Captain Victoria Gates had just been apprised of the man hunt for Jared Stone. It was a man that Detectives Esposito and Ryan had just spotted when the phone rang. It was Commission Reagan.
"Yes Commissioner? Now…? Yes Sir of course. I will get there promptly." The Captain says after hanging up.
Captain Gates gathered her things. It was going to be a long day. Being called to 1PP this early in the day is never good. However it will give Detective Beck - well maybe it is Castle now...some more leadership experience. She will need to look to the future. That Lt. Exam is coming up. Though, Kate had not expressed a willingness to leave the streets yet. The Captain knew it was her job to prepare her in that eventuality.
"Detective Beckett…?" She calls out into the bull pen.
Rick notices her first then nudges Kate to stand.
"Yes Sir?" Kate responds standing.
"Detective, I want you to run the precinct while I am indisposed." The captain says.
"Sir…?" Kate asks not willing to hear what her captain has said.
"Detective is there something wrong with your hearing? I told you that you are in charge until I return. I understand this is nothing new to you? I was told you took command under Montgomery often. I am remiss in not allowing you the same opportunity. So to correct for my error you are being placed in charge. Is that a burden for you?" She asks.
"No Sir…It was just well Sir unexpected." Kate says.
"See what I mean…You should be learning this position…It one day could be yours." Gates says exiting the bullpen.
"Yes Sir…I mean you can count on me…" Kate says to the retreating form.
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Gates eschews her car for taking the subway.
"Officer Bradley…I will not be taking the car today. Go report to Detective Beckett for reassignment." Gates says as she walks toward the subway station.
"Yes Sir" Officer Bradley says then departs to report to the 4th floor.
It was a mysterious place for him. He had heard the rumors and of course the betting pool which he won 500 for guessing the right day for the wedding. So he moved past his Sergeant. The man glared at him but said nothing. Officer Bradley entered the elevator. He had never been passed the 2nd floor where Robbery and HR lived. He remembered looking at Detective Demming there. He was a competent cop he was told. He did hear rumors that he and Detective Beckett were more than colleagues once. He tends to dismiss such talk as station hearsay.
However, he did see occasionally Detective Beckett at a crime scene or two during his rookie year. Now 3 years on the force it was time for him to choose his own path. Was it for the gold shield or life long Patrol? Officer Bradley did not know. He stepped off the elevator at the 4th floor. Everyone was so busy. He spied Detective Beckett along with her new Husband staring at the Murder white board. It was very old fashion way of law enforcement. He was shown the more advanced system at the academy. It was apparent that the 12th has not gotten such modern equipment. He swallowed his nerves then approached the Detective.
Kate was on the phone with Ryan.
"So Ryan, tell me what is going on?" Kate asks.
"Boss, Javi jumped out of the car and is trailing the suspect on foot." Ryan says reporting from the car stuck in traffic.
Officer Thomas Bradley stood to the side as he watched Mr. Castle come running up to her.
"Kate you are needed in Tori's room." He says eagerly.
He reaches out and grasps her hand and nearly runs into Officer Bradley who skillfully ducked back to allow the massive man passage. He watched them disappear down the hallway.
\\\\
Rick dragged Kate into the room.
"Rick what is going on?" Kate asks.
"Detective we have the suspect on camera." Tori reports.
Kate watches as Tori deftly switches through the various cameras to keep their suspect in sight.
They spy Espo closing fast. Kate calls him.
"Espo we have you on camera…You are only…" Kate says having Espo on speaker.
"Boss I lost him…No wait I got him he is on the platform." Espo says as he rushes toward the stopped train.
Espo runs as the doors close but his camera on his phone spot Captain Gates seated next to a Transit Cop as the suspect moves forward.
"Boss we have a problem…The Captain is with the suspect." Espo reports.
"Great Espo I'm calling the Captain now." Kate says.
"Detective Beckett…Surely you do not need my guidance already?" Gates quips.
"No sir…The suspect that Detectives Ryan and Esposito were tracing has entered your car. He is the short haired man who…" Kate says.
"Just entered the train at the last second…Yes Detective I have eyes on him. What is your play?" She asks.
"At this moment nothing…We just want to question him on the murder of a GAO employee." Kate says.
"Ok Detective I will watch him…Alert Transit at next station and the Subway line to shut down this train at next station. We will take him there." Gates says.
"Yes Sir I concurs I have started that process." Kate says as she hears the screeching of brakes.
"Sir what has happened?" Kate asks.
"Your suspect just pulled the emergency stop. He has a bomb vest plus he just took the Transit Cop's gun. I will have to revise our plans…" Gate says stopping talking as Kate could hear their suspect.
"Give me all your phones into this bag." He announces to the group.
He pushes the bag into everyone's face. Gates simply drops the phone into the bag without ending the call. Kate could hear everything.
Kate mutes her mic then plugs in her phone into Tori's system.
Tori routes the audio so she can enhance all the different voices to determine who was speaking from the NYPD audio database.
"Kate you are looking for Jared Stone…He is your perp." Tori says,
Rick pulls out his phone then hands it to Kate. She smiles at him.
"Espo we have a problem. Wait for HRT. The captain is in a situation." Kate says.
"Will do Boss I will inform you when they arrive on scene and assist." Espo says.
Kate hangs up then calls Ryan.
"Hey Ryan…" Kate says as Ryan looks at his phone thinking it was Rick calling to harass him again.
"Hey look Castle if this is about that 20 I owe you? It will have to wait ok?" Ryan says.
"Ryan this is Beckett I'm using Rick's phone and consider that debt permanently cancelled. I want you and Uni's get over to Jared Stone apt immediately. He has taken the subway hostage along with Captain Gates. I want to know why!" Kate orders.
