"I think the right thing to do is clear my throat to warn you that I'm behind you." The man's voice struck Kate as somewhat soft and caring.
Kate placed her cup of coffee on the table and picked up a few papers. Without turning around she tapped them on the desk. "Can I help you with something?"
"Look, I know what this looks like, my blood is found on the alley where your mother was killed and you have no way of keeping me here or getting anything out of me because I refuse to talk. At least here." He looked to his shoes, "that would do it." He said. "You have to trust me."
Kate took that moment to turn her chair around and stand up. If he weren't so tall, she would have been at the same level as him with the help of her six inch heels.
"Do I?" She questioned. "Please do explain to me why I would ever have to trust you, let alone listen to you!" Her eyes pierced through him, "You may think you're so clever Mr… Wayne, always having the right answer, knowing the exact button to push to cover your ass but mark my words, I will nail you to the wall like the bastard you are."
"It's not what you think, Detective." The boys had gathered at the door when they returned to the station from checking on a lead. "Give me a chance. I promise, what I have to say will change everything but I can't say it here." He pulled a piece of paper out of his sports jacket and wrote down an address. "The time is on the paper. Come alone. And detective," he called over his shoulder as he stepped between the two men at the door, "you won't regret this." He spun around to look at her one more time.
Having taken his last shot at convincing Beckett, Alexander took a half-step back and pulled the right corner of his mouth up in a smile, a gesture that made Kate's stomach turn in a weird way, a way that it hasn't since the last time she looked into Castle's eyes.
Just like that, he was gone.
"Please tell me you're not actually considering this?" One of the boys stepped forward and took his place in front of her.
"No," Kate looked deeply into his eyes before she attempted another phrase, "I just-" Kate looked at the piece of paper and picked it up, "Javi, this is the only lead we've got that seems to actually be going somewhere."
"Oh it's going somewhere, Beckett, to your grave!"
"Look, I'll run it, and I'll even tell you where it is, but you gotta promise to stay back and let me handle this the way I want to, all right?" Kate folded the pocket-sized paper and placed it in her coat.
"Are you insane? Beckett, it's not safe." Detective Ryan put his right foot forward and reached out his hand, pointing his index finger out to her, "If we do this, we do it right!"
"Guys, I've got this, it's all right." Kate reduced to her usual calm demeanor as she turned to walk out the precinct, "I've got this under control," she threw over her shoulder.
"No, Kate. You see, I don't think you do." The boys tried desperately to keep up with her fast pace, "This isn't the way to do this. I've got a bad feeling about this dude. We'll get him some other way. I promise." His voice was rough but low, sincere.
"No!" The way she spun sent her gleaming hair in a twirl above her shoulder until it flopped down across the other, "there is no way I'm going to scare this lead away. I have a strong feeling about this one!" Kate tried desperately to keep her composure but failed as a tear rolled down her dry cheek. A vein in her forehead created the smallest of shadows upon her fair skin.
"Beckett, we understand. We miss him, too." He placed his hand on her shoulder while leaning in. "Kate, we'll get him back. It doesn't end this way, I can feel it." His brow lifted, surrounded by his dark complexion. "I've got mad ninja skills." His mouth formed a smile as his partner spoke from behind him.
"Dude, ninja's don't have magical sensing powers, unless you're talking about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," said Kevin Ryan.
"Fine. Guys, all right, but we're doing this my way." She said as she wiped her check.
Kate turned the key, shutting her car off, as she parked in the empty parking lot outside the warehouse.
"Yeah, this looks like it's going to be all rainbows and cotton candy," said Javier Esposito.
"Shh!" She hushed him.
As if he hadn't heard her, he added, "Seriously, why do they all pick abandoned warehouses in the middle of the night when they are trying to prove their innocents to you?"
"Javi! Shut it!" She said as they neared the entrance.
The sounds of loud thudding and scratching metal caused them to jump back two steps and ready their weapons. Before they could register what where it was coming from the large door was forced open.
"I told you to come alone." His voice was grumpy.
"Yeah well," she tilted her head to the side and shrugged her shoulders, "if you really are innocent you'd have nothing to worry about, right? Plus, you have to understand my caution and need for backup either way."
"Good, I wouldn't want my son dating someone stupid enough to come to an abandoned warehouse alone in the middle of nowhere. Well, either that, or I'd respect him for having someone by his side with the guts to risk it all to save his life." He pushed the heavy door open wider, inviting the three detectives to join him inside the dark room.
