Genre: Drama, Crime, Romance, Humor
Rating: M for language, sexual situations and violence
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters featured on the show Castle, they belong to the creator of the show, ABC, and the others who do own them.
A/N #1: I really want to point out that I know little to nothing about guns, so my information may be wrong, but I tried to be somewhat accurate though it's not a subject I wanted to really research in detail. But did want to put out an apology for any mistakes I may have concerning that!
A/N #2: Also should put another reminder that I'm not an investigator by profession, just to make sure, though I know my readers are aware of that, just want to cover my bases, just in case.
A/N #3: Want to make sure my reviewers know how thankful I am, since they reviewed the last chapter. Guest (Was really nice to read your review, 'cause you saw something that I did when I was planning out this story; that Beckett would hide something like her experience with horses. It's why I wrote it like that, because for some reason I can see her not really sharing with Castle that. So I am glad you liked that. And great that what I've written with the plot are twists for you that you can't guess, very nice to see that for me as a writer!) and Unputdownable (For the beginning of your review, I put in the first A/N, and you're right, though it was a mistake I made 'cause I don't know much about guns, so I was sorta guessing there. I am glad that you like the way the team is interacting with each other, since I like the way they do on the show, try to write that part well too). So thanks to you both for the reviews, they were a lot of fun to read and I appreciated them so much, knowing you took the time to send them to me!
A/N #4: The title of this chapter comes from the song All You Horse Riders by Paul McCartney from his remastered album McCartney II.
In Your Saddle
"Ms. de Alba," Beckett said as she and Castle entered the room where the victim's cousin was sitting at the interrogation table.
"I don't understand why you brought me here," Megan said quickly. "I told you everything I knew."
"Actually we have a few more questions for you, concerning your cousin's stables," Beckett said as she and Castle sat across from her. "First, you're an employee of his aren't you?"
"Yes," Megan replied. "But I've been working with Patrick since I was fifteen and he was eighteen when he took over the stables after his father passed away."
"Do you have any idea who would benefit from his death?" Castle asked.
"I told you about all those people who want to get their hands on Asturias," Megan said. "They would all likely want him dead. But it wouldn't help if my cousin has a will."
"You don't know for sure?" Beckett asked, glancing at Castle in slight surprise.
"He never mentioned one really," Megan said. "We never thought he'd need to worry about the stables. I guess that was a pretty stupid idea considering how everything's gone."
"So I guess you don't mind if I ask what you were doing around the time your cousin saddled his horse at 8 this morning?" Beckett inquired.
"I saddled his horse," Megan said slowly. "Oh god, you don't think I did something to Asturias to make him throw my cousin do you? I would never hurt an animal like that. And I would never want my cousin dead. He was like a brother to me, we grew up together."
"We'll need to check on that," Beckett said.
"You mentioned other parties wanting your cousin's horse," Castle said. "Are you sure you don't know who they were?"
"Not really," Megan said. "Patrick was pretty quiet about that, and he kept it to himself. But they would all have to be pretty wealthy, I'm sure you know Detective that he's not a cheap nag."
"I've noticed," Beckett said. "Did he have dealings in the past with any of these individuals besides them wanting to get his horse?"
"I guess he could have. It's possible they could have ridden some of our other horses, or else used our stallions for breeding with their horses," Megan said. "I think you might want to look at those that used Asturias, but that number's pretty small. My cousin didn't like to have other people using his horse like that."
"Then why did he?" Castle asked.
"I'm not sure, but when he did allow Asturias to be used as a breeder, he would set up with whoever had requested the stallion in the past," Megan said. "Which I always thought was so strange, but… he always told me it was necessary, not something I needed to worry about."
"We're going to need to search your cousin's office at the stables," Beckett said. "I'm assuming that's where he kept all his records."
"Dealing with his horses, yes. And he kept that office locked, so you'll have to break down the door because I have no idea where he kept the key," Megan said. "But please, search all you like, I need to know who did this to Patrick."
"You think she's the shooter?" Castle asked Beckett as the vic's cousin was led over to holding to await her alibi being confirmed.
