Chapter Nine: Revelations
Needless to say the dual interrogations were quite time consuming, very revealing and very satisfying. (Also exhausting) The next day the newlyweds left on their month long honeymoon. They spent a week in the Caribbean, a week in Ireland and two weeks in Italy and France. They came back tanned and refreshed. Kate was happier and more relaxed than she had been since her teen years. They settled into the loft, put all their things away, and then indulged in their favorite activity. Laying in their bed, with a satiated Kate snuggled up against him, Castle said, wiggling his eyebrows; "Kate do you remember the old joke about the newlyweds and the jar of beans? She nodded. Well I don't think a jar is going to do it for us, we'll need to get a bucket."
She laughed and slapped him across the chest. "How big a bucket?"
Monday morning they reported to the precinct, walking into a room of laughing and cheering people. Their story was already legend in the NYPD. Even gates came out of her office to welcome them back, and then told the rest to get back to work.
Kate and Rick now had adjoining desks. They sat down and logged onto their computers.
In an ideal world they would have come back to a light case load with the bad ones already solved by Esposito and Ryan or Karpowski's team. Of course, this isn't an ideal world. There was a brutal case waiting for them, a case that had possible racial overtones to it. The wife was a wealthy African-American actress-model who had been smart enough to begin investing early in her career and had her own high-end clothing line. The husband was white, a successful entertainment industry attorney.
The criminals were organized, technically sophisticated and unusually viscous. The upscale house had been ransacked a wall safe looted and everything of value stolen but that hadn't been enough. The husband had been tortured. The wife and teen-aged daughter had been found spread eagled on the dining table, naked and obviously gang-raped and strangled.
There had been several neo-Nazi slogans spray painted on the walls but Castle didn't buy into that. It was too crude and obvious. A gang sophisticated enough to bypass an expensive security system wouldn't have that kind of idiot in it. Also the crime scene suggested someone with a personal motive, someone with a lot of hatred.
The crime had occurred three days ago so the bodies were gone but the house was still sealed as an active crime scene. Kate and Rick drove to the house. They'd seen the photos so they could picture the bodies. They wanted to get a feel of the house.
Castle grimaced at the dried pool of blood on the rug under the man's chair and blood stains on the table indicating particularly savage rapes. "This may have been done by a gang, Rick said but for someone in the gang this was personal." Kate had to agree with him maybe he was only a civilian investigator but to Kate and the rest of the 12th he was one of the best cops around.
Their deduction leads to a new avenue of investigation away from a group motive to that of an individual leading a group of depraved criminals. What is the personal motive, what could lead someone to conceive and carry out such a horrendous act? So it's Rick's constant mantra. Get the story. Let the story lead to the criminals. They begin to dig, to probe into the past of the victims. This is a high profile case; it can't be allowed to go cold so the team has all the resources they need.
It finally comes from records, an unwanted baby given up by his birth mother. Marina Cromwell, then known as Tina George a struggling actress. The baby was adopted by a young couple and lovingly raised until he was five years old. Then the couple was killed in an automobile accident.
No one wanted to adopt a five year old bi-racial child so he went into foster care, where he was bounced around to twelve different homes in fifteen years, suffering neglect, physical and emotional abuse and drug addiction. He fixated on his bi-racial status as the reason he was unwanted. Instead of blaming an overloaded, indifferent system, he blamed the mother who gave him up, seeing it as abandonment.
It took him five years to track her down and another five to develop his plan of revenge and recruit his crew. In that ten year period he spent seven years of it in prison. That his mother was rich, famous and happily married to a white man with a daughter that lacked nothing inflamed his already damaged brain. He was physcotic but not stupid.
He recruited five of his prison contacts for the job, one of them a former security expert. Unfortunately for him he'd recruited four intelligent criminals and one dumb one, the driver. The dimwit tried to fence a very distinctive diamond ring. The fence was a confidential informant. He told the driver to come back in two hours because he didn't have enough cash on him.
When the driver returned he was promptly arrested. Faced with multiple first degree murder charges with special circumstances of torture and rape he rolled on his buddies for a plea deal.
