The Triple Dose of Goodness Affair

by degunther

Kate and Rick are in Chicago and bombs were found at the Edgars, the awards for the mystery writers. Who would want to blow up the worlds writers of mysteries? This is another Kate and Karl Castleton story. It is a loose sequel to the Sisters-in-Time Affair and occurs after the Honey Bee Affair.

Triple Dose of Goodness Affair

Kate and Rick are in Chicago and bombs were found at the Edgars, the awards for the mystery writers. Who would want to blow up the worlds writers of mysteries?

This is another Kate and Karl Castleton story. It is a loose sequel to the Sisters-in-Time Affair and occurs after the Honey Bee Affair.

Preamble

Kate awoke with the growl of a large hunting cat resonating in her mind. It took Kate a moment to calm herself and recognize her surroundings. She and her family were in a suite in the Mark Hopkins hotel in San Francisco. She checked the time, three-zero-five. The hour of the Tiger had just begun. Kate turned her head to the right and the growl subsided to a gentle pant. The gentle rise and fall of Karl's chest let Kate know her husband was alright. Kate rose, nervously donned her dressing robe and moved to check on her son. Alexander was in his bed. His sleepy boys face a joy to be hold. Yet the growling presence in her mind was still there.

Kate flowed through the bedroom and into the suite's common room. Concerned, she looked toward her father's door hoping he hadn't had another heart attack, silence. Confused Kate wandered to the windows, opened the curtains and looked out over San Francisco. If it's not family then maybe it's a place. Home? Silence. Chicago? Roar. 'Danger in Chicago got it. More' thought Kate? 'Trust not the Trusted' a familiar woman's voice said, and for a brief moment Kate saw a reflection in the window of a face that was hers, but wasn't exactly. "Thanks Kate," she verbalized.

Kate moved back into the bedroom, deposited her dressing robe on the chair, and crawled back into bed. She wasn't surprised and was very grateful when Karl rolled over and captured her in his arms. 'Danger in Chicago and we are not to trusted the trusted,' she thought. 'I'll remember that and tell Karl when it matters…Most people would think I've lost my mind, but after last year.' Kate remembered a dream she had last year where the other 'Kate' warned her not to go home. Sure enough the next morning the road from San Francisco to Sacramento was severely fog bound. There were numerous accidents and a lot of fatalities. Her family could have been among them. During that day they went to zoo and saw a female Siberian Tiger frantically search the exercise yard for her mate and find him when he suddenly appeared as if out of thin air at the base of a pile of boulders.

Then there was the other dream. Some three months afterward she and Karl were returning home from San Francisco when Karl pulled off the road and stopped. Kate joined him at the guard rail and looked down the steep slope to the rocks and water flowing at the bottom of the drop-off. The place was familiar, yet different. 'Kate' 'I know Love I was with you. I was by your side. When something needs doing I will always be by your side.' On the way home they related their shared dream to each other. In it they were a pair of jaguars and they were standing guard over a man and a baby. The only incident that occurred that night was when the pair of jaguars confronted a pack of coyotes who were thinking that the injured man and the baby would be an easy and tasty meal. The jaguars made their presence known; the coyotes pissed themselves and ran yipping away. Kate surmised that the man was the other 'Kate's' husband and the child, while not theirs, was important. From then on she associated Siberian Tigers with the other Kate and her mate, and sometimes she thought of herself and Karl as a pair of jaguars. After all he was one handsome cat.

Chapter 1 Beckett's surprise

"I didn't know we were going by train," Kate said as they arrived at Penn Station.

"Well until two days ago I didn't matter because you weren't coming with me at all," laughed Castle as he gave his wife a gentle hug. "I didn't think you wanted to spend your days coming with me to the Book-Con and the Awards Banquet."

"Well Chicago in late March is not my idea of fun in the sun, but you're going there and I worked a deal for some time," said Kate, 'and you probably aren't going to like all of the things I had to do to get the time, but at least we will be together,' thought Kate. "But can you tell me why the train?"

"Let's get settled first."

Kate had to admit that boarding the train was a lot less stressful and hectic than boarding an airplane. After they checked their bags, they took their carry-ons to their Bedroom suite. After storing the bags, Kate stretched out on the sofa and relaxed. There was more space here than she imagined. In addition to the sofa she was lounging on, there was an armchair and two recliners a foldout work table big enough to hold both of their laptops and a private bathroom with shower. Right now the shades on the window were open and they could see the people rushing about on the platform outside. She remembered the crowds in the airport, the crush of people in Coach and sometimes even flying First Class had been a hassle, and a pregnant Kate eyed the private bathroom with relief. Still she wasn't sure that the space and the private bathroom were worth the fifteen hours of travel time.

"Okay," she asked, "Why the train?"

"Well the guys and I thought we would pay homage to one of the best movies of all time 'The Sting'. As you remember the key set-up scene occurred on the 'Lake Shore Limited', or whatever they called the New York to Chicago train back then. In the scene Paul Newman's character, Henry Gondorff and Doyle Lonnegan …"

"Poker" laughed Kate! "You guys decided to take the train so you could play poker!"

"Well Tuesday is our regular night."

Kate thought for a second, remembered the schedule that Castle had posted at home and nodded. They would leave late Tuesday afternoon. The guys would play poker tonight. The train would arrive before ten tomorrow morning in Chicago. After getting their luggage they would head toward their hotels. After checking in at the hotel they would head to the hospitality suites of their Publishers, and confirm their assignments. Castle would probably head down to the convention floor to find the Black Swan booth and then had back to the hotel room or to lunch. The next event would be the preconvention dinner at the Japanese Steakhouse across the street. After that it was showing up to work at the booth or the suite on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Saturday Night was the awards Banquet, Sunday was an off day and return home on Monday.

Castle had been supporting Black Swan at this Con for years, but this year it was different. One of his books had been nominated for an Edgar. Castle didn't think he stood a chance of winning, but to have his book nominated was a source of pride.

"Okay," laughed Kate, "I get it, but we need to talk." Kate watched Castle sit down in the arm chair and study her intensely. "In order to get the time so that I could accompany you I had to make some commitments and deals, some you may not like."

"You're here with me. I guess I can live with the consequences."

"Good. First I had Gina rework your schedule. Now you have the two pm to five pm shift at the booth on Thursday through Saturday, and no Suite time. "

"Okay, it looks like I miss out on the roundtable discussions. No Suite time is also a minus, but why?"

"Well I'm not taking 'days' to be here. This is a work assignment for me. I'm giving a lecture at the Police Academy on Thursday and again at Chicago Police Headquarters on Friday. "

"What's the topic?"

"Visual data organization, presentation and integration."

Castle thought for a second, "Murder Boards? You're giving a talk about Murder boards?"

"Yeah, and since my murder boards look a lot like your Scene Manager I want you to come with me. We start at ten and will be done by noon, and Saturday morning I'll help you with your toy shopping on the Convention floor."

"How can I refuse? But there's something else isn't there?"

"Yeah a dinner Friday night. WILE – It's a regional meeting of the Women In Law Enforcement organization. I'm ah, sort of the guest speaker…. And ah could you sit at the head table with me" Kate watched Castle look away for a moment and then look back?
"When did you find out?"

"When I told you I was coming with you. Look I wasn't going to take any one of the assignments, and then I remembered your trip plans. I made some calls, got Public Relations to agree to pay for my time, and since I'm not actively working a case Captain Gates agreed and like magic I get to spend a paid weekend with my husband in Chicago. I told them that you would pick up travel and meals of course. "

"Speaking of actively working a case," said Castle looking intently into Kate's eyes.

Kate held up her hand. "I've already talked to Captain Gates. At the end of next month I'll take a desk assignment. It seems the Chief of Detectives has already asked when I was coming off of street duty. He wants me to run some special projects for him."

"That will put you at…"

"Five and a half months," she smiled. "As it is now between you, Kevin and Javier I feel like I'm already in bubble wrap. Sometimes it's suffocating."

"It's just…"

"I know, I understand, I just don't like it."

"I would say I'm sorry but I'm not."

"I know that too," said Kate with a soft smile.

Castle returned his wife's smile. "Look I'm going to see if the guys have arrived. You want to come along or stay put?"

"I'll stay put, but you know it's nice to be able to get up and walk around without having to worry about bouncing off of the ceiling of an airplane."

The train was just starting to leave the station when Castle returned from tracking down his Tuesday Night poker crowd. He saw Kate curled up in one of the reclining cars. She had tucked herself in with a blanket and was already fast asleep. Castle picked up the e-reader that Kate had dropped on the floor. He watched Kate squirm as he rescued the water bottle from her grasp. He placed it and the e-reader on the table and sat down in the opposite recliner. As he looked at Kate he wondered, not for the first time, why this extraordinary person had agreed to marry him. 'Only love,' he thought. 'Only love.' Unlimbering his laptop Castle started to rework the opening scene in Chapter three where….

Kate awoke to the sound of Castle typing on his keyboard. Looking up she could barely see the top of Castle's head over the back of the display.

"How long did I sleep?"

"Just a couple of hours. I was about to wake you. Dinner started about ten minutes ago but I don't think we'll have any trouble finding a table." As soon as they sat down they were joined by two of the normal Tuesday Night crowd and soon the four of them were laughing and joking like they were sharing snacks around the counter in the Loft prior to starting the serious business of Poker. Kate was pleasantly surprised by dinner. The pork chops, potatoes au gratin, and the green beans were excellent. It was served with real silverware and they had all the time in the world to eat it. She cajoled a piece of swordfish from Castle and had to admit it was cooked properly. On the way back to their suite Kate had to admit that if the trip ended like it started, traveling by train could become a habit.

As they reached the door to their suite Kate had a fiendish idea. She turned to face Castle and threw her arms around his neck. "Please tell me Mr. Castle why I don't pull a 'Sting' of my own?"

"What" said Castle as his arms went immediately around her waist?

"You know I should go to the conductor and tell him that there is a high stakes poker going on. … By the way, whose compartment are you using," she continued with a mischievous gleam in her eye and a huge smile on her face?

"Listen here sister," said Castle in his best but bad Humphrey Bogart, "What is it going to take for you to keep your big yap shut?"

"Buster, oh" laughed Kate, "I can't do Hepburn"

"African Queen nice," said Castle.

"Seriously," said Kate, "There is something I want." Kate watched Castle's eye soften and a smile appear on his face. "I want us to spend more time together." Feeling Castle stiffen she continued, "Oh not tonight," she laughed. "You've planned this for a while and those guys are my friends too. I mean when we get back home."

Kate watched a range of emotions play across his face. "Babe don't doubt us, I'm happy and I love you. But I want more. I want more walks in the park, fireside cuddles, and special nights out. Since we got married we've been on one heck of a treadmill and I want to slow down and enjoy our life together and I need your help."

"How?"

"You know I'm somewhat of a workaholic. I'm not as bad as I used to be but still. You've been understanding, too understanding. I want. I need you to be selfish. When I'm not home at a reasonable hour I want you to call and tell me to get my ass home. At first I know I'm not going to like it. I'm just going to have to accept it. For my part I'm not going to let you sit in your office and play games either. I'm going to hunt you down and pester you until you're by my side. I know there is going to have to be some give and take, but Rick I want to spend more time with you, even if it's you siting on the couch watching the Knicks and me sitting in the chair reading."

Castle kissed Kate's forehead and pulled her into a gentle hug. After several moments Kate pushed out a little so that she could look into his eyes. Castle knew that Kate wanted to say more but asked instead. "Is this why you took these public relations assignments, to be with me?"

"Mostly yeah. It also looks good if I want to try for Lieutenant someday."

"Ambition have we," teased Castle?

"Some," smiled Kate. "I said I wanted to stop being a workaholic, not stop working." Castle bit is tongue. They both knew that Kate didn't have to work, but not working would probably kill her. "You go play. Just remember that your wife is waiting for you."

"I know," said Castle solemnly as he kissed Kate goodbye.

When Kate entered the compartment see saw that the couch had been converted into a bed and the upper berth had been folded down and prepared as a bed. Kate locked the door and decided to take a shower before going to bed. As she was starting to complain about the size of the shower and the water that just barely hot enough, she remembered she was on a train travelling to Chicago. It may take four or five times longer to get to Chicago, she thought, but with a thousand times less stress. Maybe I'll talk Castle into returning home by train.

Dressed in her night clothes, Kate wrapped herself up in a blanket, leaned back in the recliner and started one of her favorite movies on her tablet. The last thing she remembered was being picked up and carried to her bed. After being tucked in she felt a feathery touch on her check and her husband's voice saying that he loved her and wishing her sweet dreams.

Chapter 2 Karl's Lament

'Why do we need to take the plane', Karl asked himself for the hundredth time? 'If we would have gotten on the train, the Silver Lady, yesterday at nine-forty we would be arriving in Chicago in about an hour. In an hour we will still be here in San Francisco, but Kate said she didn't want to spend the time travelling. I guess she didn't count the drive over here yesterday as travel time.

As Karl watched Kate hug her father goodbye and start to hug and kiss Alex, their son, he remembered the dinner they shared with Tommy Lee and his wife last night, and the dancing they did at the little club that was just a couple blocks away from the hotel. 'So I guess driving over early had some advantages', he thought.

Karl laughed to himself when the Porter whisked their four suitcases away, his, smallest of the bunch. He remembered what Kate said about packing light because they were only going to be there for five days. He thought she would change her mind when he told her about the two suitcase rule, but she remained adamant about flying and 'joining the twentieth century'. Wisely he didn't make a fuss when he realized that he would be constrained to just the one suitcase.

"We'll stop at the restaurant on Nut House Hill for a second breakfast," said Kate's Dad. "When we finish all of the fog should have burned off."

"I know," said Kate, "But I'm a worrier. Phone the hotel to let me know you've arrived home safely."

"How about you call us when you get to Chicago, that way I know you arrived safe."

"I guess worrying goes both ways," agreed Kate. "We'll give you a call when we've settled in our rooms," confirmed Kate. "Bye Dad, Bye Alex," said Kate as her father got in behind the wheel and stated to drive off.

"Long walk," Kate asked as she captured Karl's arm in hers as they entered the terminal?

"Not too far," he replied. "I wrote the location on the back of the parking stub. So long as I don't lose this we will be okay. I still think I'll have you wait with the bags while I pull the car around. We're all set. Want some coffee."

"No, I'm okay. We can stop if you want."

Karl looked over at his wife. Even dressed for travel she was still the loveliest woman in the Terminal. Her long wavy light brown hair was bound with a single dark yellow ribbon under a small white hat with a canary yellow headband and a transparent fishnet type veil. The dark green jacket contrasted nicely with the simple plan light yellow frock she was wearing. Class, simplicity, beauty, and style all wrapped up in a package named Katherine Castleton.

Out of habit Karl ordered two coffees. He also ordered Danish for him. Breakfast at the hotel had been rushed and not that good. Karl thought that Henry, Kate's Dad had an excellent idea, second breakfast at 'The Nut House'. Their strawberry-pecan waffles were great. Karl looked down at the Danish, 'this will have to do' he thought. Just as he was cutting it, Kate cleared her throat suggestively. That is if I get to eat it.

After their snack, they still had forty-five minutes before their plane would be called. With nothing better to do they strolled toward their gate. As they settled into the chairs in the waiting area Kate thought something was very wrong with Karl. He was acting…nervous. When she touched his face he was cool and a bit clammy. "Hon" Kate whispered.

"I'm fine. It's just…"

"Memories? The War," Kate asked? She had seen his head snap up every time one of the doors opened and airplane noise entered the waiting area. She could kick herself. Not once had she asked Karl what he felt about flying she just assumed it would be okay.

"Yeah."
"Share?"

"It won't bring them back, or lessen the pain of the memory."

"It will help your wife understand, and perhaps there is something she could do to help" Kate replied.

Karl grabbed Kate's hand in a vise grip. He looked into her eyes, and then looked away. His eyes had the far away stare look. "It happened the last two times that I flew. We had captured an island and the Army came in to relieve us and finish mopping up. We flew out on the transports they came in on. Both times our planes got bounced by Jap Zeroes. Each time the guys to my right and left got hit and died. I felt helpless. There was nothing I could do, but watch them die. We had each other's back on the ground and made through the seemingly endless firefights unharmed, and here, supposedly safe in the back of a transport, they got it and I didn't."

Karl's grip on her hand was painful, but Kate understood. He had taken the painful memory and played it forward. In it he was helpless and he had to watch her die. "So the airplane flight doesn't have you spooked. It's just the thought of you being helpless and having to watch me die that bothers you." When Karl nodded his head Kate continued. "Don't worry hon. I'm greedy. When I die I'm going to take you with me, because if I died and went to Heaven, it would be a lonely place without you. So we either go together our not at all."

"Together or not at all," Karl parroted. "Sorry," said Karl as he realized he was crushing Kate's hand.

"I'll never let go," said Kate as she was flexing her hand. "No matter what."

"I know," said Karl as he lifted her hand to his lips.

For Karl the flight to Midway field in Chicago, with a brief stop in Denver was uneventful. Kate's quiet presence and her hand on his helped him work through some of the terror of the memories and sleep through most of the flight. Now comes the tough part, thought Karl as they got out of the cab and entered the lobby of 'The Palmer House', how am I going to stay sane through two days of agricultural science briefs?

Chapter 3 It was almost a disappointing day

The small lurch the train made as it left it's second to the last stop woke Kate. She did a double take when she looked at her Dad's watch. Smiling she remember that she had set it to Central Time before going to sleep.' My body is still on Eastern Time and I'm not going to get back to sleep', she thought. 'I might as well get up and hit the tiny water closet they call a shower.' As Kate was waiting for the water to warm up she regretted that the shower was not large enough for two. Very few of their 'shared' showers resulted in any 'action'. Cuddles absolutely, kisses to be sure, but most of the time they were just happy to be together. This morning was an exception. The converted sofa bed had left Kate's shoulders a little sore. For a brief moment she closed her eyes and fantasized about Castle giving her a back rub with hot water from the shower cascading over the both of them. Then she opened her eyes, sighed and got down to business of getting clean and dressed.

Castle watched Kate enter the main compartment drying her hair and wearing a towel. He continued to watch as Kate dropped the towel and put on her panties. Castle gave a low wolf whistle as Kate started to put on her bra.

"Confused? Most men whistle when a woman takes off her clothes."

"I thought," said Castle as he slipped out of the top berth and landed on the floor. "That acknowledging a beautiful woman was always appropriate. "

"Depends on who you're whistling at mister," said Kate with a huge smile. "You mind" she said as she turned her back to him? After Castle had finished with her bra, "Could you…. Ah"?

"Sofa bed bite you?"

"Ah…"

"Try not to get stuck in the shower," Kate called out after Castle had finished with her backrub. "I don't have the tools to get you out."

After Castle had showered and dressed, they went to the Dining Car for a buffet breakfast. For Kate breakfast was almost an unmitigated disaster. No matter how much salsa she put on the eggs they still acted and tasted like rubber, and the bacon was an absolute disaster. For two people who absolutely loved bacon, the greasy, non-crisp bacon was an absolute turn-off. For Kate the only thing that saved breakfast was the fresh fruit and the bagel. When Castle responded 'Hot and filling' to the question about his omelet Kate knew that he had not enjoyed breakfast at all.

Compared to an aircraft landing, the train pulling into Union Station was anti-climactic. The Castles' easily collected their bags and headed toward the exit.

"What's wrong Hon" asked Castle as he saw Kate look around anxiously?

"The marble steps. I've watched 'The Untouchables' a number of times, the scene with the baby carriage on the steps?"

"I think the steps are from one of the street entrances. We wouldn't see them if we take this exit."

"Something on our To Do list," replied Kate in a disappointed tone of voice.

The Castles exited Union Station and joined the taxi queue. For a late March day, Chicago was playing nicely with natives and guests alike. The temperature was in the upper fifties, the wind scant, and the sun was peeking through thick white clouds.

Kate made it five full steps into the Lobby of the Palmer House before she came to a complete halt. Castle left her gawking at the ceiling as he made his way to the Reception Desk. Kate had read numerous guide books describing the lobby of this hotel, but to Kate all of the words did not do the place justice. She was still admiring the interior when Castle walked up to her with the keys to their suite.

Once Kate was in the suite she opened the fridge extracted a handful of grapes and a bottle of water. She smiled when she remembered the argument she and Castle had in Florida when she accompanied him on a book tour. She made it clear that she was okay with them staying in a normal hotel room, and Castle made it crystal clear that they were staying in a suite. 'And now' she thought 'I'm spoiled rotten.' "Castle why are there brownies in the fridge? They definitely aren't on our diet."

"They were invented here, so it made sense to add them to our list."

"Here in Chicago?"

"Here in the Palmer House. They were invented by a Palmer House Pastry Chef to support some World's Fair I think," said Castle. "I ordered the original recipe which had the brownie covered in an apricot glaze and several plain."

Kate broke off a piece and ate it. "It's horrible," she proclaimed. "I'm going to have to eat all of them to protect you. No one appreciates the sacrifices I make to keep you healthy "she laughed. After Kate finished the grapes she completed unpacking.

"Plans" asked Kate?

"Black Swan's hospitality suite is on the 24th floor, right below us. I thought I'd check in, then go down to the floor, find our booth and then lunch. A nap after lunch and hopefully I can convince my wife to fool around. "

Kate smiled, "Staying in for lunch or going out?"

"Have you had a Giordano's pizza?"

"No"

"Out then."

"Okay, I'll come with you."

The Black Swan's suite was a scene of controlled chaos with people and boxes seemingly everywhere. Castle easily navigated to the desk issuing the Convention Credentials. "Hey," said Castle after he picked up his packet, "Would it be possible to get a pass for my wife Kate?"

"Hers is already made and in your packet," said Gwen, the lady manning the desk. "Also in your packet are your coverage schedule and a map to our booth on the convention floor. Any questions?"

"No I don't think so," said Castle after he had looked at his work schedule and handed Kate her badge. "I've done this before."

"Congrats on the nomination, by the way," added Gwen. "Everyone in the office is pulling for you."

"Thanks. I thing I'll find our booth before we go to lunch. Is the reception still at the Japanese Steakhouse across the street?"

"Yeah. Six o'clock sharp. We got the whole restaurant for two seating periods so we don't have to rush through dinner."

Their credentials got them past security and onto the convention floor. To the untrained eye the floor was a cross between empty spaces and bedlam. From experience Castle knew that the vendors will have their temporary places of business set-up and fully functional by the end of the evening. He also knew that the crowd would be fair on Thursday and the placed would be packed to the gills on Friday and Saturday and then a proverbial ghost town on Sunday morning. They easily found Black Swan's space and Castle noted that the company had apparently rented twice as much space as they had done in years past.

"How far," asked Kate as they left the Convention Hall for lunch?

"About a mile north on State."

"Then let's walk. We need the exercise and it's a lovely day."

Hand-in-hand the Castles were just another couple walking Chicago's busy streets.

To Kate the pizzeria looked and smelled like all of the other pizzerias she had ever been in. The pizzeria had three separate 'rooms' to make the place seem more homely. Each room had booths along the outside walls and tables to the inside. The largest room had a salad bar dominating the center position. The only difference Kate could notice was instead of red and white checkered oilcloth table covers, this restaurant's oilcloths were artist's renditions of the Chicago skyline or of other Chicago area landmarks. On their table was a rendition of a marina looking towards the Navy Pier.

Kate did not know what to think when Castle only ordered a small pizza to go with the salad bar and ice teas. She shrugged her shoulders. 'If there is one thing that Castle knows, its food,' thought Kate. Kate frowned when Castle made a second trip to the salad bar, but relented when he came back with only fresh fruit on his plate. She ignored his wounded expression when she snagged a strawberry, and smiled when he pushed his plate to the center of the table.' He knows me too well' Kate thought as she snagged another strawberry.

When the pizza arrived Kate's faith in Castle was reaffirmed. The 'small' was only slight smaller in diameter to the 'mediums' they were used to eating. Kate was not prepared when the waitress put the first two-and-half to three inch thick slice off peperoni and America sausage pizza on her plate. She was in a mild state of shock. She had always thought of pizza as hand food, and there was no way she was going to eat this with just her hands. Castle had no such reservation, she noted as she watched him grab a fork and start digging in.

"Do they sell franchises," Kate asked between bites? "I mean if we put two, maybe three of these in Mid-Town we won't have to work again ever." Eventually they ran out room to eat the pizza. They held hands and regarded the last remaining piece of pizza while waiting for the waitress to bring them their bill. Kate had to admit that lunch made her forget all about the lousy breakfast.

Kate inadvertently hissed when they exited the pizzeria. During their lunch the weather had made a turn for the worse. Chicago was living up to its name as the windy city, and the Midwest was showing just how fickle spring weather could be. The white clouds had been replaced with low gray ones. The wind had freshened and was blowing a snow and rain mix almost horizontally. By the time Castle had hailed a cab he was a cold and wet mess.

"I'm going to take a shower and a nap," said Castle suggestively when they arrived back at the Palmer House. Kate kissed Castle on the check, "I'm going to work on my speech for Friday night."

"I can help you, if you want," suggested Castle.

"I know. It's just I want you to hear for the first time of Friday."
"You aren't going to divorce me are you," asked Castle laughing but with a touch of concern in his voice.

"Of course not Babe," replied Kate. She took Castle's hand and placed it on her abdomen. "This should convince you." Kate saw the normal expression of love on Castle's face dim. "Oh Babe," Kate said her voice full of compassion and understanding. 'I really didn't understand how badly Meredith hurt you when she divorced you, and right after she had Alexis too. You felt that she abandoned you and Alexis like last year's dress and now you fear that it's happening again. '

Kate took Castles face in both her hands. "I'm not Meredith," said Kate. When she saw the look of understanding dawn on Castle's face she continued. "I'm NOT about to abandon the man I love. Nor our child," she whispered. She reached down and grabbed his left hand and touched his wedding band. "I put this ring on this finger and I'm never going to ask for it back nor dishonor its mate that you put on my finger," Kate said with a voice breaking with passion.

Castle reached up and gently grabbed Kate's chin. He gently lifted it and kissed her. "I know it's just…."

"She treated you badly," Kate finished. 'Far worse than I would have thought'. She grabbed his hand and slowly placed on her chest, right over her heart. "I keep your love here. It's as safe and secure as I can make it. Because I know you keep your love for me here," she said as she touched his chest right above his heart. "Now go take your shower. I don't want you catching cold."

