Author's Notes:
My smorelet says I'm ruggedly handsome.
"Gift from Beyond"
Chapter 36
It's like watching a tennis match
Chapter Posted: May 2014; WC: ~8k
Chapter Notes:
- I had actually planned this story out without including a great deal of content about the case that Esposito and Ryan were handling but after a few comments people had sent me I decided to fill it in more. It's still short, we know that real life is more complicated than this but then that's why we call this "Fiction" :)
- Sorry for the delay in posting of this chapter (greater than a month). I've been trying hard to get this and the next one out while still keeping my real job. The good news is that the story's approaching a closing. (And I still have my job.)
- As always, thank you very much for reading my work and staying with it.
"Okay Roz. It's your call when to start rolling." Castle tells her.
"Alright. One more time around the car. Everyone set? L.T.?" Karpowski queries.
"Check. Ready to go." he says sternly, getting into his role and putting his shades on.
"Right. Anne? Hey, button up that blouse, we want you to be his assistant not a secretarial sex bunny." the Detective says smiling.
"Okay." she says putting down her notebook in her lap and doing the button on her shirt. "I'm ready." Hastings declares.
"Castle? Or should I even bother to ask?"
"Thanks Karpowski." he says smiling with a touch of rejection. "I'm ready."
"Well, that's it then." she says picking up the radio and speaking into it. "Command. This is Team Romeo. Ready to roll." and they wait for the go signal.
Moments later the radio crackles to life. 'Roger Team Romeo. This is command. You are cleared to begin. Go. Go. Go.' the voice calmly says.
"Roger Command. Team Romeo going in." she says into the radio then she looks at Rick "Castle. Tell him to start."
Pressing the button over his head "John, we're ready. Please proceed to the front entrance."
"Right Mister Castle." comes the reply as the limo starts to move.
"You really ride around like this all the time Castle?" Karpowski asks as she glances out the window at the city outside, held at bay by the limo, cocooning them in isolation.
"If I want. I take a lot of cabs because it's just easier for me." he tells her as they feel the car going up the driveway of the hotel. "L.T. you'll get out first." Castle explains sounding unusually serious and somber "You stand right in the door blocking it and look around to make sure you're comfortable letting us out. Roz, you're next then me then Anne. Alright?"
"Right." they say in unison as the car stops.
L.T. Reaches for the door handle and Castle stops him saying "Let the driver do it. That's what's expected."
Just then the door opens and L.T. steps out and scans the area. Castle nods to Karpowski who steps out right on his heels. Next Castle and he helps Anne out of the car directly behind him.
Quietly he says "John, a reminder, you are to drive away and return straight to your garage. L.T. clear us to proceed. Roz walk ahead of us like you're important and in a hurry." to which they do.
Entering the hotel he swaggers over to the front desk while Anne checks her notebook and watch.
"Hi, I'm Richard Castle. I'm here for a meeting." he says smiling charmingly waiting for the desk clerk to look it up.
"Yes sir. I have you on the list." the clerk says dryly then he looks past Castle at the people behind him.
Right away Anne snaps into character, walks over to him and with a small voice says "Mister Castle. We're behind schedule." pointing to her watch.
"Yes dear don't worry." he says to placate his assistant. Turning to the desk agent he whispers "She's new." then louder "Where are we to proceed to?" which is when Karpowski decides to play her part.
"Castle, let's go! Time is money!" she snaps at him while literally snapping her fingers in his direction.
He looks at the desk clerk and rolls his eyes.
The clerk, in an effort to get rid of this group points him to the elevators. "Please proceed to the eighth floor. Take a left out of the elevator. I'll call up and have someone meet you there." he says picking up the phone.
Without waiting, Karpowski, true to character charges forward towards the elevators. Castle nods to L.T. to proceed and Anne takes up the rear as they form a procession. The doors to the elevator open and they all pile in with L.T. between Castle and the doors. Quietly Rick whispers "Continue to play your parts. We might be on camera."
When the doors open, L.T. sticks his head out, looks both ways then allows them out.
As they turn left and start walking a door opens and a young man comes to meet them. "Hi, Mister Castle, so nice to meet you." he says shaking Rick's hand.
"We'll do introductions inside please." Castle says putting his hand high on the man's back to encourage him to move along.
As soon as the door to the suite closes behind him. Castle looks out the peep hole and satisfied that no one followed them turns back to his crowd. "Okay, we're in. Roz, update command please."
Castle turns to the young man and says "I'm very sorry for the awkward way we just did that. Let me introduce the team." he says in introduction "This is Detective Karpowski." he says pointing to each one of them "Officer Hastings and Officer L.T." he looks at L.T. and with a quirk to his eyebrows and a smile says "I don't' even know your last name." then turning to the young man says "And you already know, I'm Richard Castle."
