Chapter 7 - Reporting for Duty/Working the Case/Strategies
7.1
Beckett strode into the 12th and entered the Captain's office without knocking.
Gates looked up, a querying expression on her face
"I want my gun Captain"
Without a word, Gates slid open a desk drawer and placed the holstered gun on her desk.
"Detective Ryan could use your help"
"Captain, if you're allowing me to come back, then so does Detective Esposito and Castle".
Gates raised an eyebrow
"You're making demands now Detective?"
"We're a team Captain, Esposito's only crime was following my lead. If you're going to put a hold on my suspension, then the same ruling should apply to Esposito".
"And Castle?"
Beckett hesitated.
"The clearance rate you so highly prize...it maybe my name on those records, but Castle has been integral to those arrests. Granted his theories often go off tangent. But amongst the hundreds, some of them are useful. I've always said, Castle thinks outside the box"
Gates, shook her head and looked hard at Beckett
"If you want your team back Detective, then you have can have them. But I warn you, if you or your team so much as misfile paperwork there will be repercussions. As for Castle, if he endangers any of my officers, he's gone. I don't care what the Mayor says. He's finished, do you understand?"
"Also, there's still the matter of trying to find the man who tried to kill you. I want all the information you have on him"
Beckett nodded and was about to exit when Gates called out.
"Don't make me regret this Detective Beckett"
Without looking back, Beckett returned to duty.
Beckett stood infront of an empty desk. Her desk belongings were still in her car. She shrugged and called Ryan.
Beckett smiled when Ryan almost shouted in relief at hearing she was back.
"Thanks Ryan, I'm going to talk to Espo about...your situation. I'll tell him to get his head out of his ass. Now, tell me everything you know about the- this case" She was horrified that she had nearly called it the Nun case. Her eyes narrowed as details were fed to her.
A double murder, both members of the same church.
One murder, violent and the body left in an alley, to be easily found.
The other body, found in the victim's residence, equal parts violent but also seemed to be well thought out, with a syringe of poison used for cause of death.
"Where are you now? At the first Vic's? What's the address? Okay, I'll meet you there".
Castle spotted the yellow umbrella right away.
He ducked back out of sight and wondered where the hell Esposito was.
"Yo Castle"
Castle whirled around, screeching in fright
"Esposito, what the hell! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
"Sorry Bro, saw the yellow umbrella and then spotted you hiding, thought I'd circle around, so fill me in, what's going on?"
Esposito's reaction to the turn of events started with surprise, to anger and then to confusion.
"What are you doing Castle! You should have just contacted Beckett, after all that's happened, you're still hiding crap from her! You're on a fishing expedition that could very well get you and Beckett killed! That could be the guy that nearly killed Beckett!"
"I know Esposito! But she's put that all behind her...ALL OF IT. I'm not going to be responsible for dragging her back into this damn mess. You said you would always have her back, well the time has come. I need you to finish this! Can I count on you?"
After a long pause, Esposito nodded
"Sure Bro, let's get this done"
"Alright, did you bring what I asked you to?"
Without a word, Espostio brought out a listening device which also had GPS capablitlies he had "borrowed" from surveillance.
"Look man, if you want to hear anything, the range on this isn't that far..."
"It doesn't matter, you can walk past him and find away to attach it to him in some way, use your imagination. I just need to get him talking and then we need to know where he's going"
"Are you sure this guy's the one who tried to kill Beckett? Maybe your wild imagination is getting the best of you?"
"Dammit Esposito, he knows about me, knows what I look like, and from what Beckett told me, he wouldn't remember who you are and that's our only advantage, now you said you wanted to end this. The only way we can do that, is to find out who's trying to kill Beckett and this guy knows who. Now is the range going to be good enough from here or do we need to get closer?"
Esposito glared at Castle for a moment and nodded.
"Alright, when you get the bug on him, get back here and we'll switch"
"Castle, if anything goes wrong, I'm coming in blazing, you got me?" showing an automatic in his waistband.
"Nothing will go wrong, now you're up"
With one final distrusting look at Castle, Esposito headed in the direction of the man holding the yellow umbrella.
Maddox nearly fell to the ground as someone ran into him
He quickly turned around, due to the mass of bodies around him, he only caught a fleeting look of the man who nearly knocked him over and a voice saying "Sorry dude, in a rush"
Maddox shook his head and turned around, looking for this damn writer boy. He thought maybe he had underestimated this guy, Castle had picked up a public place, plenty of witnesses, his surveillance team would be useless but sooner or later, he would get what he wanted and the publishing world would lose one more crappy writer. No great loss.
