Chapter 7
Fight or Flight
On Monday and Tuesday Beckett was not pleasant to be around. Ryan and Esposito tried to avoid her, if at all possible. The problem was, they couldn't.
By Wednesday at noon there'd been no improvement.
"What's with her?" Ryan asked his partner.
"Beats me, she been one sour thing all week, and there's no end in sight." Espo said, keeping his head down to avoid eye contact with her.
"Hey, what are you two mumbling about over there?" Beckett barked as she watched them attempt to talk without her noticing.
"Is there something you have to say? Something you need to ask me?" Her voice was mostly a growl.
"No, we're just great over here," Espo shot back.
"Well that's too bad." She retorted.
About 3:15 she got a call. Espo watched her as she put down her phone, and smiled. He hadn't seen one of those in days.
She walked over to their desks, they looked for something to do to avoid her wrath, "I'm going to going to get some coffee, you guys want anything?"
They both just stared up at her, searching for the right response, but struggling to find it. Each wondered, what had just happened?
"Hello!"
"Hello! Is anyone in there?"
"This is not a trick question." Espo at last exhaled, and thought to himself, this needs to get fixed, whatever it is.
"No Beckett, I'm good, it's too late in the day for coffee."
"Ryan followed suit, "Same for me, too late."
"You two are wusses!" She turned and walked out.
Twenty minutes later she returned, coffee in hand and still wearing the smile.
At 4:45 Castle walked in, she looked up, like everything was hunky-dory and smiled, "Hey Castle."
"Beckett, how's your day" Smiling down at her.
"It's been was good."
Ryan and Esposito looked at each other with crunched eyebrows, conveying a clear message of, not.
Then Ryan, under his breath whispered, "Doctor who?"
Espo replied, "Exactly, she didn't mourn long, did she?"
"Doesn't matter, he was a loser."
Then after further consideration added, "I never liked that guy."
XX
Castle fiddled with the records for about 30 minutes while Beckett worked on something else.
He glanced away from the screen and she was staring at him. "What?"
She laughed, "Just say it?"
"Just say what?"
"You have tells Castle! Your mouth starts to twitch before you're going to say something." Letting out a small laugh like sound.
"You've been doing it off and on for about the last five minutes."
"You've been watching me for five minutes?" Staring at her suspiciously.
"No, not really", she lied, "But your other tells, also lets me know."
"And what pray tell Detective, are those?
"Oh now that's clever, what pray tell? Really?"
"Just let it rip!" Castle groaned, delighted in teasing her.
"You start rocking back and forth in your chair. Well, actually in my chair. And then you ask your questions or tell me what you've found."
"So, I'm and open book to you Detective Beckett?" He was laughing but she was not. She just stared back, a confused look on her face. He wasn't sure what he'd said, but pressed on.
"I need more records...a lot more records." Attaching a sheepish smile for good measure.
She re-bounded, "Now, was that so hard?
But that not new, you told me that last week."
"I need a random sampling of all the bank customer's statements for," he paused and looked up at the ceiling, "two years?"
"Beckett shook her head, "Wow, that would indeed qualify as a...a lot more. Tell me why."
He rocked back in her chair, folded his hands in his lap and steepled his fingers, "I think someone is stealing from the customers."
"From what I've seen thus far, there are extra charges, even though it's only pennies, it looks like about only twenty percent of the accounts have noted corrections. That gives an appearance that the bank is fixing an error, you know, so it looks like a simply mistake. But the majority of the errors, if they are errors are not corrected."
"My guess is that it was Lilly's job was to correct the 'overcharges' and then notify the customer, or maybe just add a note to their monthly statement."
"Most of her records show a corrections, but not all of them."
Becket leaned onto the desk, "So a random sampling of customer accounts would allow you to see if it was being done system wide, or not?" She smiled greedily.
"That's it Detective." As he now rubbed his hands together, mirroring her look of greed.
"Beckett!", she turned to face Esposito, " I just got a call back from IT, she took a closer look at the instructor's laptop."
"And," she stood and walked over to his desk.
"On her first pass she saw that Mark Wades files contained one file with a string of code, she thought maybe it was just something he was teaching in one of his classes. But on a second pass she noticed the code was for the decimal point adjustments."
"So it would affect less a fraction of a cent!" Beckett said and turned to look at Castle.
"I think you're on to something Castle, and it looks like we might have a solid connection between the murders of Mark Wade and Lilly."
"Tell her good work Espo." Beckett felt like they were finally rolling, she had that intense blood-hound look in her eye.
"OK guys, we need to cast the net. The problem is it could be either someone inside or outside the bank. One is a closed community, the other is...yikes, the world."
"If it's someone who hacked the banks firewalls and started pillaging we'll have an impossible time finding them. But..."
"It easier from the outside, but why kill someone if you can't be found? This looks like an inside thing." Castle chimed in.
"I agree" said Ryan, "You'd be on hand to watch for any potential of discovery."
"Ryan, Espo, start with the in-house training classes and then the outside classes. The bank will have a records of who took an outside course based on who was reimbursed. That could provide us with a number of suspects."
