A/N: thanks for the reviews guys. As I've said, this is to be like an episode, so at the break insert the "I'm Rick Castle" montage in your mind if you like. If they seem out of character, let me know. Sometimes it's a battle, getting them to say what you want them to say and having them say it like they would say it. :-O Anyway….enjoy!
Beckett stepped out of the driver's side of her car, the wind catching her hair and blowing it out of her face. She shoved her gloved hands into the pockets of her overcoat and looked over at Castle. He had an almost gleeful look on his face as he climbed out of the car, catching her eye. She forced down a smile on her face. She turned her attention to the bustling crime scene they had just pulled up to. This was serious.
She started walking, hearing the crunch of small amounts of ice on the gravel beneath her feet. She turned to her right and saw Dr. Parish hurrying along the same general path. "Lanie." Beckett raised her voice above the lull of sounds in the background to get her attention. "What do we have this morning?"
Looking frazzled, she replied, "Hun, this morning you'll find out when I do." She fell in stride with Beckett, Castle following behind them like a little lost puppy. They passed a uniform officer at the crime tape, and Beckett flashed her badge. The young officer just nodded them through, trying to act as professional as he felt the situation deserved. They stooped under the tap, looking for their victim. All Beckett could see was snow everywhere she looked. She looked around, puzzled, until one of the crime techs pointed to a pile of white on the corner. The three approached slowly, in a straight line.
Peering over edge of the pile, Beckett found herself more surprised than she had expected. "Well, I can honestly say this is a new one." She said, standing up straight again she looked over at Castle, inviting him with her eyes to take a look. He leaned over and froze.
"Oh my god…" he looked back at her over her should as Lanie began to busy herself down closer to the victim. "Seriously?"
Beckett just shook her head slowly. "Yep. It would appear someone killed Frosty last night." She fought back a smile. With a serious face she said, "Poor guy."
"What do you know?" Beckett said to Espisito while trying to remain as warm as possible.
"Why don't we start with what we don't know. We don't know…who he is, where he was before this happened, and best of all, why he's dressed like a freakin' snowman." He replied with a little bit of bite in his tone. Beckett simply raised an eyebrow at him in response to the tone. "It's the cold ok? You know I hate freezing at a crime scene."
"True that." Castle piped from behind Beckett, making her role her eyes.
"So no ID?" was her only response to all that had gone on around her.
"Not unless its hidden somewhere in that ridiculous getup he's got on. You'll have to talk to Lanie on that one." He said, pulling his collar up around his ears.
"Well, where's Ryan?" she said, looking around Castle behind her.
"Right here boss." He called over Espisito's shoulder, walking up to the group. "With very little to report."
"Awesome. Well, we'll just have to start canvassing I guess. Talk to the local bars and such. See if anyone saw anything. Surely a giant snowman drew some attention."
"Sure thing." Ryan said, with a nod of his head. He and Espisito headed to the bars down the alley way behind them. Espisito muttered something under his breath that Beckett just barely missed.
Beckett smiled and headed back to the body and Lanie. "Please tell me you know something useful as my Cracker jack team seems to have drawn a blank."
"Oh you mean like the fact that I know he bled from somewhere at some point because his suit is stained? Or the fact that I am at this point theorizing that our victim is a male from his goatee? Because that's all you're gonna get from me." Lanie replied with a huff.
"Whoa." Castle pipped up from Beckett's elbow, seeming to always be in the middle of whatever conversation was happening. He had that special power. "Chilly."
"Pardon me for being in a bad mood after kneeling in snow for the last 30 minutes. In new pants, at that." Lanie snapped at him. Beckett just raised her eye brows at the exchange, letting it play out. She knew full well that the two players could very easily defend themselves.
"That is a bad way to start the day." Castle seemed to be very serious in his consideration of this. Then he paused before saying, "Though I'm sure having your early morning wake up call interrupted by work is also not a good morning either." He said, giving her his all knowing smile.
"Castle!" Beckett scolded but from the look on Lanie's face, they all knew that Castle was probably right. They all stood silent for a moment before Castle continued.
"When you walked up your hair was a mess, your skin was flushed but not from the cold. And pardon my saying so but the good doctor has a lot of frustrated energy about her this morning." He said with a shrug of his shoulders. Lanie finally snapped out of her stupor and turned to face Beckett, ignoring Castle.
"I'm going to get him back to the lab. I'll see what I can do about extracting him from this stupid suit and I'll see if I can find you an ID in it. I'll let you know what I find." She said, giving Beckett her best professional face. Beckett just nodded at her as she turned to go. She gave Castle the evil eye as she passed him.
Beckett and Castle stood in silence for a moment before Castle opened his mouth. "What are we gonna do?" he asked simply. Beckett nodded towards the car and started walking in that direction.
"We're going to go back to the precinct and see if CSU found anything useful in their sweep of the area." She said as they walked. They reached the car and both hopped in, glad to be leaving the cold. After Becket put the car into drive and got settled, she snuck a peak over at Castle. "You can't really tell all those things that you said to Lanie. I mean, you can't tell when someone…."
"Is frustrated? Oh, detective, my observation skills are better than you might think. And I put them to good use very often." Still staring straight ahead, Beckett seemed to swallow very hard.
