Chapter Ten
"Rick!" Kate called out as she rushed into their apartment—well, waddled swiftly into their apartment. She had been sitting at her desk working on some paperwork when he texted her a photo of the yet to be fully set-up crib in the baby's room. On top of it sat Nikki Heat's inaugural novel. His message along with the photo was, I didn't put this here.
The skin at the back of Kate's neck had prickled and she asked if he thought it could have been his mother or daughter even though she already knew the answer. That's when he sent her a second picture, which was of the inside front cover of the novel on which the phase "peek-a-boo" was scrawled in a messy hand. Kate had cursed under her breath and then told him she would be right there.
The entire drive to Broome Kate had felt sick to her stomach. It had been just one week since movers had been hired to transport Kate's personal belongings to the Castle residence or into storage. Then her apartment had been put on the market mostly furnished. Now that it was clear Tyson had invaded her official living space, she felt her skin crawl. Of course, she would have been horrified regardless of the official status of her residence (particularly considering she had effectively been living there for months), but the fact that it was her home officially felt like an extra twist of the knife in her gut.
That morning was a Monday and on the prior day it had rained from nine a.m. until well after dark, so none of them had left the apartment. That meant that Tyson had somehow managed to sneak in while they were all inside—presumably while they were sleeping. The notion that someone was creeping around their apartment while they slept was unsettling to an indescribable level, but when that someone was the serial killer who had already kidnapped them both—not to mention attempted to frame Castle for murder—the terror that came along with it reached new highs.
Kate had always been raised in an environment that discouraged hate. Any time during her youth when she said she hated someone, her parents always reminded her that hate was a very strong emotion and not one to be taken lightly. They also liked to point out that hate was often too strong. You could be angry or frustrated with someone without actually hating them. Thus, Kate had tried to remind herself not to "hate" anyone, yet in that moment she knew without question that she hated Jerry Tyson more than she had hated anyone before in her life. She had already had that feeling while watching Castle suffer through the framed-for-murder ordeal, but now, after everything he'd done to them, it had grown tenfold.
"Here; I'm here." She heard him call out from the kitchen. When she walked far enough into the apartment she saw him seated on one of the stools at the kitchen island. "I haven't touched anything else since I found the book…not that it matters; I'm sure he hasn't left prints."
She stepped up to him, wrapped her arms around her shoulders, and pulled him into a tight hug. "He was in our apartment."
"I know," he sighed against her shoulder. "When we see what time the security cameras went out, we'll find exactly when."
"I hate this."
"Me too."
Kate continued to cling to him until she heard the investigative team making their way down the hall outside the penthouse. Ryan was the first through the door, asking if Castle was okay, which he confirmed that he was. Then Castle led everyone upstairs to the nursery, which had one coat of blue paint on the walls, a changing table, and the half put together crib where Tyson had left the book. Unsurprisingly, the only fingerprints found on the crib belonged to the two parents-to-be.
"It looks like the power on the video cameras went out at 3:07 a.m.," one of the FBI techs announced as he came out of Castle's office.
"And when was power restored?" Kate asked.
"At 3:21."
Castle huffed out a breath. "Just enough time for him to come in, place the book, and get out."
After another half hour of sweeping, the FBI determined that other than the blip in Castle's security system video, there was no sign of anyone else being in the apartment. As they all began to leave, Castle asked Ryan and Esposito to hang back so that he could show them something. He gathered them all in his office then pressed his index finger to his closed lips in a hushing motion. Kate eyed him curiously, having no idea what was going on.
Two minutes later Castle returned but continued to keep his finger pressed to his lips as he scooted by the increasingly confused trio. He then sat down at his desk and inserted something he held in his hand into the USB slot on his computer. He clicked around with the mouse for several moments then threw his left arm up, punching the air with rejoice. "C'mere, c'mere—we got him."
The three detectives scurried around behind Castle's desk so they could view his computer screen. On it, was a frozen video image in black and white. The video was grainy and a bit distorted, but the scene was still quite obvious: a man walking across the foyer of the Castle apartment. His back was to the camera, but it was the first "proof" they had that someone had been inside.
"Wha…where's that from?" Esposito asked with notable surprise.
"The new painting in the foyer," Castle said.
"That creepy portrait?" Kate asked. Castle looked up at her, curious. "Sorry, but it is creepy. I didn't say anything because I didn't want to hurt your feelings, but it's really weird. The eyes are so big."
"Well, this is why. There's a camera in it—and its completely independent of the rest of the security system. I had the whole thing specifically made for this purpose."
"Huh…that's really smart," Esposito said, notably impressed.
