Chapter 2
The drive back to the precinct was tense. Castle didn't know what to say. This case was obviously drawing a parallel to Beckett's mother's case. A pretty close parallel if you asked him. Yes, Kate had been older when her mother was killed, but he thought that difference was minor. Either way was devastating. Watching Caroline Masters pack a bag, throwing in pictures of her and her mother, basically packing like she didn't think she would come back, twisted a knot in his gut. Johanna Beckett wasn't murdered in her home; Kate and her father stayed there. Castle seriously doubted that Henry or Caroline Masters would ever spend another night in that apartment.
Castle looked over at Beckett. She glanced at him. "What?"
"Where do we start with this one?"
"The same place we always do. I'll go set up the board. Lanie will hopefully be done with the autopsy pretty soon. Then we'll start with the list of people who had access to the apartment. Go through her appointment book and work backwards through her life. Something will give. Like you said. This was a crime of passion. The killer knew her. He had to."
"What if he didn't know her? What if he was just a psychopath? What if he was a she?"
"Profiling would tell us it's a he. It's not 100%, but you can probably take it to the bank. Psychopath is possible, but he still got into her apartment without breaking in which means he had the code to the keypad, or he was already in when she went to sleep."
"You think she was having an affair?"
"Anything is possible at this point. I wouldn't rule it out."
"Hmmm. I don't think she had an affair. Doesn't feel right. Stalker maybe. Was it me or did she look younger than thirty-seven? I mean, that's pretty young anyway to be a partner at a prestigious law firm like Bailey/Weinberg. They just do Corporate, Tax and Estate right? Shouldn't have clients that would kill like this."
"I've said it before, Castle; everyone looks like a killer to me. A stalker is possible. You're right about her looking young. Makes me anxious to see what Lanie finds. We'll eventually get to her client list. But I'm not sure what we'll find there."
They got to the precinct and Kate found that Esposito and Ryan had already started the murder board. A picture of Eliza Walker was on the left of the board along with pictures of Henry and Caroline Masters.
Kate studied the board. "How long were they married?"
"Fifteen years this past May." Esposito responded. "They married after her first year of law school just after he finished his PhD."
"Who are these people?" Castle wondered. "She finished her first year of law school at 22? He finished his dissertation at 24? Einstein's grandchildren?"
Ryan chimed in, "And this wasn't Ithaca State we're talking about. Harvard Law and MIT aren't the easiest schools to get into. These are brilliant people. The daughter must be bright too. She's in the ninth grade at some exclusive all-girls school here in the city."
"Oooh. Bramley Prep. The only private school in Manhattan that I wasn't expelled from. I did kicked out once, but only because I was caught naked with the captain of the basketball team in the basement." Castle reminisced. "Molly Lassiter. Wow. What a memory. She was like 5'10" with legs that went on forever. She was a grade ahead of me. Showed me how it was done."
Beckett stared at him slightly shaking her head. He caught her eye and waggled his eyebrows at her causing her to roll her eyes.
"Aww, come on Beckett. You're telling me you didn't have any encounters in high school?"
"I was a late bloomer, Castle. Didn't have my first boyfriend until my senior year. Most of my 'encounters' took place in college."
"Most, but not all. The high school boyfriend never got lucky?" Ryan added.
"Sorry boys, I don't kiss and tell. Even twelve years later."
"I wasn't talking about kissing, Kate." Castle stated.
"He must have thought he hit the jackpot, dating a model and all." Ryan quipped. Beckett's head spun around. Esposito threw a pen at him.
"She's going to kill you, man." He whispered.
"Model?" Castle didn't miss much. "You were a model?" He looked at Beckett.
"Don't get all excited, Castle. It was a summer job. Not nearly as glamorous as it sounds." Kate shot daggers at Ryan with her eyes.
"I want pictures." Castle looked to Ryan who mouthed "later" to him. Kate was getting pretty uncomfortable now. Her phone rang just in time.
"Beckett."
"Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I'm finished with the autopsy on Eliza Walker whenever you're ready. Also I've cleaned up her phone for you and it still works. Looks like she kept her calendar on it. Thought you might want it." Parish informed.
"Thanks. I'll be right down."
"Just you? What happened to Writer Boy?"
"He's about to show up on your slab. Along with Ryan. I'll be arrested for a double homicide before the day is over." Castle and Ryan looked over at her with Cheshire cat grins.
