[5 hours later]
Kate stood in front of the case board with her arms crossed. The photos of Daniel Hargrove stared back at her: the driver's license smile, the crime scene shot with water weeds tangled in his hair, the close-up of the ligature marks that looked like someone had used a thick strap and pulled hard.
She sighed and rubbed her temple.
Ryan walked up first, hands in his pockets.
"Ex-wife was a dead end," he said. "Lauren Hargrove. She was home all last night with their daughter. Said the divorce was clean two years ago. No fights or bad blood. Daniel only came around when it was his weekend with the kid. Dropped off, picked up, small talk about school grades. That was it. She didn't even know he still went to bars. Thought he was more of a 'Netflix and takeout' guy these days."
Kate nodded once. "Thanks, Ryan. Anything from the daughter?"
"She's sixteen. Dad texted her around nine last night, saying he loved her and he'd see her soon. Nothing weird. She was asleep by eleven."
Kate taped a small note to the board anyway: "Text to daughter 9 PM - routine."
Esposito came over next. "The manager at The Rusty Anchor handed over the drives when I showed up with the paper. But it's all gone. Wiped clean. Someone ran a scrubber program sometime between last night and this morning. Tech said it looks professional. Not the kind of thing a bar does for routine maintenance."
"Too much of a coincidence," Ryan said.
Kate took a deep breath. "Bartender and manager both stuck to the same story that they don't remember seeing him. The place was packed last night with over a hundred people. Even the servers don't remember much with all that chaos."
Kate looked at the board again. The map of Central Park had the red X at the duck pond. A line from The Rusty Anchor on Columbus Avenue to the park entrance was drawn in pencil. Five miles. Too far to stumble drunk without help.
"Strangulation takes time," she said quietly. "If it started at the bar, someone would have noticed a fight. If it happened in a car or alley nearby, they moved him to the park to dump him. But why the pond? Why not a dumpster or an empty lot?"
Travis walked over to Kate and said, "Dead end?"
Kate glanced at him, then back at the board. "Yes. All that's left is the autopsy result. Hopefully it'll give us some clues or something."
Travis looked at the board for a long moment, eyes moving from the map to the transaction note to the ligature close-up. Then he spoke...
"What if someone mugged him before he got killed? The ex-wife believes he doesn't go to bars anymore, right? If so, it's possible he was never at the bar but was mugged near it. The mugger must be wearing a mask or something, so Daniel couldn't get a proper look at his face. And the mugger must have missed the phone. So, after mugging Daniel, our mugger went to the bar, bought expensive drinks and used the credit card, but it got declined, so he or she had to pay in cash. One possibility: Daniel called the bank to block the card. So, enraged, our mugger got out of the bar with his unfinished alcohol bottle and tried to find Daniel and luckily, he found him sitting in the park. So, he approached him, listened to his sad story, offered him drinks, got him drunk and then strangled him to death before taking his phone and dumping him in the pond."
Kate turned fully toward him. She studied his face for a beat, then looked back at the board as if seeing the pieces rearrange themselves.
Ryan let out a low whistle. "That's... actually not crazy."
Esposito rubbed his jaw. "Explains the bar tab. Guy swipes the card, it declines because the victim already called it in from somewhere else. Mugger panics, pays cash to cover, but he's pissed. Tracks the mark down later, finishes the job. Pond could be a rage dump, not planned disposal."
"But if he's swiping the card, he'll be needing the code," Kate said.
"A stalker?" Travis thought for a moment. "No, a hooker or escort our vic spent time with and over time got close. So, one thing led to another and she ended up with the code. It ain't that hard to get someone high in the name of sex and get info out of them."
"Or maybe his new girlfriend?" Ryan said, looking thoughtful. "A honey trap, info extraction under influence and finally they got the perfect chance to rob him."
"He must be carrying something other than money or cards... Maybe an expensive watch... Given his profile, could be a Rolex," Esposito said.
Kate tapped the pencil line on the map. "That's definitely possible. So, if the mugging happened near the bar, we might get witnesses after all. People walking home, cabs, delivery guys. Someone could have seen a struggle or a guy getting jumped."
She looked at Travis again, this time with a small, appreciative nod. "That's a solid angle. Better than chasing ghosts in the park."
Travis shrugged lightly. "Just thinking out loud. Desk duty gives you too much time to stare at maps. Oh, by the way, there's a homeless camp not too far from the bar. Maybe one of them saw something."
"I'll check that out," Esposito said with a nod as he walked toward the elevator.
Kate turned toward Rayn. "Ryan, go to the park and check once more... see if we missed anything."
"On it," Rayn said as he walked toward the elevator behind Espo.
