Chapter 26
One Week Later
Since Beckett had been booted off the Lana Fischer case, she had taken a few vacation days to spend looking through her mother's things and brushing up on the details of her murder. It wasn't that she had forgotten anything, she was just being a good detective by being thorough.
Though it hadn't helped much. She was no further along in the case than the other detectives were over six years ago. But Castle had told her yesterday that Ryan and Esposito had managed to make a connection between her mother and Lana Fischer.
Heroin.
Johanna Beckett had been a part of the 'Take Back the Neighbourhood' campaign in Washington Heights. It had been established to take drug dealers off the streets. Lana Fischer, a recovering heroin addict, had been seen in more recent years buying drugs in that same area. The 12th were on top of this lead, but Beckett had already made the connection days before.
"The boys have Vulcan Simmons in the box," Roy informed Castle as he entered the bullpen. "A drug lord who operates around Washington Heights. He was named as a person of interest in Johanna Beckett's murder, and friends of Lana Fischer say they recognise him from her life."
"And on what grounds are we holding him?" Castle asked seemingly unamused by his statement.
"He had a relationship with our victim. If he were her drug dealer and she didn't pay up on time that would give him motive."
"No disrespect but that doesn't sound very promising," Castle admitted.
Esposito and Ryan exited the interrogation room, slamming their folders on the desk. By their stature and facial expressions Castle could tell they weren't happy with the outcome of Simmons' interview.
"He's not talking," Ryan said, loosening the tie around his neck. "His lawyer says that just because our vic had a former drug addiction doesn't mean his client was her dealer."
"And since we have no evidence to back that up, I'm with him on that one," Esposito chimed in.
"That guy is the only connection we've been able to find between those two murders," Montgomery pointed out. "There's no way he's not involved somehow. Put him under surveillance."
"So that's it?" Castle questioned unimpressed by the way things had played out.
"There's nothing else we can do, Castle," Esposito stated.
"You guys can't just let him slip away!" Castle said agitated. "This is the first and only lead we've got!"
Esposito side-eyed Castle as a signal to calm down. He was getting worked up over something that was completely out of their hands.
"Keep digging into Fischer's life," ordered Montgomery. "Focus mainly on phone and financials, maybe we'll find a money trail linking her to Simmons." Dissatisfied, Roy made his way back inside his office.
"Dude, you need to chill," Esposito warned.
Castle watched the interrogation door like a hawk. "How can I be chill when the guy behind that door could be linked to Beckett's mother's murder?"
"We're doing all we can," Ryan said. "For now, letting him go is the only option."
"You're going to have to keep your cool if you want to stay consulting here. If the cap suspects that you're closer to Beckett than he thinks, you're out and she's fired."
"We can't lose this lead," Castle sighed. "Two murders, one fingerprint, six years apart. Sounds to me like this guy is a murder-for-hire."
"For all we know Simmons is simply a low-life drug dealer who just happened to be involved in both victims lives somehow," Esposito speculated. "The fingerprint doesn't match him, therefore we can't connect him to the actual murders."
Castle couldn't argue with that. A drug dealer in New York was like looking for a recovering alcoholic at an AA meeting. If they were going to get anywhere on this case they were going to need something a lot more concrete.
He left the precinct and made his way over to Kate's apartment. She hadn't told him that she had connected Simmons with the two cases because she knew it was a shot in the dark. She knew a connection as weak as this wasn't going to be looked into much by the NYPD.
She had just zipped up her jacket when Castle knocked on the door. He had called to say he was going to drop by and give her a quick update on the Vulcan Simmons situation.
"Did he say anything about my mom's case?" she asked shoving her car keys into her pocket.
Rick shook his head. "All we had was speculation. His lawyer practically laughed in Ryan and Esposito's faces."
She knew they weren't going to get anywhere interrogating Simmons. But somewhere deep down inside her she had been hoping for a miracle. Hoping he would somehow slip up and expose his true role in these cases.
"Okay… so we're back to square one?"
"Yeah, unless the boys find another way of connecting him," Rick said. In frustration she ran her hands through her hair and cursed under her breath. Now that the conversation had died down he decided to ask, "Where are you going?"
"To the precinct," she answered. "I have a job, remember?"
"I'm sure they would understand if you played hooky for one more day," he said attempting to make her smile, and rightfully it worked.
She smiled amusingly at him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Hmm, I'll tell you what," she said fixing his shirt collar, "when I get back, we can play hooky all night long." Her cute little grin confirmed his suspicion about what exactly that meant.
"I like the sound of that." He placed a soft kiss onto her lips. "I'll have dinner ready for you when you come home." He gave her one last kiss before she pulled away from him. "I love you."
Kate flashed him a wink before closing the door behind her. Her grin immediately faded once he couldn't see her anymore. Instead, she was overwhelmed with a feeling of guilt. She had just lied to Castle, something she had never done before. She wasn't going to the precinct, she was going after Simmons.
Kate had connected Simmons to both cases two days before the 12th had, giving her a head start. She had been following him for the past few days after hours without Castle knowing. She knew he wouldn't approve of what she was doing but she needed answers. She needed to catch him when he had his guard down.
The abandoned body shop was blacked out the same as it had been the past few times she had been here. She had followed Simmons here twice in the past five days. The only difference about today was the fact there was a dim glow coming from one of the side rooms. Kate propped her gun and snook inside through an old broken window.
