Disclaimer: HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO REPEAT MYSELF
A/N:
I honestly didn't mean for this chapter to take so long, but I had a month of writers block, followed by a month of intensive research (I re-watched Castle beginning to end), and now I'm back! I did promise you guys that I'd never give up on the story, and that promise still stands, so don't worry about abandonment issues.
Thanks to Andy for sending me a lovely review, his name will appear in the story within the next few chapters. Also huge thanks to MissMiaPotter-AshSun19680 for putting some (much needed) pressure on me to write this! And, of course, thanks to my editor for...editing.
Read and review this chapter, and hopefully the next one will be out in a reasonable amount of time!
Cheers!
Ana
While the Wizarding forensics lab may have served the same general purposes as its muggle equivalent, its appearance and atmosphere carried the air of a medieval alchemy lab.
Despite the late hour, wizards clad in strictly violet work robes noisily bustled about the room, throwing slimy ingredients into cauldrons, firing up toxic-looking materials, and occasionally yelling at one another for no reason at all. To a newcomer like Richard Castle, the scene seemed oddly surreal, but the auror team took no notice in the flashes of brightly coloured light or the occasional explosions.
"It's too bad I can't write about all this," muttered Rick to no one in particular as a froggy-looking wizard nearest to him used his wand to sort through shapes appearing from a cloud of mist.
Nikita looked back at him curiously.
"What are you so fascinated with? It's not all that interesting once the novelty wears off, trust me," she told him, dodging a flying cauldron as she turned the corner.
Ryan and Travis led the way to a stone table in the far corner of the room, hidden away from view by a series of stone pillars.
"Skiff!" exclaimed a burly purple-clad wizard from behind the pillar, "how've you been ol' man? It's good to see you!" the wizard made a sour face when he saw Ryan. "Can't say the same for you, Alden. I hope you burn in hell."
"I see you're working hard as always, Dickman," grinned Ryan, picking up a copy of Witch Weekly off the table and waving it in front if the man's nose.
"It's Dykeman!" corrected the wizard angrily.
"Whatever," Ryan dismissed, pulling out the vial of hue from his trouser pocket. "Why don't you run some tests for us to determine what spell this was, and possibly the spellmaker as well."
"Only for Skiff here," contended Dykeman, snatching the vial roughly from Ryan's outstretched hand.
From a few meters away, Nikita and Rick both watched the situation unfold.
"Dickman doesn't seem too happy with dear old Ryan there," whispered Castle, leaning close to Nikita's ear. She flinched as his warm breath tickled her ear, but didn't move an inch.
"Ryan pantsed him back at Hogwarts and Dykeman has been holding a grudge ever since," she explained, still looking straight ahead.
"Ah, a teenage pantsing incident leaves an insecure man emotionally unstable for the remainder of his pathetic life," remarked Castle grimly. "Classic," he added with a fond smile.
"Why, did something like that happen to you, Castle?" smirked Nikita, squinting up at him. "That would explain the lasting damage to your brain."
"Please, I'm hardly what you would call insecure," commented Castle, pretending to dramatically flip imaginary hair over his shoulder.
Stepping aside, Nikita casually pulled out her wand to deflect a shower of green slime that had exploded from a nearby cauldron, leaving Rick to be drenched in the smelly liquid.
"Oh come on!" he complained, attempting to shake the slime off his coat. "And for the record, I was the one doing the pantsing. The guy still won't talk to me."
"I doubt the poor man needs a reason to not talk to you," said Nikita. "I'd kill for a chance like that."
"It's too bad you have to save my life instead," Castle paused, and turned to stare Nikita straight in the eye. "But I'm ALL for pantsing you, if that's what you fancy."
Nikita wasn't sure whether to be offended or amused, so instead she decided to turn her attention back to the stone table, which was now giving off sparks as Dykeman spun the spell hue in what appeared to be a handmade centrifuge.
"Any luck, Skiff?" she called out. The man in question turned to look at her, raising an eyebrow at Castle's slimy appearance, and made a face.
"Come see for yourself," he nodded towards the table. "We didn't expect anything like it."
Nikita approached the table, and gave a curt nod to Dykeman, who half-heartedly grumbled something in response.
"Did you pantse him too?" said Castle in her ear, leaning in to get a good look at the centrifuge.
