53. Chapter 53

Chapter 53

When Beckett left her desk at the precinct to get coffee, Gates followed her in and made herself a cup as well.

"Where do we stand on the Murphy case, Detective?" Gates asked as she pointed toward the hallway.

"We're at a dead end unless the lab finds something we don't expect. We should have those results tomorrow morning."

As they walked, Gates stopped in the open part of the hall near the stairs where they weren't near anything.

"'Accidentally' meet me at the coffee shop on the corner tomorrow morning at 7:00?" she asked.

Beckett nodded and answered, "We will."

Then Gates lifted her coffee cup in parting and said, "Keep me apprised."

"Yes, Sir." Castle was about to ask something when Beckett returned, but she headed him off with, "Lunch at Remy's?" as she handed him his coffee for a change.

"Sure. Half an hour sound good?"

"That works." He stood looking at the murder board for a little while, something vaguely like a lead niggling at the back of his mind; but when he gave up on identifying it right then, he sat back down in his chair. Getting out his phone, he said, "I need something to do. Where did you go to junior high?" he asked quietly…and mischievously.

"Nuh-uh. Not a chance, Babe. Just play Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja or something. I won't be that long."

"I could find out from your dad, you kn… Wait! Did you just call me Babe?" He was still keeping it quiet, but he looked as excited at that thought as he did about finding yearbook pictures of Katie Beckett in junior high.

Wearing her deer caught in the headlights look, she stopped what she was doing on the computer and answered, "Maybe?"

"You totally did. We're going to explore that later."

She released a resigned sigh and went back to work.

Esposito eased over to Castle's chair a little later and said, "You told us to tell you what we thought of that new thing you brought at breakfast yesterday. If you want to have more of that for game day, we're good with that. Just saying."

"I'll stock some, then."

"Saturday afternoon about two sound good?"

Castle looked at Beckett and asked, "Does that work for you?"

"Saturday's fine," she answered as she worked.

"Then it's a plan, he said to Esposito."

"I'll tell Ryan when he gets back."

"Finished," Beckett said, hitting print before shutting down her computer. "We're going to lunch…Remy's. You and Ryan go when he gets back. Just let the captain know where all of us will be. If a body drops, tell Sarge we'll take it. You can meet us there when you're done," she said as she picked up her printed copies. She stored them in her desk and got her purse from the bottom drawer.

Castle was already standing, ready to go.

It was a little earlier than they usually had lunch, and their favorite booth in the back corner away from the window was available. They placed their order, and no sooner than the waitress had left, Castle gave Beckett a smug smile and said, "You called me Babe, Beckett."

"You call me Sweetheart and Love…"

"But I've never heard you call anybody but Alexis a pet name. This is a landmark."

"They just don't come naturally to me, but I'm used to you using them now and then. I call you 'Writer-Man' sometimes."

"Not the same, and usually teasing. And Lanie calls me that, too…now that you've retrained her from Writer-Boy."

"You're right. Not the same. It means that much to you? The way I say your name when…" She stopped and looked around them, appearing relieved that no one was too close to them yet.

"I know when you mean," he answered, the smug smile back in place, "And yes, I love that; but a couple of names just for us…spontaneous like a little while ago…" His voice trailed away and he shrugged. "It felt good. That's all."

"You're right. Hearing the little spontaneous names does feel good," she admitted, taking his hand in hers across the table. "I'll remember that, but I shouldn't forget myself that way at the precinct again."

"Agreed."

Changing the subject completely, she said, "We need to be at the coffee shop on the corner near the precinct tomorrow at seven."

"In the morning?" he asked, and she nodded. "Any particular reason?"

"Gates asked us to 'accidentally' meet her there," she answered with a smile.

He smiled back. "Then I guess we'll be there at seven."

A group of four sat down in the booth next to theirs, so they steered their conversation away from sensitive subjects of any kind. When they had finished their meal, Beckett went to the restroom while Castle stayed and took care of the check. When she returned, she leaned close to his ear and said softly, "Ready to go, Stud?"

Castle laughed loud enough in surprise that a couple of people turned to look, so he toned it down to a chuckle. Beckett had the smug smile then. He put an arm around her waist as they left, saying softly, "Yeah, I could get used to that one."

"I figured you'd like that," she answered, elbowing his ribs.

They walked to about a block from the precinct with her arm around his waist and his arm around her shoulder. At the corner, they separated and entered the front doors looking absolutely professional.

xxxxx

They arrived at the coffee shop the next morning a few minutes before seven and Castle put in his usual order for coffee for two.

"Is this who you take the coffee to, Mr. Castle?" the barista asked.

"Yes, it is. This is my wife, Kate, Alton."

"Nice to finally meet you, Mrs. Castle."

