Chapter VI
That was too close
Castle had ducked into an alley and had found a spot to hide in, thanking the hour of night to allow a blanket of darkness to envelop the alleyway to conceal his position from Beckett as she had given chase to him.
He knew he had to move soon, he had heard her yelling at some poor guy who had managed to dress up like he did, getting to be on the receiving end of an angry Beckett, and the telltale sound of her heels clicking away in defeat after releasing the poor guy.
He couldn't be careless like that again, but damn it, it was worth it to see her, even as far away as he did. After he released the breath he had seemingly been holding after she had left, he squared himself up and prepared to get back to the task at hand.
Gotta get a ride Rick, we have a special trip to make before it's too late.
He slowly made his way out of the alley, ensuring to check both sides before he slipped out of the shadows and back into the crowd that moved effortlessly through the streets of New York.
After walking a few blocks, he was finally able to hail a cab, and gave the cabbie directions to a general location in the nearby suburbs.
As the car drove along with him in the backseat, he started thinking about how he was going to go about this, he had to be surgical with his approach, but that only mattered if his enemy didn't decide to break out the sledgehammer to brute force their way through the conflict, and worry about collateral damage later. He was certain pursuing this angle would prove to be valuable though, and if it wasn't, he was going to have to use himself and the drive as bait, and that idea did not sit well with him. Given the state of the hotel room he left, he was not so quick to give in to that plan.
The time had passed faster than he realized, his mind must have been working well into overdrive if he didn't recognize the change of scenery from the city into modest homes. Shaking his head as he broke his reverie once again, he, once again, left the cabbie a generous tip, thanked him, and made for the sidewalk. Since he didn't want the driver to pull up in front of the house he was going to, he was going in on foot, wanting to do a little reconnaissance before he made contact.
A car pulled into the driveway of the two-story townhome, parking all by itself in front of the main entry, while the driver tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, avoiding getting out after multiple protestations from his detectives that he needed to go home to his wife and kids.
But what they didn't know was that they were out, the kids had a long running field trip to Ulster County for a camping excursion and his wife had volunteered as a chaperone, so it was just him for a few days, and that was perfect for him.
Usually, he wouldn't want to be alone, he loved spending time with his family, but in the interest of guarding a secret not even they knew, he was content with the silence that he would soon be experiencing inside. With a short sigh, Roy Montgomery pulled the key out of the ignition and bound for the door as he locked the car up behind him with a telltale click and horn, signaling it was secure.
Crossing the threshold into his home, he let the weariness of the day show on him, shoulders dropped and eyes heavy with unshed tears as he tore off his suit jacket and hung it up in the entryway.
He needed a drink, and he needed some company, company in the form of the last few photos he had kept of Smith in his home office. With a semblance of an idea to do, Roy headed up the stairs and into his office.
The office was quiet, as it usually was. It was Roy's favorite place to decompress after an especially stressful day, the quiet allowed him to compartmentalize all he had seen in a day, letting his mind be sharp as he filed it all away, hoping to never let it see the light of day in his consciousness again.
Breaking the darkness in the room, Roy pulled the chain on the desktop lamp, letting the light illuminate the mostly bare desk, the exception being a few field trip permission slips and schoolwork for his girls. That sight helped him a little bit, it was a perspective check for him, to make him appreciate what he still had; but he still wanted that drink.
And with a clicking open of a lock and a swinging of a cabinet door in the office, Roy produced a glass of scotch that he placed on the desk, followed by a glass that had rested alongside it in the cabinet, waiting for a day such as this. After locking the cabinet back, Roy defeatingly sat in his chair as he opened his desk drawer to pull out the photos he was thinking about, which didn't take long for him to find.
He placed his personal favorite on the desk, it was one of Smith, himself, and his wife on Roy's wedding day. All smiles on their young faces, unaware of what the years would bring them, but the image was peaceful for Roy. A picture is worth a thousand words they say, and he truly believed that phrase after he saw this photo, and further proved it after he got to take and see pictures of his baby girls.
He propped the picture up against the brass framed lamp on his desk as he poured himself a generous helping of scotch into his glass, and then proceeded to feign a cheers with the photo on his desk.