Kate stood there, not knowing what to do next. The feeling was new to her; she was the one to move things forward, the person who knew the next step before even taking the first one. She was motionless, and her boys could only be the same.
"Are you just going to stand there, Kate? Come on in, I've got much more to tell you." He smiled.
"I'm not going anywhere until you explain why your blood matched that of which was found at a crime scene 14 years ago."
"Ah, yes, Johanna Beckett."
She brought one hand down beside her thigh while the other placed her sig in its holder, "January 9th, 1999, my mother was stabbed to death in an alley! Why was your blood found in that alley?" Tears began to fill her eyes.
"I know the date, Detective. Trust me; I will never forget that day." He pressed his lips together and continued. "Come in. You can trust me." His eyes filled with something Kate knew all too well. Pain. "Come in and I'll explain everything."
Kate stepped in without looking back. Behind her, the two detectives exchanged a look before following her in.
The group settled themselves around a wooden rectangular table situated in, what looked like, the center of the warehouse.
"I'm sorry, I don't want to be the one to point out the obvious but this really is your typical, 'mob-hit, dark-scene' taking place in a warehouse in the pitch black." Ryan blindly swept his arm from left to right, making sure there were no traps waiting for him in the darkness.
"Sorry about that," the tall man clapped his large hands twice, lighting up the room in an instant, "I kinda get used to the dark, you know?"
The detectives scanned the large, empty room only to find that is was, in fact, a large dusty space. The table they stood around was covered in surveillance photos of Rick taking outside the precinct, including photos of him and his daughter outside their home. The cameras seemed to have been hidden, either within a plant inside the hall leading to Castle's loft or high up where no person would think to look regularly.
"That's not creepy at all." Detective Ryan said as he clearly was not enjoying the way things were playing out so far.
"I've been watching over my family, Detective. Is that a crime?" He pulled out a chair and placed a few photos on it only to slide it back beneath the table and grab another to sit. "Please, sit," he gestured to a couple of empty chairs.
"Well, that depends." Kate grabbed a chair of her own and sat down. "Why were you watching them?"
"I knew Tyson would come after them once he made the connection. Tyson met someone, someone I used to know. His name was Eric Kaylek. I know what this sounds like but Eric and I were in the CIA."
"The CIA." Kate looked at the man questionably.
"A long time ago, Eric and I made a huge mistake. We went on an undercover gig, the objective was to find our employers daughter and bring her home, but we didn't realize the risks."
"Go on." Kate folded her arms and leaned back in her chair.
"Our employer was Victor Kolovski, a Russian General. At the time he was going by the name Victor Turner." Alexander began to fiddle with the gold ring positioned on his right hand. "Martha and I never did get married."
"What? I'm a little lost, this Victor guy, what happened to him? And what about his daughter?" Kate leaned forward and placed her elbows on the table, hands making fists as they lay close together in front of her.
"Don't jump ship yet, Detective. It turned out Eric and I were sent to find his daughter as a trap for us to eventually step onto a landmine. Long story short, we found her, she was supposedly some sort of damsel in distress." Kate could tell his voice was about to get higher. It was something she learned from Rick. She learned to watch out for those little signs, the change in his facial expression, the key words in his story that sent him deep within his own memory, "she was apparently kidnapped!" Alexander brought his tone down before he continued, "When we got there everything changed, Eric and I fell for her." His last sentence came out as if he had raised a white flag.
Kate felt the tension but before she could speak he finished.
"It was all part of their plan. I fell in love with her and when she ditched us at a base that was heavily under attack," Alexander looked to Detective Esposito, "Eric lost his leg. He's blamed me ever since."
"I'm not making the connection." Kate shook her head.
"Eric took Tyson under his wing after his parents died. He gave him a target, said it would be a fun chase. That chase was my daughter. Rick's little sister."
Kate looked up at a replica of her murder board hanging on the rusty metal wall almost forty feet from the table. Pictures of them were plastered, covered with post-it-notes, and a letter from Tyson himself.
"I don't think he pieced it together." Kate stood up, eyes fixed in position, and walked toward the board. Her right hand rose to hold the letter between her thumb and index, though, without peeling it from its place on the wall. "Not until now at least."