Nikita nudged him with her elbow to make him step back, but the man refused to budge.
"The spell fired by our assassin was a simple melting charm," said Travis, drumming his knuckles against the glass jar which now contained the swirling lilac mist.
"What? But that doesn't make any sense!" exclaimed Nikita. "Why would someone set out to murder shoot a melting charm?"
Ryan and Travis shrugged in unison. Dykeman shot a nasty glare at Ryan, then spoke up.
"It will make even less sense when I tell you that this specific spell is entirely harmless against humans. It may have melted your door, but had it hit its target, it would have simply bounced off and melted the nearest piece of furniture it encountered."
A moment of stunned silence followed Dykeman's declaration, during which the aurors simply stared at the whirling mist inside the jar. Upon registering this information, everyone suddenly launched into action. Travis slapped Dykeman on the shoulder and bounded off towards the exit, Ryan cast a copying spell on the self-writing notepad on the table and grabbed a copy for himself, and Nikita took out her phone and dialed the Captain's number.
###
A few minutes later, the auror team (and Castle) were back in the office, standing around the murderboard in puzzlement. Captain Daniel Hayes' face displayed a great deal of confusion as he muttered a barely audible string of curses at the board, and even Neha, the usually perfect nymph, had a deep-set crease in her brow.
Finally, Katie broke the silence.
"This is ridiculous!" she exclaimed heatedly, chucking the marker she was holding at the murderboard. "I can't imagine any possible scenario in which this turn of events makes any logical sense."
"Unless..." spoke up Neha, getting to her feet gracefully, "the shot was an accident. It's possible for wizards to mix up their incantations in a moment of panic."
For a moment, the aurors considered the possibility.
"Nah," negated Travis after a pause, "we have to remember that we are dealing with a professional assassin, not a third year Hufflepuff."
"Skiff is right," Nikita contended. "He kills for a living, there is no way it could have been a panicked shot."
"Could they have known there would be an auror in the room?" wondered Katie. "I'd hate to agree with the nymph, but she does have a point."
Rick lowered himself into Ryan's desk chair and rolled closer to the murderboard, peering at it intently.
"What if the assassin was just nervous? He knew that there was auror surveillance on the house, and he was expecting some difficulties with the job," speculated Castle.
Something seemed to click inside Nikita's mind as she took another step towards the board, placing her hand on the back of Rick's chair for balance.
"And when I startled him, he mispronounced the incantation and accidentally came out with a harmless melting spell," she finished Castle's train of thought.
"That would make some sense," agreed Travis, stretching out his words.
"Or he defaulted on a spell he uses on a regular basis. Maybe our guy is a killer by night and something else entirely by day," suggested Castle, spinning around in his chair to face the aurors with a particularly smug impression on his face. "Is there a wizarding profession where people melt stuff?"
"No," dismissed Dan. "Even if that idea makes good fiction, it can't be rooted in anything solid. Wizards don't just default on their spellwork, Mr. Castle, you should have learned that in your first year."
Ryan nodded and pulled Castle's chair away from the board, propelling it back towards the desk.
"Cap'n is right. If the spell was an accident, it was either a partial, or it has a similar incantation to another spell. It wouldn't be random."
Nikita frowned. Although the theories made sense, her gut told her that they were missing something. Still, they had to be sure.
"Travis, get our friend Dykeman to run additional tests on the spell to see if it could be used in combination with something else to create a possible killing curse," she addressed her partner. "Oh and also have him check for incantation similarities with any harmful spells."
"And would you be a doll and pick up some sushi while you're at it?" inquired Castle cheekily, drumming his fingers against Ryan's desk.
Travis leaned forward and rested his hands on either side of Castle's chair, staring down at him threateningly. Rick leaned back and adopted an obviously fake bewildered expression.
"Get. Your own. Sushi," growled Travis, emphasising every word.
Castle coughed.
"You're not actually as scary as you think yourself to be," he said thoughtfully, tilting his head to examine Travis more closely. "You remind me of a baby panda."
If Travis didn't appreciate being compared to the most harmless of bear cubs, he didn't get a chance to let Rick know, as Dan chose that moment to interrupt the conversation.
