Poison Pen
Chapter 36
A text alert from her cellphone jolts Kate to instant awareness. "Is Lockwood awake?" Castle asks.
"Yeah." Kate strains against sleep-stiffened knees to get to her feet. "Let's go."
Castle follows Kate to find Lockwood's room, and she approaches the uniformed officer standing guard. "Everything secure inside?"
"Fine, Detective. Lockwood's been here for a few minutes, and a nurse just went in to check on him."
Castle peeps through the doorway, spotting a male nurse pulling a syringe out of his pocket and grasping the tubing of Lockwood's IV.
Lockwood stares up at Coonan's face, attempting to lunge at the assassin. "Get that mutherf*****r away from me!"
Charging into the room, Kate reaches for her weapon as Castle grabs for the nurse's arm. Castle struggles to pry the syringe from Coonan's grasp. "A little help here."
The officer-guard rushes into the fray to wrestle the syringe away. "It's empty!"
"The perfect weapon to kill a post-surgical patient," Castle pants. "Inject some air in a vein, and it causes an embolism. Everyone assumes the victim had an unfortunate complication. Not that he didn't deserve one."
"On your knees, hands behind your back," Kate orders Coonan, signaling the other cop to cuff him. "We're all going to have a chat, a very long chat."
"I want a lawyer," Coonan demands.
"I get one first," Lockwood claims.
Castle regards them triumphantly. "I'm sure there are enough members of the legal profession to accommodate both of you, although you might do better with a magician. You'll need one to make the evidence against you disappear."
Kate's phone interrupts, chiming the arrival of an email. After quickly scanning the message, she holds it up for Castle to see.
"Our expert concludes that the evidence you submitted was written by two individuals," he reads silently. "I'm willing to bet they're both in this room," he adds out loud.
Castle turns to Kate as the metal mesh door of a holding cell clunks shut behind their as yet unidentified murderous guest. They walk back to her desk together. "How long until our needle man gets his lawyer in here and we can find out who the scumbag is?" Castle wonders. "My money is on the mysterious Rathborne, but that still wouldn't tell us much."
"No, it wouldn't," Kate agrees. "We aren't allowed to listen in on discussions with counsel, so we'll just have to take this guy's word that his lawyer is on the way. It could be minutes or hours, but I'm not going anywhere until he gets here. You should go home, though. I think you got even less sleep than I did."
"I'm not about to doze off now," Castle declares, "but I can have breakfast brought in. There's a new cronut delivery service."
"God, I love cronuts."
"That makes two of us, and probably a lot more pastry fans if you count the horde of locusts masquerading as detectives in the bullpen. I can set up a spread in the breakroom. We could even enjoy our morning snack in front of our prisoner. I'm sure there's more standard fare he could request if he's hungry."
A smile forces its way to Kate's lips. "His lawyer might claim police brutality or cruel and usual punishment. And I wouldn't have much appetite in front of him anyway." Her smile fades. "Castle, there's a good chance that he's the one that stabbed my mother."
Rick wraps his arms around her, softly touching his lips to her hair. "I know."
In his chair next to Kate's desk, Castle scrolls through his email, Twitter timeline, and the feed from six different news sources. He can't concentrate on anything. A fingerprint match to a military database identified the man who tried to kill Lockwood as Richard "Dick" Coonan. He's a dick, all right, but he doesn't have a record, at least not one Kate could get her hands on. The justification for Coonan's separation from the military was redacted as classified. The question of whether Coonan is the mysterious Rathborne is still wide-open, but Castle can feel the answer in his gut. He has a feeling Kate can too. She only managed to get down half a cronut. That was hours ago, and she hasn't touched anything except a bottle of water since. She wasn't even tempted by his suggestion of macaroni and cheese from the comfort food truck.
Coonan's lawyer arrived within 90 minutes of Coonan's call, and after hours of attorney-client consultation, assistant district attorney, Toni Gonzalez, entered negotiations with the pair. The ADA also spent some time on the phone with her office. Something should be happening soon, any minute. It has to.
Attorney Taylor Addison signals from the door of Interrogation. "My client is ready to make a statement, but he'll talk only to Detective Beckett and Ms. Gonzalez."
"Damn!" Rick mutters as he spies Kate's hands fisting. He wanted to be there for her. He'll be as close as he can be on the other side of the glass, but it won't be close enough. Still, the mighty Kate Beckett has been facing down monsters for years. She'll make it through this. She can make it through anything, and he'll beside her as soon as he can.
Kate drops into a chair next to Toni Gonzalez. "I'm here, Coonan, start talking."
Addison holds up a cautioning hand. "First, I'll reiterate the conditions. My client will be pleading guilty to one charge and one charge only — the attempted murder of the individual known to you as Hal Lockwood. In exchange, he will be revealing everything he knows about the aforementioned Lockwood and the individual known as The Dragon."
"What about the homicide of Johanna Beckett?" Kate demands.
"My client will discuss that event in connection with The Dragon," Addison concedes, "but any charges against him related to that or any other deaths are off the table."
Kate turns to Toni. "You agreed to that?"
Toni nods grimly. "My boss did."
Kate stares straight at Coonan's deceptively mild blue eyes. "Did the Dragon order the death of Johanna Beckett and everyone else listed in the ledger that was in the possession of the murderer we know as Hal Lockwood?"
"Yes, he did," Coonan replies, unblinking.
"And who is the Dragon?" Kate presses.
Coonan settles back in his chair as Addison replies in his stead. "My client will reveal that when and only when we have the D.A.'s signature on a deal guaranteeing him complete protection."
Kate's feet weigh a hundred pounds as they drag into observation where Castle is waiting. She leans into Rick's chest, tears spotting his shirt. He holds her, gently rocking back and forth. "I'm sorry. If it were up to me, Coonan would be in the deepest darkest hole I could find, and I'd hand you the shovel to bury him. But Kate, psychopath that he is, Coonan is still a pawn of a greater evil. The Dragon is responsible for your mother's murder, Diane Cavanaugh's, and so many others. He's going to go to prison for them. There is a measure of poetic justice in using Coonan to take him down."
"I know there is, Rick. That's the only thing that's keeping me from screaming my lungs out."
"You shouldn't be alone tonight. Look," Castle proposes, "I'll make sure that Mother will be home with Alexis, and I'll stay with you at your place — if you let me."
Kate presses more deeply into his body. "I don't think I could make it through the night without you."