It's About My Future-Chapter 9

In a measured and deliberate tone, Kate said, "Captain, I want to warn you that if we have this conversation, you may be exposing yourself to unprecedented danger?"

"Kate, I heard you talking to Robert McManus. You told him that Bracken killed your mother and tried to kill you and your friends. Did you really think I would forget what you said?" Kate shook her head worried about the danger she was putting her friends through. "Why haven't you come to me about this before?" Gates asked, looking pointedly at Kate.

"I need you to trust me when I say the less you know about this situation the better, the safer you are. I have things under control," Kate said.

"How? Tell me what you have so that I can protect you," said Gates.

"All I can say is that we have an understanding." Kate looked into Gates eyes wanting to tell her everything but too afraid to speak the words out loud. "These walls may have ears. The fewer people who know about this the safer for us all." Kate glanced at the bullpen and then back to Captain Gates. She ran her hand through her hair and cupped her chin, her elbow coming to a rest in her lap. Her eyes lost focus as she thought about the chain of events that had led to this moment. She wanted nothing more than to bring Bracken to justice not only for herself but for all the collateral damage he had caused in his assent to the top. Like many men of his kind, Bracken believed that his illicit activities were justified for the greater good of the people. He had said as much at their first meeting. She looked back up at Gates and said, "If I had what I needed to take care of this situation, I would but I don't have all of the pieces of the puzzle yet."

"Share what you have with me and I will find the remaining pieces," Gates told her. "I assume that as long as he is allowed to operate with impunity you and my detectives are in danger. You may not believe me but I care about all of you," she said sincerely.

"Even Mr. Castle," Gates added. Kate saw a small smile come across Gates face.

Kate smiled back but shook her head, "I just can't sir. I will tell you that I'm close to getting the evidence I need and when I do, you will be my first phone call." Kate turned her gaze to the bullpen.

"If you care about them, you will tell me what you suspect and what you have," Gates said.

"It's because I care about them that I can't tell you anything," Kate replied.

"Does he have something on you or one of them?" Gates asked as she pointed out the window.

"No. We're clean. I promise Captain Gates, I will inform you the minute I have something concrete. Until then, I cannot talk about this."

"Very well, Kate. I'll hold you to your promise. But if you change your mind I am ready to use the might of the NYPD." Gates eyes widen to convey her point. She looked out her office window and said, "Take care of them."

Kate nodded her head, "I promise." She rose and headed for the door. "Oh, Captain," Gates looked up at Kate, "Thank you." Gates gave her a small understanding smile and nod. Kate returned the gestured and walked back out into the bullpen.

"You okay?" asked Castle.

"Yeah, Rick I'm fine." Kate ran her hand up and down his arm. He was always there for her. "We talked and I decided not to put her at risk by sharing. Hopefully, this situation will behind us soon."

"Ryan and Esposito are in the interrogation room talking to Anika Nino." He stood up and the two of them headed for the observation room adjacent to interrogation.

"After the third time he cheated on me, I learned my lesson and moved out. But that was not good enough for him. He called me every day and left countless messages on my answering machine begging me to come back. He was unrelenting. So, I got the restraining order. It worked because I haven't seen him since." Anika Nino was not what Kate expected. She was full figured with long strawberry blonde hair, slate blue eyes and a beautiful peaches and cream complexion that even Kate envied.

"How long ago was that?" Esposito asked.

"It's been about two years. I know this might sound funny but I still miss him." She smiled up at Esposito.

"Was he violent?" Esposito asked.

"No," she chucked. "He's a lover not a fighter. He'd never hurt a fly. He just cannot resist flirting with women. It's almost pathological," she added.

"Do you think he might become violent if rejected?" Ryan asked.

"No. Tony is obnoxious but not violent. He was surprisingly gentle in bed," Anika responded. Ryan blushed.

He cleared his throat and continued, "How do you explain the assault charges against him?"

"I don't know. He likes to touch. Some people just don't like to be touched," she shrugged.

"Do you know if he has any medical training?" asked Esposito.

"No. He's afraid of needles and has a huge phobia of dentist. It's a miracle his teeth haven't fallen out," she chuckled.

"Thank you for coming in Ms. Nino. I think we have everything we need. You have been very helpful," Ryan said rising from his seat to show her out.

Castle and Beckett stepped out of observation to confer with Esposito.

Castle asked, "So, what do you think?"

"Everything she said matches his rap sheet," Esposito told them. "The assault charges were dropped both times because the women were satisfied with the arrest. They didn't want to go through with a trail. They each had been offended by his manner but when push came to shove they couldn't be bothered to go through with the charges."

