As the paramedics zipped Tyson's lifeless corpse into a black body bag, Kate's phone rang. Peering down at the screen she saw her fiancé's face. Kate struggled in her mind. How could she tell Rick that the son he just met, was not only bleeding to death, but to her knowledge had been kidnapped? She let her phone ring through to voicemail. She looked up from her phone's screen to see the sadness on Ryan and Esposito's faces. "Castle?" Inquired Esposito.
"Yeah … Ok guys, we have to keep this under wraps as long as possible…" Ryan objected.
"Kate, what the hell? Castle needs to know. That's his son." Kate was despondent to say the least.
"Look, we don't know what we're dealing with. We have no clue what the hell happened here. We have NO answers for him or Alexis. So we do our jobs. We gather the evidence and see where it leads us. That's the fastest way to get answers, and get McHale back; hopefully alive, I know we barely know him, but now that we know what he's done; who he is, he's part of our family . My family …" Her partners could see the weight of the world pressing down on her. Ryan chimed in, attempting to be productive.
"Alright, so what do we know? What do you remember?" Kate recounted the events of the morning, being as detailed as possible which only raised more questions. Why the smoke? How did Tyson slip his restraints?
"Ok, let's get CSU to sweep the scene, and we need the autopsy results from Lanie as soon as possible." Somberly, the team departed the courthouse and returned to the 12th. All three detectives sat at their desks, sifting through the crime scene photos and eye witness accounts, trying to make the ends meet; trying to come up with a story that made sense. A feeling of dread washed over them when the elevator chimed. The doors sprang open with a groan. Castle paced out with slumped shoulders and damp eyes. He wasted no time marching straight to Beckett's desk. He landed a fist on the desk, causing everything to rattle and Kate's pen holder to topple over, spilling everywhere.
"When the hell were you going to tell me Kate?!" Kate had only seen Rick like this once before, when Alexis had been kidnapped. "I went to every single emergency room in the city, and Matt hasn't been admitted anywhere, which leaves only one logical conclusion, which is, HE WAS KIDNAPPED!" Kate's head and eyes swung low facing the dark brown laminate that covered her cheap desk; as if an acceptable answer might magically appear. Running her hand through her hair, she reluctantly responded.
"Castle … we don't know that he's been kidnapped. In fact we don't know much of anything right now, and I didn't want to disappoint you."
"Well, you did." Castle snapped back. Kate tried to maneuver the conversation in a different direction.
"Where's Alexis?" Castle anger melted into helplessness. Plopping down into his chair and rubbing his forehead he answered.
"At home, with Martha. Why would anyone want to kidnap my son? None of this makes sense to me; and that's rare. Please Kate … just find him." The ring of Beckett's desk phone saved her from further discussion.
"That was Lanie, she's got something for us. Castle, you coming?" Castle shook his head with negativity, using all of his arms strength he pushed himself out of the chair beside Beckett's desk.
" I'm just going to … get a cup of coffee. Let me know when you have something." Both went their separate ways, while Ryan and Esposito exchanged concerned looks; they hate it when mom and dad are fighting, but that emotion spurned them to work just that much harder, the feeling that they were fighting for family began to sink in. Down in the morgue, Lanie fluttered about with an uninformed smile on her face.
"Hey girl, I've never been happier to report that: this man is dead. One nine millimeter round through the chest, and lodged in his spine is our cause of death. Looks like our boy McHale did what we all wanted to. Kate slumped into one of the high chairs next to the lab's desk, and with a blank stare spoke.
"Is that all Lanie?" The medical examiners face went from rosy happiness, to downturned eyes and sadness.
"Kate, no that's not all, but what's going on?" Kate shook her head in confusion, dismissing her close friend's question.
"What else is there?" She barked. Obviously not herself, Lanie skipped the niceties and continued with the interesting part of her report.
"A second gunshot wound. A twenty-two caliber bullet was stuck in his left shoulder blade. I extracted the bullet, which was pretty mangled, but it was covered in something viscous; almost liquidly. The other odd part about it is he didn't bleed much from this wound; almost like he was shot simultaneously with both weapons. I'm sending the slug to the FBI lab to see if they can tell us what's on it." Beckett rose from her chair and turned to the door for a quick exit. "One more thing hunny, the wound from the nine-mil shows stippling, close range; the twenty-two entry wound shows none." Kate paused with her hand on the door and furrowed her brow.
"So he was shot from a distance?" Kate asked. Lanie answered with experienced confidence.
"That would be my guess." The two friends exchanged small, flat lipped smiles, finally a clue.