Wednesday 12:25 am

12th Precinct

Beckett and Castle walked into the precinct's tech center, Beckett pleading "Please God, tell me you guys found something."

Ryan turned around and declared. "More than we had, less than we hoped, and way too much." He turned back to the computer terminal, and moved the mouse. "This is from about 5 blocks from the alley." On the monitor and repeated on one of the big plasma screens on the wall a busy street appeared in soft daylight. The time stamp read 19:58, and the view was positioned about 20 feet above the road. A grey armored car could be seen a block down the street. Ryan advanced the images, and the armored car seemed to leap forward 50 feet at a time. He stopped it when it filled the screen. GOTHAM CITY SECURITY SERVICE could be seen on the side, and the number 468 on both the roof and the front of the truck. Two men in uniform could be discerned sitting in the cab behind the glare of the windshield. "This is the best shot. If you want, I can show you when it turned on to Holstein. There are no cameras within three blocks of the crime scene, and this is the only security truck I found in the area during the time window."

Beckett sighed in relief. "Great. Could you print several copies, and shoot an electronic image to Tech and see if they can clean it up." She stepped up close to the plasma TV. "Neither of these guys look like our vic. Maybe tech can ID them." She spun on her heel and stared at her fiancé. "Castle?"

"Beckett, they were one of the first ones I called. They said all trucks and crews were accounted for." Castle stepped over to look closely at the monitor. "It looks like a real Gotham City vehicle. You can see these all over the city. They're as ubiquitous as cockroaches."

Ryan looked up at Castle. "Ubiquitous? Really?"

Castle smiled. "Sure. I'm a best-selling author, remember? Oh, by the way, I used your badge number when I was making all those calls. I was only moderately rude and offensive."

"That's just great." Ryan huffed as he spun back to the monitor and opened another window. The left hand plasma screen was filled with the image of a flatbed rig with a large rectangular object covered by a blue tarp. "Here's the 'less than we hoped'. This is the only decent image we have of the getaway truck. No distinguishing features on the tractor or trailer. The plates on the tractor were stolen from a pickup truck. Can't read the plates on the trailer, but they were probably stolen too. They disappeared near the west side highway, and what few cameras we have in the area were all down. Server crashed."

"Crap!" Beckett was used to working with old and unreliable tools, but it didn't make her job any easier. She stepped over to that plasma TV. "Ryan, can you sharpen up this image at all? These guys were in a big hurry, and that tarp doesn't look like it was secured very well. Those look like bungee cords. Very temporary."

"Sorry, Boss. Maybe the techs can do better, but that's the absolute best I can do. Why? Are you thinking they would have had to re-secure it? Unless they stopped in front of a working camera, that won't help us."

Castle answered for her. "No. She's hoping they didn't have far to go, and are still in her jurisdiction."

Beckett turned around to face her team. They'd all seen that look on her face before. It was the look of a hunter, someone comfortable and confident of her place on top of the food chain. A very feral look. "I want these guys."

Esposito chimed in. "Well, I think we might have made your chances of that a little tougher. Here's Ryan's 'Way too much'. We ran a search for missing weapons that would fit with the crime scene. We found a national guard armory break-in right here in New York last year. They must have kept it on the DL, 'cause I hadn't heard a whisper. Started reading the report – 3 trucks filled, two were driven off. Shootout left an Army Reserve MP and 2 bad guys dead. They got away with lots of goodies, including a couple of M40A1 Recoilless rifles and lots of ammo to go with it. Shaped charges filled with Semtex 10. And Beckett, enough automatic weapons and ammo for half a regiment. SAWs. Combat shotguns. Claymores. The works. Before I could finish reading, the site froze up. Tried to logon again, but Ryan's password had been revoked."

"Any ID on the bodies? Leads?"

Esposito shook his head. "I didn't get that far."

Ryan stated the obvious. "I'm pretty sure we're going to have the Feds climbing up our butts first thing tomorrow. If not sooner."