It had been over an hour since Castle had gone to take his shower. Kate had been through her speech twice. She liked the message and the flow. She hoped it would play well with the audience. She looked up at the bedroom door. Nothing. She frowned, saved her work and turned off her laptop. As quietly as possible she opened the bedroom door and crept in. Castle was lying on his side. Castle's normal sleepy boy face was replaced with a look of doubt? Of worry?

Kate stripped down to her panties and crawled under the covers. She scooted over to Castle's side of the bed, with her chest touching his back she threw her arm over him protectively. 'Sleep well Babe,' she thought. 'I'll protect you the same way you protect me every night.' Kate was instantly asleep and it only seemed like a moment before the alarm went off and they had to dress for dinner.

The wind was still blowing, but the rain had stopped as the Castle's crossed the street and headed toward the Japanese steakhouse where Black Swan was hosting the dinner. A puff of welcome warm air greeted them as they opened the second set of double doors. Two couples shared a table in the outer waiting room hoping to get into the dining room. Despite the brass etchings depicting scenes in feudal Japan hanging on the wall and the colorful room divider screens showing traditional Japanese good luck symbols, the room was designed with the American consumer in mind. The closely packed tables in close proximity to the well-stocked bar made it easy for the dinners to consume a pre-dinner drink.

"Black Swan Party" asked a tall blonde dressed in a pale lavender kimono covered with white cranes and her hair done up in the traditional Japanese fashion, as the Castles approached the maître d' station?

"Yes," said Castle as he waved back to Maneki-neko, the beckoning cat.

"Go on in," she said with a genuine smile of amusement on her face.

The Castles crossed over a small bridge that spanned some noisy running water. After passing under an Ironwood Torii they entered the dining room proper. "Kate! Rick!" shouted a familiar voice, Gina. "Come sit with us. I've saved you a couple of seats."

They barely had time to complete the introductions before the Chef came to the table. From the introductions it was clear that, with one exception, Castle knew everyone and that the authors at this table were 'Gina's.' Kate nodded to herself, 'Gina's showing off, and why not. Her 'boys' and girls' are some of the best earners for Black Swan. She's proud of them and wants everyone here to know it.'

Kate watched with amusement as her man-child and the Teppan-Yaki trained Chef entertained each other. The jokes and comments that were flying between the two had the entire table laughing. Kate never understood it. They had been to this style of restaurant numerous times, and each time Castle treated it like a new experience, but she had to admit, Castle's antics were funny and they seemed to please the Chef as well.

"Hey" complained Castle, "The volcano belongs on this side of the table. The rookie hasn't earned the right to her own volcano yet. She's still using a fork." Smiling, the chief built another volcano and set it right in front of him. When the smoke had stopped and the volcano was cut-up Castle lamented, "Alas even the mightiest of volcanos is soon reduced to a sautéed vegetable…I guess that line needs work."

Soon the final item had been prepared, the Chef had cleaned off the Hibachi grill and the party settled into the serious task of eating. …Kate was very content. She settled back into her chair after finishing hers and most of Castle's surprisingly delicious Green Tea ice cream. She let the conversation drift around her. Today had started out disappointing and had grown into an alright day. She discovered deep dish pizza. She had also learned something new about Castle that explained more about his behavior. Kate watched Castle's head turn toward her after she had put her hand on his arm. She saw the look of concern fade away and become a grin when he saw the smile on her face. Shaking her head no, she watched him smile and turn back toward Tom, the author sitting next to him. 'To me those expressions are worth more than a zillion 'I love yous' concluded Kate.

"Kate," asked Gina interrupting her wool-gathering? "When you called to rearrange Castle's work schedule you said you needed to do so to fit your work schedule. I've got to ask. How can a New York cop be working in Chicago?"

"Easy," replied Kate. She gently squeezed and let go of Castle's arm and reached for her cup of hot tea. After taking a sip she continued. "Late last fall or early winter I guess, an Inspector Todd from the Chicago PD visited the NYPD for a month as part of an exchange program. For a couple of days he shadowed Captain Gates. I never noticed him, unlike another shadow I'm aware of. "

Everyone at the table chuckled as Castle tried to bring off a 'Who me?' look. "Anyway he liked our murder boards and made an open invitation for me to come out and talk about them. When I remembered the location and the timeframe of this Convention I called and he said yes and her I am. Since our murder board now looks a lot like Castle's 'Scene Manager' I'm taking him with me."

"I don't remember him either," said Castle. "When was he in the house?"

"I think it was during your California trip. So you were out on the trip and then you were recovering."

"Don't you have a speaking engagement Friday Night?" asked Gina.

"Yeah WILE Women in Law Enforcement", Kate said. She looked at Castle and then looked away, not wanting to make eye contact. "I accepted last November then completely forgot about it. That is until two weeks ago when the chairperson asked for my bio so that she could introduce me and asked if I wished for anyone to join me at the head table. I was just lucky that I could combine the murder board talks, with the WILE meeting with the convention. It allowed us," she said with a nod and a smile towards Castle, "to meet our professional responsibilities and still be together."

"Excuse me," said Sharon. She was the rookie and starting to make a name for herself as a historical novelist. "But what are a murder board and a scene manager?"

After Kate had explained about murder boards and scene managers she looked at the expressions on the faces around the table. "Babe, its looks like I just gave away a trade secret."

"Don't worry about it Hon. They all use something like it either consciously or subconsciously. After all, all the Scene Managers in the world won't help if they don't have a good story to tell."

Back at the suite, Kate wanted to go over the material she had prepared for tomorrow with Castle. That plan got shelved when he found one of their favorite movies was about to start on one of the cable channels. 'Now You See Me' was getting extended play time now that the release date for the sequel had been announced. In minutes Kate had placed some fruit and a couple of bottles of water from the fridge within easy reach on the coffee table in front of the couch. Laying down on the couch and dressed in a teddy with a quilt draped over both their legs, Kate watched the movie in Castle's arms. The first time she watched it she didn't see the ending at the carousel or the bridge scene coming. She wondered what Castle would think if he saw her put a lock on the fence and throw the key into the Seine. When the credits started and the kisses on her neck and ear became too difficult to ignore she rolled to face her husband, gifted him with a soft but passionate kiss and then they proceeded to the bedroom to make their own special type of magic. Castle didn't disappoint.

Chapter 4 Hon, Did you pack your dancing shoes?

This was starting out as the worst trip Kate could remember. She couldn't remember a rougher flight. The TWA- Lockheed Constellation they had flown to Chicago in had bounced up and down the entire flight. She had flown several times by herself from San Francisco to Los Angles and none of the flights were like the one she just had. Kate didn't much care when the Captain came on the intercom to say that the reason for the 'chop' was the fact that the jet stream was further south and lower in altitude than normal. She just wanted a smooth ride and she never got it. Several times during the flight Kate remembered looking enviously at Karl as he lay asleep in his seat, seeming unconcerned about the bumpiness of the flight.

The real scary point was the landing. On their approach into Midway, Kate, who was seated in a window seat in the second row, could see directly down the runway, and she knew that couldn't be right. Thank God the landing was uneventful. Then she had to endure the smug look on Karl's face as he shrugged into his heavy topcoat. Chicago was playing havoc with natives and guests alike. The heavy, cold wind was driving a rain and snow mix. Kate, in her light spring coat, was glad to huddle in his arms as they made their way down the stairs, across the tarmac and into the terminal. Now to make matters worse they had been waiting for thirty minutes and still none of their luggage had appeared.

Finally they arrived at the Palmer House. Kate rushed in out of the weather while Karl paid the taxi driver and arranged for their luggage. Kate made it ten steps into the lobby looked up and stopped dead in her tracks. Nothing had prepared her for the beauty of the place.

Chuckling to himself, Karl left Kate gapping at the ceiling and proceeded to the front desk to check in. Waiting for him were two messages. One from Henry, he and Alex had enjoyed their second breakfast and were home playing cars. The second was from Professor Louis confirming their appointment for early this afternoon. Karl tipped the Bell Boy, told him to deliver the luggage to their suite and went in search of his wife.

Karl spotted her at the Concierge desk and quickly joined her. "Hey Hon," Kate said in greeting, "Did you pack your dancing shoes?"

"I'd dance in my bear feet with you," Karl replied immediately. "Anybody special in town?"

"Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians."

"On a Wednesday night?"

"Yeah, Mike here," said Kate with a nod toward the Concierge "says they're playing at the 'Tap Room'. The acoustics are great and the dance floor moderately sized. He also says the drinks are expensive."

"What time?"

"The house band starts at seven-thirty. The Royal Canadians do two sets. The first one starts at eight and the second one ends around eleven-thirty. The house band also plays after," said Mike

"Early dinner then," Karl observed. When Kate nodded, "Two tickets, Castleton's, the Springfield Suite, Room 2504."

"Pick up your tickets at the Front Desk Sir, and you should allow twenty-five minutes for the cab ride. Traffic in the club district at night can be a mess."

"Thanks," said Karl as he held out his arm which Kate promptly latched onto it.

"Hon, what kind of line was that 'I'd dance in my bear feet with you' "laughed Kate once they had entered the elevator?

Karl saw the elderly elevator operator smile and look down at his feet.

"I meant it liked it sounded. I'd go dancing with you anywhere, anytime, and under any conditions. What do ya think Stan," asked Karl addressing the elevator operator? "You must have heard a million lines in here."

Stan half turned to face the Castleton's smiling faces. With a twinkle in his eye he said, "I do like it when my quests are happy," he said. "Lines are worthless," he said with a sad smile. "Ma'am if you think he was sincere then you ought to hug and kiss him, else you need to slap him. That's the only way to keep the balance."

"Has the Missus had cause to slap you," asked Karl with a grin?

"Once or twice, but the make-ups were spectacular," he chuckled.

"I'm going to take your advice," said Kate as she went up on her tip-toes to kiss Karl's cheek.

'Sometimes you just get a feeling', thought Stan as he watched the Castleton's walk off and another couple barge on. 'Those two are good people. The Devil himself would get his assed kicked if he tried to come between them.'

Kate did a quick survey of the suite, looked at her watch and said, "It looks like we arrived earlier than I thought. We have plenty of time before the appointment."

"Have you changed your watch for local time" asked Karl innocently?

Kate glared at Karl, and then checked the clock on the wall. "Well, at least we have time for lunch."

"After we call home first," Karl insisted.

Carrying two of the notebooks that Tom Lei, Kate's manager for the 'Strawberry Fields' project, had prepared the Castleton's entered the dining room to eat lunch prior to going to their meeting with Professor Robert Louis. The dining room was spectacular, but almost empty. Kate ate her Chef's salad and enviously watched Karl demolish the 'Meat Loaf Manhattan' that he ordered.

After making reservations for an early dinner, they proceeded to 'the chairs near the gift shop 'to meet Tom's old Professor, Dr. Robert Louis. "Tommy said I would be meeting one of the most beautiful women in the world," said a baritone voice from behind them. "And he was right," continued a brown eyed, medium height man with thinning brown hair. "Hi, I'm Dr. Louis, Bob," said the doctor as he offered his hand. "I sure hope you two are the Castleton's" he joked, "or this could be another in a long line of life's embarrassing moments."

"I'm Karl, and this is my wife Kate and apparently Tom provided you with a better description of us then he provided us of you," said Karl as he took the Professor's hand.

"Shall we," said the Professor pointing to the chairs?

"Why don't we go up to our suite," suggested Kate. "It will be quitter, more comfortable and we will have more space to spread out?"

"I don't want to impose."

"You're not," confirmed Karl.

Once in the suite Bob and Kate went to the table in the dining area and started working through the notebook that Tom had prepared of their terrace garden project. Karl went into the bed room and started to unpack. After he finished he checked on Kate and the Professor. They were about a third of the way through. 'I guess I'll take a swim,' he thought.

Opening the door to the deserted pool Karl nodded to himself. 'This will do," he thought. 'An Olympic sized pool would be too much to hope for, but at least it's not a kiddy pool where it's one turn after another. Here I got twenty-five meters to work with.' Karl stripped off his sweat clothes and ran through fifteen minutes of light stretching. At first the water was cold when he jumped in. By the end of the first lap Karl had settled into his smooth and steady stoke and nothing else mattered.

As he got out he nodded to the mother of the two kids who were playing in the shallow end. He watched her gasp and advert her gaze when she saw the scars on his chest and abdomen. 'Yeah they're ugly' Karl agreed, 'but they beat being dead.'

To Karl the series of near misses at the entrance to the suite were comical. His first near miss was with a member of the hotel staff who was retrieving pitchers of lemonade and ice tea from the suite. As he backed out of the door Karl had to duck under the tray.

"Nice!" proclaimed the startled Bus Boy.

The second was with the Professor. "What are you doing out there," asked Kate as she saw the Professor come up short as he was trying to leave? "I thought you were taking a nap."

"You guys were so engrossed in the notebook that I decided to go for a swim. How did it go?"

"It's perfect for the pilot study," gushed the Professor. "And with Tom Lei controlling it from your end I know I got a good reliable scientist executing the nuts and bolts and making sure the data is verifiable by an outside identity. With Kate holding down the business aspects it will be perfect. No one can say we cooked the books. The only thing we need to do is get one of the fertilizer firms in your area to handle the formulation. That shouldn't be a problem. I'll make some calls we I get back to my office after the conference. We should have everything in place for the start of the next growing season. We'll run it on the crops you guys get at least two growing seasons. This is going to be fantastic." Karl could plainly see that the Professor was just bubbling over with enthusiasm.

"I've asked the Professor to join us for dinner," said Kate. "I've just confirmed with the dining room," Kate added.

"See you then Professor," said Karl.

"Kate, it's been wonderful," the Professor gushed as he moved past Karl and into the hallway.

"Well," asked Karl?

"It could be better than we thought" said Kate with a dreamy look in her eye. "Increased yields, decreased costs, and less stress on the land which will result in cheaper and better food for the common man."

"Your 'holy grail'" Karl confirmed. When Kate nodded he continued. "Good…. I need a shower."

"Share?"

"Always."

Dinner at the Palmer House was good but not remarkable. Karl short-circuited the usual embarrassment with wine tasting by declaring that Kate was the oenophile and they should pour for her. As Karl expected the dinner conversation centered on the Professor's research and using 'Strawberry Fields' as the pilot site. After that topic had been momentarily exhausted, "I understand that Kate is the CEO," said the Professor. "What's your position in the company Mr. Castleton?"

"I don't work for the Company. I'm not qualified to hold any position."

"That's not true," injected Kate.

"That's my wife speaking not the CEO," chuckled Karl.

"What do you do then?"

"I' m a Private Investigator."

"Excuse me?"

"A Private Investigator. You know a Detective."

"Isn't that kind of …"

"Dangerous" added Kate quickly.

"Hon, you know the type of cases I take," said Karl as he reached to cover Kate's hand with his. "Most of the time I'm nothing more than a glorified researcher."

"Most of the time," Kate admitted. "But still..."

"You worry I know," said Karl as he brought Kate's hand to his lips.

"So you dig up the dirt on people," said the Professor.

"I just find what's there," said Karl defensively. "I find the good and the bad."

"What's the most humorous or embarrassing thing you ever found out about a person?"

"The politician," said Kate instantly.

"The politician," Karl began with a small smile. "A man was considering running for Mayor of San Jose. He was fairly young, college educated and a veteran. He owned a thriving business and had a wife with two lovely kids. He hired me to do a background check and find anything and everything I could about him that an opponent might use." Karl reached for his coffee and took a sip before continuing.

"When we went to brief him on the findings, his wife was with him. When I suggested that perhaps…"

"Let me guess he insisted."

"Yeah. So I started with 'Your daughter Jennifer is cute as a button. Her eyes are as blue as blue can be. Her Mom sent her to her first kindergarten class last week in a pretty light green pant-suit that highlighted her shoulder length honey-blond hair. Her Mom, Karen Anderson is doing well. She's working in a law office in Omaha.' "

"Fireworks," asked the Professor?
"I'd say," confirmed Kate. "His wife bolted up out of the chair and shouted 'So that's where your secretary went, and she named your daughter after you Mom.' … After she stormed out of the room I thought he was going to have a heart attack."

With dancing imminent, Kate and Karl begged off desert. They watched in awe as the Professor demolished one of the Palmer House's signature deserts. A chocolate brownie with walnuts, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and the whole thing drizzled with chocolate syrup.

As they left the Dining Room the Professor turned left toward two of his colleagues who had hailed him from the entrance to the bar and the Castleton's turned right, toward the taxi queue and a night of dancing.

'Well at least he didn't ask how I met Kate,' thought Karl as he held open the taxi door for his wife. It seemed like only yesterday when Henry, Kate's father called him up and asked him to take a case. The case was to look after his daughter and three other of her friends as they visited New York for a week to ten days. They had all just graduated from Stanford and as a graduation gift they were going to visit London, Paris, and Rome. Their first stop was New York where they were going to stay with an Aunt and Uncle of one of the friends, buy travel clothes, go to the theater and such. All Henry wanted him to do was look out for them. Stay in the background, let them have fun, but be in a position to step in if something was about to happen.

Karl thought why not? How often does one get paid to keep four beautiful young ladies in sight? What Henry didn't tell Karl that he was in the middle of a labor dispute and there had been threats. Henry was hoping that getting Kate out of California would take her off the board and he would have the situation resolved by the time she returned. Henry also thought that the foreign travel would benefit his daughter. Henry had no idea that his labor dispute would result in a kidnap attempt in New York.

When the kidnap attempt happened Karl had beaten it off by killing several of the kidnappers and wounding several others. In the firefight Kate had managed to keep the other girls quiet and was by his side reloading his gun as he switched from his primary to backup weapon. Several times he had ordered her away and her firm 'No, this is my fight too' boosted his spirits. The last thing he remembered before he passed out was Kate field dressing his wounds.

As he was recovering Kate was always present. One day he gathered the courage to ask her why she was hanging around. Her response, 'I'm waiting for you to ask me to marry you' absolutely surprised him. Talk about an incentive to recover. Instead of coming home with tales of London, Paris, and Rome Kate came home with the most unlikely of fiancés, Karl. Now I'm pretty sure Henry likes how things turned out, Karl remarked to himself as he reached out, grabbed Kate's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

As Kate got into the back of the taxi a small smile crept on her face. She remembered her first dance with Karl. It was literally their wedding dance. When her father placed her hand in Karl's and he placed his other hand on her waist, and she her other hand on his waist, and the music started, it was like magic. They moved to the music like a well-practiced dance team and from that day forward dancing had become a passion for both of them. During their 'courtship' there hadn't been time for dancing. After the kidnap attempt Kate stayed on to nurse Karl back to health, pestered him, not that he need it, to do the rehab. During their time together they traded stories. He would tell her about his cases. She would time him about the stories she wrote. Somewhere she had fallen in love with him and him with her. After they were married her friends often asked about their short courtship and engagement. 'You learn a lot about a man's character as you fight by his side to stay alive,' Kate would reply.

Kate felt Karl squeeze her hand and as he let go she quickly recaptured it. "Sorry Hon I was elsewhere," she said with a smile that lite up the whole cab.

'For that smile I would forgive you everything. Helen's face may have launched a thousand ships, but your smile would have brought them all back to port.' Karl's head jerked forward as the cab slowed down and the driver announced "Tap Room folks."

The lack of traffic made Kate and Karl wonder if they would have the Tap Room all to themselves tonight. They weren't far from being right.

After checking their coats they headed into the Tap Room proper. As they entered the set of doors that separated the dance floor from the lobby they thought that Mike, the Concierge, had described the place pretty accurately. The main bandstand was to their right and it was decorated for the Royal Canadians. There was another much smaller bandstand at the far end, and the house band was beginning to set up. The wood of dance floor was polished and shined to perfection. The floor appeared to be one and a half times the length of a basketball court and maybe twice as wide as a basketball court.

The tables were laid out in four elevated tiers around the entire floor. Each tier appeared to have three rows of tables and the height difference between the rows was only three feet. Karl admired the planning that went into the layout. The establishment had tried to give each table a good sight line to the band leader and the dance floor. Karl tried to do the math and came up that this place could hold a lot of people. Their table was in the center section of the second tier and they found it easily. From here they would have a great view of the band. Now if the acoustics…?

A minute after they settled in their hostess approached. "Hi my name is Tammy and I will be taking care of you folks tonight."

"Good," said Kate, "I'm Kate and this is Karl. We understand that the price of the ticket doesn't include the two drink minimum the club requires."

"Oh, good," said Tammy. "Most people don't understand and some get quite upset. The price is fifty cents apiece for the first two and twenty-five cents apiece after that. "

"We came here to dance and to listen to the band," said Kate as Karl put two dollars on the table. "But we don't want the alcohol. We do have some special requests," Kate continued as Karl added another two dollars to the pile and put a twenty in a separate pile. "What we want is two glasses and a pitcher of water."

"And a bowl of ice," added Karl. "This is for the house," continued Karl pointing at the stack of four ones. "And this is for you," said Karl pointing at the twenty. Both Kate and Karl saw Tammy's eyes light up at the sight of the twenty.

"As I said," said Kate "We came here to dance. What we except is clean glasses and a fresh pitcher of water when we return from the dance floor. Can you do that Tammy?"

"I'll take real good care of you guys," gushed Tammy as she scooped up the money and placed a green and a blue paper umbrella in the vase beside the table number.

"So that's how you show the boss which table has met and exceeded its drink quota," said Karl.

"Yeah. How did you guess?"

"Lucky I guess, "said Karl as he settled back into his chair and started to listen to the house band.

"They're not bad," said Karl after Tammy had brought them the glasses, water, some ice and a bowl of almonds. "Shall we?"

"No one else is," replied Kate.

"That means we have the whole dance floor to ourselves."

"It does, doesn't it? Let's," Kate said with a smile as she stood up. They were only on the floor for the two dances the house band played before they called it quits. The first dance was at a moderate pace and the last one was lively. As they exited the floor for their table and the start of the real show both of them were pleased with themselves. They had a feeling that tonight could be a great night.

As the Royal Canadians started to perform Karl looked around the Tap Room and shook his head in disgust. The place was maybe half full. 'Sure it was Wednesday night, but Guy Lombardo the Royal Canadians are a world class act. That just means more room on the dance floor for Kate and me,' thought Karl with a grin.

As the second song was ending the Castleton's made their way to the dance floor. By the end of their second dance, Kate and Karl were in complete sync. The Royal Canadians played a lot of the older material as well as some new material. They did a version of Thelonious Monk's 'Straight No Chaser' that the author most definitely would have approved of. Both Kate and Karl appreciated the Bandmasters song selections and how he varied the tempo of the songs to allow the dancers to recover on the floor with a slower dance instead of having to return to their seats. By the end of their third dance the sparse crowd had noticed the Castleton's and by the end of the first set not all of the applause was for the band.

"You guys are great," said Tammy as she brought a fresh bowl of ice and almonds to the table. "When you said you came here to dance you meant it. Are you guys famous or something?"

"Heavens no" said Kate with a self-satisfied smile. "We live in Sacramento and are just in Chicago for a couple of days on business."

"We do like to dance though," added Karl.

"You guys look fantastic. I mean we see some good dancers occasionally, but you guys are the best I've seen by far," added Tammy.

"We'd look even better if someone had packed his Tux," said Kate with a hint of mischief in her eyes. Karl ignored the gentle barb and poured himself another glass of water.

"Oh drat," said Kate as she looked down at the split starting to form in her left glove. 'I guess I'll lose these' she thought. Since Karl isn't his tux these are somewhat wasted. As she was peeling off her gloves her eyes focused on her engagement ring and for a moment she was with Karl riding in a carriage in New York City's Central Park. She vividly remembered Karl waiting until they were under the bridge before he formally proposed. Kate's eyes narrowed when she remembered the comments she had to endure about the size of the engagement ring. By any stretch of the imagination it was small. She knew it took every dollar Karl had to buy it and Kate was flatted that Karl would sacrifice everything he had for her. Kate wondered if any of her friends appreciated that fact.

"You okay" asked a concerned Karl.

"Just remembering where I was we you gave me this," she said with a huge smile, 'and some of the comments of some of my cows for friends made about it', Kate thought. She scooted her chair closer to Karl. "I wouldn't trade it for the Hope Diamond," Kate whispered. "Because I knew that heart of the man who gave me this is pure gold." She leaned in and gave Karl a kiss on the check before reaching for her glass of water.

The Royal Canadians started off the second set, the money set, with Eddie Haywood's Canadian Sunset. When the Castleton's took the floor after the second song, one wasn't sure if the applause was for the song the Royal Canadians just finished or for Kate and Karl taking the floor. As well as they danced earlier, the made the second set memorable for all present. All too soon it seemed the Royal Canadians started the last song of he set. Neither Kate nor Karl saw it coming. Later in the cab ride they admitted that they should have. When the band started their signature song Auld Lang Syne, the Castleton's stopped dancing and sang like the rest of the house.

Kate had to admit ending the last set of the evening with their signature song made sense and a group participation song at that. But she wanted to dance and Auld Lang Syne wasn't really a danceable song. When the song and the applause ended, the Bandmaster said goodnight, and the Castleton's went back to their table to catch their breath, drink a little water and wait for the crowd to depart. This was the Club District and they weren't worried about getting a cab back to the Palmer House.

A couple of minutes later the house band started playing. Karl looked at Kate and saw the 'I'm game if you are' gleam in her eye. He stood, performed a half bow and held out his hand. "Mrs. Castleton may I have the honor of this dance?"

"Yes, Good Sir" she said, standing and dropping a small curtsey. "And the next and the next and the one after that,' she husked just loud enough for Karl to hear. They had the dance floor to themselves, but stayed pretty much in front of the bandstand where the house band was set up.

"Last song," the leader of the house band called out, "Any requests?"

"Stardust" they both responded. When the song ended they kissed like they had done numerous times in the past. They broke to the sound of applause. Turning toward the bandstand they started clapping, "Thanks guys," shouted Kate. "You guys were great." Neither of them realized the applause was for them.

At the coat-check stand they were met by a dark haired, medium height man dressed in a well-fitting conservative suit. "You guys were fantastic out there. My name is Colin James and I own the place."

"Nice Club, too bad the house wasn't full. The band deserves to play to a full house," said Karl. "I'm Karl Castleton and this is my wife Kate."

"Nice to meet you and they do. It's Wednesday so I'm not disappointed. When we signed the contract I told them that Wednesday night would be dead, but Guy insisted. He said that they were performers and they need to perform. The crowd on Thursday is fair and the crowds on Friday, Saturday and Sunday do not disappoint. Monday is an off day for the band and Tuesday is a rehearsal day for them. "

"Your house band is pretty good too," said Kate.

"Yeah, I let them play on Monday and Tuesday nights. You aren't from around here are you?"

