10IllMan
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I do not even own a little Castle. Rating: K+ Time: Season 7
Rick and Kate left the morgue and headed for the elevator. Before they got there, Castle stopped and put his arms around Kate. "I love you."
Kate rested her head on his chest. "I know. I love you, too."
He ran his hand lightly over the bandage on her forehead. "Do you remember what I said to you when I proposed?"
Kate smiled up at him. "Every word."
"I told you I couldn't imagine my life without you. When I saw you on the floor, bleeding from a head wound, I had a sudden, terrifying look at what my life would be like without you. It wouldn't be worth living."
"I am not going anywhere. I will be with you. Always." She reached up and kissed him softly.
"I know. It's just that…"
"I'm not going to stop being a cop." She said softly.
"I know. I wouldn't expect you to. With Bracken and who knows who else out there, I wouldn't want you to. It's just that you've had so much pain in your life, I just want to take all the pain away and replace it with joy. I'll never be able to do that."
"I expect you to keep trying though. You might just succeed. You're a very stubborn man, Mr. Castle. You spent five years getting me to a place where I could accept how I felt about you."
"You are a very remarkable woman, Mrs. Castle. Five years is nothing. I intend to spend the rest of my life with you."
"In this hallway?" She teased.
He smiled and kissed her quickly. "We should get back to work."
When they got off the elevator, Jordan Shaw waved for them to join her at Esposito's desk. "You are all going to have to be here at 8AM tomorrow. There's going to be a shooting investigation on today's shooting. It'll be a joint review between the NYPD and the FBI. I expect trouble."
"Trouble!" Esposito exploded. "This was a righteous shoot. How the hell can those clowns at One PP find otherwise?" He looked up at Shaw, remembering that the FBI would also be involved.
Shaw laughed. "The fatal shots were fired by a Native American Tribal Policeman from New Mexico who's here at the invitation of the FBI, although the BIA requested they be involved. There are also two other New Mexico cops and no one here has any jurisdiction over any of the three of them. From what the good Captain Dos Osos tells me, Apache Tribal Courts take a much looser attitude to shootings than the NYPD or the FBI. Plus, we have a civilian who fired an entire magazine, who works with, but not for, the NYPD and has a Federal concealed carry permit courtesy of the FBI. In short this has all the makings of an administrative nightmare that could last for years if anyone puts a foot wrong. So what we will probably see tomorrow is a fine example of bureaucracy in inaction. All those people trying to avoid saying or doing anything that could come back to bite them in the ass, and still look like they did something."
'Can I bring popcorn?" Castle asked.
Shaw shook her head. "You'll never change. Take Kate home if you will, and see to it she gets a good night's sleep." Kate started to object, but Shaw waved her into silence. "You were in a firefight today and you took a blow to the head. Go home with your husband. Now! No arguments."
They went home and Rick nervously puttered his way through making dinner, continuously asking Kate how she felt.
"Castle, I am not an infant. I got a bump on my head. That's all."
"I just want to…"
"Smother me with affection and attention. I know. But I don't need it. Save some for when I really need it, okay?"
Castle smiled at the love of his life. "Okay. And dinner's ready."
After dinner and some TV, they prepared for bed. Castle was shocked when Beckett came out of the bathroom. "You're wearing your shorty, see-through nightie?"
"And nothing else." Kate pirouetted to show him the truth of her statement.
"Kate…" Castle couldn't think of what to say next as Kate advanced towards him with a friendly, but predatory smile.
The next morning, they arrived at the precinct early.
"If that's you after a firefight and a bump on the head, I'd hate to see you if something bad happened to you." He whispered in her ear.
"It has more to do with a certain ruggedly handsome husband of mine running through automatic weapons fire to see if I was okay. I don't ever want you to do that again, but if you have to, you'll get a similar reward." She nipped his ear with her teeth and then kissed his ear.
Espo made sure he looked up well after the kiss. "The shooting team is here. All the officers involved are here now and we have a rep from the police union. I guess we're ready. I'll let Captain Gates and Agent Shaw know we're ready."
The shooting panel was anticlimactic. Shaw was right in her supposition that the panel members would not want to create an administrative disaster of epic proportions. Plus, they were interviewed individually and each was warned not to discuss their testimony with anyone else.
