Forty-Seven: Chapter 8
DISCLAIMER: None of these characters are mine, but they are memorable. Thank you, Mr. Marlowe.
Now late afternoon, Tuesday, March 27, 2012 – at the 12th Precinct
The mood in Captain Gate's now-crowded office is tense, with emotions raw and on edge. A robbery-slash-murder is nothing new for this team. But there is something more – much more – riding along the under-currents here. Something sinister.
Secrets.
Captain Gates is no idiot. She can sense that these people – her people – are holding something back. Even Castle seems on the 'in', which angers and frustrates her all the more. She's supposed to be able to trust these people, and they are walking on eggshells, watching their words. She didn't pick any of these people. They are her team, yes, but they aren't her team. She inherited them. And now – almost a year later - she feels like more an outsider than ever before.
Finally, she slams her hand on her desk – in an uncharacteristic burst of physical anger – and it has its desired effect, as eyes widen.
"Someone here is going to tell me what's going on," she explodes. "What is it that I don't know, what it is that you don't want me to know?"
She glares from face to face at each of the participants. Beckett, of course, holds her gaze. No surprise there, as does Esposito. Kevin Ryan shrinks after a few seconds, glancing over at his partner. Castle is staring at her . . . but he's not staring at her. He's staring through her. He's a million miles away right now.
"Yeah, they are hiding something," she fumes to herself once more. And she knows how to uncover secrets. She didn't spend years in Internal Affairs and learn nothing from the time there.
"Okay, if that's how it is going to be," she begins, "Detective Beckett. You're off the case. Your entire team. I'm giving it to Hodges –"
"Sir, you can't do –" Kate begins to argue, but is shot down immediately.
"The hell I can't," Gates yells, a little louder than she intended. "This is my precinct, and my team - a team I have trusted - is withholding information from me. I have a case where my predecessor's family has been attacked. I need a team working this I can trust."
She reaches over for her phone, and punches a button, calling Hodges. It's Castle who makes the move that all in the room want to make. He reaches across the desk and disconnects the call. Gates, who up to this point has been angry, morphs into beyond-pissed in a second.
"Mr. Castle, your services are no longer –"
"Captain Gates," he manages, his voice soft but firm. There is something in his eyes, something that – God help her – almost frightens Victoria Gates. She doesn't like what she is feeling one bit. She cannot allow this civilian in her precinct to upstage her, to ignore her policies, to actually feel he can hang up a phone conversation she is having.
"This is so, so much bigger than you can imagine," he tells her, allowing a bit of fury to seep through as he punches the words out.
"Castle!" Beckett begins, but he immediately cuts her off.
"No, Kate," he tells her. "No more secrets. No more lies . . . remember?"
She is seething now – but reluctantly understands. Now he has two women in this office ticked off at him. So be it.
"A few months after Detective Beckett here was shot, I received a phone call," he tells the group, but his eyes are focused on Captain Gates.
"The man identified himself as a Mr. Smith. For the longest time, I assumed that wasn't his real name. Now I have to wonder. Anyway, he shared a story with me. He told me that before he died, Captain Montgomery had sent a file to him. A paper file, not computer file," he adds, glancing at Detective Ryan. "He told me that the contents of this file could seriously damage the person who was behind Kate's shooting . . . and her mother's murder."
Castle stops here, his eyes fixed hard on Victoria Gates. He won't say another word until . . . yeah, there it is. He sees it in her eyes. She's just made the connection. She's just connected the dots that – for the past year – she didn't even realize were there. She asks the question, already suspecting the answer.
"How would Roy – Captain Montgomery – even have such files to share?" she asks, and the team can actually see the concern, the almost panic, painting the face of their boss.
"Because he knew who killed my mother," Kate quietly interjects.
Both Esposito and Ryan drop their heads. It confirms for Victoria Gates the notion that this is not news to either man. She glances at her medical examiner, and sees the same confirmation. A stunned Victoria Gates cannot prevent her face from showing her disappointment, her shock. She begins to speak, but Castle holds his hand up, holding her off. She surprises herself by allowing him to do so.
"Years ago – over a decade ago – a rookie cop named Montgomery was a part of a cover-up," Castle begins.
"Mobsters were being kidnapped for ransom," Esposito adds.
"Kidnapped by police officers," Kate continues. "Roy found out, as a rookie cop, and became a part of the kidnappings."
Captain Gates, who up to this point has been standing, now eases herself – backwards – into her chair, placing her elbows on the table in front of her, and her head in her hands. Yeah, this is bad. She's beginning to understand why this team – a team who loved Roy Montgomery – would sit on this.
"Someone – we don't know who – and you have to believe us Captain Gates, that is the million dollar question we have never been able to answer – someone found out. He forced the rogue cops to include him on their . . . on their –"
"Scam," Captain Gates says quietly, finishing the difficult-to-complete sentence for him.
"Yes, scam," Castle continues. "Some time later, Kate's mother, Johanna Beckett, found out. Somehow. We don't know how. And she was killed for it. She, and the entire legal team working with her. All murdered by a person in the shadows," Castles states, his words now taking on the familiar mystery lingo of which he is so fond. Kate Beckett picks now as the time to interject.