Two were arrested without incident, one coming out of a strip club and one out of a massage parlor. One tried to shoot it out with eight cops. That didn't work out well for him. Another tried to run and almost made it until he was running at top speed, tripped over a backpack along the subway tracks and fell onto the roadbed making contact with the third rail. Instant crispy critter.
In the end, Darian Denton, viscous psycho but arrant coward surrendered to Rick and Kate. He didn't survive three days on Riker's Island.
A few days later it was a slow morning in the bull-pen. Castle, Esposito and Ryan were all doing paperwork and Kate was studying for the lieutenant's exam. She passed it once before but turned down the promotion because she wanted to stay in the field. Now that she was pregnant she had re-thought her position. She would take the promotion but only if she could stay in the 12th.
Usually a new lieutenant was re-assigned but she hoped that between Castle and Gates they had enough influence to keep her in the 12th. The telephone rang and Kate answered it.
"This is Doctor Karen Higgins at New York general may I speak with Mr. Richard Castle please?" Kate frowned, what would New York General want with Rick? Either Martha or Alexis would be taken to Mount Sinai.
Kate shot Rick a worried look. "Castle, its New York General for you. I think you'd better answer it with your official title." Rick looked up from his paperwork in surprise. Taking the phone he said; "Investigator Castle speaking how may I be of service?"
"This is Doctor Karen Higgins Mr. Castle are you acquainted with Ms. Beth Tanaka?"
Rick frowned. "Yes I am Doctor, why do you ask?"
"She was brought in to the ER about an hour ago, the victim of an assault. She is asking for you and won't talk to the officers here."
Rick growled then modified his tone it wasn't the doctor's fault. "Okay Doctor I'll be there within the hour." He hung up the phone, cursing.
Now Kate was even more worried, Rick seldom cursed. He was too much a master of the language. "Rick what's wrong, what's going on?" She asked
"Beth Tanaka the flight attendant that was with me on the airplane has been attacked. She's asking for me and won't talk to the officers at the hospital. I've got a strange feeling that this is more than a simple assault. I'm going to ask Gates if I can take the team with me on this. I know it's not a homicide but we don't have a case at the moment."
Captain Gates listened to Rick's request. She agreed that Beth Tanaka asking for him was strange it made no sense unless it was somehow tied into the sabotaged 787. She granted the request but demanded to be kept informed.
When they got to the hospital rick said; "I'll go in first and talk to her. I'll call the rest of you in as soon as I can." Beth Tanaka was propped up in bed, rapidly darkening bruises marring her delicate features. Nothing appeared to be broken but it was obvious that she was in a lot of pain.
Concern etching his features, Rick said; "Beth I'm so sorry that you're hurt, what happened?"
"Oh Rick I'm so glad to see you but I'm so afraid and ashamed."
"You've got nothing to be ashamed of, you were attacked. Can you tell me what happened?
She looked at her hands. "I can but please don't go to the police."
Rick shook his head. "I can't do that Beth I work with the police. I'm a civilian investigator."
Beth kept her eyes lowered. "Three men broke into my apartment and beat me. They told me that it was a warning not to testify in the 787 case. They said to tell you not to either."
Rick was getting coldly angry. Somebody was going to pay for this and for the flight 1203 incident.
"Beth, you have to give a statement once you do we can arrange protection for you. My partner is waiting outside. She can take your statement. You can trust her to be discreet. She's Detective Kate Castle NYPD she's my wife." Beth nodded her agreement. Kate entered the room at Rick's call. Rick introduced them and left the room.
Kate smiled a reassuring smile to the injured woman. "Hi Beth, I'm Detective Kate Castle I'm sure that Rick told you that I'm his wife. If you can talk to Rick you can talk to me. What ever happened to you, we can protect you but we have to something to work with. I'm fairly certain that there are things Rick shouldn't hear anyway."
Beth was clearly frightened and there were tears in her eyes but she swallowed hard and began speaking. "I'm terrified, but I can't let them get away with this. She took a deep breath. Three men broke into my apartment they bound my hands and gagged me. Then the stripped me and beat me all over my body. They didn't rape me but they said this was a warning. I was not to testify at the hearing or at the trial of Jacques Dubray. If I did they would come back and gang rape me before they killed me."
