Too Close

Chapter 89

"Detective Beckett," Tori Ellis calls from Tech, "I have the video footage from the elevator at the hotel. It shows your victim going to the basement and then to the roof."

"She might have been going to the laundry room," Kate considers, as she and Castle join Tori.

Tori freezes an image and points. "She doesn't have any laundry going down."

"But she does have a laptop," Castle notes.

"Run it forward," Kate requests.

Castle grimaces at some of the elevator activities of the hotel's tenants. "Eww. Can you run it forward any faster? There!" he shouts suddenly as the images speed across the screen. "Crystal doesn't have her laptop when she returns from the basement. She must have been afraid that someone would find something on it and hidden it down there someplace before she met her end on the roof."

"That laptop could be the key to everything," Kate realizes. "Perlmutter's preliminary report said she had something under her fingernails. He's having CSU analyze it, but he thought it looked like creosote. Maybe Crystal was in the boiler room. I'll send the boys to look for the computer. Perlmutter sent that image of a tattoo on Crystal's back. The art looked unique. If we can track down the artist, we may get a clue to Crystal's real identity."

"I think I might have seen something like it before," Castle offers, "on that reality show where tattoo artists vie for 'Top Inker.' If I recall, it was the work of a woman with a nom de guerre of 'Fleshtones.' If she was going to that much trouble to promote herself, she has to have a website where potential clients can reach her."

Kate motions Castle back to the bullpen. "Let's find out."

Castle taps on the screen of Kate's computer. "That's her. Check out her showcase."

Kate scrolls through pages of tattoos before halting suddenly. "That's it! That's the tattoo Crystal had."

"Fleshtones is headquartered in the East Village," Castle observes.

Kate pushes back from her desk. "Let's go see her."

Fleshtones runs her fingers through multicolored spiky hair. "Yes, I remember my canvas for that design. She wasn't like most of my customers. She had no other tats and dressed Ivy League. I have her name in my records. I can get it for you."

"I'd appreciate that," Kate responds. While Fleshtones retreats to a back room, Kate surveys the art displayed on the walls of the tattoo parlor. "Babe, what would you think about my getting another tattoo?"

"I find the reminder of your motorcycle chick days titillating enough on the existing work of art that is Kate Beckett. Any further adornment would be gilding an already perfect lily, but it's your skin. I'll endeavor to appreciate any further decoration you choose."

"That's sweet, but looking at them, I don't think any of these would go with the wedding gown I have in mind."

"You found one?" Castle queries.

"There was a bridal salon down the block from the boutique where Lanie and I went shopping, and I picked up some ideas," Kate explains. "Martha said she could have her favorite costume designer run up whatever I have in mind."

"Well, good for Mother!" Castle exclaims. "Another hurdle removed from our path to wedded bliss."

A returning Fleshtones holds out a computer printout. "Her name is Erika Albrook. This was her credit card information."

Kate takes the sheet of paper. "Thank you. You've been very helpful."

"You're welcome," Fleshtones responds, and if any other cops you know want a tattoo, send them to me. I love doing law-enforcement art."

"I'll keep that in mind," Kate promises.

Kate stares at the background information she's pulled on Erika Albrook. "Wow, Castle, this makes no sense. Erika Albrook was an honors student at Harvard. What the hell was she doing in a seedy hotel dressed like a hooker and using the sound effects disc CSU found in her room to make it seem like she was turning tricks?"

Triumphantly holding a laptop aloft, Esposito steps off the elevator, followed closely by Ryan. "We found it!"

"But it's password-protected," Ryan adds.

"We can put Tori to work on that," Kate decides. "Castle and I identified the victim, and we need to go see her mother."

Greta Albrook dabs at her eyes with a tissue. "I don't understand. Erika wasn't even supposed to be in New York. She told me she was going backpacking in Europe. That was her way of coping with the death of her best friend, Pam Bonner. Pam was interning at a law firm and killed on the way home from a company party. The police wrote it off as an accident, but Erika didn't believe it. She was very upset that no one looked into it further. Could that have had something to do with Erika's murder?"

"We don't know, Ms. Albrook," Kate confesses. "But we are going to do our best to find out."

A text dings on Kate's phone as she and Castle return to her unit. "Tori got into Erika's computer. Now maybe we can figure out why Erika was pretending to be Crystal."

Tori throws a spreadsheet up on the screen. "Erika was a hacker and a good one. She got into a law firm's protected files. This is a list of billable communications with a Colin Rigsdale."

"Erika's friend Pam was at a law firm," Castle recalls. "It all has to be related somehow."

"Who's the lawyer mentioned in the largest number of communications?" Kate queries.

Tori scrolls through the listings. "Ian Blaylock. And I found emails on the computer too. They ran through the day Erika died, but I didn't make a connection until now. They were with Blaylock."

Castle glances toward Kate. "So, our next step is talking to Blaylock?"

Kate heads for the door of Tech. "Got it in one, Castle."

Checking the number at the end of a long hall, Kate stops in front of an apartment. "This is Blaylock's place."

Castle screws up his face as he sniffs the air. "Ugh. Smell that? Something or someone died in there."

Kate pounds on the door. "Mr. Blaylock, N.Y.P.D. Are you all right?"

At the answering silence, Kate kicks in the door, revealing a body hanging from a hook in the ceiling.

"The late Mr. Blaylock didn't kill himself," Perlmutter declares, smugly indicating the body on an autopsy table. "The hanging was set up to disguise a strangling."

"So someone killed Erika and then killed Blaylock?" Rick asks.

"Wrong as usual, Castle," Perlmutter retorts. "Blaylock was killed first, at least two days earlier."

"Kate and I searched Blaylock's apartment. There was no computer there. The killer must have taken it and used it to write the final emails Tori found on Erika's machine," Castle guesses.

Kate nods. "We should go through them. Whoever killed Blaylock may have set up a meeting with Erika and killed her. And we'll need to investigate Colin Rigsdale. He's the link between Erika and Blaylock."

"That won't be easy," Castle opines. "I made acquaintance with members of the Rigsdale family at one of Weldon's political affairs. They're very wealthy and very well connected. They'll put an army of lawyers between you and Colin, probably from the firm that Erika hacked."

"Well then, maybe we should start with the lawyers," Kate proposes. "They need to be informed that their security has been breached."

"They do at that," Castle agrees.