Naked Heat

by Richard Castle

  "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.

  "I'm here alone," she said.

  "How did you know where I live?"

  "Last week, after I saw you at my mother's a couple of times, I boosted a key for the new lock from JJ's workshop and let myself in again to see who you were. I found your name and address on her receipts for the messenger service."

  "Enterprising and creepy all at the same time."

  Holly said, "I need to talk to you."

  He set a place for her on the L of his kitchen counter so they wouldn't be side by side. He wanted to look at her when they talked. "China Fun," he announced as he unpacked the bag. "I always over-order, so eat up."

  She didn't say much at first because she put everything into her eating. Holly Flanders was lean but had the eye circles and complexion of someone who wasn't a slave to the food pyramid. When she finished her plate, he dished over some more pork fried rice. She held up a palm and said, "That's OK."

  "Take it all," said Rook. "There are kids starving in Beverly Hills, you know. Of course, that's by choice."

  When she'd finished the rest of it, he asked, "What did you want to talk to me about? By the way, that's one of my great qualities as a reporter. Asking the inobvious question."

  "Riiight." She chuckled politely and nodded. " 'K, well, I felt like I could do this because you were nice to me when I got busted the other day. And could relate to the no-parent thing."

  "Right," he said and then waited, wondering where this was going.

  "I know you're going to write this article about my mother, right? And . . ." Holly paused, and he saw light shimmer off the pools forming in her eyes. ". . . And I know everybody is probably telling you how bad she was. And I'm here to tell you, damn, she was all that." Rook drew the mental image of Holly standing over her mother's bed while she slept, holding a handgun on her, a millimeter of finger movement from blowing her away. "But I came to tell you, since you're going to write her story, don't make her all about being a monster."

  Holly's lips quaked, taking on lives of their own, and a tear streamed down each cheek. Rook handed her his napkin and she dabbed her cheeks and blew her nose. "I have a lot of anger at her. Maybe more now that she's gone, because I can't work any of this shit out with her now. That's part of why I didn't kill her; we weren't done, you know?"

  Rook didn't know, so he just nodded and listened.

  She sipped her beer and, when she had settled enough to continue, said, "All of the bad things about her were true. But in the middle of it is one thing. About eight years ago my mother made contact with me. She had some way of tracking me to my foster home and got permission from my family to take me to dinner. We went to this Jackson Hole burger place I liked in my neighborhood, and it was bizarre. She has the waitress take a picture of us like it was my birthday party or something. She doesn't eat, just sits there telling me all this stuff about how tough it was when she found out she was pregnant, and that she thought she would keep me at first, so she didn't have an abortion and then she changed her mind the first month because it wasn't going to work in her life--'it' she said, like I was an 'it.'

  "Anyway she goes through this whole blah-blah about why she did it and then she says she had been thinking long and hard about it and feeling so bad--agony, I remember that was what she said she felt, like she was always in agony--and asked what I thought, if maybe we could talk about getting together."

  "You mean, like . . ."

  "Well, yuh. Like she thought she could just show up and change her mind about abandoning me and I would just get in the frickin' Acura with her and live happily ever after."

  Rook let a healthy silence pass before he asked, "What did you say to her?"

  "I threw my ice water in her face and walked out." Part of Holly Flanders showed proud defiance. Rook imagined she had told that story before to friends or barflies over the years and reveled in her heroic act of maternal repudiation, poetic in its balancing of scales. But he also saw in her the other part of Holly Flanders, the part that had brought her to his doorstep to wait in the dark, the woman who felt the weight of emotions that nest uncomfortably in any soul with a conscience that has to bear the unhealable wound of banishing another person. With ice water, no less.

  "Holly, you were what, early teens, then?"

  "I didn't come here to be let off the hook, OK? I came because once you found out she had put me out to foster care, I didn't want you to think that was all there was to her. I look back now, older and all, and realize she didn't just wash her hands and walk away, you know?" She finished her beer in a long gulp and set the glass down slowly. "Bad enough I have to deal with this the rest of my life. I didn't want to make it worse by letting you write her story without telling you there was more to her than giving me away."

  At the door on her way out she got on her toes to give Rook a kiss. She went for his lips and he turned to present his cheek. "Is that because of what I do?" she asked. "Because I sell it sometimes?"

  "That's because I'm sort of with someone else now." And then he smiled. "Well, I'm working on it."

  She gave him her cell number, in case he wanted to talk about the article, and left. As Rook went back to the kitchen to clean up the dishes, he lifted her plate. Underneath he found a four-by-six color photo that looked like it had spent some time folded. It was Cassidy Towne and her teenage daughter in their booth at a Jackson Hole. Cassidy was smiling, Holly was enduring. All Rook could look at was the glass of ice water.

  The next morning, Heat and Rook sat down at her desk to compare notes on the Cassidy Towne manuscript. First, though, he asked her if she'd had any fallout from the item in "Buzz Rush," and she said, "Not yet but the day is young."

  "You do know The Bulldog is all over that," he said.

