Genre: Drama, Crime, Romance, Humor
Rating: M for language, sexual situations and violence
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters featured on the show Castle, they belong to the creator of the show, ABC, and the others who do own them.
A/N #1: Saying this yet again, but I am in no way a medical doctor, so I might have mistakes concerning that subject since my knowledge is not minimal.
A/N #2: Some words in Spanish here, the first I know from hearing it, but the second I had to do a bit of research, I'm just hoping it's the right one!
A/N #3: I have to say thank you again to vetgirlmx, and also for the last review you gave me though it had put you as Guest. Anyways, I'm so glad you thought I wrote the accents right. I'll let you in on a secret though, lol, I understand more Spanish because I'm around Spanish speakers, namely my family because we're from Spain. So I hear it constantly, though I don't feel comfortable speaking it myself. But it was nice to hear from a native Spanish speaker that I had written that well! And thanks for letting me know there are other countries that use the mother's maiden name, I thought there might be but I wasn't sure. And sorry about the cliffhangers, lol, but they are fun to write, I can't help it! So thanks again for your review, enjoyed reading it immensely and I of course appreciate you doing that!
A/N #4: The title of this chapter comes from the song All Those Years Ago by George Harrison, from his album Somewhere In England.
Backed Up To The Wall
"Don't pull your gun Detective," Cathleen de Alba said as she came out of the stall. "I'm not kidding I have it aimed to his head."
"I know, I'm moving my hand away," Beckett said, holding her hands up slowly as Castle was doing the same. "What do you want?"
"I need you to take me back to the city," de Alba said, looking at the entrance to the stable quickly before looking back at the two. "They're trying to kill me."
Beckett tried to get the woman to tell her who it was, but de Alba forced her and Castle with the gun to her car. She glanced back as de Alba slid into the backseat and said, "Look, we'll take you back to the city, without any questions, just please, give me the gun so no one gets shot accidentally."
"Drive," de Alba said hoarsely. "Now."
Castle watched as Beckett started the car, and he glanced back saying, "So why don't you tell us at least how you got here so quickly."
"Your partners released me right after you left. I guessed that you were going to see Fernandez," de Alba said. "And you'd find out about that fucking auction. I knew I'd need to explain myself, and this was for protection and to get your attention."
"Cathleen, give the gun to Castle," Beckett said as she paused before getting on the highway. "Or else I will stay in this same spot-"
De Alba pressed the gun against Beckett's neck and when she had pulled onto the highway she relaxed, but moved the gun down so it was pointing through the chair at Beckett's back. "Take us into the city and no one gets hurt," she said, glancing around.
"Okay, I'll take us there, but you have to tell us why you set up the auction," Beckett said, a little ill at ease as she glanced at Castle.
"I didn't set it up, I was forced to," de Alba said bitterly. "I knew how much my brother loved that horse and I would have never made him sell it."
"But you were desperate," Castle said.
"Yes," de Alba said, her voice becoming strained. "I kept betting and betting and never winning."
"Did you have to borrow money?" Beckett said.
"From someone you could never pay back?" Castle asked.
"Yes," de Alba said bitterly. "Which was their plan."
"Who are they?" Beckett said.
"They had me borrow money through Fernandez as I never saw them face to face and he told me that unless I got them my brother's horse for them, they were going to kill me," de Alba said. "I tried to ask my brother outright, I told him how much trouble I was in, but he didn't believe me."
"I don't blame him, your life over a horse?" Castle muttered.
"Again, I can hear you," de Alba shot back. "And when I told them that I couldn't get him to agree to it I suggested that an auction would be possible. I knew my brother was in debt to that bank guy, because of the Lakes abusing their horses, who worked for Fernandez who they worked through here. And Patrick's weakness was being an animal lover and that was well known. Couldn't stand to see animals harmed and tried everything he could to save them and that's what got him killed."
"And that's something to his detriment," Beckett said flatly. "Look, who is it that was trying to get your brother's horse?"
"I set up the auction," de Alba said, ignoring Beckett's question again. "And I thought everything was set. But something happened, someone found out what was going on, I think my brother found out because I would call him every day to see how he was. And then suddenly a few days ago, he stopped answering me." She then said, "I didn't kill him, I loved him, he was my twin, we're all we have left now in our immediate family."
