Sunday
Alexis came down, rubbing her eyes. She was in her light blue pyjamas. Castle watched her from the kitchen, enjoying the sleepy spectacle.
"Morning pumkin. You sleep well?"
She did that smile that just made everything worthwhile; padded over to hug him.
"Not saying anything?"
"Bleh, too early dad. You?"
He went to make her a cup of tea. "Here, melt yourself." He placed it before her.
"Hmm, thanks dad."
They sat in companionable silence while the sun warmed-up and the city began to rouse. Castle was acutely aware that the Dragon could be on the move. It was too soon, he was not ready. He looked at his daughter, feeling inadequate.
"When do your exams finish?"
After a sip, "On Wednesday, I can't wait."
Another silence. He wanted to put a team of guards on her. Would that signal chaos, or protect her? He decided to warn her instead.
"Da—"
"—umkin."
They giggled. "You go," he said.
She started rotating the tea-cup while she gathered her thoughts.
"Dad, I have been foolish." Was she crying? "Darling. What's wrong?"
"I'm sorry dad!" She almost dropped the cup to whip him into a hug. She sobbed against his chest and he held her.
"What's this about pumpkin, you can tell me anything you know?"
Gradually she calmed. She pulled away, a peanut's smile across her pink face. She took her seat and lifted the cup again, still rotating it. He waited.
"I have been f-foolish and selfish, a-and hurtful." She gripped the tea cup.
"Dad, I went to Kate in the hospital. I asked her to reject you." Her head bowed low.
"I know, sunshine."
"You do?" Her eyes snapped to his face.
"I suspected. The way things rolled after the first time I spoke to her." He didn't want to hurt Alexis, "I don't know when I figured it out, it sort of happened over time."
"I had to dad."
"I know you did."
"I am sorry."
"What for pumpkin? Kate chose another man. Your plan to have her kick me out, to keep me safe — well it worked, but it's not what has broken us apart."
"Really?" Her eyes wanted this to be true.
How much of it was true? It was back into the Beckett onion again. This layer, that one. This intention, that feint. This moment, that outcome.
He sighed. "It's complicated."
"Tell me about it." Alexis mock-laughed, holding her cup against the table.
"I could tell you I know for sure how I feel. I could lay it all out. Kate feels such and such for these reasons. I feel here and here. See the chessboard?" He waved at the counter, "The strategy and moves, the intentions and deeds, all laid out?"
"Not really dad."
"No me neither."
She nodded her head. "I see."
"I had a wish, a hope. A fragile thing. I wanted to love Kate. I wanted her to love me." He rubbed his face, "We don't always get what we want, and there's never a single line backwards to explain what went wrong."
"But I know I love Ashley, and I know he loves me."
"You are more talented than I. Don't take it for granted because, believe me, it's a rare thing."
She covered his hand with her little fingers, "I won't dad, I promise."
"Wise, pumpkin. I'll even try harder not to scare him off." She smiled a little.
"Now, you promise me something dad."
"Anything."
"Let yourself love Kate."
Silence again. Her simple words should have slammed like a train to his body, but they slipped-up and tickled his heart instead. For a moment he flashed onto Kate and she was smiling, reaching to hold his hand. Together they dived—
"Oh my daughter, you are amazing." Was all he could say. He looked at her and realized his own eyes were crying. She hugged him again.
"I don't mind anymore if you get killed dad. I mean, it would be bad, but if you don't have love then what's the point?"
He just cried against her as the sun slanted through the windows and bathed them in welcome.
"Richard?" Martha's voice from the stairs.
He sniffed one last time, gave Alexis a squeeze. "Thanks my one and only." Spoken into her eyes, a finger-poke to her little nose.
Martha came closer. She knew some catharsis had happened and years had given her wisdom. She made-light and the family began their morning banter-routine around coffee and pancakes.
"Mom, Alexis, I might not get a chance to speak with you in time. There's something important you need to know."
He gathered them close, getting their attention.
"Despite my best efforts to keep you safe, we may all be in danger soon."
"Oh Richard! What is it this time?" Martha exclaimed.
"Nothing trivial, I assure you." This silenced her.
"I want you both to be careful. In a very few days we will be leaving for a safe place, I can't say where just yet. Come and go as usual, but do so in straight lines."
He looked at his mother, "No shopping trips."
To Alexis, "No visiting friends. Ashley can come here. Go to your exams and come directly home. Don't allow yourself to be drawn away from that course."
He looked at them, "Both of you. Spend as much time here as you can, you are vulnerable outside."
Alexis took it well, she swallowed, "But my exams."
"I think you will finish them. I can't see my plans being ready before Thursday."
"What's this about Richard?"
"Kate's shooting. The killer is still around. Kate and I are targets, you are collateral and potential bait."
