Playing Hard to Get
Chapter 12
Rick found himself with his head pinned to the table and someone trying to break his arm behind his back. "Sal, Sal?"
"Take him out back, kill him," Sal told the guy holding him.
"SAL!?" Rick was jerked upright, and the big guy was taking him away.
"Vetto, wait, wait," Sal called out and burst out laughing. "Let him go. I was just messin' with him." He laughed some more.
"Not funny, Sal." Rick didn't find anything the least amusing about it.
"You're right. That wasn't funny. It was freakin' hilarious." Sal grabbed his head and kissed his forehead. "Richard Freakin' Castle. What brings you down off your cloud of money?" This should be real good, he was thinking.
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"Jimmy the Rat Moran. Linked to gambling, loan sharking, and extortion. Paid hits by the mob don't fall into the usual rules. Tracing down who did it or even why can be like pounding your head against a wall," Espo explained to Castle.
"We need to talk to Moran," Kate said.
Rick stared at Kate. "What makes you think this Hard Candy will talk to you now?"
"I have my sources." Kate knew exactly who to talk to, even if she had told him to piss off. But that was personal, this was business, and even he had to understand that.
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"How did it go?" Ryan asked as Kate came back alone since Castle was still confined to the 12th again.
Kate shook her head. "Do the words unmitigated disaster mean anything to you?" She had nothing.
Roy stood in the doorway to his office and called for Kate to come in. "Sit down, Beckett. I just got a call from the DOJ."
"Sir, I can explain." Roy shook his head and held up a hand to silence her. "On the way back to the safe house, a black sedan pulled up next to it and opened fire with armor-piercing bullets. They riddled the back seat. Moran's in surgery, they're trying to save his life.
Roy didn't try to sugarcoat what he had to say next. It was going to hurt no matter how he told it or where. "I'm really sorry to have to tell you this, Kate. Sorenson was pronounced dead at the scene. Multiple gunshot wounds, all through and through, according to the DOJ." Kate sat there in stunned silence, not wanting to believe him.
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"Their vehicle was attacked after leaving our meet," Kate tried to explain. They were at the hospital. She needed to know Will was really dead, and she was positive Moran knew something about their murder.
"That means we were followed. Someone who knew about the investigation followed and used us to kill them. I should have known, and if I was a better cop, I would have." Will was dead, and their case was a mess. And this was on her.
Rick had heard enough. "You really think this is your fault? Yeah, you pushed for it. What else were you supposed to do? You told me once that you hate those cops who try to find a nice neat box to put it in and lock it away. When you reach that point, you don't back down. You don't stop till you have the answer.
"That's what makes you extraordinary. That's why I wanted to follow you around. I need you to breathe life into Nikki Heat, but it's more than that now. Even you know that. You're changing me. Making me be someone I couldn't be by myself.
"If it's about Lilly, don't worry about her. I called Alexis, and she has Lilly," Rick told her. "She came into the Precinct, picked her up, and took her home."
Tears began to stream down Kate's face. She was so absorbed in this case that she had forgotten about Lilly. She sucked as a dog owner. If not for Castle, who knew where Lilly would be right now?
"Thanks, Castle." She really owed him.
"You can thank me by letting me take you to lunch. You don't even have to call it a date if you don't want to," Rick told her.
Espo and Ryan showed up. "Moran is going to live," Espo announced. "We're both really sorry, Beckett. Sorenson knew what he was getting into when he took the job. So did we, so did you, even Castle here."
Kate leaned back in the chair. "I'm hungry, Castle." Kate would let him feed her and not call it a date since she was still a bit put out at him. She would kill him if he hadn't listened.
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Rick joined Espo and Ryan, and Espo pointed at Kate. "We were told she came in at 4:00 this morning, and she called us in at 6:00. The only time she stopped has been to take Lilly outside. She doesn't even go get coffee."
"Ouch! Not sure I want to see Beckett when she hasn't had coffee," Rick commented.
