American Crime Stories
Arc two, Chapter twenty one
"Although the arrest was a win for the NYPD, you only got the tip of the iceberg. As I said before, in the early nineties there were various groups of bad cops: some were taking justice into they own hands, some were just criminals with a badge. We know that the Dragon got involved with the trio of kidnappers, but it's more than that. We are fairly certain that he had united those various groups under one banner. What was once a loose confederation of dirty cops using their badges to conduct criminal activities, turned into a criminal enterprise of corrupt cops and public officials, called Human Resources or HR for short." Castle paused for a moment to let that sink in. "HR is comprised of dirty cops and law enforcement officers, corrupt politicians, business leaders and even some mafia families as well as foreign cartels. Not only are they looking the other way at criminal activities in exchange for sharing profits, but they are actively controlling some criminal enterprises. To protect themselves, most information is compartmentalized. They work in various circles or cells, much like a terrorist organization."
"Castle, how do you know all this? Was this part of the Captain's package?" Esposito asked.
"Yes and no, Espo. The package gave us a starting point to investigate. We followed the evidence and filled in some blanks. But even better: John here," Castle pointed to John Reese, "was able to flip one of the members of HR." That statement stunned the room.
"You're actually telling us that you have a confidential informant in this group of assholes? How do you know you can trust him or her?" Danny Reagan asked heatedly, others nodded. Castle turned to Reese and nodded.
"We are pretty sure. He was approached at a low point in his life, and then manipulated and persuaded to join them. Then a bust went wrong and he killed a perp. Members of HR helped him to cover it up and that was the starting point for him working with HR. Although he was horrified by some of their actions, he stayed on out of loyalty. He is not opposed to getting his hands dirty, especially when his fellow officers are in danger or hurt. At the end of the day, he is still a good cop who did some bad things. But when we approached him, he was fairly easy to convince to work for us," John Reese told the attendees.
Convincing Fusco to work for them had actually been pretty easily. First they had send John to provide the stick, and then Castle had went in to provide the carrot: a full college education for Fusco's son, Lee.
Castle had to hold back a chuckle. The relationship between John Reese and Lionel Fusco was pretty comical. Their conversations were usually filled with dry humor and witty annoyance. He picked up the narrative. "And he came through for us. Not only did he provide us with names and even audios and videos, he also helped us to find a ledger recording bribes paid to HR members. Of course we checked all the information he gave us and put together evidence of our own," told his stunned audience.
"Let me give you a short overview of HR, its leadership and some prominent members." Castle turned to his smart board. First, Assistant District Attorney, Diane Hansen." Erin Reagan gasped. She knew Hansen well, they were friends who went out to have drinks regularly. She wanted to deny the accusations, but at this point she was sure that Castle would not name any person without clear evidence.
"As I said before, HR works mostly in cells, only knowing members of their circle. Hansen works mostly with Detectives James Stills, Louis Azarello, Lionel Fusco, Marcus Doyle and Raphael Sosa. Stills and his team would frame innocent victims for the group's crimes and Hansen would then prosecute them.
Next on the list are Arthur Lynch, Captain of the 51st Precinct, and Peter Womack, Captain at the 8th Precinct. They use their position for various dealings, ordering hits and making evidence disappear." Castle paused for a moment. He could see the shock on the faces of his listeners, especially on the face of the former and current Police Commissioner's. He knew that it would only get worse.
"Those are just low- to mid-level members of HR. Let's go to the leadership: HR activities are overseen by an inner council of high-ranking police officials, made up of Detective Raymond Terney, member of the 8th precinct; Detective Samuel Romano, working for the District Attorney's Office, Peter Lewis, Captain for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police and City councilman Seth Larsson from the Bronx," Castle listed the first names.
"Street-level activities are managed by HR's top lieutenant, Officer Patrick Simmons from the 20th precinct. Funny fact, Officer Simmons is the foster brother of one Vulcan Simmons, our drug dealer from Washington Heights. As far as we can see, he only reports to two person: HR's second-in-command, Ian J. Davidson, Deputy Chief of the Internal Affairs Bureau," Frank Reagan gasped. Davidson was a man with a stellar reputation. He had his eye on him for further promotions.
"Davidson is keeping taps on all investigations involving HR members, making sure that those wouldn't stick and informing the affected HR members. Not only that, as Deputy Chief he is informed of most ongoing investigations through memos and ComStats. That way he can keep taps on ongoing investigations into associates of HR and inform those, too." Hearing that Frank took a deep breath, while Castle continued with his explanations.
"And now, last but certainly not least, let me introduce to you the leader of HR: Alonzo D. Quinn, political advisor and campaign manager for States Senator Ed Griffin, the front-runner in the New York gubernatorial race."
There was a shocked silence.
