okay i know it has been awhile since i last posted. my computer crashed on me while i was working on this and was barely able to retrieve it. so here it is, mistakes and all, chapter 7.

Aftermath Chapter 7

Ryan and Esposito stood in the elevator, with two uniformed officers, as they went to clear the next floor of the building. Ryan checks his phone and Esposito looks over his shoulder to see it.

"Anything from Alexis?" Esposito asks. They have been checking and clearing every floor searching for their primary crime scene.

"Nothing yet, I'll give her a call once our shift ends." Ryan answers The doors to the elevator open and all four step out. The uniformed officers started their part of the sweep.

"We should probably head over to the hospital and check up on them when we're done here." Esposito adds. He figures that It wouldn't taken too much longer to search the building. Ryan sees an apartment door open slightly, and knows that their day has just gotten longer.

"I think you may have spoken too soon, Javi." Ryan points to the door at the the end of the hall and Ryan and Esposito have have the officers stack up behind them. Esposito called out.

"NYPD! Anyone here!?" When the detectives didn't hear an answer, Esposito called again. "We're coming in." Esposito opens the door wide open and All officers march in, clearing the apartment. Once the officers began to clear the apartment the detectives looked around the apartment and realized that they found their primary crime scene: Cutting tools all over the floor and a giant impression on the floor.

"We must have interrupted the clean up." Ryan states as he see a industrial size bottle of bleach and a scrub brush near the coffee table.

"Detectives! There's something back her that you need to see." Said one of the uniformed officers. The detectives walk into the back bedroom of the apartment. once they entered the bedroom, they were shocked at what they saw: All over the back wall of the room were photos of their victim and an unidentified female. Looking at the photos on the wall, the woman in the pictures was the theme in all them.

"I think we have a bigger problem on our hands" States Esposito as he looks at the wall.

Back at the twelfth, Vikram and Ellis were still working on the computer files. Vikram working through the encryption Ellis looking at everything that she could find on "Caleb Brown" and found a few more files, but not enough to connect them to Mason Wood, at least not yet. Hailey is also looking through some of the files as well when Holliday walks into the room talking to Ryan on the phone. "Okay, keep me posted, detective." Holliday hangs up the phone and takes a deep breath and let it out quickly. Hailey looked up.

"What happened?" Holliday looks at Hailey as the rest of them look back at her.

"Ryan and Esposito found the primary crime scene and it looks like we might have a possible abduction on our hands." Holliday looks at Ellis. "Ellis, I might need you to help them out when they come in. so continue on this until they get here." Ellis nods and continues to work at the computer. Vikram's computer beeps as the encryption key finally does its job and Vikram finally has access to the information that they need. Hailey, Ellis, and Holliday stopped what they were doing and gathered around the screen.

"Here we go." Vikram states as he goes through each of the files. "Let's see what we go here." He finds the a document and brings it on the main screen. "Well, this is the unredacted version of the document that I sent to McCord ten months ago. It's a shipping manifest for the R.M.S Bentley and Captain Ziering. Something here that looks like a separate manifest from was the original shipment." Holliday reads through the report. She's wondering why this is the first time she's heard about this. Holliday looks at Vikram and asks.

"Why am I only hearing about this now?" Vikram looks back at her and see that she doesn't look happy. Hailey decides to help him out.

"If this is the first time anyone has actually seen this file unredacted. You got to cut the man some slack." Hailey knows how thorough Holliday is, but sometimes she toes the line a bit much.

"I don't like surprises." Holliday decides to move on. "Do we know where the Bentley and Captain Ziering are now?"

"Looks like The Bentley along with Captain Ziering will be pulling into port in the next three to four hours." Responds Vikram as he pulls up the ship's GPS up onto the screen. Holliday nods.

"Okay then. Can you bring up all the reports on the Bentley from when Ziering took command until now?" Vikram nods and pulls up the reports onto the drive. "Okay, now I need to see the inventory lists on all the shipping supplies. Vikram brings brings up a list very quickly. "You brought that list up oftly fast there, Vikram." Hailey looks over at Vikram and smirks as does Ellis.

"Beckett and I were already looking into the Captain's financials during murder investigation a few months back." He knew that he had to tell her or she was going to yank it out of him. He had done a background check on Holliday, and it was safe to say that she is a force to be reckoned with. After going through that background check, he knew better than to keep anything from her.