Kate barely noticed Castle was right behind her. "It wasn't someone at the US Attorney's office. They didn't need us for that. So it had to be someone we talked to."
"Coffee?" Rick asked since she lived on that stuff. But all she did was shush him and wave her hand at him. It was worse than Rick thought.
Rick stood right in front of her. "Is it my mob connection?" He knew Sal was more than capable of killing someone if he really wanted to.
Kate shot that down. "A rival gang would want Moran alive so he could take down a rival gang, so it's not them."
"Then that just leaves the fiancée and Leeds' staff," Rick submitted. "Or someone in this Precinct."
Ryan shook his head and ruled her out. "The fiancée is clean. Her alibi is solid as it gets. No one can be in two places at the same time. Besides, she wanted to marry him, not kill him. Went cake taste testing."
"I want you to check the staff again. Get pictures of them. Match them with DMV, match them with anyone. Leeds isn't the only plastic surgeon in this city." Kate handed out orders and continued studying her board.
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"It's Maggie! We asked for pictures this time, and they don't match!" Espo called out.
"Moran. If she has a hospital card, she can reach him," Kate told Castle. "Call Hard Candy and warn her. You're with me, Castle. I'm trusting you this time." She pointed her finger at him. "Don't make me regret it."
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Kate was waiting for Maggie at the door. "You're under arrest for the murder of Dr. Joshua Leeds and the attempted murder of Jimmy Moran."
Maggie smiled smugly. "You're too late, Detective."
"Oh, really? Well, would you look at that? It's not attached." Rick held up the IV line that wasn't connected to Moran and saw Maggie's jaw drop.
"Attempted murder of a federal witness. What's that going for these days?" Kate asked.
"Twenty-five to life," Hard Candy advised her.
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"Very good work, Detective, very good." Roy was very proud of her.
"Sir, I never thought I would be saying this, but... I don't think I could have done it without Castle. Even when he's trapped in the Precinct. He doesn't see what the rest of us see. Some of what he thinks up is stupid at best, but when he applies himself, he's actually pretty good," Kate admitted to him.
"Where is Castle anyway?" Roy thought he was right here.
Kate shrugged. "I don't actually know. His monitor is off, and he could be anywhere."
"Is he keeping it, Detective?" Roy queried based on her revelation about this case.
"I'll have to think about that." Kate wasn't willing to commit to that just yet.
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"The original ME concluded that the stab wounds were random. Now maybe the killer got lucky, but I don't think so," Dr. Murray told Castle in his study.
"But you see this wound here? It's a low-angle thrust straight into the kidney. The wound size suggests the knife was twisted. The body would have gone into immediate shock. Paralyzed her instantly. No chance to even cry out, let alone call someone for help."
"What about all of these?" Rick knew Johanna was stabbed multiple times.
"The angle of these wounds indicates that they were delivered after she had already gone into shock. They're just for show. This one was the killing blow," Murray informed him.
Rick's brow furrowed. "This sounds much less like random violence and more like a target for murder." It was the exact opposite of what Kate was talking about.
"There's more." This was going to be hard to take, and he knew it. "On a hunch, I checked the ME files to see if this was an isolated incident. I found three other stab wounds around that time. The ME working the case dismissed them as random." Murray hated that ME. He was either incompetent or something much worse.
"Were they related?" Rick asked and waited anxiously for his answer.
"Are you sure you want to know?" Because what he had to say would change lives or maybe end them.
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Martha knew most of what Rick knew. "You have to tell her, you know."
"You know what this will do to her." Rick knew the consequences of what he had done and what he now knew.
"You have information that could lead to her mother's killer. You can't keep that from her. I warned you to stay out of it, but you ignored me. Now you get to pay the piper, Richard. It's on you and you only."
"If I tell her, she said we would be through." Rick was sure she meant it too.
"It no longer matters. She has to know. It's the price you have to pay for poking your nose in where she told you not to take it. But that didn't stop you." Martha was sorry for him. But Katherine had to be told.
