Chapter 10

The next day, they went back to Dynagene, and spoke to the same security manager. He pulled up a listing of all employees who were scheduled to work that Monday, then filtered it so only the women were listed. One by one he displayed their badge activity. Three women had no activity, other than at the exterior door.

Kate requested, and was given, a conference room to conduct interviews. Two of the women turned out to be ill that day. They were not too sick to work, but they were advised by their supervisors to stay out of clean areas, so that their viruses did not contaminate the product. The third woman could not be located. The trio left Dynagene, armed with her name, Stephanie Anderson.

Back at the precinct, Kate sent Ryan and Esposito to Stephanie's house to see if they could bring her in for questioning. While they were gone, Castle showed up to take her to lunch. Since they might have a suspect coming in at any time, they ordered in. As they were finishing, the guys returned, escorting a pretty brunette. Kate motioned toward the interview room.

Rick was watching all of the activity with interest, and Kate was watching Rick. He reminded her of a cat sitting in a window, watching birds fly around, just twitching and waiting for a chance to catch one. She took pity on him. As she stood up to go conduct the interview, she looked over her shoulder at him and said "You coming or what?"

He jumped up faster than if she'd fired a starter pistol. He followed her into the interview room and they took "their" places across from Stephanie. Because she looked at him curiously, Kate introduced him.

"This is Mr. Castle, he's just observing."

"He's not JUST anything" Stephanie gushed. "That's RICK Castle, I'd know him anywhere. Oh my gosh it's so cool to be in the same room with you." This last was directed, naturally, at Rick.

He smiled patiently and looked at Kate. Inwardly Kate wanted to puke, she hated these fawning women. But they could use it to their advantage. She looked back to him, raising one eyebrow, then glanced to Stephanie. They had played these roles before. Star struck fans sometimes had the tendency to be too distracted to maintain their lies. And they would readily answer any question he posed to them.

"Mrs. Anderson…"he began

"It's Miss, actually, but please, call me Steph"

"Very well, then, Steph. We were hoping you could clear up a few things for us."

"Sure, anything" she interrupted again.

"Thanks. We have been trying to figure out who is responsible for the dead body that was found at your place of employment on Tuesday morning. According to the logs for the security badges, you entered on Monday afternoon at 3pm, and left at 11pm. However the logs don't show you moving around the building during that time. Why is that?"

"Maybe because I wasn't there."

"But the system shows you coming through the front door." Kate joined in.

"No, the system shows my badge coming through the front door. There is no camera there. I was playing hooky, so I got a friend to badge me in and out. I work alone anyway, no one would notice if I was actually missing. I was home watching TV. Good baseball on that night." Stephanie sat back, still beaming at Rick, even though Kate was asking questions too.

"One other question, did you know Judy or Matt Poirier?"

"Who? Sorry, never heard of them."

Beckett thanked Stephanie and left the room. Castle had risen from his chair and was just about to leave when something that she said dawned on him. "You said you were home all night, the night in question, watching TV. How exactly did you manage that when there was a blackout? You see, I noticed in your file that we live on the same street. It was a small localized outage, a blown transformer…"

Stephanie's worshiping smile transformed into a sneer in the blink of an eye. She pulled a tiny gun from her pocket, and pointed it at him. He laughed to himself. Why was he always getting himself taken hostage in the police station? She moved around the table and pressed the gun to his side.

"Now listen, smart guy. You and I are going to walk out of here. You WILL make it appear as though we just hit it off and are going out. Any funny business and I shoot you." He nodded slowly, but all the while his agile mind was examining all of the possible options and outcomes. A plan began to form.

Beckett kept glancing over her shoulder at the door to the interview room. What was taking him so long in there? She rose from her desk, intent on checking on him, when the door opened and he appeared, side-by-side with Stephanie. Kate was thunderstruck. Stephanie's arm was wrapped around his waist, and her flirty smile had been turned up about 100 watts. For his part, his hands were in his pants pockets, and he had a faint indulgent smile, the one he usually reserved for groupies. When he caught sight of Kate standing there, his steps faltered but only for a second.

"Ahh, Detective Beckett. Listen, I am very sorry to do this to you, but I am going to have to reschedule our interview. Something's come up." He said, tilting his head slightly toward Stephanie.

Kate was speechless with disbelief. Was he really turned so easily? How could he do this to her, right under her nose? And what the HELL was he talking about, what interview?. But then she caught the look. He was giving her his best penetrating gaze, then he looked downward, toward her pocket. She reached down, and a second later, her phone buzzed in her hand. "Uh, ok, no problem Mr. Castle. We can reschedule. Excuse me, I don't mean to be rude, but I need to check this, I have been waiting for some lab results." She produced her phone from her pocket and checked the display, then quickly cleared it. 911 GUN was all the message said. It was 3 characters more than she needed to understand the situation.

She was careful to keep her expression neutral, as she stepped aside to let the "happy twosome" pass. As soon as Stephanie's back was to her, Kate stepped up and grabbed the woman by the hair, yanking her backward. There was a brief struggle, and then Kate had the unfortunate woman subdued.

Beckett stood up and blew the hair out of her eyes. She handed Stephanie over to Esposito and Ryan. "You OK, Castle?" She looked over him, where he was rubbing at his side. He was grinning like a moron, practically bouncing. "What?" She asked, although she already sensed what was coming.

"You, in a girl fight. Over ME. SO hot."