Chapter 4
The room was a small one. It was institutional white. It was lit by one large LED light that flooded the whole room. There was one registered nurse tending to the patient's care. Her only task was to alert the team if there were any changes to his condition at all. Bravo team leader checked on his status on the hour.
Bravo leader has a thought, taking the rounds that were taken from Rick during the run and go surgery. He slides them into an official NYPD evidence bag and seals it. Leaving the room, he reports to the team's tech room to discuss the plan he now has.
He explains his idea to leader and he thinks it is a solid plan. The evidence bag will be drop off to the CSU. Since his DNA is still on the rounds this will confirm that Beckett could not have shot Rick. The rounds are sent via courier and should arrive before the end of the day.
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Kate was cleared of all the charges against her. She had been placed on modified assignment. She had her shield back, but not her gun. Montgomery had decided to move her to the 5th floor where the press could not take any pictures of her or interview her. She was a bit taken aback by his decision to hide her from the public. She trusts that he knows better.
The under breath comments never stop. LT gave her the evil eye but never verbally said anything to her. That was not the case when Velasquez met her in the staircase.
"You should be thrown off the force! I can't understand how you got off. There is no excuse for you getting away with murder. We all liked him and now that he is gone..." She wails.
"Yeah, maybe so…I loved him. Now he is gone and it was not because of me! So back off…!" Kate says storming off.
Kate has a combination of feelings from anger and understanding to sadness. Velasquez does not know that the new evidence of her innocence. It was never reported. She just takes the verbal abuse. Walking over to her desk, she looks to Castle's chair. She gathers her bare necessities to start her part of the investigation then knocks on the side of the Captain's doorway. He motions her to enter.
Kate enters the Captain's office.
"Beckett what do you want?" He asks.
"Sir it is about Castle's chair," Kate explains.
"What about it, Kate?" He asks with his tone a bit more with concern.
"Sir, I would like to take it to my new location." Kate says.
Roy puts down his pen then gets up and closes the door and blinds.
"Kate, why would you want to torment yourself with that chair to constantly remind who you have lost?" He asks.
"Sir, that is precisely why I want it. It will motivate me in finding his killer. 3XK is still out there. He needs to be brought to justice." Kate says with her eyes blazing.
Roy looked at his desk then at her.
"Kate it is just a chair. If you want it you can choose to take it with my blessing." Roy says ending with a sigh. "He was a very good man I will miss him around here. He made you have fun. That was all I wanted for you Kate."
"Yes Sir, he was…" Kate says as she left the room.
"Javi, can I speak to you for the moment?" Kate asks.
"Sure Chica what's up?" Javi asks.
"It is about Castle's chair would you…" Kate says almost breaking down.
"Sure I can carry it for you…Kate." Javi says.
Kate heads upstairs to her new location. It is quiet and away from everything.
"Kate, for what it is worth I'm glad you were not indicted by the DA though, I do not know why that happened." Javi says as he plants Castle's chair next to new her desk.
"Javi, I'm not supposed to tell you this but I got off due to CSU being sloppy. The judge ordered them to do a complete audit on this case. I know Lanie is supervising the organic parts." Kate whispers as if anyone could hear her from up here.
"Oh, that's why Lanie was complaining. She did not tell me…Your secret is safe with me. Damn CSU." Javi says as he exits to return to his desk.
She suddenly she's so alone at her desk on the 5th floor. She takes the file folder for the shooting that she was involved in. Reading over the case, she noticed that her weapon had never been broken down to see if there were actually clues to find out if Jerry Tyson had actually been the person who had shot Castle. She figures Lanie will catch that in her audit.
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Dr Lanie Parish arrives at the CSU to personally look over everything that CSU was doing. She had her checklist and was searching the listings with a fine tooth comb.
"OK listens up…You guys screwed up and I'm here to set it right. I want you all to redo every test and check off. There will be no slip-ups this time! By the Book…!" Lanie exclaims.
Lanie stands over each test which has a possibility of organic matter. Lanie notices a couple of discrepancies.
"Damn these bullets were never tested! Get me a microscope!" Lanie orders.
"There is some organic residue on them…Live Cells? What is going on? Get me a scraping and get a DNA match on it." Lanie yells out.
Lanie hands the bullets to the ballistic tech to match the striations.
"So what do you have?" Lanie asks.
"It was fired from Detective Beckett's gun but there is an anomaly." The tech reported. There is missing part of the striations here the bullet is smooth something blocks the rifling."
"Well, get the gun and tear it apart! Find out what is causing it" Lanie says.
The tech checks out the gun then does a minute inspection and notices that it was not done before. The tech on the slip is no longer working for CSU he had been transferred to traffic.
"Ma'am we have a problem this gun was never thoroughly checked" The tech reports.
"So what did you find in the tear down?" Lanie asks being a bit exasperated.
"There is a piece of skin in the carriage under the barrel and there are scorches inside the barrel cleaning has soot particles and blood." The tech says. The last person who clean this gun while putting it together got bit by it and left a piece of them behind."
"Get that piece to DNA testing I want to know who that person was" Lanie orders.
By the end of the day the audit was complete only pieces missing are the two DNA tests orders. Those should appear in a few days. Otherwise, she has completed her audit. It shows the disgusting lack of discipline from what she learns. She makes her recommendations then heads home. It had been a long day. Those live cells should not have survived this was puzzling to her.
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Meanwhile in an office two men are discussing the rapid deterioration of the case against Detective Beckett.
"See I told you it would not hold. Airtight my A$$!" The man said sitting behind a huge desk.
"I was assured it was I do not know what happened. She got VIP treatment so our person in Rikers could not strike. Even with that setback, the evidence of her guilt was overwhelming. There was eyewitness testimony saying she fired her weapon at the decease. The CSU tech was transferred as you ordered and the evidence on her gun was deemed finished. It should have worked. So what do we do now? Put out a hit?" The man standing asks.
"What we do now is nothing. Her luck will not hold now that the writer is out of our way. She will make a mistake because that is who she is. I have studied her I'm confident we will get another shot at her." The man says. "Now get out of here I've got work to do and so do you."
"Yes I guess I do. Until next time…" He says as he exits the room.
The man behind the desk sighs then closes the folder on his desk. The picture of Kate Beckett is seen. He lifts the folder then gets out of his chair and walks up to a hidden door. He enters and there are a massive number of file cabinets. He places the file in one of the lower cabinets then closes it and departs out of the room.