"Cathleen, I'm heading back to the city," Beckett said, hearing the emotion in her voice. "We're taking you back to my Precinct, why don't you give Castle the gun? Please?"
"Will you protect me? Because everyone involved in this has been killed so far except for that jackass Black," de Alba said.
"I will," Beckett said, resisting the urge to ask her about the killer again.
De Alba put the safety back on, and turned the gun so the muzzle was pointing towards her. "I learned that the place I was going to move the auction to next week had been scheduled for someone else. It was then I realized they were getting impatient, and also they probably didn't want to pay for the horse when they could just take it. I didn't think much of it; I figured they would just steal Asturias one night. I came down here, that way I could settle everything and just return home and start over. I thought I was going to need to comfort Patrick once they stole the horse," she said as Castle took the clip out and put it and the gun into the glove compartment at Beckett's direction.
"Plus you wanted to come home," Beckett said.
"Yes, I was miserable in Canada," de Alba said. "Missing my boyfriend, who ended up dumping me last month so I wanted to come back to family. Is Megan really okay?"
"She's fine," Castle said. "Who is it that's doing this? Who's chasing you and trying to kill you. Who has the most to gain by your death?"
"If you could find my brother's will you'd know," de Alba sneered. She then turned quickly to look behind them and ducked down on the floor.
"What-" Beckett said, glancing back at the movement.
"I thought I saw someone," de Alba said. "I'm safer here anyways. Look, Vicky knew what was going on, she was closer to whoever it was threatening me than I ever was."
"She was the middleman between Fernandez and the killer here and you up in Canada," Castle said, leaning back to see her.
"Sort of," de Alba said. "But it was not here, it was Spain."
"Spain again," Beckett said.
"Yes, our grandfather bred and trained him for my brother there, he was a world class breeder," de Alba said, a little pride seeping into her voice. "Patrick was almost as good; not quite but close. I don't know what the stables will do now that he's passed away and Patrick as well."
"A lot of the people who are connected in this case are related to you, except for Victoria Alvarez," Castle said then. "Is the killer related to you?"
"Vicky was related in a way," de Alba said. "Yesterday when we talked before she was… killed, she told me that two people who were like siblings to a distant cousin of hers were involved, but I had no idea who as she wasn't sure. One was from her mother's side, the other from her father's. She was trying to figure out their connection, since her maternal cousin was a jockey, her paternal cousin she didn't really know, only that they were from Spain. But she did say-" before she suddenly sat up, and looked around them.
"What is it?" Beckett asked, looking in the rearview mirror at the woman, seeing a look of surprise on her face suddenly turn into horror.
As Beckett was back on the streets of Manhattan, she was slowing down the car at that moment, and before she could stop at a light de Alba threw open her door and jumped out before Castle or Beckett could say a word.
"What the hell?" Castle said, turning to watch the woman stumble to the street.
"Hey!" Beckett said. She looked to the side as the woman ran into the park they'd come to, and only had a second to see the large black car in the side mirror ramming into them before they jerked forward, glancing her head on the side of the steering wheel as they were propelled down the street, tires squealing.
Walking up to the back of the ambulance, Castle nodded to the EMT worker as he came out from the back before he climbed inside. "Hey," he said as he sat across from Beckett.
"I'm fine," she told him. "Probably will have a headache, but no concussion, so we were lucky."
"Definitely," Castle said, watching her closely. "The damage was minimal to your car and the 300."
"Great, I don't need to get a replacement for mine," Beckett said with a sigh. "How I'm going to explain this to my daughter I don't know," she said as she reached up, touching the butterfly stitches on the left side of her forehead, almost on her temple.
"Tell her the truth," Castle said. "Just… don't really mention that someone held us at gunpoint."
Beckett nodded and then pushed her hair off the stitches before saying, "I wasn't planning on it."
"Is that why you've been more… irritated than usual?" Castle asked slowly. When Beckett looked at him questioningly he said, "That picture."
