Author's note: This fic has hitherto adhered strictly to canon (I think) from seasons 1 to 3, though it has sometimes placed rather different interpretations on events. This chapter contains discussions of Beckett's investigations pre-series and during season 3. This and related retrospection leads to a few minor departures from canon, simply because some of the details of canon seem internally inconsistent. For full explanations, see the note at the end.

Chapter 6

Teamworking

Friday 30 September 2011, evening

"Castle and I have something to tell you," said Beckett to the four other people gathered in Castle's study.

"You're getting married?" smirked Lanie.

Beckett rolled her eyes. "Lanie—"

"Having a baby?" suggested Jenny, with a twinkle.

"No!" said Beckett, hotly.

"Dating?" said Ryan.

"I wish," said Castle.

"F—" Esposito broke off as he caught Becket's glare. "Sorry."

"What we have to tell you," said Beckett pointedly. "Is that Castle and I are still investigating my mom's case and my shooting. Secretly. And we think it's possible our phones are tapped. Hence the rigmarole with our cellphones earlier."

"And this room is soundproofed and swept for bugs every day," said Castle.

"You all look like you think I've been drinking Castle's conspiracy kool-aid," said Beckett. "Let me explain."

Beckett spent several minutes explaining their reasons for believing that their phones were monitored, including a brief outline of Smith's call and his and Montgomery's apparent suspicion of phone-tapping.

"Castle and I intend to continue this investigation in secret. You don't have to be involved. But it's possible that if the Dragon finds out, he might strike against people close to us."

"Security measures and escape plans are in place — or will be shortly — for Alexis, my mother, and Beckett's father. That leaves the four of you." Castle smiled thinly. "We're not asking you to be involved in what we're doing. But you have a right to know, and to step away."

"Lanie, Esposito, Ryan, if any of you want to transfer away, even to another city, you can," said Beckett. "Castle will ask the Mayor to pull some strings. Any transfer you request at the same grade and in the city should be essentially guaranteed. Elsewhere in the state is not guaranteed, but Castle and the Mayor have contacts. Castle has said that he'll cover relocation expenses, if necessary. We'll be sure not to build anything other than purely professional relationships with whoever repl— succeeds you," she added.

Lanie, Esposito, Ryan, and Jenny all exchanged glances.

"There is another option," said Castle. "Even Beckett doesn't know about this part yet," he added, looking at her with a smile and getting a frown in return. "When Heat Wave came out two years ago, I directed a portion of the royalties into the 'Nikki Heat Trust'. I did the same with the money for the movie rights, and with the advance and the royalties for the other books. I also topped it up with a proportional share of the advance for Heat Wave. I set up the Trust with six beneficiaries: a 20% share for the NYPD widows' and orphans' fund; 20% for Beckett, as my partner and the inspiration for Nikki Heat; and 15% percent each for Esposito, Ryan, Lanie..." He nodded to them in turn. "...and Captain Montgomery.

"I originally planned to tell you after all four books in my current contract have been released, which is when the annual interest of the widows' and orphans' fund's share will begin to be paid out. I almost told Beckett after her apartment was blown up, except that her insurance paid out in record time."

Beckett snorted. "Leaving aside that no insurance company wants to get on the wrong side of the cops, they were afraid of adverse publicity." She gave Castle a small smile. "I may have implied that a certain author would name and shame them on an upcoming TV interview I knew he had with Bobby Mann."

"Devious, Beckett," said Castle, with relish. "I like it." He sobered. "I told Evelyn after Roy died — this was before we went into his financials, and I thought she and the kids might need the money. I think she hasn't touched it yet."

Lanie was the one to ask. "Castle, exactly how much is this 'Nikki Heat Trust' worth?"

"The books have done extremely well, and the investments have grown nicely. Here are the values of your shares as of the close of business today, plus the projected growth over the next few years." He handed Lanie a newly-printed balance statement.

Lanie goggled at the figures next to her name, then passed the sheet to Esposito, who held it so Ryan and Jenny could see it too. There was a moment of silence, then the three of them spoke at once. "What—" "No way—" "Rick—"

"Guys!" Castle cut them off with a smile.

Beckett glared at him and snatched the sheet from Esposito's hand. Her jaw fell open. "Castle..."

"As far as I'm concerned, this is a share you all earned by helping me make Nikki Heat a success," said Castle. "But here and now, it's an escape route for you. If you want, you can walk away and live quietly somewhere on that money. The Trust will continue to receive royalties, so the numbers I gave you should grow. There will be tax implications when you draw on your shares, but the management of the fund includes an accountant who will help you with the paperwork at no cost to you. Oh, and the Trust is legally separate from me, so even if something happens to me, if I get into legal trouble, the money in the Trust is safe."

