Chapter 6
The Facts of the Case/Where's Castle?/Spy Games
6.1
Kevin Ryan crossed himself as he walked into 'Our Lady of Victorian Church'.
His wife had asked him if everything was okay. He had been distracted during breakfast. Ryan was tempted to tell Jenna everything but stuck to the rule they had agreed on when he was off duty. They would never discuss what current case he was working on or anything to do with the job. He didn't want to discuss murders while he was with his wife.
Neverthless, Ryan wanted, NEEDED to talk to someone. The last few days had been a nightmare, his partner felt betrayed by him and Beckett had quit. And now, he was saddled with working on a homicide by himself. He felt conflicted, people he respected and cared about were on the outer and he couldn't reach out to them because he was on the hunt for a murderer.
The visit to Perlmutter at the ME's office showed cause of death as being strangulation. There were ligature marks around the neck as well as marks on the back of her head consistent with being bashed against a flat surface, most probably against a wall in the alley she was found in. His only lead was the church the nun worshipped at.
Ryan looked around.
"Hello? Detective Kevin Ryan here, anyone home?"
A door opened to his left and nun walked purposely in his direction
"Hi, I'm Sister Heath, what can I help you with?"
Ryan, flashed his badge and took a deep breath
"I'm Detective Ryan, do you know this person?"
The Sister looked at the photo, the look of recognition and shock was all Ryan needed to see.
"That's Rachael!, on blessed Jesus! She's dead?"
"I'm so sorry for your loss"
Ryan then asked her the usual questions, when did you see her last? Does she have any family? Where would she have been at midnight this morning? Did she live near by where she was found?
Grief stricken, Sister Heath haltingly answered. The victims full name was Rachael Thompson, she had no family and had been with the church for the past 7 years. She worked closely with Father McKenzie in organising the daily running of the church's homeless shelter. She had last seen the victim around six pm last night.
"Oh my, Father McKenzie! He'll be shattered to hear the news, she lives a couple of blocks from where you...sorry I just can't..."
"I'm sorry Sister, I know this is difficult, I just need to know her address and how do I get in contact with Father McKenzie? Is he here?"
"Normally he is, I have called him a couple of times, but he hasn't got back to me" she said the last with a worried inflection in her voice.
Ryan looked her questioningly
"You get in touch with him easily?"
"Yes and now with Rachael's passing, I'm worried".
"Don't worry Sister, I'll get a hold of the good Father, do you have his details? Why do you think something has happened to Father McKenzie?"
"There were some..things that happened in the past, it's best if Father McKenzie explained to you"
"You can't or won't tell me?"
"I'm sorry, I"m not allowed to discuss it"
Ryan was starting to get a very bad feeling about all of this. He took the details and gave his number to Sister Heath in case she thought of anything else.
More in hope, he tried the number and a recorded voice asked him to leave his name and number, which Ryan dutifully provided.
"Still no answer?"
Ryan shook his head, thanked her, with his next stop being Father McKenzie's residence.
Ryan rang the doorbell and knocked on the door repeatedly. There was no answer. On a hunch he tried the door and found it unlocked.
"Hello? Father McKenzie? Anyone home?". Without even thinking, he drew his gun as he walked in.
Ryan scanned the immediate area, the living room was sparsley furnished, only a simple couch and coffee table. He made his way, peering around corners, calling out McKenzie's name.
There was no answer.
He checked doors as he made his sweep, the last door he opened, turned out to be a bedroom. The curtains were drawn, but there was no mistaking what was on the floor next to the bed.
Holstering his gun, Ryan lent over the body and felt for a pulse.
Shaking his head, he called Gates to tell her another body had turned up.
6.2
"...going to do?"
Beckett blinked and shook her head. She was still thinking about where Castle was and she had missed what Lainie had been asking her.
"Sorry Lainie, I didn't catch that"
"I said what are you going to do?"
Beckett took a deep breath
"Gates called me in and told me she was rejecting my resignation and she wanted me back on duty immeditately. I couldn't give her an answer...yet."
"Castle told me this morning that I was too good a cop to just walk away from the job and -"
"You are" Esposito interjected, while Lainie shushed him.
"...and I wanted to disagree with him. But Castle has that ability to get inside my head that no man hase been able to do. It's probably one of the reasons he irritates me so much and the reason I always wanted him around" she said the last with a wry smile.
Esposito couldn't help but develop a big goofy grin on his face.
"So what's the hold up? Grab the olive branch. I can see you've reclaimed your badge, now you just have to get your gun. What do you think Lainie?"
Lainie looked closely at Beckett and nodded.
"Yes, Kate, what IS the hold up?"
"I just want to talk to Castle about it."
Lainie gave her a quizzical look.
