Not Guilty
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I am not guilty of owning Castle. Rating: K Time: An AU period a few days after the end of the last episode of season one.
They were just thinking about dinner on the second day when they got a call from Grogan.
"Be outside the loft in half an hour ready to go. If you're not ready, you don't go."
"How should we dress? Clothing suitable for the Andes? The Sahara? Triple canopy jungle? What?"
Grogan laughed.
"Did you really buy enough for all of that?"
"Of course, I did. I'm rich, remember?"
"Dress for the desert. You now have twenty-eight minutes."
In fact, they had forty minutes before Grogan pulled up in a battered pickup.
"Where are we going?" Castle asked as they got in.
"Thataway." Grogan said unhelpfully.
Thataway turned out to be a small private airport in New Jersey. Waiting for them was a business jet. Castle was hoping that the jet would have all the conveniences he'd enjoyed when flying on a private jet. It didn't.
"Does this thing have seats somewhere?" he asked.
Grogan pointed towards the cockpit.
"On the other side of the cargo. There are two seats for you. I'll be with the pilots. The others went on ahead."
As they put on their safety belts, Castle grumped.
"I doubt there'll be a charming stewardess coming by to offer us some vintage wine and expensive canapes."
Kate raised an eyebrow.
"Poor Rick Castle. Having to rough it."
Castle sighed melodramatically.
"I know. Life is terribly unfair sometimes."
The plane took off and stayed in the air for several hours before landing. This was apparently not their destination as Grogan just opened the door to let someone put in a couple of small boxes and a large duffel bag. Then they were off again.
It was hard for Castle to tell, but he thought that they had flown south first and were now flying west, more or less.
After several more hours, they landed.
"Everybody out. We're here." Grogan said.
"Where's here?" Kate asked quickly.
"Here is almost where we're going. Don't worry. We'll all get there together."
They were met at what appeared to be a rundown civilian airport by a van. As they pulled out onto the highway, Castle saw a car go by with Texas plates. That didn't tell him much. Texas was a big state. He nudged Beckett, who nodded and mouthed the word "Texas."
They pulled into an inexpensive motel and were dropped off near the back. Grogan handed them a key card.
"You're in room 159, straight ahead. You might want to get some sleep. We'll be heading out at O Dark Thirty."
They hadn't been inside for more than ten seconds when there was a knock on the door. It was a skinny teenager wearing a ballcap that said "Texas Pizza Express." He handed Rick two pizza boxes and two ice cold bottles of Lone Star beer.
"There you go, boss. Two pizzas with everything and two bottles of Lone Star beer. Your buddy already paid the tab."
Rick thanked him and handed him a twenty.
"Thank you, sir. If you need anything, anything at all, just call and ask for Jimmy."
They had their dinner and watched TV.
"The channel is from El Paso." Castle said. "We're in west Texas."
"Unless this is an elaborate plot to confuse us." Kate countered.
"Hey! No fair. Elaborate plots are my specialty. You stick to the facts."
Kate wasn't able to avoid laughing.
"Do you think they have us under surveillance still?" She asked.
"I'd bet on it."
"Audio and video or just audio?"
"No way to tell."
"Sorry to tell you this lover, but I'm not putting on any free shows. I'm taking off my boots tonight and that's it. And, it's time for bed if we have to get up early." Kate said, downing the last of her beer.
She did take off her bra in the bathroom and made sure Castle stayed only under the comforter while she was between the sheets.
There was a loud rap on their door sometime later.
"Time to get up and get moving." Grogan called through the door. "Can you make it in ten minutes."
Castle opened the door.
"We'll be ready in five."
"You slept fully dressed?" He said, catching sight of Kate headed for the bathroom.
"We didn't want to give you a free show for whatever kind of surveillance you have in the room."
Grogan laughed.
"You really think we'd do that?"
"Yes."
Grogan just laughed again and walked off.
Two vans pulled up in front of their room and Rick and Kate got in. Kate had to sit on Rick's lap because of the crowd. There were nine other men in all, armed with assault rifles, wearing protective vests and other gear that Kate couldn't identify in the dark. The only language spoken seemed to be Spanish. Kate had picked up a little bit of Spanish from Espo, but couldn't follow the rapid-fire Spanish. Rick and Kate assumed they were Mexican police officers.
They pulled off onto a dirt road and drove for several miles to what was no more than open desert. There were three helicopters waiting there. Kate couldn't identify any of them. As they got out of the van, Grogan pulled the two away.
"We have something for you. Two protective vests. Nice top of the line models, complete with protective plate inserts. Attached to the vests are ammo pouches, a first aid kit and a camelback® hydration system. Also a 1911A1 Colt .45 that's been modified a little. You also get an M 4 carbine each, fitted with a suppressor and an ACOG site. You two are checked out on both weapons?"
Both Rick and Kate nodded and were handed their carbines.
"One more thing, Detective, hand over your Glocks and your spare ammo. You'll be using our weapons tonight. If you have to use weapons. Probably won't."