"No we are from Sacramento," said Kate. "We came here on business and thought we would spend the night dancing before we get down to work tomorrow."

"Fantastic. Look how long are you staying in Chicago?"

"We got a flight home on Monday," responded Kate.

"Good,..good. Look what are your plans for Friday or Saturday night? Look if you want to come back and dance it will be on the house. Dance floor center and all of the water you can drink … Yeah I talked to Tammy and she told me about your arrangement. Normally I would be upset that you're not drinking, but you covered that. What do you say? I'll even throw in the ice and the almonds, " he said with a laugh.

"Sounds great, we do like to dance. But can we call you on Friday to confirm for Saturday," asked Kate?

"That is entirely acceptable," agreed Colin handing them his business card. "Just call me and I'll make the arrangements. If you can't get ahold of me call the ticket office and say the Castleton's accept. They will take good care of you," he insisted.

Chapter 5 How the Pregnant Lady stole the Show

Kate hustled Castle out of bed, into sweat clothes and down to the exercise room without much fuss. Kate was proud, very proud of Castle. After their marriage she had insisted that he work out more and learn the baton, and he had. He had gotten good. So good in fact that Javier said that the only way he would face Castle with a baton is through the sight of a sniper rifle. Kate smiled and nodded to herself. Her insistence had been good for him and for her. Having an exercise buddy made exercising easier, and teaching Castle the baton had saved his life, and hers. When the elevator door opened Kate grabbed Rick's hand and lead him in. 'Where ever we go we go together,' she thought, not for the first or last time.

At first Castle had resisted working out and learning the baton. But now… It was their time, their alone time. When they exercised at home they often found a very pleasant way to end the session. Castle returned Kate's smile as he stepped into the elevator. "I wonder if this place has an historian," he verbalized.

'My collector of stories is alive and well,' Kate thought.

"I mean this place has been around for over a hundred years. Things great and small must have happened. …These things used to have operators. I imagine a few of them have some amazing stories to tell."

"I don't know," said Kate, "But I've got a hunch you're going to try and find out. "

Rick and Kate where midway through their exercise routine with the batons when an authoritative called out, "You two, drop the batons and put up your hands!"

Both of them turned toward the voice, a uniformed Chicago Police Officer and his partner. Both of them had their hands covering their weapons, but they weren't drawn.

"Okay," said Castle. "I'm going to collapse it first. Okay?"

"Officer Stevens is it," said Kate, as she collapsed the weapon, laid it on the floor and stepped back? "I'm Detective Kate Beckett. I'm a Homicide Detective out of the 12th precinct in New York City. I'm in Chicago to give a talk at the Police Academy today and the Headquarters building tomorrow. This is my husband Mr. Castle. He is also a credentialed Consultant for the NYPD."

Kate saw both Officers visibly relax at the mention of her name and profession. "Detective," began Officer Stevens, "This is a little embarrassing. We're your ride from here for both days. …"

"…but we got a call that a man was attacking a woman with a club of some sort," finished Officer Edwards. "And Detective, I don't mean to be forward, but your picture doesn't do you justice."

"She doesn't take a good picture," confirmed Castle. "We've tried at least a hundred shots before we found an acceptable one for the jacket cover," teased Castle.

"Morning exercise period, I get it," said Officer Stevens. "But why the batons?"

"Castle is my shadow and has my back," said Kate with a small smile and a touch of pride in her voice. "Sometimes we find ourselves in a sticky tactical situation …. Once we got married I insisted that he carry a weapon and since a gun is out…"

"The baton makes perfect since," said Officer Stevens.

"I've often wondered how our night-stick would fair against one of these" said Officer Edwards patting his night-stick. "What say you Detective? You up for a round or two?"

"To get to Kate you got to go through me," said Castle in a voice that sounded like a challenge to Officer Edwards, a statement of fact to Officer Stevens and the loving growl of her mate to Kate.

Officer Edwards unloosened his night-stick took a couple of practice swings and took an on-guard position. The 'sprong' that the Asp baton made as Castle deployed it echoed throughout the room. After thirty seconds or so of blocked or missed strikes and counterstrikes Officer Edwards tried a right handed 'Mountain Strike', a blow that starts out high and ends low. Castle slipped to the outside of the strike, beat it down with his baton, stepped close, jammed his baton between the legs of his opponent, lifted a leg and shoved with a shoulder. Officer Edwards hit the mat with a thud and stopped when Castle's baton whistled to a stop beside his ear.

"Again," Castle asked?

On the first swing Castle used his baton to perform an inside block then followed through with a counter swing that stopped just short of the Officer's temple.

"One more time?"

Castle started with a series of head high strikes forcing the Officer to raise his arm higher and higher and twist his body to the left. On the next strike Castle feinted at the head, struck at the torso and stopped his baton right before it would have impacted Officer Edwards's chest right above his heart.

"How long have you been training," asked an exasperated Officer Edwards.

"Fourteen maybe fifteen months," Castle replied. "I've got a great teacher and she knows how to motivate," he continued with a grin and a sideways glance and leer at Kate.

"Babe!"

Chuckling Officer Stevens said, "In addition to the classroom it looks like you could instruct in the gym. "

"I know it's against policy. This is our normal routine and we are going to be here through Sunday, do you think we could talk to the person who made the complaint to explain?"

"That we be us," said a voice from the doorway. "Are you really a Cop," asked a young teenage daughter?

"Yes, and thank you Missus …"

"Woods. I'm Mary and this is Deborah. We came down for a swim and when we saw him swing at you…"

"Thanks," said Kate in a strangely quiet voice. "For caring and acting."

"But it was all for nothing," said Deborah.

"But your Mon didn't know that," said Castle gently. "She saw what she thought was a dangerous situation and reacted accordingly. I wish more people would act instead of remaining passive."

"I agree with Mr. Castle," said Officer Stevens. "And we learned two things. We got to see Detective Beckett in person before we pick her up in a couple of hours, and…

"…We learned that someone with a collapsible combat baton shouldn't be taken lightly," added Officer Edwards, holding out his hand. "That lesson only cost me a couple of ego points. Luckily they grow back quickly."

"Ego points," Castle laughed. "You have no idea. You should have seen Kate kick my ass without breaking a sweat when we first started. Embarrassing, motivating, and enlightening all at the same time."

Kate and Castle were met at the entrance to the Academy by the Adjutant, Lt. Emerson.

"Sergeant Beckett, Mr. Castle I'm Lt. Ray Emerson," he said as he offered his hand. "Captain Ridge is Downtown this morning. He told me to tell you that he will catch your lecture tomorrow at Headquarters. I'm sure we are ready for you in the main classroom. Let's check to be sure. This way please. … You certainly impressed Inspector Todd. When he came back he said he could take one look at your murder board and in a glance and understand the case, where you were and where you were going. "

"That's kind of the Inspector," said Kate. "When he suggested I present to the Academy as well as to the general population I was surprised. I didn't think murder boards were part of the curriculum."

"There not," admitted the Lieutenant. "But being exposed can't hurt. I hope you don't mind but most of the staff is planning to set in."

"Not at all."

"Another thing having a guest lecturer that is not a member of the CPD also helps the students realize that there is more to law enforcement then just what is taught here. ... Mr. Castle I don't mean to pry, but the Inspector didn't mention you at all."

"Quite all right. I'm an author, and the current murder board design that Detective Beckett is using is loosely based on something I call a Scene Manager. It's a device I use to collect the detail I want to include in the scene or a chapter. I constantly review and update it. When Detective Beckett saw how I was using it…It sort of migrated into the precinct. "

"Mr. Castle was either out on travel or recovering from an accident when the Inspector visited us."

The lecture hall was sized to accommodate two-hundred students comfortably. The stadium style seats offered everyone a good sight line to the lecture podium, the screen and the two white boards that had been set-up. After getting the guest password for accessing the Wifi network they plugged in their laptops and made sure they could display what they needed and it was readable by the audience. With fifteen minutes left to 'Showtime' they retreated to the staff lounge where they drank some water and met most of the current staff.

"Seats," called Lt. Emerson as the Cadets had stood when he and the Castles entered the room. "Today we have a guest lecturer from the 12th precinct in New York City. She will be covering a topic not normally part of our curriculum, Murder Boards. Detective Beckett the hall is yours. Oh, her badge has some funny letters on it. They spell Sergeant. She's the youngest one in NYPD history, so listen up you may actually learn something."

"Thank you Lieutenant for the introduction. The other man down here is my husband, Mr. Castle, "said Kate with a nod toward Castle. "It's been awhile since I've sat in your position. We used to call guest lectures Z-time. I'm sorry I'm going to disappoint. I'm going to ask you, based upon what you see on the board, what would you do next."

"By now your instructors should have drummed into your heads the need of your notebooks and the importance of writing good notes. I'm also sure they have drummed into the fact that your notes need to stand the test of time. By that I mean they must mean the same to you on the date that you made them and on the day maybe ten years from now when you are called on to re-testify because the defendant has won an appeal. What I'm suggesting that you adopt a unified structure for your notes and stick to it."

"A murder board is like a Team notebook. It contains the information that the investigative team knows. When I say Team I'm including everybody that works the cases, not just the Detectives. And like your notebooks, the information we collect, display on the board, and ultimately put in the case files must also stand the test of time. Over the years we have developed a structure that works for us."

As Kate rattled off each of the elements Castle annotated the position of the item on the murder board. "All murders are different," Kate said "And yet we must try to answer the same questions. What was the killers Motive, did he have the Means, and the Opportunity."

"I think it was the first or the second time Detective Beckett let me touch her murder board," said Castle. "I tried to abbreviate Motive, Means, and Opportunity as MOM. To this day they haven't let me live it down."

Kate smiled as the chuckles had died down, 'Humor' she thought 'I need to add humor or they'll go to sleep on me. I guess that's another reason why I brought him along.' "On this board over her we're going to show how the contents of the murder board change over time. Castle if you please."

Kate saw Castle wince when she started verbalizing the case particulars. It was the one where a family had been murdered in their home. Both the mother and father had been tortured and mutilated. She thought it was a good teaching case and she most definitely would make it up to him. "Now we come to the first decision point. We have a report from a canvassing Officer that a witness saw a car leave from the vicinity of the victims' house. The report contains a partial license plate number and a reasonable description of two people. The problem is that the traffic cams at either end of the block don't show the car leaving the area. What do we need to do…. Mr. Anderson?"

"I .. ah"

"Mr. Anderson, I have it from the highest authority, my husband, that cars may turn into Autobots and walk out, but they don't disappear. Right now this car sighting is the only lead in the case, or is it? Was our witness telling the truth, did she imagine it, or was she just trying to get attention?"

"I guess I would go back out and talk the witness."

"I'll give you that," said Castle. "And why you're out there your incredible powers discern an alley… and?"

"I follow it, noting the cross streets and pull the camera footage."

"Exactly," said Castle. When Castle annotated the board with 'Need to review camera footage from fifty-six cameras', Kate stopped him.

"That was on the board and was seen by my Captain first thing in the morning. Guess what I had about ten minutes after the start of the shift?"

"For a case as gruesome as this," said an instructor from the rear of the room "help with a capital H."

"Right," said Kate with a smile "we had an answer within two hours. We had our first real clue and mystery."

"Clue-The car was the known ride of mid-level shot caller for one of the Gangs, " said Castle. "The mystery was what was he doing here? This was miles and miles away from his turf. Did I mention he was miles away from his turf?"

"Witness descriptions, "said a voice from the audience.

"Who said that," asked Kate in a light tone of voice.

"Sorry Detective, I did Cadet Jones."

"Kudos Cadet. That's exactly what we did. We put the witness with a sketch artist and ran the drawings by the Gang Task force. They gave us an id quickly. The two the witness had seen were known soldiers of the Gang and this shot caller was their boss."

"Okay, what should we do next?"

"Check for Gang related connections," said a voice from the seats.

"Good, we asked for help from the Gang Task force for this. I'm going to touch on a topic and then leave it because it doesn't pertain to murder boards, but it does help you keep your focus when you're trying to solve the case. The topic is 'Theory of the Crime'. "

"We've covered that topic Detective," said the Lieutenant.

"Thank you Sir. The 'Gang' on the board would lead everyone to think that the crime was gang related. Castle formulated the theory that the crime was an act of revenge. While the Gang task force was off doing their research, he kept us on point and looking into the revenge angle. It's okay to have competing theories of the crime, as long as you are actively working to prove or disprove one of them. When the gang ties came back blank, we had progressed on our other theory."

"What's not on the murder board can be as important as what is on it," said Castle.

"Right," said Kate" why don't you bring us up to the middle of day one and I'll tell a story about what happens when a pair of Detectives didn't update the board. "

"The tiger?"

"Yeah. We were working a case and had encountered a Homeland Security Agent. Information from him lead us to believe that we were dealing with a human trafficking gang. A part of the evidence that we collected was part of an envelope. This part still had the routing dots that that the automated routing machine places on the mail as it routes it. Well the Detectives that found the envelope were proud of themselves. They determined the address, put the envelope fragment into an evidence bag and proceeded to the address. WITHOUT writing the address on the board or notifying their partners. "

"When they arrived they saw a lady in a cage. As they went to help they were hit with darts and went unconscious. When they woke up they were handcuffed together an in a dark room. They heard voices and talk about the 'girl'. Fearing the worst we managed to break down the wall between us and the girl. What we found was the 'girl' was a young tiger. The bad guys weren't trafficking in humans; they were trafficking in rare and endangered animals. "

"Luckily for us our partners, Esposito and Ryan, figured out the clue, our disappearance, and were able to track us down in time before we became tiger kibble," added Castle. "Detective, is the point you want to be?"

"Yeah, this is where we were about midway through day one. Summarize please."

"From the ME we know that the kids were killed between midnight and 1 am, the parents no later than four-thirty. The same 9mm weapon was used to kill all four. We believe that it was suppressed but we don't know. The condition of the bodied we have already covered and a reliable witness puts a midlevel shot-caller for one of the gangs in the area."

"The kids were good students and were well liked in school. Their Mom worked as a medical records transcriber. She made good money and her hours let her send her kids off to school and be there for them when they got home. Model employee… active in the church… There is no reason to suspect that her behavior could have precipitated this event. "

"The father is a district manager for a major department store chain. He makes six figures and on average he travels about one week a month on company business. They have less than five years left on their mortgage and no other debt. They are regularly contributing to their kids' college funds and are putting money aside for themselves as well. There is nothing even remotely suspicious on their checking account or on their credit cards. The only thing that seems to vary was where he took the family for dinner. Their email accounts revealed nothing out of the ordinary, as did their social media accounts. Their web searches were normal for a family, some porn sites, just passive and nothing this violent, shopping and information."

"Bottom line, "concluded Kate , "is we really had no place to begin looking. Suggestions?"

After a few moments of silence Castle said, "Remember the theory of the case and how it can guide you. I thought it was all about revenge, and considering the sexual nature of the crime."

"Somebody was fooling around…Ops sorry I'm Cadet Davidson."

"Right but who," asked Kate?

"The Mom gets her kids off to school, goes to work and is home before the kids get home. She looks out of it…

"and the father appears to have a week play time every month. Where are the stores the he manages and are any of them in the turf owned by the gang member?"

"Good going guys," said Kate " and yes there is one of the stores on the Gang's turf. What next?"
"If he's playing around then he's going to need money," said Castle. "And as I said their accounts are clean."

"He's got to have some kind of secret account."

"Yeah but how do we find it?"

"Great guys, he did and we found it. It just so happens that I have a mystery novelist as part of my team and he knows a thing or two about hiding accounts. In the interest of time I'll take us to a conclusion. The account showed us that he played around. The last woman he played around with was the sister of one of the shot-callers soldiers. He has a temper, and when he found out that his little sister had become pregnant and the father was the district manager."

"It became personal," said a Cadet from the audience.

"Yes it did," confirmed Kate. "To recap," said Kate as she started to count on her fingers. "The board is JUST a repository of the Team's information. It DOES NOT replace good Detective work; at best it is only a useful TOOL, at worst it can mislead you. Keeping the board updated lets EVERYBODY know your status. My Captain saw the amount of video we had to review and gave us help. It helps you FOCUS on the elements of the crime. Is this case the Gang involvement, and what we didn't have? "

"Like your notebooks, the murder board needs to be preserved and kept so that it can be recalled later when the case goes to trial. We use an electronic structure that looks like this," said Kate as let the screen on her laptop be displayed. "We try to tie everything into it, the ME reports, phone, bank records, interviews. We try to make this record as identical to the hard copy case file as possible my scanning documents and such. This way we have at least two copies of the material. One hard copy held in Records and the softcopy that can be retrieved from our data storage facility. I also tie it to the Department Quarterlies which we must produce."

"I see I've held you over. I apologize for that. We appreciate the opportunity to share techniques with our current and future brothers in law enforcement and thanks you been a great audience."
"We're okay on time Detective," said Lt. Emerson. "I must admit this hour and a half went quickly. You covered a lot more topics than just murder boards, theory of the crime and the emphasis on teamwork for instance. I think I'll challenge the staff to build upon the importance of teamwork in all aspects of police work in their material. Once we release the Cadets I'll take you over to the cafeteria and you can suffer through lunch with the rest of us. Oh, please don't erase the white boards. Sergeant Kelly? "

"Sir… Attention" The Castles watched as the room became still and all the Cadets stood to attention. "Dismissed."

Kate and Rick powered down and stowed their laptops as the Cadets filed out of the auditorium. Lunch was unremarkable but filled with great conversation. Kate's end of the table was filled with 'shop talk' and comparisons between the business practices of the different police departments. Castle's end, on the other hand, was filled with stories. Whereas Kate left the lunch with the names and contact information of the instructors and some of her Chicago PD peers, Castle left with the names and contact information for the City and Police Department Historians.

"Researching another book," teased Kate as the rode back to the hotel in the squad car?
"Maybe, I've always been fascinated with the Chicago mobs. I know a dozen books have already been written on the subject. It's just…."
"I know" said Kate with a gentle squeeze of his hand. "How did you think it went?"

"The Cadets participated, and from the table talk at lunch the instructors were impressed," said Castle in a level analytical voice. "So I think things went great."

Kate checked her watch as they exited the blue and white. "Give me your bag Castle. You need to go to work. "When Castle looked at her funny she continued. "Oh we can beat each other up with batons, and get a half mile swim in before breakfast but I can't carry your bag up to the room?'

Castle smiled a rueful smile and handed his bag to Kate. "When you put it like that." Kate accepted a kiss on her check and his bag. Kate smiled to herself as she watched Castle head away toward the Convention floor and she slowly strolled toward the elevators.

'Things did go well' she thought after she reached the suite. Kate opened the laptop cases, extracted the machines and plugged them into recharge. She opened the fridge, took a piece of the brownie, and followed that up with a couple of strawberries and a half a bottle of water. Okay Detective Beckett's work for today is done. It's time for Kate Castle to help out her husband.

As Kate walked toward the Black Swan booth Kate remembered Castle saying that the traffic on Thursday was light to moderate, heavy on Friday and SRO on Saturday. Well he's right as usual, she thought. There is a nice buzz coming from the Black Swan space Kate noted.

The ends of the Black Swan display space was marked with easels. On each easel was a poster sized picture of the author in attendance and underneath the picture was the appearance schedule for the show. One easel had a picture of Castle of course. The other easel had a picture of Tom Ridgeway, a young author specializing in military style action fantasy. To Kate it was easy to see why they paired these two guys. By each easel was a roll-cart with the author's books and a sign that said 'For Display Only – The Cashier will gladly supply you with the books you desire to purchase'. 'Nice' thought Kate. They can change the carts and the posters as the authors change shifts.

In the center of the space was the cashier table and it was surrounded on both sides with book display racks. The books in the rack were grouped by author and the racks had the same notice as the carts. Kate saw Gwen return from behind the curtain with several books in hand. 'Keeping the inventory behind the curtains does give the author more space to meet with his fans,' Kate remarked to herself. The spaces were laid out identically. Halfway down the side wall was a table. It was far enough away from the wall for the author to sit behind it and sign autographs, and that's what Tom was doing. The downside of the placement was that it let the author become surrounded and could lead to a nasty situation if the fans didn't behave like adults.

Castle had his back to the entry way and was literally surrounded. As Kate approached the crowd recognized her and allowed her to pass through. "Hey sailor, buy a lady a drink," Kate said as she latched onto Castle's arm. She enjoyed the look of surprise, love, and then concern that washed across his face.

"Visiting or staying?"

"Staying for a while."

"I'm not going to let you stand," he said in a voice of iron that still dripped with love. "Gwen could we …"

"One of the director's chairs coming right up…."

"and ah…"

"Bottle of water, of course."

Moments later Kate was seated by the table in a tall canvas back director's style chair that almost kept her at eye level with their fans.

Once the first Tweet 'That Nikki Heat was in the house' hit the airways, the crowds grew. Those fans that came expecting Natalee Rose, the actress that played Nikki, in the ill-fated movie, were not disappointed that they found Kate instead. Mid-way through the session Kate was approached by a fan carrying two of Castle's newest books and a strange request.

"Detective Beckett, do you think I could get both of these books autographed? "

"Certainly, but in here I'm just Kate okay?"

"Okay. One book I would like autographed in the normal way. You know Beckett and Castle. The other I would like Heat and Rook."

"For the second one we are going to have to ask the boss."

"The boss?"

"Yeah but don't tell him I said that. I would take me forever to reduce his ego to its normal size, "Kate said with a huge smile that caused a grin to break out on the fan's face. "Oh Babe," Kate called out raising her hand. Kate saw the look of concern on Castle's face fade as she gave him a smile.

"We have an unusual autograph request here. Miss…"

"Susan Holiday", supplied the fan.

"Has requested that we autograph one of the books as Rook and Heat."

Kate watched the look of wonder and amusement spread across Castle's face. "I don't know if Rook knows how to sign his name," he joked.

"But you can fake it, right" teased Kate?

When Susan Holiday left the booth she was sure of two things. One, the book with the Rook and Heat signatures was a unique item, and two, the Castles were real people!

It was twenty after five and Gwen; the Black Swan floor manager had a problem that she needed help solving. As Mike Thompson the Senior VP for Black Swan Marketing approached his floor manager he smiled to himself at the size of the crowd in his space. "What's the problem Gwen?"

"The Castles. Their shift was over twenty minutes ago. With crowds like that here I'm not about to ask them to leave, but it is unfair to Kevin and April.

April shrugged, "I can live with it. To me it's more inspiring than anything else. I'm just starting out and with I grow up I want to have as passionate a fan base as he does. "

"We can share this half of the room," said Kevin. "Assuming that people want to see us. "

"Okay, that's settled. What's your other problem?"

"I'm almost out of everything Castle."

"I'll send the stuff down from the Hospitality Suite."

"I've already sold it. At last count I had a half box of his new book and three-quarters of a box of everything else. "

"But it's only Thursday," he exclaimed. Taking a deep breath he continued. "That problem I can solve. You'll have new stock at the first Fed Ex delivery in the morning." As he was raising his phone to his ear they heard a huge rumble of laughter coming from the Castle crowd. A couple of moments later Rick and Kate were walking by, arm-in-arm. Two minutes after that, the place was deserted.

Chapter 6 It's too rich

"You! Freeze and let that woman go" shouted a forceful voice. Karl stood still and let Kate out of the arm bar he had her in. He stepped away and held up his hands.

"Miss, come toward us. You're safe now."

"I was safe in my husband's arms. What's going on Officer?"

"Husband" asked the younger of the two Officers?

"Yes. I'm Kate Castleton and this is my husband Karl. We exercise most every morning together. Today we did do some kicks and strikes, and just now he was helping me practice my escapes. Did someone think I was being attacked?"

"Yes," said the older Officer who seemed to become more relaxed by the second. "I'm Sergeant Stevenson and this my partner Officer Jordan and yes someone did call in and say they thought a woman was being attacked in the room by the pool in the Palmer House…You must admit it's very unusual for a man and a woman to exercise together. "

"I'll take your word for it," said Kate. "Karl runs and exercises almost every day. After Alex, our son, was born I joined him in the exercises he did to cool down. It helped me lose the weight I gained and had some other benefits," Kate remarked with a touch of pink showing on her cheeks. "About a year ago I asked Karl to show he some of the self-defense techniques he learned as a Marine in the war."

"Platoon Sergeant, First Squad, Second Platoon, Delta Company of the 2nd," said Sergeant Stevenson.

"Rifleman, First Squad, Third Platoon, Bravo Company of the 1st," replied Karl.

"I thought that arm-bar looked familiar. You've been teaching your wife?"

"Yeah, as much as I hate to admit it, there will be times that I'm not around. If I can teach Kate enough to get out of a bad situation then all the hours I've spent as her sparing dummy will have been worth it."
Nodding his agreement the Sergeant asked, "Do you mind working through your unarmed exercise routine?"

Karl shrugged his shoulders and Kate said "Sure." After a minute or two the Sergeant called a halt. "You're running the same sequence that they taught us at boot."

"It's the only one I know," replied Karl. "It worked for me."

"Me too. Mrs. Castleton sorry to disturb you and your husband, and I hope you will never have to use what your husband is teaching you, especially in my city."

"Thank you Sergeant. I appreciate the thought. Please thank the person who made the call. Concerned citizens who are willing to act help keep us all safe," said Kate.

"Sergeant," said Karl. "Be advised that our flight back home to Sacramento doesn't leave till next Monday morning."

"And we should expect another call or two," said the younger Officer, Officer Jordan. "We will still need to investigate; besides the hotel has the best coffee in Chicago and they don't mind us drinking a cup or two as we fill out our report. "

"Hon," said Kate as she started to take off her sweat clothes. "We need to start our swim now so we'll have time for breakfast."

The Officers watched the Castleton's strip and dive into the pool. "Lucky bastard," said Officer Jordan with a touch of admiration in his voice after they had left the pool area.

"Yeah," said Sergeant Stevenson. "Most people who get hit that many times don't survive."

"I was talking about his wife."

"That too."

As the Castleton's returned from breakfast they passed two men heading the other direction. As they stopped in front of the door to their suite the larger of the two called out. "Are you the Castleton's?"

"Yes," replied Kate. "Who's asking?"

"I'm Lieutenant Edward Drake, and this is my partner David McClain. We're Chicago PD, Homicide Detectives."

"I take it this is not about the incident at the pool this morning," quipped Karl.

"It's not. May we come in," asked the Lieutenant?
"Sure," said Kate as Karl opened the door. Neither one of them asked what this was about. They knew that the Officers would reveal only what they wanted too and on their timeframe. The Lieutenant was huge dark haired and brown eyed. . He was easily six-four and two-thirty, and appeared to be in excellent shape. The stain on his fingers testified to his smoking habit. His cashmere topcoat, well fitted suit, and Italian leather shoes contrasted with his partner's more modest wardrobe. For some reason the Lieutenant grated on Karl.

