Shared Obsession Chapter 112

At the sound of Castle's footsteps in the reception hall, Kyra peeks around a tall, elegantly decorated wedding cake. "Couldn't let it go to waste. How did you find me?"

"I just figured what would be the one place no one would think to look for you," Castle explains.

"At a wedding?"

"At your wedding. Besides, I remembered your sweet tooth. Whenever you were upset, usually when your mother did a number on us, you went straight for sugar. Where's…?"

"Greg?" Kyra fills in.

"Right."

"He's taking care of things. He's good at that. So if you don't get married, is it just a regular old cake?"

"It's still a wedding cake," Rick replies. "It's tiered, it's got flowers, it's in a ballroom."

Kyra nods. "Mmm, if things had gone as planned today, I would be whirling around the dancefloor with my husband right about now."

"Do you remember the last time we danced?" Castle asks.

"Under the clock at Grand Central Station."

"You were on your way to JFK to catch a flight to London."

"You were supposed to follow me."

"You said you needed space," Castle counters.

Kyra sighs, sinking into a banquet chair. "I didn't mean forever." She gazes around the room. "You've done all of this before, haven't you?"

"Not exactly like this, but I've been married before, twice. However, I didn't know my brides as well as I thought I did. Or maybe I refused to see what was in front of me. So, how well do you really know Greg?"

"What do you mean, Rick?"

"I don't mean his background. I could look that up on half a dozen financial sites. Actually, I did have a look," Castle confesses. "I mean his private history. You said that Sophie introduced the two of you. How did she know him?"

"Um, they dated for a while."

"Dated as in dinner and a movie or something a little more intimate?"

"Greg never gave me any details, neither did Sophie, but from their…. I got the feeling it was intimate. Sophie still kind of – you know – looked at him that way."

"And you still made her your bridesmaid? The deep well of forgiveness or keep your enemies closer?"

"I don't know. Maybe a little of both. And I felt a little sorry for her. I heard she was having a hard time getting by in LA. So I thought it might help her to feel a part of something."

"That's sweet, Kyra. But then you always have been. Still, if Sophie was short of money, how did she afford the dress and plane fare to New York? Did you pick it up for her?"

"No, but when she confirmed she was coming she implied she'd lucked into money somehow. But I was too busy working on the wedding to ask her about it. I guess I didn't ask her about nearly enough."

"Hey! That's not your fault. Planning a fancy wedding is, to say the least, distracting." A text alert sounds on Castle's phone. He briefly eyes the screen. "I need to go. Beckett wants me to meet her at the medical examiner's office."

Kyra levers herself out of her chair. "Go, Rick. Maybe you can figure this whole nightmare out."

"I'm going to try."


At her desk, Lanie looks up from reading a report. "I found traces of metal in the abrasions on Sophie's back."

"What kind of metal?" Kate asks.

"I have no idea," Lanie admits. "I sent it over to the FBI trace lab for identification."

"That's interesting," Castle considers. "If it was a tie bar with metal that unusual, it must have been a custom job. There can't be too many around that would match."

"I hope so," Kate says. "Anything else, Lanie?"

"Sophie had a bikini wax, a fresh one."

"She wouldn't need one of those under a bridesmaid's dress," Castle says. "She must have been planning to hook up with someone at the wedding."

"And obviously not Mike Weitz," Kate adds.

"According to Kyra, Sophie had a history with Greg." Castle recounts. "Maybe she wanted to get in one last lick. And Kyra and Greg weren't sleeping together the night before the wedding."

"But it's not like Sophie could just go off with Greg," Kate figures.

"Maybe Mike was misdirection," Castle figures, "and Sophie drugged him so she could be with Greg. But locking him in a closet is a bit extreme. And why would she take his room key? Could there be something special about his room?"

Kate pulls out her cell phone. "Espo, I need a list of what rooms everyone at the wedding was staying in and a layout of where they are. Are the financials in yet? OK. Castle and I are on our way. Hopefully, they'll be in by the time we get there." She drops her phone back in her pocket. "One way or another we should get an idea of what Sophie was up to."

"And who would have objected enough to kill her," Castle adds.


Esposito lays out diagrams of hotel rooms on the conference table. "The hotel just emailed these over. They already had a file of what they post inside the rooms as fire escape routes."

"How about the list of who was in what room?" Kate asks.

"Just came in," Ryan announces. "And Sophie's financials are here too." He hands copies around the room.

Castle scans the printout. " Kyra said she thought Sophie was having money problems. This backs it up. Her credit cards were maxed out. And her bank account was close to zero, until a big cash deposit. After that, she bought her plane ticket, paid her rent, and for her dress. And before she left for New York, she treated herself to a day at a place called 'Make Yourself Beautiful.' Must be where she got waxed."

"Got what?" Ryan asks.

Kate shakes her head. "Never mind. So she suddenly has the money to come to the wedding and gets herself ready for a romantic encounter, but not with Mike Weitz."

Esposito's phone buzzes. "That's the email with the room assignments. Printing it out, now." He rushes out of the room.

"Whose room adjoins Mike Weitz's?" Kate demands when Esposito returns.

He checks his list and the diagrams on the table. "Greg Murphy, the groom. There's a door between them that Sophie could use Mike's key to go right through."

"So," Castle imagines, "Greg decides to sow the last of his wild oats with an old bedmate before tying the knot with Kyra. But Sophie wants more than sex. She knows Greg has money. Maybe he's even the one who sent her the cash to come. So she decides to blackmail him, tell Kyra she slept with him unless he forks over. He tells her that he'll have to use the ATM at the hotel to give her the first installment, and he'll bring it to her room. So he gets dressed again, in case anyone sees him, goes down to Sophie's room, and hands her a sealed hotel envelope. While she's working to get it open, he gets behind her and kills her, leaving abrasions on her back. He puts her body in the armoire, hoping it won't be discovered until after the ceremony. But his plans are ruined when Kyra insists on going looking for Sophie. No wedding, just a murder. When we watched the video of the rehearsal dinner, we were focused on Mike and Sophie, but do we have any views of Greg?"

"We can check," Kate says.


"There!" Castle exclaims, pointing at the large screen in Tech. "Greg is wearing a tie bar. Beckett, he has to be the murderer."

"Castle, if you're right, we're going to need more evidence than that," Kate cautions.

"Then we'll find it," Castle declares.