When It All Comes Tumbling Down.
Chapter One
Authors note.
Alright this story hasn't been updated in a while and I think I better explain why. It's quite simple really, I always try to write the ending of story before I get started on the beginning. You see a long time ago I learnt that knowing where you were going was just as important, if not more so, than where you start from. In writing and elsewhere, so I plan ahead. Writing my stories in note form long before I even start.
On top of that I also have the slight side effect of often being behind on a few things. For example I only caught Castle on the first season as a repeat, and am usually too busy to see the shows on TV, only catching bits and pieces here and there until I can get my hands on the DVDs. I then get even further behind on one show while I catch up on the other. As you can guess staying away from spoilers is sometimes difficult, but somehow I manse it.
Anyway, back to the point, this was written, in note form at least before I saw season 4 and before the Doctor lost Amy and Rory in New York. After seeing both these I decided to hold back writing this. Now I know very few people will believe this but honest to god I had no idea about how either was going.
So here we are. As a final bit of house keeping I'm setting this in middle of the third season of Castle. Not that I don't like Gates, it's just that the dynamic and more importantly my notes, have it as Montgomery and that's how it stays. Besides the playful attitude between Castle and Kate gets a little fractious this last couple of seasons! On with the show.
Kate lead the old lady into the interview room. She had to be in her nineties at least, but there was nothing fragile in the way she carried herself. Castle, for once, was being a gentleman and pulled back a chair for her. 'Thank you.' The elderly woman said in a voice barely above a whisper.
There was obviously something about him that put her on edge, more than being in an interview room, or even walking into the heart of a homicide department had. She didn't seem t be the sort of woman that would fall for his childish charms and Kate chalked it up as one more mystery. As odd as it was the detective was more interested in just how a woman approaching a hundred was linked to the murder of a young man.
Sitting down the detective tried to get herself into the right frame of mind 'So Mrs…?'
'Windsor, Allison Windsor.' She answered, casting the briefest of glances at Kate's partner as he sat down. Her accent was hard to pin down. It was precise, almost British, but at the same time there was a hint of Manhattan.
There was something else there too, guilt, sadness, pain, or all of the above it was hard to tell. Kate tried to push that question to the back of her mind. Enough time to figure that out later. 'Mrs Windsor, I know this is hard but we need to ask; just how well did you know the victim?'
She took a deep breath to steady herself. 'We never met.'
'I see, then you talked with him on the phone?'
'No, frankly Detective I'd be very surprised if he ever knew I existed.' Kate couldn't keep the confusion from her face, she looked to Castle but he was just as lost. Mrs Windsor opened her large bag and pulled out an old fashioned dull brown document file. It looked worn, the kind of worn that could only come from long careful use. 'You are asking the wrong questions Detective Beckett, about the wrong victim.' She pulled the string on the side and opened the file. From inside the elderly woman pulled out three documents, each a few pages thick and held together with paper clips and twine.
It was all impressively ordered, Kate could almost have sworn they'd been arranged with a set-square. 'What, what is this?' she asked looking carefully at them
'Three more victims.' The Elderly woman told her, pushing the two either side forward. 'These two are missing persons, both in the last few days. This one,' Windsor tapped the middle file. 'This one has already been found. Their neck broken in the same way as Mister Walthan, only without the more grisly aspects.'
Castle burst out with a short laugh. 'I'm sorry, you're handing us the case? The whole case, possible victims, everything.'
'Not everything Mister Castle, you're… you're just not ready for that yet. And frankly you don't have the time. There is a seventeen year old girl that is about to become the fifth victim, if you don't do something about it.'
Kate stood up. 'Are you making a threat Mrs Windsor?' She couldn't hide the tone in her voice. In all her years in the job she'd never had anything like this happen Windsor had to be ninety, maybe even more than that, there was no way she was responsible for these crimes. But this level of detail, this sort of information. She couldn't have it. It just wasn't possible.
'Not a threat, a statement of fact. These four I have brought to your attention is just the tip of an iceberg. If you don't find some way to stop them this whole city is in danger.
'Them, so you're working for, or with, some one?' Kate jumped on what she hoped was a slip of the tongue. 'A relative? Mrs Windsor if you really want to help us then give us more information.'
'Shelly Jackson. I believe she is currently just outside Harlem and heading south...'
'Mrs…' Kate snapped, but Castle suddenly held her back
'Allison, if I can call you that.' He said carefully. 'Who are you trying to help here?'
She blinked. 'You, of course.'
'You obviously know a lot more about what is going on here than any of us…' Castle stopped, Windsor had closed her eyes and was having trouble breathing. After a moment whatever it was seemed to pass and she looked up, a little paler than before.
