After many attempts of up loading, and months of writing this out. I present to you the latest chapter. There will probably be two, maybe three more chapters in this story. I am currently working on a stand alone story of Holliday that I do plan on publishing. All mistakes are mine, I will probably go back and fix them later. In the meantime, enjoy.
I DO NOT OWN CASTLE, I just own Lt. Jo Holliday.
Aftermath Chapter 6
The setting was already setting when Esposito and Ryan arrived at the crime scene. The parking garage was surrounded by police cars. Ryan is on the phone as they get out of their car. Esposito starts to put on his gloves as Ryan gets off the phone.
"What did Alexis say?" Esposito asks him. He tries to focus to the task at hand, but after what Vikram discovered earlier, he's finding it difficult to do so.
"She said that Castle is still under sedation and that they still haven't moved Beckett from the ICU yet." Ryan informs him. Alexis didn't give him any other information on her dad and Beckett, and he was hoping that nothing else has happened.
Both detectives must compartmentalize for the time being as they walk closer to the crime scene. Esposito happens to look up and notices which medical examiner is standing over the body. "Oh great. Morgan's on this one." Esposito rolls his eyes as Ryan follows his gaze towards the ever-eccentric British M.E. and his freakishly tall assistant.
"Come on, he's not that bad." Ryan reminds him about the last time these two had to deal with him. Which was a few months back when the good doctor had made fun of Esposito's wardrobe without him realizing it until Castle had pointed it out to him. He's hated him ever since.
"Not that bad? Do you remember what he said about me?" Ryan just smiles back.
"He didn't say anything to you, he complimented me on my suit." Ryan can see that Esposito is getting more irritated the closer they get the Dr. Morgan and the body, he decides to have a little more fun.
"Yeah, then looked at me and said nothing." Esposito couldn't believe the nerve of this guy. Ryan just kind of smiles, happy for the distraction.
"Well, maybe if you didn't treat every day as casual Friday." Ryan says to Espo, deciding to have some fun at his friend's expense.
"Wait, you have a problem with the way I dress?" Esposito stops and looks at Ryan.
"I didn't say that." Ryan realizes that Esposito is giving him the same look that Jenny gives him when he's in trouble at home. "It's just… would it kill you to wear a tie every occasionally?" Ryan just turned and walked right up to Dr. Morgan as he stood next to the car with the body still inside.
"Detective Ryan, good to see to see you again." Dr. Morgan turns and faces the two detectives.
"What have you got, Doc?" Esposito asks as he stands behind Ryan.
"Well, what we have is an unidentified adult male, about 35 to 40-years-old, who has been slashed from ear to ear." Dr. Morgan relays the information to the two detectives as they both look at the body and the crime scene. They see that the body has been drained of blood, and as they look at the interior of the car they notice something else; no blood.
"Bled out where?" Esposito asks. He leans in closer to the body and looks at the floor, there's nothing. No blood dripping from the neck, nothing on the car floor. Not one drop.
"Now that is the question, detectives." Dr. Morgan looks at the body in front of him, he sees the clean cut across the victim's throat. No hesitation marks, nothing but a straight clean cut across the neck.
"Any chance you got a time of death, Doc?" Ryan asks the M.E as Esposito looks around the car. This case already took a turn as soon as they got there. Castle would love this case.
"Well, based on the level of levity that has set in, I would say anywhere between ten to twelve hours ago." Dr. Morgan informs the boys. "I'll know more once I get the body back to morgue."
"Okay. Thanks, Doc," Ryan nods and walks around the car with Esposito as Dr. Morgan prepares to move the body. Ryan starts to compare notes with Esposito. "So, we have a dead guy in a car. No wallet, no ID."
"Not even sure if it's his car." Esposito interrupts Ryan who just looks back at him. "The license plates are fake, there's no VIN number on the vehicle, and no registration on the car."
"We couldn't get a simple 'Bill shot Phil over Jill' case?" Ryan asks him.
