Shared Obsession Chapter 51

Kate just sits for a moment after sliding into the driver's seat of her unit. Without Castle beside her, the silence echoes and despite the relatively warm spring night, she shivers. She pulls her cell phone from her pocket and swipes for connection. "Hey, Castle."

"Beckett! How are you doing?"

"Castle, you just saw me a few hours ago. What do you mean how am I doing?"

"You said Montgomery told you the scene is brutal. How bad was it?"

"Castle, I've been on plenty of home invasions before. Most of the time, it's about what the thieves want to steal. Whatever they do to the people involved is collateral damage. But whoever pulled off this one seems to regard humans as toys to be mutilated and crushed for some kind of sick pleasure. And the victim's daughter was there. She got to see what happened to her mother."

"Which had you flashing back to pictures of your mother bleeding out in that alley."

"I didn't put it together like that, but yeah. I guess it did."

"Beckett, you can come back here. We can talk about it."

"After the way Alexis reacted to seeing me, I don't think that's a good idea, Castle. But if you're feeling up to it, I'll see you at the 12th tomorrow. And, oh! Did you dig up anything on Bible giveaways?"

"More than I ever thought possible. Apparently, during a certain period, it was a highly popular proselytizing outreach. I generated a list, and I've been going through it."

"You sound tired."

"So do you."

"Which means we should both get some rest. And as soon as I see Alexis off to school in the morning, I will immediately direct my steps to the bullpen."

"All right, see you then, Castle."

"See you then, Beckett."


Kate affixes a sticker to a map already containing three others. In addition to the map, the murder board displays crime scene photos and newspaper clippings from four home invasions, including the one she'd investigated the night before. She eyes the newspaper stories. They're short on facts, mostly because the NYPD hasn't released them yet, but they contain enough information to put city residents, especially those well-fixed enough to own expensive jewelry, on edge. Their angst has already reached Mayor Weldon's office, and he wasn't slow to transmit it to 1PP. From there, the pressure quickly made itself felt by Montgomery who in turn passed it on to Kate, Ryan, and Esposito.

Castle joins Kate and the partners at the board. "Finding any new insights?"

"We're trying to," Kate replies and lowers her voice. "You, on the, you know?"

"As of when I left the loft 15 minutes ago, nothing jumped out."

"Turning your mind to something else for a while might help," Kate offers. "Or maybe it can help us."

Castle leans in toward the board. "It looks like each of the robberies took place in a different part of the city. That's not normal procedure for a gang, is it? Don't they generally stick to familiar turf?"

"Usually, they do," Kate agrees. "But these areas have something in common. They're all high-end."

"With wall safes and high-end bling," Esposito adds. "These guys came in knowing exactly what they were going to find."

"Then there must be a pattern, something that connects them all," Castle asserts. "From the dates on these articles, the first one was three months ago."

"Right," Ryan confirms, "55 Central Park West."

Castle nods. "Very expensive building."

"Enough so that the occupants thought they'd be secure," Ryan confirms. "But Bob and Linda Kesler were bound, gagged, and beaten by masked intruders. They got away with about $175,000 in jewelry."

"Same M.O. on York Street?" Castle asks.

"Yeah," Esposito replies. "only when Mr. Bruner refused to open the safe, they broke his wife's arms."

"And last night?" Castle queries.

Kate points to a gruesome photo. "They're getting bolder, escalating their violence."

"So how do they choose their victims?" Castle wonders. "To be sure of the haul they'd get from the safes, they'd need some kind of inside information about what the victims owned."

Ryan holds up a file. "If they had it, we can't find it. We checked insurance companies, security vendors, and even the kind of safes they had. Nothing's been a match."

"What are you thinking?" Beckett asks as Castle stares at the board.

"That since they seem to know their targets so well, maybe they actually know them."

"Maybe the victim's daughter can tell us," Ryan offers.


Sitting opposite Kate in the interview lounge, Joanne Delgado wraps her fingers around a comfortingly warm cup of tea. "Yes, we were close, Detective Beckett. She was my mother."

"So you'd know most of her friends?" Beckett questions.

"Her friends, yeah but they wouldn't…."

'Were there any that you had strong feelings about, didn't like, maybe?" Kate probes. "Perhaps someone she met recently?"

"No."

"Did any of her friends have money problems?" Castle asks.

Joanne's cup rattles against the saucer. "Monsters broke into her place and killed her. Why are you asking about her friends?"

Kate opens her black folder. "Do you know Nelson and Janet Bruner?"

"No."

"How about Richard and Julie Pastori, or Bob and Linda Kesler?" Castle queries.

"No! Who are those people?" Joanne demands.

"Victims of previous home invasion robberies," Kate explains. "We think the robberies were committed by the same people who murdered your mother."

"What? There were others? How long has this been going on?"

"About three months," Kate replies.

"And you haven't caught them yet? What is wrong with you people?"

Kate swallows. "They were in different parts of the city and assigned to different precincts. They didn't murder anyone until your mother. I'm a homicide cop. So I and detectives Ryan and Esposito got the case last night. Since then we've been doing everything we can to…."

"Don't press conference me, Detective," Joanne explodes. "I work in public relations. So you can save your speech because I've heard them all. I'm the one who drafts all of that pathos after airline crashes and E. coli poisonings. 'Our hearts go out to the victims' families.' Our hearts? What the hell does that even mean? My mother felt like baking. She wanted me to come over. But I was too busy, busy working on crap like that. Now she's dead."

Kate fights back the monster trying to explode out of her chest. "Joanne, listen to me. In the next couple of days, your mind is going to play out every possible scenario. If only you'd been there. If only you'd come by. If only you weren't working so much. But I'm telling you it's not your fault. The ones to blame are the monsters who murdered your mom. This isn't a speech. It isn't a platitude. It's a promise. I am going to do everything in my power to make sure they pay for what they did."

With Castle's warm presence a step behind, Kate walks Joanne to the elevator. "How long did it take you?" Castle asks after the doors close on the grieving daughter.

"Take me to do what?"

"How long did it take you to realize there is no way you could have prevented your mother's death?"

"I'm still working on it," Kate confides. "You and Celia?"

"The same. I guess that's why it's so important for us to solve their cases, and to do this for Joanne."

"Did what Joanne told us give you any ideas?"

"Just if the victims didn't know each other, or at least not well enough for Joanne to realize, there must be someone who not only knew them all but had an eye for the shiny and pricey."

Kate sighs. "But the question still is, who?"