Chapter 3: What Happened Next

Published: 26 Jan 2012

Chapter 3 – What Happened Next

Castle was suspiciously quiet in the elevator. Too quiet.

"What is it, Castle?" Beckett didn't bother looking at him.

"You want to shoot things." He paused. "And you wanted me to come."

Beckett's mouth dropped slightly open, and she looked in surprise at her partner. He was smirking. He was teasing her. So she decided to play along. "Don't worry. I'll give you a running head start."

They both laughed. Castle had figured out the best way to make her relax about Gates. She probably didn't even need to release some tension at the range now. But that didn't mean she wanted to head back to her desk and finish the paperwork quite yet. She might as well have some fun with Castle.

"You don't think they did it. Do you?" Castle asked.

"No. I'm not sure I believe everything they said. They might be ex-CIA and lying through their teeth, but they didn't seem the type."

"Can I say it?"

"What?" She gave him her best I'm-humoring-you-but-don't-push-it stare.

"You hate this case."

She looked at his teasing smile, and she couldn't help but grin back. As the elevator doors opened, she gave him a playful backhanded swat in the chest and stepped out first.

When they reached the munitions room, Beckett pulled out her sidearm and placed it on the counter of the window door to the room. Officer O'Brien looked up from his desk and smiled. "Just a minute."

Castle asked, "Do I get to play too?"

Beckett bent over to reach her ankle holster and pulled out her back-up piece. As she stood up—yes. There it was. She caught Castle checking her out. Beckett bit her lip to prevent from smiling. They might not be together because of her 'wall', but she didn't mind him appreciating her, even if he was obvious about it.

"Why do I have to use the peashooter? Can't I use a real gun like you?"

"Castle, whenever I've given you a weapon, it's been this one. I'd rather you practice with it."

Castle tilted his head to the side, acknowledging she had a point.

O'Brien was at the counter. "Detective Beckett, Castle, good to see you both."

"Hey, O'Brien. I was thinking we could start with three clips each."

"Sounds good. Can't say I'm surprised you're here."

"Why's that?" Beckett asked.

"You mean you do didn't hear? Take a look." O'Brien pointed his thumb over his shoulder at the back wall.

Beckett looked at the three targets mounted on the wall, a sort of leader board for the members of the 12th. Then she noticed hers was missing. The new one had holes only in the 10 ring, with no rips outside. Some of the shots must have been through the center hole. "Wow. Who's the sharpshooter?"

"New guy. A transfer from the 18th that Gates sent down to qualify. You think that's impressive? For his warm up target he did an around-the-world, pinning both shoulder blades, both hips, both ears, and the top of the head."

"What, no smiley face?" Castle quipped.

O'Brien laughed, "No, this guy didn't smile much. The target he took up to Gates matched this one."

"He did that twice?" Beckett was suitably impressed. "What department is he in?

"I'm not sure. He was a little older for still being an officer. I figured he'd be at least a Sergeant, maybe a Lieutenant. He's a big guy, though, and carried himself like ex-military."

"And his name? I'd like to congratulate him."

"Right, you asked that." O'Brien placed the extra clips on the counter. "His name is John Casey."

Beckett and Castle turned and looked at each other. A sharpshooter… ex-military… named Casey. That couldn't be a coincidence.

They were startled with a ring from Beckett's cell phone. She answered, "Beckett."

It was Ryan. "Hey. I was sent down to evidence to package up everything for an easy hand-off for when the feds come. Only there's a problem."

"Let me guess. Everything's gone." Beckett holstered her back-up piece.

"How did you know?"

"The Carmichaels have another accomplice—John Casey. He's posing as a cop. I need you to head to lock-up and make sure he doesn't try to sign them out. Castle and I are checking the entrance."

After hanging up, Beckett quickly grabbed her sidearm with one hand and pulled Castle's arm with the other. Bypassing the elevator she ran directly to the stairs. It was only two flights. Bursting out of the stairwell, she could already see the commotion at the front entrance.

The focus of the disturbance was actually outside on the sidewalk. Beckett pushed her way through the crowd, with Castle at her heels. A body had been dropped. It was a woman, mid-thirties, with shoulder-length blonde hair. She wasn't dead, just unconscious. She had a bandaged nose that looked broken and was wearing a full body, black, leather catsuit.

"Castle, is that…"

"Couldn't be. While it often feels like she is beating me, I've never seen see her in black leather."

The woman looked like Gina.

Castle pulled out his phone, presumably to call his publisher/ex-wife. Beckett put on some forensic gloves to check out the still breathing body. Upon seeing her, the other officers at the scene had immediately deferred to her and switched to working on crowd control and blocking off the area.