"Travis, take Katie and make another trip to the forensics lab," he ordered, then turned to the rest of the team. "The rest of you kids need to find a lead soon. And Neha," he addressed the nymph with an angry look appearing on his handsome face, "Potter sent you here for a fucking reason. Use your damned brain or get the hell out of my office."
Neha simply smirked and blew her hair out of her eyes, which sent Katie into an anger overdrive. Before the metamorphmagus had time to explode at the nymph, Travis grabbed her by the elbow and apparated out of the office, leaving the rest of the team to their own devices.
"Well," exhaled Neha the moment Travis and Katie were gone, "why don't we go back to the essentials?"
Nikita eyed the girl warily, but Rick and Ryan seemed to be once again mesmerized by her words. Dan, however, didn't even look up from his phone.
"Excuse me?" Nikita asked, deciding to take matters into her own hands, seeing as the men present were utterly useless. "I do believe there's a protocol on these things. We follow auror procedure, not your high and mighty agent word. Harry Potter may be Supreme, but you have no authority here besides advising. So sit your ass back down on Travis' desk, why don't you?"
Neha arched a perfect eyebrow, and Nikita felt her blood boil. It was too bad that Katie wasn't at her side at the moment. Together, they could have really showed the nymph who was the boss. She shot a quick glance at the Captain, but he was studiously pretending to not hear them.
"I think you'll find otherwise," said Neha without raising her voice. "The Supreme Auror gave me the authority to issue warrants throughout this investigation, and I do believe this calls for some respect."
"Have you guys ever been to the morgue?" interrupted Castle suddenly, tilting his head to the side and surveying the room.
Ryan looked back at the man confusedly.
"Why would we go there?" he asked.
Castle shrugged.
"When muggle police are all out of leads, they usually attempt a closer inspection of the bodies. I used that trick at least a dozen times in my books, and sometimes it just happens that the initial inspection wasn't detailed enough."
Neha regarded Rick with an air of superiority, but a few seconds later her mouth formed an 'oh' and she hopped off the desk to face the murderboard, muttering to herself. Nikita nudged Ryan in the ribs and hummed her approval.
"He's right," muttered Ryan, rubbing his now bruised rib. "Scotland Yard isn't exactly known for being detail-oriented. They must have dropped the case by now with the lack of leads."
Neha straightened out her skirt and Nikita grabbed her wand off the desk.
"What, you're not gonna give me a lecture on how my books are different from real life?" asked Castle in a tone laced with sarcasm. "I was looking forward to that."
Nikita waved him off.
"For once you're actually making a great deal of sense," she replied in a hurry, grabbing her jacket off the chair. "I can't believe we actually missed something this obvious."
Neha and Ryan followed her to the door, also grabbing coats along the way. Castle spun around in his chair, looking pleased.
"Do I at least get eternal gratitude?" he called out after them. "Hey, wait for me!"
###
Although the muggle and wizarding law enforcement offices each had their own forensic labs, there was only one morgue where murdered muggles and wizards were sent for inspection and autopsy. Nobody really knew why the aurors didn't have their own morgue, but then nobody really wondered either, and so the issue had never come up at Harry Potter's table meetings.
The aurors (and Castle) soundlessly made their way through the eerie halls of the Eighth Division Scotland Yard Morgue, stopping only to alohamora the locked doors of the facility and to obliviate any camera footage of their presence.
"Why is this place so empty?" wondered Rick, nudging the nearest door open with his foot. The aurors looked at him strangely.
"Probably because it's two o'clock in the morning," explained Ryan, shooting a spell at the entrance of the records room. The door unlocked and the eerie feeling seemed to increase tenfold as a waft of cold air surrounded the only living occupants of the morgue.
"Welcome to the freezer room," came a bone-chilling whisper from the far corner of the room. "Can't you let a man sleep!?" the same voice added irritably.
Rick stopped in his tracks and his eyes went comically wide.
"Are you serious?" he exclaimed. "The morgue is haunted?!"
Nikita shrugged and waved at the pearly white outline of a middle aged man with a rather bitter expression permanently etched on his face.
"Talk about cliché," muttered Castle, rolling his eyes at the ghost.
"Yes, I'm a ghost," said the ghost, turning to survey Castle with his dull lifeless eyes, his nose turned up in disgust. "Got a problem?"
Rick recoiled immediately, but retained some air of confidence.
