Castle After 4x23 / FW
AN: Many thanks to PatriciaLouise and Gwynne for their help with this story.
Again, I own nothing. I'm just having fun playing with the characters Mr. Marlow and company have developed.
Chapter 8 - Powder Keg
Kate awoke to the sound of movement in the apartment – maybe in the kitchen. She looked and realized the bedroom door was open. Apparently Rick had forgotten to close it when he came to bed last night, half asleep and stumbling. You couldn't really see into the kitchen from the rest of the loft, so it didn't matter. Still, noise carried both ways from kitchen to bedroom, and that was something to remember if you wanted to avoid embarrassment. Kate guessed it was Alexis stirring around. She closed her eyes for a second and could almost envision the redhead at work in the kitchen. She had a look of intense concentration that showed her determination to do things just right – pretty much always. Kate lay in Rick's gentle grasp, heard the young woman who wanted to call her Mom at work in the kitchen and felt the warmth and peace they brought.
I want to live here, she thought. I want this to be home. I want this wonderful man to be my husband. How could I stay in the apartment, my apartment, now? Honestly, I couldn't. If he doesn't ask me to move in with him before this is over, I'll ask. I know it's okay with Lex ... uh...Alexis. I would need her permission to call her 'Lex' and nobody does, so maybe she doesn't like it. Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt Rick move. He mumbled something she didn't catch. So she said softly, "Can you hear me lying here thinking?"
"I can't read your mind but I know it's active," he replied, adding, "I forgot to shut the door."
"I noticed."
She turned over, snuggled against his chest, and turned her head up for a good morning kiss. He tried for more, but she gently backed off saying, "Can't do that with the door open. And once I'm up, I want to take a quick shower, find something to wear in that pile of boxes, and join Alexis in the kitchen." She rolled away, swung her legs off the bed, and headed for the bathroom. Over her shoulder she whispered, "You shut the door, I'll turn on some lights."
She was out of the shower and just finished toweling dry when Rick showed up in his bathrobe bearing a hot mug of black coffee. Kate thanked him with a smile and took a sip. Then took another sip and asked, "What kind of coffee is this? It's amazing."
"Jamaican Blue Mountain. It's Alexis's favorite; mine too. Might become your favorite as well? It's hard to get sometimes, so we generally save it for special occasions."
"What was special this morning?"
"Alexis making morning coffee for 'Mom' for the first time. She wanted it to be special."
Kate teared up with happiness that just plain overflowed. She grabbed a towel and held it to her eyes. Rick came up behind her, snuggled her back against his soft bathrobe, gently took the towel and spun her around to bury her head against his chest. Kate couldn't help herself and with some trepidation she said, "Rick, I don't want this to end. I don't want to wake up without you ever again," and held her breath waiting to hear what he would say.
"You don't have to. Kate, please come live with me - us – make … make this your home."
"Yes. Yes, Rick. A few minutes ago, when I lay in your arms thinking, wanting to move in with you was what I was thinking about." She turned her head up, and they shared a wonderful kiss to seal the deal. Then she said, "I need to get dressed. Fun as this is, Shaw, Gates, the team, are going to descend on us in about 30 minutes. I want to eat something and have another cup of this wonderful coffee before that happens.
Reluctantly Rick released her. He started the shower, slipped out of his bathrobe and stepped in. Kate headed for the bedroom, checking that the door was shut. It was.
She found underwear, comfortable jeans and several blouses, tee shirts and polo shirts. They were accompanied by socks and running shoes in her size. She spent a moment to enjoy the very feminine panties in shocking colors then covered them with practical blue jeans and headed for the kitchen. Alexis had just finished preparing what looked like oatmeal, a couple bowls of fruit, and a container of low fat organic French vanilla yogurt, milk, brown sugar, and cream. The way it was set out was both colorful and pleasant to look at. Kate thought Alexis had a bit of her dad's talent for showmanship and presentation.
When she saw her, Alexis give Kate a big smile, set everything down, and intercepted her for a hug. "Good morning, Mom," she said. "I love having you here."
"I love being here. Thank you for the delicious coffee. I've never had any Jamaican Blue Mountain before. No wonder it's mentioned with some awe in fiction stories."
"We save it for special occasions. This morning - today – is special, so I made it."
