At the library, in between the hundreds of microfilm records, Vera had pleaded with Castle to come stay with her and Joe. He'd refused; he had no intention of putting them in that kind of trouble, and even told her I'd be shocked if you two didn't end up getting your phone tapped, Vera. I'm sure they'll come talk to you.
But she'd made him promise to stop by if he needed anything. She'd even given him her spare key.
Rick hurried into their little apartment, holding his breath, but it was empty; Vera was at the library for the day, and he assumed Joe was probably teaching his creative writing class at the community college.
There was an envelope on the kitchen counter, though, labeled Rick in Joe's neat block handwriting. Inside, he found two hundred dollars in cash, and a note – Just to help tide you over. Help yourself to anything in the fridge.
Still wearing the thin latex gloves he'd worn at Gina's - one could never be too careful, especially when one was fleeing the long arm of the justice system - he settled at their computer, pulling out the two flash drives he'd found in the elephants.
"Senator Bracken, thank you so much for meeting with us. I'm Deputy Kate Beckett, these are Deputies Javier Esposito and Kevin Ryan."
"Nice to meet all of you," the senator beamed, reaching to shake everyone's hand. Firm grip, Kate noted, but not uncomfortably so. Strong, direct eye contact, too. "I appreciate you calling my assistant to set this up. You said this has to do with my security chief?"
She nodded. "A few days ago, the fugitive Richard Castle broke into Mr. Davidson's home."
Bracken nodded. "He mentioned that."
"We left a patrol car outside, just in case Mr. Castle came back or tried to harm Mr. Davidson, and as of yesterday, Mr. Davidson is missing."
Bracken blinked. "Missing?"
Espo nodded. "We've been searching the neighborhood, and we haven't seen any trace of Castle, but Josh Davidson is nowhere to be found."
"Have you heard from him?" Kate asked, watching what was, admittedly, not a bad veneer of false panic on Bracken's face.
"I haven't - he'd been working around the clock for several weeks, so I gave him a few days off. I wasn't expecting him back here until tomorrow."
Ryan jotted down a few notes. "In the past few weeks, Senator, had you noticed anyone out of place? Anyone at fundraisers, appearances, any kind of events that looked suspicious? Anyone paying too much attention to either you or Mr. Davidson?"
Bracken shook his head, tugging absently at his shirt cuffs. "Honestly, no. Josh is my security guy; he keeps a very close watch for anything like that, and the last time we discussed the campaign, he seemed satisfied with all the security measures we have in place."
"Have you ever met Mr. Castle?" Kate asked placidly. "We don't think Mr. Davidson had ever met him."
"I'd never met the man, and I don't think Josh had, either."
Kate nodded. "Thank you for your time, Senator." She handed him a card. "If you think of anything, or you hear from Mr. Davidson, please, give us a call."
Bracken flashed them a brilliant white smile, the one leering out from every campaign poster Kate had seen, all over the city. "Of course. Thank you so much, deputies."
After replacing the flash drives in the little elephants and replacing them on the desk, Castle re-set the security system and left Gina's apartment for the second time, copies of each flash drive on discs carefully tucked into his jacket.
He'd found mailing supplies in Vera's pristine little kitchen, and, stopping at the nearest post office, he dropped off two envelopes, each containing a copy of the two recordings he'd found. One was addressed to the U.S. Marshals' Office, care of Deputy Beckett. The other was addressed to his mother. And he kept one last set of recordings for himself.
He caught a glimpse of himself in the window of the post office - heavyset, greyed hair, lines and scruff on his face. He almost didn't recognize his own reflection, the tired man with the keen, desperate eyes.
There was a soft thunk as each envelope hit the bottom of the dropbox, and he took a deep breath.
The ball's in your court now, Beckett.
He hoped she was as smart as she seemed.