Forty-Seven: Chapter 9
DISCLAIMER: None of these characters are mine, but they are memorable. Thank you, Mr. Marlowe.
Two Days ago, Sunday, March 25, 2012 – at an apartment building in Lower Manhattan
Cole Maddox doesn't realize it, but he is smiling as his daydream takes him back to last summer. In his mind, he is back in the cemetery, more than a hundred yards out. He has Detective Kate Beckett in his sightline. She's stationary, giving a graveside eulogy, he imagines. He can't hear her words, nor does he need to, or care to. To him, she is simply a target. A job.
Yeah, she's a looker, but he's killed good-looking women before. No big deal. It's just a job. She's just a job.
He is holding his breath and slowly releases it, and he watches her thrust backward in his scope. He smiles. It is a perfect shot. Right into the heart.
His smile slowly turns into a frown.
It was a perfect shot – right into the heart.
By all rights, by any rights, Detective Kate Beckett should be dead. How the lucky woman managed to survive – and more than slightly tarnish his reputation as a trusted contractor – is still open to debate. But the facts are facts. The detective is still alive. And before he could finish the job, for some reason Bracken had called and pulled the plug. Given him the old cease and desist. Told him he didn't need to know the reason why.
And now, since that infamous phone call from the Senator, 'that bitch Beckett', as Maddox now refers to her, has been the itch he can't scratch. Every time he sees her – and yes, he makes it a point to check in on her from time to time – she is a reminder of his failure. His first failure with the Senator. The blotch on his perfect record.
The ringing chime on his burner phone – his ring tone – startles Maddox out of his reverie. He answers quickly and without preamble.
"Maddox. What can I do for you, sir?"
"Actually, my friend, it's what I can do for you this time," replies Senator Bracken. "The 2016 election is four years away. That seems like a lifetime, I know, but it's time to put a few things into motion. And that means tying up a few loose ends. Tying them up now, before they unravel completely."
Cole Maddox can almost feel his heartbeat speeding up. He's a master at controlling his body, but this is too good to be true. Tying up loose ends has to mean that bitch Beckett. How appropriate, given his recent musings a minute ago.
"Who's the target?" Maddox asks, although he can already guess. The answer isn't what he expected.
"In due time, my friend," the Senator chuckles, knowing how much Maddox wants a rematch with the detective. "She's a leak that I cannot afford, true, but she can wait a little longer. For now, I think it's time we turned up our efforts to find the detective's protector."
"Why now?" Maddox asks.
"As I said," Bracken replies easily, "it's time to eliminate loose ends. Finding whoever has Montgomery's files is the priority for now."
"Okay, so what do you want me to do?" Maddox asks, glancing at his cleanly cut fingernails.
"Let's start with Roy's house," Bracken tells him. "Roy gave his files to someone. That's the only way our mystery man could have received them. He couldn't have gotten them from anyone else."
"What about the wife?" Maddox asks.
"Leave her be," Bracken tells him, surprising him. "I'm cleaning up old problems, not creating new ones. She doesn't know anything. If she did, we'd know. Roy wasn't stupid enough to bring his family into this. Just get in, and find out what you can. Roy gave them to someone he knew well. Someone influential."
"How do you know?" Maddox questions him. Bracken admits, it's a good question.
"Because anyone who took this file knows that I am the one pulling the strings, Mr. Maddox," Bracken replies. "Whoever this person is, he or she knows who they are dealing with, what I am capable of. Only someone already used to dealing with powerful people would accept that file."
Maddox nods his head into the phone. As usual, Bracken is probably right, and this makes sense.
"You think another politician?" he asks the Senator.
"No," comes the reply. "Another politician would have already tried to use that file against me. No, this is someone else. Probably another attorney, some big-wig lawyer."
"Another lawyer?" Maddox argues. "You really think –"
"Life does have its ironies, my friend," Bracken interrupts. "Find an old yearbook. His wedding album. Look for memory sticks, external drives. Places he would have stored digital photos. We're looking for someone from his past."
"How do you know . . ." Maddox lets the thought drop off.
"Know what?" Bracken asks.
"Nothing," Maddox replies. "It's too far-fetched to even consider -"
"There is no such thing," Bracken tells him. "Talk to me."
"Do you think he may have given the files to the writer?"
"Castle?" Bracken responds. "No. Truth be told, I considered that for a while. But Castle isn't the cloak and dagger type. I've watched him long enough. Not in his DNA to mastermind this. No, I think our mystery man has told us the truth. He has the files, and he has Castle working to keep Beckett away from us. No, we need to find the man behind the files."
"And what about Castle?" Maddox asks.
"Kate Beckett is a weed in my garden, Mr. Maddox. A weed that needs to be pulled up, destroyed. That time is coming very soon. And when the time comes to prune the detective," Bracken responds, "well . . . a car accident, a fire in the house . . . there are always ways to take two out at one time."
The phone goes dead. It is Bracken's typical goodbye, meaning there is no goodbye. When the conversation is over, the Senator simply hangs up.
Maddox considers the conversation and smiles. The ex-special forces man has been handling 'situations' for Senator William Bracken for five years now. Bracken is ex-military as well, and though the two men didn't serve together, Maddox's reputation – both during his military stint and his post-war mercenary days – came across the Senator's desk, so to speak.
Since then, Maddox has done more than two dozen jobs for the Senator. Some involve information retrieval, like this current upcoming mission. And others have required a more personal touch that utilizes Maddox's very unique skills.
He glances at his watch, putting thoughts of the detective out of his mind. The Senator is right. Her time will come, and he will get another shot at her. Literally. And round two will definitely go his way. Of that he has no doubt.
For now, a little breaking and entering job will suffice. He knows where Montgomery's family lives. He's been there enough times while Roy was still alive. Truth be told, he didn't like Roy Montgomery having to die. There was something about the man that he liked. A lot. Thinking of Montgomery forces him to consider 'him' - the only 'problem' he has in dealing with the detective.
He puts that thought out of the way as well. He'll deal with him if he has to. He only hopes that it never comes to that.