[Castle] Ch: 66 [Sterling Investigations] (Patreon)

[Cassandra Wells's Office]

Kate answered her phone while keeping her eyes on the papers spread across Cassandra's desk. "Yeah, what'd you find?"

Travis's voice came through immediately. "Our hotel woman was wearing Cassandra Wells's watch and bracelet. Both pieces are confirmed through purchase and repair records."

Kate straightened. "You're sure they belonged to Cassandra?"

"Completely sure. The watch serial number traces directly to her, and the bracelet has a repair code from a Chelsea jewelry store. There's something else, though. I don't think the person in that footage was Cassandra."

Kate glanced toward Jane, Lisbon, and Castle. "Why wouldn't it be her?"

"Because whoever prepared Room 814 worked too hard to hide their face while repeatedly showing two pieces of jewelry that could identify Cassandra. Then the same person came back after the murder wearing those exact pieces again. It feels deliberate."

Kate's eyes moved toward Cassandra's photograph on the desk. "You think somebody's building a trail toward her."

"That's exactly what I think. I watched the walk too. The hip movement looks exaggerated, the shoulders stay too rigid, and the stride changes whenever the person passes directly beneath a camera. I think we're looking at a man dressed as a woman."

Jane had already moved closer, clearly trying to hear enough of the conversation to understand what Travis had found.

Kate rubbed her thumb against the edge of Cassandra's file. "Send me the clearest stills. We found something here too. Cassandra hired Sterling Investigations to follow Allison, and several pages are missing from her file."

"That sounds like our next stop."

Kate looked toward the invoices. "We're heading over there now."

She ended the call and quickly explained Travis's discovery. Castle immediately leaned toward the photograph of Cassandra as though expecting the jewelry to reveal another secret.

"So Cassandra's belongings appear on our mysterious hotel woman, except Travis thinks our hotel woman is actually a man pretending to be Cassandra," Castle said as he slowly nodded. "I have to admit, this case is developing excellent layers."

Lisbon picked up one of the Sterling Investigations invoices. "Then we stop guessing and talk to whoever Cassandra paid to collect all this information."

Jane smiled faintly as he headed toward the door. "Excellent. Private investigators usually lie professionally, which makes conversations much more interesting."

Kate grabbed the relevant files and followed him. "You're letting me conduct the interview before you start psychologically terrorizing anybody."

Jane glanced back at her with an innocent expression. "Of course."

Lisbon walked behind him and sighed. "That means he absolutely intends to psychologically terrorize somebody."

...

[Sterling Investigations]

Sterling Investigations was on the fourth floor of a narrow office building several blocks north of Chelsea. The reception area looked deliberately respectable, with gray walls, leather chairs, framed investigative licenses, and photographs of employees standing beside retired police officials and corporate clients.

Kate walked toward the receptionist and showed her badge. "Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD. We need to speak with Lupen Cullen about Cassandra Wells and one of his investigative subjects, Allison Reed."

The receptionist's expression changed slightly at Allison's name, though she recovered quickly and reached for the phone. "Mr. Cullen is finishing a call. I'll let him know you're here."

Jane had already wandered toward a framed photograph showing three investigators receiving some kind of private-security award. 

Castle stepped beside him and examined the photograph. "I'm personally disappointed by the complete lack of trench coats. Private investigators have really abandoned their visual identity."

Kate glanced toward both men. "Once we're inside, try not to touch everything."

A door opened farther down the hallway, and a man stepped into reception. Lupen Cullen appeared to be in his early forties, with neatly combed dark hair, a charcoal suit, and the polished professional appearance of someone accustomed to dealing with wealthy clients who valued discretion.

His eyes moved across Kate's badge before briefly studying Lisbon, Jane, and Castle.

"Detective Beckett?"

"That's right."

Lupen extended his hand. "Lupen Cullen. I own Sterling Investigations."

Kate shook it before gesturing toward the hallway. "We'd like to ask you some questions about work you performed for Cassandra Wells."

The name produced almost nothing on his face, though Jane's eyes remained fixed on him.

Lupen stepped aside. "Come into my office."

His office was larger than Kate expected, with a wide desk facing two visitor chairs and several filing cabinets lining the wall behind him. A laptop sat open beside a stack of folders, while framed photographs showed Lupen at charity events, corporate dinners, and what appeared to be a police retirement party.

Kate and Lisbon took the chairs across from him. Castle remained near one side of the room while Jane slowly walked toward the window, giving Lupen the impression that he wasn't particularly interested in the conversation.

Kate knew better after spending the afternoon with him.

