Chapter 3

Two days later, as she was about to get ready for bed, Beckett's phone rang with a message that echoed the one from a couple of nights before.

"Beckett," she answered.

"Detective Beckett, this is Detective Gerald Hayden, Central Park precinct. We have a homicide victim with your card in his pocket. Can you tell me anything about a Jeffrey Marshall?"

"Would you mind if my partner, maybe my whole team and I, join you? I had a similar call a couple of nights ago from Detective Uzell from the twenty-seventh. The victim was a possible witness in another homicide, was killed the same way as my original victim, and there were similar identifying marks. Jeffrey Marshall was another one of the group of three that we had interviewed two days ago. The ME was going to look into whether there have been other homicides with similar marks, but we don't have that part of his report yet. Uzell told me Watson's email said they had been swamped for the last week but he'd get to it ASAP."

There was a sigh from Hayden's end of the call. "Doesn't sound good, does it? Come on. And bring whoever you need to." Hayden identified the part of the park they were in, and Beckett called Castle and the boys, grabbed her things, and left to meet the men in one of the more heavily wooded areas of Central Park.

"I was there when you called Marshall and told him to be careful. What was he doing here this late at night?" Ryan asked Beckett as he and Esposito arrived.

"Where's your boy?" Esposito asked Beckett. Castle's usually here pretty quick."

"I don't know. Haven't seen him yet," she said before getting right to business. "It's the same ME as Uzell's case, and today he found two more very similar murders from two years ago."

"So it looks like we've got a serial killer?"

About that time a man in a camouflage jacket practically exploded out of the woods looking and sounding terrified. One of the officers with Hayden caught him and tried to calm him down enough to talk to him. When he could finally speak to the officer, he was babbling about a wolf and pointing toward the woods, which caught everybody's attention. And then Castle appeared much farther to their left, but coming from the woods, holding a flashlight.

As he walked out of the wooded area of The Ramble, Ryan looked at him and chuckled. What is it with you and the woods and wolf sightings, Castle? The guy over there? He just flew out of the woods in a panic, talking about a big, snarling wolf."

"What were you doing in the woods over there, anyway?" Beckett asked. "I know you knew where to find us. This much light and activity is hard to miss out here."

Castle looked a bit sheepish and said, "I didn't think to go to the bathroom before I left home, and…"

"Got it," she answered, looking amused. "You better not have compromised Hayden's crime scene, though," she teased.

"Flashlight," he answered in kind, waving the light at her face briefly. "I looked around carefully first. What's this about a wolf?"

"Hey, what color were the wolf's eyes?" Ryan asked the obviously drunk man.

"Dunno," the other man slurred. "All I saw was teeth. Growling. Scary."

When asked about the question, Esposito explained about Castle's encounter on his property a few weeks before, and Hayden was both sympathetic and entertained. "So, you have this happen often?" he asked.

"It's the second time. Do I look like a wolf to you? Wolves don't carry flashlights. I don't know what the guy saw in the dark in there, but I sure didn't see any wolves or hear any growling or snarling."

"We asked him to take us to where he saw the wolf, but all we got was, 'Dunno, man. Just ran like hell.' As much alcohol as he must have in him, I'm guessing he could have been seeing the same thing in broad daylight." Turning toward the officer who subdued the man, Hayden called out, "Officer Lake, let CSU do their thing then get Mr. Oberon to the precinct, take care of the paperwork, and let him sleep it off. We'll talk to him in the morning."

That taken care of, Beckett walked with Castle to where ME Watson was examining the body. Barely looking up at them, he said, "I can't say for certain yet, but this one looks a lot like the others."

"Left upper arm of his jacket is slashed," Castle confirmed. Turning to Beckett, he asked, "Why the cuts? There has to be a reason. It's part of the story."

"I've got men out in pairs looking for evidence of a wolf as well as anything else." Hayden rolled his eyes at the mention of a wolf and followed with, "If this guy wasn't hallucinating… If we blow it off and somebody gets hurt, we'll be crucified. But the last thing we need is the media starting an unnecessary panic over it, so everybody keep the wolf thing under wraps for now. My partner called, and Animal Control is sending people, too. It doesn't look like we're going to have much more to work with on the murder before tomorrow, so you guys might as well head home, Beckett. But it does look like we need to talk again."

"Yeah, it does," Beckett responded. "We should probably meet with Uzell from the twenty-seventh, too. And I'll call Ellen Moore right now and tell her not to go anywhere alone. She's the third person in the group of three that we interviewed. Watson said he sent me the files on Uzell's case and the other two murders he found; so, first thing in the morning, we'll see if we can make any connections between all the victims and let you know what we find."

"Thanks," Hayden answered. "I'll be in touch after we talk to Oberon tomorrow, and we'll work out getting together with Uzell."