"I'm sorry, old friend; 'til the next life."
Roy had somehow managed to put away half of the glass already, leaving the rest of the amber liquid to dance in the cup as he swirled it in his hand, downcast eyes lost in the graceful movements of the fluid.
He was tired, and the scotch was certainly helping to drive him to sleep that he knew he needed if he was to return to the precinct tomorrow, so he brought the cool glass to his lips once more as he let the floodgates open and began to down more of the alcohol, before something broke the silence.
"I hear that stuff's bad for your liver."
Sleep now no longer on the brain, and the scotch that was once in his mouth, returned to the glass, Roy's eyes widened in alert as he dropped his right hand to the concealed weapon that was attached to the underside of the desk, before he heard the telltale sign of a hammer being pulled back on a pistol.
They already had a bead on him, damnit.
Hoping to avoid getting shot in his home, he was prepared to give this man anything before he'd let his family come home to his death, "What do you want?" He hissed to the darkness.
The man in the corner of the office leaned forward in the chair he was sitting in, clicking on a lamp next to the chair as he kept his weapon drawn on the captain, letting the light illuminate his stern face.
Roy's eyes narrowed as he took in the man's appearance, then widened again in surprise, "Castle?!"
He simply nodded, "The one and only."
Roy knew that this visitation was no good, the usual jovial author looked at him with a set jaw and contempt fighting its way to appear in his eyes, not to mention that the man was nonchalantly holding him at gunpoint as if he did this every day.
"Why are you here Castle?"
Castle raised an eyebrow as he motioned his pistol to the concealed handgun under Roy's desk, "You promise to not reach for that?"
Roy just nodded silently, listening intently to Rick's words, wanting to avoid any kind of accidental or purposeful discharge.
"Good." Rick then took the pistol and reholstered it underneath his jacket, replacing it with a flash drive, making a show of it to Roy. "Because we really need to talk."
Back at the Precinct, Kate, Ryan, and Esposito are all gathered around their murder board, with new additions courtesy of each person standing there.
Ryan and Esposito had managed to indeed, succeed on their witch hunt, which brought them to Corporal Jackson Moore, who had a few anomalies in his recent financial history, and a bit of a drinking problem, which resulted in him being recruited into a heist to steal the experimental bullets that were used to kill their vic. Moore was still in the box, waiting for his lawyer to finalize any key details in his plea deal.
Kate, on the other hand, had scoured through the street camera footage and had finally found Castle mounting his bike and driving off as fast as he could with one arm to steer the bike. She had finally been able to snag a clear picture of the license plate and was able to trace it through intersections until she found it in a parking garage around 7, and after giving some unis directions to canvas, she swore that she saw a man that bore a striking resemblance to Castle, but unfortunately came up dry.
Her portion of the case was seeming to dry up with leads, all the while Ryan and Esposito's seemed to have some sustenance to their side, so she had that to focus on at least.
It was nearing 9 o'clock at this point but none of them wanted to leave, not after finding a solid lead and they needed to act on it as fast as they could. Their captain was going to stay with them, but they all insisted he go home, they could handle this, and eventually after multiple confirmations that they could, he left. Leaving the three detectives in the bullpen from the day shift and a few night shift officers.
"So," Kate began, "Moore gave up the crew he worked with to steal those bullets?"
Esposito took the lead by tacking on a sketch artist's rendition of a man. "Yeah, the guy even let us get a decent look at the guy who approached him."
A few tacks on a keyboard behind them alerted them to the now absence of Ryan, as he had spun around and sat back down to input the sketch into facial recognition. "Alright," he leaned back in his chair with his hands clasped together behind his head, "If scar boy is in our database, we should get a hit soon."
Happy with some progress being made, the detectives settled for having a brief coffee break while the search ran, all silently hoping they wouldn't have to hit the streets with confidential informants getting them the info they needed. But as they cleared the outer wall of the bullpen, Kate hung back from the other two, waiting outside the breakroom.
"Hey guys?"
The two turned around at her now distant voice, thinking that she was still with them, they were still a little surprised that she wasn't jonesing for a caffeine fix.
"Do you mind if you make me a cup? I'm gonna… gonna go see if I can look into any more of Moore's haunts, see if anything pops up in there."
