Chapter 29 – Timeline


Rick checked the last of the sheets before replacing it at the end of the folder. The door opened and Ryan entered accompanied by the Captain. The two pulled out chairs and joined Esposito at the table as Rick flipped the contents of the folder over so that he was back at the first item. Yesterday afternoon, he Esposito and Ryan had gone through the available data and thrown theories back and forth. This morning it was time to present their case to the Captain and see where he decided to take this.

He was used to speaking in public; not just as an inquisitive journalist at some committee hearing, but also as an author talking to his fans at readings or on the occasional book tour. This felt a little bit more nail-biting … after all, people's lives were at stake. Montgomery nodded at him and Rick glanced down at the top photo in the folder, took a couple of seconds to sort things in his mind and began to speak.

"When I first looked into the case, one of the things which several people brought up was Detective Beckett's belief that there was more to her mother's accident than just a chance incident. Part of this was due to the disappearance of Yegor Kruskov, the driver of the second truck involved in the pile-up. However, my contact in Ukraine failed to find anything to tie Kruskov into organised crime or some international conspiracy. He appears to have been a pretty normal, unremarkable character who happened to lose his mother to cancer at a relatively early age. This may have triggered a dependency on alcohol which led to a spiralling downfall and his death in jail. I can't see any connection to Detective Beckett or her mother with the information available, so I'm inclined to discard Kruskov as a key player …"

He left the end of the sentence as a question, and received nods of agreement from the three cops who had already read edited copies of 'Ivan's' report. Picking up the first of the photos from his folder, Rick used a magnetic clip to place it on the board. He repeated the procedure with another three pictures and then wrote 1996 above them. Deliberately he left a small space between the first and second pair of photos.

"This is Kate Beckett, aged seventeen, during her student exchange time in Kiev. The pictures were supplied to me by her father," deciding that the Captain didn't need to know about Lanie searching Beckett's apartment for some of them. "If you look at these two pictures on the left, I think you'll agree that Beckett was more than interested in Roman Lasyk, the kid sitting next to her …" glancing at the two pictures as he said so. The first showed them sitting together on a swing seat, thighs, arms and shoulders touching and a young, relaxed Kate Beckett looking up at the grinning Roman with bright, sparkling eyes. Even with the slightly grainy image of the enlarged photos, the emotion was clear. The second one was obviously a kid's bedroom and showed a little blonde girl stretched out on her bed. A young Kate was sitting near the pillow, folding a piece of paper into a plane and Roman sat just behind her, his arm over her shoulder as he pointed something out … all three were laughing.

"If you look at these though, I think you'll agree something went south between them, look at how Beckett is pushed up against the seat arm leaving plenty of space between them, her shoulders are stiff and she appears to be carefully studying her hands … in this other one, she's staring at Roman's back as he leaves, there's no love lost in that look! I've had a body language expert look at them and she agrees that there's a before and after … what happened, we don't know, it could have been something totally childish and irrelevant … we all know how teens can blow up a simple situation into Armageddon … but I think it's worth keeping this in mind."

Checking that the others were still with him, he pulled out the next sheet of paper and pegged it to the board. The printed sheet had two photos at the top and a couple of paragraphs of text below. "The Lasyk parents, Andrey and Elena. Andrey was born in Mykolaiv of mixed Russian Ukrainian parentage, father a soldier form Smolensk in Russia, mother a Ukrainian from Odessa, a port city on the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. Elena was born and bred in Kiev. Neither appears to have been political activists nor do they have any criminal records. They held responsible jobs and were vetted by the ASEP, the non-profit organization that arranged the student exchange program. Andrey Lasyk died in two-oh-seven from coronary disease and Elena continues to work as a secretary for AHG Architectural Services, the same company she's been with for over twenty years."

He lifted the next sheet from the folder and paused a moment, holding it up as he added, "This is new, it arrived yesterday and I didn't find it until I got home last night, I'm not sure how relevant it could be," turning to peg it to the board next to the Lasyks before turning back to face the others. "The report is on Anatoly Lasyk, Andrey's father. I'm not sure how much is relevant, but one item did catch my eye; he's a retired major of the 9th Engineer-Sapper Battalion and very outspoken in favour of Russian control of the Ukraine. It's possible that grandpa Lasyk may have influenced young Roman."

The next sheet came up and he shook his head gently before turning to peg it on the board. "Yanina Tyahnybok. Twenty-two-year-old Law student at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kiev …. that by the way is the same university Oksana Lasyk is studying art at. It seems that she and the Lasyks have been friends for the best part of fifteen years, but note this, in two-thousand-eight, just over a year ago; she filed a restraining order against one Roman Lasyk. My contact is trying to get a look at the court records to see just what reason she gave, but I have a feeling it might not be a first occurrence. He's also trying to get hold of phone records for the month leading up to Yanina's trip over here, see if the Lasyk name pops up in that time."

"You realise Castle, that none of this can be used in a court of law here? Unless you can prove these records have been legally obtained ..."

"Captain, are you more interested in finding Detective Beckett or in pressing criminal charges?"

"You have a point there … forget I mentioned it!"

Rick caught the glint of humour and almost imperceptible nod from Esposito and pinned up the next sheet. "Oksana Lasyk … I'm told by Doctor Parish that Detective Beckett refers to her as Sana … third year art student at the National University of Kiev. Quiet, reserved, no political affiliations and has kept in touch with Detective Beckett over the years, mainly through social media though there's been no activity for over a month now and according to fellow students, a lot of information seems to have been wiped off her profile."

