AN: I am so beyond thrilled at the response to the first chapter! This is my first fanfiction story ever so it is awesome to see the response. I am also totally unfamiliar with police procedure so bear with me here. Please continue reading and enjoy this next installment!
Disclaimer: I do not own Castle.
They arrived back at the precinct around 5:15. Beckett strutted to her desk to call in Marcus's next of kin and Castle went off into the break room to conjure up coffees for the both of them. Marcus's next of kin turned out to be his mother, Anita, who still lived in Newark meaning they would have to send uniforms to deliver the news and bring her in. Beckett called up Marcus's phone records and financials while Castle was making his way back. Beckett purposefully brushed their fingers while she gratefully accepted the coffee and they both dove into the financials waiting for Anita to arrive.
Two hours later, Anita had come and gone and Castle and Beckett had gained little information from her interview. They merely found out Terrance was an only child who took his parents' divorce hard at age 12. Their home was split up when his father moved out and across the country, which upset Terrance. He was an ambitious young man who paid his own way through school. His father had offered but Terrance refused. His mother speculated it was because Marcus felt abandoned even after all these years. When asked how Terrance paid for his education, she responded that she paid for the first semester but beyond that he had to take out many student loans. Not unusual. When asked if anyone would want to harm him they got the typical mother's response of, "no one would hurt my baby." Suspicious activity? None.
Espo and Ryan had yet to return so Castle and Beckett went back into his financials. Beckett also called the boys to update them on the interview and to have them swing by Terrance's apartment and comb it through for evidence.
While sifting through Marcus's financials they noticed large deposits into his account, all cash so it was untraceable. There were a total of four of the mysterious deposits all for $50,000. The other suspicious thing about his financials was that he never took out any student loans like his mother had claimed.
"Where the hell did all of this money come from?" Beckett exasperated to Castle.
"Illegal activity? It's all cash so that is certainly suspicious. Drug dealer? Gambler?"
"Hmm. Maybe. If there is evidence of drugs at his apartment maybe he is a local dealer and that is how he paid for school."
"Right and he didn't want his mother to know of his illegal activities and told her he took out student loans instead."
She paused before responding, "I'm not seeing it."
"No? Why not? It's plausible."
"Yes, but given the large amount of the deposits and the fact there was only one every year makes me want to say he was definitely not a drug dealer. Typically they sell their load, give the supplier their cut and walk away with their cash. It's never more than a few grand at a time and the deposits are exactly $50,000 each time, too systematic to be drug activity."
"Okay… so let's think, where would someone get $50,000 annually in cash?"
Castle and Beckett both pondered over this question until Castle suddenly exclaimed, "Mob money!"
"Care to explain how you got onto that thread of thought, Castle?" she asked as she swiveled in her seat and turned her attention on him preparing herself for his theory.
"Think about it. Chelsea Piers is known to have a few mobster golf members; the movies have even picked up on that. Imagine a young Marcus who had just started is chatting it up with one of the members and they start having a friendly conversation. Marcus explains that he goes to NYU but isn't sure he can graduate because he doesn't have the money to stick around. Marcus is probably just trying to get a little sympathy from the guy to get a good tip, but what Marcus doesn't expect is for the guy to offer him a loan.
The guy offers him $50,000 a year until he graduates; no payments needed until after graduation. Marcus is skeptical at first, but the member explains he works at a bank (a mob bank with mob money, but Marcus doesn't know that) and it is all starting to sound very legitimate. Marcus agrees because what starving student doesn't want all that money and not have to pay it off quite yet? He was considering getting a student loan anyways.
Marcus gets his money and the member keeps tabs on him at the golf club. But then graduation came around and Marcus has to start paying. Marcus doesn't realize the interest rate that came with the loan meant that he has to pay back double what he got, after all the mob needs to make a return on their investment. Marcus is able to make his payments for the first several months until this fateful winter where he just has no money left. He is burnt out. The member asks to meet him here last night at midnight to re-evaluate the interest rate. Marcus goes willingly, uses his key on the bag room door to get in, and waits for his company to arrive.
They come and they chat their way to the middle of the range when one of the member's lackeys start to beat him around with an iron. Marcus calls out, says he's sorry but he doesn't have the money and he won't until he can find a stable job and save up. The member gets upset, tells him the deal was payments start after graduation and don't stop. Marcus begs forgiveness but the member knows a lost investment when he sees one," Castle gives a dramatic pause and trails off, "He gives his lackey a nod and turns away as the thug tees up for one last blow to Marcus's head."
"Wow," she said mouth agape.
"I know, right? Totally what happened!"
She quickly recovered and corrected, "More like, 'wow, that was way too logical and realistic to have come from Richard Castle's mouth.'"
His gaze on her turned sinister, "That's not the only thing I can make c –"
Beckett leapt out of her chair hissing at him to shut up and firmly smothered his mouth with her hand before interrupting " –Richard Castle don't you dare finish that sentence!"