"Yeah, it bothered me more than I wanted to admit," Beckett said. "But right now I want to focus more on the killer, who I'm assuming was driving the 300. And I'm also assuming it's the one we were trying to find right?"
"Correct on both points," Castle said. "CSU is looking inside the car, but when I talked to them just now they weren't able to find any fingerprints. Not much of a surprise of course. And I didn't get the chance to tell you, as I was a little… preoccupied once I recovered from the crash," he said as he looked at her. He glanced at the dried blood still on the side of her face from her cut; after he'd shaken the daze from the slight whiplash he'd received had given him, he'd seen her cut and had immediately begun to stem the flow of her blood with his scarf.
"I'll get you another scarf," Beckett said, glancing at the bloody fabric next to her.
"Not why I mentioned that," Castle said dismissively. "No, what I wanted to say was that while I was doing that I saw someone walking up to us and saw the driver, looking into the backseat."
"You're sure?" Beckett asked in surprise.
"It was him, the height was a giveaway, also, not many people would be dressed all in black with a hood and mask covering their face, sunglasses too. Even here in New York in the fall," Castle said. "I worked with a sketch artist; that's why it took me a while to see if you were okay. It's not much though, like I said, he was covered completely."
"I'll take it at this point," Beckett said, moving to leave the ambulance then. She saw that Esposito was walking over and she said, "Do you have the sketch?"
"Right here," the detective said, showing her the picture. "Did you see him at all?"
"No," Beckett said, seeing the sketch was much as Castle had described it and didn't really help them identify who it was. "What about Cathleen de Alba?"
"Been searching and asking witnesses to the crash," Ryan said, walking up then. "But no one could say where she went besides through the park," he said, nodding towards it.
"Alright," Beckett sighed, looking at the accident. "I think we can go ahead and head back to the station. Esposito, can you hold point here and see if we have any luck in finding a clue? We've got a new lead, though with the way everything is going I doubt it will lead anywhere."
"Got it," Esposito said with a nod before he walked back to the 300 that had CSU working over the inside and outside of.
"What are you going to do about your car?" Ryan asked as they walked to his car.
"Hopefully get it back when everything is gathered," Beckett said. "The gun?" she then said, stopping abruptly and turning to Castle who nearly ran into her.
"I told them," he said quickly, stopping her from stepping into him.
"Scratched off numbers, so wherever she got it, it's untraceable," Ryan then put in.
"Then we'll focus on the horse," Beckett said decisively before she turned and walked to Ryan's car again.
"You honestly think this will help?"
"It's worth a shot; there are so many names it's getting really confusing."
"Alright, then why don't we go ahead and start with who we came into contact first," Beckett said, stepping forward to the blank side of the murder board that Castle had turned it to after suggesting they write down names and their connections to each other.
"In order of appearance?" Castle asked as she wrote Patrick de Alba at the very top. "Okay," he said quickly when she gave him a look. "We then met Megan de Alba, though she was cleared," he said, writing her name. "Then there was Black," he said.
"No, Victoria Alvarez, though we just had her name from her desk, we never really got introduced to her," Beckett reminded him quickly.
"Right," Castle said, correcting his mistake. "So Black was after. By the way, the charges?"
"He was arrested while we were in New Jersey," Beckett said. "You should draw an asterisk next to Alvarez and Patrick de Alba," she said. "Since she was apparently his girlfriend up until two weeks ago." When he had done so she then said, "After that we were alerted to the Lakes, Victor and Louise." She wrote down the names, drawing a line between them and Black. "And she's a relation of the de Albas I think, or did we not get an answer for that?"
"Yes, but I think a lot of these are distant relationships; except for Alvarez, she's not a blood or marriage relation to anyone here," Castle said. "Okay, so we then got Booker but he was cleared. Which brings us next to Cathleen de Alba," he said, looking at the tree they were drawing. "And then that leads us to Fernandez and his son Liam. Then his five men in the office with us for that interview. Kind of Godfather-esque now that I think about it."
"Reminisce later Castle," Beckett said, writing down everything. "We're forgetting de Alba's ex," she told him as she wrote down the name. "I think that's everyone right?"