His partner, David McClain, was also dark haired and had brown eyes. He was no small man either. He was five-ten probably one-ninety and built like a fireplug. His thick chest and arms hinted that the Detective was no stranger to hard physical labor.

"We need to talk to you about Professor Lewis," announced the Lieutenant. "We like to talk to you separately if we could."

"Hon, you take the front room. The Lieutenant and I will take the dining area."

Neither one was surprised by the request. Karl had done it often enough as a PI and as a Deputy Sheriff, and Kate was very familiar with the technique; after all she had used it in several of her books. After they had settled, Karl said. "How about I start with the background information first then we can work up to the present." When the Detective waved his hand in a continue motion, Karl did. "Kate is the CEO of one of the largest agricultural firms in California. If it's a fruit or vegetable one of Kate's farms grows it. Professor Lewis holds the Chair in Agricultural Science at Purdue University. Tom Lei works for Kate as the manager of a project we call 'Strawberry Fields'. He was a student of the Professor's. Over the years they have remained in contact. The loose leaf notebook you probably found in the Professors Hotel room was put together by Tommy."

"When Tommy told the Professor about the Strawberry Fields project, he thought it would be a great place to test out his new theory. You will have to ask Kate about the specifics, but the bottom line is that if the Professor's theory works, we will be able to grow more food using the same amount of land, but using less fertilizer, pesticide, herbicide and labor. A farmer's Holy Grail. We came to the Conference to talk with the Professor in person and, if the idea made sense, to offer the Strawberry Fields as the site of the pilot project."

"Did you have the conversation and what was the result?"

"Yes. We arrived yesterday and met the Professor in front of the Gift Shop around two-thirty. We came up here and while Kate and the Professor worked through the notebook I unpacked and went for a swim. When I returned…"

"You found your wife and the professor in bed together."

Karl clinched and unclenched his fists. "When I returned around four-fifteen I had to avoid a tray wielding busboy who was taking pitchers and glasses back to the kitchen and Professor Lewis who was just leaving. We …." Karl stopped and ran into the living room when he heard a loud slap and thud.

Karl stood behind Kate with his left hand on her shoulder and looking down at Detective McClain who had been knocked to the floor; the outline of Kate's slap clearly visible on his cheek. Kate was shaking with rage when she finally uttered, "Karl do you know what this one said?"

"He probably suggested that when I came back from my swim I saw you and the Professor in bed together." Kate turned her head and looked at Karl with surprise. "His partner suggested the same thing. They're fishing for a motive." Karl watched Kate's eyes dart from him to the Lieutenant. "Look I can't slug him. That would be assault. You on the other hand can slap the crap out of this guy for his rude suggestion."

"It's still assault," said Detective McClain.
"Probably," agreed Karl. "But once you explain to the DA what really happened they won't bother getting a warrant because they know it's a case they can't win."

"If you want a motive," said Kate. "Find the people would benefit from stealing the Professors research."

"Did he give you a copy of his paper," asked the Lieutenant?
"No, but if they are after his research then you need to warn the University to collect his notebooks and warn whatever grad student the Professor had helping him," said Kate. "The student's life could be in danger….Oh get up Detective," said Kate as she offered him her hand. "Staying down there is unprofessional. I know you are only doing your job, but you need to ask those types of questions with some tact. You guys need to finish with us so you can catch the killer. Anybody who kills a man who wants to help the farmers produce more, less costly food doesn't deserve to live."

"Mr. Castleton," suggested Lieutenant Drake with a nod toward the dining area.

"No," said Karl. "You've lost that courtesy." Karl moved behind Kate and put both hands on her shoulders. " As I was going to say, we had an early dinner with the Professor, you can check with the Dining Room. We left around seven. He met two friends at the entrance to the bar, you can check there, and we took a cab to the Tap Room. It was a 'Gold Medallion' cab, number 39. Jose Richards was driving. We left the Tap Room around eleven-forty five. Tammy was our hostess and we talked to the owner a Mr. Colin James right before we left. 'Gold Medallion' cab number 29 brought us back to the Hotel. Ed Rouse was the driver. The night doorman may or may not remember us, and I don't remember the name of the elevator operator. "

As Detective McClain listened to Karl tell the story for the third time he only had eyes for Kate. She was rich, beautiful, and if appearances could be believed, totally in love with her husband. She had accepted the news of the Professors death with the stoicism of one who knows death comes to us all. She had provided them with a general outline for a motive and seriously suggested that the life of a grad student at Purdue could be endangered. 'These things we need to move on now,' he thought. Besides she appeared to have forgiven him, and possessed one heck of a right cross.

"Oh," said Detective Drake as they were being shown out of the suite. "I need you to stay in town."

"Lieutenant," said Karl in a hard voice. "Our plane leaves Monday morning around nine am. Unless you charge us, we will be on it. I can always be reached at the Sacramento County's Sheriff's Office. Sam will know where I'm at. You see I work there as a volunteer Deputy Sheriff. If there is nothing else we have a Conference to attend, and you have a killer to catch."

"Dave, you verify their alibi with Gold Medallion Cab and the 'Tap Room'. I'll handle the University," said Lieutenant Drake as they waited for the elevator.

"What about the lead that he went into the bar?"

"I'll come back and check on that. The night bar staff probably won't show up until four-thirty. If the Castleton's alibi doesn't pan out, then will have a heart to heart talk."

'It'll pan out,' thought Detective McClain. 'They gave us great points of reference.' Back at the station house the Detective was quickly able to confirm the pickup and drop-off times and the locations with the Cab Company. The call to the 'Tap Room' was the clincher. If ten-twenty, the time shown on Professor Louis's smashed watch, was any indication of time of death, then the Castleton's were on the dance floor and were dancing to the Royal Canadians second set of the night.

On a whim he called Sam, which turned out to be Deputy Sheriff Samantha St. Louis. She was the switchboard operator/ dispatcher for the Sheriff's Department and an all-round gossip. From Sam the Detective learned that the Castleton's would charge a lunatic gunman if it meant saving kids. They didn't suffer fools, and stood up for the working people. The more stories Sam told, the more the Detective was convinced that the Castleton's would have nothing to do with the killing of the Professor, and Karl was a man not to be trifled with, especially where the safety of Kate was concerned. Detective McClain looked at his watch and the empty chair his partner normally sat. 'What could be holding him up' he asked himself?

It was near the end of the shift and Detective McClain's partner had not returned from the Hotel and had not called in. Stuffing a picture of the deceased and on a whim a picture of his partner into his pocket he headed out of the station house and back to the Palmer House. Without much difficulty he entered the lightly crowded bar. To Officer McClain the bar seemed sterile. Oh it was big enough and configured normally with tables in the middle and booths along the walls, but it lacked something.' A sense of itself, no soul' he thought. Probably because it has no regular patrons, only transients. People didn't come here to meet friends; they came because it was the closest place to get a drink. 'Sad really' he thought.

Striding in, he approached the woman tending bar. Nodding at his approach she asked "What can I get ya?"

"I'm Detective McClain and I want to talk to you about…"

"The murder of the Professor, I heard about it when I came on shift. Look sit," she said as she reached down and pulled a cup from underneath the counter and started to fill it with coffee. "Let me take care of my customers so that I don't get fired and I'll tell everything that I know, which isn't much."

"This is a police investigation," insisted the Detective.

"And it doesn't matter to them or my boss," retorted the bartender "If service is slow, it's my ass," she continued as she walked around the bar to a table.

'And she has a cute one' thought the Detective as he sipped his coffee. 'And the rest of her isn't bad either.' The Detective admired her face and form as she scurried to wait on her customers. Eventually she returned to him and topped off his coffee.

"Did you see this man…"

"You aren't going to show me a picture of dead body are you," she asked as she reached across the bar and gently touched his hand as he was about to extract a picture? "Professor Louis is distinguished looking, I mean was aw shit he was in his early fifties, medium height around five-nine I think and a hundred and sixty pounds. He looked like he took good care of himself. He had brown eyes and wore glasses to read. I remember he took them out of his pocket to read the bill, but when he was drinking and talking with his friends he didn't have them on. He has a full head of hair and was starting to turn gray at the temples. Wedding ring. Do I need to describe his clothes?"

"Okay you saw the Professor. What time…"

"Wait Hon," she said as she hurried off again.

"Okay," she said as she once again topped off his coffee. "He and two friends came in a little after seven. Another friend joined him a few minutes later. The Professor was celebrating something. What little I heard as I served them drinks was something about a site for his pilot project and the Castleton's were everything his student said they would be. It was a great table, the Professor bought the first and last round and everyone else bought a round too. They gave me a good tip. Be right back."

"Okay," she said as she once again topped off his coffee. "He left around nine-fifty. Around ten o'clock I saw him hand an envelope to the Night Manager."

"When does he come on?"

"He comes on at six, so you've got a half-hour to kill. Excuse me. "

It was almost six when she returned, "One other thing," the Detective asked. "Have you seen this man, either yesterday or today," he asked showing the picture of his partner?

"Last night, the table near the door, six double scotch's neat, lousy tipper," was her immediate reply.

"When did he leave?"

"Don't remember, but after the Professor. Look Detective do you have a business card?"

She took it flipped it over, wrote on it and handed it back.

"Jill Swanson," said the Detective. "Do you hand out your number to all men who drink coffee here?"

"Just the handsome locals that interest me," she said with a smile. "And I don't get many of those. Look there is several things you need to know. I get off at 11pm on weekdays, 1 am on the weekends, I have Tuesday's off and I love the Cubs."

'She's got a killer smile,' thought the Detective as he made his way toward the Front Desk. 'And besides watching the Cubs at Wrigley is never a bad way to spend a Tuesday afternoon.'

The Night Manager was both insistent and apologetic. "Look Detective our standard practice is to note the time we received the note or package and the room number on the item itself. We don't keep a log. Last night around ten this place was like the monkey house at the zoo. With the Convention starting tomorrow we had all kinds of people leaving messages to arrange breakfast meetings and such. I can't tell you how many envelopes of all shapes and sizes we handled last night."

"Okay," said an exasperated Detective. "If you remember please call be at this number," he said as he handed the Night Manger his business card after checking the back to back sure it wasn't the one that Jill had given him. He thought that that was one number he was going to call.

As the Castleton's left the last session before lunch they were met by a relatively short man. His well-fitting conservative suit, salt-and-pepper hair, and bespectacled face screamed that he was a Professor. The last, unnecessary clue was the Notre Dame tie. "Mr. and Mrs. Castleton," he asked timidly?

"Yes," replied Karl as he scanned around looking for possible threats. A habit Kate both loved and hated at the same time. She said nothing about it because it was fully integrated into Karl's behavior and it HAD saved both of their lives in the past.

"I'm Kate Castleton. What can we do for you…Sir?"

"I'm Ted Martin, Doctor Martin. I hold the chair of Agricultural Sciences at Notre Dame. I was Doctor Louis's peer in that regard. I need to talk to you about Bob. Do you have the time?"

"How about you be our guest for lunch Doctor," asked Kate?
"I, ah"

"Come on," insisted Kate as she placed her arm under his.

"I guess, but the University has rules about accepting gifts you know."

"Come now Professor," said Karl. "I'm not your student, nor am I an alumnus."

"But he is a person that could be useful to me as CEO," said Kate. "No gifts, so how about a trade? We'll buy you lunch today and the next time I'm in South Bend you can buy me lunch."

"A trade? Not a bad idea. Lead on dear Lady the business with Bob this morning spoiled my appetite for breakfast."

After the Head Waiter had seated them and their waiter had taken their orders, Karl asked in a soft voice. "Tell us about Bob, Professor. We really know nothing about him."

"Professor Robert No Middle Initial Louis holds the Agricultural Sciences Chair at Purdue. We've been friends and friendly rivals for years, decades even. "The professor paused to take a sip of his coffee and to gather his courage. "We've collaborated on many projects over the years. A true pioneer. The world will miss him and the said thing is they won't know it… His work was fantastic, but he always gave the credit to the University. Dear Lady I would bet that most of your farms are using his irrigation techniques or variants of them. He knew water was precious and …"

"What happened today Professor," asked Kate gently?

"Bob didn't show up for our planning breakfast and when I called his room I got no answer. I asked the Manager to send someone up to look in on him. He came and told us that Bob was dead…That's one of the reasons I wanted to talk with you. I saw you with him in the afternoon and then again at dinner. At the bar he told us about your wonderful Strawberry Fields project and how it would be a perfect site for his pilot project. Did Bob give you a copy of his paper? I mean his was a last minute addition to the Conference. Normally papers are submitted six months in advance and vetted, but when someone with the reputation of Doctor Louis says he has something important to say we slide the rules a bit. He said he brought a box of a hundred papers with him. When I asked the police if we could have the papers he said a box of papers wasn't found. I was hoping he gave you one. "

"Sorry Sir, we don't have a copy," said Karl. "Who did you ask?"

"A truly huge Detective, with the name of Drake or something. I was talking with him as you guys were getting your badges. I meant to talk to you before the Conference started, but the Detective was insistent."

"Sorry Professor," said Kate in a gentle voice. "I'm sorry we can't help."

"But you may be able to," said the Professor. "With Bob's death I have a slot to fill. I was wondering if you would be willing to talk about your Strawberry Field Project. I know it's not an academic paper, but it is an excellent example of practical agricultural engineering. We have a projector that can show your photographs and tables. You have the source material. Bob told us about the wonderful book you gave him. What do you say? "

Kate looked at Karl who nodded. "You done it before Kate," he said. "Several times in fact, once to the Board when you first proposed the project and to the reporters after the first growing season when people were marveling at the size and taste of the strawberries. The third time was in front of the zoning commission when you made the new land purchases. "

"I don't know. Those were different. This is to a batch of Professors and really smart people."

"You have nothing to worry about," said Karl gently. "You have results. Not theories. Oh I imagine someone will ask why you did it this way instead of that way and you can answer 'that it seemed like the right way to do it at that time.' Who knows someone may actually come up with a critique or suggestion that you can use."

"Okay," said Kate. "I'll do it. But I'm going to start the presentation with a moment of silence in remembrance of Professor Louis. "

"Great and that Dear Lady would be most appropriate and appreciated by all. Look I don't usually dash off like this but I do have a lot of things to take care of. And a trade is a trade. Your next lunch in South Bend is on me."

"Dessert," asked the waitress as she swooped by to collect the Professor's dishes?
"None for me thanks," said Kate immediately.

"The dessert the Professor was eating last night looked interesting," said Karl. "You know a brownie, ice cream, covered with chocolate syrup, topped with whipped cream and a cheery on top?"

"Oh yes, our house specialty Sir," replied the hostess with a smile.

"I'll take one of those. Can I get it with chocolate ice cream?"

"Absolutely, we call that one the 'Triple Dose of Goodness' after all everyone loves chocolate."

"I'll take that, and you had better bring two forks or spoons or whatever. I have a hunch that I won't be eating it alone."

"Right away Sir. I'll top off the coffee first and then bring the desert as soon as it's ready. "

"Place it over there," said Karl as he waved to the spot in front of Kate. Picking up his chair he moved to sit close beside his wife who had made room for him beside her.

"This is rich," Kate said as she reached for her glass of water.

"Almost too rich," agreed Karl.

Kate's next spoonful stopped halfway to her mouth, "Like a certain Detective's cashmere topcoat."

"His tailored silk suit and Italian leather shoes," added Karl.

"And his watch."

"I didn't notice that," said Karl. "Look in the suite he asked us if the Professor gave us a copy of his paper."

"And when Professor Martin asked about the box of papers he said that the box wasn't found."

"Then how did the Detective know about them?"
"The only way he could know is if he was in the room," confirmed Kate.

"If we assume that the objective of the murder was to suppress the Professors research and they think we have a copy of the paper…."

"Then we're targets," concluded Kate. "Karl I ah … had another episode in San Francisco before we left. It was a feeling that we shouldn't trust the trusted in Chicago."

"That fits the Lieutenant. Kate I think I'm going to poke around some."
"That does seem warranted. "

"Does she ever send you anything but warnings" asked Karl.

"Yes," husked Kate as she put down her spoon and gripped Karl's hand. "It seems like it's right after they make love, I get the feeling that she really loves her husband, which is fine, because I really love mine. Also sometimes I hear the growl of tigers. It's like they faced danger together and beat it."

"Do you think she gets anything from you?"

"I don't know. I think I have warned her a couple of times and I hope she feels my love for you."

"With two remarkable women named Kate looking out for us, we must be the luckiest men on the face of the planet. "

"If her 'Karl' is half as wonderful as you, then we have married the most wonderful men on the face of the planet," echoed Kate. They sat there for a moment, holding hands, each lost in pleasant thought about their mate and hoping that their alter egos felt the same way. Other patrons of the restaurant found it remarkable that a grown couple could find such joy in sharing a dessert.

Kate gave Karl a kiss on the cheek as they parted company, Kate back to the Conference and Karl back to the suite to pick up his hat coat before he went out to poke around some. As he was passing by the Front Desk the Manager called out to him. "Mr. Castleton? Sir we have an envelope for you. We should have gotten it to you sooner but it was misfiled. I hope it doesn't cause you any inconvenience."

Karl held the rather large envelope in his left hand. It was still sealed. If he was a betting man he would wager a large sum that it contained a copy or two of the Professor's paper. The question now was what to do with them. Karl took a look around the place and kicked himself for becoming complacent. He should have scanned before he picked up the package. As it was he thought he saw two possibles giving him more attention than he deserved.

"Good afternoon Stan," said Karl as he got on the elevator.

"Good afternoon Mr. Castleton. Your wife isn't with you?"

"She's still at the Conference. Thanks for asking. … Stan what time does the night shift come on?"

"Seven why?"

"I was wondering if a cashmere top coat and a nice pair of Italian leather shoes took a ride last night."

"Normally my nephew Tommy works the night shift, but since his little girl was performing at a school play I took the first part of the shift for him. And yes a real fine pair of Italian leather shoes got on the elevator last night and got off on the same floor that the Professor who died was on."

"Did they get back on?"

"About an hour later, and they were carrying a box."
"Thought so. Say Stan is there a way to leave the Hotel without going through the lobby?"

"Missus problems?"

"Never, I would die first. It's just I don't want to attract attention."

"Go down to the level that the pool is on. Go through the doors that say 'Staff Only'. The staff entrance is down the hall."

"Thanks"

As soon as Karl entered the suite he stopped and sniffed, 'Cigarette smoke.' Miraculously and despite being a veteran, Karl had never picked up the smoking habit. Kate had been a casual smoker in college and quit after she married Karl. His disapproval of the practice was just too much for her to bear. Cautiously Karl moved through the place. His practiced eye noticed small things out of place. A chair out of place here, a drawer slightly opened there. Their suite had been searched. The searcher was skilled and competent, but not a professional. Karl looked at the indentation on the bed where the searcher had sat and looked through the dresser drawers, most definitely not a pro. Frustrated, the searcher had apparently come into the bath room lit up and washed his ashes down the sink. The moisture still in the sink a clue to the event, because the maids always made sure that everything was clean and dry before they left. If Karl had been a smoker he might not have noticed the smell.

After the search Karl finally got around to opening the envelope. It contained two copies of the Professors paper. Each page was embossed with his chop as a Registered Engineer and initialed, leaving no doubt to its legitimacy. Apparently, thought Karl, some people think that the Professor gave us a copy of his paper. Well he did just not at the time they thought. They had killed to obtain the originals and would probably kill again to get these two copies.

Kate and I would be safe if I gave the papers to the Lieutenant, but that's not fair to the Professor and the people. Besides if Kate found out I'd be dead meat, if she let me live. I need to find a way to get them out of here and exposed to the world in an ironclad fashion.

With a plan in mind, Karl went to the secretary, pulled out a pen and several sheets of paper to write Kate a note warning of the danger and the details of the plan. After arranging the room to draw Kate's attention to the note, Karl grabbed his coat and his flat driving cap instead of his regular hat and left.

"Will you accept a collect call from a Karl Castleton," droned the Operator?

"Certainly," replied Mary Thomas, Kate's right hand 'man' and Office Manager Supreme. "Karl what's wrong?"

"Nothing right now, I need at least you, Henry and Mike O'Leary on the line if he's available. I'm calling from a phone booth in Woolworths, that's why I made the collect call."

Karl heard Mary cover the mouthpiece, "Henry Karl's on line two. Sally see if Mike is still in his office and have him come here."

After explaining the situation about the death of the Professor Karl continued. "I've airmailed the envelope and the two copies of the paper to Mary. The Hotel's notation of time and date on the envelope and the Professor's note to us clearly indicates that the Professor wanted us to have this material. Mary what I would like you to do is take one of the copies, give it to the typing pool and get at least twenty copies made and distributed into the safes and into our disaster vault. "

"Done," said Mary.

"Mike what is the chance of taking the other copy of the paper and filing for a patent?"

"Filling is relatively easy I don't think we can get one issued…Oh I get it. If the paper is submitted as part of the patent application, then the Government copies it and even if the patent is denied it's on file."

"Yeah, that was my idea. Since the Professor had intended to distribute the paper at the Conference I don't think he would mind."

"Elegant and sneaky, you would have made one hell of a defense attorney Karl," said Mike with a smile in his voice.

"You'll pay for that insult," laughed Karl.

"Karl..."

"I'll take care of Kate. How's Alex?"

"Bugging me for a pony, which he just might get."

Karl groaned, "You guys are going to force me to learn to ride aren't you?"

"Yep"

"Guys I want the original back, because I think we should return it and the patent paperwork to Purdue. We can explain our intent and apologize if need be. "

"That's a great idea," said Mike. "I'll prepare the paperwork that assigns all rights to the patent, should one be granted to the University. I'll make it an attachment to the application. That's makes us clean and should a patent be awarded gives us some great publicity."

"A man died Mike."

"Yeah but you and Kate picked up his work and made sure it got the credit it deserved. We can celebrate both the man and my two best friend's sense of right and wrong."

"Works I guess…Unless there is anything else…Henry…"

"I'll hug Alex for the both of you, bye son."

Karl got out of the cab at the address in Cicero and looked up. His friend's 'Agency' was in a second floor walk –up above an Italian restaurant, and the smell from the street was fantastic. Scrambling up the steps he entered the office and encountered Jerry's gatekeeper. "Hey Sally, I'm Karl is Jerry in?"

"He's out on a case. I do expect him back any minute now. Coffee's over there help yourself."

As Karl helped himself to the coffee he checked out the Agency. Jerry had three other Detectives working for him, and if the sign on the door was correct he also taught a class in how to be a PI. He had to admit Jerry was good at running a business.

"Sally, type up my notes will you and get the film developed. This should allow us to close and bill on the Thompson case. Hey Karl," Jerry said, "Long time no see. Come on into my office." After they had shaken hands, Karl put a brown sack on the desk.

"I recognize the universal form of payment for a favor. Does this have anything to do with the mess at the Hotel?"

After Karl had explained the situation and articulated his belief that a cop was involved Jerry shook his head. "Look I live here so I can't actively help you go after a cop, but I can get you started. "

Two phone calls later Jerry had some basic information that even caused his eyebrows to go up, "I see what you mean. DMV says he's got a custom Nash-Healey and a new Packard Convertible Coupe, and his place in Du Page County is definitely not in the low rent district. Two things, the city library and the Hall of Records are only two blocks apart. The Hall closes at four-thirty today and three-thirty on Friday."

Karl looked at his watch, "Bank?"

"Five"

"Looks like I hit the library today and the Hall tomorrow."

"Karl," said Jerry pointing at the bottle of scotch in the bag. "I'm feeling kind of guilty. You've done a number of favors for us in the past and I ah… I know you don't drink so how…?"

"How about flowers for Kate?"

"You okay with another man sending your wife flowers," Jerry asked with a grin?

"As long he is in Chicago, she in Sacramento and he sends them in my name, then yeah," replied Karl with an equally big grin.

"Done." Jerry had meet Kate and seen how much she loved his friend. 'It would take an A-bomb to split those two apart,' he thought. 'And the bomb would have to hit perfectly.'

The Chicago City Library has a large number of resources, not the least of which is newspapers, phonebooks and pay phones.

"Good afternoon," said Karl in his native New York voice. "I'm Craig Rain and I work for Lakeshore Realty. We had a guy come in today and look at a piece of property. He seemed real interested in it. When I started to talk to him about a getting a loan he said he could pay for it in cash. I mean he dressed nice and all, but still one hundred and fifty-five thousand is a lot of money to have lying around. If I gave you his account number could you say yes or no?... fantastic."

Okay, thought Karl when the lady on the phone said that the Lieutenant most definitely would need a loan to purchase the property and considering his balances it would be tight, but they probably would approve him, maybe he's clean after all.

Another thing that large city libraries do is subscribe to almost every publication under the sun, especially the local ones like the 'Chicago Police Gazette'. Using the new microfiche reader Karl was able to follow the carrier of one Edward Robert Drake from his graduation from the Academy, his first tour as a Detective, then Internal Affairs, and now a Lieutenant in Homicide. The Bio they ran with the announcement that he had made Lieutenant said that his father was a truck driver and his Mom a seamstress. 'There's no way he inherited the money,' thought Karl. His Internal Affairs tour was rather long, noted Karl. That would give him ample time to develop blackmail marks. I wish I could see the history of his bank account and see if there is a correlation between the time he sent in Internal Affairs and his wealth accumulation. But there's got to be more. He didn't decide to kill the Professor and steal his research, someone told him to do that. Who?

Karl looked at his watch. It was past six-thirty. It was time to head back to the Hotel and to Kate.

"Afternoon Stan," said Kate as she got on the elevator. "Has Mr. Castleton ridden up with you this afternoon?"

"No Ma'am. He was acting a little worried when I took him down earlier this afternoon. Oh, please tell him that the Italian shoes made two trips up this morning, one right after breakfast and the other around ten-thirty."

'When we were at the Convention,' Kate noted. "Thanks I'll be sure to tell him."

"Karl!" Kate called out as she entered the suite. The arrangement of the pillows on the couch drew her eyes to the left, to the dining room table. On the table she saw a piece of paper with two of Karl's poems, and a note underneath, just like in one of her books.

KATE IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY, GO TO THE DOOR AND THROW THE DEADBOLT AND HOOK THE CHAIN. NOW!

