Confession Chapter 40

"Yo, Beckett," Esposito calls from the doorway of the breakroom. "The record for Nedra Voles' Metro card came in."

Kate vaults from her seat at a break room high table. "Great!"

Castle gathers up the disposables from their lunch and tosses them in the trash. "If we know where she went, we can figure out where she is."

With Castle reading over her shoulder, Kate peruses the list of Nedra's entries into subway stations. "It looks like before she moved out, she swiped 10 times at the Bowling Green Station. Then she swiped a few hours later at 96th Street, probably going the other way."

"The 96th Street stop is right on the border of Spanish Harlem," Castle realizes. "That's a perfect area for Nedra to blend in, at least physically. We don't know how good her Spanish is."

"Her Spanish won't matter if we can narrow down where she went. She could cover a lot of territory from that station."

"Still, that stop gives us a tighter focus for our search area," Castle points out. "We could go up there and check out her most likely paths – at least until the rest of the paperwork comes in."

"All right," Kate agrees. "There's not much else we can do here without her financials and phone records. And we might get lucky." Castle's eyebrow arches. "Down boy. That kind of luck comes later."

"I'll hold you to that."

Castle would have loved to entwine his fingers with Kate's and stroll along the sidewalk past apartment houses and bodegas. But Kate sets a brisk pace that is nothing like a stroll. Still, he has enough time to allow his eyes to sweep up and down the buildings as they pass. He spies a sign in a bodega window on the ground floor of a larger building. "Apartamentos para alquilar."

"Beckett," he says, pointing, "doesn't that mean apartments for rent?"

"I think it does, but I took French not Spanish."

"Ditto, when Latin wasn't being forced down my throat, but living in New York, it's hard not to pick up some of the more common phrases. I've learned a lot from subway warning signs. And of course, there were Alexis' Sesame Street years. Actually, I don't think those ever ended. Who could abandon Kermit and Cookie Monster? Still, maybe we should have brought Esposito."

"I would have, but Gates has the boys on another case. Let's just take down the information and keep going. There could be a lot more apartments for rent around here and we can check the locations against any payments Nedra made."

Castle snatches his notebook and a pen from his shirt pocket. "Noted."

"A little pep missing from the Beckett step?" Castle asks as she sinks into her chair upon their return to the precinct.

"I'm fine," Kate insists, "just frustrated. We must have found 20 possible addresses."

"Twenty-one."

"And we still don't have the paperwork we need to pare down our list."

An email alert sounds on Kate's phone.

"Or maybe we do." Castle suggests.

Kate checks her message. "We don't have her calls, but the financials came through."

Castle checks the time and rubs his hands together. "We still have an hour before Gates will insist on the changing of the guard. Are you printing out?"

"As we speak."

Elizabeth Weston waves Mary Waters and Letisha Chappers to seats in front of her heavily piled desk. "What have you got?"

"Cole Maddox wants to make a deal," Chappers explains. "According to his lawyer, he can deliver Bracken on a silver platter."

"Who's his lawyer?" Weston asks.

"Forrester Sims," Chappers replies.

Weston scowls. "That could be a problem. Sims has a questionable history. I'm not sure we can trust him or Maddox."

"We can structure the deal so that we don't have to," Mary suggests. "Maddox is backing up what we've already been given about the operation in the Westchester Woods – with added details. Anything we offer will be contingent on whether those details bear out."

"And the reliability of any future evidence he gives us," Weston adds. "One bad steer, and the agreement is null and void and he immediately goes down for murder."

"But the murder charge is local," Mary points out. "We'll need to coordinate with the DA and with the cops out of the 12th Precinct that nailed him."

Weston's manicured nails drum against a stack of papers. "The 12th Precinct, that's where Victoria Gates was recently installed. Kate Beckett works for her."

"I believe so," Mary agrees. "Why? What about Gates? Would she be an obstacle to collaboration?"

"Not necessarily, but we have a personal connection. She's my sister."

"Shouldn't that make things easier?" Chappers questions.

Weston sighs. "We'll see."

"Booyah!" Castle exclaims. "A week before she moved, Nedra Voles wrote a check to the management of the building with the sign in the bodega window. Beckett, she has to be in one of those apartments. It shouldn't be hard to find out which one."

"It looks like she had her moves all planned out," Kate considers. "She knew exactly where she would be running after she killed O'Leary."

"Kate, if she didn't have a plan, she wouldn't have had a Stinger on her. She would have taken him out with a kitchen knife or some other weapon of opportunity. As much of a conundrum as it might pose to Nedra's defense attorney, O'Leary's murder was clearly premeditated."

"Uh-huh," Kate agrees, "there's a credit card charge here for a beauty salon, right after the time she would have killed him. She didn't just pick up a bottle of hair dye at the drugstore."

"As a natural redhead, she probably would have needed to have her eyebrows dyed too," Castle points out. "Mother had that done for a couple of roles. It takes some skill. Nedra was smart to use a professional – just not to use her credit card."

"We could check out the salon," Kate suggests. "Her hairdresser might remember exactly what Nedra looks like now." The sound of a buzzer cuts through the air over the bullpen. "Damn! That's the end-of-shift reminder Gates had installed. We need to pack it in for the day."

"Cheer up, Beckett," Castle suggests. "We know where Nedra Voles is. She's probably still fixing up the place. She won't be going anywhere. And a check with the beauty shop could verify her new appearance. Call the judge for a warrant now, and tomorrow you'll be all set and ready to go."

"If I could get a warrant. The DNA on Nedra Voles' old couch is still the only tie we have between her and O'Leary. That was enough to request the paperwork, but not for an arrest warrant. Before the DA can come close to charging her, we'll need more."

"So we'll get it," Castle asserts. "Tomorrow you can interview her and work the old Beckett magic."

"I hope so," Kate says. "I mean, I'm a little out of practice. Maddox may make a deal because he thinks he has enough to trade to save his ass. If Nedra shuts up, all we can prove is that she had sex with O'Leary – and that's not a crime."

"How about the murder weapon?" Castle asks. "She may still have it."

Kate shakes her head. "If she does, she's really not too bright."

"She paid the beauty parlor with a credit card and wrote a check for the apartment."

"Point taken."