He felt a tap on the shoulder
Maddox smiled his humourles smile and turned to say hello to the soon to be dead Richard Castle.
"Mr. Castle, so very nice to meet you"
"And nice to meet you too, you know my name, and yours would be?"
"Just call me Cole"
"So, we're no longer strangers. Care to tell me what happened to my contact? Is he alive? I mean I don't even know his name"
"Yes he is very much alive, Mr Castle, he just couldn't get to his phone, suffered a fall, bed rest, no stress, doctor's orders. As for his name, well I'm sure you won't believe me, but his name is Mr. Smith"
"Okay, we've got each other's numbers, I'm glad I met you. Don't worry about the paperwork, I'll keep it safe"
Castle started to turn away.
"Mr Castle, I need that paperwork. There's no need for you to have it, Mr. Smith is safe, your Detective Beckett is alive and well. So let's pretend the events that led to you gaining that paperwork was just a communication problem."
Castle's blue eyes narrowed in anger
"Listen Cole, it's over. I now have information that will help me nail whoever's been trying to kill Beckett. I don't need you or Mr. Smith anymore, I'm going to finish this once and for all"
And with that, Castle disappeared into the crowd. Maddox excercised all of his control, not to run after him and put a bullet through his skull.
Shaking his head in disgust, Maddox called his contact
"It's Maddox, tell the Congressman we have a problem"
7.2
As Beckett pulled up at the address, Ryan was outside waiting.
"Hey Ryan, did you miss me?" Beckett said with a mischievous smile
"Oh that's funny Beckett, everyone disappeared, I get saddled with a double homicide and Gates is all over me to have something. Did you get a hold of Esposito yet? And where's Castle?"
Beckett couldn't help but laugh at Ryan's rush of words and questions.
"I'm sorry Ryan for just dumping everything on you, no I haven't had chance to talk to Espo and as for Castle...I don't know where he is, we were supposed to meet with Lainie at the Old Haunt, but he never showed. Now let's find out who killed these people"
Without another word, Beckett walked into Sister Thompson's home.
Ryan noticed, that while Father McKenzie's residence was sparse, Sister Thompson's walls were covered with tapestries, paintings and pictures. It was as if, she was trying to make the walls come alive with colour and stories.
Beckett spied a large table, with many framed photos of Thompson with children.
Out of no where, her mind whispered "Castle babies".
Where the hell did that come from? Beckett shook her head and continued building a mini profile of the Vic.
From the kitchen, Ryan called out
"Hey Beckett, check this out, photos here of Thompson and McKenzie.
Beckett gave one final cursory look at the framed photos and joined Ryan.
There were photos on the fridge of Thompson and McKenzie with what looked lika a family. A husband and wife and 2 children.
"Better take one of these to show at the Church to see if anyone knows them, for now they're the only link we have to both the victims. I'll check out the bedrooms"
Beckett found an address book and a diary and after making one final sweep, joined Ryan at the door.
"Find anything useful?"
"A diary and address book, you?"
"She's got a cam corder with dvds made from the vision it took, I"ll have uniforms and tech take them and her computer"
Without a word, they both exited.
Ryan feeling a little relieved that Beckett was back and he now had a bit of help.
Beckett, felt the familiar cloak of a hunter, finding information to catch her prey as well as irritation that Castle wasn't here with them.
7.3
Castle joined Esposito, he had tried to walk with groups of people, to hide where he was going as much as possible.
"Tell me you're hearing something"
"Of course bro, I told you we'd able to hear from this distance and now we know who we're dealing with and why Montgomery tried to keep Beckett away as much as possible.
"And?"
"And you were right, he's the guy that shot Beckett and tried to throw her off the rooftop and he's working for a Congressman who's cleaning up his back trail and Beckett is the only one still standing"
Castle was thunderstruck. They now had something, they didn't know who it actually was, but being a Congressman would mean the guy had alot to lose and killing people to keep his clean image would be plausible.
"Montgomery said the guy took all the ransom money he and his partners had accumulated and set himself up. Let's keep on it, we need more information to nail the bastard. Esposito you follow him, I'll catch up with Beckett, It's better if I keep her as far away from him as possible"
"And my contact really is dead and I have the only thing that's keeping Beckett alive"
He handed Esposito the piece of paper.
"That Congressman isn't going to like this at all"
With a grim look on his face, he checked Maddox's location and headed off.