"Thanks, Hayden," she answered, then over her shoulder, she said to the rest of her team. "Might as well head home, guys. Morning's already too close."

The other three team members followed her with sounds of agreement.

"Need a ride again, Castle?" she asked as their other team members drove off.

"Yeah, if you have time."

"I'll trade you transportation for hot chocolate at that coffee shop near your place. Best hot chocolate I've had since I was a kid."

"And that's the best offer I've had all day," Castle answered, smiling as they got in the car and headed home.

"Sooooo…another wolf sighting right before you step out of the woods?"

"Weird, huh?"

"Yeah. Kind of weird."

"Only kind of weird?" he asked with a little chuckle.

"Well, sometimes you're just a little weird, Castle," she joked.

"And sometimes my mother and daughter would agree with you," he answered easily. "Weird moments aside, now that I know the guy with the gun will be locked up for a while…do you trust me enough to go with me into the wilderness yet? If you like the outdoors, you'd probably like my place."

"I'm getting there."

"Good. You know you can trust me, don't you? I would never hurt you...or try to take advantage of you."

"I do I know that, Castle."

"That means a lot to me…that you sound that certain."

"Well, look at that. A parking space near the coffee shop at this time of night. It's like a reward for the late night community service we just put in." She pulled into the space, and as they got out of the car, she added quietly before they walked to the shop, "It means a lot that my trust sounds important to you. I know I don't open up easily, but I hope you can trust me the same way."

"I do. Kate. And I think we may need that sometime soon."

"So do I," she agreed.

They sat together long enough to enjoy their hot chocolate, some conversation, and a sandwich they split between them to hold them until morning, then Castle walked her back to her car, taking her hand and lifting it to his lips for a kiss before she left and he walked down the block to his building. Both of them felt another little chink fall from the reluctance they had to talking about their biggest concern.

xxxxx

It was Friday, and the team was supposed to have the weekend off; but considering the two new homicides connected to their still open case, that wasn't looking likely. It was disappointing, but far from unheard of. After calls with the other detectives involved, a meeting was arranged at the twelfth that afternoon, and the team was then ready to look into the files ME Watson had found on the two victims from a couple of years ago.

They rolled a white board into the conference room and Ryan posted information on each victim as they went through the files. Both victims had worked for Praetorian Investments, a small and now defunct financial firm that touted its interest in those with military connections. "Building security for those who provide ours" was a prominent part of their advertising. The recession was in progress then, but it looks like this firm may have played a little more fast and loose than a lot of them, and a lot of military folks whose accounts had been showing excellent profits suddenly lost a substantial part of it. Both of these victims' clients were almost exclusively military personnel," Beckett stated to the group.

"If I'd built up a nice nest egg and came home to find out it was almost gone, I'd be tempted to deal with whoever was in charge of the loss," Esposito commented. I'd like to think I'd have a little more self-restraint than that, though."

"Well, it certainly leaves us with a plethora of possible suspects, Castle said. "Is there any indication of a suspect?"

"No. I'm looking up the company now. Hmmm… There are several articles here hinting at the possibility of some shady dealing, but no specific evidence and no convictions. It looks like they just closed up shop around the end of the recession. By then everybody was reading over Beckett's shoulder.

"Where is that building?" Castle asked, and Ryan found it. "That address sounds familiar."

"Wait," Beckett said, looking surprised and opening another file. "Look at this. We need to talk to Ellen Moore again. We knew these people were co-workers, but they all work, or worked, for a financial firm at the same address as Praetorian Investments, the one that closed." She slapped the desk in celebration. "Finally a connection…to something…even if we don't know what."

"Are any of the same people running the new business?" Esposito asked.

After more scanning of the specifics of the two businesses, the answer was no.

"Do you think whoever killed these two might be unhinged enough to think that it's still the same business?"

"We definitely have more questions than answers, but at least we have something. It looks like all our victims had silk fibers on their necks, all of them were wearing suits, and the first one was wearing a suit but no tie. All the others were still wearing their ties. I'll call Lanie and see if she and Watson can coordinate to see if all the fibers are the same," Beckett promised.

"We wouldn't know any of this if the last two didn't still have your card in their jacket pockets," Castle said, shaking his head. "With a different precinct involved for each of them…"

"The first one was handled here at the twelfth, so the evidence should still be stored here. It's a place to start," Ryan offered, and we can call the fifteenth to see about the evidence for the second one.

"Did Hayden get anything out of the wolf guy from last night?" Esposito asked. "His jacket looked military."