Kate's phone buzzed again on the edge of the case board. She picked it up, saw the name on the screen, and answered right away.
"Lanie," she said. "Tell me you have something good."
She listened for a minute. Her eyes narrowed a little.
"Really?" Kate said. "Okay. Yeah, I'm coming down now."
She hung up and turned to the board one last time, then looked at Travis.
"Lanie found something," Kate said. "Tox screen came back faster than expected, and there's more."
Travis nodded. He glanced at his desk, then back at her. "Mind if I tag along? It's boring sitting around here doing nothing. And before you say anything, it's not fieldwork. Just meeting Lanie, you know... getting familiar with the staff and colleagues. Promise I won't touch anything."
Kate studied him for half a second. Then a small smile broke across her face. She was already walking toward the elevator.
"You coming?" she asked over her shoulder.
"Yes!" Travis said. It came out a bit too loud. A couple of heads turned from nearby desks. He cleared his throat, grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair, and followed her at a quick walk.
...
[Morgue]
The morgue doors hissed open as Kate pushed through first, Travis right behind her. The air hit them cool, laced with antiseptic and the faint metallic undertone that never quite washed out. Overhead lights buzzed softly. Stainless steel tables gleamed under them, most empty except for the one in the center where Daniel Hargrove lay covered by a white sheet up to his shoulders.
Lanie Parish stood beside the body, arms folded, gloves still on, her usual calm focus already in place. She looked up as they entered, her eyes flicking first to Kate, then to the man she had never seen before.
'Now, who is this handsome guy?' Lanie thought when she saw Travis.
Kate walked straight to the table. "Lanie, this is Detective Travis Wilson. New to the Twelfth. Travis, Dr. Lanie Parish, our medical examiner."
Lanie peeled off one glove and extended her hand. "Nice to meet you, Detective Wilson. Welcome to the Twelfth. And welcome to my basement."
Travis shook her hand firmly. "Travis is fine. Thanks for having me. Heard good things."
Lanie gave a small smile. "Flattery will get you coffee if you bring it next time." She turned back to the body and pulled the sheet down just enough to expose the neck and upper chest. The ligature marks stood out dark and ugly against pale skin, wider than a standard belt, with faint bruising patterns that suggested repeated pressure.
"So," Lanie said, "tox screen came back fast because we pushed it. Daniel Hargrove had a blood alcohol level of 0.14. That's well past the legal limit, but not blackout territory. Enough to make him sloppy, slow, trusting. But the interesting part is what else we found."
She pointed to a small mark on the inside of his left forearm, barely visible, like a pinprick with a faint ring of redness around it.
"Needle track," she said. "Fresh. Less than twelve hours old. Single injection site. No other tracks anywhere else on the body, so this is not a chronic user."
Kate leaned in closer. "He was injected?"
"Almost certainly," Lanie replied. "And not with street heroin or anything recreational. The chemical residue we pulled is consistent with a fast-acting sedative. Midazolam family. Short duration, quick onset, perfect for knocking someone out without a fight. He would have gone compliant in under a minute, maybe less if they hit a vein clean."
Travis studied the mark. "Explains no defensive wounds. Someone got close, stuck him, waited for it to kick in, then finished with the strap."
Lanie nodded. "Exactly. Strangulation was the cause of death, but the sedative made it easy. No struggle means no skin under the nails, no bruises on the killer's hands or arms. Clean for the killer. Messy for us."
Travis glanced at Kate. "Fits the mugging theory with a little addition. Someone jumps him, takes his wallet and keys. Goes to the bar to test the card, but it gets declined because he already reported it stolen or frozen. Pays cash to avoid attention, but now they're angry. They track him down later, find him dazed in the park, offer him alcohol, needle him and then strangle him when he's too out of it to fight."
Lanie raised an eyebrow at Travis. "You sound like you've seen this playbook before."
Travis gave a small shrug. "Three years around people who like shortcuts. Sedatives show up more than you'd think when someone wants a quiet robbery that turns into something uglier."
Lanie looked impressed. "Well, you're not wrong. And there's one more thing." She lifted Hargrove's right hand and turned it palm up. A faint smudge of something dark stained the skin between his thumb and index finger. "It's ink. Ballpoint pen. The nip broke or leaked, or he could be working before his death."
Travis looked at Kate. "Someone made him sign something."
Kate frowned. "A note? A signature on important documents?"
"Could be," Lanie said. "But whatever it was, it did not survive the pond. Water washed most of it away."
Travis looked at the hand for a long second. "If he were sedated but still semi-conscious, someone could have forced him to sign something. A blank check. A transfer form. Even a confession if they were creative. Wow! This just got more interesting."
