AN: I think I have to change my point in spoilers, I will use some older cases for the them to work through in more detail. So there may be one or two spoiler for the first season and one short mentioning of two characters of the second season in this fanfic. This chapter will be a little bit dry, but it is needed so that some of the things I planed make sense.
First night
Precinct:
Beckett marches into the bullpen in one hand a shaken Alexis and in the other her cellphone, 'So Ryan, how far are the techs with bugging the phones in the house, ….., mhh that sounds good. Yeah let it get forwarded to my cell as long as none of them are in the apartment. Mhh …... get it to ballistic, maybe we get a lead from it. See you at the station.'
'So Alexis I want you to ...', started Beckett before Captain Montgomery comes charging out of his office.
'Detective Beckett, what is going on? Who gave you the authority to command Esposito out of my office while an Assistant DA preps for an important appearance at court?'
Only his own experiences with her, prevents that he rip her a new one. And after he realize that Alexis is also there, his instinct kicks in.
'Hello Alexis, nice to meet you again. And where is Castle', he asks.
Alexis starts sobbing, so Beckett turns to her first, 'Alexis, I want you to go into the break room and make yourself comfortable there. I have to talk to Captain Montgomery and I will check in on you in a sec.'
While watching her walk into the break room Beckett indicates that they better take their conversation into his office.
'So what's going on detective', he starts as he closes his door.
'I recommend you take a good hearty drought from your painkiller of the poor man first. You will need it, trust me.'
'That doesn't sound too good, but is it really that bad', he replies with raised eyebrows.
'It is worse! There was a shooting in Castles apartment, besides a small puddle of blood we found a casing and CSU just pulled the slug out of the wall and it is on his way to Ballistics. Until we have the test results for the blood and a sample CSU took from his tooth brush we operate under the tacit assumption that it is Castles blood.'
Montgomery takes a small sip out of his hip flask.
'To complicate matters even more Ms. Rogers had a party at the apartment last night, so CSU will be hard pressed to find some good evidence with all the trash lying around.'
Montgomery takes another sip out of his pocket bottle and held it to Beckett. She takes the offered bottle and without hesitation a good sip out of it.
'So what do you want to do, Beckett', he inquires.
'First of all I want to be the lead in this case, then my team will go over all the cases Castle helped to close to see if it is some back fire from an old case. I also took the liberty to already contact his publisher to get his fan mail one more time to check for another Kyle Cabot.'
'Yeah, I remember the first case of you two together', Montgomery chimed in.
'And naturally we have to check his social life, because it could be always a jealous husband. Last but not least, I let CSU already bug his phones, because it could be a kidnapping gone sour and there may be a ransom call', she finish with a sigh.
'I see a lot of motives for harming him, it will be a tough workload, I see to it that you get a couple of officer to help you sort trough all that data. He is one of ours after all', he says. 'Oh, the mayor wont like this', he adds and in expectation of the hell days coming his way takes another good sip out of the recovered pocket flask.
At that moment her cell rings, 'Hello. … No Martha I am not at the apartment. I am sorry to ruin your plans, but could you come to the precinct to pick up Alexis. … I will explain as soon as you arrive. Bye.'
Putting the cell in the back pocket of her jeans, she says: 'The forwarding of calls already paid of, Ms. Rogers called in to let Castle know she will be out of house today. And with the forwarding at least I could handle the situation, instead of an tech, who blurs things out which are better not told on the phone.'
'I can talk to her', Montgomery offers.
'No, I will do it, I have to. But could you inform Esposito that he no longer needs to search for Ms. Rogers.' With a small nod she leaves the offices and walks over to comfort Alexis till her grandmother shows up. Twenty minutes later Ms. Rogers enters the bullpen and dominates it like the diva she is, at least till the male detectives realize that she may be their own mother. After a short orientation and a moment of hesitation she makes her way to the break room.
Montgomery and Esposito meet at his desk and observe the event.
'These are the hardest conversations, it is already hard to convey this to strangers, but to tell it people you actually care for is heart breaking', Montgomery states calmly.
'I can feel her too', Esposito agrees.
After five minutes a even more determined Beckett leaves the room and steps to the two men. The three of them witness as Ms. Rogers literally collapse onto the couch and Alexis and she pulls each other into a hug. 'She has agreed to taking a room in the Hilton, so get into contact with the techs so they can set up the needed equipment for the tracing and forwarding of the calls from the apartment, Esposito. And Captain I would like to have at least two officers as a security detail with them, but make sure that Alexis and Ms. Rogers don't realize their purpose, best is to tell them they are needed by protocol to protect the equipment and techs.'
'Do you really believe that is necessary?' Montgomery inquires.
'We don't know the reason for what happened. And I don't play with the safety of these two, especially after I promised Castle to take good care of Alexis', is the somewhat cold answer Becketts. 'Get the things organized Esposito, I will start the investigation of motives with a visit of an old friend of Castle.'
'Do you want Ryan as backup?'
'No, Esposito, the more cops are involved in this visit the harder it will be to get some useful answer out of him.' And with extra emphasis on the next sentence she adds: 'You better take good care of Castles family, I will take you personal responsible for this task, do you understand?'
'Clear copy', Esposito snaps. And while the two men exchange bewildered glances, Beckett nearly runs out of the precinct.
