Shared Obsession Chapter 35

"Richard, are you scrambling those eggs or beating them to death?" Martha asks, still in the shockingly bright caftan she wore for an early-morning meditation.

Rick looks down as his fork clatters against the sides of a small glass bowl. "Oh, I guess they're scrambled." He pours the mixture into a pan. "I was just thinking."

"About Detective Beckett?"

"About our joint investigation into Celia's and her mother's murder. Last night we twigged to a connection I should have realized as soon as I saw Johanna Beckett's file. I was so intent on the evidence, I didn't register the name of the detective in charge. It looks like he was pals with the detective on Celia's case. But until now, I didn't think about the relationships of the cops involved."

"How about Beckett?"

"She missed it too. With all our criticism of the investigations, we had tunnel vision regarding the cops themselves."

"Richard, ever since Celia was killed, you've been complaining that the cops blew her investigation. You didn't even know there was another case."

"Well, I've known since Dr. Murray pointed out the similarities, but I didn't catch on to the cop connection until last night."

"But neither did Beckett, who's supposed to be trained to do that," Martha points out.

"Which reinforces my belief that even among the most dedicated, NYPD training leaves something to be desired. And with murders investigated by cops without Beckett's drive, God help the victim's loved ones."

"That's a little harsh, don't you think?"

"If you'd heard the cop Beckett and I interviewed last night, you might not think so. Right now, Beckett has a ton of stuff on her shoulders. And as soon as I make sure Alexis and her tomatoes are safely delivered to Marlowe Prep, I'm going to try to lift some of her burden."

"Richard, just make sure you're not making it heavier."


Kate and Castle pull into the lot of a storage facility along the Westside Highway near the river. Ryan waves a greeting from the doorway. "You find a witness?" Kate asks.

"Yeah, a homeless guy," Esposito replies. "A couple of bucks jogged his memory. I hope the captain will let me expense it."

Kate shakes her head. "Don't count on it. So what did this suddenly richer homeless guy see?"

"A dented yellow truck pull up to the site," Ryan responds. "Heavy-set guy drags a large bag out of the back. When he returns to his truck, he doesn't have the bag anymore."

"How'd you find this place?" Kate inquires.

"The witness also remembered 'Storage' written on the side of the truck," Esposito explains.

"We checked out all the storage places on the West Side and found this one uses yellow trucks," Ryan continues.

"We had to make a ton of calls. Everyone in NY wants somewhere to stash their crap," Esposito complains.

"So who owns the trucks?" Kate queries.

Ryan consults his ever-present notepad. "According to the DMV, Albert Bolland."


Inside the facility, the obviously obese Albert Bolland wipes sweat from his forehead on his sleeve. "What body? I don't know what you're talking about."

"A witness saw someone driving one of your yellow trucks and dumping the body," Kate informs him.

"You're lying!" Bolland retorts. "No one saw."

Castle winces. "Ouch! Maybe you should have tried denying it first."

"Let me help you," Kate offers. "Melanie Cavanaugh, mother of two, wife of Sam Cavanaugh."

"OK, I dumped her," Albert admits. "But I swear…."

"You didn't kill her, right?" Kate fills in.

"That's right. I found her," Bolland claims.

Kate nods skeptically. "Uh-huh."

"I never even knew she was here," Bolland insists.

"What do you mean, here?" Castle questions.

"In a unit on the sixth floor. The rent was in arrears. We give renters three months. Then we cut the locks and auction off the stuff inside. Normally it's old junk that isn't worth much, only this time I found a freezer. It was plugged into a light socket which is totally illegal by the way."

"Mr. Bolland, you've got a bigger problem than a light socket. Didn't you think it was illegal to store a body in a freezer?" Kate questions.

"You think I knew there was a body in there? I opened it up and nearly had a heart attack."

"So why didn't you call the cops?" Kate queries.

"So I could be all over the news?" Bolland exclaims. "What if it was a mob hit? They could have come for me. They could have come for my family."

"Melanie Cavanaugh had a family too," Kate reminds Bolland softly.

"So, you found the body in the freezer. How did you figure your next step was dumping her at a construction site?" Castle asks.

"I know a guy who works there, pouring cement. We had a beer the night before, and he told me he was putting down the fresh stuff. So I figured if I dumped her while it was still wet, that would be it. No one would find her, and there wouldn't be any questions. And if it was the mob, she'd still be missing. I wouldn't have anything to worry about. And I'd get to sell the freezer to make up for the rent."

Kate shakes her head, rolling her eyes. "Show us the unit where you found it."

Albert rolls up the corrugated metal door of a storage unit revealing a top-loading freezer. After staring for a moment at the appliance, Kate pulls on a pair of gloves and goes to check inside. "There's some hair in here. Maybe the lab can match it to Melanie, or we'll get real lucky, and the killer left something behind. The smooth metal should hold prints well." She gazes into the now unfrozen depths. "Five years in there. Nobody deserves that." She turns back to Bolland. "How did the renter pay? Check? Credit card?"

"Cash, every six months. But like I said, they were three months overdue."

That would put the last payment at two months after Sam Cavanaugh was killed," Kate figures.

"It's hard to make payments when you're dead," Castle notes. "Someone else must have paid it."

"Mr. Bolland, the camera in your office, do you have footage from nine months ago?" Kate queries.

"We only keep it for two weeks."


"Could Sloan have been right?" Kate wonders as she and Castle return to her unit. "Could Melanie's death have had nothing to do with Sam?"

"But if not Sam, who?" Castle asks. "There's still Wyler, and we know he lied. Why would he do that if not to cover for Sam? And maybe lying wasn't the only way he covered. He could have been paying for the storage unit. But maybe with Sam gone, he did it one last time and stopped."

"That could be, Castle," Kate acknowledges. "I'll get CSU to go over that freezer and get prints from Bolland, but otherwise, we're done here. We should go see Wyler."

Rick consults his watch. "A federal judge should be at work now, or soon. How will you know if the judge approves your petition for access to the military DNA database?"

"I'll get a text from the clerk, and I can pass it on to CSU. But I can do that while we're on the move. Let's go see Wyler."


A step behind Beckett, Castle gazes around a boutique that specializes in antique furniture. A forty-ish. well-muscled Charles Wyler stands behind the counter. "May I help you?"

"I hope so," Kate responds. "I'm Detective Kate Beckett. This is Mr. Castle. We're investigating the death of Melanie Cavanaugh."

Wyler's expression of surprise doesn't quite reach his eyes. "Melanie's dead?"

"Yes, she is," Mr. Wyler, "but I suspect you knew that."

"How would I know that? The last I heard Melanie ran off to see her junkie boyfriend in Philadelphia."

"So you told Detective Sloan. But given that Melanie never left New York, that had to be a lie. Why did you lie, Mr. Wyler?"

Leaning on the counter, Wyler swallows. "I want a lawyer."