"Dear Senator"
Richard Castle is dead. Kate Beckett and her team scattered in the wind. So why is Alexis giving a press conference that will shake New York to its core? More so why was Captain Gates standing at her side?
Alexis looked at herself in the mirror that had been provided for her. She couldn't recognise the woman that she had become at just nineteen years. It had been a year since her life had changed completely, since Captain Gates had turned up at the Loft, sat her down and gave her the news she had feared for the past three years that her father had worked at the NYPD.
Gates had sat her down on the sofa and perched on the edge of the seat herself. She distinctly remembered that Grams hadn't been around, on a tour of Europe. As soon as the police Captain had turned up Alexis had guessed the news that was about to given, she remembered her chest constricting, the tears flowing before Gates had even said a word. She remembered yelling at the woman, telling her she was lying, that it couldn't have been true as her father had contacted her only a few hours before. She remembered her father saying the he would see her later, that he would be home for dinner.
What was worse about the whole affair was that there was no body, nothing that she couldn't say goodbye too, nothing to bury in the ground, no final closure on the matter. She didn't realise at the time the complete and utter significance of this alone.
Gates had run the investigation into her father's murder for a few months with no new leads. What had surprised Alexis more considering the history between the Captain and the writer that the Captain herself had run the investigation into the murder. It had seemed at the same time her father's closet ally in the NYPD as simply disappeared, run away with no clues – Alexis was more than happy to blame the woman for what had happened, but it hurt more that even Esposito and Ryan had also disappeared into the wind with no contact, not even an "I'm sorry" before completing their vanishing act.
Alexis had been a very angry young lady, but that anger had fuelled her own investigation, had fuelled her desire to be something more than the little Castle of the family. And it was what had led her to the situation today. She had chosen this day for a good reason – it was exactly a year after her father's apparent murder, a year to the day.
"Alexis," came the voice of a much softer Gates than she was used to, "Are you sure that you want to go through with this?"
"Captain Gates – I really can't thank you enough for your help over the last year, but today... today it all comes together. I have known the truth for some time now but today it is the day it has to be revealed, but before we go out there and face the cameras there is something that you must know. You can arrest me if you wish, but after the press conference," Alexis responded to the woman, knowing that Gates would most likely arrest her for withholding information in an ongoing police investigation, but she also knew that she had her father's fortune and would probably manage to get away with it, "Now - here is what you need to know-"
Twitter on the day of the press conference was alive with the sound of Richard Castle's fans re-tweeting a single set of numbers with one instruction "Do not break the chain, no matter what happens today: 08672241. For my father, Richard Castle. Alexis xx"
"Alexis – please, reconsider," Captain Gates begged her one last time. The cameras were already starting to flash at her from the steps of the 12th Precinct of the NYPD, "You know the consequences of this. I can't have more Castle blood on my hands!" Gates was desperate – the girl had refused to wear a vest.
"I'm sorry Captain, I really have to do this. You know what's at stake. I can sort everything out. Let's do this." She took a deep breath, held it for a few moments as she gathered her confidence. It was time to put the demons to rest. She stepped out into the flashes and lenses of the cameras.
"Hello, my name is Alexis Castle, daughter of the author Richard Castle. Firstly I want to thank you for coming here today. As you know exactly a year ago today my father was brutally murdered in the city that he called home, in a city that he strived through his work with the NYPD to make better, to help families have closure, and to write his novels. He worked with one of the best teams that this precinct has ever seen. They are all probably considered dead at this point in time as well.
Behind me I have bought something of my father's that I want to share with you," Alexis pointed to a big SMART board that she had mounted to the side of the precinct. She'd had a contact of her father hook up the information that would be displayed to the interactive media boards across the city, "I'll switch it on in a moment. Before I do, I want to tell you a story – being the daughter of a prolific author, I think that this is agreeable, don't you?" She had practiced this speech many times. She had been coached in how to deal with the cameras and with Gates standing next to her she was drawing in a steady strength. She'd planned this press conference for when her Grams was out of the state with her theatre group – at least that way she knew that the older woman would be safe. Safer than herself at the present time at any rate.
"Four years ago my father was incriminated in a crime, and the result of this was the NYPD using him as a consultant in future cases. My father loved doing this, working with the inspiration of the Nikki Heat series. In working with Detective Beckett he discovered the unsolved murder of the Detective's mother, Johanna Beckett. My dad pushed Beckett to investigate – and there were leads over the next three years, and thus lead a complex and detailed case of why Johanna Beckett was killed, alongside others at the same time. My dad gave these victims voices, helped Beckett get her closure for the murder of her mother, and my dad paid the price for this investigation. Or so I thought.
Ladies and gentlemen, today I stand before you, in the crosshairs of a sniper like my father did before me. It's only a matter of time before the shot is taken. But the information I have for you today will change the picture forever. Captain Gates has been kind enough to entertain me with my theories for the last year, and we have today completed the investigation that will change the face of New York City, and my life, forever." Alexis fired up the SMART board, and displayed on the board was the same information that her father had on there. The murder board on Kate Beckett's mother. There was more details on it these days, and she knew that she was dragging Montgomery's name through the mud, but it was the sacrifice she had to make to get her information out to the general public.
"The person behind these murders has been linked to a single bank account, now defunct. This information has protected people, including myself, from death. But there comes a point when a secret can no longer be kept, that it simply has to be told, and that the world can move on.
Some of you on Twitter may have noticed a re-tweet from my father's account. This number is the bank account involved. It is the account that all of this stems back to, the one person who can be accountable for all the deaths on the board behind me.
Now it is my turn for revenge, Senator Bracken, and I hope that the police get to you before my dad does."