"This is taking too long," Kate grumbled, her fingers tip-tapping on the dashboard. Normally she'd drive, but this time Ryan was behind the wheel, trying to weave through early afternoon traffic.
"It's people wanting to get home before the snow gets too bad," Esposito explained, somewhat unnecessarily, from the back seat.
"I can head on over to –" Ryan began.
She shook her head. "It won't be any better." Even with the siren going cars couldn't move out of the way if they had no place to move to. "Damn it, can't you ever do anything the right way round?" she murmured.
Ryan and Esposito exchanged looks via the rear view mirror. They both knew she wasn't talking about them, but about Castle, and they sympathised. The trouble was, though, both of these seasoned police officers could also see it from the Rick's point of view. There were times any cop wished he could just go and break in somewhere, find the evidence, and arrest the bad guy. But there was such a thing as 'probable cause', and 'chain of evidence'. If either of them had done that on the cases they'd wanted, half the perps would have walked on technicalities.
Ryan glanced at Kate. If this particular perp walked because of Castle's inability to wait, he didn't think much of the author's chances of survival. Not once Kate had got hold of him.
Her cellphone rang. "Castle? Is that –"
"Not Rick. It's me, Brock."
The blind owner of the Blue Cat club. She forced herself to relax a little. "Thanks for calling me back."
She could imagine the black man smiling, his scarred eyes staring into nothing. "No problem. What can I do for you?"
"Is Merrick Canfield there?"
There was a slight pause. "Now why would you want to know that?"
"Call it professional curiosity. He said he was going to rehearse at your club."
"Well, he was. But he called it off. The other guys in the Quartet weren't that pleased, either. They'd just turned up when he rang."
"So he isn't there."
"Nope. Haven't seen him since Saturday night." He paused again. "Is there something wrong? I can hear it, at the back of your throat."
"I'll explain another time. Thanks for the information, Brock." She closed her cellphone. "Damn."
Ryan, finally getting on a little speed as the other cars managed to pull over in front of them, glanced across at her. "What is it?"
"I think we might need back-up. Canfield might be at home."
He nodded, picking up the radio handset.
Kate dialled Castle's cellphone number again.
-
Rick stood perfectly still, not making anything like a threatening move. "Merrick Canfield," he said softly.
"The very same. Now, drop the diamond back into the water and step away from the aquarium. Oh, and in case you're in any doubt, I'm armed, so be very careful."
"Careful. Got it." Rick did as he was told, the gemstone making a disappointingly small splash as it fell among the fishes. He took a pace backwards.
"Far enough, Mr Castle. Now. Turn around."
Leaving his hands raised, Rick rotated on his heel. Merrick Canfield stood in the doorway, dressed in a tastefully expensive sweater and jeans, an open coat over the top. And a gun aimed squarely at Rick's chest. "Is it just you?" Canfield asked, one eyebrow lifted in query. "Or can I assume the cavalry is on its way?"
Rick didn't answer. It wasn't the first time he'd been on the wrong end of a barrel, and each time he'd managed to either get it away from the other guy, or Kate had been there to save him. This time, though, the look on Canfield's face said that, despite it being messy and against his religion of keeping things excruciatingly neat, he'd be more than happy to squeeze the trigger before Rick could even attempt to knock it out of his hand, and Kate wasn't likely to make any last minute rescue with a suitably pithy line that he just had to keep for Nikki Heat.
"Is it him?" asked a voice from the living area, slightly out of breath, and a man appeared in the doorway.
For just a second Rick wondered if he was seeing double, then he smiled. "Twins. I knew it." No wonder he'd dreamed about twins the night before – his subconscious had been trying very hard to tell him, and he'd finally listened.
"I doubt that. I doubt it very much," the one with the gun said smugly.
"Oh, I did. I worked it out. And not just me, but Detective Beckett knows, too."
"Of course she does." He couldn't have sounded more scathing if he'd tried.
"No, really." Rick shrugged. "But then, you're amateurs. And amateurs make mistakes."
The second Canfield bridled. "No, we don't."
Rick ignored him. "You know, I was thinking it was someone who looked like you, someone you paid to stand in for you. It was only today I realised this was how you did it. Like a conjuring trick."
