The Other Path
Chapter 75
The sudden appearance of Agent Gray in the loft startles Kate but doesn't surprise her. With a weird case suggesting a government connection, it was almost predictable. The other possible materialization might have been from her father-in-law, Jackson Hunt. But the last time he showed up, at least he knocked.
"The pilot in the East River," Gray begins without introduction, "do you know who killed him?"
"I was hoping you could tell me," Kate confides.
"Was he connected with the Mach 3 flight?" Rick queries.
"That's need to know, Gray declares.
"Which means he was," Castle concludes. "Ours, theirs, or a third party?"
"Again, need to know,' Gray insists.
"Look, I'm betting you know this, but I'm in charge of solving the pilot's murder. So give me something," Kate demands.
"No one sanctioned by our government killed him," Gray offers. "That's all I can say. But I'd advise you to explore in whose interest his death would be."
"Meaning that his fatal demise was a coverup," Rick surmises.
"I can't officially confirm that," Gray replies. "But that assumption won't take you in the wrong direction." Waking from a nap near the warm dryer, Cronut ambles over to regard the visitor. Gray sneezes. "When did you get a dog?"
"He came with Kate's last homicide case," Rick explains. "Allergic?"
Gray sneezes again and heads for the door. "I have to leave."
Kate turns to Rick as Gray beats a retreat. "I guess he won't be popping in here again."
"The man can kill with an ice cream scoop but is driven away by a friendly pooch. There is a delicious irony to that. But he told us what you needed to know."
"You're a little ahead of me," Kate confides. "What did he tell us?"
"That your victim was an unfriendly, but our intelligence agencies didn't put a hit on him. Otherwise, Gray wouldn't have encouraged you to find out who did. My guess is that foreign agents set up to swipe the plane from the Air Force Research facility in Rome – New York, not Italy. Unfortunately for them and their pilot, he couldn't manage the navigation. Or maybe our people sent a signal sabotaging it. Whatever happened, the faulty flyer managed to attract a maximum of unwanted attention. So when he delivered the prize, he was terminated with extreme prejudice. If the CIA runs true to form, our loft and the precinct are already bugged. They'll be following our investigation as an aid to recovering the secret boom maker. Then they'll probably descend to scoop up the perpetrators before the affair becomes public."
"So the CIA will be using us to do their dirty work?" Kate questions.
"If they run true to form. It's not as if it hasn't happened before, Kate."
"But that was your old girlfriend running a rogue operation."
"It doesn't matter. They can't legally pursue an investigation on American soil, so they have to keep their activities under wraps. The FBI could handle it, but they'd have to be read in, and it would increase the chance of a leak. So the company will use people who've proved to be reliable tools in the past."
"Meaning us."
"Meaning us," Rick confirms.
"But I start teaching at the academy in a couple of days. Esposito and Ryan are already involved. I'd be turning operations over to them while giving classes."
"I wouldn't doubt they're also already being watched. They were tangential to our previous CIA involvement. So were Alexis and Lanie. But now, the agency will have Perlmutter to contend with. That should be fun."
"Rick, it isn't funny."
"Perlmutter versus the CIA. It could be hilarious. And a bone saw can be a formidable weapon. My money is on Sidney for guarding his territory."
Kate giggles. "That would be fun to see. But I should call the ME's office to put on extra security. If the CIA tries to steal another corpse, even Perlmutter might not be able to fight them off."
"What have you got, Perlmutter?" Kate asks as she and the boys stare down at the body on the autopsy table.
"His prints aren't on file. The lab is backed up. It hasn't finished amplifying his DNA yet. But he did have an interesting implant."
Interest sparks in Ryan's eyes as he pulls out his notebook. "Like an alien implant?"
Perlmutter shakes his head in disgust. "No, the kind used to track lost pets and potentially kidnapped monarchs. But this one looks like a step up. It accesses differences of potential in the body to put out a signal, so it doesn't require a battery or proximity to a detector."
"Whoever killed him could have used it to locate him," Kate realizes. "I wonder why they didn't dig it out before dumping the body."
Perlmutter points to a wound. "It appears that they tried. That spot was marked by a small tattoo. But the chip migrated the way bullet fragments can. They may not have had the time to look for it."
"So, where is it now?" Kate queries.
Perlmutter pulls out a drawer used to store bodies. "I'm keeping it in here. The signal won't penetrate the metal enclosure. Mr. Doe can join it when I'm finished with him."
"A locator chip!" Rick grins. "That's so cool."
Perching on a stool at the counter, Kate fills a celery stick with peanut butter. A crunch penetrates the air as she chomps down hard. "But finding out about a locator chip doesn't get me any closer to who killed John Doe."
Rushing toward the peanut butter scent, Cronut runs toward the kitchen and skids to a stop. The canine sits at Kate's feet, gazing up hopefully.
Rick chuckles. "I think he can smell peanut butter from a mile away. I don't know how he'd handle celery, but he'll lick it off a spoon."
"That sounds like the voice of experience. All right, Cronut, we can share."
"You know," Rick considers. "I could smell him from across the apartment the last time he ate that stuff. Maybe the chip is like that."
"I don't think silicon has an odor, even to a bloodhound," Kate offers. "If it did, we could use dogs to track stolen electronics."
"Right," Rick allows. "But that implant puts out a signal. Maybe you could use it to find the tracker."
"I don't know, Babe. How could we do that?"
"I don't know either," Rick confesses. "I use gizmos. I love them. But they're a black box to me. I don't understand how they work. Do you think Tori would know?"
"She might. I'll ask her in the morning."
"Great! So what do you want to eat besides stuffed celery? You're getting your folic acid from the peanuts, but you and the baby need your minerals."
Kate sighs. "Are you going to keep this up for my entire pregnancy?"
"Depends. Are you going to keep harassing me about my exercises?"
Kate throws up her hands. "All right. How about a taco salad? That's a little bit of everything."
"With extra leafy greens?"
"If you do an extra rep."
"Deal."
Arseny surveys the work going on in the camouflaged hangar near an abandoned airfield on Long Island. The damn pilot, Vasily, was supposed to stay over the ocean until the final approach. But the asshole had to stray over Manhattan. That's what Arseny gets for hiring someone who'd been in Putin's special cadre. They're all a little bit off-center. But he had no idea it would extend to veering from a flight plan. Well, Vasily got what he deserved. It would have been better if Arseny's squad could have retrieved the chip. But it's untraceable. No harm. And Arseny will be able to sell the prototype aircraft to the highest bidder with one less person to cut into his profits.