He hears Karpowski updating the command that they've arrived and she nods that they're ready to proceed as planned. Just then they hear Shatner call out "Rickey! Hey!" and come over to shake his hand.
"Bill, the team, some of NYPD's finest. This is L.T., Anne, and Roz." he says pointing to each while they shake hands.
When he turns to Karpowski, she's got that fan-girl look again. "Bill, she's a big fan." Castle says quietly.
"Come on in Rick. What's going on? Why's this all so urgent and clandestine?" Shatner says escorting them into the main part of the suite.
"Before I answer that, is everyone in your group here now?" Rick asks looking around at the half dozen people.
"We've got one that went out for more ice. He'll be back in a second."
Castle turns to Karpowski, "We've got one out." to which Karpowski immediately tells L.T. "Cover the door."
Then turning back he suggests they sit down. "Bill, this is some serious stuff going on. You know I work with the NYPD. There's something going on today and we thought that the smart thing would be for us to get to you so that if anything went awry we could control it."
"What's going on?" he asks looking shocked.
"I can only give you limited information for the moment." Castle explains in an unusually serious voice.
Just then the door opens and a young man walks straight into L.T.'s chest and almost drops the bucket of ice. "Oh my god! Who are you?" he yells looking up at this imposing man dressed all in black.
"Robert!" Shatner calls out "It's alright. Please come in." he says waving him in. "This is the person I mentioned." while L.T. helps the young man pick up the bucket and ice.
Castle, standing up in front of him, asks "Okay Bill, I just want to double check now, is everyone here?"
"Yes, everyone's here." the star says taking a quick glance around the room.
"Okay Roz. He says they're all here. It's a go." Castle says to Karpowski.
The assembled group watches as the cops spring into action.
Quickly L.T., Roz and Anne put on vests and their normal sidearms. They clip radios to their vests, turn them on and put in earpieces. Lastly they put their badges on chains around their necks. They then check each others equipment out to make sure and give each other a thumbs up.
Karpowski calls down on the radio and lets command know they're ready to proceed.
She gives Castle the "OK" sign and they stand there waiting for the 'go' call from the command post.
"Okay Bill. First off. Roz there is in charge." then to everyone around them with a light laugh in his voice to keep from overly scaring everyone "For everyone's safety, please do as Detective Karpowski tells you. Second. No one leaves the room without Roz's approval. Third. No phone calls to the hotel itself. No room service or anything until Roz says it's okay." Turning back to Shatner he explains "Now the story Bill. There's going to be a raid on this hotel in a little while and as I said, we decided to get in here to protect you not just from harm and exposure but also, quite frankly, to protect us from bad press if something should not go right. This is important for everyone to hear." Castle says raising his voice a bit. "As long as you stay in this room you are well out of harm's way. We are only here as a precaution."
"Rick, you're not punk'in me are you?" the star asks a bit incredulously.
"No, sorry Bill. I wish I could be this creative but this is serious. L.T. and Anne will be in the hallway once things begin to happen. Roz will be here with us." Castle says walking over and taking his 'Writer' vest from the bag and putting it on.
"Okay Rick. I'm going to apologize for all those things I've been saying about you." Shatner says sounding scared.
While putting the vest's straps in place Castle explains "No need Bill, this is just... Hey! What things?"
"Hmmm... Nothing." Shatner says with a mischievous smile.
"We'll discuss that some other time. Meanwhile, you're free to do as you need except leave for the time being." Castle explains to the group. "Does anyone have any questions or concerns?" he asks them. A few "No." sounds can be heard as well as a few head shakes so Rick feels comfortable with the situation. When Castle looks down at Shatner, with an expectant look, Shatner shakes his head implying he has nothing to add to the group.
Castle, smiling, addresses the group again "We truly don't expect any trouble, it was my suggestion that this team comes here to make sure of your protection. Quite frankly, if we didn't tell you what was going on here you'd probably have never known it was happening so there's no need to be concerned. If anyone has any questions, at any time, please feel free to speak up. You're not prisoners, these people are here to keep you safe. You can and should go about your normal business otherwise." he says.
After a pause, while the others in the room begin to chat amongst themselves Bill looks at Rick "Hey, how's Kate doing?" he asks not too loudly.
"She's doing good but she still got lousy taste in Sci Fi." Rick explains with a wry grin. "She still thinks 'Nebula 9' is great T-V. I don't get it either. She's made me sit through a couple of marathons of the show too. She goes ga-ga over Captain Richards. It's not like the damn fool knows what a spaceship is much less how to be a captain."
"Disgraceful." Shatner says in agreement as they sit down to chat.
"She met and interrogated Gabriel Winters, the guy who played Captain Max and she still likes the show." Castle says. "That reminds me, Bill, could you do me a favor? Roz is a big fan, can you give her an autograph? Once this stuff starts we won't have time for niceties."