Kate was furious that such a thing happened especially that the threat applied to her husband as well. She knew that as soon as the captain read the statement the FBI and homeland security would be involved and one of the two of them would take over the case. Kate assured her that there would be a protective detail within the hour. She and her team would stay until the detail arrived.
Relieved to get it out and now somewhat reassured Beth gave Kate a smile that seemed both tentative and envious. "You know that you're a very lucky woman Detective."
Kate raised an eyebrow. "Why do you say that?"
Beth sighed. "On the second night I did my best to seduce Rick. I just wanted comfort. Most men, not knowing what was going to happen would have had sex with me without a second thought. Rick wouldn't. It's unbelievable how much he loves you."
Kate had a very soft smile on her lips. "I know I love him so much. Before I met him I never believed that I could love one man as I do Rick. Look I'm going to stay with you until the protective detail gets here. I'm going to send Rick and the rest of my team back to the precinct to begin the investigation."
Later, they were never able to tell if it was incredible good luck or Esposito's hyper awareness but the scene at the cemetery almost played itself out again. Almost. Perhaps it was Esposito's training as a sniper that enabled him to realize what that flash of light meant faster than Castle had. At any rate as they walked out of the hospital's main doors Esposito did see the flash and he lunged at Castle, tackling him. A heavy caliber rifle bullet passed through the space Castle had been occupying a second before, shattering the glass beside the door.
Luck was with Castle or mostly with him. Castle fell behind a heavy stone bench. Mostly because the sniper fired twice more. One bullet sliced through the fleshy part of Castle's calf. The hero of the hour fared worse. The third shot hit Esposito in the butt. Luckily just tearing up muscle, not hitting any bone. Despite saving Castle's life it was a wound he'd never completely live down.
No one was ever sure whether the sniper was inexperienced, incompetent or just plain stupid. He had one of the best sniper rifles in the world. The H&K PSG-1 but he hadn't attached a sunshade to the front of the scope, allowing the light to reflect off the lens. He didn't use a suppressor so the reports of the rifle were loud enough to attract attention. His worst mistake was not scouting the terrain before shooting.
There was a coffee shop near where the sniper's SUV was parked Four NYPD patrol officers were just finishing their coffee when the shots went off. They drew their pistols as their radios crackled out, Shots fired shots fired, officer down officer down.
The sniper's driver gunned the black Range Rover away from the curb and roared into traffic as the four police officers ran into the street. One officer got his radio mike in his hand and called in a good description of the vehicle. The Range rover was a big, heavy vehicle but it wasn't an armored one. It couldn't just push traffic out of its' way. The assailant's bad luck was holding. Not only had they botched the hit and allowed police officers to get a good description of the SUV and its' direction of travel, they didn't ditch the PSG-1. The sniper thought that he could use it to keep the police at bay if necessary.
The final nail in their figurative coffin was a NYPD SWAT team returning from a training exercise. Their truck was armored and they were only three blocks away with the idiots headed straight toward them. The Range Rover had just entered an intersection when the massive ram bumper of the armored truck smashed into the left front fender of the SUV, spinning it into a concrete construction barrier.
The driver's airbag deployed, incapacitating him. The sniper, not having fastened his seat belt was thrown hard against the door, breaking his arm and stunning him. Before he could react he found himself pulled out of the back seat, face down on the street. The SWAT officer ignored the guy's scream as he cuffed his hands behind his back. The break was in the forearm and the officer didn't give a damn about the perp's pain he'd shot an officer. The driver was freed from the car and immediately thrown to the ground, cuffed and disarmed.
The SWAT officers searched the SUV recovering the PSG-1 and an MP-5 sub-machine gun as well as a Beretta 9mm. They also found a complete recording of Castle's planned itinerary. The cop looked to his sergeant. "Hey Sarge, you better get to IA fast. There's a mole in the 12th.
Kate Castle was sitting beside Beth's bed when her cell phone rang. "Bec…Castle."
"Detective Castle this is Doctor Laramie in ER. I need you to come here as quickly as you can."
