a/n: In case you're wondering about the chapter titles, it's like a whole bunch of ballet vocabulary.
Fun fact: Some of these characters are actually based on people I know. For example, the old grouchy lady: the costume manager is always screaming at us during costume fittings, "stop touching the costume, you'll get finger oil all over it!" all that bad with the German accent.
Thanks for all the reviews, keep them coming!
I got a suggestion to slow down on some of the "fluff," I will in this chapter, it did feel rushed. But don't worry; it'll come back in later chapters.
Full summary: (brief note: I was going to put this in the first chapter, but I forgot. Oops.)
Castle and Beckett receive a gruesome case involving a New York City Ballet dancer. With this, opens up the world of the "high art" of ballet. They're driven outside of New York, and closer together as the case goes on.
Anyway, thanks again for all those who reviewed and here goes nothing…
Chapter Two:
"In ballet a complicated story is impossible to tell... we can't dance synonyms."
- George Balanchine.
Castle awoke when rays of sunshine flooded through the window they left open last night. He felt around, trying to find they body he fell asleep with last night, but had no luck. Groaning, his eyelids flew open, wondering where she had gone. He sat up momentarily, his eyes scanning the bedroom for clues. He noticed that the boxes had been stacked up, all the files neatly placed back into them. There was a post-it note attached on the lid of the box on the very top.
He sunk back into his pillows and held his hand out, trying to get the post-it note to come to him by magic.
"Uhhhahguh…dammit, where's Harry Potter when you need him?" Castle grumbled.
"Are you looking for something, dad?" Alexis came into the room, amused that her dad was trying to levitate something towards himself.
"Yeah, actually, could you hand me that post-it note?" His daughter rolled her eyes.
"It says, 'I found it, show up at the precinct as soon as possible. – Beckett.'" She read.
"Uhhahguh…"
"This is not the time to be inventing new words." Alexis grinned.
"You heading off to California today, huh?" He asked. Alexis's school had organized a college tour program, and several of the students were gong to go see Berkeley.
"Yeah." She replied, her voice distanced.
"Aww. Don't miss me too much." He said, smirking.
"I'll try." She said back, grinning from ear to ear.
"Hey, be safe." He said, putting on his 'father voice.'
"I will! After I promise to get in lots and lots of trouble!"
"Uhhahguh…" He said again, this time, grabbing Alexis and tickling her.
"Da-dad!" She said between laughs. His phone rang playing some offbeat tune he had downloaded somewhere online.
"Castle." He picked up.
"Yo, Castle man, you have got to get here." Esposito said, his voice loud and clear despite the early hour.
"What's going on?" He asked, rising out of bed slowly.
"Just get to the ballet school." The other line clicked, indicating that he had hung up. Castle stood up, tickling his daughter out of the room before shutting the door and getting dressed. Thoughts about the previous night ran through is mind as he brushed his teeth, but he knew that the incident wouldn't be brought up anytime soon, meaning absolutely not today. He came outside, only to be greeted by his mother.
"Mother, aren't you normally asleep at this time, it's not nearly noon yet."
"Son, I can't sleep my whole life away you know…" She exaggerated with hand movements.
"Listen, we have this ah-mazing case. We're going to have so much to talk about tonight." He waved his hands enthusiastically in the air.
"What, what's this case about? Supermodel?" His mother questioned.
"Grandma, why does it always have to be 'supermodels' and 'popstars' and occasionally 'rockstars,' why can't you just list off normal women?" Alexis popped her head into the room, joining into the conversation and offering her dad a cup of coffee and a piece of toast.
"Because, sweetie, those are the kind of women he's interested into." Martha answered.
"That's not necessarily true." He countered.
"Right. It's all female specimens." Martha continued.
"No, it's not, but I don't have a 'type' either." He took a bite of his toast.
"Right, right, now that Detective Beckett's in the picture. Just promise me you won't get blue balls, men whine about that way too much." Martha walked out, leaving Alexis slightly red, and Castle with an annoyed look on his face.
The ballet school could be scene from a mile and half away. The yellow tape lining the front door of the studio and men and women in black uniforms bustling around questioning students who were either going towards or away from the entrance.
Castle made his way up the steps and waved to Esposito on the other side of the tape who motioned for the officer to let Castle through.
"What happened here?" Castle asked, glancing around him at his chaotic surroundings.
