And here's today's second offering.

Disclaimer: Not mine at all

Chapter 15

Dial M for Mayor

Kate had spent the last hour or so looking back over her diary. She found it hard to believe just how open and honest she had been. When Dr. Burke had originally suggested the exercise, she hadn't thought it would have the slightest chance of helping but now, reading her entries over the last four months, she knew for certain that it was. Not only was she able to give a voice to her feelings in the diary but she also felt there had been a few occasions when she had actually been far more open in her everyday life. She had made very little effort to disguise her jealousy towards Serena Kaye; she knew that her face was an open book to anyone who happened to have looked in her direction when the explosion blew apart the bank and, frankly, had Martha not interrupted her when she found the hostages alive and well in the vault, she was very well aware of the fact that she was on the verge of publically locking lips with Castle.

Now she knew the diary was a part of her regular routine after a case. Once the paperwork was out of the way, she would go home, grab a plate of food and a glass of wine, sit down on the sofa and lose herself to her writing.

I hate failure. I take it very personally when we can't close a case. Okay, so maybe it's not my fault, sometimes a case just hits a brick wall and without anything more to go on there's nothing we can do except neatly box it all up in a cold case file. But it sucks. This last case was a perfect example only this one was more personal because the prime suspect was none other than Mayor Robert Wheldon, one of Castle's very best friends and the reason he's there working at the precinct; the reason I have Castle as my partner. As it turned out, the mayor was being set up but for a while, I was facing the distinct possibility that I was going to lose my partner because if Wheldon was guilty, there was no way on God's earth that Gates was going to allow Castle to continue to shadow me at the precinct.

The victim was a 28 year old woman, Laura Cambridge. She was found dead in a car which, upon investigation we discovered, belonged to the car pool at City Hall and had last been used by Mayor Wheldon.

Castle and I went to City Hall to talk to him. I'd met the mayor a few times and had always liked him; I was more than a little flattered to find out that evidently Castle sings my praises at their regular poker nights. Yes, Castle, flattery will get you everywhere; well, maybe not everywhere, but it certainly helps!

The Mayor didn't seem to recognise the victim and was very willing to help us with our investigation. He'd been at a fund raiser the previous evening, the night of the murder, which he told us, off the record, was related to him considering a run at the Governor's office.

Castle then went off with Wheldon while I spoke to his chief of staff, Brian Shay. That guy was a typical political operator who thinks everybody will just accept their will. Well, I'm sorry, but I had my own job to do and I was going to do it my way and not just accept everything Mr Chief of Staff said as gospel. To say I didn't like the guy would be an understatement but, to be fair, his job was to protect Mayor Wheldon and his reputation and he made it quite clear that was his priority.

Back at the precinct, Castle and I discussed the possible political repercussions of this case becoming public knowledge without City Hall being ready with an adequate response. I felt that the best way would be for them to leave me to do my job but as Castle pointed out, these were politicians we were dealing with and,

"They can't order at a restaurant without two compromises and an ultimatum!"

The inevitable happened next; I was called into Gates' office. This was a case with high profile connections and there was never a doubt that she would have her finger firmly on the pulse of my investigation. Naturally, she was also far too quick to point out Castle's friendship with the Mayor and that, as she would not be the only one watching very carefully, my investigation had better be totally above reproach.

After I left the office, Castle, naturally, wanted to know the gist of our conversation and I was horrified to discover that maybe Gates' concerns were actually valid. When it came to Mayor Robert Wheldon, Richard Castle was biased. I shouldn't have been surprised really. One thing I have learned about Castle over the years if that he is fiercely loyal to his friends. About a year ago, he'd been sure that Damien Westlake, his former mentor, had been an innocent man only to have his faith proved wrong. I really hoped history wasn't going to repeat itself because, in Westlake's case, Castle's loyalty was sourced in sentiment for times long past; however, this time it was to be found in his current judgement and knowledge. He would be absolutely crushed if Mayor Wheldon turned out to be a guilty man.

