saw a crying little girl standing next to it.
Kate walks up to her. "What are you doing down her honey? Where are your parents?" Kate kneels down to talk to her.
"I'm sorry." The girl tells her.
"Sorry about what honey?" Kate is confused.
"I'm sorry I didn't help your mother."
"My mother? How could you have helped my mother?" Kate is really confused now.
"I watched your mom go down that street. Then I saw a man go down it right behind her. The man came back out but your mother never did. Then my daddy and I left. I'm sorry." The little girl looks so sad.
Kate is shocked. Someone saw her mother get killed. How does she know who Kate is?
"Do you know who the man in the street was?" Kate asks.
The little girl turns her head behind her then back to Kate and shakes her head.
"What's your daddy's name honey?" Kate searches for a clue.
"Wichita." The little girl tells her. Then turns her head to look behind her. "I have to go now. I'm sorry." She looked so sad, and the little girl starts to walk away.
"Wait where are you going?" Kate calls out and gets up to go with her. But watches as the little girl slowly fades away.
"She was dead. Just like mom and that lady on the road. But she looked so real. How am I ever going to tell the difference?
Jill, did you see her?"
"Yes Kate I did." Jill responds.
"Do you know who she was?"
"Based on her answer to your question about her father, I'd say her last name was Wichita."
Kate had a lead and raced up to her desk. After turning her computer back on she looked up how many Wichita's there are.
Getting her answer. "Oh great. At least it's not Smith." Kate did her best to narrow it down. But 2 hours later she was not getting much closer.
"I need a tech." Kate tells herself.
"Beckett." Kate answers her cell phone.
"I'm still at work. …. No, the FBI has not skinned me yet. … I just need to find someone to help me with something first."
"I love you too." And Kate hangs up and heads out looking for a tech.
"I need a search of this name. In the NYC area on this date. With a little girl who is dead now. Somewhere around 8 years old." Kate tells her.