"Your dad told me." Kate hesitated causing Alexis to look at her, so she continued, "Alexis, your Dad asked me to move in, to make this my home. I said yes. But I don't want to come between you and your Dad in any way. So if it isn't okay with you, can we please talk it out?"
"It's more than okay with me. I am so glad you said yes. It would be awkward to have a second mom that didn't live here." Then she grinned and came back to give Kate another hug.
"Thanks." Kate was looking at the oatmeal and asked, "Is this special too?"
"Good eye, yes, it's McCann steel cut oatmeal, not rolled. It will have little chewy lumps of grain in it. It has wonderful flavor, and when you mix in strawberries, or blueberries, or both, sweeten it with a bit of brown sugar, and add the yogurt, it turns into a gourmet breakfast with tremendous staying power." Speaking of which, where is Dad, "I don't want this to get cold?"
"Right here," Rick answered.
Kate learned the breakfast was every bit as good as Alexis had said, and maybe even better than that. That, she thought, makes three firsts this morning, Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, Steel Cut Oatmeal, and breakfast in her new home.
She was helping to clear the table when there was a knock on the door. Kate told Rick, "Don't answer that." She ran to the bedroom, grabbed her Glock, and shoved it in her back pocket. Then she went to the door to look through the peep hole. It was Esposito and Ryan.
# # #
Kate went through her precautionary ritual and let them in. They did have a couple of boxes and a gym bag with stuff in it.
With them in, the doors relocked and chained, Kate turned around to them and said, "Good morning, guys. Put the boxes in the living room, and then you are ordered to go to the kitchen and try some of the coffee that Alexis made. I can hardly wait to see your reaction."
Esposito said, "Who are you and what have you done with Beckett?" Dodged away from her punch at his shoulder and headed for the kitchen. He dropped the boxes in the living room and with Ryan trailing said to Alexis, "Good morning. Kate said we are to try the coffee."
Alexis smiled and held out two mugs. Esposito and Ryan took sips.
Ryan said, "My gosh that's good, what is it?"
Esposito answered, "Jamaican Blue Mountain. I've only had it once before. I'd drink it all the time but it's both expensive and sometimes hard to find."
As he turned to face Castle, he apparently saw the Glock in Kate's back pocket because he said, "Beckett, the bare Glock in your pocket is not a good idea."
"Better than being unarmed or jamming it in my waist band which are my other choices at the moment."
"That just changed - I think your holster collection is in the second box down. That's stuff from your apartment Lanie and I thought you could use. Ryan, Lanie, and I went up there early this morning to see if we could find things you might need and take a video of it that we could look at for clues. The CSI team went over it yesterday; we should start getting data back from that and their collection here and on the rooftop over there."
"May I see the video?"
"Yes, but please get a holster out of that box and put the Glock in it first."
Kate picked her Galco shoulder holster because it was comfortable, wouldn't bump into furniture, and didn't require her to wear a belt which her bruised body wouldn't like. The straps over her shoulders didn't bother her, so she was good to go. It also had the pouch with two spare magazines on the other side from the gun to help balance it. She checked the two spare magazines to be sure they were full, put it on, pulled the Glock from her back pocket, stuck it in the holster, and looked in Esposito's direction. He gave her two thumbs up.
She checked her watch and noticed it was one minute to seven just as her phone rang. It was the officer on the first floor to tell her Gates, Shaw, and an Agent Yaros were on their way up. She told the room at large that Gates, Shaw, and Yaros are on their way up." Then she moved to the door to wait.
She went through the same routine to open the door, locking it after they were in. Shaw looked her up and down and said with a grin, "You look a lot better today, Detective. Sleep agrees with you. I like the Glock in the shoulder holster better than the back pocket, too."
"You and Espo twins separated at birth? He went to my apartment to pick up my holsters and brought them to me. This one is the most comfortable given my bruises."
"Good for him." Changing the subject, Shaw continued, "This is Special Agent Jim Yaros. Martin texted in sick, and Agent Yaros volunteered to fill in." Kate shook Agent Yaros' hand, but something wasn't right. What Castle would call her spidy senses were tingling. Then Shaw continued, "Agent Martin said she left a few queries running based on Mr. Castle's profile that should have finished up during the night. I'd like to look at those as the first order of business. Then see what other background queries we might run to develop what it would take for warrants to go after bank accounts, travel history, and so forth."
