108. Chapter 108

Chapter 108

As evidence was processed after the drug arrest of Wilson "Willy" Klein in New Jersey, it was fed to the FBI's kidnapping case, and the FBI command center at the fifty-first was a constant hum. They were assessing what was useful for their purposes and printing what looked like possibly useful information.

Not long after she and Castle were at work, a call came in from Celia, the wife of the victim whose case had been reassigned. Beckett was checking emails, ready to return to the conference room, and she absent-mindedly answered with her standard, clipped "Beckett."

"Lieutenant Beckett. It's Celia Martinez…Dom's wife. I need to talk to you. There's something I didn't mention before."

As Celia spoke, Beckett found something random to print and used walking to the print room to be far enough away to have the conversation where she wouldn't be heard. "What didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to say anything when Lydia was here. She's always been good to me, but she listens for anything she can pick up…knows all the gossip. I don't know much because Dom wouldn't name anybody, and he said the less I knew, the better. I'm about to be raising three kids on my own, and if it had anything to do with his murder, I don't want my kids to lose another parent because people think I know something." She sounded stressed.

"What did he tell you?"

"He said he suspected that a couple of their customers were using their storage units for something illegal. He said the kind of activity he was seeing wasn't normal. Too much coming and going at odd hours and a lot of exchanges of what was stored. Sometimes a small, new business might use a couple of units as warehouse space until they can get a building, but he knows what that looks like. He said the people he was talking about didn't need to be doing that. That's all I know. I don't know if there's any connection or not, but I thought I should tell you."

"I'm glad you did, but I need you to know that the case was reassigned to Detective Egan. I shouldn't even be talking to you about this, but…"

"No." She sounded even more upset. "I've heard Detective Egan mentioned, and it generally hasn't been good. A lot of the older neighbors around here grew up together, Detective Egan included; and he has a reputation for being lazy about his job. There are people who don't trust him, and I don't want to have to talk to him. Can't I ask to have you back on Dom's case?"

"I'm doing what I can, but I have to do it carefully. I can't make any promises, and I doubt it would make a difference for you to call with a request. But please know that I won't ignore it."

"Thank you. Will you let me know if things change?"

"I will. And thank you for calling. I'll do my best." Egan was eying her as she walked back to her desk, and she made a small show of looking at the page she brought back, putting it with the papers related to the FBI case.

Castle was in the conference room looking at printouts of evidence in the drug case. "Do we have any information about who Klein was supplying?" he asked.

"This is coming from DEA. I spoke to the New Jersey office there early this morning, and we should have the majority of what they have, including the information from their undercover operative, by this afternoon. Lucky for us, the director there has no patience at all with using children to retaliate for their parents' crimes."

Beckett entered the conference room visibly upset and closed the door behind her.

"What is it?" Castle asked

"Celia just called, the wife of the victim in my hijacked case. She said her husband thought there was something illegal going on with a couple of people who had storage units, but he wouldn't give her names. He wanted to keep her out of it. It could have something to do with the murder, and I had to tell her I'd been taken off the case. She wasn't happy to hear Egan's name. Apparently he's from around here, and has a reputation for being lazy about his job. She said some people don't trust him; and since I'm one of them, what do I do now? I want to give Celia some closure, but if I tell Egan what she said, he may use it to help the people Dom was worried about. If I don't tell Egan, I'm withholding evidence. They've backed me into a no win corner."

"He should have talked to her himself by now," Jordan interrupted. "You said you had copies of the information you gave Egan?"

"We do."

"Bring the picture you mentioned. I can run facial recognition here."

"That would be great. It won't cause you trouble? I do want to know who we're looking at."

"Just give it to us, Beckett. We can call it a person of interest if we have to."

"Ryan, email the picture to Jordan and come right back."

Ryan got the contact information, sent the picture, logged off and returned. One of the techs was already starting the search by the time he was back. It identified the suspect as Craig Tandy. He had a juvenile record and a string of arrests since then for fights, shoplifting, vandalism, small scale drug possession, etc. but was never jailed for anything major. His father was killed in an automobile accident when he was seven, and he was raised by his uncle, Travis Tandy.

"His record isn't good, but it's a far cry from murder," Sully pointed out.

"That's if this is all he's done. If he's somebody they're protecting, he could be involved in a lot more than we see," Castle pointed out.

"Yeah. We'll check into that later. At least we know who we're looking for," Ryan answered.

"Jordan, if you don't need me for half an hour or forty-five minutes, I need to make a quick trip out," Beckett told her. "And I'll need a copy of Craig Tandy's picture. I may get a reprimand for it, but I need to talk to somebody; and I can't bring him in to talk to me here. I'll bring everybody lunch."

