Chapter 111

The boys took the interview while Castle and Beckett watched on in the observation room. Beckett pulled up a table she then sat on allowing enough room for her partner to rest his legs.

She said quietly, "Mario Mendoza is also known as Trucho. He did four years upstate for distribution in Queens and he's just got out on parole."

Castle replied, "And already copped a beating." He cleared his throat. "He got rinsed. His face is a bloody mess." Once again, he cleared his throat. "Excuse me."

"How's the egg treating you?" She tried to keep a straight face but when he gave her a look a smile broke.

"Gotta admit it was a bit rough, but the beer made it worse. How do they eat that shit?"

She shrugged. "I know it was a rough ride home with your pickled egg and beer breath."

Castle appeared amused by her comment, as he asked, "Not a turn on?"

She scoffed. "Not in the slightest."

"Shame. I don't know how the Irish do it."

"Did Ryan enlighten you any?"

"Nope. He said he avoids anything pickled. Mentioned something about his grandmother, pickling, preserving jars and spooky dolls. It was a confusing and convoluted discussion."

"Mm." She momentarily frowned in thought. "Pickling, jars and spooky dolls. Right?"

"I know, right. Sometimes Kev comes out with the odd stuff."

They fell silent, perhaps trying to make a connection, but mostly they listened to the boys questioning Mendoza, who wore one hell of a shiner.

Esposito, who had his back to the mirror said to Mendoza, "Look man, we've got a dead Westie on our hands and if it hadn't been for the detective breaking up your party, it looks like you were about to join the dead guy in the morgue. So, want to tell me what you were doing in Finn Rourke's back room today?"

Through swollen eyes and a crooked smile Mendoza replied with a thick accent, "That hot detective? She is lucky she had the uptown suit with her, or they would have taken her down."

Espo who was seated opposite Mendoza, looked to his right at Ryan. Both men chuckled then Espo leaned in, "You know, had they so much as laid a finger on that hot detective, I can tell you now, they would be looking something like you do right now." He pointed behind him, "Just take a look at yourself in that mirror behind me."

Mendoza's gaze went between the detectives to the mirror then back to them, "I see nothin' wrong with my face."

"Really? Playing that game." Ryan asked. "You don't see nothin' with that shiner like you got."

There were a couple of seconds of silence between the three men, then Mendoza huddled over the table and secretly asked. "Can I be real with you?"

Esposito shrugged his shoulder, "Go ahead."

"I had too much to drink, and I accidentally fell."

The boys glanced to each other.

"Well, thanks for keeping it real. We're wrapping this up." Esposito said. "We know you were a collar for Mazzara back in the day. You ran dope for the Latin Kings."

Behind the mirror Castle repeated, "Latin Kings?"

Beckett kept her gaze through the glass, "Latin Kings are a violent street gang, that mostly peddle girls and drugs. We know Mendoza is their blade man, real handy with the knife. Narcs never popped him for murder but said there's plenty of folks out there with fingers missing."
Castle asked, "Was there bad blood between them?"

"Yeah, Detective Mazzara said before that they're like the Hatfield's and McCoy's of Hell's Kitchen."

"So, you're saying that Coonan's murder has created a feud?"

"Mm," Beckett replied. "The Westies figured that the Latin Kings killed Coonan, so they snatched their blade guy and brought him in for a little enhanced interrogation."

Castle said, "Which no one wants to admit to."

Beckett said, "Uh huh." She stood up with the conclusion the boys were getting nothing out of Mandezo. "In Mazzara's experience if Finn did this work on Mandezo it was for a reason. We've got a dead Westie with holes in him, then Mandeza is probably our guy."

They saw Esposito look at his phone, and immediately he stood, turned and raised his hand holding the phone to the mirror.

"Espo's got something," Castle said as they headed towards the door to meet the guys.

In the hall, the group huddled, and Esposito said, "Unies found Mendezo's vehicle in an alley behind a little bodega in Regal Park." He glanced at Castle and explained, "It's a big dope spot. He left a little letter opener tucked in the driver's side sun visor. It's on its way in. Ten minutes out."

"Great. Cut him loose but have someone tail him. Get that letter opener in asap." Beckett said and walked off towards her desk with Castle after her.

A half hour or so later, Castle and Beckett presented the letter opener inside an evidence bag to Dr Parish at the morgue. She took it from Beckett, flipped it over and handed it back, dismissing it. Beckett gave her a quizzical look.

"That's not it." The ME said as a matter of fact.

