Slaying the Beast

Chapter 13

Keeping her weapon trained on the men on the ground Kate swiftly glances toward Castle. "Are you all right Rick?"

Castle rubs the back of his neck. "You think we can still sue these guys for whiplash?" He can see the muscles in Kate's jaw pop as she grits her teeth. "Really, Kate, I'm fine. I don't think the same can be said for your unit. They mashed it from both sides. If we'd been in there, Lanie, or worse, Perlmutter, might be scraping us up with a spatula."

Kate rapidly regards the street where traffic is already seriously snarled. "Backup better get here soon, and not just for these assholes. There are going to be a lot of seriously pissed off drivers in this area."

"Pissed off is a way of life for anyone who gets behind the wheel in this city. It beats dead."

"Some of the people out there might give you an argument, as long as the body wasn't their own, Castle." Kate uses her foot to indicate one of the men on the ground. "Looks like there was at least one mole at Rikers."

"Yeah, I recognized this one of our inept assassins too, but not the others. They must have been on standby. That means Bracken was ready for us. He knew you'd try to track down Simmons' killer. If these idiots survive, maybe they can fill us in on more of his game. I hope whoever is in charge of getting visitor logs and video isn't a mole too."

"That makes two of us, Castle." The rising wail of sirens invades the alley. "It's about fucking time!"

"I wish," Castle mutters to himself."

Jasper Goodlatte is doing his best to appear as incapacitated as possible. His eyes are closed, and every so often he lets out a moan. Kate isn't buying it. The doctor assured her that former corrections officer Goodlatte was quite well enough to be questioned, and would be ready for discharge as soon as the bureaucrats figure out where to put him.

Kate smacks her palm against the roll-up table used to serve what the hospital claims is food, producing a loud crack. Goodlatte's eyes fly open. "I knew you were with us, Jasper. You know you're in a hell of a lot of trouble, don't you? This city doesn't take kindly to jerks who try to murder cops."

"Not to mention causing a massive traffic jam," Castle adds.

"But the city is nothing compared to your worse problem," Kate continues. "Whoever sent you after Mr. Castle and me, knows by now that you failed. And there's a trail of dead bodies showing that screwing up isn't well tolerated by the man pulling the strings. In fact, failures are terminated - with extreme prejudice.

"Right now, the minute you leave this place, you're going back to prison. It might be the infirmary, but it will still be prison. And just how long do you think a disappointment like you is going to last in there?"

Kate can see Jasper shrinking from the picture she's painting. "But we're smarter than your guys, Jasper. You've already seen how much smarter. We can protect you, but you need to play ball with us. If you want to keep on breathing, we're the only hope you have."

Jasper sinks against his pillows. "What do you want?"

Kate moves closer, letting the determined set of her face fill Jasper's vision. "I want to know everything you know about the operation you work for, and I don't mean the prison system. But you can start with the person who sent you after me."

"He's a tactical officer. Lockwood, his name is Lockwood."

Esposito meets Kate as she and Castle step off the elevator at the precinct. "Lockwood's gone. He's not at Rikers. His apartment is cleaned out. He left his car behind, so we can't track him that way. Got his personnel record. That is one dangerous dude. He was special ops. I got his military record too. Most of it is redacted, but if you read between the lines of what's there, it looks like the army got rid of him because he was a wet boy who liked the job too much. The man's a stone killer, Beckett. Probably the only reason he didn't try to take you out himself is that whoever is holding his leash wanted to make it look like an accident."

"And isn't going to care much about that anymore," Castle speculates grimly.

"You got a picture of this guy, Javi?" Kate queries.

Esposito pulls a photo out of the folder he's holding and hands it to Kate. From over her shoulder, Castle stares at the image. "He might have already altered his appearance; changed his hair color, maybe added facial hair. But there's something helter-skelter about those eyes. It's probably what scared the hell out of the army. I'd recognize those in any face."

Kate silently nods. "How about the other records from Rikers, Espo? Did we get them?"

Ryan strides up to join them. "I can tell you about those. We have some of the visitor logs, but a few somehow mysteriously disappeared. Most of the surveillance video was short-term, and they recorded over it, but we have about two weeks' worth. I've been scrubbing it. Nothing so far, but the good news is that Tech doesn't believe it's been altered. If there is anything there, we'll find it."

Kate shoves her hair out of her face. "I'd love to know what's in those missing visitor logs, but Jasper Goodlatte may be able to fill in some of the missing pieces. Is the safe house set up for him?"

Esposito grunts. "Too damn good for that scumbag. We snagged an old stripper joint in Brooklyn that got seized because what was on stage and at the bar wasn't the only joy the owner was selling. Sharp place. The owner set himself up an apartment there with all the appliances and stuff, and it's in pretty good shape. There's a dressing room in the basement where the dancers used to change. Solid walls. Worse comes to worst; it's a defensible retreat. Ryan and I can take shifts, and we're going to use JT. But we'll need more people we're sure we can trust. I was thinking McNulty and Karpowski. They've both had our backs before."

"Good," Kate agrees. "And I'll take shifts too. I want to squeeze everything I can out of Goodlatte. Castle, you want in on that?'

Esposito and Ryan wander off as Castle grins. "Can I use the pliers? Or maybe we can get one of those thumbscrews. Pity they don't make racks anymore."

"Castle, terrified as Goodlatte probably is of Lockwood, I don't think we'll need any medieval devices. More likely, sorting out what we can actually use from what he gives us will be the problem."

"Well if we can't use whatever he vomits forth to track down Lockwood and his boss, I can always weave it into a prison scene or two in a book. I have no idea why, but my fans seem to love those."

Kate jabs him with her elbow. "They'd probably rather read about a prison than be in one."

Castle turns, his eyes meeting hers. "Or maybe they just prefer it to incarceration in the prisons they build around themselves."