Finding the Fit Chapter 17
Rick is just turning his morning scramble out onto a plate when his cell phone lets out the Peter Gunn theme ringtone he chose for Beckett. Laying the pan aside, he fishes his phone out of his pocket. "Beckett, what's up?"
"I thought you'd want to know, Castle. I just got an update on the Candela case."
"Did you hear about what's happening to Angela?"
"That's what I thought you'd want to know. But it's a long story for over the phone."
"I can be there in 20 minutes! Make that 15!"
Rich shovels eggs into his mouth and rushes out the loft's front door.
Puffing through a trot from the elevator, Rick drops into the chair beside Kate's desk. "What about Angela?"
Kate holds up a copy of a document. "You know what this is?"
"It's a petition to learn the identity of a child's adoptive parents. I signed one myself, but it was denied."
"This one wasn't denied. It came from Angela's mother. She signed an affidavit to go with it. Here." Rick's eyes fly over the sheets of paper she hands him. "This is from a Lucia Gomez. She claims that she was only sixteen when she realized she was pregnant. But her boyfriend, Juan Restapo, Angela's father, had joined the military the day he turned eighteen and was sent to Iraq. He'd promised her that when he got back, he would use his military benefits to go to school and get a good job, and they could get married. He left before Angela knew she was carrying a child. With Juan overseas, Angela's mother pressured Lucia to give the baby up. She forged Juan's signature on the papers." Castle stops his narration for a moment. "That would have voided the adoption. Juan was out of the service sooner than he'd anticipated but not for reasons he would have appreciated. An IED went off under his Humvee, and," Castle winces, "wiped out any chance that he'd father another child. When he finally made it back to New York, one of his friends told him that he'd seen Lucia and was pretty sure she'd been pregnant. Juan confronted her and learned the story." Castle lays the affidavit on the desk. "So Angela could end up with her real parents?"
"From what I was told, Lucia and Juan are getting married and trying to scrape up the money for a good lawyer to get official custody of Angela."
Rick rubs his palm over the morning stubble he hadn't taken the time to shave. "I have a feeling that money will turn up, perhaps from an anonymous donor."
Kate smiles up at Rick. "An anonymous donor, huh?"
"Believe me, it happens. I know that first hand."
"Yeah, I remember. You know, Castle, sometimes I almost like you."
"From you, Beckett, I will take that as a high compliment." Rick fingers his roughened jaw. "I need to get home and pretty up. I have a reading this morning."
"Oh? I thought your tour for Storm Fall was over."
"The official one, yes. This reading is a favor for an old friend. But you'll call me if another dead body turns up?"
"After Lanie, Ryan, Esposito, and Montgomery, you'll be the first to know."
Rick flashes a crooked smile. "Great. Thanks."
Looking up from her chair, Miss Lula's eyes twinkle above the deepening wrinkles on her face. "It was sweet of you to come, Rick. The ladies really enjoyed your reading, but they cried at the end. Why did you kill off Storm?"
"Miss Lula, you know that when I was writing as a kid, I never knew what my characters would do until it came out of my pen."
"Yes, I remember the look of surprise on your face sometimes when your stories took an unexpected turn."
"That was the most fun part," Rick confesses, "letting my characters lead me along. It wasn't much different when I grew up."
"If you've grown up, Rick, I haven't seen it. You're pretty much the wildly imaginative boy I remember, just taller."
Rick chuckles. "Grew up chronologically. The trouble is, I'd gotten to the point with Storm where I knew exactly what he would do. I didn't have to imagine anything. I was like a robot typing his adventures into my computer. I had no discoveries to make. It wasn't any fun anymore. I needed a new character."
"And by hanging around with the police, you've found one?"
"I have, a lady detective. I'm already almost through writing my next book, and I get surprised almost every day."
Miss Lula reaches up to cup his carefully shaved cheek. "I'm happy for you, Rick. And when that book comes out, I'd better get a signed copy."
He grins. "You'll get the first one, I promise."
"Now," Miss Lula continues briskly, "about your other project. Have you made any headway?"
Rick shakes his head. "Still at a brick wall."
"Some of the people here are putting together their family histories for their children and grandchildren. They're doing that DNA thing, you know, to fill in the blanks on the family tree. Have you tried that?"
"I tried that as soon as the first kit, Family Tree, came out," Rick confides. "No luck."
"Well, there are a lot more people using those kits now," Miss Lula says. "You never know. Something could happen at any time."
"You're right," Rick concedes. "Thanks, Miss Lula. You always make me feel optimistic."
Every wrinkle crinkles upward. "Right back at you, kid."
After the third summons for illegal parking, the truck pulls up to tow the upscale sedan to the impound lot. While making his hookup, the driver happens to glance inside the driver's window. His scream can be heard down the block.
Castle points to the plastic bag tightly taped over the sedan driver's head. "Smothered to death. That's a lot of effort to murder someone."
"He went to a lot more effort than that," Lanie says. "All the victim's fingers are broken, and the fingernails pulled out."
"Torture?" Kate wonders.
"Looks like it," Lanie agrees.
"Is this guy a doctor?" Rick queries, pointing at a hospital preferred-parking sticker.
"According to the business cards in his wallet, Doctor Joshua Leeds, a plastic surgeon," Lanie confirms.
"Hmm," Rick considers. "Plastic surgeons keep a lot of secrets. The tabloids would love to know what celebrities are enhancing their assets, especially if they can get before and after pictures. But they wouldn't torture for the information – at least, I don't think so. And I don't recall the World Tattler ever killing anyone for a story. It has to be a deeper secret than that."
"If the motive has anything to do with his work, the staff at his office might know," Kate says. "We'll interview them and see what they say."
"They would be under the same confidentiality constraints as a doctor," Lanie points out.
"Yet, somehow, the plumping and pounding always makes it to the checkout stand," Rick counters. "Not everyone zips their lips. But it looks like Leeds took his secrets with him. If he was that conscientious, he'd want staff he could trust."
"The motive might not have had anything to do with his work," Kate muses. "In any case, we have to talk to Leeds' staff. They should be able to direct us to his next of kin and anyone else who might know why someone would go after him."
"Nothing so far on the canvass," Esposito reports, approaching the car. "Hey, the windshield has one of those stickers for parking at a hospital. Doctor?"
"Plastic surgeon," Rick relays.
"Hmm," the detective considers, "I wonder if he has one of those books with the before and after pictures."
Rick shoots Kate an "I-told-you-so" look.
She rolls her eyes. "Esposito, you and Ryan keep canvassing. Castle and I will go to Leeds' office."