"No, I don't think she's the saboteur either," Beckett answered as she turned to walk over to her desk. "Espo," she called to the detective who was walking up to them. "Anything coming from Spain?"
"No, I looked into any connections besides our vic's grandfather's farm, but nothing," Esposito replied. "And after his grandfather died there's no kind of contact between the stables here and the farms there."
"Okay, I need CSU to go to de Alba's office at the stables, see if there are any records of the people that used his horse as a breed stallion," Beckett told him.
"Got it," Esposito said, going to his desk.
"So our investigation looks like it's going to stay here in the country," Beckett said a little absently as she looked at the board. "Which is a relief, I don't want to deal with the FBI at this point."
Castle glanced over at Esposito who was leaving, and looked over at the room where Ryan was looking at the security footage. "Beckett," he said then, watching her. "Do you think I might be able to ask you something?"
"It's possible, but whether or not I'll answer is another matter," Beckett said, turning to him. "What is it?"
"I'm thinking your interest in horses is a lot more than just riding for fun," Castle said. "Come on, what's there to be ashamed of?" he said as she rolled her eyes. "Just tell me and you know I'll stop bothering you about this."
"I'll pass," Beckett said firmly. "But you're welcome to try and guess, usually turns out to be pretty entertaining when you come up with crazy ideas about me since you're always way off."
"Boyfriend?" Castle asked. "A rider who you liked, you tried to get his attention doing dress… riding horses very fancy."
"Fancy?" Beckett asked as she sat at her desk. "I don't think so. And why do you always guess a past boyfriend first? Shouldn't that be the last thing you want to hear from me?"
"Guys, I've got the footage from the stables set to this morning," Ryan said as he walked up to them. "Should take a look."
Glancing at Beckett with slightly wide eyes, Castle got up to follow her, wondering if the detective had heard them. But Ryan walked into the room ahead of them without a word and he breathed an inward sigh of relief, seeing the same expression on his girlfriend's face he knew was on his own.
When Beckett and Castle had joined him, Ryan pressed a button on the remote and pointed to the middle of the screen. "That's our vic," he said.
"And Ms. de Alba is with him," Beckett said. "He's watching her put the saddle on," she said as the victim was putting on his equestrian boots and laughing with his cousin. "Wait, who's that?" she said, seeing someone appear at the top of the screen, the entrance to the stable.
"I can't zoom in," Ryan said, peering at the figure. "It's too far back."
"Whoever it is they're going out to talk to him," Castle said. "Why didn't she mention that?"
"It might have slipped her mind," Beckett said absently as she kept her eye on the footage. "And it looks like her alibi checks out…" she said as a figure came out of the shadows and stood at the stallion's side, blocking the saddle. "That's the killer," she said suddenly.
"How can you tell?" Ryan asked.
"Go back and pause as they turn," Beckett said. When he had done so, she pointed to the hip of the figure in a mask and hood. "You can see the glint here on the silencer." She left then, hurrying out of the room to head to lockup, hearing someone walking after her. "Ms. de Alba," she said when she reached the cell the young woman was in. "You failed to mentioned that you were interrupted saddling the horse this morning."
"What?" Megan asked in confusion. "Oh, wait," she breathed as her expression changed to realization. "That's right, one of the students; we have two instructors in show jumping and dressage at the stables; he came up to us, wanted to show us some of the new tack that he got. Actually, I hadn't finished saddling Asturias when we'd gone to see and I didn't check his hooves either before letting Patrick go which I always do."
"What's the student's name?" Beckett asked.
"Philip Gregorian," Megan said.
Turning to go back to watch the security footage, Beckett stepped around Castle and handed a piece of paper with the name on it to Ryan who had been a little behind them. "Try and contact him, see if he corroborates her story."
"Should check and see if he's lying, he might have distracted them for her," Castle said, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder at the cells.
"Check," Beckett said when Ryan looked at her. When he had left, she went back to the TV and played the footage again, watching as the killer soon slipped away into the shadows and she sighed, something bothering her.
