Shared Obsession Chapter 29
Applause erupts from the audience at the final touch of Alexis's foil. Castle beams as his daughter's name is announced as the winner. He holds out a cookie to her when she joins him and Kate after accepting a small trophy. "Well done! My little girl has become a warrior princess."
Alexis takes a large bite of the enticing treat. "Thanks, Dad. Detective Beckett! Thank you for coming! I didn't know you were into fencing."
"I'm into ballet movements as exercise," Kate explains. "Without fencing, they wouldn't exist."
"Well it's nice you're here. When Dad comes to these things by himself he can get a little, um, over-excited."
Kate's eyebrows rise. "Really?"
"He gave a Klingon howl once," Alexis continues.
"There's nothing wrong with celebrating a victory," Castle protests. "It's a very Klingon thing. Alexis brought honor to the family."
"Don't tell me you celebrate with gagh," Kate teases.
"Ah, a Trekkie who knows her Klingon foodstuffs," Castle proclaims. "Actually I prefer that my meal not squirm while I'm eating it. But we should celebrate Alexis's victory. What do you think, Pumpkin? Pizza? Sundaes?"
"Dad, we had dinner, and these cookies have umpteen calories."
"And worth every one."
"Besides, I promised I'd call Owen after the tournament."
"Wait, who's Owen?" Castle demands.
"He's in the model U.N. with me. He wanted to talk about current treaty negotiations."
"Treaty negotiations?" Castle repeats suspiciously.
"Uh-huh, he's thinking about doing his term paper on the Middle East."
"You're calling a boy to talk about the Middle East?" Castle questions.
"And we might talk about writing poetry. Last year, he had my English teacher, Ms. Swinson, and got an A on a sonnet he wrote. He said he could give me some pointers."
"So he's older than you?"
"We're the same age, but he skipped a grade. He's really smart."
"Coming from you, that's high praise. Very high praise. All right. We can head for home." Castle turns to Kate. "How did you get here?"
"Subway."
"I have my car. We can drop you off on our way back to my loft. Or you can come with. While Alexis trades thoughts with Owen, I can make us some coffee to wash down these cookies."
"Is the coffee you make at home as good as what you make at the precinct?" Kate asks.
"My machine is a different model, smaller. But if anything, I think you'll find the final product better. Mother was friends with Patricia Neal."
"Oh, 'The Day the Earth Stood Still,' the original, with Michael Rennie."
Castle grins. "It is so cool that you know that. But anyway, Ms. Neal was married to Roald Dahl, who loved his coffee when he wrote. She actually did commercials for a coffee company. They paid better than her movies. But Roald drank coffee specially blended for him. And Ms. Neal was gracious enough to share the source with Mother, who passed it on to me when I was sweating to get out 'Storm Cloud.' I was sworn to secrecy, so I couldn't bring it to the 12th. But I can share it with special guests if you'd like to join me. I can take you home after you savor the wonders of the brew."
"All right, Castle. That would be nice."
Kate looks over her warm mug. "You're right, Castle. This is wonderful."
"Glad you like it. Of course, it won't do much for sleeping tonight."
"I'm not going to sleep much anyway until I hear back from Lanie about those lab results."
"Yeah, me either," Castle agrees. "But even if we get them, I don't see how your mother's murder could be tied to Celia's. As far as I know, they wouldn't have met. Celia wasn't a lawyer. She was a medical lab tech – and a theater buff. She met mother on that fateful day of a pregnancy test. Mother was pretty sure what the results would be and just poured her heart out to a stranger about the mysterious lover who disappeared."
"As it turned out, Celia wasn't totally a stranger. She'd seen Mother on stage in an off-off-Broadway production of 'Voice of the Turtle' and was very taken with her performance. She became Mother's support system and later, mine. But I can't imagine what interest she would have had in common with your mother. Oh, wait! Celia did get into one sort of legal thing. She was doing emergency drug testing before they had quick tox screens, working nights in a 24/7 lab. The hospitals and trauma centers would messenger over samples to be tested. Celia would try to figure out what people took before it killed them.
"She told me that once she got a sample from a 10-year-old girl. Usually, she had a two-hour window to report her preliminary results. But after an hour, the emergency room doctor called and said she didn't have to hurry. The little girl had passed away. Celia finished her work. The girl died from an opiate overdose. She told me years later that after that, she gave me a drug lecture that would curl my hair. I was so little at the time that I don't remember it. But I think something penetrated because when drugs were offered to me at school, there was a little voice in the back of my head telling me to walk away. But that wasn't all. At some point, Celia joined a group trying to get drugs off the street."
"My mother was in a group like that!" Kate exclaims. "She was trying to get the drugs out of Washington Heights. That's the connection, Castle! Someone involved with drugs must have wanted them both taken out. And maybe whoever it was, hired military-trained contract killers to do it. But with all the drugs in this city, and that far back, where do we look?"
"You said your mother was concentrating on Washington Heights. Finding out who was running drugs up there would be a start. Hey, didn't Ryan work in Narcotics?"
"He did. And if he doesn't know who was pushing in Washington Heights back then, he probably knows someone who does. He said he and Esposito were going out for beers tonight. They usually go to a cop bar where some of the old-timers hang out. I'll call him. Maybe we'll get lucky."
"How about your mother's papers?" Castle asks. "Do you still have them? If she was connected to an anti-drug group, wouldn't it be in them somewhere?"
"I put them in storage when I couldn't find anything pointing to her killer. But as far as I knew, her anti-drug thing was mostly demonstrations and writing letters to public officials. I didn't think those would be what would get her killed. But now it's definitely worth another look. Do you have anything from Celia?"
"She didn't leave that much behind. But there were a few boxes. They're in my storage locker downstairs, along with boxes of my various failed literary efforts and Alexis's old baby things – except for Monkey-Bunky. She got him when she was 18 months old, and he's still among the stuffed denizens occupying her bed during the day. Actually, he has a bit less stuffing now. But she's never wanted to let go of him."
"Not letting go seems to run in the Castle family," Kate observes.
"I guess it does," Castle admits, "and maybe in the Beckett family as well? It will only take us about two minutes to get downstairs."
Kate puts down her half-empty mug. "I'll call Ryan on the way. Let's go!"