"Was it related to LokSat?" was all Holliday asked. Vikram nods.

"The victim had a packet of Heroin in stomach worth $30,000. We traced the drug signature to back to LoKSat. The Crew members on board we less than cooperative when Beckett and Castle we investigating. They still caught one of the crew members on video chasing the victim. He ended up pleading out. We traced the drugs back to a warehouse that was incorporated by Brown." Holliday looks at him.

"And he wasn't brought in because the drugs were gone at that point." Holliday infers and Vikram nods. "Beckett was only able to do so much with the info she had. We had to wait until we had something concrete in order to move forward."

"Which was just recently, I'm guessing." Holliday states and Hailey nods with Vikram.

"It wasn't until a about a week ago Mr. Brown provided Beckett with a cell phone about a week before their shooting." Hailey chimed in.

"So, he played Beckett and her husband, making them believed that he had switched sides, fakes his death and hopes that they die in shootout so he can disappear?"

"But, Mason Wood came in and saved them when I lost sight of them during the shootout. WHy save them if he was just going to kill them anyway?" Hailey asks.

"Mason wanted to know what they knew about his operation, and who else knew." Ellis adds in. Then Holliday adds in the terrifying thought that no one else wanted to say out loud.

"He needed to know how many more people he needed to kill to keep his operation going. And by my guess that was the two of you," Holliday gestures to Hailey and Vikram. "Detectives Ryan and Esposito…" Holliday is interrupted by Hailey.

"And Castle's mother and daughter." Holliday looks back at Hailey.

"That would have been a hell of a mess to clean up. You think I can tac on four count of attempted murder on him?"

"I don't see why not? The bastard had Castle tied up and started pumping him for information as soon as he got there." Holliday never heard such anger tone come from her before. Apparently Castle means more to her that she's letting on. And that's a first for her.

Vikram also has pulled up information on another set of files. "What a minute, what's this?" Vikram began to pull up file after file and throwing them up onto the screen.

"Vikram, what am I looking at?" Holliday stares at each of the files as they are thrown up onto the screen.

"Everything, from his business dealings here and overseas, to his receipts used for his detective agency. Which from what I can tell was being used to launder his money from his drug trafficking operation." Vikram pulls up the file that connects the Bentley to the G.D.S.

"G.D.S.?" Holliday is surprised to see that logo pop up here of all places.

"The 'Greatest Detective Society',' Hailey starts but is interrupted by Holliday

"I know who they are, I had to deal with the members and a few wannabes when I worked for LAPD. Never met Wood though. The others are irritating as hell."

"Well, Wood was the director of the L.A Chapter. He had Castle and another PI solve the murder of a member. Castle solved it first and was offered a spot in G.D.S."

"And he didn't take it." Stated Holliday. She didn't know much about Castle, but she knew enough about him to know that he wouldn't just take a job like that on impulse. Not if he had a life here.

"He didn't want to be separated from Beckett." Hailey added in. She's seen the devotion Castle has to his wife. Holliday begins to understand a little bit more about the mystery writer.

"Okay then, I'm going to need a copy of all this, so I can present it to Deputy Chief Gates and the rest of 1PP." Holliday looks at Ellis as she gives her the order. She then faces Hailey and Vikram. "And I need you two to get me everything you can on the R.M.S. Bentley, Captain Ziering, and his crew. I want to who has worked for him the longest and who is the closest to him. I also need his location so I can have a federal Judge issue him and his crew warrants for their arrest." She knows she can get these guys to cooperate if she can tie them all to the murder on the cruise ship and to the drugs. Then, Officer L.T. pops his head into the room.

"Lieutenant, there's a call for you on line two." and just like that, L.T. pops his head right out as Holliday reaches for the phone.

"This is Holliday. Yes, sir. I understand, sir. On my way." Holliday hangs up the phone and turns the the group. "That was Gates, I have a meeting with her a 1PP to give her a full update. Ellis, go with Karpowski and greet our friendly Captain with an arrest warrant when it gets here." Ellis nods and Holliday makes her way out of the room, towards 1PP, and hopefully be able to explain this whole thing to the Deputy Chief Gates and make it make sense.