"Oh how terrible." Martha stood. She looked both worried and irritated. She pulled at her dress, looked around. "Really, I never—"
"Please trust me you two. I have a plan and I have help from the police. Just do as I ask, this once. Please."
"We will dad," said Alexis, looking sternly at her gran.
"Ryan?" Castle called on the burner.
"Hi, who's on Beckett-duty?" Castle asked.
"Esposito today. He relieved me midnight."
"Kate okay?"
"Josh and her had a fight, nothing big, but he left on Friday night in a bit of a mood."
"Left?"
"Yeah, some doctor's conference in Quebec, for a week."
"So Kate is alone?" He wondered what was going on in her mind. Did she feel conflicted and confused like him? Or was she what she always seemed on the surface, confident and sure?
"Yeah, with Esposito on the door."
"Okay, I need some help Ryan."
"What's up?"
Castle gave him a basic sketch of the situation. Then he told him about the Old Haunt.
"I'm calling it The Bunker." Ryan could hear the smile in Castle's voice.
"I'm sure you are."
"So, I need some muscle. People who are good with tools, building things and supplies."
"I know a few," came the Irishman's response, "Let me call around."
"Can they be trusted to remain silent? One casual joke in a bar about the Bunker under the Old Haunt—"
"These are guys I have known from childhood, they're hard and they know the code. When a friend asks for silence, especially when there's trouble, they clam-up like chastity belts."
"Nice simile, but those things have keys you know?"
"They won't betray me Castle."
"Good enough."
"What do you need to start?"
"An internal wall upstairs to hide the trapdoor. A steel door at the base of the stair to prevent gas attack. During the next week, work on the tunnels to clean them up fit for humans; block any entrances from the other sewers."
"And plumbing, some kind of kitchen, beds, that sort of thing?"
"You got it. I am going to move my family down there very soon, and by family I mean you and Jenny, Esposito, Kate, all of you."
"Damn Castle, this thing is getting scary."
"Stay on your toes Ryan, I'll speak to you tomorrow."
"When you gonna talk to Kate?" Ryan asked the million dollar question.
Castle paused.
"Soon." They rang-off.
Gates to the loft.
Castle got a few hours of writing done, then the door interrupted.
"I'll get it." Came Martha's voice.
After the surprise on Friday night, Castle had forgotten to speak to the security downstairs. He jumped up, "Leave it mother!"
"Oh, I say." She tutted as he swept past her.
It was Captain Gates. "Come in Captain."
"Hello Mr. Castle. Who is this?" She looked at Martha.
"Captain Gates, Martha. My mother."
"Charmed, my dear."
Gates looked ruffled. Martha, who had been working herself up into a steam since the talk, suddenly erupted. In a shower of arms and pearls she dramatically gestured at the Captain and said, "Maybe you can tell us what the hell is going on? Why is my son being chased by a deranged killer!"
Gates looked at Castle, dead-pan, "That's what I'd like to know."
"Well— of all the— Help of the police. Police protection. Ha!" Martha stomped off.
"Forgive my mother, she only heard some of it and only a few hours ago."
"I know how she feels." The dead-pan remained.
"My office." He strode away and she followed.
"Sit." He pointed at his chair. Castle began to pace as he thought about how to start.
"Just start Castle." He looked at her.
"Okay. Kate's sniper is a finger on the hand of an organization that is run by Al-teneen. The same people killed her mother years ago to cover-up something. We are not sure what, but there might be a military connection."
Gates nodded him to continue.
"Lockwood was one of the fingers. I suspect Sandy Walker may be another. Beyond that I have a hunch that Judge Markaway is involved."
She gasped. The Judge?
"Do you have any proof Castle?"
Castle paced more rapidly, waving his arms. "Proof may come as dead bodies Captain. We don't know who is compromised, we can't trust anyone."
"What do you have?"
He calmed down, looked for a chair and pulled it over.
"We have some leads, some papers, some photographs. We have all the evidence that Kate and I gathered — that led to Roy being killed and her being shot." Pain struck his heart again to picture that moment.
"We have that name, Al-teneen, the Dragon. Roy told me that the Dragon is behind it all. There's more to tell, but we don't have a lot of time."
"Tell me."
"Sandy Walker duped me. I was — I was trying to move away from Kate, she.. Never mind, not worth it. I was involved with Sandy, starting to like her. She got in. You know?"
The Captain's eyes softened. She had heard the rumours of Castle and Kate and she had seen his attraction to Sandy Walker. "I do, continue."
"Well, I was a fool. A woman like that? I should have known she was too good to be true. She was here on Friday night, she went through my murder-board," he pointed at his screen, "and she may have stolen a copy."
"Does this means we are compromised?" Asked Gates.
"I don't know. There was no information about our plans, but it may rouse them from their slumber."
"I see." Gates shifted in Castle's chair. She wished she could get one of these for the precinct.
