Enough is Enough
by Castlefan6
Authors Note: This is AU; A different scenario after Rick returns to the Precinct in Episodes 3-1. Based on a few quotes I live by,
"Castle, go home! Go back to your ex-wife, your Hamptons, your book parties, okay? I've got work to do." This is what prompted this story
I don't own Castle; I only use the characters for amusement purposes, except the ones I create.
Also, we take liberties with the timeline from Canon and use events to make this more believable fiction, thanks. Remember This IS AU. Timelines, Events, and Outcomes may vary from the Original Script.
WARNING! THIS MAY NOT END AS A CASKETT FIC. If that disturbs you, please delay reading until I decide which ending, I will choose.
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Chapter 7
Castle's London Home
7:00 AM Next Day UK Time, 2:00 AM New York Time
New York is 5 hours behind London
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Kate had chosen the time frame she thought would be best for Castle, since she was accustomed to not sleeping, and now with the added weight of closing 8 cases in two weeks, sleep would be hard to come by. She had managed to get a number for Rick's answering service, as close as she could come to a personal number, he had changed the one she still remembered by heart one week after he stopped coming to the precinct.
The time difference between the UK and New York just added to the complexity of trying to connect with her former partner. Needless to say, Josh wasn't thrilled that she had to contact the writer again, not that he was worried anything would happen, it was just more time Kate had to spend on the job and away from him.
He had cut back on his trips out of the country after they had the last big fight and subsequent break-up, and he wasn't about to let her fall into the same habit that he had. No one is irreplaceable, not him, not even the great detective that she was, others could and would do the job.
Kate had left a message with Rick's messaging system and had received a call back from Faith, his administrative assistant who would arrange for him to return her call at 7:00 AM UK Time, tomorrow. She decided to shower, and eat something, in hopes she could catch a few hours of sleep before the clock struck 2:00 AM in New York. She awoke from her nap around 9:15 PM local time and headed to the coffee that she had just brewed.
She reviewed the files that Roz had handed her, a girl was strangled in an alley on her way home from work, the other a tutor at a local college was discovered by a construction crew just as they were pouring cement for a new foundation, and the last two cases were pop and drop, no motive, no reasons just someone drove by the house and fired rounds into the home, killing a 65-year-old grandfather in one and a 19-year-old honor student just about to enter his second year at Harvard in the second.
No one saw or heard anything, and the investigations went cold after the bodies began to pile up in new cases. Kate remembered how pissed off Rick was when they had to mark the case cold and set it aside, but there was nothing they could do, they didn't have the resources.
As she reviewed each file, it brought her back to the actual case, Espo acting macho, Kevin following on her every lead, and Castle, pain in the ass Castle refusing to stay where she told him to. In two instances she was alive because the stubborn jackass refused to obey orders, but rather than thank him, she reamed him out and almost had him thrown out of the precinct.
She was on her second pot of coffee, and her fourth trip to the bathroom when she returned the phone ringing caused her to jump, even though she was expecting the call, it still frightened her. She glanced at her clock, 1:57 AM, Castle kept his record intact, he had never been late for any times they had agreed to meet, but sadly she couldn't say the same.
She answered the phone with her normal greeting, "Beckett" since she didn't know if it was him or dispatch calling with yet another murder to solve.
"Good Morning, ah, excuse me, Detective, what is it over there, what two o'clock AM?" She heard the voice of Rick,
"Your math skills are still working fine, yes, 2:00 AM, we're five hours behind you in the UK, she answered," trying to sound neutral but in reality, she was frightened about what he would say if anything at all.
I sent Paula an email outlining the purpose of this call, I hope"
"She did Detective, now can you tell me how I can help?" he said, not beating around the bushes.