When it was over and the panel had left, Bear disregarded their orders. "I was amazed myself." He said, motioning to Sergeant Bredi. "Martin here gave the panel two complete sentences. A major oration for our boy. Why, at this rate, old Martin might get himself up to twenty, even thirty words a day. How will we stand such a barrage of words? Martin, you amaze me."
Bredi shrugged.
"That's what I thought you'd say." Bear said with a huge smile.
Kate got a phone call on her landline. "Who wants to see me?" She asked. "Sure, send him up." She put the phone down. "Our friend Mr. O'Donnell from Rwanda is down stairs. Apparently he has something for us."
O'Donnell did indeed have something. "I found some information on the second German who was assisting Grohe in moving the weapons you intercepted." He put a file on Kate's desk. "Erwin Rohm, born in the former East Germany, enlisted in the unified German army in 2000. Joined an airborne brigade, but was kicked out of the army in 2003 because of his extreme right wing and racist views. He been a bully boy for various right wing movements in Europe since then. Got arrested in Italy for taking part in a brawl with some African illegal immigrants. The charges were dismissed because the victims took off before the court date. He did six months in France in 2009 for carrying a concealed weapon, a knuckleduster knife. He disappeared about a year ago and is alleged to have gone to work for Grohe."
Kate looked over the file and passed it around for everyone to look at. "Okay, add Rohm to the BOLO on Grohe. Maybe we'll get lucky." She turned to O'Donnell. "Thank you. You seem to have very good sources of information."
O'Donnell just smiled and changed the subject. "I you catch either of these two, could you let me know. I'd like to sit in on the investigation. Strictly as an observer of course. And to share any knowledge I may have."
Kate looked over at Jordan who nodded after a second.
"Fine, and now I fear I must get back to the UN."
O'Donnell left. Kate had copies of Rohm's file made so everyone could study it. They were still studying when Ryan's phone rang.
"We may have something." Ryan said.
"Tell us." Kate said.
"We sent out BOLOs to every hospital, clinic, doctor's office, pharmacy and medical supply place in the city. Something just popped. A guy came into a medical supply store in midtown and bought bandages, surgical tape, scalpels, saline solution and a whole load of other things useful for those with gunshot wounds. And he bought a copy of a US Army manual on wound trauma for medics. Best of all, the clerk recognized the customer from when he worked in a hospital." Ryan held out a rap sheet with the subject's picture on top. "Meet Monroe Clifford. A one-time med student who tried to supplement his income by stealing and reselling hospital drugs. Since he got out of jail, he's apparently been doing unlicensed medical work for those who'd rather not have to explain how they got gunshot wounds."
"Do we have an address?" Beckett asked.
Ryan held up a post-it with an address on it. "I thought you'd never ask."
Half an hour later, Beckett and her team, plus Bear and his people, huddled outside the suspects apartment in a decidedly low rent building.
"Okay." She whispered. "We didn't have enough for a warrant, so we just knock on the door, identify ourselves, and…"
"Identify ourselves? Are you crazy? What if someone inside starts shooting? At my lovely wife?"
"Do you want to wait until he decides to come out?" Kate whispered. "We could be here all day."
Castle smiled. "Hey Petey Boy!" He yelled loudly. "You were right! I got some primo blow. I got four oh zees, enough for us to have a good time. Open up, Petey."
They heard curses from inside the apartment. "Go away. No Petey here."
"Oh, man!" Castle cried dramatically. "You have the girls inside and you aren't going to share? You can't be serious! I've got cocaine out here, man. Let's party! I got plenty of cocaine!"
The door flew open and an unshaven man stood there. "There ain't no Petey…" Then he saw the cops and froze. Behind him on the couch was an injured man.
"NYPD!" Kate barked, pushing past Clifford. "Erwin Rohm, you're under arrest."
Rohm just groaned. Clifford finally spoke. "He needs a hospital. I did what I could for him, but…"
Several hours later, Kate and her people were back at the precinct debriefing Jordan Shaw. "Rohm took two slugs. One just grazed his ribs, but the other was in the hip. He's lost some blood and has a low grade infection, but the doctors say we can interrogate him at the hospital tomorrow around noon. I'm hoping we can get him to roll over on Grohe. I have uniforms outside his room with orders to keep any visitors out. What should we do until then?"