Several seconds passed in silence as everyone digested this idea.

"Look, bro," said Esposito. "Suddenly knowing I have all this money is a great feeling, but while I'm tempted to buy a Ferrari, I want in on this. The money can be a safety-net in case I need to quit the NYPD."

"Me too," said Lanie. "I doubt there'll be bodies for me to chop up, but I wanna be involved. Somebody's gotta keep you guys straight."

Ryan looked troubled. 'Guys, look, if it was only me—"

"Kevin." Jenny stilled him with a hand on his arm, then looked over to Esposito. "Javi, I know you've always got Kevin's back." She then looked to Beckett and Castle. "Rick, Kate, you two saved Kevin and Javi while ago too, right? On this case?"

"Yeah, they did," answered Esposito. "We were being held by four mercenary types; professional killers, all armed. Beckett and Castle came in alone, because there was no time to call for backup. Beckett took one by surprise and pistol-whipped him, shot two of the others, and then Castle jumped on their leader and beat him unconscious with his bare hands."

Castle preened.

Beckett gave a dismissive wave. "Our friends were in trouble. We were motivated."

"Exactly!" said Jenny, turning to look at her fiancé. "Kevin, your friends are always there for you. You should— we should be there for them."

"'We'?" asked Beckett.

Jenny nodded. "I want in too. I'm not a cop, I have no training, but I minored in psychology. Maybe I can give some insights."

Beckett huffed. "At the risk of further inflating a certain ego, I have to say that I've learned that not being trained as a cop is not necessarily a barrier to being helpful on cases."

Castle's grin grew wider.

"Shut up, Castle," she said, not bothering to look at him.

"I didn't—"

"I know. Shut up anyway." Only then did she direct a moderate glare at Castle; she then turned to Ryan and Jenny and raised her eyebrows.

Ryan looked at Jenny. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," she said firmly. "I'm not going to claim that I'm not scared, because I am. But I'm sure."

Ryan turned back to Beckett and shrugged. "My fiancée wants in, so I have to be in too."

Esposito smirked and spoke sotto voce. "Totally whipped."

"So that's where we are right now," said Beckett, finishing her briefing using Castle's smart-board.

Esposito broke the silence. "On the recording, Castle suggested to Smith that the Dragon had a source at the precinct. I think we're probably all wondering if it's Gates."

"I don't know," said Ryan, slowly. "I admit I don't like her much, but in honesty I think that's because she doesn't give us the same freedom Montgomery did, and in fairness she doesn't know us and trust us the way he did. Hasn't had time to."

"Would she have let me persuade her to allow Castle back — even temporarily — if she was working for the Dragon?" asked Beckett.

"Depends on what she knows," said Esposito. "She might just be getting paid to supply information about what you're working on, with no idea why."

"If the Dragon is high up in law enforcement, Gates might be under the impression she's making legitimate reports about Beckett," said Ryan.

"Surely the Dragon would have been keeping an eye on Kate since the Coonan case? Or at least since the Raglan case?" said Lanie. "It doesn't make sense to put a source in place now."

"But Kate pointed out that we don't know how much Smith said was true," said Jenny. "Maybe Smith had a source at the precinct and the warning to stay off the case comes from him, not the Dragon. If Captain Gates is Smith's source, the timing does make sense."

"She's from IA, strictly by-the-book, and really seems to hate dirty cops," said Beckett. "How likely is it that she'd be involved? With either the Dragon or Smith?"

"Sounds like a perfect cover," said Castle. "She could be dirty and no-one would suspect her."

"So we should be suspicious of her because there's no reason to be suspicious of her?" asked Beckett rhetorically. "No, Castle. Let's not go down that road. But I must admit that the timing is actually suspicious if we consider that the Dragon may have had a previous source." Beckett ground her teeth for a moment. "Captain Montgomery."

There was a stunned silence, which Esposito broke. "What?! How could—" He cut himself off as he realized Beckett's meaning. "You mean that maybe he was forced to keep the Dragon informed, maybe to protect his family."

Beckett nodded grimly.

"Oh, shit," said Castle quietly. The others looked at him. "Just before Lockwood killed McCallister — one day before — Montgomery said he was planning to retire. If the Dragon heard, he would realize he was going to lose his source and maybe that's what started everything happening. And it was what I said that led to Montgomery deciding to—"

Beckett was shaking her head. "Montgomery had announced plans to retire and changed his mind several times before."

"But the Dragon might not have known—"

"Castle." Beckett cut him off again. "The Dragon must have been making plans for months to have Lockwood kill McCallister and then bust him out of prison. Remember the weekly phone calls Lockwood made? And the research necessary to locate a prison guard who could be bribed? Montgomery's supposed retirement could have done no more than accelerate his plans a little. It wasn't your fault."