"You didn't even look at it." Beckett exhaled as she handed Castle the weapon solely to hold onto it for her while she talked shop with the ME.

"Sure I did. It's a stiletto, four-inch Damascus blade and is way too small to make the wounds on your vic." Lanie replied.

Castle had another look at the tool, then said mostly to make Beckett feel better, "Well, maybe he used a different knife?"

Lanie glanced from Beckett to Castle, "Just how tall is this Mandezo?"

Beckett thought, studied Castle assessing his height, "He's, um, has nothing on Castle so maybe about five six."

Castle smirked, "Standing on his toes maybe. He could walk under Kate's legs."

The women glared at him and he shrugged, "Well, he could. I take him at about five seven, maybe."

Lanie frowned at him, "Then he's not your guy."

"Why?" Castle asked.

"Because the thrust angle on these wounds indicate Coonan's killer was over six foot."

Castle brightened, "Well, that rules him out I guess."

"Yep," Beckett agreed as her phone beeped with an incoming text. "Techs got some hits off Coonan's phone. Maybe they can shed some light. Thank you, Lanie, for Castle lesson." She gave her friend a wave, turned about and headed off. "I'll see you Saturday night if not before."

Castle smiled at Lanie, feeling awkward. "I will too."

Lanie said, "Mm Hmm." And waved him off as he hurried after Beckett.

As they walked out of the morgue Beckett said to Castle, "Last call that Coonan made was to a New York land line. Because of the damage to the SIM it's missing the last two digits of the phone number."

Castle said, "Well, that's ninety-nine possibilities."

"Aahh." She gave a take note of this gesture. "But here's where it gets interesting. They all trace back to the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

That stopped Rick in his tracks and as he turned to look at Beckett he asked. "What the fuck is an Irish street thug doing talking to the FBI, Kate?"

"I don't have a clue, Castle," she shot him a scornful look for cursing, "But Ryan is contacting the FBI right now. By the time we get back to the Precinct he might know the connection."

Agent Forrest from the FBI agent was waiting for Detective Beckett to return to the Precinct. He'd made it quite clear he wasn't going to wait too long but as things had it, Castle and Beckett didn't make any detours on their trip. After a brief trip to ladies to freshen up Beckett went to the outbreak room where the FBI agent was seated with a cup of coffee. She sat opposite him and Castle fell in at her right side having turned up from nowhere.

"I appreciate you coming down, Agent Forrest," Beckett said. "Most of your FBI colleagues would expect the locals to come to them."

"Most of my colleagues worry about hair products and press conference when they should be out catching bad men."

With a raised eyebrow, Castle asked, "I take it you're not from around these parts?"

"No sir, I'm not. But for my many sins, the bureau has transferred me here to New York."

Beckett acknowledged his comment but decided not to feed Castle's curiosity and got right on with it. "Agent Forrest, how did you come into contact with Jack Coonan?"

"He reached out to us about a week ago."

"And you signed him on as an informant?" Castle asked.

"Nope," Forrest replied, "mainly because there were overtures, and I wasn't' about to trade the family cow for a bunch of magic beans."

Castle glanced at Beckett as he commented, "I guess that means you didn't trust him."

"Mr Castle, when a man like Coonan reaches out to the FBI it's usually because he's crossed his bosses and he's hard up enough to trade them in to the Bureau for a quick trip in to the waiting arms of the Witness Security Program."

Beckett asked, "Did Coonan tell you who he was offering up?"

The agent shrugged his right shoulder, gave a slight shake of his head. "Never found out. But whoever it was, must have gotten wind of it and knocked off Coonan before he had a chance to expose him or her to the FBI."

Beckett gave a nod of agreement. "And talking to the FBI is definitely a capital offence."

"Yes. The Westies are a bit like the rogue state of Iran and the great State of Texas," Agent Forrest said, "They're not too shy in handing out the death penalty."

Beckett said to Castle, "We need to talk to Finn Rourke again."

They found Finn Rourke at his pub in the middle of Jack Coonan's wake, and he wasn't too happy to talk to Beckett. Castle found the crowd of Irish Westies, on the grog, to be loud, obnoxious and quite threatening to his masculinity. On top of that, as Beckett's partner and boyfriend his instincts to protect her were dramatically heightened regardless of the fact he could do little if they found themselves in a predicament. But Kate carried her Glock and he trusted she would take good care of herself.