"So, he's the Dragon?" Ryan asked.
"No, Kevin. He is just the leader of HR."
"Then who the heck is the Dragon?" Danny Reagan asked heatedly, slowly running out of patience.
"I'm sorry that it takes me so long to get to that. We'll come to that in a few moments," Castle said but was interrupted.
"Hey, Castle. If Chief Davidson is part of HR, does this mean that Gates is, too?" Esposito asked. Hearing that question, the room became silent.
"Not exactly, Espo."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, as Captain of IA, Gates former superior was Davidson. And correct me if I'm wrong, Commissioner," Castle turned to Frank Reagan, "she got the job on recommendation of Davidson."
"That's right," Reagan confirmed reluctantly.
"And I'm sure that part of her job was an internal investigation into the 12th Precinct, to find out why its Captain was killed, and one of its most prominent detectives was shot."
Reagan was silent for a moment, but then reluctantly answered. "Correct."
"So, Gates reports to Davidson as part of her job. We're fairly certain that she is not involved, just an unknowing pawn." Castle paused for a moment. "Well, she is an unwilling participant in this whole sordid affair. She was trying to build a case against me, but now that I stopped working at the 12th Precinct, it's untenable. However, she did get rid of Beckett and the boys, at least for a while."
"Mr. Castle, leaving the question of the inner workings of the 12th Precinct for a later time, can you tell us now who this mysterious Dragon is?" Frank Reagan asked impatiently.
"Of course, Commissioner. I'm not prolonging the revelation for dramatic reasons. I just needed to give you as much information as possible." Castle said and waited for a moment to settle his thoughts. "As I said before, we had started to look into the Dragon long before we knew about information package that Montgomery had handed over to Smith. To have learned about the kidnappings in any way, our initial assessment was that the Dragon had to be someone on either side of the law around in the eighties, early nineties. So, we made a list of officers, detectives and other ranking members of the NYPD, State Police and Federal Officers. In addition, we looked at the various DA offices, judges, crime labs, coroner offices. We also looked into politicians from the City Council, the Mayor's Office, the Gubernatorial Office and State and National Senators. Of course, we looked on the other side of the law, too. So, we looked into organized crimes and various gangs who had been active at the time. Although, we did not exclude the idea entirely, we worked under the assumption that we did not look at a legacy crime boss, a family business where the head leaves the enterprise to one of his children. With that, I mean that the Dragon did not inherit the criminal organization, but built it from scratch up himself and grew with it." People nodded as they thought the assumptions astute.
"After working on the list for a while, we had compiled a list with around 30 names when we got our hands at Smith's package. I'm sure you can imagine how happy we were that the name we got from Smith was someone from our list. However, as I said earlier, we did check all the information's as thoroughly as we could," Castle paused for a moment. Despite his earlier statements, he couldn't help himself and be a little dramatic. "So, without further ado, let me introduce to our mysterious Dragon. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Senator William H. Bracken."
With those words pointed to the smart board. People gasped when they heard the name of the man responsible for so many crimes. Most of them knew him, some even personally.
"William Bracken served as the Assistant District Attorney from 1988 to 1992, the same time when Raglan, McCallister and Montgomery were actively kidnapping mobsters. We're not sure how exactly he learned about the trio's scheme, but he did learn of it. However, instead of pursuing the case, he blackmailed Montgomery into silence and persuaded the others to work for him. As an A.D.A., Bracken had contacts on both sides of the law. He used the ransom money to build his ever growing criminal enterprise, earning him more and more money via a drug trafficking and money laundering and many other illegal activities. He used that money to finance his political career, from the election to the House of Representatives, and subsequently to the Senate. A career he has built mostly on anti-corruption in New York and in Washington," Castle said.
"Our assumption is that he considered the re-opening of the Pulgatti case a too big of risk to his criminal enterprise and career, so he ordered Coonan to kill all the people involved in the investigation. Well, at least those that didn't work for him. At this time, HR was running various operations in New York. In the later years he enlarged his criminal enterprise on national level. We'll come back to that later. Although we're sure that he knew about Kate Beckett becoming a cop and her rise through the ranks, we're pretty sure that he didn't see her as a real threat at first. Otherwise he would have had her eliminated immediately. That changed due to the publicity surrounding Coonan's shooting in the 12th Precinct." Castle paused for a moment to give his audience a chance to let the information sack.
"Montgomery must have decided early on to try and protect himself as best as he could. He knew that the dirty money must have left a paper trail that pointed to Bracken, and he had followed it. At some point, Montgomery must have brokered the deal with Bracken, keeping him from harming Beckett. But when Montgomery failed to keep his part of the deal, Bracken started to clean house, killing Raglan, McAllister, Montgomery and trying to kill Beckett. Obviously, he must have some form of internal security. Otherwise he couldn't have known that Raglan had contacted Beckett to meet in the diner where he was subsequently killed. With Smith contacting Bracken and making the same deal as Roy, a new cold war broke out."
