Chapter Thirteen
Death of a Murderer

Rick Rodgers hadn't thought that the evidence that had turned up showing that the method of Johanna Beckett's death not being unique would become relevant so quickly but from the time the body of Westies enforcer Jack Coonan dropped, Rick Rodgers felt an overwhelming sense of dread. Lanie had discovered that he had been killed with the same thrust to the kidneys followed by the multiple posthumous strikes to the back used to try to disguise it as a less directed assault. The very same M.O. as Kate's mother and her associates. All dead by the same hand.

When she had announced her findings to them, he thought for a moment that she was going to withdraw like she had in the loft a few days ago, but she managed to stay on her feet and outwardly kept her composure. He had heard the sharp outtake of her breath followed by the hollowed out expression in her eyes when she looked at him, however. She was in shock, but was doing her best to hide it.

When Rick called his source who had helped him make the connection with the other cases, a man now revealed to be none other than preeminent Medical Examiner, Dr. Clark Murray. One of the best and most sought after practitioner of forensic medicine. He had still been in town, so Rick called him to consult (with Lanie's overeager blessing) and when he arrived at OCME to compare notes, he informed them all, that whomever had killed Jack Coonan was indeed the same man who had killed Johanna Beckett and her associates in 1999.

Kate took it like a punch in the stomach. Her anxiety had risen to a fever pitch. She was so close to losing her composure that she took his arm and was leaning against him for support, something she had never done while they were on duty before. (at least not while in the precinct or here in the morgue) She looked over at him, a silent plea in her green flecked brown eyes.

Rick could tell she was on the verge of falling apart, something she didn't want to do in front of all these witnesses. She needed to get out of here, but needed his help to provide a graceful exit to protect her dignity, which was the only thing keeping her together at the moment. He gently squeezed her arm and nodded his understanding of her silent plea, before placing a few inches of distance between them.

"Detective Beckett and I need to get back to the precinct." Rick said, authoritatively, "I'll leave you two to go through all of the evidence and crime scene reports for anything that was missed, both now and back then. Get back to me on my cell if you learn anything."

With that, he placed a hand at the small of Kate's back and guided her out of the room. She was about as quiet and fragile has he'd ever seen her. Her calm and placid exterior evaporated as soon as the elevator doors closed on them. She nearly collapsed into him as she fell apart and quietly sobbed into his chest as he brought his arms around her. It was like the scene in the loft all over again.

"I...I'm...not sure I can...I can...do this..." Kate breathed out between sobs, "I need to...talk...to my dad...he deserves...to know."

Rick could clearly see that Kate was overwhelmed. After nearly a decade of fruitless searching, chasing down leads that went nowhere but blind alleys, this was the closest she had ever been to the man who had killed her mother. After the revelations of the last few days he could understand her being thrown off by how fast things were progressing. She needed time to process everything, to get her bearings again.

"Of course you do, Kate, let me deal with this. The last thing the Westies want is federal trouble, I can handle them. You do whatever you need to do...even if it's nothing. I've got this." Rick said while

Through his ties with the FBI, he was able to obtain wiretap transcripts that told them that Coonan had been sent to find out who had been dealing drugs in their territory, and discourage them from continuing such behavior...permanently. This lead them to the body of a known heroin trafficker who had gone by the name of "Trucho" The man had quite the record with the narcotics division, who sent their file on him by messenger.

The list of his known associates led them a so-called self help guru named Johnny Vong whom, after some convincing in interrogation, gave them the tidbit of information that led them to his brother Dick Coonan, whom he insisted quite strongly had put out the hit...on his own brother!

When Kate had returned from her talk with her father, she had arrived just in time to prepare for the interrogation. Rick found her in the observation room for interrogation room two, staring through the glass at Dick Coonan. She was very quiet, and seemed, for her, to be very small. It reminded him of the way Alexis looked the night before she started chemo the first time...lost.

"Are you okay?" Rick asked her quietly.