She flew across the room secured the room and started to reread the note. She was pissed that their room had been searched and was fully in agreement with Karl's plan to get the Professor's paper protected and ultimately back into the hands of Purdue. 'With the paper in California we should be off the target list,' she thought. She returned to the table and read Karl's poems.

The Dance

The band plays a song.

We glide, sway to the music.

We Kiss, My Wife Smiles

Nice thought Kate.

Our Dance

The band plays Stardust

We glide, sway to the music.

We Kiss, My Kate Smiles

Even better she smiled. Kate went to the secretary, found the card she was looking for and called to confirm their acceptance for Saturday night. Next she placed a call to the salon and booked a four PM Saturday appointment.

On a whim she called the Concierge Desk, got a recommendation and placed the call. When Kate described the problem and provided the exact information, the staff assured her that they would have the task completed and delivered to the hotel by noon Saturday. Saturday night was going to be fantastic, she thought.

Her last call was to home and to her son. She hung up when she heard Karl knocking on the door.

Chapter 7 There is an I in Team

Inspector Todd met Kate and Castle just as they entered the Chicago Police Department Headquarters building. "Detective Beckett, so nice to see you again. I'm glad you took me up on my offer. And you must be Mr. Castle. I understand that what I saw in New York was based on one of your writing tools."

"Both of us have a need to keep our facts straight," said Castle as he shook the offered hand. "Me I used the structure to keep me straight. Kate, well she has a Team to manage and a case to solve."

"You have me at a disadvantage Sir," Kate added. "You know me, but I don't remember you at all."

"Well it was recommended that I keep a low profile and I guess I succeeded. Come on let me show you where you will be. We're quite proud of the place. If you would like to take a tour afterward I would be most happy to oblige. "

As they walked in on the ground level of the Command Operations Room, the local news, which was playing on one of the four screens facing the audience, was turned off and a man emerged from a control booth to their left. "Hi I'm Jake I'm the IT guy. If you get your laptops out I'll configure it so that you can display what you want on the screen you want. I must admit I was a bit surprised when you asked for four white boards. That's major old school."

"Jake I'm Detective Beckett and this is my husband Mr. Castle and at the NYPD old school is the only school we have. This place looks fantastic and is huge."

"It seats five hundred and twenty two," said Inspector Todd. "and should be quite full today," he continued in a soft voice." Everyone in the first fifteen and the last ten rows can plug in their laptop and access our entire network. This room has its own server and we normally push our files to it for display and access for all of the people here. As you saw we can display the news feeds and the video from our command vehicles. We have real good VTC capability and can relay a number of different types of video. On one instance we were able to send to a SWAT operation the feeds from several different traffic cams in real time. The Commander used the feeds to deploy his Team and keep the bad guys within our sphere of control."

"Equipping the Command vehicles with a video link allows the Senior Command Staff to monitor and direct operations from here. Senior Command can maintain a City Wide perspective while letting the local commander handle the situation."

"The temptation for micromanaging must be huge," remarked Castle.

"It is," replied a rich deep voice "and I said I would shoot the first son-bitch who did it. Hi I'm Chief Davis, pleased to meet you Detective, Mr. Castle. I got quite an earful from Lieutenant Emerson about the case you presented yesterday, all good by the way. He was especially impressed how you emphasized Teamwork."

"That's good to hear Sir, but today I going to use a different teaching case. I'm going to do the same thing to you and your staff as I did to the Cadets. We're going to lay the facts out on the board and as where do we go next."

Like yesterday Kate talked as Castle drew the skeleton of the murder board. She emphasized brevity, clarity, and consistency of placement.

"Yesterday I gave the Cadets the opportunity to solve a single case; considering I'm now dealing with Chicago's elite I'm going to give you an opportunity to solve three cases. Oh even though these cases have been solved there is a certain element to them that is sensitive and needs to remain protected. When you see it I'm sure you will agree. ….Castle if you please."

Kate watched the play of emotions play across Castle's face as she dictated the case parameters. "Castle summarize please."

As Castle talked he pointed to the board. "Sometime between twelve and two am a family of four was murdered. The murder weapon was a 9 mm, probably suppressed. The place of entry was the kitchen door. They broke a pane of glass reached through unlocked the door and came in. There is no other forensics. The canvassing turned up zilch. The family has no negative history period. Their combined driving record shows two parking tickets and one speeding tickets. No disputes with the neighbors, no feuds in school, nothing."

"Okay ladies and gentlemen where do we go from here?"

"Is this all you got?"

"Yes sir"

"You solved it right?"

"Yes"

"How?"
"Right now we realized we had nothing and moved on." Kate held up her hand when she heard the dissatisfied buzz. "Two points need to be made here. "Remember this board, I did not choose this case at random. Two, A tool, no matter how good can't help you find what isn't there. You need to recognize this and move own."
"Castle you…" Kate stopped as Castle had already started annotating the next case.

"This man was killed because he came in contact with a very poisonous plant. They were part of a flower arrangement that was delivered to his apartment. The other thing to note is that the killer also poisoned the scotch. The poisonous plant is really unremarkable. It requires no special environment or soil to grow and really was quite commonly grown in the Revolutionary War times, and if we had the picture you would see that it is really quite pretty. If you wash within an hour of coming in contact with it you should be okay. If not you will die a painful death."

"The doorman buzzed him in and the description we got from him fit about a third of the population of the city. Also the delivery man used balloons to shield himself from the camera."
"Gentlemen," Kate asked?

After a few moments Kate said, "We passed on this one too."

After Castle had written up the third unsolvable case a voice out of the audience complained "I don't get it Detective you've given us three unsolvable cases and your tool hasn't helped one damn bit."

"Sir, I submit that the clue to solving these cases is on each and every board," Kate replied in a clear cool voice.

'Find it you morons,' thought Castle.

"My God, their killing lottery winners," said another voice from the audience.

"Not just ordinary lottery winners "said Castle, "but lottery for life winners."

"Yes they were and that is the sensitive part of this presentation. Can you imagine what would happen if it became public knowledge that if you win the lottery you become marked for death? When Castle first proposed this as the theory of the crime, we all thought he was nuts. He persisted and we discovered that lottery for life winners had a live expectancy of around one year and the killings were a state wide phenomenon."

"It became political early," said Castle. "I don't know about the DA for Chicago, but the DA for New York carries a rather long and sharp stick in one hand and huge umbrella in the other. When the hornet's nest we'd been throwing rocks at finally fell, he let us hide behind his umbrella and helped us prod the State Agencies into action."

"Yesterday I showed the Cadets how this structure pushes us to find the details inside a case. Today I tried to show how the structure can help us remember pertinent details that link seemingly unrelated cases."

"I see that now, and Detective I feel I need to apologize for my outburst."

"No apology needed Sir. You were expressing what my team… what we were all feeling. We pride ourselves on solving the case and these three kicked our butts. If Castle hadn't noticed the detail of the lottery wins and formulated a theory of the crime and then challenged us to prove him wrong, we might never have solved them.

"Thanks Detective I think I speak for all when I say this has been most productive. I talked to your Chief this morning and he told me that your one of the best and I can clearly see why. He also told me that if I tried to recruit you there would be hell to pay. So Mr. Castle what would it take for you to become a Bulls fan and move to Chicago?"

"Convince me they've signed the next Michael Jordan."

"Well at least I've got a shot," chuckled the Chief good naturedly, "All I have to do is help the Bulls find and sign the next 'once in a lifetime' player."

Back at the Palmer House, Kate kissed Castle on the cheek and grabbed his laptop bag. "Save me a seat Babe."

"Sure," I thought you would practice your speech, or take a nap or something."
"My talk is ready," she replied with a small twinkle in her eye, "and I haven't learned to power nap like my husband. Speaking of speeches, when are you going to write yours?"

"Next year when I might actually win it."

"Now scoot before you're late," Kate said as she gave him another peek on the check.

Castle started, stopped, turned and watched Kate walk toward the elevators. 'I'll never get tired of watching her walk,' he thought to himself. 'That's because you know she's coming back,' his inner voice said. 'If you thought she was walking away for good…'

Kate looked over her shoulder when she felt Castle's eyes on her. She smiled and motioned with her hand for him to move on. 'That man', she thought with a touch of pink touching her cheeks! Where would I be without him? Probably still locked behind my walls and missing life. Thank God he's as stubborn and single minded as a Jackass. Yeah he's my Jackass and I'm his Fool, she thought remembering their inside joke. I'm going to make sure he never strays from me!

Castle arrived at the Black Swan booth just as Gwen was changing out the pictures on the easel and the book carts. He watched her eyes search for signs of Kate. "She'll be down in about ten minutes I think," said Castle.

"I'll get her chair," confirmed Gwen, "and water. You guys were great yesterday, and the sales…." She was interrupted when Castle's fans spotted him and engulfed him in a friendly and protective swarm.

Kate heard the fans gasp, chuckle and twitter when she arrived and gave Castle a meaningful kiss. "I think the world would be a darker place if a woman can't give the man she loves a kiss in public," she replied. "Well at least a chaste kiss," she clarified. "There is such a thing as too much of a good thing."

With Kate settled in her seat, the tweets flew and with Kate properly identified this time, the crowds grew quickly. The fans were respective, fun loving and engaged. The activities ranged from signing autographs of course, Nikki Heat trivia, and with the aspiring authors discussions about plot flow and character development. Midway through their shift the Castle's agreed to perform a reading. As to be expected, the fans chose one of the 'racier' sections for them to read. When the applause died down, and the books had been returned to the owners, the Castles were faced with a question they had not been asked before, "Do you ah, practice these scenes before you ah put them in print" asked a young lady in her early twenties.

Kate and Castle looked into each other's eyes and enjoyed the play of emotions on the others face. Kate watched shock fade to amusement on Castle's face and Castle watched Kate's face turn an interesting shade of pink. "No we don't," admitted Castle. "I've suggested it several times, but Kate is a traditionalist, and thinks that some things are better left to the imagination of the readers." After the laughter died done things returned to normal. Fans left and new fans arrived, autographs were signed and old and new questions asked. Kate was momentarily startled when the alarm on her Dad's watch went off. The afternoon had just flown by. "Babe," Kate called "I'm off. I'll meet you back at the suite. … Guys," she said as she got out of her chair, "I've got a speaking engagement tonight, and I'm not going to show up looking like a Detective that has just got off her shift!"

For this shift Sally Rhodes had the fortune of sharing the Black Swan spaces with Castle. She was one of 'Gina's' and an up and coming revolutionary war era romantic novelist. She was proud of the way she had combined the historic setting with romance. The history and the blend of cultures gave her such a fertile ground to play in. She had heard the Castle's story many times, but hearing it from their lips as they answered their fans questions was …. Sensational!

Castle had been a sweetheart. Several times he had come over to 'her' side and introduced her to his fans as an author they should read, and she had gotten some additional sales and who knows maybe a fan. As a romantic novelist, Sally was in awe of the Castle's true love story. 'I mean' she thought as she watched Kate head toward her Spa appointment, 'Castle's dying declaration of love for Kate that he recoded when he thought he was going to die after the accident on the mountain was classic. But Kate's 'Shut-up and kiss me' as the building fell on them was hard to top!

Sally's face lite up when she saw Castle approach. It was near the end of the shift and Castle was going to introduce her again. She was grateful for the introduction and the advice she overheard Castle give an aspiring writer, namely, pay attention to the details, have a good story, and have fun writing it.

Castle chuckled inwardly and Kate grimaced as they approached the entrance to the Jefferson Ballroom where the Regional Meeting of the Great Lakes District of the Women in Law Enforcement (WILE) was being held. The easel on one side of the entry way held a poster depicting the organization's logo and goals. Underneath that was a box containing brochures providing more information about the organization. The other easel held a picture of Kate, her Academy graduation picture in fact.

"My," exclaimed Castle in a whisper, "Weren't you shinny and new."

"Listen, buster," Kate whispered back through clinched teeth. "If you know what's good for you, you had better cool it."

"Yes Sergeant," replied Castle in a tone so forlorn that Kate gifted him with a smile and gently squeezed his hand. "Seriously Kate just go down to Personal and get a new picture. I'm sure your friends at Public Affairs will vouch for you."

"Here you go," said Kate as they walked into the room and she handed their tickets to the person manning the desk.

"Glad you could come," she said automatically. "The seating chart is by the bar."

"Want anything," asked Castle as they casually strode toward the head table. The meeting room was one of the Palmer House's reconfigurable areas. The overhead signs and easels with posters made it clear that this was a WILE meeting. 'Wow' thought Castle as they walked by table number seventy-two. 'I didn't think the crowd will be this large…Don't worry Kate will be fine.' Castle suppressed a laugh, in addition to the table number; each table marker contained a picture of a wanted fugitive. The number seventy-two wanted fugitive was a man named Thomas McMerritt.

"Let's find our seats and then you can get me some mineral water."

"I live to fetch."

Kate rewarded his banter with a gentle squeeze of his hand. He's trying to keep me relaxed by trying to make me laugh, and its working she thought. Of course after the question the fan asked this afternoon after the reading I don't think anything can bother me.

"You must be Detective Beckett," said a voice from the podium as the Castles approached their seats. "Your picture is almost absolutely worthless, and you are most definitely Richard Castle. I must say your picture doesn't do you justice either. I'm Constance Appleby, Connie. I'm the US Marshal for the Northern District of Illinois, and tonight's Master of Ceremonies."

Connie appeared to be in her mid-forties. Her shoulder length dark reddish-brown hair was lightly touched with gray. Her face pleasant and tanned, too tanned for Chicago in early spring. She was about the same size as Kate and had the same body type. From a distance they might be mistaken for sisters. The striking feature about Connie was her eyes. They were the eyes of a person who has seen too much of the world, the eyes of a person who is constantly on guard. Connie had the restless and roaming eyes of a Senior Agent.

So close in appearance were they, that even their clothes were very similar. Both wore woman's business clothes. Connie's jacket and trousers were a darker gray than Kate's. Connie wore a pale yellow blouse with a simple dark gold chain. Kate wore a light lavender maternity top with only studs for earrings. "Four and a half months," offered Kate in response to Connie's raised eyebrow. "Already Castle wants to wrap me up in bubble-warp."

"Love him for the thought, but don't let him," said Connie. "I've got four at home and even on the last one my partners tried to treat me with kid gloves. When it's time, take the desk assignment, but not before," advised Connie. "After the kid comes the tough part…getting back into field shape and convincing your peers that you belong there."

"Thanks," said Kate with a smile. "We've already talked about the last part, and Castles agreed to help me get back into shape and back on the force as soon as I can."

"Can I get you something from the bar," asked Castle? "Kate already has me fetching some mineral water for her so it won't be any trouble."

"How about a good scotch neat. Let me get my purse."

"Not on your life," said Castle. "My treat. Who knows someday I may need a US Marshal to buy me a drink."

Connie nodded her acceptance," Now then …," she said addressing Kate.

As Castle wandered to the bar he noticed that the dress of the women was split almost equally between women in evening dresses and women in business suits. He also noticed the absence of men in the crowd. Why didn't I know about this organization when I was single he lamented? … Seventy plus tables, figure one good story per table, and of those stories maybe a third of them are keepers. The problem is how to get them? Maybe I'll ask Kate to invite me to the meetings in New York.

Connie locked eyes with Castle when he placed her drink at her seat. "Yes it's a double. I've already had may exercise this morning, and besides if I have to walk to and from the bar I want to make the reward worth the effort."

Kate was right, Connie agreed. Castle was a sweetheart.

Soon after the Castle's had met the rest of the head table, Connie called the meeting to order. After the Pledge of Allegiance, and a Benediction, dinner was served. Kate watched with an amused expression on her face as Castle looked at the salad and tentatively picked up his fork.

"Not a salad person," asked Shelly Auburn, a District Federal Judge sitting to Castle's right?

"I'm a Waldorf not a Caesar," replied Castle completely dodging the reason for his hesitation. Kate reached under the table and patted Castle's knee. She had felt similar apprehension, but she was hungry. And the old wives tale about pregnant woman and food was starting to come true for Kate.

Eventually the dishes were cleared away and Connie looked down at Kate who nodded her readiness.

"Good evening Ladies and gentlemen I am the pleasure to introduce tonight's speaker. She is a New York Homicide Detective from the 12th precinct…" Kate tuned out the rest of the introduction. They were words she had heard before and the injustice in some of them made her want to cringe. She knew most of the awards and decorations in her 'jacket' where there because of the work Castle had done with her and 'The Boys'. The injustice was that no one outside of a select few knew what he had done for the City of New York.

"Hey," said Kate when she first got to the mike. "This place is a lot bigger than the place we use for our luncheons in New York. I see we have a similar problem. I know that this is WILE, Women in Law Enforcement, and one of the problems I see is the lack of men in the audience. Some of the presentations I've heard have been excellent. Top-shelf. The problem is they only fell on our ears, the women members. I would like to suggest to the governing council that they consider sponsoring 'A Bring your Partner to Lunch Day.' Especially when there is a topic we need for them to hear." After the spattering of applause died down Kate continued. "That's what I did this evening. I brought my partner and husband Richard Castle."

After the applause had died down again," Say hi Babe."

"Hi Babe," Castle responded with a grin.

"See he's trainable, and house broken too I might add, but Ladies since he came with me, I feel obligated to take him home with me. " After the chuckles had subsided Kate continued, "I brought him for another reason. He really is the inspiration for this talk." Kate looked at Castle for a moment, then down at her notes and then back to the audience. "As Marshal Appleby said I gave this talk to our luncheon crowd early last winter. I'm going to expanded on it a bit and briefly touch about Leadership and Teamwork. These brief touches will, I hope, provide the context for my main remarks." Kate took a small sip of water before continuing. "We in Law Enforcement like our cousins in the Armed Forces have knowledge of Leadership and Teamwork that is drilled into us from day one. We are taught the same fundamentals, same values, and shown the same examples of how to put them in practice. This means we understand the fundamentals of leadership and its application. This concept forms a major part of our heritage and drives how react to each other and to any situation that we find ourselves. Or so I thought."

"Now imagine you lead the best team of Detectives on the planet and to your Team the Major adds an inexperienced, untrained, self-centered, egotistical, thrill seeking playboy who does not care about justice, right or wrong, just the story. Yeah I'm talking about my husband. In the beginning he was a pain in the ass and more. On one of early cases he spent a couple of minutes explaining to the Uniforms getting ready to perform a canvass why we were interested in a certain item and a certain time frame. When I told him it wasn't necessary to go into the detail's he looked at me funny and said, 'You're on the same team aren't you? The more they know the more they can do for you,' …Bam three lessons of leadership in a single event, Communication, Span-of Control, and Delegation. By communicating my detail needs to the Officers I had temporarily increased my span-of control to include them and delegated the search to the Officers clearly on point. That was something they didn't teach at the Academy."

"Funny thing, he treated everybody the same way, the ME, CSU, Tech and an amazing thing happened we got results, both quicker and more precise than before. I may be stubborn, hard headed, and conditioned by my training and experience, but success can lead to habit changes. The more cases we solved together, the more I began to appreciate his viewpoint on practical team leadership, and the more time I had to train him and knock some sense into his thick skull."

"Our first point of difference was based upon a matter of perspective. In my mind I led a Team of Detectives. In his I led a Team of Law Enforcement Professionals. Which approach do you think has a better chance of success? Once I embraced and practiced the big picture approach our case closure numbers went through the roof. This leads to the context of my talk and a question you need to ask yourself…. My job description says that I lead a Team of Detectives and I have the task of identifying and apprehending criminals. I know that is in error. When I take a case my mindset is that I lead a team of law enforcement professionals whose mission is to secure and provide the DA with enough information to try and convict the perpetrator of the crime. The global view, that's my context of the problem. The first question you need to ask yourself is 'Who's on your Team?' "

"Once you decide that, then you can decide how to interact with them, which was the main thrust of my lunch time and this presentation. …" Castle tuned Kate out as she started the nuts and bolts of the real presentation. They had talked about it enough and he pretty much knew what Kate was going to say. In his daydream he thought about the stories the room could tell him and the stories that some of the people could probably tell. He was sure that Connie had a story or two of interest, and Judge Auburn, surely she had some tails form her courtroom that would be of interest. 'Tails of the Courtroom' that's and idea. Oh, John Grisham probably already has that covered. Turning his imagination back to the room, Castle drifted onward.

Castle snapped back to reality when he heard Kate say, "Guys and Gals I've going to leave you with a declarative statement and a question. The type of leader you are is dependent upon you. And the question is "Who do you lead, a team of Detectives or a Team of Law Enforcement Professionals?" The applause was long, loud, and to Castle's ear genuine. When Connie presented Kate with a token of WILE's appreciation, the gallous humor in Castle thought, 'Well at least one of us will come home with some hardware from this weekend.'

Connie closed the meeting by reminding everyone that the summer meeting was in Columbus and would feature a tour of the new Forensic Laboratory at The Ohio State University, and she was certain Kate would stay around for questions.

Castle kept his seat as people stepped forward to talk with Kate. She's grown, he remarked to himself. She's become an even more complete professional. If see keeps it up she won't need to keep me around to pay the bills. She can earn her living on the lecture circuit, he thought as he watched Kate handle the first rush of questioners.

"I hope your speech tomorrow is just as good," said a voice to Castle's right.

"Excuse me," he said turning to face Judge Auburn.

"Acceptance speech, tomorrow, the Edgars, I'm one of the presenters."

"I didn't thing Judges read…."

"What mystery novels? What did you think we read?

"I think I'd better plead the 5th," he said with a smile.

"I love good mysteries. But they have to be good. The author must leave both good and bad clues. When the bad guy is finally caught or identified, it must be with material in the book, not some 'eureka' moment that came out of left field."

"What are the things about a book that turn you off?"

"Court room scenes. If it has a Court Room scene I immediately tune it out."

"Oh," said Castle a bit crestfallen.

"Sooo. Your next one has a Court Room scene?"

"Yeah."

"Tell me about it. Maybe I'll make an exception."

"One of Nikki's earliest cases has been overturned on Appeal. As the Prosecutor is having Nikki restate the facts of the case in the re-trail, she realizes that there might be an alternate interpretation that she overlooked. It would look bad if she started to actively reinvestigate so…"

"She sends in Rook. That's the only scene?"

"Yeah, seven pages I think. She's sure she's right, but she doesn't want to leave the Defense with a plausible alternate theory of the crime. After the required description of the courtroom, most of the rest of the scene is Nikki's thoughts on the question's she's being asked and her ultimate decision to ask Rook for help."

"No procedural BS?"

"None."

"Good! Maybe I can forgive you."

"Babe," called Kate.

"It looks like your 'Nikki' needs your help."

"Yeah," said Castle turning back to face the Judge. "Until tomorrow night your Honor. Sometimes I wish I handled situations as well as Rook does," he muttered.

'I think Rook would die a happy man if Nikki gave him the looks Kate gives you,' thought the Judge. "Till tomorrow night Mr. Castle and I'm expecting a dynamite acceptance speech."

Something's bothering Castle, thought Kate as they walked hand-in-hand from the meeting room, to the elevators and back to their suite. Normally they were arm-in-arm when Castle thought they were in the public's eye. 'It's an image thing,' he had explained once. That's how they played it, arm-in-arm around the station house and for formal occasions, hand-in-hand on for their private times, like walks in the park, 'Date Night', and their own special night's out. For Castle to be hand-in-hand in this venue meant his mind was elsewhere.

After entering the suite Kate spun around to face Castle, "What's bothering you Babe," she asked as she put her hand gently on his chest right above his heart.

"You've grown love. When I first meet you, you were a beautiful and intelligent woman. Over the years I grew to appreciate that you're a truly extraordinary women and now even more so. During your speech I imagined you as a beautiful butterfly that had just emerged from its cocoon and was standing in the sun flapping its wings to dry them so she could take flight for the first time."

'My love has abandonment issues,' Kate reminded herself. 'Be gentle, every woman he has loved has left him. Martha had to make a difficult choice, Rick or her career, and since the only thing she really knew how to do was act… Then his first love, Kyra, left him and went to London hoping that he would follow, then Meredith. She hurt him more than I realized. Then Gina, and he even saw Alexis growing up and leaving the Loft as leaving him. Now he has me, AND I'M NOT leaving him. How do I make him understand?'

"I sure hope you imagined the butterfly with strong arms and wings, because everywhere she flies she's taking her Castle with her." Kate's heart warmed when she saw a smile creep onto Castle's face and a twinkle appear in his eye. "You remember the movie 'Top Gun'" she asked on a whim?

"Sure, an American Classic."

"Remember the scene when Goose and Maverick were in the rec center and Goose was playing the piano?"

"'Great Balls of Fire' I believe."

"Yeah, I think you're right. What was it that Gooses' wife said?"

"One of the best lines of all time, 'Take me to bed or lose me forever.'"

"Rick, how dare you demand sex from me in such a caviler fashion," said Kate as she reached up and gently touched Castle's cheek. "I'll comply of course," she continued in a husky voice that would have driven phone sex goddess's green with envy, "Because my life would be meaningless without you." Their kiss was long, passionate and worthy of its name. Why does it only hurt when we stop, Kate asked herself as she placed her head on his chest and felt his arms encircle her? A couple of long moments later Kate arched her back and looked up at the contented smiling face of her husband. I'll remember this face forever, Kate vowed. "Take me to bed or lose me forever," she whispered. She hopped up as Castle scooped her up and laughed when she he finally settled in his arms. After pulling his head down for a brief but passionate kiss, Kate let go with one and waved toward the bedroom, "The bedroom's that way Babe. Do you need me to navigate for you?"

As soon as Kate spoke the words, she knew them to be true. Castle's path was clear. He was and is and will be a successful writer, thought Kate, and his profession would complement any path we chose. But what about our path? The last few years have spoiled me. I want Castle to be part of my work life, not someone I just come home to. If I stay on the force I know I'm going to be striving for the next promotion, and when I succeed that means less time with Castle. Perhaps I should go back to school and get my law degree, but the hours the associates put in would mean even less time with you my love, thought Kate as Castle laid her gently on the bed. I'll search for our path my love, thought Kate, and with the love we share to guide and shield us, I'm sure we'll find it.

Kate let Castle take the lead as they made love. Not that she was passive or unsupportive; it just was Kate was content to play second fiddle so to speak to Castle. Castle played Kate like a trusty guitar and the music they made was familiar but different, moving and oh so spectacular. When Kate's song began rushing toward the final crescendo, she made sure that Castle's song did too. After a cuddling interlude, the second movement began, and this time Kate led the orchestra.