"I'm just not in the mood to deal with this. The sooner we can get an ID on this guy, the better." Esposito looks around the parking garage to see if he could find any traces of the primary crime scene. "Let's start checking the surrounding buildings for our primary crime scene." Ryan nods in response and they begin their search.
In an empty New Jersey Parking garage, Holliday and Hailey stand in the center of the third level. They have waited for over an hour already and Holliday was starting to lose her patience.
"Well, I have officially reaffirmed the conclusion that I came to a long time ago." Holliday looks around the darkened garage.
"Which is what?" Hailey asks.
"That I absolutely hate playing spy." Hailey laughs at Holliday's answer. "It's not funny, Hailey. Standing around and playing the waiting game is not my idea of fun."
Hailey shakes her head and asks, "And sitting at a console for twelve hours a day is?" Hailey knew how valuable Holliday was as an analyst, but she was a natural intelligence operative. She always thought that it was a waste of talent and always tried to get her into the field when she could.
"I didn't just sit at a console," Holliday states, "I processed the information and put a puzzle together. Something that I can do more effectively as a cop."
"And you couldn't do that out in the field as an agent?" Hailey asks her. Knowing full well that there was a chance that she was going to sidestep the question.
"Too many variables when you're out in the field. You can't focus on the overall problem if there is someone shooting at you." Holliday's statement made Hailey turn towards her old friend.
"Name one time you were shot at?" She asks Holliday. Holliday just looks back at her as if she's just asked a very loaded question. She did.
"Let's see, there's was Paris, Spain, let's not forget Prague…" Holliday starts off with as Hailey just shakes her head. Holliday continues, "And let's not forget the parking garage in London; I was being shot at and chased down by a car."
"I think you're exaggerating a bit." Hailey tells her. She knows that Holliday had a few close calls, but not to the extent that she's been describing.
"I had to jump from the third floor into the Thames River." Holliday stops and looks at her. Not believing for one second that Hailey forgot that part of the story. Considering that Hailey was the one who got her out of the river.
"It wasn't the third floor." Hailey assures her. She remembered that day fairly well, and she's certain that she didn't jump from the third floor of the parking structure.
"Excuse me, I think I would remember which floor I jumped from." Holliday was quick with the response. "I wrecked my phone during that whole thing. I had just gotten it too."
Hailey just laughs at her "Why are you always worrying about your phone?" Holliday just looks at her.
"You know, I don't begrudge you on your coping mechanisms." Holliday was already losing her patience and if Hailey was going to keep this up, she wasn't going to be held responsible for her actions. But at least she was going to try to calm herself down. "I'm going to walk around the perimeter one more time." Holliday was about to step away when another figure appeared in the shadows.
"That won't be necessary, Lieutenant." Holliday and Hailey stop and face the female figure hiding in the shadows. Holliday rolls her eyes.
"Are you kidding? Could you be any more of a cliché? Did you show up in a black SUV as well?" Holliday knows that she should press her luck, but she really couldn't help herself sometimes.
"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, Lieutenant. I have the information you need to lock up LokSat and throw away the key." The figure tells them from a distance.
"What makes you think your information is that valuable?" Hailey asked. They already had enough to charge him and the rest of his associates where there's no way out for them.
The figure holds up a small flash drive into the light for the two of them to see. "The encryption key for the emails that Vikram is in the middle of deciphering now." Hailey and Holliday both look at each other and thinking the same thing; if Rita and Jackson aren't bugging the 12th, then this person is. Holliday had already begun to lose her patience about an hour ago, so she was not in a mood to play games.
"How do we know we can trust you?" Hailey had asked as Holliday began to walk a few steps towards the woman.
"Because she has to trust us." Holliday says. She stands about ten feet from the figure in the shadows. "She wants to get her life back. Isn't that right, Agent McCord?" Holliday wished that she could see Hailey's reaction because it really didn't take too long for Holliday to figure out who the woman in the shadows was. "You might as well come out of hiding, I know it's you."