"They asked him about that, and he said it was his brother's," Beckett told them. His brother died a couple of years ago and he held on to it because it had memories. He's homeless and said sometimes he stays in The Ramble, and they did find a pile of what was probably his belongings. They didn't find anything that looked damning in it, but they asked CSU to take it and process it anyway. It seems that he wasn't much help as a witness, though. Well, at least Oberon got a safe place to sleep and a meal out of NYPD. Hayden said he had sent an officer to process him out right before he called me...and he told him he could come back for his things in a couple of days."

"Something connected to the investment company had to be what drove somebody to commit the murder of two of its employees," Castle said. "And I'll bet it takes us straight to the three cuts on the upper arm. There has to be a story behind that. We have the list of officers and board members. Let's see if we can find any of them. Two murders wouldn't be something you'd be likely to forget."

"Already on it, Ryan answered from behind his laptop. I've got the CEO, current driver's license with an address. Looking for current employment. Somebody see if there's newspaper or TV coverage of the murders."

"There was coverage of the murders. Two people from the same firm being murdered pulled in some media interest, but it looks like mostly speculation," Beckett reported.

Ryan handed her a sticky note with the CEO's name and work number, and she called, putting her phone on speaker.

The former CEO, Steve Scanlon remembered a situation from before the murders but couldn't remember the client's name. "We mentioned it to the police, but it was almost a month before the murders, and we weren't even sure it was connected. It was a sad case. We had a lot of military clients, but one man in particular stood out. His account had built up to a good sum; but on top of the recession that was affecting everybody, his advisor and another man who sometimes worked with him got a little overzealous, and the losses were substantial. He came back from a tour in Afghanistan badly wounded and fully expecting to have the amount on his last statement from us to help with a home with handicap access, but what he had left wasn't anything close to what he expected. He insisted on seeing me; and I'll never forget his face when he asked if there wasn't something I could do and I had to say no. It still comes back to haunt me now and then…probably always will. A few days later, a relative came by. He was calm, well-dressed, and well-spoken. He initially identified himself as the client. He just asked for them by name, then told them he was a family member and proceeded to tell them exactly what they had done to this man's future. Then he left. Neither of them seemed too affected by it, which I found appalling. I looked at how they were handling their other accounts and fired them not long after that."

"Do you still have access to records with the client's name? We've had three more murders…all working in another financial firm that took over the same office space where Praetorian was housed then. We're looking for anything at all that might tie them together."

"I'll do whatever I can to help. The records are in storage, and I have to go through the right bureaucracy to get to them. I doubt I can do that before Monday, but I can make the calls and get the ball rolling today. I think that's the best I can do."

"If you can call me back with names and numbers for your contacts, I'll call them to emphasize the urgency, and I'll get the paperwork for a warrant for the records."

"I can send a text to the number you're calling from?"

"Yes."

"You'll have it in the next ten or fifteen minutes."

"We appreciate your help, Mr. Scanlon."

Beckett grumbled after she hung up, "I hate waiting when we have such a possibly good break."

Several iterations of "We know," came from the men in the room, and Beckett just looked at them good-naturedly and said, "Shut up," while she started stacking files. All the men chuckled as they gathered their belongings. It was time for lunch if they were meeting with Hayden and Uzell in two hours.

"Remy's or Chinese?" Esposito asked.

"Remy's," the others answered, dropped things off in their desks, and left together.

The meeting with the other detectives went well. They laid out everything they had found and bounced possibilities around with the other two detectives, but they still didn't have enough to make any more progress. Hayden and Uzell were impressed with how much they had accomplished since the night before and promised to cooperate with whatever they needed.

After the meeting, Beckett reported to Montgomery and returned to the rest of the team with an order to enjoy their weekends off. "There's nothing we can do until Monday, and we all need a little break."

"You don't need to tell me twice," Esposito answered, and Ryan was right behind him.

"What are you doing with your weekend?" Castle asked Beckett as she closed her computer down. "I think I'll go to my dad's cabin again. What are you going to do?"

"I was hoping to take you with me to…"

"Probably next time, Castle, when things here aren't so demanding. I need to run off some frustration and soak in the outdoors, and that's something I usually do alone."

"I'll count on next time, then…and look forward to it," he said as the elevator doors closed.

"Thanks for being patient."

"You're worth it."

She kissed his cheek before the elevator stopped on the first floor, and he unnecessarily put his hand on her back to guide her to the exit. He talked her into coffee before they went their separate ways, and she willingly cooperated.

When she excused herself to use the restroom, she left her still open phone on the table, and in a moment of madness he checked her contacts for her father's number and address and put it back exactly where she had left it. Thanking the powers that be for an excellent memory, he wrote what he had found in the notebook that always resided in his shirt pocket and waited for her to return.

"When are you leaving," he asked as they walked to her car.

"Early tomorrow morning,"

"Then why don't you go ahead and get ready for the trip. I'll hail a cab this time."

