Rick had just finished his own search into Colin's history and Mary Anne was right. His childhood friend did father a son. The description of Colin junior was prevalent in Belfast. After an extensive web search, Rick found out that he was a straight-A student and that he held jobs after school working at stores close by his home to help support his mother and their household. But this was all useless because it was long ago and people did change. He would need a description of him so he could put out a BOLO on him but he had no clue as to what he looked like. If he was anything like his father he had a good idea of what he might look like but he needed an image. He would have the sketch artist come to BDU headquarters later to draw up a sketch. But what really concerns him is that he was a straight-A student. There was more there he just knew it. Maybe he excelled in electronics or even electrical engineering he didn't know what he did but whatever it was it was going to be bad.
But now he had decided to figure out how he was going to confront his wife about what she had done. She had done the one thing he had told her he could not tolerate after he caught her the first time. It wasn't an ultimatum on his part but it was just that he wanted to keep her safe and by not investigating any of his cases she would be just that... safe. So, for now, he would just go home back to the loft and deal with it when he got there.
Xx
Kate who had fallen asleep in the loveseat facing the front door of the loft waiting for her husband to come home woke with a start when she heard the door squeak open. Her eyes automatically went to her husband and she could tell that he wasn't happy.
"Hi, babe."
Rick looked at his wife and could tell she knew something was wrong. He sucked at communicating especially when he needed it the most but he needed to be the adult here so he didn't say anything to her, hung up his coat, and walked into the kitchen to get a bottle of water. He thought she would follow him into the kitchen and he waited in the kitchen for a couple of seconds but when he came back out and looked in the living room she was still sitting on the loveseat. He walked out with his bottle of water and sat down across from her in the matching loveseat looking straight at her. It was now or never.
"So is there something you want to tell me, Kate?"
She should have known that he would find out what she had done. But now she had to come clean because if she didn't do it now it would only make matters worse later. And that, she couldn't live with.
"There are a couple of things I could stand to get off my chest before we do that I want to know if you might consider forgiving me before we start?"
He tried not to get angry at her but he couldn't help it.
"Kate, I was serious when I told you I didn't want you looking into things behind my back for two reasons. The first reason is if I lost you I wouldn't know how to live without you. Losing you would be like losing my soul again. I already lost one woman I loved. I don't want a repeat of that. The second reason is that it's my job to keep you safe and if you go around behind my back trying to find out how to solve a case that I'm working on and it puts you in a position where I can't protect you, then what's the use?"
"Rick, I'm a detective with the NYPD I know how to look out for myself. I've been trained by the best in the department, I know you feel like you need to be my protector at every turn but I can really handle myself and I wouldn't let any case get to the point where I would purposely leave you by dying." Deciding to continue she pushes on.
"But I did look into something that I think is involved with the bombing at the Guggenheim and Smitty's car bomb that never went off. I went to see Mary Anne before she died and she told me that she didn't know anyone who might be after you. In my mind, it seems to me that she was keeping something from me. She and I were talking about who could have done what might have happened and she must have thought about something that could have been a possibility. But she never told me about it she just shooed me out of her apartment quickly and I came back home. I did, however, go to Lanie and see what she knew about Mary Ann's autopsy the next day."
Rick sat there thinking about what she just told him. And in all honesty, she really didn't do that much investigating. She only went to see her friend the medical examiner about her other friend who recently passed away. And while she might have found out how she died she really didn't go behind his back. It was part of her job description to investigate homicides even if this wasn't in her jurisdiction.
"Kate, I understand your motives and I know it's in your nature to investigate a crime. But I'm willing to let this one slide only because Mary Ann was our friend. And I know you won't do it again, will you?
Kate was already shaking her head no knowing that he had forgiven her for what she had done she was beyond happy. Now maybe they can work on this together if they're doing it side-by-side with each one telling the other what they have found out. She doesn't want to push the issue but she needs to know if he will allow it.
"Rick listen I need to know if we can do this together. We're both cops and we both need to get results and answers. If we do work on this together we will be rewarded with catching the bad guy before he can do anything else to hurt people. And if I can keep you alive in the process then it's a win-win situation."
"On one condition Kate, and that is that we share everything. When we're not together and you find something out you better be calling me."
"The same goes for you too babe if you find out anything I want to know about it because that could be the key to the puzzle that we need to solve.