Castle nodded slowly.

"Any suspicion we have of Gates seems to rely on several 'ifs'," said Ryan. "If the Dragon had a source at the precinct; if Montgomery was that source; if the Dragon felt it necessary to replace that source; if Gates is dirty."

"As a practical matter, I think we have to be cautious with her, because even if she isn't dirty she could still be a problem as a tight-arse IA type," said Beckett. "I suppose it's possible the Dragon arranged for her to become captain in order to shut down the investigation into my shooting. But that doesn't mean she's dirty — she could just be an unwitting pawn in this. The Dragon would have known that she's by-the-book and would shut down the case."

"I could try to find out how she was appointed?" said Castle.

"I don't know if there would be any footprints from either the Dragon or Smith, but if you can do it quietly, then sure," said Beckett.

"Wait a minute," said Esposito, frowning. "How are you going to 'try to find out' about what happens at 1PP?"

Castle shook his head. "Sorry, Espo, but this is the line you don't cross. I'm the guy with contacts, friends, people who owe him favors. I'm the guy who can look into things that you can't. I'm also the cut-out that shields you — all of you — from any blow-back about not following cop rules. The agreement between the NYPD and me — the one from back when I started shadowing Beckett — includes a memorandum of understanding between 1PP and the 12th stating that none of you — no-one in the NYPD, actually — can be held responsible for anything I do. Captain Montgomery insisted on that to protect you. So as long as you don't know exactly what I do, you're protected. For all you know officially, I ask nicely and someone volunteers the information I want. It's not your problem — or mine — if that someone happens to break some rules."

There was a moment of silence as glances were exchanged among the three cops.

"All right, Castle," said Lanie. "You do your mysterious thing, but there's something else we should talk about that Kate didn't really cover just now. No-one linked the four murders until Clark Murray went through the archives. Why was that?" she asked rhetorically.

Clark Murray was a forensic pathologist whom Castle had asked (without Beckett's permission, which had led to a temporary rupture in their relationship) to look at Johanna Beckett's autopsy file. Murray had realized that the apparently random pattern of her stab wounds had been a deliberate effort to conceal the work of someone who knew how to kill with a single blow. On a hunch, he had checked the archives and found three other cases, also from 1999, who had been killed in the same way. Diane Cavanaugh, a lawyer for a non-profit, and Scott Murray, a documents clerk at the courthouse, had both been murdered, in different parts of the city, on 7 March; Jennifer Stewart, a former law student of Johanna Beckett's, on 21 May. The previous year, Lanie had matched those stabbings to a new victim, Jack Coonan, who, it transpired, had been killed by his own brother Dick.

Lanie continued. "We got processes at the OCME — that's the Office of Chief Medical Examiner," she explained, seeing Jenny's questioning look. "The OCME has processes to make sure similar cases are flagged up. After Castle told me about what Murray found, I looked at the files, which is why I recognized Jack Coonan's wounds at the start of last year. The reports on Kate's mom's case and on the other three cases from '99 have the name of the same ME — Brian Lang. He retired at the end of 2000 and died in '05. His reports did not make a connection between any of the four cases."

"You're sure he would've noticed the similarity?" asked Esposito.

"I could believe that Lang honestly didn't notice that they were each killed with a single strike to the kidney, with the rest of the wounds camouflaging the skill of the first blow," said Lanie. "I think MEs like me, trained more recently, would've probably noticed it, but to be honest I might have missed it if I hadn't read the files Clark Murray had found a few months earlier. But Diane Cavanaugh and Scott Murray were murdered on the same day and their autopsies were both done the following day. Even if missing the kidney blow was an innocent oversight, at minimum he should have noted that there were two victims of repeated stabbings on the same day with what could have been — based on the size and depth of the wounds — the same knife. That should've been a red flag and he should have checked for other similar cases."

"So he deliberately covered it up?"

Lanie got a sour look on her face. "This is where it gets kinda hazy. Back when Kate started looking into her mom's case again last summer, I asked around about Lang. You know, talked to people who knew him from back then — he was before my time. Turns out, he had a reputation for laziness. Handing off his work to other people, just signing the reports and giving the run-down at meetings and so on. He was pretty senior back in '99 and could get away with bullying more junior MEs into doing his job for him — especially trainee fellows who were supposed to be learning from him. So although his signature is on those four reports, I have no idea whether he actually did the work on all of them — or even on any of them."

"Did anyone else admit to writing the reports on these cases?" asked Ryan.

