Author's Note: Thanks for all the comments and reviews! I LOVE opening my e-mail and having unread messages that tell me of a person reviewing my story. My original goal was to have this story concluded before the real season started but since I have only a few days before the series premier, I doubt I'll make it. I am still working on the ending—I want it classy and how a real show would end without making it too forced and I have to work all weekend so I won't have much time to write. But I will get it done as soon as I can. :-)
The elevator opened. "I am looking for Detective Esposito."
"That would be me." Esposito looked up from his desk and stood. The man extended his hand, "I'm Sergeant Cooper from the gang division. We talked on the phone."
"Right," Esposito waved the team over. "The sergeant is an old timer from the gang violence department. He is the lead investigator on the shooting."
"Glad to meet you."
Introductions were started before Esposito pointed the guys in the direction of the conference room.
"So what do we know?" Esposito opened the floor for the cop.
Cooper knew gangs. He pulled out his files and passed around copies of important documents. "We believe there were two gangs involved in this shooting: the Crusaders and the Kings. Tough crowd. Guys had been at each other's throats for years. This is only one of their more violent incidents."
"What else?"
"Mostly shootings, beatings, robberies, but always targeting members of the other gang. Then the victim gang retaliates and it goes back and forth for a while. This is the first time they have gotten a cop killed. Their beef is with the other side, but when anyone gets in the way…" Cooper shrugged.
"Did anybody see Kate?" Castle asked.
"Now that we have had time to regroup and think, a couple guys think they saw her but no one can remember where she was when things ended."
"How did it end?"
"Everyone scattered. SWAT pulled up and that kind of ended the gang war. They knew that a cop going down was not in their favor."
"What kind of body count do we have with this?"
"Just the one cop so far—hopefully the others pull through. But as for the gang members, we have three bodies and a couple hits that apparently were helped away by friends but from reports, we can assume we will be getting their bodies soon."
"So there were injuries."
"Yes. At least two we think would have needed surgery."
"Any reports from the hospitals?"
"No, but I'm not expecting any. We'll be lucky if the doctor calls us after the fact. These gangs can be pretty ruthless."
"We didn't exactly need that reminder." Castle was on his feet and left the room. Esposito and Ryan could handle the cop stuff, his mind was on other things. In the bullpen he added the names of the gang to the white board. He drew arrows from each name to the photo of the blood in the backseat. He drew a question mark next to each line. Photos of the casualties lined the right side of the murder board. None of their blood matches the blood in the backseat. Lanie had called earlier with that news.
Esposito, Ryan and Demming found Castle pacing in front of the white board.
"This blood is still stumping me." He pointed to the photo, "Who is our mystery person? A good guy or a bad guy?"
"Who knows?"
"And why is that blood restricted?" Castle continued without even appearing to hear Ryan's comment.
"Still trying to use my FBI contacts, but so far no one can help us." Esposito informed them.
"That is what is going to break this case." Castle proclaimed. "Once we ID him…"
"Or her." Ryan added.
"…it will all make sense."
"Since we have no idea, how are we going to do that with what we have now?" Demming crossed his arms.
Castle stopped pacing. He looked at the murder board—er, white board. Kate's not dead! He told himself. Looking at the board brought nothing to mind. "I have no idea."
Author's Note: Sorry this was so short. I couldn't come up with anything else to say. Next chapter Alexis breaks the case open for the team. And it is much longer.
