CHAPTER 11

Ryan got in the apartment where Esposito was and saw the mess, he rolled his eyes around the apartment, the place had definitely been trashed, whoever did that was looking for something and apparently didn't find. CSU started to look for prints and collect samples of the blood stain found around the fire escape, while Ryan fed his partner on the news.

"Doorman says he saw Maddox talking with Rob in the lobby, he was asking for some files and apparently for Mr. Smith too. Rob resisted and didn't say anything but the conversation never reached another level. I'll check in the cameras to confirm what the doorman said"

"Great… Something tells me this blood is from one of our victims and that Maddox trashed this place. Do you know who lives here?"

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot… Ted lived here"

"So it's more likely this is Ted's blood"

"Probably, but we can't affirm that. Could be Rob's"

"Let's wait for the results, meanwhile we should check—"

Esposito stopped and saw something on the ground; he reached for the corner of the window leading to the fire escape and found a bullet case. He looked outside the window to a probably direction where the shot could've taken and said:

"We need to confirm, but I guess this is from a 9mm"

"Probably Maddox tried to shoot one of our victims here, but missed the shot. So the victim climbs down through the fire escape and tries to run, but Maddox is a professional hitman and reaches him first, giving the final shot"

"Yeah could be, let's take this to the lab too to run some tests"

"I'll ask for some uniforms to cover the apartments to see if anyone heard a shot, unless Maddox used a silencer someone must have heard something"

"Good, I'll go down pick up the things we asked with the doorman"

Esposito went down to the lobby and Ryan went to talk to some uniforms to help him cover the apartment and CSU went outside to look for the bullet hole in the wall, that missed bullet hit somewhere in that alley. They started wondering what this would lead them; this case looked like a labyrinth. They felt that every move they made was predicted no matter how strategic they were, but they needed to keep doing that and it was not a question of pride, but loyalty.

Esposito got the things with the doorman and before he left to the Precinct CSU called him to show the bullet they found on the wall, after that they left; Ryan stayed at the building interviewing the neighbors, but found nothing. The silencer theory was more likely to be true so Ryan got back to the Precinct with his fingers crossed for the results on the bullet case, soon it should show led residues indicating the use of the silencer.

It didn't take too much for the results to come. Esposito had asked some urgency in the analysis and as soon as he got it he put them on the murder board. Ryan sat beside Esposito and said:

"So, nothing with the neighbors; no one heard or saw anything unusual, but I have the surveillance tape from the building's lobby, I'll watch it to see if our doorman was telling the truth"

It was still night after Beckett ran with Castle to his bedroom. They fell asleep and when Castle woke up he found nothing but cold sheets on his left side. He wondered if he should stay worried, but he decided to get up anyway and check on his girlfriend, that was sat in the couch, apparently waiting for him because when she looked back and saw him she smiled.

"Why do I have the honors to be welcomed with this smile?"

"Because…"

"Don't say it, let me guess… You want to play Guitar Hero?"

"What? No!"

Beckett looked at him and laughed; she couldn't help but think that he was still that nine year old boy on a sugar rush.

"Then why?"

"I was thinking… all this time Montgomery knew who killed my mother and didn't say anything. Everyone who's been dead probably knew his identity too and no one ever said a word, not even when I pushed really hard to get a name"

Castle had no idea where she was going with this, so he just kept starring at her; nodding for her not to stop talking.

"What if… I'm not supposed to know. I mean could be anyone…"

"You know Beckett, when I first met you I saw in you a determined woman. You became a cop because of your mother, but that was the main reason. I think you felt the need of fixing something that was wrong, like the fact that no one ever caught your mom's killer and even worse they reported as something random when you knew it wasn't and you ended up proving it really wasn't random. All these years you've been working as a detective solving crimes that you… You found yourself able to fix everything, but there are some things you can't fix"

She just stared at him because she knew he was right and a tear trickled down her face. She didn't know if she was ready to let it go, she was afraid that she would let her mother down, but then, she thought, she couldn't let her mom down, because she was dead. As bad as that sounded in her head, she knew it was true and she accepted that.

Meanwhile, at the Precinct Esposito started:

"This is the lab result for the blood stain we found in the apartment. It's not a match in neither of our guys. We're running in our database to see if we can find a match, but so far we hit nothing. Whoever did this didn't want to be found, but we are better".

"I checked the surveillance video from the lobby. The doorman was telling the truth, but there's one thing odd on the video. C'mon, let me show you"

Ryan led Esposito to the room to check the video.

"See this man right there? He enters in the building and goes straight to the elevators… but we know that you need to identify yourself to go in. Now, I thought that he could live there, but his face was too familiar, so I called the doorman and asked him to check on the copy of the video he has there. Turns out this guy doesn't live there and according to the other cameras he went upstairs to apartment 207 and then – Ryan pointed to the screen again and also to the time stamp – 20 minutes later he goes out… The funny thing is that right after he leaves; Maddox ends the conversation with Rob and goes after the guy".

"He had plenty of time to go upstairs, shot Ted and mess up the apartment and went out. When Rob went upstairs and found all the mess he didn't know what to do"

"What about Ted?"

Esposito went to the murder board saying:

"Ted… tried to escape through the fire escape and our John Doe shot him. When Ted disappeared on the fire escape, he thought he had finished the job and left. All the while, Ted was on the fire escape" – A uniform handed a file to Esposito – "Ha! Check this out! The prints on the fire escape are Ted's. We're on the right line here Ryan".

"That's great. So Rob gets in the apartment and finds everything trashed locks everything and tells the doorman someone will show up there".

"Yeah, I bet that the blood stamp belongs to our John Doe. Ryan… what if this man was the one who hired Dick Coonan to kill Johanna and the others. What if he's behind all of this, Maddox is struggling to get the job done and the guy doesn't want to wait, so he goes to Ted's apartment because he knows that Ted is investigating his case, but the file isn't there"

"Ted figured everything out, because he had friends in higher places…"

"Ryan, we have the file let's read it all over again – Esposito looked at his partner and saw him in a trance – Ryan?"

"I knew I had seen him before!" Ryan pointed to the TV.

Today, Senator William Bracken starts his campaign to run for the Presidency of the United States…

"Son of a bitch… It's him Ryan!"