"I'm wondering," Castle said slowly, watching her for a moment. When she looked at him he said, "That horse was pretty jumpy while Officer Thomas was holding it earlier. But just now, when the shooter was putting those needles under its saddle, it didn't even flinch. Does that say something about the killer? What kind of person needs to be able to handle that stallion?"
"An experienced rider that knows horses very well," Beckett said. She watched as Megan and their vic came back inside the stable, and the woman finished adjusting the saddle before the vic rode off.
"I just got off the phone with Philip Gregorian," Ryan said, coming inside the room ten minutes later. "And according to him, he asked our vic and Ms. de Alba to look at his new equipment, since they all are very much interested with horses and things like that. I did a quick check on his financials, in case there might be any large, unexplained deposits into his account, and he's clean."
"And the tack that Ms. de Alba was talking about? Any evidence of him paying for that?" Beckett asked.
"There are two recent purchases, from about a week ago that stood out to me," Ryan answered. "I was able to find out what they were for. First was an English saddle, nine hundred and thirty dollars," he said, reading off a piece of paper. "And second was for a bridle, one hundred and thirty dollars. According to Mr. Gregorian, he received them yesterday. Does that sound like the right amount though?" When Beckett nodded he looked slightly confused and said, "For a saddle and what goes around the horse's head?"
"It can go higher," Beckett said. "Equestrian tack can get pretty expensive, especially the saddle. Must have been high end. Okay, so I think we can let Ms. de Alba go, this clears her. But we're back at square one." Her phone rang, and she reached into her pocket, putting it on speakerphone when she saw that it was Esposito. "Did you find something?" she asked.
"We got a list of the people that used that horse for breeding," Esposito said on the other end. "But also found something else, an IOU to the CEO of the Manhattan South Bank, Kenneth Black."
"What does the IOU say exactly?" Beckett asked.
"The victim was going to give the stables to him," Esposito said.
"See if you can find any financial papers," Beckett said. "He obviously kept whatever debt he was in a secret." She hung up the phone and looked at Ryan saying, "Castle and I will go talk with Mr. Black. Try and see if you can look into any large amounts of money going into and out of the bank, I get the feeling our vic hid his identity there."
Once Ryan had left, Castle looked at Beckett and asked, "Would an IOU negate whoever the vic left the stables to in his will?"
"No," Beckett said. "Which means Mr. Black is definitely a person of interest. Come on Castle, I'd like to see what the CEO of a bank wants with fifty horses just outside Central Park."
"Are you Detective Beckett?" a young woman asked as Beckett and Castle walked up to her desk.
"Yes, we're here to speak with Mr. Black," Beckett said.
"I'll take you in," the woman said, standing up. She knocked on the door and when called in opened it, saying, "The detective from the NYPD sir, and her partner."
"Come in, please," Mr. Black said standing up. "What is it I can help you with," he said as he motioned to the chairs in front of his desk.
"We're here because someone you're acquainted with, Patrick de Alba, was shot this morning in Central Park," Beckett said, choosing to remain standing.
"What?" Black asked in shock. "I just saw him yesterday. Was his horse harmed in any way?"
Glancing at Beckett; since she hadn't said whether de Alba had survived or died; Castle said, "Mr. de Alba was murdered Mr. Black."
"Yes, I guessed from what she said," Black snapped, looking at Castle momentarily before looking back at Beckett. "But the horse was fine."
"It is," Beckett said shortly, a little disconcerted with the way the CEO was looking at her, reminding her too much of Harris. "We're here to talk to you about your relationship with Mr. de Alba."
"Oh, he was a member of the bank," Black said, waving his hand as he sat down, looking pointedly up at Beckett. "And struggling to keep out of debt, so he was taking out pretty substantial loans."
"From you or the bank," Castle said, standing up to try and get the man to look away from his girlfriend; perturbed with the way he kept staring at her.
"To me directly," Black said. "I had an interest in the stables, my wife enjoys horses. And it was also a very lucrative business, allowing New Yorkers to ride such beautiful horses in the park."
