Chapter Seven
Kate Beckett shook the snow off her jacket as she made her way inside. She was both frustrated with the snow and delighted with it.
Professionally, working in the snow and driving in the snow, were not her favorite things to do. It didn't help that the people of New York drove like maniacs. As soon as there was the slightest skiff of snow on the roads, there was guaranteed to be people sliding around and causing accidents by driving too fast for the road conditions.
On the other hand, snowfall like this made her smile as she remembered being a kid. She thought about catching the giant flakes on her tongue and making snow angels with her mom before enjoying a big glass of hot cocoa.
She had stood outside her car for a moment looking up at the lazily falling flakes, bunched together and floating gently down to land on her face. Kate felt the flakes hit her eyelashes, and had to blink. She had been tempted to stick her tongue out and catch one, feel the cold on her tongue as it instantly melted.
She had a job to do, though, so a moment of reflection and introspection was ok, playing in the snow was something she did not have time for.
The remaining snow had melted on her jacket by the time she reached Lanie in the morgue. "You want to know my favorite part about us getting snow right now?" she asked by way of greeting.
Lanie looked up from the body of Charles Cooper, paused in the sutures that she was using to close the dead man's chest cavity, "Where's writer boy?"
Ignoring the question from Lanie, as she had ignored Kate's, Beckett answered her own question, "It always warms up when it snows. Did you see the forecast? We're already up to almost thirty and it says thirty five by tomorrow."
"Mm hmm." Her friend responded noncommittally. "Girl, you didn't finally shoot that man, did you?"
"Who?" Beckett was certain her friend could see through her playing dumb act, but soaked in the M.E.'s glare a moment, "Oh, Castle? No, I made him go home."
She saw the wariness flash over her friend's face and thought perhaps her word choice could have been better, not to mention her tone. Castle hadn't been that bad today and she didn't need to drag Lanie into the problem when it probably wouldn't be an issue after Castle got a little sleep.
"What did he do this time, and do I need to prep the death certificate to say 'natural causes'?" Having finished the suture, Lanie pulled off her gloves and parked her hands on her hips to regard her with a raised eyebrow.
Beckett waved it and the entire conversation off, "He's just tired, off his game."
"Girl, from what Javi told me, you don't want him back on his game. I can't believe that your little tag-along threatened you." It was a statement, but the way she said it was an open-ended question. Lanie wanted details if her tone and expression were anything to go by.
Kate set her own expression, carefully between a glare that made her fellow detectives cringe and the 'I'm onto you' look as Castle had coined it when she had something clicking in her brain, "Javi, huh? Do I get to start pestering you about your relationship with Detective Esposito?" she teased.
The response earned her a glare in return as Lanie shifted her focus to the man on her exam table, "I found traces of fiber in the ligature marks on his neck," she began, pointing towards the bruising and discoloration around the victim's neck.
Kate gave herself a pat on the back and stored that piece of information away. If Lanie was being pushy about her non-relationship with Castle, bring up Esposito and she turns professional in a heartbeat.
"The ligature mark itself is puzzling, so hopefully identifying the fiber will shed some light on it." she gestured to the stippling along the neck, "Also, most strangulations show an even line across the neck, but this one dips down on both the right and left of the victim's windpipe. This would seem to suggest that his attacker was much shorter than him, but his hyoid bone was nearly crushed from the force."
"So, short but strong?" she asked, being sure to get clarification before thinking of weeding out some of her suspect pool.
Lanie shook her head, "Not necessarily, like I said, it seems to suggest that. Seriously, though, it could be as simple as the need to put that much force behind what the killer was trying to accomplish. It's possible the attacker used their own weight and a little help from gravity to produce a quick downward tug."
"Signs of a struggle?"
Lanie shook her head, "The guy didn't stand a chance. The force and damage dropped him almost instantly, but from the lighter marks here," she gestured an inch above the dark line that trailed downwards on each side of Cooper's neck, "Whoever it was probably went down with him and held on long after he was dead. Apparently they wanted to make sure the job was done."
"What are we looking for as a murder weapon?"
Lanie gestured to the man's neck, "That line's a mess, thanks to the shift in position, so I'll have to do a few more things to see if I can determine the exact pattern the ligature left." Moving away from the body, Lanie continued, "Right now all I can tell you is we're looking for something silk, possibly a scarf, with some combination of red and black as a pattern. I'll be able to narrow it down further if I can identify the pattern in these overlapping grooves."
Lanie gave her a look, and Kate couldn't help but laugh at her friend, "You're seriously kicking me out with the 'I've got work to do' excuse?" Becket rolled her eyes as she turned to leave, "Just remember who taught that one to you and who's letting you get away with it now."
Lanie laughed, "I'll give you a get out of teasing free card for next time I'm on a roll."