"Thank you…now, we just have to watch to see if he shows his face."
As Castle played the video at two times the normal speed during the time at which the man, presumably Tyson, was up in the nursery, Kate thought about Castle's secret spy painting. As Esposito pointed out, it was a really smart plan—extremely smart since it seemed to have successfully caught their serial killer on camera. She was quite proud of him for coming up with and then executing such an idea, yet slightly disheartened because he had not shared it with her. She supposed he had his reasons, as he was not known for being particularly secretive.
For several minutes they stared down at the screen with bated breath until movement could be seen on the stairwell and Ryan shouted, "There!" but Castle was already clicking with the mouse to slow the video back down to normal speed. Sure enough, two seconds later the face of Jerry Tyson appeared along the edge of the video screen.
"Got you, you son of a bitch," Castle commented.
They all leaned closer to the computer as Tyson moved through the video frame on his walk from the stairs to the front door. When he was about halfway through the journey, he paused, looked directly into the camera lens, and winked. The four viewers let out audible noises of shock.
"He knew!" Espo gasped.
Frustrated, Castle pushed his computer screen away. "Yeah, he knew. I really thought I got him that time."
"But you did get him," Kate pointed out. "I mean, he's on video in our apartment during the time frame the other cameras were turned off. We can categorically prove it was him. That will mean something to the FBI."
Though she would not have said that the federal investigators didn't believe them at all, she knew they were at times skeptical of their claims that a singular person was responsible for the list of crimes of which they accused Tyson mostly due to its length, variety, and the skill and resources required to complete it. She knew they just didn't fully believe it was possible for someone to become absolutely invisible the way Tyson frequently did. She felt they might have been more receptive to a partner theory—that Tyson was now working with the faceless woman Castle remembered seeing—and of course that was possible, but they had seen from the past what Tyson was capable of doing on his own with no help; what he was doing now did not seem like much of a stretch to Kate or her partners, who thankfully believed her without hesitation.
"Okay, well if you give us a copy of that we'll take it in. Not sure how much it'll help because I'm sure he avoided all the cameras between here and his escape route, but it's worth looking over." Espo told them.
Once the boys had left, Castle stood from his desk and pulled Kate into his arms, holding her close and rocking her back and forth. Her fingertips trailed up and down his spine for a moment before she said softly, "You didn't tell me about the camera in the painting."
"I know and I'm sorry, but I never know what Tyson has bugged or not. Clearly the whole apartment is, but what about our phones or… I don't know. I just knew that in order to catch him I couldn't let anyone know about it.
She breathed out slow and steadily against his shoulder. His argument was logical and she wasn't mad at all about the lie-by-omission. Her frustration stemmed mostly from the fact that Castle had obviously done every possible thing he could think of in order to catch Jerry Tyson and yet he still had failed. Yes, they had video of Tyson in their apartment—but only because Tyson allowed them to see him. His wink proved that he'd know where the camera was all along. Given the lengths to which Castle presumably went, it said to her that there was almost no hope for them to catch Tyson either at his hideout or coming and going from their apartment. He was a seemingly unstoppable force and that was quite a disheartening realization.
"Hey, I was thinking…" Castle pulled out of their embrace and ran his hands across the tops of her shoulders. "Maybe we should just try and get away for this weekend? All this stress…it not good for anyone. Let's get a villa on the beach and just…not think about all this stuff for a few days."
Though she was surprised at the invitation, she couldn't say it was unwelcome. "An escape, huh? I guess I could get on board with that."
He grinned and kissed her. "Great! There's this place I've been eying in Turks and Caicos that would be perfect, I think."
That time she laughed aloud. "Turks and Caicos? Boy when you said get away you really meant get away."
He gazed over his shoulder at her, curious. "That's okay, right? I mean, you can still fly?"
"Uhh probably cutting it pretty close, but I think so? I'll call the doctor to check." Of the top of her head, Kate would have said she could fly up until her thirty-fifth week of pregnancy, which was still three weeks away. To that point she had absolutely no complications and her baby's growth was on schedule, so she didn't see why flying somewhere for a long weekend trip would be a problem, but she absolutely wanted to check with her doctor and would heed whatever advice the doctor provided her.
"Ooh yes I found it. I did remember to bookmark it!" he told he with a wink. Then he slid out of the way of the screen and allowed Kate to view the oasis he had found for them.
"Oh, wow, Castle; it's beautiful. Oh—I guess I'll need a maternity bathing suit now," she added with a laugh.
"Your regular bikinis should fit around the bump," he said, patting her belly.
