Castle was late. Well not as late as he usually was. He was already up and showered and out of the loft when he heard Beckett's ring tone on his cell. He was about to step into their favorite coffee shop to place his usual order for coffee. He'd been following her for the last three years and he thought that after their initial meeting they had become better at expressing how they felt towards each other.
"Castle" He answered.
"Castle, where are you?"
"I'm just about to head into the coffee shop near the precinct. Why?"
"Change of plans. I'll text you the address where to meet me at."
"We have a new case?"
"We do. Get her as fast as you can, you're going to love this one!"
"Okay, Beckett I'll be there in twenty."
"Make it fifteen, and don't forget the coffee!"
The call ended and Rick walked to the curb to hail a cab. With his arm up to flag down a cab, he kept checking his phone for her text. Just then a cab pulled up and stopped. He waited for a second and as he reached for the door handle his phone pinged with a new incoming text message. The address she sent was in the meat packing district. 440 west fourteenth street. He closed the text and was about to place his phone back in his pocket and tell the cabbie where to go just as there was another text. It told him to come to the third floor and that the elevator was not working.
"440 West 14th street please."
The cab pulled away from the curb and then Rick remembered that he needed to stop for coffee. Telling the cabbie to pull over to the coffee shop to his right three blocks from the address, he jumped out and got their order. Ten minutes later he was getting out of the cab after paying the fare and including a sizeable tip.
He checked the address to be sure he had the right location. Stepping up onto the steps he noticed the two uniforms that stood just inside the entrance. Knowing that the elevator was out of service he took to the stairs. He was just a little winded reaching the third floor. He gathered his panting breath to come to somewhat normal before he continued vowing to himself to hit the treadmill in his basement gym...soon.
He walked down the hallway and as he did there was another uniform placed at the entry door to the crime scene. Nodding to the officer who he knew as O'Brien he passed into the tiny apartment. He was floored when he walked into the small one bedroom. There were old newspapers stacked from the floor to almost the ceiling. He placed one of the coffees down and pulled off the top most copy of the yellowed paper. It was an old copy of The Daily News. Noting the headline It read: Mickey Mantle slams HR record, Giants split; Yanks win. There was a picture of Mickey Mantle on the front page holding the baseball that broke the record. He noticed the date on the copy of the Daily News it was from April 18, 1953.
Most of the tri-states papers were represented throughout the room and stacked all over the area which he guessed was the living room. It turned into a kind of maze when he turned to find Beckett. Not wanting to call out for her, he picked up the coffee and wandered around to the next room. In it were all sorts of appliances, from blenders to microwave ovens and toys. As he maneuvered through the maze, he bumped into an old-fashioned mannequin. It almost tipped over, but he was able to save it from falling. The noise he made was enough to alert Beckett and then she knew where he was.
"Castle, don't touch anything. This place is like a mine field and if you move anything the wrong way and we'll be digging out here for days."
"Okay, I won't." He cautiously navigated the rest of the room and found her. He eased between an old ironing board and a Kiss pinball machine and handed Beckett her coffee and asked,
"What do we have?"
"Meet Mr. Ragazzo. Shot twice, once in the chest and then again in the back. No signs of forced entry…"
"So he knew his killer." Rick finished for her
"Right. He was a widower, and had collected all the stuff you see around here."
"Robbery? Rick asked.
"It looks that way, but I'm not so sure what they were after. Whatever it was it has to be here among this mess since nothing has been disrupted and his wallet and ID are still with him."
"What was the time of death?" Rick asked.
Kate looked to Lanie wanting to know also.
"I can give you an estimate, somewhere between 3 am and 7. He was shot with your basic .38 but I'll know more when I get him back to the morgue."
"Thanks, Lanie." Kate replied.
Lanie needed to be extra careful when removing the body. He was a small man and would need to be carried out of the bedroom and out to the hallway as not to disturb the crime scene. She watched as Kate gave her an odd look and walked away.
Rick went to follow her and as he did something in the second bedroom caught his attention. On the floor, there were four HAM radios. They were from the 50's or 60's at least. He remembered his research from a Dereck Storm idea he had and was going to put him in. The letters HAM stood for the three pioneers of radio itself. Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, Edwin Armstrong, and Guglielmo Marconi. These radios looked to be in pristine condition which he thought was odd due to the fact that everything else around here was old, musty and rusted. But there was one in particular that he paid the most attention to it was a Heathkit single-sideband ham radio. He had seen Kate's dads radio in his basement and it was a perfect match to the one he was seeing lying on the floor.
He looked at the units and then an idea hit him. Beckett's birthday was coming up and he knew that her dad had a radio exactly like it in the basement and she'd like it because it was an exact copy of her dad's. Leaving to catch up to her he called out her name.
"Beckett?
"I'm out here Castle"
He walked to the sound of her voice. She was leaning against the door frame to the entry way. As she waited for him he tried to think of a way to ask her his question. When he reached her she was turning from him already walking away.
"Beckett, wait a sec."
"What is it, Castle?"
"What is going to happen to all this stuff?"
"Mr. Ragazzo had no next of kin. We might need a couple of pieces for evidence. So, I would think that most of this "stuff" as you call it will be donated to Good Will or the Salvation Army."
"Oh, okay."
The gears in Rick's head began turning. He had many favors owed to him from various people in the 12th. When he returned, he'd call in one or two of those favors. The ride back to the precinct was filled with heated speculation about Mr. Ragazzo's murder. Rick thought he was killed for the items in the apartment, while Kate thought that he was murdered because the crime rate in that neighborhood was high and it was a crime of opportunity. By the time they got back, they had agreed on one thing, they would find the person responsible for his death.