Lifting up the next sheet he held it almost like a trophy. "Roman Lasyk …" turning to pin it up next to the sister's, "…. age thirty-tree, ex member of the ninth independent Special Forces Brigade GRU, for those of us who only know about the Russian army from watching films, that's Spetsnaz, elite military formations under the control of the military intelligence service. In nineteen-ninety-nine, Colonel General Viktor S. Chechevatov was dismissed as District commander for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to Ukraine … Roman, along with several others walked out with him. This is where I'm wondering how much influence Grandpa Lasyk had on his grandson. Roman then joined a group called Red Banner, they initially organised pro-Russian rallies and marches, but more recently they're suspected of organising a number attacks against Ukrainian infrastructures; gas pipes, power stations, communication networks as well as ammunition storage facilities and even attacks against Ukrainian army units."

He paused for a sip of water and then ran a finger over the picture of Roman Lasyk. "Although everyone's denying it, my paper's Foreign Affairs editor confirmed that last August there were rumours of a naval storage facility at Sevastopol being raided and though the Russians claimed the attack failed and nothing was stolen, some suspect that the facility held nuclear devices …. and I'm told a small tactical warhead will fit inside a suitcase."

Pausing as he closed the now almost empty folder, Rick glanced across the table at the other three, then directed his glance to the Captain. "I know that the presumption that Roman Lasyk is over here with the purpose of carrying out a terrorist attack is a bit crazy to say the least, but it's the only thing that makes sense to me as a journalist and writer …. I think it's possible that Roman came over here with the intention of disrupting US, Ukrainian relations …. that his sister somehow found out and came over with her friend Yanina Tyahnybok to try and stop him. Perhaps Oksana contacted Detective Beckett for help and that led, directly or indirectly to Yanina's death and the disappearance of the two of them. If they are still alive, are they being held because of the relationship, as bargaining chips, or to be used in some way?" With that, Rick pulled out one of the chairs and sat down, taking another sip of water as Esposito stood, moved round the table to the boards, set down a sheet of paper and picked up a marker.

"Although I'll admit both Ryan and me think it's a crazy proposition, it does fit most of the unknowns. The first thing we did yesterday was to contact Customs and Immigration to see if any of our people of interest arrived in the country through normal channels," drawing a line up from the sheet of paper representing Yanina Tyahnybok, he continued. "We already knew from the murder investigation that Miss Tyahnybok arrived by UIA …. that's Ukraine International Airlines at JFK on Monday the seventeenth of January. We received the passenger manifest from the flight last night but none of the names matched our people of interest."

He glanced a moment at the board then continued, "We've requested Immigration to send us a list of any Ukrainian nationals entering up to a week before and one after the seventeenth, just in case their arrival was staggered, but with so many possible points of entry, it's going to take days to go through the videos, which is why we really need to confirm that these pictures are up to date. We've sent a request to the Ukrainian government through the State Department for updated photos of Roman, Anatoli and Oksana so that we can put them through facial recognition; it might help us to pick them up if they entered the country legally or came through a point of entry under false papers."

"Ryan's also sent out a request for any vehicle or property rentals to Ukrainian nationals within the tristate; cross-referencing them with recent arrivals might help us narrow the field down. If we can find even one of them entering, then we should have a better idea of the timeline we're working with." He paused to glance at the paper and then continued.

"We think it's still too soon to bring in the FBI, they'll be more interested in catching Roman than getting Beckett back alive …" glancing quickly at the Captain and catching an almost imperceptible nod. "Homeland already has a system in place to alert them to any thefts of explosives or chemicals that can be used in bomb making; we've requested we be notified if any red flags pop up in the tristate area …. told them we thought one of the Bronx gangs might be after some ... not sure they swallowed it, but hopefully they'll let us know if anyone reports missing explosives or chemicals." Another pause and glance down at the sheet of paper.

"If they brought in their own ingredients, then we just have to hope it sets off the alarms; airport, dockyard and border entry points have radiation detectors which should go off if anything gets moved in or out through them, but if it's been dropped off a boat along some quiet stretch of coast or brought in on a private yacht or something, we won't know until it's too late. We can only hope to catch them before they set it off."

"Tori's put Yanina Tyahnybok's face through facial rec and we're looking at security and traffic cams around the hotel, see if we can pick up any of our suspects, now that we have a possible connection, we might be lucky!"

Esposito glanced back at the board then turned back to face Montgomery. "We just need one break sir, catch one of these bastards on camera and we'll have something to leverage the lid off!" His voice was quiet, intense, almost pleading. Rick turned his head to look at the Captain. Montgomery was staring at the boards set across the inner office windows. There were several photos, sheets of paper, a black timeline and very little information. He rubbed a hand over his mouth, threw a glance at Rick and then took a long look at each of the two detectives. Pushing back his chair he stood, "Forty-eight hours gentlemen, that's all I can give you, then we have to kick this upwards, and you'd best pray to god they don't set off any bombs before then!"

They watched the door close behind the Captain then Esposito turned to face them, "Right, you heard the man, let's get on with this."

"How soon before the State Department hears back from the Ukrainians?" asked Rick.

Esposito shrugged despondently, "Anyone's guess, depends on whether anyone got out on the wrong side of bed or not, could be twenty-four hours or a week."

Rick nodded, "I'll see if Yuri can get something confirmed for us …."

"Yuri?" Interrupted Ryan.

Rick shrugged as he stood, "Yuri, Ivan, whatever … his real name's probably Nikolai or something!"