Shattered Lies
Chapter 34
FBI, local police, state troopers, and the small N.Y.P.D. contingent form a perimeter around the nest Lockwood occupied to make the shot that ended Bracken's life. Ryan and Esposito have been sleeping in shifts, and Castle is beginning to feel the effects of his all-nighter.
If Kate is tired, Rick can barely detect it, except for almost imperceptible shadows beneath her eyes. She's more energized than he can ever remember seeing her - as if she's suddenly dropped the invisible weight she's been carrying for so many years. Normally, rejoicing in death would seem morbid, but Castle can understand why she wouldn't feel that way. He doesn't either. He just wishes Bracken's demise had been more painful; being left excruciatingly wounded to be slowly nibbled to death by creatures of the forest for example.
From the preliminary opinion of the local medical examiner, Bracken was killed by the same type of bullet as Cecil Bowdry. Ballistics will need to make the final determination, but it would seem that Bracken was turned on by one of his own. If true, it would be poetic justice. It would also make it more essential to nab the shooter. Castle has little doubt that the sniper will be willing to spill anything he knows about Bracken to make the best deal for himself.
So far, despite the presence of a sizable force, including Murphy who's shown up to lend support to Kate as well as in case organized crime is involved in some way, there's been little sign of the shooter except for the perch he constructed for himself in a tree. Unsurprisingly, Esposito located that.
The troopers tell Kate that tracker dogs are on the way, one of which was raised by the Crackens. So much traces back to them, and further to Castle. She bumps her hip against his. "This is all your fault, you know."
He turns to her in confusion. "OK. I'm a man, and you're a woman, so something has to be my fault. Mother and Alexis, not to mention Meredith drilled that into me. So for what am I to blame?"
"We couldn't just check out Armen's suspected shooter; you wanted a puppy. If you hadn't bought Custos, you wouldn't have hired Miniver Cracken. And if you hadn't done that, we wouldn't have found Bracken. From all appearances, the sniper followed us here, or Bracken wouldn't be dead."
"And that's a bad thing?" Castle asks. "I thought you wanted him dead."
"I wanted him brought to justice, but if I'd had to shoot him trying to escape, I wouldn't have minded."
Castle studies her face, detecting the spark of amusement lending an emerald glint to her eyes. "And how," he inquires, closing the space between them, "do you propose to punish me? I seem to recall already giving you my permission to administer a spanking."
Kate wraps her arms around his neck. "Oh, Castle. I have so much more in mind than that. But we have to nab the shooter first."
Castle's hears barking in the distance. "I think we're about to get a lot closer to that goal."
Leaning over his shackled hands in the 12th Precinct's interrogation room, Hal regards Detective Beckett. There's no doubt that she's beautiful, but she wouldn't be his choice in a bed partner. He prefers his women submissive; the kind who beg for mercy. Beckett is hardly that. Even with what appears to be her boyfriend next to her, she's in charge of the room - and the whole investigation. If Lockwood is going to salvage anything of what's left of his life, he's going to have to deal with her, dominant as she imagines herself to be.
"We booked you as John Doe, but I'll call you Mr. Lockwood for the moment," Kate begins. "That's the identity you seem to have had for the last couple of years. I know you were in the military. We hit a bureaucratic logjam when we checked your prints against their database. I'm guessing you did some work for them they'd rather not discuss. But my FBI colleague Special Agent Murphy is taking a chainsaw to that blockage. We'll know who you really are soon enough.
"My friend Mr. Castle here thinks you did the world a favor in ridding it of William Bracken. As a cop, I'm not allowed to see it that way. Murder is murder. But perhaps if you tell me everything you know about the late homicidal senator, starting with how he hired you to kill Cecil Bowdry, I might begin to share Mr. Castle's opinion and convince the D.A. to cut you a break. We might even be able to keep you away from inmates who fall madly in love with tall guys with blue eyes and firm bodies. Unless of course, you like that sort of thing."
When fear flashes in Lockwood's eyes, Kate can see that her taunt hit home. Hal bends further over the table, locking his gaze with hers. Bracken hired me to kill Bowdry. Something about a speech on the beach. Bowdry was an obstacle. Bracken told me he had plenty of work for a man who knew how to keep people out of his way."
Kate's fingernails make deep crescent moons in her palms. "So Bracken admitted he'd had other people killed?"
Lockwood snorts. "Admitted it? He was proud of it. He said he'd had an undercover fed taken out, and then some bitch lawyer and everyone connected with her investigation when she started looking into the fed's death."
When Kate blanches at the mention of Johanna, Castle puts a hand on her knee under the table, to steady her.
"There were more too," Lockwood goes on. "The way he talked about them it was if he enjoyed remembering what he did so he could relive it. He might even have a kill diary somewhere. I've met a couple of guys like him who did."
Kate raises her eyes to the mirror, in a signal to Ryan and Esposito who are in Observation. "How did Bracken pay you for your - work?"
"He transferred money into an account. There's a record of the transaction on my computer. You can trace it back."
"I'll do that, Lockwood, I assure you. Now I believe you have an appointment for a tête à tête with the FBI. They're always interested in men who murder federal officials. And our tech people will be happy to check out what's on your computer - all of it."
After Lockwood's been led away, Rick reaches for Kate's hand. "Do you really think that Bracken kept a kill diary?"
"I don't know Castle. As obsessed as Bracken was with covering his tracks, I can't imagine why he'd keep something that incriminating around."
"Hubris," Castle suggests, "thinking he can get away with anything. Isn't that what eventually brings men like him down? If he hadn't thought he could just take Bowdry out of the picture, he never would have ended up on the wrong end of Lockwood's rifle."
"Sometimes it happens that way," Kate acknowledges. "The boys will be searching Bracken's home in the city."
"If he enjoyed his diary much, he might have taken it to Granddad Cracken's cabin. We could go up and look."
"I can have the local cops do that," Kate points out.
"Yeah, but don't you think we owe the Cracken Farm a thank you visit? Maybe I can buy them a year's supply of fertilizer or something."
"All right, Castle. I'm sure we can figure something out."