The woman was out cold. She had taken a very effective beating. If Beckett's suspicions were correct, she was unconscious from a tranquilizer dart like what they had found in Chuck Bartowski's gun. Searching through her pockets revealed a Buyzilla-branded green jump drive and a passport. The passport was for Barbara Harper. Kate bagged the evidence just as the ambulance showed up. She gave some quick instructions to a couple of officers to escort Harper to the hospital as a murder suspect. She then walked over to Castle.

"No. Gina, I'm workng. … I'm tired of having this argument with you. … My research with the twelfth is a vital part of my process. … Considering how much better my third book is selling over even the first two bestsellers, I think my readers agree the authenticity helps. … This case has taken an interesting turn and I'm certain it will help with the next book. … Whatever, I'm hanging up now."

Castle hung up the phone with a grimace. Beckett asked, "This is going to end up in the next book?"

Castle shrugged, "I don't know. Probably not, but the research excuse usually shuts her up. Gina never follows the cases closely enough to know if they get into the books or not."

Beckett tried to hold in her smirk and failed. She knew very few of the cases ended up in the books directly. If Gina knew that, she'd insist Castle spend more time writing and less time as her partner. It had taken a while (plus a big hint from Esposito) for Beckett to realize Castle didn't really need to be around for research. It sounded like Gina was still clueless. That was good because it helped her keep her partner.

Ryan called with news that Chuck and Morgan had never made it to holding. Neither Beckett nor Castle was surprised. They talked to the security guard who confirmed that moments before the body was dropped on the sidewalk, a large uniformed officer escorted a tall thin man and a shorter bearded man out the front door.

After getting a copy of the security footage, they returned to the homicide floor and met up with Esposito and Ryan in one of the conference rooms. Gates joined them after only moments. She was pissed that the 'suspects' were gone. She didn't seem to care that they were likely innocent. She was more concerned about a possible investigation. She left them with a demand for answers.

Gates' tirade had done little to put the team in a good working frame of mind, but Rick's enthusiasm about what 'secrets' might be on the jump drive helped break the tension and get them back on task.

Before Beckett would let him check it out, she insisted on going through the station's security footage. They needed to find out what happened before Gates decided to check back. Meanwhile Ryan left to see if any traffic cameras had footage of the vehicle that dropped off the new murder suspect.

The station's footage was easy enough to go through because they had such a small time window to go on. What they found was surprising. Gates was not going to be happy. Castle was barely containing his glee.

That left the jump drive. For a moment, Beckett wondered if they should let the tech guys check it out first. She went with her gut, which was telling her that despite all of the trouble the "escaped prisoners" had caused, they weren't bad guys and their jump drive wasn't going to cause a problem.

Upon inserting the drive into a laptop, it popped up with an "Installing Drivers" message box. The message soon changed to "Identifying Web Cam", then "Establishing Connection to Satellite". Finally a full screen window opened with a message that read "Waiting for Answer." It wasn't just a jump drive. It was some kind of video calling and satellite networking device. After a moment, the screen changed to…

Wait. Is this one of those interactive video porn sites?

The screen was filled with long legs, blue boy shorts, and a bare midriff. The woman on screen sat in front of her camera and quickly threw a sheer robe over her matching blue sleeping top. The immodest blonde had a silk night blindfold pushed up to her forehead. She looked like she had just woken up.

Esposito let out a low whistle. Beckett turned to chastise him and saw Castle sitting with his mouth wide open. Just great. Serena is gone, but here's another blonde. Beckett reached over and pushed up on Castle's jaw to close his mouth. This startled Castle who jerked his head free and blinked. He looked at her hand, slowly, up her arm, and into her eyes. Now he's staring at me. Well, I guess that's better.

"Who is it?" the woman on the screen asked. The moment was broken.

Beckett recognized the voice. "Sarah Walker?"

"Yes?"

"This is Detective Beckett, Detective Esposito, and Richard Castle," Beckett answered.

"Ah, sorry. I'd been up for 30 hours straight and I'm a little sore, so you woke me. Just a minute." She turned her head. It looked like she grabbed something and threw it to the side. "Honey, you shouldn't wear headphones when you are expecting a call." She stood and turned, providing a full view of her thighs again. In a softer voice she said, "Hurry up and join me. I could use some company." The microphone was picking up more than she thought. She stepped away, revealing what looked like the inside of a small private jet.

