Work Text:
One
The new homicide detective was the only attractive woman in Miami who hadn’t yet turned down Masuka, and he was more optimistic about his chances than reality would suggest. “Kate Lockley, isn't it a beautiful name?”
“Who?” asked Dexter, pretending not to know who Masuka was talking about. Of course he’d noticed Kate, it was the job of every good serial killer to know who might be chasing him.
“Dude, the new detective, she's smokin' hot.” The detective in question had been given the desk between Deb and Angel, she was blonde and too pale to be a Miami native.
“She transferred in from the LAPD,” Masuka continued. “I've got a friend in forensics up there who says she went batshit crazy, got obsessed with the supernatural, total X-Files case. Think she'd sleep with me?”
“You want to sleep with her even if she's crazy?”
“Because she's crazy, buddy. Crazy girls are the best in bed.”
“Dex,” Deb called. “Come over here and meet Kate. My big brother is the go to guy for blood spatter around here.”
“Thanks for the ringing endorsement, Deb,” said Dexter, twitching his lips up with just the right amount of friendly helpfulness, and reaching out to shake Kate’s hand.
Two
The first time Kate sought Dexter out it had nothing to do with a case. She came barrelling into the lab just after Rita had dropped him back from lunch.
"Do you know that woman?" she demanded.
Dexter had been practicing his innocently confused expression recently and he was slightly disappointed not to need it, he genuinely was confused. "Who? Rita?"
"Rita, is that what she's calling herself?"
"It's what everyone calls her. It's her name. Rita Bennet."
"Hmmph," Kate snorted.
"Can I help you with something, detective?"
Kate left the lab without replying.
Three
Dexter was not in the habit of breaking into his colleagues desks after they'd left for the day - he knew what was in Deb's and didn't want to discover what was lurking in Masuka's - but a cursory look at Kate’s computer revealed that she’d done a background check on Rita, and Dexter needed to know why.
The possibility that she was looking into Rita as a way to get to him was what prompted Dexter to break into the station in the middle of the night and go through Detective Lockley’s desk. Kate used the top drawer of her desk for the same purpose as overworked public servants everywhere, as a dumping ground for all the paperwork she couldn’t face. The middle drawer was assorted stationery and a framed photograph, kept face down, of a middle-aged uniformed cop; he bore enough of a resemblance to Kate for Dexter to conclude that it was her father. That made Deb, Dexter and Kate all of whom were in this line of work because of their fathers. Sometimes he wondered if he should start measuring Cody and Astor for police uniforms.
The bottom drawer was locked, but Dexter was a well prepared burglar and it popped open in no time.
“Huh.”
Dexter was in no position to judge other people's collections, but a homicide detective who kept a handful of sharpened wooden stakes locked in her desk? Hardly Normal.
Four
Dexter had gotten hold of Kate’s personnel file easily enough, don’t believe anyone when they tell you these things are confidential. She’d been fired from the LAPD after a breakdown and had only got a job with Miami Metro because after two serial killers in two years the department was desperate.
He looked over Kate’s old cases. Apart from the fact that they were all a little odd, nothing jumped out at him until he got to a case where twenty-five lawyers had been discovered murdered in a basement and he found himself looking at a picture of Rita. Only it wasn’t Rita, it was a woman named Darla, last name unknown, suspected of murdering the lawyers plus a number of other people. She'd never been apprehended.
Just the sort of woman, in fact, who deserved to meet Dexter one dark night. It was just... the resemblance to Rita really was uncanny.
Dexter had heard that everyone had a doppelganger somewhere, he’d often wondered how to go about finding his, if his night-time activities were ever discovered it could only be useful to have an identical twin to point the finger at.
Dexter printed off the police report that showed Rita calling the Miami police for help on the same day that this Darla murdered a, well, whatever the name for a collection of lawyers was - Herd? Pack? Murder? - in LA. He left the report amongst the paperwork on Kate’s desk and resolved to say no more about it if she didn’t.
Five
“We should invite Detective Lockley to go bowling tonight,” Dexter suggested to Angel. He wanted to sound nonchalant, so he mentioned it at a crime scene as he was photographing a wall that had recently been redecorated by arterial spray. Dexter had always considered himself lucky to be in a line of work where this was a situation which called for nonchalance.
“I don't know, she's kind of standoffish if you know what I mean," said Angel. "Keeps herself to herself.”
“Okay, I'll tell you the truth.” The truth was that Dexter wanted a chance to talk to her outside the station and make sure she'd dropped this Rita thing once and for all, but he wasn't about to tell Angel that. “The truth is that Masuka's got a thing for her but he doesn't want to invite her himself.”
Six
Kate seemed pleased to be invited to bowling night, and less pleased by Masuka's leering remarks about her ass every time it was her turn.
“What made you become a cop?” Dexter asked when they ended up sitting next to each other. The question prompted Kate to look at him like he was socially retarded, which was a little unfair, it's just that there's no easy way to lead into the question "Are you done electronically stalking my girlfriend?"
“My dad, originally. Pretty much a cliché, huh?”
“Hey, same here.”
“It became something different later.”
“Again, same here. Guess we’re all just walking, talking clichés.” Although Dexter would guess that Kate's father didn't encourage her to pursue a career in law enforcement to facilitate finding potential victims for her murderous urges. Although with those pointy sticks in her desk you never knew.
“You're from LA originally, aren't you? What brings you to Miami?”
“The weather,” said Kate, and Dexter smiled because Los Angeles isn't exactly known for its freezing climate either. “And for a fresh start.”
“A fresh start, that sounds good. The chance to leave behind old mistakes... old cases."
“What do you--?”
“Kate,” Angel interrupted, “it's your turn.”
“And, of course, I wasn't on a bowling team in LA.”