"I prefer to think of it as a more modern version of the shell game." The first Canfield smiled tightly. "Or Hunt the Lady."
"Just shoot him," the second man advised, moving forward. "Aren't you glad I didn't get rid of the gun like you told me to?"
"Shut up, Andrew."
Rick nodded, taking in the new arrival's coat, the green silk shirt … "So Andrew's the one I met at the station today. And I bet you came up the back stairs," he added, before turning back to the man with the gun. "And you're Merrick, the Canfield Kate and I visited here a couple of days ago, and you came in the front."
Merrick Canfield nodded, the gun not moving an inch. "This is my apartment. Andrew has a place of his own."
"But you share a life." Now Rick could see them together, he could tell there were tiny differences, the shape of Merrick's mouth, the line of Andrew's eyebrows, but if they apart he wouldn't have a chance of in hell of saying for certain which one he was talking to if it wasn't for the clothes.
"Only fitting," Merrick said, shrugging slightly. "He's my brother."
"And how did that work, exactly?"
Andrew was getting restless. "Merry, we need to do something about him. Not stand around and talk."
"I know. And I'm thinking."
Rick exhaled heavily. "As I suspected. You're the brains, aren't you, Merry?"
"Merrick."
"Sorry."
"But you're right. I do all the heavy thinking. Andrew is much more … spontaneous. Which is why we're in this dilemma at all."
"Merry –" Andrew began, but his brother cut him off.
"Just let me …" He stopped, a noise impinging on his hearing. "What's that?"
Andrew listened, then pointed to something next to the aquarium, vibrating on the glass. "A phone." He glared at Rick. "Is it yours?"
"Yes."
"Andrew, get it," Merrick ordered.
His twin nodded, then moved carefully around the edge of the room until he could reach the phone. He lifted it up. "It doesn't say who's calling," he said.
"Well?" Merrick asked. "Who is it?"
"No idea," Rick admitted. "It's a new phone. I haven't got all the options figured out yet, like Caller ID, so it could be any one of my many girlfriends." He lowered his tone to a more confidential level. "You know how it goes. Man like me, with my kind of fame … any girl, any time, anywhere. If you like I can talk to her, put her off."
"And let you warn someone?" Merrick looked almost disgusted, then stepped back. "Mr Castle, I think we'd better make ourselves more comfortable."
-
"Is he answering?" Esposito asked, leaning on the back of Ryan's seat, looking at Kate.
"No." She glared at the phone, her knuckles white as she gripped it.
"You really think he's in trouble?"
She didn't respond.
-
"Why don't you take a seat?" Merrick gestured with the gun.
Rick lowered himself into the armchair by the unlit fireplace in the main living area, watching Andrew put his cellphone down on a side table. "Is this where you tell me all about how clever you've been?" he asked, looking back up at Merrick. "Because that's what this is all about, isn't it? How clever Merrick Canfield got the better of the New York City police force?"
"But I did."
"Mmn, not quite. I'm here."
"You're not a police officer. You're … what, a consultant? At least according to my sources." Merrick gave a bark of laughter. "A consultant. That's so very amusing. A hack of a writer using the homicide department as his very own playpen."
"Tell me, were you hugged enough as a child?"
Merrick didn't rise to the bait. "Who did you have to bribe, Castle? To let you tag along? So you could base your new character on a real person, rather than actually go through the hard work of making one up?"
That was it. The opportunity. A natural point at which to say … "Oh, you mean Katie Beckett, my muse?"
"Detective Beckett, yes."
"A beautiful woman," Andrew added.
"Couldn't agree more." Katie Beckett, my muse. He'd programmed it in earlier, the two phrases he'd used to piss her off more than anything, and now he really hoped the voice activation on the phone would pick up, would call her, that she'd answer and understand what was going on. And that neither Canfield would notice the light on the screen. "And I didn't have to bribe anyone, Merrick. I just asked nicely. I didn't have to kill two young women. Not like you did."
-
"How much longer?" Kate muttered, checking her gun yet again.
"Not long," Ryan assured her, overtaking a green Datsun and narrowly missing being side-swiped by a container lorry that hooted mournfully at them as it passed.
"As long as we get there in one piece," Esposito murmured, his face somewhat pale.