"What's to talk about? He's the one who told you not to walk away from the job and Gates has rejected your resignation. Get your butt back to the precinct and get your gun. Sounds pretty simple to me!"
Beckett closed her eyes for a few seconds, sighed and nodded her head. She checked her watch.
Lainie noticed
"You're still waiting for Castle?"
"He said he would be here"
"Girl, he'd better not be stupid enough to stand you up, unless he thought it was a one night stand?" Lainie said the last with a devilish glint in her eye.
"We ate breakfast together Lainie and he said he would meet me here. He said he would get here before I did. I'm going to call him"
Her call went to message bank.
"Hey Castle, where are you? I hope Lainie's not right and that you've already stood me up. Call me okay? I've got some news" Beckett ducked as Lainie threw a bread roll at her.
Laughing, Beckett hung up.
"Javier, why don't you wander on over to the bar and watch the rest of the game, it looks like it could go in to overtime"
Esposito looked like he was about to object but the usual non verbal communication that occurs between close friends and partners happened as Lainie gave Esposito a look.
"Yeah, no probs, I'll let you two catch up"
Beckett looked on with an amused expression.
"So the REAL interrogation begins"
"Not an interrogation Kate, just your best friend asking for a detailed overview of what happened last night."
Beckett knew the only way to get Lainie to stop pestering her was to tell her what happened and she knew Lainie would know if she was leaving something out. For someone who spends most of her time with dead people, Lainie had a knack of reading people. Beckett thought Lainie would be a great addition at Castle's next poker game, At the thought of Castle, Beckett's thoughts again turned dark. But right now, she needed to tell her best friend the truth of what happened last night.
So she began
"After I told Gates I quit, I cleaned out my desk and thought it would be a great idea to take a walk in the rain..."
6.3
Castle thought furiously.
The man would probably be tracking him some way. He would be some kind of ex special forces, well equipped in gathering information and tracking people.
He noticed cameras and other methods of surveillance.
His phone rang
The Phone!
It was Beckett.
Castle angrily shook his head, there was no way Beckett was going to be part of this. It was time to end this once and for all. But being tracked by a killer was also not part of the equation. There was only one solution and it would tip off the man he was meeting, but it was his only choice.
"What do you mean the signal's gone?"
Maddox listened with growing anger as he made his way to the meeting point.
"Where did you lose the signal? Okay, canvass the area for surviellance where we lost it, see if we can narrow down what he's up to"
Cole Maddox did not like surprises. When he hunted prey, he wanted to know everything and anything about it. Although his usual self confidence resurfaced. The guy wrote books for cryin' out loud, what harm could he be. From what he saw of Castle's latest photo, he looked very soft and he had a smirk on his face, it was a face that was begging to be hit.
With a shrug, Maddox continued on his way. Whatever happens, the end result would stay the same. He would gain the information his employer wanted and Beckett would be disposed of. Hopefully he would be ordered to get rid of Beckett's writer pal as well. Maddox's humourless grin appeared. An elderly gentleman walking past him, saw the smile and hurried on.
With one problem solved, Castle turned his attention to things he could control.
The meeting place he picked was a couple of blocks from the 12th precinct. Close enough that if anything went wrong, back up wouldn't be far away. Crowded enough with witnesses to deter any chance of violence. But first of all, Castle needed help and there was only one other person that was available that he would trust to have his back. Castle had told the caller to have a yellow umbrella, in order ID to him. Castle couldn't help but grin. He was sure Mr. Sniper would love carrying one of those around.
Mindful of any surveillance around, he quickly ducked into a seedy looking clothes shop and bought some random clothing to disguise himself. Being a conspiracy theorist was finally paying off, he made a mental note to remind Beckett. IF he ever saw Beckett again.
Changing the way he walked in the desperate and theoretical chance of eluding detection, Castle made his way to a pay phone.
6.4
The body was wheeled into the morgue.
Perlmutter ate a sandwhich while the body was placed on the slab.
"So Ryan, is someone out to get the clergy?"
"Well I was hoping you could tell me Perlmutter, I mean that's what you're supposed to do"
"Seems going solo hasn't helped your sense of humour Detective"
Perlmutter ate the last of his sandwich and started examining the body.
Ryan couldn't help but grimace.
"Well I'm going to have to give Gates as much information as I can. Because If this is ruled a homicide then we've got two people murdered who belong to the same church. The Papers are going to go wild with this, so we just need to get our ducks in a row to counter any panic"
"Ease up Ryan, as they say, the dead take their time, it's the living that's impatient. I'll give you a call as soon as I have something"
Without a word, Ryan exited the morgue, thinking morosely the day could not get any worse.
Perlmutter called just as Ryan was about to sit down.
He quickly made his way to the morgue and Perlmutter gave him the bad news.
"Nice to see you again Detective and unfortunately the victim was murdered".
