2

Back at the 12th, Castle and Beckett were sitting at the desk, drinking their coffee that Castle had insisted on picking up on the way from the crime scene.

Esposito came into the room, a photo in hand.

"Uniforms picked up the wallet of our victim. Belongs to one Alana Vestig, an up and coming actress, who just landed a lead role on that new sit-com "Girl about town". Looks like our mystery death girl was sitting in quite an enviable position.

"Yeah well, not so much now", Castle pointed out.

"Our victim's death may not be quite the mystery we first thought." Ryan came up behind him. "Tox screen came back, copious amounts of Tetrodotoxin were found in her blood."

Beckett took the tox report from him "Tetrodotoxin? The Pufferfish Poison?"

Castle stood up. "So she could've just eaten the wrong part of a poisonous fish. A few years ago I was in Thailand, went there for the scenery." He gave Esposito a discreet wink.

Beckett rolled her eyes. Castle continued "Pufferfish is a delicacy over there. Eating a certain part of the backbone won't kill you, but it will have you doing a little version of lucy in the sky with diamonds."

"Where would someone go to eat pufferfish around New York city then?"

"Exclusive Idiots Club?" Esposito offered.

"There's something else", Ryan said. "Our victim was in the late stages of Hepatitis C."

"I never saw any medication in the house", Castle pointed out.

Beckett shrugged. "If she was in the late stages of it, she may have decided to give up."

"That makes no sense, she just landed one of the hottest gigs on television", Castle mused.

"Do we have any details on next of kin?" Beckett asked Ryan.

"Vic's sister, Melanie Vestig, resident of 1833 University Ave, The Bronx."

A woman, slightly older than the victim, but very similar in looks, sat in her living room, tears wetting her cheeks.

"You never think it will be someone you know. Even in this city. I mean retrospective of this neighborhood, where Alana lived was a haven."

"Miss Vestig, were you aware that that your sister was carrying the Hepatitis C virus?"

Beckett asked softly, she could really get on someone's case when they were guilty but she always had a comforting way of talking to people that she believed were innocent.

Melanie Vestig shook her head. "What? No. I had no idea. Why would she not tell me that? We shared everything."

"Miss Vestig, did Alana have any enemies?" Beckett pried.

Her sister sniffed. "She'd just beaten out seven hundred girls to play that new TV part she got, so I'd say she had a few rivals, but why are you asking me this? I thought Alana died from eating poisonous fish?"

"There were signs of a struggle at her apartment. Was Alana seeing anyone Miss Vestig?" Castle asked this time.

"You mean romantically? She just broke up with someone actually. Michael Zivanovic, he's an actor too."

"Do you have his address?", Beckett asked.

"I might have it here somewhere, I'll take a look for you. Surely you don't think he might've done something to hurt Alana?"

"Just ruling out every possibility". Beckett tried to sound soothing.

"When you find out who infected poor Lana, you'll let me know won't you?"

Beckett nodded, slightly hesitantly. "Of course."

While the two ladies had been talking, a small sandy haired toddler had made his way into the living room, and was now staring up at Castle with an interested expression. Castle reached out his index finger to tickle the young boy, who patted it back down with a toothy grin.

Beckett who was watching the interaction, bit her lip so as not to smile too widely in front of the grief-stricken woman on her right.

"Your son?" She asked Melanie. Melanie nodded, looking at him with fondness. "Tyler."

"Where's the father?" Beckett queried. Melanie shook her head. "Who knows. Probably got a dozen more of Tyler running around out there somewhere."

Beckett nodded, understanding she didn't need to ask anything more on the subject.

Melanie called Tyler over. "Tyler honey, come here." The boy stopped his playtime with Castle and waddled over to her, she picked him up at put him on her knee.

"Alana was the biggest support I had after Tyler's father left. She was there when no one else was, but I guess it's just me and him now." Tyler cuddled into his mother's chest and for the first time since hearing about her sister's death, Melanie smiled.

Castle and Beckett walked along a New York street, dressed with brightly colored Autumn trees. It was comfortable like this, they both felt safer somehow in each others' presence.

"I'm beginning to think that Alana may not have known what kind of fish she was eating. Do we know if she had company that evening?" Castle asked Beckett.

"CSU are trying to obtain video footage from outside Alana's apartment on the night the murder occurred." Beckett answered him.

Castle raised an eyebrow. "Jumping the shark there just a tad, detective? We don't actually know that it was a murder yet."

"You're right , but someone is dead by unnatural causes, which means somebody is liable."

Castle grinned at her. "You've got that look in your eyes."

"What look?" Beckett frowned.

"That ''I'm going to catch the son of a bitch who did this'' look."

Beckett said nothing in reply but her frown was hard to keep in place.