  "I doubt she's the author, whoever The Stinger is, but I'm sure Soleil's lawyer worked her contacts to send me a message."

  He filled her in on his visit from Holly Flanders and Nikki said, "That's sweet, Rook. Sort of reinforces the faith I keep investing in humanity."

  He said, "Good, then, because I almost didn't tell you."

  "Why not tell me?"

  "You know. I was afraid you might take it funny. A young woman coming to my place at night when I told you I'd be home alone, reading."

  "That is so sweet that you'd think that I'd
care." Nikki turned and left him there to sort that out while she got her manuscript.

  Heat used paper clips and Rook used Post-it flags, but both had marked only a few passages in the book as pertinent to the case. And none pointed to direct suspicion of anyone as an agent of the gossip columnist's death. And, importantly, there was no concrete indication of anything untoward in Reed's passing. That was all deftly crafted as sly questions and hints of a bombshell payoff buildup by Cassidy Towne.

  The passages they had marked were the same. Mostly they were name mentions of Soleil Gray and episodes in their drunken, druggy courtship. Tales from the movie set told of a sometimes morose Reed Wakefield who, after their romantic breakup, immersed himself deeper into the role of Ben Franklin's bastard child. His passion to escape his own life into the character's, many felt, would lead to an Oscar, even posthumously.

  Much of the book was material the public had all known about Wakefield, but with insider detail that only Cassidy could have sourced. She didn't spare the actor any blemishes. One of the more damning, albeit minor, stories was attributed to a former costar of three of his films. The ex-costar and now ex-friend said that, after Reed became convinced he had lobbied the director of Sand Maidens, a sword-and-sandals CGI epic, to re-edit their battle scene for more close-ups of him than Reed, Wakefield not only wrote him off as a friend but took revenge. Photos captured on a cell phone arrived at the costar's wife's office. They were candids of the costar with his hand up the skirt of one of the hot extras at the wrap party. The message written on the back of one of the photos said, "Don't worry. It ain't love, it's location."

  Both Heat and Rook had made a note to discuss that with each other, and both agreed that, even though the touchy-feely costar ended up divorced, it provided no motive for killing Cassidy Towne, since he had been the one to tell her the story.

  The bulk was an anecdotal chronicle of a talented, sensitive actor's hard partying, boozing, snorting, popping, and shooting lifestyle. The conclusion Heat and Rook independently drew from reading the book was that if the final, missing chapter fulfilled the hype, the book would be a blockbuster, but from the material they had read, nothing in these pages seemed explosive enough to warrant the murder of the author to cover it up.

  But then again, in the second to last chapter, where the manuscript left off, Reed Wakefield was still alive.

  Detective Raley, who often cursed his designation as the squad's go-to screener of surveillance video, sealed his fate that morning. While she and Rook followed Ochoa, who had summoned them to Raley's desk, Nikki Heat could see from Raley's expression across the bull pen that he had a righteous freeze on his screen. "What do you have, Rales?" she said as they formed a semicircle around his desk.

  "My last video to screen and I hit it, Detective. Parking garage only gave me legs and feet on the perp. Assailant seemed to run east after the attack, and so I worked that block and the one after. Small electronics retailer on the corner of Ninety-sixth and Broadway had this from a sidewalk pass-by, time coded six minutes after the mugging. Matches the description plus our subject is carrying a thick stack of papers, like the manuscript."

  "Are you going to let me take a look?" asked Heat.

  "By all means." Raley got up from his chair, knocking over one of the three coffee empties on his desk. Nikki came around to look at the freeze frame on his monitor. Rook joined her.

  The freeze caught the mugger on a full-face turn to the camera, probably reacting to showing up live on the LED TV screen in the electronics shop window. In spite of the dark hoodie and the aviator sunglasses, there was no mistaking who it was. And further, even in grainy, surveillance-grade black-and-white, the mugger was caught red-handed carrying a stolen half ream of double-spaced manuscript.

  "That's bringing it home, Raley." The detective didn't say anything, just beamed through some bleary eyes. "I'll give you the pleasure of cutting the warrant. Ochoa?"

  "Ready the Roach Coach?"

  "Now would be good," she said. And then when the two left on their assignments, she turned to Rook, unable to suppress a smile. "Ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille."

  Chapter Fifteen

  Detective Heat knew Soleil Gray had a music video shoot that day because her lawyer had mentioned it the afternoon before when she accused Heat of harassing her client at her places of business. Well, she thought, add one to the list. Nikki looked up the number in her interview notes for Allie over at Rad Dog Records and found out where the video was being shot. The record company assistant said it wasn't on a soundstage but on location and gave Heat all the particulars, including where to park.

  Fifteen minutes later, after a short drive south on Twelfth Avenue, Heat and Rook pulled up through the chain-link gate and passed a half dozen paparazzi lurking outside, some leaning on their motorcycles. Nikki flashed her shield at the security rent-a-cop and drove into the parking lot of the USS Intrepid at Pier 86. On the way there, Rook had asked if Heat was afraid Allie might call and tip off Soleil they were coming. "That would surprise me. I cautioned her not to and told her that this was going to be a felony arrest. I made it clear that if Soleil got tipped off by someone, that person could face charges as an accessory. Allie said not to worry, that she was going to head out for a long lunch and leave her cell phone at her desk. Turned off. She sounded like she'd even cancel her cellular contract."