"I was repositioning the satellite, Babe. I don't have that thing in my head to do the heavy lifting anymore. While I still have the pass codes for Space Command, I had to hack into foreign agencies to make sure I could plot a course around their space debris. Don't worry. This won't take as long as that." Chuck Bartowski sat in front of the remote camera with his head still turned to the side. "You should put on more clothes. I know you didn't care when Morgan lived with us, but you kind of freak him out when you walk around like that."

"Morgan's up front trying to convince Casey to let him fly the plane. He thinks he knows how now."

Thinks he knows how to fly a plane? That doesn't make sense. You either do or you don't.

Chuck said, "Oh, ok. Get settled, and I'll join you for a snuggle once I'm done here." Chuck turned to the camera and grinned. "Hi guys. Long time no see."

Castle spoke first, "If it isn't the Count de Monte Cristo."

Chuck laughed. "Ok, I see the rich escaped prisoner with the beautiful wife, who was betrayed by his best friend. But technically, I won her from him, not the other way around. Also, the only revenge attempt was by this other guy who's in prison now. I sure hope he never gets free. That would be bad. Really bad. For everyone. Especially me. And there's no unknown baby who's all grown up… that I know of."

Castle said, "At least you're literary."

Chuck scoffed, "I told you earlier—comic book guy. I was thinking of the movie from a few years ago. It has sword fights, although I prefer the light saber and samurai variety. It also had the guy who played Chess from The Cape. You know, a comic book character. I mainly watched it as research because of the two years I thought I might end up in an underground bunker for the rest of my life."

Underground bunker? He has to be making this up.

"Anyway, my new wife is waiting, so let's finish this."

"You're in serious trouble, Mr. Bartowski," Beckett started.

"Come on, you can call me Chuck."

"You fled police custody—"

"If you've gone through your security camera footage, you know that was not what happened."

He had a point. Beckett continued, "You stole evidence—"

"My company's CWO signed for that."

Castle interrupted, "CWO?"

"Chief Weapons Officer. I wanted to go with Chief Operating Officer, but Casey picked his title."

Beckett tried to reassert control, "You are leaving the jurisdiction while you're a person of interest—"

"First, I know the 'don't leave town' thing is not enforceable without a warrant or formal charges. Also, I can't help it that you haven't finished your paperwork to change my status. We have to get back to LA for a job tomorrow. Some bad guy with tight security and a platoon of mercenaries stole a microchip and hid it in a Ming vase. We've been hired to recover it. The mission is time sensitive, so we didn't have time to wait around in New York."

"You dumped an unconscious body on the curb."

"It was a citizen's arrest. We would have taken her to the local FBI office if we had the time. But the New York office doesn't know us like the LA one does. It would've taken too long to explain everything. Plus we figured you'd like to close your case."

He paused, typing something on his computer. "While we've been talking, I've been sending you all of the evidence needed to prosecute. There's the missing hotel video footage showing her breaking into the room. There's satellite footage showing her escaping on the roof. There's additional footage showing her dumping the gun in a dumpster in an alley near 76th and Lex. You should probably send someone there to dig it out. After helping find my sister's engagement ring, Sarah refuses to go dumpster diving again. Speaking of my bad-ass ninja wife, there's also an exciting clip of Sarah taking her down. It didn't take long. Finally, I've included an itemized bill for our services. It includes the normal stuff: munitions charges, hourly rates, travel costs, and catering costs. There's also a special charge for being held at gunpoint. The good news is we've decided to waive the charges under the condition that you turn Harper over to the FBI, giving credit to Carmichael Industries. There's a small reward for her and a large reward for Abshir—although that would have been larger if she hadn't killed him. But the two bounties together, plus the reward for the tech we recovered, should barely cover our expenses. Unfortunately, we'll probably never get back the money Abshir embezzled."

Beckett tried to wrap her head around it. This was not going to be fun to explain to Gates. Especially considering her role in it.

Chuck added, "Oh, and as a bonus, there's a sequence of videos showing her working with Alexi Volkoff to knock out and hold Jeff and Lester hostage, capture and hold Casey and Morgan, and threaten to blow up the Buy More with a bomb."

"Are you saying this Barbara Harper was responsible for blowing up the Burbank Buy More?"

"No. That was earlier. The man responsible is in prison now. This was the second time it was almost blown up in less than a year. This time it was a standoff trying to get to my mom, who Volkoff thought was being held captive by me… You know what? It's not important. With the footage, DHS and the FBI should be able to hold her as a terrorist. Let's see… The file transfers are complete, so I'm signing off to spend some quality time with my wife. Hopefully, a misunderstanding like this won't happen again. Bye bye." Chuck hung up.

