Unexpected Appearance Chapter 16

"Amir was not a terrorist," Nazihah declares, protectively holding baby Mollica. "He loved this country."

"And yet he was in possession of…." Beckett returns.

"Where's the bomb!" Fallon thunderously interrupts.

"I told you, I know nothing about a bomb. Amir would never do such a thing," Nazihah insists. "Why would he?"

"He needed the cash," Fallon retorts. He points at Mollica. "That baby of yours is a money pit. The bills started piling up. He got in bed with the wrong people. I need you to tell me who they are."

Nazihah's throat constricts as she fights a sob. "I swear to you, I don't know."

A smack vibrates through the room as Fallon slams his palm on the table. Jarred by the sound, the baby begins to cry.

"How can you not know the man you're sharing a bed with is a terrorist?" Fallon shouts. "You're part of it!"

Nazihah turns her pleading gaze on Kate. "I have nothing to hide."

Rising, Fallon looms over the cowering woman. "But you do, and I'm going to find it. And when I do, I'm going to lock you up as a material witness and send that baby off to foster care."

Nazihah draws the weeping baby more tightly against her breasts. "No! You can't do that!"

Fury distorts Fallon's face. "Oh, yes, I can. Just watch me."

Kate digs her fingers into Fallon's arm. "Sir, can I talk to you?'

"No!" Fallon hisses, leaning closer to Nazihah. "Go ahead and kiss your daughter goodbye."

Tears flood Nazihah's eyes. "Please!"

Fallon points to the door. "Social Services is right out there."

"Please, please," Nazihah pleads. "Why are you doing this?"

"Nazihah, that means honesty in Arabic, right?" Fallon queries, giving Nazihah no opportunity to answer. "Well, I'm going to give you one more chance to be honest with me, or I will take your baby away, and you will never see it again."

"I swear!" Nazihah sobs. "I swear to you, I don't know anything. Please don't take her away. She's the only thing I have. Please! Please!"

Fallon sinks into his chair. "All right. Nobody's going to take your baby away from you." He pulls out a handkerchief and hands it to Nazihah. "Understand, I'm in a tight spot here. I had to be sure. Agent Garda will drive you home. You're free to go."

Nazihah thrusts the handkerchief back at Fallon as she leaves the room. He turns to Kate. " You still think she's being truthful? I want your opinion, truthful or no?'

"I think she is," Kate replies, "but I have to operate under the assumption that she's lying."

"While she was in here I pulled a national security certificate," Fallon confides. "Her house is now bugged. She'll be under surveillance 24/7. If she's hiding something, we'll find it. It's important that she believes that I believe she's telling the truth. She considers you an ally. That could be helpful later. Thanks for playing, Beckett."

Resisting the impulse to slap him, Kate stalks out of the room.

"Whoa! What happened?" Rick asks as Kate stomps toward her desk.

"Fallon! That sonofabitch thinks I was just playing good cop bad cop with him."

"And were you?" Rick asks. "I've seen you do it before."

"No! He was over the top, Castle. He was threatening Nazihah with losing that poor sick child."

"Hmm, a threat to the child," Rick considers. "Beckett, we only had to be near a trace of cobalt 60 to make your alarm go crazy. If Amir built a bomb, he would have had contact for a lot longer than that. And I can't see a father struggling to get his child the care she needs, risking exposing her to that. Did Lanie check him for signs of radioactivity or radiation exposure?"

"It wasn't in her prelim," Kate recalls. "When the cause of death is that obvious, the post-mortem can be pretty cursory."

"Look," Rick says, "the boys are in Tech scrubbing 48 hours of video of C412. Shouldn't we go check with Lanie to see if there are signs Amir actually got near any cobalt 60?"

"You may have a point, Castle. And if he didn't, then we're proceeding on the wrong theory of the case."

Rick starts for the elevator. "Which is exactly what I'm afraid of."

Lanie runs a Geiger counter over Amir's body. "Nothing above background radiation. And if it had been on his clothes or in the cab, it would have set off your alarm. If he was near a radiation source, he would have had to use protective equipment. Did you find any?"

"There wasn't any in the storage unit, and nothing like that turned up in the search of his house either," Kate recalls.

"And he wouldn't have had the time," Castle realizes. "Ryan went over a bunch of his GPS history. Amir drove long hours. When would he have built a bomb? If someone built one in that storage unit, it wasn't Amir. The whole investigation is on the wrong track."

"Maybe, Castle," Kate acknowledges, but…." The text alert goes off on her cell phone. "It's from Ryan. He found something on the video. Let's go, Castle."

Kate stares at the images of a man pushing a dolly holding a crate down the hall outside C412. "That's Jamal. If he was involved, Amir must have been, too. He was lying. Nazihah probably was, too."

"But look at him," Rick protests. "He's not wearing any protective gear, not even work gloves. He's not sweating or watching out for bumps. Is that the way a man would behave wheeling a bomb?"

"But he's wheeling a crate that probably has a bomb, Castle. If he isn't a terrorist, why would he be there?" Esposito demands.

"The man just started a moving company," Rick recalls. "If someone was setting up Amir as their fall guy, who would be more perfect to hire?"

"But which someone, Castle?" Kate questions. "So far, we haven't run across anyone connected to Amir with a motive for a scheme like that."

"But we haven't been looking," Rick points out. "And with Fallon in charge, we won't be. He's so laser-focused on the Alhabis that he won't even consider anyone else. And I finished tracing that $10,000 deposit to Amir's account. It originated in Afghanistan. The Syrians are allied with Russia, not exactly the pals of the Afghans."

"Where in Afghanistan?" Esposito asks.

"The bank was in Charikar. Why?" Rick asks.

"Because that's not far from Bagram Air Base. The military personnel there would use it. And when we checked on Kevin McCann, he served in Afghanistan," Esposito explains.

"We should talk to him again," Kate decides, "and dig deeper into his background. He's the only connection to the case we have outside the Alhabi family."

"There's nobody left to look for McCann," Ryan notes. "I had to show this to Fallon before you and Castle got here. He knew it was Jamal from the family's immigration history. Every cop he could muster is out there trying to bring him in."

"I'll check with Allied Cab. They might have a location on him," Kate says. "And you guys look deeper into his military background. If he is involved, something had to set him off."

"Detective Beckett," LT says from the doorway, "Agent Fallon's called another meeting."

Kate rolls her eyes. "Great!"