Chapter 8 There's Luck and then there's Luck

After exercising, swimming and breakfast, the Castleton's parted ways. Kate would attend the last day of the Conference and Karl would continue to look into the background of one Lieutenant Edward Drake. Yesterday afternoon Kate learned that the Professor had rearranged the presentation times and Kate now had the absolute worst timeslot, right after lunch on the last day of the Conference. Indeed it was the last slot of the Conference. In addition to the after lunch 'nap syndrome' Kate was certain that a lot of the people attending the Convention would opt to miss her presentation in favor of getting an early start on enjoying Chicago's night life, especially on a Friday night.

Kate was surprised at the number of people who stayed to hear her talk. As she looked out over the audience she took a deep breath and felt her apprehension fall away as she remembered Karl's words from last night. 'Look Kate you have nothing to worry about. All of the papers that I heard were theories. You and Tommy actually built something. I think most of the guys would give their eye-teeth to be able to do what you and Tommy did. During the Question and Answer session to show how smart he is, one of the Professors will probably ask why you did something the way you did instead of his way. Acknowledge it and move on. In the end remind them that you turned marginal land into profitable farmland and are in the process of feeding the people of San Francisco and central California!'

Lieutenant Drake walked into his squad room and hoped he looked better than he felt. The events in Indiana last night took longer and were more vigorous than he had anticipated. As a result he had to 'sleep fast' so to speak. He thought that he really ought to thank that Castleton twit for her help. She had identified a couple of holes in his customer's plan and the result had been extra cash for him.

The local he had used to retrieve the lab notebooks got in an out without a hitch, and the grad student. He took care of him himself. Sometimes luck just rains on you, he thought. He had picked up the grad student as he exited a local pub, and the shortcut down the alley to his apartment had been his downfall. They will never find the body, he chuckled. The grave was under a bridge on a county road, not even a farm-to-market road and the quick lime should take care of the body quickly enough, and then the lucky part. Purdue was going on spring break and the grad student won't be missed for several weeks. By the time they think to make a connection between the Professor and the grad student the trail will be stone cold.

And speaking of luck, he chuckled to himself as he picked up his messages, how often do you get to investigate the murder you committed. The first two messages were a mixed bag. 'We were unable to find an oil gauge transducer,' translated into the customer was withholding a portion of his fee until he could find the missing two papers. The next message was a little more upbeat, 'A possible car has turned up Indianapolis,' translated into the customer was depositing cash into his account for the holes he had uncovered and filled. I really ought to thank that twit. Too bad she's with that jerk. She looks like she would be fun in bed.

But the other two messages, they were disturbing. Someone had done a DMV check on him and the note from his banker was a surprise. He had a worked a deal with the DVM clerks. He had convinced them that any inquiry was probably about the Nash-Healey and not about him and having a cop owe you a small favor can't be bad. Buy why would the bank be calling to say they would gladly loan him the money for a new house on the lake?

"Did the Castleton's alibi checkout," he asked his partner after he had sat down at his desk.

"Yeah," replied Detective McClain. "Everything they said checked out. When Professor Louis was killed they had the entire Royal Canadian Band as their alibi. Not only did they go dancing, they apparently are good dancers. So good in fact that the owner invited them back gratis. I also called Sacramento to check out that part of his story, and he really is a Deputy Sheriff. You know what else they told me? They said he was a licensed Private Investigator, both in California and New York. "

Lieutenant Drake went cold and felt a spike of fear pierce his stomach. A PI would definitely know how to run a DMV check and scam a bank for information. But why? Shit, I asked them if they had a copy of the paper. But they couldn't know about them, unless they talked to Doctor what's-his-name…Martin, Doctor Martin, and they ate lunch with him so it probably came up. I searched their room and they weren't there, but I saw the Professor hand the envelope to the desk clerk and no one else has seen them….Maybe they weren't there yet and didn't have them when I asked the question. Maybe the Professor left them at the Front Desk and when they picked them up they got suspicious. But they're not sure or else they would have gone to the Captain. I need leverage. I need something to force them to give me the papers. After which I need to kill them.

"What's the latest on the Palmer House murder," asked a familiar gruff voice?
"The person I liked for it alibied out Sir," replied the Lieutenant.

"Alibis can be bought," replied the Captain.

"I don't think so in this case Sir," replied Detective McClain. "The Castleton's went dancing. At the time of death they were on the dance floor with all kinds of witnesses including the owner of the club."

"Some of the Mayor's friends graduated from Prude. They called him to ask about the case. He just called me…. Ed I assigned this case to you because you get results. Close this case."

"Right now we don't have a motive Sir," replied the Lieutenant. "Nothing was stolen out of his room and as far as we can tell he had no real enemies. Rivals yes, but no enemies."

"But what about his research," asked Detective McClain?

"You can't steal research," replied the Lieutenant. "He was going to present the results of his research at this Conference. The Castleton woman was right. The research, his real research is contained in his lab notebooks and they are safely locked away back at the University. We'll call today to make sure."

Detective McClain kept his mouth shut. His partner had said he was going to do that yesterday. Combine that with the fact he was in the hotel bar on the night of the murder…. Things don't add up, and the rumors.

"Well somebody killed them. Find them!"

"Yes Sir," they both chirped.

The Lieutenant had Detective McClain call the university while he called around to find out what he could about the Castleton's. His friend in New York remembered the kidnap attempt and the rumors about Karl having 'alleged family connections'. Smiling, the Lieutenant reached for his coat. He had the beginnings of a plan that would solve this situation.

"Come on," he said. "We need to go back out to the Palmer House."

On the way Detective McClain told his Lieutenant about the incident that Sergeant Jordan reported on the morning on which they first met the Castleton's. "What type of a guy teaches a dame self-defense," quipped the Lieutenant?

'A man that truly loves his wife,' thought Detective McClain.

At the hotel the Detectives covered old ground with the hotel staff and finally went to the Convention area. As the last session before lunch ended, Lieutenant Drake sent McClain off to talk to Professor Martin and he cornered Kate.

"Mrs. Castleton a moment please?"

"Yes Lieutenant, any news on the case?"

"Mr. Castleton?"

"Out and about. The Field Museum I think. Look the dear is an outdoor type person and sitting here listening to the papers was killing him. So he asked and I let him go play. He'll be back soon enough. We have an early dinner planned and then we are going to a jazz club the Concierge recommended."

"We have nothing new. I'm just checking to see if you remembered anything new. Plans for the weekend?"

"Me, I'm going shopping tomorrow morning. Then I'm meeting Karl at the Russian Tea Room at two for a late lunch, and then dancing. Sunday we're going to the Reds-Cubs game at Wrigley. This will be my first game of the year, and as Karl can tell you, I love baseball."

"If you remember anything new give us a call," said a distracted Lieutenant Drake. So Karl's out trying to dig up dirt on me. He won't find anything. I've covered my tracks too well. 'Lifestyle' warned a small voice in his head. Russian Tea Room at Two. That will work. That will work just fine.

When the Detectives checked in, they were informed that the Medical Examiner was ready for them. On the way Lieutenant Drake cursed at his luck. If one of the night front desk people hadn't misfiled the Professors envelope for the Castleton's then he wouldn't be in this predicament. Tomorrow he would set things straight. He would intercept Kate on her way to the Russian Tea Room and force Karl to bring him the papers, kill them both and have the evidence point to one of the smaller Chicago families. He would collect his paycheck and get rid of an irritant. Tomorrow would be a great day.

As he drove the rented car back to the Hall of Records for Cook County, Karl kicked himself for making such a rookie mistake. Instead of only getting the current automobile registrations from his friend, he should have gotten the Lieutenant's entire registration history. No matter, he thought. It's correctable. I can use that list and the phone books for his addresses and find exactly when he got his money. Then I can go back into the Chicago Police Gazette to find out what he was up to. Maybe I'll have to hit the newspaper to find out additional details.

The car and the house purchases with three months of each other screamed at Karl to dig deeper. It was during Lieutenant Drake's first tour as a Detective and right before he joined Internal Affairs. The Chicago Police Gazette had little to say on the matter, but the newspapers were a gold mine. Apparently the weekly take from one of the mobs bookmaking operations got hit. The original theory was that it was hit by a rival mob. The investigation lead by Detective Ed Drake implicated three Police Officers that were known for their anti-mob attitudes. When a portion of the money was found in safe deposit boxes belonging to the Officers, the case made itself. There was a huge public outcry about vigilantism and the Distract Attorney was forced to prosecute. Even though the Officers maintained their innocence, and there was no direct evidence, they were railroaded and convicted. For a modest investment organized crime got rid of three honest cops and bought themselves a cop for the next generation. Soon after that Detective Drake got promoted and transferred into Internal Affairs. From there it was easy to prune cops that didn't have the right attitude.

'I want this guy' thought Karl, 'but I've got nothing.' The Hall of Records for Du Page County needs to be my next stop.

At the Du Page County Hall of Records Karl easily confirmed that the house and property that Lieutenant Drake had bought was beyond the reach of someone with only Lieutenant's pay. An additional piece of information on the record was the name of the lender, a local bank. Karl smiled as a plan formulated in his mind. Searching the records Karl found nine other properties owned by the bank.

To make this work I'm going to need a camera, thought Karl…. Why is it all of the pawn shops smell and look the same Karl asked himself as he crossed the threshold an entered Mikes. 'Mikes' was good sized. It had glass cases forming a 'U' on the outside walls and two center aisles jammed full of stuff. The smell was that more like an old Texas bar, sweat, sawdust and beer rather than a commercial establishment. Karl found what he wanted under a glass case on the window side of the room, but it was way overpriced. Karl caught the eye of the owner and immediately offered to buy the camera at ten percent of the asking price. The owner objected of course and the haggle was on! In the end Karl had acquired a good camera at a reasonable price. On a whim Karl offered top dollar for a specialized tool set. The owner declined. Karl nodded paid for the camera and was almost to the door when the owner said "Wait".

Karl turned and watched the owner pull out a rolled-up canvas tool kit from underneath the cases. Karl returned, unrolled the kit, examined each of the tools, dropped additional twenties on the counter, rolled the kit back-up, stuck it in his coat pocket and left.

Over a BLT on toast at the lunch counter in Woolworth's Karl worked through his plan. Finding no flaws he made the call.

"Good afternoon Mrs. Casey I'm glad you could see me on such short notice."

"Mr. Castleton is it? How can Du Page County Community Bank and Trust help you today?"

"As I said on the phone I'm a Private Investigator working for the County Assuror's Office. Apparently several of his Assurors came back with some pretty high assessments on several properties in the area and he wanted another set of eyes to look at the properties, photographs taken, and some research done. He doesn't want to give his neighbors a tax bill higher than they deserve, but he doesn't want them to go scot free either. The assuror said there improvements made to the home, but the county has no record of building permits. You understand? "

"Okay, how can I help?"

"Great, what I need is for you to look over this list of ten properties and tell me if the mortgage has been modified to give the homeowners extra cash that they could use for home improvements. If yes great, if no that's fine too. We want the homeowners to maintain and improve their homes, but we want the work to be done correctly. That's why we insist on building permits. It's already a matter of public record that you have the note for the house. All we would like to know is did you give them the money to help them improve it? Your bank hasn't done anything wrong. In fact loaning the folks money to improve their homes helps the entire community."

"Just a yes or a no?"

"That's all I need Ma'am."

As Mrs. Casey was finishing up Karl got to the real reason for the visit. "Say Mrs. Casey. I've been putting money away regularly, and the houses out here, well at least the ones I've seen, are real nice. I was thinking to get a loan with you guys; do I need an account with your bank?"

"Why yes, yes you do," she replied. "We require a savings account with at least a two thousand dollar balance for the life of the loan. Most of our clients keep a significant balance in savings an allow us to automatically deduct their payment at the first of the month. This allows us to offer the lowest rates in the county. I can give you an application before you leave."

'I've found your real bank,' thought Karl. "That would be swell," he responded.

Using his New York voice, Karl called Mrs. Casey again using the pay phone in front of the drug store, and learned that the Lieutenant had more than enough money to buy the house by the lake, 'You're dirty,' he thought , 'but I can't prove it.'

After loading film into his camera he did a recon of the Lieutenant's place. He took out his newly acquired took kit and regarded the back door for a long time. 'I've got no friends in this city' he thought. 'And I've got no real proof. Breaking and entering won't help. If I find something he could claim I planted it. Besides as long as he leaves us alone I'm okay. But what about the Professor? Who speaks for him? Once we get back home I'll drop some anonymous tips. Right now that's the best I can do.'

With soft music playing in the background Kate sat down on the couch. She pulled her feet under and was starting to write in her idea book. She had just finished talking to her Dad and Alex on the phone and everything was fine at home. She heard Karl come in. When she saw the look on Karl's face she knew had to tread carefully. "Hon" she asked in asked in a quiet voice?

The longer Karl explained the more ill at ease Kate felt. Finally she had had enough. "It's because of me isn't it? You aren't going after the SOB because I'm here."

Karl looked up and into Kate's eyes. The fire there was intense. "Yes … No…. Partly… Look I've got no top cover in this town. I don't have a client, and the Police are actively pursuing an investigation, and I really don't have any solid proof to take to anybody. All I have is one possible verbal slip-up. That's it. "

"…and you think the lead investigator is the killer," said Kate sarcastically.

"Yeah, and I'm not going to put the woman I love, the Mother of our son in harm's way because of a feeling. I can't fight the fight here. With you safe in Sacramento I can use my position in the Sheriff's Office to make inquiries. I may not be able to win the fight from home, but that's my best shot. That's the only way I see I can help the Professor," Karl pleaded.

"Then we fight for the Professor from home," Kate confirmed. "We'll take a copy of the paper and what we think we know and visit Judge Jenkins. If he thinks we have enough to continue then we will. If he thinks not then we drop it. Karl I love you with all my heart, but sometimes you pick a fight that's…."

Karl looked at Kate for a moment and then looked away. "Yeah a murder in a state where I don't have credentials,"

"Or a client".

"Where my chief suspect is the lead investigator, and I have no real forensics only a feeling does seem like long odds."

"Well at least you got your best girl with you, and it's Friday night," added Kate as she held out her hand.

Karl took Kate's hand and looked into her eyes. In them he saw her love for him and strength beyond measure. He knew the fight for the Professor hadn't been abandoned, only delayed.

"Damn straight."

Chapter 9 - Nothing says Saturday Night like a Bomb Threat

Kate woke slowly still feeling the afterglow of last night. She craned her neck to look at the alarm clock. Fifteen minutes before it goes off she thought. Gently rolling onto her side she looked a Castle's back. His gentle and slow snore comforted her. Kate slowly and gently reached out and traced one of the scars on Castle's back. As she did so his breathing changed and he slowly rolled to face her.

"Hey beautiful," Castle whispered.

"Hey yourself," Kate replied as she kissed his chin. She captured his arm and slowly rolled away from him. She scooted back until his bare chest touched her bare back. She trapped Castle's arm under hers and felt his hand on her chest. She sighed when their legs finally intertwined. She loved cuddling with Castle and this position made her feel safe, secure, warm, and wanted. Rick's gentle kisses on her shoulder and breath whispering past her ear only heightened her feelings of warmth and security.

When the alarm sounded, Kate broke free turned off the alarm and said, "Rise and shine."

"Five minutes" asked Castle? "I know we work out so that we can enjoy life, but isn't this one of those moments? I mean we really have nothing urgent going on right now, and cuddling with my wife was, well pleasant."

Kate hated it when Castle made sense this early in the morning. As they tried to cuddle again, both knew that the moment was lost and they should begin the day. "Castle the next time we're cuddling and I try to do something stupid like trying to turn off the alarm."

"I'll hold onto you as if my life depended on it."

"Good, Good!"

When the Castles made it to the exercise room by the pool they found a surprise. Their fans. The Castles were used to spectators at their workouts. They had them aplenty when they exercised in the Police Gym. It was after they broke out the batons that things started to get interesting. As the 'Ohs and aws' got louder, Castle got more flamboyant. Kate brought that to a halt by weaving a series of strikes that resulted in a light touch to Castle's ribs. "Concentrate Mister," she advised.

"Yes Master," Castle replied to the enjoyment of their fans. A few seconds later Kate closed and locked up with Castle. "It's Mistress," she teased just loud enough for Castle to hear. "Show me the difference again," he said in a whisper for Kate's ears only. Laughing they disengaged and continued their controlled sparing.

As they stripped down for their swim they answered the normal questions of how long have they been practicing with the baton and why. As Kate started her third lap, even the most die-hard Nikki-Heat fans concluded that breakfast was more important than watching the Castle's swim.

The Convention floor was modestly sized when compared to the truly large conventions. It was filled with all kinds of companies selling games, books, toys, jewelry anything and everything for the inner geek or imaginary warrior. For a man-child like Castle it was absolute heaven. Kate snickered when Castle stopped at the t-shirt booth and started selecting infant sized t-shirts. "What," he demanded in response to her laugh. "Our little hero needs something to spit-up and drool on." She nodded her agreement and added her favorites to the pile.

Kate stopped dead in her tracks in front of the booth of one of the silver smiths that had set up shop in the convention hall. Her eyes were drawn to a woven silver necklace that had a silver-wire butterfly hanging from it. The piece just seemed to call to her, especially after Castle's comments last night. The craftsmanship of the necklace was superb, especially at the attachment points, and the detail on the butterfly was remarkable.

"Can I wear it" asked Kate as the woman behind the counter was starting to put the necklace in a box?

"Of course dear," she said as she deftly cut off the price tag and held it up by both ends.

"Babe?"

"Hair," replied Castle as he took the necklace from the woman.

Kate lifted her hair out of the way and shivered slightly under Castle's touch. When he was done he slowly turned her around to face him and centered it on her chest. She could tell from his eyes that he was pleased with her purchase.

"You know," said the older man who was obviously the silversmith, "ounce for ounce butterflies are among the most ferocious fighters on the planet."

"I know," replied Castle his eyes not leaving Kate, and my butterfly can kick everybody's ass, "just ask Godzilla."

"He fought a moth," countered the old man with a chuckle, "and they're pansies compared to butterflies."

"That he did," acknowledged Castle, "and you do excellent work Sir," said Castle as he offered his hand.

"Thanks, an artist likes to be appreciated."

"That he does," Castle agreed.

They continued through the hall stopping to make several more minor purchases. Finally they ended at Food Court. "Hungry," asked Castle?

"Yes but be sensible."

"You call this sensible," said Kate when Castle returned with a tray containing two Polish Sausages, all the way, a cup of French fries and a couple bottles of water? After the first bite Kate was convinced that nothing that tasted this good could be good for her. After the second bite she didn't care.

"It's a running debate," said Castle after he had finished his Polish sausage, "as to which city has the best Polish Sausage Chicago or Cleveland. If Yankee Stadium had something this good I might go with you more often."

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with the hot dogs in Yankee Stadium. …Okay, point," conceded Kate in response to Castle's raised eyebrow.

They returned their purchases to their suite, quickly checked their email, and arm-in-arm entered the Black Swan pavilion for their last shift of the show. This shift, like all of the others, was a blast for Kate. The activities were the same, autographs of course, stories, discussion, and questions, but the fans were always courteous and very engaged, but for some reason Kate thought the mood of the fans had changed subtlety. Then it hit her. The fans truly wanted Castle to win the Edgar, and that fact impressed Kate immensely. When the alarm on her Dad's watch went off, too soon again, she kissed Castle goodbye and headed to her spa appointment.

As usual Castle was staring out the window with his tie undone when Kate entered the room. She had checked her appearance in the mirror in the bedroom and she liked what she saw. But the only mirror that mattered was the mirror of Castle's eyes, and from his initial reaction Kate was pleased.

Castle was watching the traffic on the street when he saw Kate's reflection in the window. Castle turned toward Kate, took two steps toward her and stopped dead in his tracks. Walking toward him was a goddess in green.

Tonight Kate had her hair up; similar to how she wore it on their wedding day. He smiled when he saw the pair of dark green lacquered chopsticks she wore on top. The jade combs where a lighter shade of green and provided a nice contrast. But the real eye catcher was the Forget-me-Nots she had woven in her hair. The color they provided just lite up in her whole face.

Kate's dress was light green silk the color of young maple leaves. It had a high Mandarin style collar and long sleeves that ballooned and fastened tightly at her wrist. The dress flattered Kate's figure and highlighted and supported her baby bump. The dress featured cranes done in darker green and white silk thread. The mid-thigh high slits allowed her to move freely. Her only accessories where a pair of emerald earrings that Castle had given her and the butterfly necklace she had just bought. All-in-all Castle thought this was Kate's loveliest outfit and her best look ever.

"When did my butterfly become such a beauty," whispered Castle as he held Kate tightly in his arms?

Kate pushed back slightly clearing some space so that she could start tying Castle's tie. "When I finally accepted the fact that the most amazing man in the world truly loved me." When she finished she gave Castle a quick kiss. "Shall we?"

"No," sighed Castle "What I really want to do…"

"Hold that thought Babe," said Kate. "Later I just might let you," she continued in a husky whisper.

"Hey Gwen," said Castle as he handed her their tickets. "So they roped you into working the check-in desk."

"I don't mind. It's not like I had a hot date planned or anything, and this way I get to watch the awards ceremony. You guys look fantastic, Kate…you are… They moved you to table three. I understand they moved all the winners forward," she said in a conspiratorial tone. "I would tell you where the bar is, but I'm sure you can find it."

"Bar finding is part of an author's DNA," agreed Castle.

After pausing for pictures, they moved toward their seats, stopping many times to chat with friends and well-wishers.

"Mineral water please kind Sir," said Kate as soon as Castle had seated her. As he stepped away he fumbled and dropped one of the bar vouchers. It floated away and landed at the edge of the head table. He glanced underneath the table as he retrieved the voucher. Under the table he saw a boxy shape and a green light. Castle couldn't resist undoing the cover. What he saw caused his mouth to go dry. "Kate," he croaked. "Kate" he tried again.

Kate's head snapped toward Castle. In all their years together she had only heard that tone of voice twice. Castle was afraid. Hurrying to his side she bent down beside him, looked under the table, and joined him in his fear. Staring back at them was a Claymore mine with what looked like a baggie of ball-bearings super-glued to the front. Behind it were some wires and electronics. To both their sets of eyes it appeared that the mine had been rigged for command detonation. Castle helped Kate stand back up. "Could you use your Police voice and…" he said nodding toward the podium.

"Rick, Kate it so nice…" Federal Judge Shelly Auburn stopped speaking when she saw the looks on their faces.

"Your Honor, did you bring your phone," asked Castle?

"Yes, why?"

"You can do two things for me. One call 9-1-1 and have the bomb squad get down here ASAP and two, get your ass out of here!"

She looked from Castle to Kate, who just pointed under the table before she turned and hurried toward the podium. After one glance Judge Auburn grabbed her phone and started to do what she was asked.

At the podium Kate turned on the microphone and began to take charge. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm Sergeant Kate Beckett. … I need for everyone to pick-up their personal belongings, proceed out of here and down to the main floor of the hotel. "

"Why," came a voice from the floor?

"We have discovered a shape that could be a bomb at the head table. Now everyone please remain calm and proceed quickly but carefully to the exit and down to the hotel."

"Kate! What kind," shouted Mike, one of the regular poker players at the Loft.
"Claymore covered will ball-bearings Mike," Kate responded.

"Traffic control," yelled Mike. Kate watched Mike turn and talk to Terry, another regular at the Loft as they hurried from the room. 'Good' she thought, 'they will try to stop the traffic coming into the room and from coming up the escalator so we don't have a backup.'

"Ladies and Gentlemen," began Kate. She stopped, the message had been received. People were moving orderly and quickly toward the exits. Kate turned and watched Castle. She was fascinated as he turned up the table cloth and bunting at table after table. Then she shivered when she realized that he was exposing mines.

"Babe," she said over the loudspeaker.

Castle looked up, nodded, went to the center aisle and opened his arms wide. Kate needed no other encouragement. "Judge it's time to ..."

"Go," said Judge Auburn as she grabbed Kate's hand and hurried toward Castle.

"Ladies," said Castle as he turned and offered them his arms, "Please allow me the honor of escorting your gorgeous asses out of her."

"I'm old school Mr. Castle," quipped the Judge. "I don't kiss on the first date, especially since you brought your wife along."

"Your Honor seriously didn't think I was sharing did she," replied Kate as they hurried toward the exit, but with style. All of them saw the camera flashes as the exited the room, and indeed the picture of the three of them exiting the room made page one in Chicago and page twelve in New York.

"Detective!" shouted a voice. Kate scanned the floor as she rode the escalator down to the Hotel Lobby. "Detective!" boomed the voice again, this time with a hand waving overhead. Kate waved her hand in acknowledgment and then tapped the Judge on her shoulder. "Your Honor I think we need to talk with the Sergeant over there."

"Agreed."

Sergeant Murphy was impressive in his blues. From his Sergeant's stripes to the hash marks on his sleeves denoting years of service, it was clear that he was in charge. His manner and body language radiated calm. It was clear that and no matter what the situation was, he would approach it calmly and professionally. He inclined his head toward the Judge and turned to face Kate. "Detective what are we facing?"

Kate took a glance at Castle, nodded, took a breath and began her summary. "Sergeant we have multiple claymore mines. Each mine appears to have a bag of ball-bearings attached to its face and all of them appear to have been modified for command detonation. "

"How many?"

"I only had the time to uncover ten tables," said Castle, "but each table had two mines. The mines were positioned in a manner that would cut the entire table party to shreds. "

"There are over sixty tables Sarge," added Kate softly.

Sergeant Murphy nodded and keyed the mike for his radio. "Dispatch, this is One-Sierra Seventeen. Patch me through to Captain Thurmond."

After a moment, "What do you have for me Gabe?"

"Tom you've got multiple claymores covered with ball-bearings configured for command detonation."
"What's the source?"

"A Homicide Detective and her partner."

"Okay, multiple uhn? How many?"

"At least twenty and maybe as high as a hundred and twenty."

"Christ! … We're five out, make sure I've got access and Gabe tell the Hotel Manager to clear the place. If they can deploy that much hardware in one room who knows what else they have hidden. I'm ordering the dogs in."

"Roger out."

Sergeant Murphy raised his hand again and whistled. Moments later seven uniforms converged on the group. "Okay guys we are going to need to evacuate the building. Tom head over there and inform the manager. If he screams let me know. Mike keep making sure no one goes up the escalator. You guys," he said looking at the remainder of the detail, "Crowd control, and make sure that the people leaving don't get in the way of the bomb squad they should be here in a couple. Go." He looked around as his troops left on their assignments. "Detectives," he yelled "over here."

"Detectives, Judge Auburn called it in and Detective Beckett and Mr. Castle spotted the devices," said the Sergeant as a way of introduction. "They can help you with that part of the problem." With a nod Sergeant Murphy headed toward a knot of people that were blocking the entrance.

