Shared Obsession Chapter 33

Beckett's eyes sweep over the apartment door. It's number 917, the last known address of Melanie and Samuel Cavanaugh. She raps sharply below the peephole. "Who is it?" a voice calls from inside.

"New York City Police Department," Kate calls holding up her badge.

Footsteps creak on a wood floor. "Just a minute." A man pulls the door open. "Can I help you?"

"I'm Detective Kate Beckett. This is Mr. Castle. Are you Samuel Cavanaugh?"

"Who?"

"Samuel Cavanaugh. Our records indicate that he lives here."

The man shakes his head. "You must have the wrong apartment."

"917?" Kate persists.

"Yeah, but I live here, and my name's Roger, not Sam."

"Do you know a Samuel Cavanaugh?" Kate inquires.

"No. Never heard of him before you showed up. Hey, what's this about anyway?"

"How long have you lived here?" Castle asks.

"About eight months."

Castle glances at Kate. "The address was five years old. Cavanaugh probably moved."

"Well, I hate to break it to you," Roger interjects, "but the guy who lived here before me didn't move. He was murdered."

Castle whistles breathily through pursed lips. "Wow!"

Castle reads over Kate's shoulder as she gazes at her computer screen. "Samuel Cavanaugh was shot outside a MicroMart in April of last year. The bullets appeared to be from an M1911 pistol but didn't match anything in the database. He had two wounds to the chest. Either one could have been fatal. Cavanaugh's wallet and valuables were missing. The poor kids. The mother supposedly runs off, and then the father dies in a mugging. Or maybe it wasn't a mugging. People who shop at MicroMarts don't often walk around with a lot of cash. They're usually just scraping by – or out to get one item in a hurry. MicroMarts don't usually have ATMs either. A mugger would make out better at a different location. And I researched military weapons for Storm. M1911's aren't easy to get. Only American citizens can buy them and only one a year. Not your normal street weapon."

"Castle are you suggesting that whoever murdered Samuel Cavanaugh staged it as a mugging?" Kate asks. "Nothing in the file indicates that."

"If the investigation was as superficial as the one into Melanie's disappearance, I don't doubt it. Beckett, someone fell down on the job with that family – twice. But at least the kids didn't end up in the system. They're living with Melanie's parents in White Plains."

"Well, no one's falling down on the job now," Kate declares. "We should go to White Plains and talk to them."

"Lanie said she'd have those other results today." Castle reminds her.

"And she'll send me a text when she does," Kate replies, "no matter where I am. So we might as well get moving to White Plains. I'll have Ryan and Esposito recanvass the construction site. The foreman said some of the homeless have been sleeping in the area. Maybe someone saw something."

As Kate drives her unit up I-87 N, the drumming of Castle's fingers against the passenger door vibrates through the car. "Castle, relax. I told you Lanie will text me as soon as she has the results."

"It's not that, Beckett," Castle confides. "It's White Plains. When Alexis was four, I took her to the mall there. I looked away for just a moment to try on a stupid Fedora like Indiana Jones wore, and she was gone. Mall security and I hunted for her for hours. I had visions of her molested and killed by some psychopathic kidnapper. Turned out she got bored and fell asleep behind a display of men's coats. She was fine. But I still have nightmares about it. And I haven't been back to White Plains since."

"If it's any comfort, Castle, the Davidsons, Melanie's parents, don't live anywhere near the mall. And I'll make sure I don't drive by it."

"I appreciate that."

"I kind of understand. I've never been able to go back to the restaurant where my father and I were supposed to meet my mother the night we found out she was murdered. Some places just have bad memories."

"Yes, they do," Castle agrees.

A man with greying hair and a prominent chin chases after two little girls in the front yard. "Bela! Simone! Last one to base gets last pick for dessert." Despite a slight limp, he seems thoroughly engaged in the game.

"Mr. Davidson?" Kate asks.

"Yes, Ma'am, that's me," he replies, while still keeping his eyes on his granddaughters.

Kate pulls back her light blazer to reveal her badge. "I'm Detective Kate Beckett. This is Mr. Castle. Is there somewhere we can talk?"

"Yes. We should go inside. Girls, you can play with that new computer game until I'm finished talking to these people."

Julie Davidson joins her husband on the couch as they sit opposite Kate and Castle. As she clasps Ben's hand, her voice quavers. "I-I think we've both known for a while that Melanie wasn't going to come home."

"What do you remember about the days leading up to her disappearance?" Kate inquires.

"We, uh, talked to her a couple of days before she disappeared," Ben replies. "Um, that is my wife did."

"Everything seemed fine," Julie continues.

"She didn't indicate in any way that she was leaving?" Kate probes.

"No," Julie returns.

"We're aware that she had issues," Castle inserts gently.

"They had nothing to do with what happened to her," Ben insists.

"How do you know?" Castle queries.

Ben's fingers curl into fists. "You sound just like the cop who first had the case – convinced that she'd run away, that she was still on drugs."

"But you didn't think that?" Kate questions.

Ben shakes his head vociferously. "Melanie wasn't the greatest mom, but she loved those girls. She would never have left them."

"What about her husband Sam?" Kate asks.

"He thought she was on drugs too," Julie replies.

"Did you know that he waited over a day to report her missing?" Ben adds bitterly.

"She had run off before," Castle responds.

Ben pushes himself to the edge of the couch. "Look, I'm not going to sit here and deny that. But if Sam thought our daughter was in trouble, why didn't he report her missing right away? Why didn't he call for help? Even if she'd gotten locked up she'd be better off than – aw Hell! What's the difference? I - I mean the time to ask these questions was five years ago. But the cop who was on the case then didn't want to ask them."

"There's no statute of limitations on murder, Mr. Davidson. And now that we know Melanie was murdered, we're going to investigate until we find her killer," Kate promises.

Castle jams his hands in his pockets as he and Kate return to her unit. "They're members of our club, Beckett."

"What do you mean?"

"Loved ones with no closure because the NYPD botched an investigation."

"Well, I'm not going to botch this one, and…. A text alert sounds from Kate's cell. "That's Lanie. The lab got DNA off that eyelash from Celia's body, but nothing from any of the lifts. And the DNA doesn't match Celia or anyone in CODIS."

"Kate, is DNA from the military in CODIS?"

"Only if they're involved in a crime."

"Or someone knows they're involved in a crime," Castle corrects. "We need to check that DNA against the military database."

"All right, Castle. I'll put in the request."