Ryan waited for Beckett, as she crossed the street
"I forgot to tell you. When I was questioning a Sister Heath, she mentioned Thompson and McKenzie had bit of trouble a while back, said she couldn't talk about it"
"Thanks for the heads up, maybe they are under a gag order or - "
Her phone cut off her theorizing
"Beckett. Castle! Where the hell have you been!"
She remembered Ryan was with her and moved away.
"You left me stranded at the Old Haunt and Lainie and Esposito were all over me and I really needed to talk to y- Martha? Is she okay? Yes, I'm a cop again, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. We've got a double homicide on our hands, so can you meet us at the corner of 7 and 12th Madison? It's the Our Lady of Victorian Church, I'll see you soon okay?"
Beckett hung up, fuming, she dismissed her irritation and headed back to Ryan.
"That was Castle, he won't be long, now let's get the family in the pic identified and find out what's up with all the secrecy"
The were met by a Father Habul, who ushered Beckett and Ryan in to his office.
He was an elderly man, wizened face, with bushy eyebrows and penetrating blue eyes. Right now they were red rimmed as he mourned the deaths of two of his companions
"Father Habul, thank you for your time, I know this is a trying time"
"No problems at all, anything I can do to allow two of my favourite people in the world to rest in peace"
"Detective Ryan, questioned Sister Heath earlier and she said something happened and that Sister Thompson and Father McKenzie were involved in some way, but she wouldn't elaborate, can you?"
Habul's face tightened
"I'm sorry Detective, but Sister Heath was right in not discussing anything with you, we're prevented by law"
"By law? Well seeing as I'm a detective you can tell me"
"I'm sorry Detective Beckett, I can't"
Beckett shared a look with Ryan, who nodded.
Looks like they'd have get Gates to talk to the higher ups
"Well, then can you help us identify the family in this photo?"
Habul glanced at the photo.
"It's the Domingo family and they are the source of the gag order, I'm sorry that's all I can tell you"
"For someone who wants to help you're not helping us much"
"I'm sorry Detective Ryan, all I can say is that Father McKenzie and Sister Thompson were integral to our church and the homeless shelter that was run, without them our lives are poorer. Now i'm sorry but I need to prepare funeral services.
Both detectives knew better than to push for any further information about the family and their involvement with the church.
Outside, Ryan mused
"So, we've got a family and church members involved somehow, there's been a gag order so no one involved can talk about it. At least we've got a name"
"Yeah, Gates can follow it up with the DA..."
She trailed off as she saw Castle approaching. He was smiling, and Beckett resisted the urge to smile back. She was still mad at him
"Detective Beckett, Ryan, looks like someone has a problem with those doing God's work"
Beckett gave him one of her patented glares, Ryan started to say something, noticed Beckett's look and decided to keep his mouth shut.
"Castle, nice of you to join us, we're going back to the precinct, Ryan, we'll see there"
"Sure Beckett, nice to you see Castle" Ryan said as he nearly ran to his car. Something was about to go down between the two and he wanted no part of it.
"So where did you park?" Castle said as he looked around.
All of a sudden he felt his nose being encased in a vice like grip
"Ow Ow...APPLES APPLES!"
"Where the hell were you Castle, tell me or your nose will be so bandaged up, you'll have to scrap your next photo shoot, now...where...were...you" Beckett wiggled her grip as she bit off each word.
Through the haze of pain throbbing from his trapped nose, Castle wobbled in his resolve to keep his newly acquired knowledge about Beckett's assassin and the mystery Congressman that wanted her dead. But he still thought he would be able to bluff her. After all, he had done it before.
Castle felt one more twist and suddenly the grip was gone
"Sorry Castle, just letting you know what happens when you stand me up, now you said something happened with Martha?" Beckett said as she gave his nose a loving tap.
Gently, Castle touched his wounded nose, making sure it was still in working condition. He felt Beckett's eyes measuring him, all the while thinking what the hell had he gotten himself into! Satisfield that everything was in working order, he returned Beckett's gaze.
Maybe he should just tell her the truth.
Castle closed his eyes deciding what to say.
"I'm waiting Castle"
Castle opened his eyes and looked at Beckett and began
"Something happened after you left"
A/N Apologies for those who were waiting for this chapter. Very difficult chapter to write (us amateurs don't have the luxury to write full time!). I wanted to get details right with Cole Maddox and the murder. Was very close to making the story into a crossover but decided to maintain it as an authentic Castle Season 5, episode 1. Getting Beckett and Castle together and whether Castle would finally tell Beckett everything was the most difficult, maybe in the next chapter he will. I hope this chapter meets the standard of the previous ones. Long Days and Pleasant Nights.