"There's a puncture mark consistent with a needle being jabbed to the back of the neck. Tox report showed a fatal level of Ammonia. Most probably from some kind of cleaning fluid. He has a couple of broken ribs as well, probably from being kicked repeatedly. Happened after the victim died. Someone really didn't like this guy. Time of death around five to six last night"
Ryan raised an eyebrow
"He was killed before the first victim?"
"Gold star for you Detective. Also found this shoved down his throat" he handed over a ticket stub.
It was a movie theatre close to where the victim lived. The time stamped on the ticket was 3 days ago.
Ryan sat at his desk and he felt very much alone.
He looked at the empty desks and chairs that were around him, Beckett, Esposito and Castle. How the hell was he going to solve a double murder by himself. With a sigh, he made his way to Gates's office and gave her a full report.
Gates took the news in her usual way. Angry and wanting answers. He didn't think it would be a good idea to bring up the fact that he was investigating a double murder by himself.
Gates fumed for a few seconds and then looked up at Ryan.
"Well you've got one good lead, you've got the movie ticket stub time stamped, see what you can get out of it and check out the first victim's place too"
"On it Captain"
As Ryan turned to leave, Gates stopped him with a question.
"Just out of curiousity Detective, what movie was it?"
"John Carter"
"I heard that was terrible"
6.5
Esposito was ordering a drink when his phone started ringing.
"Esposito...Yo Castle! We're all here wai- what? l've got to tell Beck- why? Okay, corner of 7th & 8th Lexington, of course I'll always have her back..yeah I get it, I'll tell them I've got some place to be, so tell me what do you need?" Esposito nodded, listening, while looking over at Lainie and Beckett. They were both laughing. Hell he was already on desk duty, and if there was any way to he could help end this then he was in. Castle was right, he would always have Beckett's back.
While listening, he is eyes narrowed
"Are you sure Castle? Okay, just give me the signal and it's done. A yellow umbrella? That was your idea wasn't it!. Fine, fine, we'll talk some more later. I hope you know what you're doing".
He hung up, sighed and approached the table.
"Hey ladies, I've got to go, cousin's having car problems, needs a lift, I'll see you later okay?"
Lainie was looking at him with surprise and Beckett was smiling but as per usual her eyes felt like it was trying to read his mind. He looked away in a hurry.
"Anyway, say hi to Castle for me if he ever turns up and if he does, tell him I'm going to smack him for keeping you waiting. Also Beckett, we need you at the precinct. I'll see you two later"
With that, he left the table, trying not quicken his pace, he had things to do and in very little time. And the first stop was the 12th precinct.
"What was that about?"
"I don't know Lainie, but he's up to something. No wonder he's such as a bad poker player"
"Yeah, whatever, so what happened after breakfast? Details girl!"
Becket was still thinking about the look on Esposito's face but decided to let it go. She rolled her eyes at the prodding from Lainie
"You know already. I told him that I realized I became a cop for the wrong reason. It became an obsession that nearly cost me the man I...the man I wanted to be with and nearly killed me. So it looks like Castle was right, he said to hear out Gates and...I think I will get back to work, today"
"Great! Now you just have to get Ryan and Esposito back to talking. You're the big sister, get those two sorted out because Esposito still thinks Ryan let him down. Ryan's probably at the 12th right now moping. And seeing as it's my day off, I'm going to do some shopping, in fact I'll make dinner and you and Castle and the rest of the guys can come over".
"Oh Lainie, let's just take it easy okay. We haven't even been on a real date yet! Can we just get comfortable as a couple first before we have to interact socially with everyone"
"Well from where I'm standing, the whole getting used to each other skipped a step with what happened last night! But I'll wait until you tell me it's okay. Now go on back to the precinct, maybe you'll make Gates smile when you tell her you're back"
"I don't know if I've ever seen Gates smile. I'll talk to you later okay?"
Beckett exited the Old Haunt. It did feel like Castle HAD stood her up. She thought about calling him again but decided against it. This was NOT the way to start a new relationsip.
Beckett swore out loud and a passerby looked at her with surprise. She waved him off and decided the first thing to do was tell Gates she was back and to kick Castle's ass later.
She nodded to herself
"Yes, let's start from there"
A/N Having gone through several drafts of this chapter, my great fear is the build up won't match the expectations. Sounds like some blockbuster Hollywood movies I've seen. I'm sure some readers are frustrated that the group is broken up and not interacting but patience, they'll be back together...soon. If Beckett finds out what's going on, I really am looking forward to her reaction that Castle is AGAIN keeping things secret from her. I hope this chapter is meeting the standard I have set out with previous chapters. I'm sure you'll let me know if there are plot holes and suggestions to the storyline. Till Chapter 7. I wish you well.