886. Chapter 886

After In the Belly of the Beast

Episode 6.17

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I'm forming an exploratory committee to explore why I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above.

Rick and Kate walked in to the crime scene. It was an abandoned garage that looked like it had hosted some drug users or homeless people. "What do we have, Lanie?"

The ME looked up from the puddle of blood she was squatting by. "No body, that's for sure. But, assuming that this blood is all from the same person, we do have a murder. No one could lose this amount of blood and survive."

She turned to Ryan and Esposito. "Canvas the local population and see if anyone heard or saw anything. And get CSU out here to scrub the place." The two detectives nodded and left.

"Lanie, can you do anything about a time of death?"

She nodded slowly. "Based on the amount of clotting, I'm going to say that the murder took place in the last three or four hours. We got a 911 call from a worker at a local soup kitchen. The call came in at just after six AM." Lanie checked her watch "So, between three and six? I could be wrong, though. I can probably do better when I get this back to the morgue."

Marshall Cummings was an older African American who had beaten a twenty year long heroin addiction almost twenty years before and had made it his business to try to give back to the community.

"I'm sorry, Detective, I didn't see a thing. I cut through the garage on my way to work every day. When I first saw it, I thought maybe it was oil, or grease, but then I smelled it. I knew it was blood. So, I called 911."

Kate nodded and smiled. "Have you seen anyone around here out of the ordinary?"

Cummings shook his head. "You should talk to the Old Bills. Three old homeless guys all called Bill. They've been squatting here for maybe four, five months."

The Old Bills weren't interested in talking to the cops until Castle suggested that he'd be more than happy to contribute some money to their retirement accounts. A hundred dollars later, they talked.

"We're been here for five months. It's a short walk to the park." The Bill who was talking smiled. "People are happy to pay us to go away. And the soup kitchen is right around the corner."

"Did you see anyone out of the ordinary lately?" Kate asked, gently.

All three Bills nodded. "Yesterday after noon three very big bikers came in and told us this was their new clubhouse and if we didn't leave….Well, we thought we should leave."

"Can you describe them?"

Bill shrugged. "Big, hairy bikers."

"Did you see them again?"

"No, but we heard bikes late last night. Woke us up."

"When last night?"

All three shrugged. "Late. It was dark."

A check of traffic cams in the area showed three bikers leaving the area. Their license plates had been covered and they wore nothing that showed what club they belonged to. No one else in the area seemed to remember them.

The next day, Kate got a message from Lanie. "Castle, Lanie has something for us."

Once in the morgue, instead of a body, she had a container of dried blood on the steel autopsy table.

"Kate, the blood is all from one person. And I found a DNA match. Our victim is Elena Markov."

"You're sure?"

Lanie nodded. "Immigration took her fingerprints and DNA when she emigrated from Russia. It's her all right. And based on what we know of her height and weight, there's no way she could have survived losing this much blood."

Kate nodded. "So, Bracken tied up another loose end." She thought for a moment. "We'll contact Immigration and see what records they have on her and we'll find her ex-husband. He may know something about her."

Later, Rick and Kate finished looking over the documents Immigration and Naturalization had sent over.

"This was the most boring Russian ever." Castle said. "Born in what is now St. Petersburg, to a trolley conductor and a secretary for a ballet company. Good but not great grades at school. Went to a technical institute to become a commercial artist. Worked for a PR firm and then left Russia for the US. I'm guessing she was really some kind of killer for the Russians. Either the military or the secret police. She didn't get that good at killing people in the US. She didn't have the time."

Kate nodded. "And I'm sure he Russians will tell us all about it when you ask your Russian guy."

"My Russian guy?" Castle asked, frowning.

"Don't you have a guy for every occasion? I thought you'd just call Moscow and Ivan or someone would send Elena's real records to us."

Castle sighed. "It pains me to say this, Beckett, but I do not have a Russian guy. However, I'll get one as soon as I can."

Espo came over to Beckett's desk. "Mike Thornton, Elena's ex is here. You want to talk to him now?"

Thornton was overweight, balding and needed a shave and a personality.

