CHAPTER 14
Castle and Beckett are looking around at all the flowers and champagne in the room.
"Kate. I guess we are out in the open now? Huh?"
"Well you said that this would probably happen this weekend. I guess it did." Beckett walks over to Castle and puts her arms around his neck. "Since one of the cards is from Captain Gates, I guess you and I are probably finished at the prescient."
"Probably? Kate, I bet I can still arrange to come in. You know if I play my mayor card, Gates will be forced to let me stay"
"Castle, that's really not a good idea with her. She holds grudges and using your friendship with the mayor will just throw fire on an already tense partnership."
"I guess you're right. I just really enjoy being with Lanie and the boys. They all have become so important to me. I want to keep that relationship going"
Beckett looks up to Rick "So Castle. Now you're telling me that the only real reason you followed me around all this time was to be friends with them and not because you were trying to sleep with me?"
"Is that hole I have been digging getting deeper again?"
"Deeper and deeper, writer boy"
"I should just stop talking?"
"Good idea"
Beckett had left her cell phone in the hotel room while they were at the show and it chirps that there is messages waiting. She picks up her phone and sees that there is a voice mail from Ryan and a text and voice mail from Lanie. She reads the text first.
"I had nothing to do with any of this." Beckett laughs as she shows the message to Castle
Then she plays Lanie's voice mail
"There was a video on the channel 7 entertainment reporter's show with the two of you canoodling in the back seat of a taxi cab. Sorry Kate. I didn't say a word but it's all over Page 6 in the Ledger now"
Beckett looks at Castle. "I don't think we can't even try to deny anything to anyone now"
"I guess not. Kate, I could call my lawyer and have him threaten the cab driver and his show, but that won't change the fact that everyone knows about us now."
Kate drops her head to his chest and again wraps her arms around his back. That special place where she feels safe and warm. Castle gladly wraps his arms around her shoulders pulling her into a hug.
She pulls back and then plays Ryan's message. "Beckett, its Ryan, call me. We have some interesting information on the cases"
Kate looks at the time. It's after 10:00 in Vegas that makes it after midnight in New York.
"I'll call him first thing in the morning"
Just then Castle's phone rings. It's Agent Shaw. Rick answers on speakerphone
"Castle, we have some information on the cases. You were right about the gaming connection, but they were doing more than just gaming. They were a hacking group. We connected all of the victims thru the group. That is our connection."
"A hacking group? That is what got them killed? That doesn't make any sense. That should get them arrested, not get them killed?"
"Not sure but that is the only thread connecting these people together. They were online gamers and a hackers group"
Beckett speaks up,"Agent Shaw, when we got back to the room tonight, I had a message from Detective Ryan in New York, but we have not called him back. It's after midnight there, so we decided to wait until tomorrow to call him. I wonder if he wanted to share that information with us"
"It probably is the same data but you might call first thing in the morning and see what else they found and get back to me"
"Will do, Agent Shaw. We will talk to you tomorrow" Castle hangs up then checks to see if Ryan may have sent him an e-mail. He picks up his pad and sure enough there is an e–mail from Ryan.
"Castle, we tied the two here in New York to the other killings. They were all part of the same hacker group. They called them selves 'CTC' it stood for Coast to Coast. That was because they had members on both the sides of the country. Call me when you can.
Ryan"
"All right, now we are getting somewhere" Castle pops off
"You did it, Castle. No one had thought of the online gaming connection."
"We haven't solved this yet, but we are getting closer"
Kate tells Rick she is going to get ready for bed and enters the bedroom. Castle goes over to the desk and opens the case files and starts reviewing the information again. Since he is a speed reader he has reread the complete set of files by the time she comes back into the living area.
"Are you seeing anything that we missed before?"
"Afraid not. Same information. Maybe if I sleep on it, something will pop?" He stands and walks over and puts his arms around Beckett." So, the weekend has not been the romantic distraction I was planning" Has it?"
"No, but I must say is has so far been very entertaining." She smiles up to Castle "Ex girlfriend flight attendant, crazed Nikki Heat fangirls, smitten police detective, and oh yeah! Dead Body..."
Castle interrupts "So? Are you are the smitten detective?"
"Smiling "Actually I was one at one time"
"OH, which one? Smitten detective or fangirl?"
"Both"
"Well, smitten detective/fangirl, lets go in that room over there" pointing to the bedroom door, "and fulfill one of my fantasies"
"Which fantasy? Fangirl or smitten detective?"
"Both"