Reborn in Castle (TV show)

[12th Precinct] [Later That Evening]

The elevator doors opened, and Travis stepped into the bullpen beside Patrick Jane. Neither of them had said much during the ride back from the Weyland Hotel, which Travis considered a small miracle considering the information he'd just dropped into Jane's lap.

Jane still looked relaxed, with both hands inside his pockets and the same faintly curious expression he seemed to wear everywhere. Travis knew better. Behind that calm face, Jane was probably pulling apart every word of their conversation, questioning Travis's motives, wondering how much of the Blake Association information could be trusted, and trying very hard to avoid thinking about Thomas McAllister until they had somewhere private to continue that discussion.

Teresa Lisbon and Kimball Cho were already sitting near Kate's desk when they noticed them.

Lisbon looked at Jane, then toward Travis, before releasing a tired sigh that suggested she'd already guessed exactly what happened.

"Don't tell me you went to the crime scene."

Jane gave her an innocent smile as he approached. "I could tell you that, but you'd know I was lying, and then we'd begin our working relationship in New York with unnecessary dishonesty."

Lisbon stood from her chair and stared at him. "Jane, we've been here for a few hours, and you've already wandered off without telling me."

"I wasn't alone," Jane replied, gesturing toward Travis. "Detective Wilson provided excellent supervision."

Travis stopped beside his desk and removed his coat. "I wouldn't use the word supervision. I mostly made sure he didn't lick anything."

Cho looked up from the case file in his hands. "Has he done that before?"

Lisbon glanced toward Cho. "Don't give him ideas."

Jane looked mildly offended. "I have standards."

'There she is, Teresa Lisbon. She looks fine as wine. Fuck! What the hell am I even thinking? The harem thing must have got my excitement running.' Travis smiled before extending his hand toward Lisbon. "Travis Wilson. Homicide."

"Teresa Lisbon, CBI," she replied as she shook his hand. Her eyes briefly moved toward Jane again. "And unfortunately, his supervisor."

Travis nodded sympathetically. "Captain Montgomery already explained your situation. You have my condolences."

Lisbon's mouth twitched with the beginning of a smile. "I think we're going to get along."

Cho stood next, his expression barely changing as Travis offered his hand. "Kimball Cho."

"Travis Wilson. I've heard good things about you."

Cho shook his hand firmly. "Hopefully from someone reliable."

"Mostly case reports," Travis replied. "Those are usually less dramatic than Castle's stories."

Cho glanced toward Castle, who was standing near the murder board with enough interest to suggest he had already been studying the CBI agents like characters from a new novel.

"That's probably safer," Cho replied.

Kate walked in carrying a thick collection of reports against her chest. Esposito followed several steps behind her with another folder, while Castle abandoned his position near the murder board and immediately joined them.

Kate placed everything on Travis's desk. "Perfect timing. Lanie finished the autopsy, CSU sent over the final priority results from Room 814, and we got the first reports from Allison's apartment."

Travis pulled his chair around. "Please tell me some of those pages contain something useful."

Kate placed the reports down and looked toward Travis. "Lanie finished everything, and CSU sent over the final priority results from the hotel and Allison's apartment."

Travis pulled his chair closer while Lisbon and Cho moved in beside the desk. Jane remained standing slightly behind them, although his attention immediately shifted toward the reports.

Most of Lanie's findings confirmed what she'd already explained earlier, so Kate didn't waste time repeating the entire medical breakdown. The final autopsy officially listed Allison's cause of death as massive blood loss from the wound across her throat, with the murder occurring sometime between approximately two-thirty and three that morning. The restraints had been applied while Allison was alive, and the limited struggle at the bed matched the physical weakness already caused by months of arsenic exposure.

The toxicology and tissue analysis also confirmed the earlier poisoning timeline. Allison had been receiving repeated low doses of arsenic for roughly three months, possibly somewhat longer. Damage had already developed in her kidneys and liver, while early cardiac complications had also begun appearing. Lanie's final report supported her earlier conclusion that Allison probably would've become critically ill within another week or two if the poisoning continued.

The neurological effects remained particularly important to the investigation. Allison's confusion, concentration problems, emotional instability, and possible hallucinations were all consistent with prolonged arsenic exposure. That strengthened the possibility that her claim of seeing Sophie in the road before striking Matthew Cole hadn't simply come from intoxication or bad blood.

There was another part of the autopsy that made the mood around the desk considerably heavier.

Lanie had documented older injuries across Allison's body that had nothing to do with the murder itself. Bruises existed in several stages of healing, including finger-shaped marks consistent with someone grabbing her repeatedly. There were older blunt-force injuries across her back and several small contact burns of different ages along her upper thighs and chest. Other bruising around her hips and lower back suggested the abuse had continued over weeks or months.

Lanie hadn't found forensic evidence that allowed her to establish sexual assault, but her conclusion about the broader pattern was clear. Someone had been systematically hurting Allison long before she died in Room 814.

Kate then moved to the apartment findings, where CSU had finally given them something more concrete.

The incense recovered from Allison's meditation area had tested positive for arsenic compounds. Several unopened sticks from the same package were clean, while the sticks from an already opened bundle contained contamination deliberately worked into the material. The ash inside Allison's burner carried the same compound, confirming that she'd been burning the contaminated incense inside her apartment.

That still didn't explain the amount of arsenic accumulated inside her body.

The more important discovery came from her medication.