'Shelly doesn't have a lot of time Mister Castle. You're quite right, I do know more than you and lot more than I am willing to say right now. You both have to understand that explaining in any meaningful way would take far too much time. Time that child does not have.' This woman was either one hell of an actress or she was genuinely concerned. 'I've told you all I can, now please hurry.'
They shot down the street at speeds that were at best called unsafe, at worse it was an accident waiting to happen. Somehow Beckett plunged on. Thanking whatever god looked after writers that it wasn't rush hour Richard held on tight to the dashboard. That thanks quickly became praying when a foolhardy taxi tried pulling out into what the driver thought was a space and Beckett blasted through it close enough to blister paint.
'Mind on the game Castle.' She snapped with that tone that told him she was enjoying this. 'Windsor, you think she was on the level?'
'Is this really the time?' Richard asked trying not to think about the imminent crash he was sure was just about to happen.
'We have no idea what we're getting into, there's probably a gang of homicidal maniacs abducting and killing people, all across town if Windsor's to be believed, and the only lead we have so far is a frail old lady that might be too old to question. When isn't the time Castle?'
'Alright,' he let go his death grip on the dashboard. 'Just slow down, a little.'
'Nervous?'
'Terrified.' he admitted 'Alright she was lying about something, don't ask me what I don't know, but she was lying.'
'How can you tell?'
'Those pauses, the way she would look us in the eye. She wanted us to believe what she was telling us even though we both knew she was wasn't telling us everything.'
Beckett weaved the car between a four-by-four and a tacky pink limo. 'You're right.' She agreed after a moment. 'Just what the hell is going on?'
Captain Roy Montgomery knocked on the interview room door. 'Yes, hello?' Came the voice of the old lady inside. There was a catch in it he only half recognised.
He opened the door carefully. 'Miss Windsor? I understand that my officer has asked you to stay here?'
'She did.' The woman told him politely while dabbing at her eyes with a kerchief. She'd been crying.
'Is everything alright?'
She looked up and tried to smile. 'Have you ever spent a long time waiting for something to happen and when it finally does you don't know if you were ready for it?'
'Well I am a father, so yes.'
'I was a mother, and a grandmother. Once' She admitted with a sad smile. 'Yes it is kinda like that. Only then there was some idea, some instinct I could rely on. Now, now… I've been waiting for this all my life and now everything's happening so fast.' She grimaced and doubled up. Rubbing her left hand urgently.
'What's wrong?' Roy asked. Then, recognising the symptoms, he reached for his phone.
'No, no. I'll be okay.'
Roy shook his head, 'It's angina. The same thing happened to my father.' He explained 'You should be in hospital.' he told her.
'There's no cure for old age Captain.' She took a deep breath that seemed to steady her. The old lady was tough, no doubt about that. She reached into her bag with a shaking hand, pulling out a bottle of pills. 'I'll get some water.' Roy offered before she asked.
Whatever reason Beckett and Castle had for leaving her there better be a damn good one he thought as he left the room.
Kate held up the photo Windsor had given her. It looked like it had been printed from a Facebook page. 'Are you sure none of you know this girl. Her name is Shelly Jackson'
'Yeah, I'm sure. What you want her for, Cop-lady.' The leader of the want-to-be gang asked. Like the couple of friends she had either side the girl couldn't have been more than fourteen, but had layer after layer of eye-liner on. After giving Castle the eye, that had him scowling like a thundercloud, she'd tried to put on the attitude of an older woman. The kid was trying to be sassy for the benefit of her friends, but Kate could see that flicker of nervousness. She knew something.
'Well we need to talk to her, she's not in any trouble…'
'Yeah, that's what you said about Tina, look what happened to her.' One of the others spoke up.
'Believe me, we don't know any Tina.'
'You and your cop friends said she had meth. Tina didn't do meth.'
Kate chose her next words carefully. 'We're not interested in drugs or anything else like that. We're homicide police and only interested in helping.'
'Helping? Shel's no killer lady.' The girl said indigently. 'You just want Shel to rat on her couz.' It was obvious the girls did know Shelly, but there was nothing Kate could do about it. The girl wasn't even a witness they could question. They were working in the dark and had no other leads.
Castle stopped scowling long enough to join in the conversation. 'How many times do we have to tell you. We don't want to arrest her,
Kate took a breath, 'She might be in danger, we need to find her. If she or any of you see something or someone suspicious tell her to come down to the Twelfth Precinct and ask for me, Detective Beckett.'
'Yeah, sure.' the leader girl tried to puff out her nearly non-existent chest and Castle looked like he was ready to throttle her. 'So, can we, like, go now?'
At her nod the girls tried to swish their hips and walk away at the same time. After a few steps they began to lose their balance and gave up. Still throwing furtive looks over their shoulders. Kate waited until they were out of ear shot before turning to the still fuming Castle. 'Thinking about Alexis?'