Shaw smiled. "Why, Mr. Castle's favorite occupation. Your uniforms have finally finished tracing Grohe's route on his little ramble the other night. You get to review their reports to see if anything shakes out. Okay?"
"Boring police procedural work?" Castle asked. "As your volunteer homicide cop, I think I'll head for home."
"Okay, Castle." Kate said. "I'll see you later." She leaned over and kissed his lips lightly. Then frowned and put her hand to her head.
"Something wrong?" Castle asked, very concerned.
"It's probably just eye strain, Rick. You go on home. Maybe you could write some more? Aren't you a little behind?"
"Behind? Not at all. In fact, there are a lot of interesting things in police reports. They're practically a crime novel in and of themselves. I bet I'll get lots of good ideas." Castle put his arm around Beckett and led her to her desk.
Jordan Shaw looked at Ryan and Esposito. "Is Kate that good, or is Castle that dumb?"
Esposito laughed. "Both. Since they got married, Castle hates to not be around Beckett, but he's got a well-established loathing of paper work and he'd hate for anyone to think that he's changed. So Beckett manages to find a way for him to stay with her without making it look like Castle has given in."
Jordan smiled. "That's sweet." Ryan nodded in agreement. Esposito mouthed the word "whipped".
Early the next morning, Kate got a phone call from Mr. O'Donnell. He had received the police records from Italy and France on Rohm as well as some German intelligence reports. "Not much there we didn't know, but who knows what might be valuable. What do you say we all meet for a late breakfast tomorrow and then go to the hospital to interrogate Rohm?" Kate agreed.
Next morning Kate, Rick, and her team along with Bear and his team, and Jordan Shaw, met with Mr. O'Donnell at a restaurant popular with UN diplomats. O'Donnell played the gracious host. "Please sit down and look at the menu. They have foods from all over the world here. "I'm partial to the English breakfast: Bacon, eggs, toast, sausage, beans and tea. However, you should read the menu for yourselves. Oh, Detective Beckett, you might try the Ethiopian coffee. It's excellent."
After they ordered, O'Donnell passed out the translated copies of the reports he'd received.
"Not much new here." Jordan said after reading her copy.
"You never do know what may help, do you?"
"If you don't mind my asking, Mr. O'Donnell, how do you come to be in the loop for these reports?" Castle asked.
O'Donnell smiled. "You mean how does a poverty stricken country in the middle of a near perpetual war zone in Africa acquire any kind of first rate intelligence?"
"I wouldn't put it that way." Jordan Shaw said quickly.
"Most people would." O'Donnell said with a smile. "As I told you, there are many countries that find the idea of a world class arms dealer that can deal with governments as an equal to be…troubling. In fact, I got these from some English friends. Isn't it nice to have friends?"
After a leisurely breakfast, they drove to the hospital. Once there, Kate led the way to the hospital rooms reserved for police prisoners.
"Kate?" A familiar voice called. "Kate Beckett?"
Kate turned around and grasped Rick's arm. "Josh! How are you?"
"Busy, as always." Josh looked from Kate to Rick. "I understand congratulations are in order." Although Josh held out his hand, he did not look all that congratulatory. Rick shook his hand anyway.
"So what are all of you doing here? Police business?"
"Yes. I'm Special Agent Jordan Shaw, FBI. We're here to see a wounded prisoner."
"He must be important for so many…"Josh seemed to see the rest of the police for the first time. He took a step forward and bared his teeth in anger. "You! Get the hell out of here!"
"And I'm happy to see you again, Joshua." O'Donnell said with a broad smile. "I was afraid you'd forgotten all about me."
"Get! Out!" Josh said, heading for O'Donnell. Esposito and Ryan intercepted the doctor.
Josh turned to Jordan Shaw. "Special Agent Shaw, I insist you get this war criminal out of this hospital. Right now."
"War criminal? That's a serious charge, Dr…?"
"Davidson. Josh Davidson. I've worked with Doctors Without Borders in Democratic Republic of Congo. I know what I'm talking about."
