Poison Pen
Chapter 38
"You want another one?" Castle asks as Kate eagerly downs the last bite of her burger.
"No," Kate responds, eying Castle's plate, "but are you going to finish the rest of your fries?"
Castle sweeps his hand over the remains of his own late hospital cafeteria dinner. "Have at them."
Kate dumps a pool of ketchup on her plate and begins dipping only slightly soggy potato wedges into the condiment. "Whether Perlmutter finds any evidence on the body or not, we have to connect Coonan to Geiger's murder."
"Seems like Coonan using Geiger's I.D. to get to Lockwood would be a good start," Castle observes.
Kate shakes her head. "He could always claim he found it, and Addison could make the case that it fell off when the killer was stuffing Geiger's body into Dr. Cantwell's trunk. There's video all over this hospital and probably in the parking lot too. As experienced a killer as Coonan is, he would have kept his face turned away from the camera, but we caught him just as he would have looked. His hair would have been the same. Tech can even look for the shape of his ears. And he must have dumped his clothes somewhere when he changed into scrubs. We find those and match them to the before and after of Coonan coming into the hospital and changing, we should be able to trace his route. And we'll interview anyone who might have seen him. We just have to put together a clear narrative that will convince a jury — and the D.A. The minute we get what we want from Coonan, he can charge him with Geiger's homicide."
"You've already talked to Dr. Cantwell. Most of the others you'd want to interview here, won't be around until morning."
"And there will be some complicated paperwork to get hospital security video too," Kate figures. "The privacy laws are pretty stiff. Maybe we can grab a few hours of sleep and start early."
"You still want me with you, for what's left of tonight, Kate? You seemed to have poked a pretty big hole in the black cloud that was hanging over you."
"Then maybe we can share the moonlight together."
Castle's fingertip swipes a saucy droplet from the corner of Kate's mouth. "There's no moon tonight, but I very much appreciate the sentiment."
Kate wakes up in the dark as Rick's arms loosen around her. "What time is it?"
"Five. If you're all right, I thought I'd go back to the loft. I need fresh clothes, and I want to get some writing in and find out what Alexis has been up to before I send her off to school."
"I'm fine, Castle, but I thought you submitted the chapters you were working on."
"I did, but I have another Nikki Heat project in mind. I'm thinking I'll work on it in parallel with the book I'm already well into, as I see how events unfold. It will connect some things."
Kate wraps her arms around his neck for a kiss. "See you at the precinct later?"
"Unless you want me to meet you at the hospital."
"I'll let you know."
Castle lets the needle spray of his shower massage the kinks out of his muscles. He put in an hour in front of his laptop, pretty much without moving, before taking the time to lay out a shirt and jeans and clean up. It was worth it. Everything that's happened since he met Kate is beginning to come together. Getting all the pieces to mesh will still take a lot of work, not to mention a denouement of their present cases, but he has the outline firmly in his brain, and much of it is now on his computer as well.
The morning should time out about right. He can start breakfast when he's dressed and have a good chunk of time for his daughter. It's going to be another long day, but if things work out the way Kate wants them to, it should be a good one.
Kate is disappointed but not surprised by the red tape to get video from inside the hospital. The parking lot, however, wasn't a problem. With the dim light in which images were captured and the physical similarities between Coonan and Justin Geiger, it's not easy for her to figure out which one she's seeing. She looks up gratefully at the sound of Castle's footsteps approaching Tech. "I'm glad you're here. I can use another set of eyes, and I sent the boys off to canvass hospital employees for anyone who might have seen Coonan."
"I'm happy that you called. After Alexis left for school, Mother Shanghaied me into running lines with her. She's trying out for a stage version of 'Dead Zone,' and she didn't think much of my Christopher Walken."
"I liked the Anthony Michael Hall version from the T.V. show better anyway," Kate offers. "But neither one is as creepy as Coonan."
Castle pulls up a high stool next to Kate's in front of the big screen. "Can't disagree with you there. What are we watching?"
"The video from one of the cameras focused on the staff parking lot. Is that Geiger?"
"Must be. I think he's got a bit of a limp. Coonan doesn't have one."
"You're right," Kate agrees. "I got a summary of Geiger's personnel file. He served in the army before coming to work at Bellevue and was discharged after being wounded. No details, but he might have picked up a limp. That will help us tell him and Coonan apart."
"Do you see that at the edge of the frame?" Castle asks.
"Yeah, like a foot or something. I'm going to run it forward. I can only see his back, but that must be Coonan approaching Geiger. They're moving out of range of the camera, but I can get a screen capture of Coonan's clothes. If we find them, we can try for a DNA match to Geiger. There's a better chance of that than of Perlmutter finding one to Coonan on Geiger's body. Either way, I'll take whatever we get."
"If I were Coonan and I wanted to get rid of clothes — or anything — at a hospital, I'd throw them in with bio-hazard waste. That way, they'd be hauled off and probably incinerated. No muss, no fuss, no DNA."
"You're right, Castle. But he might have wanted to retrieve them."
"You have a point," Castle considers. "Hard to tell on the video, but from the way the shoulders fit, that jacket looks custom made. So if you're going to stow clothes where you can put them on again later, where do you put them?"
"Geiger's locker!" they exclaim in unison.
Kate jumps down from her stool. "Let's get back to Bellevue."
Elliott Springer thumbs an end to call on his cellphone. His source didn't have much information. Kate Beckett and her writer sidekick were at the scene of the homicide of a nurse. The murder took place at Bellevue, but Springer's tipster didn't know if it had any connection to Coonan and Lockwood or not. In any case, there's no further information on either of those two, and no warrants or BOLOS have gone out for Bracken or Elliott. That may be a good sign. Springer's taken care of his banking in the Caribbean and Switzerland. Nothing's gone through in Cypress yet, but it should very soon. The banking day is nearly over in that time zone. He's almost finished lining up under-the-radar transportation to his retreat in Montenegro. He can live well there with no worries about extradition to the U.S., and the Balkans offer many opportunities. Being a senator has been a pain in the ass. Maybe he should have arranged his escape sooner, but he could use more time with Charlaine's stable before he has to enlist a new provider for his unique pleasures.