"Um, homicide?" Ryan jumped in, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"This case is probably spicier than even Beckett likes it." Esposito said. At this, Castle's eyebrows shot up, he left the other Detectives and made his way over to the scene. Lanie was kneeling somewhere by the crime scene, a disgusted look resting on her usually calm face.
He walked around to get a look for himself and noticed that the victim had been chopped up into pieces scattered around the studio floor. He turned around briefly and took a deep breath through his mouth, avoiding the scent of blood wafting in the hot air.
"What happened?" He tried to sound tranquil, but the attempt failed greatly. Officers standing around turned to look at him, but didn't answer his question.
He walked around to the other side, looking down at the body again. The victim was somewhere in his late teens, lying there, his eyes resembling the other victim's, stoned to the ceiling. His mouth was still slightly open, and his hair coated in shards of dried blood.
Castle tilted his head, noticing the print on the victim's right cheek. He opened his mouth to speak, but didn't when he realized nobody was listening to him, and it was pointless to talk to himself. He stood there motionless for a moment or two before he noticed that the sea of uniforms had diverted in different directions.
"Castle." Castle turned around hearing his name to face Detective Beckett who was indirectly telling to him to move.
"Oh, ew." Even she could help it, she looked at the body, grimaced, and looked back down at it, or rather the parts of it.
"I know right?" Castle chimed.
"Lanie, what's the status?" She ignored his comment and jumped right into business.
"No ID, which I expected considering he wasn't wearing pants with pockets…" She replied.
"No surprise, he's in costume?" Kate asked.
"I believe so, but I wouldn't be the one to ask. He's somewhere between eighteen and nineteen. Killed by a sharp blow of some sort in the head." She motioned to the area on his head.
"He has writing on his right cheek." Castle turned to Kate, and pointed his finger to the side of his face pressed against the floor.
"Turn him over." Beckett directed, watching as the M.E. shoved the man gently to move him over.
"Get pictures." She directed, kneeling down to get a better look at the smudged writing herself.
"'Even Balanchine couldn't tell this story.'" Castle read, before Beckett could even make out the first letter.
"Castle?" She questioned him.
"It's not that hard to read, Detective. A little smudged, looks like it was written in eyeliner…"
"It's written in charcoal, I think, but I'll have to test it to know for sure." Lanie answered from the side.
"Damn. Come to class bright and early, and find someone dead, what kind of set up is this?" A voice came from behind them. The voice came from a young boy who looked about sixteen or seventeen with dirty blonde hair. He had a tall stature, and was carrying nothing but a duffle bag.
"Not a set up. You know him?" Beckett asked, turning herself around to face the boy.
"Yeah." He replied.
"How?" She asked again.
"Dude, lady, don't I need a lawyer or something?" He asked.
"Not unless you need to be defended for committing the crime." Suspicion rose in her voice.
"I'm talking about your attitude." He scoffed.
"Sorry about her, it's first thing in the morning." Castle replied, pulling her a little further away by her shoulders, causing her to scowl.
"And I'm sorry about him, Detective and Mr. Castle." A feminine voice came from behind the boy who was speaking. Lily had crept up behind the boy and grabbed his hands, lacing her fingers through his.
"Lily. Good morning." Detective Beckett greeted.
"Morning to you too, Detective, and Mr. Castle. I'm sorry about my boyfriend. This is Jonathan, he hasn't had his caffeine yet." She cocked her head up and her green eyes met his blue ones.
"Castle? Like, Richard Castle?" Another girl approached, her straight black hair reaching her lower back. Castle recognized her from the day before in the studio. The only difference was that her hair wasn't pulled back into a bun.
"Yeah, like Richard Castle." He smiled.
"The novelist?" Jonathan asked.
"Yeah. Heard of me?" Castle looked rather pleased with himself.
"Much too early for this." Detective Beckett thought to herself.
"Yeah. I'm a fan." The girl with the black hair reached into her book bag and pulled out a copy of one of his books.
"This is Emma." Lily introduced the fan girl.
"Pleased to meet you, Emma." Castle held out his hand for her to shake and she squealed quietly.
"Listen, I know you're busy and all, but could you…" She pulled out a pen. Usually, Beckett would have a little more patience for this, but this time she didn't. People were dying, and they didn't even have a single suspect yet.