"Detective Beckett," Abigail, the barista just coming on duty called. "Does Alton already have your order?"

"Yes, but this is Mrs. Castle," Alton corrected as he passed the cup to another barista to take care of the order.

When Abigail started to say something, Kate answered, "You're both right. I'm Detective Beckett at work still, but I am Mrs. Castle."

"Good. I thought maybe I'd had your name wrong all these years."

"No. You're both doing your job well."

Castle made a show of looking at his watch. "Well, look at that. It's only two minutes to seven, and we've already managed to confuse two baristas. Our job here is done." He paid for the order and left a tip, saying, "A little extra for the confusion."

"Why don't you go claim that table back in the corner? I'll wait for our coffee."

He saw the captain enter the door then and waited until he had his order before saying, "Good morning, Captain. If you'd like to join us, we're at the table in the in the back…that is if you aren't overly anxious to get to work right away."

"I might do that, Mr. Castle, but I won't intrude too long. Duty calls."

When the captain joined them, they exchanged greetings, and made their conversation look like an average pre-work exchange. But the captain sat with her back to the rest of the customers and got right down to business. "There are two IA detectives we'll be working with. You've met Detective Jackson. The two of us have been friends for a good while, so it won't seem odd that Lin and I would get together now and then. There's also a man, Gene, Detective Eugene Bowers. He's someone else we both trust completely; and he's someone Lin works with frequently, so it won't seem odd for them to connect over work. "I'll communicate with Lin. She'll communicate with Bowers, and Bowers will communicate with the FBI. You won't communicate directly with either of them. That might keep us out of the woods."

"Thank you for all this, Captain," Kate said. "I hate putting you in this position."

"And I hate being in this position; but I hate the idea of that man literally getting away with murder, and heaven knows what else, a lot worse. I consider it part of the job."

"That's generous of you." Castle told her.

She took a small piece of notepaper from her jacket pocket and slid it inconspicuously across the table. Three agents all of us have worked with before and all agree can be trusted," she explained. "I believe you've worked with one of them."

After scanning the list quickly, Beckett took a sip of her coffee and put it down. "Jordan," she answered. "I think I'd trust her with anything."

"Remember when she came to visit after you were home from the hospital?" Castle asked. "She said something about possibly having a line on your shooter. I think she said there was a tenuous connection to another case her team was keeping low key, something about a connection to the same man? She couldn't tell us anything that could affect the other case, though. You don't suppose…"

"I'll see that Bowers knows who to contact, then. Does the rest of your team know about all of this?"

"Most of it. We're filling them in on the rest tomorrow. They know us too well not to eventually know something is going on."

"What about your family?"

"They'll be told what we feel we need to tell them. They do know about the deal and the original contact with Smith," Beckett answered.

"They're all strong, sensible people, Captain, Kate's father, my mother, my daughter. And family is important to all of them. My mother may come across as an airhead sometimes, but it's as much a publicity thing as most of my playboy reputation. There's a wisdom and strength in her that all of us can depend on when we need it. She's an actress. Kate's father is a lawyer. They can both present a poker face with the best of them."

Gates nodded, still looking skeptical. "Shifts will be changing soon, and this place will be seeing the first wave of one coming and the other going before long. I should go before my reputation as Iron Gates starts fading."

"Are you ashamed to be seen with us?" Castle teased, taking his chances.

"Gates levelled a look at him and said, "It depends entirely on when someone asks me that question, Mr. Castle."

"We'll be there soon," Beckett answered with a little smile.

Gates looked back at her best detective as she waited to pick up a second cup of coffee to take to work with her. Beckett was again leaning close to her husband, her hand over his, and he nuzzled her hair and left a little kiss there. They were sitting close, his arm around her shoulders, and talking softly, taking a sip of coffee now and then; and she smiled as she picked up her caffeine fix and left for work.

Once at work, the day went quickly. A new crime scene was called in. A drive-by shooting this time, and it was only a couple of blocks from the precinct. For a change, there were about half a dozen thoroughly distraught witnesses willing to talk, some of them at the same time…probably because they were tourists who were planning to go back to Georgia the next day. One of them even got the license plate number and a picture of the back of the car. Half the team's work was done for them before they had even left the crime scene.

Beckett's team took the entire middle-aged group back to the precinct, divided and took statements from each witness separately. They went through all the appropriate steps, apologizing for interfering with their trip. One of them had recognized Castle, and two others had read several of his books, and the others were fans of murder mysteries on TV. Now that they had calmed down somewhat from the initial shock of the situation they found themselves in, one of the women asked sweetly if they could have a quick tour of the precinct as a reward for giving up their last afternoon in New York. Everyone laughed and accommodated them. Before the tour was over, the car involved in the shooting had been located and the young men in it were being brought in. Surveillance camera footage backed up the witnesses.