"Oh, Funny girl. You know you can't kill Castle. Not until you've had some fun with him at least."
"Lanie, don't go there." Kate blushed and Castle knew something was up. "We'll be right down."
On the way to the morgue, Castle started in again. "Where was Dr. Parish going?"
"Huh?" Kate looked genuinely confused.
"You said, 'Lanie, don't go there.' Where was she going?"
Kate blushed again. "None of your business, Castle."
"Okay." Castle changed gears, "So, a model, huh? Your boyfriend really must have thought he hit the jackpot."
"I don't think he really even knew. Not many people did. I was tall and really skinny, so I could do the job and I thought it would be better than waitressing. My mom was really glad it was only one summer. She didn't like it."
That steered them back towards the case. Castle shifted gears again. "You know I over heard the husband and his brother talking when he got here. The brother was really broken up too. They called her 'Liza.' They seem like really good people."
"Well, Esposito and Ryan checked out the husband's alibi and it holds. Not a big surprise there. Ryan also talked to the neighbors who were shocked. Said that she was the nicest person. Always polite. Always smiling. Eliza Walker never forgot a birthday. She brought coffee cakes during the holidays. They never heard her utter a curse word and never heard any fights."
"Liza sounds like a virtual saint so far. Unusual for a lawyer." Castle and Beckett gowned up and walked into the morgue.
"Mr. Castle," Lanie greeted, "Glad to see you're still breathing."
"Beckett won't kill me; she wants me too badly."
Lanie shot Beckett a look. Beckett shook her head slightly and said, "In your dreams, Castle."
"You got that right." He quipped back. "So Dr. Parish, do tell. What happened to Liza?"
Dr. Parish walked them over to the table where Eliza Parish was sporting the classic Y incision. She pulled the sheet down revealing all of the stab wounds from her neck down to her belly button.
"Oh my God." Castle remarked. "What the hell? How many stab wounds are there?"
"Eleven." Lanie remarked. "The first one was here." She said pointing to the left side of the neck. "And it was fatal. He went in at an angle, slicing the carotid, cutting into the trachea and esophagus and nicking the spine."
"So he was right-handed." Castle noted.
Lanie was impressed. She nodded at him. "Exactly. The rest of the wounds were pure mutilation. Three more wounds to the neck and seven to the chest and abdomen. I miss counted at the crime scene because two of the wounds overlap in the neck and there are several close together on the abdomen. I believe he was making sure he hit the aorta, but it was, if you pardon the term, overkill."
"Can you tell us anything else about her assailant?" Beckett asked.
"I believe it was a man. He was approximately six feet tall."
"How can you tell?" Castle asked.
"The killer straddled her as he struck her with the knife on the first blow. There is fine spray due to the force of the blood through the carotid and the air coming from the trachea. I don't have an exact height, but I'm estimating about six feet from the trajectory of the spray and how much our killer blocked. I really don't know how he got out of there without being noticed. He must have been covered in blood."
"Anything unusual about our vic?" Kate was maintaining her cool, but inside she was raging.
"I'm assuming you know she was pregnant." Kate nodded. Lanie continued. "Fourteen weeks. A boy. I took DNA just in case we end up having to look at paternity. There was no sign of sexual assault, but evidence that she had sex in the last 48 hours. Stomach contents were scant. Looked like she might have had cherry ice cream before she went to bed. She suffered from asthma and allergies. Had Singulair in her system, otherwise the tox screen was clean. She had black fibers under her fingernails which possibly came from our assailant." Lanie reached behind her and grabbed a baggie containing a platinum wedding band with three small diamonds inlaid, a brilliant cut one carat diamond in a platinum setting, a diamond solitaire pendant and two diamond stud earrings. "This was all of the jewelry she was wearing." Kate looked at the baggie and immediately thought of Caroline.
"Here is her phone." Lanie gave that to Kate as well. "It's clean and I dusted for prints, but I only found hers. I turned it off for cleaning, but I checked and it still works."
Kate looked at the iPhone. She hoped it held a clue, but deep down she sensed it was a dead end. She just shook her head. "I need to go back to that apartment. I need to know who she was. None of this makes sense." Castle nodded. Since the family was there when the police got there, it was hard for them to look around properly. Especially with the daughter, Caroline, moving about the apartment and watching their every move. Kate needed to go back when it was quiet and spend some time there.