After the three had retold their story, several times, they were released.

"Well Mr. Castle," said the Judge with a twinkle in her eye. "I asked for a dynamite acceptance speech and you certainly gave me dynamite. "

"Well Your Honor," replied Castle "You do realize I would have to win the award first?"

"Details," she laughed. "I hear enough of those at work. Bye you two and it's been a pleasure meeting you both."

"Bye," smiled Kate. After a moment she looked up at Castle. "Feed me I'm starving."

"Steakhouse across the street?"

"We can try."

Castle took off his jacket and draped it over Kate's shoulders and led her outside, across the street and into the same Japanese Steakhouse that they ate at on Wednesday night. Kate watched the Hostess's eyes widen and her mouth form a little 'O'. 'Yes child' Kate thought, 'this is exactly how your hair should look like and you should never over accessorize,' as she noted the multiple earrings and layers of necklaces.

"Two please," said Castle."

"You're in luck," she said "I can seat you guys in ten to fifteen minutes. What's the name?"

After they had been seated in the waiting area by the bar and Castle retuned with mineral water for Kate and iced team for him Kate leaned in an asked, "Acceptance speech? I would love to hear it."

"It's in my coat pocket."

There was nothing in Castles left hand interior pocket, and the right pocket contained the bar vouchers that probably saved the lives of many people this evening, but no speech. Kate looked at Castle and fixed him with a soft glare.

"Not there? I guess I would have to wing it then. I would start by saying the reason that this book is better than the rest is the support given to me by my lovely wife. She fed me when I forgot to eat. Kissed me on the forehead when I got things right. Kicked me in the ass when I deserved it, but most of all she never let me forget that she loves me. Her love is all the support and inspiration any man would ever need."

Kate leaned close and gently kissed Castle on the lips. "You know, you just might get lucky tonight."

Castle reached up and gently touched Kate's cheek and then reached down and grabbed her hand. No other words were needed.

Kate snickered as once again Castle waved to Maneki-neko, the beckoning cat, she thought she felt her spirits lift when she crossed the nosily running water, whose 'magic' was supposed to help the patrons leave their worldly concerns behind and allow them to enjoy the dinner, and blessed as she passed through the Torii, the good luck gate.

"You again," said the same chef who created Wednesday's night's meal. "Who did you bring with you this time?"

"Well I brought my best friend in the whole universe, Kate," he said as he held up her hand, "And eight new friends whose names I don't know yet." In short time they learned that the couple on the end was celebrating their second anniversary, and parents and grandparents were celebrating the birthdays of twin seven your old girls. After the introductions the chef got busy, and the show and the food were once again outstanding.

After Kate had finished both hers and Castle's Green Tea ice cream, they took their leave and headed back to their hotel. Entering the lobby, the Castle's noticed a decidedly different makeup in the law-enforcement ranks. "It looks like the boys in Blue…" began Kate.

"Have been replaced by the white shirt and sunglasses crowd," completed Castle. To their eyes the place was crawling with FBI Agents. To their surprise they made it across the lobby, to the elevators and up to the floor of their suite. As they rounded the corner their luck ran out. Standing in front of their suite door were two agents.

"Well so much for a hot shower and a movie," whispered Kate.

"Sergeant Beckett? Mr. Castle? We are Agents Smith and Jones. We are from the FBI and we need to talk to you about tonight's events."

"Smith and Jones, seriously" laughed Castle?

"We do get that a lot."

"I guess it's not going to matter if I told you we already gave our statements to the Chicago PD," said Kate.

"No, Sorry Detective."

"Then you might as well come in," said Castle. "Can I get you something?"

"Where good thanks," they both replied.

After giving their statements and seeing them to the door Castle turned back to Kate and said. "This has the makings of a first class clusterfuck."

"Yeah, but it's not our clusterfuck. You know I certainly could use a shower and a back rub."

"Want some company?"

Kate's smile was all the answer Castle needed.

Chapter 10 –Of Shopping, Tea, Villains and Tails

Kate's path to consciousness was interrupted by the soft growl of a great hunting cat. 'Kate?'

'Remain calm, keep your wits about you and Karl will find you.' In the background Kate heard another loud, authorative growl. 'Kate, Karl WILL find you in time'. In the background Kate heard an even louder more defiant growl. Kate heard Kate's answering growl rise to support her mate's then silence. Kate was shivering when she finally woke. 'Good hunting you two and thanks…. So something will happen to me soon and if I keep my wits about be Karl will rescue me. I can live with that.' Kate turned her head and looked at Karl. The easy rise and fall of his chest was plain to see, and his sleeping face was clear of pain and worry. She moved closer and lightly cuddled with him. The gentle hug and kiss on the top of her head surprised her. Her lips found his offering and hoping for more. When Karl rolled her on top, she got her wish.

After breakfast the Castleton's parted company. Kate to her favorite pastime, shopping and Karl to one of his favorite places, the Field Museum. Karl loved the permanent exhibits and the temporary one's the Museum was always setting up. Today he could wander around as he wished. He had only two 'must dos', buy a couple of bags of dinosaurs from the museum for Alex and meet Kate for lunch at the Russian Tea Room. As Karl turned the corner and entered one of his favorite exhibits, he couldn't wait for Alex to grow old enough so he could share it with him.

Kate's first stop was the Tailor shop that was making a tuxedo for Karl. She felt bad that Karl didn't have room to pack a tux and she was determined to make it up to him. She had another ulterior motive. Karl had two tuxedos and both of them were cut conventionally. This tuxedo had extended tails like some Fred Astaire would wear in a movie.

As Kate walked into the store she could feel the history. It was a lot bigger than Kate imagined it to be. The left side of the store specialized in gentlemen's ware, and the right side woman's. After just a minute it was clear to Kate that this was a family owned business presided over by a relatively handsome man in his early fifties and his still trim and attractive wife.

"Can I help you Ma'am," asked one of the sons?

"Hi, I had a tuxedo made for my husband."

"Of course, this way please… Dad," he called out. "Mrs. Castleton. He'll take care of you."

Mr. Maxwell waved Kate to a chair, ducked behind a curtain and brought out Karl's new tux. Kate stood as Mr. Maxwell hung the tuxedo on a peg. Kate pretended to examine the stitching on the sleeves of the jacket and then flipped it around to look at the length of the tails. She stepped back and imagined the jacket on Karl and them dancing. She liked what see imagined. "Looks great Mr. Maxwell, let me see, pants, jacket, cape, shirt, cummerbund, shirt studs, cuff links, tie...tie. Mr. Maxwell I need a tie."

"We have a nice selection of clip-ons," said the youngest son.

Kate's glare was severe.

"Clearly, Mr. Castleton doesn't like clip-ons. How wide of a tie does he normally wear?"

"Let's go with something slightly wider than normal."

"Basic black?"

"Always"

"Okay, there's the tie anything else?"

"Gloves."

"Yes, we have a bit of problem there. The only gloves we have in his size are light gray."

"Okay. I'm going to need a new pair, arm length, size fourteen."

The son who suggested the clip-on tie scurried over to the woman's side to get Kate a selection of gloves to choose from.

"Looks fantastic Mr. Maxwell. Karl is going to be surprised and I'm going to be happy to be seen on his arm."

"I don't mean to be forward, but are you guys going dancing at the Tap Room tonight? My wife and I were there Wednesday and you guys were fantastic."

"Yeah, we are. I'm wearing my favorite dress and Karl deserves to be seen dancing in a tux," said Kate and the pride in her voice was clearly evident. "Can you guys get this to the hotel?"

"Sure as soon as we wrap it up, I'll put Tommy in a cab and off he goes to the Palmer House. A question for you, would you consider letting us make a dancing dress for you?"

Kate thought for the moment, the tux did look fantastic, and they were going to deliver the Professor's papers to Purdue in a couple weeks, so stopping over and spending the night in Chicago was probably in the cards.

"Yes, that would be nice. The problem is I'm cash light right now. You would have to let me wire you the money from home."

"Done, but first I need to make a phone call first. I want to see you dance in your favorite dress!"

For the next hour or so Kate worked with Mrs. Maxwell to get the proper measurements and Kate's likes and dislikes in the dress. When Kate left she felt very pleased with herself. Karl's tux was fantastic. She was getting a new dress at a great price, and she had a feeling that tonight was going to be fantastic.

Kate was on autopilot for the rest of her shopping, play clothes for Alex, a pair of pipes for her Dad and some lingerie for her.

Kate was all smiles as the waitress escorted to her table. I'm early; she thought but no matter Karl will be here soon and tonight Karl will be surprised.

"Mrs. Castleton," said a familiar voice. "I need you to write a note for your husband and come with me."

"Why would I do that Lieutenant Drake," asked Kate? "You can talk to Karl yourself in a couple of minutes."

"Things will go easier for you if you co-operate. I'm a cop. I can cuff you and take you out of here and nobody will lift a finger. Do you really want to leave that way?"

In a flash she remembered Kate's words 'Remain calm, keep your wits about you and Karl will find you.' "What do you want the note to say," asked Kate with a tone of resignation in her voice.

"Tell him to go to the hotel and expect a call."

Kate pulled a pen and a small notebook out of her purse and wrote,

'karL I'm okay, talk to no one, go to the hotel, expect a call lovE U kate'

"Will this do?"

"Give it to the hostess on our way out."

Karl was whistling softly and off-key as he paid off the taxi and entered the Russian Tea Room. Kate was not waiting in the foyer, and a quick glance confirmed she wasn't already seated. "Castleton reservation," he said as he approached the maître d station.

"She was here and left with another gentlemen Sir," she said apologetically. "She left this note for you."

Puzzled Karl accepted the note. His heart leapt to his throat for a moment then he nodded. "Miss I need to use your phone."

"I'm sorry Sir this phone is for…"

"I need to call the Police. My wife has just been kidnapped."

The hostess made no attempt to stop him as he grabbed the phone, called the Police and talked to Detective McClain.

When Sergeant Stevenson heard the radio call directing another unit to go to the Russian Tea Room and hold Mr. Castleton until Detective McClain arrived, he had his partner inform dispatch that they were en-route to act as supervision. As it was they were the first ones on the scene. Sergeant Stevens entered the Russian Tea Room and easily spotted Karl standing near the maître d station. He recognized Karl's body language. He had seen it many times in the war. Karl was ready to do battle.

"Tom," he called out as he spied the manager, "We are going to need to use your office. There should be another pair of Officers and a Detective joining us." Once in the office Karl sat down at the desk, pulled out a blank piece of paper and a pen and started writing.

"Karl," asked Sergeant Stevenson?

"Sarge, Lieutenant Drake kidnapped Kate. Let me finish writing this, and when Detective McClain gets here I'll start from the top."

"You sure?"

Karl handed him the note. "Just look at the caps."

"L-I –E –U short for Lieutenant."

"Since we only know one Lieutenant…and when I described Lieutenant Drake, the hostess confirmed he was the man Kate left with."

"Smart," confirmed Officer Jordan.

"Kate is that and a lot more," said Karl. Karl had time to finish writing before Detective McClain and the other two Officers arrived. With everyone present Karl started from the beginning and told them what he knew about the Lieutenant, what he suspected about the murder, the Lieutenant's gaffe about the paper, and that he was certain that Lieutenant Drake kidnapped Kate.

When Karl finished, Detective McClain added supporting details, confirming that the Lieutenant was at the hotel the night of the murder, and informing all that the Professor's lab notebooks were stolen, probably the next day, after Kate suggested that they might be at risk.

"Intentions," asked McClain?

"I'm sure he took her to his house in Du Page. It's isolated enough. Here," said Karl handing the Detective the letter he had written. "I intend to go out there and rescue my wife. I know it's outside your jurisdiction. So…"

"A dying declaration?"

"It's the best I can do."

"Do you think Kate's life is in danger?"

"If I did hand over the papers, he would have no incentive to let her live."

"Extenuating circumstances," said Sergeant Stevenson.

"Let's go," said Detective McClain.

"Your husband has had plenty of time to return to the hotel by now," said Drake. "This is third time I've called. Why doesn't he pick up?"

"He's not there," Kate said through a split lip. "He's coming for you, you know." Kate was sitting in a straight backed chair next to the desk in the den. Her hands were tied in front, and the right side of her face was starting to swell slightly. Lieutenant Drake had not liked Kate's answers about not having the papers and had smacked her around trying to intimate her.

"Then get over here and entertain me before I call him again."

At the front of Lieutenant Drake's house Karl took out his newly acquired tools and paused. It was a set of tools like this that got him into trouble as a teen and lead to the Judge giving Karl the option of prison or volunteering to fight in World War II. 'And now the most important thing to me in the whole world is behind this locked door.' Karl easily unlocked the door. Leaving the door open he walked in to the foyer that opened up on the house's central hallway. 'I should have got a copy of the plans. Where are you Kate?' Ahead and to his left he heard voices. Silently he moved forward.

"No," Kate said in a loud voice. Karl hurried toward his wife's voice. Karl heard footsteps a loud slap, a yelp from Kate and the sound of ripping cloth.

"I told you to entertain me," half yelled Lieutenant Drake.

Karl entered the Lieutenant's den. It was a big room, maybe 40 foot long and 15 foot wide. On Karl's left were windows that provide a great view of the patio and the backyard beyond, but Karl only had eyes for Kate and the man currently standing over her.

"You shouldn't have done that," said Karl quietly. "I would have given you anything for Kate's safe return but now…" Karl continued walking toward them slowly removing his jacket.

Drake spun around when he heard Karl's voice. He hauled Kate out of her chair and positioned her in front of him as a shield, drew his weapon and held it pointed at Kate's head.

"Stop right there. Where are the papers?"

"Safe, in my suitcase in the hotel," lied Karl. "I don't have time for this," continued Karl as he walked closer. "I need to put this jacket on Kate before she catches cold."

'Time,' thought Kate. He brought backup and he's playing for time. 'I need to help.'

"That was easy. What's to stop me from killing you both, going to the hotel and collect the papers?"

"Before I came here I wrote a dying declaration. You know what that is right? In it I said that you killed the Professor and would probably kill us. I sent it to Kate's lawyers here 'Reynolds and ….'"

"Reynolds," completed Kate.

"If I don't call them, then they will take the letter to the DA. All they have to do is look at your finances and you're screwed. …I found your second bank you know. It wasn't hard, and tying your first big payday to the case were you framed your police brothers wasn't hard either. That will make you very popular."

As Karl talked he walked closer and closer to the Lieutenant and when Drake moved the gun so that it wasn't aimed at her head Kate struck just like Karl had taught her. Her heal snapped down on Drake's instep and made a satisfying crunching sound. Twisting, she spun and drove the point of her elbow into his stomach. It didn't hit hard, but hard enough to cause Drake to gasp for air. These efforts loosened Drake's grip and Kate spun free.

As Karl was walking forward he folded his jacket over his arm and was watching Kate while trying to maintain eye contact with Drake. When Kate struck he flung his coat at Drakes head. When Drake instinctively raised his hands to protect his face Karl leaped in and grabbed his gun hand. Drake was big, strong, and trained, a very dangerous combination. Karl's distraction and Kate's strikes had left him slightly disoriented, off-balance and winded. Karl was able to force the gun high with the barrel pointing at the ceiling. Somehow Drake was able to squeeze the trigger, three times. After the third shot, Karl was able slam Drake's gun hand on the corner of the stout desk. On the second impact the gun flew free. Karl raised Drakes hand for the third time, stepped-in, spun and executed a textbook perfect shoulder throw. Instead of using his group to slow his opponents fall, Karl accelerated it and followed up with a knee into the ribs that left no doubt that several of them were broken.

Kate almost felt sorry for Drake when Karl's first right hand hit him in the gut. 'The head is for the movies' she remembered Karl saying. 'Or for boxers with gloves. It's hard, has teeth, and you can easily break your hand. The body is money. If the dude can't breathe, then he can't swing at you. After a few good hits most people are down puking their guts out.' Drake was no exception.

"Kate," said a strange voice. Kate looked up and saw Sergeant Stevenson and Officer Jordan, the two officers from the exercise room incident, Detective McClain, and two other Officers rushing toward her. "Kate" said Sergeant Stevenson pointing at Karl.

"Karl," Kate yelled "He's had enough." Karl looked back at Kate then down at Drake and nodded. He deftly flipped the Lieutenant over onto his stomach and positioned his hands in the middle of his back, ready to be cuffed. He pushed himself off-of the floor, retrieved his jacket and wrapped it around Kate.

"Cuff him guys," Said Sergeant Stevenson. "Take him to County and get him cleaned up. When you're through at the hospital bring him back to the precinct. He's charged with kidnapping and attempted sexual assault."

The Officers moved to obey, but all other eyes were on Karl and Kate. He had wrapped her up in his jacket and was holding her at arm's length. Tears were leaking from her eyes, but otherwise she was solid. "Your note was a work of art," they heard Karl say.

"Kate told me that if I kept my wits you would find me, and you would find me in time. Detective, "Kate said not taking her eyes from Karl. "Please take Drakes keys and remove my shopping from the trunk of his car. While you're there you might want to examine the dark spot on the trunk covering. It looked like blood to me, and you might have someone look at the dirt on the shovel. Someone may be able to tell you where he buried the body he said we would never find. If the quicklime bag is any indication of his planning then we need to be quick about it."

"He has already delivered the papers and lab books to his client," Kate offered in response to the unasked question.

"He's smart," said Karl. "He won't walk into an office building carrying a box, he would use a briefcase. Like the one over there. Kate let me get you a glass of water from the kitchen."

"I think I'd better accompany you," Said Detective McClain.

In the kitchen Karl filled a glass of water and clumsily dropped it. After cleaning up the mess, he took the broken glass out to the trash can on the back porch. Next to the trash can was a box. A box that had Professor Robert Louis's name clearly marked on it.

The Detective ran the sequence of events through his head, water, broken glass, the broken glass to the garbage can, and finally the found box. The box would hold up in court as a legal search. "Mr. Castleton you're one devious SOB."

"When I catch a fish, I want it to stay caught."

At the station house the Captain and an Inspector appointed by the Chief ran at the Castleton's … hard. After three hours of polite answers backed by facts, the Officers backed off and released them.

From the time they entered their suite until the time they caught a cab for the Tap Room, and their night of dancing, the Castleton's operated in a state of controlled panic. They knew they had enough time, but it was going to be tight. The breaking and turning point occurred when Kate threw down her hair brush in disgust. She had planned to get her hair done, but with the inquisition lasting as long as it did there was no time. The best she could do was long and straight, perhaps gathered into a clasp. Serviceable but not spectacular, and definitely not want she had dreamed.

"Sit," commanded Karl, as he saw the look of panic on his wife's face. After brushing out her hair again, he laid the brush down and began the job of weaving Kate's hair into a tight French Braid. He finished by weaving three flowers into her hair, one over each ear and one at the end of the pony tail. "No hat for you tonight," he teased.

"Karl where did you…." Kate asked softly?

"My sister. She would ask when Mom was at work..."

"I didn't…"

"She died when I was twelve. Wrong place, wrong time. She caught a bullet on the way home from the corner grocery. She went there with Mom and..."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm okay," he told Kate's reflection in the mirror. "I have only fond memories of them. They would have loved you. This," he said touching Kate's hair, "helps me honor their memory."

"Your Mom?"

"Same place, different bullet. Can we?"

Kate spun around, stood up and gave Karl a truly passionate kiss. "Keep the memories of your loved one's close," she breathed in Karl's ear. "And they will always be with us." After another quick kiss she continued, "The next time we are in New York we take flowers to their graves, clear?"

Kate put her head on Karl's chest before the mist in his eyes could form.

Karl, like his alternate time alter ego, waited by the window. He was watching the traffic on the street below waiting for his Kate to emerge. As always the wait was worth it. She was wearing her favorite dancing dress, a silk job, the color of a robin's egg. Her only accessories were the flowers in her hair and a pair of diamond stud earrings. Simple, beautiful and elegant, that describes my Kate he thought. He met her halfway and pulled her into a quick but meaningful kiss. When they broke, he hugged her and then held her at arm's length.

Kate watched his eyes hardened. "I'm okay, Karl really. I know these things are starting to blacken and tomorrow and the next day they will be almost impossible to conceal. But tonight. Tonight I'm not going to let that bastard rob be of a night of dancing with the man I love. Got it," she half pleaded?

"The tails on this tux are certainly long," Karl replied.

"By the time we're through," Kate replied confidently, "I expect those tails to be able to tell tales."

"Never marry an author," quipped Karl.

They arrived at the Tap Room just as the Royal Canadians were starting their first song. They quickly settled into their seats, drink most of a glass of water and impatiently waited for the song to end. As the notes of the first song were fading away the Castleton's moved to the center of the floor. Tonight they needed no warm-up. The Castleton's were off as soon as the first note was played. As good as they were on Wednesday, tonight they were better. Maybe it was the fact that this their third dancing night this week, or maybe it was the shared danger experience, or maybe it was the fact that tonight they just wanted to enjoy life, it was obvious to those watching that tonight a great pair of dancers was on the floor.

They attacked the up-tempo sings, moved slow and sinuously with the slowest songs, and showed the house just home much fun the mid-tempo songs could be. Like their last visit Karl fully appreciated the Bandmaster's song and tempo selection. His playing two slow songs back to back enabled them to catch their collective breaths and finish out the entire set on the floor. As they made their way back to their table, they were slightly winded, but impatient to begin again.

Waiting for them at the table was Tammy, their waitress from the previous night; she was already pouring them glasses of water. "You guys were fantastic," she gushed. "Mrs. Castleton your dress and hair is …. Mr. Castleton those tails are…"

"Slow down," said Kate with a huge smile, "And thanks. I'm Kate by the way and this handsome lug is Karl."

"The boss doesn't like the wait staff using first names. He says it's unprofessional."
"Then we won't tell him," said Karl as he started to take off his gloves.

Tammy replaced the pitcher on the table and then took the top off the bowl of almonds. "When I heard you were coming I begged Mr. James to let me take care of you. When you didn't show I got worried."

"We were… delayed," said Kate. She watched Tammy's eyes track from the table to her face and react with her lips forming and 'O'. Kate watched Tammy's face harden as her eyes tracked to Karl's bloody and bruised knuckles. "It wasn't like that," Kate said. "It will never be like that." Kate reached out and covered Karl's hand. "I was kidnapped by a cop," Kate said in a low voice talking directly to Tammy. "Karl found me and rescued me before he could… rape me." Kate felt relieved. It's one thing to say it in the precinct house and quite another to say it to a stranger sitting by the dance floor. She looked at Karl and smiled. That terror is behind me now she realized. I can move ahead now. "You may read about it in the papers," Kate added.

"A cop? Wow."

"Yeah," said Karl as put down his empty glass. "A cop is one we are supposed to be able trust without question. They are the ones we run to in times of trouble. They are there to protect us. They are supposed to be our…"

"Guardians, I know" finished Tammy as she filled Karl's glass again. "My Dad's a Cop."

Kate saw the pained expression on Karl's face and the faraway look in his eyes. "I know one Guardian that won't dishonor his badge, or fail to help the people he protects, even if he is only a volunteer." Kate felt the gentle squeeze of her hand and she met Karl's eyes as his searched her face. "I love you" she whispered. She heard Karl exhale and momentarily tighten his grip on her hand. 'It appears both of us have conquered demons tonight,' she thought.

Tammy stated to walk away but skipped back. "One other thing, the House band…"

"Of course we are going to stay and dance," said Kate.

She turned to walk away but turned back instead.

"Autographs?"

After Karl signed the Playbill he reached into his wallet, pulled out a twenty, folded it and half and handed it to Tammy.

"I'll take good care of you guys," she gushed as she left with the now empty water pitcher.

The Castleton's sat hand-in-hand, unconcerned by the silence between them. A light touch and a smile was all of the reassurance that they needed. They acknowledged the friendly waves and nods of total strangers with casual grace. Finally Kate looked over Karl's shoulder and smiled.

"Karl this is Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell. They made your tux."

Karl turned and saw a well-dressed, middle aged couple wearing huge grins. He rose and offered the lady his seat.

"I couldn't," she said kissing Karl on his cheek. "We aren't going to stay long anyway."

"Look," said Karl leaning in close to Mrs. Maxwell. "Kate has spent YEARS trying to teach me manners, and if you don't sit she will be mad at me."

Mrs. Maxwell looked from Karl's face to Kate's, which had a hint of a smile. "Well to keep peace in the family." She sat down then reached out and grabbed Kate's hand. "He's a charmer, so this is your favorite dancing dress…"

"You do good work," said Karl as he held out his hand.

"Thanks," said Mr. Maxwell. And for the next several minutes, while the women talked about dresses Karl learned more about tuxedo's than he would ever use.

A couple of minutes after Tammy returned with a fresh pitcher of water, the band members started to return to their chairs. When Guy Lombardo appeared, Kate grabbed Karl's hand and they headed toward the dance floor. They floated through the second set, mesmerizing all who watched with their beauty, power, and grace.

When the Royal Canadians signature song, Auld Lang Syne, started they stopped and sing, pleased to find themselves next to the Maxwell's. For the first song of the encore set, Kate danced with Mr. Maxwell, and Karl his wife. When the last song of the set started, appropriately enough Canadian Sunset, the Castleton's tried to make it their best dance yet.

As the applause died down they made their way back to their seats where Tammy was waiting with a fresh pitcher of water. After pouring she kissed each one of them on the cheek and scurried away.

"If you kiss another strange woman tonight mister," said Kate with a smile, "I'm going to clobber you."

"The only woman worth kissing is three feet away, and we are in a very public and crowed place."

"So kiss her," teased Kate. "If they arrest us it won't be the first time today that we've been in a Police Station." Karl leaned in and shared a chaste kiss with Kate, a kiss that was publicly acceptable, but promised more.

"That's a start," said Kate.

When the Bandmaster of the house band looked in their direction, the Castleton's left their seats and headed toward their stage area. As the Castleton's approached the set of the House band Karl spun Kate around to face him. With a bow he said in a voice loud enough for the entire band to hear, "My Lady, may I have the honor of this dance?"

Kate curtsied, her smile lighting up the dance floor, and in an equally loud voice replied, "My Lord, all my dances are yours." When they came together the bandleader turned and looked at his bandmates. Even though they knew that the Castleton's came from California, they knew in their hearts that they were playing for dancing royalty.

The band started out with a long slow song. When they heard through the grapevine that the only people in the world that had danced for them as they closed the night were coming back, they planned and rehearsed their 'Goodbye' set like fanatics. It set started with a slow dance and progressed to something moderate. The third song was upbeat, but not at a break neck tempo, moderate again for the next song, followed by another long slow dance, and then Stardust.

