They had just exited the apartment building when Lanie called Kate. "Okay, we'll be right there." She hung up. "Lanie's got something," she informed Castle as they climbed in to the car. "Call Espo and let him know we'll be a while yet." Less than fifteen minutes later the pair walked into the morgue. "What's up Lanie?" Kate asked as they entered. Before the other woman could reply, Castle made a choking noise from behind her.
"Uh… is, is that what I…?" Kate turned around, surprised at how inarticulate the author had become. She followed his gaze to a tray lying on a table near the body, and suddenly understood his confusion.
"Lanie?" the detective asked, quickly looking back at her friend.
"It's an artificial penis," Lanie confirmed as she beckoned the pair over to the table with the body.
Silence reigned for several moments. "Why did our victim have a… that?" Kate threw a surprised look at Rick; she'd never known him to deliberately avoid words before.
"Because your victim is transsexual," Lanie replied, stopping by the body. "Look," she continued, "if I lift up the one of the pectoral muscles, you can just see the scar from the mastectomy." Sure enough, her finger traced a faint white line that was neatly hidden by the muscle above it. "And he had testicular implants to go with the prosthesis." She began to pull back the sheet that lay over the body's lower half.
"We'll take your word for it, Lanie," Kate assured the other woman.
Lanie shot Kate a look. "I wanted you to see this." With that, the M.E. pulled the sheet away from the body's left leg and pointed at the thigh.
Kate had to lean in for a closer look. "A needle stick?" she asked, looking at the red dot.
"I did some digging," Lanie said as the detective straightened up, "and I'm guessing that your boy here was receiving testosterone injections."
"Thank you Internet," Rick commented.
Lanie nodded agreement, but her eyes said that she was lost in thought. "What is it, Lanie?" Kate asked.
For a long moment, Lanie didn't speak. "Kate," she finally said, "you know that I would never tell you how to do your job, right?" The detective nodded. "Well, one of the web sites that I found listed some rather disturbing statistics."
"Like?" Kate prompted.
"Like the fact that in the last twelve months almost three hundred transgender people were murdered in hate crimes."
Silence reigned in the morgue for several long moments. "It's definitely a possible motive," Kate finally said. "What about cause of death?" She could feel Castle's incredulous look, but he wisely kept his mouth shut.
As she'd hoped, the question jolted Lanie out of her reverie. "There's gunshot residue on his chest, so he was shot at close range. I haven't opened him up yet, but given the amount of blood we found I'm willing to bet that the bullet pierced his aorta. I know from the size of the hole that it was a small caliber gun, but CSU hadn't found the bullet before I left." Lanie lifted a questioning eyebrow at Kate.
"I haven't heard anything," Kate told her.
"Well, I'll call you if I find anything else," Lanie stated.
"Thanks," Kate told her friend. As she exited the morgue, Kate looked around at Castle. "You're awfully quiet," she observed.
"Just thinking," he assured her.
"Got any theories you'd like to share with the class?"
"What if the people in Rod's life didn't know that he was a transsexual? Then someone finds out, feels betrayed, and-" He mimed shooting a gun.
Kate couldn't help but nod in agreement as they climbed back into the car. "It's a theory. Let's see what Ryan and Espo have found."
On returning to the Twelfth, Kevin Ryan printed both financials and phone records for Stonebender, passed the latter off to Javier, and skimmed the former. He was just finishing his notes when Beckett and Castle returned. "So what did Lanie have?" he asked, trailing after the pair to the murder board.
"Our victim is transsexual," Beckett replied, uncapping a marker and adding the information to the board. "Did Jamison mention anything about that in your interview?"
Kevin quickly thought back to his own conversation with Stonebender's roommate, and exchanged a surprised glance with Javi. "Um, no," he informed Beckett as she turned back to the group. "I take it he didn't say anything to you either."
Beckett shook her head. "I'll be speaking with him again. What have you two found?"
"I've been going over Stonebender's financials," Kevin stated, holding up the printouts. "Nothing too out of the ordinary. Withdrawals every month match what Jamison told us was the vic's portion of the rent and utilities. Then there are routine deposits that must be payment for the private lessons the vic gave."
"Private lessons?" Beckett asked.
"Yeah, apparently Stonebender helped make ends meet by giving private trombone lessons to local high school and college students," Kevin explained. "There are also routine withdrawals for things like groceries. But what I can't figure out are these random cash withdrawals." He passed the printout over to Beckett and motioned to the highlighted areas. "The amounts are usually small, no more than forty or so-"
"A lot of people carry about that much in cash," Castle interrupted.
"Yeah, but then two days ago, he withdrew two thousand."
"No one carries that much cash with them," Beckett stated, "unless they're involved in something illegal." She got up from the desk and headed for the murder board, where Javi had already posted a photo of the body, a headshot supplied by the roommate, and had started a timeline. Picking up the marker, Beckett carefully noted the large withdrawal two days prior to the murder. "Good work Ryan," she commented as she turned back to the group. "What about you, Espo? Anything in the phone records?"
"Not much. He made frequent calls to several cell phones and one out-of-state number; other than that he mostly texted the band to arrange practices and gigs."
"Do you have names to go with those numbers?"
"Not yet. But Jamison said that the band is supposed to get together to practice this morning at the club."
"Any luck tracking down the next of kin?"
Javi nodded. "Yeah. Father lives in Pittsburgh, but the younger brother and sister are here in town. They're on their way in."
"Okay, you and Ryan go talk to the band. Castle and I will wait here-"
"Detective Beckett?" Kevin looked over his shoulder to see Officer Jennings. "Your victim's family is here." The officer motioned to where a young man and woman stood near the door of the lounge.
"Thanks Jennings," Beckett replied. "Get going, you two," she murmured to Kevin and Javi as she headed towards the pair.
Kevin kept his voice equally low. "You got it Boss," he told her back.
Author's Note: Unfortunately, those statistics quoted by Lanie are true.