They didn't expect the woman behind the bar to follow them out of the pub after the altercation with Finn Rourke. Beckett had said she had a hunch the young woman wanted to talk so they had stuck around in the car and waited a quarter hour in case she followed them out. She had and she had hopped in the car and gone back to the Precinct to talk.

Molly Dearing had been the partner of Jack Coonan and she shared with the Detective that Jack never discussed business. Molly knew he wanted out of the Westies and she said that had discussed going somewhere far away and starting over. She said that during the previous week Jack had warned her he might get there first. Jack had given Molly a key with the instructions that should anything happened to him, she was to give the key to the police. She had then handed it to Beckett. She then got permission from the Captain to put Molly up in a hotel room for the night with security. Tomorrow, Molly was on her way out of NYC to start again.

*. *. *. *

It was really late when Beckett and Castle set foot in Castle's apartment. The home was quiet and only the living room lights remained on. Beckett dropped her coat, bag and boots by the coat closet and barefooted she made her way to the sofa. At that point she stripped herself of her outer garments and unhooked the bra and slipped that down her arms. In her panties and cotton top she scurried to the kitchen in search of food. She was hungry. Famished.

While she did all that, Castle made a beeline to the bedroom muttering something about urgently needing to use the bathroom even if he wanted to continue watching the unexpected strip show.

In the kitchen, viewing the contents of the fridge Kate considered whether she had the energy to eat or whether it was more appealing to simply follow Rick to the bedroom and fall into bed. To sleep. Nothing else. She checked the top shelf where the family stored the leftovers and found containers with pizza, pasta, salad leftovers. There was a tub of yoghurt of hers from the last time she stayed at his place, so she grabbed that. She was leaning against the kitchen counter consuming the yoghurt using a teaspoon when Castle came through the office doorway only wearing his boxers. The sight of his impressive chest, strong shoulders and nice set of legs, stirred up her hormones, and she felt the dull ache beginning in her groin and she swore if she looked down her nipples would be showing through her top. She refrained from doing that. As he approached, Castle's eyes travelled from her bare feet, up her long legs, paused at her pink panties then continued on up stopping at her chest.

"Wow. Someone is happy to see me." He said like a smart ass as he closed in on her and sidled up to her.

Beckett scoffed. "No. It's cool in here."

"I say yes." He caressed back strands of dark hair from her eyes, then lowered his hand until his knuckles lightly brushed over her left nipple. She couldn't help but groan and then the ache between her legs took off on its own causing her to fidget.

He laughed.

"That thing you did at the bus locker tonight?" He said. "The drugs, with the key?"

Beckett waved the spoon at him, "An odd key like that always leads to a bus locker, Ricky."

"Yes. But I'm talking about you with that pack of drugs. So Miami Vice," Castle seductively said and she laughed. "Testing the heroin like you did. So damn sexy."

"My Lord, you have rose colored glasses, Castle." She teased and squeaked when his hand fell upon a ticklish point near her hip.

"Maybe. Doesn't matter. Made me so bloody horny watching you do that. Couldn't wait to get you to myself." He murmured close to her ear as he encircled her.

"I think you should have become a cop, Castle. The whole cop-criminal thing winds you up one way or another." She discarded the empty top and spoon to the counter-top just before he swooped in for a kiss, his hands combing through her hair. He pressed his pelvis against her enough for her to feel how much he wanted her. In response her right leg climbed against his.

"We'll play cop tomorrow," he mumbled against the side of her neck, "And chase down Johnny Vong, find the dealer and hopefully find the killer in Vong's organisation."

Eyes shut, using him to hold herself up she replied, "You're so sure that Coonan wasn't going to the Feds to rat out his Westie pals. He was looking to rat out the drug dealer Finn Rourke sent him to find."

"Positive. Killer orbits Johnny Vong. The DVDs were packaged in Hong Kong. Someone must have slipped the heroin in the DVDs before they shipped them." Hands slipped beneath her top.

"Maybe," she hummed.

"Fact. But right now," he paused his foreplay to look Kate in the eyes. He smiled then with a hand to her back he pressed her hard against his pelvis. "It's time to play just us…"

She raised in eyebrow. "Hard, Castle."

"I am."

"You're as bad as when we had that Mistress Venom murder."

He laughed. "Oh yeah. That one had us going at it like rabbits." He manoeuvred Kate until he was able to pick her up. Aware of his intentions, she hooked her arm around his shoulders and kissed the side of his head as he carried her to the bedroom. She also switched off the lights as they progressed. When he released her to the bed, he followed her to it.