"That we know of," Castle said. "Should we put down their connections?" He was surprised when Beckett didn't answer him and looked next to him to see she was rubbing her forehead. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I think I need that aspirin now," Beckett said as she went to her desk. "But feel free to get the connections down if you'd like."
Castle began to draw lines between the people who had either been working for or paying off another name on the list. When he had finished he stepped back and said, "I think that's it."
"You forgot one with the Lakes," Beckett said, standing behind him. "The other party that the Lakes were working for and were using Cathleen de Alba to get Asturias."
"Which is either the driver of the car or someone else completely different," Castle said. He drew a question mark and drew a line to the Lakes along with a line to the word driver.
"Doesn't really help us out," Beckett sighed as she looked at the tree and couldn't see anything that stood out and that they didn't already know.
"Maybe this will," Esposito said as he and Ryan walked up to them.
"Did you check out the auction house?" Beckett asked.
"Yeah, down at the docks, they hold quiet auctions, like for guns and drugs," Ryan said. "Like they were doing right when we got there."
"How many did you end up arresting?" Castle asked as he and Beckett looked at the two at that news.
"Two, they were running the auction," Esposito said. "We've got them in interrogation to talk to."
"Can you take over on that?" Beckett said. "Ask them about de Alba, both brother and sister, the Lakes and also Fernandez and his cronies?"
"Sure," Esposito said, looking at her.
"I'm fine," Beckett said before Ryan could ask, guessing he was about to. "Just a headache from the accident and I would rather have someone talking to them who's got a clearer mind than I do right now so we don't miss a possible break."
When Ryan and Esposito had left, Castle turned to the board and said, "You know, setting aside Fernandez and his cronies. What if de Alba was right about it having to do something with Spain?"
"Of course it does, but I don't think she meant it in that way," Beckett said, sitting at her desk and typing on her computer. When he didn't say anything she glanced at him from the corner of her eye and said, "Castle?"
"Yeah," he said slowly. "We're agreed," he said as he sat down in his chair next to her. "It's all dealing with this horse."
"You're thinking the stables where Asturias was bred and trained at?" Beckett said. She smiled slightly when he straightened up at that, and she turned her screen towards him. "Felipe de Alba," she read from the screen. "Owned the Dos Lagos de Alba Establo until his death one year ago. He had three sons, he survived them."
"Grandchildren?" Castle asked.
"It says here that he had only three, that would be Patrick and Cathleen, and third Megan," Beckett said. She then switched to another search engine and typed in the stables' name.
"Nothing on who owns it now," Castle said, reading the screen at the same time. "He's been dead for a year and no one owns it?"
"Not exactly," Beckett said, looking at the bottom of the page where there was an asterisk. "This is in Spanish," she said, clicking on the link and opening the same page again, in a different language. "There's more here than on the English page. How's your Spanish?"
"Speaking it; slightly; but reading? Not so sure," Castle said. "How about you?"
"Some," Beckett said. She scanned the information, and came to a paragraph that she didn't recognize as having been on the English page. "Okay, maybe if I read it I can get it translated."
"Does anyone else besides Esposito know Spanish?" Castle asked.
"No, he's the one we always ask when Spanish comes up," Beckett said. She scanned the page, but shook her head. "I don't know enough to read this," she said. "All I'm getting is basic words, like and, or here."
"So where does that leave us?" Castle asked. "There are no names in that paragraph."
"Let's see what Ryan and Espo are getting," Beckett said, standing up. She walked over to observation and saw that the two men were both talking to their suspects. She studied them for a moment, and then pulled up audio from the room Esposito was in.
"You heard from this man about a month ago for this auction," the detective was saying. "And he asked for an auction at midnight the day after Thanksgiving for a horse."
"Yeah, we know him," the man said. "He's done this before, but it was always weird, he'd set up the auction in another person's name, but then buy the horse himself, and ship 'em to Spain where he's from. We never asked since he'd pay up pretty well and in cash."
"And do you have a name?" Esposito asked.
"Juan Gutierrez," the man said with a shrug. "I've seen him before at daytime auctions though. He's with that mob guy with the horses, from New Jersey."
