380. Chapter 380

After Probable Cause

Episode 5.05

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: It's not probable that I own Castle, 'cause I don't. Rating: K Time: See above and below.

Author's note: To be perfectly honest, this is not only after Probable Cause, it's after Disciple, and after Reckoning. I suppose I could have waited until Season Seven is out on DVD, but I didn't.

"Castle," Ryan griped, "we've been over this house a dozen times. We've been over Neiman's home and office, and the place where she kept Beckett as well. We've been over the place where Tyson lived as Michael Boudreau. We've been over and over these places. We've found nothing. Don't you and Beckett think it's time to quit?"

Castle shook his head. "No. Tyson used the two people that he had Neiman change into Lanie and Esposito to steal everything we had on him. And he stole everything on dozens of unsolveds that must have been his work. We're going to keep looking for that evidence until we find it."

"If Tyson had any brains, and he sure as hell did, he destroyed every bit of that evidence. It's long gone."

"No. Tyson was smart, but he was egotistical. He thought he'd never get caught. He'd have kept all of that evidence as trophies, to prove to himself how much smarter he was than anyone else. He'd been killing for years, Kevin. We need to find the evidence he stole on the other killings that weren't linked to 3XK to give those families closure. And to find any accomplices he used."

"What do you want us to do, dammit?" Ryan said disgustedly. "Strip the wallpaper off the walls in case there are secret messages on the back?"

Castle smiled. "Good idea. Pull off the wallpaper, tear up the floors, and ceilings, rip out the wall board, dig up the yard here and check everything else you can think of."

Ryan shook his head slowly. "Me and my big mouth." He looked at Castle, then turned to the uniforms who were doing most of the work. "You heard the man. Tear the place apart. Tear everything apart. And we're getting a ground penetrating radar from a college archeology department tomorrow. I want anything bigger than a matchbox dug up then."

Castle nodded. "I'll be back at the precinct."

Ryan nodded wearily.

Back at the precinct, Castle sat down next to his wife's desk. "Anything?"

"The FBI has been helping." Beckett said sarcastically.

"Really?"

That got a glare from Kate in return. "Well, sort of really. They got the police in Costa Rica to look at Neiman's clinic there. I gather that the local police weren't too thrilled about it. It seems that Doctor Kelly Neiman did a lot of charity work there, children born with cleft palates, people whose faces were damaged in accidents, and just general medical care, all for free. They think she's the next best thing to a saint. But, there's no evidence of stacks of NYPD evidence files anywhere in her clinic. But if they found a key with a tag marked, "Secret stuff, hands off,", I'm not sure they'd bother telling us."

"We could fly down there and take a look." Castle suggested.

"In a foreign country where we have no jurisdiction and our serial killer is a local hero? I wouldn't bother."

"Any other help from the FBI?"

Kate lifted up a stack of printed out e-mails. "Their bright idea of asking every police force in the US and Canada to tell us if there were any mysterious, unexplained disappearances of criminal records concerning murders was a big help." Kate picked up one piece of paper. "Here's a police force in Montana that lost some data when a hungry bear broke into a patrol car and destroyed a laptop with some cop's files on it. A bear?"

"Neiman was a really good plastic surgeon." Castle said as seriously as he could manage.

"Castle…" Kate began her glare, but it soon turned into a giggle. "A bear? I think you'd have to do the interrogation on that one."

"Of course, my dear Detective. My years of playing with Alexis and her teddy bears have made me fluent in teddy bear. I'm sure I could break our felonious bear and get him to confess."

"I'm sure you could." Kate giggled again, then picked up another e-mail. "Here's one from Gary, Indiana. Some kind of computer glitch caused a lot of their files to become so corrupted they weren't able to reconstruct them."

"Tyson was good with computers. He proved that when he tried to fame me."

"But he was in prison when this happened. Tyson was good but there's no evidence that Neiman was. Anyway, they're looking into it again."

"Here's one." Castle said, waving an e-mail. "A theft from a police records storage area in Sarasota, Florida. Carl Matthews, the other serial killer that worked with Tyson and Neiman, started killing in Florida. You should call them."

A long phone call later, Kate put down the phone. "All they'll do is send us copies of their original report on the records theft. The case files that were stolen were all for cases that have long been solved. Apparently security at the storage site was minimal because of that. They aren't much interested in reopening the case for us."

Several e-mails later, Kate suddenly sat up. "Here's one. It's from New Orleans. An Assistant District Attorney took out a whole bunch of files on unsolved murder cases, but when asked to return them, he said he'd never taken them out. And here's where it gets interesting. The ADA's name is Michael Boudreau. That can't be a coincidence." Kate reached for the phone.

A week later, Kate slammed down the phone after her most recent call to New Orleans. "We can't prove either Tyson or Neiman were in New Orleans, no body looking exactly like ADA Boudreau ever turned up, and Boudreau himself was with a couple of dozen cops when the theft occurred. We've got nothing."

Castle checked his watch. "I think it's time we went home."

Kate shook her head. "No. There are just a few more things I need to do. You go home, I'll be there…"

"In many long hours and you won't have had a decent meal and you'll be so tired that when you get up tomorrow, you'll still be groggy." Castle put his hands under her arms and gently lifted her up. "Come home with me, Kate."

Kate stood up and went with him.

Kate woke up in the middle of the night to find she was alone in bed. She got up and found Castle in his office, on his laptop. "Writing?"

He shook his head. "I was thinking that the way to find Tyson's secret stash of records was to get inside his head, just like he got into mine. And I had an idea."

Two days later, the idea bore fruit. Castle walked into the precinct and announced, "I know where Tyson kept all the files he stole. They're in Pennsylvania. I have the address."

The next day an angry attorney brought her car to a screeching halt outside a farm in central Pennsylvania. She leapt out of her car and headed for the senior Pennsylvania State Policeman. "I demand that you cease this illegal search this instant, put every damned thing back and release my client."

"Can't do that." Said the police captain.

"Do you have a search warrant?" The lawyer demanded.

"Don't need one. We have the owner's permission."

"They do not!" Cried a middle aged woman with dirty blonde hair who was sitting in the back of a cruiser, handcuffed. "I told them to get off my property."

"I demand that…"

"I'm the owner of the property." Castle said, coming over to the captain. "My name is Richard Castle of New York, New York. According to the county records, this farm is owned by the Rook Corporation. And, the State of Delaware says that the sole owner of the Rook Corporation is Richard Castle, in other words, me. Ms. Richmond over there is not the owner, she's the manager of the farm. Or she was until I fired her."

"We've checked. He's the legal owner. We have every right to be here with his permission. And we've found stolen police records from several jurisdictions, and evidence linking Richmond to several murders."

The lawyer nodded. "In that case, I'll be on my way." She turned but Richmond screamed at her. "You bitch! I'm not going down alone on this. She was in this with us. I'll testify against her. Arrest her."

That night, in a local motel, Rick and Kate snuggled together in their bed. "So Tyson used your identity to set up a corporation and buy that farm?"

Rick smiled. "He always did go in for overly complex plans, just to show how smart he was. I bet he got a good laugh out of using my identity to set up the corporation and buy the farm. Once I got the idea, I searched for property owned by me or you and got lucky when I found a corporation I knew nothing about. After that, it was easy."

"You are so very, very good. There's just one thing."

Rick looked at her. '"What?"

"One of his accomplices got away."

Castle sat straight up in bed. "Who? How did I…?"

"The bear, silly."

And, on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, a felonious bear, his stomach filled with stolen food, slept peacefully. And he was never, ever caught.