"Lanie, can you check around in the ME records and see if there is anything similar to tie with this?" Kate was thinking of her mother's case and the information that Castle found. She wouldn't make that mistake on this one, and she could trust Lanie. Neither Castle nor Lanie missed the connection, and it gave Castle the tiniest bit of satisfaction that he could possibly help the case.
Back in the car, Castle was quiet. It was very obvious Kate was preoccupied with the case. He couldn't keep his mind off of it either. Absolutely nothing stood out as a motive or suspect. He was hoping Lanie found something that might provide a link. What really didn't make sense was that the crime scene reeked of "crime of passion." The only thing missing was hard evidence. No fingerprints. No hair. Only the fibers from underneath Eliza's fingernails. Would a professional killer disguise a murder as a crime a passion? And then we're back to motive. "Motive. No motive."
"What?"
"I keep thinking about this. I go round and round, but every time I come back around to there's no apparent motive for this. Maybe we'll find something at the apartment."
"Yeah. Hope so." Beckett's brow wrinkled. If she wasn't driving she'd be chewing her nails. There was something about this case that made her nervous. It was like her mother's, but like Castle says, "There's always a story." This was not going to be classified as a "random act of violence." She was going to solve it. Caroline was going to have closure. Why does she get closure but I don't? Because I'm the only one standing in the way. Maybe I just don't want to give Castle the satisfaction. Really? That's it? Is that who I've become? No, that's not it.
"I gave Ryan the phone. Hopefully he can trace her week. Check her emails, texts. See who she was in contact with. Hopefully that will open things up. Also, I need to talk to the husband. See if they had sex in the last 48 hours."
"Always comes back to sex with you Detective."
Her eyes rolled, but she was having a difficult time fighting the smile. "What can I say, Castle, you must be rubbing off on me."
"Oh, there are so many ways to respond to that one…"
"Keep them to yourself." Kate pulled the car into the underground garage that was attached to the apartment building. No sense leaving the car out in the weather. It was still snowing, but it was supposed to turn to sleet.
They got out of the car and went straight to the elevators. Using the passcode given to Beckett by the building manager, they went right up to the 42nd floor. Walking to the door of 4207, Beckett froze. "Where's the police tape? What's going on?"
Castle looked around. "You sure we're on the right floor? The whole floor looks different."
"Yeah. 4207. But you're right." Kate walked to the end of the hallway where there was a window. "We're in the wrong building. Damn twin buildings. Must not have been paying attention to the elevator."
They hopped back on the elevator and rode back down to the garage. "I know you like the way I smell, but if you want to be trapped in a small room with me, really all you have to do is ask." Castle jibed. He couldn't help himself today. The mood about this case was so oppressive his subconscious kept prompting him to lighten things up.
Kate's impulses got the better of her. As they stepped off the elevator, she leaned in closer to Castle, putting her nose really close to his collar. She inhaled deeply and was obvious about it. Stepping back she said "That should hold me until we get to the other elevator." Castle was speechless as Kate walked away. And they rode up the elevator in silence.
Bypassing the police tape, they entered the apartment with a totally different attitude. The goal was to find out whom Eliza Walker was and what possible motive could someone have to viciously murder her. Beckett and Castle gloved up and started walking around. This is where Castle was a natural. Snooping was one of his favorite pastimes. The foyer was relatively empty. All it said to them was "class." A Lalique vase was sitting on a small chest. There was an interesting piece of artwork that was framed. Upon closer inspection they could see it was created by Caroline Masters two years earlier.
"A forty thousand dollar vase with a child's rendition of a Monet. That says class and family." To the left of the foyer was a dining room. It was classy and antique, with interesting art on the walls and a festive centerpiece on the table. It looks like Eliza Walker was just starting to decorate for the holidays. They walked through to the kitchen. This room looked lived in.
It was very sleek and professional looking. The kitchen was well stocked with food, spices, pots, pans, and appliances. On the counter was a Tupperware container. Castle couldn't contain his curiosity, He opened the lid. "Jackpot!" Thirty little cookies with walnuts and oval depressions in them. Castle took one and popped it into his mouth, "Mmmmm."
"Castle! What the hell are you doing?"
"What?" He spoke around the cookie in his mouth. "I'm hungry and they're really good." He continued to chew and then swallow. "I don't know what they are, but very yummy. Want one?" He offered the container to her.
"No, I don't want one. And they're Jam Thumbprints without the jam. Caroline was right. Her mom had made them for her class book club. This woman was Martha Stewart and a savvy lawyer. Don't eat any more cookies Castle. This is a crime scene remember?"
