Kiss Me, Detective – Chapter 7
First thing Monday morning, Lanie summoned Kate to the morgue to pass on some findings she had made on one of Kate's cases. The detective had no sooner stepped through the swinging double doors of the morgue, when Lanie noticed that something was different.
"Is it me or are you glowing this morning?"
"What do you mean?" Kate asked trying to sound nonchalant.
Lanie eyed Kate directly. "Oh, don't play that game with me, honey. Judging by the extra spring in your step and by the way you're trying to stifle an ear-to-ear smile, I'd say somebody got lucky this weekend."
Slowly, Kate's face lit up and she beamed and blushed deeply. "Alright, alright. You got me. I did have a date this weekend."
"Well, that makes two of us." Kate's eyes perked up at Lanie's revelation, but the medical examiner cut her off before she could probe deeper. "I'll tell you about mine, if you tell me about yours first. So who's the lucky man?"
"You won't believe it, but…it was Castle."
"What? Oh, honey you finally came to your senses about that man! Didn't I tell you?" It was Lanie's turn to beam at her friend.
"Well, at first I didn't know what to think when he asked me, but he said that Alexis would join us, so I figured he wouldn't try anything. And seeing them together…the way they talk and just enjoy each other's company and share things…it was really sweet. HE was really sweet all night. Even when Alexis left to hang out with her friends. We had a picnic and saw a movie in Central Park then got ice cream and he was a perfect gentleman the whole time, but also charming and funny. I felt so comfortable with him. The whole night was just really awesome." Kate explained. She felt as giddy as a teenager after her first slow dance. "I even told him about Mom."
"And how did he take that news?"
"He was great about it. Really great. It didn't seem to bother him at all. I'm afraid I came down a little hard on him though when he asked if I had ever thought about reopening the case now that some time has passed."
"What exactly did you say?"
"I told him that he had two options – either he could take another look at it provided he told me nothing until an arrest is made or he didn't touch it at all. That was it."
Lanie's eyes penetrated deep into Kate. "You sure you're OK with that?"
"Yeah, I am. For some reason, I just feel like I can trust him," Kate said confidently, to which Lanie nodded her understanding.
"At the risk of sounding patronizing, I'm proud of you, girl."
"Alright now, it's your turn Dr. Parrish," Kate asked, not forgetting Lanie's promise from earlier. "Spill it."
"Fair enough," Lanie said and blushed herself as she recounted her date with Robert and his version of events that lead him to move to New York. Kate looked dubious throughout the whole story. "You gotta believe me," Lanie reassured. 'He could not have been sweeter or more sincere and furthermore my gut tells me that everything he said was true."
Kate continued eyeing her friend skeptically, so Lanie went on. "Listen, I may work with dead people all day, but have you ever known my instincts to be wrong with the living?"
"Well, there was that minor league baseball player…" Kate teased.
"That doesn't count. Not even his agent knew he was 'batting switch hitter', so to speak." The two women chuckled at the recollection of the time Lanie tried to set Kate up with an athlete who turned out to be bi-sexual.
"You gotta trust me on this one, Kate. Officer Hughes is a keeper. And, I might add, a pretty darn good kisser." Lanie said in a hushed voice as she leaned in closer to Kate. "And I was right about you and Castle wasn't I?"
"Yes, you were right about me and Castle! Good grief are you gonna hold that over me for the rest of my life?" Kate blurted out.
"Only until your first anniversary," Lanie teased. When both women had stopped laughing, she straightened up. "So I guess we both have our dates for the big charity ball."
"I guess so," Kate admitted and blushed slightly one more time.
Castle then breezed through the doors and bade both Kate and Lanie good morning. His eyes, warm and playful, lingered on Kate's for a minute longer than usual and as he stood in front of Lanie's exam table, his left shoulder brushed up against Kate's right. Lanie expected him to step away, and when he didn't, she saw Kate's cheeks grow flushed briefly. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, tried unsuccessfully to hide a grin, blinked twice, then put her game face back on and turned her attention back to Lanie, who finally began reporting her findings to the two.
The next four days played out much the same way. Castle would flirt subtly with Kate and bring her coffee each morning. Kate would steal teasing looks at Castle while occasionally buying Castle lunch and making extra sure each day that her hair and makeup were done before arriving at the precinct. Both were having so much fun that Castle began to forget about his bet with Demming and Sorenson and Kate about the fact that Montgomery had ordered her to go to the ball with Castle. They each began to sense that they had found something that could work beyond a professional partnership.
Then on Thursday night, as Castle returned to the precinct with a pizza for himself, Beckett, Ryan and Esposito to share as they worked, he pulled Kate aside into a secluded hallway with some difficult news.
"Remember how you told me that if I wanted to look into your Mom's case, I could do so on the understanding that I didn't tell you anything until we were on the verge of making an arrest?"
Kate's face instantly fell and all the color ran out of her cheeks. Tingles shot through her body and all her nerves stood on end as her heart began to pound in her chest. She had been waiting, and dreading, this moment for ten agonizing years and now that it had arrived, she wasn't sure she could handle it.
Castle didn't wait for Kate to answer his question. "While I was out, I got a call from a private investigator friend of mine who I asked to look into the case. He thinks he's found the killer."
