697. Chapter 697

After Scared to Death

Episode 5.17

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Something from beyond the grave says I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above.

"Castle, there are no such things as ghosts. You know that."

Rick Castle looked around at the dilapidated, condemned apartment building they were standing in. "But if there were, this would be a perfect place for them to congregate."

Kate shook her head. "Or it would be a perfect place for aliens to land their flying saucers. Or for a mad scientist bent on world domination to build an army of clones."

Castle frowned in concentration. "You think so? I'd say it's a bit small. An army of clones, capable of taking over the world, would be pretty big. Unless you were going to start small. Say, take over Staten Island first and go from there. And landing a flying saucer…"

"Castle! I was being facetious. There are no ghosts. Here or anywhere else."

"But look at the history of this place." Castle lowered his voice. "May 19, 1970. Melissa Charles, a single mother and her five daughters, aged five through sixteen, are all found shot to death."

"Do you really have to say that like you're doing the voiceover for America's Most Desperate Criminals?"

"I'm just trying to give it some flair."

"Police reports do not need flair. They need to be accurate."

"And completely without flair. Totally and utterly flairless." Castle suddenly smiled. "That's it! Kate Beckett's Greatest Cases. I could write up all of your greatest cases and they'd have bags of flair. Black Pawn would…."

Kate took his coat lapels in her hands and pulled him close. "Castle, I love you. And I've learned to love Nikki Heat. But you are not writing a book based on my cases."

"But…"

"And there will be no flair." She leaned in and kissed him. "But maybe when we get back to the loft, we can try a little flair. Maybe some cowboys and cowgirls?"

"With lots of flair?" He asked, hopefully.

"With all the flair we can manage. But, first, we have to check the building out."

Following Kate through the building, Castle continued with the tale of the murders. "At first the police concentrated on the ex-husband, Mike Charles. He was known to have complained about the cost of his alimony and child support. But, he turned out to have been on a business trip to San Francisco. A dozen of his colleagues, after some hesitation, testified that they had all been at the Condor Club, watching Carol Doda."

Kate laughed. "Somehow I knew that would stick in your memory. A topless dancer. "

"I learned about Carol Doda doing research." Castle said primly.

"I suppose you have to know what kind of Sharpie to use if you're going to sign some woman's fake boobs."

"That's all in the past. There is only one woman whose boobs interest me, and that's you. "Before Kate could respond, Castle continued with the history of the murders. " The police turned their attention to a neighbor, George Siefert. Siefert had disappeared the day of the murders and no one had seen him for days. The neighbors described him as creepy. They said that he looked at Mrs. Charles and the two older girls in a way that creeped them out. But, he was eventually found in a hospital. He'd collapsed on the street coming home from work with a heart attack. He was in the hospital at the time of the murders. Since he had no next of kin, the hospital hadn't notified anyone. Another dead end."

"Dead end?" Kate said with a smile.

"Oh! I have to work that into a book. Attention turned to Edmund Dorf, an ex-Marine recently back from Vietnam. He was what they called in those days, disturbed. But he'd been in a bar fight in the Bronx and spent the time of the murder in the drunk tank."

"You do remember that I read the report as well, don't you?"

Castle continued. "There were other, less obvious suspects. Maria Gonzales, who went to high school with the oldest Charles girl, Brenda, had fought with her over a boy. Witnesses said she threatened to slice up Brenda if she messed with the boy. She had no alibi, claimed she'd been smoking pot with some girls she'd met. Couldn't identify the girls or tell where they had been."

"I imagine you've had that happened to you."

Castle smiled at a memory, then remembered who he was with. "Me? With other women? I can't recall another one since I met you." He continued. "Alfonso Grau, a neighbor. A high school dropout who worked stacking shelves at a local supermarket. Had flirted with the two oldest Charles girls. Said he'd gone home after working a double shift and went to sleep. Neighbors confirmed they'd seen him go into his apartment before they had seen the Charles' girls walking home. The police couldn't prove he was anyplace but his apartment, and there was no known motive."

"Do you have any new information?" Kate asked.

"No, but Nikki might find an odd sock, as it were. But, there were half a dozen other people the police looked at. Mrs. Maria Canales, whose dog had crapped on Mrs. Charles doorstep. They had a screaming match about it a week or so before the murders. But, she was in Albany visiting her sister. Mr. Greg Boynton, a transient, as they called them in those days, was sleeping it off in an alley behind the apartment. But, nothing tied him to the murder. Ray Brown, muscle for a local bookmaker, had told several people what he'd like to do to Mrs. Charles and all of her girls. A total pervert, but he had a bunch of other perverts giving him an alibi."

Kate interrupted. "And finally, three days ago a crew getting ready to demolish this place found a secret passage between this apartment building and the one next door. An old dumbwaiter shaft allowed access to the Charles' apartment. And that's why we're here. Can we get on with it, Castle, and see if there's anything that points to who the killer was?"

"Don't let me stop you." Castle said mildly.

They walked through the passage and came out at the bottom of the dumbwaiter shaft. Beckett shined her flashlight up the shaft. "Nothing. But we'll check from the Charles' old apartment."

Castle leaned against a bannister and promptly fell through a false panel. When he looked up, he saw a skull grinning at him. "BECKETT!"

The next day they met with Captain Gates. "The body has been tentatively identified as Alfonso Grau from the ID in his wallet. The gun has been tested by ballistics and matches the gun used to kill the Charles family. Dr. Parish says a preliminary examination indicates Grau killed himself. He had a notebook with him. He confessed to spying on the older girls using the dumbwaiter shaft. The older girls caught him and he panicked and killed those girls, then the rest of the family. Apparently the guilt got to him and he killed himself. He disappeared about 1975, but no one thought anything of it. Assumed he'd just moved on."

"Very good work, Detective." Gates said. Her gaze swept over Castle and she frowned.

Later, the two had a glass of wine at the loft. "A very interesting presentation to Captain Gates, Detective. But didn't you leave something out?"

"I thought my report covered all of the relevant details."

"In the notebook he said he'd been haunted by the ghosts of the Charles women. Said they appeared to him when he tried to sleep. Said they spoke to him. Said they…did things. Why didn't you tell Gates that?"

"I did. I said he had a guilty conscience. And he did."

Castle took a sip of his wine. "If you say so."

"I do say so. That's what happened. A guilty conscience."

"You know, we never did get to play cowboys and cowgirls last night." Castle mentioned casually.

"Ready, buckaroo?"