Sorry for the delay fans. A Marine Corps buddy of mine was done and my family and his spent some time together the past few days.
Chapter 3: Calling in a favor
The group waited in the living room for the phone to ring. As soon as Castle spotted the Russian in the video, Ryan had sent a screen shot to Tory Ellis to run for identification purposes. Martha had come down from her room and made a fresh pot of coffee for them. In one corner Ryan was on the phone with Jenny, apparently trying to calm her down, while Esposito and Lanie were sitting at counter with Kate and Rick. Ryan came over a moment later.
"How's Jenny taking it Ryan?" Rick asked sliding over a cup of coffee to Ryan who nodded his thanks.
"Scared, angry, frustrated." Ryan replied taking a sip of the coffee. He looked around at his friends. "More at IA than me."
"Don't blame her dog. I got 20 texts from people at the precinct saying this bull." Esposito stated as he looked around as well. "Word is that IA rummaged through our computers, and desk searching for anything to nail us."
"That's their job Espo. I don't like it either thought." Kate answered the statement from Esposito. She picked up her cup and placed it in the sink. "Henderson may be ass, but he is a through one."
The group laughed at the statement, but the laughter stopped as soon as Kate's phone rang. "Beckett." Rick slide a notepad over to her so she could write the name down.
"Detective it's Tory. Had to step out to call you, because IA has the phones bugged." Tory Ellis stated from outside on the street. "Name on photo you sent me is Sergei Vlaskoff. Had to have a friend of mine run it because IA is monitoring everybody here."
"Got it Tory thanks." Kate replied ending the phone call. She had wrote the name down on the pad Castle had slide over to her. "Sergei Vlaskoff is the name to the face."
The group moved to the office so that they could look him up on the computer. Castle had taken back over the computer and typed the name in the search window. He clicked on a link of the New York Times.
"Sergei Vlaskoff, a suspect of orchestrating more than a dozen hits for the Russian mafia leaves the courthouse after being found not guilty." Castle read the tag line in the article.
"Bad as he comes." Esposito stated as he looked at the article with the picture. He made notes in his notebook.
"I heard of him. Back in the 90s, he was suspected of taking a contract on a federal witness." Kate stated as well as she continued to read the article. "How did Henderson miss this?"
"He has a grudge against you for some reason." Ryan replied to the question as he moved to the computer to look at some other information. "Our boy Sergei is also suspected in the murder of an undercover cop that was trying to bring down a drug operation within the Russian mafia."
"How long do you think IA investigation will take dad?" Alexis stated from the doorway. She had startled them by sneaking in on them.
"Shouldn't take that long sweetie. We didn't do anything." Rick said getting up from the computer and walking over to his daughter giving her a hug. "It will be okay."
"Your dad is right honey, shouldn't be too long, and we could put this whole ugliness behind us." Lanie also stated getting nods from the group. Alexis smiled at them and left. "Poor thing."
Everyone nodded and sat down in the chairs that were brought in so they could do their work. The silence was only for a minute.
"So now what, do we stop here and wait to be cleared?" Castle asked.
"It be the smart thing to do." Ryan replied half-heartily. He knew that they could never sit around that long.
"Beckett, what do you think?" Esposito asked getting up and walking over to the desk standing near Kate who was on the computer.
"Half of me wants to agree with Ryan, and other half wants me to kick Henderson's ass for putting us through this, especially Alexis." Kate replied who was scrolling through the IA files from the case. "Rick, do you still have a connection in the mayor's office?"
"I still take his money occasionally at poker." Castle answered with a smile. He saw the looks of the faces of his friends. "Whoa guys are you seriously thinking that I call in that favor?"
"Not me dude, your wife suggested it." Esposito said getting a look from Kate. "What, you brought it up."
"That's a favor that shouldn't be called in, because then it could backfire on us and the mayor." Castle argued to the group.
"Babe, I'm not suggesting that he end the investigation, maybe put a word in the commissioner's ear." Kate said with the sly smile she uses that gets Rick going.
"Okay first of all no fair with the smile, you know what that does." Castle replied with a smile of his own to match his wife's. He shifted on his feet. "Secondly, he's on his last term and he may not be heavy in the favor department anywhere anymore."
The rest of the group just shrugged knowing that Castle may be right. Kate decided to continue to look into the IA investigation of them, to see what else they may be overlooking.
"Geez Beckett, how much of that money is yours?" Esposito asked as she looked over hers and Castle's bank statements.
"Stop Javi." Lanie scolded him with a smile. She then looked at Kate. "Seriously Kate, how much of that is yours?"
"Geez guys, come on we love each other." Kate replied with a smile as she continued to scroll on. "Half of it."
