Moment in Time Part 3
Chapter 23
The Cool Boys
Part 3
"It's locked," Castle notes as Slaughter pulls on a heavy industrial door.
"No kidding, Sherlock," Slaughter mutters, pulling a set of lockpicks out of his pocket. "Good thing I brought my tools. Cheap lock. No wonder they needed an exterminator. Some people just don't maintain their property. Open says me!" Slaughter peeks around the door.
"Shouldn't we call for backup?" Castle inquires.
"Nah! I see the kid. And there's only one guard. I can take him out easy." Slaughter rushes in with Castle on his heels, and rabbit punches the sentinel. Louis frantically shakes his head as Castle pulls off his gag. Slaughter grins. "Let's go, kid."
A man with an AR-15 materializes behind Louis, quickly backed by a small army. "He's not going anywhere, and neither are you two."
"We should have called for backup," Slaughter realizes.
His stomach jumping, Castle gazes at the smirking assemblage and begins snapping his fingers in the signature Westside Story rhythm. The crew leader stares at him, confused. "What the hell are you doing?"
Rick's baritone fills the room. "Boy, boy, crazy boy, get cool boy! Got a rocket in your pocket, keep coolie cool, boy!"
Suddenly catching on, Slaughter's fingers begin to move as he sings along. "Boy, boy, crazy boy, stay loose, boy. Breeze it buzz it; easy does it, turn off the juice boy. Go man go!"
Turning to each other, Slaughter and Castle synchronously shout, "Fight Scene!"
Esposito and Ryan rush in the door with a tactical squad to find Louis' captors out cold on the floor and Rick pulling at the tape that's trapping Louis in his chair. Rick looks back at them. "Better late than never, but nice of you gentlemen to join us. How did you find us?"
"Tracked your phone, Castle," Esposito informs him.
"I had it off."
"Vikram figured out how to turn it back on. He said Beckett would never forgive him if something happened to you while you were trailing after a murderer. Ethan Slaughter, you are under arrest for the murder of Victor Lee."
Slaughter looks at Castle, shaking his head. "Damn knife!"
"Slaughter didn't kill Victor," Ryan announces. "His alibi held. He was at a cooking demonstration across town at the TOD. The security cameras caught him in the parking lot coming and going. And he was filmed in the audience gazing at molecular gastronomy tricks. But the kid's still a suspect. His prints are all over Lee's apartment, and he has no alibi."
"You can go, Slaughter," Esposito announces reluctantly to the detective cooling his heels in a holding cell. "Your alibi checked."
"How about the kid?"
"He stays."
"Then I stay too. Victor wanted me to look out for him, and I'm doing it."
"Then you can sit with him in the box."
"Can we get some food in there? I never got to eat, and I'm starving. The kid must be too."
"Castle's on the phone with Beckett. But he can get it for you as soon as they're finished."
Slaughter whistles. "That must be some conversation."
"Castle, what the hell were you thinking?" Kate demands. "Last time you were with Slaughter, you were bleeding all over the bullpen."
"I was thinking how I was going to get through the time while you were gone. When are you coming home, anyway?"
"I have another day here. Are you going to be all right? Anything broken?"
"I'm fine. Just bruised. But Kate, the thing is, I believe the boys are chasing the wrong rabbit. The fence thought Victor had something bigger than a nifty computer chip. Companies come up with those all the time. And the only thing I can figure is it's the universal key the genius kid Louis invented. That would revolutionize modern thievery. Someone huge has to be after it. And that could be someone not even on the radar yet."
"Which would make them more dangerous," Kate points out. "Be careful, Babe. I want a husband to come home to."
"And I have some pretty interesting plans for when you do. I'll sit down with the kid and see what I can suss out."
"Chips and cheese as requested," Rick announces, laying his burden in front of Slaughter and Louis.
"Then let's play," Slaughter suggests holding up a cube of cheese. "So, where's the chip, Louis?"
"You need to turn off the microphone and the camera first," Louis demands.
"The police are going to find out anyway," Castle advises.
"But I need it. Victor said he could get 50K for it so I could take care of my mother."
"Louis," Castle responds gently. "Thieves are not allowed to profit from their crimes. Even if you could get someone to pay for it, you wouldn't be allowed to keep the money. And you can't help your mother if you're locked up."
"Turn them off anyway," Louis insists. "This is, uh, private."
"All right, Castle agrees. "I'll get Captain Beckett to sign off on it later. And Detective Slaughter and I are witnesses anyway."
Louis watches Castle flick the switches before easing down his scrub pants to reveal the tattoo on his upper thigh. "This is fake. The chip's underneath."
Rick nods appreciatively. "Smart. It blends in almost perfectly with the pattern. With the number of tats they see, the cops that searched you probably didn't give it a second look when they took your clothes. And come to think of it, it shouldn't have taken long for CSU to check them for blood spatter. Whoever shoved a knife in Victor's throat would have been full of it. We'll have to check on that. Are you ready to talk to Detectives Ryan and Esposito now?" Rick asks as Louis re-ties his scrub pants.
"I'll talk to Ryan. I don't like Esposito. He's mean."
"Yeah," Castle acknowledges. "A lot of people have had that reaction to him lately."
Ryan pulls a key out of his pocket and unlocks Louis' cuffs. "You were right, Castle. His clothes, his shoes, everything came back clean. And his prints were in Victor's apartment, but they weren't on the knife, just Slaughter's. So, Louis, what can you tell me about who killed Victor?"
"I didn't see them, not a face anyway. I thought it was one of the men who had me at the warehouse."
Ryan shakes his head. "No. They all alibied out for Victor's murder. They were at a restaurant in Soho."
All I saw was someone break in the door. Victor told me to guard the chip and hide. I didn't want to. But I knew if I didn't, I couldn't help my mother. So I hid in the shower in the bathroom. I could hear Victor screaming. And then it got quiet, and I heard footsteps. So I went out the window, climbed down a pipe, and hid behind a dumpster. I was there until I heard everyone come, and then I went to the building across the alley. I'd already figured out the combination for Victor in case he needed a place to run. But he never got to use it."
"Where did you go after that?" Ryan asks.
"To see my mother. I needed to know she was all right. But I didn't stay long. I wanted to make sure that anyone hunting me wouldn't come to her. So I searched for someplace to go and found the warehouse I called Slaughter from. But I shouldn't have hacked him or called. The guys after me must have been waiting for a signal they could trace. They grabbed me, but when I didn't tell them where the chip was, they just hung around waiting for instructions. That's when Slaughter and Castle came and then you and Esposito. That's all I know."
"Somebody was pulling their strings," Castle declares. "We just have to figure out who."