Kate's cellphone rang again, and she tugged it from her coat. Her eyes widened. "It's Castle." Pressing the answer button, she was about to let forth with a torrent of invective when she stopped and put her hand over the microphone.
"Boss?" Esposito watched in surprise as she rummaged in the glove box, then pulled out a hand's free phone set, plugging it together.
"Hold this," she whispered, gesturing to the phone.
He took it, keeping it in place at her ear while she fiddled with the earpiece the other side. Ryan glanced over his shoulder at them, then concentrated on driving in the swirling snow.
-
"I didn't kill anyone, Mr Castle." Merrick perched himself on one of the stools along the breakfast bar.
"No?"
"No. I'm afraid that was Andrew here."
His brother looked shocked. "Merry, don't."
"No, I think it's only right that he understands. He won't be able to tell anyone, but …"
"I'd like to understand," Rick put in quickly. "I mean, when I said you'd been clever, I meant it. Like pretending to be each other."
"Oh, that wasn't difficult," Merrick admitted. "We've been doing that for years. Ever since we found each other."
"Found?" Rick was willing to listen to anything, ask any questions, as long as it gave Kate time. He offered up a silent prayer that she was listening, that he was going to be able to see Alexis again.
-
"It's Castle," Kate mouthed. "He's talking to Canfield. And his brother."
"In the apartment?" Esposito asked, barely vocalising.
"I hope so."
"So Castle was right."
"Yes." Just a one word answer, as if there wasn't time for any more, and they were still too far away.
-
"It was an accident, pure and simple," Merrick said. "Do you have any idea what it's like to be a teenager, on the cusp of life, and coming face to face with your doppelganger? Your mirror image?" He didn't wait for an answer. "It was only chance, being in the same diner, at the same time, heading in opposite directions. I was driving home after seeing a girlfriend, he was doing the same after spending a week in the city."
"I almost had a heart attack," Andrew admitted.
"We figured out what had happened. Eventually. I did some research, found out that I had had a twin, about the kidnapping … and we realised Andrew's parents must have been the ones who took him."
"They'd died when I was seventeen," Andrew added. "The trip to New York had been a … well, a memorial to them, I suppose."
"Of course, he wasn't called Andrew. They'd changed it."
"To Melvin. Can you believe that? When Merry told me my real name, I was ecstatic."
"I set him up with an apartment, clothes … even had him cut his hair like mine." Merrick smiled coldly. "It was amusing. Seeing who we could fool. Even women. They never knew if they'd slept with me or him."
"That must have been fun," Rick said, feeling a stab of guilt as he realised that, in the same situation, he might have done the same thing.
"It was. Particularly when we realised Andrew had musical talent as well." Merrick glanced at his brother. "Not like mine. But almost … as if we are two halves of the same whole."
"He plays jazz, you play classical."
"Exactly." The smile had warmed a degree. "You know, I actually hate jazz. There's no precision, no control, no –"
"That's not true," Andrew interrupted. "If anything, it's more controlled, because you have no set music. It's all about feelings, about using the contrapuntal melody to express the innermost parts of yourself."
Merrick sighed, and Rick had to stop himself from laughing. This was obviously an old argument, and one that would never be resolved. "Is that why all this happened?" he asked, wanting to get back on track. "You said it was because Andrew was spontaneous."
"Yes." He glanced at his brother. "It was all a game, you see. Amanda Tyler came to Juilliard to meet her sister one day, I was lecturing, and we got talking. Pretty little thing. Not my usual sort at all, but I knew Andrew would like her. So when I arranged to see her again, I told her not to tell anyone, that it would be our secret. She liked that. So very young …"
"I loved her," Andrew put in, his voice soft.
"Perhaps." Merrick cut through. "That didn't stop you. Or me. I told her to call me Andrew, to think of me like that, so nobody would suspect, not even her sister. And we had a fun time, the three of us." He smiled again. "She had no idea."
Rick felt slightly sick. It was almost as he'd surmised, but he had to admit the reality wasn't anywhere near as entertaining. "What happened?"
-
Ryan pulled the car up behind Castle's, snow covering the windshield as soon as the wipers were turned off.
Kate was immediately out of the car, tossing her coat back inside and ignoring the cold, heading for the trunk and her police-issue vest.
