Shared Obsession Chapter 38
With eyes reflecting nervousness and anger, Elizabeth Forte studies the spare walls of the interrogation room before turning to an opening door.
"Ms. Forte, I'm Detective Kate Beckett. This is Mr. Castle."
"Then Detective, could you please tell me what I'm doing here? The cops who brought me in said something about a murder investigation. I don't know anything about a murder."
"Were you acquainted with a Samuel Cavanaugh?" Kate inquires.
"Yeah, sure, we worked together. What about him?"
"We found the body of his wife Melanie," Kate replies, opening her black leather folder. "From what we've learned so far, she was killed around the time you and her husband were having an affair."
Forte blanches, pulling herself up stiffly in her chair. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
Kate makes a show of studying a document. "We already have a statement from someone highly motivated to provide accurate information. Still, if that's not enough for you, would you like me to dig around in your life? Because I can go through your old phone records and credit card statements. I'll even talk to your husband if I have to."
Forte crosses her hands in front of her face. "Wait! Just Wait! Please don't do that. Gary doesn't know anything about it."
"About your affair with Cavanaugh?" Castle queries.
"All right. Yes. Sam and I had a thing."
"Start from the beginning," Kate instructs.
"I met Sam when I was transferred to the downtown branch. He was in new accounts. We were both pretty unhappy at the time. He told me that his wife kept running off on him, that she was into drugs. He claimed he was only staying with her for the sake of his little girls. And Gary and I were going through a rough patch. So Sam and I got together."
"For how long did you get together?" Castle asks.
"Not long. Six months."
"Why did it end?" Castle inquires.
"Things smoothed out between Gary and me. Turned out part of his problems were, um, medical. And when he got them taken care of, things were the way they were when we first met. I remembered how much I loved him and realized I still did."
Castle snorts. "Oh come on! Every other commercial on TV is for the little blue pills. It wouldn't take six months to figure that out. And people don't end an affair because they're getting more sex. That's just double the fun. They end an affair because they're scared. What were you scared of, Elizabeth?"
Forte wipes her palms against the fabric of her skirt. "I was scared of Sam."
"Why?" Kate questions.
"He started to ask me what I would do if he wasn't with his wife, if she wasn't in the picture anymore. He stopped sounding like a guy who was worried about his kids."
"When did he start talking like that?" Kate asks.
"A few weeks before she disappeared. When I found out she was missing, I broke things off. But he wouldn't let it go. He would constantly move into my space, closing me in. I could feel the fury from him. It got so bad, I asked to be transferred again."
Kate's eyes glitter with anger. "Ms. Forte, if you believe Sam had something to do with his wife's disappearance, you had five whole years to come forward. Why didn't you say something?"
Forte cradles her head in her hands. "What difference does it make if Sam killed Melanie? He's dead. They're both dead. None of it matters anymore."
"Elizabeth Forte had a point," Castle muses as the elevator doors close on Sam Cavanaugh's former lover. "It's pretty clear that Sam killed Melanie. Sam's dead. That's as much justice as Melanie could get – without the endless appeals on technicalities. It's not a bad result, Beckett."
"But we haven't proved that Sam did it, Castle. It's just a theory. The family, those kids, they've got to know. I've got to know. And unless we come up with more, we're not going to get anything else out of Wyler. If Sam killed Melanie, how did she get in that freezer? And how did the freezer get to the storage unit?"
"Beckett, we've got the end of the story. If we want the rest, we have to work backward. We need to put everything together with the facts we have on hand."
"What facts, Castle?"
"Fact one, Melanie and Sam had two small children."
"How does that fit in?"
"We both read the file. Based on police statements, they didn't have a babysitter. With Sam at work, Melanie would have been with the kids the day she disappeared."
"But Sam said she left later that night," Kate argues.
"Which the doorman was never able to corroborate."
"But if she was there and never left…."
"Then she was murdered in the apartment," they exclaim together.
"But Sloan said that Sam allowed CSU in. Wouldn't they have found something?" Kate wonders.
"Any evidence CSU found that Melanie was there, would have been pretty meaningless, wouldn't it? She lived there. And Lanie said death was by blunt force trauma. There wouldn't have been blood spattered anywhere. And even if they did find some, who doesn't bleed in their own home from time to time? But here's another fact. The Cavanaughs lived in Manhattan."
Kate nods. "Right, and like many people in Manhattan, Sam didn't own a car."
"So how could Sam get Melanie out of the apartment? He couldn't just walk through the lobby with a body over his shoulder and hail a cab."
"And how did he get it into a freezer in the storge unit?" Kate picks up. "Maybe – no."
Castle rakes his fingers through his hair. "Or – no. You know what could help?"
"What?"
"Sometimes when I'm trying to figure out how a character of mine does something, I'll walk the crime scene. One time, I was trying to figure out how someone could throw a victim off the Empire State Building, so I went up there. I could see what the killer saw and feel what the killer felt."
"I don't remember anyone getting thrown off the Empire State Building in any of your books."
"That's because I figured out it wouldn't work. The guard rail would have been in the way, and there would have been way too many witnesses."
"Right, so you had the killer blow up the victim with an exploding model of the building. I remember."
"Uh-huh, but my point is to get into a killer's head, you have to go where the killer was and see what problems he would have faced. Field trip?"
"Field trip."
Roger stares puzzled as Kate and Castle look around 917. "They told me he was shot in a mugging. And now you're telling me he died here?"
Castle shakes his head. "Not him. His wife."
"His wife?" Roger repeats. "Just what kind of family was this?"
"One that should have considered divorce," Castle replies before turning to Kate. "So, let's play this out. You and I are married."
"If it's a marriage like Melanie and Sam had, no thanks," Kate replies.
Castle puts a hand on her stiffened shoulder. "Relax. It's just pretend."
"Castle, we're here to solve a murder. I'm not in the mood for games."
"Beckett, could you loosen that cop straightjacket of yours for a moment?" Castle urges. "I want to solve it as much as you do."
"Are you two always like this?" Roger inquires.
"Just a little disagreement on technique," Castle replies.
"We'll work it out," Kate adds.
Roger raises an eyebrow as Castle continues. "OK. We don't have to be married, but Sam and Melanie were. Let's say the doorman was right and Melanie gets home around four o'clock. Kids are usually starving by that time. She'd either make them a snack or start on dinner for them. Either way…."
"The kitchen," Kate responds.
Castle follows her in. "Then Sam comes home."
"Banker's hours, around six o'clock," Kate suggests.
"The kids have already eaten." Castle points to an open door. "So they're watching TV."
"In my bedroom?" Roger asks.
Castle presses a finger to his lips. "Shh. We're on a roll."
"Melanie and Sam have a fight," Kate continues.
"About the affair?" Castle offers.
"About Philadelphia," Kate counters.
Castle moves closer to Beckett. "Things get heated."
Kate whirls away. "And Melanie turns her head."
Castle reaches for a cast iron skillet. "And he whacks her with something heavy enough to fracture her skull. Bam! Melanie's dead."
"But the kids are still in the bedroom," Kate realizes. "Sam's got to figure someplace to put Melanie's body where the girls won't see."
Castle points toward the hallway bathroom. "He could put her in there to buy time. He tells the kids she went to the store."
Kate sighs. "But we're back to the problem of how he gets her out of the apartment. He has to conceal the body somehow."
The sleuths lock gazes. "The freezer!"