"He'll sign under one condition." Beckett crossed her arms defensively, standing in front of Castle making eye contact with Emma.
"Gosh, what are you like his keeper or something? Whatever, as long as I don't end up like that," she gestured to the body, but didn't seem disgusted. "What do you want?" The girl asked clicking her pen unmistakably annoyed.
"Just tell us who this is." She motioned to the body with her hands.
"Jason Parvez Acorde." Lily responded for her.
"How do you know him?"
"Uhm, well, he's one of my ex-boyfriends." She replied, noting the awkward look in Jonathan's eyes.
"Did he have any enemies?" Beckett continued.
"Hey, I thought that all we had to do was give you his name, can he sign my book now, please, because I honestly have to get to class." Emma interrupted. Sighing quickly, Beckett moved aside to allow Castle to sign the girl's book. She flashed a bright smile at him, and then vanished into the crowd of students leaving Lily and Jonathan behind.
"I should get to class." Lily said, stepping on her tip-toes and placing a kiss on her boyfriend's cheek before vanishing after Emma.
"Did you know Jason, Jonathan?" Castle asked the boy who was now standing alone like he was less then ten minutes ago.
"Yeah, we went to middle school together, auditioned together, got in together, and took classes together. I mean, we weren't gay or anything, we were pretty good friends. I would know if he had any enemies." He went back to answering Beckett's prior question.
"Did you know Nicolette Burnstien?" Beckett asked.
"Nicolette, the company member right? I remember Lily used to talk about her and something about stunning turn out. I didn't know her personally no, but I saw her around. Hold up – you used past tense…do you mean Nicolette's dead, or did she run off again?"
"So you knew that she ran off before?"
"Yeah, I mean, Lily knew and then she told me, and yeah." He replied.
"Is Lily the only one she told?" Castle asked.
"I don't know. Like I said, I barely knew her. Why aren't you questioning Lil', they knew each other better than I knew her."
"We already talked to Lily. How well did Lily know Jason?" Beckett inquired.
"Well they went out for awhile…they weren't like super close or anything."
"How long did they go out for?"
"Like six and half months, why?"
"Six and half months…that's pretty long for a high school relationship." Castle looked at Beckett.
"So Lily knew both of our victims pretty well didn't she…did she like to tell stories?"
"I thought Detectives were supposed to connect everything together. Stories? Like bedtime stories to little kids…or oral tradition? That's so random, but it's certainly not how she spends her weekends if that's what you're wondering."
"Okay, thanks, I think you'd better head to class now. Thanks for all your help." Beckett turned on her heel, Castle following right behind, leaving the young boy confused as hell.
They walked through the campus, observing students who walked by carrying school books, backpacks slung across their shoulders.
"Do you think we grilled Lily enough?" Castle asked as they walked.
"I don't know. For now, I think we should leave her out of it." Beckett replied.
"She seems like the main connection between the two victims." Castle countered.
"I don't think she did it." Beckett answered honestly. Castle was silent. "We'll have to see who else is involved, I figured people on campus might know her better because she spends most of the year here. We'll go see her parents as soon as I take a look at the stage."
"You are one spontaneous detective." Castle said jokingly, following her towards the stage.
"I'm not spontaneous." She contested, speed walking while talking.
"Then what are you, Kate?" She stopped, and he ran into her.
"Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD, we'd like to ask you a few questions about last night." She held up her badge to show the man she was facing without any further regard to Castle's comment.
"About?" The man had a gruff voice. His hair was coated in a thick layer of dust.
"Did you know a 'Jason Acorde,' or a 'Nicolette Burnstien'?"
"No." The man quickly responded, bending over to mess with some of the power cords resting on the stage floor.
"What about the girl who got into the accident last night?" She pushed for a useful answer.
"What accident?" He asked.
"Are you stage manager?"
"Yes, but that doesn't mean I'm friendly with everybody who comes in and out of here." He stood up, cracking his back before bending over again and playing with some of the wires attached to an outlet.
"Did you not hear about the accident last night?"
"No." He replied.
"The black swan ran into something sharp backstage." Kate explained to him.
"That's not really possible." He said from the ground.
"Why not?" Castle asked.
"Because it's just not. There are people everywhere backstage, and besides, nothing sharp sticking out of corners."
"That doesn't make any sense."
"Yeah, well most of life doesn't." He stood up from his crouched position and looked at the Detective.