Lupen sat behind his desk. "What exactly do you need?"

Kate placed one of Cassandra's invoices on the desk. "Cassandra Wells hired you around four months ago to investigate Allison Reed."

Lupen glanced down at the invoice. "That's correct."

"She paid Sterling Investigations a little over twelve thousand dollars."

"That sounds approximately right."

Kate opened her folder. "What did she ask you to investigate?"

Lupen rested his hands together on the desk. "Background information, daily routines, professional relationships, locations Allison visited regularly, and information connected to her family. Cassandra described it as research for a client."

Castle looked toward him. "Research involving photographs taken through telephoto lenses from across the street."

Lupen barely reacted. "Surveillance is a normal part of private investigative work, Mr. Castle."

Castle smiled faintly. "You recognized me."

"My wife owns several of your novels."

Castle's expression brightened. "Your wife sounds like a woman with excellent taste in literature."

Jane finally looked away from the window. "He didn't say she liked them."

Castle slowly turned toward him. "You know, there are moments when I understand Lisbon completely."

A faint smile almost reached Kate's face before she returned her attention to Lupen. "Did Cassandra specifically ask you to investigate Allison's stays at the Weyland Hotel?"

Lupen paused for perhaps half a second.

"Yes, she did."

Kate noticed Jane turn his head slightly.

"What did you discover?"

"Allison repeatedly stayed in Room 814. We eventually learned the number corresponded with August fourteenth, the date her husband and daughter died."

"Did Cassandra ask you to investigate Allison's medication?"

Lupen's fingers shifted against each other.

Jane smiled faintly from beside the window.

Lupen answered carefully. "We documented some medical information as part of the overall investigation."

Kate leaned forward slightly. "What kind of medical information?"

"Pharmacies she visited, doctors she saw, prescriptions she picked up occasionally. Cassandra wanted extensive information."

Kate watched him for another second before turning one page in her folder. "Did you give Cassandra everything your investigators collected?"

"Yes."

Jane spoke from across the room. "Are you sure?"

Lupen looked toward him. "Excuse me?"

Jane pushed away from the window and walked closer. "Detective Beckett asked whether Cassandra received everything you collected, and you immediately pressed your thumb against your index finger. You've done that three times since we arrived, always when you're uncomfortable with your own answer."

Lupen looked down at his hand almost involuntarily before separating his fingers.

Jane's smile widened slightly. "Now you're trying very hard not to do it again."

"I... What? I don't know what you are talking about," Lupen stuttered a bit.

Kate had known enough about Jane to understand what he was doing. More importantly, Lupen's reactions were giving him something to work with. Closing Allison's case mattered considerably more than protecting Lupen from feeling uncomfortable, so Kate leaned back and let Jane continue.

Jane stopped beside Castle. "Cassandra discovered something you didn't want her to discover."

Lupen gave him a flat look. "You're guessing."

"Of course I'm guessing. The entertaining part is watching you tell me when I'm correct." Jane tilted his head slightly. "You liked Cassandra at first because she paid on time and didn't ask many questions about how you obtained information. Then something changed. Money usually works nicely for that part."

Lupen's jaw tightened.

Jane noticed immediately.

"You sold something," Jane continued. "Information, photographs, reports, perhaps copies of everything Cassandra paid you to collect. Someone offered you more money than Cassandra did, and you decided confidentiality suddenly had flexible boundaries."

"That's ridiculous."

Jane looked toward Kate. "He's lying about that."

Lupen's irritation surfaced. "You can't walk into my office and accuse me of selling confidential client material because some nobody thinks he understands my facial expressions."

Kate calmly closed her folder. "Then this should be easy. Show us Cassandra's complete file."

Lupen stared at her. "Those records are confidential."

"She's missing, Allison Reed has been murdered, and several pages were recently torn from Cassandra's private file concerning Allison. We're asking you to cooperate voluntarily."

"I'd need to speak with my attorney before releasing client records."

Kate nodded slowly. "That's your right. If you want to do this the difficult way, I can call the ADA and pull another warrant. Then CSU comes through that door, locks down the relevant part of your office, photographs everything, catalogs your files, examines your computers, and starts asking why a private investigator refused to cooperate in a homicide involving information his company collected."

Lupen's expression hardened.

Kate held his gaze. "That's entirely your decision, Mr. Cullen. I'm giving you an opportunity to save everyone the trouble."

Jane watched Lupen instead of Kate.

Then his eyes moved toward the filing cabinets behind the desk.

Lupen had glanced there.

Only briefly.

Jane walked closer to the desk. "The regular Cassandra file isn't what worries you."

