EASTER EGGS AND HIDDEN BUNNIES
Detective Kate Beckett closed the file and looked at her watch. Nearly eight o'clock and she wanted out. A glance at the empty 'Castle' chair and once more she was chewing her lip. How pathetic Kate, it's only been an afternoon without him! she silently berated herself.
She sighed, and then looked guiltily across the pen to see if either of her boys had noticed it. Both Ryan and Espo had their heads down, so she hoped her totally sappy un-Beckett behaviour had gone unnoticed, otherwise Mum and Dad (and especially Mum) were not going to hear the end of it.
She glanced at the Murder Board. It could all come down now. The case had been pretty straight-forward; a girl helping an out-of-state cousin to find work and a jealous boyfriend who had imagined something else. Two bodies in an alleyway with five thirty-eight slugs in them, a sixth slug found in the brickwork nearby.
Miscommunication … or more correctly, lack of communication. She furrowed her brow. I, Kate Beckett, am an expert at that …. or at least I was …. I'm getting better though …. Castle's managed to worm himself in, knock down my walls and dismantled most of my barriers. Now even half a day without him and I'm moping around and ready to head home even before the sun has dipped over the horizon … well, ok, assuming you could see a horizon from the centre of lower Manhattan!
If Cora Simmonds had told her boyfriend what she was doing, she and her cousin would probably still be alive and Karl Taylor wouldn't be on his way to being processed for first degree murder.
With a huff she pushed back from her desk, stood up and called out; "Ryan, how much to go?"
"Just a couple of notes to finish and I'm done" he answered without looking up.
"Espo?" she quirked an eyebrow in his direction.
"Ballistics to complete … about five minutes .." he said looking across the top of his screen at her.
"Ok, soon as you're done, wrap for the day …. nice going boys!" she added as she moved to the board and began taking down the few remaining pictures and documents which would need to be filed and stored along with the evidence.
Ryan turned his computer off, stood, stretched and joined her to begin wiping the timeline and marker-jotted notes and comments off the board as Kate filed the documents along with her case notes. Esposito stretched his arms above his head before standing and turning his computer off. He pulled open the top draw, removed his gun and clipped it on his belt. Closing the draw he walked over to join Ryan and Beckett at her desk.
"Castle busy today?" he asked.
She paused from locking the files in her drawer and looked up at him. There was no teasing in his face, it was just a question. She nodded her head, "He wanted to go check on Alexis, make sure she was settling back in at college and then wanted to get some writing done".
"You guys doing anything for Easter?" Ryan asked
"Castle was talking of having a party at the Old Haunt, so I expect he'll let us know tomorrow," she looked at them quizzically "that is … assuming you guys want to go?"
"You kidding, chica! A Castle party …. you just let us know what time!"
"We're visiting Jenny's folk for lunch … after that …" Ryan grinned, "we'd love to go"
Kate pulled her coat on, checked her desk to make sure nothing had been left out, slipped her Glock onto her belt at her back and joined the boys as they headed for the lift.
Kate pushed open the door to her loft, nudged the light switch with her elbow and used her foot to close the door behind her. She'd only taken two steps when she stopped, a frown creasing her forehead .
Lying on the kitchen counter was a fist-sized Easter egg and a red rose. Only two people other than herself had keys to her loft, and her Dad wouldn't be leaving Easter eggs and roses.
"Castle?" she called out. There was no answer, and anyway she had the feeling there was no-one else there … she could always tell when Castle was nearby.
She walked past the egg, draped her coat over the back of the Eames Chair, toed her heels off and went back to her unexpected 'present'. She picked up the rose and smiled as she smelt the perfume. Finding a small vase on one of the shelves, she filled it with water and placed it back on the counter with the rose now standing in it. Looking more closely at the egg, she could tell it had obviously been re-wrapped which was what was making her suspicious. She knew Castle and he was as likely to have hidden a pair of earrings (to make up for the botched Valentine's affair) as a firecracker to make her fall flat on her ass.
Eventually she picked the egg up, placed it on the kitchen top and peeled back the wrapping. The two halves of the egg separated and inside was a slip of yellow paper. She broke a piece of chocolate off one of the halves and popped it into her mouth as she unfolded the note.
Dear Kate
St George, St Patrick and St Andrew
will show you the way!
Love
Rick
Kate looked at the note, unconsciously biting her lip in the way that drove Castle crazy and looked around her. I've no religious figures or pictures, no books about saints and certainly no … then her eyes fell on her Union Jack cushion and her lip popped out from its toothy imprisonment, a smile curving her lips. Of course, the flag's composed of their crosses!
She went over to her sitting area and turned on more lights to avoid treading on any clues he may have left lying around before picking up the cushion. Sitting there on the settee, nestled in the gap between the settee's cushions sat a second Easter egg, smaller than the first one.
By now her curiosity and hunting instincts were wide awake and she had no hesitation in picking it up and carrying it over to join the first one on the kitchen counter.
This one seemed to rattle a bit, and having unwrapped it she found it was unbroken, though both halves had obviously been re-sealed … he'd probably used a hot knife blade or something to join the two halves.
Kate unhesitatingly picked out a spoon from a drawer and gave the egg a gentle tap. Nothing happened. She gave it a harder whack and this time the chocolate casing shattered into several pieces, revealing a small key amongst the chocolate shards.
She picked the thumb-sized key up and looked at it. It wasn't from any of her suitcases or boxes, so whatever it was supposed to open must have been left somewhere in her flat.
She looked around the kitchen area and couldn't see anything out of place or unexpected. Whatever it was supposed to open might be hidden in a draw or cupboard, but she had a feeling that Castle would have placed it somewhere out in plain view, somewhere she would see it. She moved back to the sitting room area and looked around her. Nothing. She started chewing her lip again and moved round to the right of the settee, checking the table that held the lamp, a number of framed photographs and some bric-a-brac. Hmmm, nothing. She moved round behind the settee, swished the curtains over each of the windows to make sure there was nothing behind them. Reaching the other end of the settee she checked the other table holding the second lamp, more photos and some magazines … nothing.
Kate turned to the bookshelves lining the wall next to her, noth …. Yeessir! Sitting on the middle shelf, flanked by her copies of Heat Rises and Frozen Heat was a small wooden box.
Pulling the box out, she inserted the key and heard the click as she turned the key. Inside the box lay a third Easter egg.
"Castle, you're going to get me fat with all this chocolate!" she said out loud.
Carrying her booty to the kitchen counter she unwrapped the egg, and fished out a new note.
Getting warmer Kate
I checked … and there were no monsters.
Love
Rick
"What?" … she frowned at the note and then smiled as she remembered, several years back, Castle telling her about Alexis' childhood fear of monsters under her bed.
Kate headed for the bedroom, knelt on the floor by the foot of her bed and looked underneath. She could make out a dark shape, but she had to lay flat on the floor and squirm under the bed a bit to pull it out.
Once she'd backed out from under the bed, she found she was holding what looked like a black hat box. Sitting on the bed she prised the lid off and found a note taped on to the tissue paper wrapped around its contents.
Will you be my Easter Bunny Kate?
Love, Rick
She quickly unwrapped the tissue paper and …. gave a loud snort as she realised what she was looking at.
"Castle! I am sooooo going to kill you …. someday" though the look on her face as she laid out the very short dress, ears, cuffs, bow tie and tail from the box looked more wicked than dangerous.