"Get back as soon as you can," Jordan answered. Then she grinned and said, "Bring something good."

"Castle, will you come with me? We can say we're going out for lunch; and when we bring something back for everybody, it won't look suspicious." She jotted down an address and handed it to Shaw. "This is where we're going."

Once they were in the car, Castle asked, "Where are we going? I'm intrigued."

"Probably going to get me into trouble, but I need to do this. Egan probably won't."

The storage facility wasn't that far away, and she was pulling up next to the office a few minutes later. When they went inside, Gil Valdez was alone at the front desk.

"Is anybody else here right now?"

"No. Just me. Why?"

"I need to see if you recognize this man." She showed him the picture they had just identified.

"Sure. That's Craig Tandy. Lydia, Celia's neighbor? She's his uncle's wife. They raised him with their own kids after his father died. He was a little hellion then and still gets in trouble now and then. I'm surprised he hasn't been in jail more often than he has. He and his uncle rent space here. As a matter of fact, Craig just rented a second unit a little over a week ago."

"Have you noticed any unusual activity, anybody or anything suspicious around here lately?"

"Not personally, but Dom said something the week he was killed. He thought something might be going on," Gil answered. "He was going to keep an eye on it and let me know if there was anything to worry about, but he never said anything else. I should have thought to tell you that before, but I wasn't thinking straight. I was so worried about Celia and the kids." He paused. "I'm covering his night shift tonight. The security cameras are always on. I'll be watching…just in case. You think it had something to do with…"

"We don't know what to think right now. And I also need to tell you that I shouldn't be here. Dom's case has been reassigned to Detective Egan."

Gil's response to the mention of Egan was about the same as Celia's, including the lack of confidence that Egan would find a reason for Dom's death. "I'm guessing you'd rather Egan didn't find out you were here," he ventured. When Beckett looked down, he said, "You don't have to say it. There won't be a word from me. Do you think Craig…"

"Right now we have a lot more questions than answers. We have nothing resembling conclusions yet. I wish I could tell you more."

Gil nodded. "Sounds like you're putting yourself in a bad spot for us. Thanks for not losing interest. If you need anything else, let me know." Looking over her shoulder at Castle, he asked, "New partner? This guy wasn't with you before."

Beckett smiled. "More like an old partner. Now he's my husband. He's consulting on a case this week, and we slipped in here on our lunch break."

"Richard Castle," Castle said, offering his hand.

"Nice to m… Wait a minute. You're not Richard Castle the writer, are you?" Gil asked, shaking his hand.

"That's me."

"My wife is a real fan. She won't believe I met you. Hey, if you haven't had lunch yet, there's a place on the other side of the block. Most of it is a family restaurant. It's nicer than most of the places around here. Good food, good service. There's one entrance, but separate doors inside. The other end of the building is just a bar. Travis Tandy owns it…that's Craig's uncle."

"We already called in a pickup order elsewhere, but we might try it one day this week," Castle answered.

"Thanks for the help," Beckett said as they walked toward the door.

"Oh. What's the name of the place you mentioned?" Castle asked before he walked out behind Beckett.

"The Top Hat," Gil answered.

"Did he say The Top Hat?" Beckett asked on her way to the car.

"Yeah, why?"

"That's where Egan said he was the night of Dom Martinez's murder. That's Craig's alibi. According to Egan, Craig was in the bar until closing."

"But you can't get a warrant for security footage because it's Egan's case."

"Right. Grrrrrrrrrrrr!" The frustrated growl blended into the sound of the car starting, and she pulled out into traffic on their way to pick up lunch for the roomful of people working for and with the FBI.

Things came to a standstill when they returned to the conference room, everyone gathering to look through the bags of takeout to see what they wanted. Castle had ordered a little of everything from a Chinese place Beckett's team had found a couple of blocks away. There was conversation as they ate, and activity gradually picked up again.

As expected, later in the afternoon they had most of the reports they were waiting for. It seemed that Willy Klein's customer service had fallen short of the mark recently. He had apparently decided to expand his business and got ahead of himself, making the mistake of taking orders from new buyers before he had fully established the reliability of his new suppliers. Drug dealers who don't get their promised merchandise are not generally pleasant and understanding. After his arrest, his wife told the agents that he had come home with injuries a few times. One had required a hospital visit.