"Sure! Let me check, I think I've got some photos in my briefcase." Shatner says getting up and heading into the other room.
Karpowski's radio crackles and she listens intently then says to Castle "No change, just updates."
"Ricky, you're lucky I found one. Roz?" Shatner calls out.
Just hearing her name from him makes her eyes go wide. "Yes Sir Mister Shatner?" she says firmly in her fan-girl mode.
Using the diversion to his advantage, Castle pulls out his phone and sends a quick message to Kate 'All set here. Hope good there. Miss you.' a moment later his phone buzzes with a reply. He opens it and almost bites off his tongue as he gives off a squeal like a dog's chew toy being stepped on causing everyone to startle. Staring up at him from his phone is a reasonably sedate photo looking down Kate's blouse with the text 'We miss you too.' Quickly he hides the photo and looks around guiltily at everyone who's looking at him questioningly while a dark blush rises on his face. "Sorry, crazy fans post crazy things." he says smiling nervously and putting his phone away.
While Shatner schmoozes with Karpowski, Castle checks in with Hastings and L.T. to make sure everything is going as expected. "I'm sorry. I can't sit still." Rick tells the two.
"I understand." Hastings says smiling. "Oddly enough this feels like a bit like a stake out."
"How about you L.T.?" Castle asks.
"I guess it doesn't bother me anymore. Just another day out of the station." he says with a smile. "Oh, by the way it's Tolliver."
"Huh?" Castle asks taken by surprise.
"My last name. Tolliver." he says.
"What's the L.T. stand for then?"
With just the beginnings of a sneaky grin he tells him. "It stands for L. Tolliver."
"Ah okay, I get it." then with a puzzled look "Wait, what's the 'L' stand for?"
"L.T." he says with a smirk.
"I'm going to get a headache aren't I?" Castle asks with a grin.
"That's what usually happens."
Castle's phone let's loose with a loud and wild electronic rendition of the "Flight of the bumblebee." Groaning he answers it without looking "Hello Mother."
"Richard. I want to talk to you about a couple of things." she starts intently.
"Mother? Can this wait until I get home? I'm in the middle of something. Something important." he says not noticing the eyes watching him and the grins on their faces.
Sounding not at all put out she agrees "Yes Richard. Of course. I'll see you tonight then."
"Good, thank you. I'll see you when I get home tonight." he says hanging up his phone then noticing all of Shatner's people, as well as Shatner himself grinning.
"Rick? You live with your mother?" the star asks, on the precipice of a hysterical laughing fit while those around him fight to contain giggles.
"No Bill. She has a room at my house. She lives with me and my daughter." he says sternly before turning and walking away. Then thinking to himself "I really should have thought this out before I asked her to move in all those years ago."
Just then Karpowski's radio crackles to life again 'This is Alpha team. We've got the truck on final approach. Two blocks out.'
Quickly snapping into business mode Karpowski announces "Alright everyone. Please pay attention. Things are going to happen quickly. Castle, the truck's heading in. L.T. and Hastings, get ready, when the go command is given you both take up your positions." she instructs.
"Mister Shatner, please stay with Mister Castle and do as he tells you." she says as a final command before going to the door and looking out the peephole.
The only sounds anyone can hear are the twenty-four hour news program on the T-V and a lot of nervous fidgeting until the radio begins to start buzzing.
'This is Alpha team. Truck turning into alley.'
'Bravo team ready.'
'Alpha team. Dock door is open. I have two suspects in the truck and two in the dock door. Truck still in motion.'
'This is Charlie team. All clear.'
'Alpha team. Truck stopped, suspects out of truck.'
'THIS IS CONTROL, ALL UNITS, GO! GO! GO!'
"L.T! Hastings! Go!" Karpowski barks.
The two cops swing open the door and with their hands on their weapons they crouch and move to their designated positions. Castle goes over and taps Shatner on the shoulder and gives him and the people with him a wave and quietly says "Let's go into this back room and get comfortable, this will happen fast but we're still going to get bored waiting." as he leads them into a smaller room off the main room of the suite.
As they wait, Castle tries to make small talk to keep them occupied. "So Bill, what's new? You still raising horses?"
"Ah yeah Rick. We've got a few. I also have a small winery I'm part owner of. Robert," he says to his assistant, "do you have those pictures handy?"
Just then one of the people in the entourage goes to answer her phone and she drops it in a panic.
Castle goes right over and turns on the charm "It's okay dear. What's your name?" he asks as he picks it up and holds her shaking hands as he gives her the phone.
"I... I'm M..M..arcie Sir." she says obviously terrified.
"Marcie, I'm Rick. You're very safe here, the NYPD is a great group of people and they're on top of things." he says smiling to distract her. "Who was the call from? Do you need to call them back?" he asks while he hears the sounds of the radio in the other room as Karpowski listens to what's going on.