The duo were a bit perplexed at her brief awkwardness but quickly rebounded to take any heat off of her.
"Sure thing boss, you think you'll like it the way me and Javi do?"
She smiled just a bit, reassuring the two with words and actions, "Yeah, I'm sure Ryan, I know you two can't get enough of the stuff."
The two nodded to her as they scampered off the break room to get the not-so-complicated device working for them, leaving her at her desk as they engaged in the time-honored tradition of breakroom talk, except this topic was involved in them talking about Kate after they were out of earshot.
After a click on the espresso machine, Ryan kept his attention focused on the machine in front of him as he talked to his partner over his shoulder, "We gotta find him Javi, this is turning out worse than the summer when he walked out on us."
Esposito grunted his agreement as he pulled out a chair from the corner table to sit down in, "I know bro, but the guy is acting like he doesn't want to be found. I mean, the longer we work this case, the more we're learning he's not the guy we thought he was."
"You can say that again. Castle on a bike? Never would've made that bet."
That warranted a laugh from the other man, a sound that hadn't been heard on the homicide floor in the past twelve hours. "Yeah, that was definitely a twist. But, lets just get our coffee and get back on this, yeah?"
Ryan answered his question by turning around with a freshly filled mug of New York's finest coffee for him, followed by picking up the other two mugs, "Damn straight, we got a lead, so let's hunt it down."
As the two left the breakroom, they caught sight of Beckett still at her desk, still working hard to find if there were any holes in their witness' statement. As they made it halfway back to her desk, they heard the elevator ding, a sound they hadn't heard in the last couple hours, which caused the two to whip their heads in its direction, silently hoping that maybe the day had just been a nightmare and their favorite writer was going to walk through the doors when they opened.
But what they saw was the absolute last person they would've expected see here, most of all Beckett. The two turned their heads to face each other with wide eyes, because they knew what was coming next was not going to be good at all, so they silently agreed to keep their distance until she needed backup.
The man exited the elevator and made his way to Kate's desk and stopped to take in the sight of her before he reached his hand down and touched her shoulder.
"Bad move," Esposito muttered as he took a sip from his coffee.
In one swift move, they watched Beckett's focus be broken from the computer monitor and whip around to face who had the audacity to put their hand on her shoulder at work. They couldn't see her face entirely, but they could safely guess that she had gone through the five stages of grief in about two seconds, judging by her body language at least.
"Josh?" Kate's eyes went from wide to narrow in a split second, staring at the man standing next to her incredulously, "What are you doing here?"
The man looked surprised at her indifference to seeing him, and the look on her face was unmistakable, but he pressed on, thinking that a case was just hard on her.
"Uhhh… we had reservations at that Italian place, remember? I wanted to spend some time with you before I left for the next Doctor's Without Borders?"
And in a moment, the entire floor went quiet, and Kate was sure that anyone nearby would've heard something snap in her mind as he was so inconsiderate, not even attempting to ask her how the day had gone to make her seem so distant.
She could feel her jaw set when she garnered up the strength to not blow up at him at work, she was going to save that for at home, but she had to deal with him now. "Josh, I can't go. This case is too important."
That didn't seem to satisfy him, because he was already opening his mouth as soon as she had finished.
"Well, can't those two take over? I'm sure they can handle it, and we can have a night before I have to leave tomorrow."
Ryan and Esposito had remained silent the entire time, exchanging looks at each other during the conversation, until that little tidbit was said, which caused both of them to whip their hands at the doctor and stare daggers at him.
"I'm notleaving Josh, not while my partner is missing."
And then it was his turn to have something set off in his brain, judging by the new look of contempt that etched across his features, it was not going to be good.
"The writer? He's a big boy, I'm sure he can handle whatever it is he's dealing with."
If looks could kill, homicide would have a fresh case right there in the bullpen, and not a shred of remorse would be found there after what he said.
The anger radiating off of Kate could be felt all the way to Esposito's desk, where the two other detectives sat, and suddenly they definitely had somewhere else to be, after standing up and grabbing their mugs, their attempt at an escape was stopped by Kate's finger snapping and pointing at the two without breaking eye contact with Josh.
