Much to Ryan's dismay, Beckett's taunt was holding true so far as they were going on hour two of searching the doctor's office, balancing the legal tightrope of looking for anything specific to their case only, while staying away from other files and materials that could be deemed part of the doctor-patient privilege for the rest of Lafayette's clients.
When most of the obvious hiding places hadn't yielded any results, Beckett had called in another team from CSU, nodding begrudgingly at the one-hour ETA. But at least it allowed them to stall Lafayette, a strategy that seemed to be working considering the doctor was beginning to break out in a nervous sweat.
He and Marianne were standing off to the side, glaring at the unwelcome intruders as they went through various file cabinets, drawers, a hidden safe containing only the title to the doctor's old LeSabre and a handful of gaudy class rings.
At one point, he and Castle had moved the desk over to inspect the floor beneath the area rug but found nothing there either.
Needless to say, long before that one-hour window from CSU was up, Ryan was beginning to feel frustrated, knowing that time was quickly running out if they were to stop another murder from happening before evening fell.
Trying to calm his frantic nerves, he glanced over the room one last time, the file cabinets they couldn't touch, the parts of the desk they had taken apart while leaving the large bottom drawer alone, the shelf of books they had sorted through looking for signs…he could practically feel the truth up close and yet so painfully far away.
"I'm gonna take another look at his desk.", he announced eventually, causing the arrogant doctor to groan in defeat.
"You've already been through it twice. Give it a break. I told you I am not your guy and I am starting to grow very tired of your baseless accusations."
Not your guy, yeah right.
Ignoring the irritating man altogether, he stepped toward the desk, looking at it with the eyes of a man who was trying to hide something, beginning by sliding his hand underneath drawers and the surface panel.
Unfortunately, it seemed that Lafayette had seen that Matlock episode too, so Ryan went down on his knees and checked around the base, only noticing a handful of scuff marks.
"Remember that you are not to touch the bottom drawer.", came the stern warning from above that raised a warning flag in his mind.
"We're not supposed to search through it, but we sure can touch it…", he countered flippantly, then bent his arm around the tight corners to reach the back sides of the drawers, fighting the cheap wooden slats along the way.
"You need any help there?", came Beckett's worried voice, her face appearing next to him the moment his fingertips made contact with plastic.
And tape.
"No…no…I think I found exactly what we are looking for."
Peeling the USB drive off the back of the drawer, Ryan slowly rose to his feet, immediately glancing over at Lafayette whose pallor was beginning to match the back walls.
"Interesting way to store your patient data there, doctor.", he growled and started up the laptop, his fingers shaking slightly when he inserted the stick.
"These are confidential client-", the doctor began, only to be cut off by an irate Beckett.
"We gave you a chance to tell us exactly where all your confidential information was and you didn't mention a USB drive taped to the back of your drawer so this one's out of the question."
"Come take a look at this, guys…", Ryan muttered, not realizing that his hand was trembling violently as he moved the cursor to a folder titled J.E., needing two tries to open it.
"I don't think that stands for John of England…", Castle added and leaned over the desk to get a better look, Beckett joining him on the opposite side.
The folder opened up to four word-file extensions, all of them having similar titles that matched the numbers to the cryptic message left on Esposito's answering machine.
10-437-8.
Ryan swallowed hard and opened the last one, the creation date going back to more than a week ago.
Instantly feeling the breath getting stuck in his throat, he zoomed into the lengthy document, trying to express-read the large amount of data added to each paragraph.
"Javier continues to be a challenging subject…", Castle read out loud and pointed his index finger to the paragraph he referenced, "I am afraid much of the intense training received during his time in the Special Forces to counteract enemy coercion is to blame. Initial dosage increases have proven promising but will need more time to fully take effect. My initial session did properly install the trigger switch and absolute compliance was noted for a four-hour window. I expect that window to widen with gradual, daily dosage increases. I look forward to learning if the stress levels seen at this dosage will overwrite the programming or not. Cardiac function has increased to a resting heart rate of 110bpm. I feel confident that Javier is physically able to withstand additional dosage increases that should bring his HRH to approx. 130bpm. While long term effects are unknown, the short-term effects have been incredible to say the least."
"Esposito…", Ryan growled, never realizing that he'd left the desk behind and bridged the room to charge at Lafayette, grabbing the man by the lapel of his doctor's coat and slamming him against the wall, "WHERE IS ESPOSITO!?"
With a guttural laugh, Lafayette smiled broadly, never flinching against the perceived threat.
"He's right under your nose, you fool.", he stammered when a heavy tremor shook his body, the uncontrolled trembling getting worse even when Ryan stepped back to give him room.
"Right under our nose where? Where did you tell him to go? Why did you pick him for your experiments?!"
Unable to answer, Lafayette reduced his reaction to a faint headshake, his cheeks and forehead growing shiny with sweat.
"Castle, call an ambulance…", Beckett ordered from behind and approached slowly, not getting there in time to prevent the large man from collapsing to the ground, his breathing growing wheezy and labored.
With his arms flailing to either side, the doctor stared back at them wide-eyed, his mouth partially open as he groaned in pain.
"What is going on!? You need to help him!", Marianne screamed, her eyes wide in terror.
Ignoring the woman for the time being, Ryan remained still, eyes glued to the man at his feet, torn between his first responder instincts that urged him to intervene and his justifiable worry that whatever was causing this situation could be anything from elaborate role play to dangerous meds he might have taken.
When the attack slowed down and Lafayette became scarily still, Ryan went down on one knee, keeping a hand over the grip of his Glock, the other one reaching for the doctor's thick throat, checking for a pulse, then checking again to be sure.
"He's dead.", he announced disheartened, causing an echo of surprised gasps to go through the rounds.
And yet, all of it was drowned out by the sinister voice inside his head telling him that the worst was yet to come
