Papa Jack Chapter 83
"We got the prints back from the form at the UPS store," Ryan announces when Kate returns to the bullpen in the morning. "No match, but the HVAC guy had a scar on his thumb. Lanie thinks it might have been from a burn."
Kate glances at Richard, who drops into his customary chair next to her desk. "I guess that's something, but it doesn't help us much right now."
"It could be more important than it sounds," Richard speculates. "Ooh! I saw the hot chocolate truck downstairs when I came in. Does anyone want some? Give our brains a sweet jumpstart?"
"Sure, Castle," Kate agrees.
"I'm in," Esposito and Ryan chime almost simultaneously.
Richard starts for the elevator. "I shall return."
As soon as he's out of the building, Richard grabs his cell phone from his pocket. "Dad, would anyone associated with Anatoly have a scar on his thumb?"
"I don't know about an associate, Richard," Jack replies after musing for a second, "but Anatoly is known to have one resulting from a fire he set years ago at a political gathering."
"Then the man who was supposedly cleaning the HVAC ducts could have been Anatoly?" Richard questions.
"It would make sense," Jack allows. "It would be an efficient method to plan for the placement of bombs."
"Then who is Fisk?" Richard wonders.
"If he went through the process of getting hired by Loftview, he must have had a history, or at least a well-crafted cover," Jack figures. "The company has been aware of several sleeper families planted on the coasts during the Soviet era. They were thought to have been abandoned when the USSR broke apart. But Fisk could have been part of one of them. If he's been here since childhood, he would speak unaccented English and have a solid work history, including training and experience in maintenance. He could use that background to gain unquestioned access to any facility the Russians wanted to bug or sabotage. Necras is most likely a sleeper, too. They could even be from the same family. Tying up with them would give Anatoly the opportunity to go after any of a host of prominent people or destroy a building and everyone in it. My best intelligence is that he's chosen the latter – during your fundraiser. But he and possibly his partner will need to return before the event to plant the bombs as planned. That's when I'll get him."
"You'll get him? Just you, Dad?" Richard questions. "I remember what you did when I was kidnapped, but that was years ago before you hooked back up with the agency. Can't you bring some backup?"
"Seeing as we'll be intervening in terrorist activity by a foreign national, I can. But," Jack continues, "The last thing I need is the FBI or Homeland Security coming in with a fleet of black SUVs and lantern-jawed guys in regulation suits to stomp all over my operation. If even a whisper of Russian involvement hits the media, it will spark a whole new level of anger and distrust, which, in this case, at least, will be undeserved. So, the entire matter will have to stay totally under the radar."
"What about Persky's murder?" Richard demands. "Kate – Detective Beckett – will never let that go unsolved."
"She and the other detectives should keep on it. I would suggest checking out the sources of darts like the one that killed him. That will be in everyone's interests."
"How did you know about the…? Never mind. CIA. How about the sources of abrin?" Richard queries.
"She might find those related to the darts. One wouldn't work without the other. But a diligent search will take time, time that I need to make sure Anatoly's plan fails."
Richard returns to the bullpen with a cardboard carrier holding four cups of whipped-cream-topped hot chocolate and four giant chocolate chip cookies. "Time for sugar shock," the writer proclaims to the three detectives awaiting his return. He heads toward the break room to unload his bounty.
"I was thinking," Richard says as the group gathers around a table, "we should look into the sources of the dart that the killer used to deliver the abrin."
"How do you know it was a dart, Castle?" Esposito demands. "Didn't Lanie's report say it could have been a large gauge needle?"
"Think about it," Richard proposes. "The vic would have seen a needle coming. A dart could have taken him unawares. Her report didn't show any signs of a struggle, no defensive wounds. If someone came at you with a big needle, wouldn't you put up a fight?"
"Castle has a point. If someone came at me with even a small needle, I'd do my best to stop them," Ryan confides.
"OK," Kate interjects. "So darts. Where would the killer get darts?"
"Zoos use dart guns for tranquilizing animals," Ryan offers.
"Some hunters use them," Esposito adds. "In special ops, when we needed to take the enemy down silently, we used darts in blowguns. Even if there was anyone else in Loftview, they wouldn't have heard anything. And someone in the building could have heard a shot. With a blowgun, there would be nothing to hear."
"So we might be looking at darts and a blow gun. Where would someone get those?" Kate asks.
"A lot of places," Esposito replies. "Specialty outdoor and survival stores. The killer could buy them online, too, like even from Amazon."
"We'll have to check all of those out," Kate says.
"How about extraction equipment for the abrin?" Richard asks. "Someone buying online could order both."
Kate's lengthening hair brushes her face as she nods. "Right. We'll have to check for that, too."
"Sounds like our fingers are going to be very busy for a while," Richard comments.
"You're not a cop, Castle. You can quit and go home any time you want," Esposito declares.
"I set us on the scent," Richard replies. "I'm not about to abandon the trail now."
"Fine," Kate responds. "Let's get to work."
"Castle," Kate whispers as they return to her desk, "you didn't, by any chance, talk to your secret source while you were out, did you?"
"My source and I have conversed," Richard admits, trying to remain as truthful as he can. "John Doe is Russian, but more or less a Russian good guy. Most likely, he was on the trail of some Russian bad guy plot and was killed for his trouble."
"So there's a Russian bad guy out there?" Kate probes.
"Probably from the same merry band that tried to bomb Madison Square Garden. And the Russians want him too."
"Castle, is your source trustworthy? Is he sure about his information? This whole thing is beginning to sound like one of your books."
"I'd trust him with my life, Beckett. And he's as sure as anyone can be about intelligence. On the upside, some of this might work in one of my books. But I'd have to figure out how Nikki Heat would handle it. Any ideas?"
"Castle, if I have any, you'll be the first to hear them."
Richard offers a lopsided grin. "Good to know."
"So," Kate asks, "you want to start on darts or extraction equipment?"
"I'll take extraction equipment. Esposito is really into the darts. I could see it in his eyes. And where Esposito goes…."
A smile flirts with Kate's lips. "Ryan follows."