Beckett inhaled deeply and blew her breath out through pursed lips, thinking deep thoughts. "Let's take this upstairs and toss it around. I think we have some latitude here." They moved over to the elevator and boarded as a group. She put her back to the corner and looked closely at her team. Esposito showed a little fatigue around the eyes, but was still a rock. The muscle of her team. They'd need his military expertise throughout this investigation. Ryan also looked a little tired, but he'd had an emotional day. A Daddy again! As always, he looked eager and loyal. If she asked him to jump off a bridge, he wouldn't hesitate. The perfect younger brother.

Castle didn't look tired, he looked excited. Like her, finding a difficult mystery to unravel was a bona fide stimulant. He locked eyes with her. His look was full of love and trust and confidence. She flashed him her megawatt smile. As the doors opened, he asked "coffee?"

"Yes, PLEASE. That would be great." Castle veered left to the break room, the other three entered the bullpen. They could see the back of some guy sitting in Esposito's chair, his blue jeans and cowboy boots up on Espo's spotless desk. The man must have heard them, because he took his feet down, stood, and spun around.

"It's about time!"

"Hey, Bro! Welcome back! How was the honeymoon?"

Detective Tom Demming smiled in his deeply tanned and sun burnt face. Espo and he exchanged a half-hug / half-handshake embrace. "Unbelievable. If you haven't been to Hawaii, it's a must during your lifetime. I just got off a flight 8 hours ago." He turned to Beckett. "Hi, Kate."

"Hi, Tom." After a second's hesitation, she lifted her cheek to receive a quick kiss. She looked up at him. "You look good. I meant to drop you a congratulations, but I haven't got to it yet. Esposito said your wedding was great."

"How would he know? When he wasn't trying to grope a bridesmaid, he was drinking himself into oblivion. You look good too. Looks like almost-married life is agreeing with you." Demming finished the turn so he was facing Ryan, who already had his hand outstretched.

"No hugs or kisses for me. I'm a married man. And, by the way, welcome to the club." Ryan shook his hand.

"Hey, Ryan, thanks. Is there a secret handshake I should know about?"

Ryan looked shocked. "No one has taught you the handshake yet?"

Demming smiled and looked around. "Where's Castle?"

Esposito waved at the break room. "Getting coffee for the queen bee."

Demming shook his head. "You know, Kate, even after all this time I still can't believe you'd dump me for some handsome multi-millionaire!"

"I know, right? What was I thinking?"

Esposito looked at the Robbery Detective. "Handsome?"

Demming stepped over into Esposito's personal space, towering over the diminutive Latino. "Did I say Handsome? I meant to say tall."

Beckett tried to hide her smile, but couldn't. At Esposito's look she laughed out loud. Espo did not look happy.

"Hey … Demming." Castle arrived with two coffees, and promptly handed one to Beckett.

Demming responded, "Hey … Castle."

Ryan smiled and quipped, "When you guys say that, you both sound like Seinfeld saying 'Hello, Newman!"

Castle asked, "Well, whatever do you mean, Detective?", while Demming asked, "Say what?" Castle proffered the coffee in his hand to Demming and asked, "Coffee, Detective?"

Demming said, "I'm going to need more than one. My personal clock is all screwed up. Can you show me how that space-age contraption in there works?" Both big men started for the break room.

"Sure, c'mon. You were in Hawaii, right? I think we have a Kona blend stashed around here".

"That sounds great".

"Tell me, Demming, how was your reception? Did you go with a band or a DJ?" They disappeared into the break room.

Esposito and Ryan followed Beckett to her desk, razzing her the whole way. "Uh-oh." "That doesn't look good." "No, definitely does not look good." "Oh, well, had to happen sooner or later" "Poor Beckett." "It's the old Two Worlds Colliding Disaster." "Boom?" "Boom!"

Beckett knew Esposito was trying to rile her after she laughed at Demming's short joke. She sat in her chair, put her coffee down, looked up at her two teammates, leaned back and asked "What?"

Esposito pointed to the espresso noise. "You can't tell me that those two comparing notes doesn't worry you?"

"Why would it? Castle knows Tom and I went out a few times. It is NOT a big deal."

"Yeah. But does he know when you broke up with him?"

"What's that matter? He knows about when…." A look of concern crossed her face momentarily.

Ryan smiled at Esposito. "Boom?"

"Boom."

Demming and Castle arrived with their coffees. Castle looked around and said, "Did we miss something?"