"Our job is to try to make things make sense." Beckett looked at the guy, to be honest, he didn't look more than twenty-four years old.
"Did the director say anything to you about the incident at all?"
"Christian Routini? Of course not. In fact, he was yelling at me like at like four a.m. last Thursday about making sure the stage was safe, like baby proof." The stage manager shrugged.
"Last Thursday? Baby proof?"
"Yeah. Like, make sure one of the dancers doesn't knock the curtain down or something. It's happened before. Are we done, because I got to get back to work before someone comes and kills me…erg, sorry bad use of words." He grabbed a bag, and left without another word.
"Someone's alibi is broken." Castle said.
"Thank you, captain obvious." Kate rolled her eyes.
"So are we going to question this Mr. Routini?"
"No. We're going to see Nicolette's parents and then Jason's parents." She responded, before making her way backstage.
"Spontaneous…but I like it." Castle said, following her.
"Hm, maybe I should stop being spontaneous then." She joked, looking around backstage.
"This place seriously is baby proof." Castle said, touching the corner of a table full of props which was covered in foam.
"Look at this." Kate said, pointing over to the costume rack.
"What?" Castle walked over, carefully touching the black swan costume. Genuine feathers were stitched in, the fabric rough and the costume absurdly heavy. "How does she dance in this." He said, tracing the pattern of beads on the bust.
"I'm talking about the back." She said, turning the costume around to where there were a line of clasps.
"What about it?"
"Look at it, Castle, some of the stitching was cut, maybe it was cut with a pocket knife or something and it sliced through the skin of the dancer…possibly intentionally."
"What are you doing?" A shrill voice came from behind them.
"Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD, we're investigating the incident that happened last night." She said, remembering that most the people here were still unaware of the murders.
"It was an accident." Kate recognized the lady from last night who was screaming about the costume.
"Why is the stitching cut?" She asked, touching the back while Castle smoothed his fingers over some of the black feathers.
"Stop touching that. You'll get finger oil all over it." The lady snapped.
"I'm sorry." Castle said, backing off.
"Right. The stitching is cut because we had to cut her out of the tutu after the fitting, we just wanted to know how much stitching we'd need to use."
"When was the dress rehearsal?" Beckett asked.
"Juliet was fitted one last time just before the performance. If someone cut her out of it, she would know."
"Would anyone intentionally slice her back?"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Listen, I'm old. I don't know. I don't notice everything that happens around here, but I'm pretty sure no one would want to slice her back right before a show." She snatched the costume out of Beckett's hand.
"Okay, well thanks, that's all." Kate nodded her head, and motioned for Castle to follow her out.
They walked past several workers setting up sound systems, and other people cleaning off the floor of the stage.
"Seemed a little suspicious, don't you think?" Castle asked.
"We'll have to talk to someone who can be trusted about the situation, but for now, I'd like to go talk to the parents. They should be the first to know anyway." She got into the car, and waited for Castle the shut the door before speeding off into the streets.
"Where do they live?" He asked.
"South Jersey, Ryan got the info for me."
"Both of them?"
"Of course not. Then we'd just be lucky. Nicolette's parents live in South Jersey. Jason's in upper east of Manhattan. We're headed there now." She weaved skillfully through the traffic, getting honked at a total of twenty-two times.
They arrived at the door of a massive apartment building, the doorman stood by the revolving door, and his hands clasped together, his eyes clouded with boredom. They walked through, Kate flashing her pass on the way, avoiding any questions.
"Could you please tell us which floor Mr. and Mrs. Acorde live on?" She directed her question at the doorman she was avoiding earlier.
"You mean Mrs. Acorde. Mr. Acorde moved back to Southern California." The doormen corrected, before telling them that Mrs. Acorde lived on the seventeenth floor of the building.
Kate thanked him before heading through the golden elevator doors.
"So are we ever going to talk about last night?"
She didn't answer his question, just looked up at the numbers indicating the floor they were currently on.
"The Story, Brandi Carlile." She said randomly, leading Castle to remember their conversation the previous night. She strut out the door, going straight towards the apartment at the end of the hall.
She knocked forcefully. "Mrs. Acorde, open up, this is the police!" She said, leaning her wait impatiently onto one foot.
The door swung open, revealing a petite lady with dark brown hair. She looked fairly young for a woman who had a son nearing the age of twenty.