'She… that girl…' He started clenching his fists, before visibly calming himself. 'I don't think I've ever appreciated just how good a daughter Alexis has been.'
She smirked at that. 'Don't get me wrong Alexis is one in a million, but not all teenage girls have that inside them.' She thought about it for a moment. 'And not all that do let it out.'
Castle looked at her sharply, trying to tell if she was yanking his chain or not. 'Which one were you?' He asked carefully.
Knowing precisely just how much it was going to bug him Kate just let the corner of her mouth quirk up, but after a moment knew it wasn't the time. 'Don't think I was one of the ones that had it in me and I'm grateful for that.' She admitted with a shrug before getting back to business. 'So what do you think, wild goose chase?'
There was a long moment where the writer looked into the middle distance 'No, I don't think so.' Castle shook his head. 'The girl knew Shelly and wasn't the worlds best poker player. She's probably hiding...'
A sudden scream cut him off, one that stopped almost as quickly as it started. After a startled moment where they looked at each other both Kate and Castle ran in the direction it had come from. Castle's stride was a little longer than her's and he turned the corner first. Even though she was only a step or so behind him he saw the bodies first.
Running into his back Kate almost bounced off. It took her a moment to get her balance, but that was more than enough time for Castle to lose his breakfast. There were two bodies of teenage girls dead, lying right next to each other. One was the girl they just been talking to the other had to be Shelly. 'Oh my god.' Kate gasped.
Richard kept his back to the alleyway. 'We weren't gone a minute.' he whispered to himself for what felt like the hundredth time, trying to shake what he had just seen. He felt someone coming closer and looked over. It was Beckett. 'What's Lanie say?' he asked.
Beckett looked just as shaken. 'Same M.O. as Walthan. What I don't get is how they did it. I mean we were just a few feet away and we saw her not a minute earlier. Who could do that. I mean seriously who the hell could do that Castle?'
'Our perp, Jack the Ripper. I don't know.' He threw up his hands helplessly. 'I got nothing.'
Esposito came up to them, flicking through his notebook. 'Well it turns out our Chica's in training over there were going to meet up with our lead vic just down the street. She saw you two and hid down there.' He shrugged a shoulder at the two shell shocked girls. 'They texted each other while you were questioning the second victim.'
'He was waiting for her.' Beckett guessed.
'Or someone like her. So what you think, the perp shadowing you guys?'
Richard didn't think so. For one no one could have followed Beckett the way she was driving without being seen. He opened his mouth when something caught the corner of his eye.
'What's wrong?'
'Could have sworn I saw something move, up there on the roof top.' Richard looked more carefully, but there was nothing.
'Probably just a shadow on that statue up there.' Beckett suggested.
Richard blinked, 'What statue?'
'The one… Where'd it go?' Beckett pointed at the roof top. 'I could have sworn there was a statue up there.'
'I didn't see one.' Esposito shrugged, 'Then again I wasn't looking.'
'Well I was and I'm telling you there was no statue.'
Beckett folded her arms. 'I'm a detective Castle. I'm trained to observe and I'm telling you there was a statue up there.'
'So we're looking for a killer mime?' Richard asked.
That earned him a patented Beckett glare. 'Alright. Espo, stick around. As soon as CSU is done with the crime scene I want the report, photos, the works.'
'You sure you want photo's of… That?' Esposito winced.
'I've already seen it Espo. Photo's aren't going to change that.' Beckett admitted and Richard knew what she meant. 'We're heading back to the precinct. Ryan should have something on our mysterious Ms Windsor.'
Kate looked at the murder board as Castle handed her a coffee. 'It looks like it's going to be one of those days.' He told her.
She caught herself smiling. 'Yeah, thanks.' Most of the time investigating was like putting a jigsaw together when you didn't know what the picture was supposed to be. Part of the job was finding the picture, the motive. The how, where and when. That's what Castle was best at. 'Any ideas.'
'Killer mime not doing it for you?'
He was teasing her, badly. Sure sign that he was just as stumped. 'No.' She turned to the interview room. There was her problem. She was sure Windsor had the answers, all of them. Every one of her instincts screamed at Kate to interrogate the old woman, but she couldn't. 'Where the hell is Ryan with that background?'
'Right here.' Ryan came up with a very thin file. 'I just had to make sure I had everything.'
'So, who is she?'
'Allison Rebecca Windsor, Orphan. Birth date unknown.' Ryan started.
'Hang on, unknown?' Castle interrupted.
'When she was found she had amnesia, apparently never recovered her early memory.' Kate tried to put this together as Ryan continued. 'This was back in the 20's. Best guess at the time said she was in her mid-teens.'
'So Windsor isn't her real name?' Castle asked.
