Pancake Confidential

Chapter 1

Beckett padded sleepily into the kitchen. "Castle, what are you doing?"

Clad only in a robe, whisk in hand, Castle looked up from his mixing bowl. "Practicing. I need to get my recipe entry in for The Great Pancake Flipoff. Pull up a stool. Coffee's made and these will be ready soon."

"What is The Great Pancake Flipoff?"

"It's a charity thing. Celebrities compete to make the best pancakes. If I win, I make a hundred thousand dollars split between Up and the food bank. Even if I lose, they get something, but I'm not going to lose. Try these." Castle put a plate in front of Beckett.

"Castle, I know you make good pancakes but...," Beckett said, taking a bite, "oh wow! These are fantastic! What is in these?"

"Actually, it's what isn't in them. There's no milk. They're made with cherry juice," Castle crowed.

"Did you get carried away with the whisking? You're a mess. You have pancake batter on your face, your neck, and your eyebrows!"

"As mother is constantly telling me, one must make sacrifices for one's craft. It'll wash off."

"Let me see," Kate proposed, licking a drop of batter off his cheek.

"Kate..."

"Not bad," Kate said. "how about this one?" she wondered, tasting his neck.

Rick pulled Kate tightly against his body. "My turn!" Rick pulled her sleep shirt away to taste her neck.

"There's no batter there," Kate protested, laughing.

"It's all right," Rick told her, as the scent of her hair invaded his senses. "I can smell the cherries." Rick lifted Kate back onto her stool. Face to face, they matched each other almost perfectly. Kate pulled the sash of his robe free as Rick pulled away her silky barrier as well. Their bodies warmed as they savored each other, touching, tasting, until irresistibly drawn into the inevitable joining, Kate's legs wrapped around Rick, her back braced against the counter. The stool rocked with their motion until it toppled to the floor but Rick held Kate securely and lovingly to him, even as the explosion rocked them. With a final breath of cherries, Rick gently set Kate down on another stool.

Showered and dressed Castle and Beckett were finishing the last of the pot of coffee when Beckett's cell buzzed. "We've got a body she announced."

"Oh no!" Castle exclaimed as they pulled up at the scene.

"What's the matter, Castle?" Beckett asked.

"This is Foodie Central, where The Great Flipoff is."

Beckett and Castle met Lanie Parish as they approached the body. "What have we got, Lanie?" Beckett asked.

"It looks like blunt force trauma. She was hit with that marble thing." Lanie pointed to an object on the floor next to the body.

"That's a pestle," Castle said. "It's used to grind spices in a mortar." He pointed to a marble container on a nearby stainless steel work table. "That must be it." Castle took a sniff of the residue. "Nutmeg!" he announced.

Ryan approached with his ever present notebook. "The victim is Ivy Purchase. She works here as an assistant to one of the chefs slash producers. From all accounts so far, very well liked."

"Someone didn't like her," Beckett commented dryly. "Lanie do we have a time of death?"

"Sometime between eight and midnight, last night," Lanie answered. "I'll be able to pin it down better when I get her back to the lab."

"Esposito," Beckett called.

"Start a canvass to see if anyone saw anything?" Esposito asked.

"Yeah," Beckett agreed. "and Ryan, let's start interviewing her co-workers."

"Already on it," Ryan answered.

Castle and Beckett sat in the plush office of Michelle Monet, Ivy's boss, who spoke with a pronounced French accent. "Ivy was a wonderful girl," Monet said. "Very hard working."

"What was she doing here last night?" Beckett asked.

"She was setting up for my show, La Femme Francaise. We were going to do crepes as part of the lead in to The Great Pancake Flipoff. Of course you know about that Monsieur Castle.

"Yes, I have my recipe all ready to go," Castle told Michelle as Beckett smiled behind her hand.

Beckett restored her professional expression. "Ms. Monet," she continued.

"Mademoiselle Monet, s'il vous plait," Michelle corrected.

"Mademoiselle Monet, can you think of anyone who would want to hurt Ivy Purchase?"

"No, but you might ask Barbara Blair. She's another assistant here. They were very close."

Beckett offered Michelle her card. "Mademoiselle Monet, if you think of anything else, please give me a call."

Beckett found Barbara Blair sniffling quietly in the ladies room and convinced her to sit in an empty studio to talk. "Ms. Blair, I understand that you knew Ivy Purchase well," Beckett said sympathetically.

"Yes. We were BFF's. Of course everyone acted as if Ivy was their BFF."

"In what way?" Castle asked.

"It was just one of those things. Ivy really didn't think of herself as very social, but everyone seemed to talk to her. She called it God's cosmic joke on her. If someone made a delivery, they told her about their sperm count. If they were putting up shelves, she heard about the intimate details of their divorces. Everyone told her their secrets, which made her very uncomfortable, because she kept them all. She might give me little examples, but I never knew who told her what and I know nothing I told her ever got out around here. She was like a confessor."

"Could someone have told her a secret worth killing for?" Beckett asked.

"I don't know," Barbara answered. "But it's certainly possible."

"Wow, the confessor of Foodie Central," Castle said as they left the studio. What a great story!"

"Is that the best you've got Castle?" Beckett jibed.

"She was working on crepes. I could call it Pancake Confidential."

Beckett smirked and rolled her eyes.

Lanie texted Beckett that the murder had taken place between nine and eleven. Beckett instructed Esposito to concentrate his canvass around those hours and checked with Foodie Human Resources to see if there was any way to determine who might have been around at that time. Beckett and Castle were given a stack of handwritten time cards and spent several hours going through them. Unfortunately, a good many employees were considered exempt. They worked as many hours as they needed to and came and went as they pleased without documentation. Beckett finally called it a day and she and Castle returned to the loft.

"What do you want for dinner, Beckett?" Castle asked. "We should have picked up some free samples at Foodie Central."

"You know we're not allowed to do that, Castle," Beckett told him. "It constitutes bribery, but that barbecue Billy Bay was doing did smell amazing."

"How about some rib eyes with the special Castle rub?"

"Sounds wonderful. How about if I do the salad?" Beckett suggested.

"You're on," Castle agreed. "And that red wine you like so much?"

"Mmmmmm, Perfect."

After dinner Rick lounged on the couch, feet up on a stool, with Kate leaning against his broad chest. "You're going to have to tell me what's in that special Castle rub," Kate purred.

"No," Rick said, caressing her face, "I'm going to have to show you."