"I may want to sleep with one eye open." Castle said laughing. He stood by the screen looking at some of the files that Kate was scrolling through. "Whoa Kate, back up one file."
"You see something Castle?" Esposito asked coming over to get a better look.
"Yeah, this file here." Castle tapped the screen. Kate clicked on it and the file opened to a bunch of surveillance photos. "Son of a bitch."
"He's had us under surveillance a long time." Kate replied scrolling through the photos. The earliest date started the day after Rick went missing. "This is the day after you went missing."
"He must have felt you were abusing resources." Ryan replied.
"That doesn't matter, it was still a legitimate case." Esposito replied as Kate continued to scroll through the photos. "That is me and Lanie while at dinner with her friends from medical school."
"Me, Jenny and Sara Grace at the park." Ryan said with a little bit of anger in his voice. He looked around the room. "Castle make the call would you please so I can beat this guy to a pulp?"
"Take a number." Castle replied as other photos included Martha and Alexis. They all heard the ringtone of Kate's phone going off.
"Beckett." Kate said as she picked up her phone.
"It's Captain Gates, Detective." Gates said from her office. She stared out into the bullpen as the IA investigation team was closing up boxes of evidence, and other material. "The IA team has wrapped up its investigation here at the precinct. Looks like most of them agree it's a no- issue."
"We have evidence that Detective Henderson was investigating us prior to this incident Captain." Kate said as she stood up from the desk. She told the captain about the surveillance photos.
"Let me check within my sources at IA, detective and I'll get back to you." Captain Gates told Kate as she watch Henderson board with the last group of investigators. "Hang in there."
"Thanks Captain." Kate replied as she hung up the phone. The remainder of the group looked at her. "Captain is going to see if IA has anything about these earlier surveillance photos."
The group nodded and decided to wait for the call back from the Captain. The silence of the moment was deafening.
"Dips on the X-Box." Castle said leaving the office. The group laughed and followed Castle out of the office towards the kitchen again where Martha and Alexis were sitting down. "Ryan call Jenny and have her bring Sarah Grace over for dinner. This may be a while."
Ryan smile and pulled out his phone, while Rick pulled out food to start dinner. Kate came around to help him by starting to chop up the veggies.
"What you making Castle?" Esposito asked as he looked on.
"An Italian chicken casserole, with an Italian salad." Castle replied as he washed the chicken and prepped the noodles. "Maybe some garlic bread to go with it."
"Okay, if you are cooking that, I am definitely staying." Lanie said as she saw Castle add the spices and flavoring for the casserole. She looked over at Kate who despite the situation they were going through had a smile on her face. "Kate, I envy you."
Kate looked up and smiled at her friends. "I like helping Rick with this, and it allows me to unwind every time."
Their nodded and enjoyed watching the couple work together as a team to get the dinner completed. Jenny with Sarah Grace, showed up prior to the casserole coming out of the oven. Esposito, Lanie, and Ryan set the table as Alexis got the wine out of the storage while Martha lit the candles on the table. Despite the investigation over them, the little family that had developed settled into for a lovely dinner.
"Castle that was outstanding." Lanie stated leaning back in her chair sipping the wine that was also excellent. "I may have to come over more."
"Thank you Lanie." Castle replied to the compliment that Lanie gave him. He looked over to Jenny and Sarah Grace. Jenny was in the process of cleaning Sarah up. "She seemed to enjoy it too Jenny."
"I know. Thank heavens I have spare clothes in the back." Jenny stated throwing a smile down towards Castle. She wiped off Sarah Grace's face. "Is there someplace I could change her?"
"You can use our room Jenny." Kate said pushing her chair back. She showed Jenny the way to the bedroom. As soon as the door was closed Kate walked back over to the table. "Kevin, you want to back out of what we are doing, I won't blame you."
"Same here man." Esposito replied to the comment that Kate made.
"I second that one." Lanie replied as she saw Sarah Grace look over her mother's shoulders waving at the group.
"Same here Ryan." Castle replied getting nods from also Alexis and Martha who had tears in their eyes.
"Excuse me Dad." Alexis said getting a nod from her father.
"Kevin dear, you have an absolute beautiful family." Martha replied drying her eyes with a napkin. "Now dears if you excuse me."
Martha got up and walked towards the stairs to join her granddaughter who was already closing the door to her room. Jenny walked out a minute later, with a clean Sarah Grace. Ryan walked over and kissed his family good bye.
As soon as he walked back over to the table he sat down. "There be no way I could look my daughter in the eyes if I let you guys go down without me."
Castle got up from the table and walked into the office. He came out a moment later, pressing a contact name in his phone. "Bob, Rick, I need to call in a favor."
The group looked at Castle in shock.