We managed to learn a little more about our victim. Laura Cambridge had been a professor of Literature at Hudson University until six months earlier when she had left her post and begun a series of low-paid, menial jobs. She'd also cancelled her credit cards and cut off her cell phone and none of her former colleagues had any idea why she'd done this. Her apartment gave us no further clues although the landlord gave us a description of a man he'd seen leaving her place the previous evening, six feet tall, dark hair, Caucasian.

Her sister was able to add little more to the facts we already knew, except that, when she had spoken to Laura three days earlier, she'd been scared; something had happened at work but she refused to go into any more details, saying it was safer for her if she didn't know. We had to find Laura's last place of employment and when we did, it was an eye-opener.

The mysterious DAG Corporation. Castle and I visited their offices in a building that was undergoing renovation. We had no idea what to expect but, after hearing suspicious voices and breaking down the door, we were confronted by rows of telephone operators. I was about as confused as the women in the office, and more than a little embarrassed by my unnecessarily spectacular entrance,

"What is this place?"

"About $4.99 a minute," replied Castle and, sure enough, there it was, Dial a Goddess.

The Chief Sexecutive Officer, yeah, that was the title on her name plate, Marilyn Kane, was very co-operative and seemed genuinely upset to hear the news about Laura. As far as she was aware, she had not had any trouble at work and had no clue what her sister had been referring to. I couldn't understand why Laura had gone from Literature Professor to phone sex operator and I'm afraid I struggle to get my head round the idea of mums and accountants actually enjoying giving gratification to guys on the phone. I always consider myself to be very open-minded when it comes to sex but that one, well it's beyond me. I can't help but think, though, that Castle knew rather more about phone sex than he was letting on. I'd love to know the story behind that, Castle.

We did at least manage to get a name from Sarah, the dispatcher. Edgar Navarro. Laura had wanted Navarro's contact details. It turned out that she needed Navarro's help to copy some digital recordings from a hard drive because she'd heard something on a call that she wasn't supposed to hear. We returned to the DAG offices but we were too late, the hard drive had been stolen by a guy posing as a gas man; six feet tall, dark hair, white, sounded very much like the same guy who'd been seen at Laura's apartment.

We had leads now and we were able to follow Laura's trail to a TV station where she'd spent hours at a monitor, watching videos of events attended by Mayor Wheldon including one attended by Laura herself; he'd denied knowing her. The finger of suspicion was well and truly pointing at Castle's friend. According to her book agent, Laura had stumbled upon a scandal involving a prominent New Yorker; more evidence against him. Lanie had found fibres on Laura's body from a light brown cashmere coat; the mayor was wearing one on one of the videos Laura had watched. We needed that coat; it could make or break our case.

Castle pleaded with me not to move against the mayor; he was still certain of his innocence. Gates asked for an update. I was so torn; I should have given her all the information we had but it felt as though to do so would be a betrayal of Castle's trust in me. I lied. I told Gates we had a couple of leads but had yet to follow them up. For a moment, Castle was grateful but I knew we had to move on the evidence even without Gates' knowledge and I had to do it without Castle. I didn't want to send him home but I had no choice; he could not be objective.

Our next discovery seemed to put yet another nail in the coffin of the career of Mayor Wheldon. The Attorney General's Office confirmed that he was under investigation for embezzling funds, $2.3million, from his Reading Train Foundation charity. Now I had no choice, I had to go to Gates. That was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I knew the consequences; Wheldon's career would be over; Castle would be gone. I did not want to do it but I'm a cop, I can't pick and choose who's guilty and who isn't. Laura Cambridge had been murdered and she deserved justice whether it was convenient for me or not.

The meeting with Gates proved to be very interesting. She actually seemed to appreciate the difficult situation I found myself in and, after even going as far as to divulge some personal information about her background, she suggested I go to the Mayor and ask him to give us his coat voluntarily as the only way to avoid it becoming a matter of public record but added that, should he refuse, I was to get the warrant and do my job.

As I was leaving, Castle appeared. He'd thought about everything I'd said and was prepared to be objective because, as he said, he didn't think he was guilty but if he had done it, he wanted to know. I knew that he was absolutely sincere and maybe he could tell if Wheldon was bluffing so I relented. When all's said and done, I much preferred having my partner by my side than facing a potentially explosive situation alone.