Lanie shook her head. "I didn't ask about particular cases, just about Lang in general. I doubt anyone would admit to doing Lang's work for him, because that could get them fired even now, maybe even charged. It's serious professional misconduct, because it compromises the chain of custody of evidence. Anyway, trainees often move elsewhere to work after they complete their fellowships, so if someone else wrote those reports, they could've moved on."

"Do you still have copies of his files?" asked Castle. "I only ever saw Johanna Beckett's file; Clark Murray just showed me his notes from the others."

"I've got them at home," said Beckett.

"Let me have a look at them," said Castle. "If they were written by different people, there might be differences in the voice. In fact, Lanie, can you pull some older reports by Lang, before he would have been senior enough to offload his work to others? Then I can compare the voice in reports he definitely wrote."

"Bro, you really think you can tell whether the same person wrote two reports, just by grammar?" asked Esposito, incredulously.

"Grammar, diction, idiom," said Castle. "Hey, I'm a writer. This is what I do."

"It's pretty dry technical language, Castle," said Lanie. "MEs are supposed to write in a detached, formal way."

"Still, it's worth a shot. If you can get the older reports."

"No problem. Give me a couple of days, then you can swing by the morgue and pick them up."

Ryan had been frowning in thought. "Why do I know that name? Brian Lang, I mean."

"You might have seen his name during the Shimansky case a couple of years ago," said Beckett. "You know, the bike messenger who was murdered to conceal exonerating evidence from the old Debiasse case that Captain Montgomery had investigated back when he was still a detective. Lang did..." She huffed. "Okay, Lang signed the original autopsy on Olivia Debiasse. The autopsy that Perlmutter criticized, because apparently Lang was less than rigorous since Montgomery already had a confession."

"Isn't it a pretty big coincidence that the same ME would get those four cases?" asked Esposito. "That suggests something was going on with him."

"I looked into Lang last year," said Beckett. "I didn't find anything that suggested he was dirty, except for the coincidence of getting — or apparently getting — all four cases."

"I got that same vibe from talking to people who knew Lang," said Lanie. "Lazy, a bully, a lout — and a serial groper, incidentally. But not actually corrupt. And it isn't really a huge coincidence that he got all four cases. I don't know exactly how many MEs there were in the city in 1999, but it was probably about thirty, same as today. But the OCME has a center in each of the five boroughs. All four victims were in Manhattan, so you're already looking at just the MEs posted to one center. And they were all killed at the weekend — okay, Stewart's body was found at the weekend — so you're also looking at MEs working weekend shifts."

"And Lang wasn't married and didn't have kids, so maybe he worked more weekends," added Beckett.

"Could it be that the killings were timed so that Lang got all four cases?" asked Ryan.

"I don't see how," said Lanie. "Even if Coonan knew Lang was on duty, there would still be the risk that he was at some other death scene when the body dropped. And Stewart's body wasn't found until the day after she was killed."

"In any case, I'm pretty sure Lang is a dead end," said Beckett. "Unless Castle turns up anything from the reports, I doubt it's worth looking into him further."

"You sure about that, Kate?" asked Lanie. "The reason I brought it up is because you know more now than you did when you asked me to find out about him last year."

Beckett frowned. "We could look for a connection between him and Montgomery. I didn't know he was involved when I last investigated Lang. Maybe even look again for a connection between Lang and Raglan or McCallister, although I didn't turn up anything before."

"Hold up," said Esposito. "Ryan asked a minute ago about the timing of the killings. Was your mom's death timed so that Raglan caught the case?"

"Possibly," said Beckett. "Or maybe someone pulled some strings to get it assigned to him. Assuming it's not just coincidence that he was involved in the kidnappings and then my mom's case."

"But he wasn't involved in any of the other cases, right?" said Ryan. "Should we look at the detectives who worked the other cases?"

"I looked at them after the Raglan case," said Beckett. "Up until that point, I had no evidence that Raglan was anything more than a bad cop. But learning he was dirty made me think the others might be too. Eddie Robertson, who worked the Cavanaugh case, seems to be clean. I talked to him and he seemed genuinely astonished when I told him about Coonan."

"Yeah, I know Eddie," said Esposito. "We crossed paths when one of his cases turned out to be linked to one of mine — this was back when I was at the 54th. He struck me as a straight-up guy. I don't imagine him writing off a case as random gang violence unless he was genuinely convinced."

"He didn't. Cavanaugh's purse and jewelry were missing, so it looked like a robbery gone wrong," said Beckett. "And that fitted with her engagement ring turning up in a pawnshop shortly afterward. The guy who pawned it was never identified, but his description doesn't match Coonan."

"Was your mother's death the only one that was written off as gang violence?" asked Esposito.