Castle, of course, couldn't refrain himself. "Guess who's about to join the mile high club?"

Esposito replied, "Did you see his wife? He's already a frequent flyer in that club."

Beckett scrunched her face in disgust. "Guys, you realize that ex-CIA agent could probably kick both of your asses with one hand tied behind her back. You might not want to talk to her that way. Her husband might have bugged this room."

Properly chastised and looking thoughtful, Esposito asked, "Did he say the pilot's name was Casey?"

"Yes."

"And he was a sharpshooter?"

"Yes. His target knocked mine off the leaderboard."

"His name wasn't John Casey, was it?"

"Yes. Where are you going with this, Espo?"

"Oh crap. I've heard a lot of stories about him. Black ops. He's known as 'The Colonel.' He's considered one of the top five sharpshooters in the world. A couple years ago, he took out one of the other five in a building-to-building shot through two windows, from a half mile away, while the target was holding his partner with a gun to her head. No wonder they got out so easily. The way my buddy in Afghanistan talked about him, he bleeds red, white, and blue. I didn't know he retired."

Castle said, "Well it seems like Chuck is his boss. Maybe we were lucky these people were nice enough to explain what was going on. It sounds like Chuck could have escaped last night, leaving us still looking for clues."

After a pause, Castle changed the subject, "So when do we get to tell Gates?" He sounded like he was actually looking forward to it. Of course he was.

They looked out to the bullpen and at the door they were surprised to see a tall man wearing what looked like a government-issued black suit.

"Detective Beckett, you need to come with me to your captain's office." The stiff fed couldn't sound any more monotone if he tried.

Beckett turned to Esposito as she stood and told him to make copies of the evidence files and to send a team of uniforms to go dumpster diving. She also told him to update Ryan on the case, as it looked like traffic camera footage was unnecessary at this point. As she moved to leave, Castle stood to join her. She was just about to stop him when—

"I'm not sitting out of this one, partner." Beckett wasn't going to stop him this time. She tilted her head giving him silent permission to follow.

At Gates' office, their escort stopped to stand with another sentinel just outside. Inside, they joined another government suit standing in front of Captain Gates, who was sitting behind her desk.

The captain started, "I didn't ask for Cas—"

The man interrupted, "Where is he?"

"Excuse me?" Beckett reacted to the accusatory question.

"Where is Chuck Bartowski?"

"I'm sorry. You didn't know he is no longer in police custody?" She looked to Gates, surprised that important information had not been revealed.

"You no longer have him?" The man was fuming.

"We have the woman who we believed committed the crime. We have a comprehensive collection of evidence that ties her to this murder as well as possible kidnapping and terrorism charges. Right now, a team is going to collect the last piece of evidence, the murder weapon. Our background search of Mr. Bartowski revealed no outstanding warrants. Do you have a new warrant?"

"What? No. I've just come to collect him."

"Well even if we had him, which we don't, we couldn't hand him over without a federal warrant. If you would like to take Barbara Harper, our murder suspect, you could use the existing warrants to take her. She is currently at New York Presbyterian receiving treatment. That's assuming you are with a federal law enforcement agency, Agent…"

The man ignored her leading inquiry to his name. "Why would I want that mess? This was a waste of time." The man stomped off with the other two falling into step behind him. They could hear his ongoing tirade about the incompetence of the NYPD as he walked through the bullpen.

Beckett looked at the captain, "Excuse me, sir, but who the hell was that? How did he even know we had Bartowski?"

"That was exactly the kind of trouble I wanted to avoid." Beckett noticed Gates didn't answer her question. Did she even know? "So what have you found about how this Bartowski character escaped."

"Well, sir, we confirmed that Chuck Bartowski and Morgan Grimes walked out the front door with the fourth member of their team, a retired Colonel John Casey."

"John Casey? That's the name of the new officer who transferred from the 18th."

"Colonel Casey was posing as NYPD. After you sent him down for his weapons qualification, in which he broke precinct records by the way, he checked out the evidence we collected from Bartowski last night. Then he waited with Officer Raines to help with the transfer from interrogation to holding. Right as they started off, Officer Raines was called away, leaving Casey alone with Bartowski and Grimes. They took the elevator and walked out the front door. There they were met with the team's fourth member, recently retired CIA Agent Sarah Walker, Bartowski's wife. She dropped off our new suspect, Barbara Harper. Harper is under guard at New York Pres. Right before coming in here, we had a video conversation with Bartowski from his private plane. He transferred enough evidence to nail her for murder, or to hand her over to DHS for terrorism charges."

