My Bloody Valentine

Chapter 1

"Castle, what were you doing rummaging around in a dumpster?" Kate asked, sipping a glass of strawberry flavored seltzer at the kitchen counter. "I haven't seen you climb into one since we were trying to figure out who kidnapped Bennie in the lottery rigging scheme."

"Yeah well, I thought I'd lost something important, and I wanted to make sure I hadn't tossed it out by mistake."

"Something important," Kate mused, "with Valentine's Day coming up. You didn't stick my present in the wrong place again, did you?"

Castle fluttered his lashes. "Maybe I did, but not in the trash. I found it safe and sound in the pocket of another pair of pants. But for further enlightenment, you're going to have to wait. Anticipation is half the fun, isn't it?"

The tip of Kate's tongue rounded her lips, and she winked. "Depends on what you're anticipating. But before we get into that, show me what you found in the garbage."

"I bagged it, but I don't think we want it anywhere near the kitchen," Castle said, motioning the way to his office. "It's gross, even considering my usual appreciation for gore."

Castle pulled a tightly sealed bag from his desk and held it up for Kate to view. "Bloody gloves. And don't tell me it's paint. If you take a whiff, you'll detect that metallic tang that is morbidly unmistakable."

"I'll trust you on that, Babe," Kate replied, gingerly taking the scarlet-tinged evidence from him. "But I'll get this to the lab and see what they can find out. If the DNA is in the system, we may be able to find out just who our possible victim is."

"Let me know as soon as you hear anything."

"I will, Castle, but you know how Captain Gates is about having you anywhere near a case right now. If those gloves are evidence in a homicide, I won't be able to tell you anything about the investigation, and you'll have to keep your distance from the precinct."

"We'll traverse that trestle when we come to it," Castle said. "But until another P.I. case comes my way; I'm going to work on my new Derrick Storm novel. The man has an orphanage to support. He'll need to relieve some felonious fellow of his ill-gotten gains."

Kate pressed a quick strawberry flavored kiss to his lips. "You help your daring hero take care of the kids, and I'll see you later."


Shoving the hair that refused to stay out of her face, behind her ear, Kate stared down at the pile of documents on her desk. She wasn't really hoping that someone would be murdered, but slogging through paperwork between cases was mind-numbing, especially without Castle occupying the worn chair beside her desk. It wasn't just that he read faster than she did, making the work go more quickly. The pithy phrases he invented to describe an investigation gave life to the otherwise routinely dull words she had to commit to the page.

She understood the politics of 1PP excluding Castle from working with the N.Y.P.D., but just about everyone who knew Castle believed he'd had nothing to do with the hit on a homicidal cop. The brass was just covering their asses at hers and Castle's expense. She glanced at the time in the corner of her computer screen. 4:59 transformed to 5:00. Finally, she could give up on satisfying the bureaucracy for the day. Depending on the backlog in the lab, she should get a report on the results of Castle's dumpster diving, the next day. In the meantime, she was looking forward to a glass of the brain-fuzzing red wine Castle had discovered, a hot bath, and whatever else Castle's endless creativity might cook up.


The body lay by the side of the bed; blood soaked into the worn carpet. There had been a lot of it, pouring from where the chest had been slashed, and the eyes gouged out. Kyrsten had really thought she'd found her perfect man. As she'd grown up, she'd crushed on her neighbor in the next building, Richard Castle. She'd even taken a course at the Martha Rodgers School of Acting, hoping she'd get a chance to get close to him. He'd signed one of her books once and told her he liked her Derrick Storm T-shirt, but the 12 seconds he'd spent doing it had been the total of their interaction.

She'd thought it had been a miracle to find Anthony. He even looked like a younger version of Castle. His hairstyle was the same and flopped over his forehead in a way that made her want to push it back just so that she could put her fingers through it. He was an author too. He hadn't been published, but he had almost finished writing a spy novel. She'd been sure that it would be a best-seller and Anthony wouldn't have to keep working at the dry cleaners where she'd met him after some jerk had spilled ketchup on her favorite wool skirt. Once she'd connected with the man behind the counter, she hadn't even minded that a shadow of the stain remained. She'd just covered it with a tunic. She liked layers anyway.

But Anthony had lied. She had been searching his apartment for her Valentine's present. She'd been sure that it would be something wonderful that would show that he loved her as much as she loved him. But what she'd discovered hadn't been addressed to her. His note had declared his love to some bitch named Latrice. All the time he'd been with Kyrsten, he'd been looking at other women. Now he'd never look at another woman again.


Castle glanced up from arranging a plate with grapes and apple slices alongside cubes of Jack cheese and a small round of Brie, as Kate arrived at the loft. "Perfect timing! I decanted the wine a half-hour ago. We have intoxicating, savory and sweet."

"That's great, Babe. Up until now, my day didn't have any of those unless you count the taste of sucking on a papercut."

He nodded sympathetically. "I take it no murderer had the courtesy to give you anything you could get your detecting chops into. But how about my fascinating if gruesome discovery?"

"Nothing on that yet either. The lab has been running behind. Budget cuts." She held out her hand as he filled two glasses with wine. He gave her one, and she took an appreciative sip. "But I don't want to think about department glitches right now."

"And aside from a little alcoholic and culinary escape, what would you like to ponder?" Castle inquired.

"Something hot and foamy."

Castle choked. "A latte would not pair well with the wine. So, am I to assume that you intend to immerse yourself in sensuous swirling waters?"

"For a start. Then we can just see what might develops."

Castle swallowed as Kate took another taste of her wine before gliding toward the master bathroom.

With her ruby-filled glass on a table at the side of the oversized tub, Kate sank contentedly into the warm cherry scented bubbles and closed her eyes. The Jacuzzi buzzed as jet-propelled water stimulated the surface of her skin. She'd left the door half open and wasn't surprised when Castle came through, wrapped in his favorite Darth Vader bathrobe. "Room for two in there?"

Not taking her eyes from his face, Kate shifted to make space for him between her water-slicked thighs. "I've been waiting for you to ask."

As Obi Wan's cloak had done after the final thrust of Vader's lightsaber, the nubby mantle of the Sith lord slipped to the floor as Castle stepped in to join her.