"And now, that he has declared the forming an exploratory committee for a run at the U.S. Presidency, he wants to end that state of affairs," Shaw stated.
"That's exactly what we think," Rick said. "Obviously, he is well-funded, so it's no surprise that the latest reports indicate that he is an "early frontrunner" in the Democratic Party."
"Oh come on, what's one more corrupt politician?" Danny Reagan said ironically.
"Danny…" His father began to say, but Danny interrupted him. "Sorry, I know, I know. It's bad, very bad."
"And it gets even worse," Castle said.
"How can it possibly get worse?" Danny spat.
"Does this anything have to do with your hints that the Dragon's, I mean Brackens, influence goes far further than just New York?" Jamie Reagan asked.
"Yes, good catch, Officer Reagan." Castle paused to gather his thoughts. "So, in the process of our investigation, various names popped up, like Vulcan Simmons or the various members of Orantis Solutions. Obviously we tried to gather as much information on those people and institutions. In some cases we were able to gather new evidence, which we followed up. Identifying Bracken and getting our hands at Montgomery's package helped us a great deal, as we had now a paper trail we could follow. We identified various bank accounts on the Caymans and other places such as the money trail in the Laura Cambridge murder that led to Dubai. What we found was a very bleak picture because we found that Bracken was not working alone. That also means that New York is not the only city where people involved are active."
"So, that's why you invited Agents Danberg, Fallon and me? Because we're federal agents" Shaw asked.
"Yes, that's one of the reason," Castle agreed but didn't say more on the topic. "Look, I know that all sounds like a plot of one my or some of my fellow authors novels. But it doesn't make it any less true. And you will be able to corroborate everything, because as I said before, we're handing every piece of evidence over to you. I have absolutely no doubt that when you are through with your own investigations that you'll find even more evidence than we were able to. I only caution you to look at who you're going to report all this too because, as we've established, there are people from various agencies involved."
"So, that's it? You're just handing over the evidence to them? After everything we've been through?" Esposito asked incredulously.
"Of course, Javier!" Castle stated vehemently. "What did you think why I have invited them all here? Look Javier, this goes so much further than just what we've been through. Also, you are a NYPD detective, you have no jurisdiction in most cases. I don't want to be involved any more than I already have. Hell, I'm a writer, I have no jurisdiction at all. To be honest, I, well we," Castle pointed at the team from SSI, "should not have gotten involved at all. Now, it is time to let the professionals sort it out. If you want to be involved, you have to talk to Commissioner Reagan and the various Agents here," Castle said to the surprise of most people in the room. They had all thought that the writer would want to stay part on the investigation. "In fact, we'd appreciate it if our involvement would not be mentioned at all in public records. I have absolutely no doubt that at the end of it all, there will be some very powerful and influential people who will be very angry and will be looking for payback. And to be honest, I don't need that kind of target on my, or worse, on my families back." Various people nodded, they could understand that logic. Unlike them, and unlike the past years shadowing working with the NYPD, Richard Castle was no official law enforcement officer. "However, I'd appreciate a heads up when you're arresting Bracken. I'd really like to see THAT."
Omake:
Annie Walker walked into the conference room, wondering why she was here. A few days ago, Arthur called her and Auggie into his office. There he had told them that they had been ordered to attend a meeting. He had made it clear that he had no idea what it was about, only that they had been temporarily re-assigned. So, now she was curious what it was all about. Throughout the room, various people had had similar meetings with their superiors and were now wondering the same. Those federal agents included Supervisory Special Agent Rachel McCord from the Attorney General's office, NCIS Assistant Director Henrietta "Hetty" Lange, Colonel John Casey from the National Security Agency, CIA Special Agent Sarah Walker, Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens as well as FBI Supervisory Special Agent Fritz Howard, and Dr. Avery Ryan, FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Cyber Crime Division.
All answers were about to be answered when U.S. Attorney General, Roberta 'Bobby' Latham, walked into the room. "Good morning, everyone. Thank you for coming. You all have been selected to be part in this Joint Taskforce, because you have unique skills or because of the positions you hold. In accordance with the National Security Act you are not allowed to talk about the investigations of this Task Force outside these offices. Not with your colleagues in your departments, not with your superiors or even their superiors. Let me tell you, that President Santos has made it clear, that should anybody talk with an outside person, he or she will be prosecuted to the full effect of the law." Hearing the AGs Words, people were stunningly looking around.
"The codename of this Task Force is Dragonhunter. These are your objectives…."
A/N: Yeah, it took a while, but the presentation i finally finished.