Papa Jack Chapter 64

"Sorry about your friend, Castle," Ryan says as Richard joins the group in Kate's small living room.

Richard nods. "Thanks. Can you tell me what you have so far?"

"His body was discovered this morning by his cleaning lady. She has a key to his apartment. She says he would go for a run in the morning, and she would clean while he was gone," Esposito explains.

"We didn't need Lanie to tell us the cause of death," Ryan continues. "He had been stabbed, probably with one of his own kitchen knives. There was one missing from the block."

"Eric considered himself quite the amateur chef," Richard recalls. "He was proud of those knives and claimed they were top of the line. You said one was missing from the block. Did you find it anywhere in the apartment?"

"No," Esposito replies. "We figure the killer took it with him."

"Not the smartest thing to do," Richard offers. "The killer could have just wiped off any prints and left it – unless it would be planted to point to someone else."

"Or wanted as a trophy," Kate interjects.

"Right," Richard agrees. "Did CSU find anything?"

"They're still working the scene," Ryan says. "But there were no signs of forced entry."

"So the killer was someone Eric knew and let in," Richard assumes, "someone Eric would have expected to see in the morning. A running partner, maybe?"

"Maybe," Esposito considers. "I compete with guys I run with, but we've never wanted to kill each other."

"So perhaps the killer was more than a fellow runner," Richard suggests. "How was he stabbed? Did the knife have to penetrate the ribs?"

"He was stabbed in the heart, and from the size of the slot, the big chef's knife was the one missing from the block. It wouldn't slide between the ribs. So that would probably be a yes," Ryan says.

"It takes a lot of strength to get through ribs," Richard muses, "so it was either a man or a powerful woman."

"Which doesn't help. Either one would make a good running partner," Esposito points out.

"Maybe it does," Richard counters. "Eric wrote about very physical women a lot. I got the impression that they turned him on. If the killer was a woman, she might have been more than an exercise buddy. And stabbing someone in the heart is, to say the least, a very personal form of murder. I say, cherchez la femme."

"If Eric was having an affair with a woman, CSU should be able to turn up some female DNA in his apartment," Kate offers, "a toothbrush, a hairbrush, hairs on a pillow, something. You should make sure they look."

"Yeah," Esposito agrees. "We'll do that."

"Any idea who the mystery woman might be, Castle?" Kate asks.

"The only women at our games are female authors or professional dealers/bankers. It's a short list, and as far as I know, Eric wasn't getting it on with anyone on it. I really didn't know much about his private life, but you might check his fan pages. Fans can be like forensic scientists. They stare at pictures and analyze clues. If he was seeing someone, there could be posts about it."

"Do your fans do that to you, Castle?" Kate inquires.

Richard chuckles. "They post pictures of women I'm seen with, but so far, I don't think the speculation about me and Martha Rodgers is being taken too seriously."

"Martha Rodgers! I love her!" Ryan exclaims. "I saw her in the revival of gypsy. She was incredible. But she's old enough to be your mother, Castle."

Richard gulps. "Not that I'd ever inquire about a lady's age, but I believe that she is. And we're talking about Eric Donnelly, not about me."

"Yes," Kate declares, "we are. And it sounds like Ryan and Esposito need to do an online dive into his love life."

"You might try looking in on DonnellyLoversUnite dot com," Richard advises the partners. "The last time Eric was at a game, he bragged about how many followers it has."

Esposito starts for the door. "Come on, Bro, let's check it out."

Richard can see the longing in Kate's face as the door closes behind the departing detectives. "Wish you were on the trail with them?"

"Don't you, Castle? They can actually do something while we're just sitting here."

"But Kate, if we hadn't sent them in the right direction, they'd still be sitting here. That's something. They must have thought so, too, or they wouldn't have come here in the first place. And working on books is also something. My books made your mother happy, didn't they?"

"They did. And me too." Kate confesses.

"They've been translated into ten languages and are in, at last count, 45 countries. I, at least, look at giving that many people a little fun and excitement as something – and the money's not bad either."

"Yeah, Castle. From your loft and your toys, I can tell. So, while the boys cherchez la femme on Eric Donnelly's case, you want to go work on your something some more?"

"Are you feeling up to it?"

"Absolutely."

Gerkov's neighbors may be unfortunate victims, but Jack has come to appreciate the bomb maker's snores. They've allowed him to establish a schedule for the man who is clearly a creature of habit. Knowing when Gerkov will be fetching more materials, making more bombs, and storing finished ones for later use has allowed Jack not only to follow his activities but to project the date Gerkov can complete enough bombs to demolish Loftview and take the lives of everyone within. It will be well before the date of Richard and Martha's big event.

The time gap makes taking out Gerkov useless. Anatoly would have the opportunity to enlist someone else to complete the deadly task. It would actually be worse than useless. It would give Anatoly a warning that his plan had been uncovered. If Anatoly decides on an alternative, Jack would be at square one planning an intervention. So, he can watch and wait until Anatoly can no longer execute a plan B. Then, he can step in to block the success of plan A.

Usually, Jack is a patient man. For all the times he laid in wait for just the right moment to take out a bad actor or destroy an enemy installation, he had to be. Raising Richard required no small measure of patience either. But he's itchy to stop Gerkov and Anatoly now. He'll just have to avoid scratching."

"Well," Richard says after getting Kate settled in his office, "when we left off, we were discussing Nikki using her trauma to join a support group where she can discern if one of the members is a serial killer. So if she's going to share about how it felt getting shot, I need to know what that feels like. What does it feel like? I mean, if you're OK with talking about it."

"I'd be OK with talking about it if I could remember, Castle. But I don't. I remember the before, when we were all staked out watching for Cedric. I remember the after, waking up in the hospital, seeing you and then my father. And there's a lot of fuzzy stuff, mostly sounds, in between. But there's nothing I can really get a handle on. The doctor said it's not unusual to blank out a trauma like that. It's the way we protect ourselves."

"Then I guess Nikki will have to blank it out too. It will make it harder to write the scene or… Oh! She could be desperate to try and remember everything that happened, who was with her, what they said to her."

"So was Rook with her?" Kate asks.

Memories of blood and screaming sirens flash through Richard's brain. "Yeah. It wouldn't be much of a story if he wasn't."