CBs

Chapter 26

The Castles clinked glasses. "I'm glad you're off your meds so we can do this," Kate said, her smile not quite lighting her eyes.

"But?" Castle prompted.

"I just wish we were making faster progress on the case."

"You were the one who wanted to take a break," Castle reminded her. "We've had the day and most of tonight. For you that's a vacation. You want go to the precinct and start opening boxes?"

Kate ran her fingers over the smooth surface of the goblet containing her favorite red. She was about to reply when her cell sounded an alert. She set her wineglass down to answer. "Yeah, Lopez, I understand."

"What's Angela got?" Castle asked.

"She said there's noise coming out of The Fuerte. The rumor is that the money to block the community center came from them.

Castle touched her cheek. "Something tells me there's no way this case is waiting until Monday."

Kate covered his hand with her own, smiling wryly. "I'll get a rundown from Bruce, then I'm going to call a meeting of whichever CB's can make it in tomorrow morning."

Castle nodded knowingly. "I'll get bagels."

Kate stirred restlessly in the six A.M. darkness. Castle propped himself up on an elbow and gazed down at her. "Can't sleep?"

"Mm, My mind is running through what I want to do at the meeting this morning. There are so many angles to this case."

"You know," Castle offered, "It might not even be one case. There could be more than one cook to a sick city stew."

The corners of Kate's mouth crept upward a fraction of an inch. "I think the alliteration may be a bit much Castle, but you do have a point. But whoever is involved, I want to know about it."

Castle twined a lock of Kate's hair around his finger. "Hey, you called the meeting for ten and Bruce and his wife were out late last night. It wouldn't be polite to call him and pry him from his bed. We could do something to help you relax while you wait."

"Sure you're up to it, Babe?"

"I am up. I am so up."

Kate reached beneath the covers to stroke the rising heat. Their lips met with collision force as Castle pulled her to him. "I've missed you," he murmured as as they drew apart briefly for air.

"I've missed you too. That's something else Trimp or whoever else is responsible will need to answer for." Kate brought his hand to her breast, braless beneath her sleep shirt. "But for now we'll just have to do whatever we can to make up for lost time."

While his fingers teased a pink nub to full attention, Castle's mouth found the tender flesh above her her collar bone, revealed by the loose neckline made popular by Fame. As his kisses found their marks lower and lower, the garment created more and more frustration. He pulled it away, tossing it in an arc to land across the room. The small silken strip of matching fabric soon followed, leaving Kate fully bared to his hunger. She grasped fists full of sheet in both hands as she thrashed beneath his searching tongue. Sensation flooded through her. She reached for him and his body jerked at her touch as she encircled his arousal. The door to an intimate tunnel desperate to be explored was achingly open. "Now Babe," she whispered.

Castle rose briefly above her, then filling his hands with the finely sculpted globes below her back, he flipped her on top of him. She took him in, sighing as the longing emptiness within her was filled. He cupped her breasts again as they moved together, need becoming more urgent with every thrust. Kate bent to capture his lips, their tongues meeting in a wild twirling dance. Kate could feel the demanding excitation spreading from cell to cell until every muscle reacted in violent fulfillment. Castle exploded within her as his breath became a gasp. Sated, she fell against him in ecstatic exhaustion.

Surrounded by boxes, the conference table, laden with not only with bagels but cream cheese and smoked salmon, was incompletely populated. Carl Lubens, Sylvie Seacrest, and Sergei Checkov had other commitments, but the rest of the CB's were eager to share with the group, led by an uncharacteristically relaxed Captain Beckett. "Esposito, did you and Ryan have something to report?" she invited.

Esposito swiped at a smear of cream cheese that had stuck itself to his upper lip. "We've been looking into Gritch McFeeley's alibi, Bart Frampton. The man is a lying scuz. He told us that he'd never applied for a city contract. Ryan and I checked. He's lost out on twelve of them in the past decade. He was underbid every time until recently."

"By some subsidiary of Trimp, I'm guessing," Castle interjected.

"Bingo!" Esposito exclaimed.

"Sometimes by Rampart, sometimes by one of the others," Ryan added. "Each time under by just the fraction enough to snag the deal. But then Trimp became an investor in Frampton's operation and suddenly things turned around. Frampton has three projects going now."

"Mucho bucks," Esposito put in. "Frampton's operation has been at this for generations. He came up working for his father; had to pound boards with the rest of the crew. After he finally got to take over as boss things turned to crap. Looks like that was when Trimp started grabbing all the contracts."

Kate nodded. "But now Frampton's in on the operation."

"And if Ridley Mason blew the whistle, Frampton would have seen his business go to hell again," Castle concluded. "And Gritch worked with Frampton, probably because he stood to lose a healthy commission. So they followed Ridley Mason in Gritch's car and Frampton has more than enough strength to deliver the fatal blow."

"From what Bruce told me, Ridley Mason used a big shot contact to get his daughter into an upper class school," Kate related. "To me that means more than just a bribe from Rampart. To pull that off, Ridley must have had contact with the big man himself or someone close to him. Then if whoever that was thought Ridley was wavering, he could have passed the word to Frampton. There are a lot of transactions involved in this case." She waved a hand at the boxes. "Evidence of at least one of them has got to poke it's way out of all of this somehow. But before any of you who can, get started on that, we need to hear from Detective Lopez."

Esposito smiled his encouragement as Angela began. "As I told Captain Beckett, The Fuerte may be behind the failure of the community center project. From what I heard, their leadership was not happy with the prospect that possible members might be pulled in another direction. A portion of their proceeds from drug and weapons sales were earmarked to prevent it. That money went to someone in the Responsibility Center, I'm working my sources to determine who. The Fuerte's put up their usual wall of silence, but some of the younger homeboys are unhappy. I may be able to shake loose a name."

Kate could see Esposito nodding his approval.

"Keep us posted," Kate instructed. "Now I hope those of you who have the time will stay and help us tackle the piles of paper."

"And if the bagels aren't enough, later there will be barbecue," Castle promised. "Tell your friends."