"Odd, Joshua. Doctors Without Borders didn't seem to find your charges believable. Nor did the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, the UN military command in the Congo, or the international press. Oh, excuse me. There was one publication that took your claims quite seriously. Regrettably, Joshua, a bigger story pushed yours off their front page. Something about Bill Clinton being Elvis's love child?"
Josh turned red and balled his fists. "I was there. I know what I saw. Your troops over ran the refugee camp and killed hundreds, thousands of people. Men, women and children. I saw that!"
O'Donnell smiled. "Joshua, you are a doctor. I am a soldier, and a diplomat. And since you have made these serious charges in front of representatives of the US government, I would like to establish my innocence."
"Your innocence! Are you insane?"
O'Donnell assumed am air of injured innocence. "If I may? When Rwanda invaded Congo in 1998, I was with the Rwandan Army. I was in fact advising the army's artillery some fifty kilometers north of the town of Goma, in the eastern Congo. Joshua's refugee camp was some twenty kilometers south of Goma, well out of range of any Rwandan artillery. Joshua, your refugees were, in fact, attacked by local Congolese militiamen. How many Rwandan Hutu soldiers were in your camp, Joshua?"
"What does that have to do with anything?" Josh practically screamed.
"Your camp held some thirty five thousand people. How many were armed, uniformed soldiers?"
"I have no idea. It isn't my job to find out those things."
"Perhaps you should find these things out in the future. But, according to UNHCR records, some six to seven thousand Rwandan Hutu soldiers were in your camp. And what did they do there?"
"I was up to my ears in wounded and sick!" Josh did yell.
"What they did, was leave the camp and murder, rape and rob the Congolese in the surrounding towns and villages. They did this because they were from different tribes. In the four years since they were driven out of Rwanda and into your camp, they had murdered thousands of Congolese. That's a matter of record."
"I was trying to help people."
"By treating wounded soldiers?"
"Wounded children!"
"Have you heard the term kadogo, literally translated it means shorty. It's a slang term for child soldiers. Do you think a ten year old can't kill? Or a woman."
"I did not…" Josh began.
"And what about the lovely Dr. Nordgren?" O'Donnell said with a slight smile.
"What does she have to do with anything?"
"Why, Joshua. You don't remember her? You broke her nose and cracked two ribs. Her clothing was also torn, if I remember the Doctors Without Borders report correctly. Am I wrong?"
"The Congolese police didn't charge me with anything and Doctors Without Borders accepted my report on…the event."
O'Donnell laughed. "The Congolese police were running as fast as they could to the west. And your NGO got your report and…Who else's report was there? That's right. Only yours, Joshua. Only yours."
Josh reddened. "You bastard." Then he stalked off.
Jordan Shaw looked at Dr. Davidson's retreating form and then at O'Donnell. "What exactly went on in the Congo?'
O'Donnell smiled again. "I fear Joshua is severely idealistic. He sees what he wants to see, and if his patients are not seen committing rape and murder, why they can't be criminals, can they?"
"What about the other doctor?" Castle asked.
"Dr. Nordgren? A very bouncy Swede. About six feet and a hundred and forty pounds. Drank like a fish, I'm afraid. The violence got to be too much for her and she lashed out while drunk. Knocked one poor Irish doctor unconscious. Joshua managed to keep her from doing any more damage. The Swedes didn't want anyone to know their fine doctor was a violent drunk, so they kept it quiet. Of course, there were all sorts of rumors. However, we talked to witnesses. Joshua did the very best he could. Not his fault at all."
"You know, he hates to be called Joshua." Kate said.
"He does?" O'Donnell said with a look of surprise. "Duly noted. Duly noted."
The visit to Rohm was unproductive. The only words of English he seemed to have were, "Want lawyer." Which he said repeatedly.
O'Donnell spoke to him in another language which got no response from Rohm.
"What did you talk to him in?" Castle asked.
"Afrikaans. It's descended mostly from Dutch, which is closely related to German. He understood me, but he ignored me."
"What exactly did you say to him?" Shaw asked.
O'Donnell smiled broadly. "I suggested that for a man who worked in Africa, there might be worse things than making a deal with the American authorities."
"Did you put it in exactly those words?"
"Why, Agent Shaw! You aren't accusing me of threatening Mr. Rohm, are you?"