"No…no problem," he surrendered, and then looked at the white form with new interest. "Except…aren't ghosts supposed to haunt the place where they died or something? How did you end up here?"
The ghost was about to say something, when he got interrupted.
"Actually," said Ryan, twirling his wand between his fingers, "ghosts have two options: they can either hang around the place they die or they can go back to work. I'd know, I was a ghosthunter once."
"So…you worked here when you were alive and then voluntarily came back post mortem?" Castle made a face. "That is so depressing."
"Hey, watch it, writer boy!" grumbled the ghost. "You haven't the slightest idea what I could do to you. Ask the ghosthunter over there if you'd like. He knows all about it, isn't that right Alden?"
Ryan flinched suddenly, as though hit by a horrific memory he's been repressing. Rick's face immediately fell, and he backed away towards the nearest wall, looking stricken.
"I'm still seeing a therapist about that," Ryan admitted, his expression grave, "so don't piss off Flipflopper, Castle."
"It's PERLMUTTER!" exclaimed the ghost heatedly, advancing on the auror while Ryan fought to keep a straight face. Castle's eyes narrowed as he realised he was being played by the auror team. Neha seemed rather bored as she retreated to the corner of the room and carefully inspected her nails.
"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that," spoke up Nikita, looking amused. "Goatbutter was it?"
The ghost rounded on her, leaving Ryan doubled over in a fit of girlish giggles.
"You'll pay for that, Cookie," he promised, and then took on a professional demeanour. "What can I do for you lot?"
Ryan straightened out and opened his mouth to speak, but Neha beat him to it, abandoning her corner and walking out into the light.
"We're here to inspect some bodies, Sidney," she spoke up with surprising kindness laced through her tone. Nikita briefly wondered what other tricks the nymph had up her sleeve to make her seem like the good cop, but quickly abandoned her thoughts and tried to pay attention to the task at hand.
"I would never have guessed," Sidney Perlmutter seemed astonished. "I thought you were here to disco."
"Disco's been out for years now, keep up with the times, ol' man," Ryan raised an eyebrow. The ghost shrugged.
"What do I care, I'm dead," he said. "Now why don't you give me the names of your bodies so I can run down the records for you."
Nikita was impressed. For the first time since she'd met the resident ghost of the morgue, the man was actually cooperating with the aurors instead of wreaking havoc. She had a strong suspicion that the reason for Perlmutter's change of character was the Special Forces agent in their company, but she decided not to draw anyone's attention to that, instead showing him the names of their three victims.
"Ah, of course Marcus Grimler, Angela Browman, and Joshua Pemberton," recited Perlmutter. "Scotland Yard didn't even bother with them after they couldn't find the cause of death. The wankers just stuffed them in the furthest compartment and announced to the public that all three died of natural causes. Total bullshit, if you ask me."
"Perlmutter!" interrupted Nikita in a half-whisper. "Stop rambling and show us the bodies already."
"Oh alright," grumbled the ghost and floated down the corridor, beckoning the aurors to follow him into the depths of the freezer room.
Nikita felt like she had been walking for hours when the team finally reached a dead end, but neither Castle nor Ryan seemed out of breath, and the always perfectly composed Neha didn't have a single hair out of place. Nikita frowned – was she really that out of shape?!
The ghost pointed the team towards three separate freezer compartments, and Ryan shot an opening spell on each of the three doors, which unlocked immediately, revealing the frozen bodies of their victims.
"Oooh, dead bodies!" whispered Castle excitedly, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.
Nikita ignored the writer, instead glancing over at her companions.
"Each take one vic and examine them in detail?" she suggested to Ryan, who nodded. Neha cracked her knuckles and hummed her agreement.
The examination process was much more boring than Rick Castle had expected. After two hours of fruitless attempts at prodding, waving, muttering, and kicking walls in frustration, the two aurors and the nymph slid down the opposite wall of the freezer room to sit on the cold concrete floor. The writer was already fast asleep in the corner, his breath frosting in the cold air, as the ghost cackled madly in a room nearby.
"This is ridiculous," muttered Ryan exhaustedly. Even Neha looked tired at this point and, compared to the nymph, Nikita supposed she looked like a complete nightmare.
"It's five in the bloody morning," yawned Nikita, closing her eyes briefly. "I can't do this anymore."