Kate met his eyes. "We need to check his financials again. Go back a week, maybe two. Look for any unusual activity he might have tried to reverse or report."
"It'll take a few minutes tops," Travis said with a nod.
She turned to Lanie. "Anything else?"
Lanie pulled the sheet back up to Hargrove's chin with a gentle motion. "That's all I've got. I'll call if anything else pops. But this was not random. Someone knew exactly how to shut him down fast and quiet."
Kate nodded. "Thanks, Lanie."
"Anytime." Lanie glanced at Travis again. "Good to have fresh eyes around here, Detective. Don't be a stranger."
Travis gave her a nod. "Won't be."
Kate headed for the door. Travis followed. As they stepped into the hallway, the cooler air of the morgue gave way to the warmer corridor.
Kate pressed the elevator button. "Thanks for your insight."
Travis slipped his hands into his pockets. "Glad to help. Beats staring at forms."
The elevator dinged and the doors opened. They stepped inside.
Kate hit the button for the ground floor. "You handled the morgue like you've been in one a hundred times."
Travis leaned against the wall. "More than a hundred. Undercover work comes with its own body count."
She looked at him sideways. "You okay with all this? First week back and you're already neck-deep in a murder."
He gave a small, dry smile. "Better than desk duty."
The doors closed. The elevator started its climb.
...
[10 minutes later]
Kate stood behind Travis in the bullpen, leaning slightly over his shoulder as he logged into the secure financial portal. The screen glowed with rows of transactions—clean, orderly lines of numbers that told a story if one knew how to read them. Travis's fingers moved fast across the keyboard, pulling up Daniel Hargrove's full six-month statement.
He scrolled slowly, eyes scanning dates and amounts like a man who'd spent years learning to spot patterns in chaos.
Then he stopped.
He let out a low whistle.
"Would you look at that?"
Kate leaned in closer, her eyes narrowing at the recurring entry.
Every month, on the fifteenth, a wire transfer: $20,000. Clockwork. Five straight months. No memo, just "Transfer" in the notes field. And this month? Nothing. The fifteenth had come and gone three days ago. No payment.
Kate's lips curved into a small, satisfied smile, the kind that said the puzzle pieces were finally starting to click.
"He's been sending twenty grand a month for the past five months," she said quietly, "and this month's payment is a miss."
Travis clicked deeper, tracing the destination account number through the system's cross-reference tool. The recipient name populated almost instantly.
Lauren Hargrove.
The ex-wife.
Travis didn't waste time. He opened a new tab, ran Lauren's name through the NYPD database—quick background pull, no warrant needed for basic records.
Results loaded in seconds.
Two traffic violations: one speeding ticket from 2001, one failure to yield in 2005.
Employment history popped next: registered nurse, currently working night shifts at Mount Sinai Hospital, emergency department.
He turned his head just enough to meet Kate's eyes.
She didn't blink.
"She has access to sedatives," Kate said, voice flat but certain.
Travis nodded once.
"Midazolam's standard in ERs. Fast push, reliable blackout. Easy to pocket if you know the system."
He leaned back in the chair, the pieces settling into place with the quiet finality of a lock clicking shut.
"Looks like we got our first suspect and possibly our killer."
Kate straightened, already reaching for her phone.
"I'll call her in," she said. "By the way, great job."
.....
[20 minutes later]
Travis stepped away from his desk to stretch his legs and grab a cup of coffee from the break room pot. The machine gurgled and spat dark liquid into a paper cup that had seen better days. He added a cube of sugar and took a sip.
"Arg! Tastes like shit," He mumbled.
Back in the bullpen, Kate stood near the case board with her own cup in hand. Her phone buzzed. She answered on the second ring.
"Espo, talk to me."
Esposito's voice came through. "Beckett, one of the guys from the homeless camp near the bar finally opened up. Last night, around eleven thirty, he saw our vic getting mugged. Two people jumped him in the alley behind The Rusty Anchor. Both wore masks, dark hoodies, gloves. Vic tried to fight but they had guns. They took his wallet and keys, then ran."
Kate said. "Alright. We got some leads here."
"Okay, I'll head back," He replied.
She hung up just as her phone buzzed again. Ryan this time.
"Ryan."
"Hey. I'm back at the pond with two of the regulars from the park. They were here last night, hiding out near the boathouse. Both swear they saw a woman and a man dragging something heavy toward the water around one thirty in the morning. They pushed it into the pond and walked off quickly. One of the guys got a decent look because the light post right by the edge was still working. Bright enough to see faces."
Kate's grip on the phone went white-knuckled. "Show them Lauren Hargrove's photo."
"Okay,"
A few seconds later...