The consensus was to do exactly that. Alexis joined them in front of the murder board after she had cleared the breakfast and put the dishes in the dishwasher.
Shaw said to Yaros, "I'd like to do this if you don't mind," Yaros started to object, but since he wasn't in the seat, Shaw had the advantage, sat down and woke up the board.
Yaros said, almost whining, "Agent Shaw, I would very much like to do my job which is running that board."
As he spoke, Kate's suspicions went to red alert. She decided Yaros didn't get to spend thirty seconds on that keyboard.
Kate said, "Before you get started, Agent Shaw, Ryan and Esposito videoed my apartment early this morning. When we are done with this, can you get it into your database and tag it in some way that it might be useful?"
"I don't know if it will be useful or not, but I can definitely do what you suggest."
"Would you mind teaching Alexis how to do that?"
"Not at all. Alexis, pull up a chair, you might as well watch what I'm doing now."
More than a little excited, Alexis was there in a heartbeat totally focused on the small screen where the commands showed.
"Okay," Kate said, "Sorry for the interruption, please start."
Agent Shaw brought up the murder board primary display of the case with the timeline across the top and the flow chart of Rick's hypothesized criminal career for the Unsub below it. She said, "Looks like the first thing she wanted to do was to see if there were any current or recent United States Congressmen that had been in office for the terms specified. There are three."
All but Yaros gasped when they saw the names. Kate noticed Yaros' lack of reaction. Did he already know or was he just that stoic all the time.? Kate decided against stoic based on the earlier whining episode.
Rick said, "I'd bet large it's Oxley."
Gates said, "I've never heard of him before."
"That's why I think he's the one," Rick reasoned. "I don't think he's been in the news very much for being in office for thirty years. The other two are household names and well-known nationwide - I see them on Fox News and other news shows making commentary and offering opinions - not something I think our main man would do. But I can hear Kate saying to keep them all just in case."
Kate said, "That's what I was thinking."
Gates asked, "What else did she have running?"
"Let's see, okay, she set it up to feed any names turned up into a foreign travel search. To look for all the recorded times any of them entered or left the country with dates and destinations. The world traveling champion is Oxley. But all his trips have been pretty much off the radar. He was on one official congressional junket, the rest were off the record. They cluster around the time of Desert Storm and continue for about three years: four or five trips a year. They died down, and the trips start again just prior to the commencement of hostilities in Afghanistan and pick up even more when we invaded Iraq.
"The program she had running dropped the other two at that time and scoured newspaper articles and congressional attendance records which are public records, no warrant required, to see what else might turn up.
"Her query found three things. First, he attends infantry weapons conferences almost every year. He has since Desert Storm, especially when they are held during congressional recesses. Second, he has visited the offices of some of the most well- known military contractors, and a couple of the least known based on frequency of appearance in news stories."
"What are the least known," Castle asked.
"There are two, Custody International, which supplies guards for military prisons and security for prisoners being moved to and from various facilities for interrogation, security for high value shipments, and so forth. The other is Night Vision International, aka NVI, which specializes in supplying and maintaining night vision equipment. NVI doesn't manufacture anything; they sell and maintain integrated night vision systems composed of offerings from other companies located here in the States. Their biggest customers are the Special Operations Command organizations: Seals, Delta Force, and so on."
"That is pretty much where it was programmed to stop, and it did around oh-four hundred this morning."
"That plays well with our hypothesis, but it could all be coincidence too," Gates said.
Shaw agreed, "We need to find something in public records that will get us a warrant. Or we need to link him to other suspects: like tracking down the folks that shot through the window here or shot up Beckett's apartment."
Esposito looked at Agent Shaw and asked, "Did the FBI lab have any luck with the videos we got from the building late yesterday?"
Shaw said, "Umm ... Let's see … Yes, they did! I have a report they uploaded to the board right here." She opened the report and they saw three names, one of which was Chris Maddox along with the video clips from which they were identified.
Espo said, "I've seen those other two guys. They were civilian contractors at the time in some sort of black ops activity I ran across in the early days of Iraq. Let me go home and look in my stuff. I may be able to tell you within a few days when I saw them and where. Never mind, I know exactly when it was, it was the day after they pulled down the statue in Bagdad. It would have been April 10, 2003. I could not forget that, I was there and saw it come down."
"Do you know what they might have been involved with?" Beckett asked.
