CBs
Chapter 4
As the team gathered around the table, Castle made an amused note to himself that Esposito had maneuvered his way into a seat next to Angela Lopez. "As you know, Castle is working as an investigator for the Merchant family and has found additional evidence of the involvement of The Giving Heart." Kate announced. "Follow up reports?"
"Manuel Ramirez's brother said he saw Manuel give one of those gold hearts to one of the girls who hangs around The Fuerte," Angela offered. "Whatever Lily Merchant was involved with, Manuel was involved too."
"I checked with the other families," Kyle Morano added, "None of them saw any hearts, but a couple of them did see the envelopes with the heart back addresses."
"I canvassed some of our more cooperative working women and some of the men as well, and none of them has ever seen a heart like that either," Sergei Chekov relayed.
"There were no hearts associated with any of the sexual assaults we've been investigating," Sylvie Seacrest reported. "I think we can be certain that whatever the motivation is for whomever is engineering these disappearances, it isn't sexual. He or she may have a taste for the innocent."
Castle gave a little shudder. "That sounds even freakier."
"Not necessarily," Sylvie asserted. "He could be some kind of twisted nurturer. That could mean that he'll want to keep the kids safe, unless they do something to set him off. We just have to hope they don't."
"I developed a group of possible manufacturers and distributors of those hearts," Ryan put in. "Esposito and I have been tracking them down."
"They would likely be engraved at the point of sale," Esposito added. "We don't have that point yet, but I've sent samples of hearts from multiple sources to the lab to see if we can get a match to the metal in the one that Lily Merchant had. The lab also found a partial print, they were able to exclude Lily, but the print wasn't in the system."
"Bill?" Kate prompted.
"The ownership of The Giving Hand runs through a series of shell corporations. The registrar for the domain has contracted to keep the holder private. We'll need to get a warrant. It would have to be under Captain Beckett's name, but it's in process. The judge wasn't sure we had enough evidence to justify one, but I can add the new evidence to the affidavit," Bill Garrett offered.
"We could try Judge Markaway," Castle suggested. "I let him take a mulligan last time we played and he owes me."
Kate suppressed a smile. "Alright, we can continue when we have lab results and something from Bill's warrant. Thanks everyone."
Castle stayed behind when the rest of the team members left. "What are you thinking, Babe?" Kate asked.
"Did you see Espo eyeing Angela Lopez? He was about as subtle as an Uzi. I think she's his new crush. But about the case, Alexis was talking to me about the service club she was in at Marlowe Prep. I was thinking about checking social media for other service clubs. There could be overlapping memberships," Castle speculated. "Someone in one of them might know something about The Giving Heart."
"There must be hundreds of them. That is one huge haystack," Kate imagined. "That's going to be a hell of a lot of work."
"Well that is what Castle investigations is getting paid for. And Alexis will want to help. Maybe she'll find the drudgery of P.I. work less attractive," Castle hoped. "We can spend the rest of the day slaving over hot computers."
"See you home later?" Kate wondered. "Or I can meet you at your office."
Castle sighed. "Not nearly as much fun with the red headed chaperone around. I'll see you at the loft, but it may be late."
Kate's phone buzzed, alerting her to a text. She grimaced as she glanced at it. "Then we'll both be late. There's some kind of a pow wow at 1PP and my presence is emphatically requested."
"I hope it's not about the team," Castle worried.
Kate shook her head. "No mention of it. More likely the commissioner has a bug up his ass about the budget. I haven't asked for anything extra for the team."
"So whoever gets home first cooks?" Castle proposed.
"Sounds good," Kate agreed.
Kate didn't make it back to loft until nine P.M., but she was still first. She stuck her head in the freezer, spying two rib eye steaks. She knew they were Castle's favorite, but by the time she and Rick got around to eating them, they could lay pretty heavily in their stomachs and she already had enough to give her nightmares. Other than getting to fill Deputy Chief Gates in on the lives of the cops at the 12th, the trip to 1PP was not pleasant. Drug crime in the city had been decreasingly steadily since Bracken's organization had been dismantled, which should have been good news. But seizures of drug money and auctionable items had also been on a downward slide. The funds that had been used to provide extras had been drying up and all the captains had been urged to tighten their belts. That meant the authorization of overtime only in extreme emergencies - which came down to meaning only for cases that were so high profile as to embarrass the N.Y.P.D. if they went unsolved. No layoffs were proposed, but positions open by attrition would not be filled until further notice. The case closure rate, however, was expected to stay at present levels or rise. Three of her most experienced men were due to retire soon and she would have to do more with less - much less. It was a good thing Castle worked for free - at least for the department. She gave some thought to building a squad of civilian volunteers, but she had no funds to train them. Then she thought about Bill Garrett. He was happily giving his services gratis. Maybe there were other retired cops who still wanted to keep their hands in the game. Sergei Chekov, her CB from Vice, was getting close to retirement age. She imagined he had friends who had already arrived there. She'd have to ask him to put out some feelers.
Acid was creeping up Kate's throat and she studied the contents of the refrigerator. There were chicken breasts she could cut into strips and marinate. There were also a couple of impressive red peppers. She could cut those up as well and get a pan ready. Then when Castle came home, she could do a quick stir fry. Tortillas and white wine would complete the meal, with some grapes for dessert. It would be light and most of all quick.
Kate pulled out her phone to see if Castle could give her an ETA. His cell went to voice mail, but she left a message for him to call her back. He did, not long afterward. His voice sounded rough, but he assured her he was fine and right downstairs and he'd explain when he saw her. When he made his way through the door of the loft, she could see that his shirt was torn. "Babe, what happened?"
"I went to Little Italy. I thought I'd get Alexis some of those pastries she loves," Castle explained. "She put in a lot of work and came up with zip and I didn't do any better. Anyway, when I was getting off the subway, I saw a teenager with what looked like one of those TGH hearts dangling from a bracelet. I started to follow her to ask her about it and two guys grabbed me. Turns out she's the daughter of one of Dino Scarpella's lieutenants. I explained who I am and finally Dino vouched for me and had the girl, Theresa Cellini, talk to me. Kate, It was worth ruining a shirt."