  Heat had caravanned with the Roach Coach behind her and, behind them, a van carrying a half dozen uniforms in case crowd control became an issue. Nikki had learned early on when she worked the organized crime unit that few planned arrests were routine and that it always paid off to take a quiet moment to stop and visualize what you were walking into and not just posse up and ride. On the outside chance there were any Soleil fans hanging out at this event, the last thing she wanted was to try to stuff a handcuffed double-platinum Grammy nominee into the backseat of her Crown Vic while warding off a swarm of zealous disciples.

  They all parked nose-out, poised for a rapid exit. When they got out of their vehicles, each and every one, including Nikki, did the same thing: tilted his or her head far back to look up at the retired navy aircraft carrier looming over them. "Makes you feel small," said Raley.

  Ochoa, still craning up at the floating museum, asked, "How tall is that thing, anyway?"

  "About six stories," said Rook. "And that's just from the wharf height we're on. From the waterline, add another story or two."

  "What's it going to be," said Heat, "tour or arrest?"

  They filed past the temporary base camp cordoned off for crew parking, portable dressing rooms, and meals. A caterer cooked split chickens on a huge grill, and the autumn air was filled with a mix of generator exhaust and grill smoke. At the top of the main gangway they were greeted by a young woman in a T-shirt and cargo pants, whose laminated ID said she was an assistant director. When Heat identified herself and asked where the shoot was, the AD pointed up toward the flight deck. She raised her walkie-talkie and said, "I'll tell them you're on your way."

  "Don't," said Heat. She left a uniform behind just to make sure and to watch the exit.

  After they ascended in the elevator, Heat and Rook stepped out onto the flight deck and were met by the playback track of "Navy Brats" carrying on the breeze from the stern of the flattop. The two of them walked toward the music, and as they came around an A-12 Blackbird, a Cold War spook plane and one of the thirty or so aircraft parked there, they found themselves behind a small army of video crew and its ordnance of props, lighting, miles of cable, and three HD cameras: one on a pedestal; a Steadicam harnessed onto a muscleman with ballet skills; and a boom for getting sweeping overhead shots.

  They got there in the middle of a take, and Soleil Gray danced the steps Heat and Rook had seen her rehearse once in Chelsea and again at Later On. In her white sequined leotard, she cartwheeled across the set between an F-14 Tomcat and a Chickasaw helicopter, only this time something was different. There was a show intensity to her performance, a c
rispness and excitement that she had been saving for the cameras, and she unleashed it with abandon as the Steadicam operator backpedaled to track beside her and she flipped end-over-end the width of the deck, until she landed perfectly in the waiting arms of the sailor-suited male dancers.

  Rook whispered to Nikki, "I predict one helluva prison talent show up in Taconic."

  The director, who had been viewing it all on split screen at a hooded monitor, shouted for a cut, looked to his camera ops, and when he got nods in return, called a reset.

  When the fill lights dimmed and the grips started hauling pieces of the set to the next mark, Heat made her move. With Rook following, she strode toward the canvas director chair where, in spite of the brisk fifty-degree air, Soleil Gray dabbed perspiration off her face. Ten feet from reaching her, a jumbo guy with a shaved head and wearing a yellow security windbreaker blocked the path. "Sorry, folks, this is a closed set. Tours resume tomorrow." He wasn't unpleasant, just a guy fulfilling the job description on the back of his jacket.

  Nikki kept her voice low, showed her badge, and smiled. "Official police business."

  But the singer, alert to everything happening on her set--or perhaps on the alert for something like this--lowered the towel from her face and stared at Nikki with wide eyes. Her makeup artist stepped in to repair the damage from the towel, but Soleil waved her off, keeping her attention on the visitors as she slid out of her chair.

  Heat cleared the security man and, on her way to her, said, "Soleil Gray, NYPD. I have a warrant for your--"

  And then Soleil turned and ran. Slightly behind her, to the port side of the ship, sat a small changing tent for the extras and, beyond it, a passage leading to a flight of metal stairs. Halfway there, Raley and Ochoa came around from behind the changing tent, followed by three uniformed officers. Soleil turned to make a break the opposite way, toward the hatch where Heat and Rook had come on deck, but another pair of officers was posted at that door. Rook ran into her path and she turned sharply again. Distracted by his move, she didn't notice that Nikki was a half step away. Heat made a lunge for her, but Soleil heard her footfall and spun clear. Heat's momentum carried her into a wardrobe rack, and in the instant it took her to regain her balance, her suspect was bolting across the almost football field-wide deck to the starboard side of the aircraft carrier. Soleil's shooting company--grips, electricians, dancers, the director--all looked on in a stunned zone of inertia and disbelief.