Chapter 1: Happy Birthday
Sarah Wellington, giggled as she walked along the cobble stone street on her way home. She was in a great mood today. It was her husband, Peter's fifty-sixth birthday and she was planning a surprise party for him. She was almost home now. She could see her apartment building just half a block away. Her hands were straining with the weight of the large bags she was carrying. As she walked on, she mentally made plans for the busy three hours of party preparations that lay ahead of her. Trisha Wellington, Peter's twenty year old daughter from his second marriage would be coming within half an hour to assist her for the most part. The decorations had already been taken care of in the morning. It was 2 pm now and the guests would start arriving after 5 pm. Peter was expected home by 6.
Within a few minutes, she was standing outside the front door to her apartment, fumbling to find her key in a large Versace bag. She frowned as she ran her hand through the assortment of contents in her purse. A few seconds later, she triumphantly inserted it into the key-hole only to find that the door was already open!
Now that's… completely unexpected she thought as she opened the door and entered the living room. She switched on the light switch next to the door and found the room to be exactly the same as she had left it in the morning. The stacked, white walls still had on the colorful streamers and decorative lights that had been set up in the morning. On the wall just opposite the door, a huge red banner, declaring 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY PETER' hung horizontally. The arrangement of the furniture too was the same. Two sofas and four armchairs surrounding a round, rosewood coffee table, right in the centre of the room. All of this was placed on a very expensive, oriental, silk carpet that occupied almost a quarter of the room.
"Nothing suspicious here," she muttered to herself and placed the large bags in her hands in the seat of the armchair nearest to her. She dusted the front of her red and white striped, wrap dress and walked across the room to open a small door that led to the kitchen. Nothing out of place there either. She closed the door and again opened another one on the adjoining wall that led to their two guest bedrooms. They too were untouched.
Her heart beat quickened as she walked slowly towards the master bedroom. The door leading to it was in the farthest corner of the living room and her heart seemed to get heavier with every step that she took towards it. Finally reaching it, she turned the knob slowly and went in. Nothing out of the ordinary here either…
She frowned. How could this be…? Suddenly, she heard the main door open and a person step inside.
"Sarah," said a high-pitched voice.
It was Trisha. She was ten minutes early and Sarah walked in to the living room to greet her with a tense smile. Her brunette, step-daughter's wide grin disappeared the moment she took in Sarah's tense countenance.
"What's wrong, Sarah?"
"The front door was open when I came in ten minutes ago. I checked all the rooms. Nothing's out of place but for some reason I have a terrible feeling, Trish."
"Did you check the two bathrooms?"
"No…Ok, you check the one in the kitchen while I quickly see the one in the master bedroom."
"All right," said Trisha and swiftly made her way to the kitchen. She had the bathroom door open within seconds and her intelligent grey eyes thoroughly scanned the place. She found nothing amiss in the spacious, white-tiled expanse. She opened her mouth to convey this to Sarah when she heard the blood-curling scream….
Click, click, click went the flash bulbs as picture after picture was clicked of the crime scene. The place which only an hour ago was supposed to be the center of festivities was now the horrific scene of a double murder. Richard Castle was now standing in the center of the Wellington's living room, right next to the coffee table. He admiringly surveyed the large place around him. A rather large, self-portrait of Rembrandt himself, occupied a position of pride right below the 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' banner. He looked around the room to see three of the most famous paintings of Rembrandt on each wall, hidden, unsubtly, behind the garish decorations.
"They're all, fake. Even I can tell that," said Detective Esposito, coming up next to Castle.
"Fake or not, this place is filled to the capacity with expensive crap…" said Detective Ryan from a corner of the room. He was standing next to a CSU person who was currently in a semi-seated position on the ground, gathering scattered pieces of rose petals into a zip-lock pouch.
"Detectives, I think we're here to look at a crime scene," said Beckett for the third time that day.
"Yup, Beckett. That's what we get paid for," said a grinning Esposito.
"Sorry Beckett," said Ryan and went out of the apartment, clipboard in hand. He was tasked to ask a couple of questions to the neighbors. Esposito left to examine the other rooms while Castle followed Beckett back to the bathroom in the master bedroom where their dead bodies had been found.
Even though this was the second time he was witnessing this, the brutality of the sight before him still didn't cease to shock him. There, lying sprawled untidily on the bathroom floor where the lifeless bodies of Peter Wellington and a young blonde woman. The woman didn't look a day over twenty-two. She was skimpily clad in black-lace underwear and had large, horrifying, lacerations all over her stomach. Her legs were covered in gashes of many shapes and sizes.
There were a number of cuts on her face as well. The blood from all these had trickled onto the floor. Most of it was dry now and looking at its dark color Castle surmised that the deed must have been done a few hours ago.
Their Medical examiner, Lanie Parish was kneeling next to the young woman's body, writing something on her clipboard. She raised one eye to look at Castle and Beckett. The former gave her his trademark smile.
"Causes of death are the two gunshot wounds on both their foreheads," said Lanie.
"Even I could have told you that," said Castle.
The M.E. ignored him and continued, "I need to take the two of them to the lab for a thorough analysis. But I can tell you right now that the other wounds on the girl's body were inflicted post-mortem."
"That's… pretty strange," said Castle.
"Yes," agreed Beckett, "especially since there are none such wounds on Mr. Wellington's body. Just the one gunshot wound on his forehead. It could mean that the killer had some personal agenda against the girl."
"Isn't this Wellington married," said Lanie, still continuing to write on her clipboard.
"Thrice. Or was it twice…" said Castle looking up and scrunching his forehead.
"You mean that the woman out there is his second or third wife… I did wonder about the age gap."
"Yeah… I remember now. They were married about a year ago. I was invited to the wedding but couldn't make it. This is his third wife. Read about it in the society pages."
"Hmm… said Beckett," unable to take her eyes of the dead, young woman, "had things worked out, this could have been, wife number 4."
"You know what, Castle," said Kate, looking up at him and pointing at Peter Wellington's body, "This could be you in what…. some six years. You've already been married twice. One more to go…" she smirked.
"Yes… and wife number three out there… could very well be you… in what some three years…" he smiled.
Beckett gave him a scathing look. Lanie did her best to suppress a giggle.
Ryan came in at that moment and asked, "Any news about who our other vic is?"
"No, not yet," said Beckett, "The wife and daughter have never seen her before in their lives. And neither have the guests who just arrived. What did you learn from the neighbors, Ryan?"
"They haven't heard any suspicious noise. The entire floor has only two apartments. Both belong to the Wellingtons. The neighbors live on the other floors. They have barely ever spoken to Peter Wellington and didn't even know that Sarah was his wife."
"Guess he didn't invite them to the wedding…" said Castle.
"The first thing that we need to figure out is who our other vic is," said Beckett.
"Her name's Susan Masters. She worked as a temporary paralegal in Mr. Wellington's office. Joined a month ago," said Esposito coming in behind Ryan.
Everyone looked at him with questioning expressions. "The wife called made a call to Wellington's VP, a Chris Gallagher. He said that Pete was having an affair with the girl since the past two weeks and he saw them leaving the office together around eleven a.m. today."
"But how can he be so sure that this is the same girl?" asked Beckett.
"He just e-mailed a picture of her on Mrs. Wellington's phone," replied the detective as he handed a white, i phone to Beckett. She looked at the picture on its display and then once again at the body.
"She's our girl," said Beckett, "But positive identification is still required. We'll have to notify her family and bring them in for questioning."
"Already on it," said Esposito and walked out of the room.
The female detective turned towards Castle and said, "Let's get out of here."