One bottle Allison used regularly contained arsenic residue beneath the cap and across several tablets. Pharmacy testing showed the original manufactured batch was clean, and none of the other customers who received medication from that batch reported problems. Someone had tampered with Allison's bottle after she received it.

The lab believed repeated oral exposure through the medication had probably supplied most of the arsenic found inside her body, while the contaminated incense provided an additional source and may have intensified some of her symptoms.

Travis leaned forward and looked at the photographs from Allison's apartment. "So we've finally got the delivery method."

"At least part of it," Kate replied. "We still need to know who contaminated both."

"Our poisoner must be someone with an extensive medical background, or they know someone with a medical background because delivering that tiny amount of poison for months ain't an easy task," Travis said.

The incense provided their strongest direction. Receipts recovered from Allison's apartment connected that particular package to Cassandra Wells, the medium Allison had paid nearly nineteen thousand dollars over the previous year. Cassandra had sold Allison several spiritual cleansing packages that included incense, oils, supplements, and other materials supposedly intended to help her communicate with Daniel and Sophie.

That connection wasn't enough to prove Cassandra had poisoned anything. The unopened sticks from the package were clean, which suggested somebody could have contaminated the incense after Allison received it.

However, building records created another problem for Cassandra.

"Her name appears in Allison's visitor log six times over the last three months," Kate said as she handed Travis the sheet. "The most recent visit was six days ago."

Travis scanned the dates. "Did Allison visit other psychics at home?"

"None that we've found."

Jane leaned slightly over Travis's shoulder and looked at Cassandra's name. "Interesting woman."

Kate glanced toward him. "Ryan went to her office this afternoon. She canceled all her appointments around noon, turned off her phone, and disappeared."

"More interesting," Jane replied.

Lisbon gave him a warning look. "That still doesn't make her guilty."

Jane smiled faintly. "I didn't say it did."

Kate moved on to the forensic comparison of the bloody smile, and that report finally settled the question that had been hanging over the investigation since that morning.

Travis had been right at the hotel.

The blood used to create the symbol belonged entirely to Allison. Whoever painted it had used three gloved fingers, leaving repeated contact trails through the outer shape and mouth without producing usable fingerprints. Blood overlap and drying patterns allowed the examiner to reconstruct much of the drawing sequence.

The killer had drawn the outer portion counterclockwise.

Pressure changes and the direction of the finger drag also strongly supported the use of the left hand. The examiner wouldn't claim absolute certainty about the killer's dominant hand from one drawing, but the movement was consistent enough to include in the final report.

CBI had provided photographs and forensic documentation from confirmed Red John murders for comparison. Those genuine symbols had been produced clockwise using the right hand. The differences continued beyond the stroke direction. The spacing of the eyes, curve of the mouth, and positioning of the symbol within Room 814 all differed from Red John's established behavior.

Most importantly, the smile had been placed where anyone entering the hotel room would see Allison's body first.

That destroyed the psychological sequence Red John normally created.

The forensic conclusion was clear.

Room 814 had been staged by a copycat.

Lisbon released a quiet breath while looking through the comparison photographs. Jane remained silent beside her, studying the fake smile far longer than anyone else.

"So Red John didn't kill Allison," Castle said.

"No," Kate replied. "Someone wanted us to think about him."

Travis glanced briefly toward Jane. "And they made sure CBI heard about it twenty minutes after the hotel called us."

That anonymous email remained unresolved.

Esposito opened the hotel folder next. "I've got something on Room 814 too."

The booking records showed that someone had reserved the room twelve days before Allison's murder using the Weyland app. The guest stayed for less than four hours before checking out electronically.

The name attached to the reservation was Michael Rowan.

There was no Michael Rowan matching the identification information used for the booking.

The account had been created two days earlier, payment came from a prepaid card, and the email address connected to it had already been abandoned.

Travis looked toward Kate. "That's probably our preparation visit."

"That's what we're thinking," she replied. "The cameras were working that day, so we're pulling archived lobby, elevator, and eighth-floor footage now."

The scheduled camera maintenance on the night of Allison's murder had also been confirmed as legitimate. The outside contractor had arranged it three weeks earlier, meaning the killer hadn't created the outage themselves. Someone could still have learned about the schedule and deliberately chosen that night, leaving the maintenance-access investigation open.

Matthew Cole remained another unresolved lead. The poisoning had started before Allison struck him with her car, which made it unlikely that the hit-and-run had begun the entire campaign against her. That didn't completely clear him from involvement in the eventual murder.

Travis leaned back and looked at everything now spread across the desk.

They had finally closed several questions.

Allison had been deliberately poisoned over months. At least part of the arsenic had reached her through tampered medication and contaminated incense. The physical abuse had also been happening long before her murder. The bloody smile was definitely the work of a copycat, and someone using a false identity had gained access to Room 814 less than two weeks before Allison died.

Several larger questions remained.

Who had been abusing Allison?

Who tampered with her medication?

Who contaminated the incense?

Who booked Room 814 as Michael Rowan?

Who sent the anonymous email to CBI?

And why had someone gone through months of poisoning and abuse only to suddenly kill Allison in a theatrical imitation of Red John?

Kate picked up Cassandra Wells's photograph and pinned it beside Allison's on the murder board. "Well, since it's already late, we'll start tomorrow morning. I'll have the captain authorize an APB/BOLO for Cassandra Wells and put two uniforms on Matthew Cole."

--

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