Here be Dragons!
Chapter 42
Rick and Kate had literally managed to sneak out of the building without the press noticing. They'd walked for several blocks before getting a taxi so that they could make their meeting with Joanne. It was actually a bit of a distance and turned out to be a sandwich shop. Going inside they didn't see her but each ordered a small sub with a coke and a bag of chips and sat down in a booth.
Kate had brought her laptop with her so she could talk. They were both about half done when they watched Joanne enter and order a sandwich with water and sat down next to Kate.
"Are you okay?" Rick asked her.
Joanne nodded. "I've moved in with some friends who aren't shifters to get away from Smith. He doesn't know anything about them."
"You are that scared?" Kate typed.
"What's wrong with your voice?" Joanne looked her over a little closer and saw the bandage on her neck.
"Doctor's orders." Kate types again to show her how it works.
"Sorry. …Smith has an older uncle. A rich older uncle. He said he saw something on his desk that had your name on it." Troubled, Joanne looked at Kate. "It said Beckett but that was when his uncle came back in so he walked away."
"What does he know?" Rick inquired.
"It's not so much what he knows, if he knows anything." Joanne took a deep breath. "It was the way he said it. Some of us fear Smith's knowledge and potential power over us. It has us scared. I brought two things with me." Joanne reached into her purse and removed a picture. "This is a picture of both of them." She placed it on the table and took a bite of her sandwich.
Rick and Kate shared the picture since they were sitting across from each other.
Each saw the Smith they knew and an older man standing next to him. He was clearly older and had a Marine hair cut with silver or gray hair. It was hard to tell in the little picture.
"Smith's a Rhino who isn't necessarily dangerous. And several of us are birds. One of us followed him, landed on a power pole and watched, then shifted and took a picture, then shifted back. This is that picture." It was obvious that Joanne was nervous.
"Did he give you an address?" Rick questioned her since Kate still had the picture.
"We're not good at this clandestine stuff. That was the one thing he didn't do. Landing where he could look in and no one would care was the easy part so he saw your name," Joanne explained.
"You're sure you're safe?" Rick asked, not sure what he could do about it but they could think of something.
She nodded. "I don't live near here now and neither does Smith; he has no reason to be on this end of the city. So I think I'm good. I took two weeks of vacation time from work to plan what to do next."
"One more thing then I need to go." She was worried about being anywhere outside now. She reached into her purse again and pulled out a tiny slip of paper after rummaging through everything.
"This is the number for the people that know about almost all of us." Joanne slid it across the table to Rick. "We stole it from Smith. You might find it useful."
"The 505 area code is somewhere in New Mexico," was all Rick knew from looking at it and handed it to Kate who typed it into her computer and handed it back to Castle.
"I better go. Good luck." Joanne wrapped up her sandwich, picked up her bottle of water, and left them.
"She's scared. I hope she's not in trouble because of us." Kate was tired of typing and hearing a voice that wasn't hers.
"It sounds like she has some good friends. An area code isn't going to do us any good without an address. Do we call them out of the blue?" Rick queried.
"Espo can use it to get us an address. The bigger question is who is his uncle?" Kate types out yet again.
"Why does he have your last name?" Rick wondered. However, something else was bugging him. "Jordan's smart, you know. She has evidence that she can't easily explain. Even if no one saw us or don't believe what they saw."
Kate sat back in the booth and tried to think. "Do we trust her enough?"
"I think we need to talk to these people first." Rick showed her the number. "See if we can get an audience before we talk to Jordan. They may know something we don't."
Kate remained silent and finished her sandwich. "I think we have time. He needs for things to calm down or risk bringing attention to himself with the FBI investigating. Send the number to Espo, though." Kate wanted to know more than just a phone number.
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They'd been spotted but managed to get inside the building, up to the loft, and behind a locked front door before the press could reach them.
"Mother!" Martha had been missing for most of this.
"Alexis has warned me what to expect. You're in the local news also," Martha informed them.
"They're speculating a lot of things in the news." Alexis looked disgusted. "They don't have a clue so they're making it up." She'd been watching the news.
Rick's phone rang yet again. He looked at it, declined, and tossed it onto the sectional. "Gina, again. She has her book so I don't know what her problem is."
"She'll just show up at the door again, Dad," Alexis warned him.
"Maybe if I have Henry send a press release that we're spending the week at Disney," Rick mused.
"We need to think of something, babe, or our wedding's going to be surrounded by press." Kate was still typing.
That had Rick going back after his phone so he could see if the press would just disappear. While he was on his phone, Kate's rang and she handed it to Alexis. "Hi, Espo, Kate gave me her phone. Here, I'll put you on speaker." Alexis pressed a button.
"I've got an address and a name for you on that number," Espo told them.