They were still in front of the precinct, so she surreptitiously took his hand and squeezed it, saying, "I'll see you Monday morning."

xxxxx

On Saturday at ten, Castle was standing outside Jim Beckett's door, working up the nerve to knock and still trying to decide what he was going to say and whether he had the guts to say it.

He finally took a deep breath, let it go in a big puff, and knocked before he changed his mind.

Jim answered the door looking puzzled. "Good morning, Mr. Castle. Our doorman said he was sending you up. Come in. What can I do for you?"

"I'm just going to be honest and admit I'm wondering why I'm here myself. Maybe we could start over. I'm Richard Castle, and I've been working with your daughter, researching a new book."

"Katie has mentioned you a few times."

"I'd like to think I'm not as bad as some of it might have sounded," Castle answered, running his hand through his hair nervously."

"It hasn't been as bad as you think. I believe the word annoying came up; but I've known my child for a long time, and I suspect she can give you a run for your money on that score."

Both men smiled, and Jim reached to shake hands. "It's good to meet you, Mr. Castle."

"Rick is fine. Kate calls me Castle." When Castle shook his hand, both men were surprised.

You felt that, didn't you?" Jim asked.

"What just happened?"

"You're one of us, aren't you?"

"I'm one of something, but I need to know what you're asking," Castle insisted.

"I always thought it was a family thing, "Jim said absent-mindedly, "but it may be more. The last time I felt that when I took another man's hand was when I held my father's hand before he died…it was the same with my uncle when he was living."

Castle looked distressed. "No offense intended, Mr. Beckett, but please don't tell me you're probably my father. I'm falling in love with your daughter, and I don't think I would deal with that well."

"Relax, Rick. I know who your mother is. Johanna and I saw as many of her performances as we could. But I've never even met her. I'm definitely not your father. With an amused smile, he sat down and indicated a chair across from his, saying, "Why don't you sit down before you fall down…and tell me why you're here today."

"Apparently to make a complete fool of myself," he answered, sitting down across from Jim.

"Katie has been pretty sure you're one of us for a while now, but it isn't one of those things you can just ask about."

"I've never had anybody to ask about anything. My mother doesn't have what she calls 'the gene', so she hasn't been able to help much. He told Jim the story of his birth, her separation from her family, and his intent to find her brother. "By the time I needed someone to talk to, her parents had died, and she had lost track of her brother; so I was alone with it except for the few things she remembered being told as a teenager."

"That must have been frightening at first," Jim answered with obvious sympathy.

"Before we say anything else…when Kate goes off on these runs of hers is she…um…wearing a fur coat?"

Jim released a big burst of laughter. "That's one way to look at it. I suspect you do the same?"

Castle nodded. "And you?"

"I don't go as often as I used to, but yes. Johanna and I used to take her with us. I imagine there was some extra teenage angst at your house after your mother told you what to expect. There certainly was here. Once Katie got used to the shape shifting, we all enjoyed shifting and playing in the woods, though. She's wanted to tell you, but she was afraid to…in case she wasn't reading the signs right."

Castle leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees and his hands clasped together. "I was afraid, too. I think that's why I'm here, Mr. Beckett. I was doing the same thing, and I can't tell you how relieved I am to have someone else to talk to about being…I'm not sure what to call it...a part-time wolf? Do you know others like us? Is there a group, or a meeting place, or…"

"No. We seem to find each other accidentally…or maybe it's fate. It's surprising to me that you even exist as you are. The odds of a stranger with bloodlines on both sides of the family finding someone else from two bloodlines and immediately conceiving a child…it seems astronomical. I can't imagine having to navigate what you have, and evidently did successfully, with so little real guidance. It speaks to your strength. I always had family around me." Leaning forward, he touched Castle's hand, and the feeling of calm companionship was there again. "You can come to me for whatever you may still need to know, even if it doesn't work out between you and Katie. And please call me Jim."

"Thank you." He hesitated a moment and then asked, "Would you tell me where your cabin is? I'd like to go and meet her while she's there and leave no doubt in her mind that we're alike."

Jim sat back in his chair, picked up a pen and notepad from the table beside him and jotted down an address. "You might need to put it in one of those Garmin things. The entrance isn't right out where you see it easily.

"I do have one. And thank you for this," he answered, accepting the small page. "I have strong feelings for your daughter. If she feels the same way…"

"I think you might have my blessings, young man. Most of the very few men she's introduced me to haven't."

"Then thank you for that, too. I'm going to go home and pack a few things so I can get on the road."

"Good luck, Son."

"No, no, no. That messes with my mind. Not your son, remember? But all that aside, I don't think that growing up with you would have been a bad thing at all."

Jim was left chuckling as he closed the door. He found himself hoping for things to work out for the younger couple. He liked Richard Castle.