Flu

Chapter 73

"Hell of a way to spend a Saturday morning," Castle remarks, as a team painstakingly extracts body parts from the frigid ground.

Kate would love to cuddle into the heat of his body, but it wouldn't do much for her professional demeanor. "It looks like they're almost done. That last body matches the number of Frees' trophies. What they're finding now is probably from more deer."

"Or maybe Karrie Icelo wasn't Heitner's only victim," Rick offers. "There has to be a reason he knows about this place. He may have buried a kill here himself."

Kate nibbles at the tip of her leather-gloved finger. "Could be. Eli figured out how to pull Heitner's strings. He drove him close enough to the edge to risk further incriminating himself."

"Heitner went over the edge the moment he tied up with Frees," Rick asserts, "but Eli's done a great job of exploiting Hugh's plunge." He checks his watch. "The catering truck I ordered should have arrived by now. It's supposed to park on the road as close to here as possible. I'm going down there to check. You want to come with? I thought I could bring back coffee and snacks for this crew, and I could use a hand."

Kate shrugs. "Might as well. I'm not doing anything useful here."

"Besides," Rick points out, "the minute you turn your back, you know these folks will unearth something juicy, or more like icy. Nothing juicy in that frozen crypt. But more clues will emerge."

Kate turns toward the narrow path that led them to the site. "If you're right, we should get going."

Kate returns from talking with Eli as Rick distributes the last of the coffee and breakfast sandwiches. "You were right. They found two more bodies while we were gone. One of them hadn't been in the ground long. Some of the clothing was still intact. The lab will have to say for sure, but from what I could see, it didn't match any of Frees' trophies. It was nice of you to hire the truck. The guys here really appreciate the break."

"They deserve it." Rick declares. "I wouldn't want to see what came in their dreams last night, or what will come tonight."

"You weren't exactly resting quietly either, Babe."

"Uh-huh. But my twisted mind had Frees trying to hit on the Sugarplum Fairy – on ice. Her skates left tracks across his face. These guys may not have fared nearly as well. I'll be glad to get home tonight. I'm borrowing a big ladder from maintenance, and I'll be hanging the wreaths and garlands up high, with twinkle lights. You and Alexis can supervise. She claims I don't hang them straight by myself. If you're still off tomorrow, I thought we could do some Christmas shopping. You can help me with colors. My daughter insists that I rarely get them right."

"How about Alexis?" Kate wonders. "The weekend is her break between school and going back to C.S.U. What's she doing?"

"She told me she's going shopping with Mother. Actually, it's more damage control than shopping. She hopes to tone down her grandmother's selections from psychedelic to merely bizarre. But to sweeten the shopping pot for you, the Pumpkin Palace has a new version of the chocolate chiffon pie you wanted, with spicy hot cocoa."

"Babe, you had me at chocolate."

The blue light flashes in front of Frees' hospital room as an alarm blares through the hallway. The code team rushes to his bedside, and the crack of the defibrillator at increasing power levels echoes off the wall. Time of death 13:05.

The text alert sounds simultaneously on Kate and Eli's cellphones. "What?" Rick asks as Kate's eyes move over the message on her screen. "Frees is dead. Details to follow, but the doctors think it was a blood clot."

Despite his heavy coat, Rick shudders. "Oh, God, Kate. That's like what could have killed you!"

She lays a hand on his arm. "I'm fine, Babe. You know that. But I wish Frees had lived." She points to the bodies laid out awaiting transport. "He'll never pay for this."

"Maybe he will pay," Castle suggests. "I'm guessing that if he meets up with an angel, it will be a fallen one. And we still have Heitner."

"Damn right, we do," Kate agrees. "And he's not only going to pay for his kills; he'll pay for conspiring in Frees' crimes. With the evidence Frees left behind, Heitner is out of bargaining chips."

Kate's orange plastic fork pauses halfway to her mouth as Rick studies a printout Mark handed him. What are you looking at?"

"This is a list of proposed new names for the Pumpkin Palace if it continues past the holidays. We held a little contest among the regulars. The winner gets coffee and pie for a year."

Kate savors a dark chocolate curl. "What have you got?"

"Penman's Patch. Um, can't use that; it's sexist. I suppose we could go for Penner's Patch."

Wrinkles ripple the bridge of Kate's nose. "This is your restaurant, but a name like that might turn away customers who aren't interested in writing."

"True enough," Rick agrees. "Let's see. Writer's Roost. Same problem. And with most of these, we'd have to deep-six a lot of the pumpkin stuff we developed. Ooh, here's one: The Imagination Patch. We can still offer our pumpkiny best-sellers but add anything else we choose. It will pull in purveyors of print but won't turn off other hungry Manhattanites. I like it! What do you think?"

"It's your choice, Babe, and I don't know anyone with more imagination than you."

Rick's eyebrow arches upward. "I'm not sure that's a compliment, but I'll choose to accept it as one. OK, I think we have a winner. I'll let Mark know before we leave. I'm going to have another coffee before we hit F.A.O. Schwartz."

"Isn't Alexis getting a little old for gifts from a toy store?" Kate queries.

"They have a STEM section. But," Rick admits, "I don't really want to go for Alexis. The last time we were there, we were too busy questioning Gloria Kahane to enjoy the spirit of the place. I like to breathe in the joy of all those children exploring those miraculous things. And I want to check out that arcade game I told you about. It could make a great break from writing."

"Or a great procrastination," Kate counters. "But OK. If Little Rick wants to come out and play, I'm not going to stop him."

Rick's brow roller-coasters above his grin. "Very glad to hear that. Perhaps we can discuss it further later."

Kate stretches over her pie for a dark-roast-flavored kiss. "I'm looking forward to it."

Jack isn't really watching for Martha to emerge from a boutique he's observed to be her favorite. He's just enjoying the rare luxury of a stroll up Broadway during the Christmas season and making his way toward Zabars for coffee and a bagel. Best in town. Everyone knows that. Uh-huh. Yeah. Right. But there she is with his granddaughter. He scored a twofer. The question is what to do about it. His scarf shields his face as much from surveillance cameras as the wind, and his hat shades his eyes. The two redheads aren't about to notice him. He should keep it that way. He really should. Maybe they're going to Zabars too. Half the world seems to line up there this time of day. If he and his family end up in the same place, it will merely be a coincidence. Too bad intelligence assets don't believe in coincidences.