"I'll get a pen and paper." Alexis handed the phone to Kate and was back a moment later. "Ready."
"Carlisle Cullen. A bit of a recluse. Estimated to be worth 46 billion. That number's in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Using a real estate search it says it's 175.86 acres. Thirteen bedrooms, 15 bathrooms. The main house is 17,590 square feet, guest house is 3,906 square feet; it's listed as being self-sufficient. He has horses, Arabian horses," Espo said.
"Each horse is estimated at 1 million each," Ryan added since he was close. "It's several miles outside of the city. There's no Google view of the place which is odd."
"Kate says thanks." Alexis ended the call.
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"Henry's going to issue a statement stating that the Castle family and friends are going to take a trip to Florida to have some private family time during this moment of excitement. Maybe visit Disney, maybe get in some fishing, go see NASA, perhaps," Rick informed them all. "What?" They looked serious.
Alexis handed him what she wrote. "New Mexico. I can't say as I've ever heard of this guy. A hundred seventy-six acres is a lot of land. Bet he has no neighbors."
Then Rick had an idea. "Maybe instead of us going to him, he could come to us. If we send him a wedding invitation. Surely we can find one extra chair somewhere."
"We do have some extra invitations." Alexis assured him.
Kate nodded and Alexis left them to find what they needed to send him one.
Rick still had his phone in hand when it announced the now familiar tone that there was someone in the hallway. He looked. These days he always looked. "It's Lanie. …Just Lanie."
Kate opened the door to let her in and noticed that she had her bag with her.
"Hey, Kate, I heard the trip to the Hamptons was cut short so here I am." Kate hugged Lanie since she was still under orders not to talk.
Kate allowed Lanie to take her into the study yet again and let her look at her wound, clean it and redress it. "It's looking good, Kate. According to the doctor you can start limited talking in a couple of days," Lanie reminded her. "I still like quiet Kate the best," Lanie teased her and watched Kate stick her tongue out at her.
They were back out in the main room. "I've also got a couple of messages from Kevin and Javi," Lanie announced. "First, the FBI has taken over half the 4th floor."
"That'll be Jordan Shaw and her team," Rick pointed out.
"Second, Sorenson's with her. That and they've provided the precinct with a new captain. Someone named Gates."
Kate typed out a name after she thought of it. "Victoria Gates?"
"That's the name. Middle-aged roughly, a little short. I only saw her briefly." Lanie shrugged.
Kate spread the word through her computer. "Iron Gates. She's from Internal Affairs. Word is that she hates cops."
"We all knew someone had to replace Roy. Sounds like they plan on overreacting because of what Roy did." Rick rolled his eyes.
Kate was worried. "How do we get you into the precinct when I go back?"
"Same way I got in last time." It was all Rick had. "The mayor and the commissioner."
"RSVPs?" Kate questioned by changing topics.
"Well under a hundred so far. Most only just got theirs, however. And I need a new dress." Alexis announced.
"Me, too." Martha added her voice.
"What color do you want your bridesmaids to wear?" Lanie needed to know so she could get her dress.
Kate showed a pained face since she hadn't thought about that yet. "Anything you want, just make it tasteful." Kate really didn't know. "I still need to tell the others, too."
"Maybe we could each be a different color. Emerald, Ruby, Sapphire. Of course unless we talk to each other we could end up with the same color dress just a different style." Alexis offers and Kate nods her head.
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It is now one week later
Kate was still technically on medical leave and while her bandage was gone and she could talk, she didn't yet have a doctor's clearance to go back to work.
It was also just under 2 weeks until the wedding. Since Kate was cleared to talk without yelling much she decided to head to Q3 to see Madison.
The press was gone, there were new things for them to chase and while they didn't go anywhere, the story of them going to Florida had actually worked rather well. Rick didn't have a new phone number and so far Gina had kept to herself.
Kate was going alone while Rick and Alexis were busy with some final items for the wedding at home.
The restaurant was crowded and while Kate gave the woman at the front her name and no, she didn't want a table, it took a couple of minutes.
"Becks!" Madison was out and hugging her. "Come with me." Madison took her back into the kitchen. "You were in the news for a little while."
"I noticed. It was a case and it made some headlines. Mostly all over now, though. Have you been getting the updates?" Kate asked her.
"I have. You're not even into the 300s yet, however, we're still planning on 450 guests. In about a week a lot of the food will start to show up along with a lot of alcohol. What needs cooling is going to show up the day before. Everything else is going to be in a pod out back.
"We'll all be here early in the morning and start cooking. Then the vans I've rented will show up and take it all to the library where everyone will unload and get set up. We'll be there early since something will go wrong. Something always goes wrong," Madison explained.
