Chapter 25
The Case of Home Is Where The Heart Stops
Part 1
They were a nasty crew of home invaders who not only robbed their victims of their expensive pieces of jewellery but enjoyed hurting their victims. But when they had escalated and started to rob people of their lives as well, Beckett and the boys caught the case...
It was evening in the loft and the Castle family were enjoying a little family entertainment. The loft was filled with the kind of melodramatic piano music that was used to underscore silent films. The music was being provided by mother who was giving the piano a good work out. Speaking of workout a pair of swordsmen, or in this case, swordspersons, dressed in full fencing regalia were doing battle around the living room.
The clash of swords filled the air in time to the overly dramatic piano playing.
"You've come to Nottingham once too often." I said in a clipped English accent.
"After today, there'll be no need for me to come again." Replied my opponent, my daughter Alexis.
We lunged, parried, moved, attacked, parried, lunged, defended again for a few moments. As much as I love playing laser tag with my daughter, and I love beating her, I also enjoy the occasional fencing bout with her.
Alexis had taken it up at school as one of her extracurricular activities about a year or so ago and being the eager and enthusiastic dad that I am, I had bought her and myself the full fencing kit and an array of fencing swords so that we could practice at home. Tonight was one of those nights that we chose to fence rather than engage in an epic battle of laser tag. Mother was only too happy to provide the soundtrack.
"You have been holding out on me, Sir Robin." I declared. "I hear you like a boy."
"I knew she'd tell." Alexis replied with a sigh.
"So...who is he?"
"His name is Owen. He's in my poetry class." Alexis informed me. "Very shy. And very sweet."
I could almost see the near dreamy look on my daughter's face. I said almost, she was wearing a protective mask. It was at that moment that I decided to strike. I lunged and landed the blunted point of my sword on her chest.
"Hey!" Alexis complained.
I stepped back and pulled up my mask.
"Keep your guard up." I told her.
Alexis raised her mask and glared at me. "Don't distract me."
"Does he know how you feel about him?" I asked.
"No."
Alexis pulled down her mask and assumed the en guard position. I pulled down my own mask and once more we commenced battle. We moved about the loft clashing swords, each of us seeking a chink in the other's defences. We reached the stairs which I jumped over the railing to escape a lunging thrust from Alexis.
"Why not?" I asked.
"Because I don't even know how I feel about him." Alexis replied.
Suddenly Alexis lunged keeping her sword low and landed a touch on my stomach.
"Yes!" I said proudly as I took a step back. "Very nice!"
We saluted each other. I could not help but be impressed with Alexis in the time she had taken up this sport she had become quite the accomplished fencer. In recent times I had a time of it trying to defeat her. Usually she would end up being the victor in these contests.
Before we could resume battle again, my telephone came to life. I pulled up my mask and reached for the phone to answer it. A smile rose to my lips when I heard the dulcet tones of Detective Beckett on the other end of the line. She was calling to advise they had a case and did I want in. Yeah, like I would say no to Beckett.
XXX
Beckett and I arrived at an apartment building in the better part of town. Stepping out of the elevator into the hallway we found uniforms and CSUs milling about doing what they usually did at crime scenes. At the far end of the corridor I saw Esposito talking to a woman aged in her late twenties or early thirties. The woman was crying as she was giving a statement.
Beckett too glanced over to where Esposito was standing but then turned and headed down in the opposite direction to where the victim's apartment was located. Ryan emerged from the apartment and approached us. I quickly noticed that Ryan's eyes were puffed up and his nose was a shade of red.
"No sign of forced entry." Ryan reported. "The same as the others."
In the ride over Beckett had filled me in on the home invasions that had occurred over a period of some months. The reason Beckett and her team had been called in was because that this time the victim of the home invasion had been murdered.
"Looks like our home invasion crew went for a four-peat." Beckett remarked grimly.
"They're stepping up their game. Becoming more violent."
As soon as Ryan finished his sentence he sneezed violently.
