Naked heat nh-2

by Richard Castle

  "I didn't say I didn't have it."

  She heard Rook scoff behind her and knew he was thinking exactly what she was thinking: that Perkins must be feeling better, because he was parsing his words again. Put him in a suit, put him in an open-backed hospital johnny, he'd still lay down a smoke screen. She had to figure a way through it. "Fine, you didn't say you didn't have it; you pretended you didn't. Has it occurred to you this may not be a time to mince words?"

  The editor didn't answer. He rested his head back on the starched pillow.

  "We know what was in your briefcase. We found the cover page. And we know the rest of the manuscript isn't there now." She let that register and decided to make her move. "Whoever did this is still out there. So far, we have useless descriptions to go on, so what we need is anything that can point to a motive." She hated to beat on a guy with a concussion, a broken leg, and three cracked ribs, but that didn't mean she wouldn't. Nikki turned the top card from her deck. It was the fear card. "Now, do you want to help, or do you want to take a chance this person will try something again-when you're not there and your wife may not be so lucky."

  He didn't have to think too long. "I'll call my office and have them messenger you a copy of the manuscript right away."

  "We'll send someone to get it, if that's OK."

  "Whatever you want. You know, I was carrying it with me because I was this close to giving it to you on my way in. This close." The editor's brow clouded briefly. "Could have saved us all this, if only…" He let his admission trail off, then shifted uncomfortably, trying to sit up more so he could face her. "You have to believe me when I tell you this, because I would understand if you were skeptical, given our… transactional history. But it's the God's truth."

  "Go on."

  "I don't have the final chapter. I don't. The material I have from her is incomplete. It only covers the backstory of Reed Wakefield's life and the months before his death. Cassidy was holding back the last chapter. She said it was the one that reveals the details of the people responsible for his death."

  Rook said, "Wait a minute, that was ruled an accidental overdose. I thought Reed Wakefield died alone."

  Perkins shook his head. "Not according to Cassidy Towne."

  Of course none of this squared with either the coroner's official findings or the information Nikki had gathered from her recent checks on the Dragonfly House with all the interviewees, including both managers, Derek Snow, and the housekeeper who found the body. Everything pointed to a drug user who accidentally overmedicated and died quietly and alone in his sleep, and who had no visitors the night before, or morning of, his discovery. "Mr. Perkins, did Cassidy Towne say what she meant by 'people responsible'?" asked Heat.

  "No."

  "Because that could mean a lot of different things if it's true. Like it's whoever sold him the drugs or handed him a prescription bottle."

  "Or," said Rook, "if he wasn't alone and the party in his room got out of hand. But that would mean nobody called the cops, nobody called an ambulance, that they just walked away and left him. That's worth covering up."

  Heat said, "And Derek Snow worked at that hotel. Was he part of the cover-up? Or an unlucky eyewitness?"

  "Or at the party," speculated Rook.

  "Unfortunately, we may never know," said the editor. "She never turned in that last chapter."

  "Was it because, possibly, she didn't know all of it?" asked the detective.

  "No," said Rook. "Knowing Cassidy Towne, she knew what she had and was holding it for ransom."

  "Exactly right," Perkins agreed. "She had it all buttoned up in a sensational chapter that she said would reveal everything. And when she delivered the partial manuscript, she said she wanted to reopen negotiations on her deal. You wouldn't believe what she was asking for. The woman was trying to kill us."

  "Ironic," said Rook. When Nikki gave him a chastening glance, he shrugged. "Come on, you were thinking it." Minutes later in the bull pen Nikki split Roach up. With Esteban Padilla also killed by whoever killed Cassidy Towne and Derek Snow, she put Ochoa on the task of checking Padilla's limo company for a Reed Wakefield passenger manifest on or before the night he died. She assigned Raley to canvass for surveillance tape of Mitchell Perkins's mugging. Rook ended a phone call and joined them in the middle of the room.

  "Just got off with Perkins's assistant at Epimetheus Books. They made a PDF of her manuscript and they're going to e-mail it. Should get here before the hard copy arrives, so we can dive right in."

