Poison Pen
Chapter 25
Unsure if she's still dreaming, Kate snuggles into the warmth of Castle's body. The whisper in her ear is real enough. "Good morning."
She turns in his arms, her face inches from his. "Rick, last night. It's never been like that for me before. I always thought the descriptions of love scenes in novels were made up."
"I know what you mean," Rick admits. "I wrote one for Nikki and Rook. Now, if they really are a reflection of us, I'm going to have to rewrite it."
Kate nestles into his chest. "I don't want to get out of this bed."
Her hair brushes his face as her head fills the nook beneath his chin. "Neither do I," Rick admits, "but I do have to get home — eventually. However, I think we have some time. What would you like to do?"
Kate's fingers wander along the bare skin of his thigh. "I'm sure we can figure out something."
The loft is quiet when Castle closes the door gently behind him. He wants to get to his computer before household activity picks up. He thinks about making some coffee. The filter on Kate's machine was broken, and he didn't want to kiss her goodbye with coffee breath anyway. He decides to forget the brew for now. His inspiration won't be springing from caffeine.
Flipping open his laptop, he brings up the text that will eventually be about 100 pages into "Heat Wave," and lets the words flow from the tips of his fingers. As he finishes typing, he hears Martha and Alexis in the kitchen. Just in time. He might as well start a morning scramble before Martha gets anywhere near the stove.
As Rick emerges from his office, Martha studies his face. He's smiling. Well, she would have expected that. She turned in at 1 a.m., and he had yet to come through the door. But he isn't wearing the after-good-sex smile she's mentally recorded in her actor's store of facial expressions. He's radiating pure joy. After two marriages and an array of girlfriends, it might be that he's finally found the right woman. For her son's sake, Martha hopes so.
"I am creating a masterpiece," Rick declares, using a wooden spoon to stir the contents of a small skillet over a flame on the stove. Eggs, two kinds of cheese and fresh herbs, cooked to perfection. Who are my takers?"
"Nothing puts pounds on the hips like cheese," Martha asserts. "I'll stick with a wheatgrass smoothie."
Castle responds with a gagging sound. "Alexis?"
"Sure, Dad, but I want to eat fast. Owen is coming back today, and I'm going to meet him at B&B. They're having a special viewing of a shipment of books from the Burkhart estate."
"I met Burkhart a couple of times before his health declined," Castle recalls. "He was quite a quirky collector. I'm tempted to go with you."
Alexis throws him a warning glance. "Dad."
"Don't worry," Rick urges. "I'm not about to intrude on your time with Owen. I can make my own appointment to see the precious tomes another day. Maybe Kate would like to go with me. B&B isn't that far from Comicadia. We could make it a tour of literary genres."
"You and Detective Beckett must have had a good time last night," Alexis surmises.
Stilling his spoon in mid-stir, Rick closes his eyes in remembrance. "A very good time."
Kate slowly brushes out her hair. She'd let the moisture evaporate on its own instead of using a blow dryer after a long, misty-vision-filled shower. Castle called, suggesting that they meet up late that afternoon when the parking lot for Your Own Corner opens, so she can take a turn at driving his Ferrari. She checks her father's watch, which is still sitting on her dresser. She has plenty she can do to fill the intervening hours, starting with putting her closet back in order, but she doesn't feel like ruining her mood with something that practical. Better to curl up with Derrick Storm and prolong her languorous haze.
After ending up in the same subway car, Rick and Kate make the short walk to the restaurant lot together. Rick had expected to see his sporty toy ready to go with a valet eagerly awaiting a monetary pat on the back, but the place appears unattended. After receiving no response to a press of the call buzzer at the claim booth, Kate suggests they look for the vehicle themselves. They're approaching the Ferrari when their path is blocked by a figure lying on the asphalt. "That's the valet who was on duty when we were here last night," Castle observes as Kate feels for a pulse.
"He may have been lying here since last night," Kate speculates. "His body is cold."
"He was stabbed, Kate," Lanie reports, kneeling next to the body.
"There isn't much blood," Kate notes, "was he killed somewhere else and moved?"
Castle puts a hand under Lanie's elbow as she pushes up from the pavement. "Thanks, writer-boy. And Kate, to answer your question, he wasn't moved. The pattern of levidity is consistent with being killed here. I won't be able to tell for sure until I get him back to the lab, but it looks like the weapon had a barb or something on it. The killer probably shoved it in and then twisted, tearing up the liver so that," she checks the name embroidered on the valet's uniform, Dominic here, bled out internally."
"Sounds like an agonizing death," Castle observes.
"It would have been," Lanie agrees. "Someone didn't like him much."
"Which gives us a place to start," Kate declares. "We'll interview his co-workers and friends to see if there was anyone Dominic had a conflict with. But first, we'll need to check his employment record for his emergency contact."
"And then comes the tough duty," Castle realizes. "You want some company while you notify the next of kin?"
"Yeah, I do, thanks, but your Ferrari is part of the crime scene. We can't move it. We'll need to go pick up my unit."
"I hate breaking the news to victims' mothers." Kate confides, finding a spot for her assigned vehicle at the curb in front of a Washington Heights apartment building.
Rick reaches for her hand. "I can understand that. You're there when a parent experiences the first deluge of the pain of losing a child. I may turn old and gray while Alexis grows up and has a family of her own, but she'll still be my child. I can barely imagine what it would be like to lose her."
Kate reaches for the handle of her door. "Being there is essential to the job. Maybe Mrs. Farrell will have some idea who would kill her son."
"I don't know how you even find the words to ask," Castle confesses.
"I have to. I know that I wished Raglan paid more attention when I tried to tell him that my mother had enemies. If Mrs. Farrell has anything to say that might be the smallest clue, I'm going to listen. But Castle, if you want to stay out here, I understand."
"I'm your partner Kate, now more than ever. Whatever you need to do, I'll be by your side."