The Making of Detective Beckett

Sequel to He Said Start at the Beginning. Kate is continuing to grow and learn how not to a self-centered self-absorbed shell when a case brings her memories of just how her life fell apart. Her mother's murder was only the tip of the iceberg…

First Crime Scene 9pm Friday Night

Rick had described Nikki as thinking about the night of her mother's death every time she stepped into a crime scene. How was he to know how accurate that was? Kate shook the thought from her head as she brushed aside the crime scene tape.

"Espo what do you have for me tonight?" Beckett crossed the threshold into the foyer of the brownstone.

"Lanie is still upstairs with the bodies. White male 42, John Sherman, widower, 2nd victim is a yet to be identified white female mid to late-30s. When you go upstairs, the master bedroom is the one all the way in the back. No one else is here. There is a bedroom for a teenage girl, but there is no sign of her. I suspect she isn't home tonight."

Beckett nodded while looking at the photographs on the wall. There were several family portraits of a dark haired woman and a balding man with a dark haired girl of varying ages. The girl's age changed from 3 to about 16 if her guess was accurate. There were no portraits of all of them after that. There was one photograph of the girl, looking much older, reading a book under a tree. She could easily have been 18 or 19.

Ryan stuck his head in the front door, "Espo we better get started or it is going to be late enough these people won't be willing to open their doors to answer questions."

"Ryan and I are going to start interviewing the neighbors to get a feel for what happened in this house."

"Sounds good. I am heading up." She started her ascent of the stairs without turning to look at her fellow detectives.

She brushed past the uniforms in the hallway and entered the master bedroom. Blood spatter covered the headboard mirror. The woman had taken the shotgun blast to the face. Her semi-clothed body had fallen across the bed at an angle.

On the far side of the bed, the man was lying face down in a velvety pool of blood. Lanie had lifted his head to the side and was examining his neck.

"Where's your lesser half?" the medical examiner asked as she continued her examination.

"Martha had roped him into being her date for a fundraiser for her acting school. She didn't think Chet would appreciate her having a date for such an event." She paused for a second. "On second thought, Martha thought that asking for money to back a school funded off her dead lover would sound inappropriate to those with checkbooks with a new lover on her arm." Beckett smiled knowing that Martha would still take a lover home, after the event appropriate wouldn't factor in.

Lanie shook her head and said, "If I have half her spunk at that age, I wouldn't care who thought I was inappropriate. Then again, I probably wouldn't have an acting school anyway. I bet you didn't just come in here to spend time with me did you?"

Kate rolled her eyes at her friend and waited on the M.E. to begin her initial report.

"There must have been two shooters as neither seems to have put up much of a fight. The woman was shot in the face from a distance of maybe two feet with a shotgun. Some of her clothes were removed post-mortem. If you notice, the blouse was cut off. The cuts to her abdomen didn't bleed enough for her to have been alive at the time. Mr. Sherman was killed at close range, but with a small caliber handgun. He must have been facing away from the shooter as the burn marks and stippling on his neck puts the gun almost behind his neck."

Beckett took a step back and surveyed the bedroom. The bed was made. The man still wore a dress shirt, vest and tie. If they were lovers, they were not caught in flagrante delicto.

"The woman must have had the shotgun put in front of her face, and then he turned to assist her and was shot from behind," Beckett thought out loud.

Lanie nodded, "I would be inclined to agree with you. I will know more once I get them back to the lab. I still haven't been able to locate the bullet that went through Mr. Sherman, but I am sure the CSIs will shortly."

Kate sighed. "I will have to make sure the lab techs have my photos and then you can move them. This is not the way I planned on spending my Friday night."

Lanie rolled her eyes. "Girl, there is something wrong with you. Castle is on a date with his mother and you're complaining because you have to be at a crime scene. What were your big plans? Sit at the loft and read or were you going to visit your apartment and pretend you live there?"

Kate groaned. "Lanie, I was all set for a quiet evening in my apartment. The bath water was hot. I had new candles ready for lighting, a good bottle of wine and the next 10 chapters of the Nikki Heat he is working on. So, yes, I had some big plans in my opinion."

"Where were you planning on sleeping?" Lanie looked at Kate like she had grown a 2nd and 3rd head.

Kate grinned at her. "Don't worry. I sleep where I belong which is not in my apartment."

"If you don't belong in it, why do you still have an apartment?" Lanie tossed out after her as she headed out the door.

