Psycho Killer – Epilogue
"I can't seem to face up to the facts
I'm tense and nervous and I
Can't relax
I can't sleep 'cause my bed's on fire
Don't touch me I'm a real live wire."
- Talking Heads, Psycho Killer
"We were so close, Castle. So close," Kate sighed, picking at the scrambled eggs she'd order from room service for breakfast. She adjusted her weight on the chair and shifted one leg underneath her as she sat at the small table in the hotel suite. "That file would have told us who's at the center of this and who killed my mom."
Castle nodded, and reached out across the table to grasp her free hand in his own, squeezing his fingers reassuringly around hers. She glanced up and offered him a wane smile of gratitude. She dropped her fork and picked up a strip of bacon, nibbling at it as she brooded.
"Well, at the very least, we know Kilmer won't be coming after us any time soon," Castle asserted.
"How do you know that?"
"Whoever he was working with tried to double-cross him," Castle explained, talking around a mouthful of scrambled eggs. "Trust me, Kilmer is like a dog with a bone when it comes to that kind of thing. He won't let such betrayal stand."
Kate inclined her head, conceding to her boyfriend's point. "But he'll be back," she insisted. "This isn't over."
"No, it's not," Castle concurred with a frown.
"Even if it's not Kilmer that comes, they'll probably just send someone else," Kate said with a long sigh, wondering if she'd ever be able to crawl out of the shadow of her mother's death. She slipped back into her chair and wrapped her fingers around the warm ceramic mug containing a very rich blend of coffee.
Castle's face screwed up in thought, and she looked at him questioningly. "Well, unless whoever's behind all this doesn't know the file's been destroyed," he supplied. "Maybe he thinks it's still in play."
Kate shook her head. She'd already considered that. "I wouldn't bet on that, would you?"
Castle shrugged. "You're right. I wouldn't."
"Any news from your boss?" Kate asked, after a long beat of companionable silence between them. She was hoping the CIA was finally taking the threat of Ray Kilmer seriously, especially now that the man had assassinated the Vice President of the United States.
"York called while you were in the shower," he informed her.
"And?"
"He talked with the Director last night," Castle elaborated after taking a sip from his coffee. "They're setting up a team. And York wants me to be a part of it."
"That's good," she inclined her head. "You should be on it. No one knows Kilmer like you do." She paused and averted her gaze, curling her fingers around her coffee mug. "So… when do you leave?"
Castle opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by a loud knock from the hotel door. Frowning, he stood up and retrieved his Sig Sauer. Kate did the same, grabbing her Glock, and following behind him. They had checked into this room using aliases, and they weren't expecting anyone. Bracing herself for a potential fight, Kate watched Castle approach the door with caution. After slowly removing the chain, Castle unlocked the deadbolt and curled his fingers around the door handle. He glanced back at her and she gave a tiny nod, indicating she was ready.
The door swung open to reveal a shocked Kevin Ryan, with Esposito standing beside him, both of whom appeared startled to be greeted at gunpoint. Ignoring her temporary surprise at seeing the two estranged partner together, Kate lowered her weapon.
"What are you guys doing here?"
"We… er… actually arrived separately," Esposito said, flicking annoyed eyes over at his partner. "Lanie was worried, so I told her I'd come and check on you."
"And I came to bring you this," Ryan held up a big bag full of paper scraps.
Kate could feel her heart rate quicken with anticipation at the sight. "Paper from the safe?" she asked for clarification, not wanting to get her hopes up.
Ryan nodded in confirmation.
Her mouth spread wide in a smile and she stepped back, ushering the boys in. She glanced over at Castle, and knitted her eyebrows together when she noticed he did not appear as excited as she was, wearing a stoic expression. Kate shrugged it off, thinking he just didn't want to get his hopes up.
XXX
They ended up dumping the contents of the bag onto the small table in the hotel suite. It didn't give them much room to work with, but there was enough flat space that they could shift through the thousands of ripped and torn pieces of paper, trying to put the thing together like it was a massive jigsaw puzzle. It was tedious work, but necessary. At some point, Castle had turned on the TV to give them some background noise, which actually made it a little easier to work.
"What are we looking for?" Esposito asked as he sorted through a small stack of pieces.
"Names. Places. Dates," Kate listed off. "Anything that tells us what was in these files and why someone is so desperate to keep it hidden."