"Nope." "No." "I don't think so." The three homicide detectives tried to look innocent.

Beckett took charge. "Let's get going. I assume, Tom, that you are our promised armored car expert from the 3rd precinct. The boys will update you on what we have so far while Castle and I update the murder board."

Demming leaned against a desk, listening to Esposito and Ryan lay out the crime scene. He watched Beckett and Castle work seamlessly together on the murder board, in some instances finishing each other's written phrases silently. He started shaking his head halfway through the presentation, and was still shaking his head when Castle and Beckett put down their Magic Markers and spun around.

"Guys, what you just described is impossible. Could never happen."

"Why not?" Beckett asked.

"Because they've designed a foolproof system to prevent successful robberies. If something like you are saying happened actually did happen, there would have been a dozen cops in that alley, assuming they didn't stop the trucks earlier."

Castle cut in. "Detective Demming, there is no such thing as a perfect system."

Tom sat down on the desk. "There is now. It's like civics class. Checks and Balances. No one person or organization has control over more than one thing. Except for a stick-up, these armored car services are theft proof."

He lifted his index finger. "First is the personnel. All robberies of armored cars fall in one of two categories: Inside jobs or armed stick-ups. Everybody knows that the biggest vulnerability is from someone crooked inside. So all of the big companies, including Gotham, contract an outside agency to hire and schedule employees, especially the drivers and guards. In New York City that's the NYPD Internal Affairs Division."

"Why IAD?" Beckett asked.

"I don't know. Maybe they don't have anything better to do, or maybe they were the low bidder. Every employee is fully vetted every 18 months, and for the drivers and guards and anyone who touches the client's money it's every 6 months. That's time consuming, and IAD is used to sitting on their asses and doing computer searches. They also schedule the driver teams daily, mixing them up constantly. No driver or security guard knows who they'll be working with until they show up for work.

"Next is the pick-ups and routes. Those come directly from us at 3rd precinct Robbery Division. We get a nightly requirements sheet from every security company, and we map out the addresses and routes between them. It varies daily. If a driver takes a detour two blocks around a construction zone, or is more than half an hour off schedule, we get an alarm. At the start of day, they don't know where they're going or what they'll be picking up. Once they get their assignments and route, they aren't allowed to communicate with anyone outside their company. Using a cell phone is grounds for dismissal.

"The third is the companies and their armored car tracking. Some guards are assigned in house every day to the tracking room, making sure the truck and cargo are where they should be when they should be.

"Last is the armored car itself. These things are BUILT. Built to protect the drivers, the engine, and the cargo. The modern vehicles have impregnable safes built in, and only the clients have a key. Once a guard puts the property in and closes the door, only the destination client can access it.

Demming took a sip of coffee. "They have an independent GPS tracking system that's better than airline black boxes. Built right into the chassis, separate power supply, and tamper proof. If it's damaged or runs out of power, an alarm goes off at the company and the 3rd precinct. We test each truck every year, but it's no alarm has ever gone off on its own."

Beckett asked, "Can you access the tracking system?"

"Sure, unless they changed the password while I was gone." He went over to Esposito's desk, clicked through a couple of NYPD menus, and started typing an ID and password. Beckett's team gathered around. Demming cautioned, "Don't look! There are two levels of passwords to get thru…and…..Ta-Da! Welcome to ACTS!"

Ryan asked "ACTS? Oh, Armored Car Tracking System. Can you show us what Gotham City Vehicle 468 did today?"

Demming shook his head. "It doesn't work like that. It's real time. I can show you where it is now, and it's…at Gotham headquarters right now." He pointed to a blip on an overlayed map.

"How do we find out where it's been today?"

"The black box I was telling you about keeps about 6 months worth of data. It can be downloaded by the owners, so we'd have to go to Gotham City Security."

Beckett said, "Great. Field trip!" She looked over her team. "Guys, Rick and Tom and I will go check out Gotham City Security. Why don't you go home and get a little shut eye. Tomorrow we'll widen the search for the tractor trailer if we haven't come up with anything better. Try to beat Gates in." Beckett retrieved her gun from her desk, and picked up the case file. "Oh, and Ryan? Give Jenny a big hug and congratulations from me."

They all started out of the bullpen.