  Nikki's attention drifted to the murder board and the list of names on it in her neat block printing. "If what Perkins says is true and the last chapter is still out there, that means someone is still going to be looking for it." And then, turning to them so they could read her apprehension, she added, "And won't stop at anything to get it."

  "The book guy was lucky. How's he doing?" asked Raley.

  "Hurting, but he'll make it," answered Heat. "I think a lot of his pain is realizing he could have avoided all this if he had just shared the manuscript when we asked for it."

  "Just one more irony," Rook said. "Epimetheus?… The Greek god of hindsight." They all stared at him. "True fact. Alex, I'll take 'Moons of Saturn' for a thousand." It was time to get Soleil Gray in a more official setting. But Reed Wakefield's ex-fiancee responded in kind by showing up in Interrogation 1 with her attorney, one of the most aggressive, successful-and, as a result, expensive-criminal lawyers in the city. Detective Heat knew Helen Miksit from days when she was glad to be in the same room with her. She had been a tough prosecutor who collected guilty verdicts like scalps and made cops want to send flowers. But six years ago, Miksit left the DA's office and crossed the aisle for profit. Her wardrobe had changed, but her demeanor hadn't. The Bulldog, as they called her, made her opening move before Heat and Rook even sat down across the table. "This is bullshit, and you know it."

  "Nice to see you again, too, Helen." Nikki slid into her chair, unfazed.

  "We're past the pleasantries on this one, I'm afraid. My client has filled me in on your serial badgering and I have advised her to say nothing to you." Beside her, Soleil Gray was occupying herself by nibbling at a loose piece of skin on her knuckle. She took her hand away from her mouth and shook her head slightly to indicate she was on the same page, but what Nikki read from the singer wasn't a stonewall. She looked vulnerable rather than cocky. That part was left to the lady in the power suit. "To be clear, we are only at this interview because we have to be. Now, you can save us all a lot of trouble by recognizing the futility of this and calling it a day."

  Nikki gave the attorney a smile. "Thank you, Counselor. I have been diligent, I'll admit. You remember what it's like out here, don't you? People get killed, cops gotta ask questions… Such a pain."

  "Twice you have gone to her place of employment and disrupted the normal course of her business on a witch hunt. You caused her to miss her performance on a late-night show, and now you've got her completely distracted while she's gearing up to shoot a new music video tomorrow. Is this desperation, or are you performing for your next article?" Miksit side-nodded to Rook.

  "Oh," he said, "don't worry, there's no sequel. I'm just along because I love the swell folks you meet in police stations."

  Nikki jumped in before that escalated. "My repeat visit to Soleil was to get a straight answer from her after getting a series of lies from her the first time. Your client is connected to two homicide victims, and-"

  "Means nothing. 'Connections.' " Miksit spat the word. "Come on, Detective."

  Nikki was used to the woman's confrontational style, but she had seen it while sitting behind her in a courtroom as an ally, not across the table on the receiving end. Heat had to wrestle to keep this her meeting, and she did so by continuing on her road in spite of the push-back. "And one of those victims, Cassidy Towne, we have just learned, was writing a book about the death of Miss Gray's fiance."

  "Oh, please, this is why you brought us in here?"

&
nbsp; Soleil cleared her throat and swallowed hard. Helen Miksit made great theater placing a comforting hand on her forearm. "Is it really necessary to do this? This subject is still an open wound for her."

  Nikki spoke quietly. "Soleil, there's little doubt Cassidy Towne was murdered to stop the publication of her book about the circumstances surrounding Reed Wakefield's death." She paused to choose her words carefully, unsure whether the singer was a conspirator or a victim herself. "If you are involved or know about this in any way, this is the time to speak up. The time to hide is over."

  Helen Miksit said, "As I told you at the outset, you can have your meeting. It doesn't mean she's going to participate other than to be here."

  Nikki leaned toward Soleil. "Is that how you feel? There's nothing you want to say about this?" The singer pondered, looked like she was about to speak, but in the end, she looked at her attorney, shook her head, and went back to chewing at the tiny flap of skin on her knuckle.

  "There you have it, Detective Heat. I assume we're finished now?"