"Fernandez?" Esposito asked.
At the man's nod, Castle and Beckett shared a look before they ran to her desk. He watched as she hurriedly typed and he quickly used up his phone, searching as well.
"Juan Gutierrez," Beckett said. "Recognize him?" she asked Castle as she pulled up his picture. "Suspected of some homicides, but never proven. Has dual citizenship here and in Spain."
"There's something about him having a sister, and that he's competed in some equestrian events in Spain before he moved here," Castle said, glancing at the screen. "So creepy smile guy comes to the US, and builds up his stables he may have at home; I couldn't find anything about that though."
"Neither could I," Beckett said. "But he sets up these illegal auctions to get the horses, and when he sees or learns about Asturias he wants him back at home. He might have tried to talk with de Alba himself; we'll need to check with Megan de Alba."
"But Patrick de Alba loves his horse, and says no," Castle continued. "So Gutierrez tries to get him through his sister and her debts to his boss Fernandez. But when he realizes de Alba has found out about the auction, he's got no other recourse but to murder him and take Asturias himself."
"But the horse ran off," Beckett said. "And he had to kill the Lakes because they found out his plans too; they probably were the people who he was setting up the auction in the name of. We'll have to ask Esposito if he got the name. And Alvarez he murdered because she discovered he was the killer."
"So he's targeting Cathleen next," Castle began. "But there's no definitive reason with her. It could be because he's the 'they' she was talking about in the car, or because killing her would lead to Asturias being sold to the highest bidder, legally this time and he's got a better chance that way of getting it."
"We have to find him," Beckett said as she turned for her phone. Before she could grab it though, it rang and she glanced at Castle before picking it up. "Beckett?" she answered.
Watching her, Castle was surprised when she looked taken aback suddenly before saying, "We know who it is-" He tried to lean in closer to her to hear whoever it was on the other end, but besides a voice he couldn't make out much more than that.
"Alright, we'll be there, right now," Beckett said finally before she hung up the phone. "That was Cathleen de Alba."
"She's still alive?" Castle asked as she stood up and grabbed her coat and scarf; grabbing his own coat.
"She is, and she just called from a payphone outside Central Park," Beckett said as they rushed to the elevator. "Saying she figured out who it was that was killing everyone and wanted her brother's horse. She wants us to meet her right now near where her brother was shot to escort her back here."
"Why there?" Castle asked.
"I don't know, but this is not good," Beckett said, texting a quick message to Ryan and Esposito as they went down in the elevator to the lobby. "I just hope we're not wrong and it turns out she's the murder after all, luring us there to get rid of us before we figure out her involvement."
"Detective, Mr. Castle," Cathleen de Alba said in relief when she saw the two walk over to where she was leaning against the trunk of a tree. "Thank you for coming."
"After what happened earlier we wanted to make sure you were alright," Beckett said.
"I'm sorry about that," de Alba said sincerely. "I really didn't have a chance to react except to get out of there because I knew they would likely try to crush me in the back. But I know who they are."
"So do we, Juan Gutierrez," Castle said.
"Who the hell is that?" de Alba said, shaking her head. "No, no, they're twins, and they've been threatening me ever since last month, telling me they'll kill our families if we don't give them Asturias. I just couldn't put them and the ones trying to schedule the auction by blackmailing me together."
"Who are they exactly," Beckett said, feeling uncomfortable talking out in the open, glancing around.
"I wasn't able to tell until a little while ago, I followed them from the car after they looked for me, to an apartment building a few blocks away and when I heard them talking I knew immediately," de Alba said, her voice growing more excited. "I haven't heard them speak since I was three years old, when I last saw them, but I knew their voices, their tones, talking as if everything was theirs."
"Ms. de Alba, we need a name," Beckett said. "Or else we can take you to my station and talk there."
"It's-" was all Cathleen de Alba had a chance to say before she suddenly jerked to the side, blood spattering from her head as three holes suddenly appeared and her body collapsed to the ground.
Beckett withdrew her gun and turned to her right as she and Castle started to run around the tree trunk to shield them. But before she could reach it, she felt an explosion of pain on her right hand as her gun flew out of her hand.