It was raining outside, making Rick feel even worse. It was even fitting.
Rick had maybe just one chance and one chance only. If this didn't work, Kate would kill him if he was lucky. She was definitely going to kick him out. It would end Nikki Heat. Maybe end his writing career. All because he had wanted to help her, and look what he had done.
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Lanie heard her doorbell and opened her door. "Castle!?" She was quite surprised to see him. She didn't even know he knew where she lived. But, he wasn't alone. He had a man with him. She didn't recognize him, though that didn't mean anything.
"We need to talk, Lanie." He sounded so sad to her. Like someone had just killed his beloved dog.
"This is Dr. Murray. He's the premier forensic pathologist in the city. We have something we need to talk to you about." Rick still sounded like someone had just killed his puppy or something.
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Lanie could feel the tears well up. She had just heard something utterly unexpected. "You're sure there's no mistake?" Yes, Lanie could see what he saw now that she was looking at it and being talked to by him.
"None, I'm afraid. There's worse. In the interim, from when I told Richard all this and now, I was able to positively identify the type of weapon used. It wasn't just any knife." He reached into his bag and took it out. "It was a knife just like this one." He showed it to her and let her take it from him. "Or at least a close match. Without the body and being able to form a casting of it, it's just guesswork, but I think this is the knife."
Lanie studied it and then looked up at him. "This is military." She knew that much.
Dr. Murray nodded. "A special forces knife in fact. It's not readily available to the public. At least not this type of weapon. There are copies out there that you and I can buy, but not this knife."
"I learned even more. Dr. Murray did some digging and found three more killings similar to this one. I managed to track those down after calling in a few favors and giving out one.
Rick looked miserable. "Those three were all employed by Johanna Beckett. It wasn't only Kate's mother that was murdered, Lanie, so was her entire staff. It wasn't random. Someone wanted Kate's mom and her staff dead. I don't know why."
"Good god!" Lanie got up and skipped drinking wine. She located the bottle of vodka that she had, did her best to pour herself a glass, and didn't ask if anyone wanted one as well. She immediately drank all of it and poured another one.
"This is going to destroy Kate, Castle," Lanie said. "She gave up finding her mother's killer because it was destroying her. She was never going to survive if she didn't stop. It took a year of therapy for her to reach that conclusion. We tell her this..." Lanie could feel her heart breaking for her best friend.
"Do you know what you've done? She may never forgive you. It's going to open an old wound that almost killed her." Lanie couldn't believe it.
His shoulders slumped. "Yeah, I know. When I started, I didn't know what I do now. I swear I only wanted to help her. I can't imagine the pain of losing her mother. I honestly thought that maybe if I found something, we could investigate it together. I want to help her. I care about her, and not simply for my book. She's different.
"Kate's changing who I am. I kinda like who I'm becoming. I need her, not just for my book but for me. I need her to keep changing me into a different person. What I need is to know what to do now. I mean, I found something, and it's big."
To Lanie, it sounded like Rick was falling in love with her girl, and god knows, Lanie wanted the best for Kate. She didn't understand why Kate wasn't already getting her freak on with him. Why was she resisting?
"Alright," Lanie said, "what do you want from me?"
"Tell me what to do," he begged. "She warned me that if I looked into her mother's murder, we were through. I wouldn't even be wearing that monitor device. I would be banned from the Precinct all over again.
"No more Nikki Heat, no more book series, no more writing. I'll go back to what I was because I can't do this alone.
"Knowing what I know now, this will only cause her pain, and that's the last thing I want to do. She's an extraordinary woman. Maybe she knows it, and maybe she doesn't.
"I need to know what to do, Lanie. You're her best friend, so I came to you with what I have learned. I don't… I just don't." He was used to being more of a kid. Having fun, but nothing about this was fun, and he would hurt Kate.
"Who else knows about this?" Lanie questioned him.
