Finding the Fit Chapter 70

"Have Julia's medical records helped you figure out where the kidnappers might have taken her?" Kate asks as Rick hunches over his laptop.

Scowling, he snaps the lid shut. "I don't have the background to even make an informed guess from these. I need some help. When I got my first DNA profile back, I couldn't figure out what implications it held for my biological parentage. A professor of genomics at Hudson University, Blythe Manning, helped me out. Of course, slipping a few bucks to the University to fund a chair in her department didn't hurt. I'm going to give her a call and see if she can find something in all of this that I can use."

Kate clears her throat. "Until you get a meeting with her, I was hoping I could bounce something off of you."

"Beckett, you know I greatly enjoy all your bounces. All right, not that kind of bounce," he hurriedly adds at her impatient look. "What do you need?"

"I got a call from Waterhouse's office. They're not going to call me as a witness, but the trial is winding up, and they want to use my testimony as the family of a victim at the sentencing hearing."

"How about your father?" Rick queries. "He was impacted by her death as much as you were."

"Maybe even more," Kate agrees. "But he's also a lawyer, and Waterhouse isn't sure something from a lawyer will be as convincing as something from a daughter who redirected her whole life because of her mother's death. He's also afraid that Bracken's team will find a way to leak my father's alcoholism, making him less credible. We'll both testify, but more of the pressure may be on me. I need to get it right."

"I wouldn't think there would be much to get right, Beckett. Your mother's death broke your heart and changed your entire plan for your life. If I were a judge, that's all you'd have to tell me."

"That's it, Castle?"

"It's the truth, isn't it?"

"That's part of it."

"What else?" Rick queries.

"After I became a cop, I could think of almost nothing but catching my mother's killer. I was barely eating or sleeping. Mike Royce tried his best to keep me on track, but I was still a mess. It got to the point that my captain – it wasn't Montgomery then – told me that if I didn't see the department shrink and pull myself together, he would have to cut me from the force. I was in therapy for three years, and Dr. Burke convinced me that I had to move on or I'd destroy myself as a cop and a human being. So, I stopped searching. I had to completely quit the case the way an alcoholic has to quit drinking completely. Chasing any clue would put me back into a hole again."

"But you didn't stop, Beckett. You and I chased Coonan and Bracken down together."

"I did stop, Castle. But not for good. When you came along, you gave me the push I needed to get started again. You couldn't let a mystery go, not your parents, not my mother's killer. And I wasn't up against a brick wall anymore. We had leads, good leads. And I had a partner."

"I thought I was just an observer."

"We both know that's not true."

"If that's the whole story, Beckett, then you should tell it. It's honest, heartfelt, and very human. I don't see how any judge could resist it."

"But Castle, could you help me to put the right words together?"

Rick cups Kate's face. "I think you just did a damn good job on your own, but if you want to use me as a practice audience, I'd be honored."

"This child's genetics would have to be very unusual to yield an immunological profile like this," Blythe Manning considers. "On a guess, I would say the mother is probably quite beautiful."

"She is," Rick confirms "and also quite brilliant. I wouldn't peg the father as beautiful, but he is also quite brilliant. Does that help?"

"As far as a point of origin, not really. But some of these factors do. Two of them occur predominantly in South Asia, Two in Africa, and several in Eastern European Ashkenazi populations."

"Those last ones probably come from the girl's father," Rick offers, "But where would I find someone with the whole package?"

"Rick, my best guess would be South Africa. A number of people migrated there from India. The Africans would have already been there. A number of Jewish families settled there as well, and more came in to set up hospitals and then later to help out with the HIV epidemic. If you leave this with me for a while, I may be able to be more specific."

"I would greatly appreciate it, Dr. Manning. Still, we are talking about a missing little girl, so the clock is ticking."

"I understand that, Rick. I'll get back to you as soon as possible."

"Beckett," Rick says, dropping into the seat next to her desk in the bullpen, "the prof may have more later, but she gave me a starting point. Could you get me passenger manifests of any flights from Upstate New York to South Africa?"

"That's privacy-restricted information, Castle. You know that. In order to get it, I'd have to associate it with an investigation. The NYPD has no jurisdiction over Julia Witzenberger's kidnapping. I'd have nothing to hang it on."

"How about the feds? If it weren't for us, Bracken's operation would still be up and running. We picked up a ball the FBI didn't even know was dropped. Don't they owe us?"

"We could have a hell of a time getting them to admit it, Castle."

"Maybe there's another way to go at it," Rick considers. "If we can't get to the passenger lists, the flights and where they went are all in the public domain. Linc Zolner, one of the nerdier authors at Black Pawn, uses a website to trace individual flights, where they are at any minute, and where they land. I could start with the flights and go from there."

Do you know what the website is?"

"No. But I think I will see about taking Linc to lunch to pick his brain. I know he has a soft spot for Starship Enterprise Pizza. With any luck, I should have at least some of the information I need before the stars shine tonight. I just hope they're still shining on Julia."

"Yeah," Kate agrees. "Me too."

"Rick, do you have any idea what part of South Africa you have in mind?" Linc asks, reaching for his fifth slice of pizza. "All the flights would be taking off out of Albany, but they could end up in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Gqeberha, or Kimberly."

"Which of those make the fewest stops?" Castle asks.

"Cape Town and Johannesburg. Those are the cheapest flights, too."

"After the ransom these guys conned, I don't think they would have worried about cheap, but which of those cities have the best hospitals?"

Linc grabs the pepperoni from a warp nacelle. "I just do flights. For hospitals, you're on your own."

Rick sucks up the last of his root beer and pulls out his phone. "It won't take me long on Google to find out."