"Yeah," said Beckett. "Murray's death was thought to be connected to a fight at the bar where he was found. But they weren't able to link anyone arrested for the fight to his death. And some of Stewart's clothing had been slashed or removed, so it looked like an attempted rape where something scared the perp into killing her and running before he could finish. Again, I looked into the detectives that worked their cases — Tom McPate for Murray and Jan Okninski for Stewart. They both seemed clean, although when I talked to McPate, he seemed pretty defensive about the bar fight idea."

"You know, I wonder if Beckett's mother's death was... different?" said Castle, uncertainly. "I mean, obviously it was different in that the other murders seem to have some discernible motive, but I wonder if they were planned differently." He saw Beckett looking at him quizzically. "Okay, imagine this. The Dragon hears about your mother working on Pulgatti's appeal. He hires Coonan to kill her and uses Raglan — a detective over whom he already had a hold — to have her death written off. But then something happens — or multiple things happen — to make him realize that he has to have Cavanaugh, Murray, and Stewart killed. He hires Coonan again, but knows he can't use Raglan to write off their deaths..."

"Because someone — like other detectives or uniforms at Raglan's precinct, or his captain — might notice multiple cases being written off as random gang violence..." said Beckett.

"So he insists that Coonan kill them in different parts of the city and leave false trails about motive, taking Cavanaugh's valuables, maybe getting someone to start the bar fight, slashing up Stewart's clothes..." Castle continued.

"Which means he doesn't need corrupt cops, he just needs to make sure the ME doesn't link the cases." Beckett nodded with a grim smile, then noticed the grins being exchanged between Ryan, Esposito, and Lanie. "What?"

"Nothing," said Lanie.

"So, while you're building theory, can you come up with a reason the Dragon had them killed too?" suggested Esposito.

Castle shook his head slightly. "You know, despite the story fitting, I have to point out that we don't actually know the Dragon had them killed, just that it was Coonan who did it."

"Oh, come on, Castle," said Esposito. "There's no way someone else took out contracts on people connected with Beckett's mom just by coincidence."

"I agree, coincidence is highly unlikely. But maybe Coonan did one or more of the killings on his own initiative. Maybe Cavanaugh or Stewart was looking into Beckett's mom's death and he got wind of it." Castle raised his eyebrows.

"I don't believe it. Especially because Lang seems to have gotten all the cases."

"Neither do I. I'm just saying, it's possible there are other explanations. We only know that the Dragon ordered Beckett's mother killed."

"Although that's true, let's assume for the moment the Dragon had them all killed," said Beckett. "We can revisit that assumption later. Then each of them must have somehow been a threat or—" Beckett cut herself off. "No, the Dragon must have thought, rightly or wrongly, that they were threats or potential threats. But we don't know why he saw them like that. I talked to Cavanaugh's and Stewart's families and colleagues, but none of them knew if they were working on anything connected to the Justice Initiative at the time. So...?"

There was a moment of silence.

"Are we actually sure Coonan didn't kill anyone else back then?" asked Ryan. "Other victims might give us some more idea of what the Dragon was up to."

"Between me and Clark Murray, the archives have been checked pretty thoroughly," said Lanie. "If Coonan did kill anyone else, he either did it differently or it wasn't in the city. Or the body was never found."

"What about the Justice Initiative? Did anyone else who worked there die around that time?" said Esposito.

"As far as I can tell, no," said Beckett. "The problem is that the Justice Initiative was pretty ad-hoc. My mom and a couple of other lawyers basically coordinated the work on appeals with a pool of volunteers who would work pro bono. Except for the three of them and a legal secretary who helped with the paperwork, the Justice Initiative didn't really have a staff as such. They would make a preliminary evaluation of each case, then call up people they thought might be willing to work on it. Or people who had some time would contact them and ask what was available. There was never a master list of volunteers or who was handling which case. Back when I first worked my mom's murder, I contacted everyone I could find who had volunteered there, to see if anyone had been with her before she was killed... someone who might have remembered something." She shook her head. "But I didn't even know Diane Cavanaugh's or Jennifer Stewart's names until Castle told me he had been looking into the case." Castle and Beckett shared an uncomfortable glance. "It was only when I started working on it again last year that I looked into them and found out from their former colleagues that they had volunteered from time to time. So there could've been other volunteers that I never found out about."

"Did Cavanaugh, Stewart, and your mother have any connection outside of the Justice Initiative?" asked Ryan.

"Stewart had been a student of my mom's, but I don't know how important that is. My mom had dozens of students, and Stewart's family didn't remember her being close to any particular professor. I don't know about Cavanaugh. None of her family or colleagues had heard of Johanna Beckett, so I'm guessing that it wasn't some personal connection to my mom that led to her volunteering. And Stewart and Cavanaugh didn't seem to know each other."

