Family Ties
A fanfic based on ABC's Castle
The morning started out as normal as every other day for Detective Kate Beckett. She walked into the precinct in the early morning, and found the ever-present Richard Castle sitting in his chair beside her desk. In the time that he'd been following her for his series of Nikki Heat novels, she'd started to get used to him being around. He may have the maturity of a 10-year-old, but he was helpful when he needed to be.
"Good morning to you Detective." Castle said as he gave her his usual gleeful grin. "I made you a coffee, and got the paper for you." He pointed to the desk where a Starbuck's coffee cup sat next to a copy of the New York Times.
Kate sighed and shook her head, sitting at her desk. "Good morning, Castle." She took a sip from the coffee and picked up the paper. She was barely finished reading the headline when her phone began to ring. "Beckett." She said when she raised the receiver to her ear. "Got it, we'll be there soon." Kate hung up the phone and stood up. "Come on Castle, we've got a body."
Within 30 minutes Kate was walking towards Detective Javier Esposito with Castle tailing right behind her. They were in an ally way next to a large apartment building on 32nd street. Esposito was standing near two uniforms when he waved them over.
"Our vic is about mid 30's, early 40's," Esposito said as he led them to the body. "No ID, No wallet, and her face is too slashed up to see what she looked like originally."
"Some women kill for a face change, not many die for it." Castle said, trying to add human to the situation.
Kate gave him a look and then turned back to Esposito. "Thanks," She said as she followed him, surveying the crime scene. "Where's Ryan?"
"He called and said he was running late, but he'd meet us here soon."
As they neared the body, Detective Beckett noticed the victim's clothing. A pair of jeans with a pink spaghetti strap shirt. Dr. Lanie Parish was kneeling over the woman, giving her a once over. Lanie stood up with her clipboard in hand, turning to Beckett. "Preliminary cause of death would be a single knife wound to the chest between 10 pm and 2 am last night." She said as she ran down her list of observations. "There are contusions around her upper arms that are consistent with someone grabbing her, but there are more bruises on her knuckles as though she was punching something. There are also multiple slashes on her face meaning ID is going to be difficult."
"She fought back." Beckett said as she looked down at the body. Esposito had been right, the slashes along her cheeks and fore head showed more underlying flesh than skin, and the blood flowed back over her forehead, pooling into her hair. It made her stomach churn.
Lanie lifted one of the victim's shoulders, revealing several small puncture wounds with glass sticking from some of them. "It looks like she might have fallen onto a glass surface and it shattered under her, giving her these wounds."
"Alright, thanks Lanie." Kate said as she signaled the coroners to pack up the body and taking down to the morgue.
"Seems like our victim was attacked, then dragged out here and defaced," Castle said, playing detective. "That means the real crime scene is somewhere else."
That's when foot steps came running up behind them. Kate turned and saw that the foot steps belonged to Detective Kevin Ryan. "About time you showed up." She said as he stopped in front of her.
"I would have been here sooner if my car didn't break down and Jenny didn't have to drive me." Ryan said as he gave her a smile. "So what'd I miss?"
"Just a stab victim that also got her face carved up." Esposito answered as he handed Ryan his notes. "You can review them on the way to the precinct." And with that all four of them headed back to the 12th.