"Then start running financials on everyone in the bank were Lilly worked . See if there's been in large purchases or money transfers by her co-workers."
She paused and Castle spoke up, "I'd suggest a check on vacations to places with banks...you know the island banking thing. If the persons behind this is careful, they'd be using an off-shore untraceable bank." Castle paused, "It's all done electronically, no shoe box under the bed or buried in the some back yard."
Beckett had a thought, "One thing, don't let anyone know we think there's a connection between the two Vic's, if it's an insider, will have to move with extreme caution."
"Yeah, this killer has strangled one vic and gut-shot the another. It takes a special kind of trash to do that." Esposito shook his head in disgust.
XX
The email came in about 8:30, Alexis sat up when she heard the notification.
Lex, attached are three pictures my Mom took. Let me know what you think,T.
She hit the attachment icon and a picture of she and Tom filled the screen, she thought it was a really good photograph. Obviously, his Mom knew how to handle a camera.
The next picture was of herself with Beckett on one side and her Dad on the other. All three were smiling with bright eyes at the camera. Another great picture.
Alexis took a deep breath when she saw the third. Again it was her, Beckett and her Dad. But this time Beckett and her Dad must had stopped paying attention because each had turned their heads slightly to look the other. Alexis felt her eyes cloud with emotion, she had not seen her Dad look that happy for a long while. What shocked her was that the Detectives' smile was a mirror image of his.
Alexis thought back to Mrs. Enn's question about Beckett being her Dad's girlfriend, and the 'vibe' thing. She thought maybe Tom's Mom was right, something was happening between those two. It made her smile, and then she laughed about the mom & dad text joke she'd sent them. Maybe it wasn't a joke after all.
She sent Tom a text, Wow those are really good, tell your mom thanks, A.
He shot back, Do you think your dad's in love? lol T.
She laughed as she responded, I'm not sure if he knows it, but pictures don't lie. Ha Ha A.
She returned to her homework. She was going to get prints of the pictures, tomorrow.
XX
They settled back into the task of drafting a request for another subpoena for the Judge to review and sign. Once done they'd serve it on the bank's computer record division. They would have to explain the connection between the murders of Lilly and Mark Wade. However they'd provide the details to the Judge in person, so they wouldn't be giving away too much in the subpoena itself.
If they were on the right track, they'd still had a lot to figure out. Like how the bank had failed to detect the withdraws. There had to be someone in the IT department who could decipher the code and sort out how the thief was able to accomplish the theft.
They would also have to discover how someone this sophisticated could fool the banks computer geeks, but not Lilly and Mark.
Their tech would need to be an expert in coding, as well as the software safe-guard programing and how it could be over-ridden. Beckett had an idea and called a friend in the IT department. Unfortunately he was out, so she left a message.
She found she was suddenly tired. She'd been emotionally raged all week, snapping at everyone, stuck in a general funk. She wasn't she why, but she'd had enough of this day, "Guys, let's call this a wrap. We can dive in tomorrow." Everyone nodded in agreement.
After Esposito and Ryan left Castle asked if she was riding out of the city with him or staying to work.
"Give me a couple of minutes and I'll be ready to go." Beckett turned to her computer and hit a few final keystrokes, then shut down the machine.
XX
They chatted on the way home, again revisiting the fun they'd had watching Alexis get ready for the Winter dance. Both agreed they'd probably had as much fun as the kids.
When they exited the car onto the subway platform they heard the roar from a group of people yelling and screaming at something. They notice a large crowd gathered around two guys who were going at it each other. Beckett couldn't tell who was the aggressor and moved toward the group of onlookers, but first she turned to Castle and barked, "Stay back."
She returned her attention to the crowd and yelled, "NYPD, break-it up, now!" as she rushed toward the two fighters. Unknown to her Castle was on her heels.
The fighter with his back to her, turned at her voice, and at the same time his opponent swung landing a fist to the man's shoulder. The guy whipped his head back and moved-in on the other fighter, who was slightly off balance by his own swing, he was struggling to keep his balance. Beckett came up behind them just as the guy swung his arm and elbow back to strike, it caught her square on the nose.
Castle saw Beckett's head jerk and then she was falling backwards. He was so close she fell into him. He reasoned she must have been knocked out since she was dead weight in his arms. It was not a good catch on his part, he half dropped her to the station floor.
The guy who had just elbowed her, spun and kicked at Beckett, but missed. He moved in for another try and Castle dove over her, the foot caught him in the ribs. He winced at the rush of pain and thought he heard a crack. He was sprawled over Beckett, when the guy yelled, "you bitch" and kicked at her again, but hit Castle a second time. On his third kick his shoe landed above Castle's right eye. Blood erupted and ran down his face.
The station filled with whistles and the sound of feet running towards the commotion. As the kicker turned again, the other fighter had disappeared. The remaining guy followed suit and fled into the crowd.
Beckett regained consciousness and groaned, "Castle, get off my leg...oh my nose..." She could feel the blood running into her mouth, she turned her head and spit. She then propted herself on one elbow and looked at Castle, half of his face was smeared with blood, he was groaning.
