Finding Her Hero

Chapter 11

Kate's voice trembled as she fiercely struggled to hold back tears. "What other way, Castle?"

"Let's get out of here," he whispered. "We don't know who's been compromised."

Kate drove Castle's car silently until they were on the bridge back to Manhattan. "All right, Castle, we're out of there. Tell me what you think we can do now."

"Kate, you remember on the tape when McAllister told the other voice just to take everything? He had to have meant the ill-gotten gains McAllister and Raglan got from their ransom payments. There must be a record of them flowing from McAllister to someone, around the time your mother was killed."

"Castle, that's right! And we have McAllister's financials from when we brought charges against him."

"So, we follow the money," Castle continued. "And whatever pocket it ended up in…"

"Is the pocket of my mother's murderer." Kate finished. "Mind a trip to the archives?"

"My favorite place to sneeze."

Kate was entering lower Manhattan when a garbage truck pulled in behind her. She stared into her rear-view mirror. "Castle, I think we may have a problem. There's no trash pickup here on Saturdays. That truck shouldn't be there."

"Maybe it's going in for service," Castle suggested.

Kate shook her head. "It wouldn't take this route." Another sanitation truck pulled in front of her and began to back up. "Castle, get out! Now!" Castle reached awkwardly with his left hand for the handle of the passenger-side door, barely making it out of the way before their vehicle was crushed between the two behemoths. "Run!" Kate yelled. "Find cover!"

Separated from Kate by the mass of metal, Castle sprinted for the door of a coffee shop. Gulping air, he heard the door jingle shut behind him. After a moment, Rick drew a slow breath and took a seat at a back table. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and thumbed the icon for Kate.

She responded immediately. "Castle, are you all right? Where are you?"

"Not an accordion yet. Are you OK? I'm at the Java Hut. Where are you?"

"I'm fine. I'm in an alley across the street from you. I'll come over there as soon as I'm sure the coast is clear. It looks like the drivers of both trucks ran off as soon as they smashed into the car. But I'm going to check that no one is around to finish the job."

"I'll be here, but I think I'll stick to hot chocolate. I've had my jolt for the day Just watch yourself, Kate."

Kate sipped at her latte while Rick worked on his second cocoa. "Castle, whoever arranged that collision, had to have a lot of juice to get access to city property. And he'll find out pretty soon that we're alive. By law, I had to call in about the "accident." And the insurance company won't pay a claim on your car without a police report. Someone will be here to take it any minute. The way the traffic is tied up around the mess out there, the unis are probably having trouble getting through."

"Kate, I can replace the car, with or without the insurance, but there's nowhere safe for you in this city."

"We may both be in the crosshairs, Castle. And we need to find out who the voice on that tape is more than ever."

"How about the archives? Do we dare show up there now?"

"I think we can. Whoever is pulling the strings wouldn't have bothered to try and stage an accident if he wasn't afraid of ordering a straight hit. But I have my weapon on me. I'm not going to be slow in using it."

Castle tucked his phone away as Kate spread out McAllister's file on a table in a hotel suite Castle had rented, on the VIP floor of the Four Seasons. "Mother is taking Alexis to the Hamptons, at least for the weekend. They'll be safe if anyone tries to get into the loft. I'm having the security system intensified while they're gone. And as far as the hotel is concerned, this room is rented under the name of Johnny Donnelly. Pretty generic, but not as much of a tipoff as John Smith. No one can get up here without a room key and a code. The concierge is sending up a laptop we can use with the premium internet connection. It's encrypted to avoid eavesdropping on business transactions, but it will cover us too."

"Castle, how did you get so good at hiding?"

"Book tours. The hotels regularly accommodate even minor celebrities such as myself. And research for Derrick Storm. He was always hiding out, but then you know that."

"Yeah, I do," Kate admitted. "I just thought you were making everything up."

"Kate there were two places I spent my time as a kid while my mother was at the theater, backstage and in the public library. I didn't just learn to speed-read. I could find information faster than some of the librarians. And what I can look up, I don't have to make up."

A knock sounded on the door, and a member of the hotel staff arrived with a high end but lightweight computer and a sealed envelope, which he gave to Kate after she'd scrutinized his ID. Castle passed the man a $20 bill as he made his exit. "Kate, that envelope should have a password inside to the secure Wi-Fi."

She pulled out a card. "It does."

"Then let's find the bastard."

"I'm extremely disappointed," Bracken told the voice on the other end of the phone. "Not only didn't your people get the job done, but they've also tipped off Beckett and Castle that they're targets. So where are they now?"

"We don't know, Senator. They're not at the Broome Street address or Beckett's apartment. Our contacts in the department haven't been able to locate them, either. But Beckett is due to show up at the Twelfth Precinct Monday morning."

"If he's running true to form, Castle will be with her. Keep your people on them until we get another shot. And this one better work."

"Castle," Kate said. "There are series of transfers from McAllister's accounts, just below the amount that would be flagged for the IRS. They went to an organization called Clean Up Our Streets."

"That had to be a front for someone," Castle remarked. "It sounds like a slogan, something you'd use in a political ad. I'll Google it. Hmm."

'What Castle?"

"It was the meta-title on several commercials. They're on YouTube. I want to tether this thing to the big screen so that we can spot any telltale details more easily. It will work with Bluetooth, but I can't do it by voice command. I need the help of your capable fingers."

Kate activated the link as Castle requested and they watched a 60-second spot display images of sinister-looking characters on broken and littered sidewalks. A deep voice, reminiscent of James Earl Jones, intoned, "Is this where you want your children to grow up? Call D.A. William Bracken and tell him that you support his plan to clean up our streets."

A thirtyish man with the sleeves of his white dress shirt rolled up to his elbows, flashed on the screen. "I'm there for you and your families."

Kate stiffened. "Castle do you recognize that voice? It's the one that was on the tape." Castle grabbed his phone from the table. Let's double-check it." The now pristine wave file poured through the speaker.

Kate swallowed and turned to Castle. "That's him, Rick. William Bracken is McAllister's dragon and my mother's killer."