She couldn't help but recall the last talk she'd ever had with her late mentor before Lockwood and his thugs killed him in that hangar. Someone had uncovered what Montgomery, McCallister, and Raglan had down all those years ago. And instead of turning them in, the man had demanded the ransom money the trio had extorted out of the mobsters. That man had then took that money to become what he was today. Montgomery had said that out of everything that might have been his greatest sin. It had been Montgomery's intention to end it that night, but the opposite had occurred.
Esposito let out a groan, slumping down in his chair and rubbing the back of his neck. "It's been five hours," he sighed. "And all I've got is something the size of a playing card, and not only that, it's blank."
"Yeah well, I've got 'ending balance' here," Ryan said from the other side of the table. It hadn't been lost on Kate that the two had sat as far away from one another as humanly possible. "I think it's some kind of bank statement."
Castle stretched over and picked up one of the pieces Ryan was looking at, bringing it back to examine it more closely. Beckett leaned against his shoulder and stared down at it as he held it up for them to look at it.
"Not just a bank statement," she stated with raised eyebrows.
Her boyfriend nodded. "This is part of a money order made out to cash. That could be a payoff."
"And whoever it went to is probably our guy," Kate said, feeling her heart quicken with hope that they finally had a lead.
"Well that would make sense," Castle agreed.
"Yeah, in what way?" Ryan inquired, brow furrowing.
"All this started when Montgomery and his cop buddies started kidnapping mobsters for ransom money," Castle explained, narrowing his eyes as he recalled the information Kate had shared with him on the case.
"And we know someone found out, and demanded a cut of that money," Kate finished. She had just been thinking of this. It was all starting to come into place. She could feel her body start to vibrate with anticipation.
"And whoever that is, there's something in this file that he does not want to get out," Castle concluded.
While everyone was talking, Esposito had still been working those those blank pieces. He absently turned them over, and noticed something. Flipping the rest over, he started seeing a pattern.
"Yo, this one has numbers on it."
Kate's head jerked up sharply in his direction, eyes wide and hopeful.
"And it's machine printed," he continued, squinting down at the pieces of paper in front of him. "It's an eight digit string, so it's not a phone number. Wait a minute—"
"Oh—that's the—"
"This is the back of that money order," Esposito agreed with Castle. "And these digits—08672241—that's the account it was deposited in."
Kate bobbed her head, feeling like this could be it. "If we figure out whose account that is, that should give us a name."
"And I think I know a way," Castle asserted, digging his archaic looking flip phone out of his pocket.
Esposito scoffed in disbelief. "What can you do with that old thing?" he asked as Castle flipped the phone open.
Castle chuckled and shared a look with Kate before turning towards the dubious-looking detective. "This isn't some ordinary phone, Detective Esposito," he explained, before turning back to Kate. "Just give me a sec, I should be able to access a federal banking database."
Esposito still looked unconvinced.
"It's spy craft, Javi," Ryan said, earning a glare from his disgruntled partner.
"Are we even sure they track accounts going back this far?" Esposito asked as Castle leaned back and tapped the buttons on his flip phone.
"Whoever owns that account is the person who killed my mom," Kate reminded him, determined that this would work. She turned to Castle, who was glancing at her, as if awaiting orders. She offered him a small smile. "Run it."
Castle punched a few more buttons in his phone, and then all they could do was wait while the search ran. While they waited, Kate slipped a hand down to grasp Castle's free hand. Their palms kissed and his fingers clenched around hers in reassurance. His eyes locked with her and through that look, he passed along his confidence that this would work, and that this search would yield some answers. After almost a minute, the flip phone buzzed. Kate held her breath as Castle glanced back down at the screen.
"Well?" Esposito inquired, growing impatiently.
"The account was closed 19 years ago," Castle said. "The name is listed as…" his voice trailed off as his eyes went wide.
"What is it, Rick?" Kate asked, squeezing his hand to get his attention. But her boyfriend was distracted, only flicking his eyes up to stare at the television screen. Kate followed his gaze, and saw a reporter interviewing Senator Bracken in front of the hospital he'd been admitted to after the incident at the Windmark Hotel. The politician had one arm in a sling, but other than that he appeared to be doing just fine. Turning back to her boyfriend, Kate moved her hand up and touched the side of his face, hoping to gain his attention.
