516. Chapter 516

After After the Storm

Episode 5.01

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: How many Castle's don't I own? Let me count the Castles. Rating: K Time: See above.

Kate Beckett's hand shook so badly that she almost dropped her weapon. Steadying her hand, she walked over to the first man. No doubt about it, he was dead. Her bullet had hit him squarely in the forehead.

She turned around and walked over to Bracken. He was bleeding out from a shot to his throat. His mouth was moving, but no words came out, only blood. She looked down at him and smiled. "Maybe the gun is the power." She said.

Bracken coughed once and was no more.

She raised her pistol when she heard the sound of people running towards her.

"Kate!" Castle yelled.

"Over here." She said quietly.

Castle ran to her and put his arms around her. "Are you okay?"

She nodded. "He's dead. He's dead." She whispered.

Castle looked down at the corpse at his feet. "What happened?"

Kate shuddered. "I was telling him that the deal he had with Smith was now the deal he had with me. Then he looked over my shoulder and smirked. I threw myself to the right, turned and fired. I killed the one over there." Kate stopped and thought about what had happened only moments ago." The other one must have shot Bracken. I only fired once."

Esposito grabbed Castle's arm. "We have to get her out of here, now!"

Castle shook the detective off and walked to the other corpse. "No, wait. He has a silenced pistol." He turned back to Kate. "You shot only once?" She nodded. "There's an expended shell casing over here. That means he shot Bracken. "Castle smiled. "She can't leave now. She's a hero. She killed Senator Bracken's assassin."

"Is that going to fly?" Ryan asked.

"It will if we get our story straight and get it out before anyone has a chance to question it."

….

The blonde news anchor smiled professionally at the camera. "Good evening. This Chris Evans for WHNY News. In national news, the FBI has announced that they, in fact, do have the fingerprints of the alleged assassin of New York Senator William Bracken. Initially, the Bureau had said that the assassin's fingerprints were not in their data base. However, when the Irish Police, the Garda, announced that they had sent the prints to the Bureau, a search was ordered. The assassin was well known to both the Irish and British police. He was James Callan, a former member of the Irish Republican Army, rumored to have become a freelance assassin after the Northern Ireland peace agreements. A spokesman for the Bureau said that the problem was a simple administrative mix up and stated that reports of malfeasance by the Bureau were completely unfounded."

Chris Evans smiled knowingly. "Turning to local news…."

…...

"Detective Beckett, are you ready to proceed?"

Kate Beckett nodded. "Yes, sir."

The man smiled at her. "It's unusual, I know, for a deputy police chief to chair a hearing on a shooting by a police officer, but this is a very prominent case. We want to get everything right. Would you tell this panel what happened in your own words?"

"I was shot by an unknown assassin about a year ago. Recently, on another murder case, we found DNA evidence matching that found at my shooting. That started me looking for the man we now know to be Cedric Marks. Then, Mr. Richard Castle advised me that he had been called anonymously by a man who said that Marks was looking for information about Senator Bracken."

"Excuse me." That was a police captain from One PP. "That was Mr. Michael Smith?"

"We now know that it was." Kate replied.

"Do you have any idea why he, Mr. Smith, that is, was so…circumspect?" The captain asked.

"We have no idea. And since Mr. Smith is dead, we'll likely never know."

"You have no idea at all?" The captain sounded disbelieving.

Kate's lawyer, paid for by Castle, spoke up. "If we wish to go into pure speculation, it's possible that Smith didn't want to cry wolf if this had no connection with Senator Bracken, after all. Smith was a prominent attorney and…"

The deputy chief stopped him. "We are not here for speculation." He glared at the captain who glared back.

"Why didn't you advise the senator of this?" The captain wasn't going to be intimidated, apparently.

"An anonymous tip that someone was gathering evidence on a politician? I'm sure the senator already knew his political enemies checked into his background."

"But the man, Marks, shot at you."

"To be clear, "Kate said, "I had no idea…."

The deputy chief interrupted. "You did find out that Marks was involved in a break in at the Montgomery residence. That, in fact, led you to Mr. Smith, did it not?"

Kate nodded. "Marks killed a man who stole some files from the Montgomery home. As the files were destroyed, we don't know what they contained. And by the time Detective Ryan found him, Mr. Smith had been tortured by Marks and he died later that night. He was unable to give any useful information."

"So we have no idea how all of these disparate strands are connected?"

Kate shook her head. "No, sir. And with so many principals now dead, we'll probably never know."

The deputy chief nodded. "You went looking for Marks with just Detective Esposito, is that correct? No other backup?"