"My mother was murdered, and Captain Montgomery knew who did it," she begins, a mixture of sadness and fury in her voice, glowering in her misty eyes. She's trying not to cry, but she is so angry, so frustrated, and so fed up with this entire case that is not a case.
"He knew who did it, but couldn't do anything about it," she continues. "What we do know – what we learned last year – is that Captain Montgomery had been protecting me for all of these years. Keeping them away from me. And . . . and keeping me away from them. Now we know that the files he had on this 'someone' were sent to Castle's mystery man."
Richard Castle grimaces at her depiction of the events, and she quickly tries to minimize the hurt she has just inflicted.
"That's not what I meant, Castle," she begins. "I'm –"
"No apology necessary," Castle says softly. "Nothing you said is untrue." He then turns his attention back to Gates, and continues the conversation.
"Here's what we now know," he tells the group, still focusing his eyes on the Captain. "Roy had files on our person in the shadows, and those files had kept Kate safe for all these years. And he kept her from really ever getting close to them, even when curiosity got the better of her. But something changed last summer. A new lead popped up, and Kate and the team started digging, and whoever is behind all of this decided that – damaging information or not – it was time for Kate to go. Roy tried to intervene, and sacrificed himself in the process. Then, this 'Mr. Smith' contacts me and tells me that the information Roy had against these people was now in his possession, and he had put the agreement back in place. If nothing happens to Kate, then the information stays sealed. For some reason, whoever this is behind all of this accepted the deal again. But with a caveat."
"What caveat?" Esposito asks, his radar now buzzing. Things are starting to fall into place.
"Kate had to stay clear of the case," Castle answers. "She couldn't investigate it. Keeping her from investigating had been Roy's job. Last summer, he failed at it. Mr. Smith told me that this job – keeping Kate away from her mother's case – now fell to me. I had to make sure she stayed away from the case."
"So . . ." Gates begins, rubbing her temples. "Captain Montgomery was a part of a kidnapping ring gone bad, which caused the death of Kate's mother." She looks at Beckett and then apologizes.
"I don't mean to sound insensitive, Detective Beckett," she tells her.
"I understand, sir," Kate nods. She says nothing else. There is nothing else to say.
"Captain Montgomery knows who killed Kate's mother, but – for reasons not clear right now – does not tell anyone," she continues.
"If subsequent history is any indicator, Captain," Castle interrupts, "if he had come forward, he and his entire family would probably have been killed."
Gates considers this hypothesis for a moment, and then nods her head.
"Agreed," she says simply, then continues. "Montgomery does not come forward, but he does take steps to prevent this person – or persons – from touching Kate. He uses his authority as captain of the department to keep Detective Beckett away from her mother's case, and he also uses the files he possesses to blackmail these people."
"That's a strong term, Captain," Ryan interjects.
"Do you have a better, more accurate word for secretly and covertly using information to force someone to do – or not do – something, Detective?" she asks, and her glare in is full force now. Ryan quickly shakes his head side to side.
"Eventually, Detective Beckett gets close again – last summer – and they come for her," Gates continues, watching both Castle and Beckett nod in agreement.
"Montgomery intervenes, is killed, but . . . this is where it breaks down," she confesses.
"No sir," Castle tells her. "Roy is killed, but he sent the files he had to Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith then made the same deal to this people that Roy did, but he was too late. Kate had already been shot. But she recovered, thank God," he adds, smiling at Beckett, then continuing.
"Once recovered, she was safe again because the deal was back in place, only this time, instead of Roy holding the files, Smith was holding them. And instead of Roy keeping Kate away from the case . . . I was doing that."
"So someone breaking into Evelyn's house, looking for files, isn't some random hack job," Kate follows. "That's too much of a coincidence."
"I don't believe in coincidences," Gates muses aloud.
"Neither do I, sir," Kate agrees. "I believe whoever it is was looking for Roy's files, hoping to find them."
"That makes sense," Castle adds, "because they don't know Smith. They haven't been able to find Smith. So they went back to Roy's house. Looking for the information."
"There are two problems with this thinking, Mr. Castle," Gates instructs the team at large, although answering Castle directly.
"First, there is no value in whoever this is obtaining the files from Captain Montgomery's house if there is a second copy of the files with this Mr. Smith. Getting the information does them no good."
Esposito nods, as does Castle. That – indeed – is a hole in the argument.
"The second problem I have," Gates continues, "is one of time. The big question we should be asking ourselves is this. Why now? Why last night? Why wait almost a year before deciding to look for Roy's files, to look for the information Roy had?"
"Or . . ." Ryan interjects, his fingers rubbing his chin, "or perhaps they weren't looking for Roy's files."
"What else would they be looking for?" Esposito asks, but now it is Beckett who stands quickly, as the puzzle pieces now fall into place.
"They aren't looking for Roy's information," she tells the group. "They are looking for Mr. Smith!"