The Push
Chapter 34
"Kate," Castle asked, "have you searched Neila Raiden's office?"
"CSU say's it's not the where the murder took place, Castle. They've been trying to figure out where it did, but the museum is huge."
"I know," Castle agreed, "more than two million square feet, one of the fun facts proudly cited to patrons."
"We asked the museum to close down until we figure out just where the primary crime scene was. I imagine patrons won't be too happy about that."
"Not as unhappy as the trustees. What progress have you made so far?"
"Not much," Kate admitted. "Neila was strangled, so there was no convenient blood drop trail. There was DNA on the body. We took a swab from Ashley, but if that's negative for a match, it won't prove anything one way or another. It won't even prove anything if it's positive since we know he and Neila were in contact. The DNA from the body didn't match anything in the data base, but CSU will be looking for it anywhere that has any signs of some kind of struggle taking place."
"I'd like to look around Neila's office," Castle said. "There might be some clue to the killer's motive."
"Like what, Castle?"
Castle shrugged. "I'm hoping something will have changed since the last time I was there, but I won't know what the clue is until I see it."
"Alright Castle, that strange mind of yours might think of something we didn't," Kate conceded. "We can go now."
Castle gazed around Neila Raiden's private domain. It was mostly as he'd remembered it: bookshelves stuffed full, and photographs of art and curiosities covering the surface of a credenza. One group of pictures caught his eye. "These are canopic jars," he told Kate. "When a body was mummified, they were meant to house four organs that would be needed in the afterlife, the stomach, the intestines, the lungs, and the liver. The heart had to stay in the body because it was believed to be the seat of the soul. I remember getting a bulletin from the museum about a traveling Egyptian exhibit due to open soon. These are supposed to be part of it. They might even be somewhere in the museum by now."
"Why is that significant, Castle?" Kate queried.
Castle shook his head. "I'm not sure. There's just something niggling at the back of my brain."
"Maybe it will come to you when you sleep on it tonight," Kate suggested. "You have been known to have mummy dreams."
"That's true," Castle agreed. "They're better than the zombie dreams. Mummies only shed cloth. Zombies shed decaying flesh." Kate's stomach rumbled. "Kate, the idea of decaying flesh makes you hungry? Do I need to check you for zombie bites?"
Kate laughed. "Maybe later, Castle, but I am starving. I was questioning people, including Ashley, all day. I didn't even get near the break room. Espo brought me some coffee from your machine, but it was…." Kate stuck out her tongue and screwed up her face.
"He never has gotten the hang of that thing," Castle observed. "As it turns out, there was a delivery to the loft from the butcher today. Alexis ordered a load of meat including some terrific rib eyes. She said I have to keep my iron levels up, but I think she was in the mood to tear into red meat herself."
"Better than having her want to tear into me," Kate said. "Sounds good, Castle."
Castle stuck his head in the doorway of the loft before leading Beckett in. Martha was behind the counter pouring a glass of red wine. "Where's Alexis?" Castle asked.
"She has gone to comfort Ashley," Martha replied.
Castle's eyebrows descended as the creases in his face deepened. "Comfort Ashley how?"
"Relax, Richard. They're going to the movie festival in Tribeca so that he can lose himself in the Avante guard. Your daughter is angry, but she's still sensible, although for the life of me I can't figure out how that happened. I'm going up to my room to prepare for an audition. You two do whatever you were going to do."
"Eat dinner," Castle inserted.
"Yes, well, fine."
As if I needed permission," Castle grumbled after Martha had disappeared up the stairs. "She's still living rent-free in my house. She doesn't even chip in for the wine."
"You're cranky. Now who's hungry, Babe?" Kate questioned. "You want me to put the steaks on?"
"Please, and I think I'll see if Mother left anything in that bottle of Cabernet."
"You're feeling better," Kate observed as she snuggled against Castle while they watched the 1932 version of The Mummy, starring Boris Karloff.
"I've always liked this movie," Castle said. "CGI is cool, but this movie manages to tell a great story without it. They were big on forbidden love and resurrections back in the thirties. Henry Victor got robbed though. His scene was cut from the movie for time."
"That happens," Kate offered. "It's a sad story. Even though it was supposed to be sacrilegious, Imhotep tried so hard to resurrect his forbidden love, but it never worked out."
Castle drew her closer. "I guess it worked out better for us. We've both been resurrected, and we've managed to find each other."
"I guess we have," Kate realized. The short credits rolled. "Ready to turn in?"
"As long as it isn't in a sarcophagus," Castle quipped.
Images of canopic jars and Corinthian columns swirled through Castle's dreams. His eyes sprang open. "Kate!"
Instantly awake, Kate turned to him. "What's the matter, Babe? Are you all right?"
"I'm great!" Castle exclaimed. "I'm back in full crime solver mode. I figured it out Kate, the connection between the canopic jars and Neila being tied to a Corinthian column. For once I'm thankful for being forced to go to chapel at boarding school."
"Castle, are you sure you're not still dreaming? What are you talking about?"
Castle sprang from the bed. "I know I have a Bible around here somewhere. It's always the source of a good story, although not as good as some of the Apocrypha. Now Judith and Tobit, those were lively tales!" Castle pulled a Bible from a bookshelf in his office. "I think it was Second Corinthians. Uh huh, here it is, Second Corinthians 4:7: 'But we have this treasure in clay jars, so it will be evident that such overwhelming power comes from God and not from us.'"
Kate leaned her head against his shoulder. "Castle, I'm afraid I'm not following."
"Kate. Don't you see? The movie was all about punishing sacrilege. To some people, that's what drives them. I had that happen in one of my books. It didn't do well."
"I remember," Kate said.
"But look," Castle continued, "what if there was some nut case who thought that the exhibit of canopic jars was sacrilegious somehow, or that Neila was going to present it in a sacrilegious way that didn't emphasize the power of God? He loses it, strangles her, and ties her to a Corinthian column to make his point."
"Castle, that's really stretching things, even for you," Kate said.
"And it isn't stretching things to think that Ashley strangled a museum curator to keep his grade point up? Besides, Beckett, formidable Bronx raised woman that she was, I think Neila could have taken Ashley - unless instead of strangling her, he bored her to death with an economic treatise."
"You may have a point, Castle. Tell you what, tomorrow I'll have my people find out where anything for that Egyptian exhibit is stored and we'll have CSU check the area for any signs that it had something to do with Neila's murder."
Castle gently kissed her lips. "That's all I ask."
"Good, then let's go back to bed," Kate said. "And let's hope you don't have any more dreams about mummies."
Castle held out his hand to her. "I have much better things to dream about."