There was a minute of silence as everyone digested this.

"Can I ask a few questions?" asked Jenny. "Maybe you already know the answers, but I want to check."

"It's okay, go ahead," said Beckett.

"First, Kate, the file your mother requested — you don't know for sure what it was, right?" asked Jenny.

"Exactly. The secretary at the Justice Initiative remembered her requesting a file, but not the details. It was never found after my mom's death. And the courthouse records of file requests from January 1999 were 'accidentally' shredded."

"It wasn't Mr Pulgatti's file?"

Beckett shook her head. "We're not certain. Castle and I checked Pulgatti's file after the Raglan case was closed, once we knew my mom had been working on Pulgatti's appeal. We couldn't find anything in it that would make it a threat to the Dragon."

"So maybe it was Pulgatti's file, or maybe she found something else," said Castle. "Something related."

Beckett looked at him. "We still have a copy of Pulgatti's file, right, Castle?"

"Yeah, let me find it." Castle turned to the cabinet behind his desk.

"We have a copy, in Castle's study?" said Lanie. "Anything you wanna tell us about?"

"Lanie—"

"Wait a minute," said Ryan. "We know Montgomery changed files to conceal his involvement with Raglan and McCallister. Castle spotted that it was typed differently."

Castle looked back at him and nodded. "The original text showed striations because it was typed with an old cloth ribbon, but the changes didn't, because they were typed with film ribbon."

"So," said Esposito, looking at Ryan. "You're saying that files in this case have been altered before. Maybe Pulgatti's court file was changed too."

Becket's eyes widened. "Right, maybe my mom requesting the file raised a red flag, so the Dragon had it changed..."

"And to do that he needed access..." said Castle.

"Which could mean using a filing clerk like Scott Murray..."

"Someone who could be bribed or blackmailed..."

"And then perhaps Murray wanted more or was having doubts..."

"Or the Dragon simply saw him as another loose end..."

"So he had Coonan kill him too!" finished Beckett.

There was a moment of silence as more grins were exchanged between Ryan, Esposito, and Lanie, with Jenny joining in as she saw the joke.

"So you two... really do that thing you do even when you're off-duty." Lanie smirked. "So cute."

Beckett gave Lanie a half-hearted glare, then looked away, her eyes narrowed in thought. "I looked into Scott Murray last year, but mainly into his professional life. I did a basic check on his personal life and financials, but nothing struck me as odd. We should take a closer look."

"Maybe Ryan and I should look at Pulgatti's file, see what might have been changed or what could be missing?" said Esposito. "You and Castle have looked at it already. You know, fresh eyes?"

"Sounds good," said Beckett. Castle nodded in agreement and handed the file over to Esposito.

"I don't get it," said Lanie. "Why would he have the file changed, not destroyed?"

"Could be the Dragon was worried Pulgatti would find another lawyer willing to take on his case?" suggested Esposito. "If they requested the file, it would raise a red flag if it was missing."

"Would that lead anywhere?" asked Lanie. "A missing file? Hell, that just means somebody screwed up, shelved it in the wrong place, or gave out the original instead of a copy. It ain't exactly a smoking gun."

"But a missing file points nowhere!" said Castle. "A changed file can point in the wrong direction. If we're right, and the file was changed, then there's something in that file—" He pointed at the folder in Esposito's hands. "—that tells us exactly the wrong place to look!" He smiled excitedly, then frowned. "No, wait. It might tell us the right place to look, because the Dragon would expect someone to realize it had been changed... Or maybe he knew we would think that too—"

"Castle." Becket cut him off. "Why don't we leave off the meta-level theorizing until Esposito and Ryan have had time to read the file?"

"Sorry."

Ryan spoke up. "You said earlier that file requests from January '99 had been shredded? Isn't it more likely Murray was paid or blackmailed to do that and then killed to prevent him from answering questions?"

Beckett frowned. "That's certainly possible. And that means Pulgatti's file might not contain anything important; maybe the Dragon just wanted to hide the fact that my mom requested it."

"Still worth checking the file."

"Wait," said Jenny. "How did the Dragon know Kate's mother had requested a file?"

There was a moment's silence.

"Well, presumably Murray was being paid to let him know if anyone asked for it," said Castle.

"So, just to be clear: Murray might have been paid to allow files to be changed, to inform about file requests, or to destroy the records of file requests," said Lanie. "Or he could have been involved in some entirely different way," she added cynically.

"And remember that we don't know for certain that whatever file my mom requested was actually connected to the Dragon or my mom's murder," said Beckett.