  Heat gave one last look to Soleil, hoping to bridge the chasm, but she wouldn't give Nikki her eyes. "We're done. For now."

  "For now? Oh, no. This ends here. If you want to get yourself in boldface on 'Page Six,' you're going to do it harassing someone else." Miksit stood. "A word of caution? You may find that when the PR machine reverses direction, it isn't always so friendly."

  Heat led them out, and as she watched them walk away through the lobby, she felt even more certain that Soleil was into this. She just wasn't sure how. Nikki returned to the bull pen, where Rook was already at his computer reading the first pages of the PDF of Cassidy's book, which had arrived during the interrogation. She found Detective Hinesburg sitting in Heat's own chair, using Heat's desk, and jotting on Heat's notepad with one of the pens from her pencil cup. "Make yourself comfortable, Sharon." Nikki was still feeling tight from her meeting with Soleil and The Bulldog, and venting a little steam at Hinesburg gave her some relief. She could feel guilty about it later.

  "Hey, funny," said the detective, oblivious. Another irritating quality, but at least it would save Nikki an apology. "I was just leaving you a note. I checked on the PI Elizabeth Essex used to snoop on her errant ex-hubby. Local Staten Island guy her lawyer uses. Not our Texan."

  Heat wasn't surprised by the news, but at least that loose thread ended there. "What about Rance Wolf's other clients, where are we with that?"

  "Spoke to the CEO of Hard Line Security in Vegas. He's cooperating and putting together a list for me. Both corporate and individual clients. I also asked him about Tex's freelances. He said they maintain notes on any freelance jobs their people take on since their company policy is that agents have to disclose to avoid conflict of interest. He'll share that, too. I'll let you know the minute I get it all."

  Detail and initiative like that were why Hinesburg was such a great cop. And why Nikki put up with the petty annoyances. "Good work. And, Sharon, sorry if I sounded a little irritable."

  Detective Hinesburg said, "When?" and moved off to her desk.

  Ochoa checked in from Rolling Service Limousine. In the background of his cell phone call, Nikki could hear a pneumatic wrench and could envision a town car getting a new tire. "Got something weird over here. You ready for weird?"

  "A manifest from Reed Wakefield with a suicide note on it?" said Nikki.

  "No Reed Wakefield manifest. In fact no manifests at all from the night Wakefield died. I already had Raley check the records we pulled, they're not in with ours, either. We did our survey before the Reed Wakefield deal surfaced, so we assumed it was just Padilla's day off. But come on, this is all the manifests for this whole company from that night. It's like every one of their drivers took the night off and didn't have one booking. You see what I'm getting at?" Nikki processed the significance of the missing records. The gravity. The reach. The tire gun whirred again. "You still there?"

  "So what's the deal over there, Oach? How do they account for that?"

  "Manager just gives me a dumb-ass look and says, 'Don't ask me.' Good luck proving anything, these guys are too slick."

  "Yeah," she agreed, "they'll claim burglary or one of the drivers did it. Even Padilla himself, out of spite." And then she added, "Just to confirm, it was a night Padilla was working, right?"

  "That they confirmed. Just before they canned him."

  "So, what? They've just been ripped out of the book?"

  "No. Actually, they've been sliced." An hour later, Nikki left Captain Montrose's office after briefing him on all developments so he could turn around and do the same thing with his superiors down at One Police Plaza. He trusted Detective Heat and told her she was covering all the bases he would. The extra briefings were to satisfy the media pressure on 1PP. Mindful of his upcoming promotion review, the skipper made it his hobby to smile and dial, keeping them in the loop almost hourly.

  Raley had set up shop at his desk, with digital copies of surveillance cam video from the parking garage where Perkins had been mugged that morning, as well as from camera-equipped stores and residences all along 96th Street. "I've got a long night ahead of me, but if we get lucky, maybe one of these'll give us a pretty picture of the assailant." As he loaded one of the time-coded videos, he asked, "So you don't think it was the Texan?"

