DISCLAIMER! I am not affiliated with Castle nor do I own Castle. That is for ABC and Marlowe, sadly enough.
Author's Note: This is my first story and I don't have a beta, so please excuse my mistakes. Reviews are always welcome as long as you are polite. Constructive criticism and comments/ thoughts only. If you are willing to be my beta, PM me so we can talk. Hope you guys like it!
Beckett sat at her desk contemplating Castle's blatantly obvious absence. The empty chair beside her made her think back to all Castle's odd behavior the other day...
Castle trudged into the precinct with a quite noticeable limp. It was obvious that the usually outgoing writer was hiding something. As much as he would hate to learn, Detective Kate Beckett could read her partner better than anyone else. And she knew better than to ask him about it since she knew it would result in him getting defensive and shutting her, and the boys out.
As Kate thought, she realized that Castle had acted strange on more than that one occasion. In fact he had come into the precinct just yesterday with a black eye, covered up with Alexis's makeup. Kate felt her muscles tense as she realized that something was seriously wrong with Castle and it was her responsibility to find out what.
"Beckett! Where's Castle gone? Has even shown up today?" The Latino detective asked as he approached her desk.
"No Espo, he hasn't shown up yet and I'm getting worried." Kate admitted to her partner, "Have you noticed that Castle's been acting strangely lately?" She recounted her observations of late to Esposito.
"Yeah, I've noticed. I didn't have the guts to ask him about it though. Thought he probably had his reasons."
"We got a body drop, boss.", Ryan shouted across the floor. The team, minus Castle, silently walked out of the precinct to find their vic.
As they arrived at the crime scene Lanie looked up from her vic and shouted, "This one's weird enough even for Castle. Speaking of Castle, where is writer-boy?"
"Castle's a no-show today. I called him a bunch of times, but Captain says he isn't coming in this week. It's weird. He keeps disappearing for a couple 'a days, then reappearing without any explanation.", Beckett informed the ME. Then she walked up close enough to see the vic, and gasped in shock. The vic was a middle-aged guy, wearing a suit and jacket like he was headed to work. The shocking par was that the guy was in five pieces. His head, arms, and legs had been hacked from his torso and set a little off to the side. Yeah, this is definitely Castle-flavored. Thought Beckett. "So, should I ask for a cause of death? Or is it the obvious?", Beckett asked, turning back to Lanie, trying to make herself forget what lay next to her.
"Actually you should. This poor guy wasn't killed by getting his limbs removed. He was killed by a lethal injection to his neck.", the ME grimaced, "This stuff was all done post-mortem."
"What the HELL?!", exclaimed Ryan as he approached from interviewing the poor uni that had found the vic, and proceeded to lose his lunch. This'll be a looongg case.
Back at the precinct Beckett groaned into her hands, pushing them up her face, to rest in her hair. The canvas had turned up nothing and the vic's prints weren't in the system. They had checked missing persons, and the Federal Face Recognition Database. Their John Doe didn't exist. Lanie had identified the poison as potassium, which gave them no leads to go on. Time of death was between 12 and 1 that night, and there weren't any security cams in the area. God, where's Castle with his insane theories when you need him? Just then Beckett's phone rang to say that a uni, still canvassing the surrounding buildings, had found something. Something disturbing.
They got to the building twenty-minutes later, and were directed to the seventh floor, by the confused door-man. When they reach their destination, Beckett's mind went blank. In the office past the shaking, wide-eyed, and slightly green-faced uniform, stood a painting. A painting of a beautiful, pale-skinned, teenage girl, with long red hair laid across her shoulder in a braid. Now Beckett knew why the uniform was freaked out. Everyone at the 12th knew exactly who that girl was.