Kate handed over her two sidearms and they two boarded one of the larger helicopters. Kate was happy to see that Madero was on another one.
Both Rick and Kate were sure they were headed south, which they thought meant they were headed for Mexico. They flew quite low over the desert. Nap of the Earth flying. Kate remembered Espo telling her about that. Fly low enough so that even small rises shield you from any enemies and go fast enough so they don't have time to shoot at you if they do see you.
Eventually, the sun rose and they could see the desert below them. They looked out of both sides of the helicopter, but saw nothing but miles and miles of desert.
Then Castle tapped her on her shoulder.
"Road." He pointed. "A dirt road and someone's been on it. There's dust in the air still."
In seconds, they spotted three vehicles moving speedily along the dirt road. The first was a dark van, then a large, black sedan with heavily tinted windows, a Mercedes, Kate thought. Last was a large pickup with at least a dozen men in back. The men were armed with assault rifles.
The helicopter they were in moved ahead of the little convoy and set down across the road. The other large chopper landed to the right of the convoy while the smaller helicopter hovered overhead.
The doors to the chopper were pulled open and everyone seemed to be yelling at once. Rick and Kate were the last ones out.
Kate was interested to see how the Mexican police would handle this. It was nothing like she expected.
The men from her chopper opened fire on the van while the hovering chopper sprayed the pickup with automatic weapons fire. The other large helicopter's people shot up the engine of the sedan and into the car itself.
"What are they doing?" Kate yelled.
"They're killing people." Castle said, trying to pull her behind him.
She pushed him away.
"I don't need you protecting me." She headed towards the vehicles with Castle right beside her.
One man got out of the van and fired a pistol. He missed everyone and was cut down by a half a dozen single-shots. Kate noticed that as they passed the van, the men shot into it, making sure everyone inside was dead. Looking towards the end of the convoy, she could see the men in the pickup were being treated the same way.
Grogan stopped by the side of the sedan.
"Coonan, come on out. We know you're in there. Hey, if we wanted you dead, you'd be dead by now, right?"
Someone inside yelled something that neither Rick nor Kate caught.
"Be reasonable, Dick. We don't mean you any harm. Now come out like a good boy. We just need to talk."
The rear door of the sedan opened and a well dressed woman was pushed out. She was bleeding from a stomach wound and saying something in Spanish. One of the men walked forward and shot her in the head.
"Jesus fucking Christ, Grogan! What the fuck are you doing? Do you know who the fuck she is…was? Do you have any idea how much shit were in because of her?"
"Relax, relax. It's no problem. You're going to come out of this smelling like a rose. You'll be a hero to the cartel."
"Yeah?"
"Absolutely, old pal."
The man came out of the car. He was tall and stocky with light hair and a pistol in his hand.
"Put the gun away, amigo. We're all friends here."
He put his pistol back in his shoulder holster.
"Why?" He asked,
Grogan shrugged.
"We had to talk to you in a big hurry. Sorry about the mess."
"You had to talk to me?"
"About a job you did, maybe ten years ago. Johanna Beckett. Remember that one?"
"Johanna Beckett? She was nobody. All four of them were nobodies. What is this about?"
Kate was about to raise her carbine and say something when Grogan shot Coonan, a double tap to the chest, followed by one to the head. Then he fired all of the remaining rounds into the corpse.
Grogan turned to Rick and Kate. Both suddenly realized how alone and outnumbered they were.
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you for our weapons and gear back."
Kate was about to refuse, but Castle handed over his carbine and pistol, and started taking his protective vest off. Kate glared at everyone, but did the same.
"That's what smelling like a rose looks like?" Castle asked sarcastically.
"Okay, so I might have been a little off on that one."
He turned to Kate.
"Okay, Detective Beckett, here's your two Glocks back, minus any ammo, I'm afraid. You two will be going north in the Little Bird." He pointed at the smaller of the helicopters. Two men were getting out of the back and running towards another chopper.
"Who paid him to kill my mother?" Kate demanded.
Grogan shrugged.
"I have no idea. That wasn't what this was about."
"Then what was it about?"
"Move, unless you want to stay here." Grogan growled.
Both Kate and Rick walked to the waiting chopper, bracing themselves for a bullet in the back. Nothing happened. They got into the back and took off. There were no headphones or mics in the back, so they couldn't talk to the pilots.
Eventually, they landed at an unfamiliar civilian airport. The pilot motioned for them to get out.
"Go see EQ Aviation Services. They can get you back home." He said no more and the chopper lifted off.
They walked to the building marked EQ Aviation Services and went inside. Castle noticed a fairly new looking Cessna Citation X marked with the logo of EQ Aviation Services. He thought this might not be so bad.
When they went inside, his attitude changed for the worse. The office was shabby with cracked linoleum, a battered wooden desk, an equally battered filing cabinet and an old tower computer. There was a man behind the desk. He rose.
TBC