Shared Obsession Chapter 68

Rick turns at Kate's loud yawn as they return from their dawn obligation. "Were you meditating out there or sleeping?"

"Maybe a little of both. It was a beautiful sunrise."

Yes, it was," Rick agrees. "The perfect epilogue for the night, or perhaps the beginning of a new story. But I was also thinking about Mary Wright. If she is Susan Mailer, how did she survive and what's she been doing all this time – besides sending money to the Pikes?"

"We'll just have to ask her, but she won't be back to Lilitz yet, and I'm starved. What do you think the Jesus diet offers for breakfast?"

"I don't know. But if it's whole grain bread and water, we're hitting a drive-thru before we tackle Mary Wright."

"Amen."

In the car across the street from Mrs. Bridgeton's rooming house, Castle crumbles the wrapper of his double cheeseburger and stuffs it in a fast food bag. "At least when Mary Wright turns up we can go at her properly fueled."

Kate sucks up the last of her strawberry shake. "She should be showing up any time now."

Castle points as a car pulls into a parking spot down the block. "That could be her now." A woman laboriously exits the driver's side of the newly arrived vehicle and starts walking toward the rooming house. "Look at that limp, Beckett. That's got to be Susan Mailer."

"It's got to be Mary Wright," Kate corrects. "Let's go talk to her."

"Ms. Wright?" Kate calls as she and Castle approach their suspect. "We'd like to speak with you."

Wright turns shakily and stares at Kate. "You're a cop, aren't you?"

Kate nods, "Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD. This is Mr. Castle."

"After all these years I can spot law enforcement a mile away. But the cops around here never pay any attention to me. They don't even see me. Most people don't. I work in the back of Longmeir's bakery, filling orders. And sometimes I help the Amish get places because they can't drive. But they're not about to run any background checks."

"Why would you worry about that?" Kate asks.

"Detective Beckett, you wouldn't come all the way from New York to ask me questions unless you had a pretty good idea of who I am."

"Susan Mailer?"

"Yes."

"Susan Mailer is officially dead. No one's been looking for her for 20 years. And I'm a homicide cop. What matters to me is what you did on Tuesday night. According to Mrs. Bridgeton, you were in New York. Why was that?"

"I went to talk to Cynthia Dern. A reporter put a post on an environmental message board asking for info on her. I e-mailed, pretending to be a friend of the 'Group.' It didn't take me long to figure out she had found her, and Cynthia was lying about what happened on the ship."

"What was she lying about?" Castle asks.

"Everything. I couldn't let her do that."

"And you didn't," Kate concludes. "Susan Mailer, aka Mary Wright, you're under arrest for the murder of Cynthia Dern." Kate cuffs her suspect and begins to recite the Miranda warning.

Susan shakes her head. "You don't understand."

"I'm going to get with the locals for the paperwork to transfer you back to New York," Kate replies. "You can explain everything there."

Susan gazes around interrogation, clasping and unclasping scarred fingers. "I understand that you've declined counsel," Kate begins. "You stated that you found Cynthia Dern in New York. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"And you confronted her?"

"Yes. I threatened to turn myself in if she went through with the book. I said I'd give myself up, tell the authorities everything. She begged to meet with me first, somewhere we could talk."

"That's when you rented the room?" Castle asks.

"No! Cynthia rented the room, not me. It was all part of her plan."

"Her plan?" Beckett queries. "What plan?"

"Her plan to murder me. She had a bottle of wine and two glasses. When I got there, she poured me a drink and said, 'Let's toast to old friends.' I picked up my glass and touched it to my lips, but didn't actually drink any. I don't drink. At first, I couldn't because of the pills for the pain from my burns I took while a friend nursed me back to health. And after that, I never wanted to. I didn't have anything to celebrate, not after what we did to Sam Pike. I tried to leave, but she wouldn't let me. I hid in the bathroom. That's when I saw it, a tub full of oil. Then I understood."

Castle nods. "She didn't plan to talk to you. She planned to kill you and make it look like suicide. Your wine was laced with a sleeping pill. You were supposed to drink it and then drown in the oil."

"And then the world would think you were wracked with guilt over Sam Pike all these years and finally decided to end it by taking your own life," Kate continues.

"Once your body was discovered," Castle picks up, "the public would clamor for the real story, with you cast as the villain. But how did Cynthia end up in the oil?"

"She came after me," Susan explains. "We struggled. She was stronger than I am, but there were drips of oil on the floor of the bathroom, so it was slippery. She lost her balance and hit her head against the sink – hard. I should have called for help. I know that. But I just wanted it to be over. So I dragged her to the tub and pushed her in. Can you understand? I was already dead. I just wanted to keep it that way."

Castle leans on his elbow at Kate's desk, staring at nothing. She returns from down the hall. "Susan Mailer's in Booking."

"Kate, I know she killed Cynthia, but it just doesn't seem fair. All these years, she was trying to make amends for what happened to Pike. And now because of Cynthia's greed, she's going to end up in prison."

"Maybe not – if she finds a good lawyer. The DNA evidence and Remian from the wine glasses back up her story that Cynthia tried to kill her. And she did send the Pikes money all this time. She was in fear for her life. She can plead that at the moment she put Cynthia in the oil she wasn't capable of making a rational decision. A sympathetic jury could buy it."

"I hope so. If anyone deserved killing, Cynthia…. But without the money Susan was sending them, the Pikes are going to need more help. There has to be something to do about that."

"Castle, what are you thinking?"

"Susan's story will provide the true ending to Lee Wax's book. She was paying Cynthia. And after all the misery she caused, I should be able to twist her publisher's arm to direct some of the money to the Pikes. And an anonymous donor could kick in a few bucks too, to tide them over."

"Castle, that's sweet."

"They've suffered enough, Beckett. And speaking of suffering, I've waited patiently all this time to take you on a real date."

"But Castle, we…."

"I know. It's not as if I could ever forget it. But Kate, I'd like to do a date right, with sinful food, a show, maybe dancing, the whole ball of wax – and not Lee. You said we could do it when we solved Cynthia's murder and made real progress on the other case. We have. We could take a little time to enjoy it. So, how about Saturday night?"

"You're on."