"Ten years..." she said quietly in an even tone, her arms crossed over her chest her eyes never wavering from Coonan, "...since we came home and found that detective waiting for us. Ten years since we crossed that yellow tape and went into that alley, and every time I cross the tape at a crime scene I think of that night."

Rick placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"That's what makes you such a good cop."

Her breathing hitched a little in her chest before she turned to look at him, the same plea in her eyes that had been there this morning in the morgue.

"What if I let her down?" she whispered, the fear and anxiety in that simple whispered statement nearly floored him. This had been her driving force all these years, spurred on by his books, she had become a cop and then a detective all because she felt she had let her mother down. Left her to die, alone in that alley.

"You won't." Rick said to her, his eyes filled with steely conviction, "I won't let you."

This statement garnered him a small, nervous smile.

"Now go in there and do your job."

Do her job she did. In a very subdued one on one with Coonan she had offered him a plea deal of second degree murder in exchange for the assassin known as Rathborne. He had countered with a deal of transactional immunity. When Captain Montgomery got the D. A. aboard to make the offer he gave up how he had contracted him for the job. There was one hitch to setting up a sting to get him. There was no way the city was going to spring for 100,000 dollars up front.

"Leave that to me." Rick said, enigmatically.

All eyes turned to him, including Kate's, of course only she knew where this other source of revenue was coming from. Nobody else knew that he was once Richard Castle, crime novelist. His rather large bank account had been quietly gathering interest since 2003. To him one hundred grand would be a drop in the bucket.

Coonan's lawyer reminded them all that his immunity would kick in the moment Rathborne accepted the deal.

….

When they set up the sting to reel in Rathborne, everything went according to plan...only no Rathborne. From that moment on, Rick knew they had been played, likely by Coonan, who now had blanket immunity from the one charge of murder they had him on. At least in New York. Kate had offered to pay him back the money but he refused. He knew how important this was to her. It was a small price to pay.

Rick had one last card to play, though. One contingency he had prepared to play in case something like this went down. He had remained studiously out of the negotiations for the plea deal. Never once set his foot in interrogation. Now it was time for him to make his move.

As Coonan was on his way out of the precinct, shaking hands with his lawyer, Rick, flanked by Kate walked up to him.

"I don't think you should be congratulating your lawyer just yet, Mr. Coonan."

"I have immunity," Coonan stated flatly, "What more needs to be said?"

"You have immunity in New York, nothing was ever said about federal charges, you should have read the plea agreement more carefully." Rick said as he flashed his FBI credentials. "Special Agent Richard Rodgers, FBI I'm taking charge of this prisoner to be remanded for prosecution for multiple counts of first degree murder under special circumstances."

As an officer stepped up to slap the cuffs on him, Coonan moved with unnatural speed, crushing the officer's windpipe and pulling his weapon. Before Kate could move to intercept him, he had her by the neck, with the gun pressed into her spine. A spot he knew full well would cause near instant death if he fired.

"Two fingers, detective." Coonan said, his voice cold, devoid of any emotion, "Take it out, drop it to the ground."

Kate did as she was told, she had no choice. He could feel the barrel of the 9mm Glock pressed into the small of her back. The next play was Coonan's.

"Here's what's going to happen." Coonan said to Rick "We're just gonna stroll on over to the elevator, nice and easy."

Montgomery was over by the murder board when he turned his head and saw them passing by. He knew something was up and moved to intercept them without giving himself away.

"You knew when I arrested you, didn't you?" Kate said stiffly, "That my mom was your victim."

"It was nothing personal,okay? " Coonan said as if he were talking about the weather, "She was just another job."

"She was my mother." Kate replied coldly, "Who hired you to kill her?"

"Hah...forget it, you'll never touch em. Not even with your FBI boyfriend there. They'll bury you, I'd heard they did a fed not long ago."

Rick's head snapped around at that statement. The only FBI agent to die in New York City recently was Jake. This man could corroborate his assertion that Jake hadn't killed himself.