He said. "It's her. One hundred percent. The guy pointed right at her picture and said, 'That's the lady.' Light was good, no doubt in his mind."
Kate exhaled through her nose. "Bring him in as a witness. Get his statement on record, keep him comfortable. Don't let him walk until we have it signed."
"Copy that. On my way."
She ended the call and looked across the bullpen. Travis was walking back with his coffee, reading her face before she even spoke.
"Ex-wife?" he asked.
"Positive ID from a witness at the pond," Kate said. "The light post gave them a clear view. Ryan's bringing the guy in now."
Travis set his cup down. "Then we have enough to pull her."
Kate nodded. "I'm calling her in. Voluntary for now. If she balks, we go get her."
[2 hours later]
Lauren Hargrove walked into the Twelfth Precinct with her shoulders squared and her chin up, but her hands shook when she signed the visitor log. She wore navy scrubs under a thin coat, hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, no makeup. She looked like someone who had not slept.
Kate met her in the hallway and led her straight to Interrogation Room 1. No formal arrest yet. Just two chairs, a metal table, and the one-way mirror Travis watched from the observation room.
Kate sat across from Lauren and placed a thin folder on the table. She did not open it.
"Ms. Hargrove, thank you for coming in. We need to talk about Daniel."
Lauren folded her arms. "I already told Detective Ryan everything. I was home with my daughter all night. I have no idea what happened to him."
Kate kept her voice even. "We have a witness who saw you at the duck pond in Central Park around midnight. You and a man pushed a body into the water. The light post was on. He got a good look at your face."
Lauren's eyes flicked to the mirror, then back to Kate. Her breathing changed, shallow and fast.
"That witness is mistaken," she said. Her voice cracked on the last word.
Kate leaned forward slightly. "We also know about the wire transfers. Twenty thousand dollars every month for five months. To your account. This month, the payment stopped. Daniel told you he was done paying, didn't he?"
Tears welled in Lauren's eyes, but she did not wipe them away.
"There is no way out, Lauren. We have eye witness," Kate said. "If you confess, maybe you'll get a shorter sentence."
"We did it. He called me," she whispered. "Around ten thirty. Said he was finished. Said he had proof that the tape was a fake, that he was going to the police. He laughed. He actually laughed at me."
"What tape?" Kate asked.
"It's a fake sex tape," Lauren replied.
"So, how did you do it?" Kate asked.
"I worked nights," Lauren continued. "I knew how to get midazolam. Easy to draw up a dose. I followed him with my boyfriend Aden and tried to take his signature in the alley, but there were too many people, so we made it look like a mugging. Then we used his card at the bar to create an alibi to make it look like he was drinking at the bar. Then we followed him and he was just sitting on a bench in the park alone. I talked to him. Told him we could work it out. He believed me. He always believed me when I was calm."
She swallowed hard.
"I stuck him in the arm when he looked away. I waited until he could still hold a pen, made him sign a cheque and property documents. Then Aden... he used his belt. He pulled until he stopped moving. Then we panicked and threw him into the pond."
"Your boyfriend, where is he?" Kate asked.
"Dead. I killed him last night. His body is in my car's trunk," She confessed.
"The guns?"
"In the trunk."
The room stayed quiet for several seconds.
Kate stood as she took out her cuffs. "Lauren Hargrove, you are under arrest for the murder of Daniel Hargrove and Aden."
Lauren did not resist when the cuffs clicked on. She looked small now, broken in a way that went deeper than the crime.
...
[30 minutes later]
Later, in the hallway, Kate found Travis waiting.
"She cracked fast," he said.
"Guilt and a solid witness will do that," Kate replied. "Turns out she has a history. Psych records from two years ago. Undiagnosed bipolar, refused treatment after the divorce. Stress made her spiral. Blackmail was her way of keeping control."
Travis looked toward the holding cells. "She almost got away with it."
"Almost," Kate said. She met his eyes. "You called the financial angle early. That turned the case."
He gave a small shrug. "Just followed the money. Same as always."
Kate studied him for a moment. "You handled today like it was nothing new."
"Been in worse rooms," he said. "And better coffee. By the way, what's going to happen to the daughter?"
"We called the CPS. So..."
"Well, hopefully, she'll end up with a good family this time," He said.
She nodded. "Come on. Paperwork won't write itself. And Castle will want every detail for his book."
Travis fell into step beside her. "He can have the duck pond part. I'll keep the rest."
They walked back toward the bullpen together. Ryan was clearing the board; another red name crossed off the list. Espo was talking to one of the officers.
And Castle...
Well, he's running on deadline...
Find me in the link below for advance chapters: https://unknownmaster.carrd.co/
[25 advance chs] + [Modern Family: 11 chs Early access]