Flu

Chapter 16

Rita scowls at her sometime boyfriend, Chris Carlucci. "Let me get this straight. You want me to find out if the N.Y.P.D. or the D.A.'s office is paying to put up some little jerk in a hotel or motel?"

Chris shuffles his feet. "Yeah, but you'd only have to look at new charges. The twerp is getting released from Belleview this morning in – Chris checks his watch – about two hours."

"Two hours, huh?" Rita responds, acid dripping from her words. "What do you think I am, one of those fantasy hackers you see on T.V.? Two hours isn't long to break into anything, let alone government accounts. But if I pull this off, I'm going to expect a lot in return."

"Dino said you'd be getting a reward."

The tip of Rita's tongue pokes through her pursed lips. "I didn't mean from Dino."

Chris grins. "You can be sure I'll give you what you need, Baby. Good times are coming."

Rita's fingertips fly over her keyboard. "They better be."

The Scarpella soldiers surrounding Belleview are attempting to be inconspicuous. They're not succeeding. The security team Eli had Montgomery send ahead of DeNuncio's release spotted four suspicious cars as well as several men lurking around the hospital on foot.

Getting Leo out safely isn't going to be easy. Hopefully, the Scarpellas' people won't have a heads up to what exit DeNuncio will be using, but just in case, The N.Y.P.D. is employing a decoy. It wasn't easy to find a redhead of the right dimensions, especially with as slight a frame as Leo. The team ended up choosing a woman. Her red hair is real, and her clothing loose enough to disguise her form. Her flak vest will also help maintain the illusion. She won't have to fool the Scarpellas long, just the few minutes it will take to get Leo out in a laundry truck and on his way to a hotel.

Rita stares at her screen. Sonofabitch! She's finding ten reservations on the D.A.'s account. No way can Chris get his guys to all of them. But there's something else, a truck rental, some kind of panel truck. Sh*t! The D.A. could dress that up as anything. She can let Chris know, but it may not help much."

"That's got to be him," Vic Tonetti points at the redhead in a bulky Kevlar vest, coming out a side door and surrounded by N.Y.P.D. officers.

"That must be the truck Rita told me about. Follow him," Chris orders pointing at a police vehicle.

"They've taken the bait," Jerry Macy reports, as cars begin pulling out of the lot after the van carrying the decoy.

"Go now," Eli orders.

Esposito drives a faux laundry truck up a ramp from the basement of Belleview, while Ryan keeps tabs on DeNuncio in the cargo area.

"Destination 5," Eli specifies.

"Destination, 5," Esposito repeats, "copy that."

Kate sees Rick's grin the moment she picks up his Facetime call. "Esposito and Ryan safely delivered DeNuncio. The rest of Montgomery's team managed to collar cars of Scarpella soldiers who went after the decoy. Eli Douglas is at the precinct, mopping up. Montgomery sent me out for beer. I guess he figured I'd get the good stuff."

"Did you?" Kate asks.

"Not the special run I get from the microbrewery, but it's not bad. I got wings too. I'm hiding some of those away to bring home to you. You worked on this as much as anyone did."

"Did Montgomery still have you digging around downstairs while he finished the operation?"

"I was in the archives, but I didn't find anything else useful to the case. The captain said I could knock off to party with the crowd."

Kate rolls her eyes. "If you call being his gofer, knocking off. You have a good time, and I'll be looking forward to those wings."

"Message received."

With the conference room unable to accommodate everyone involved in operation Exit Belleview, Montgomery moved the celebration to the bullpen. Ryan sets up tables for beer, wings, and assorted soft drinks, carefully putting out napkins and paper plates just before Castle returns from his shopping expedition. The cops wheel over seating from their desks and add in some folding chairs they use when interviewing witnesses.

Eli takes a seat across from the cop who served as decoy. Her eyes are brighter blue than Leo's, and her shape more interesting without the vest. He stretches his arm across the table. "We haven't been officially introduced. I'm Eli Douglas, A.D.A."

She firmly grips his hand. "I know who you are. I've seen you around the courthouse. I'm Lana Springer."

"You did one heck of a job today, Officer Springer. You had Scarpella's guys completely on the hook."

"It was a group effort, Mr. Douglas," Lana insists. "Those idiots probably would have gone after any of these guys in a red wig."

Eli shrugs. "Maybe. But they went after you, and it's Eli."

"All right, Eli, if we're going to have a beer together, it's Lana. From what I hear around here, anything Richard Castle buys is top-of-the-line."

Eli glances back as the elevator opens. "We're about to find out. Looks like that's him now."

Castle emerges, followed by two heavily laden officers. He mimes raising a glass. "Let the revelries commence!"

Kate bites into a wing Rick rewarmed in the microwave oven. "This is great! So did the 12th, or what's left of it, party down?"

"It did. I think Eli had a good time too. Do you know an Officer Lana Springer? Apparently, she played decoy and obviously succeeded."

"I've met Lana a couple of times. From what I've seen, she's good."

"Uh-huh," I think Eli noted that."

"He should have. So, it's Friday, and Health Services should approve my going back to the precinct Monday. Is Montgomery going to give his newly minted consultant the weekend off?"

"Unless some emergency should arise, I believe that he is. What did you have in mind? A quiet weekend at home?"

"A quiet weekend at home is the last thing I want. I need to get out of here, do something besides going over old case files."

"Like a marathon at the Angelika?" Rick proposes. "The flu will make for a lot of empty seats. We could probably settle in anywhere we want."

"No! Nothing sitting on my butt. I need to get out," Kate insists, "see some sky."

"How about the heavenly canopy over the water?" Rick suggests. "We could take a ferry or, ooh, one of the cruises for the tourists. A little dinner, a little dancing, and whatever starlight beats out the city's neon glow. I'm betting the boats won't be booked up right now, either."

"You have a point," Kate acknowledges. "And a cruise around New York does sound nice, even for a native Manhattanite."

Rick pulls his phone from his pocket. "Excellent! I'll see what's available."

Leo DeNuncio gazes around his hotel room. To his mind, housekeeping could be more meticulous – a lot more meticulous. The sheets are clean, but he wouldn't want to guess when the last time was that the bedspread was washed. He pulls it off the bed and stuffs it in the plastic laundry bag the hotel provides for guests. The little bottle of Ever-So-Clean Douglas gave him, will freshen the bathroom, at least for now, but he doesn't know how long he'll be able to stand the place. He turns down the air conditioning. He'll be warm, but fewer mold spores will blow in from the ventilation ducts. Damn the Scarpellas, anyway. He knows what he'd like to do to them. When he closes his eyes, he can picture the flames.

Rita reaches for Chris, not too particular about where she puts her hands. "I did it, Baby."

"Too late," he protests. "Dino's about ready to put out a contract on me."

"Not after you give him this." She gestures toward the screen. "None of the D.A.'s reservations was picked up – except this one. Your bomb-boy is at hotel Saracen. All you have to do is go get him."