All four at the 12th precinct and the two detectives at the 54th are on a video conference reviewing the evidence that Tori was just able to recover. Plastered on the white board and also electronically duplicated to the men at the 54th precinct is the screen capture of the killer. A tall professional woman wearing business suit and moving quickly away from the scene of the crime
Beckett is conducting the electronic meeting "OK guys, we now know who killed Blaire Collins, but now we need to know who killed the killer"
Esposito remarks first "From what Tori was able to recover from the audio file Dr. Sellers was at the store to confront Blair for having an affair with Jordan Bailey but why would Dr. Sellers murder Blaire?"
"From the audio it sounded like it was a in a fit of passion. They argued and Sellers probably just reacted. She grabbed a bottle and hit Blair not meaning to kill her but dropping her into the tank" Ryan responds
Looking at Beckett "Yeah and instead of checking on the condition of the young woman, she left the crime scene and returned to the university where she had appointments with her lover and your husband "Esposito comments while glaring toward Castle
Kate gives Javier a death glare "She had an anointment and welcomed Castle to the school before she met with Bailey"
"I'll BET she welcomed him"
"JAVI!"
"Sorry, Beckett" the Hispanic detective looks at Castle "Did you notice anything unusual when you met with her that morning?"
Castle seems to think for just a minute "You know when she took her jacket off I noticed a stain on the sleeve. I wonder if that was from the cooking oil?"
Kate looks to Rick "Took her jacket off?" expanding on the word took
"Yes. She took her jacket off and hung it on the rack, then sat down on the couch next to me"
"Oh, so you two were on the couch?" Kate asks
"That is just moments before you texted me about lunch and I rushed out of there"
Castle can see her look soften. She knows how faithful he is to her, but she does love to tease him whenever he opens that door to let her run through
"OK! Let's assume she met with Bailey after you were there" Beckett comments as she is looking at the local murder board and the screen containing the images of the other two detectives.
These two other detectives at the 54th have no idea about the details of the relationship of the four people at the 12th and are not sure what to say after the exchange that just took place
"Let's look at the events…" Castle starts up "Bailey comes to see her entering through the secret door"
Beckett: "They have a little fun on the furniture"
Castle: "He leaves his hand prints on her desk"
Beckett: He leaves the office without anyone knowing what happened"
Castle: "It was too soon for him to become suspicious of her involvement with killing Blair or anything else she might have been involved with"
Beckett: "It was several days later before I came to the school…"
Ryan gets a questioning look on his face "Why did you go by the school?"
She looks at Ryan "UH…I… just to…"
Castle answers "She came to see if I wanted lunch"
"What he said" she responds quickly
Ryan quips "So you went to the school to grab something for lunch" causing Castle to cough "Then what happened
"We were in Castle's office and Sellers came in and invited him…us to a dinner party at her house that night"
"So that is when you first met the other players in this little game?" Esposito asks
Beckett answers "That night, at the dinner party all the other women were ranting about their husband's infidelity"
"Beckett, didn't you say one of the women was adamant that her husband was being unfaithful while the others didn't seem to care?"
"Yes…Michele Best went on and on that her husband, Rod, was having an affair because he was gone a lot of time that he could not or would not explain"
Ryan then comments "Maybe he was also involved with the school president"
Esposito responds "We need to bring them in and ask what they know about the murder" He looks at the video link talking to the other detectives "Can you two handle that?"
Detective Sexton responds "We will get on that as soon as this meeting is over"
Beckett looks at the board again "so to summarize, we have the same suspects as before, Jordan Bailey and his wife June…"
Ryan interrupts "Except they both had alibies for the time of the murder"
Beckett responds "I think we need to recheck that"
Esposito then comments "and now we have Michele Best and her husband Rod"
"If he was also having an affair with the victim…his wife might be our killer. Didn't you say that CSU has prints not yet identified?" Castle comments
"Yes. They are not in the criminal database or any other databases we have" Tori answers
Beckett looks at her team "OK. Castle and I will go to Dr. Sellers home and see if we can find anything that might help there, while Ryan and Esposito re-look into June and Jordan Bailey. Sexton and Bryan will pick up Rod and Michele Best and see what they can learn from them.
The teams all head out to accomplish their respective tasks
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
When the elevator doors close Beckett leans into Rick once more
"Kate, I promise you that…"
"Babe, I trust you implicitly. You do not need to say anything. I love you and I know you love me…that's all that matters"
He is still wondering why she has become so clingy. This is so not like her.
When they arrive at the home of the school president, they enter the house that has been secured for evidence gathering.
The duo don evidence gloves and proceed to examine their surroundings
"Castle, will you check the closet and see if you can find the suit she was wearing the day you met with her? See if there is still a stain on the sleeve? We will send it to the lab"
"Got it" he responds
Beckett goes into the office and looks around the desk and credenza. She spends several minutes looking over the contents of each drawer when she finally pull open the side where she is startled to find a note written on a sheet of school stationary
It reads "Stop or you will pay dearly"
"RICK" Kate yells out just as her husband enters the room
"What?"
"OH! She looks up startled that his is there "Look at this" she hands the page over to him "I looks like someone did not like her activities"
"Looks like a threat to me" Castle responds
"Did you find the clothes?"
"No. The outfit she was wearing was not in the closet"
"She probably threw it away. Getting rid of evidence" Beckett remarks
"I don't know. It looked like a very expensive outfit"
At this moment Beckett notices the answering machine contains some messages. She presses the play button and begins playing the saved messages. The fist is a telemarketer offering to clean her carper. They have a special this week
The second message is more important "This is Zack at Metro Cleaners…about your suit coat. We have tried everything to remove the stains but have not been able to get it done. Call or come by and let us know what you want us to do. Bye" and the call disconnects
"That explains why we can't find the clothes she was wearing that day…" Beckett starts up
Castle finishes "She took them to the cleaners"
Beckett finishes "We need to go down there and pick up the evidence"
Castle uses *69 to call the cleaners back. When the man answers he asks for the address
The two leave the house and head just a few block away to pick up the evidence waiting for them
On the way back down to the lab to drop off the clothes Kate takes Ricks
After checking the evidence into the lab Castle and Beckett are back in her cruiser
Fingers wrapped together again Kate remarks "I am so ready to go home"
Castle is looking out the window "Yeah, me too"
Again she tightens her fingers into his and then she puts on an evil grim "NO. My dad picked up Jimmy and Alexis has a late class. No one is there and I mean I am really ready to go home" and she squeezes his fingers
Gulp
Please stay with me everyone. It is becomong harder to write these stories especially since the reader's numbers have dropped so dramatically, but I will finish this one soon
