Slaying the Beast

Chapter 1

Castle can't let this happen. He can't let Kate down again. He knows that he and Dick Coonan are about the same height. He can use that. Kate's never believed it, but Castle has some moves he learned as research for Derrick Storm. He can't fuck up now because it won't just mean his life, it may mean Kate's as well. He slams the back of his head into Coonan's face. He hears the crack of the gun, but his blood is too infused with adrenaline to feel anything. Coonan is down, and Castle's on top of him, slamming his fist over and over against the man's obscene mouth.

Kate sounds as if she's miles away. "Castle, Rick, you can stop now. You've got him." He feels her touch on his shoulder and slowly rises, swaying as he stands.

Kate sees the bright red stain beginning to spread along the side of Castle's shirt. "Rick you're bleeding!"

Castle is just beginning to feel the fire where Coonan's bullet skittered along his ribs as it competes with the throb of his hand. He sinks to his knees next to the semi-conscious hitman, as he hears Montgomery call for medics.

Martha pulls open the door to the loft. She's of two minds about whether to let Katherine Beckett in. If he hadn't been working with her, Richard wouldn't be recovering from a bullet wound and three broken knuckles. But he'll also be ridiculously glad to see her. For better or for worse, her son is totally smitten, and he'll find a way to be at the detective's side. Meeting with her in His bedroom is safer than being her shadow at the next shootout, at least in his present condition.

Kate steps tentatively into what she first thought of as Castle's Batcave. She's come to realize it's anything but that. Instead of Bruce Wayne's self-imposed isolation, Castle's loft is a welcoming haven - except for the chill of Martha's gaze. It's obvious that the older woman holds Kate responsible for what happened at the precinct. And she should. If Kate had caught on to Dick Coonan's subterfuge sooner, Castle wouldn't be hurt. As flighty as Martha has appeared to be, it's clear that she is fiercely protective of her son. "How is he?"

"About as well as can be expected. He's resting, but I don't think he's asleep. Alexis helped him set up his computer to respond to his voice, so he's been writing - about Nikki Heat. I was just about to bring him some super juice. It's my guru's special recipe to speed healing. You can take it in to him."

Castle brightens at the sight of Kate but winces when he sees the tall glass of green goop she's carrying. "Beckett, if you want to do a favor for an injured man, you'll pour that down my bathroom sink and tell Mother I drank it."

"Pretty bad, huh?"

"It makes the daily torture the bullpen used to call coffee, seem like haute cuisine."

Kate's nose wrinkles as she sniffs the slimy liquid. "I see what you mean. I'll be right back."

Castle can hear the water running before Kate returns with the now mercifully empty tumbler. "Thanks."

"It was the least I could do for the hero of the 12th Precinct, or at least that's what Montgomery made you sound like in his incident report. So other than dreading another attempted poisoning by your mother, how do you feel?"

"Aside from being unable to find a comfortable position and frustrated because the dictation function on my computer makes it look like I'm speaking Elvish, on top of the world. What were you able to get out of Coonan?'

"Not as much as I'd hoped. He was bluffing about being able to tell me who paid him to kill my mother. He really never knew who he was working for. He received his instructions by courier or through a messaging system like the one he had set up for his Rathborne identity. He just knows that it's someone with a lot of money and power."

"Are you sure he's telling the truth now? He is a master of never-ending streams of prevarication."

"Castle, the man is a worm who'll do anything he can to wiggle out from under what will be the maximum sentence possible in the highest security corrections facility. He'd do anything to cut himself a deal, even tell the truth. The boys are on the trail of the courier and Tech is picking up the computer breadcrumbs, but so far, they haven't found much."

"How about Johnny Vong? He was up to his phony accent in the opiates trade. Coonan is a hit man. He must not be at the top of the ladder of the drug operation. It would have been easier to make his money taking people out. The schools he built in Afghanistan were a front, but a front for whom? Vong must have heard something or seen something, even if he doesn't know it. With Coonan off the street, he may be a lot more willing to deal now."

Kate perches on the edge of the bed, drawn by the earnestness in Castle's eyes. "You may have a point. I'll have Vong brought back to the precinct for questioning."

Castle pushes himself up against the tufted leather backboard behind him. "I want in."

"Are you sure you're up to it, Castle?"

"Kate, I've never been so up for something in my life!"

At least Vong has his shoes on this time, and he's not even making any pretense of being born anywhere but the U.S. of A. Even with multiple reassurances that he's out of Coonan's reach, he looks nervous. It's understandable. If Kate was glaring at him that way, Castle would be nervous too. As he sits next to her at the table, he can feel the intensity radiating from her body. "Vong, you have nothing to lose here and everything to gain. The more you tell me, the harder I'll work to convince the D.A. to ask for a shorter sentence for you. If you're really helpful, I might be able to talk him down to a year or two in minimum security or even probation, but I need to know everything you saw and heard when you were dealing with Coonan, even if it seemed unimportant at the time."

"I just don't believe that I have what you want. Coonan put on a show, even for me. He had all these photographs of this village he said he built for the Afghans fleeing the Taliban. They could have been photoshopped, but they didn't look it. I mean I've done a lot of that myself, making the marks who came to my seminars think I flipped all those houses. You have to be really careful to get the shadows and the proportions right. Making something convincing can be tough. But Coonan's pictures didn't have any telltales. The village looked real."

Castle nudges Kate and points the way out of the box. "Maybe the village is real, Beckett. Maybe it was Coonan's base of operations. And if it was, someone there would have to know something about who was pulling the strings."

"Castle, are you suggesting we take a trip to Afghanistan? Even if Montgomery would go along with something like that, which he wouldn't, the N.Y.P.D. doesn't fund speculative junkets into foreign territory."

"It wouldn't have to. Jameson Rook is based on a real person - I mean someone besides me. He's a genuine investigative reporter. I've helped him with a couple of 'speculative junkets,' as you call them, in exchange for material for my books about Storm and Heat. I'm extremely familiar with his work. If anyone would know if Coonan's village is real or not. He would. He's in New York right now. I could get us a sit-down."

Kate sighs. "Why not, Castle? He couldn't give us much less than Vong seems to be able to."

Castle starts to clap his hands together before the fractured bones remind him it's a bad idea. "Great! I'll set it up."