Recap – Castle & Beckett discovered incriminating evidence behind a painting. It pointed to Senator Bracken being the dragon.
Castle packed the cheap messenger bag carefully. Kate couldn't help smiling. He was so into the cloak and dagger stuff. He was like a kid getting ready for Halloween. They had decided they needed to make sure no one followed them when they mailed the evidence packages. Castle came up with a plan that Beckett agreed to so now they were ready to put it into motion.
"Well, wish me luck," Castle said as he slung the messenger bag over his shoulder. He was trying to be cool, but his eyes were shining with excitement and anticipation. Of course his plan had him being the one having all the fun. "I'll text you as soon as I'm done." He gave Kate a kiss goodbye.
Suddenly Kate started having second thoughts. "Castle," she hesitated worry creasing her brow. Then she smiled at him. It really was a good plan. They had never noticed anyone following them when they left the loft so they were likely taking all these precautions for nothing. She fiddled with the collar on his button down as though it needed adjusting then she patted his chest. "Knock 'em dead." She rolled her eyes at herself. What did she say that for?
Castle grinned at her. "See you at Remy's for lunch."
Castle arrived at Black Pawn just before 11. Gina was ready for him. "Here are the papers you wanted me to sign. Signed, sealed, delivered…hmm reminds me of a song." He couldn't help himself. He started singing, "Signed, sealed, delivered, I'm yours. Oh, well I used to be yours," he added with a sheepish grin.
Gina couldn't help but smile at his antics. "Speaking of which, you were really great on Jimmy Fallon's show. It looked like you were having a lot of fun."
Castle was surprised at the compliment. "Why thank you, Gina. We had a blast on his show."
"Have a seat, Rick. There are some other issues we need to discuss."
Rick sighed. Now he felt like a fly trapped in the spider web. He sat down and listened to Gina go on about various plans Black Pawn had for him. First and foremost was the fact that he was behind on the book. Once that was done, there would be book signings and other events some of which had already been scheduled. That made the deadlines even more critical. Castle knew he needed to buckle down more on the book, but he wasn't too interested in talking about all the upcoming events Black Pawn had already committed him to.
Then Gina mentioned a reading initiative that some of the elementary schools were doing. They were trying to get some famous authors to come in and read or discuss books. Castle's ears perked up. That was something he would be interested in doing. He quickly focused the conversation on the school visits and asked Gina to get more information about that. Then he stood up.
"Gina, I'm afraid I need to get going. I really didn't plan to be here this long." Gina tried to protest but Castle was already halfway out the door.
"Call me," he said as he backed out the door putting his hand to his face like it was a phone. Then he made his escape.
Castle bypassed the elevators and took the stairs down a flight. The restrooms were near the elevator. He entered the men's restroom and went into the handicap stall just in case anyone else came in. He quickly took off his shirt. He had a light blue t-shirt on underneath it. He pulled a light wind breaker out of the messenger bag and put that on. Next he pulled out a New York Yankees baseball cap and a pair of sunglasses and donned those as well. The last things in his messenger bag were a back pack and the evidence packages. He took out his handkerchief to handle the evidence packages. They were careful to wear gloves the whole time they were making copies and stuffing the envelopes. They went to great lengths to be sure nothing could be tied back to them. Castle even went so far as to get a burner phone so no one would be able to track him with his iphone.
He quickly stuffed the evidence packages and his button down into the backpack. As he left the restroom he shoved the messenger bag in the trash can.
Down in the lobby he exited the building through a side door instead of the main entrance that he used on the way in. It was 11:40 and there were a lot of people leaving the building for lunch so he blended in with the crowd. He walked two blocks and caught a taxi. Castle gave the driver an address 10 blocks away. He walked another 2 blocks and found the mailbox that they had scoped out earlier. As far as they could tell there were no security cameras covering the box. Again using his hanky, Castle quickly pulled the evidence packets out of his backpack and let them drop into the mailbox. He breathed a sigh of relief not even realizing how tense he had been. He walked away briskly.