"Actually it was my boyfriend." Marcie tells him.
"Do you want to call him?" Rick asks making sure she looks into his eyes to increase the distraction. "It's okay, you can if you want." then looking around he tells everyone "You can make calls and talk to your friends if you want we just ask you not tell them what is going on at the moment."
Rick hears his radio as Hastings whispers 'I've got someone in the stairs on the east end coming up.'
There's a long pause then Hastings voice breaks in again in a more normal tone 'I have four suspects detained.'
Marcie, still wide eyed, stares at the radio on Castle's vest, the fear in her face obvious.
"Marcie?" Rick says giving her hands a little shake so she'll look at him. "Marcie, that young lady you saw go out into the hallway before? She's a very capable officer. Quite frankly, I'd bet she could take L.T., the other officer, if she needed to." he says with a smile. Then a little softer "Just don't tell L.T. I said that, it might hurt his ego." he adds giving her a wink. "You don't need to worry. Things are going to be fine. Why don't you give your beau a call." and he gently nudges her towards one of the rooms off the main so she can have some privacy.
Then they hear L.T.'s voice whisper 'Elevator Able in motion.' and the radio goes dead again. In what feels like an eternity they wait holding their collective breaths. Suddenly his voice breaks in again 'Elevator Able empty. Door jammed. Able out of service.'
At that Castle turns to the group and says "That was L.T. he said he's put something in the door of the elevator to disable it on the floor so no one can use it." and everyone smiles feeling a little relieved.
Karpowski comes walking into the room smiling. "I just got confirmation that the SWAT teams have secured the main floor and they're now doing the cleanup through the building. This is good news. This means that the plan has worked as expected and is actually well ahead of schedule."
"Whew! That's great." Shatner says looking extremely relieved.
Karpowski goes back to her post in the other room and Castle looks around trying to reassure everyone. "This will be over shortly. You'll still be required to stay her for a while longer after that but the dangerous parts are almost over."
"Mister Castle?" one of the group calls out "Are you a cop?"
"No." he says smiling, now to everyone, "I'm the first one to tell you that I may make it look easy but it truly isn't. I am permitted, at my own risk, to work with these people and observe how they operate. The most important thing I've ever learned from them is to stay out of the way, listen to everything they say and to do exactly as I'm told." then after a beat "Not that I do any of those three things very well either but please don't tell them that I admitted it."
"Have you considered becoming a cop?" another person asks.
"Considered it? Yes, for the briefest of moments before I realized that I'm not up to the demands required. If anyone tells you that the job a police officer does is easy, ask them to put on a bullet resistant-" he punctuates this by holding up an index finger to help him make the point "vest, made in bulk by the lowest bidder, then stare down the barrel of a gun being held by a drugged out crazy man who thinks he was sent by God to save the world. No, I am not brave enough or smart enough to do this job. The truth is, I'm honored to just provide any assistance to them that I can." As he finishes his radio snaps to life 'I've got more traffic in east stairwell, can we confirm Team Zebra?' Hastings asks.
'Roger, checking.' Karpowski responds. Then Rick hears her talking in the other room then his radio opens again 'Team Zebra confirmed at east eight, repeat e-i-g-h-t.'
Castle smiles again to the group looking relaxed and says "That's good. The SWAT teams have cleared from this floor down."
'West stairs traffic. Confirm Team Zebra.' they hear the husky voice say in a whisper. Again, there's some noise from Karpowski's radio then 'Negative, Team Zebra at west seven, repeat s-e-v-e-n.' comes from the radio attached to Castle's vest followed by what sounds like two clicks, an acknowledgement from L.T. that he got the message but doesn't want to make any noise.
While everyone seems to hold their breath there's silence from the radios then it crackles to life again 'West has one suspect in custody and two unknowns detained. Suspect could use first-aid.'
'East confirms contact with Team Zebra.' then they hear 'West confirms Team Zebra.' and Castle turns around smiling. "What did I tell ya? NYPD is the best." he smiles. "That means that the SWAT team has cleared up to this floor and will continue up to finish the building. This means that the worst is over and things will begin to wind down from here.
Karpowski comes into the room smiling again. "Things are going well. Castle, I'm going to go out and check on the other two. I'm going to close the door behind me. I need you to watch for my return. I'll give you two fingers." she says.
"Bill, excuse me for a couple of minutes." Rick says following the detective to the main room. He closes the door behind her and flips the little security lock on it. He stands to the side of the door waiting. He realizes some of what Kate and the boys had been telling him over the years about how boring stakeouts can be. "Hours of abject boredom punctuated by seconds heart-stopping excitement."
