CBs
Chapter 28
Castle put down the file he was holding when he saw Kate's face in the doorway of the conference room. She tilted her head to motion him out and he followed her to her office. "How is Edelson's group of retired cops doing?" she asked.
"The Over The Hill Gang? Great! Not over the hill at all. They did have some heavy discussions on the best sources of reading glasses and one of them brought in some page sized Fresnel lenses to pass around. I have to admit, they made some of those print outs a lot easier to read. I might get one for the office. But those guys have managed to find the paperwork on the project that put in that pipe that flooded this place. Now they're tracing down everyone involved. They may find whomever had his hand out before nightfall. What have you got?"
"A couple of things. First, I heard from Sylvie. She said that Guardians of the Future had made a big stink about the crisis center. They had several demonstrations at the Responsibility Center and then met with one of the officials there, Maury Copswitch. Apparently Mr. Copswitch was the one who put the kibosh on the plans for the center. Copswitch might not have accepted a bribe, just been susceptible to their ideology; Sylvie doesn't know. But she's going to coordinate with Angela to find out if funds from The Fuerte reached Copswitch. If they did, then his motivation may have had nothing to do with religious fervor."
"You said a couple of things. What else?" Castle queried.
"CSU found Ridley Mason's blood in Gritch McFeeley's car, on the passenger side. They also found Frampton's prints. They were on file because a bonding agency required it. Gritch's prints are only on the driver's side, which supports his story. Anyway, that gave us cause for a warrant to Frampton's apartment. He did burn his clothes. There were ashes in the fireplace that CSU said came from fabric. But it seems he didn't have the heart to dispose of his fine Italian leather. They found a drop of Mason's blood on Frampton's shoes. Ryan and Esposito arrested Frampton and Marcus Weller's got the case. He considers it pretty much a slam dunk and he'll be cutting Gritch McFeeley some kind of a break, maybe knocking felony murder down to a lesser charge."
"And Weller will get to work with Lanie," Castle noted. "He won't hate that."
"No, I'm sure he won't," Kate agreed. "I've got a meeting with Gates at 1PP this afternoon, but I've got a couple of hours until then and I wouldn't hate it if my husband took me to lunch. We can both use a break."
That we can," Castle agreed. "So where would my wife like to go?"
"I was thinking of a picnic."
"Kate, far be it from me to rain - or snow - on your parade, but it's freezing out there. Perhaps you'd consider some cozy back booth at Girardi's?"
Kate reached under his jacket to cup the inviting roundness beneath his back pocket. "Oh I was thinking cozy." She picked up her tote bag. "Follow me."
Kate led the way to the Janitor's Closet and locked the door behind them. She pulled a blanket from her tote and spread it on the floor. Castle grinned. "You had this all planned, didn't you?"
"I put it together while you were putting the final flourishes on your chapter before we left this morning. We had leftover deli in the fridge, so I thought this would be a lot better than grabbing a table in the break room."
"And I applaud your thinking," Castle declared as Kate unpacked the rest of the contents of her bag. "Ooh, you got that avocado that was ripening on the counter. I knew it would be perfect today!"
Kate nodded. "Too perfect to waste on making guacamole. It'll go with the sandwiches. And..." Kate pulled out a paper bag.
"Milanos®!" Castle drew Kate in for a lusty kiss. "You are the perfect wife! Where were you hiding those? I thought I knew all the cookie safes in the loft."
"Well, I'm not going to give up the one you don't know about. It was passed to me in sacred trust by your daughter. But I will share the contents."
Castle kissed her again. "I'm all for sharing - food and anything else that might come up."
"Food first," Kate cautioned, "or I might bite."
Castle pulled a piece of pastrami from a sandwich and stuffed it in her mouth. "I don't know whether to take that as a threat or a promise."
If anyone at the Twelfth heard the shelves in the supply closet rattling, they kept it to themselves. And if anyone saw their captain emerge smiling and slightly flushed, they were too discreet to mention it. Castle walked Kate to the elevator as she headed out to 1PP, then returned to the conference room with new energy for scaling the mountains of paper.
The news reached Kate late that night. CSU had been analyzing a note found in Frampton's apartment. Several partial prints showed a similarity to those on file for Trimp, but they didn't have enough matching points to justify an arrest, especially given the ability of Trimp to hire any expert in the land to dispute CSU's findings. The handwriting on the note was also an apparent match for his signature, but since that signature had been trademarked, it would be conceivable that an able forger could copy it. With Frampton's testimony, they had a case against Trimp, but it was far from bulletproof, and to take down a man with Trimp's resources, it would have to be constructed of solid kevlar.
"So what do we do now?" Castle asked.
"We keep a lid on it," Kate replied. "The people in CSU know how to keep their mouths shut. So do our people. We just keep building until we can go at Trimp with a case no dream team can dismantle, because the minute we bring charges, his lawyers can ask for everything we've got in discovery. We just have to leave him alone until we're a hundred, no a thousand, percent sure we have him. The hardest thing about this is going to be preventing leaks from civilians. Everyone with even the slightest contact with this case will have to understand the stakes. That includes Alexis and Balazs."
Alexis groaned when she heard her father's ring tone. "I have to get this. He wouldn't call this late if it weren't important." Castle put the phone on speaker so Kate could chime in, and hurriedly explained the imperativeness of keeping anything about Trimp secret. Alexis rolled her eyes. "Dad, I understand about confidentiality and I've been keeping life or death secrets for you ever since I found out you were working with Mr. Smith to protect Kate. I won't say anything to anyone who isn't already involved in the case and doesn't know how to keep quiet."
"And speaking of involved in the case, I'll need to talk to Balazs too," Castle told her. "I think his cell is off. It keeps going to voice mail. Do you know where he is?"
Alexis and Balazs looked at each other and Balazs nodded. "Dad, I'm with him." Alexis handed her cell phone to the other occupant of the bed.
Kate reached out and silently took her husband's hand.