Voices in the distance alerted her to hide behind an old rusty pick-up truck. Crouched behind it she could just make out Vulcan Simmons and another man she had never seen before. She couldn't quite hear what they were discussing but it wasn't long before they left the building.
She quickly scoped out the area before sneaking into the office the two men had just come from. There were documents sprawled across the desk with bank accounts and balances on them. She opened the desk drawers and rooted through them in hope of finding anything that could be used against him.
"Haven't you heard the phrase 'curiosity killed the cat'?" came a deep raspy voice from the door.
Kate reacted by instinct and hoisted her gun. "Don't move."
He was cocky. Ignoring her orders he swayed into the room seemingly unfazed by the weapon aimed at him. "So tell me, what's a woman like you doing snooping around a place like this?"
She chose not to answer him. In her mind that was a good decision, but Simmons didn't like being ignored. But before she could react Simmons disarmed her and shoved her against the bookshelves behind his desk. He put pressure on her chest using his forearm, restricting her from escaping. She winced in pain as she tried to pry his arm away.
"You should have minded your own business," he warned. Vulcan slipped his hand into her pocket and pulled out her ID badge. "Detective Kate Beckett, homicide." He looked at her oddly. "I didn't see you at the 12th today, so why are you here?"
"My partners know I'm here," she bluffed. "Any second now this place is going to be crawling with cops."
"Cops don't let other cops go to places like this alone," he laughed. "Now I'm going to ask again, why are you here?"
There was no way Kate was going down without a fight. She flung her head forward and headbutted him causing him to buckle over in pain. She fled out of the office and made a run for the exit, but when she got to the door it was locked. Simmons caught up to her and slammed her against the metal door. The impact caused the gun to fly out of his hand and onto the floor.
The blow against the door ensued in her falling to the ground. Simmons put his weight on top of her making it difficult for her to breathe. She stretched for her gun, but he swiftly tossed it away from her reach. The lack of oxygen getting to her lungs was making her feel lightheaded.
"You're just like your mama," Simmons said between pants of air, "both playing in worlds you don't belong."
Anger boiled up inside her giving her one last burst of energy. She screamed and done everything in her power to get out from underneath him, but it wasn't enough. He was a lot heavier than she was and he wasn't gasping for air.
"You're a fighter, I'll give you that." Simmons pulled a dagger out of his waist band. "But just like you're mama you're going to die alone."
Simmons thrust the blade deep into Kate's abdomen. She shrieked but her body stopped fighting. The pain made it unbearable to even move. She felt the weight of Simmons lighten as he got up and fled the premises. She heard a car engine start and drive off down the street. That's the last thing she heard before everything went black.
An hour later, Castle was laying on Kate's couch watching reruns of 'Temptation Lane' that had been saved to her DVR. His phone started ringing and he saw the caller ID was Esposito. Confused as to why he was calling he picked up.
"Hey Castle, is Beckett with you?"
"No?" he said warily. "Isn't she at the precinct with you guys?"
"I don't know what gave you that idea," Esposito said. "I just wanted to tell her that we've lost visual on Simmons. He's in the wind."
Castle sat up straight and began to panic. "So, she never turned up at the precinct?" he asked double-checking.
"No, I thought she had the day off?"
As much as it pained him to come to this conclusion, Castle knew immediately what she had done. "She's gone after Simmons."
"What?" Esposito exclaimed. "How the hell does she even know where he is?" Then he shouted over to his partner, "Hey Ryan! Get a ping on Beckett's phone. She's going after Simmons."
"Tracing!" Castle could hear Ryan shout in the background. After a few moments which felt like hours, Ryan said, "Her last location was 537 West 38th Street!"
Esposito assembled a team and sent them out to that address, as well as Castle who planned to meet them there. They stormed the body shop to find it was empty. The side rooms were clear as well as the main open room, all except for Kate.
"Yo!" Esposito shouted. "Over here!"
Kate was lying unconscious on her back, her hand resting almost lifelessly over her stab wound. The puddle of blood that had settled beneath her had drenched her clothes. One side of her face was badly bruised as a result of Simmons slamming her into the door, and her chest was barely rising.
Castle rushed to her side and knelt beside her. "Kate, can you hear me?" he pleaded taking her bloody hand into his. He felt for a pulse to find it was unnaturally weak. "Stay with me, okay?"
Ryan was on the phone with emergency services who were sending out two ambulances. Esposito was putting pressure on the stab wound while Castle tried to wake her up.
"Kate," he whispered in between sobs. "I love you, Kate. Please don't leave me."
She could hear him. She could feel him. She wanted to respond, to tell him that she was there, but her body wasn't letting that happen. The blood loss had been too significant that her muscles and heart were starting to give up. And so was she.
Author's Note: And that's the wrap on 'When I Needed You'! Wow, what a journey it has been. Tharsi and I have had such phenomenal support with this fanfic, and it has by far been our favourite to write! We just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed this fanfic! And a special shoutout to our supporters: Jenny, Alex, Julie and Gus, all of whom have been retweeting and commenting on our chapters.
On a side note, Tharsi and I have decided (with the support of Gus) to write our own take on what the fans would have wanted Castle's final season to look like. That fanfic will act as a substitute for season 8, continuing on from the events of the season 7 finale. We haven't started writing it yet but keep an eye on our twitter accounts ( AbsentiaCastle and greysloverx) for updates :D
Again, thank you all so much and we'll see you soon with our next fanfic :D
~Anna and Tharsi 3