Chapter 4

The storm was gone. The temperature was high, although not expected to stay that way, and despite the tree and the garlands, Christmas did not seem to be in the air. Castle was disappointed with Foodie Central and yet determined to win. He lay wide-eyed next to Kate planning his strategy. Kate cuddled up, feeling the tension in his body. "Rick, I know you perform well under pressure, but you should try to relax a little. If you go into the Flipoff this tense, you could flip the pancakes right onto the floor."

Rick turned toward Kate and cupped her cheek. "Any ideas how I might chill out?"

"You just need to think about something else for a while, like this," Kate suggested before kissing his lips. "Or this," she purred, kissing the center of his broad chest. "Or maybe even this." Kate moved lower, teasing him with tiny touches of her tongue that awakened him him like bolts of lightning.

Rick brought his mouth to cover hers, plunging his tongue deeply within and pulling her tightly against him. He was ravenous as his mouth moved over hers, but instead of waning, his hunger increased. Kate threw back her head, the arch of her back bringing their most sensitive places together. They moved against each other, ever reaching for more until she encased him. Toward each other and away again, each joining fanned the sparks of desire to a brighter flame until a pulsing fire spread outward through their limbs that could no longer be contained and burst forth, before banking to a cozy haze.

Instead of starting at the 12th, Castle and Beckett went directly to Foodie Central, Castle for the Flipoff and Beckett to interview chefs Louella Queen and Terri Winsome, who was also a judge.

Castle was joined in Kitchen Colosseum by his competitors. Marnie Phillips, a member of a musical dynasty, was better known for massive gains and losses of weight. She was using the contest to try and launch her own brand of food products. Known for his flamboyant style, Jimmy Strange was a figure skater who could never quite win the gold. A rapper, Chilly Man, was known for his creative exploration of both recipes and relationships with women. Best known as the husband of an actress in a reality show, Dorian McDonald was trying to establish his owner identity as an expert father/chef. Castle viewed Bob Little Bear, a versatile actor and serious cook as his strongest competition.

As he had warned, Billy Bay was a judge. The others were Deacon Bernhardt, a noted pastry chef and owner of a dessert company, Simon Michaels, chef known for his use of bacon, booming laugh, and Ohio accent, and Terri Winsome cake designer and infamously fierce critic.

As Castle and the other contestants set up their stations, Beckett took the opportunity to question Terri Winsome. As they sat opposite each other in the Green Room, Terri pushed back her headband and fixed Beckett with a piercing stare. Beckett didn't flinch. "Ms. Winsome, where were you between nine and eleven on Thursday night?"

"I was here. I was overseeing preparations for the "Fable Cakes Challenge."

"What did that entail?" Beckett inquired.

"Our challenges have very specific rules about how much cake the contestants can bring, how many decorations may be prepared in advance, and what types of materials may be used. I was taking an inventory of the contents of each contestant's kitchen. It is very detailed work."

"Did you see Ivy Purchase that night?" Beckett asked.

"Not that I can recall. She was doing Michelle Monet's work for her," Terri said disdainfully.

"Is that a problem?" Beckett asked.

Terri snorted. "Michelle should have been overseeing her own setups instead of," she snorted again, "doing whatever she was doing. It's her show she should take charge of it. But you must excuse me, Detective, I must check that the contestants for the Flip Off are adhering to the rules. Terri carefully examined the contents of each station. When she examined Castle's area, she seemed surprised not to find anything wrong.

Beckett whispered to Castle after Terri had moved on. "I can see why she likes being a judge. She's the most judgmental person I've ever met."

"Tell me about it," Castle whispered back.

The first round, Quick Cakes, pitted the contestants against each other in pairs. Castle was pitted against Marnie Phillips, Jimmy Strange against Chilly Man, and Dorian McDonald against Bob Little Bear. Each contestant would have twenty minutes to produce a classic buttermilk pancake. Castle had noticed during his preparations that the griddles were very slow to reach optimum temperature and started his right away. Marnie started her batter before turning her griddle on. As a result, some of Marnies pancakes were doughy and Castle easily won his match.