"What did he need with the loans? And was he paying you back?" Beckett asked.
"I never asked him what the money was for, something about horses; I didn't pay him much mind when he said that, I knew he was a great horseman. He would know what he was doing," Black said, waving his hand. "And he wasn't exactly paying me back. You see, I planned to take those stables from him, so to make sure I could get them; legally mind you; I asked for fairly large interest along with the amount of the loans."
"In the hopes that he would give you the stables in exchange for you forgiving his debt?" Castle asked.
"Of course, but now I suppose I can just call in my chit, and take those stables as mine," Black replied.
"Actually there might be a problem with that," Beckett said. "It turns out that Mr. de Alba had a will, and it states who gets the stables."
"And you honestly think I would let whoever that person is to take my stables without a fight?" Black said in amusement. "I can easily sue them, and I can afford decent enough lawyers that I know I'd win. Now I think I've said enough, thank you for visiting Detective, Mr. Castle."
Taking the cue, Beckett turned and left, waiting until they were outside the offices of the bank and waiting at the elevators to say, "Pretty smug."
"Kind of a douche too," Castle said. "You think he may be involved? The way he talked in there, he was giving a pretty good reason for why killing the victim would be pretty stupid for him."
"That doesn't mean he'd win the suit if he had to take the owner to court," Beckett said as they stepped inside the car. "But I think we need to take a closer look at Mr. Black." She took out her phone and called Ryan, telling him once he'd answered, "Can you look into the financials of Kenneth Black. Check and see if he was getting payments from the vic and also if he paid a large sum of money to someone or an untraceable party recently, maybe a week before today."
"You know he could be the killer," Castle said when she had hung up. "Instead of risking a payment showing up on his financials, he did the job himself."
"It's safer that way," Beckett conceded. "But honestly, I'm not sure he's the kind of guy to do that. He seems more the kind to keep his hands clean and pay off whoever will take his money. And it would depend if he's a good horseman."
"Still, his motive is pretty big," Castle said. "It was nice of him to supply it for us."
"It was, but I'm going to need more than that if I hope to build some kind of a case against him," Beckett replied.
"I'm hoping you can too," Castle said before they stepped out into the building's lobby.
"Has anything come up?" Beckett asked as she and Castle walked up to Ryan.
"Nothing suspicious in terms of Black being a murderer," the detective said as he stood up from his desk. "But there were loans to the victim, and payments from him as well. The loans were substantial, about fifty to seventy thousand, and frequently," he said as he handed Beckett a file. "And the payments were a lot smaller."
"Five thousand and only every other week," Beckett said. "Okay, so he knew he was never going to get paid back. But the vic was never in debt besides these loans."
"He likely knew he would have been," Castle said, going to the murder board, Beckett and Ryan following him. "Somehow Black found out that Mr. de Alba needed the money, and he offered; out of the goodness of his heart," he ended sarcastically. "To front him the money for whatever he needed it for in return for an IOU on the stables. I have to wonder though; did the vic know that Black was planning for him to never come up with the money in full?"
"We would need to talk to his cousin," Beckett said. "Call her, and ask her if there's no one else, friends since they both are alone here in NYC, who would know about his loans and the IOU to Black," she said to Ryan. She looked into the file as he left, and said, "It looks like the first loan was about seven months ago. Our vic was able to pay the first time about two weeks after that, but it would have taken him years to get the amount paid in full… if he had stopped getting loans."
"How often did he take them?" Castle asked, turning from the board.
"About twice a month," Beckett said. She grabbed a file that was on her desktop then, and paged through it before she said, "I just realized there should be a record of it in de Alba's financials, but nothing in the amount of fifty thousand or more."
"Whatever he needed that money for, he probably needed cash, a lot of it," Castle said. "And with cash, of course it would be a lot harder to trace. But I don't get the feeling it's something like drugs."