He flinched and his eyes flicked over to her.
"Castle… what is it?" she repeated her question.
"The name on the account…," he started, pausing to swallow past a sudden lump in his throat. "The account that close 19 years ago… it belonged to William H. Bracken."
A shocked gasp escaped her lips as the ramifications hit her. Her eyes jerked away from her boyfriend and back towards the television screen, where a solemn Senator Bracken was exulting the life and career of the recently assassinated Vice President.
"He was a man of honor and great integrity, noble and just. He loved this country with a great passion. He would have made a great president," Bracken was saying. "His death is a tremendous loss for our magnificent country. I've spoken with his wife, and with her blessing, and that of the people, than yes, I will humbly assume the burden of taking up Vice President Russell's cause, and run for president in his stead."
"Dear God," Kate exclaimed, feeling like the entire world had just vanished beneath her feet. She glanced at the boys, who both looked as shocked and stunned as she was, and then she shared a bewildered look with her boyfriend. "He planned it. He planned it all. Everything that has happened—all of it—it… it has been with this one goal in mind. The man who killed my mother, who tried to have me killed, and succeeded in assassinating the Vice President, did it all so that he could become the President of the United States."
"It makes sense," Castle said after a long beat where everyone just absorbed this latest revelation. "Bracken was the Assistant District Attorney for New York from '88 to '92."
Kate pursed her lips and stared down at the table. She closed her eyes and inhaled a deep breath. She felt Castle place a hand on her arms.
"Kate?" he asked in a low, concerned voice.
"I'm fine, Rick," she breathed out, forcing herself to look up. She offered him a small smile, but she could tell he wasn't buying it. Kate knew that later, when it was just the two of them, he'd want more, but right now he respected her wishes and didn't push. And she loved him all the more for that, for knowing and understanding her as well as he did. "That timeline fits. That was when Montgomery was kidnapping gangsters."
"If all this is true, Bracken must've heard about what they were doing through the grapevine," Esposito said.
Kate nodded. "And then he realized that he couldn't charge mobsters because they wouldn't testify and then the cops would walk."
"So instead he decided to get in on the action," Ryan surmised, jumping in on the theorizing. "If they were collecting ransom from mob guys he wanted a taste in the form of cash money orders."
"Right," Castle said. "But as his political star rose from Congressman to Senator, he realized he had to make sure this scandal never came to light."
"So then people started dying," Kate finished with a somber look. Everyone shared her grim mood. This conspiracy had turned out to be a lot bigger than any of them had thought.
"And now he's running for President," Esposito said, gesturing towards the television screen where Bracken was still pontificating. "He's trying to clean house. We need to take him down."
"How?" Kate asked, feeling powerless. She glanced between Ryan and Esposito, seeing them realize just as much. "All we have are a bunch of numbers that are meaningless to anyone but us. We have absolutely no hard evidence against him." She sighed in frustration, and glanced up at her boyfriend, frowning when she noticed his conflicted expression. "Rick?"
He swallowed, and glanced at her with an uncertain gaze. "I can help," he spoke slowly, as if he was still reasoning it out himself. "I have contacts, not just within the CIA, but elsewhere. It might take time, and a lot of work, but I think it's possible. We can take him down."
"Castle, I don't want you risking your career for this," Kate asserted. Yes, she wanted justice for her mom, but she didn't want this quest to shadow anymore of her life than it already had. Especially her life with Castle. He was one of the only bright spots in her life and she'd been damned if she let anything tarnish that.
"This is bigger than that," Castle said, brushing off her concern. "This man orchestrated the assassination of a high ranking government official for personal gain. I can't let that go. And I know you can't. If I did, I wouldn't be the man you fell in love with."
Kate sighed, and inclined her head, slipping her hand back into his, and squeezing it in reassurance and unison. "You're right," she said, wanting nothing more than to kiss him, but considering their company, decided to wait until later. "But I don't want you doing this alone. We do this together… as a united team." She stared long and hard at him, challenging him to deny her.
"Okay," he relented, releasing a long breath, shoulder deflating a little in surrender. He offered her a soft smile. "Together."
THE END
*AGENT RICK CASTLE and DETECTIVE KATE BECKETT will return in... PRIVATE EYES 3: YOU KNOW MY NAME.