"No, but ... give me a minute, we're talking about nine years and a couple of trips to hell and back between then and now ... okay, that would have been when we thought the biggest joke we'd heard was Colin Powell's speech on April 7th when he said the war in Iraq was drawing to a close. Man was clueless. After the statue, or within a few days of it, Mosul fell and the Green Berets with some Kurdish went into Kirkuk. I remember Kirkuk because the Turk's said they wouldn't allow Kurds in the city. Good luck with that. You know, the biggest thing at the time was all the looting going on in Bagdad. There were a lot of valuable things being stolen that never showed up anyplace ever again. One of our jobs was to try to stop the roving gangs. We were never able to do that effectively because they always seemed to know where we were." He paused and said, "Never occurred to me till now, but I wonder if those dudes," pointing at the screen, "were part of the looting?"
Gates looked at Shaw and asked, "Can you find out if these guys worked for a private contractor in Bagdad at that time?"
"Maybe, but it will take some time. I'll have to search the photo ID's of their employee files, but I can get a warrant to do that on the basis of these guys being connected with the assault on the loft here."
"Agent Yaros, you get the warrant. Get the Albuquerque office to work the warrant for you. I know the folks out there, was there once, I trust the SSA there. I'll call him and let him know the request is coming and to keep it quiet. Alexis, keep an eye on this." Then Shaw looked in his direction and said, "Agent Yaros, come with me," after which she walked off towards the office touching the front of her phone.
Kate had been quiet watching all this with interest. She said, "This is a really powerful tool. Can it tell us where Oxley was during the month of April 2003?"
"I bet it can. I think I can make it do that. She's using standard structured query language. This thing seems to have permissions about every place it looks. Let me see if I can check news stories here and abroad." Alexis started typing, not nearly as fast as Shaw, and nowhere near the blinding speed Martin had, but commands that got the machine to start its search.
Gates looked at Beckett and said, "I'm not much help with this part of the investigation. I need to get down to the Twelfth to check in and see what's happening. Folks will start to get suspicious if I'm not there. I'm not willing to have anybody there work on this, but I still have a lot of activity going on - the homicides continue. If anything big happens, please call me."
"I will. I'll let you out."
Gates asked on the way to the door, "I'm not trying to be snotty, but what are you doing?"
Kate replied, "I'm making it okay for these people to do what they do best. I'm letting fast horses run. So far they are running in the right direction. If the stampede gets off course, I'll use gentle pressure on the reins to bring it back."
Gates said, "I don't operate like that."
To which Beckett replied after opening the door, "How's that working for ya?"
Gates stared at her, didn't say anything for a moment, and then sort of huffed out. Kate closed, locked, and chained the door, but she was encouraged. She wasn't sure Gates got it yet, but she was almost certain she was getting closer.
When she got back to the group Alexis looked at her like she wanted to ask a question. Kate looked encouragingly in her direction and asked, "Something on your mind?"
"Yes. Is it okay if I try to see when those two companies started? Is there some way to see if their origins correspond with when the ransom money was available?"
Shaw was just returning so she sat down and said, "I got it, Alexis. Oh, nice search you just ran to sort out Oxley's travel," she said. "Checking when they were chartered with the timeline dates is a good idea."
Shaw blasted a torrent of keystrokes into her computer, hit enter, and waited. A few seconds later the corporate history of the two companies showed up on screen. One of them, Custody International, was chartered in early 1993 with, what the annual report said was an initial cash infusion of two point five million.
Rick said, "That might be it. The amount of money is close to right. It's a public corporation, right. The books are a matter of public record? Can you get a forensic accountant to look over the annual reports to see if it looks like all the money is accounted for, or if there might be some leaking out or mysteriously appearing? Who is their accounting firm? That might be a place to look if we can do it legally."
This time Shaw said, "On it," and stepped away with her phone again. She added, "Yaros, I'm not done yet," apparently because she saw Yaros trying to take the seat in her absence.
Ryan said, "What can I do? The FBI is doing all the online stuff I usually do to contribute and doing it way better than I can."
Kate said, "Just hang on. Pretty soon we'll get to something that requires legwork and that's where you, Espo, and maybe Hastings, come in."
"Officer Ann Hastings?"
"Yes," Kate said matter-of-factly.
"Why?"
"Because I trust her. And right now the number of people I'm sure are not part of this really ugly conspiracy is countable on two hands with fingers left over. She's one of them."