"Aww. Fine. But we are getting food when we leave. What did you eat today?" A look crossed her face. "You haven't eaten anything have you?"
"I guess coffee doesn't count."
"No! Coffee doesn't count."
"I have a frozen Snickers bar in the car. I meant to eat it on the way over this morning, but I forgot to."
"A frozen Snickers bar? Really, Detective, you are smarter than that." He scolded. "You need to take better care of yourself. Don't make me show you how."
Kate turned and looked at him. She couldn't read his voice and tried reading his face. He didn't sound teasing; he sounded like he cared. The look on his face was not any easier to read. She was afraid she was seeing what she wanted to see instead of how he actually felt. She shook her head as if to clear her mind and turned back to her observations. There was a cork board and a dry erase board on the wall behind the small kitchen table. A big desk calendar hung next to the cork board. Kate walked over and studied it. It only went back five days because it was only December 6th. November was gone.
The horse show was on the calendar as well as the fact that only Henry and Caroline were going. She could see concerts, soccer games and a Christmas play for Caroline. They had family plans to see the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular, The Nutcracker and Handel's Messiah as part of their holiday festivities. There was a party planned for one Saturday evening in two weeks, a day after her 16 week doctor's appointment. Castle came up and stood next to her.
"Wow. It's as normal as normal can be. Maybe her personal calendar will tell us more."
"I also need to see her doctor. See if he can shed some light on how she felt about the pregnancy." Castle looked at her quizzically. "If she was having an affair, maybe she was apprehensive." He nodded.
They moved on to the living room, which struck them as "lived in" like the kitchen. Here there were lots of shelves with DVDs and Blu-ray discs, many books (a few of Castle's), and many, many photographs. They were family photos mostly, happy moments between the three of them. They had traveled around the world it seemed. There were pictures of them in Beijing during the Olympics, in Australia on the bridge in Sydney, on safari in Africa, and in front of Mayan ruins. "They certainly made a lot of memories. At least she'll have those." Kate murmured. She squatted down and opened one of the cabinets under the shelves. It was full of scrapbooks and photo albums. It was very clear that Henry and Eliza loved Caroline very much. Their lives seemed centered around her.
Walking down the hallway towards the bedrooms, they stopped in a room to the right. The study. There was a spot where the computer was, but it was gone. CSU took the CPU and the Mac and the laptop that was Eliza's. Kate sat down at the only desk in the room. Looking at the bookshelves, she determined that they shared it. There were law books and chemistry books and engineering books. And there were diplomas. She got her Bachelors degree from UVA and her law degree from Harvard. He got his Bachelors from UVA as well and his PhD from MIT. "She was the editor of the Harvard Law Review, the same year the Caroline was born. This woman was brilliant. Holy Cow." Castle remarked.
There wasn't anything in the study that was remarkable. The only reason Kate came up with for killing Eliza was pure jealousy. She was beautiful, had a beautiful family, had money and she was incredibly bright. There were three more rooms off the hallway before the master: Caroline's room, a guest room and a bathroom. They had already looked around Caroline's room and the other two were of no interest. Castle and Beckett headed for the master.
As they walked in, the smell hit them with brute force. Kate put the sleeve of her sweater over her mouth and Castle grabbed the neckline of his sweater and pulled it over his mouth. With the amount of blood that was shed, even though CSU took the bedding with them, with the amount that remained on the floor, walls and ceiling the room still reeked of decomposing blood. Kate went through the bedroom while Castle went to the bathroom and closet. Looking through the bedside table, dresser and chest of drawers everything seemed normal to Kate. Henry and Eliza had classic and expensive taste in clothing. There were lots of pictures around the bedroom of the couple and a few of Caroline. This was clearly a sanctuary for them. There was no television in the room, but there was an iPod dock. Kate switched it on just to see what kind of music Eliza listened to.
The playlist contained classical music, jazz, a little country, some r&b and some pop music. A song came on that she couldn't place and had never heard before. She looked at the iPod, and it was a singer named Corey Smith, the song was "Be the Change." Kate liked it. She was getting to know Eliza Walker and Kate thought she would have liked her. She headed to the bathroom to see if Castle found anything, letting the music continue to play softly. She found him in the closet. He had his back to her and he was looking through a box of something Kate couldn't see.
"Something you want to share with the class, Castle?"