Perlmutter floated back into the room and examined each of its live inhabitants with disgust written all over his face.
"Don't tell me you guys are giving up too!" he exclaimed, nodding towards the thawing bodies. "I think you may actually be on to something. Look at Marcus' shoulder."
Nikita was on her feet in an instant, blinking sleep out of her eyes and examining the body once again. On Marcus Grimler's shoulder she could make out a faint outline of a triangular symbol with a horizontal line running through the middle, which was slowly fading as she continued to look at it. Quickly, she shifted herself towards the two other bodies and found the same symbols etched on their shoulders.
"Son of a bitch," she cursed out of excitement. "Those must have been activated by the intense magical activity in the room."
"Do you think the killer was also an amateur tattoo artist?" Castle was up and examining the marks within seconds. "A rather bad one, I'd say."
Ryan snorted.
"We all know what happened the last time a mass murderer had decided to add an artistic element to his world domination plan," he said. "All I can say is: thank Merlin for Harry Potter."
"But how did the tattoos get there?" wondered Neha, prodding Angela Bowman's shoulder with her nail.
Nikita shrugged lightly, too happy about her discovery and too exhausted to think about the issue in depth.
"Maybe the targets are branded by the killer beforehand, kind of like a GPS system," she guessed.
Neha and Ryan blinked confusedly, not understanding the muggle reference.
"Like a magical trace," elaborated Castle, "but I don't think that's what they mean."
He trailed off and continued to stare at the mark thoughtfully. Nikita raised an eyebrow.
"Well then, what crazy theory have you concocted, Rick?"
Castle scrunched up his eyebrows and stared at the ceiling.
"It's a hint," he invented wildly, "left for us by the killer after the victims' deaths. We've fallen so far behind in the investigation that the killer is miles ahead, and he's bored. So bored in fact, that he decides to throw us a bone just to see where we'd get with it. He wants to feel the thrill of the chase."
Nikita made a sour face.
"You're delusional," she said, "though I feel like I've seen this symbol somewhere before, but I can't think of where."
Neha sent a piercing stare her way, and Nikita felt her body constrict on instinct.
"Then try to remember, Auror Morar, or I may be forced to use legilimency on you," said Neha lightly, but with a dangerous undertone.
"Don't you need permission from the Captain or something to get into somebody else's mind?" inquired Castle absently, scrutinizing the victim's shoulder.
Ryan snorted loudly.
"Dan would only encourage it," he explained, twisting his wand around between his fingers, "but that wouldn't work anyway because aurors are well trained in occlumency."
Nikita grimaced inwardly. The truth was, she had never sat through a single occlumency class in the Academy, and the high grade on her transcript was entirely forged, thanks to Vanessa's rather ingenious spellwork. She hadn't been proud of what she had done, but the fake grade had never quite bothered her until now. If Neha decided to use legilimency on her, she would be completely helpless against it, and Nikita felt that the nymph was fully aware of the fact.
"I will do my best," she told Neha, sending a meaningful stare her way. Neha nodded, and Nikita let out a sigh of relief.
"Now," said Ryan, clapping his hands together authoritatively, "what can we figure out about this piece of art on our vics?"
"It's the White Lotus emblem," said Castle suddenly, as he fished a half-eaten packet of Reese's Pieces out of his pocket and shoveled a handful into his mouth. He stuck the packet out to Nikita, but she pushed his hand away.
"How do you know that?" she asked, staring at him disbelievingly. "I haven't told anyone about the White Lotus."
Rick took his time answering. He flipped over the Reese packet, letting the remainder of the candy fall into his mouth, scrunched up the wrapper, and stuffed it back into his pocket.
"Castle!" exclaimed Nikita impatiently. "Now would be a great time to explain yourself. Did they send you threatening letters? Did you look through my case notes? How do you know?"
Rick rolled his eyes.
"Relax, they're one of the biggest mafia organisations in the world, and I had to research them for one of my books last year," he yawned loudly. "Can we go home now? I think we've seen all there is to see and I seriously need to get some shuteye."
The rest of the group murmured their sleepy agreements.
"And we didn't even get my sushi," lamented Castle, as they began their trek through the chilly morgue, into the weak light of a grey London morning.
A/N: Please review, I love reviews!