"Yes?" She asked, she still held a green watering can I her left hand.
"Hi. I'm Detective Kate Beckett, with NYPD," she paused to flash her badge. "Can we come in?" She asked, obviously not wanting to break the news to her at the door.
"Yes, yes." The woman opened the door wider for them to come in, setting aside the watering can on a wooden table near by.
"Is something wrong?" She asked, her face turning a shade paler.
"When was the last time you spoke to your son, Jason?" Kate asked stiffly.
"Um, I believe it was Monday night, last week, he had mentioned something about a girl and the show he needed to do. He said he was just checking in." Mrs. Acorde explained.
"Did he know anyone named Nicolette Burnstien?" Kate asked, her eyes focused on a random point in the distance, uncomfortable to make eye contact with the woman.
"Burnstien...highly doubt it. The name never came up."
"What about a Gianna Lyon?" Castle asked, looking up from his phone.
"Lyon, Gianna…yes. The French girl. They dated for a little bit before she vanished. A sad case she was, a very talented dancer." Mrs. Acorde nodded to herself.
"Both of them, meaning one of them your son, were found murdered at the ballet school. At different times. In different places, but the murders took place relatively close together, and we believe their related. We're sorry for your loss, but we were hoping you'd have some information that might help us catch the killer." Kate explained.
"He's still out there?" The woman sounded panicked.
"Unfortunately. But we're doing our bests to catch him as soon as possible, we were hoping you could help." Castle repeated what Beckett just said in attempt to calm the woman who was now tearing up.
Castle's phone rang loudly, breaking the tension in the room. He excused himself and walked outside, to answer it, leaving Kate with the mother.
"Castle." He said, pacing several steps from the door. "Oh yeah, one sec." He said, turning back around to go fetch Kate.
"Beckett." He said, motioning for her, diverging her away from the sobbing Mrs. Acorde. She nodded, and excused herself before vanishing out the door.
"Put me on speaker." Ryan's voice could be heard from the phone. Castle peeled the phone away from his ear, and hit the 'speaker' button and held it out in front of him and Kate.
"Did you know that Chater has your phone?" Ryan said, his voice restraining from laughing. Beckett looked shocked as she felt through all her pockets.
"Chater?" Beckett questioned.
"Lily." Esposito replied, as if it was the obvious.
"Yeah, I called and she answered." Ryan said.
"The Fuu-…" She stopped mid-sentence, finally accepting that the girl had indeed taken her phone.
"What's she doing with it?" She asked, frustration building in her voice.
"Ask her for yourself. She's right here." Ryan responded.
"Lily? What…how did you, why do you have my phone?" Beckett didn't really know where to begin.
"I didn't kill anybody." She stated first.
"What's going on then, this is highly illegal. Do you know that?"
"Check Castle's left jacket pocket." She said. Kate furrowed her brow and reached into his brown jacket pocket and pulled out an iPhone with a navy blue case, he looked confused as to how it got there in the first place.
"What now?"
"Turn it on." Kate waited a few seconds as the phone lit up.
"Punch in the code 2-7-2-9." She ordered as Kate punched in the numbers with her thumbs on the touch screen.
"Whose phone is this?" Kate searched for a name.
"Jason's"
"Why do you have his phone?" Castle inquired.
"I swapped phones with him because he was getting these threatening calls. I thought you guys might have already tried to track down his phone through his number, then I remembered only three people had the number to this phone, not including the guy with the threats. He used this other blackberry most of the time. Even his parents didn't have this number. But anyways, I started receiving these calls, on his phone of course, well you can trace them."
"Why didn't you tell us earlier."
"It never occurred to me."
"Lily, why are you so interested into feeding us information on this case."
"Because they said I'm next." With that she hung up, leaving Castle and Beckett confused, and startled. The two partners walked over to the elevator, silent as if they had both been jinxed.
"'…all of my friends they think that I'm blessed, but they don't know my heads a mess…they don't know who I really am, they don't know me like you do?'" Castle smirked as he quoted the song by Brandi Carlile that she had mentioned earlier on.
"Out of all the parts you had to choose that one."
"I think it suits you the most." He said. She smiled.
"What about you, Castle, what's your song?"
"I don't have a theme song."
"Have one by tomorrow." She said, just as Castle's phone started ringing.
"Castle." He answered.
"Hey, tell Beckett we've got another one."
