Chapter 14

The next morning Kate felt much better. Better about herself and better about her future. No matter what the final diagnosis Castle would be there. He'd gotten a call from Alexis mad that he wasn't resting so Kate sent him home to spend time with her. Alone that night she slept and dreamed of a future that didn't include snipers or bombs or wheelchairs.

As the morning dawned and the hospital came to life rehabilitation began for Beckett. A physical therapist visited, an occupational therapist, and three others with some form of therapist all came to introduce themselves before lunch. By lunch when Castle and the boys arrived she was already exhausted and sore.

"So Beckett we've got some leads." Castle had told her about Gates change of heart and her new willingness to look into the case.

"Castle told me about the military connections and about Halstead." Beckett wanted to sound like she was still herself.

Ryan and Esposito smiled at each other. "But he didn't get to tell you the greatest part. Do you want to tell her?" Esposito offered Ryan.

"Oh no, you go ahead."

Smiling Esposito began "OK we looked into all the guys in that unit. We've got Coonan, Jeremy Locke, AKA Hal Lockwood, and we have Marty Halstead the son of one Fire Investigator that you know. We also have William McDonnell the son of one Senator Vick McDonnell."

"The Senate majority leader?" Castle hadn't heard any of this information.

"One in the same."

Ryan's turn "And guess what Mr. William McDonnell is doing now."

Castle smiled, "Running for New York governor."

"Exactly."

Beckett and Esposito looked at each other realizing that Ryan and Castle apparently knew something that they didn't. Castle breathed deep. "The last time that Smith contacted me I told you it was during the investigation involving the Mayor. At the time Smith thought it might be aimed toward the Mayor as a way of getting rid of me. After the case the Mayor and I talked. He said it was aimed at him. He had just begun looking into a run for governor. A high profile successful mayor had a really good shot at the governor's mansion. With him out of the way the Senator's son becomes the favorite."

"So are looking at Senator McDonnell as the mastermind behind this?"

"It's certainly looking that way." Ryan seemed sure.

"Montgomery said he was big. And had hands in everything. This guy has connections in the military, local police departments. He was a local DA before moving home to Kentucky to run for Senate." Esposito added.

"How did he get onto Raglan, McCallister and Montgomery in the first place?"

"That we don't know."

Castle's mind was already flooded with theories. "As a DA maybe he frequented cop bars to celebrate victories. Maybe he heard them talking in the courthouse. Maybe he saw something?"

"What about Smith? We still don't know how they got onto him or why Montgomery chose to send the stuff to him. Hell, we still don't know if he was involved. I don't even know what the guy looked like."

"No problem. Beckett here's a picture from his driver's license." Beckett took the New York drivers license of one James Smith.

"This is James Smith? The man that contacted you about protecting me?" Castle leaned over and looked at the picture and nodded.

"This man was one of my physical therapists at the hospital after the shooting. His name was Alexander Zubarev. I remember him because we spoke Russian together. He was American but his Russian was flawless. He said his parents had been Russian and it was all that they had spoken at home."

Esposito looked to Ryan "Lets run it."

As they were about to leave Ryan turned back. "Oh Beckett its good to see you back. I thought we'd lost you this time. You've got to quit doing this to us."

"Let's nail them and it'll all be over for us all." Esposito and Ryan both nodded in agreement as they left.

"Until then the guards stay outside your loft and you and Alexis don't go anywhere without protection."

"I'm way ahead of you. I already hired two bodyguards for Alexis and they start tonight."

"And for you?"

"I'm with you what more protection do I need." He smiled as he leaned over to kiss her. Sliding his hand under her pillow and pulling her gun from under it.

She smiled sheepishly. "I sleep better with it there."

"I don't blame you."

A knock at the door broke their moment. Another therapist was there to work with her. They were going to work on getting into and out of her wheelchair. She shooed Castle away. "Go home and get some rest."

"I'll be back later with some dinner. How about Chinese?"

"Sounds good." He kissed her goodbye.

After an hour with the therapist Beckett had gotten pretty good at lowering herself into the wheelchair and getting herself back up and into a chair. She'd been leaned over putting her feet onto the rests of the chair when Alexis walked by. The young woman had been looking for her father and when she couldn't find him figured Kate was a good place to check.

She hadn't seen Detective Beckett since before the explosion. Anger originally, and then both embarrassment over how she'd blamed her and disbelief that the Detective thought enough of her to make sure that her father made it out had kept her away. Now standing in the doorway she could see Kate's huge wound down her back. Kate was still forced to wear a hospital gown, which was constantly opening in the back. In her concentration to get into the chair all by herself she hadn't thought about the open back. Leaning over to position her legs had given Alexis a perfect view.

Situated in the chair Beckett unlocked it and spun around. Seeing Alexis she smiled "Oh sorry I didn't realize you were there. Come on in." Alexis did and closed the door behind her.