"Bless you." Beckett and I said simultaneously.
"Jinx!" I said, quick a flash to Beckett.
Esposito had finished with the woman and came over to us.
"What's wrong with him?" Beckett asked Esposito, indicating Ryan, who busy blowing his nose.
"Goose down. He's allergic." Esposito replied with a smirk.
"I'm sorry." I said looking at Beckett. "Under the time honoured rules jinx, you're not allowed to speak until I release you."
This remark earned me a roll of the eyes from Beckett. Suddenly Ryan sneezed again.
"Bless you." Beckett, Esposito and I said at the same time.
Beckett rounded on me. "Reverse double jinx." She said.
"I just...I..." I stammered in response.
"Uh-uh, Castle mouth shut, until I release you." Beckett said, before she turned to Ryan. "Thank you, Ryan."
Ryan still with a handkerchief to his nose, nodded his head and gave Beckett the thumbs-up sign. I could not be sure whether if it was for providing in formation or for sneezing and providing Beckett with a reverse double jinx.
I was quite taken aback by Beckett's ninja-like speed in invoking the reverse double jinx. It left me flummoxed, not to mention silent. Beckett had a triumphant gleam in her eye before she turned her attention to Esposito.
"So what do we have?" She asked.
Esposito pointed to the woman at the other end of the hallway.
"That's Joanne Delgado, daughter of Susan Delgado, the victim." Esposito said. "She called to say goodnight to her mom, only tonight mom doesn't pick up. She calls the doorman, doorman comes up, finds the door ajar and..."
"And?" Beckett pressed.
Esposito grinned at her. "Let's just say this one's definitely Beckett-flavoured."
That piece of information had me raising my eyebrows with interest.
Beckett strode into the Delgardo apartment with the guys and I following her. We entered the living room, the scene of the murder. It was a large living room that was decorated with what I could see were expensive pieces of furniture, so were the pieces of art, statues and the like that adorned cabinets and tables and the paintings on the walls. A touch too conservative for my tastes I would have to say.
Lanie crouching beside the large blood pool on the floor putting a blood coated white feather into a plastic evidence bag. The entire floor was covered in white feathers. Beckett walked over and crouched beside the medical examiner inspecting the blood pool closely.
"Blood splatter indicates single GSW." Lanie informed her. "Close range."
"You can still smell the cordite." Beckett remarked.
"I'll have to take your word for it." Ryan said still with a handkerchief at his nose.
I was surveying the living room when I turned to look at the wall safe. It was a gruesome sight that confronted me.
"Oh, they shot her and stuffed her in the safe." I said, shocked.
"Better than the last one." Esposito told me. "They beat the guy to death."
I could not help but shudder at the sight of Susan Delgado's body that was stuffed into what was really a small wall safe. I wondered how the hell they could have done that. And why would they do such a thing. It seemed so unnecessary. I turned away from the body and made my way over to the blood pool and inspected the blood.
Beckett had risen and approached the wall safe.
"None of the neighbours heard a gunshot?" She asked Esposito.
"Nada. Must be heavy sleepers." Esposito replied.
I was peering down at what looked like an exploded pillowcase that lay close to the blood pool. This was what the killer must have used.
"No, they used a pillow as a poorman's sound suppressor." I said.
I heard Beckett making a loud throat clearing sound. I understood what she was getting at.
"Yes, yes. I broke the jinx." I conceded. "I'll buy you a soda."
Beckett allowed herself a small smile of triumph before she turned her attention to the body in the safe.
"Any shell casing?" She asked.
"None." Lanie advised.
"Probably used a revolver." Beckett mused aloud.
"And a bolt cutter." Lanie called out.
Beckett looked at the arm that was hanging out of the safe, the ring finger of the hand had been severed.
"Her wedding ring. She didn't want to give it up, and so they punished her for it." Beckett glanced at Esposito. "Husband?"
"Passed a few years ago." Esposito reported.
