Summer Mix

Chapter 29

The day came with the unfortunate announcement that there would be no arrival of a medical examiner until at least that evening. Castle was only cheered by the acquisition of the materials he needed to bring out any fingerprints on Emma's medical record card. The ship's handyman had donated a large tube of superglue. The real prize was a chafing dish with a glass dome, enabling Castle to observe the print formation, minimizing the chance that they might overdevelop and flow into each other.

After a hurried breakfast, but equipped with a large coffee, Castle set to work, setting up his apparatus on the small desk in the Castles' cabin. He lined the dish with foil, obtained from the kitchen staff, to avoid having the glue stick to the bottom. He set the temperature control at its lowest point, aiming for the boiling point of the glue, between 120 and 150 Fahrenheit. Using some wire mesh the handyman had also provided, he constructed a shelf to hold the card, covered the whole thing, turned it on and sat down to wait.

Kate, who had decided to take a quick morning swim in the pool while Castle was setting up, returned to find him chin in hand, staring at the vapors rising around the card. "Anything, Castle?"

"No," he replied grouchily. "I know when they do this in the lab, it can take a while, but I'm getting bored."

"We can take turns watching it," Kate suggested. "You could write or take a swim or a walk for a little while, say half an hour, and we could switch off again."

Castle was unsure. "I don't want to miss anything."

"Well, just get on your laptop. If anything starts to happen, I'll call you."

Castle looked lovingly at his bride and kissed her, before retrieving the computer he had moved to the bed to prevent accidental gluing of his keys.

Castle was back on shift when prints began to appear and he called Kate away from a reread of additional information on Hochley that Jasper had sent that morning. There were what looked to be three sets. "We've probably got Emma, Doctor Kopel and Hochley," Castle speculated excitedly.

"We'll have to do a comparison," Kate mused. "We can probably get an ink pad to use to print the doctor and Emma from the purser. I noticed he had a couple of them. There was a microscope in the daycare room, probably for the science adventures they had posted on the wall."

"Now who's Macgyver?" Castle asked. "Wait? You want to print Emma? Ewww!"

"Buck up, Castle. It's only a dead body. You've seen over a hundred of them."

"But touching dead fingers?" Castle gave a little shudder.

Kate rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, I'll do it. There's a technique to it anyway. I learned it in the academy."

"Okay," Castle conceded. "But you're washing your hands with that stuff Dr. Kopel has in sick bay."

The printing went smoothly despite Castle's pained expression when Kate carefully rolled Emma's fingers over the ink pad and again over the white index cards they were using to hold the prints. The microscope connected to a screen in the daycare room proved more troublesome, being, like the chairs, designed for use by the young. It was also designed for looking at single objects, rather than doing side by side comparisons. Castle manipulated the cards under the objectives until his diminutive seat finally gave out, dumping him on the floor.

Kate bit her lip to keep from laughing until she saw that he was seriously rubbing his bruised behind, and replaced his hands with her own.

"Mmmm, much as I'm enjoying that," Castle told her, "we'll never finish this if you keep doing it. Rain check?"

"Absolutely," Kate agreed. "You know I think we've got enough points to exclude Emma and the doctor. There are some pretty distinctive whorls there. But we still need something to match to the third print."

"We could try to get seated with Hochley if he shows up at lunch or dinner, Castle suggested. "Maybe we can get some silverware or a glass he touched, or ask the captain to get the crew to grab something."

"We could," Kate mused, "but then we'd still have to fume whatever we got and that would take another couple of hours. Then we'd have to exclude the staff. How about if we send a picture of the prints to Henry Jasper and see if he can match them somewhere. Or better still, also send it it Lanie and have her work on it too?"

"Not as much fun as stealing Hochley's silverware," Castle replied, "but definitely faster and easier. If we need to, we can still go with plan B."

Communications had a scanner that they used to send the prints. Hochley was nowhere to be seen at lunch, so if plan B was to be put into effect it would have to wait. Kate noticed that Castle was shifting uncomfortably in his seat. "Back still hurt?" she asked. "After lunch we could try that hot tub the steward told us about. I saw it this morning when I took my swim. We need to wait to hear from Henry or Lanie anyway."

"That sounds nice," Castle answered.

Returning to their cabin, they changed into swim gear covered by ship's robes. After the short walk back on deck, Castle eased himself into the warm swirling waters with Kate beside him. They were alone, as many of the passengers had lingered in the dining room for coffee and to be entertained by magicians roaming from table to table demonstrating slight of hand.

Castle closed his eyes, enjoying the touch of Kate's fingers as she massaged the sore spots. He soon became aware that the dominant messages his body was sending him were no longer coming from his back. "Kate," a rasp emerged from deep in his throat.

Kate stopped massaging for a moment. "Too hard?" she asked.

"You have no idea," Castle told her. "I - we, really need to go back to the room."

Castle just managed to close the door and flick the privacy lock. As robes fell, the moisture from their skins beaded on the high polish of the woodwork. Water pooled on the floor as suits followed. Castle didn't care. He saw, heard, smelled, and tasted only Kate. His mouth was everywhere, tingling her flesh. He wanted her as ready, as needy, as he was. He looked and listened for the now so familiar signs, the sigh that rose from deep in her chest, the tilt of her hips. She was with him.

Kate took the lead, guiding their joining. Castle gasped. It was almost too much, but there was more. They reached for it together, grasping the ending that came almost too soon.

"Castle, we're sitting in a puddle." Kate observed from his lap as he rested on the floor against the door.

"You want to move?" Castle asked.

"Not really," Kate said.

"Me either," Castle agreed.

Despite their inertia, the buzzing of the intercom made it necessary to stir. Kate got up grudgingly to answer it. Communications reported that there were messages both from Lanie and from Henry Jasper.

After toweling off and slipping into tropical weight shorts and tops, they used another towel to dry the floor before heading up on deck. Castle read the message from Henry while Kate read the one from Lanie. The messages were almost identical. The prints were not a match for Brad Hochley.