24 Feb 2011
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Chapter 2 – Bounty Hunters
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Lanie and Castle entered the main room on the second floor and encountered a disaster area. The large, high-ceiling room extended through the third floor. Around the room, lamps were knocked over and chairs had been tossed. The far wall was covered with bullet holes which trailed into the ceiling. Glass from the rooftop skylight was broken on the floor. Oh yeah. And the room was littered with eight bodies. Esposito stood in one corner, standing like a sentry looking down at the bodies.
Lanie bent over the closest body. "I think I have a live one."
Beckett stepped in behind them. She had been double checking other rooms. "We think they all are, except this one." Esposito's guard stance over the seven unconscious bodies suddenly made sense.
Castle wasted no time simultaneously issuing and disregarding his first theory. "This doesn't make sense. If this were some sort of rival mob hit, wouldn't they just kill everyone?"
"We don't know this is mob-related. Maybe this was an aborted attempt. Hopefully, we'll find out more when they come to."
"I don't see any reason to abort. Everyone here was incapacitated."
"You're assuming this was everyone. Maybe another person gave chase."
Lanie offered some observations. "So far, the only blood I've seen is on the victims. Maybe CSU will find some trails, but it looks like whoever did this was not shot. Several of the victims have blunt force injuries, but some do not. Some of the bodies have been dragged into this row, but whoever started didn't finish the job. This one has a cut on the right hand between the thumb and index finger. I don't know what kind of blade, but it was very sharp."
Beckett examined the man's weapon. "It looks like some damage to the trigger mechanism."
"Oooo. Throwing star to the hand to disable him."
"I found these." Lanie held up a small dart.
"A tranq dart? What self-respecting mob enforcer uses a tranq gun? And why shoot one guy while tranq'ing the others?" Castle was even more confused.
"Maybe it was friendly fire. The dead guy has a nasty hit in the face, too. I'll have to verify cause of death back at the morgue."
"These look like a custom design. Definitely not something that can be bought at the local gun store." Esposito took the dart and put it in an evidence bag.
"Cool. The ninjas made their own darts, just like Jango Fett. Maybe that's it. They are bounty hunters."
Beckett ignored Castle and started a scene overview. "So, the assailants—"
"Mob ninja bounty hunters," Castle interjected.
"-entered through the skylight and incapacitated the vic's. One ended up dead in the struggle. The room's door was locked, so when the perps finished whatever they were doing, they left back through the skylight."
"Which means it probably wasn't a kidnapping," Castle suggested.
"This would have been a very risky heist. They used nonlethal means, while the vic's were packing some very serious firepower."
"As if ninjas have to worry about a few automatic weapons."
"If this was a theft, the goal must have been worth a lot."
"We should look for a safe, or a wall with a missing painting."
Beckett smiled slightly. Castle always suggested several crazy ideas before coming up with something worthwhile.
"Hey Beckett, it looks like CSU and the ambulances are here."
"That was fast," Beckett responded, looking at her watch, "less than five minutes." Joining Esposito at the second story front window, Beckett saw a line of eight ambulances outside, along with a 'standard issue' Crown Vic. "How did they get eight ambulances in this city so fast?" she mused. "Esposito, there are two security cameras in here. See if you can find where the signal goes." He nodded and left to search the house. They had cleared the house already, but really hadn't looked around.
Castle looked out into the hall and down the stairs. Ascending the stairs was a large man with a square jaw and a very determined look on his face. A parade of EMTs followed with stretchers. Something about the whole situation seemed a little off—too regimented to be real. Castle backed into the room and stepped sideways just in time for the determined man to pass. Beckett filled the gap blocking his way while holding up her badge.
"I'm Detective Kate Beckett. And you are?"
The man flashed a badge. "Lieutenant Alex Coburn. We'll be taking over." He side-stepped around her, and his 'platoon' started to work on the unconscious.
Castle looked like the man had just slapped his puppy. "Can he do that?"
"Technically, we are in the jurisdiction of the 14th. I wasn't aware of a new Lieutenant in that precinct. I'll call the Captain." Beckett pulled out her phone and stepped into the hall for some quiet.
Castle thought maybe he should politic with this Alex character before they were completely pinched out of this case. "Hi, I'm Rick Castle. I'm the one who reported the break-in."
"We didn't get your call. We received an independent report of shots fired," Coburn answered without looking at Castle.
"That explains how you got here so fast. Beckett had barely placed the call."
Coburn cocked his head in realization. "Wait. You're Richard Castle, the writer?"