Lupen didn't answer.

Jane looked toward the cabinets again. "Something happened between you recently. Cassandra came here angry, probably after discovering you'd betrayed her. She brought something with her, or she left something behind."

Lupen's eyes flicked toward the lower cabinet on his right.

Jane saw it immediately.

"There," Jane said quietly. "Bottom cabinet."

Lupen looked toward him sharply.

Castle's eyebrows rose while Lisbon watched Jane with considerably less skepticism than before.

Jane pointed casually toward the cabinet. "You've looked at it twice since Cassandra's missing pages were mentioned. Whatever Detective Beckett wants is sitting somewhere inside."

Lupen pushed his chair backward. "This is absurd."

Jane stepped slightly closer. "Then open the cabinet and prove me wrong."

Lupen remained motionless.

Kate didn't interrupt.

Jane's expression lost some of its playful quality. "Cassandra Wells is missing. She disappeared immediately after Allison Reed was murdered. We've already discovered that somebody spent months poisoning Allison and then carefully staged her death to frame another person. If Cassandra left something here because she was frightened, keeping it hidden doesn't protect your business anymore."

Lupen looked toward Kate.

Kate's expression remained calm. "Your choice, Mr. Cullen. You can hand it over voluntarily, or I can make the phone call."

The silence stretched for several seconds before Lupen finally swore under his breath and reached into his pocket for a key.

He unlocked the lower filing cabinet.

Castle leaned slightly toward Lisbon. "I'm starting to understand why Jane makes people nervous."

Lisbon kept her eyes on Lupen. "You haven't seen anything yet."

Lupen pulled out a thin brown folder and placed it on the desk.

Kate immediately recognized several sheets inside.

The torn edges matched the missing section from Cassandra's Allison Reed file.

Kate pulled on gloves before carefully lifting the first page. It contained notes about Allison's medication, pharmacy visits, the days her housekeeper worked, and her repeated stays at Room 814.

She looked directly at Lupen. 

Lupen rubbed one hand across his mouth. "I stole them last night from her office... She found out."

Jane leaned against the edge of the wall and watched him. "Found out you sold her information."

Lupen's resistance finally started collapsing. "Someone approached me about seven weeks ago. He knew Cassandra had hired us to investigate Allison. He offered twenty-five thousand dollars for copies of everything we'd collected."

Kate's eyes hardened. "You gave him Allison's routines, medication information, hotel habits, family history, and everything else Cassandra paid you to uncover?"

"I gave him copies of the reports. I didn't know anyone was planning to hurt Allison."

Jane's expression became colder. "That excuse usually arrives after somebody dies."

Lupen looked down at the desk. "Cassandra figured it out eventually. She found inconsistencies and confronted me. I admitted somebody had paid me for the information, but I didn't know his real name. Then she threatened to report me and destroy my license. So, after she disappeared, I took the chance to get them."

Jane looked toward the open cabinet. "There's something else inside."

Lupen's eyes closed briefly.

Kate noticed that reaction herself this time. "Take it out."

Lupen reached inside and removed a small dark notebook.

Kate took the notebook carefully and opened it.

The first pages contained ordinary personal thoughts and notes about clients, but the later entries changed sharply. Cassandra wrote about discovering Lupen had double-crossed her. She didn't know who purchased the information, although she suspected the buyer already knew Allison personally because several requested details were unusually specific.

Then the entries became more troubling.

Cassandra believed someone had started following her.

The same dark sedan appeared near her office several times. A man followed her from a restaurant and disappeared when she changed direction. She wrote that she no longer believed it was coincidence.

Kate turned to the final completed entry.

Cassandra had written it the night before Allison died. She believed whoever bought the information knew she had discovered the arrangement. She feared that Allison was in danger. And if anything happened to Allison, Cassandra believed she would be next.

Kate slowly closed the diary while the entire direction of the investigation shifted inside her head.

Castle looked toward Cassandra's photograph inside the open folder. "Then Allison gets murdered, evidence starts pointing directly toward Cassandra, and Cassandra disappears because she thinks whoever killed Allison is coming after her."

Jane nodded slowly. "Which means our missing psychic may be considerably more useful alive than whoever framed her intended."

Kate placed the diary into an evidence bag and looked toward Lupen.

"Start from the beginning, Mr. Cullen. This time, you're going to tell us everything about the person who paid you and give us his photo. I'm pretty sure you must have taken one for insurance."

Lupen looked at the missing pages, then toward Jane, before finally giving a defeated nod.

Kate pulled out her notebook.

...