Chapter Nine: Revelations
Needless to say the dual interrogations were quite time consuming, very revealing and very satisfying. (Also exhausting) The next day the newlyweds left on their month long honeymoon. They spent a week in the Caribbean, a week in Ireland and two weeks in Italy and France. They came back tanned and refreshed. Kate was happier and more relaxed than she had been since her teen years. They settled into the loft, put all their things away, and then indulged in their favorite activity. Laying in their bed, with a satiated Kate snuggled up against him, Castle said, wiggling his eyebrows; "Kate do you remember the old joke about the newlyweds and the jar of beans? She nodded. Well I don't think a jar is going to do it for us, we'll need to get a bucket."
She laughed and slapped him across the chest. "How big a bucket?"
Monday morning they reported to the precinct, walking into a room of laughing and cheering people. Their story was already legend in the NYPD. Even gates came out of her office to welcome them back, and then told the rest to get back to work.
Kate and Rick now had adjoining desks. They sat down and logged onto their computers.
In an ideal world they would have come back to a light case load with the bad ones already solved by Esposito and Ryan or Karpowski's team. Of course, this isn't an ideal world. There was a brutal case waiting for them, a case that had possible racial overtones to it. The wife was a wealthy African-American actress-model who had been smart enough to begin investing early in her career and had her own high-end clothing line. The husband was white, a successful entertainment industry attorney.
The criminals were organized, technically sophisticated and unusually viscous. The upscale house had been ransacked a wall safe looted and everything of value stolen but that hadn't been enough. The husband had been tortured. The wife and teen-aged daughter had been found spread eagled on the dining table, naked and obviously gang-raped and strangled.
There had been several neo-Nazi slogans spray painted on the walls but Castle didn't buy into that. It was too crude and obvious. A gang sophisticated enough to bypass an expensive security system wouldn't have that kind of idiot in it. Also the crime scene suggested someone with a personal motive, someone with a lot of hatred.
The crime had occurred three days ago so the bodies were gone but the house was still sealed as an active crime scene. Kate and Rick drove to the house. They'd seen the photos so they could picture the bodies. They wanted to get a feel of the house.
Castle grimaced at the dried pool of blood on the rug under the man's chair and blood stains on the table indicating particularly savage rapes. "This may have been done by a gang, Rick said but for someone in the gang this was personal." Kate had to agree with him maybe he was only a civilian investigator but to Kate and the rest of the 12th he was one of the best cops around.
Their deduction leads to a new avenue of investigation away from a group motive to that of an individual leading a group of depraved criminals. What is the personal motive, what could lead someone to conceive and carry out such a horrendous act? So it's Rick's constant mantra. Get the story. Let the story lead to the criminals. They begin to dig, to probe into the past of the victims. This is a high profile case; it can't be allowed to go cold so the team has all the resources they need.
It finally comes from records, an unwanted baby given up by his birth mother. Marina Cromwell, then known as Tina George a struggling actress. The baby was adopted by a young couple and lovingly raised until he was five years old. Then the couple was killed in an automobile accident.
No one wanted to adopt a five year old bi-racial child so he went into foster care, where he was bounced around to twelve different homes in fifteen years, suffering neglect, physical and emotional abuse and drug addiction. He fixated on his bi-racial status as the reason he was unwanted. Instead of blaming an overloaded, indifferent system, he blamed the mother who gave him up, seeing it as abandonment.
It took him five years to track her down and another five to develop his plan of revenge and recruit his crew. In that ten year period he spent seven years of it in prison. That his mother was rich, famous and happily married to a white man with a daughter that lacked nothing inflamed his already damaged brain. He was physcotic but not stupid.
He recruited five of his prison contacts for the job, one of them a former security expert. Unfortunately for him he'd recruited four intelligent criminals and one dumb one, the driver. The dimwit tried to fence a very distinctive diamond ring. The fence was a confidential informant. He told the driver to come back in two hours because he didn't have enough cash on him.
When the driver returned he was promptly arrested. Faced with multiple first degree murder charges with special circumstances of torture and rape he rolled on his buddies for a plea deal.
