On the way out of Davidson's apartment, Esposito paused outside the car. "That guy's dirty. I don't know how. But I can feel it."
Kate mulled it over. "I don't know. I mean, I don't love him. But I don't know what we're missing here."
"You want a detail on this guy?"
"Yeah. Tell them to hang back, though. If he's a former cop, he'll know he's being tailed."
Kate was starting to strongly dislike the severe modern aesthetics of Black Pawn's corporate headquarters. The furniture, even the art, was too angular, everything in muted shades of grey. It was too self-conscious.
I get it. You're modish.
The receptionist was already appropriately afraid of Kate and her deputies, so they sailed past the front desk and into the second office on the right, finding Gina just hanging up the phone. She didn't look thrilled to see them.
"Miss Griffin, we have just a few more questions."
Gina bared her teeth in what looked more like a grimace than a smile. "I'm so very happy to help."
"I'm sure you are." Kate held up a copy of a photo from Davidson's apartment; Castle's fingerprints had been found all over this one. "Do you recognize the men in this photograph?"
"Well, the one on the left is Illinois' senior senator."
"You know him?"
Gina raised an eyebrow. "I vote."
"And the man on the right?"
She shook her head. "I don't know him."
"Are you sure?" Esposito pressed.
The woman sighed. "I have never seen that man before, in the whole course of my life." She looked back at Kate. "Is there anything else?"
"That's all. Thank you."
"Wonderful." Gina waved to the entrance. "You remember the door?"
This time, Esposito didn't wait for the elevator to voice his opinion.
"I don't like her."
After the charming hospitality of Gina Griffin, Esposito headed straight to the CPD precinct to confer with the detectives; Kate and Ryan stopped to grab coffee a block away from the Marshals' building.
Kate took the coffee and her change, thanking the vendor. "So - just go with me here. I want to posit a scenario."
Ryan nodded. "Of course."
"Let's say, just for the sake of argument, Richard Castle didn't kill his wife."
Ryan's eyes widened, but he took it in stride. "Okay. So he's innocent. But he's convicted."
"He's on death row," Kate pointed out, "so he has absolutely no incentive to turn himself in. None. There's only one thing that can possibly get him his life back -"
"- catching the real killer," Ryan finished for her. "That would explain why he's still in Chicago."
Kate hummed, wrapping her chilly hands around the warm coffee cup. "And why he didn't kill me. A guilty man would have shot me, stolen money and hopped a bus somewhere."
They walked in silence for a few moments, before Ryan finally spoke up again.
"It fits the evidence. It explains his behavior."
She nodded.
"He's not just hiding. He's investigating. That notebook of his, full of theories and casefiles? That's what he's doing here. And the phone call. He's trying to show us what he's looking for."
They got back to the building and Ryan held the door for her, following her into the elevator.
"Beckett - this guy. Castle. He's getting to you."
She bit her lip.
"That's how we catch them. We figure out what they want."
"So what are you going to do next?"
The elevator doors closed behind them, and Kate slowly pressed the button for their floor.
"Research."
Karpowski poked her head into Kate's office an hour later. "Hey, Beckett? Got a visitor."
Kate stood, crossing in front of her desk. "Martha. Thank you so much for coming."
Castle's mother set down the box she was carrying, shaking Beckett's hand politely and taking the chair Kate offered. "I have to admit, part of me is still suspicious."
"No need, Ms. Rodgers." Kate shut the door, offering them complete privacy. "You told me your son was innocent."
"He is."
Kate bit her lip. "If I accept that, if I assume he's innocent, then what do you think he would do?"
"He'd find Meredith's killer."
It looks like that's exactly what he's doing.
"What can you tell me about Rick and Meredith? I was told their marriage was - troubled."
Martha sighed. "That's an understatement. She got pregnant, he married her because they were young and figured it would work. It didn't. Richard loved her, and I think she cared about him, but she'd had affairs. The only reason Richard kept hanging on, desperate to make it work, was for Alexis. He wanted her to have a family."
Kate nodded. "I understand."
"It may not have been the - the happiest of marriages," Martha conceded, "but make no mistake, my son was determined to do what was best for his daughter."
Kate nodded.
Martha smoothed her dress over her legs. "If you don't mind my asking, Deputy -"
"Please, call me Kate."
"Deputy Kate." Her voice was perfectly even. "Alexis said you mentioned something - about your own family -"
"My mother." Her chest got tight, the breath seizing up, because memories of her mother floated up without warning, perfect, delicate crystals that took the breath out of her lungs. "She was murdered, when I was nineteen." Kate swallowed hard. "The case was never solved."
"I'm sorry."
After a long moment, Kate took a breath, trying to put herself back into her role. Investigator. Right. "Ms. Rodgers, I mentioned over the phone -"
"I brought what I have," Martha told her. "Some notes he had at the time - the police didn't find anything material to the case, so they gave these back. I don't know if they'll help, but you're welcome to look through them."
Kate pulled out a sheaf of papers. "Is this - a manuscript? I wasn't aware he was writing anything at the time."
"Oh, yes, my dear." Martha opened to the title page. "His protegé - a very, very talented young writer named Alex Conrad - died in an accident a few months before Meredith was killed. He'd given Richard his notes and excerpts, and Richard was ghostwriting the book, in his memory."
Kate set the papers back in the box. She had some reading to do.
"Thank you for this, Martha."
Ms. Rodgers nodded, drawing herself up to her full height, and Kate saw the actress, the queen of Chicago's stage, here in the mundane reality of the office.
"My son is a good man, Kate Beckett. And I want him to come home."
"Beckett."
Kate looked up, startled, and shut the manuscript she'd been reading. "What?"
Ryan peered over the papers. "Whatcha reading?"
"Castle's most recent work." She set it down. "This book - he wrote it based on Alex Conrad's notes. Martha Rodgers brought it by, with some other things."
Esposito looked it over. "Wait - when was he writing this? When his wife was murdered?"
"That's what she said."
Espo tapped it with one finger. "That's not what Gina Griffin said. Remember? Said Castle hadn't written anything in months."
"So what's it about?" Ryan asked.
"I'm only a chapter in," Kate said, "but so far it's about a book editor." She leaned back in her chair, biting one thumbnail. "So Alex Conrad was writing this when he died. And then Castle was writing it when suddenly, surprise surprise, his wife ends up murdered."
Ryan's eyebrows went up. "That's a bit of a coincidence."
Kate picked up the book again. "You guys, it might be nothing, but let's look into Conrad's death. I know it was classified accidental, but - just see what you can find."