"The truth is Rick, we, meaning the 12th have our backs against the wall, if we don't close 8 cases in the next two weeks, we will lose some very valuable people. Mr. Mayor and the Commissioner aren't fooling around on this, and I need your help, if you can spare a few hours to review these cases, perhaps there is something we missed the first time." Kate said in a very contrite tone,
"I haven't spoken to either of them since, well since I branched out. Has Roz tried talking to Bob, I mean 8 cases in two weeks is almost impossible, even for the crack staff at the 12th." He said,
"She tried but got shot down, almost like they are gunning for us, something from the past, and this is the way to make us pay," Kate said,
"I doubt that Beckett, they both are hard asses but they don't play the political games of screw your buddy like so many do unless they've changed a great deal.
"Maybe you're right, I know the finances are in the tank, and more cuts are coming. Roz is trying everything to keep the people at the 12th, although I agree, we are facing some terrible odds." She replied,
Kate heard a noise, almost like a woman speaking low, before Rick said, "Excuse me, Beckett, I'll be right back" and put the call on mute,
A few minutes later she heard the closing of a door, as Rick came back on the line like he was saying goodbye to a house guest, what the hell, it was none of her business if he were.
"OK Detective, where do you want to start?" he asked,
"Remember the girl that was on her way home from the utility company, and would up strangled, at the time all we had was a rope fiber, and cigarette butt, not much to go on.
"Well, I would pull the evidence box, and resubmit the hard evidence for advanced DNA testing, that field had progressed so much farther than when we first caught this case," Rick said as Kate was writing notes down furiously,
"Beckett, are you still writing things down on a pad? I've recorded this, I'll send the WAV file to your NYPD email account when we complete the call. Think more about how we can solve the case rather than what I just said." He scolded her,
"Will do, how about the other cases Rick, I know all of them to have some evidence, but I'm not sure if we could get DNA from all," She said,
"Call Jordy, I mean Jordan Sparks, and tell her you need a favor on my behalf, she should be able to narrow down any suspect pool you arrive at," he said,
Just then her laptop dinged, "I just sent you the wav file from tonight, review it with Roz, and call me on the number I included at the bottom of the email IF you need more help. Detective, don't call me unless it is case related, I'm in the middle of my own projects,"
"OK, thanks Rick, I better let you go, and get to work on this end. I appreciate your help,"
"Detective, do you even know how many or who could lose their jobs if you fail to hit your number? When you look at your colleagues just think it very well could be them, and it's not a threat, it's survival for the city, Good Luck" he said as he hung up.
Kate set her alarm for 7:00 AM and fell into bed in the clothes she was wearing, she was exhausted from the call, and the fear of failing and costing some of her team members their jobs.
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Rick's London Home
Immediately After the Call with Beckett,
Rick went downstairs to the kitchen to have his coffee and bagel, hopefully, she hadn't left yet, as he turned the corner into the kitchen there she sat, as beautiful as the morning sun.
"I'm glad you didn't leave yet, I'm sorry I had to take that call, but well, some of my friends may lose their jobs if they don't get some cases closed," Rick said as he accepted her into his arms, her head nuzzled into his shoulder.
"Why are you apologizing, you told me last night about the call, I forgot, I'm sorry about that. Do you forgive me? She leaned back and captured his lips in a sweet kiss.
"Nothing to forgive, you know that. I just don't want your personal life to be turned upside down until we have all our plans in place, you've seen what the press can do, and"
"I know sweetheart if I'm being honest at first, I thought you were hiding us because you weren't sure, but the more I've seen how the press hounds you, follows you around, God, you have to watch everything you say. I'm sorry baby, I know now, Thanks for always protecting me" She said, with another kiss,
"Soon Sweetie, very soon, we'll be announcing it and I'll be screaming it from the rooftop, but for a little while longer, we just have to be careful, OK?" He kissed, her, and she shook her head, yes, she held him tightly, then tiptoed to whisper, "I love you, Rick, nothing is ever going to change that, so you can count on me." She pulled back and her eyes got lost in his, and his smile. This is the way a relationship was supposed to be, not like the imitations both of them had gone through.