Kate couldn't help but wonder that same thing. She heard angry shouts coming from the front doorway so she hurried down the hall to the staircase in time to see a girl in her early 20s trying to push in to the house.

"This is my house. I grew up here. I demand to see my dad!"

"Miss I need you to" Beckett was interrupted before she even finished her sentence. Beckett stepped off the last stair and looked the girl in the eyes and waited for the girl to let her speak.

"Are you in charge?" Beckett put her hand out and nodded. "Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD Homicide. And you are?"

"Ellie. Ellie Sherman. This is my dad's house. I am in the middle of moving out right now. Where's my dad? Wait. You said Homicide." The girl's eyes opened wide as her nervousness was overcome with an understanding of her situation. "This isn't another break in. You said homicide." Ellie's features became pale and she leaned against the wall as if her legs didn't want to hold her anymore.

"Ellie, we have a few questions that you have to answer before we can start answering any of yours." Beckett ushered the girl toward the sitting room on the right hand side of the entrance.

Beckett waited for the girl to get seated and then she sat next to her.

"Was your father expecting you this evening?"

"Yes, he was meeting me to help me finish packing my things. I have moved into an apartment with friends; and he wanted to be here while I got the rest of my stuff."

"Were you expecting anyone else to be here other than your father?"

"No, Dad said he was coming but he had a meeting with someone before I arrived. He said he would tell me more about it when I came to the house." Kate took notes on her pad and then continued with her line of questioning.

After sometime, Beckett had the daughter identify her father's using photographs within the house

"Why won't you let me see him?" Beckett took a deep breath and turned to the girl.

"You can come see him at the morgue, but you shouldn't see him here. I wish someone had allowed me that courtesy when my mom was murdered. My last true memory of my mother is seeing her lifeless body covered in blood in an alleyway. I wish someone had made me wait until she was at the morgue or even with the mortician before they let me view her." Kate let her words sink in. Then, she reached inside her coat and pulled out a business card. "This is my card; my cell number is on the back. If you think of anything that might help, or you just need to speak to someone, please call me night or day."

The girl whispered a "Thank you." Kate directed a uniformed officer to escort the girl home. Beckett waited for the girl to be out of the room before she began looking around. She walked over to a desk pushed against the wall and began flipping through the documents on top. The third item she examined was a file folder that held legal papers. On closer examination she noticed it was the deed to the brownstone, but it had a real estate agent's business card paper clipped to it. Beckett continued to search the desk for anything else that looked like it may be of use, but she couldn't see anything beyond the stack of bills. She grabbed the file folder once more as she left the desk.

After sweep of the house and the bodies had left Beckett returned to her car. She sat behind the wheel for a minute before slipping the key into the ignition. The engine roared to life while Beckett's mind swirled off into memories.

She remembers that when she and her father had pulled up in front of their house, Detective Raglan had been waiting. He had not been there long; he couldn't have been because he ushered them quickly to his car and then to the crime scene. To this day she can't justify his actions. Who would take a man and his daughter to identify a body at a crime scene? It was at that moment that the wheels of fate turned. Jim Beckett spent his first night with his new friend, Jack Daniels. Kate being much younger, a freshmen in college, tried to cry herself to sleep. When that didn't work, she set sail with a little Captain Morgan and coke. That too, became a habit for a time. But, it didn't satisfy.

Before her next break from college she began receiving phone calls from barkeeps; she had to fetch Jim home from a variety of bars. Two could play that game. She started finding boys that would be willing to help her bring Jim home and then tuck her in as well.

A light tapping on the window drew her out of her thoughts. A confused Ryan waited for her to roll down the window.

"You okay Beckett?"

Without realizing it, she shook her head no, but answered, "Yeah, I'm fine. Tell Espo that I will meet the two of you at the station. I think I have a lead on the Jane Doe. She could be his real estate agent."

With that she rolled her window up and drove off toward the station in her squad car. Her dark thoughts weren't too far away.

While sitting at a red light, she realized that she wouldn't be of much use to anyone if she couldn't get her head back in the game.

She texted Rick.

Double. Not complicated. I NEED you at the station when you can. Not sure why. Sorry. Baby

She parked at the station and took a deep breath. She wiped the tears from her eyes. She hadn't known they were there until she had checked her mirror. Beckett was still not used to being this emotional wreck. In the last month she had made a lot of progress. She had managed to start a real relationship with Rick and for the most part, he didn't let her get away with manipulating him to her advantage. He made her ask for help, but he also made sure she knew she would have it. She hoped he would be here soon.