"Ryan, Espo, sit back down."
They complied quickly, they weren't about to be on the wrong side of a wrathful Kate Beckett, they'd leave that honor to the good doctor, because at this rate, the man was digging his own grave.
"Kate-" Josh was cut off as fast as he had started with a fiery look in Kate's eyes staring into his soul, "No. My partner is hurt, missing, and at the center of a murder investigation. I already had to call his daughter and I'm not about to call her to tell her I couldn't save her father."
"Partner, huh?" Josh said the word with such disdain and doubt, "Is that what he is?" he had recalled how the detectives had found his girlfriend and the writer huddled up in the freezer, and decided to use it as ammo against her. "Like when they found you two huddled up in the freezer, is that what partners do?"
Her eye twitched and mind flashed back to that day at his mention, thinking about it full of regret and wishing to go back and do what she so desperately wanted to do, and Josh was making it easier for her to do that now, at least for when she found Castle.
"It's more than what you've ever done for me," she hissed, not caring about the disdain in her voice, she needed to let him have a piece of her mind.
"Done for you?! I didn't leave for Haiti because of that!"
"Well thank you, brave doctor, I'm sure the EMT's couldn't have done their job without you there to help."
Josh tried to formulate some kind of response, any for that matter, but he was coming up dry, just standing there, opening his mouth partially and closing it intermittently.
Oh good, he finally shut his mouth, time for the killing blow to get him out of there, get this interaction over with to never return to and back to the case.
"You know where the elevator is Josh," she aggressively thumbed over her shoulder just in case he had forgotten it in the flurry of words she threw in his face, "don't let the front door hit you on the way out."
"F-front door?" The man looked genuinely confused, almost as if he didn't know what she was talking about, apparently, he didn't get the hint, so she was going to spell it out for him.
"Yes, Josh, the front door. Enjoy the new beginning you find when you get on that plane tomorrow to wherever the hell you're going to now."
"Oh." Now he got the message, if the sulky walk back to the elevator was any indication, he knew it was over and he would never see her again if she had anything to do about it. She stared him down the entire time, making sure he did leave, and once the elevator doors closed, she let out a breath and relaxed considerably in her chair.
She didn't realize how much of a weight that the whole situation was on her shoulders, but now that it was over, it was like she had full lung capacity again and could really breathe again. As she rested her eyes for moment, rolling her shoulders as if to shake off the argument and subsequent breakup, her reverie was broken by the interrupting noise of her cellphone ringing.
With a dejected sigh, she picked up the phone and furrowed her brow at the caller ID, not expecting to see a call from this specific caller at this hour, but she answered.
"Sir?"
There was a brief shuffling on the other line, she couldn't determine what it was but before she asked again, he answered finally.
"Beckett, grab the boys and get out to my house."
"Your house?" She snapped her fingers at the boys, motioning them to come over to her desk as she put the phone on speaker.
The voice came through again, with more shuffling that was a bit distant now, "You know where I live don't you? Grab your vests and get your asses over here, there's too many for us to deal with."
The three detectives were all shocked at their captain's sudden phone call and request for backup, but they quickly recovered and told him they'd be there in five minutes, not even paying attention to the last little piece of information he offered until they were all huddled in the elevator, as they listened to the little bit of information he had about how they needed to approach the house.
"Sir, what did you mean by us?"
"Beckett, just get your-" his comment was quickly interrupted by a gunshot, followed by the distinct sound of a body hitting the ground, and the line went dead.
They cleared out of the elevator in record time and were in their cruisers flying across town as they fought against time to make it to their captain's home, hoping that they wouldn't have another body to add to the murder board.
A/N: Howdy folks! I didn't think I'd get this next chapter out so soon, I'm so antsy to get this part of the story over with so we can get down to some Caskett-y business, but good things take time, and I hope the breakup scene between Kate and Josh reads well, I've learned it can be hard to write arguments and the accompanying array of facial expressions that appear in them, not to mention the body language, so I hope I did a convincing job! Next chapter will definitely be interesting, I'm pretty certain I know how I want it to go, but once I get it written I may change my mind and add a few details here and there, I'll be thinking about it plenty that's for sure. So until the next chapter, cheers and see you then!