Kate laughed at this absurd notion. "First—I genuinely don't think that's true. Second—even if the bottoms did fit, there's absolutely no way the tops would. I've grown two cup sizes!"
He smirked at her. "That just sounds like you need to get creative."
She gave him a playful shove to the arm. "Castle."
Laughing, he promised, "I'm joking. You can get as many maternity suits as you want—all on me."
"Thanks Castle." She kissed the top of his head then rested her hands on her belly while she watched him click through the resort's web page and talk about all the amenities that were available. Despite the suddenness of the invitation, the more she saw of the resort the more she found herself looking forward to spending time there. True, she and Castle had spent some weekend alone at the Hamptons house that summer, but she always felt that they were on edge, especially with the uncertainty of everything going on with Tyson. It would be nice to get away with them both in agreement that they were going to relax and enjoy and, for at least forty-eight hours, not think about the Jerry Tyson raincloud that hung over both of them.
Standing in front of the full-length mirror that hung on the back of the closet door in their villa, Castle finished applying sunscreen to his face and chest while Kate changed into her swimsuit. Despite the hasty nature of his planning, Castle was quite thrilled at how his plans had come together. Of course, he had to rent the most expensive villa because it was the only one left available at such short notice, but he didn't mind; he could certainly afford it and it was well worth the money to give them both some respite from the recent stress in their lives.
"Want me to do your back?"
"Oh yeah if you wouldn't mi—ohhh my god!" He gasped when he turned around to see Kate stepping out of the bathroom dressed for their time at the beach. Her maternity bathing suit was a two piece with the bottoms being navy blue and high waisted and the top being a white and yellow floral print halter which made her larger-than-normal breasts look absolutely incredible in his opinion. "Wow, you look…wow!"
She chuckled and tucked some hair behind her ear. "Yeah? You think it looks okay?"
"You look amazing. And so sexy."
She laughed harder that time and skimmed her fingers down her belly. "Well I definitely don't feel sexy. I really should have gotten a larger size in the bottoms. My ass seems to have doubled in size overnight." She turned and gestured towards her backside, which he had absolutely no problem with.
"It's always been a great ass; now it's even greater," he pointed out.
She rolled her eyes at his comment. "Yes well…it's hard to imagine being any bigger…and my belly is just going to keep growing!"
Not wanting her to feel too bad about the way her body was changing to accommodate their growing child (a way that he found to be utterly amazing, as it happened), he said, "C'mon. Let's finish up with this sunscreen and then head down to our cabana."
After exploring the small private beach area, Castle and Kate had retreated into the cabana where two lounge chairs were waited for them. Kate sat down and stretched out her legs without hesitation, letting her head loll back against the head rest as the warm breeze danced over her legs. Castle sat down in his chair and observed her for several minutes before gazing off towards the water and filtering through the complicated thoughts inside his mind. Twenty minutes passed before Kate spoke up and drew his attention.
"Hey," she began softly, "What's going on with you? You look so serious."
Castle felt his stomach tighten when he leaned forward and rested his forearms against his thighs. Rare was the moment in the past when he had actually been afraid to say something to Kate. They had such trust and openness between them. True, in those early years he would have been afraid to speak of his romantic feelings to her, but it had been over a year since he'd had thoughts like that. And when it came to their cases, he could hardly think of a time when he hadn't easily voiced his opinions or theories. Now, for the first time, he was genuinely afraid of how she would react, yet he remained confident in the words he was about to speak. In his mind, they were the only way.
Meeting her gaze he said, "We have to find a way to kill Tyson."
The shock on her face was notable. "What?"
"That's one of the reasons why I wanted to come out here to the middle of nowhere—to brainstorm this."
Her brow furrowed as she spoke. "Castle, everyone is looking for Tyson right now. We finally caught him on camera and that's good news. It means the case stays open and we have a very clear suspect We're going to find him and arrest him for all that he's done."
The writer scoffed. "Arrest him for what? Breaking and entering? Trespassing? That's all we officially have him on. And that's assuming we can actually find him and bring him in, because you know we can't. You know we can't. He's too smart—he's proven that time and time again. I did everything—everything —I could think of to hide that camera and knew it was there. He knew! There's no stopping him, Kate—not unless we stop him for good. It's the only way to keep the baby safe."
Kate began to appear rather nauseated as her hands covered the swell of her stomach. "You also think he'll come after the baby?"
"Is that what you've been thinking?"
"It's what I've feared," she admitted.