He's wrenched from his reverie by two gentle knocks on the door. Remembering what Esposito taught him, he puts his hand over the peephole. If no one shoots a hole in your hand, it's safe to look out. Carefully, making sure his vest is facing the door, he slides into place and sees Karpowski outside holding up two fingers. Quickly he undoes the lock and opens the door to let her in.
"How's it going out there?" he asks surprised as his own level of calm with the situation.
"It's going very well." she says, then with a toss of her head towards the back room "Why don't we update everyone at once?"
Walking into the back room she smiles at everyone. "Things are going extremely well. SWAT has confirmed that they've finished and have control of the building. Officers are on every floor dealing with the guests and employees."
"Was there any shooting?" Marcie asks rejoining the group and sounding especially terrified.
"No, not inside the building here." Karpowski says again in a calming professional voice.
"But there was some?" Robert asks.
"Yes sir." Roz says trying to sound casual. "In the back alley. The crew driving a delivery truck had a momentary lapse of judgement and began to engage our SWAT team in a shootout. It ended quickly with them losing. One of their guys got slightly wounded and the others, as Castle would say, abruptly rethought their career choices." she says with a slight head nod to the writer and causing everyone to laugh at the situation and breaking the tension in the room.
"Good god Ricky, is this what your life is like everyday?" Shatner asks looking surprised.
Castle, deciding to try and diffuse more of the tension quickly decides to put on his clown persona. "Bill, this is nothing. Sometimes it gets exciting." he says, obviously full of faux bluster. While he continues to puff up his chest verbally to the crowd, he sees out of the corner of his eye, Karpowski shaking her head and giving him a disbelieving glare while doing that thing of pointing to her head with her finger and making small circles indicating she thinks he's crazy, triggering everyone to laugh heartily.
He looks appropriately confused but gives a wink to Roz to let her know it all worked as planned.
Her radio opens again and he can't quite hear what's being said but walks away from the group. She turns back a moment later smiling, "The kitchen staff was confused and quite put out by the intrusion it seems." She tells them with a laugh. "It seems the head chef, from Paris, has heard a few too many stories of the French underground resistance. He's been calmed down and the mop-up is going well. There's a lot of confusion in the housekeeping area. It seems that word quickly spread that it was an I-N-S raid. They've been talked down and are under control too."
For another hour the group sits together telling stories and talking about their businesses. The women seem to be typically drawn to Castle and he and Shatner are having fun trading barbs and jokes as well as some ideological conversations about the viability of Nebula 9 spaceships, weapons, and the women's uniforms.
There's a knock on the door and Karpowski goes to answer it while the others continue to chatter when he hears "Mister Castle." being barked from behind him. Instinctively he jumps like he got a shock from a cattle prod to face Captain Gates as she and a small group come into the suite.
"Hello Captain." He says respectfully despite his heart feeling like it's ready to jump out of his chest. It's then that he notices a slight quirk to her smile.
"So Mister Castle, how's it been going here?" she asks as if they are friends who usually share recipes.
"Captain Victoria Gates, may I introduce Mister William Shatner." he says stepping back so the two can shake hands.
Gates introduces a couple of the people in her little parade. While that's going on Castle tries to catch Karpowski's eye to tell her to come over to where they are but she very slightly shakes her head and mouths emphatically 'No!'
"So Mister Castle." Gates says firmly. "How did this operation go from your point of view?"
Standing straight and internally cringing at being on the spot, he does his best to answer properly. "Captain, I personally think it went well but I'd prefer to leave any official assessments to Detective Karpowski as the person in command and Mister Shatner as the protectee."
"Very well." she says smiling then calls out "Detective Karpowski, report."
As the detective glares at Castle and she steps up to provide her report, Shatner taps Castle on the shoulder and whispers in his ear "She married?" looking at Gates causing Castle to cough a bit and shake his head incredulously.
"Captain Gates?" Marcie queries "What was all this about?"
"You didn't tell them the details?" Gates asks Castle with a quirk to her eyebrow.
"No Captain, only that there was a police action going to happen. Details were left vague." he informs her.
"Well Mister Castle, it seems you can keep a secret." she says giving him a verbal jab.
Looking at the small group she explains "Partially thanks to Mister Castle's astute observations, a year long investigation into a large smuggling organization culminated with this raid today. While we were here, another team of officers raided a location downtown simultaneously bringing their business to an abrupt halt." she says to a number of breathy gasps.
"Mister Castle and Detective Beckett determined that securing you" she says with a slight nod to Shatner "and your party would be prudent to keep from having a high-profile celebrity caught in the middle of, or exposed to, this action." she finishes.
"Well Captain, it seems to have gone very well from our point of view." Bill says. "It seems that after all this time Ricky has been telling the truth about being involved with your department."
"Mister Castle?" one of the suits calls out.