"So you have warned your family I take it?" She motioned the door and the room beyond.
"Yes, this morning. I told them to come and go quickly and to try stay here."
"You want me to arrange protection?" She asked.
"That's the thing. This case is paranoia mixed with conspiracy. To have you and my team involved is more than we should risk. Anyone may be eyes and ears."
"It has been my experience with dirty cops, that the good ones far outnumber them. Conspiracies rarely hold-up to the light of day."
"I know, but— Kate was shot. Roy was shot. Other cops killed. Johanna, Raglan, McCallister. A mixture of good and bad and innocent."
Gates folded her arms, "Worth being discreet then."
Castle nodded, resting his arms on his legs.
"What's your plan?" She asked him, as if from a great distance.
Castle started talking.
A body drops.
Castle and Gates talked for almost two hours. The Captain was good and she cut excess from his plan. They agreed that the Old Haunt would be the perfect hiding place. In plain sight was her term for it.
She was worried about Kate and the other detectives, and worried about Castle's family, but agreed that a few more days of normalcy was their best chance of catching a break. She was about to leave when her phone rang.
"Gates." She listened intently for a minute and hung up. Her posture shifted and he thought she'd suddenly got cold.
"A- a body. Ah shit." She wiped her eye. Castle rose, "Captain?"
"Crime scene, my sister."
He drove with Gates. Before they left he instructed Martha and Alexis not to leave the loft. He spoke with security and gave air-tight orders. He left them white-faced and almost saluting.
They hurtled through the Sunday traffic, saying nothing. The siren wailed for them instead. The location was a night club, cops littered the entrance.
Gates hit the ground running, but Castle saw Kate arriving and went to see her.
"Kate!" He cried, his whole Mr. Cool demeanour forgotten.
Beckett's memory was not so fragile and she didn't yet know who the vic was. She glared at Castle as if he had offered her a cup of coffee.
"Castle. Calling me Kate again, eh?"
He pulled-up. Awkward. No time, "Captain Gates' sister is the vic."
He need say no more. Beckett knew that kind of pain. She softened and led him into the club.
"Where's Esposito?" He asked.
"He was right behind me, but I lost him. Don't worry, he'll catch up."
They crossed the dance floor, littered with bottle caps and effluvia. A knot of cops stood around the DJ station, yellow tape was being stretched around it.
"My baby sister was a DJ." Gates was saying to another cop.
Castle and Kate negotiated the throng until they could see the scene. A young black woman lay behind the DJ station. She had been strangled and placed carefully. All her clothes were missing and her body was decorated in fluorescent club paint. She would look entirely different under UV light.
"3xK?" Castle wondered aloud.
Kate shook her head, "Different M.O."
"How did they id her so fast?"
"Dunno, hold on." Kate departed to go speak to anyone who could shed some light.
"Bro," Esposito tapped his arm.
"Ah, glad you're here. This," He waved down at the vic, "is Captain Gates' sister."
"Shit."
Kate spent some time getting the facts. She spoke to the cleaner who had found the body, a small woman who worked for a cleaning service. The body had been found exactly as it now lay, all that changed was that she'd lifted the driver's licence that had been placed on the victim's stomach. The woman had called 911.
They saw someone taking Gates by the arm and leading her away. Castle wanted to go to her, but he was stuck to the scene like a magnet.
Kate came back and shared her information.
"The killer left her id prominently placed. He wanted us to know who he had killed."
"Definitely a he?"
"Seems so, strangulation takes a lot of strength, but the M.E. is still on the way."
"She is here." Came Lanie's voice. She looked longingly at Esposito for a moment and then beetled over to the scene.
"Yep, she was strangled. I won't know if this was post or peri until I get the body back to my lab. My estimate for TOD would be after midnight."
She looked up, "The usual waivers, terms and conditions apply." Then she called her people over and started the job of moving the victim.
"You okay Castle?" Kate was asking him something.
"Uh—"
She touched his arm. An electric shock ran through him. Stunned he mumbled again.
"You okay?" Now she was closer and worried.
"Yes, detective. The Captain was at the loft. We were— never mind. It was sudden."
Kate pondered that. What would Gates be doing visiting Castle on a Sunday?
"Why was she there Castle?"
"Not important, it was another of her warnings to me, is all." He cricked his neck, the tension getting to him. "Then this call, out of the blue, out of all imagination."
"I know the exact one." And she did. For a moment he was only Rick and she was only Kate, the girl who had lost her mom. He gave her a small hug.
"Don't go there Kate."
"Thanks Castle."
They let-go and stepped apart. He didn't stare at her, thank god. She could take anything but his eyes.
She sent Esposito and Ryan to knock on doors and find answers, but they all knew this was one of those cases. The weird ones. The tough ones. Castle was in no mood for a complication like this, not one that could distract Gates so utterly.