"My mother has a saying, 'Men want Emily Post in the parlor, Julia Child in the kitchen and Fredrick's of Hollywood in the bedroom. That's their idea of the perfect wife.' I'm thinking that Eliza Walker was close to that."
"What makes you say that?"
"Well, we've seen the kitchen and the parlor…" He stood up and grabbed a slinky, see-through negligee off the hanger. "I imagine Henry liked this."
"Castle, they were married. And that's pretty expensive lingerie. That doesn't make her 'Fredrick's of Hollywood.'"
"Okay, but how about this?" He held up a black lace teddy and garter belt. He grinned. "And then there's this box of sex toys that I found…" He stepped to the side and let Kate have a look.
Kate stepped over and looked in the box. Nodding her head, she said, "Okay….Wow. I don't even know what…." Castle watched her cheeks turn pink. Kate Beckett blushing over sex toys? "Alright maybe she was a little slutty in the bedroom. I mean they were married for fifteen years. I guess you do whatever it takes to keep it interesting. I really don't think this is pertinent to the case though. So put it back."
"You said you wanted to know her. That's all I was doing. Trying to figure out who she is. I think that this kind of shoots a giant hole in any affair theory." Castle shoved the box back under the hanging clothes and put the lingerie back on its hangers.
"Why would you say that?"
"From my experience the sex life disappears when the wife has an affair. Appetite is gone. Men are the opposite, or so I've heard." Castle stared off into space with a serious look on his face. "When Meredith had her affair, I was always initiating and she made excuses most of the time. There was definitely nothing like this."
Kate just looked at him. Castle generally did not let his guard down and she was waiting for the punch line. When she realized that this was the truth and not a joke, Kate was stunned. So that's what happened with him and the Deep Fried Twinkie. Kate always assumed that it had been Castle who strayed. Well you know what they say about people who assume. "I'm sorry Castle. That must have been very difficult with Alexis."
"It was. It was even harder because she refused to try to work it out. She refused counseling. Even Alexis wasn't worth it to her to stay. I mean, don't get me wrong, she loves Alexis that just isn't who Meredith is."
Even now he defends her. He really is a good guy under that 'bad boy' exterior.
"What? You okay, Kate? You're staring at me."
With a slight shake of her head she said, "You just surprised me, that's all."
"Yeah, well, all I'm saying is that I don't think Liza Walker was having an affair." He walked into the bedroom again with Beckett following close behind. "Oh I love this song."
Kate stopped to listen and then rolled her eyes. It was AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." "You would love this song, Castle."
"What? You don't?"
"It's okay. Not on my iPod though."
"What is on your iPod?"
She ignored his question. Her eyes were tracking from the bed to the wall to the ceiling and back to the bed. Her expression was pained. "I just can't get it. I can't think of any motive that would suggest….I need to talk to Henry Masters. Come on Castle, let's go."
"No."
"No?"
"No. I'm not going anywhere right now except to get something to eat. It's almost six and I haven't eaten since early this morning and you haven't eaten all day. You're going to pass out if you don't eat something."
"Castle, I have gone a long time without eating before. I'll be fine." Beckett started walking towards the door.
"Well, if you're going to drive me around this city, you need to be well fed. You're not going to black out and drive us into the East River." Castle followed her.
"You can always get a cab."
"And leave you to pass out behind the wheel? Who would be your white knight? No way, I'm riding with you."
"Okay. We'll eat." Beckett said as she locked the door. "White knight, Castle? Really? You're going to save my ass?"
"Hey, that's not fair. I saved your life once. And as far your ass goes…"
"Zip it, Castle."
"You brought it up."
They rode down the elevator in silence. The case wasn't even a day old and it was already getting to them. Neither of them spoke until they were back in the car again.
"Where are we going to eat?"
"My place."
"Castle, we are not going to your place to eat."
"Why not? I made some really great chili last night. And I live not too far from here. Look, there isn't a whole lot more we can do with this case until tomorrow. We'll talk to Henry Masters and her law firm and maybe we'll find a friend of hers who can shed some light on all of this. You can call Esposito and get him to set it all up. We'll get a fresh start in the morning."
She had to admit he was probably right on every account. And with the really crappy and cold weather outside, chili sounded divine. "Okay, Castle. You win. We eat chili at your place." She almost told him no funny business, but part of her deep, down inside wished he would make a move. Kate pulled into a spot near his apartment, and they proceeded into the building, both of them trying to figure out how they were going to find this killer.