Two were arrested without incident, one coming out of a strip club and one out of a massage parlor. One tried to shoot it out with eight cops. That didn't work out well for him. Another tried to run and almost made it until he was running at top speed, tripped over a backpack along the subway tracks and fell onto the roadbed making contact with the third rail. Instant crispy critter.
In the end, Darian Denton, viscous psycho but arrant coward surrendered to Rick and Kate. He didn't survive three days on Riker's Island.
A few days later it was a slow morning in the bull-pen. Castle, Esposito and Ryan were all doing paperwork and Kate was studying for the lieutenant's exam. She passed it once before but turned down the promotion because she wanted to stay in the field. Now that she was pregnant she had re-thought her position. She would take the promotion but only if she could stay in the 12th.
Usually a new lieutenant was re-assigned but she hoped that between Castle and Gates they had enough influence to keep her in the 12th. The telephone rang and Kate answered it.
"This is Doctor Karen Higgins at New York general may I speak with Mr. Richard Castle please?" Kate frowned, what would New York General want with Rick? Either Martha or Alexis would be taken to Mount Sinai.
Kate shot Rick a worried look. "Castle, its New York General for you. I think you'd better answer it with your official title." Rick looked up from his paperwork in surprise. Taking the phone he said; "Investigator Castle speaking how may I be of service?"
"This is Doctor Karen Higgins Mr. Castle are you acquainted with Ms. Beth Tanaka?"
Rick frowned. "Yes I am Doctor, why do you ask?"
"She was brought in to the ER about an hour ago, the victim of an assault. She is asking for you and won't talk to the officers here."
Rick growled then modified his tone it wasn't the doctor's fault. "Okay Doctor I'll be there within the hour." He hung up the phone, cursing.
Now Kate was even more worried, Rick seldom cursed. He was too much a master of the language. "Rick what's wrong, what's going on?" She asked
"Beth Tanaka the flight attendant that was with me on the airplane has been attacked. She's asking for me and won't talk to the officers at the hospital. I've got a strange feeling that this is more than a simple assault. I'm going to ask Gates if I can take the team with me on this. I know it's not a homicide but we don't have a case at the moment."
Captain Gates listened to Rick's request. She agreed that Beth Tanaka asking for him was strange it made no sense unless it was somehow tied into the sabotaged 787. She granted the request but demanded to be kept informed.
When they got to the hospital rick said; "I'll go in first and talk to her. I'll call the rest of you in as soon as I can." Beth Tanaka was propped up in bed, rapidly darkening bruises marring her delicate features. Nothing appeared to be broken but it was obvious that she was in a lot of pain.
Concern etching his features, Rick said; "Beth I'm so sorry that you're hurt, what happened?"
"Oh Rick I'm so glad to see you but I'm so afraid and ashamed."
"You've got nothing to be ashamed of, you were attacked. Can you tell me what happened?
She looked at her hands. "I can but please don't go to the police."
Rick shook his head. "I can't do that Beth I work with the police. I'm a civilian investigator."
Beth kept her eyes lowered. "Three men broke into my apartment and beat me. They told me that it was a warning not to testify in the 787 case. They said to tell you not to either."
Rick was getting coldly angry. Somebody was going to pay for this and for the flight 1203 incident.
"Beth, you have to give a statement once you do we can arrange protection for you. My partner is waiting outside. She can take your statement. You can trust her to be discreet. She's Detective Kate Castle NYPD she's my wife." Beth nodded her agreement. Kate entered the room at Rick's call. Rick introduced them and left the room.
Kate smiled a reassuring smile to the injured woman. "Hi Beth, I'm Detective Kate Castle I'm sure that Rick told you that I'm his wife. If you can talk to Rick you can talk to me. What ever happened to you, we can protect you but we have to something to work with. I'm fairly certain that there are things Rick shouldn't hear anyway."
Beth was clearly frightened and there were tears in her eyes but she swallowed hard and began speaking. "I'm terrified, but I can't let them get away with this. She took a deep breath. Three men broke into my apartment they bound my hands and gagged me. Then the stripped me and beat me all over my body. They didn't rape me but they said this was a warning. I was not to testify at the hearing or at the trial of Jacques Dubray. If I did they would come back and gang rape me before they killed me."
