Guardian Angel
Chapter 25
As Castle pulls his Ferrari onto the gravel-topped parking area at the edge of the gardens, Kate waves and smiles. When he emerges from the car, she offers her hand and leads him into a clump of dense foliage. "I stashed your vest here. Our guys spotted Coonan parking down the road. But we've got too much cover for him to see through here. Take off your top."
"Kate, I appreciate the sentiment, but isn't the timing a little off?"
Kate rolls her eyes. "Your vest goes under it. If Coonan spots it, we give everything away."
Castle takes the protective garment. "Just needed to lighten the mood — unless you also have a spare pair of pants on you, 36-inch waist." He unfastens the buttons on his shirt, and Kate secures his Kevlar sheath beneath it. "Sounds like Coonan should be arriving any minute."
"Yeah, and if this is going to work, we'll have to let him see us out there. You ready?"
"No, but let's go anyway."
Coonan smugly surveys the estate stretching ahead of him. He's been there before. Aside from defrauding his marks out of millions of dollars, Irving Gadden, the grifter who owned the place, seemed harmless. He wandered among his flowers, checking the progress of his blooms and selecting blossoms to fill vases inside the lavishly decorated main house. But the old man didn't like invaders in his territory. Gadden enlisted Coonan to make sure that anyone who tried to lure away Gadden's potential victims didn't survive to try again. He also took Coonan into his confidence regarding the secrets of the grounds.
Since he was a kid ripping off adults with three-card Monte, Irving always made sure he had an escape route — a back door, a back alley, or an open basement window. He never gave up the habit. As a man, he had tunnels built from the main house and gardens to the woods flanking the road. Gadden made sure he could come and go unseen. What he didn't count on was being surprised with his mistress. Gadden got stuck in a honey pot, with no way out.
No doubt, the N.Y.P.D. was more interested in recovering stolen assets than uncovering escape hatches. Coonan locates a tumbledown shack, apparently untouched. He presses a hidden release, and floorboards slide aside. His entrance to the tunnels is open. Beckett and Castle will be easy pickings.
Johanna imagines that buds just opening on rows of rosebushes have a lovely scent, but she can't smell them. She's corporeal enough to see, hear and speak, but that's all The Father gave her. Some pleasures are for those still bound to the earth. Kate and Rick seem to be enjoying them. Rick used a Swiss Army Knife to cut a deep red rose for Kate, and she drew in its fragrance before weaving the stem into her hair. Red is for lovers. Perhaps the color was a promise. Strolling through the flowers hand in hand, they appear as lovers, but that was the plan, to look vulnerable in the throes of infatuation. To Johanna's eyes, they look too vulnerable. Kate reassured her that the police are watching, but she can watch too. That's one earthly thing she can still accomplish.
Coonan grimaces at the mud soiling his shoes. Gadden always made sure the tunnels were dry, but he can't turn on the pumps from prison, and the cops, or whoever is in charge of keeping up the place, obviously don't know they exist. Dick uses a Mag-Lite to check a marking on the wall. It's the sign for the border of the gardens. He doesn't have much further to go.
"Any sign of him. Espo?" Kate asks, the com deep in her ear, transmitting her question.
"No dice, Kate. But Ryan checked Coonan's car. It's empty. The scumbag's got to be around here somewhere. Maybe he's taking a sh*t in the woods."
"He is a sh*t," Kate responds. "All right, keep watching."
"Maybe we should do something to draw him in," Rick suggests when Kate shakes her head at his inquiring eyebrow.
"What did you have in mind, Castle?"
His large hands cradling her hips, he pulls her against his body. "Something like this. And this," he adds, bending down for a kiss.
"Kate!" Johanna screams as Coonan shoves his way out of a hatch hidden beneath a patch of cornflowers.
Kate pulls away from Rick and whirls, grabbing for the gun in her ankle holster as Coonan charges, reaching for his own weapon. Castle dives at Coonan's legs, giving Kate a chance to get off a hurried shot, grazing Coonan's arm. The killer kicks free, knocking the breath from Rick's lungs, and aims at Kate as she aims at him. Esposito leads a tactical squad running toward Coonan as the hitman and Kate eye each other in a standoff.
Rick forces himself to breathe as he regards the incoming team. It's too slow and too far away. He fumbles in his pocket, his fingers wrapping around a spray canister of zombie repellent. It's probably just pepper spray. Damn! If he's lucky, it's pepper spray, but whatever it is may distract Coonan long enough for the forces of good to move in.
Castle sprays a mist in the attacker's face, coughing as blinded Coonan screams. Kate tackles Coonan to the ground a split second before the other cops arrive. Coonan groans as Esposito jerks his wounded arm behind him and snaps handcuffs on the killer's wrists.
"Thank the Father," Johanna murmurs.
"You all right, Rick?" Kate asks.
Castle grins. "Never better."
Kate stares down at her mother's murderer, writhing on the ground with a bleeding arm and burning eyes. "You may not be able to see me Coonan, but you can hear me. You have the right to remain silent, but your life won't be worth a damn if you do."
"Castle, did you really spray Coonan with zombie repellant?" Kate asks as Esposito shoves the killer toward a squad car on the perimeter of the grounds."
"That's what the label says, but whatever it is, I'm ordering another can. Scratch that. I'm ordering a case."
Castle looks on as Kate gathers up her things. "The suite is paid for through checkout time tomorrow, Kate. You could wallow in luxury for another night."
"No thanks, Castle. A gilded cage is still a cage. I want to go home. Montgomery is reinstating me tomorrow so I can interrogate Coonan. I need to put together my game plan."
"You want some company?" Castle offers. "Two heads are better than one."
Kate smiles as she stuffs the last of her clothes into a duffel bag. "Sure, I'd like that, Rick. But can we stop on the way to pick up a pizza? I've had enough of five-star dining, but I'm starving."
"Of course. Can't let New York's supercop go hungry," Rick declares. "What do you want on it?"
"Everything."
"Getting your thoughts together?" Castle asks as Kate writes intently in a notebook while downing the last bite of her fourth slice of pizza.
"Mmm. I think I've worked out how I'm going to approach Coonan, but it will depend on what he says. And Montgomery sent teams to search Coonan's apartment and his office. If they find anything that can be tied to other crimes, I'll have a lot more to work with."
"For sure, you've got him on attempted murder and oh, trespassing."
Kate giggles. "Sure. Trespassing could put us over the top. But Montgomery's going to call if he hears anything."
"Then that's it for the case, at least for a while. But we do have other things to talk about, Kate. And I think it might be time."
"Come on, Kate. Talk to the man," Johanna urges.
Kate's pen slips from her fingers. "Yeah, Castle, maybe it is time, but not for talking."