The team thanked the group as they were leaving, again apologizing for the inconvenience.

One of the men said, "Well, we couldn't let them get away with killing that poor woman. We did what we needed to do."

"And we appreciate the tour," the woman who had asked for it added. "I'm sorry about the circumstances, but it was a pleasure to meet all of you, especially you, Mr. Castle. I've been a fan for years."

"Always glad to meet a fan," he answered gallantly just before they all went back to their hotels.

After talking to the suspects and facing them with the evidence against them, they discovered that the young woman who was shot had just started dating the ex-boyfriend of a gang member's sister. The gang member took offense at someone leaving his sister and finding another woman, so he shot the woman.

"That kind of thinking always rattles my mind. Why wouldn't he just shoot the man who left her?" Castle asked as they were putting their notes together to do the paperwork.

"We asked him that," Ryan reported. "He said his sister still loved the guy and wanted him back. He actually seemed to think the ex-boyfriend would want his sister again because they shot the new girlfriend and she wasn't in the picture anymore."

"The ex-boyfriend should be looking for a new life somewhere far, far away." Ryan stated. "You still have to notify the victim's parents, don't you?"

"My least favorite part of the job. Everything moved so fast today that we didn't get that far yet."

"Rotten way to end the week," Esposito sympathized. "Why don't the two of you go ahead and take care of that. We'll take care of the reports this time."

"Thanks, Guys."

"No problem. See you tomorrow," Ryan answered.

xxxxx

When the boys arrived on Saturday afternoon, Ryan said, "I'm still leaving Jenny out of this for now. I hate all this hiding and sneaking around, but I can see why now."

"Look, Ryan, if you want to back out, we completely understand, Castle told him. "You just got married. We're stuck with this. You aren't."

"No. That isn't what I meant. I'm in. I don't want Bracken to get away with this, either. It's just so much bigger than we thought. I worry about not telling Jenny. I have to tell her something before long, but I don't want her to know all of it. I have to figure out what to do, but I thought I'd find out if you have any more surprises before I decide. And I don't like the idea of having those stick drives in my apartment."

"Shouldn't Lanie be here for this, too?" Esposito interrupted. Looking at Kate, he said, "You know there'll be hell to pay for both of us if she finds out we hid it from her. I don't want to drag her into it any more than you do, but she's part of the team, too."

"Aren't enough of us in the line of fire already?" Beckett asked.

"She knows a lot of this anyway. The biggest difference is that now we have a name."

"I feel like we're putting everybody we love in danger, and it's because of me." She was pacing the living room looking angry.

"It isn't because of you. It's because of Bracken," Esposito answered, sounding just as angry. "I'd love to be the one to take him down."

"Me, too," she answered.

"With any luck, we'll be able to back away from it for a while before long," Castle offered.

Ryan immediately wanted to know, "What happens before long?"

"The cavalry arrives and takes over the parts we can't handle."

"Call Lanie," Esposito insisted.

With a defeated sigh, Beckett went into the study to call her friend, and Castle pulled some snacks out for the boys. With what we're dealing with here, there better be beer to go with this stuff," Esposito grouched.

Castle just pointed to the fridge and said, "Help yourselves. I got everybody's favorites.

"Lanie will be here in twenty minutes." Beckett told them as she returned. "Why don't you sit down and relax a little before she gets here? No need to do this more than once."

"Makes sense. You need a new game, though, Dude," Ryan complained. "I don't think I like this one."

"Me, either," Castle agreed.

Once Lanie arrived, they all went into the study and closed the door. Beckett plunked a beer down in front of her friend and told her, "You might want that in the next few minutes.

"What has got you so wired, Girl?"

"The name I've been looking for since 1999."

"You know who it is?"

"Yeah. Senator William Bracken."

Lanie was speechless for a long moment. "You're sure?"

"You know those files Roy had…the ones he was using to make the deal to protect his family and then me? We have them. It's there. There are a couple of other things we didn't know, too."

"Like what?"

"Like affidavits from all three cops, and letters to each of them agreeing to immunity in return for their testimony against Bracken. Those guys were realizing they were in over their heads, and they were looking for a way out. Looks like Bracken was stuck with an honest ADA."

"So why didn't that happen?"

"Because the ADA was murdered while he was visiting his family in Rochester…two days after the date on the affidavits. We assume that was when Roy took charge of the files and made his long term arrangement with Bracken."

"And let me guess. The ADA? He was stabbed?"

"And if the wounds were the same, it wouldn't have shown up in Dr. Murray's search because he only looked at the records from New York City. But there's no way we can ask to see the autopsy from Rochester without giving ourselves away."

