Disclaimer: wish I owned Castle. Or Harry Potter. Or El Internado. Or El Barco. That way, some of the most idiotic behaviors/behaviours would have been prevented
Chapter 26
Javier's Investigation
When he wakes up in the morning, the first thing he does is to kiss Lanie as a good morning gesture, a gesture she returns languidly. They come out of the bed and make breakfast, just a cup of coffee and toasts before rushing to work. There are a few things they have to check in regards to Miriam Dayton and some clues that could shine a light on the identity of the person who killed her.
They arrive together to the Precinct, and as they get out of the car, they see that Beckett and Castle have already arrived in her car. She looks a bit tired today, and he sees a way in for some good old fashioned teasing.
"Hey, Beckett. Had a nice night?" he asks, waggling his eyebrows. She just gives him one of her patented death glares.
"Lanie, inform your boyfriend that, if he wants to stay away from dealing with the traffic for two weeks, to refrain from making stupid comments about my personal life."
"Javi..." Lanie tells him.
"Jeesh, one cannot even make a joke now," he replies.
"No, it is not whatever your warped mind has concocted..." Castle says.
"You talk about warped mind?" he asks rhetorically.
"... it has more to do with the fact that Meredith unexpectedly decided to appear here in New York and stay with us rather unexpectedly."
"Meredith? The deep-fried Twinkie?"
"Yeah." Castle seems a bit disgusted over something. Either the nickname or the woman herself. Given the current situation, he would bet on the woman.
"Let me guess," Lanie says as the four of them near the elevators, "she tried to engage in physical activities with you."
"Yeah. She tried to give me a deep-tongued kiss when we arrived to the loft, and if I had not pushed her away, I think that Kate would have killed her."
"Excuse me?"
"Come on, Kate, I saw your face. I would have not blamed you if you decided to sucker-punch her. Not that I would actually enjoy it, though."
He opens his mouth, but upon seeing Beckett's face, he guesses it might not be a good idea to say anything of what has gone through his head. Instead, he decides to comment on the case.
"So, what is the plan for today?"
"Well, I am going to go talk with Miriam's brother, I called his workplace and they told me he would probably be at the hospital with his daughter. Even if he did not have something to do with Miriam's death, he might still shed information that can help us."
"I would wonder if he might have hired someone, but given the state his bank account was at, I seriously doubt that he would be able to pay a hired killer," he replays.
"We cannot shoot down any theory right now, not until we can demonstrate completely that it is correct or not."
"What do you want us to do?"
"I want you to check if you can find her mobile phone. It never appeared in our registry of her flat, and she did not have it on her."
"You know, maybe the killer took it because he or she thought the phone had some important information," Castle says, in his usual I-want-to-share-my-theory tone, "or, since the killer knew the victim, he or she may have taken the phone because it could incriminate them."
"We can still track the calls made or received by the phones. Wish we could actually find it out without having to get whomever has it to call us."
Castle leans towards Beckett and whispers something in her ear. She just chuckles and pokes him at the side.
"What's the matter?" he asks.
"Just a bit of a joke he was making," Beckett replies.
"Oookay," he says.
"Baby, let it go. I have to get down to the morgue, and if you keep discussing, none of you will get around to call the elevator," Lanie says, and the three of them realise that, indeed, none of them have called the elevator. Castle pushes the button, and soon the elevator is at their level. First stop is the morgue, and he kisses Lanie before she gets down.
When they come up, they separate, and he soon finds Ryan, whom he tells what Beckett has asked him to do. Ryan makes a call to the court, to ask for a warrant that will give them access to Miriam Dayton's phone records. It takes an hour for the warrant to arrive, and an extra hour for the records to arrive, but when they finally have them both of them start to check the lists, in case there are several calls to the same number or some other suspicious behaviour.
"Well, look here, there are several calls to this number," Ryan says after some time.
"I think I know that number... I have read it somewhere, in a newspaper, maybe..."
"Let me check it..." Ryan writes on his computer, and after a few seconds, he raises an eyebrow. "Apparently, she liked calling at sex phone numbers."
"You kidding?"
"Nope."
"Well, it is probably not important. Besides, you really wanna call them?"
"Work for Karpowski, I guess."
Ryan chuckles and keeps reading the list, and he does the same. He reaches the end of it, but nothing in the numbers he sees jumps at him.
Though... the times at which calls are made...
"Look, bro," he says, pointing at those times, "someone has been making calls quite recently."
"Damn, that's recent," Ryan replies, "just a couple of hours ago. We have to find where that phone is."
"I think we can do this really fast. We can call the number and trace its position."
"You sure that's a good idea?"
"You have a better one?"
"I'll start the tracer, you make the call."
He picks up the phone and dials the phone number. A few tones later, someone picks up.
"'Lo?" It's a man, with rough voice. He can hear the sounds of the cars going by.
"Who's there?"
"I asked first, big guy."
He looks at Ryan, who waves at him to keep up with the conversation.
"This is the NYPD. The mobile phone you carry could be important in an investigation we are carrying on, so, if you would please tell me where you are now, or were willing to come here to the 12th Precinct so that you could give us that phone, we would be grateful."
"Ain't gonna do it, mate, I found it, it's mine."
"Sir, if you do not give the mobile up, you can be held liable for stealing proof from a crime scene."
A few seconds of silence pervades in the receptor. He hopes the man at the other side of the phone has not hanged up.
"Sonny, I can tell ya that being sent to prison would be a step up from where I am right now. Though, I won't tell no if ya get me some hot coffee and a good breakfast in exchange of the phone."
Ryan gives him a piece of paper, in which he has written down the address where the phone is. He sees it is a few minutes away from where the woman was found. He might as well get to it right now.
"Sir, please, stay where you are. I will be getting where you are on a car, and will bring you here."
"Ya have found where I am? Quite the good use for those tracers, ain't it?"
"Yeah. We'll see you where you are." He hangs up the phone, and looks at his partner. "Looks like it is time to get searching for another friendly bum."
"There sure seem to be several of those around here."
"Yup." He picks the car keys and moves towards the elevator. "Wonder how Beckett is doing with the vic's bro."
.
A/N: Hello again! Finally, I have been able to put up the next chapter of this story, after... one month?
Sorry for taking so much time in posting this new chapter. And I hope that you like it. My guess is that it will take about four or five more chapters until this case is finally solved, and probably the end of the first part of my Castle story.
I keep hoping that Castle & Beckett will kiss in every chapter so far, but... dammit! :( Can't wait until it actually happens, it will be such a squee-worthy event! (As I said, 20 bucks say that they are saving that encounter for the last chapter...)
About the reviews... well, my hopes were met. The fact that it took 22 days to reach it is not as good as that, as you can imagine.
CastellumKeep: I am glad that you liked it! :)
docvap: Indeed, what does Meredith think... she is one of the few characters of Castle that have my complete, if not hatred, at least contempt.
Artemisbeloved: there you are. Hope that it was good enough.
The next POV is going to be Zach Dayton, the victim's brother, who has his reasons to hate his sister. Hope you like it!