Castle grabbed Beckett and turned her in front of him as they started to run, chunks of grass shooting up in the air as bullets began to fly soundlessly around them, driving into the ground. He ran with her towards the path and to the nearest street. When they managed to get to the sidewalk, a large black car suddenly swerved in their path, almost hitting him. "It's Gutierrez!" he yelled as he and Beckett had no choice but to run into the street as bullets began to strike the sidewalk. They went across the street as two other cars nearly hit them and went into the compound that was for the Green Hills Stables.
Glancing over her shoulder, Beckett was able to see a group of men in dark suits, carrying assault rifles starting to get out of the cars they'd put on the sidewalk. Turning back, she let Castle lead them into the stable that was furthest away out of the five on the grounds, and he slid the door closed. "Did we lose them?" she asked, wincing as she looked down at her hand.
"Not for long," Castle said as he looked around at the horses that were looking out from the stalls. He then turned to Beckett and saw her left hand covering her right. "You're hit," he said, seeing the long scratch that looked to be shallow but was bleeding heavily on the top of her hand curving to in between her thumb and index finger.
"You too," Beckett said as she glanced up at his left cheek which had a scrape running horizontally along it.
"Wondered what that was," Castle said as he carefully took off her scarf and wrapped it around her hand, tying it as tightly as he could to her sharp intake of breath. "Sorry," he said as he covered her hand with his to apply more pressure and stop the bleeding.
"Asturias is here," Beckett said suddenly, looking at the back of the stable.
Glancing back, Castle suddenly heard the sounds of shouting and he looked at her with wide eyes as a man yelled, "The blood ends here!" He pulled Beckett into the back of the building, looking around for a door so they could get out.
"There's no door, we have to find another way out!" Beckett said as she saw him looking around.
"The loft they'll look for us there first thing," Castle said, glancing at the ladder. He looked into Asturias' stable, unlocking and opening the gate with one hand before he turned to Beckett saying, "Are you allergic to hay?"
"What? No, w-" Beckett started to say before he grabbed her and pushed her inside the stall. Before she said anything he made her lay down on the ground against the back wall before he covered her with hay. "Castle-" she started to say before he covered her mouth with his hand. She stayed lying down then as she realized what he was going to do when he went back to the gate and locked it from the outside.
Lying down next to Beckett after he'd touched Asturias' flank, Castle pulled the mound of hay he'd seen and gotten the idea to use to hide behind. "Sorry," he was able to whisper to Beckett after he'd covered them both the best he could. He heard the door to the stable opening, and he looked at Beckett in the muted light, trying to shield her with his body in case whoever was with Gutierrez tried to shoot into the hay.
"What the hell," a heavily accented voice said. "The blood stops here- check the loft."
There was the sound of footsteps going up the ladder and a voice yelling down, "Nothing jefe, just heno."
"Alright, Luis has Asturias, so get the other guys to bring over those bales," the man; who Castle and Beckett were assuming was Gutierrez; said as the other man came down from the loft; his voice fading.
"What for?" the man asked.
Beckett strained to hear, but the two men were soon outside. She started to move, but stopped herself abruptly, nearly running into Castle as she realized the door hadn't been closed. "They're not leaving until they find us," she whispered, so low she thought she was going to need to repeat herself. "We have to get out of here."
"And they have the wrong h-" Castle started to say before voices reached them. He froze instantly, waiting for the sound to get closer and tensing up even more as he knew Beckett had displaced some of the hay. But it never did, and he looked at her before they both heard men suddenly yelling which reached them.
"Detective, Mr. Castle," a man yelled into the barn. "You don't really give us much choice. Come out and we won't be forced to act irrationally."
When they didn't move, holding their breaths as they wondered what exactly Gutierrez was planning, they heard the man himself commanding the men with him, "Basta! We can't wait anymore, set it on fire now!"
Beckett and Castle jumped up from the hay, and when they were in the aisle, they could see black smoke coming from a low wall of hay bales that was set in front of the door, blocking their way. They looked at each other and back at the flames, the gold and orange flicking over the white wood of the stable, charring it instantly as the smoke inched towards them.