Once satisfied he would remain quite and reassuring herself Gates was in her office she withdrew her hand, but not before giving his lips an affectionate brush of her thumb.
"I walked right into that one," she reflected, amused, propping her hip against her desk to gaze at the murder board they had set up earlier.
Rick joined her, half sitting on the edge of her desk as they examined their case's details on the board their shoulders brushing. They were running through what they had so far when Ryan and Esposito returned from their vic's apartment.
Beckett stood up to greet them at their desks and barked, "What did you find?" while Castle followed behind her.
"Well, the security guard initially claimed he had checked every hour on the hour for a perimeter check like his job requires him to, but when I returned to tell him the body had been there for four of his perimeter checks and asked why he hadn't noticed it earlier he changed his story and said he missed his checks from 12 until 4 and begged me not to tell his boss," Ryan described.
"Why'd he miss those checks?" countered Castle.
"I asked that very question and he started sweating and acting all nervous. It took a lot of cajoling but I got him to confess that a member had paid him $500 to stay in the office from midnight to 4 am. The member was a Jack Venozzo and didn't let on as to why he would ask the guard to skip the checks and the guard never asked."
"Jack has got to be our killer or our connection to the killer," Beckett claimed and continued, "What else you got?"
"Uniforms talked to a homeless guy in the area, a Tim Sanders–"
"–Wait!," Castle inserted, "Did you say they talked to a homeless guy named Tim?" he asked with child-like glee.
"Uhhhh yeah? His name is Tim Sanders but he goes by Sandy," Espo reluctantly answered, perplexed by Castle's reaction.
Castle turned to Beckett with a permanent smile on his face, "You don't say," he drawled out.
"Okay, apparently one other person besides you would name a homeless guy Tim, but in her defense she would have had no idea he would end up homeless!" she conceded.
He just kept on smiling. Point proven.
She rolled her eyes and turned her attention back on Espo, gesturing to him to continue with what he found.
"Well anyways, Sandy said he noticed four really tough-looking guys being let into the bag room by our vic. He is with a sketch artist now but we don't think he got a very good look."
"On to the victim's apartment, his roommates noticed nothing strange with Marcus except that they had no idea where he got all of his money from. He always had lots of cash on him which they thought was weird but they always just passed it off as tip money from his jobs," Ryan jumped in.
"We seized his laptop and other personal items and found the business card for a Jack Venozzo of Manhattan Trust and that our vic had annual iCal meetings with Jack scheduled on his computer," Espo finished.
"Okay, we gotta bring Jack in for questioning. Get me everything you can on Venozzo. Particularly, look for mob ties. Terrance was getting $50,000 annually in cash and I would be willing to bet that those deposits match with his meetings with Mr. Venozzo," Beckett commanded as Beckett's desk phone began to ring.
She stalked off to her phone and noticed Castle was still grinning like an idiot. Of course he was, the boys had proven him right. Twice.
"Beckett," she answered.
"Hey girl, I have finished the autopsy and am ready for you and writer boy to come on down so I can give you the results," Lanie voiced.
"Got it. We'll be right down," Beckett said before she hung up.
Beckett waited a moment to gather herself so she could handle an over confident Richard Castle. She took another deep breath before taking her giddy writer boy by the arm and off to the elevator.
"Come on Castle, we have a date at the morgue," she told him as the elevator arrived and they hoped in the car.
"Ah," he sighed, "my favorite kind."
The elevator doors slid shut and Beckett took the opportunity to wrap her arms around his neck and bring his mouth down to hers. It was a sweet gentle kiss that quickly escalated when Castle deepened the kiss with a swipe of his tongue. He was clearly trying make the most of the opportunity. Beckett let the kiss last for one more floor before pulling away and straitening out his shirt collar.
"Here is what is going to happen," she led, "I am going to admit you had a good theory and you are going to wipe that ridiculous grin off of your face."
"You want me to quit being all smiley when you just came on to me in the elevator?" he asked dumbfounded.
"Yes," she put it simply.
"This is seriously my lucky day. I get proven right twice, and then you admit that I had a good theory and kissed me at the precinct. How can I not stop smiling?"
"I honestly don't know because it seems that the Universe loves you today, but we're at work and you need to stop grinning like a love-struck fool," she smiled.
"Ahhh but I am one," he breathed.
"I know, but try to hide it a little better, okay?" she asked quietly, "We gotta keep it professional and you giving me that smile makes me want to do more than maul you in the precinct elevator, so tone it down a little at least."
"You got it, babe," he said and smirked when he let loose the pet name.
"Gah! Not at work." She hissed as the doors opened on the correct floor and she stepped out of the car. Castle waited a beat to watch her leave before diligently following her.
AN: That's the latest chapter. I have the next two outlined a little but I am still working to tie everything together in a neat little bow for you! The next chapter might be a little shorter, but things will pick back up after that.
Please review! Your thoughts are extremely important to me so please let me know what you like and don't like about this story so I can make some improvements!