"Where's the warrant?" Esposito asked Ryan as they followed.
He shrugged as two black and whites arrived, disgorging their occupants.
-
"We were here," Andrew said, looking around the penthouse. "I had the TV on, we were naked, about to …" He stopped, embarrassed by the mere mention of sex, but not of killing someone. Clearing his throat, he went on, and as he talked Rick's cursed imagination filled in the rest in too bright technicolour.
Amanda with Andrew, in this very room, getting amorous on the rug. Then the TV showing the live rehearsals at the Lincoln Centre, and Amanda demanding to know what was going on.
"She said we were conning everyone, making a laughing stock out of our fans, the press, out of her ..." Andrew paused. "She was going to tell. I had to stop her."
Andrew with his hands around her throat, her fingernails scratching at his arms, leaving long grazes that he would cover with plastic spray-on skin.
"I'd actually found the stuff on the internet," Andrew added. "I gave it to Merry, for when he played in the Quartet for me, when I wanted to be somewhere else."
"Cuts on his fingers …" Rick breathed.
"That's what you were looking for, wasn't it?" Andrew leaned forward. "Today. Looking at my hands."
"Andrew, get on with it," Merrick ordered.
The fight going out of her as the light faded in her eyes, the snap of her hyoid bone under his strong thumbs. Then her body lying lifeless on the rug as he stepped back, coming to his senses.
"He called me," Merrick said, taking up the story. "In a panic, as usual." He shook his head. "He had an idea of pushing her off the terrace, making it look like she killed herself. I told him to wait for me. That I'd deal with everything."
Once again the scene unfolded in Rick's mind. Merrick returning, up the back stairs so unseen by the guard. Finding the body out on the terrace, persuading his brother they had to be cleverer, to make the suspicion head away from them. Cleaning under Amanda's fingernails then redressing her in her underwear, another ploy for when she was found to persuade a gullible police force that it was a sexual crime, or at least to confuse them. Folding her up to fit inside the double bass case, then carrying it back down the stairs to the car, not knowing one of them had left trace on her skin ...
"And the double bass?" Rick asked. "Where's that? I presume you haven't got rid of it."
"No," Merrick said. "I have a storage locker. It's in there. I haven't decided what to do with it yet."
"Burn it," Rick advised. "It's just another bit of evidence against you." He shook his head. "You know, you should have let Andy here push her off the terrace. All this planning of yours ... it was too fiddly. Too much for a decent plot."
"This isn't a book, Mr Castle."
"No. If it was, the police would break in right now and arrest you." He looked towards the door, but it stayed in one piece.
Merrick smiled again. "They're too busy chasing their own tails."
"Quite possibly." Rick swallowed. "What about Michelle?"
-
"We need to get upstairs to Canfield's apartment." Esposito had his badge out, but the guard wasn't budging.
Harrison shook his head. "Sorry. I just can't. I don't care how much you wave that in my face, I don't let anyone into the elevators unless the tenant gives permission."
"Can you at least tell me if Canfield is up there?"
"I'm sorry, but that information is privileged and I can't just … hey!"
Ryan had leaned over and grabbed the logbook. His finger stabbed down on the last entry. "He's here."
"Damn," Esposito muttered.
The door to the lobby opened, and a tall woman walked in, bringing half a ton of snow with her.
Ryan loped across to her. "Jenny."
It was the clerk from Judge Markoway's office, and she was holding out a blue envelope. "Your warrant."
He took it, scanned the contents quickly, then smiled at her. "Thanks. I owe you."
"And I will collect." Her perfect red lips curved slightly, then she was gone, her fur coat wrapped tightly around her body.
Kate had ignored the exchange, all her attention on the ear-piece.
-
"She came here, Friday evening. With this stupid scrapbook she'd found. Amanda had kept all the bits and pieces Andrew ever gave her, even though she swore she'd thrown them away. It wouldn't have mattered, not too much, but somehow she'd managed to get a photo of the two of them. Probably on someone's phone. But it was clearly him. Or me." He sighed. "She knew who I was, of course. From the lectures at Juilliard. So I couldn't let her leave."
"Let me guess," Rick said. "You were trying to bluff your way out, probably admitting to your affair with Amanda, that you were really worried about her disappearing the way she had. You made her a drink, probably more than one, and excused yourself for a few minutes before the second so you could go and get the Nitrados."