Mayor Wheldon was willing to talk to us and when I showed him the photograph of Laura at the Reading Train event, he admitted that, in context, he did recognise her; that she'd tried to talk to him but circumstances had prevented the conversation occurring. However, when I brought up the subject of the coat, the atmosphere turned decidedly chilly. He flatly refused. Castle tried to persuade him, saying it could only help his cause but he was not going to change his mind. He denied, yet again, having anything to do with Laura's murder and also denied embezzling the funds and anything else he'd been accused of in the previous forty eight hours. He was certain that he was the victim of a conspiracy to prevent his run for Governor and was not willing to feed it.

Castle certainly bought Wheldon's story but I wasn't so sure. Yes, Castle knew Wheldon but that worked the other way round, too. Wheldon would know just how to yank Castle's chain. I tried to point this out to him but he wouldn't accept that maybe he was being played. He was desperate for me to hold off and wait before getting a subpoena for the coat but I couldn't wait and give it chance to disappear. Could he see in my eyes just how hard this was for me? Castle can read me like a book most of the time, I prayed this was one such occasion. I walked away, leaving him standing there. I worried that that was it; was our partnership over? Was that the end of any chance we might have of a relationship in the future? I sure hoped not but I couldn't help but feel I had just betrayed the man I love by putting my job first. I had no choice but that didn't make it any easier.

Wheldon pleaded his innocence publically at a press conference, claiming to be fully co-operating with the investigation. To a certain extent, I suppose he was but why wouldn't he just give us his coat if he was as innocent as he claimed. While I was still pondering this, I was surprised and more than a little relieved to get a phone call from Castle, asking me to meet him at the Dial a Goddess offices. I confess to breaking the odd speed limit to get there but I needed to know where we stood. Did this mean he was willing to overlook my stance on Wheldon?

He was waiting for me and as I approached, I could tell he was apprehensive. He thanked me for coming, like there was any chance I wouldn't but it seemed he wasn't aware of that. I wouldn't apologise for doing my job and, as it turned out, he had no intention of asking me to do so. My sense of relief must have almost been tangible.

Castle then proceeded to crack the case wide open. Laura had been trying to identify the voice she'd heard on the phone when she was at the TV station. Sarah, the dispatcher, had been listening to the tapes and confirmed for us that the caller had been Jordan Norris, Deputy Assistant to the Mayor's Chief of Staff.

It didn't take us very long to confirm that Norris was indeed a regular caller to the Dial a Goddess service and that it was he who had given details of the Mayor's charity accounts to an unknown person who had then made it look as though he was embezzling the funds. He'd thought it had just been about the money but once he realised it was a concerted effort to destroy the mayor's reputation, he'd felt guilty and had confessed everything to Laura during a phone call. But Laura was a writer and she'd just been handed the story of a lifetime so she'd tracked Jordan down and confronted him. He admitted that much but still denied the murder and it didn't take a genius to figure that, frankly he didn't have it in him. He'd simply made another phone call and had put Laura in the crosshairs. We needed to know who he'd called but at that point he clammed up. It was clear he was terrified of the people behind all this and I could see his point. This had been a very well planned and executed operation. It would appear that some pretty powerful forces were involved but we kept pressing. Finally he agreed but just as he was about to divulge the name, a lawyer by the name of Bill Moss burst into the room advising Norris to say no more. We almost had them, damn lawyers!

And that was it. The end of the line as far as our case was concerned. We were able to charge Jordan Norris with criminal facilitation and Mayor Wheldon was cleared of all wrong-doing but Laura's killer was still out there. Where was her justice? The people behind the conspiracy were still out there. This is starting to feel eerily familiar. Maybe that's why it hurts so much. It's too close to home. I couldn't get justice for Laura just like I can't get justice for my mom. I guess, sometimes, life just sucks.

Kate had been in quite a positive mood when she'd started writing today but now, recalling this case, she'd found her good mood had evaporated somewhat. She checked her watch; it was only ten thirty, not too late. So she picked up her phone,

"Hey, Castle! You got a few minutes? Mind if we talk?"