The Failure of Success
Castle's ecstasy in his elaborate preparations for Christmas had been intruded upon by Gina. She wanted two more chapters and she wanted them last week, so he had been up most of the night, his creativity driven by caffeine. After typing the last word, he wearily climbed into bed next to Beckett, but was unable to still his overstimulated brain. He lay, staring at the tiny reflections of the city lights off the shadow box of shells they had gathered together in the Hamptons. Rick felt for Kate's hand and her fingers clasped around his, even in sleep. Fingers still clasped, he pulled her into the curve of his body. Kate stirred at the warmth against her back, causing Castle to hold her closer still, until his inevitable arousal began. Kate could feel it growing, feeding her own awareness and she turned to him, seeking his pressure against her most sensitive places, to quell her own growing need. But her urgency grew. As she took him inside her, they gave to each other with hands and lips on every inch of sensitive skin, in constant motion until the hot waves of pleasure crested and broke, leaving them joyfully spent. Rick was finally able to close his eyes in sleep.
Morning came too soon, but Castle made the best of it, crafting lattes with leafy boughs for the season and adding spicy cinnamon to Beckett's pumps of vanilla. Festive pancakes in the shape of bells and angels, brought a cheery note to a breakfast consumed at the kitchen counter. Castle and Beckett departed for the 12th in good spirits.
"Yo!" Esposito called as they came in. "Just got one, Leto labs."
Leto labs was housed in what had once been a meatpacking plant and still housed tables of shiny stainless steel. The tables now held a variety of test equipment and instrumentation, and the body lay on the floor in front of one of them. The victim wore a lab coat and the most noticeable thing about her was her blue lips.
Greeting Lanie, who was bending over the body, Beckett asked,"Do you have a cause of death?"
Lanie stood, shaking her head. "No wounds, no ligature marks, from what I have seen so far, there's not a mark on her. I'll have to get her to the lab."
Ryan wandered over from where he had been talking to a handsome young man. "Lab tech over there, Tony Kolato, says the victim is Judith Spicer. He works for her. She's usually the first one in the building and he found her when he came in. He say's there's a husband. He thinks the office manager, Margo Keaton, should have contact information."
Margo Keaton was an efficient looking woman in flats and horn rimmed glasses. Though obviously upset, she quickly printed out a copy of Judith Spicer's emergency information, listing her husband Tom's numbers and their home address. No business address was listed for Tom. Margo told Beckett that it was her understanding that he worked out of the Spicer apartment and could usually be found there.
Beckett and Castle went to make the notification. When they rang the bell, it took a while for Tom Spicer to open the door. "I'm sorry, I was on a conference call," he explained.
Beckett showed him her badge and asked if she and Castle could come in. Spicer opened the door. "What's this about?" he asked.
"Mr Spicer," Beckett told him as gently as she could, "I'm sorry, but your wife has been found dead."
Spicer ran his hands nervously through his hair. "That's crazy! I just saw her a couple of hours ago. She went to the lab."
"Mr. Spicer," Beckett soothed, "I'm very sorry for your loss, but that is where she was found."
Spicer seemed very shaky. Beckett asked him if he wanted to sit down and Castle got him a glass of water from the kitchen. Spicer sat, took a couple of sips of water and rolled the glass between his palms. Beckett and Castle pulled up chairs to face him, with Beckett beginning the questioning. "Mr. Spicer, was your wife in good health?"
"She just had a checkup. She was fine."
"Can you think of anyone who would want to hurt her?"
"No. She did good work, green chemistry. She helped build the company, gave people jobs. That's insane! There'd be no reason. Please, could you just leave me alone."
"I'm sorry," Castle told him, rising to leave.
Beckett rose as well, handing Spicer her card. "If you think of anything, call me, day or night."
In the hall outside the apartment Beckett put her head on Castle's shoulder as he held her. "You'd think that would get easier," she said, "but it doesn't."
"That's because you care," Castle told her. "You know what they feel. That's what makes you so very good. Castle kissed the top of her head as she snuggled tightly into the warmth penetrating even the wool of his coat.
Lanie called, saying she had some preliminary information. Beckett and Castle met her at the morgue. "Judith Spicer was poisoned," Lanie announced as they came in. "It was cyanide."
"Someone put it in her food?" Castle asked.
"Nope," Lanie answered. "She didn't have anything in her stomach but breakfast. It was hydrogen cyanide gas. She breathed it."
"How did that happen?" Beckett asked.
"Girlfriend, that's your department," Lanie told her. "I just know that she did. She died between seven and eight this morning."
Beckett called CSU to have them gather up anything at Leto labs that might have cyanide in it. Beckett and Castle returned to the 12th and Beckett called Esposito and Ryan to the murder board. Beckett filled in the time of death and wrote "breathed cyanide." "Espo," she said, "get financials on Judith Spicer. Ryan, start a canvass around Leto labs to see if anyone saw anything and get that lab tech, Tony Kolato in here.
Beckett and Castle sat across the table in the box from Tony Kolato. "Mr. Kolato, what can you tell us about Judith Spicer's work?"
"I don't know how much I'm allowed to tell you," the tech answered. "The stuff she was working on right now is supposed to be a trade secret. She had a special mix of protein and carbohydrate, all green, all bio-based. She added something to it to make it form a coating. It was supposed to resist all sorts of things and replace the chemicals they use for that now, that are being banned because they ruin the environment. That much is already public from presentations she made.
"Can you tell me if she used any cyanide?"
Tony looked at Beckett as if she had just grown horns. "No! She didn't use anything poisonous. That was the whole point of her work."
"What was your relationship with her?" Castle asked.
"We didn't have a relationship," Tony answered. "She was my boss. I ran tests for her, built equipment for her, pretty much whatever she wanted."
"Was she a good boss?" Beckett asked.
"She was," Tony answered without hesitation. "She gave me flexibility in my hours, let me leave if I needed to, listened to my ideas. She was probably the best boss I've ever had." Tony seemed to be fighting very hard to avoid tearing up.
Beckett stood and extended a hand. "Mr. Kolato, thank you very much for coming in."
"He liked her," Castle mused after Tony left.
Beckett nodded, "Maybe too much."
Castle and Beckett returned to the loft for a late supper. Martha was greatly excited about a new staring role she had won in a Broadway play. She regaled them over over savory quiche and white wine. She had made plans for her rival Maude to take over some of the teaching duties at the school and would be starting rehearsals in two days. Alexis also shared dinner and discussed her role as a researcher for a moot trial at Columbia.
When Alexis had gone back uptown and Martha had finally retired to her room to study her script, Castle and Beckett discussed the case over the last of the wine.
"Statistically, it's the husband," Beckett speculated. "He might have thought she was having an affair with Tony Kolato, or wanted to. But we have to ask how he would have gotten cyanide and how he would have gotten her to breathe it. Or Tony might have had an easier time with that if he was jealous of the husband. We need to see what CSU comes up with."
"I didn't read either of them as a murderer," Castle said.
"I didn't either," Beckett told him. "But I have to investigate anyway. You know that. Is there something else in that vivid imagination of yours?"
Castle leaned across the table to place a wine flavored kiss on Beckett's lips. "Beckett," he whispered. "You have no idea."