He had already lost customers and credibility and gained a lot of threats and ill will. Then, the day before his arrest, Willy's children disappeared, and he received an anonymous ransom note threatening them. The ransom note demanded a large quantity of drugs and said there would be a phone call to tell him where they should be delivered and exchanged for the children. But he was arrested before the call came.

"That means the kidnapper has the kids and can't get the drugs. He's frustrated and angry by now and has no incentive to let them live," Castle said sadly. "Do we have a list of his customers to work from to narrow down suspects?"

"That came in a couple of minutes ago, but there are no names. It's coded, names like Racecar, or Rapper or…Horse Face?" Avery paused and raised an eyebrow at that.

Ryan laughed. "I'd like to get a look at that guy."

"Me, too," Avery answered, snickering before getting back to business. "Willy is doing all the wrong things to get his kids back. He won't tell us where to find the ledgers with the full accounting and delivery information because he was told if he involved the police, they'd kill his children. Doesn't he realize he's already involved with the police?" Rolling his eyes, he added, "The idiot even flushed the ransom note. He's making it as hard as possible to find them. Agents are still trying to convince him of that. They're taking his wife to talk to him later today. The guy obviously isn't thinking straight. That's what got him into this mess in the first place."

"I guess having your children kidnapped and threatened, being arrested on major drug charges, and having angry drug dealers mad at you might mess with a man's mind," Esposito answered.

The afternoon was filled with a mass of paper and a lot of tedious searching. Their equipment could only run searches on what they asked it for, and things like "a dark van" didn't significantly narrow their search. It did, however significantly increase the possible hits on traffic cameras. They had narrowed the search to include a dark colored van, two men, and two children in every combination they could find, and they expanded the search area; but they weren't particularly surprised when nothing useful materialized. The witness said the dark van went "that way" and indicated a direction that could have taken it to the Bronx, but there was also a decent sized chunk of Manhattan to consider. Frustration was running high, and they knew their window of opportunity to find the young brother and sister was quickly closing.

"Any luck with the ledgers yet?" Castle asked as he finished working through another fruitless search.

"Not yet," Shaw answered.

"Where is that coded list?" Castle asked. "Did it have locations?"

"Vague ones, we think. One letter notations that could indicate a location. I kept thinking we'd have the ledgers any minute. We should have run the coded list by now."

"Let me take a quick look. I've lived in New York all my life. Maybe something will stand out."

Avery handed him the list. "The undercover operative didn't rise high enough in the organization to have access to the top, but he could identify some of the buyers. We already have people looking at them, but the rest are still just the code names. The operative said Willy had been second in command for four years and handled the job well. He took over the organization when his mentor was killed last year. Looks like he didn't do as well making the plans and giving the orders as he did carrying out the ones he was given and enforcing them. The organization started getting shaky a few months after he took over, and his changes were causing the rumblings of mutiny not far into the expansion plans."

There were three pages of buyers, and when Castle reached the last one, he looked at Kate, who sat on the other side of the table from him. "Kate. Look at this," he said hopefully.

"What did you find?"

"One of the names." He pointed it out.

"Top Hat? Does it have a location?" she asked, looking for something recognizable.

"Only a B."

"Could be for the Bronx," she speculated.

"Did you find something?" Shaw asked.

"I don't know. It's a wobbly maybe." Shaw and Avery both came to look, Castle pointed out the name, and Beckett explained, "This name has come up a couple of times in connection with the man you ran for me this morning, and his uncle."

"What's his uncle's name? Avery asked.

"Travis Tandy," Beckett answered. "He lives here in the Bronx." Avery nodded to one of the techs, and information appeared on the screen in no time.

"He owns a restaurant and bar," Avery said. "The Top Hat Bar and Grill. They must be doing pretty well. Looks like he just closed on a new house. Wow. Hefty price on it, too."

"That's one of the nicer parts of the Bronx," Castle said. "Any criminal activity?"

"Not much and not too recently. Service record, honorable discharge. A few minor scrapes with the police. Nothing that says kidnapping or murder."

"That bar is where Craig and Egan were supposed to have been the night of the murder." Beckett said. "We were told that Travis Tandy raised Craig along with his own children. What are his sons doing now? Any trouble with them?"

"Hmmm… It looks like his two sons and Craig own a small moving company," Avery mumbled as it came up on the screen. "These two may have no connection at all, but it's better than anything else we have right now. It can't hurt to see where it goes."

Shaw picked up her phone, pressed a contact number, and waited.

"Gil said the bar and restaurant are on the other side of the block from the storage place, right?" Castle asked Beckett.

"Right. And he said Craig just rented a second storage unit a little over a week ago."