Shaw made no response.
Once outside the hospital, they walked in a loose group towards their cars. Kate heard Bredi scream, "Down!" And knocked Castle and Shaw down and landed on top of them. Bursts of automatic fire zipped overhead. Kate pushed Castle down as far as she could, then looked up. Bear, Cuchillo, and O'Donnell had taken cover behind parked cars. Ryan and Esposito were under a truck and had enough room to shoot under the truck. Bredi was standing upright, firing. She heard metal screaming and stuck her head up enough to see a black SUV crash into a parked car. A second SUV was stopped just ahead of the crash. At least four people were firing at them from both SUVs. A man rushed out of the shotgun seat of the crashed SUV. He fired a burst at the police, then pitched over on his face, blood pouring from his head.
Kate heard Bear scream, "Dammit, Martin. I need a prisoner!"
Another man left the crashed vehicle from the driver's side. He ran towards the other SUV, then suddenly fell and grabbed his leg. Kate saw Bredi reloading as a man ran from the other SUV and grabbed the wounded gunman. Before Bredi could reload, or anyone else could fire, they pulled the wounded man in and roared off.
"Dammit!" Bear yelled. Bear, Cuchillo and Bredi ran towards the crashed SUV with Espo and Ryan close behind.
Kate stood up. "Castle, are you okay."
Castle stood and checked himself out. "Yes!" he said happily. "I have no new holes in me." He looked down. "Jordan are you okay?"
"No." She gasped.
"What's wrong?" Kate and Rick said together.
"Once I would have been happy to have a rich, handsome man jump my bones, but I'm too old and too married for that now."
"Did I hurt you?" Castle asked, concern clear in his voice.
She shook her head. "All you did was knock the wind out of me and give me some bruises. Better than bullet holes, I suppose."
Castle pulled her to her feet. Kate had already headed for the crashed SUV with the other cops. Castle and Jordan Shaw followed them.
"Aw, dammit to hell!" Bear said. "Four people here, all dead. Dammit, Martin, could you at least try to take a prisoner now and again."
Bredi just shrugged.
"Oh, hell, Martin. No need to go off on me like that."
Police cars were starting to arrive in droves. Shaw took charge, directing that the dead be taken to the morgue and that CSU go over the car and the bodies with a fine tooth comb for evidence.
"Detective Beckett?" Kate turned at the sound of a familiar voice.
"Officer Hastings. What have you got for me?"
Ann Hastings pulled out a notebook. "We found an abandoned black SUV three blocks away, with bullet holes in it. One dead man."
"Oh, dammit!" Bear swore, coming over to hear the report. "Martin kills people when he hits them in the foot. It just ain't fair."
Hastings looked at Bear and then back to Kate. "The dead man was shot in the head, at close range. The gun was probably held against his head."
"Now we are dealing with some ruthless people, aren't we?" Bear said.
Hours later, Jordan Shaw called all of them into her office for a meeting. "We have absolutely nothing. We checked the dead's fingerprints and DNA and they're not in the system. Two of the dead men have stainless steel dental work, probably from Eastern Europe. If they came to this country legally, they should be in the system. They have out of state driver's licenses, all phony. They have real social security numbers, all of which belong to other people. They each had several thousand in cash on them, but no credit cards. We did ballistics on their weapons and got nothing. The cars were bought for cash, the information on the sales agreements were also false. In short, we have nothing. These people don't exist."
Jordan asked if anyone had anything useful to say, but no one did. "Okay, go home, people. Come back tomorrow and we'll try again."
When they got home, Castle poured them a glass of red wine. "Any ideas?" He asked.
She shook her head. "Not a one."
"I do, and I don't like it."
Kate frowned. "What is it?"
"Who do we know that uses untraceable professional killers?"
"Bracken? You think he ordered that? We have an agreement."
"Smith had an agreement. Look what happened to him. Bracken isn't the type to allow anyone to get in his way. He may have figured out we don't have the whole file. He may have decided to try to kill you anyway, figuring he'd kill you and lie, bribe and cheat his way out of any subsequent problems."
"Crap! What do we do?"
"I don't know. We can't take this to anyone. We have zero proof. We may be screwed." Rick put his arms around Kate and held her tight.