Unexpected Appearance Chapter 63

"There's got to be a clue somewhere in Blakely's life," Kate declares, walking toward Blakely's body. "Maybe there's something on him that will tell us."

Alexis shakes her head. "Dr. Parish and I went through his pockets. There was nothing there, not even lint."

"The way they were turned out would suggest someone went through them before we got there," Lanie adds.

"Gage," Kate guesses. "Ryan," she calls across the pier, "get some teams to search the building. That's where our vic wanted to go. Maybe he hid something in there."

"What are we looking for?" Ryan questions.

"I don't know," Kate admits, "but he brought us here for a reason. Lanie, see what you can find on him. He might have hidden something in a tooth."

"Very spy story," Rick comments. "If you're thinking along those lines, there might be something like a chip under a scar. He could also embed a message in a tattoo."

"Yeah, check for all of that and fume the body for prints," Kate says. "We have Gage's even if they don't match anything. Maybe they'll match something on the body."

Lanie looks up from the dead professor. "Kate, do you really think…?"

Tires squeal as a black SUV pulls up on the pier. Dark eyes glittering, Sophia Turner jumps out of the vehicle, followed by two other agents. She eyes the body and glares at Rick and Kate. "He's dead!"

"Hey, you need to understand what happened," Rick says.

"Just get in the car!" Sophia orders as her agents grab Rick and Kate's arms.

Esposito runs across the pier. "Hey! NYPD! You can't just grab our people."

"It's OK, Espo," Kate says. "Just get with Ryan on the search of the building."

"What, no hoods?" Rick asks as the engine guns. An agent in the front seat holds them up. "Oh."

With her cleavage in Rick's eyeline, Sophia leans across the table in a briefing room as Agent Danberg looks on. "What the hell did you think you were doing?"

"It seems that there was something the agency's crypto protocols couldn't do," Rick says. "With help from Detective Beckett, I broke the code. So we went to find Blakely. He wanted to go to the pier. But when we got there, someone shot him."

"When you broke the code, you should have contacted me, Rick. If you had, Blakely might not be dead," Sophia accuses.

"Or he might have been dead sooner," Kate counters. "No one knew we were going to that pier. We didn't tell our own people. We didn't know until Blakely asked to go there. Yet someone in a black SUV showed up to kill Blakely and push my unit into the river."

"Beckett almost died because you took away my Swiss army knife," Rick interjects angrily.

"The agency tracked the phones you gave us, didn't they?" Kate continues. "Then someone showed up to kill Blakely and very nearly kill us. You have a leak, Agent Turner, someone with the ability to track our phones. That's what killed Blakely."

"Don't say anything. Don't move!" Sophia's chair screeches against the floor as she bounds out of it and rushes through the door.

Rick looks questioningly at Danberg, who just shakes his head.

Sophia returns a few minutes later. "I have a tracking program checking every tech station. If someone determined Blakley's location through your phones, we'll nail them. But we need to know anything you found out from Blakely."

"I'm guessing you know a lot of this already," Castle says. "Blakely was hired by an unknown entity or entities masquerading as a think tank to analyze U.S. vulnerabilities. He said he found a weakness in our economy – an unexpected linchpin that if someone went after, it would start the dominos falling."

"Falling toward what?" Sophia queries.

"The end of our country as we know it," Kate says.

"So what's our next move?" Rick asks.

"There is no next move for you two," Sophia announces. "It was a mistake bringing you into the loop. You know, I really thought you had changed, Rick. But you're still the same reckless, immature, self-centered jackass you always were, and you put this investigation at risk."

"That self-centered jackass saved my life after whatever leaked from here put us in the river," Kate retorts.

"You shouldn't have been there in the first place," Sophia claims. "Look, we're on the verge of 9/11 here, maybe worse. This isn't one of your damn books, Rick. You can't just rewrite the ending like you did with us."

Kate stares at Sophia, absorbing her last words.

"Get them out of here," Sophia orders Danberg.

As Danberg hustles Rick and Kate out of the room, Rick calls back over his shoulder. "I want my Swiss Army knife back."

"Look, she's upset," Danberg explains, handing Rick and Kate hoods and giving Rick his knife as they approach the elevator to the surface. "No one wants to think we have a leak here."

"But you obviously do," Kate returns. "And she can try blaming what happened on Castle and me all she wants, but the truth is that the agency screwed up. And I've still got a murder to solve. So if Agent Turner thinks I'm going to stop doing my job, she's got another thing coming."

"And what my partner works on, I work on," Rick says.

"Good luck," Danberg replies. "We're all going to need it."

Kate pauses on the sidewalk in front of the 12th Precinct, where she and Rick were dropped off. "Castle, what did Agent Turner mean about rewriting the ending about the two of you?"

"You've read the books, Beckett. You know that Clara Strike was Derrick's love interest – or one of them."

"Yeah, so what did you rewrite?"

"Well, the love part didn't work out as well between us in real life as it did on the page."

"What love part? Did you sleep with her?"

"Yeah, I did. Meredith and I had just gotten divorced after I found out she'd been cheating on me with a director who promised to make her a star. I was feeling wounded and unsure of myself. I was also trying to write my first Storm novel. Sophia and I were supposed to have a professional relationship, but – hell, you've seen her. There was all this sexual tension and…."

"So you ended up in bed."

"Unfortunately. I hoped our relationship could be something more. But once the tension was gone, there was really nothing else there. She couldn't understand why I didn't want to stick Alexis with some nanny and give all my attention to her and her lessons in espionage and – whatever."

"I can't ever see you stepping away from Alexis – even when she wants you to."

"I can be a little overprotective."

"A little?"

"All right, a lot sometimes. But the thing is, Sophia didn't understand. She wanted every minute of my time. And when she didn't get it, she decided to go on to more devoted pastures. But it's different with us. You actually like me better as a father."

"It does lend some maturity that would otherwise be sadly lacking. And I like Alexis."

"She likes you too, but not as much as her father does. Kate, when I saw you underwater … I don't think I've ever been so terrified as I was today. I can't imagine being without you."

Kate cups Rick's cheek. "Hey, thanks to you – and my gun – I'm right here, and I plan on staying. Now, let's see if the guys found anything in that building on the pier."