Louella Queen had come in to observe. She was the epitome of the hearty and slightly randy Southern belle. During the break between rounds, Beckett questioned her. "Ms. Queen, a witness puts you here on Thursday night. Did you see Ivy Purchase?"

"No, I didn't," Louella responded. "I was working on my show 'Southern Comfort.'"

"Did you know Ivy Purchase?" Beckett asked.

"Well sure," Louella told her. "Everyone knew Ivy. She was a sweet girl. She helped me out sometimes with my recipes, but Michelle kept her busy that night."

"Can you think of anyone who might want to hurt Ivy?" Beckett continued.

"Not a soul," Louella answered.

Beckett and Louella watched the second round of the competition together, with Beckett observing Louella as well.

Round two of the contest was judges choice. A judge picked at random presented a contestant with unusual ingredients which had to be incorporated some way into their pancakes. Castle's unfortunate pick of judge was Billy Bay, who challenged him with cayenne peppers. Beckett sent Castle a look of concern, but he answered with a confident grin. With a cough and watering eyes, Castle combined juice he extracted from the peppers with rich dark chocolate and cinnamon, to produce spicy sweet confections, coming in first in the round.

The third round was chef's signature, a chance for Castle to show off the cherry juice based recipe he had previously submitted. He went all out with a garnish of chocolate covered cherries. By the scoring system, Castle was enough in the lead that he could win not only by taking a first, but also by taking second.

Beckett could see a vigorous argument taking place at the judges' table between Terri Winsome and Billy Bay. Using a ruler, Terri measured the heights of the stacks from each contestant. Finally Terri returned to the judges table to announce the results to the contestants. "I must tell you that the decision was not unanimous and we have an unusual set of circumstances. By the raw scores of this round, Richard Castle comes in third, Chilly Man Second and Bob Little Bear first. However, Chilly man has violated the rules of the competition by producing a stack half an inch shorter than that required by the rules. That is a mandatory penalty of fifty points, putting Richard Castle in second for the round and our overall winner.

Castle accepted his gold medal and the oversized check with the smile Beckett had so often seen him put on at book signing parties, one that lit up the room but not his eyes. On the way back to the loft, he didn't smile at all. "Cheer up, Castle," Beckett said as they came through the door. "You won. The kids get the money. That's what you wanted, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Castle answered, but not the way it happened. "Those were my best pancakes. They came in second and they would have come in third if Terri hadn't pulled out her ruler. As a person who is not a fan of rules, I'm not crazy about winning because someone broke one."

"Castle," I don't think that's what happened. "I was watching and listening to everything that was going on."

"Like what?' Castle asked.

"Well for one thing, Louella Queen wrinkled up her nose every time someone used butter or sugar or anything fattening," Beckett reported.

"Wha-a-at!" Castle exclaimed. "She's the butter queen. She doesn't make anything without at least one stick of butter. Another phony at Foodie Central!"

"More than that, Castle. Billy Bay was arguing with all the other judges. From what I saw, most of them wanted you to win. Billy Bay was trying his best to sabotage you, which should have been obvious from the hot peppers. The other judges were very pleased when Terri found a way for you to win."

Rick held Kate's face in his large hands and kissed her. "Have I ever told you," he asked kissing her again, "how much I appreciate your detecting skills?"

"I think you've written a few books about that," Kate answered. "But," she said, putting her arms around his neck, "you," she continued kissing him, "can always tell me again."

A/N Thank you to the guest who corrected my French. I've fixed the problem. I don't know how much writing I'll have time for over the next few days. I have family coming in. I will try my best to keep up because this story is running in real time. We'll see what happens. I just saw a tweet from Nathan that he's fearful of pancakes. Is God laughing at me?