Rick heads over to whomever called him while the Captain keeps busy with Shatner.
Karpowski, takes her radio away from her ear and smiling, announces to Gates "Captain, I just got a call from Esposito, he says you really should see what they've got downstairs at the loading dock. He makes it sound like you'll be very pleased."
"Well Mister Shatner, it was a pleasure meeting you." Captain Gates says shaking his hand. Then she announces to the room "Thank you to everyone for your cooperation and patience during this operation. The NYPD is glad to have had this opportunity to serve and protect you." At which she turns and shepherds her group towards the door. Just before she leaves she quietly tells Karpowski "I'm leaving you four more uniforms, they should be here any moment. Offer your team relief as needed and keep an eye on this group for a while. I'd rather they be one of the last ones cleared to leave so the press doesn't bother them."
"Yes Sir." Karpowski snaps watching the door close behind her.
"Hey Karpowski." Castle calls.
When she gets over to him he pulls out his phone. "Want another photo for your locker?" he asks smiling.
"Yes!" she says letting her inner fan-girl jump to the fore.
"Bill? Can we get a photo with you for Roz?" Castle asks him.
"Of course! Come right over here Roz." Shatner says holding out his arm while the woman grins like a school girl and Castle captures it for her.
As they finish letting Roz, Anne and L.T. get their pictures taken and Castle does some autographs and photos with Shatner's group, Castle and Shatner are relaxing and joking around when Karpowski gets call on radio to send Castle down to the loading dock.
As he passes Karpowski at the door he whispers "I suggest you mention to command that if this goes on much longer some food would be a smart idea especially for this group."
"Will do."
When Castle gets to main floor he sees Beckett walking across the lobby. "Hey! They let you out?" he asks smiling.
Smiling back Beckett tells him "Yeah they did. I needed to take a break and then Gates ordered me to the loading dock." as they turn and start walking into the back of the hotel. "Hey, did you get my message?" she asks quietly with a slight shoulder-bump.
"It is evil the things you can do to me woman." he says under his breath like he's sulking.
"I'll take that as a yes then." she says smiling.
"Yes, that's a yes. I almost passed out." he says lowering his voice even more.
"Oh good. I haven't lost my touch." she smirks.
With a predatory look, Castle leans into her space "I'll show you just-"
"Yo! Beckett! Castle!" they hear Esposito call out. "Nice of you to join the working stiffs." causing Ryan to look up from what he's doing.
"Hey Castle, this looks like we're going through your trash." Ryan snarks holding up a gold figurine.
Castle, surprised, tells them "Wow, that's worth some bucks. That looks like an original-"
His explanation cut off by Gates' voice cutting through the din. "Detectives Beckett, Ryan, Esposito and Mister Castle. Please join us." she says indicating a backroom, obviously leading to the loading dock.
As the four join them, Gates introduces the Detectives to the group she's with and "Some of you already met Mister Castle, part of Detective Beckett's team." before continuing to explain to the suits she's got in tow what's been going on. "I'd explained a little of this operation to you previously but not how we arrived at this raid today. During an investigation, by Detectives Ryan and Esposito, into an unrelated murder in this hotel," she says indicating to the two detectives unsuccessfully trying to hide behind each other from the group "it was discovered that an unusual number of visits by a florist's truck had taken place."
One of the suits pipes up "What in god's name would make you notice that?" he asks towards Ryan and Esposito.
Ryan stutters a little and Esposito steps from partially behind his partner and speaks up "It is one of the strange quirks in a case that our partner here Castle notices. He mentioned it to us and then my partner Ryan found that there were a number of late-night visits by the truck captured on the security video."
Now Ryan, regaining his voice adds in "Castle noticed that the trucks all had the same name but different lettering and designs which caused us to look more deeply into the florist."
Castle, not one to allow the credit to rest on him adds in "When Ryan found all those visits by the trucks, it was Esposito who recognized that these visits might involve a smuggling operation."
The same suit, smiling asks "Captain Gates, do any of your people allow you to praise one of them without sharing?"
In an uncharacteristically friendly move Gates answers "Not without a direct order."
Just then the captain's radio squawks "Captain Gates. We've got a small problem."
As everyone snaps into alert, Gates grabs the radio and orders "Gates here, report." and they wait for a response.
"Bruce here Captain." the voice on the radio says "We've got a problem here at the shop downtown. There's lots of packages and stuff that looks like contraband but robbery is reporting that they haven't found any of it as reported as stolen yet but they are still checking."
While this is going on, our favorite can't-stand-still-and-has-to-fidget man-child wanders over to an open crate and looks at what's in it. He lifts a tag attached to something and sees the name on it just as Beckett looks over his shoulder and sees it too.
In unison the two yell "I've got it! I know what this is!" making everyone jump.
