Shared Obsession Chapter 56

At a deserted table in the ballroom, Castle tears a check out of his checkbook and hands it to Kate. "Thank you so much! We've been so busy with this case that I still haven't dug out the event where Jackson received his marching orders. I just have no time to squire some primping predator around town to show off her prize."

"It was worth it, Castle. The guy who was taking the pictures was with Rachel Maddox while I was settling up. She introduced him as Paul Reynolds. I have Espo running him now. But there's one thing I don't understand. Powell might have wanted to get back at you a bit more, but why would your mother do that to you? My parents administered their share of discipline and sometimes my father admits that it still scares him that I'm a cop. But they never did anything to me that was just mean."

"I asked Mother," Castle confides. "She told me she did it because she hasn't stopped being scared to death since I was shot. And she was hoping that if I became interested in whoever won the date, it would get me away from you. I think she's realized now that isn't going to happen. I promised her that I'd be as careful as I could, but also pointed out that what happened to Susan Delgado could happen to anyone showing up at an M.A.D.T. gala who looked rich enough to rip off. Staying away from you wouldn't guarantee I'd be safe. Given what happened to Celia, it might even be more dangerous."

"Did she accept that?" Kate asks.

"Maybe. Mother really is a master of her craft. She can convince an audience, even me sometimes, of anything she likes. But I hope that after a while it sinks in. And perhaps in time, Alexis will come to realize it too."

"I wouldn't hold your breath, Castle. Every so often my father still asks me if I'd like to quit the force and work as a legal investigator, or pursue my original plan and go to law school."

"And what do you tell him?"

"That the only thing that works for me is to be in the trenches fighting for the justice my mother never had."

"And if we manage to nail Bracken?"

"I don't know. You can ask me again then."

"Yo!" Esposito calls across the depopulated but still gilded expanse, "It's the guy, Beckett. Paul Reynolds, AKA Chad Nellis. The picture Castle took matches the one in his file. He's served time for check fraud, embezzlement, forgery, and grand larceny."

Ryan trots up. "I've been watching. Reynolds hasn't left yet. He's got to be around here somewhere."

"Rachel was collecting from bidders in a room between here and the kitchen," Kate recalls. "He might be with her there."

When Castle and the three detectives approach Paul and Rachel, they're sitting with an octogenarian sparkling with a mass of jewels worth more than the hall hosting the fundraiser. Paul flashes a smarmy smile. "It does no good to be coy. I've seen the looks you've been throwing me all night."

"Shopping, are we?" Castle queries Reynolds.

The crook looks up. Rachel's mouth gapes in confusion as Beckett flashes her badge. "Paul Reynolds, you're under arrest on suspicion of grand larceny and conspiracy to commit murder."

"Stand up!" Esposito commands and Ryan moves in to snap cuffs on Reynolds' wrists.

"OK, so your gun could be in an ankle holster, but I know that gown doesn't have pockets, so where was the badge?" Castle asks.

Kate shifts uncomfortably. "Don't ask."

In street clothes, with Castle, Ryan, and Esposito, Kate points through the observation glass at a fidgeting Paul Reynolds. "It looks like a few hours in holding loosened him up."

Beckett shoves the sketch drawn from Evan Mitchell's description across the table at Reynolds. "You know him?"

Reynolds nods. "His name is Karl Nadir. We met in Green Haven Prison. I was going through hell. A guy like me stands no chance against the types of prisoners they send there. They would have eaten me alive, but he looked out for me in the yard. The other inmates, even the guards, were all afraid of him. I was released before he was. But when he got out, he found me. I don't know how."

"So it was Nadir's idea to infiltrate the M.A.D.T. ?" Kate questions.

"I was already seeing Rachel at the time. I was trying to go straight, you know? But he said I owed him and it was time to pay up. He's not the kind of guy you can tell no. He could have gone after me and worse, hurt Rachel. So I had to go along with him."

"Very noble," Castle comments skeptically.

"And so you just fed him all the top donors," Kate assumes.

"Not necessarily the top ones, the ones with jewels he could steal and get recut. There's another con he was in prison with who knows how to do that kind of work. Nadir has him by the balls too. But my part wasn't hard. Rachel is very good at her job. Everything on the donors was already in their dossiers, names, addresses, family ties. All I had to do was spot the gems that would make the best haul and get Rachel to introduce me to the owners so I'd know which dossier they matched."

"And if all had gone according to plan, would the woman you and Rachel were with last night have been Nadir's next victim?" Kate asks.

"It's possible. I just provided the options. He made the choices. But if I don't report to him within the next few hours, he will come after me and Rachel."

"He can't come after you in here," Kate points out, "and I can put a protection team on Rachel. But we can't guard her forever. And he could be planning another murder, to which you'd be an accessory. So the sooner you tell me where to find him, the better for everyone, including Rachel and you."

With Castle beside her as the sun is rising, Kate pulls her assigned vehicle to the curb in front of an apartment building. Esposito parks the unit he shares with Ryan, nearby. "Castle, you should stay in the car," Kate counsels. "If even 10 percent of what Reynolds said about Nadir is true, he'll rip apart anyone he thinks is in his way – and he'll enjoy doing it."

"I heard, Beckett. I'll stay. But you be careful too."

"I've got a whole squad backing me up. If this is the right place, this shouldn't take long."

Despite the small armored army surrounding her, Castle's gut clenches as Kate enters the building. To distract himself, he slides behind the wheel where a photo pulled from Nadir's file is still taped to the dash. "No operation is complete without a soundtrack, " he mutters to himself, "Nana-na-na-na-na. Nana-na-na-na-na." He picks up the radio without thumbing the transmit button. "This is Castle. That's a negatory on more backup. Beckett and I have this dirtbag nailed."

A mini battering ram makes quick work of Nadir's door and Kate charges in with the rest of her team. The apartment is clear but schematics for alarm systems still lay on a table. Ryan picks up a coffee mug. "This is still warm. We must have just missed him."

Nadir puffs slightly after a dash up his fire escape to the roof. He eyes a drainpipe he can grab and shimmies down, landing with a loud thump on the concrete. Castle turns at the noise. His eyes flit between the man and his photo. He thumbs transmit. "Beckett! It's him! He's out here." As Nadir rushes down the sidewalk, Castle slams the car door into him, hoping to knock him out. Nadir springs to his feet. "Damn! That works in the movies." He grabs the radio again. "Beckett!"

Nadir drags Castle from the car and they grapple on the cement. Nadir is about to deliver a punch squarely in Castle's eye when Kate shoves her gun into the back of his head. "You try to land that and it will be the last move you make on this Earth."

Ryan and Esposito pull Nadir off Castle and Kate extends a hand to help him up. "You OK? Did he hurt your arm again?"

"It's fine. I think I've got a few bruises but nothing that will show. Beckett, if you'd come a second later…. Can you imagine how Alexis and Mother would react if I walked in with a black eye?"

Kate's lips twitch. "They probably would fight each other to see who would give me one. Didn't I tell you to stay in the car?"

"I tried. I really tried. But he…."

She squeezes Castle's hand. "Yeah, I know. Let's get that piece of trash out of here and get you home."