"Were you able to help your friends in New York?" She asked
"I hope so, I pointed Beckett in the direction that a rookie cop should have been able to figure out when working cold cases. I just hope she doesn't let her pride get in the way and she calls Jordan Shaw like I suggested. I think Jordy could help her." He said,
"I hope so too, but sweetie, you can only do so much, as you always tell me, do your best, you can't do anymore," she said,
He smiled, "My own advice coming back at me, but you're very wise to use it" She threw a towel at him,
"See you for lunch today?" she asked her eyes begging,
"Of course, I'm beginning to get a little jealous of this guy you see so many times at lunch, I mean he doesn't look anything like me" he laughed, it was the disguise she had picked out that so far had the paparazzi leaving them alone, just like two workers meeting for a meal. One more deep kiss, and then she said, "Rick, I love you, I know you get tired of hearing it, but I'll never get tired of saying it.
"Hey, who said I would ever get tired of hearing it, I love you, so very much as well, soon sweetie, soon," he said, one more kiss, she broke away slowly and went out the back exit, down the alley, as he went out the front door.
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12th Precinct
Later Same Morning
Kate arrived at the precinct at 8:00 AM precisely, she didn't mind the extra hours occasionally, but she refused to fall back into the old habit of living there. Josh had taught her, actually reinforced what Mike Royce had taught, sometimes you need to step away for a short while and come back with fresh eyes.
She was greeted by Anne, who looked almost as tired as she felt, "How did it go last night Kate? Did you connect with Rick?" she asked,
"Yes, yes, I did, it was around 2:00 AM our time, but he did call just as his assistant promised. He told me to have the DNA processed through the Federal Lab and to contact Jordy, or Jordan Shaw and tell her he needed her on the cases as a favor to him.
"He also said we should ask her to build a profile for the other cases where DNA wasn't available, makes sense, but I'm wondering when he got to know Agent Shaw so well that he called her Jordy?" Kate said,
"Well, I think I heard them say something about college when she was here working the Dunn case, could they have known each other back then?" Anne asked, not looking up from her notes,
"College? Did Rick know her for that long? Why didn't he say something during the case? No wonder Shaw told her he cared about her, she had been his girlfriend at one time," Kate guessed thanking God she hadn't said anything aloud.
She briefed Roz, who immediately dialed Jordan Shaw's number, after a few rings, she heard the woman answer. "This is special agent Jordan Shaw; how can I help you?"
"Agent Shaw, this is Captain Roz Karpowski along with Detective Kate Beckett from the NYPD 12th precinct, I'm not sure you remember,"
"I remember you, Roz, and I certainly remember Kate, why are you calling me? Another crime that is in Federal jurisdiction?" she asked,
"No, actually it's a long story but cutting to the heart of it, we need your help in profiling some suspects from cold cases, we are under a mandate to close multiple cases within the next two weeks, or face severe cutbacks," Roz said,
"I spoke to Rick Castle last evening from England, he is working on a project while living there as his daughter attends Oxford, and he suggested we contact you and mention it would be a favor to him" Kate added,
"God Damn him, he always did know what buttons to push," came the response, then a terse, "Be at the New York field office this afternoon at 1:00 sharp and I'll see what I can do. Roz is this connected to the DNA retest samples you sent over this morning?"
"Yes Agent Shaw, we need 8 closures in two weeks, and it was Rick's suggestion we start with the latest DNA testing on the samples we still have. I know it's a long shot, but I have to do what I can to save my people's jobs" Roz said, and Kate acknowledged that she was truly sincere, it wasn't just lip service, she truly cared.
"OK, but don't hold your breath, you both know that time is not a friend of DNA or any evidence samples, there's always some degree of degradation." She said, then added, I'll hurry the lab up to see what we can do"
"Thanks, Agent Shaw, I really appreciate it," Roz said,
"Roz, if we are going to work together call me Jordan, our mutual friend Rick knew what he was getting me into when he told Kate to call me. I'm stationed in New York for the next two months so this is home, well for now, so I'll help where I can." Jordan said
"Thanks, Jordan, we'll see you at 1:00," Kate said just as Shaw hung up,
"Kate, I don't have to tell you how important it is that we give Agent Shaw everything we have, I mean,"
"I know Roz, I'm on it now. I'll take care of it personally," she said,
As she made her way back to her desk, she heard Roz summon Anne into her office, perhaps they might get lucky and close 3 maybe 4 cases, but 8? That figure was looking mighty bleak, at least from where she sat.