Xx
His last bombing so to speak would be serving two purposes. First, as usual, he would take out as many lives as he could in the process of trying to kill the bastard. And the second would be that he would be luring him to his death. It was a simple plan but one that would probably bring the city to their knees. His attack would be multi-pronged and aimed at the transportation network. New York City is connected by four bridges from New Jersey. The George Washington Bridge, the Bayonne Bridge, the Outerbridge Crossing, and the Staten Island Bridge. There are also two tunnels that connect Manhattan with New Jersey the Lincoln and Holland tunnels. In addition to those crossings, there were many rail crossings that were to be included in his plan. But the most important one was the Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge. This bridge provided New York with goods of all varieties from the Elizabeth Seaport to the Howland Hook Marine Terminal on Staten Island and from there it was transported by truck all over the city. What he plans on doing is bringing the city to its knees. Without transportation into the city, common things will evaporate quickly like food, fuel, and other necessities that people need to survive with including medicine and other life-saving items.
The plan is a simple one but it's the execution that will be the hardest part of making this work. Knowing that he needs to keep the bastard in the city he will be taking out the bridges and tunnels first. Then he will concentrate on the major hubs. The airports are out only because he can't get enough explosives out there and they are too heavily guarded or they would have been reduced to rubble as well. The city's rail system or the MTA is also too vast and would take longer than a year to plan something that big that would cripple the city.
His plan includes Penn Station, the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, and the Port Authority bus terminal in Midtown. He would use Penn Station to lure the bastard to his death. If he plans this right his team will be spread too thin to assist him.
He studied the security shifts that guard the Hudson River crossings and found that there are many gaps in the way they protect it. He was surprised to find out that the tunnels and bridge were guarded by heavily armed police officers right after 9/11 but now there were security guards in place who didn't really do their job to the fullest. He watched as they just drove around in a circle and did a minimal job at best just to get through an 8-hour shift.
The first facility he would destroy would be the George Washington Bridge. What he would do is plant charges on the New Jersey tower close to the roadway and the New York tower at the same location and one major bomb mid-span having each tower collapsed in on itself once the mid-span broke apart. The Lincoln Holland tunnels were easy. He wouldn't need much C4 in order to do the most damage to either tunnel. Both the Lincoln and Holland tunnels are vehicular tunnels that are within a concrete tunnel. When the hole was bored for the tunnel, circular forms were put in place, concrete was poured in the forms, cured, and then inspected and approved by workers. The concrete prevented the mud and the river from falling in on the workers. The roadway takes up about 70% of the concrete tube. When the length of the concrete was completed from New Jersey to New York the two-lane roadway was installed.
It wouldn't take but only fifteen pounds of C4 to blow through the concrete encasement and the river will do the rest. Again the police that used to patrol the tunnels have given up that job to security guards. And they were unarmed. He planted the C-4 at each tower and midspan with no problems and it was a little scary because he had never climbed anything in his life before. But the fact that he was scaling the main tower that held the bridge up with only a rope keeping him from falling to his death made him feel like he was invincible. When he was finished he lowered himself down to the base of the New Jersey tower where he had removed his harness and stowed it in the backpack he left there earlier. Once he finished he walked away from Ross Dock and headed South out of the park and to the highway to catch a cab to Weehawken.
The Lincoln tunnel vent building in New Jersey was lacking any security whatsoever. He waltzed into the building and pushed the call button for the older than dirt elevator. When it arrived he waited as the door closed and it shuttled him deep into the lower section of the tunnel. Accessing the upper exhaust duct was relatively easy. There was an access door from the vent building to the top of the roadway. Nothing stopped him from getting in here and walking the half-mile to the mid-river sump room. Knowing that the first explosion at the GWB was on a timer all he needed to do was to set this timer 15 minutes later. This would give him enough time for the police to respond to his first strike and then the second strike would happen. Then the Holland tunnel would be the last strike 15 minutes after the Lincoln. He would stop all traffic from entering the city.
The PABT sits with 8th ave in the east, 9th on the west and between 40th & 42nd streets to the north and south. With the tunnel now flooded, the bus terminal will become a hole in the ground. It would cease most of Manhattan's public transportation. There will be a heavy response from those who remain alive but he thinks that this number will be very low due to the explosion.
With the transportation hubs now in shambles, he will concentrate on the three last targets. The Staten Island ferry terminal and the Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge. These would get his attention but not as severe as the initial targets. He had a surprise for his enemy. He was known as a person who planted bombs to get results for his actions but he did have an ace up his sleeve. His course correction would change the game drastically. He would have of course use the explosive to get what he wanted. He was a person who loved the intricacies of learning and finding out new things. But then again he always paid attention when he was in school. The school he took classes in was not offered to the public.
There were many times he thought about what he was going to do and blowing Rick Castle to smithereens was never once in his thoughts he would die at his hand but in a very personal way. He had trained with the best and they, in turn, had taught him just about everything he needed to know, for a price. He had paid dearly for his chance at taking out his father's murderer and it was worth every penny. His life would come to an abrupt and final end.
TBC