"It would be so easy for me to go and ask, but they'd trace it right back to you." Lanie released a long slow exhale. "And he's still killing people. How many do you think?"

"If we count the people the assassins killed to cover their tracks, we're sure of twelve, probably thirteen, and the attempt on Kate," Castle reported.

There were varying sounds of disgust from the others.

"The next biggest thing all of you need to know right now is that we went to Gates. She has two friends in IA who are working with her to contact Jordan Shaw. Castle and I trust Gates to make good decisions, and we trust Jordan to keep all of this under wraps," Kate told them.

Castle explained the arrangements that had been made so far and the connections they had discovered between Bracken and Vulcan Simmons. He also mentioned what Jordan had told them the year before.

"You think they're looking into Bracken, or just into something else Maddox was involved in?" Lanie asked.

"I don't know," Beckett answered. "I hate the waiting to find out how they're going to work this out."

"Right," Lanie observed with her own brand of sass. "Patience being your finest virtue and all."

Beckett stuck her tongue out at her.

"Oh, and maturity goes right after patience. You've been spending too much time around Writer-Man."

"Hey, what did I do?" Castle asked. "I thought I'd behaved pretty well this afternoon."

"Sorry. Had to break the tension if I'm going to cope," Lanie answered.

Esposito put an arm around her shoulders. "Heavy stuff, huh?"

Ryan is right about those stick drives," Castle agreed. "You probably should get rid of them. Smash them with a hammer or something first. The other thing we haven't told you is that, after Jordan has the files and an updated copy of the murder board, Kate is going to call Bracken and reinstate the deal, but Jordan will know about it."

"Are you losing your minds? She's going to flat out tell him she has the files?" Esposito exclaimed.

"Kate?!" Lanie sounded horrified. "He'll have a sniper on the roof across from your windows within hours."

"We'll have safeguards in place before she calls him," Castle assured her. "The script is already written so she doesn't forget any of our demands."

"We're working with crazy people," Ryan grumbled, shaking his head.

"We're dealing with people in IA now. Technically, the first deal was only Roy and Bracken. Kate didn't know about it. She didn't know about Smith, either, until he called when she was still too weak after the shooting not to go along with it. What Kate is about to do now could be seen as blackmail. If Jordan knows about it ahead of time, it can be seen as part of the investigation…buying time and keeping all the players alive. Kate's willing to lose her badge to take Bracken down, but if we can avoid that, we will."

They sat in silence for a few moments, contemplating what they were doing, and Ryan finally broke the silence.

"I gotta admit, though, that murder board presentation was a great way to look at things. Laid out so it was easy to follow. As much of it as there is, that had to be a lot of work."

"That was all Castle," Beckett answered. "We both worked on getting everything entered and on how it all fit together, but he created the format and connected it all."

"It's how I've been putting my books together since I started the Nikki Heat series. Kate was impressed, too. We established last night that my mind turns her on," Castle stated with a playful grin.

"Castle! That is not what I said," she reprimanded, swatting his arm, and he reacted dramatically then wrapped his arm around her shoulders and kissed her head.

Simultaneously Castle was unapologetically saying, "I like my version better."; Ryan was chanting, "La, la, la, la, la…" with his fingers in his ears; Esposito was declaring, "Did not want to hear that, Bro'."; and Lanie was saying with a big smile, "Oooo, I'm all ears. What else do you want to tell us?"

Beckett rolled her eyes. "Children. I'm dealing with a room full of children."

"Says the grown woman who stuck her tongue out at me." Lanie shot back jokingly, and Kate stuck her tongue out again.

"Did we cover everything we needed to?" Esposito asked.

"I think so," Castle answered. "For the moment."

"Then can we get another beer and actually play a game so Honeymilk here doesn't have to lie to his wife? And I need to shoot something. I'm guessing you'd rather have me do that on a screen than at a wall?"

"Sure. Come on." Castle led them back to the living room, and Beckett sat down next to Lanie on the sofa in the study.

"You weren't going to tell me, were you?" Lanie asked, serious again.

"I'm scared, Lanie. I didn't want to. There are already so many people in danger because of me. But our safeguards, the new deal we'll demand…it includes all of you."

"I'm glad you're scared, 'cause you need to be," Lanie answered. "Honey, I appreciate that you want to be my hero; but you're the best friend I've ever had, and I can provide information that can help you. Don't you ever think about leaving me out again, understand? I'm glad you came to your senses. There's more that I haven't seen yet, isn't there?"

"Be right back. I might as well get you caught up. After they've blown off a little steam out there, maybe the three of you can help us add to our lists of questions and comments."

Beckett got the computer they had used to put the whole board together, and she took Lanie through everything she didn't already know.