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FBI NY Field Office
1:00 PM Same Day
Anne, Roz, and Kate had put together their best-case scenarios of how the potential suspect pool matched up against their case files and public knowledge. They had six potential suspects, that had to be ruled out, either by evidence or DNA or both so they could move on to the next potential suspect.
Shaw was waiting for them, with a couple of binders in her hands as she let them to her office. "I don't have to remind you but any and everything discussed today is a matter of classified information and is not to be repeated to anyone, outside a secure location, and only when the person has been validated to hold the required security clearance and a NEED TO KNOW." She sounded as if she were reciting it from a card, but years on the job had caused her to memorize the preamble to any discussion.
The waiver forms were signed by each NYPD personnel, then countersigned by Jordan, and now at last she was free to speak about the findings.
"Roz, you may have lucked out, we re-ran the DNA samples you sent over, and through advanced techniques were able to generate an unlimited supply of it to undergo the latest tests. The samples you sent were on their last legs for shelf life, but now we have the markers and source DNA replicated IF we need it for future investigations.
"As you may know, our technology has progressed so now our scientists have been able to create these DNA fingerprints with much smaller DNA samples, meaning that a suspect can be identified from a drop of blood instead of a pint.
"One new technological development, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), sequences, or reads through, many small fragments of DNA at the same time, giving results much more quickly and at a much lower cost than older methods. Also, the number of regions used in the analysis and accepted by the courts increased from 13 to 20 in 2017, increasing the accuracy of DNA testing, and has stood up in court for both convictions as well as exonerations.
"Scientists have also developed methods to analyze mixtures of DNA samples, as might occur when DNA is collected from a rape or assault victim such as your victims. I won't use the language I had to google to find out what the hell they were talking about but the short of it is we now have sophisticated software to use probability models to determine the chances of different samples of DNA matching one donor.
"NONE of these were available when these cases went cold, but we can say with a certainty of 99.93456% that the same person killed all four of your cold cases Roz, and three of the ones that Beckett was working on. He tried to fool us and was successful by mixing a female's DNA with his, on some of the victims, probably a sadistic sex act with a woman partner, but we were able to extrapolate his DNA." Jordan said making a face of disgust,
"Jordan, that's fantastic, but now that we know we are looking for one guy, how do we find him? Did you compare the sample with that in the national database?" Kate asked,
"Of course, and guess where your perp is, Federal Correctional Institution, 1400 Dale Bumpers Dr, Forrest City, AR 72335. I have him detained in isolation until we can formally charge him, but we have time, he's serving 20 years for assault on a Federal Officer." Jordan said,
"Pardon me Jordan, but does the perp have a name?" Kate asked, almost afraid of who could be so evil to commit seven murders, that they could prove, and God knew how many more they didn't know of or were in another state.
"Oh, that's the good part, his name is Jerry Tyson, and the female DNA that he used to throw us off the trail with belongs to none other than the late Dr. Kelly Nieman. She met her fate in a woman's prison when someone thought she was too beautiful and took her out." Jordan said,
"I'm recommending that the Attorney General take over the cases, based on your proof, and he be tried for Hate Crimes, in Federal Court. I sent a report to your Commissioner and Mayor, asking them to close the local cases for all seven, since I have new cases filed." Jordan said,
"I don't know how to thank you Jordan, I mean" Roz stumbled over her words, taken back by the change of fortune,
"Well, start by telling Rick Castle we are even, I don't owe him squat now." She laughed,
"I'll do that, I have his email so that will have to do, Roz said, as Kate looked on in amazement. Two other women had methods to contact him, and she had to go through his assistant Faith. She knew where she stood for sure now.
TBC
A/N: Thanks for the reads and reviews, and all good thoughts about the case. Remember it's AU, so we don't have to follow actual police protocol, but we try to keep it as authentic as possible,
Tim