She heard a voice, "Folks, lie still the paramedic will be here soon." A young police officer was kneeling beside them. Beckett holding her nose, "I'm NYPD, he's with me."
The cop looked at them, " You're two are a mess."
Castle tried to get on to his knees but winced in pain at the attempt. "Sir, stay down until the paramedics can look at you."
XX
And hour later their were both in the ER, waiting for x-rays. Beckett's nose was covered with an ice pack and most of the blood had been cleaned off. Castle's shirt had been cut off and they'd applied a wrap bandage to put pressure on the rib injury.
"Beckett, Beckett," he exhaled and groaned calling her name, "You OK?"
"I'm OK Castle," her voice sounded funny with the nose compress. He started to laugh but the pain from the intake of air, stopped him cold.
"Castle!" She sighed, "What the hell were you thinking? I told you to stay back." With too much 'st' in the word stay.
"Beckett," he half groaned as he spoke, "He was going to kick you. I wasn't going to let that happen." Never even opening his eyes as he spoke.
She looked over and tears immediately stung her eyes. This was a good guy and she gotten him beaten-up, protecting her.
"Thank you," was all she could get out.
XX
Two hours later, they were released from the ER. Castle had called Alexis, who'd taken a cab to the hospital. She asked the driver to wait while she, 'fetched' the wounded.
As they walked out together, Alexis was trying to help her Dad, "Gee Dad, you tell me to be careful when I go out. I don't know if you and Detective Beckett should be allowed out alone."
He growled," Do not make me laugh...I hurt everywhere."
"Castle, you're a sissy!" Beckett teased. But she knew he must be beyond miserable with his rib and head injury.
The cab driver drove first to Beckett's apartment as instructed.
"Alexis, can you come in and help me?"
"Sure. Dad don't run-off." He sat, his eyes still closed and head against the back of the seat. He didn't bother to respond.
As soon as they entered, Beckett said she had to get the bloody clothes off. She changed into sweats, but staggered a bit due to the dizziness from her throbbing head. Alexis saw her weave and asked, "Are you OK?" and added, "Maybe you should sit down."
Beckett leaned against the edge of her sofa and took a deep breath. She turned to Alexis asking her if she'd help her get somethings together. "Sure, but why?"
She looked at the young girl, wondering how to say this, "I hope you don't mind, but I'd like to go to your place." Alexis turned and looked at her. The police woman looked very pale.
"Alexis , I can't leave your Dad alone. His ribs are going kill him. I've had mine bruised in fights a couple of time, it hurts every time you take a breath."
"Detective you're not in the best of shape yourself. You look like your about to pass out." Alexis stepped towards her and reached out a arm to steady her.
"I'll be OK!," She looked to the ground and gently shook her head, but winced. "This should not have even happen."
"Some times I get stuck in cop-mode."
"Instead trying to break-it up, I should've just called it in, or let the two slugs beat on each other."
Clearly upset by the outcome, "Alexis, your Dad took a beating for me! The least I can do is watch over him until he's a little better."
Alexis was not sure what to make of the conversation. She could see the Detective was really concerned, but she wondered again if more was going on between her and her Dad.
"I think Dad will be happy to have you around. He really enjoys your company."
She paused and added, "But he'd never expect you to care for him. He's just not like that!"
"I understand, I just feel like I need to do what I can."
They gathered what Beckett needed and returned to the waiting cab. When Castle heard the cab door opened, without lifting his head or turning to look asked, "What took so long ?"
Beckett responded, "I needed to get some things."
Castle immediately lifted his head and looked at her, "Beckett, what are you doing back?"
"I'm going to your place, to take care of a wounded accountant."
He smiled weakly at the comment.
XX
"You call that good news?" He rolled his head to look at her. The cab was making it's way through the City. He couldn't laugh because it still hurt too much. But to him she looked funny with the bandage that covered her nose and part of her cheeks.
"Wait, what's so funny?" Now glaring at him. But he was not convinced of her feigned anger.
"It's just you look like a little kid with your beak taped down."
"My beak?"
"I meant that euphemistically."
"Dad. I think you should stop now." Alexis was half laughing at the pairs bickering.
"Really? I've never thought of my nose as a beak? Is it really that big?"
"Beckett, please, it was a joke. You have a cute beak."
She shook her head, "Your hopeless...but don't try to distract me."
"And Yeah, one cracked and two bruised ribs is a lot better than a broken rib." Still trying to convince him it could have been much worse.
"Well let me tell you! All I know is my entire body aches...I'm not feeling to lucky, bruised, cracked, or whatever...it's killing me."
"And every time we hit a bump. Oh man..."
"Dad, I think Detective Beckett is telling you should be glad they're not broken."
"I get it! Just not yet."
He rolled his head again to face her, "So, Beckett, tell me what's under that cute bandage of yours."
"Just a little torn cartilage."
"But I have to tell you, the forceps up my nose..." She groaned, "I hope that never happens again in this life."
They all chuckled.
"Again, I don't think I should let you two out alone. You're just not safe." Alexis smiled and patted their legs, softly.