  "Wouldn't rule anything out, Rales, not on this case," Nikki answered. "But I broke Wolf's collarbone and put one in his shoulder. Perkins is no Ironman, but whoever overpowered him like that had to have some strength. So I'd bet against the walking wounded."

  She made her way over to Rook at his squatter's desk across the pen from hers, to get an update on Cassidy Towne's manuscript. She got a strange vibe off him before he even spoke. Nikki dismissed it, chalking it up to more of Rook's schoolboy jealousy over her reunion with Petar. "What are you getting out of this, anything?"

  "I'm a quarter of the way in," he said. "All pretty much as Mitchell Perkins advertised. Reed Wakefield's backstory. She's setting the table but no bombshells yet. She could use an editor, though." That strange look crossed his face again.

  "What?"

  "There's an extra hard copy on your desk. Actually, in. I put it in your file drawer."

  "Rook, either you tell me what's on your mind, or I swear, we don't have a Zoo Lockup, but I'll organize one just for you."

  He considered a beat then opened his messenger bag and took out a newspaper. It was the afternoon edition of the New York Ledger, folded open to the "Buzz Rush" column. The editors had decided the brand-name value of the column had only inflated since Cassidy Towne's murder, so they were keeping it, but with guest columnists until they settled on a permanent choice. That day's "Buzz" was bylined anonymously by someone called The Stinger.

  Nikki felt her face flush when she saw the lead item.

  HEAT CRAVE

  NYPD hottie and cover girl Nikki Heat plus magscribe-cum-boyfriend Jameson Rook have been arm in arm on another case, this time, trying to solve the murder of this column's founding doyenne, Cassidy Towne. Apparently her brief taste of fame gave her a craving for more spotlight because Heat has been taking her act to all the high-viz peeps and places, most notably on a tear to bring down singer Soleil Gray. Detective Hot has been tailing the former Shades lead wherever she goes, including rehearsal halls and even a command perf busting up Miss Gray's rehearsal at Later On by showing her autopsy photos of stabbing victims! Since Soleil wasn't rehearsing a number from Sweeney Todd, you have to wonder, why all the heat? Is a certain detective getting ready for her next close-up, Mr. DeMille?

  Heat looked up from the paper and Rook said, "Nikki, I am so sorry." Her head spun. She pictured trucks unloading bound stacks of the Ledger curbside to newsstands all over the city. Copies piled on tables in apartment lobbies or landing on doormats… Captain Montrose getting a call from 1PP. She also thought back a few hours to her meeting with Soleil Gray and Helen Miksit, and the lawyer's parting words about how the PR machine can turn against you. Nikki
was certain that this was a shot across her bow from The Bulldog.

  "You OK?" asked Rook. In the tenderness of his tone Nikki heard all the empathy he had for what was swirling inside her, a maelstrom of regret and anger carrying crumpled pages of First Press and the New York Ledger.

  She handed him the newspaper. "I want my fifteen minutes back." Jameson Rook called a car service to bring him home. Nikki had asked him for a night of quiet, and he respected her desire without question and with only the slightest twinge of paranoia that she might be meeting up with Petar. After she gave Montrose the heads-up about the Ledger item, they had each taken a copy of Cassidy Towne's manuscript to read overnight, and Rook promised he would only call if he hit something that jumped out about the case. "E-mail instead," she had said, and he saw in her a need to find an oasis of solitude in her life. Probably starting with some lavender-scented bubbles in that claw-footed cast-iron tub of hers.

  After the black car dropped him in Tribeca, he navigated the garbage heaps and approached his front stoop carrying a bag of Chinese takeout in his teeth while he fished for his door key. He thought he heard a foot scrape beside the stairs. There was no traffic on the street. Down the block, Rook watched the taillights of his ride disappear around the corner. Just as he was thinking about the manuscript in his messenger bag and weighing fight or flight, he saw movement in the shadows of the stoop and turned with his fists up as Cassidy Towne's daughter stepped forward.

  "Did I scare you?" said Holly Flanders.

  "Mno." He took the bag out of his mouth and said, "No."

  "I've been waiting here a couple of hours."

  He looked around, instinct telling him to be cautious and make sure he wasn't going to be surprised by a companion.