Ryan shrugged. 'It's her legal name and there's no other on file. She was deemed too old to be adopted and became a ward of the state. Worked at the orphanage for a few years before she made some good investments. Cashed out in the 30's and went into real estate. Mostly storage, but made some good choices and came out on top. Married a Joe Walker in 48, and they had two kids. Both died, but not before having kids of their own. They're also dead.'
Kate couldn't help but feel a little sympathetic about that. 'Windsor sold her business in the 70's. Invested most of it, but she still holds the leases to a few apartment blocks. Since the death of her last grandson in 92 she's kept herself to herself.' Ryan finished.
Kate waited for a moment for him to finish. 'That's it?' Castle asked
'Yep.' Ryan shrugged, closing the file. 'No living relatives, no friends on file and all her financials are handled through her bank. I talked to the bank's manager, she comes in once a month to take out seven hundred and fifty dollars in cash like clockwork and signs most of the rest over to a number of charities. Even so she's almost as loaded as you Castle. She's been doing it for decades, hell the manager say's he's been there most of his life and she's been doing that even longer.
Kate looked at Castle, who had taken to humming the theme to The Outer Limits. 'Okay, what?' she asked him.
'Lucky investments? Mysterious witness with supernatural insight? There's only one answer. Our witness is psychic!'
Kate sighed before taking the file from Ryan. 'There has got to be a rational explanation.'
'Psychic.'
'Rational Castle. Rational.' Kate flicked through the file. This time she couldn't help but wince. Both Windsor's husband, daughter and the daughter's family died in a car crash. While they were on their way to the son's funeral no less.
'Yeah I saw that.' Ryan admitted after she said it out loud. 'Bad day I guess.'
'Bad? I'd call it catastrophic.' Castle announced. 'Who survived?'
'From her family?' Kate speed read the notes. 'A grandson and the mother. The daughter-in-law died of cancer and the grandson joined the military. He died in the first Iraq war.'
'Unlucky psychic.' Castle guessed desperately as Kate pulled the photo from the file and stuck it to the murder board.
'There's nothing we can do about it right now.' she said looking back at the interview room. 'Every rock we turn over just leads to more questions. We need answers and right now I don't care what.'
'Javier might have something.' Ryan suggested.
There was a quiet second, which was unusual with Castle in the room. 'Castle?' she asked. He wasn't by the murder board, instead he was at her desk. 'Castle what are you doing?'
'I knew she looked familiar.' He told her. 'I'm logging on to my home computer remotely and opening my photo archive. Here we go.'
'What?' Kate asked, looking over Castle's shoulder she watched him open a folder. 'You take photo's of you're book launches?'
'A Hail of Bullets. My first book, of course I took photos. Now where is it?'
'Where's what?'
'This.' he opened one of the images and zoomed in. There, as big as life, was a younger looking Windsor. Picking up a copy of Castle's book.
Kate blinked hard, remembering the files that Windsor had given her. Things were beginning to come together. 'She's been following people connected to this case for years. That's how she had all that information on Jackson and Walthan.'
'She's been following me?' Castle blinked. 'You don't think it was a coincidence?'
'Case like this there are no coincidences.' Ryan told him needlessly.
Now Kate had some traction, this could be the lead that broke the case. 'She could have been laying down trails for years. I'm going to get a warrant for her apartment. Ryan go though those donations of hers with a fine tooth comb, see if there are any patterns. Castle, you got any other photo albums?'
'Not on my computer. I was going to scan them, I just haven't gotten around to it.' He admitted, typical Castle.
'Go get them, check if you've seen her at any other launches.'
'Will do.'
Alexis watched as her dad swept into the room, the way he usually did when he was on case. 'Dad, you're home early.'
'Yep, flying visit.' he was already heading to his office.
She followed, after all it was a dull day. 'So what's going on?'
'Psychic stalker, stealth murders and whole load of questions.' He grinned like a four year old on a sugar binge. He made his way to one of the cupboards he almost never used.
'Stalker?' Alexis frowned. When her dad stated playing cop it was kinda fun, but recently things had been getting serious. And so had her dad. 'Think they're dangerous?'
'Old lady Windsor?' he smirked pulling out an old fashioned photo album. 'She's a little old lady. Possibly psychic. Here.' He handed the first one to her and then pulled out the second. 'Come on, you can help.'
She took it to the kitchen table and opened it up. 'So what, or who, are we looking for?'
He flipped open the album she had and quickly found the photo he was looking for. 'Whoa' Alexis shivered.
'What?'
'Just had the feeling someone walked over my grave. That was freaky.' She laughed, trying to shake the chill.
'Well that's hopefully a long way off.' Her dad nodded. 'We're looking for that lady, the one in the back.'
It was the one that gave her the shiver, but she kept her mouth shut. 'Right, is she a suspect.'
'Witness, I think. Kinda.' He shrugged. 'It's hard to explain. See what you can find.'
End Chapter One