A fan. Maybe there was hope. "The one and only."
"Great. Another moron."
And then the hope was gone. "Hey! Moron? What did I do—"
"You killed off Derrick Storm. I liked that series."
"He was getting stale. I had to follow my muse."
Coburn grunted in response.
"But you have to admit the Nikki Heat books are so much better."
"I'm not interested in some trashy novel about a stripper cop."
Castle's mouth dropped open. "I object to your characterization! Nikki is a sophisticated, thinking man's cop. She was inspired by my partner over there, so I would politely ask that you refrain from—"
Coburn cut him off with another grunt. "Let me guess, she has no idea you are writing love letters to her in your books."
"Wha-what?"
"Like I said…moron." A third grunt. Castle was noticing each seemed to have a different tone but the same general sense of disdain.
Castle tried to regain his composure by switching into PR mode. "Well, trust me. If you liked Derrick Storm, you would love Nikki Heat."
"Like I said, I'm not into power skirt, puff pieces."
Castle stared agape at the blatant sexism coming from this man. He couldn't believe the modern NYPD would allow that from any officer, not to mention a lieutenant. That was a step away from captain. His shock was interrupted by another tall, skinnier man.
"Don't mind him. He's just sore from the last several times my fiancée kicked his ass in the sparring ring. Then of course there was the last time when—"
"Hey, I let her win that time."
"Good thing for you, too. If not, we both know you would have ended up in the morgue instead of the hospital," the new man added with a grin.
"It was my plan. Could I help it if the cable gave way? I was supposed to drop only forty feet, not eighty," Coburn growled.
Castle's eyes widened. Maybe there were good NYPD stories outside of the 12th precinct that he could use for research. Of course, none of those other precincts had Detective Kate Beckett. "Eighty feet? What kind of case were you working on?"
The skinny man ignored the comment and offered a hand in greeting. "Hi. I'm Sergeant Charles Carmichael. You'll just have to pardon my friend here, Mr. Castle. He's more into war histories and cold war adventures than crime mysteries, so I doubt you'll change his mind."
Since this Carmichael was not present for the first round of introductions, Castle thought he must have been recognized again. Maybe this one was a fan. "So are you a Nikki Heat fan?"
"No, I'm more into the comic book super hero and sci-fi genres. Another guy on our team has your most recent books, but I think he likes them for the cover art and hasn't read them yet." Charles grinned. "Now that we are here, we'll get this crime scene cleaned up in a jiffy. So could you please excuse us?"
Castle was startled by this abrupt change in conversation. So much for charming his way back into this case. Then he realized that something as complex as this crime scene could not be cleaned up 'in a jiffy'. He spun around and noticed a couple of the victims were already being transported out of the room.
Castle excused himself and joined Beckett in the hall. She looked frustrated. "The Captain was interrupted with a call from the mayor before I could explain the whole situation. I'm on hold."
"Something is very wrong. They are already moving the bodies."
"What do you expect, Castle? They aren't dead and have to be treated. Not all crime scenes have bodies that don't move on their own."
"Ok, but the two officers seem to think this is going to be cleaned up very quickly." Castle thought for a second and realized something else. "No one has taken any photos, and they aren't even wearing crime scene gloves."
That caught Beckett's interest. Before she could respond, Lanie walked up. "Kate, they are taking my bodies, and I can't stop them. They aren't even taking the time to make sure they are properly stabilized."
Beckett raised her eyebrows. She wasn't sure what to do about it. Technically, this lieutenant outranked her.
From the top of the staircase going to the third floor, "Boss, I found the surveillance feed for the cameras in the other room."
Beckett hung up, grabbed Castle, and pulled him upstairs to the room Esposito was calling from. Her concern and confusion was clear on her face. Lanie started to follow, but Beckett stopped her. Under her breath, "Keep an eye on things out here, and let us know if someone is coming."
"How am I supposed to—" She was cut off with a closing door.
Castle noticed something in his partner's eyes. It was the same look as when he originally mentioned the automatic weapons fire. Something was setting off warning bells, as if the current situation was almost as dangerous as before they verified the building was clear. Whatever was going on, Castle understood Beckett didn't want him stirring things up more before they knew what was going on. On the upside, he would get to see mob ninja bounty hunters in action.
Inside the small room, Esposito sat at a table with two monitors. One showed the sidewalk out front, while the other showed the crime scene. Esposito reset the video forty-five minutes, while Castle and Beckett leaned in to watch.