Kate nodded and blushed slightly. "That was an error on my part. I was so determined to find the man who shot me, that I ignored proper police procedures. I have apologized for that and will willingly serve out my suspension."

"And you went to see Senator Bracken by yourself?" The captain asked.

"No, I had Detectives Ryan and Esposito with me and Mr. Castle. I just happened to find Senator Bracken first."

"May I ask why you didn't go through normal police channels to contact the Senator?" The captain asked.

"I assumed that with Marks dead, there was no immediate danger to the senator. And, I wanted to ask the Senator if there was any possible reason he knew of that the man who shot me would be interested in him."

"That seems irresponsible of you…" The captain began.

The deputy chief interrupted. "Let's remember that if Detective Beckett had taken the time to go through channels, not only would the Senator be dead, but his assassin would be long gone and not dead." He said, glaring at the captain again. He looked at the rest of the panel. "Any further questions for Detective Beckett?" There being none, Kate was thanked and left.

…

The deputy chief smiled at the next witness. "Good to see you again, Captain Gates. Your report was, as always, quite thorough. We just want to go over the issue of Detective Beckett's resignation. She did tell you that she resigned when you suspended her, am I correct?"

"Yes, sir. However, NYPD personnel policies are quite clear. An oral resignation must be followed by one in writing. I knew that Detective Beckett was emotionally distraught after almost being killed and assumed, correctly, that she would not submit a written resignation. She is the best homicide detective in my precinct and, I think, the best in the NYPD."

The deputy chief nodded. "A very accomplished detective."

The captain from One PP said nothing.

….

Castle slid his hand to the small of Kate's back as the police union representative talked to her. When he was done, they thanked him, and looking quickly around, Kate leaned briefly against Castle.

"It looks good, Kate. Everyone badly wants Detective Kate Beckett to be the hero in the death of Bracken."

"Castle, both Marks and Callan worked for Orantis Solutions, a private military company. And Bracken owned ten percent of the company. Someone is going to ask why Bracken's own company would send someone after him."

Castle laughed. "Orantis is bending over backwards to claim that they had nothing to do with what either Marks or Callan were doing. They've "proved" that those two haven't worked for them in years."

Castle kissed the top of her head. "We're going to be okay."

….

Janice Hayes was a brilliant attorney and a beautiful woman. She had no trouble in using both attributes to get what she wanted. She walked into Brannigan's, a bar not far from the Ledger and sat down next to a reporter she knew. "Hello, Tim."

Tim Leonard smiled at her. "Slumming, Janice?"

She laughed and called the waitress over. "Mr. Leonard will have your best single malt Scots whiskey and I'll have a glass of white wine."

"Trying to bribe me?"

She shook her head. "Just being polite." She got down to business. "You know we've been retained by Richard Castle to represent Detectives Beckett, Ryan and Esposito as well as Officer Hastings. And we know the FBI has been leaking information to you."

Leonard shrugged. "Maybe."

"So do you want to hear our side of the story?"

"Off the record?" Leonard asked.

"Off the record." When he nodded, she went on. "First, the FBI is making a big issue of the fact that Beckett and Esposito still had sidearms in spite of being suspended. Really? Do you know who enforces the Sullivan act, New York's gun control law? The police, that's who. And do you think any cop would ever refuse to give another cop a firearms license or a concealed carry permit? I'm sure every cop in New York has all the weapons he or she wants and all the concealed carry permits."

Leonard smiled at her. "I already figured that one out."

"Then you might want to put it in your story."

"Once I check that they do have those permits."

"Okay. Fair enough. Then there's the matter of Officer Hastings letting Beckett in to see Senator Bracken. Tim, you've been to enough crime scenes to know that cops don't go around checking each other's IDs. And you might want to look into why the FBI's so interested in deflecting attention away from themselves. Callan, who is wanted in the Republic of Ireland and in the UK, got into this country because the FBI never put his data into their database. Somebody screwed up, or worse. There's your story, Tim."

Tim Leonard nodded and began working on the FBI story in his head.

….

Kate Beckett snuggled in the hammock with her lover, happily listening to the roar of the surf and feeling the warm tropical air on her body. "I shouldn't have let you do this, you know."

"Let me do what?" Castle asked.

"Take me to Hawaii for my suspension. I don't like to be coddled and pampered. I can take care of myself."

"You do remember we go back the day after tomorrow, don't you?"

"I know. I'm just saying that the next time I get suspended, I'll take you to Hawaii."

"Deal." He kissed her.