"Detective Beckett!" Gates snaps "Explain." Then telling Bruce "Stand by." she waits expectantly.
"We just noticed a tag on this little sculpture here." she says holding out the tag on the piece that Castle is now holding up for them to see.
"It says 'S&W Voss' which is a name we remember." Castle says.
Picking up the conversation as they usually do, Beckett starts to explain "We investigated a case recently-"
Castle: "About a month ago I think."
Beckett: "This case brought us to question a couple who were in the midst of an unusually unpleasant divorce."
Castle: "During our meeting the two of them were busy destroying each others priceless pieces of art."
Beckett: "The couple was Walter 'W' and-"
Castle: "Samantha 'S' Voss."
As Castle finishes the statement Beckett shakes the tag attached to the little statue again. Beckett, now smiling says "You won't find all of this stuff listed as stolen but I'll bet you'll find most of it listed as assets in probate."
The Deputy Chief of detectives, watching this explanation looks a bit distasteful at the two then looks directly at Beckett when he snaps "You expect us to believe that no one's noticed that this stuff's gone missing?"
Castle speaks up "There's a period, between about nine to saaaay... fourteen months during a big divorce when no one is paying any real attention to assets. During this window, divorce cases are in a state of flux and there's a lot of back and forth about discoveries. At that point it's less about the case and more about the lawyers squaring off and establishing territories. As unpleasant as it may be, imagine two sumo wrestlers going through their preparations in the ring for a match. That is metaphorically what's going on between the parties. People with resources would also try to plan ahead by siphoning off assets and hiding them before the divorce process begins."
"How could you possibly know this?" a voice calls out somewhat angrily.
Castle looks at the group, shrugs his shoulders and says "First hand experience. Made the mistake twice. I learned a lot during those divorces."
Beckett picks it up now "During this same period robbery cases and investigations wane and start to be considered cold or stagnant and the interest in them hits a low point."
Now Esposito chimes in "It looks like interested parties could arrange, through this operation, to smuggle their assets out of the city, county, state and then even out of the country. By their very nature, florist trucks carry extremely perishable goods and everyone knows they need to be hurried along. Because most of them are refrigerated, not many inspectors are going to spend a lot of time in there going through everything."
Ryan takes a turn "By the time anyone was looking for something it'd be hard to mount a case to prove that the items were smuggled out making them seemingly vanish into thin air."
Another suit in the back asks "Captain, are they always like this?"
Smiling Gates turns and acknowledges "Yes and sometimes it can be worse. There are days I wonder if they're not really sharing one brain." she says as the group laughs. "This team of detectives could be the poster-children for how it should be done in police work." then, stage whispering behind her hand "Just don't tell them please. I don't want to break the spell."
The deputy chief, his body language still screaming 'pissed off', walks over to one of the floral display boxes and harshly pulls out something to examine. In a gruff and angry voice he questions Beckett while waving the item around "So you mean to tell me that they take your stuff, package it, hide it under live plants or other decoys, then transport it for you? How can they pull off all that traffic without being noticed?" he demands turning to look at Gates for the answer.
"I have that one Sir." Ryan says. "We've found, so far, that three of the rooms here are being used for storage."
Esposito: "It turns out that other than some high profile people using the suites and conventions and function rooms, the actual hotel rooms are pretty vacant except for the occasional business traveler."
Ryan: "We've estimated that there's well over a hundred available rooms here but there's only about twenty being used by paying customers right now and it doesn't seem they are ever booked close to capacity."
Esposito: "The rooms being used for storage seem to be marked off on the maintenance logs as having lock problems."
Ryan: "This means the room can't be used for normal use and is being used for storage. We've already seized the maintenance logs showing that-"
Esposito: "a room gets used for about two to four weeks and then stuff is cycled out and into other rooms. Some of the stuff being cycled out-"
Ryan: "goes into other rooms to continue to be stored and some of it comes down here to be packaged up and shipped out."
Esposito: "A lot of the stuff they do seems to be small stuff like jewelry and statues and the like."
Ryan: "We've also found some paintings. It looks like the hotel orders a painting of about the same size."
Esposito: "Then the real valuable piece is put in that box and the purchased painting goes up in the hotel."
Ryan: "The valuable one then gets shipped off as the cheap one the hotel purchased."
Esposito: "This whole operation seems, at this point, to not be a robbery operation but a purely smuggling service."
A voice in the back says "It's like watching a tennis match, I'm getting dizzy." making everyone laugh.
"If I may Sir." Esposito says to his Captain as he walks over to a flower delivery box and pulls out a large, live and flowery display. "Here's a perfect example. We just took this off of the truck." he says walking back to the group but standing directly in front of and addressing Captain Gates. "This clear vase is filled with a clear gooey substance that holds water but doesn't spill easy." he holds it out so everyone can see it, shakes it and then he shines a flashlight through the clear vase so they can see the flower stems seemingly suspended in nothing.