"Here we go again," said Esposito, exasperation clear in his tone. "It can't be a coincidence, Beckett."

"It's unlikely to be a coincidence," said Beckett. "Esposito, I'm with you on this. Every instinct I have as a cop says it isn't a coincidence. My mom's murder, Scott Murray's murder, the file. Of course I think they have to be connected. But for all we know, the Dragon made a mistake. Maybe he only thought — wrongly — that the file was something to do with the Pulgatti case." She shook her head. "In tackling this conspiracy, we have to be careful to distinguish what's known, what's likely, what's suspected, what's conjecture, and what's crazy." She glanced at Castle as she said "crazy", obviously suppressing a smile.

"Hey!"

"Just kidding, Castle."

Castle pouted. "I'll forgive you only because we need some comic relief in this case."

"Good thing you're here, then." Beckett grinned. She turned back to Jenny. "You said you had a few questions?"

"Yeah," said Jenny. "My next one was about the network of corporations that Raglan, McCallister, and Montgomery set up to launder the ransom money. Could you put that diagram back up, Rick?" she added, gesturing to the smart-board.

"Sure, just a minute."

When the diagram was displayed again, Jenny continued. "You said that the money was mixed into the strip club income and then paid to other corporations, right? What I was wondering was... how were those payments made?"

"Some bank transfers, but mainly checks. A few in cash, where we matched a withdrawal from one account to a deposit with another." said Castle. "Why?"

"In that case, who was actually making the check or cash payments?" said Jenny. "This was a pretty complicated set-up, with..." She pointed at the screen. "At least half a dozen different banks involved. Even if the corporations only existed on paper — aside from the strip club one — someone actually had to run around making cash withdrawals and depositing cash and checks. How many individual payments were there? Were Raglan, McCallister, and Montgomery doing that, on top of their jobs with the NYPD and their kidnapping operation? Would they have had time?"

The others started nodding as they saw Jenny's point. "There could have been someone else involved," said Beckett. "Someone who handled the day-to-day money laundering operation."

"They might not have even known what they were doing," said Esposito. "They might just have been paid to, you know, go to the banks and stuff."

"And there could have been more than one of them," said Ryan. "But we didn't find any record of anyone employed by the corporations. Except for the strip club."

"Did you actually look into people who worked there?" asked Lanie.

Ryan shook his head. "We were focused on figuring out the network—" He pointed to the smart-board. "–right up until Gates shut down the investigation. Unless you looked into them, Castle?"

"Nope, sorry," said Castle.

Beckett shook her head. "I have my doubts about anyone from the club being involved with other parts of the laundering operation. The whole point of a multi-layered process like this would have been to maintain distance between 'JGR Group' and where the money was coming from. But someone in the club management might have known that something was going on, if they knew about the extra cash coming in. We could check, to see if anything turns up."

Jenny looked around to see if there were other contributions before speaking. "Okay, last question. Kate, you mentioned that your dad suggested there might have been other kidnappers working with Raglan, McCallister, and Montgomery. Is there any evidence of that in the money-laundering set-up? Or anywhere else, I suppose?"

"No," said Beckett. "The flow of laundered money seems to have been pretty much constant right up until Armen was killed in December '91. It's not impossible there were other kidnappers working with them, but the amount of ransom money didn't seem to change."

"It's possible that the number of kidnappings stayed the same, but that they were divided among different teams," said Castle. "If there were more kidnappings — or at least if there was more ransom money — it didn't show up here." He gestured to the laundering network on the smart-board.

"Maybe there were parallel money-laundering operations?" suggested Lanie.

"If there were parallel operations, I don't see how Raglan, McCallister, or Montgomery could have been involved," said Beckett. "Their lives and financials have been under a microscope. And I'm virtually certain that any parallel operation couldn't have touched this one." Beckett pointed to the smart-board. "The guys were pretty damned thorough about running down connections. I checked everything, and I found exactly one link that they missed: a single one-off payment between two of the corporations up there."

"Still..."

"Lanie, at this point, I think we have to say that Occam's razor kicks in. Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem... And yes, Castle," she added, not looking around. "I know that formulation doesn't actually occur in William of Ockham's works." Out of her line of sight, Castle deflated slightly. "The point being that we shouldn't postulate things that we have precisely no evidence for. We should be aware of the possibility of parallel networks or parallel kidnapping crews, but right now, we have no evidence they existed. Maybe that'll change when— if we get the file from Pulgatti. Right now, all we have are some consequences of what we know that make it more likely that other cops — or at least other people — were helping the one kidnapping crew that we know existed, either with covering for them or guarding prisoners."

