Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold
Chapter Two
Later that afternoon, Lanie sent Beckett a text to let her know that she had found the identity of the woman, who was now lying in the morgue after being brutally stabbed to death, as far as the NYPD's coroner could tell as she spent the next several hours after she had arrived back at the station and began to examine her body. When both Beckett and Castle walked into the room, they found Lanie leaning over the body as she was staring close at something inside the woman's stomach.
"I got your text, Lanie," Kate spoke up as Lanie didn't appear to have heard them come in. "You said you found out who this woman was?"
"Yes," the coroner answered as she stood up straight and looked between Beckett and Castle. "Sorry, I was just looking closer at one of the stab wounds. It looks like you were right. This woman is a call girl by the name of Vivian Kirkpatrick, also known as, I kid you not, Scarlett O'Hara."
Castle got that look in his eye, the look that told the others in the room that he had just thought of a new wild theory, and then exclaimed, "I take it back. This case is going to be awesome."
Beckett rolled her eyes as she asked, "And why is that, Castle? Is it just because her call girl name is Scarlett O'Hara? It's not very original."
"No, but what are the odds that a beautiful woman with long, dark, curly hair like this, whose first name happens to be Vivian, would turn out to be someone, who has taken on the persona of that famous Southern Belle from Georgia," Castle replied.
"So what?" Lanie responded.
Castle stared at her as he continued, "So what? Scarlett O'Hara had a very similar look to our victim here and her name is the same as that of the famous actress that played her in Gone with the Wind, the great Vivian Leigh. What are the odds?"
Beckett glared at him and then said, "It's perfect luck, or maybe not, seeing as she's dead. What exactly does this have to do with her death?"
"What if Vivian didn't just make herself out to look like Miss. Scarlett and take on her name, but what if she took on her attitude as well and that's what killed her?" Rick answered. "Scarlett O'Hara was the queen of bitchiness and snobbery. Her killer may not have appreciated it when he called for her to join him last night. She could have said something to him that set him off."
"Do you honestly believe that a snooty comment or two was what caused our killer to do all this to her?" Kate asked as she pointed at several of the wounds in the woman's body. "Come on, Castle. That theory is weak, especially for you."
Rick shrugged and then replied, "You're probably right, but there is a possibility that I'm right too. I mean, with the world like it is today, I wouldn't be surprised if our killer killed this woman because she called him a… a… a butthead."
Kate nodded and responded, "Yeah, me neither now that you put it that way."
"Are you two finished yet?" Lanie asked as she finally spoke up again.
"Yes, sorry about that Lanie," Beckett answered.
Castle nodded and quickly added, "Me too."
Lanie smiled and then looked back down at the body as she continued, "After I got her fingerprints and put them through the databases, a police record popped up, which is how I found out who this woman is. Sixteen years ago, when she was only sixteen years old, she had been arrested for prostitution. I swear these girls get younger every day. It's terrible. Anyway, she wasn't in jail long since it was her first offense and she had just started out. She was given a big break. Sadly, it looks like she didn't allow it to help her out, seeing as she's here on my table, or my guess is that she couldn't get out. After you both suggested at the crime scene that she looked like a highly paid call girl, I did some research from a few web sites for this class of call girls while I was waiting for a test I ran to be finished. I found her, which is how I got Vivian's other name, at . This woman had an accent all right, but it certainly wasn't Southern. It was Russian and it turns out, she was originally from Ukraine. According to her police record, she was shipped over to the states from Russia when she was only fifteen. I have a feeling that she was probably forced into prostitution."
"That's awful," Castle replied sadly as he stared down at her. "Is there anything in her record that says what happened to this woman's parents or any other family she may have?"
"Unfortunately no," Lanie responded. "I'm afraid that's going to have to be your job. Go out and find the monster that did this to her, will you?"
Kate nodded her head and answered, "You know I will."
Once they both left the room, Rick looked over at Kate and then asked, "Are you doing all right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, then turned to look at him and said, "I was just thinking, it's possible that maybe Vivian finally fought to get out of this life and whoever is in charge of her, the people that run that web site maybe, found out about it. They may have killed her to keep her from leaving and running to the police."
"It's a good theory, but the way that the crime scene was laid out, it looks more like a crime of passion," Castle responded. "I mean, the amount of times our guy stabbed her…"
Beckett interrupted, "I know. Let's just start by heading over to where our web site, , originates from and have a chat with the scum that works there to see if they can't be of some help to us. I'll have Ryan work on trying to locate any of her loved ones, while Esposito goes off to track down the sleaze, who paid for the room and ordered out for our not so Southern Belle."
As Beckett walked forward, Castle paused as he called out, "You know, in all the great murder novels and movies, it's rarely the guy who called for the call girl to come up to his room, unless they're in a sleazy, rat infested hotel, which clearly this isn't the case. I doubt it's him. It's probably some rich guy, who has enough money to buy his freedom, even if… when we catch him."
"Way to show the optimism, Castle," Kate answered as Castle ran to catch up with her. "Maybe we'll get lucky. I think we're due for some luck by now."
"Oooh, what if our killer's name turns out to be either Rhett or Clark?" Rick said out loud as another thought suddenly came to his mind. "Wouldn't that be something?"
Beckett rolled her eyes again, then replied, "Right, and it's possible that Vivian was married three times, after her first two husbands died. I highly doubt it."
Castle smiled and responded, "Stranger things have happened."
