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All right, now we're at chapter seven, so let's launch into some investigative epicness, shall we? Carry on. ^^
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Before him, the spread of folders covered the coffee table, and he stared at it for a long time. "This," he sighed to them, to himself, "would be a lot easier if you could talk." Then again, he supposed they could. It all just depended on how closely he could listen.
-Richard Castle, 'Gathering Storm'
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The next morning, sunlight broke through the curtains in warm, soft stripes, but Lanie awoke to the sounds of Nina and Rosa Esposito taking the kitchen by force. At least, if the distant clanking of pots and pans was any indication. She smelled bacon, too, and beside her, she felt...nothing. Mattress. The rest of the bed was empty.
Blinking her eyes open, she sat up, and once they adjusted to the light she glanced around curiously for Javier. He wasn't in the room, so Lanie felt it safe to assume that he'd ventured downstairs. With that, she threw off the covers and said a silent 'thanks' that she'd always been decent at navigating her way around new places. A quick expedition revealed that the small bathroom at the end of the hall was unoccupied, and Lanie fished out her bag and ducked in; a quick, hot shower sounded like exactly what she needed.
Ten minutes later, give or take, the newly-mango-fresh M.E. padded quietly back to Javier's old room in her terry-cloth robe, closed the door, and started to towel off. Like always, there was an annoying spot near the middle of her back that Lanie never seemed to be able to conveniently reach. But the floor fan had been left going, and once she'd gotten half dressed, she made use of it, turning to let the air flow reach it for her.
After a moment, she startled as she felt soft cotton touch her back in just the place, guided by a practiced hand. She turned, and there was Javier, dressed already from the waist down and lending her the dry corner of his towel.
She gave him a smile. "Thanks." Accepting it from him, she hung her own over the open windowsill, using the drier one to work on her hair.
He walked around her with a shrug and a wink. "Looked like you could use some help."
"Oh, am I really that incompetent?" she teased.
"Out of context," he corrected, but she could tell his eyes were already busy with something else. "Everybody could use a little help sometimes."
Lanie knew what was on his mind as he said the words, and she was quick to follow him to it. She cleared her throat, coming quietly up behind him to drape the towel back around his shoulders, gratefully kissing his cheek. Then she moved onto business. "So, where do we start?"
"That's what I'm figuring out." Taking two steps away, Javier opened his old closet, and Lanie's eyes widened at what she saw. "This is what I got so far."
On the inside of the closet door was an array of police reports, mugshots, charges both filed and dropped, affixed in all four corners of each page with electrical tape. A pair of sheets detailed the finer points of Marisela Quinones' murder, another pair documenting the murder of someone called Juanté Reyes, and the whole web was interconnected by precise arrows and scribbled notes in dark blue Sharpie.
Before Lanie took in any of the information, she admired his handiwork - and with no small degree of surprise, either. She raised both eyebrows. "You are Beckett."
"Please; I am not Beckett."
"Baby, I hate to break it to you, but this has got 'classic Kate Beckett' written all over it."
"Well, if there's one thing I ever learned from 'er it's that havin' all your information in one place can't hurt," he shrugged.
"So this is what happens when your man and your best friend work together," she mused. "They turn into each other."
"Just doin' what gets the job done." Javier went and sat on the end of his bed, facing the makeshift murderboard, and Lanie joined him, grabbing a blouse from her overnight bag and pulling it over her arms. She would've preferred to put on one of his shirts - his NYPD t-shirt had been a friend of hers for a good long time now - but the last thing Lanie wanted to do was to scar his sisters by wearing it downstairs. Not the best idea.
"When'd you find time to make this?" she asked as she buttoned the blouse up. She looked at him, and he shrugged again.
"Last night. You were asleep. I couldn't."
Concern immediately fell into her features - how could she not know he was awake? - but he dissuaded it with a hand on top of hers. Message sent and received. Lanie adeptly moved on. "Who's the second murder?"
"Juanté Reyes. I tapped into the police blotter this morning; frequency wasn't hard to figure out." Noticing Lanie's impressed look, he explained, "We'd tap into radio transmissions a lot in the S.F. to get ahold of sniper coordinates before the other guys."
She nodded, with a mental note to ask more later. "And he was local too?"
Javier nodded back. "Local kid, nineteen. Said he was found at five-thirty this morning in the back of a parked garbage truck. COD looks the same as Marisela."
Lanie winced. The autopsies she was gonna have to look at were stacking up. "So, we've got another to pin our jackal."
"You got it." She noted something like guilt on Javier's face, but it wasn't stopping him. If anything it was heightening his focus. "The one big argument I see against Demarco bein' guilty is that he's got an alibi for the time of each murder."
"How do you know that?"
He shrugged. "Know who to call. People talk."