Looking at the group he asks "Can you see anything unusual here?" to a collective subtle negative response. He turns off the flashlight and reaches into his pocket pulling out a black light used for finding blood at crime scenes and shines it into the vase as he just did with the regular flashlight. Instantly a large number of small round unusually colored items show up to a startled gasp from the group.
Smiling he says "My man Ryan there told me once that when he was hunting for a ring for his girlfriend, now his wife, that he learned that diamonds react to ultraviolet light and that's what you're seeing here. They poured, what could possibly be hundreds of thousands of dollars in the form of diamonds into this goop to hide them in plain sight."
Castle cuts in with "It is likely, in that specific case, that the person's assets were liquidated and turned into transportable stones to be taken out of the country."
Ryan now addresses the Captain directly "Robbery reported a number of paper ledgers at the florist shop that look to be directly connected to this business. We have put the hotel owner on a watch list. It seems that this was his operation. We're not sure if there are other locations doing this same work."
Again, Esposito continues "We contacted the Miami police asking them to question him but it looks like he's already skipped by jumping a boat to Cuba."
Now the deputy chief of detectives looks furious. Seething, he yells "Why the hell did something this large and intricate take so damn long to find out! What the hell has robbery been doing with this case for almost a year?" as he finishes he's staring daggers at Gates.
"Sir? If I may?" Beckett asks Gates.
Gates nods her approval and waits to see what happens.
"Deputy Chief, I will not offer excuses or reasons, only an opinion for you to consider." Beckett says taking a step forward. "This is far from being a typical robbery case and as such, the metaphorical bread-crumbs have been very difficult to identify. As Detective Esposito said, this wasn't a robbery ring but a smuggling business. With that said. It has been solved. Solved by a team effort which includes all specialties, not just one. Additionally, the take-down was facilitated by a task-force that was organized and put into place by Captain Gates within half a day with almost no delay and implemented without major injuries or collateral damage."
They can see him pondering this statement along with all the other issues. He still doesn't look happy. Beckett decides to try a diversion to see if he can calm down. "Captain Gates, may I make a suggestion?" Beckett says to her.
Suspecting that Beckett knows what she's doing she plays along "Yes, go ahead Detective."
"There's going to be a lot of crime scene data to be collected in this case. Would this be a good opportunity to bring in some rookies-"
"Or academy students?" Castle adds as a question.
Nodding Kate continues "to assist in the process? There's plenty of supervision and even more work to go around and it would be a good way to give them some serious on-the-job experience in a controlled environment."
Ryan adds in "Extra hands would be helpful, we haven't even gotten to all the floors to see which rooms have what. Reenberg is cursing a blue-streak because she's so short-handed and trying to do what her department needs."
Esposito suggests "There's also the matter of the patrons of the hotel. Some of them can't just be tossed out and told to go someplace else. Maybe some of these rookies could get some undercover practice also in a controlled environment allowing us to run things for a few days while people make arrangements to find other hotels and we can shut this place down in an orderly fashion."
"All good suggestions." Gates says with a little smile as she turns away from her group of suits. "Detective Beckett I want you to contact the D-A's office. We need to get his office on-board. I want you to start the process with him and report back to me. Let's see what ramifications and liabilities we might be up against if we tried to do this. I'll contact the P-C to see about using this as a training tool."
"Yes Sir." she says brightly.
"Meanwhile gentlemen." she says turning to her group "Why don't we move on and let these detectives do their work."
"Captain? A moment?" Castle asks politely but none-the-less causing Kate's heart to skip a beat wondering what he's going to say.
He walks over and quietly talks to the Captain who looks up and gives him a nod. "Good idea. Please go find Lieutenant Lee and ask him to make that happen. Contact me when its ready."
"Yes Captain." Castle says as she turns and leads her group away.
As soon as she's out of ear-shot Ryan whispers loudly "Dude! You did it again." Smiling and feeding the birds with him.
"What'd you tell her?" Beckett asks.
"I suggested that her troupe there might find it valuable and useful to use this location and collection of stuff as a photo-op. I also said that the officers, homicide but especially burglary, would get a morale boost from the same thing." He says smiling knowing he helped the captain and she didn't bite his head off.
"Good idea bro'!" Espo says feeding the birds too.
"Okay gang." Beckett says. "I'm going to go back to the command truck. I have phone calls to make. Castle, Lee's in the command center writing his report." She turns and takes a few steps. "Hey Castle, you comin'?" prompting him to run after her like a puppy.
The two watch 'Mom and Dad' as they pass through the doorway. Ryan asks his partner "You still think I'm the most whipped guy on earth?"
Rolling his eyes and shaking his head Esposito walks away to go back to his tasks with a crooked smile on his face.