"Could it possibly be this easy?" Castle sighed.

"God, I hope so," Shaw answered.

"I don't know, Jordan. The universe isn't usually this cooperative."

Sully and the boys used the little respite to go for coffee, so the couple was at the table alone for a few minutes. When Jordan's call picked up, and they were waiting for her, Beckett teased Castle. "Well, when you think about it, maybe it is this cooperative now and then. You and I have managed to live through some pretty tight situations. And the universe kind of whomped us up side the head to get us together."

Castle reached across to take his wife's hand, gave her his lop-sided smirk, and leaned in close to whisper, "I thought that was Lanie."

"She was a minion of the universe," Beckett whispered back playfully, placing her free hand over Castle's.

"You don't even believe in the universe," he said, enjoying the lightness of the moment.

"Maybe you're convincing me. You're a pretty persistent guy."

Jordan turned, took a breath as if to speak to them, and looked pointedly at their joined hands and loving look. "I can't leave you two alone for a minute, can I?" she joked. Serious again, she told them, "I've arranged for surveillance of both Craig and his uncle, their homes and businesses...and the storage building. And we have someone going to the bar and the restaurant tonight to get the lay of the land. It's worth a look."

Deputy Chief Alvarez came in for one of his visits long enough before the end of their shift to see how things were going and hold a few more short interviews. Aware of the FBI presence, he stopped at the door of the conference room and asked the two agents in charge, "Any progress?"

"Possibly," Shaw answered. "Although, we're grasping at straws at the moment. Agents Jordan Shaw and Shawn Avery. I think we met when we were rounding up some of Senator Bracken's cronies."

"I remember," he said, shaking their hands. "Mr. Castle. Good to see you again. You're working with the FBI now?"

"These days I only come in when somebody wants me for something specific. Most of the time now I'm at home with our son."

"I believe I've heard the word adorable applied to him a couple of times," he answered with a smile. "I'm here for more interviews today. I caught up with a few people from Narcotics a little earlier, and I thought I'd find a few more from Homicide. Turning to Beckett, he said, "I'll see you next time," as he turned and walked into the bullpen."

"Interviews?" Avery asked.

"Part of the exchange program, which I'm sure you know is why we're all at the fifty-first instead of the twelfth. Chief Dawson and Deputy Chief Alvarez have been making unannounced visits and conducting random interviews of the staff here. All of it is supposed to be anonymous, and I'm sure the information they get from the staff is; but Bronson has spies in every department. You can bet he knows exactly who was interviewed each time."

"I'm beginning to think you don't like him," Jordan answered with a grin.

"And I thought I was hiding it so well," Becket answered dryly

Just under half an hour later, Alvarez was at the door again looking for Beckett, and looking unhappy. "Come with me, Lieutenant," he ordered. Turning to the other occupants of the room, he promised, "She'll be back shortly."

Beckett followed him to a conference room on the floor below theirs, and he closed the door behind them. "I've heard from all three homicide detectives I interviewed today that a case was taken from you. You should have told me that. All three of them seem to think there's more going on than just freeing you up for field evaluations and training. Tell me your opinion."

"There may be, and I should have spoken to you about it, but I didn't want anyone outside the room to hear. And I expected that someone among the people you interviewed would mention it. Right now, there's a vague chance that there could be a connection between a possible suspect in that case and the case the FBI is working on. We need time to see how that plays out before you confront anyone else here about it. Would you give us that? There are two children's lives involved, Sir. I don't want to take any chances."

"It sounds to me like you may think there's more going on, too."

"It's possible, but that's based on hunches rather than evidence."

"I have the feeling your hunches are usually good, so you have a couple of days; but you need to keep me in the loop, understand?"

"Yes, Sir."

Dismissed.

Beckett gave him a sharp nod and left the room.

As she passed Egan's desk, she heard, "You in trouble, Beckett?" followed by a snicker. She never saw his slimy grin because she paid no attention to him whatsoever, just entered the conference room and closed the door.

"What did Alvarez want?" Castle asked.

"He knows about the case being reassigned. All three homicide interviewees today mentioned it and said it looked like something was behind it other than training. I told him there might be a connection to this case, and he's going to give us another couple of days before he confronts Bronson. I'm supposed to keep him updated." She sighed. "He wasn't happy…said I should have told him."

"Thanks for buying us time." Shaw said. "I'll pull rank if I have to later, but I'd rather hold on to the good will as long as I can." Turning to her partner, she said, "Castle, Beckett, section one, and I are going to get some dinner. We'll be back in an hour or less. When I get back, Avery, you'll get dinner and some sleep. Section two, you'll do the same."