"Well, but that doesn't mean he's innocent, either."
"No. It doesn't. I've got a feeling I know exactly how he got those alibis; they were bought and paid for. Might be the Jekyll act. Or, could be your basic fear and intimidation."
"The whole…'horse head in the bed' thing."
"More or less."
"So...how do you propose you're gonna prove it?"
Javier's eyes kept themselves glued to the information he'd gathered. "I figure if I can get ahold of Demarco's financials, the records'll indicate what I'm feelin' here. After that, jurisdiction won't matter. It's grounds for an immediate arrest. The whole crew gets shut down, fined, put away, whatever. Game over."
"And Demarco goes away," Lanie finished.
Javier nodded, agreeing in echo. "And Demarco goes away."
She pulled her overnight bag onto her lap, trying halfheartedly to decide between her jeans and her grey skirt, but it was a poor excuse for distraction. Her gaze flicked back up to the closet murderboard, and she bit her lip. Then looked over at him. "You're not considering takin' any of this back to the precinct?"
"No. Wouldn't help." Javier seemed sure of himself.
"How so?"
"That'd automatically mean bringin' in Ryan and Beckett. Plus briefing the Captain. Then we'd have to fight the 23rd Precinct for the rights to investigate both murders. It'd never happen."
"But you know you've got a hell of a lot more resources back at the 12th than you do here."
He lifted one shoulder. "I got what I need to get by. The 12th wouldn't have anything relevant to this area in the records anyway. I got the patrol frequency, I've got pavement to pound; should be plenty."
"So…you're just gonna run a double murder investigation out of your ma's living room," Lanie concluded.
"No, not the living room, that'd be obvious." She was about to roll her eyes and tell him that wasn't her point, but he beat her to it, resting a hand on her knee, still staring at the clues he'd gathered. He explained calmly. "We're s'posed to stay here the whole weekend. If we leave early, that's when they'll get suspicious." He nodded toward the doorway, indicating his family downstairs. "The less they know, the better…more importantly, if we leave now, Demarco'll get suspicious. Best way to do this is to go on with the plan and act like nothing's changed."
Damn. He had a point there. Part of her was really starting to get bothered by that.
Good thing she'd decided a long time ago that listening to that part was only going to drive her crazy.
Not that it ever, y'know, worked.
"So, then, we're doin' this," she exhaled. Final word. A question and a confirmation. She picked up Javier's hand from her knee, keeping it in her own, and looked his way from the corner of her eye.
He didn't look back. But he did squeeze her hand. "Yep."
And that was that. All other options exhausted. Just the two of them, a known gangster, and a rising body count. Talk about a change in weekend plans.
Javier pulled their entwined hands forward and placed a kiss on the back of hers. Then he detached and stood up, quickly pulling a shirt from his bag and shutting the closet door. "C'mon." He pulled it down over his head as he spoke. "Ma's started breakfast."
And just like that, the switch went from 'Homicide' to 'Domestic' again. With an incredulous smile at his back, Lanie shook her head. Maybe she was gonna need an Advil after all.
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From the moment the two of them stepped into the kitchen, it was as if Nina Esposito knew something. In that scary, sixth 'Mom' sense that only a woman who'd raised four children could really have practiced enough to have honed down to an art. Flipping eggs on the stove, the woman offered a warm smile and a "Good morning, honey" to Lanie, but raised a threatening eyebrow at her son.
"Uh-oh," Lanie mumbled under her breath, heading for the table. She'd made sure no one heard her, but her mind was kicking into overtime, and also kicking itself. What do you wanna bet she heard me and him talking about the murders - how in the hell could she? What, does she have radar or something? This is not good. She held her hair back from brushing the table and leaned toward Rosa, whispering, "Any idea why she looks like she's gonna fry him?"
Rosa only raised an eyebrow, but it was a very different kind from her mother's. She smirked into the pages of her morning magazine. "Javier being Javier. Welcome," was all she whispered back.
Oh, boy.
Javier wasn't fazed - or, at least, he didn't look it. He grabbed an apple from the white wicker basket on the counter, catching it once, and kissed his mother on the cheek. "Mornin'."
"Mmmhm," Nina returned, somehow managing to drip a bull-calling tone without even saying anything.
"What?"
"You. I should make you get your own breakfast. What am I going to do with you?"
Across the table, Maria snickered quietly, trying not to as she looked down at her plate. Connie was still in bed, or Lanie strongly suspected she'd have risen some hell of her own. Though the why was a little fuzzy. Javier joined them at the table, sliding onto the chair across from Lanie. "Sorry, I got no idea what you're talkin' about," he said.
Nina crossed to them with the egg pan, sliding a fried one onto Maria's plate. The girl started saying silent grace almost immediately, and Lanie made a mental note to check her back for wings. "Oh, you know."
