Monday morning breaks with the sun trying to sneak its way through the clouds and work its way around the tall buildings of Manhattan. Inside the 12th precinct in Manhattan are the officers tasked with the task of protecting the island and the city from the murderers
Faced with this chain of murders and dead bodies Detectives Ryan and Esposito are working their way down the stack of files and paperwork that has accumulated on their in-boxes, wishing their boss were there and hoping she would be doing her best to clear the files from the floor and get them downtown or prosecution, but the morning is moving as slow as honey on a cold day for these two men
There is an inbound ring on Captain Beckett's telephone bringing the two men out of the drudgery of the endless files. The system is set up for anyone on the floor to be able to answer any inbound call especially a call directed to the boss
Kevin Ryan picks up on one such inbound ringing call "Captain Beckett's office, Detective Ryan speaking" then he listens for several minutes
"No, the Captain is off today. She will be back tomorrow" ~pause~ "No I do not have a way to contact her today" "No, as I said, she is off today, who is calling?" ~pause~ "Well, Detective Adams, she is off until tomorrow. What can I do for you?"
Ryan listens as the officer on the other end of the phone describes some event that causes Ryan to react
Esposito notices his partner sits straight up in his chair as if something said bitten him in the backside
"I see, Detective Adams…how can we help you here?"
Again a ~pause~ "OK so how many were attacked before this last one?" ~pause~ "OK. Since there is now a homicide, my partner and I will be down there as soon as we can"
Ryan hangs up on the call then turns to Esposito "The vice unit at the 54th has got a bunch of hookers that have been beaten up on the street and now one has been murdered and they are needing our help"
As the two detectives stand and move toward the elevator, the Hispanic detective asks the obvious question "Who was murdered?"
"One of the street walkers. A Russian girl. Adams said that she is one of the newest to arrive and he said she probably has not even turned a dozen tricks yet but they singled her out and took her somewhere and then after torturing her she was murdered"
The two homicide detectives arrive at the 54th precinct and go to the second floor looking for the vice unit and Detective Adams
"I'm Adams" the taller and older detective greets the two men from the 12th
He introduces the other members of his team, Detectives Lorie Yates and Russ Peavy. Yates is a very attractive woman and Peavy is a much older detective looking like he is ready to put in his papers and retire at any moment
"I am Kevin Ryan and this is my partner Javier Esposito" the Irish detective introduces themselves to the vice unit "What do you have?" The visiting detectives are looking at a board not unlike the murder board they use at their station
Adams points to the white dry-erase board and several photographs attached "We have had several reports of street walkers being taken and beaten up. The rest of the women are not talking but we think it is some type tuff war between competing pimps"
Yates continues "But no one is talking and I mean no one. In fact this one feels very weird"
"How is that" Esposito questions
""When we say no one is talking… we mean not anyone. Usually we can get some of the street people to give us something…anything, but everyone seems scared and silent on this"
Peavy walks up to the board "usually we have the pimps on the street showing strength but right now them and the women are staying away"
Ryan looks confused "Tell us what do you have on this murder"
Adams fills in on the case "This victim…we don't even have her real name…we are calling her Lola, was found beaten in an alley off 10th"
"What do you know about her?" Esposito starts taking notes
"She is new to the city. She is from eastern Europe. We are thinking Russia. There seems to be a penchant for foreign accents among the Johns. This victim and the other women who were beaten up had a couple of things in common. We are wondering if this is the connection between them?"
"What things in common?" Esposito questions
Adams responds "They are all very tall, close to 5ft, 10 to 11 inches before heels, that of course, they wear. They were very slender, blonde hair. Probably fake"
"How many were assaulted?" Ryan asks
"we have had six so far. I think this last one just was not tough enough to survive the beating she took" Yates answers
Esposito is looking heard at the board. He notices a photograph of a group of women talking to a man in a car. They are mostly in shadow "What is this?" pointing at the image
Peavy responds "That was taken a little over a week ago. It was a new John. We had not seen him before. That group of women is Trixie's . She is kind of a wild card out there. No pimp. She seems to run her own crew"
"Who is the man and why do you have this picture posted?"
"We don't know. This is another missing woman. That night was the first time we ever saw her and the last. He picked her up and took her with him. We didn't have enough officers to follow them, but at the time, we did not know there was a problem in the works"
Adams continues in his reporting "We are worried that this might just have been the first abduction of a hooker. We think this guy is the primary suspect. We think he is crazy. At least the rest were just beaten up and not killed. But none of them will talk. It's crazy out there right now"
"Too bad you only have a dark photo of this guy" Ryan comments "we might have been able to recognize a voice or mannerisms"
"Peavy walks to the desk and opens a file on the computer "Actually we do. It is grainy and the audio is not the best, but we did have a parabolic microphone setup. It picked up her voice real well, but not them John's"
The five detectives listen to the negotiations for services between the obviously European accented woman and the voice of a native New Yorker discussing prices and services to be rendered.
The woman seem to not totally understand the questions from the driver of the car. After several exchanges they seem to come to an agreement
When the driver of the car pushes open the passenger door, his voice becomes more clearly understood
"I love the accent. Get in"
This is when the two homicide detectives are taken back by a voice they definitely recognize
RICHARD CASTLE
/\/\/\/\/\/\
The two homicide detectives have returned to their home precinct. They have done something they never, ever thought about before, and that was to pull detailed history on one Richard Castle, AKA Richard Rogers.
Up until now, they thought that he had been totally open and honest with the team but based on the recent events he just might not be the man they thought he was. His actions in recent weeks has been suspect but no one…no one thought he could be this evil
Ryan is on the phone to a technical support technician in the communications unit "No. We cannot reach her, we were hoping you had a way to connect based on the last call we got"
Ryan listens then, in a huff, slams the phone down
"What did he say?" Esposito questions
"He said the phone was a burner and since it was off before she called and it is off again, they cannot even come close to where it might be…Javi, you don't think Kate is in danger do you?"
"And we can't find Castle either. We need to do something Kevin" Esposito is obviously worried about their boss
"I don't know. If Castle has gone rogue on us he might do anything. And since him and Beckett are split this could get really bad. He might try to take out his anger by hurting her"
Esposito thinks for a moment then comments "That Friday night that he said he was going to get him some from the street"
Ryan follows up "Are we sure that that was the night of the video?"
Esposito cannot help but comment "That DIRTY DOG"
"Javi, wait! It doesn't mean it was Castle" Ryan is still trying to defend his friend
"Listen Ryan I told you he was no good and this just proves it. I mean what if they know it was him over in vice?"
"He sounded like Castle but the car was a rental and the car company was no help getting driver's information"
Ryan starts thinking out loud "They said there has been a war against Russian hookers over the last week. A bunch of them have been kicked around and beat up. There seems to be an attack against them specifically. Why would Castle do that?"
OH MY!