"Er Boss…yes…of course…" Ryan stammers then hangs up.
"Kate we have visual to go with your audio from the Captain's phone." Tori says.
"Tori I thought we did not have any cameras on the subway." Kate says.
"Normally we don't but this is an experimental system. It took awhile to find the feeds." Tori replies.
"Good the suspect looks agitated…Is that an inhaler?" Kate asks.
"Yes it looks like a prescription for Asthma. Let me zoom in on the bottle. Yes, that inhaler has its label ripped." Tori says.
"Tori move in where the rip is?" Rick requests.
"What is it Castle?" Kate anxiously asks.
"The label has been torn in a place where it gets filled at the factory…It was one of the vehicles used to ingest poison from one of my Derrick novels." Rick says.
"Wait… Is that a dead man switch?" Kate says looking at the feed. "So Rick, are you telling me that…This is a suicide by poisoning the perp?" Kate asks.
"I doubt he knows every time he takes a puff from the inhaler…" He says.
"The closer he is to death and suicide." Kate says.
"So are of all those innocents being closer in dying in the explosion." Rick explains.
"We need to figure this out fast." Kate says. "Let's go back to our victim."
"I'm on it…"Rick says exiting the room then almost runs into Officer Bradley.
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"Hello I'm to report to Detective Beckett." Tom says.
"Officer Bradley you are new to homicide aren't you…Good you can help me. We need to figure out what sort of poison and by who before the Captain explodes. Are you with me on this?" Rick says with authority.
Officer Bradley agrees then follows Rick to the piles of papers stacked on his wife's desk. The two of them sift through the papers until Tom spots something.
"Rick look at this." He says
Rick looks and his eyes widen.
"We have the poison!" Rick cries out in glee then rushes into Tori's room.
"Kate we have it!" Rick says waving the evidence.
"Rick slowdown you have what exactly?" Kate asks as Espo calls at this point.
"Boss Captain of the HRT are here we are about to breech the car." Espo says.
Luckily Kate had the speaker on as Rick cried out.
"Kate they can't… It will release the contagion. They'll need to back off and get into their suits. This thing is airborne!" Rick screams.
"Rick what do you mean?" Kate asks.
"The poison is a fast acting flu…Everyone is exposed. We would have an epidemic." Rick says.
"Espo tell the captain…" Kate says as the HRT captain interrupts.
"Detective Beckett I heard and I'm pulling back…How long do you think until the perp is too weak to hold the switch?" The HRT captain asks.
"Kate it's less than an hour." Tori estimates.
"Wait the transit cop has made a move. She is sitting on the perp and Captain Gates is looping the switch with a tie wrap. Gates is down and puking though." Rick says watching the takedown.
"Alert the CDC. This is a major outbreak." Kate orders.
"The passengers are leaving the train." Rick warns.
"Have them rounded up by the transit Cops get them contained. Shoot them if they do not cooperate." Kate harshly orders.
Kate's orders are relayed by Espo to the Transit Cops at the next station. HRT returns with full suits on then starts down the tracks from both directions.
"Gates is looking bad…" Tori reports.
"EMT's with virus antidote enroute." Tom reports as he never thought he would be in such a position.
"It is funny. Why does this particular flu have million of doses?" Rick muses.
"Wait Rick what did you say?" Kate asks seeing the situation was contained.
"I was looking up the stockpiles. I saw an order for 1 million doses of this antidote." Rick says.
That got Kate wondering too.
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Kate and Rick recall their victim's boss. Rick's and Ryan's exhaustive research discovered that the victim's boss had bought much stock in this vaccine company. With this and the results of the search warrant they returned to interrogate the new suspect.
"Thank you for returning." Kate says.
"I was given not much choice." Their new suspect complains.
"Yes I suppose not. You have been very busy. We saw through the break in and the stealing of the deadly virus. You orchestrated both the break in and the shooting of your subordinate. I want to know why?" Kate asks.
"I know the answer to that one. It was a case of insider trading. The victim discovered this and threatened to expose you." Rick says with a grin.
"Is that true?" Kate asks with a smile. "We have the gun. It was found where you left it. We are pretty good at finding lost weapons. We tested it for ballistics. It is our murder weapon. You are now under arrest for 1st degree murder and insider trading." Kate says as Officer Bradley enters to escort the prisoner to the cells.
"All that just for money…?" Rick asks.
/
Espo and Ryan stand up and start clapping. Their interim Captain certainly earned her stripes.
"Alright calm down we have other bad guys to catch." Kate says.
Kate enters the Captain's office then sits behind the desk. Rick is hit with a bit of Déjà vu.
"Rick what is wrong?" Kate asks.
"Kate it is nothing…You look right behind that desk, Captain." Rick says with a smile.
"Er Boss it is 1PP on line 2." Ryan says interrupting them from kissing.
Kate picks up the phone.
"This is Detective Beckett, interim Captain of the 12th precinct speaking." Kate says.
There was a pause then Kate heard the voice of Commissioner Reagan.
"Hello Detective Beckett…I am afraid you will be keeping this position for the near future. Captain Gates has died due to complications…I know you were close…There will be a full Command funeral. Can I count on your support?" He says.
"Yes Sir…I will endeavor to hold this position until a suitable replacement will be found. Kate says.
"Good er Lt. Beckett…We are going to make it official." He says.
Kate does a double take which alerts Rick.
"I will inform the precinct. Thank you sir." Kate says hanging up the phone.
She looks around then locks in on Rick. He knew from her expression. This was bad news.
"Rick, Captain Gates died from complications. This is another murder we can place on our insider trader." Kate says "…I'm the new interim Captain."