"Got it. Do you want to have Gates talk to her boss and get her temporarily assigned to us?"
"Good idea. I'll do that right now."
Kate walked away while she found Gates on her speed dial. When Gates answered, Kate said, "Captain Gates, I need a favor."
"What's that?"
"I'd like to have Officer Ann Hastings temporarily assigned to us in civilian clothes. Can you make that happen?"
"Consider it done. I'll have her report to the loft when she gets changed."
"Thanks," Kate said and broke the connection wanting to quit while she was ahead.
Shaw returned, sat down, saw the board had changed and said, "I have Oxley's travel during April 2003. He was in Afghanistan twice, Iraq once, and in Maryland when he wasn't in DC. He only voted twice or was present for roll call twice in April 2003. Curioser and curioser. I don't know a judge that would give us a warrant for Oxley's financial records based on this. I wouldn't. But Custody International's bank account is a matter of public record with the SEC. Let me see what they might have. This will take a while and a favor or two."
Kate said, "Go for it."
"Yaros, please go make some calls, see if you can line up a Federal Judge that thinks this is all worth a warrant."
Agent Yaros said, "I'll go over to the office so I don't disturb you folks."
Kate said, "No problem."
Yaros left for the office.
Castle said, "Suppose this turned out to be a small, disadvantaged woman owned business? The SBA might have some records on this that relate to Oxley's wife. I'm presuming he's been married to the same woman the whole time."
Alexis brought up the congressman on Wikipedia and said, "There is no record of a divorce on his Wiki page. Let me look around under his wife's maiden name which is ... Carole Bridger."
Kate said, "Let me know what you find, I have a call to make." She didn't have a call to make, but she wanted to go into the bedroom from the other entrance near the entry while Yaros was on the phone in the office. She opened the door and quietly entered the bedroom, turned on the recorder app on her cell phone. She saw it recording what she could clearly hear Yaros saying, "They are hot on Custody International. ... No, I can't get them interested in Night Vision International. For some reason Shaw won't let me even sit at the keyboard - she's hell bent on training some teen age kid. ... Yes, Alexis. They lost interest in NVI because it wasn't chartered at the right time. They are going to get a warrant for your bank records sooner or later. They suspect you. ... 3:30 PM? Yes, I can arrange to be out of here then; is that when you want to do it? ... Why?... You are probably right; they won't expect it in daylight." There was a long pause and he said, "Yes. You won't hear from me again before ... I'll call you around six from the burner phone, let you know what the casualties were and confirm that Castle and Beckett are dead. Ok, got to go now." He hung up and from the sound of the footsteps headed out of the office.
She called Shaw on her cell; when Shaw answered she said, "Do not say my name. I need you to ask Alexis if you can use the bathroom in the bedroom. I'm in there, and I need to talk to you in private immediately."
Shaw said, "ummmm, yes. I can do that. I have something to do first, and then I'll call you back."
About a minute later Shaw came into the master bath. Kate held a finger to her lips, left and shut both bedroom doors quietly. Shaw started to talk but Kate stopped her saying, "Listen please. - this is Yaros' end of part of the phone call he just made." Then she played the recording of Agent Yaros on the phone.
Shaw's face turned white with anger.
Kate clutched her shoulders and said quietly but earnestly, "Jordon, look in my eyes! We don't know what's planned beyond they think it will kill most or all of us in the apartment instantly or within minutes. We need to get him to talk, but I don't have a lot of hope that will happen. None of the guys I've questioned were willing to admit anything. They are way more afraid of The Dragon than they are of us. I'm going to suggest we tie him up and threaten to leave him here while we leave."
"We can't do that."
"Watch me. He's a domestic terrorist. He's part of planning an attack on a room full of innocent people with possible lethal collateral damage to adjacent apartments if it's explosives, which they might use. I can call DHS if you aren't willing, and they will lock him up in a heartbeat based on this recording. Furthermore, we need to find out exactly who he was talking to, so we need to grab his phone before he can erase the call. I'm going in there and take him down, you going to help?"
"If I didn't have so many witnesses and didn't need his testimony, he'd be resisting arrest and get shot."