"Have you heard from Lanie yet?" Beckett asked.

"Not yet but the autopsy must be over," Esposito said.

They headed for the tech room where Ellis was reviewing the tapes. "Did you find anything?" Esposito asked.

"No. I went through the traffic cameras and did not spot Messina anywhere in the vicinity of the victim's apartment," Ellis said. "Most of the figures captured by he cameras are too far away or the light is to dim to get a good screen capture of their face. It would be easier if we had a description of his clothing on the nights of the other murders. But I could not find any one matching his description and his clothing last night," Ellis said a bit of desperation creeping into her voice. The long hours of reviewing videos for this case were catching up with her and her usual professional demeanor was starting to crack. Esposito gave her a sympathetic smile.

"Well, we need to talk to Lanie," Castle said.

"Can you call her please?" Esposito asked. In a blink of an eye, Kate would have sworn she saw a look of disappointment cross Ellis' eyes. but it had been so brief that Kate could not be sure of what she saw. She couldn't quite put her finger on it but something was going on between Ellis and Esposito. She would have to remember to talk to Esposito about it later.

Ellis pressed a few keys and clicked the mouse. A dial tone filled the room from the speakers. They all stared at the screen waiting for someone at the coroner's office to respond. The flat screen filled with the image of a beautiful red head. It was Alexis. She had resumed her stalled internship after her return from Costa Rica. "Good morning, Detectives."

"Hi sweetheart. Is Lanie done with the autopsy of Lori Martin?" Castle asked.

"Hi Dad. Hi Kate. She finished the autopsy a few hours ago but was running a few tests to narrow down the time of death."

Alexis stood up to allow Lanie to sit in front of the camera. Kate sneaked a glance at Ellis but saw nothing in the woman's eyes or demeanor change. Instead, Ellis' expression mirrored the others as they all looked attentively at the coroner.

"Good morning. We are putting the official time of death between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m. However, I called the victim's sister and she told me that the victim's watch had been running behind lately. Based on her statement and extensive testing, I would narrow the time of death to sometime between 10:15 and 10:45."

"Then, Messina can't be our killer," Ellis said. "We have him on tape at the bodega during that time. I checked the clock on the tape several times to make sure of the time. It is accurate within two minutes."

"Damn," exclaimed Castle.

Kate asked, "Is there anything else from the autopsy that might help us?"

"I can tell you that the killer's fingers are thin based on the marks on the bodies," Lanie added.

"So, all we have is a tall, blonde man, who injected a sedative into the victims and has slender fingers," Ryan said. "I guess we can send out uniforms to canvas all of the types of places the sedative is sold and see if anyone matching that description purchased some Ketamine recently?"

"Let us know what the canvas turns up. Castle and I have a meeting with the NYPD Counter-Terrorism Unit, but we will be back soon," Kate said. Castle looked surprised but rose to follow her out. "Thanks Lanie. I owe you a bear claw," Kate added.

"You're welcome. But I'm not done," Lanie said. She looked back at Alexis who rose from her chair and the women traded places.

"I did some tests on the sedative. Lanie said that it was a Ketamine like drug. Well, Ketamine can cause morbidity in animals like dogs. Therefore, scientists have been testing dogs with different variations of the drug. Columbia is conducting one such study. We compared the sedative used on the victims with the formula used at Columbia and they matched. I contacted the school and found out that the sedative was given to ten different veterinarians in the Manhattan area to test on their patients. The school is sending us a list of the veterinarians participating in the study," Alexis said, looking back at Lanie who beamed with pride at her protégé.

"That is huge," Castle said.

"That narrows our search considerably," Ryan said. "Thanks, Alexis."

"That's my girl," said Lanie.

"You mean my girl," said Castle, eyebrow raised.

"Alexis, you probably just help us save someone's life," Kate added.

Alexis blushed, "I'm just glad I could help." The team got to work, happy to have a new lead.

-Break-

Beckett walked through the door marked Captain Ajay Paavan, NYPD Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism Unit. Inside the office sat a middle aged man with salt and pepper hair, light brown eyes and umber skin. He rose and extended his hand. "Good morning, Agent Beckett. It's nice to meet you, at last."

"Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to help with my investigation. This is Richard Castle, the novelist," she said without explaining why she was including him in the interview. The last twenty four hours had reminded Kate how much she loved working cases with Castle. He challenged her in ways that no other partner had ever done. There was no question that she was a good cop. She had aced her exams at the academy and had sailed through the NYPD's detective's exam. However, Castle always challenged her to think outside of the box. He gave her the permission to stretch her imagination to the improbable using her investigative skills. He had a way of taking facts and creating a mosaic that made sense.