"Look Detective Beckett…"

"You can just call me Kate. It doesn't look like I'll be Detective Beckett for a while. Were you looking for your Dad?"

"Yes."

"He left about an hour ago."

Alexis stood "Oh well he's probably home by now." Embarrassed she stood to go and opened the door. In the hall there was a commotion.

"Alexis shut the door." She quickly responded to Beckett's command. Beckett saw through the window that both of the guards from outside her door had gone running down the hall.

"Alexis you need to hide." Beckett rolled over to the armoire. "Grab that chair and climb up in there." Alexis quickly responded. Within seconds she was in behind the small flat screen TV. "No matter what you stay in there OK." Alexis nodded. Kate could tell the young woman was terrified. Kate closed the door and was on her way back to the bed when the door to her room burst open.

"Detective Katherine Beckett it is so good to finally meet you. Are you enjoying the room I set up for you. My wife is on the board of trustees here and its amazing what one well placed phone call can do. Did you know that you are the only patient on this hall? Funny how all the other rooms needed some upgrades at the same time. Well enough chitchat, it's now time for you to take a little trip with us. Marco take care of things." The Senator left and one of the large men he'd brought with him produced a syringe and quickly subdued Beckett. Another man dressed in a patient transport uniform wheeled a gurney in. They lifted Beckett onto it and covered her with a sheet. An oxygen mask was placed over her face. They wheeled her out, down to the elevator and outside into a waiting private ambulance. Pulling out of the parking lot no one had even noticed them leaving. No one knew that Beckett was gone but the young redhead still hiding in the room.

She waited and waited. Not wanting the light from her phone to give her away she didn't place the call until fifteen minutes had passed. Climbing out she saw the two policemen returning. "Where have you been? The took Detective Beckett."

Radios were quickly active and within minutes the full force of the NYPD had descended on the hospital. Security guards were going over every camera angle they could get but they found that someone had switched off all the cameras that would have caught them.

Ryan and Esposito quickly expanded the search to other nearby buildings. Thankfully a bank next door had an ATM camera that caught the ambulance bay. There were three that left during the period of time for Kate's abduction. Two of them were legitimate ones that they were able to reach. The third, a private ambulance didn't answer any radio calls. They followed it the best they could using the thousands of cameras that now flooded New York City Streets.

Five minutes after leaving the hospital the ambulance could be seen pulling into an underground parking garage. Three and a half minutes later a series of four identical Lincoln town cars left that same garage all four heading in different directions.

Smacking his hand down on the desk Castle closed his eyes. "So what now?"

"We put four teams on running down these cars. But it's going to take some time."

"Time that Beckett doesn't have."

Alexis had left the hospital with the team and had been sitting in the corner of the room watching the developments. "Dad I know this won't help in finding her, but I recorded what the man said." She stood and handed Castle her phone.

"Alexis you're a genius." Castle took the phone from the girl. Ryan was already setting up the computer to run the voice recognition. There was no way he was taking a chance and letting the lab run this.

Within seconds of hearing it all three knew who was on the tape. Senator McDonnell had a very distinct voice and accent. Ryan's voice matching software confirmed what their ears already knew.

"This is great but we still don't know where they took Beckett." Ryan was getting nervous for Beckett's safety.

Back at the board Castle was going over the players that were still out there. "OK so the Senator is cleaning up. Taking out Smith and Beckett remove the last two threats. So other than Beckett and Smith who was out there that could hurt him. Pulgatti's in prison and out of the way. Coonan the original assassin is gone. Raglan, McCallister, and Montgomery are dead. Lockwood or Locke is dead. We still don't know who the sniper was and we've got Halstead. We don't know how deep he's in.

Gates had been standing at the door listening. "Then find out how deep he's in it." They all turned. "Beckett needs you all now. She's not here to lead so its time to step up."

The two detectives quickly moved into their assignments. Ryan looked into Halstead's past while Esposito looked into his son.

"OK here's something. Halstead's son lost it in Iraq. He was given a medical discharge and has spent the past six years in a psychiatric unit in a private hospital in upstate New York."

Castle immediately wondered "so how does a fireman afford that for his son?" Esposito was already thinking the same thing. Being former military he knew that VA benefits were good but they wouldn't have been enough to pay for a nice place like this.

After thirty minutes on the phone all he was able to gather was that the funds for his care were coming from a private trust fund.

"Bingo!" Ryan jumped up and knocked a huge stack of papers off his desk. "I know who the sniper was. Halstead himself was a sharp shooter in the military and police and fire personnel have their DNA on file to eliminate first responders DNA from that found at a crime scene. His DNA matches the sample pulled from the rifle. When we ran it initially all those on file with the police and fire department were excluded since so many people were there.

"OK lets locate him."