"Get back in there. I'll follow you in a couple of minutes from this door," pointing at the bedroom door to the office, "When I take him down, you will have to stop the others from interfering; they will not know what I'm up to,"
Shaw and Yaros were talking about Night Vision International with Yaros trying hard to bring them to the front of the investigation when Kate walked up behind Yaros. She looked hard at Ryan and Espo when the others couldn't see the look. She pointed at Yaros, shook her head, and gave the thumbs down. Ryan and Espo nodded. She knew they had been with her long enough to read her mind.
Then she walked right up behind Yaros, grabbed his head, kicked the back of his knee, wrenched him around and in less than two seconds was kneeling on his back after he slammed face first into the floor hard enough to stun him. Espo had Castle restrained telling him, its OK, Bro. Ryan had his arms around an astonished Alexis whose eyes were big as silver dollars.
Kate said, "He's traitor. He's working with Oxley. I'll prove it; Espo, your cuffs?"
Castle settled down immediately. Espo let him go and handed cuffs to Kate who put them on Yaros. Then she yanked him to his feet by his ear, walked him to the dining room and slammed him into a chair. She retrieved two cell phones from him.
Then she turned to the group and said, "Please listen to this," after which she played her recording of Yaros' phone conversation. While she was playing it, she watched Yaros slumping further and further onto the chair.
She looked at the recent calls log on Yaros' phone and copied down the numbers. Then she handed the phones to Ryan and said, "Espo, you know a guy, right? One with no connections?"
"Yes, I do."
"Can you get Ryan into see him?"
"Yes."
"Agent Shaw, I'm going to suggest Ryan take these phones and go to see this guy of Espo's who is a genius with these things, unless you have a better idea."
Shaw replied sounding extremely angry and frustrated, "Kate, I have no better idea. All I ask is that they make copies of the data in those phones before they experiment on them to recall stuff that's deleted."
Espo said, "I'll make the call. Beckett, Kevin should take a couple of Federal Marshals with him for protection. The Marshals are going to have to wait on the street. My guy knows Kevin, but he will leave the building if Federal Marshals show up."
Shaw said, "Have the Marshals call me on this number," she jotted down a number and handed it to Ryan, "as soon as you know who they are."
"Roger. WILCO," he said. "I'm outta here; call you in two with names."
Kate said, "Castle, take them to the door and lock everything after they leave."
Castle said, "On it."
Kate looked at Alexis and Shaw and said, "Alexis, you can stay if you want, but I'd advise against it. I need this man to talk in the next couple of hours, or I'm going to have to leave him here to die while we go to safety."
Alexis said, "I should go to my room and pack for time away from here and put my computer hard drive and jewelry in the bag? That's what you are saying?"
"Yes. Exactly."
"Okay," Alexis answered and sprinted for the stairs.
Then Kate turned to Yaros and said, "I heard you talking. I have a strong suspicion they plan to blow up this apartment." She turned to Javi and said, "Espo, do you know any explosives guys?"
"Yes."
"Please see if you can get them to come here ASAP. I strongly suspect they plan a bomb. It's the only thing that would time like that which wasn't a suicide run. The mercs are not suicidal." She paused to think then continued, "Agent Shaw, find out everything you can about people in adjacent apartments, especially the one under this one. Castle, call the door man, find out if the neighbor under you is home and if there has been any unusual traffic to his apartment."
Shaw started clattering away on the keyboard; Castle called the doorman. Kate was lost in thought. Yaros apparently thought she was off guard and started to stand up glancing towards Castle to see if he noticed. Kate hit him in the chest with a spin kick that laid him out on the floor unable to get back up. Shaw looked up with a quizzical expression - Kate said, "He tried to get up, apparently had fantasies about taking me down and escaping or something foolish like that. Big mistake; huge."
She stood over Yaros and said, "You better pray I keep you locked up. If Cole Maddox gets a hold of you, he'll rip you apart just for fun. I think you are easy; Maddox wiped the roof with me. You don't talk the best thing I can do is turn you lose after we have foiled his plan. Save the taxpayers a lot of money."
Beckett pulled him up by his other ear, returned him to his chair and said, "Stay, or I'll start breaking things."
Castle said, "The doorman says the tenant has been gone on an unplanned trip since yesterday, something about a contest he won, but several other people have been going in and out. There have also been some deliveries. Doorman thought it was part of the contest."
Kate said, "Espo, get your explosive guys here; I'll call Gates to get a warrant for that apartment."