They were getting so close to revealing more information about Bracken and Kate knew she would need Castle to help her make sense of the evidence. In fact, Kate realized that to solve this case she would probably need the help of Ryan and Esposito as well. The closer they got to Bracken the more dangerous he became. They couldn't trust anyone.

"Mr. Castle," Captain Paavan said, shaking Castle's hand. "I am a fan of your work both as a writer and as a consultant with the NYPD. I believe the City of New York owes you a debt of gratitude for your assistance in disarming a dirty bomb a few years ago?" he said.

"Happy to help," Castle replied.

"Please take a seat," the Captain said as he sat behind his desk. "My team has made a file for you, Agent Beckett, with the pertinent detail in our investigation of Crescent Horizons. I was a little surprised that you did not already have this information. We were tipped by an informant that Crescent Horizons was involved in buying influence with political figures living and working in the City. This informant works for Crescent Horizons and started to suspect that the donation they were getting were being used improperly. He told us that donations were kept in a safe in the office and that he had seen one of the directors of the charity take stacks of cash from the safe and put it into brief case. The only appointment the director had that day was with a low level aid to the ambassador of Somalia which in and of itself is not unusual but for the fact that the aid was later reported missing by the Somali Embassy, raised suspicions. We decided to make a large donation to the charity and trace the money. We were surprised to find some of the funds had been deposited in the bank accounts of different political figures and government contractors. We had suspected that they might be running a terrorist operation but it appears that they are using the money to buy political influence."

"And one of those political figures was Congressman Baines?" Beckett asked.

"Yes. Now we don't know why the funds were in his account but we suspect it had something to do with the fact that he is on the Republican Congressional Committee and also sits on the House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee. We shared this information with Agent Rachel McCord at your office and with agents at Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation." Beckett was shocked that the AG's office was already working on this issue. Yet the information had not been shared with her or her partner. Beckett had heard of Agent McCord. Along with Agent Stack she was one of the top investigators at the AG's Task Force. Why she would be assigned a case involving Congressman Baines and not be told by her superiors that they were investigating Baines? Kate thought. She would have to get to the bottom of this when she got back to DC.

"Captain Paavan is there anything else you can tell me about Crescent Horizons?" Beckett asked.

"We suspect that they are being funded by Middle Eastern economic interests. We believe they have political and economic goals in mind, and don't pose any imminent danger to the people of this City. We haven't traced any of the funds to any terrorist activities in the New York City area but will continue to monitor them just in case," Captain Paavan said.

"Would we be able to speak to your informant?" asked Castle.

Captain Paavan smiled and shook his head, "No, Mr. Castle."

"However, if you come across any information, we would urge you to share that information with us," Paavan smiled. His phone rang and he answered. He put the person on the other end of the line on hold. "Mr. Castle, Agent Beckett it has been a pleasure meeting you." He held out his hand and they shook hands again.

As they rode the elevator down Castle asked, "Do you know Agent McCord?"

"Yes. She's one of the Deputy Director's favorites. I haven't worked with her but I have heard a lot about her. She uncovered the scandal involving the high ranking officials at the Department of Defense using their position in pay for play deals."

"Didn't they arrest twenty individuals involved in that scandal?" Castle asked.

"They did, due to her investigation," Kate replied

"Do you think they are testing you?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Stack said you had a way of thinking outside the box. Maybe they got stuck on their case like Stack had gotten stuck on the drone case and they are using you and McAdams to come up with something different. If it weren't for you, Stack would have never found Simon Warburg," he said.

"We found Warburg. Me, you, Ryan and Esposito." Kate paused. She had already realized that Stack had used them and their skills to find the answers he could not. Maybe this was a major component of the AG's office. They used misdirection and secrecy to motivate others to find the answers they sought.

"I'm going to need you and the boys to help me on this case. I can't trust anyone else. Can you come back to DC with me…please?" she asked.

Castle was surprised by her request. It took him a moment to answer, "Are you sure? You told me that I could not investigate cases with you anymore," Rick said.

"I know what I said, Rick. But this case is too important. You may not be able to accompany on interviews but I need you to be a second set of eyes and ears from me. Will you help me?" Kate asked again.

"Of course I will," he said. "I will do whatever you want." He took her in his arms.

"I just want you," Kate eyes twinkled as she repeated the line yet again and leaned forward to kissed him.

Write's Note: To the guessed reviewer who was angry about my story description including spoilers, I am sorry and hope that writing Spoiler Alert ahead of the description will solve the problem for others.

If you are following this story, kind words and words of encouragement are greatly appreciated.