Chapter Three

Early the next morning, Castle opened Kate's door, bringing in her breakfast and a package of papers.

"If you promise to eat this lovely meal, I'll give you a present for dessert."

"What's the package?"

"Dessert. It was great to see you walk a little yesterday, but Smith tells me physical therapy will start this afternoon."

Kate did the best she could with the soft food, the first solid food she'd eaten since the morning of Montgomery's funeral. When she was finished what she could, Castle pulled out his cell phone, punched in a number, and said, "Bring it on."

The door opened to three technicians carrying a huge array of electronic equipment, including, to Kate's delight, a duplicate of Jordan Shaw's high tech matrix murder boards and the computers to support them.

"Oh, my god!" Kate exclaimed. "How did you do this?"

"With a little help from my friends, " Castle hummed.

"Just put the boards there, where Kate can see it from her bed. If you'll get the stuff plugged in and set up, we'll be ready to rock."

With the boards booted up, Castle couldn't resist playing with some of the images, making them larger or smaller or scooting them around the three boards.

"Earth to Castle," joked Kate. "Now that we've got the bridge of the Enterprise, what's next?"

"We're synced with Jordan's own board and computers. Whatever she puts up, we can see. She can't see our stuff until we're ready, though, because of possible surveillance by the bad guys, even in the very heart of the 12th. If we solve this first, and we will, she's buying us dinner at Le Bernardin."

"And if we lose?"

"We won't because we have dessert."

"I thought all this was dessert," said Kate, gesturing at the array of electronic goodies.

"Nope. It's this," he said, handing her the package of papers.

"What is it?"

"It's a gift, a message from the grave, a package from Roy Montgomery. The day he was shot he sent these to my publisher to hold for me. I guess he didn't want them intercepted. Go ahead and take a look. I'm going to clean up in the kitchen and do some writing on my next Nikki Heat book."

"What's it called?" asked Kate, briefly looking up from the package.

"I'm telling people it's called Dead Heat," he said as he walked away.