"Oh, you found that, did you?" Merrick didn't look at all phased, more quietly pleased. "It kept her quiet, docile. And out of the way."
An ugly suspicion was blooming in Rick's mind. "She was here, wasn't she? While Kate and I … while we were talking."
"Oh, yes. In my bedroom."
For a split second Rick hoped Kate wasn't listening in on the conversation, that she'd never know how close they'd been to saving Michelle's life. She was going to take this hard. "That's … inhuman."
"No, Mr Castle. That's clever. As we've been saying."
"Then the theft of the necklace, all that business at the Book Awards … just window dressing."
"Of course. Andrew had worked a summer at the hotel, he knew the security systems. The dear Sheikh was a fan of jazz, asked the Quartet to play at his engagement party." Merrick leaned forward. "Do you know he showed me the necklace?" His nose wrinkled. "Quite commonly vulgar."
"They mean the same thing," Rick murmured.
-
"We have a warrant." Esposito held it up.
Harrison reached for the phone. "I'll just –"
Kate's hand came down on his. "Not this time." She looked at one of the uniformed officers with them. "Vasquez, stay here. Make sure he doesn't alert anyone."
"Yes, ma'am."
-
"So you decided to kill two birds with one stone."
"One phone, actually." Merrick chuckled at his own joke. "That was Andrew."
"Merry …" The other Canfield twin was looking more and more uncomfortable. "Don't."
Merrick glanced at his brother. "No. You shouldn't hide your light under a bushel. It's probably why you're so good at playing jazz, too, while I struggle." Merrick looked back at Rick. "He can improvise, you see. I can't."
"And the theft itself?"
"All Andrew. I was playing at the Blue Cat club, and cutting my fingers to pieces in the process." He glanced at his hand. "That plastic skin stings like the devil when you spray it on, did you know that?"
"No, I didn't."
"But yes, the theft was Andrew. My plan, his talent. He's a genius with it comes to inventing things. He can put together anything you like from any bits and pieces lying around. You want a foolproof way of picking an electronic hotel lock? No problem. Or a gadget to inject a tiny amount of fish poison? He can knock one up in a few minutes. Like I said, he's a genius." Merrick was inordinately proud of his brother, and it turned Rick's stomach.
-
As the elevator sped upwards, Harrison watched Vasquez, the man detailed to stop him warning Canfield. But as he'd told Mr Castle, he was paid to ensure their privacy, or at least warn the tenants if it was about to be breached. Vasquez glanced at the lights showing the elevator's progress, and he took the opportunity. Reaching under the desk, Harrison found the right button, and pressed it twice, then looked up to see a gun in his face.
"What did you do?" Vasquez growled.
-
"You can't fence the diamonds, you know," Rick pointed out, beginning to despair that anyone was going to come to his rescue. They're way too hot."
"We weren't intending to. We don't need money – I have enough for both of us. It wasn't about that."
"No. It was about being clever." He watched Merrick closely, seeing if there was any way he could get the gun from him.
"Oh, I'm glad you approve."
"Not quite the word I'd use." Or a weapon. Something he could use as a weapon.
"Come now. An author like yourself should appreciate the complexity, the genuine talent that went into the planning, the execution." Merrick smiled, tasting the last word like a fine wine.
The phone buzzed twice.
"What was that?" Andrew asked, staring at it.
"Harrison, downstairs. It means we're about to have company," Merrick said, his finger tightening on the trigger.
-
"He warned them." Vasquez' voice sounded in Ryan's earwig. "The guard warned Canfield."
"Boss –" Ryan began, but Kate had heard something else over the cellphone and raised her gun.
-
"It seems we have to go." Merrick sounded almost apologetic. "I wish I could say it's been fun." He aimed.
"No, now, look, I can –" Whatever Rick was about to offer was lost in the explosion of gunpowder, and the sudden impact in his chest took him over backwards, the chair following.
The door slammed open. "Police! Drop your weapon!"
Merrick turned, the gun swinging around in front of him, aiming at the intruders.
Kate fired, catching him high in the right of his chest. He span, the gun flying from his fingers to knock the Fender Stratocaster from its stand, both of them falling to the floor.