"In a building like this? This part of town? You'd think she'd be safe. No pun intended." I said hastily.
I was still trying to get my head around the fact that someone had been able to get into a place such as this, a place that was pretty secure, and do what they had done.
"How often are people killed in neighbourhoods like this?" I asked.
Beckett turned away from inspecting the body and looked at me.
"Same as everywhere else, Castle." she said. "Just the once."
I hung around the crime scene for another hour or so observing both the detectives and Lanie and the CSU people go about their business gathering up evidence, looking for clues. I also did a little looking about in search of clues myself whilst at the same time trying keep out of the way of the professionals. I did not find anything and neither did Beckett and the boys. Beckett soon after sent me off home.
I was not around when Lanie and her people removed the body from the safe. It would have been interesting to see how they accomplished the task but I was not particularly miffed that I had missed out on that.
A body stuffed in a safe, well I have to say that was one method of killing I had never thought of for one of my books.
XXX
The following day I arrived at the precinct fairly early. Early enough to give Beckett and the boys a bit of a surprise. As usual Beckett had arrived at her desk almost at the break of dawn. That might be a slight exaggeration but not by much.
Not long after my arrival we were standing or sitting—I was sitting in my usual chair, Beckett was sitting on the edge of her desk beside me while Ryan and Esposito were standing—in front of the murder board going over the information we had on all four home invasion cases.
The murder board was crammed with information that had been gathered so far, a map of the city, photos of the types of jewellery stolen, photos of the victims, notes and questions, and so on and so forth.
"Each of the robberies took place in a different part of the city." I said, motioning to the map of the city we had on the board with four pins on it marking the location of the home invasions.
"A different high-end part of the city." Beckett pointed out.
"Wall safes and high-end jewellery." Esposito said. "These guys came in knowing exactly what they were going to find."
"Well, there must be a pattern. Something that connects them all." I said. "The first one was three months ago?"
"Central Park West." Ryan confirmed. "Bob and Linda Kesler were bound, gagged, and beaten. Intruders wore masks. Took roughly $175,000 in jewellery."
"Same M.O. On York street?" I asked.
"Yeah. Only, when Mr Brunner refused to open his safe, they broke his wife's arms." Esposito advised.
"Which brings us to last night." I said.
"They're getting bolder." Beckett replied. "They're escalating their violence."
I turned to look up at Beckett.
"Well, it can't be random." I told her. "How do they know what's in the safes?"
I paused in what I was saying and went off on a tangent.
"'Safes'?" I said. "Is that a word? Is it 'saves'? That can't be right."
"And you write for a living?" Esposito smirked.
"Castle. The point?" Beckett said, drawing me back to the matter in hand.
"The point is, our home invaders seem to know an awful lot about our victims."
"We've compared insurance companies, home security vendors." Ryan replied. "Even the kinds of safes they had." He gave me a pointed look when he emphasised the word 'safes'. "Nothing's been a match."
"I'm just thinking, they seemed to know their targets so well, maybe they actually know them." I informed everyone.
It was a theory which had begun to germinate in my head when we started reviewing the information on the murder board and especially when we could not find any link to each of the victims.
"Maybe the victim's daughter can tell us." Ryan said hopefully.
An hour later Joanne Delgado arrived and she was taken to the interview lounge. She had not been up to answering too many questions last night for obvious reasons and she had agreed to come in. She looked pale and drawn with red rimmed eyes, still in the early stages of grieving the loss of her mother. She was seated on a couch cradling a cup of tea. Beckett and I were seated opposite her.
On entering the lounge both Beckett and I had expressed again our sorrow for Joanne's loss. Beckett had started the interview by asking Joanne if she had been close to her mother.
"Yeah, we were close." Joanne replied. "She was my mother."
Beckett nodded her head. "So you'd know most of her friends?" She asked.
"Her friends?" Joanne said, looking a little puzzled at the question. "Yes, but I..."