Gates was quiet for several seconds. Beckett had left out the part about why Raines was called away. Gates knew why. She was the one who called Raines away and left the escapees alone with their rescuer. To make matters worse, she had signed off on the rescuer's weapons qual.

"I see." Gates was quiet again for a moment. Then, "Ok, we'll contact the FBI and have them take over security at the hospital. We don't need to be wasting resources on that."

"Yes, sir."

Gates didn't say anything else. It seemed like the jailbreak wasn't as important once Gates realized the security hole that let it happen. Recognizing the captain was done, Beckett and Castle left.

Beckett rolled her lips trying her hardest not to laugh. She needed to finish up this case quickly so she could have a full belly break-down in private, where should wouldn't get busted by Gates. Castle reached out and grabbed her arm, halting her.

"What, Castle?"

He nodded to the break room. Just inside was none other than Castle's guy in the CIA, Agent Gray.

They quietly changed their course and walked over to the break room.

"Agent Gray."

"Castle. Detective."

"Tell me you're not here looking for Chuck Bartowski," Beckett pleaded.

"No. But I'm here because of Bartowski and Agent Decker."

Beckett wondered if everyone in the CIA knew more about this case than she did. "So can you explain what is going on? And who was that Agent Decker? Is he also CIA?"

"Everything I am about to say is completely off the record." He paused, making sure Beckett and Castle were taking him seriously. "You've fallen into the middle of a turf war. Carmichael, Walker, and Casey were part of a special joint agency project that operated domestically and internationally. Over the past few years their team had one of the best runs ever for a team of agents. It attracted the notice of the President. They captured several high profile targets, prevented a couple of terrorism attacks, and stopped a couple of illegal internal agency power grabs. Then something happened a couple months ago. The details are scarce. All I know for certain is afterwards, the joint task force was dissolved and the agents went private sector. The rumor is that someone targeted Walker, and Carmichael went rogue to save her."

"A rogue agent. A team of rogue agents. How cool is that?" Castle was eating this story up.

"Presumably because of their glowing record, certain people at high levels decided to let it pass."

Beckett said, "Let me guess. This agent is not one of those who did."

"No he wasn't. But that's probably not even the issue. Agent Decker is not a team player himself. He regularly breaks the rules, and is one of the most lethal agents we have. I wouldn't want to guess his motives. I would suggest that if he comes back, you give him a wide berth. He's not someone you want as an enemy."

Castle said, "It sure sounded like Chuck is his enemy. We appreciate the warning."

"I wouldn't want the paperwork," Gray said with a straight face. It took everything in Beckett for her not to laugh. He continued, "I've dispatched several agents to take Harper into custody at the hospital. One of my associates should be emailing you the appropriate warrants and transfer papers. I've taken possession of the jump drive. This case will be out of your hands in an hour—like it never happened."

Beckett thanked the Agent, and the partners turned to leave.

At the exit to the room, Castle snapped his fingers and spun to address Gray, "We got a bill from Carmichael Industries. They said they would waive the charges as long as we gave them bounty credit for Harper and Abshir."

"I'll pass that along, but they will probably have to fight with Accounting themselves. That's not my department."

Agent Gray made a quick and silent exit, this time without the magician's trick. Beckett quickly walked over to Esposito and Ryan at their desks. After updating them, Esposito offered to stay and wait for the transfer orders to come in. Beckett thanked him and then told Ryan to head home. Then she walked over to Castle, who was patiently waiting in his chair by her desk.

Bypassing him to grab her coat, she said, "Are you coming, Castle?"

Castle bounced out of his chair to help her with her coat. It was a thing that he had started recently. She might not be ready yet, but she had no problem with these little signs of gentlemanly affection.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"I thought we'd see if we could actually finish a meal together without murder getting in the way," she answered.

"That's a worthwhile experiment. It might even require repeated trials."

"I'll admit there's a strong possibility that will be necessary." She linked her arm through his as they walked to the elevator. This is was another thing she decided was safe. It was comfortable. It was reassuring. She was going to let something simple… like walking arm in arm… happen. And if she had anything to say about it, it was going to keep happening.

"Well let's get out of here before something else happens."

A/N: That's it for this one. Thanks for staying with this story and the entire 'This Happened' series.

I was probably picking on Gates too much. But I'll probably do that until she shows herself to be a good leader… a leader who earns respect rather than demanding it… a leader who inspires her team to do better rather than avoid her… someone who cares more about the victims and justice than her own image. In other words, someone like Beckett.