The woman hesitates in her first step and slowly walks into the light. With her wavy hair tied back revealing the already healed burn scars on her face.
"How did you know it was me?" The shocked look on the former AG face; she was impressed but terrified at the same time. She had been extremely careful covering her tracks, not wanting to get killed. She had spent the last ten months trying to find anything that would bring down that bastard that killed her team and almost killed her. Ten months hiding in the shadows because she didn't know who she could trust. She wasn't even sure if she could trust Beckett. And this one figures it on in only a few hours. It makes her wonder if LokSat knew she was alive.
"Our last conversation. You may have been able to disguise your voice, but the cadence in your speech pattern was still the same. To me, that is just as distinctive as a fingerprint." Holliday had spent hours going over Beckett's case files on LokSat and on the AG team that was killed. Hours listening to Beckett and McCord's interrogations on audio and video. Looking for anything else that would help with the case. "We're here to help, Rachel."
"I don't know that. For all I know you work for LokSat?" McCord tells her. Paranoia has crept up into her mind during the last ten months. McCord draws her weapon and Hailey draws hers. "How do I know the two of won't just shoot me and run?"
"Because that's not how I work and you know it. We're here to help, Rachel." She needs McCord to trust her. The last thing that Holliday needs right now is a standoff.
"I want believe that. But I need to be sure." McCord tells her.
"I think you do believe it, McCord. Otherwise, you wouldn't have reached out to me. If that flashdrive does what you say it does, then Mason Wood will get what's coming to him. Let me have it," Holliday gestures to the flashdrive in McCord's hand. "And you'll get your life back." Holliday really wants to defuse the situation before it escalates.
"I would listen to her, Rachel. She on your side." A voice says behind the group. All three turn as Rita steps out of the shadows. Hailey and McCord are both surprised to see her as Holliday is just about ready to just roll her eyes. Again.
"What are you doing here, Rita?" McCord asks. Hailey was surprised that McCord knew her at all.
"Making sure that no one here gets hurt. Now could you do me a favor and stop pointing your gun at my daughter please?" Rita asks McCord and McCord puts the gun away. Hailey moves and stands next to Holliday as she puts her weapon away.
"You called your mother?" Hailey asks, surprised that she would do such a thing.
"We're in an abandoned parking garage in New Jersey. Alone. In what is probably the most stereotypical spy scenario that I could possibly think of." Was Holliday's response. She may seem like she's a risk taker, but she looks at every angle like it was a chess board. She doesn't like being unprepared. Which was surprising since her ancestor was a maverick and took risks all the time. "Now that everyone is calm, can we get back to the reason why we are here?" McCord nods and hands Holliday the flashdrive. Literally putting her fate into Holliday's hands.
"You got this?" Was all McCord asked. Holliday nods. McCord continues, "I want to go home."
"I'll make sure you will." Holliday tells her. She knows what's on the line. She knows that McCord wasn't going to come out of hiding unless she was sure that it was absolutely safe to do so. McCord nods to Holliday and then to Rita and Hailey and then walks away. The sound of her footsteps fade after a moment. Holliday turns to Rita and Hailey. "Well, that was dramatic."
"That's the game, Jo. You know that." Rita reminds her. There's a reason that the stereotypes exist in the first place.
"How is it that you know McCord?" Hailey beats Holliday to the question. She starting to wonder how much she could trust Rita herself.
"I met her once on a case about twelve years ago." Was Rita's response. McCord was pretty much a rookie back then. A lot of promise back then. And when this is all over she'll hopefully still have a career. Holliday looks at Rita.
"She must have made quite an impression." Hailey states.
"She did." Rita looks at Holliday. Let's hope that McCord didn't lose her touch." She looks back at Holliday who is looking at the flashdrive in her hand. Holiday stares at the object in her hand. Hoping that this would help put the final nail in LokSat's coffin. Holliday puts the Flashdrive in her front pocket and turns to the two women.
"Let's finish this."