"Were there any that you had strong feelings about? Didn't like, maybe? Somebody she met recently?"
"No."
"Did any of her friends have money problems?" I asked her.
Joanne Delgado frowned as she looked at me.
"Monsters broke into her place and killed her." She said, anger starting to simmer. "Why are you asking me about her friends?"
Beckett consulted her note book and then looked over to Joanne.
"Do you know Nelson and Janet Bruner?" Beckett asked.
"No."
"How about a Robert and Julie Pastori, or a Bob and Linder Kesler?" I asked.
"Who are these people?" Joanne demanded.
"They're victims of three previous home invasion robberies." Beckett informed Joanne. "Robberies that we think were committed by the same people that murdered your mother."
Joanne looked more than a little stunned to be told that news. She looked from Beckett to me and back to Beckett.
"What, there were others?" She gasped. "How...how long has this been going on?"
"A few months." Beckett said.
"Months? What, and you haven't caught them?"
"They didn't murder anyone until last week." Beckett said. "That's when I got this case."
I had been out of town last week on a book signing jaunt to appease ex-wife Number Two so I was not around when Beckett and the boys had caught the other murder case, the one where they had beaten the guy to death.
Joanne stared at Beckett trying to comprehend what she had been told.
"Since then, we've been doing everything we can to..."
Joanne cut Beckett off snapping at her not to press conference her. She told Beckett to save her speech because she had heard them all before. Joanne worked in public relations and she was the one who drafted all that pathos after airline crashes or outbreaks. She was the one who wrote things like 'Our hearts go out to the victims' families.
Joanne paused in her tirade and fought back the tears as she told us that her mother had felt like baking and wanted Joanne to come over but Joanne couldn't come over because she was busy. She was busy and now her mother was dead.
My eyes went to Beckett and I saw the look on her face. This was a woman who understood the pain and anguish that Joanne Delgado was going through for she had experienced it herself. Beckett ignored the tirade that Joanne had directed at her. Instead she leaned a little closer to Joanne and spoke to her in a quiet but determined voice.
Beckett said that Joanne was going to want to play out every possible scenario in the few days, like, what if she had only been there, if only she had come by, if only she didn't work late but it was not Joanne's fault. The ones to blame were the monsters who had murdered her mother.
"This isn't a speech." Beckett told her firmly but gently. "It's not a platitude. It's a promise. I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that they pay for what they did."
Joanne Delgado could not fight back another bout of tears but she nodded her understanding of what Beckett had told her. She wanted so much to believe what she had been told.
I stared at Beckett with no little amount of admiration for her, at the way she had spoken to Joanne. I immediately realised that my presence was no longer required. Quickly I closed my note book and as quietly as I possibly could I left the room, leaving Beckett to console the distraught Joanne Delgado.
After Beckett had seen Joanne Delgado out she met me at the vending machine. I slotted some coins in to the machine.
"Pretty impressive, the way you handled her back there." I remarked.
"I didn't 'handle' her, Castle." Beckett retorted. "I just told her the truth. Same thing I'm going to tell the other home invasion victims."
Beckett stepped up to the vending machine and punched a button. I bent down and extracted the can of soda she had selected. I presented it to her with a smile.
"Jinx paid in full." I announced.
"It's the job, Castle." Beckett accepted the offered soda and continuing our conversation.
"Oh, you're short selling, Beckett." I replied.
We started walking, heading for the elevator. We were on our way out to speak to the other victims.
"Ryan and Esposito could not manage that level of empathy."
"That's not true." Beckett retorted. "They just save it for fantasy football trades."
"Makes me think about Alexis. What would she do if something happened to me?"
I have to say that I had been thinking about it a fair bit in recent months, especially after had started to shadow Beckett and specifically after I had survived the gun battle with Baylor. It had me racing to check my will to see if it was up to date. I may have signed my life away in regards to riding with the NYPD so that even my lifeless remains could not sue the Department or the City but I wanted to double check that Alexis was taken care of. Thankfully my will was up to date.
