Chapter 19

Overnight Beckett had made no real progress. She'd only ruled out several videos as containing anything useful. After the third cup of coffee and hearing her stomach growl she wished that Castle had been coming in today and would bring her some breakfast. In all honesty she couldn't remember the last time she'd eaten.

As if the gods were granting her request the elevator dinged and Castle and Alexis emerged. Castle was carrying a tray of coffee cups while Alexis had a box of donuts.

Smiling from ear to ear Castle approached the team. "Figured if I wasn't going to be of any help today the least I could do was energize you." Sitting the things on the desk Ryan and Esposito quickly dug in.

Castle walked by and gently squeezed Kate's hand. "Well we'll let you guys get back to work. We have a dorm room to outfit. And my credit card is ready."

After the elevator closed Kate joined the guys in eating the bakery goods Castle had brought. Finding the cup with her name on it she smiled as the liquid warmed her body and fueled her spirit.

With a full stomach and heart Beckett turned her attention back to the videos. Castle's surprise fueled the team for the next four hours of mind-numbing video watching.

By two in the afternoon the sugar bliss had worn off and they still had nothing. Ryan ordered pizza as they pulled the last video up on the large screen in the conference room. They decided to watch the last one together while they waited for the delivery guy.

Twenty minutes of watching videos and the pizza arrived. The guys dove in but Kate's eyes were fixed on the screen. Pulling her chair closer to the screen she stopped. "Ryan back that up a little." He grabbed the remote. "There." Watching the screen a guy in black pants and a hoodie walked around the corner past the camera.

"Beckett what's so special about that guy?" Esposito wasn't sure what she'd seen.

"Now go back about five minutes." Ryan took the video back six minutes.

"Now watch." Beckett's eyes hadn't left the screen. Sure enough four minutes and 36 seconds earlier the same guy walked around the corner and up the street past the camera. "It's the same guy." They watched it several more times before Beckett spoke again "Wait rewind and watch his hand." As they watched all three could see that as the man walked back in the direction that he'd come the man slid something into the left cargo pocket of his pants.

Esposito sat down his plate. "Anyone else think that looked like a knife?"

"Certainly could be." Ryan was looking at Beckett. This was something but certainly not enough to go on.

"OK so here's the thing. Put in this tape and take it to.." She stopped looking back at her notes. "3:37am." As Ryan fast forwarded it to the point Beckett sat quietly. Not wanting to taint them she let them watch and draw their own conclusions. Watching the tape they both turned to her and smiled.

"Its the same guy." Ryan smiled but Beckett still didn't speak. They watched five more minutes before Ryan paused the screen as the same figure returned. Esposito added "I'll be damn. Beckett how do you do this shit?"

"The hoodie. It might shield their identity but it always drawn attention. The best part is yet to come. Let it play on." The two men watched as the hooded figure turned and opened a door and walked in. They watched waiting and sure enough he emerged twenty minutes later with a pizza box.

Grabbing a slice of pizza the guys took off assuring they'd call and let her hear the conversation with the employees. Sitting in the empty, silent conference room Kate longed to be heading out with them. Looking down tears filled her eyes as she hit herself hard on the thigh, and still felt nothing. With her back to the door she didn't see Gates as she stopped outside watching.

The Captain knew how hard the last few months had been on the Detective. When she'd first arrived at the precinct she had a preconceived notion about Detective Kate Beckett. She had been a little angry that the woman had broken her own record for youngest female to make detective and that anger carried into their interactions and Gates' treatment of the Detective and her team.

Seeing her in action Gates now knew that she was one of the best Detectives she had ever worked with and that she deserved the record. In addition, she'd seen the woman's personal character and strength in dealing with her shootings and the bombing that had left her confined to a wheelchair. The Captain hoped that given the same situation she would have been that strong.

Hearing the door open behind her Beckett quickly wiped her eyes and spun around to see Gates standing in the doorway. "I saw Ryan and Esposito on their way out. Good work Beckett not everyone would have caught that. Keep me updated on the case." As Gates left Beckett sat for a few moments, still getting used to Gates not always yelling at her, before finally picking up a slice of pizza.

Before she finished it her phone rang. Ryan's voice greeted her on the other end. "Alright Beckett you are on speakerphone. We've got the manager Michael here and Justin the employee working overnight on Friday."

Beckett listened as Esposito showed them the video on his phone. Justin remembered the man because of the hoodie and at that time of night they rarely had carryout orders. Most people were too drunk or tired by that time of night to venture out for a pizza. The guy remembered that he was white and he'd paid with cash. He was just normal looking but the young man did remember a tattoo. Apparently the guy had "Semper Fi" in a really cool script tattooed on the inside of his right arm just below his watch. Justin also remembered that the man had a really cool dive watch that looked really expensive. After getting everything they could they asked him to come down to work with a sketch artist. The manager urged him to go right now. He added that cops were some of his best customers.

Back at the precinct they had a sketch within the hour. Esposito used his military connections to narrow down the list of possible suspects. The tattoo was common with several units. One of which was from the NYC area and was currently home from a deployment. Pulling up the photos of the unit they all immediately recognized one face, Robert Baker. The young man and the sketch artist had done a remarkable job with the sketch.

"That's got to be him. Ryan can you pull up his service records and Esposito can you find out a current address?"

As Ryan pulled up the service record, which Beckett read over his shoulder, things began to make sense. The unit had returned from Afghanistan six weeks ago with four less members than they'd gone to war with. An incident report revealed that while on patrol a man carrying what looked like an injured boy had approached the convoy and blown himself up. Baker and one other soldier, Ronald Hockett, had been lookouts. Their Humvee had passed with no problem then as they turned the corner they heard the blast. Circling around when they returned the next truck was a smoldering mess. All four guys were dead.

"OK guys I've got an address." Esposito held up a sheet of paper.

"Man guy's got some baggage. We may want to take some extra help." Ryan had been leery about going off on their own since Beckett and Esposito had gotten into hot water for going in without waiting for backup.

"You go talk to Gates." Esposito was still a little sore about Ryan's fears towards the Captain. Ryan stood and headed to her office.

"He may be right with this one." Beckett feared that this guy might be more than the two could handle alone. "Espo, this guy has some serious baggage he was lookout when four of his squad were killed. He's probably dealing with PTSD and who knows what else." Ryan was already on his way out.

"They'll be waiting downstairs in 10."

"You all call as soon as it's over. Let me know how it went."