Finding the Fit Chapter 38
"We need to go back to Washington Heights," Kate decides. "Maybe we can spot another useful contact there."
"It's early, Beckett," Rick points out. "If it's an on night, the gamblers won't be arriving yet."
"It will take some time to get a van. Then we can settle in and look for any other suspicious activity." Kate sighs. "We don't have much else right now. But if you have writing or something to do, Castle, you don't have to come. It could turn out to be a very boring night."
"Stakeouts with you can be a lot of things, Beckett, but boring isn't one of them. And it's been my observation in life that the inflection points come when you least expect them."
Kate recalls her joyous anticipation of a celebratory dinner with her parents taking a sudden agonizing turn. "You've got that right, Castle. Let's go check out a van."
Kate notices activity at Simmons' shop even before she parks. "What the hell is going on there?"
Rick indicates a large truck pulled up in an alley near the east side of the building. "It appears that the gambling den is pulling up stakes."
"It does," Kate agrees. "I need to know where it's going."
Rick leans back in his seat. "Looks like another watch-and-wait situation. Want to go back to playing 20 questions?"
Kate shakes her head. "No, I want to see everything they're moving. Maybe that will give us a clue to what they're doing besides taking bets."
"We will have it all on video," Rick reminds her.
"But I don't want to take the time I'd need to review it."
"Fair enough," Rick says. "See anything enlightening so far?"
"Only that those men could bust a gut moving some of that equipment."
"It shouldn't be that difficult," Rick muses. "Casinos move slot machines around all the time. They're designed that way. A roulette wheel, cards, tables, and monitors shouldn't be that heavy. Neither should counting machines. They fit easily inside a cashier's cage."
"Well, something is heavy," Kate insists. "Just look at those guys."
"You're right," Rick acknowledges. "What is dense enough to take up relatively little space while weighing a ton?"
He and Kate suddenly face each other in simultaneous exclamation. "Gold!"
"They could ship that anywhere, use it anywhere," Rick realizes.
"With little or no paper trail," Kate adds. "So what they can't launder, they convert to gold, probably through person-to-person transfers. Then they can use it to pay for drugs or anything else they want. The drugs raise more money leading to more gold. We need to follow the shiny stuff."
"I feel like Walter Huston and Humphrey Bogart should suddenly be materializing, although I prefer Traven's novel. All right then, we'll have a trail!"
Rick glances at his watch for the tenth time. "Beckett, we've been sitting here for hours. They stopped loading the truck halfway through that time. Why aren't they going anywhere?"
"Maybe they want to make sure they make the move when there's the least chance of being seen," Kate suggests. "Or their destination could be getting ready to receive the load. We'll just have to…."
Rick jabs his finger at the screen. "Look! Something's happening." Two men climb into the truck's cab, and the vehicle begins to back up toward the street.
Kate hurries into the driver's seat of the van and rushes Rick into the passenger seat. "Buckle up." She silently gives thanks for the cover of darkness, allowing her to more closely follow the truck. Once they're out on a highway, if the truck takes one, the van will be visible only as one of many sets of headlights. She stays back as far as she can without losing the much larger vehicle. The truck picks up I-87 North, and takes the exit to Sprain Brook Parkway North."
"They're headed to one of the mansions in the woods," Rick guesses. "A couple of the more successful authors I know have them there. The area provides enough isolation to write undisturbed yet is close enough to the city to be practical. I'll admit that once or twice when the jackhammers were blasting outside the loft, I considered moving up here myself. But after growing up surrounded by other kids, I don't think I could adjust to being a hermit. And I'd have to drive over an hour to get a Nathan's hotdog."
Kate chuckles. "I knew food would come into your reasoning somewhere. Oh, the truck is taking the turn-off to that side road ahead. That's going to make it harder to follow it unseen."
"But there aren't many places left that it can go, Beckett. A lot of the roads around here aren't wide enough for something that big. If you do have to drop back. It shouldn't be that hard to relocate."
Kate's fingers tighten on the wheel. "I hope you're right, Castle. He's exiting again." She slows down as much as she dares without losing her quarry entirely. The truck continues for a short distance before pulling into a drive marked "Private." Kate pulls to the gravel at the side of the road. "I should go the rest of the way on foot."
"We should go the rest of the way on foot, Beckett. I'm not about to sit the chase out now. And," he continues, reaching into his pocket, "I've got a miniaturized high-intensity tech light. It should penetrate the night even better than your Mag Lite."
"Where did you get that, Castle?"
"It's a souvenir from one of my overseas book tours. The trip involved a rather dark and spooky venue." Rick recalls that he actually needed the light for one of his exercises with Agent Turner. Still, it did take place during one of his book tours, so he wasn't really lying, just leaving out the classified details. His evaluation of the comparative efficacy of the lights proves to be accurate, and Beckett allows him to take a slight lead. A large house, surrounded by a fence fronted by an ornate but wide gate, looms ahead. The truck's rear reflectors are just visible inside. "Looks like this is the final destination. What now, Detective?"
"Now we head back to the city before that light bomb of yours gets us caught, Castle. Then we find out everything we can about this place."
"Just when this expedition could really be fun," Rick laments.
"That kind of fun could get you killed, Castle," Kate retorts. "If we go in, we go in prepared. But if you want to make a start of it, on the way back, you could get a Google Earth view of this place."
"Yes, Ma'am, Detective Beckett. My app is yours to exploit."
As Kate heads the van back to the city, Rick frowns over his phone. "This area is restricted. Google Earth isn't allowed to show photos of it. I could understand that for some top-secret military installation, but to make it happen for a civilian house in the woods, someone would need some real pull."
"We know who could have that kind of pull," Kate realizes, "a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee."
A grin suddenly brightens Rick's face. "By trying to cover up the location of an operation, Bracken is actually revealing his involvement. The irony of that is delicious."
"It's also even more reason to dig out every bit of dirt we can about that mansion," Kate says.
Rick mimes typing on a keyboard. "My metaphorical shovel is at your disposal."