"Just my mother unless Alexis has been eavesdropping, which might be possible, or more likely Mother has told her. She doesn't know how to keep a secret. Even if I don't tell her, Mother probably will eventually."
Lanie brought her drink back with her and sat down. "We're going to need everyone on this one. I want you two at your place. Let me get Jim to show up. You'll need a reason to get Kate to come to your loft while your mother and daughter are there. Call and tell me when that is, and I'll make sure both Jim and I are there.
"Kate's going to need all the help she can get. The only thing that worries me is she might see this as a betrayal by all of her friends and lash out at every one of us." That was Lanie's biggest fear. If they weren't careful, she just might lose her best friend, thinking she had betrayed her.
"Do I bring Ryan and Espo? Maybe even Roy?" Rick would do it if she thought it was a good idea.
Lanie considered it. "No, leave them on the outside. Let's leave this to me, her dad, and you and your family. We're going to need to be ready for her to hate all of us for this.
"I hope you know what you've done, Castle. She isn't going to take this well," Lanie warned him. "What we can't do is let her run. We might never see her again as a worst case."
Rick gasped. "She wouldn't!" It sounded like Lanie was talking about suicide. The Kate he knew wouldn't do that, she just wouldn't!
"You've reopened a large and dangerous wound. It might be best if you have a lot of beds ready. We all might be staying at your place for a while until we can reach her and get her to calm down," Lanie cautioned him.
"I'll be ready." He didn't have that many bedrooms, but he would think of something. He didn't believe Murray was going to need a bed. He could go home after he explained all this yet again.
Rick looked at him. "You in for this?"
Murray nodded. "Tell me when and I'll be there," he confirmed.
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There was a full moon out tonight and the 4th floor of the precinct had gone nuts, completely nuts. Rick was sitting there at Kate's desk and he was eating popcorn out of a bowl he had found in the break room. The popcorn had come from the vending machine. Just pop it into the microwave and instant snack.
Kate was sitting there just calmly typing away, not paying any attention to the mayhem going on around her.
"What is it about full moons that bring out all the crazies?" Rick asked Kate who barely paid any attention to him.
"I don't know, Castle, you tell me." Sometimes she wondered if he wasn't just as crazy as these people.
Suddenly a half naked woman with big tits landed on Kate's desk with a detective right on top of her. Kate just sat there calmly, like this happened everyday. "Hey, Karpowski, how's it going?"
"Oh, same old, same old. How about you, Beckett?" Roz inquired as she tried to get some control over this nut case.
"Can't complain," Kate told her and just like that, those two were gone.
"You guys should really sell tickets. You have madness, mayhem now all you need is..." Kate's desk phone rang.
"Beckett." A couple minutes later she said, "Let's go, Castle. You can come even though I forgot to put your monitor on you earlier. Mostly because today was going to be a paperwork day." Kate gathered up what she was going to need.
"YES! A dead body."
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Ryan introduced them to their dead body. "Ashley Cosway, 32, she's a couple's therapist. Husband found her just before midnight."
"Dinner for two. When was this picked up?" Kate queried.
"6:02 pm. Lanie puts the time of death around 8:00," Ryan explained.
Lanie walked up wearing a dress for an evening out on a date. "Hey, Lanie. Say, when did they change the dress code downtown?"
"Well, unlike you, I don't sit around all night waiting for the next dead body to show up." Lanie reminded her that she wasn't dating anyone and she should be. She should have been in bed with Castle here, but she wasn't. "Quit looking at the girls, Castle." Lanie could feel his eyes on her.
Rick looked away from her. "Roger that."
"Multiple GSWs entry wounds suggest small caliber," Lanie informed her.
Kate read some of the words that were on her face. "Psycho the rapist. You're out of time." She looked up at Castle. "Sending a message, do you think?"
"Or trying to get you to look the wrong way," Rick countered. Kate gave him credit for that one since it was a possibility. Still, she was going to have to follow it, dead end or not.