"That would be a logical conclusion," Beckett said, sitting down. "But it doesn't work for this guy. He spent a large amount on horses; his other purchases are necessities and his equestrian clothes and tack. The Windsor boots alone are a pretty big purchase. Anyways, all of that is here on record. Ryan," she called to the detective who was on the phone. "Are you talking to the cousin?" When he nodded she said, "Ask if he was acting strange lately, try and subtly ask about drugs."
"Windsor boots?" Castle asked when Beckett looked at him.
"His boots he was wearing," Beckett replied, standing up and pointing them out as she stepped up to the board. "The cut of them makes them pretty amazing for control. Always wanted a pair, but at nearly a thousand a pair… a little out of my budget. Especially since I'm raising a child and trying to put money away for her for college still."
"So I'm getting the idea you were definitely an equestrian," Castle said, walking to her. "The expression on your face just now really points to that. Pretty sexy too."
"The boots?" Beckett asked, folding her arms over her chest.
"No, you, but those are nice boots," Castle said. "I don't have much experience with riding horses; I did some of the equestrian events at the Olympics last summer, but I know good footwear when I see it."
"Not footwear, equipment," Beckett replied.
"Speaking of that, is there any chance you have a pair of pants like those?" Castle asked.
"And if I said yes, would there be any chance of them staying on me longer than a minute?" Beckett queried, slightly smirking at him before she turned to her desk and picked up the financials of Black.
"Would you be surprised if I said yes too?" Castle said sitting in his chair.
"Very," Beckett said, looking at him questioningly.
"I'd like to see how you ride a horse," Castle said. "I've already made up my mind you're incredibly good at it. Plus it would be interesting to see you in those pants and boots."
Beckett only nodded, looking up and seeing that Ryan was walking towards them. "Did you find out anything from her?" she asked.
"Not much," Ryan said. "First she was pretty insulted I asked about drugs, he was never into that, actually never drank according to her."
"Never? Hard to believe that," Castle commented.
"Yeah, well, she doesn't think any of his friends would know about his debt or why he constantly needed so much money," Ryan said. "He was apparently very introverted-"
"More into his horses than people, I've met people like that," Beckett said with a nod.
"And didn't know too many people. I've got some names, a John Starkey and Robert Finn," Ryan finished, looking at the piece of paper he was holding. "I looked into them while I was still talking to our vic's cousin, but nothing really popped for me."
"We'll have to interview them," Beckett said.
"And she had no idea exactly why he was taking out money, it doesn't add up with their purchases of horses," Ryan said. "However, in the past seven months, when he was taking out loans, de Alba was acting a little more high strung than normal."
"Did she know why?" Castle asked.
"No clue," Ryan said, shaking his head. "She says if there's anything about those loans, it's likely in the papers that were in his office that Esposito took with him."
"Speaking of Espo," Beckett said as she saw him walking over to the room with a box, two officers behind him holding boxes as well. "All that's from our vic?" she asked as she walked over with Castle and Ryan following.
"Everything he had in his office," Esposito said, setting his box on the table. "Thanks LT, Thomas," he said to the officers as they set their boxes down. "Our vic's cousin was very helpful."
"You tried to ask her out didn't you?" Ryan asked as Castle and Beckett started to look at the files in one of the boxes.
"She's apparently in a serious relationship," Esposito said. When Ryan raised his eyebrows he said, "With her girlfriend of six years."
"Oh, sorry man," Ryan said.
"Yeah, she was there, she mentioned something about a stable in Totowa," Esposito said, getting Beckett's and Castle's attention. "Thought that might have to deal with this other bank Ryan texted me about."
"Did his cousin know about it?" Beckett asked.
"Only that he was looking to buy it," Esposito said. "Something about training horses, he was keeping that quiet but she had no idea why he would do that. She kept saying they were like brother and sister; think she's pretty hurt he'd keep anything from her and she got upset as we kept talking."
"Whatever it was had to have been pretty bad," Castle said, glancing at Beckett for a moment. "Considering he was shot in the middle of Central Park in broad daylight."
"Esposito," Beckett said then. "Can you check and see if there's anything on the ballistics?"
"Sure," he said. "You don't want my help with this?"