Kate was furious that such a thing happened especially that the threat applied to her husband as well. She knew that as soon as the captain read the statement the FBI and homeland security would be involved and one of the two of them would take over the case. Kate assured her that there would be a protective detail within the hour. She and her team would stay until the detail arrived.
Relieved to get it out and now somewhat reassured Beth gave Kate a smile that seemed both tentative and envious. "You know that you're a very lucky woman Detective."
Kate raised an eyebrow. "Why do you say that?"
Beth sighed. "On the second night I did my best to seduce Rick. I just wanted comfort. Most men, not knowing what was going to happen would have had sex with me without a second thought. Rick wouldn't. It's unbelievable how much he loves you."
Kate had a very soft smile on her lips. "I know I love him so much. Before I met him I never believed that I could love one man as I do Rick. Look I'm going to stay with you until the protective detail gets here. I'm going to send Rick and the rest of my team back to the precinct to begin the investigation."
Later, they were never able to tell if it was incredible good luck or Esposito's hyper awareness but the scene at the cemetery almost played itself out again. Almost. Perhaps it was Esposito's training as a sniper that enabled him to realize what that flash of light meant faster than Castle had. At any rate as they walked out of the hospital's main doors Esposito did see the flash and he lunged at Castle, tackling him. A heavy caliber rifle bullet passed through the space Castle had been occupying a second before, shattering the glass beside the door.
Luck was with Castle or mostly with him. Castle fell behind a heavy stone bench. Mostly because the sniper fired twice more. One bullet sliced through the fleshy part of Castle's calf. The hero of the hour fared worse. The third shot hit Esposito in the butt. Luckily just tearing up muscle, not hitting any bone. Despite saving Castle's life it was a wound he'd never completely live down.
No one was ever sure whether the sniper was inexperienced, incompetent or just plain stupid. He had one of the best sniper rifles in the world. The H&K PSG-1 but he hadn't attached a sunshade to the front of the scope, allowing the light to reflect off the lens. He didn't use a suppressor so the reports of the rifle were loud enough to attract attention. His worst mistake was not scouting the terrain before shooting.
There was a coffee shop near where the sniper's SUV was parked Four NYPD patrol officers were just finishing their coffee when the shots went off. They drew their pistols as their radios crackled out, Shots fired shots fired, officer down officer down.
The sniper's driver gunned the black Range Rover away from the curb and roared into traffic as the four police officers ran into the street. One officer got his radio mike in his hand and called in a good description of the vehicle. The Range rover was a big, heavy vehicle but it wasn't an armored one. It couldn't just push traffic out of its' way. The assailant's bad luck was holding. Not only had they botched the hit and allowed police officers to get a good description of the SUV and its' direction of travel, they didn't ditch the PSG-1. The sniper thought that he could use it to keep the police at bay if necessary.
The final nail in their figurative coffin was a NYPD SWAT team returning from a training exercise. Their truck was armored and they were only three blocks away with the idiots headed straight toward them. The Range Rover had just entered an intersection when the massive ram bumper of the armored truck smashed into the left front fender of the SUV, spinning it into a concrete construction barrier.
The driver's airbag deployed, incapacitating him. The sniper, not having fastened his seat belt was thrown hard against the door, breaking his arm and stunning him. Before he could react he found himself pulled out of the back seat, face down on the street. The SWAT officer ignored the guy's scream as he cuffed his hands behind his back. The break was in the forearm and the officer didn't give a damn about the perp's pain he'd shot an officer. The driver was freed from the car and immediately thrown to the ground, cuffed and disarmed.
The SWAT officers searched the SUV recovering the PSG-1 and an MP-5 sub-machine gun as well as a Beretta 9mm. They also found a complete recording of Castle's planned itinerary. The cop looked to his sergeant. "Hey Sarge, you better get to IA fast. There's a mole in the 12th.
Kate Castle was sitting beside Beth's bed when her cell phone rang. "Bec…Castle."
"Detective Castle this is Doctor Laramie in ER. I need you to come here as quickly as you can."