As she hit the speed dial for Gates, Kate reflected that it wasn't even ten o'clock yet. Gates answered and said, "Hastings should be there about now."
"That's not why I'm calling. Yaros is a traitor. Got him red handed selling us out. I'm worried about Martin. I think the apartment beneath this one is either rigged with explosives or being rigged with explosives. Espo has some military explosive experts he knows on the way over. I need a warrant to get in there so the explosives are ultimately admissible."
"Give me the information; I'll get the warrant but don't wait if you think the time is close, be safe. We can't let the building blow up. Period."
Kate went over the information she had; Gates agreed it was thin, but she'd get on it ASAP. Kate hung up and told Esposito, "Let's get down there."
Shaw said, "You can't leave here."
Esposito said, "Beckett, we need to do this with backup. If Cole Maddox is there, he can take the two of us, again. Call NYPD SWAT; bring them in quietly, no sirens. Have them act like they are coming here but get off a floor early. That will avoid alerting the bad guys if they are still there. They also have explosives experts."
Kate fought through the rage she was feeling and suddenly got herself under control. Esposito was exactly right. Last time she went off half-cocked they both nearly died. She said, "Thanks, I needed that. Make the call. I'll tell Gates."
When Gates answered Kate said, "I'm having Espo call NYPD SWAT. We need serious firepower and manpower if there are three or four mercenaries in there like Cole Maddox. The last time I tried to do it myself didn't work out so well."
Gates said, "Excellent, and I think I'll have a warrant in a half hour or so. Judge has agreed, they are typing it up."
Kate said, "We should evacuate the building. You agree?"
"Yes, but there aren't many in the building; they are large, sparsely populated, loft apartments. It's several hours till three thirty. We can wait a little to avoid spooking anybody."
Espo said, "SWAT will come in from the front door, no sirens. They will execute a no-knock entry to the apartment below. We'll go from there. The doorman says he thinks there are still two people in the apartment but most of them have left."
Kate said, "I'll wait here. I don't have a vest."
"Good idea," Esposito replied. He said, "I'm heading for the Mobile Command Center. I'll come up with the SWAT guys. If Hastings ever shows up, have her check the service stairs to be sure there isn't anything there or in the elevator shaft."
Kate said, "Will do." And Esposito left.
# # #
While Kate waited she paced nervously. Shaw said to sit down, but Kate was having none of it. Shaw continued to occupy herself with the murder board.
When 45 minutes had passed and it was almost noon, Kate's phone rang and showed a picture of Esposito. She answered and heard him say, "Beckett, the apartment was rigged to blow a city block. The explosives guys say they have it under control and are busy moving the stuff out. There was all of 250 lbs of C4 in here, and I think the guy carrying the last load just left. I asked them to inspect the apartment for hidden explosives. They had it rigged as a shaped charge to blow into the living room with shrapnel all over the place. It was the primitive equivalent of a cave bomb."
Kate grilled Espo extensively on the apartment search. He had been really thorough. His ex-military guys had finally been allowed in by the SWAT team and also took a look. They found evidence that someone was planning to add additional explosives, but they were not in place yet. They went over adjacent apartments and the roof. All were free of explosives. So were the stairwell and the service elevator shaft.
Officer Hastings was reported as heading up in the elevator.
When she arrived, Kate let her in. She asked about the explosives that she saw being carried out, and so Kate told her the story. She blanched white enough that Kate was worried for her. But she recovered in a couple of minutes. She asked if she could go look as well. Kate allowed it and called Esposito to tell him she was coming down.
About ten minutes later the men at the front door called to say SWAT was double timing back up to the apartment. Espo called to say that Hastings had found explosives concealed in the closet in the form of explosive cloth - the detonator was in the pocket of a shirt. The SWAT expert deactivated the detonator and then they felt all the clothes but didn't find another detonator. SWAT was carefully packing the clothes individually in boxes and hauling them out. It was going to take another half-an-hour to get it done.
Kate said, "Put Hastings on the phone."
"Detective Beckett?"
"Ann, how did you find that stuff?"
"I read about it during a class I've been taking at NYU. The clothes feel different, sort of scratchy, because of how the explosive dries. I felt the clothes in all the closets, only the clothes in the closet that would be right under the bed in Castle's bedroom were explosive. I figured they had to have a backup plan and they did."