"Well she still has her mom, right?" Beckett pointed out.
"Meredith's like a crazy aunt with a credit card. Of the two of us, I'm the more responsible one." I said glancing at her. "Pretty sad, isn't it?"
"Well, I wouldn't worry about it too much, Castle. After all, only the good die young."
"Ouch!" I said clutching my chest. Beckett merely smiled.
I have to say that it was a pretty good zinger. Mind you, I did set it up for her.
"Listen Freud, I know what you're trying to do." Beckett said, suddenly changing tack. "You're trying to get me to talk about my mom. To see if you can squeeze any more pulp for your fiction."
Not only is Beckett quick with a zinger, she also has a way with words. 'Pulp for my fiction'? I rather liked that one, I have to admit. However right at that moment I had to file it away.
"Pulp? You think what I do is pulp?" I said in mock outrage. I will have you know that The New York Review of Books—not The New York Times Review, mind you, The New York Review of Books, said that Derrick Storm is this generation's answer to..."
"I read that piece." Beckett interjected. "And even you have to admit that it's more than a little hyperbolic. So how much did you pay the reviewer?"
We had reached the elevator and luck was with us, some one had stepped out of it. Beckett swept into it and I followed.
"A case of Chateau neuf de pape." I informed her. "But that's not the point." I stood beside her a look of surprise on my face.
"The point is you read The New York Review of Books."
"Oh, so many layers to the Beckett onion. However will you peel them all?" Beckett chuckled.
Truly I did not know how I was going to accomplish the task of peeling all the layers of the Beckett Onion, seeing that she had issued the challenge. It was a challenge, that's the way I interpreted it, not as a rhetorical question. What I did know even from that moment, was that I was going to have a lot of fun trying to doing it.
XXX
While Beckett and I were out of the precinct Esposito and Ryan were not exactly sitting around twiddling their thumbs or tossing a baseball around as is their want when they don't have a case and the paperwork is up to date. I have Detective Ryan to thank for the following.
Ryan and Esposito were at their desks which is where Captain Montgomery found them. The captain brought with him the Forensics report from the Delgado residence.
Ryan noted that CSU had found brass shavings. Esposito replied that the bad guys must have used a bump key. Those of you who do not know what a bump key is, it's a standard key which has been filed down and a mallet is used to drive it into a lock which separates the tumblers and thus unlocks the door.
This was how Esposito explained it to Ryan because he thought his partner did not know what a bump key was. Ryan claimed that he knew what a bump key was but Esposito did not believe him. Ryan ignored the little jibe and pointed out the hardware on the Delgado's door was high-end import and no way would a standard bump key would work.
Esposito agreed with his partner, the home invaders would have had to use something special, something that the average home invader would not be able to rig. As Esposito was saying this he had a look on his face which caught the Captain's attention. The Captain asked him what he was thinking.
Esposito moved across to his desk and started tapping a few keys on his computer keyboard. As he was doing that he told the captain that he had busted this guy some time back and he specialised in bump keys and he was not afraid to get blood on his paws. Captain Montgomery remarked that because of bump keys and violence he was liking this guy already.
A moment later Esposito was able to pull up the file he had been seeking. The guy's name was Evan Mitchell. The name came as no surprise to the captain. Captain Montgomery explained to the boys that Evan Mitchell was a legacy. Both Mitchell's father and grandfather were legends in the industry.
Esposito informed the captain that he had collard Mitchell on a jewel heist on 47th and he had done a nickel for it upstate. A 'nickel', for those who don't know is a five year stretch in jail. What made Evan Mitchell top of the hit parade of suspects was the fact that he had gotten out of jail two weeks prior to the first home invasion.
Captain Montgomery did not have to think long and hard about Evan Mitchell. He ordered the boys to go pick him up.
XXXXX
Your reviews would be greatly appreciated.
Con