"Where do we eat?" Jordan asked Beckett as they left.

"Want to go back to Frenchy's?" Beckett asked her husband.

"Sure. Food's good, service is good, staff is friendly. It should be relaxing."

"Lead the way, Jordan answered. We could all use a little of that."

Frenchy greeted them at the door. "Aaaaaw. You didn't bring the little guy?"

"We're all working this time," Castle explained. "We'll come back for family time another day. You got a table big enough for all of us?"

The hostess was told to get someone to put some tables together in the corner where they hadn't seated anyone yet, and the group was soon settled in.

"No talking about the case," Jordan ordered quietly. "First, because we don't know who's listening, and second because we need a break from it; and we know we'll get a call if there's anything new. She refused to allow Castle to pick up the tab for this meal. "You already fed us once today, and we can include it in our per diem expenses."

Conversation went anywhere except the case, and they returned to the precinct a little less stressed.

"We're here for the early part of the night," Jordan ordered. "The rest of you get some food and rest and be back at one to relieve us. We'll be back in at eight and give you a break before we tackle the rest of the day."

None of the others protested, just picked up their things and left as part of a well-practiced routine.

For the next few hours, they monitored the reports from their surveillance people.. They finally got the ledgers, and his wife had even convinced Willy Klein to tell them who had been shorted or didn't get delivery of their drugs. They started there and were only slightly surprised at that point to find that Craig Tandy was on that list.

"Maybe the universe really is on our side today, Castle." Jordan said.

"Well, if the universe is going to take sides, saving two little kids isn't a bad place to start."

Jordan got in touch with Decker, her surveillance contact at the storage building and told him to report in as soon as he saw anybody who looked like Craig or Travis Tandy. They continued to work their way down the list from the ledgers until a little after ten when Jordan got a call. Craig Tandy had just been spotted at the storage building, getting out of a dark van.

When they had almost reached the storage facility, Beckett got a call from a panicked Gil Valdez. "Lieutenant Beckett, it's Gil. I've been monitoring all the storage units like I said I would. Craig just came in; and when he opened the unit door, two little kids ran out. He stopped them pretty fast, and all of them are closed in the unit now. Craig's got a gun, and he threatened the little boy with it…looked like the little guy was trying to protect the girl. Craig was holding his gun close to the boy and yelling right in his face. Those kids must be so scared. What do you want me to do?"

"Nothing, Gil. Stay where you're safe. We're almost there anyway, so let us handle it. Stay on the phone, though, to let us know what you see. It's gonna help when we get there."

Within a couple of minutes, the FBI's SUV pulled up in front of the building, and all six of them left the vehicle." Castle was checking the fastening on one side of his vest when Beckett took his arm firmly. With no previous discussion of the subject, Beckett and Shaw announced, almost in unison, "You're not going in."

"The hell I'm not," he protested. "You're…"

"No. You go in the office, keep Gil company, and help with the surveillance. We have a tiny little son who won't even remember us if something happens to both of us. I have no intention of dying tonight, but I won't take chances. He can't lose both parents. Go inside and lock yourself in Gil's office so you can give us a play by play."

He looked at Jordan and heard her say, "What she said. We don't have time to argue."

Castle didn't have a real argument for either of their points, so he grouched, kissed his wife's head, jogged over to the office, and did what was demanded of him. After locking the outer office door, he relocked the inner one when Gil let him in. He had just been grounded by two moms for the sake of his child…women who were putting their lives on the line to save two children they didn't even know. Neither of them needed the distraction of worrying about his unarmed, untrained daddy self; but he was decidedly grumpy about it, even while knowing full well that it made perfect sense.

"Mr. Castle, I'm glad to have the company," Gil said. "I've never had to deal with something like this before."

"Anything happening, Gil? Beckett asked.

"Not yet, They're all still in there, but the door is down, and we can't see what's happening."

Shaw looked at Ryan, Esposito, and Decker, who already had their weapons in hand, and asked, "Ready?" All of them indicated they were, and she was about to lead them into the building when they heard Castle's voice from Beckett's phone, giving them the play by play she had asked for.

Castle's voice paused briefly between some of the phrases as he described Craig's actions. "Wait. He's leaving. He's just locked the unit's door and he on his way down the hall, and he looks furious. Oh. Gun's still in his hand. He's out of sight, probably on the stairs or in the elevator. Okay, there he is on the first floor. Cameras show him coming down the hall toward the outer office. He's not stopping. Be ready. He's headed your way. Leave your phone on, Kate. I love you."