After a couple of blocks he ducked into a department store. He quickly found a restroom and put his shirt back on. He fluffed up his hair trying to get rid of the 'just wore a cap' look. He stuffed his disguise into the backpack then stuffed the backpack into the trash.
Castle texted 'see you at lunch' to Kate. His whole body felt charged up from the adrenaline rush of his undercover operation. They'd successfully set the wheels in motion. He wanted to do backflips down the store aisles, but he managed to contain himself and instead he decided to shop around for a bit since he still had time before he was supposed to meet Kate.
As Castle entered Remy's, his eyes quickly scanned the occupants and almost immediately found Kate sitting close to the back. As his eyes met hers, his face split into a huge grin. It was infectious and Kate rewarded him with a matching grin. It didn't escape her notice that he was carrying a small gift bag. Castle slid into the booth next to her putting the little bag on the table in front of her. His eyes were twinkling like Christmas lights he was so pleased with himself for successfully completing his 'mission' and finding a gift for Kate.
"And just what is that?" Kate inquired nodding at the bag her tone sounding annoyed but her eyes telling a different story.
"That is for you," Castle answered nudging it a little closer.
"Is it something I can open here?" she asked suspiciously not wanting to pull out some naughty lingerie in the bustling restaurant.
"Of course. Open it up," Castle said just a tad impatiently.
Kate gingerly pulled the tissue out of the bag as though she was afraid something might bite her. She tilted the bag and peeked in then she smiled and pulled out a beautiful scarf. It had gold, turquoise, brown, green and other colors all subtly blended together. At the ends were a few subtle paisley shapes right before the delicate fringe.
"Oh, Castle, it's beautiful," she said as she arranged it around her neck. Castle knew better than to spend a lot of money on her. She was much more appreciative of a relatively inexpensive gift that obviously had thought put into it than an expensive piece of jewelry that had been grabbed up without a thought. Castle knew that he would spoil her with expensive jewelry too, but the occasion would have to be right and hopefully Kate would be more used to the fact that he had plenty of money to spoil her with.
"It looks beautiful on you," he murmured as he slightly adjusted the scarf. Kate leaned in and kissed his lips.
"Thank you," she said a little shyly hands still smoothing over the scarf.
The waitress came by interrupting their moment. They hadn't cracked open the menus but after all, this was Remy's and they pretty much always had the same thing. They quickly ordered.
"So how was your undercover operation?" Kate asked putting her hand on his thigh. They just seemed incapable of being close without touching each other.
"It went exactly as planned. As I suspected I got trapped in Gina's office longer than I wanted, but it wasn't a problem. As a matter of fact she brought up something that I found interesting." Castle went on to explain about the reading initiative for the schools. It was something that he really wanted to be a part of and even had a couple of ideas of his own of how he could interact with the kids. Kate thought it was a great idea.
Castle detailed the rest of his operation and ended by saying, "I probably would have made a great CIA agent."
Kate gave him a sideways look, "You realize all you did was mail letters?"
"It was more complicated than that," Castle protested a little crestfallen.
"Hey, no pouting. You did a great job." Kate grew a little more serious then said, "When do you think we'll see signs that something is happening with…the letters?"
Castle took her hand. "Even the news agencies will want to check facts before they print anything. Since we didn't include Montgomery's statement in the packets for the news agencies, they will have more trouble verifying the evidence. It could be a week maybe even a month or more before we see anything." They still had hopes that Montgomery wouldn't be disgraced. Since he gave up his life to try and stop the killings, and provided the statement to build the case against Bracken, maybe, just maybe, they will keep his name out of it.
A thorough investigation could take months. Of course, the bad part about being totally out of the investigation was that they would be in the dark not knowing if anyone was really pursuing it.
Kate nodded. The waiting was going to be so difficult.