"I…really don't."
"You know the rules of this house, Javier."
"Yeah…"
"And of what goes on in it." Suddenly, that eyebrow was mighty powerful.
…Oh. Lanie unconsciously fidgeted in her chair a little bit, glaring pointedly at her boyfriend. She is talking about us last night, you idiot. There was no sanctuary in Rosa, who looked ready to sell this moment to the five o'clock news.
Instantly he shot back a 'Don't gimme that look!' face, unnoticed by Nina. He tried to cover. "Whoa, hey, Ma, I…what makes you think that anyb-?"
"Javier. You're a lot of things - dumb is not one of them? Do not lie to your mother."
Well that killed his argument. He glanced away; anywhere else was good, really. Some unintelligible mumble came out of his mouth. A canary-eating grin escaped from Rosa. Poor Maria just looked like she wanted to take her eggs and go turn pink somewhere else.
Shooting him another glare, Lanie figured she better take up a little space, here. She turned to Nina, apologetic. "Mrs. Esposito, I am…really sorry about that…I…didn't know there w - "
"Oh, nonsense," the older woman waved off. Well. Talk about surprises. "You have nothing to apologize for, honey, don't even think about it."
"…'Kay?"
"Javier knows the rules under my roof, and I can only assume Javier decided to flirt with his health regardless. Javier knows that just because he doesn't live here, doesn't mean I can't always have his father remove his bedroom door from the hinges and hide it somewhere. Isn't that right, Javier?" she smirked.
Ooh. The woman was good. Lanie was somewhere between laughing and embarrassment herself, now that it was pretty clear the only one getting blamed was Javier over there - who, by the way, winced every time she said his name like that. Maria giggled.
"…Pido perdón, mamá. No pasará otra vez."
Nina crawled that eyebrow a little further.
He sighed. "Realmente esta vez."
"Good." Satisfied, she patted her son's shoulder and moved back to the stove. "Now, Lanie. How do you like your eggs?" she offered brightly.
Just kept improving that first impression all the time.
The smirks and shame simmered down to forgotten levels, and soon enough the little family-plus-one was all seated around the little kitchen table, chewing companionably on breakfast and discussing whatever came to mind. Everything, notably, except the one topic whose absence in this house was consistent. Javier shared a glance with her across the table, right when she'd been thinking about it, but they said nothing. They didn't have to.
In all other ways, the meal was a functional repeat of supper the night before. Rosa supplied what she did for a living - she was the day manager at a J Crew store uptown, but spent her off-time trying to break in as a party planner. Maria chimed in to say that she worked part-time as a waitress at Café Lalo and that Lanie simply had to come by and try the Hazelnut Mousse Cake. Lanie promised she would. Connie, who dragged her sleep-mussed self to the table after another twenty minutes, only responded to the topic with an "Ughhh," so Nina smiled and supplied that her third child and second daughter was currently between desired jobs, answering phones at a BMR Realty branch in Brooklyn.
"Serves 'er right; couldn't get off the phone all through high school," Javier cracked.
Connie pelted him with a mini-muffin.
If there was one thing to learn by spending any amount of time in this house, it was that it was never short on conversation. Clearly, 'family' was the notion that held them together, and however far and wide they scattered into their own lives - and how different they became as adults - this place was always the one where they found each other again. Cliché, maybe, but the ties that bound were in the air here, and you didn't need an investigative diploma to feel it.
Another puzzle piece fell into the place. Not of the case, but of Javier. Now she got where he got his kindness, and most definitely his protective side. There was a hell of a lot to protect here. She'd fight for it too.
It dawned on her then that she actually was about to begin to.
Looking around at the five of them, the M.E. caught and diagnosed an unfamiliar hope. She really didn't want to let them down.
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That concludes our seventh update; some more case stuff and family stuff, as promised. The next chapter will probably be mostly case stuff, including the introduction of some new OCs, like the Chief Medical Examiner of the 23rd precinct that I'm about to totally make up. XD A lot of other stuff in this story is real and verified, though, like Café Lalo, J Crew and BMR Realty, for example. I may or may not have Google Maps'd "shops/companies in New York." ;D
As always: got a hankering to roleplay on a writing-based RPG forum that's all about Castle? Just visit my profile and take a look at the paragraph in bold. 12P awaits. ;)
I'm aware that this story isn't Caskett, so for a lot of you it's probably not your cup of tea. But for those of you who ARE reading (like castlelover100 and princessozmaofoz, for example), I'd just like to thank you for your interest. I write because that's just what I do, but I publish for you guys. So thanks. ^^ And if you'd feel so inclined as to leave a review, I'd love that as well. Your reviews really do make my day; I love knowing what you guys think or your favorite parts or stuff like that. ^^
There is most definitely more to come. Stay tuned. :D
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