Ian
Chapter 29
Kate sipped slowly on foamy hot chocolate. Castle had crafted the rich creation in an attempt at beverage based comfort, before he was forced to retreat to the men's room to remove cocoa powder that had made its way down the front of his pants. Candace Robinson came into the break room and took a stool at the high table where Kate sat. "I just heard from my office," Candace reported grimly. "The higher ups want whomever is really behind these murders. They're willing to give Coonan anything he wants, including Witsec."
Kate put down her cup before it slid from her suddenly chilled fingers. "They're not serious! The man is a cold blooded killer! They're going to let him walk the streets?"
"Calm down, Kate," Candace counseled. "We don't need to let Moss or Coonan know that the A.G. is willing to give in. If we can pull what we want to know out of Coonan without making serious concessions, we'll do it. But I have to give in if they hold their ground. We just won't let them know they have any maneuvering room, unless we absolutely have no choice. We'll need to go in there strong, hard, and confident. Facing the man that killed your mother must tearing you apart. Can you hold it together enough to pull off the bluff?"
Kate's eyes narrowed as the muscles of her jaw tightened. "Just watch me!"
Coonan was leaning on the table when the women returned to Interrogation. Bill Moss sat erect and determined next to him. "My client needs a written deal signed by your boss and guaranteeing his safety, Ms. Robinson, before he tells you anything."
"Not good enough," Kate insisted. "If that happened, your client would have his deal and could stick us with a load of crap. We need something first."
Coonan sat up and looked at Moss, who nodded. "Fine," Coonan conceded. "I have a drop point where I receive instructions from the man in charge. There are things he no longer trusts to the web. I'll tell you where it is, but then I want my deal."
Kate pushed a pad and pen across the table. "Do it!"
"I can't write cuffed," Coonan complained.
"Then tell Mr. Moss and have him write it, stipulating that it came from you," Candace instructed.
"If it checks out," Kate added, "you get your deal. Until then, you're in holding."
The mailboxes couldn't have been more private. In an adjunct to a storage facility in a gentrified portion of Harlem, there were no cameras, no way to trace who came and went. The clients who owned the boxes were identified only by number and paid by cashier's checks or money orders that were virtually untraceable. CSU dusted the box identified by Coonan as the drop, but the only prints they found were his. Kate put a stakeout in place and instructed uniforms to start a canvass, but she didn't anticipate any immediate results, if she was lucky enough to get any at all. Castle had returned to Kate's car to call Ian, and she joined him, banging her hands against the steering wheel."
Castle's words came with a soft huskiness. "I'm sorry Kate. I know you were hoping for much more than this."
"Yeah, you're right Castle. I was. But we still have Coonan in holding and he doesn't have his deal yet. Unless Candy's office increases the pressure on her, if nothing breaks here, we'll demand more information." Kate's phone buzzed, and her screen identified the caller as Captain Montgomery. Kate activated the speaker. "Sir," she responded.
"Kate, I've got some bad news," the Captain relayed as gently as he could. "Harrison just checked holding. "She found Coonan, dead. There's not a mark on the body that we can see. Doctor Parish is on her way and we're scrubbing the video from holding now."
Kate stared unseeing into the empty air in front of her. Castle turned and leaned across the gap between their seats to cradle her face in his hands. "Kate, this isn't the end of the trail. We'll find out who took out Coonan. We'll trace it to whomever is pulling the strings. Whatever it takes, we'll find out who's behind this."
Kate pressed her cheek against his palm. "I know we will Castle. It's just every time I think we have something, it seems to slip away."
"I can drive," Castle suggested, "give you a chance to take a moment."
"I'll be fine, Castle," Kate assured him, "and it's my official vehicle. I can't let a civilian drive it. But thanks for the offer, thanks for just being here."
"Always," Castle murmured.
With Castle behind her, Kate rushed into the holding cell where Lanie Parish knelt over the body of Dick Coonan. Lanie looked up at her friend. "You okay Kate?"
"Lanie, just tell me what happened," Kate urged.
"Kate, it looks like anaphylactic shock, he had an extreme allergic reaction to something," Lanie explained.
Castle sniffed. "Smells like garlic."
"Good call, Castle," Lanie agreed. "I found inflammation on his fingers. There's a chemical called DMSO that will cause that, and carry almost anything through the skin - and it can make someone smell like garlic. It was probably smeared on something he touched, with whatever caused the allergy dissolved in it. I've asked CSU to examine anything Coonan might have come in contact with. And I'll run some tests to determine what caused the reaction. Kate, I'll let you know as soon as I come up with anything."
Kate drew patterns in the condensation on her beer glass. "I shouldn't be here Castle."
Castle leaned across the table in the old style booth at The Old Haunt. "It's better than sitting at your desk and chewing the skin off your beautiful tortured lip. And you know you'll get a call the minute anyone turns up anything. Just breathe, Kate. Anyway, I had strict instructions from Captain Montgomery to get you out of the precinct for a while. It wasn't helping to have you looking over the shoulders of the CSU techs. They know what they're doing. So do the officers canvassing around the drop and so does Lanie. Something will break, Kate, I just want to make sure it isn't you."
Kate glanced around, catching sight of the framed picture above their booth. "Castle, is that you? You look so young! What were you, eighteen?"
"I was twenty. I had just sold my first book."
"In A Hail of Bullets," Kate recalled.
Castle brushed her hand. "Thank you for remembering that. Anyway, this place was quite the writers' hangout in those days. I wrote most of that book right here in this booth. I'd sit here for hours nursing one beer and living on peanuts and pretzels. It's a wonder they didn't throw me out. But after the book was published, Leo, who ran the place back then, was so proud he put my picture up. I'm surprised it's still here. As much as I enjoy the atmosphere here, I haven't had much time for bars since Ian was born. At least now when I do come, I can afford to pay for more than one beer. You know, it wouldn't hurt you to eat something. The wings here are pretty good and ooh, years ago Leo bought a fried pickle recipe off some cook from the South. Those things are incredible! You have to try one. They make a crunch when you bite them that can be heard all the way to the sidewalk."
"Okay Castle," Kate agreed, her mouth threatening to curl upward for what seemed like the first time in days. "Right now crunching something would feel really good."
Castle squeezed her hand a signaled a server.
