Flu
Chapter 15
Grateful for the use of the doorman's dolly, Castle wheels all three case boxes onto the elevator. Kate regards the load as he pushes it into the loft. "Are these from the murder-arson you called me about?"
"Uh-huh." Rick slides the containers from the cart. "I'm going to return this thing to Eduardo, and I can show you what I found. If you open the files before I get back, you might want to sit before looking at the pictures. And you won't want to see them on a full stomach either."
Settling cross-legged on the floor, Kate lifts the lid of the first box before Rick returns. Comparing this to most of the jobs DeNuncio did for the Scarpella family is like comparing a blast furnace to a campfire. The M.E. at the time, which she notes was Perlmutter, seemed to have a hell of a time identifying the badly burnt bodies. The child, notably, had been reduced to charred bones. Briefly pressing a hand to her suddenly protesting gut, she checks the address of the blaze. To her, it looks like it might have been in Spinelli territory, but she's not sure. The first thing she and Castle need to do is put together the vital information to pass on to Riley O'Connell.
Rick returns with Alexis in tow. "Look who I met coming in."
"Holly's coming over. I have a violin lesson," Alexis explains. "I've been spending so much time at the lab; I've been falling behind with my music."
"And Osnitz, the slave driver let you go at a decent hour for that?' Rick inquires.
Alexis' head bobs in vigorous affirmation. "Actually, he encouraged it. He plays, and he's a Holmes fan too. The chief goes with the theory that music enhances thought processes. He told me that the lab has a chamber group that gets together sometimes and invited me to sit in."
"Carl is full of surprises," Kate notes.
Holly's distinctive rhythmic rap sounds from the door. "Perfect timing," Castle proclaims as Alexis welcomes her teacher. "At least we'll have some background music while we go over the evidence together. A few sweet sounds can't hurt."
The last strains of Mendelssohn are long gone when Rick skims the text of the report he and Kate put together for O'Connell. "Anything else we should put in here?"
Kate regards the screen. "That's probably more than enough. If this was a major volley in a territorial battle, the Organized Crime Unit should have plenty of records of their own. I think it's ready to go to O'Connell and Douglas.
"I should send it to your phone to forward," Rick considers. "It will look more official that way."
"I'm surprised the department hasn't assigned you an email address to go with your new status as an official consultant," Kate teases.
Rick strokes the dark stubble on his chin. "You jest, but you may be right. I'll have to talk to Montgomery about that."
"You may have better luck if you let him down a couple of scotches at a poker game before you ask him," Kate suggests.
"True enough," Rick agrees, checking the time in the corner of his screen. "It's 9 o'clock. A new episode of Endless Reaches dropped today. We could catch it online."
"Or you could do some of your writing for Black Pawn now, so I won't have a cold spot next to me in bed tonight."
"After what we just wrote up, I'm feeling singularly uninspired about my frigid-themed Nikki Heat story. However, I can't leave my wife with cold toes, especially when she's recovering from a serious illness."
Kate thrusts her fingers between the buttons of Rick's shirt. "It isn't my toes that get cold."
"Obviously, you haven't felt them." Rick protests. "Hmm, recalling that chilling experience does give me some inspiration. Remembrance of that sensation should stimulate the flow of a thousand words or so, and then maybe we can explore Endless Reaches together."
Kate pecks a quick kiss on Rick's lips. "Sounds like fun."
If Eli had any sympathy for Leo DeNuncio, he lost it during the man's enthusiastic narrative of his superior skill at wreaking havoc. So, the man claimed he felt bad about killing people. Too bad, he did it anyway, to keep enjoying his arsonist's playland. Eli swipes his forearm over his eyes. Except for the few minutes it took to eat the sandwich a co-worker insisted on sharing, he's been putting his evidence against the Scarpellas together since he returned from Belleview. Still, he's not even halfway through. It's no wonder that so many A.D.A.s are either single or divorced. What partner would put up with the hours? No one he's met yet, anyway.
An alert to an email from Kate Beckett pops up on Eli's phone, and he brings the message up on his computer. At least on a bigger screen, he can more easily read the attachment with fatigued eyes. The explosion outlined in the report more or less matches a description Eli received from DeNuncio, except that Leo left out the dead child. Whether Leo didn't know or didn't care, is irrelevant. He and his Scarpella handlers are responsible for the kind of death that gets a jury's attention. The murderer can spend the rest of his life cleaning and disinfecting his six by eight-foot cell. Forrester may barter for medium security accommodations, but the twisted firebug will still be behind bars.
Until the prison door permanently clangs shut on DeNuncio, Eli has another problem. Belleview will be kicking Leo loose, and Eli has to make sure his witness survives to testify. The N.Y.P.D. has yet to come up with an available safehouse. With the epidemic, violence at Rikers is rising. Stowing DeNuncio anywhere on the island is out of the question. It seems like for now, a hotel or motel is the only option. Unfortunately, checking Leo into a public place affords way too many opportunities for leaks. Eli hopes his people can keep their fingers in the dike until a more secure location opens up.
"How the hell are we going to take out DeNuncio?" Dino Scarpella demands. "The little bastard should be out of my life already."
Fingers worrying the expensive fabric of his pants, Chris Carlucci sighs. "We can't reach him at Belleview. We have ins with a couple of the staff, but they can't get near him. He's on full lockdown 24/7, and that place has cameras everywhere. The surveillance is supposed to keep the patients from killing themselves, and if they even scratch their balls, someone knows about it. But we did get a tip Leo's getting out."
"Then you have someone there when he does. Wherever he goes, we stay on him. And the minute we get a shot at terminating his ass, we take it. I don't care who you have to use. Pull operatives off our other business, but Leo DeNuncio is dead."
"I understand," Chris acknowledges. "I'll put Cyber Rita on it. Somebody will be paying the bill for DeNuncio, at Belleview, and wherever he goes next. That will leave a trail. If there's a record on a computer about DeNuncio, she'll find it. If she can track him down, we won't have to depend on being able to follow the cops transporting him. We'll know where he is and how to set up a hit."
"That's some girlfriend you've got there – if she comes through. All right, until we know what we've got, we'll do it both ways," Dino instructs. "Put our soldiers on the operation and tell Rita that if she can get them to DeNuncio's hole sooner, she'll have a reward coming her way."
"Yes, Sir. I'll let her know."