"Thank you, Officer Hastings. I owe you a big one."
"No, you don't. If you hadn't given me a second chance, I'd never have been here to discover this. Gives a whole new meaning to what goes around comes around, doesn't it?"
"Yes it does. Take Espo with you, satisfy yourself the building is safe, and then come on back up here. Put Espo back on."
"Beckett?"
"Yes. Please pick two of the SWAT guys at random and send them up here to take Yaros into custody. I want him out of here. I'll call Gates to get busy processing evidence against him for the DA."
"On it. You having fun telling Gates what to do?"
"Not particularly. I ask rather than tell. I'm trying to show her by example how to lead. She tends to beat people into compliance and following orders, or else. I'm trying to get her to understand how to make people want to do what she orders, or better yet do what's right without being told."
"Training bosses is tough work at best. It's damn near impossible in a paramilitary organization like the NYPD, but it's worth trying for all our sakes."
"Roger that. Later, Bro. I need to call Gates."
Connection broken Kate dialed Gates who answered, "Captain Gates."
"Captain, I'm having Espo pick a couple of SWAT people at random to come up and take custody of Yaros. We'll hold him on conspiracy to commit mass murder, and terrorism charges. I think being part of planting almost 300 lbs of explosives in an occupied apartment building meets the requirements for terrorism. That should let us hold him till we can tie him in with the rest of them. Do you want him at the safe house for interrogation?"
"Yes. I've been putting together what we will need to hold him and the warrant for his arrest on the charges you just mentioned is in process. How am I doing?"
"Super! That's exactly what I was going to suggest. He has clammed up here. I think new faces with the evidence from the apartment below and my recording ought to loosen his lips a little. You might want to see if you can find a cooperative ADA to walk the line with as much intimidation as can be managed without compromising our ability to convict."
"Good idea. Thanks," then Gates continued, "Beckett, you were lucky Hastings knew how to detect explosive clothes – apparently that's what terrorists are using now."
Beckett said, "We shouldn't be surprised. This Unsub has been mixing with some pretty unsavory company related to war and terror for 22 years or more. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, none of the bad guys were there."
Gates said, "I understand you were primarily responsible for giving Hastings a second chance after that super hero stunt she pulled. Apparently that's working for you."
"It did this time." Kate looked up to see Shaw pointing at the murder board. She saw the faces from the roof next door with names and said, "I gotta go. I think we just got hits on the guys on the roof next door."
The connection was broken.
Kate had a sudden very cold feeling. "Agent Shaw, how do we get in touch with Agent Martin to see how sick she really is? I'm concerned she may have been forced to be absent."
"I got that same feeling about five minutes ago. No answer on the phone."
"I'll call Gates and have a unit go by her hotel room."
Kate called Gates back and the unit was dispatched.
They called in a few minutes later to say the door was unlocked; there were signs of a struggle, but no Agent Martin. Kate ordered crime scene techs to the location, and Shaw called Quantico for kidnapping support. Then it occurred to Kate they were over thinking it. She called the patrol guys back and said, "Take the service elevator to the basement. Listen, as in be real quiet, so you can hear her if her mouth is taped."
They called back about fifteen minutes later with a very thankful Agent Martin. Bruised, stiff from being bound to a post with a black cloth bag over her head, but alive and ready to do whatever it took to get the people that did that to her. She had ordered room service breakfast. When she opened the door, she was jumped by two guys in ski masks. She didn't see their faces. They put tape on her mouth, the cloth bag over her head, taped her hands together and smuggled her to the basement.
When this had passed Kate remembered the faces and asked, "Okay, back to the murder board for a minute, back to those faces. What did you find out?"
"They both worked for Custody International and apparently still do. That company has at least two sets of records, maybe more. The computer has been cross-correlating them based on meanings rather than a simple digital comparison, and there are profound differences. I'm pretty sure I can get a warrant for their arrest based on this data and the video we used to get it. I am also going to go for warrants to confiscate and search all of Custody International's records from incorporation to present, the corporate papers, all the owner ship information however it is structured, and the financial and credit card records of all the executives and management, and their phone records and any travel records."
Kate said, "Fantastic. What are their names?"
"Alex Soros and Arthur Anderson."
"I'll run those by Espo when he gets back."
Please press the blue button and let me know what you think. I'm new at this and I can't learn with out feedback. Thanks!
06/08/2012