He nodded and raked his fingers back through his hair as he continued to think. They never really talked about it, which he assumed was because they were both too terrified of the prospect to do so. Sadly, it seemed to be the only thing that made sense. Why would Tyson go through all the trouble to kidnap both of them and impregnate Kate? Yes, the misery of not knowing the identity of the baby's father was part of the torture—but it was also something they could have knowing for months now. True, Kate had decided against the test, but she could have found out the answer quite easily, and then the mystery would have ended. Tyson hadn't gone through all the trouble he did just for that. No—the only thing that made sense was that the baby would play into this somehow too.
"It's the only endgame that makes sense," Castle concluded with notable frustration.
"But what would he do with the baby?" Kate replied. "He's always been on the run…wouldn't a baby cramp his style?"
As he had thought at length about the possibilities, Castle asked, "You want to hear the story how I'd write it?"
She appeared rather uncertain but nodded anyway.
Castle took in a deep breath, leaned towards her, and began to recite his version of events. "At some point after that night on the bridge Tyson met the woman I remember from the night they took us and they have whatever their version of a love affair is. They decided to make their own evil family, but she can't get pregnant. Or maybe they decide having a baby the old-fashioned way just isn't fun enough for their evil desires. Whatever the case: Tyson's always wanted revenge on us for ruining his escape plans, so this provides the perfect opportunity to not only get them a child, but to enact that revenge by way of torture. Two for the price of one." When she appeared skeptical, he asked, "What? You don't think that's possible?"
"It's hard for me to imagine evil people wanting children… it just seems so opposite to their aesthetic."
He nodded, as he could understand that viewpoint. On the other hand… "Many villains throughout history have groomed successors."
"That's true. But Castle that means he'll take the baby no matter if he's the father or not."
As his heart clenched with sorrow, Castle nodded. His voice a little rough he said, "Yeah…I figured that out awhile back. I think the paternity question was just a side game for him. Well, that and a way to force us to have a baby right now, versus waiting until we decided to have one ourselves, which could have been several years yet. That's why," he leaned forward, lowering his voice even though there was no one within fifty feet of them, "we have to kill him."
Kate shook her head. "Castle, you're talking about premeditated murder."
"Of a serial killer who has committed numerous unspeakable acts. Are you saying you would hesitate to kill him if it meant saving the life of our child?"
She shook her head. "That's different. If Tyson was actively trying to harm our baby of course I would kill him, but that's not even close to the same thing as hunting him down for the sole purpose of ending his life. We have to keep looking for him and bring him in. If he refuses to surrender or is killed while the police are trying to bring him in…well, I certainly won't lose sleep over it, but we have to do this the right way."
His upper lip twitched. "I suppose."
"Hey." With slight difficulty she swung her legs over the edge of the lounge chair so that she could face him. Her knees bumped against his and she put her hands flat on his thighs. "Don't go dark on me now Castle, please. This isn't you."
With his jaw set, he shook his head. "This is me. I'm protecting my family. There's nothing I wouldn't do to keep you and our son safe." He meant each and every word he spoke, and he hoped that she would believe him when he said he would do anything he meant it whole heartedly. Though he hadn't faced many tests on this level in his life before, the closest comparison he could come up with was when Alexis had been kidnapped. He would have gone to the ends of the earth to find her if that had been what it took. The same was true for his next child—and for the woman he loved.
In general, Castle felt himself to be a peaceful man. He didn't want to start fights or stir up turmoil. The world was a dark enough place already; he didn't need to contribute. On the other hand, however, he had done more than enough research to know that some people were just evil. No amount of therapy or kindness would rehabilitate them into respectable members of society. Jerry Tyson was one of those people and Castle knew with endless certainty that Tyson had made him a mark and he and his family wouldn't be safe until he was removed from their lives—permanently.
"We will be safe—when Tyson is behind bars."
"You really believe that?" Castle retorted. True, Tyson had never escaped from prison before, but he'd also never been this crazed or motivated before. Plus, that was assuming they could even get him in to the prison. Castle had a strong hunch that Tyson would rather die than be put behind bars again, but he wasn't sure of it. And what about the female assistant? Even if they captured Tyson and put him behind bars, what if she escaped? They had absolutely no idea who she was, so her slipping through the cracks was certainly plausible. Would she then continue Tyson's evil legacy?
Kate appeared rather frustrated as she said, "I…I think maybe we should just try to relax and watch the water, okay?"
He stared at her for several minutes before nodding his head in agreement. He slid his arms around her, kissed her head, and then gazed out towards the crashing surf, knowing that they would need to continue their discussion at some point, and he very strongly suspected it would lead to another disagreement, but he simply couldn't back down; the thought of losing her—losing both of them—was too unbearable.