"How are you holding up? The big day is almost here." Madison almost couldn't believe it. They were talking about Kate Beckett here!
"Pretty good so far. Mostly I just want it to be over with. I never knew what it took to get married. The big things I know. Like a dress and a wedding cake. It's the little things that get you." Kate rolled her eyes at it all.
"So why the library? …Hold that thought." Madison left her to answer a question and was gone close to 20 minutes before she was back.
"Sorry, where was I?" Madison had forgotten.
"Library. Actually it was Alexis that found it. Castle, it turns out, loves the library and had already donated thousands. How could I say no? He's even taken me down to it so I can see it. Even in daylight it's a little dark, though. Dark wood floors, black tables, black chairs, black walls. However, it has this massive glass and cast iron dome over your head." Kate used her hands and spread them wide.
"I have to walk the entire length of these long black tables with diners on either side. We still have so much to do and try and find." Kate huffed a very tired breath.
"Rings?" Madison queried and excused herself for a minute.
"No, we have those. We even finally made it down to the city to get a wedding license. What we're having trouble with is getting all these flower petals. The library refused the use of rice so we elected to use flower petals. But New York City doesn't have enough. So we're having them flown in." Kate rolled her eyes yet again.
"Well I get my dress tomorrow when we're closed. …I can't believe it. Rebel Becks is getting married." Madison hugged her yet again. "And if Wolf hadn't been killed and you a cop we might never have met again."
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Rick dropped his phone on the dining room table where Alexis was sitting. "The flower petals just came in. The florist is going out to the airport cargo area to collect them and store them until the wedding."
"About time." Alexis checked that off her list.
"How are we doing?" Rick asked her.
"We got 43 RSVPs via email this morning. That places us just over 300. Three hundred three, to be precise. Hopefully we'll get more in the mail today." Alexis really hoped.
"Your dress and Mother's?" Rick inquired.
"We all have dresses. Even Kate's has been altered and is ready for her and no, I'm not going to tell you where it is." Alexis beat him to it.
"I could increase your allowance for just a peek," Rick offered and saw the look his own daughter gave him. "Fine, you're no fun."
Then both of their phones sounded out. Both of them immediately checked. "Jordan Shaw." Rick headed for the door and opened it before she even knocked.
"Hi, please, come in." Rick stepped aside and Jordan walked in and looked at him quizzically. She had clearly missed something somewhere.
"If you're looking for Kate she's off checking on the food for the wedding." Rick smiled.
"I can speak to her later. How's her neck?" Jordan inquired.
"No more bandage and she is cleared to talk so long as she doesn't yell a lot. It's not so much that her larynx is damaged the doctor just doesn't want her to put too much strain on her neck. It's mostly why he hasn't cleared her for active duty," Rick explained.
"I'd ask how your investigation is going but I know you can't tell me." Rick said.
"You're correct, I can't. I came to tell you I'm done with New York City for now and taking my team home where we'll keep working it. We'll be back to attend your wedding, though." Jordan nodded.
"Have you heard from a Joanne Delgado?" Rick needed to make sure she was okay or Kate would kill him.
"I've not heard that name before. Is she involved in this case? Someone I need to know about?" Jordan made a note.
"She called us to tell us she was having a problem with someone. We instantly thought of you. Perhaps she called the police instead. We haven't heard from her since then." Rick only told her a half lie.
Jordan thought about her for a moment. "I'll check before I leave and send it to the locals if it doesn't involve me."
"Thank you." Rick gave her a little background. "Her mother was killed in a robbery. They broke her bones to stuff her into her own safe. Kate and I handled the case. Joanne's still hurting."
"I'll make sure to speak with her then if I can find her." All she had was a name but maybe the fact that she was involved in a robbery would give her something to work with.
"I won't keep you. The next time we meet I'll be throwing rice at you," Jordan smiled.
"Flower petals, actually. The library won't allow the use of rice." Alexis had overheard everything.
"Flower petals. This really is going to be an interesting wedding. Maybe instead of my camera I should bring my video recorder instead." Jordan wasn't sure but maybe.
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"She was nice." Alexis liked her.
"She's the best. Just wish we could tell her more," Rick admitted.
"That's a secret you can't tell anyone, Dad. And I still want to be a Dragon." Alexis went back to looking at her computer.
"You won't be upset if our baby is one?" Rick looked concerned.
"No, just jealous. Besides, I'll have a brother or a sister. I'm fine." Alexis didn't mind, really. She felt him kiss her head and smiled.
"Twenty-two more emails. Up to 325 attending. So far no one has said no," Alexis let him know.
Then both of them got yet another warning that someone was in the hallway. Only this time it was the mail carrier with a large container of envelopes.
"Where's Kate when you need her?" Rick groaned since opening all these and adding them to the computer was going to be up to them.