"We've got it for now," Beckett said. "I want to see if they were able to get a caliber for those bullets." After Esposito had left, she looked down at the file she was holding and sat in the chair next to her. "These are going back about five years," she said, seeing they were the accounts for the stables. "What year do you have?" she asked Castle.
"This year," Castle said, handing her the file he was holding. "But it's just accounts."
"Maybe the loans will show up here," Ryan said, leaving suddenly. He returned with the files they'd gotten previously of the vic's financials, and handed Beckett the one of Black's.
Setting the paper with the dates she had on the accounts in front of her, Beckett quickly scanned the pages, then shook her head. "No, there's nothing close to the amounts that he was borrowing here. What's in that other box?" she asked Ryan.
"Files… wait, sealed envelopes," Ryan began before he looked inside the file. He handed one to Beckett and took another as Castle jumped up to look inside the box.
Breaking the seal, Beckett pulled out some papers, and saw they were official looking papers, but were in Spanish. "Esposito!" she called out.
"Yeah, the bullets were .22s," Esposito said, hurrying inside the room. "What's that?" he asked as he took the paper that Beckett held towards him.
"I need you to tell us," Beckett replied.
"It's a transfer of money to a bank in Madrid, Spain," Esposito read. "To a Jaime Cruz, for a horse."
"Why the hell would that be sealed?" Beckett said. "Castle?" she asked, seeing he was looking at a paper in surprise.
"It's… this one has the word sangre," Castle said. "And I don't think it's talking about the bloodline of a horse."
Taking the letter, Esposito read out loud, "Mr. de Alba, if you do not pay, you will regret signing away Asturias and our other horses. If you do not give us the stables, we will take them by force." He looked up at the others as he set down the letter and said, "This was dated three months ago."
"When is that transfer?" Beckett asked, hurrying over to all the financial papers.
"It's in May," Castle said, looking at the paper.
"There's no record of money going to-" Beckett said in confusion, checking both dates against the account for their vic. She cut herself off abruptly and then said, "Is the amount for sixty thousand?"
"Yeah, why?" Castle asked.
"Because that money, the exact same date, is here on Mr. Black's financials, to an account number," Beckett said.
They headed over to Beckett's desk, where the men looked on as she typed in the account number.
"It's an account in his own bank," Castle read over her shoulder.
"He set it up as a front," Esposito said.
Beckett pulled up another program, and put in the name Jaime Cruz before she said, "He's a criminal, two counts of manslaughter in Spain, while he was with the army in that country. Five counts of rape…" She paused and hesitated slightly before continuing saying, "He shot two of those rape victims, three times in a tight grouping both times. Apparently it was his sniper training that allowed him to do it from such a long distance away from the victims in those murders."
"Does it have the caliber of the guns he used?" Ryan asked, sharing a glance with Esposito at her hesitation.
"A .22, issued to him by the army," Beckett said. "According to this he moved here to NYC about six years ago, but there's no real record of him after that except for this money."
"He could be a hit man," Castle said.
"He's connected with the Vicente crime family in Spain," Esposito said. "They have a branch here in NYC and New Jersey."
"So Black got tired of waiting for the stables, and he decided to speed up the process by hiring Cruz to kill him," Castle said. "But the time when he transferred the money seems wrong."
"It does," Beckett said. "Especially since Cruz was in Spain at the time." She was looking through Cruz's financials and said, "He took some of the money out while he was there, but most of it is still intact." She turned in her chair and said to Ryan and Esposito, "Go to Cruz's address, bring him in and we'll get Black, they're our persons of interest now." When the two detectives had left she turned to Castle and said, "It might turn out to be him after all, he's just not the triggerman," referring to Black.
"It depends if Cruz is a good horseman now," Castle said, grabbing his coat as he followed her to the elevator. "Okay?" he asked when they were relatively alone.
"I'm fine," Beckett said, pressing the button, though the motion was more of a stab, hoping the movement didn't betray her emotions to him. "We're bringing Black down though," she told him as they stepped into the car
"Yeah, I am so looking forward to that," Castle said, the doors closing in front of them.