Too Close

Chapter 88

From his office, Castle can hear Alexis' feet stomping through the front door. He knows he's in trouble. He'd promised he'd send off a check to pay for her trip to Costa Rica, but he hadn't been able to force his hand to sign it. After Paris, it's hard enough having her a 20-minute cab ride away. To have her out of the country again makes him shudder every time he thinks about it.

Alexis stares down at Rick. "Dad!"

Castle sheepishly meets her gaze. "The check. I know. I'm sorry. It's just that I'm…"

"Afraid," his daughter fills in. "I am too, Dad. I still have nightmares about the cage, Volkov — everything. And I know you want to protect me. But you did, from something a lot worse than anything that could happen while I'm touring ecological sites. And I can't let what happened in Paris limit me, no matter how scary it will be to travel again. I won't let your fear hold me back either."

"Message received," Castle acknowledges, pulling his checkbook out of a drawer. "Just promise me you'll stay in touch — a phone call a day to keep the demons at bay."

"I'm not sure how good the cell service will be where we're going, but I'll do my best," Alexis promises. She inclines her head toward Castle's open laptop. "What have you been doing besides obsessing over my trip?"

"Working on a new Derrick Storm. I'm basing Derrick's father on your newly discovered grandfather, but I'm making him ex-FBI. I've been researching some details about the bureau, and figuring out how they connect to something a DHS agent said to Kate."

"From the look on your face, I'm guessing that whatever he said, you didn't like it."

"I didn't like him. He's an arrogant bas — jerk. But I'm not sure I liked Kate's reaction, either. He started her thinking about doing something even loftier than being the best homicide cop in the city. I like things the way they are. I like being her partner and solving crimes together."

"Everything changes, Dad," Alexis reminds Rick. "You and Kate are going to take the biggest step in your lives when you get married. If she decides she wants to move up from being a detective, the two of you will work it out. You've worked out more complicated things than that."

Rick grins at his daughter. "How did you get so smart?"

"You must have passed down a few genes from your father. He did figure out how he could blow up a Russian spy and his nest of thugs with just you and Kate to help him. Maybe they skipped a generation before showing up again," she teases.

"Watch it, Pumpkin! Go give my check to your professor before I change my mind."

"On my way." Alexis waves a greeting at a heavily burdened Kate as they pass each other at the threshold to the loft.

Castle scrutinizes the collection of bags his fiancée brings in. "You've been busy."

"Lanie and I almost never have a day off at the same time. Today we did, so she insisted on helping me shop for a trousseau. She found a little boutique on Broadway where everything looked perfect for me. We might have gone a little overboard."

"No way that getting beautiful things for the incredibly gorgeous love of my life could be going overboard," Castle asserts. "And my joy in seeing you in them will only be eclipsed by my pleasure in getting you out of them."

Kate swings a tote against his shin. "Good to know that you have your priorities straight. What was Alexis doing here?"

"Prying the funding for her mission to Costa Rica out of my hesitant hands. Once she makes up her mind, she's not about to be dissuaded."

"Good for her. I know the idea of her leaving New York makes you nervous. You've mentioned it 30 or 40 times. But she has to get back on the horse, Babe, just like I did after I was shot. And her therapist thinks it's a good idea for Alexis to go, doesn't she?"

"That's what Alexis told me. She's not a minor anymore. Anything she says to Dr. Granger goes no further unless she wants it to. The shrink doesn't spill secrets to nosy fathers."

"You're not nosy; you're concerned. And I'll be around to hold your hand, or at least pace the floor with you, while you wait for Alexis to call."

"You know me too well."

Kate winks. "I still find new Castle-quirks to discover."

"Only fair, as I continue to peel ever more fascinating layers from the Kate Beckett onion."

"We can make most of the changes you need with implants in your cheeks and chin," plastic surgeon Dr. Lutz explains to Hunt. "That will modify your biometrics enough to defeat recognition software. Your healing should be relatively fast, and the pain should be minor."

"I don't give a damn about the pain. How long before I can get back on the street?" Hunt demands.

"You may still have some swelling and bruising, but you can return to a normal routine a couple of weeks after surgery."

Hunt nods. "Good. Let's get started."

Kate's cell buzzes as she's putting away the last of her finds. She puts it on speaker. "Beckett, I know you're supposed to be off today," Esposito acknowledges, "but Ryan and I thought you'd want to hear about the case we just picked up. Castle should like this one, too. The residents of a rent-by-the-week establishment had blood coming out of their faucets. Turns out, there was a body in the water tower. You want in?"

"Text me the address," Kate instructs.

Castle gives her an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

Ryan meets Beckett and Castle in the hall outside the victim's room. "According to the manager, the victim's name is Crystal Sky." He holds up his phone, displaying the image of a sodden corpse. "Perlmutter's already been here. As usual, he said he'd have to get the body to the lab to definitively establish the COD, but that it didn't look like a drowning."

"Pink hair and sexy clothes. I doubt that Crystal Sky was her real name. Hooker?" Kate inquires.

"That's what most of the residents said. They reported hearing sounds of the girl doing, uh, very personal business, coming from her room."

"She wasn't a prostitute!" A young man announces from behind them.

Kate swivels to face him. "And you are?"

"Ziff Falgrad. Crystal had the room next to mine. She wasn't hooking. She was a programmer or something. She spent a lot of time on her computer. She was a nice person. She looked up some things for me on the web, movies, and stuff. This dump doesn't have much, but it has free Wi-Fi."

"CSU hasn't been through Crystal's room yet, but Esposito and I did a preliminary sweep," Ryan reports. "We didn't see a computer."

"Well, she had one," Ziff insists. "And I know she wasn't screwing anyone."

"How would you know that?" Kate inquires.

Sweat beads Ziff's forehead as his face reddens. "I just know."

"You were watching her, weren't you?" Castle guesses. "You have a peephole in the wall or maybe in your closet?"

"I didn't make the hole," Ziff swears, "It was there when I rented my room and maintenance hasn't fixed it. I wasn't spying on Crystal, just making sure she was all right." He stares at the floor. "I wish I saw whoever killed her. You'll get the sonofabitch, right?"

"That's what we're here for," Kate declares.