"Elena? Some kind of hit woman? Be serious. The mousy little thing wouldn't hurt a fly. And what did the bitch do? She dumped me! After all I did for her! "

The interview lasted for half an hour and all they got was Thornton's insistence that he was the best thing that ever happened to Elena and the bitch stabbed him in the back. Figuratively, of course.

After that, the leads dried up and the case was relegated to the cold case files.

A month later, Kate got a call at the loft.

"Beckett." She answered. "The crime scene is where?" She nodded. "We'll be there in minutes." She turned to Rick who had been making coffee. "We have a body drop. In the alley behind the loft."

Lanie and two uniforms were there when Rick and Kate arrived.

"COD appears to be a single GSW to the head. Shot execution style in the back of the head. He's a John Doe. No ID of any sort. We'll get his prints and see what we can find."

"I know who he is." Kate said. "He's Mr. Jones. One of the men who helped Vulcan Simmons torture me. He works for Simmons."

That was all they ever knew about Mr. Jones. Neither his prints nor his picture were in any database and what they did find about his identity was false.

"We found his car about a block away." Ryan said. "That gave us a name and address. And that's it. Everything we could find out about him is bogus. As far as we can tell, he didn't exist until three years ago."

"Keep digging." Kate said, although she was sure it would be no use.

"Beckett, call for you from the Five Nine." Espo said. "A Detective Browning, Homicide."

Kate picked up the phone and began writing as she spoke.

"The Five Nine would like our help. It seems someone shot up Vulcan Simmons' car an hour ago. Simmons took a round in his stomach and five of his men were killed." She looked at her fiancé. "Castle, road trip."

Browning briefed them at the Five Nine. "The shooter was a sniper. Used a heavy barrel Belgian FN automatic rifle with a scope. Shot from about eight hundred yards away. Good shooting. Anyway, the first shot went through one of Simmons' men and into Simmons. That's why he isn't more badly wounded. The round knocked him down behind his car and the sniper lost sight of him. He did drop five other men, but he was trying to hit Simmons, I'd guess."

"She." Kate said softly.

"Pardon?" Browning said. "She?"

Kate shook her head. "Sorry. I was thinking of another case."

Once outside, Castle called her on it. "She? What she, Beckett?"

"Elena Markov. Somehow she faked her own death so she could get Jones and Simmons to lower their guard. She must have figured out that Simmons would figure out that the real Lazarus had her save me by killing Harden. That would make her the kind of loose end that Bracken would want to get rid of to prove to Simmons that Elena went rogue."

"You think so?" Castle asked, unsure of what to think.

"Can you think of a better explanation?"

Just then her phone rang. "Beckett."

"Hello, Detective Beckett. Do you remember me?"

"Elena Markov." Suddenly the solution hit Kate. "You were taking a pint of blood from your body and storing it. When you got enough blood, you had three bikers chase the homeless men away and then you sloshed the blood around so everyone would think you were dead. I'm sure Jones and Simmons wanted you dead, as did Lazarus. So why call me?"

Elena laughed. "I knew you were smart, but I like to be sure. I wouldn't want you to waste any time on my murder when you could be doing other….more useful work."

"You're a murderer, Elena. You know I'll have to come after you."

Elena laughed again. "I'm afraid that after failing with Simmons I'll have to hide. I'm afraid Elena Markov will just disappear and someone else entirely different will take her place. And I'll be far, far away. Until things die down and I can resume my work."

"Elena, I can help you…" Kate realized she was talking to a dead phone. Elena had hung up.

"She's alive."

Castle looked at her. "Are you sure?"

"I just talked to her, Castle."

"Maybe, but I didn't hear her. Maybe it was a prank call. According to the NYPD, Elena Markov is dead. A murder victim. So you have proof she isn't?"

Kate glared at Castle and then the truth hit her. "You want her to get away. You want her to kill Simmons and Bracken."

Castle shook his head. "Me? I'm just looking at the facts as I have them, as my partner and fiancé has taught me."

She stared at him for a long couple of seconds. Then, "Do you want to order out tonight? Chinese?"