Chapter One:
Prologue

"There are no victories, there is only the battle,
the best that you can hope for is to find your spot"
Roy Montgomery

July 22nd 2011

Detective Lieutenant Richard Castle stepped off the elevator and into the 12th Precinct squad room for the first time since late May, to take charge of the Homicide division as lead detective. He had only recently been promoted to Lieutenant and the last time he had been here, he had been the primary on the shooting of former detective Katherine Beckett. He hadn't been to the funeral and hadn't known Captain Montgomery personally, only by reputation. He'd been with the 17th Precinct then.

Inexplicably, six years before, she had been granted a full pension after only four years with the department, near the end of her first year as the youngest female detective in NYPD history. Her clearance rate had been impressive for rookie detective, yet she had been forced out. Why?

During the course of his investigation, he had detected a heightened level of animosity between Beckett and Detective Javier Esposito, his predecessor as lead detective. Bad blood that went back to her forced "retirement" back in 2005 and had only gotten worse in the years between then and Montgomery's shooting.

Animosity that had stemmed from allegations she had leveled against Captain Montgomery shortly before before her career had hit the skids. Any other detective, but himself would have assumed that this was the root cause of her downward spiral, but curiously he could find nothing to document that Montgomery had ever filed a report or censured her for it. Only a sworn statement from Detective Javier Esposito made years after the fact.

There was a story behind all of this, Lieutenant Castle was certain of it, a chain of events that would make this whole sordid affair make sense. The portion of his psyche that had once desired to be a writer was sure of it. Such "not-so-voluntary" retirements were rarely made in a vacuum. Something must have happened. Something either the department, or somebody seriously high up in the city hall food chain, had wanted kept quiet and out of the public record. The kind of record a departmental hearing would have brought out into the light of day.

According to the background check he'd had done on her, Beckett's former training officer Mike Royce had helped her get a PI license, certification as a bail enforcement agent, and a concealed carry permit for both a Sig Sauer P-229 and and a Glock 26. Though she had not long afterward had recently been signed to a second three book deal with Black Pawn Publishing as a murder mystery novelist, billing her as the "Mistress of the Macabre."

Alexis was a fan, and thanks to his mother's connections, she never missed a book signing or launch party. She had been inconsolable for days when she'd found out about Beckett's shooting, and had even skipped school to show up at his precinct to nose around for information. Rick had had a uniform drive her back to school.

He had started to read her books, too, as a way to stay connected with his daughter's life, but secretly he found he liked them. She had obviously taken her time to do her research. Her primary heroine, Rachel McCord seemed believable as an NYPD homicide detective, though he thought her books were a little too cerebral. Too trapped in the cases and lacking the personal touches that would make McCord more relatable. Beckett's books could use a character to challenge McCord personally, draw her out of the dark places she seemed to inhabit.

But what did he know? He was a former Marine Force Recon sniper-turned homicide detective, not a writer or a literary critic. He took down bad guys for a living, had been for much longer than Kate Beckett had been a cop.

As a matter of fact, there was very little actual documentation of the sequence of events leading to her being "offered" early retirement. Even her service jacket was clean. Everything seemed to have been sanitized. Rick had been a Spec. Warfare operator. He knew a whitewash when he saw one.

He had been the next detective in the rotation when the call had come through about the shooting at Forest Lawn Cemetery. That former Detective Third Class Katherine Beckett had been shot by a sniper as she paid her respects to the Montgomery family, shortly after being slapped in the face by Evelyn Montgomery.

On a slow news cycle, the shooting of a famous, best selling author at a police funeral had hit the media like a firestorm, compounded by speculation that she had been forced out of the department under a cloud. The possibility of media scrutiny had been among the many factors for his captain (who had been at the funeral) personally assigning the case to him. One of his last before the results of his Lieutenant's exam came through. Something the NYPD brass had been quick to jump on, informing the media that a high ranking detective was on the case, which had been all over the news for weeks.

The physical evidence had been sketchy at best. All they had was an anomalous DNA sample, a Knight's Armament SR-25 sniper rifle and pieces of a Guile suit. Whomever her shooter had been, he was in the wind and hadn't resurfaced to finish the job.

A single .308 Lapua round would have finished the job. Kate Beckett should have been dead, her heart reduced to so much hamburger. From her wound pattern, however, she had likely been hit with a frangible round which had splintered on impact. Her shooting was shaping up to be more of a warning to Kate Beckett than a full on assassination attempt with every piece of information he uncovered.

He had tried twice to interview Beckett, during her recovery at Presbyterian, both times she had claimed to have no memory of anything after Montgomery's wife had slapped her. He could tell from her body language that she was hiding something, holding something back, but her father, a corporate lawyer from uptown had intervened before he could call her on it.

He left his card with both of them and walked out. Three hours later she had checked out against medical advice and disappeared. He'd only found out she'd come up for air when her third book had come out. By then, the case had grown cold. Her case may have hit the back burner, but he was tenacious, and had no intention of letting it go. He'd keep looking into it until he found the guy.

Which is what brought him here today. The new Captain of the 12th Precinct, Victoria Gates had been impressed with his work on the Beckett shooting. He hadn't let the woman's bad reputation in the department effect his judgment. Treated her like any other victim of a violent crime. He had been professional and tenacious, but there just wasn't enough evidence to work with, and the shooter had faded like a ghost. When he had received his lieutenant's badge and the bar on his collar, Gates had lobbied for him to be transferred to her command.

She had been forced to demote the former lead detective of her homicide squad, Javier Esposito for insubordination that past summer. Not surprisingly, his partner Kevin Ryan had refused the position out of loyalty. As a Marine, he could respect that.

When Ms. Beckett had pulled her disappearing act, Esposito and his partner had tracked her down and had, without authorization attempted to compel her to come back to the city for questioning. By all indications causing her to have a panic attack. Her father had filed a formal complaint and Gates had been forced to suspend Esposito for a week for abuse of authority, conduct unbecoming, and harassment and placed a formal reprimand in both of their service jackets. A restraining order was also filed, requiring them both to remain at least twenty five miles from the Beckett family cabin in the Adirondack Park.

He wasn't sure he liked the idea of working for a former IAB detective. From what he'd been able to determine, the woman had been pretty fair, if a little tenacious. But, there was still a stigma from having been with the rat squad for most of her career. He would have to wait and see what kind of Boss she would be.