Lanie nodded. "Right, I got one more question, and then I say we take a break," she said. "I dunno about you guys, but my head's starting to spin, what with questioning everything we think. Give me a good solid dead body any day — or even a not-so-solid gross one—"

"Lanie."

"Okay, okay. So, what about the gun from your shooting?" asked Lanie. She looked round at the others. "Kate said it's likely someone in the military supplied it and altered the records to say it had been lost overseas. Is there any way to trace who did that?"

Esposito shook his head. "I don't think so. There's no way the Navy's going to let cops directly investigate something like this, even in an official capacity. And I don't see how we could do it quietly, anyway. If the Dragon has contacts in the military, he'd hear about it."

"What about the SEAL the gun was supposedly issued to?"

"Martin Holst," said Ryan "I spoke to the next-of-kin. She confirmed everything the DOD told us — he was a sniper, he was killed overseas, his body was recovered and returned to the family for burial." He started slightly in realization. "But basically she was just telling us what the DOD told her. Well, except for getting the body back, which was... late 2004, I think it was. But the rest of it came from the DOD. We don't have any independent evidence about what he did or how or where he was killed."

There was a moment of silence as they all absorbed what Ryan had said.

"Was Holst's funeral open-casket?" asked Beckett, speculatively.

Ryan's eyebrows rose as he saw where Beckett was heading. "You're thinking that maybe the body wasn't Holst's?"

"Yeah."

Ryan shook his head. "I dunno. I didn't ask for any details; it was just a call to confirm what the DOD said, ask if Holst had any friends in New York, maybe people he served with. This was when we were running out of leads on the shooter; I was desperately scraping the barrel, hoping something new would turn up."

"Wait, you didn't meet her? Who is she, anyway? His widow?" asked Beckett.

"No, I just called—" Ryan broke off and sighed. "I called the number the DOD gave me for his widow. I'd have to look at my notes, but I remember the number and the address were in Charleston, South Carolina."

"So all of our evidence relating to the gun and Holst ultimately stems from the DOD, and so may be compromised if the Dragon's involved," said Beckett. "In particular, we don't have any independent evidence that Holst even existed."

"I could get a local PI in Charleston to check it out?" suggested Castle. "At least whether his widow exists and lives at the address, whether there was a funeral... I'd work through lawyers and corporate fronts, of course." There was general agreement. "Ryan, can you give me the details when you have time to check your notes?"

Ryan nodded.

Beckett stood up. "Right. I second Lanie's proposal for a break. Coffee, anyone?"

"Sure," said Esposito, as he also stood. "I got a feeling this is going to be a long night."

Author's note: (1) In 3x13 "Knockdown", the other victims are referred to as Johanna Beckett's "colleagues". But there cannot have been any obvious connections (such as being colleagues) between them and Johanna, because in that case Beckett would have found out about them when she first worked her mother's case pre-series. Hence the more tenuous relationship posited in this chapter.

(2) Again in 3x13, it is suggested that Raglan had written off all the murders as gang violence. But if he had been involved in the other cases, Beckett would have noticed that immediately when she looked into them again in summer 2010, which would mean (at minimum) that she would already have minutely examined Raglan's life by the time of 3x13. Hence the other detectives discussed in this fic.

(3) In 1x10 "A Death in the Family", Clark Murray says he found three stabbings besides Johanna Beckett's that "the ME working the case dismissed as random". Given that "random" is the judgement of the ME, it seems to refer here to the pattern of stabbing, not to "random gang violence".

(4) Canon is just about compatible with the real-life number of medical examiners in New York City (about thirty). In 2x01 "Deep in Death", when Castle tells Lanie about the other three murders, she asks if "The ME at the time didn't make the connection?" and Castle replies "If he did, he buried it." Lanie would know how many MEs there are (or were) in the city. Hence they are talking past each other: Lanie was referring to the ME who worked Johanna Beckett's case, while Castle was referring to a single ME working all four deaths. This is a feasible interpretation because, at this point, Lanie is not aware of the chronology, but is presumably aware of the number of MEs in the city; on the other hand, Castle is aware of the chronology, but is perhaps not aware of the number of MEs.

(5) There is a fascinating account of the day-to-day work of New York MEs in J. Melinek & T.J. Mitchell "Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner" (Simon & Schuster, 2014), which includes the moving and harrowing story of what MEs had to deal with in the aftermath of 9/11. I have deliberately tried to blend the real-life functioning of OCME around 1999 with the Castle-verse portrayal.

(6) The writers had a bad habit of recycling names, but in particular I wish they hadn't given the same surname "Murray" to the forensic pathologist Castle consulted and to one of the victims.

(7) I'll end this note now, before it becomes an independent epic.