The Castleton's had always ended Stardust 'with a kiss to build on' and tonight wasn't an exception. They stood forehead-to-forehead for several seconds after they completed their kiss. With the applause still raining down from the staff and the remaining patrons who decided to stay and have one last drink before heading elsewhere Kate and Karl turned and bowed to the bandleader and began clapping. As the bandleader started to turn around he discovered that his band members were already on their feet, and on a count of two they returned the Castleton's salute.

'They're real good,' thought two men for two different reasons. One headed down to talk to the band, the other to intercept the Castleton's.

"Hi, I'm Tim Fox," said a well-dressed man in his early thirties flourishing a business card. "I'm a talent scout and I think I can make you guys rich and famous."

"I'm already rich," said Kate with a smile as she accepted her shawl from one of the coat check girls and handed it to Karl, "and I think fame is over rated."

"No, I think I can make you really really rich."

Kate opened her clutch purse, extracted a business card and offered it to Mr. Fox. He looked at it then quickly looked back at Kate. It was impossible not to recognize the company name.

"Yes she is," said Karl as he settled Kate's shawl on her shoulders. "Thank you though; it's nice to know that people like watching us dance."

Tim smiled and recovered quickly, "Well could you guys at least send me a box of oranges at Christmas? … Best dancers I've ever seen…" heard Karl as Tim strolled away.

He fastened his new cape around his neck and stepped to Kate's side as Mr. James approached. "You guys are still invited back any time you want," added Colin James, the owner of the Tap Room.

"We have some business at Purdue in a couple of weeks," offered Kate, "and I think we could be persuaded to spend the night in Chicago."

"In a couple of weeks I'll have Tommy Dorsey's band here. They hinted that Frank Sinatra may join them for a show or two, the catch is that the proceeds all go to charity."

"Frank Sinatra, that would be wonderful," Kate cooed.

"If that happens, I'll still find you a table, even if I have to reseat the Mayor."

After dinner at the Palmer House Karl scooted his chair around so he and Kate could share another 'Triple Dose of Goodness' desert. After a couple of bites Karl stopped when he saw Kate get a faraway look in her eyes.

"This is going in one of your stories isn't it?"

"Yeah," she replied. "Centerpiece in fact. The story just laid itself out. I was just marveling at how the little unconnected things almost always seem to lead to other things. The most important things."

"Like how a very sweet desert helped us recognize something out of the ordinary?"

"Yeah"

"I hope you don't make your story too complicated."

"I won't," she vowed. "You know what's sweeter than this desert," she asked after taking another bite? When Karl shook his head no she continued, "Making love with the man of your dreams."

Chapter 11 - Draft Day

Kate woke to the fading sound of music and the taste of a kiss on her lips. She looked toward Castle, who was staring at her with eyes wide open. "Dance lessons, first thing on my list."

"I hope not," she whispered as her lips sought his.

After incredible sex, their morning exercise and breakfast Castle found himself walking hand-in-hand with Kate into the Art Institute of Chicago, and marveling to himself at how quickly the definition of a perfect Sunday had changed.

Before Kate had decided to join him, Castle had planned what he thought was a perfect Sunday. He would start at the Shedd aquarium, move on the Field Museum, and end up at the Adler Planetarium. From there he would head west, find a Giordano's Pizza place near the United Center, and end the day watching his beloved Knicks play the Bulls.

Now, he was on a museum crawl with Kate, three Art related and the Museum of Law. He had also traded his Knicks-Bulls ticket for a pair of tickets to see the Blue Man Group. But if Kate hadn't come along, then this morning wouldn't have happened and …

"Earth to Castle, Earth to Castle, come in Rick," sang a musical voice. "Where were you?"

"In bed with my lovely wife," Castle answered truthfully looking down at Kate and giving her hand a gentle squeeze.

"Men" exclaimed Kate without any heat in her voice! Castle found the flash in Kate's eyes, the touch of pink on her cheeks and the grin on her face oh so inviting. "Top ten, it was," she whispered in her best Yoda like voice.

"Star Wars, seriously" Castle smiled back.

As they were about to leave the second gallery Castle joking remarked, " Every time I go in a museum like this I half expect to a nude study of the most remarkable woman in the world."

Kate's sudden stop caught him by surprise. "What would you do if you saw it," Kate asked timidly as she reached out and grabbed Castles other hand and centered him in front of her? Castle looked into Kate's eyes. Each remembered the nude painting of Kate that was done while she was in college and now hanging in their house in the Hamptons.

"I would admire it of course. Then I would count myself the luckiest man in the world because she said yes."

Kate dropped his hands, reached up and pulled Castle's head down for a long and very enthusiastic kiss.

"What was that for?"

"Because you asked."
Castle looked down, lost in Kate's eyes and buoyed by her smile. "They have surveillance cameras you know."

"What are they going to do? Criticize my technique," she asked as she pulled Castle into another kiss?

"No," quipped Castle after they broke. "They are going to edit it and sell it as a training video." Kate's smile lite up the entire hall and her laughter echoed off of the walls.

Midway to the third gallery Kate tilted her head and gave Castle a quizzical look. He was humming 'Promenade' one of the songs from 'Pictures at an Exhibition'. What was even more amazing; the song fit exactly what they were doing. "I didn't know you listened to the classics."

"It's good to know that you consider Emerson, Lake and Palmer classic," he quipped. Castle survived Kate's hip bump, but just barely. As they entered the third gallery Kate's phone went off, her work phone. The phone Castle had grown to hate. It also called them to a case. It always seems to ring just when they were about to…

"Detective Beckett…Yes he's here with me… sure"

"That was Marshal Appleby. You remember her?"

"From Friday night, yeah."

"She asked us to come down to the FBI building on Roosevelt. She said it concerns last night."

"Okay," said Castle as he pulled Kate in a kiss. Looking at her pleasantly stunned face Castle chuckled. "I thought I'd steal a kiss now. I think we are going to be too busy later."

"Men" Kate exclaimed with a huge grin on her face!

I'll give the FBI credit, thought Castle as he and Kate were met, credentialed and rushed up to one of the floors that was used to host temporary task forces, when it's in their interest they can make the bureaucracy sing and dance. From appearances, it looked like they were the last two to show up for the meeting. After seating Kate, Castle walked around and took his seat. It was on the opposite side of the table from Kate.

"This task force has been created," began Marshal Appleby," to investigate the bombing attempt that took place last night at the Palmer House. Because of the nature of the event, those present, and the location of the event, this task force is composed of a large number of people and agencies. I think the first thing we need to do is introductions."

Castle was surprised in the variety of introductions he heard. Some gave just their name and organization. Others added their specialty, but still others told their life story. As his turn approached he wondered how the person in charge would ever get anything done. All these people seemed to have a different agenda.

Then there was the organizations. He could understand the U.S. Marshal's. One of their missions was to protect the judiciary, and since a federal judge was there. FBI, a no brainer. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), a stretch but okay. Defense Criminal Investigative Service – claymores – check. Homeland Security – maybe this was a terrorist threat. Coast Guard? The last time he looked the Palmer House was firmly on land. Interior Department – maybe because the Palmer House was considered a national landmark. Castle was completely clueless why the National Highway Transportation Administration Office of Odometer Fraud Investigation was even at the table.

Castle spoke up as the silence after the last introduction seemed to stretch uncomfortably out. "You know I think Big Bird would be ecstatic. I think we have all the letters of the alphabet here. Since the MWA, my organization, Mystery Writers Association doesn't have any legal function, and I'm sure the NYPD, Kate's organization is not claiming jurisdiction. I think I need to ask a couple of questions. Who's in charge? And why are Kate and I here?"

"As usual Mr. Castle you get to the heart of the matter," began Marshal Appleby. "To answer your first question, the U. S. Marshal Service has been named as the lead organization for this investigation, and we would like Sergeant Beckett and yourself to lead the investigation."

Kate watched the body language and heard the buzz that Connie's announcement caused. She looked across the table at Castle who, like her, had slid back into his seat. She searched his face and only found his love for her. That meant more to her than he knew.

"Marshal Appleby," began Kate, "I don't think I can accept."

"Don't worry Sergeant," said Marshal Dillon, "When you go to the filed Marshals Woods and Edwards will accompany you. They will do the heavy lifting so to speak, especially for someone in your condition."

"It's not that," said Kate frostily. "The last time you ah … ah…"

"Drafted us," offered Castle.

"Drafted us," repeated Kate. "I was already on leave. I had planned to use my days to participate in the most important event in my life. Becoming a Deputy U. S. Marshal so that I could save my fiancé's ass just seemed like the right thing to do….Now… ," said Kate her right hand unconsciously touching the baby bump, "I'm saving my days for the next most important event and my life."

"Detective," began Connie.

"Connie, my foot my mouth," said Marshal Dillon.

Go on, Connie waved.

"Kate I apologize for any insult that you perceive. I did not mean to imply that just because you're pregnant that you can't do field work." When Kate nodded her acceptance he continued. "When we decided to offer you the job we called your Chief. He has agreed to lend you to us. Assuming you accept of course. Your Commanding Officer, Captain Gates I believe should be calling you shortly to inform you of your Chief's decision and ask you about yours."

Kate looked at Castle, as usual his face was blank, but his eyes… "Well I haven't seen all of Chicago yet, so I guess we can stay for a few more days."

"Excellent," said Marshal Dillon. "Kate, Marshal's Woods and Edwards are still going with you to the field and they ARE going to do the heavy lifting for you. Not for your protection, but for mine. You see when this idea was first proposed several scary people we both know called to tell me that you or your baby getting hurt was not an option. Frankly," chuckled the Marshal, "your Chief didn't make the top ten. So when you go the field please be careful okay."

"So," said Castle. "Same contract as before?"

"Yes," said Marshal Dillon. "You and Kate will be paid the handsome sum of two dollars a day each in gold coin."

"And?"

"And you will be reimbursed for your ammo."

The laughter around the table stopped when Kate's phone rang. "It's Captain Gates," said Kate as she got up and left the room to take the call.

"Mr. Castle, it sounds like you and your wife have done something like this before," said Henry Jones, the Special Agent in Charge for the Chicago Office, "Can you tell us about it?"

"Tom?"

"They were attached to an Alpha Team as a pair of investigators. In three days they uncovered a mole in the Secret Service and clearly identified a cell of terrorists that were planning to assassinate the President of the United States. Both their field work and their investigation skills were outstanding. So if you are really asking can they get the job done? I lot of people think so. I hope to use them the same way. They can lead and question, we'll analyze, decide, provide the technical support and the primary muscle when it's needed."

Kate chose that moment to walk back in. "So if Castle and I are running this, we need to get started. Is the Team Room ready to go?"

It took a little longer than planned to get the Team Room up and running. The room was eight by forty and had windows running down the south side. There were two desks grouped together in the front of the room and other desks in groups of four scattered throughout. The IT person informed them that the room had its own server with nightly backup and could access the rest of the world through a secure portal that cloaked their IP address. She also said that the data wall could display four sources simultaneously. In addition to the large conference room, their area had a high wall office, for the agent in charge, and a break area equipped with a fridge and a coffee maker.

It took Castle several minutes to log-in, establish a case directory structure and get a working copy of the FBI's Case Management software personalized for the case and displayed on the data wall. "You lead, I'll scribe," said Castle.

Castle sat at one of the desks in the front and Kate sat in a chair near the closest clump of desks to the data wall.

"Okay guys, let's get started. I want to start with what we have and know. Inspector Todd, Lieutenant Kellogg, do we have any results of the CPD canvass?"

"Sorry, no Detective. We don't even have a list of names?"

"Agent McKinley? FBI?"

"Same boat detective."

Kate watched Castle flip to the "To Do Screen and type. 'Get list of names from hotel, canvass, pull histories, phones, financials, all observables etc. establish room timeline, interior cameras?

"Room timeline" asked one of the agents?

"Yeah, said Kate. "When the room was cleaned, tables put in place and covered, and when the WMA was allowed access to personalize the space. Right now the only definite time we have is when Castle spotted the bloody thing. "

"My theory is that the some member of the hotel staff wanted to knock of the Judge," said Tim Nichols the ATF agent.

"Hold that thought," said Castle as he flipped to the "Suspects Screen" and entered 'Hotel Staff'.

He then went to the 'Motive' screen and typed 'Judge Auburn' and 'MWA' and 'Judge Auburn & MWA?"

"Judge," began Kate "We're going…."

"I know. Come by my office in the Federal Building tomorrow and I'll have one of my Clerks give you everything you need."

"Castle?"

"I'll call Tom Wittenberg. He's the current President of the MWA and ask."

"What about you guys" asked one of the Agents.

"We're clean," said Kate. "About every two weeks Castle's publicist sends over the 'Specials'. You know the letters or requests that they think he should respond personally to. In that packet they send me things. Letters for Nikki Heat and anything strange or threatening. We haven't received anything close to a threatening letter since we were married. "

"Okay, is there a writer that uses Chicago as his background city? Maybe he's received something."

"I honestly don't know," said Castle. "I'll ask Tom. The only thing I can think off is a character named Harry Dresden, but he's a wizard….I personally don't think the staff set the bombs, or the Judge was the only target. If that was the case they would have taken a shot at her on Friday night, the night before. She was in the same room attending another meeting. If it was the hotel staff I would think they would take the first shot they had."

"I agree with Mr. Castle but for another reason," said Captain Thurman of the Bomb Squad. "Property of the WMA was painted on the cover of each of the bombs."

"How did I miss that," muttered Castle?

"Rick," said Kate "I'm just glad you saw the bloody thing in the first place."

The group saw Castle flip to the "Weapon" screen type 'Claymores and Cover- Property of WMA'. "Captain what else can you tell us about the bombs?"

The Team heard the Captain's report and read Castle's gist – '132 total weapons, all configured for cell phone command detonation, all serial numbers and identification markings removed, all probably constructed by the same man, the box was specifically designed to be attached to the legs of the table'

"How long do you think it would take to attach the bomb to the table," asked Special Agent Jones.

"Probably a minute maybe less, the box was designed to snap into place, indicating some prior knowledge. Also the box made a perfect cover. A team of four or so could come into the room with the bombs in the boxes and appear to anyone who happened by to be members of the WMA decorating the place."

"That is a very possible theory," said Castle as he posted the Captain's statement into the 'Theory of the Crime' section of the case manager.

"Two other things of interest. If they had used a slightly thicker piece of plastic for the cover, or if they had chosen a slightly dark shade of gray then Mr. Castle wouldn't have saw the green light and may not have been as curious. The second item is a little more disturbing. You see the command detonation circuit was identical to the circuit that was described in a Law Enforcement trade journal four to five months ago, completely identical even to the brand names of the components. Unfortunately they are all commodity items which make them virtually untraceable. "

"You're suggesting that the bomber was a cop," half shouted Inspector Todd.

"Inspector, I can't discount the possibility, and neither should these two."

"Noted," said Castle as he wrote in the 'Theory of the Crime' section, 'Cop with a grudge against the Judge and the MWA."

"Another twenty-four thousand dollar question is how did the bomber get his hands on so many devices," asked Kate? "Agent Turner?"

"The DCIS has no record of any theft in the Great Lakes area over the past year, and Detective that is exactly the question my bosses want an answer to."

"Agent McKinley any chance that the FBI labs will be able to pull anything from the mines?"

"Don't think so. The locals, the CPD, have the same equipment we do and knew how to use it. Unless there is an evidence custody issue, we plan to ship them to Quantico. Maybe they can do something with them that we can't."
"Marshal" Kate asked?
"That's fine."

"If it's not a reported theft, then it's an unreported theft. What about the nearest Army bases and local National Guard Armories," asked Castle.

"Orders have already gone out for all posts with this type of ordnance to perform a 100% inventory and report the results no later than noon tomorrow. The only places I haven't heard back from are one Guard and one Reserve Unit. So far everything is accounted for."

"Okay, that's the conventional source," said Kate. "What about the unconventional sources? Has the Coast Guard, Marshals, ATF, FBI, or the CPD confiscated any of these things in a bust and holding them as evidence?"

"Ours are accounted for Sir," said CG Lieutenant Custer. "We have thirty, and I counted them myself before I came down here this morning."

"Marshal? - No, Special Agent Jones? –No, Agent Nichols – No Inspector?"

"We had a bust about fourteen months ago," said Captain Thurman. "Let me call in and check."

"Sir could you have them cut the evidence seal and check inside? I mean those seals are incredibly easy to make and…"

"We want to be sure," added the Inspector. "Tom, call it in. Let's see who has the duty today."

Captain Thurman dialed a number from memory and placed his phone in speaker mode. "Sergeant Humphrey."

"Hey Amos"

"Hey Tom what can I do for you. Still recruiting for your golf Team?"

"Yeah I am, but later. Right now I'm here with Lt. Kellogg and Inspector Todd. We need you to go into the evidence bay, find the boxes that contain the claymores from the bust we had a year ago cut the evidence seal and do a physical inventory."

"Whoa, you want me to cut an evidence seal?"

"Note on the evidence form that it was by my direction," said Inspector Todd. "It has to do with the affair that didn't happen at the Palmer House last night."

"I read about it. Could have been nasty, but still an evidence seal."

"Look Amos, I'm looking at a Federal Judge, and yeah she was the one at hotel last night. I'm betting that I wouldn't have to say pretty please before she would have a Warrant written and in my hand."

"Give me ten and I'll call you back on your cell okay?"

"Fine Amos fine."

"Castle," said Kate. "Run through the screens again." As Castle walked through the Case Manager Screens, the Team offered updates and suggestions. "Next step?"

"Coffee and the Action Plan."

"I'll drive for that. Sit I'll get your coffee." Kate returned with a bottle of water and two coffees. "Habit," she said, "All I want is the water."

"Judge Auburn, you want a coffee," asked Castle.

"Sure"

As Castle was delivering the coffee to the Judge, who was standing by the windows, Kate took his seat and was starting to write out the tasking for her and her Team. A few seconds later Captain Thurmond's phone rang. "It's Amos. I'll put him on speaker…. Amos what's the word."

"They're gone Tom all of them."

"Kate?" said Inspector Todd.

"Go, get me answers."

"Right, Captain you're with me. Lieutenant you got the fort."

The news silenced the room. "Judge," began Castle. "When we talk to your Clerk on Monday we are going to be asking for some other type of information."

"What for instance?"

"Sometimes Officers get pissed at a Judge when they let a bad guy go on appeal. Since you been on the bench how many appeals have you upheld and do you remember any that had an immediate consequence?"

The group watched the Judge put her coffee cup down on the window sill, sigh, look out the window and finally turn to address Castle. "I don't remember the exact number, but I do remember one case. It was before I was appointed to the federal bench. It was when I was still a member of the Illinois court. I had been on the bench maybe a month. The case was a murder case, and the point in question was a search. The majority, which I was a part of thought that the Officers had gone too far and the gun they found was inadmissible. Later we heard that the defendant had killed one of the arresting officers, his wife and another woman."

"The other woman was my wife," said Lt. Kellogg. "You need to pay for what that Bastard did to my Karen, my partner and Marti his wife." Castle looked and saw that the Lieutenant had drawn his weapon and was pointing it in their general direction. On impulse he stepped in front of the Judge and put his arms behind him, preventing her from getting away. "Step away Mr. Castle."

"No."

"Look I know you aren't the cowboy clown of a writer that wrote about the incident in one of your books and made Jim and me look like fools. That clown made it sound like we deserved to be shot and our wives deserved to be killed. But that won't stop me from shooting you to get to her. Now step aside."

"No"

"Step aside Mr. Castle."

"No Shelly I won't."

"Last chance Mr. Castle."

"No"

All eyes turned to Kate as she closed the lid on the laptop pushed her chair back and starting walking toward Castle. Everyone saw her stop and put her hand over his heart. No one heard what they said before Kate turned around right in front of Castle and faced Lieutenant Kellogg..

She caught Kellogg in her gaze and started to walk slowly toward him, her arms by her side, unthreatening. "Miles no one needs to die today. Your Karen doesn't want any more deaths."

"But's she's got to pay for what she did."

"She did and she's still paying even now. In order to kill her you are going to have to shoot me. Think. Do you want to be remembered for killing an unarmed female cop? If you do your story will never be told. Karen's story will never be told. Look around you. You have nothing but your brothers and sisters standing with you. We have enough horsepower here to cause something like this never to happen again. Isn't that what you really want for your Karen?"

"Look I'm married to a cowboy clown of a writer. He's good at his craft. Let him tell your story. Let him tell your Karen's story. He can be very persuasive."

"I'm always asked to do Opinion and Editorial pieces for the Newspaper. I think I've found my first topic," said Castle in a clear, strong, but soft voice.

Kate closed the remaining distance between them and held out her hand.
"Mr. Castle do you promise to tell our story?"

"Yes, to the best of my ability. If I don't you can be sure that the woman standing in front of you will kick my ass."

Miles held up his hand, looked down at Kate, nodded, clicked the safety on, handed the weapon to Kate butt first and went to his knees with his hands behind his head. Kate stood still as the room exploded into action around her. In no time Lieutenant Miles Kellogg had been handcuffed and lad away. He was been being treated with kid gloves. He had lived through each of the married officer's greatest fear. A bad guy taking revenge on their family and they're not there to protect them. He would be prosecuted and found guilty of course but still…

Kate didn't need to look to know whose hands were on her shoulders and was guiding her toward the Conference Room. "What were you thinking," the room heard Castle ask Kate before the door closed.

Connie and Marshal Dillon watched a red-eyed Federal Judge walk slowly toward them. "That was the most courageous thing I ever saw," volunteered Shelly.

"Which," asked Marshall Dillon? "The man who looked down the barrel of a loaded gun and said no three times?"

"Or the woman who talked the gunman down," added Connie?

"Both."

The three watched the activity die down in the Team Room and the conversation still going on in the conference room. Their eyes were drawn to a FBI agent who walked into the room and approached the still remaining FBI agents. "What type of man," he asked "Hides behind his wife."

The three of them were furious, and just as Connie was about to lash out, Special Agent in Charge Jones spoke in a quiet and clear voice. "Tom you saw but you didn't observe. Obviously Mr. Castle is a man that a woman like that would die for."

"Good answer," chuckled the Judge softly as she headed toward the Conference Room door.

"Where you going," asked Connie?
"To break that up before they hurt themselves."

"….Castle you have no …." Kate stopped when she saw that the Judge had entered the room.

"You Kate zip it for a minute. You Castle. You know your wife better than anyone on earth. You know she's going to do everything she can to protect you and protect the innocent. You love this about her. She figured that Karen's memory was the key to Miles and she used it. If she didn't act the way she did there could have been another tragedy here today. Just because she's pregnant doesn't mean she's going to act differently. Right? "

"I guess so."

"You Kate. You know your husband is the closest thing to a White Knight that you're ever going to see. Why expect him to behave differently?" In softer and a kinder voice she continued "You also know he loves you more than life itself. Don't let him strangle you, but respect and return his love. Okay?"

"Yeah"

"You guys have something special but you both need to realize that no matter what Kate is going to be Kate and Castle is going to be Castle. Deal with it."

The Judge watched Kate flow into Castle's arms. "One other thing, thank you. I don't want to hear that it's my job. That's crap and we both know it. You aren't Secret Service Agents whose job is to take a bullet for the person they're protecting. Your people. Good people. If there is anything I can do for you ask."

"Your Honor, there is one thing," said Kate. "When you are sworn in as a Supreme Court Justice we would be honored to present at your initial swearing in ceremony."

"If you could arrange a tour, that would be nice too," said Castle.

"So you could put it in your books," laughed Shelly. "Sure, but first I have to be nominated and then confirmed, and that's not going to happen soon. Mr. Castle you know what I think about court room scenes."

"I know. I'd still like to go," replied Castle. "I don't have any ideas now but who knows….Now that's an idea. Rook is doing a series of articles on the Judiciary and this piece is about a Supreme Court Justice. He has been invited to listen in as the Court hears a case. He's standing on the top of the steps and the Defense attorney is attacked and killed as he is climbing the steps. The attacker rushes off, Rook makes it down to the lawyer just in time to hear him say, 'Take this, My Client is really innocent, help free her.'"

"Let me guess, the defendant is Nikki's collar," said Kate.

"Yeah, from a time before Rook knew her."

"Going to be a challenge Castle, balancing the search for justice with the personal involvement and solving the murder in a place where Nikki doesn't have jurisdiction. Sure you're up for it?"

"Don't know until I try. Your Honor thanks for ah …"

"Not letting you beat yourselves up over nothing?"

"Yeah," said Kate.

"Kate if we leave now we can catch an early dinner before the show."

"Any chance of finding a pizza place near the UC and getting two Bulls-Knicks tickets?"

"You want to go to the game with me?"

"Well yeah."

"Hold it you two," said the Judge. "My husband and I are season ticket holders and have a block of four seats. We used to take our kids all of the time, but there in college now so we have two open seats. Let me give my husband a call and tell him to meet us for pizza. We can walk to the UC from there."

As the three of them exited the conference room they were met by Special Agent Jones and Marshals Appleby and Dillon.

"We're done right? Bad guy caught and all," asked Castle?

"We're done Mr. Castle and thank you. You too, Detective Beckett. Your service as a Deputy U.S. Marshal is hereby formally ended, not that we swore you in to begin with," remarked Marshall Appleby.

"This paperwork thing, you got it covered right? I don't do paperwork," rushed Castle.

"He really doesn't," laughed Kate.

"We can handle the paperwork," smiled Marshall Dillon. "Your Honor it's been…"

Judge Auburn held up her hand. "This is just another proof that sometimes the consequences of your decisions take a form you never could envision."

As the three left Marshall Dillon remarked, "Best four bucks the Service ever spent."

"About that," said Connie, "You had better use Form …."

Kate almost dislocated Castle's arm as she made a hard right turn into the Palmer House's restaurant after they returned from the game. "Chocolate" was all she said in response to Castle's silent inquiry.

"If this is the start of the urges thing let me know so I can stock the fridge in the loft. Meredith's were…," he stopped when Kate gave him 'her' look. 'Right,' he concluded, 'the last thing Kate wants to her about is my ex-wife.'

In no time they were sharing one the Palmer House's 'Triple Dose of Goodness' deserts. After several spoonful's Kate felt a chill and a sense of déjà vu. 'Kate and Karl were here,' she thought. 'Kate said something…ah'

"Castle do you know what's sweeter than this desert," she asked after taking another bite? When Castle shook his head no she continued, "Making love with the man of your dreams."