Brick By Brick (Sequel)

The Intern

*six and a half years later*

The familiar, almost expected, ring of my cell phone woke me up. I grabbed the phone from the bedside table and sat up without opening my eyes, answering instinctively.

"Ren Castle."

"We have a murder reported in Central Park. Exact location being sent to you by text message. Please report to the crime scene as soon as possible."

"Thank you. I'll be on my way shortly."

I hung up and shuffled to the bathroom, splashing cold water on my face to wake myself up. Slipping into my slacks, a button up and my uniform jacket, I snatched my crime kit and camera before rushing down the stairs. Kate tossed my coat at me and handed over my thermos full of coffee, clutching her own in cold hands. Without words, we took the elevator down to the car and made our way to the crime scene.

"What do we have, Lanie?" were the first words out of Kate's mouth, like countless other early mornings. Realizing that the sun was just beginning to peek out over the treetops, I thought to check the time. 6:23 am is not my favorite time to be awake, but these are the expectations of a crime scene analyst.

"Looks like a case of strangulation and blunt force. Exact cause of death is unsure until we get her to the morgue, but temp puts the time of death between 1 and 4 this morning."

I pulled my camera out as Lanie debriefed us, searching for key elements and evidence of the crime scene.

"Do we have an identification?" Kate asked.

"We're currently running her fingerprints in the system."

I snapped pictures of the body, then collected a few pieces of DNA from the victim and a suspicious fiber located near the victim's shoulder. I stashed them in the evidence bag and walked back over to Kate.

"Any new details?" I asked as I carefully removed my gloves and disposed of them in a ziplock bag.

"Victim's name is Ashton Kenning. 27 years old, works in the law office just a block over as a desk clerk. Find anything interesting?"

"Just a weird fiber by the victim's left shoulder. Didn't match any of her clothes, so it most likely belongs to our killer. And I got a partial footprint  in the mud that resembles the treads of a man's dress shoe, but I can't be for sure." My eyes wandered up as I spoke. Across the scene Espo and Ryan were conversing with a Central Park ranger. Next to them was a guy I'd never seen before, wearing an NYPD jacket.

"Who's the new guy?" I asked without looking away.

Kate followed my gaze. "Oh, that's Foster Brock. Ryan's nephew. He came as an intern for the NYPD."

"How long?" Usually, I am not this weary - part of this job is consistently working with new people -  but this guy just seemed to give off an odd vibe. It wasn't necessarily bad, just...strange. 

"Probably six months." Kate turned to me, brows bunched in question. "Why?"

"Just curious." I finally broke my gaze from the new guy and returned to my job, triple checking for anything I had missed before helping them bag the body.

Per usual protocol, we went directly back to the precinct and straight to work. Kate and I sat at our desks, back to back, sharing case files and information.

Kate spun around in her chair. "Hey Ren, I've got a possible witness in the conference room." I spun in my chair to face her and she handed me the case files. "Why don't you take these down to Lanie and see if you can figure anything else out?"