"Tell me who." Kate demanded again

What Coonan hadn't counted on, was Montgomery rounding the corner in front of them drawing his long nosed .38 and pulling back the action in one smooth motion.

When Coonan reacted to the new threat, Kate made her move, nodding her head forward and picking up her right foot, she simultaneously slammed the heel of her shoe down on his foot and slammed the back of her head into Coonan's nose, breaking it. As he staggered back in pain, he brought the gun up aiming for Kate's head. Rick drew his Sig Sauer and fired in one smooth unbroken motion, center-punching him straight through the heart with a .40 caliber round. Coonan was dead before he hit the floor.

"No!" Kate screamed as she dropped to the floor, began trying in vain to perform CPR on Coonan.

After a couple of cycles of futility, Rick placed his hand on her shoulder and gently pulled her away. As he pulled her close, she broke down sobbing into him. This was the closest she'd ever been to the people who had killed her mother, and the one man who knew their identity was lying dead on the floor. The man who they had paid to do the deed. She was left with no more answers that when she had arrested him. Her sobs broke his heart.

….

Four hours later.

Rick's loft

Rick sat in his office in the loft. He had left the precinct as soon as IAB and their FBI counterparts were done with him. Captain Montgomery had had Ryan take Kate home while he was still being debriefed. The shooting was confirmed as good and his gun was returned to him. He was contemplating where fate would take him next, though his mind kept going back to Kate.

Before he could come up with any answers, though there was a soft knocking at the front door. When he opened it, Kate was standing in the doorway, with a bag from the Chinese place that the team liked at lot.

"Are you hungry?" Kate asked, a wan smile on her lips, her eyes betraying how tired she was as she held aloft her peace offering.

" I could eat, yeah." Rick replied with a slight smile of his own as he waved her inside. She was safe and she was still talking to him, that was all that mattered right now.

Rick felt a certain amount of guilt for ending the Coonan's life. This man could have led him to the people who killed his friend, and destroyed his reputation by making it look like a suicide. Led him to the people who had ordered the deaths of not only Jake's partner, but of Kate's mother and her associates too. But when he weighed all of that against the life of Kate Beckett, the scales would not balance.

He took the life of a remorseless killer to save the life of the woman he cared for. It was the only choice possible. The living should always come before the dead.

Always.

….

CIA Headquarters: Langley Virginia
Three days later

Sydney Bristow walked into the main foyer of the CIA building for the first time since 1997. She had been summoned by somebody frighteningly powerful in intelligence circles, Director of Operations, Richard Webb. At one time, every agent in the CIA saw him as the boogey man. Known then only by his code name: Nemesis. Power he had wielded as the head of Project Archangel since the early seventies. At one time the mere mention of his code name, or Project Archangel was all it took to put the fear of God into anyone even remotely dirty. She had been stalked by one or two of his operatives when she was with SD-6, before she learned the truth and become a double agent to take them down.

It was whispered that Sloane's later change of heart was less because he changed his mind, and more because Nemesis himself had paid him a visit. Walking through his personal security like he was ghost. The man was unnaturally quick and spry for someone his age.

Though Project Archangel had been deactivated years ago, the victim of budget cuts, it's former head still wielded formidable power in government and intelligence circles. He had survived nearly every administration since the Nixon era, (and it was rumored that he had even had a hand his resignation) by being a very shrewd political animal and he knew where a lot of skeletons were located and who's closets they were in. When it came to finding people's secrets, he made J. Edgar Hoover look like a lightweight.

She didn't know what he wanted with her after all this time. The Rimbaldi affair had been put to rest years ago. She didn't know what to expect when she was ushered into his office but one thing was certain. When someone as powerful as Richard Alexander Webb called, it was wise to show up and hear him out. She was lost in thought, staring at Michael Vaughn's star on the wall of heroes when the receptionist cleared her throat to get her attention.

"Miss Bristow, Director Webb will see you now."