Kate gave a little wave as she walked out. She was smiling on the elevator ride up to the bullpen. After all this time, she finally had something to combat Lanie's teasing about Castle and she was not soon to forget it.
It was strange to walk into the bullpen this late in the day without Castle beside her or waiting at her desk. She noticed the looks from Ryan and Esposito and ignored them as she moved to the murder board. She started arranging the new information on the white board and examining the few points Ryan and Esposito had added to the timeline.
She left the gang leaders up in the suspect column until they officially eliminated them as suspects or orchestrators. The fact that the killer had stuck around to make sure the job was done made her think it may have been a professional job, though most pros used guns or knives.
She jotted down the info about the murder weapon and took a moment to gather her thoughts. Looking at her watch and noting that it was nearly seven at night she turned her attention back to her two detectives huddled over another stack of file folders, "You two should call it a day. Pick up the wife in the morning."
With twin nods and looks of relief barely clouded by a hint of confusion, they started packing up the boxes to move back to evidence storage for the night. Once they had both left she considered the murder board again.
More than once inspiration had hit while she was puttering around her house or even after sleeping on it. She knew taking a step back was necessary, regardless of how difficult it was. Making a decision, she pulled out her phone and dialed, it was ringing before she was consciously aware of what she was doing.
"Castle." She heard him answer on a hushed whisper and wondered what she might be interrupting. The background noise became full of the sound of clothes shifting and rustling noises.
"What are you doing?" she let her curiosity get the better of her before she reined it in. "Never mind." She amended quickly. "I just wanted to let you know what Lanie came up with."
"So, I'm just out for the day, you're not kicking me off the case all together?" he asked on a whisper that had her wondering again, what he was doing.
"Am I interrupting something?"
"Nope." He responded and she heard a few footsteps followed by a loud thump. Instinctively she tensed, wondering if there was danger and then the sound of rapid electronic noises filtered through, followed by, "Surrender or you will feel my wrath!" from Castle in a cartoon villain sounding voice that she hadn't heard before.
In the background she heard Alexis affecting a similarly over the top character voice, "I'll die fighting before I bow to you, rat."
"Then die, you will." His character voice had become higher pitched and somewhat squeaky.
She wondered if Castle forgot she was on the phone as more rapid-fire laser sounds came through her earpiece and she heard Alexis giggle, "What are you Yoda all of a sudden?" it was the girls real voice this time, but full of humor and light hearted.
Kate found herself wondering if she had been wrong earlier. Maybe having a dad that actually took so much time with her had set her on the right path just fine, even with a flake for a mom.
She was tempted to hang up and let him get back to his family night, but she thought that maybe something would strike him or he would be able to digest the clues overnight and they might get past square one tomorrow. She just didn't want to be interfering. "I can call back later."
"No, it's fine." He whispered, "I got my blue tooth headset."
Shrugging off the worry of interrupting, since he was apparently going to keep on playing, she relayed what Lanie had told her. As the battle raged on the other end of the phone line, she wasn't sure he was listening. The sounds of laser tag filtering through indicated this was probably an epic battle.
"Were the fibers red?" Castle asked in his normal contemplative tone, before he was right back in character and apparently chasing Alexis and sounding like a herd of elephants.
"Yeah, how did you. . .?"
He cut her off, "He had a Versace kerchief in his lapel pocket, there would have been a matching tie." He finished the statement with, "Die, you rebellious cur dog!" but she was certain the last part was not for her and that was further confirmed by the volley of laser sounds that followed it.
"I guess I can't complain about having a snooty rich boy following me around when you pull insight like that off a scrap of fabric stuffed in a guy's pocket."
"Don't expect a repeat. I only recognized it because Alexis, who is currently driving me absolutely crazy," it was said with fondness and she didn't believe a word of it. "gave me the same set in blue and black last Christmas." His comment was followed by a series of quick footstep sounds as if he was trying to run quietly and a low thump followed by a whoosh of air. Perhaps he had thrown himself back against the wall to avoid the barrage of laser sounds she heard in the distant background. "I'm getting too old for this." He grumbled good-naturedly.
The battle waged on as they discuss the fact that the victim's tie had caused the marks, but his collar was not rumpled very much with the action. The tie had to be off in order for the killer to be able to use it as they had without any defensive wounds.
"It's gotta be a woman." He said before shouting a threat at Alexis and Beckett wondered how he could hold a conversation with her while simultaneously doing battle with his daughter.
"Where do you get that?" She heard a loud thump and he groaned afterwards, causing her to release a spontaneous giggle that she immediately stamped down, "What the hell was that?"
"Tried to do a barrel roll, the floor's a little hard for all that." She heard him laugh softly, "She didn't get me, though. As for the woman, who else could get a man to take off any amount of his clothes in the middle of a park when it was in the single digits for temperature that night?"
She shook her head, he had a point, but she wasn't going to tell him that.
In lieu of telling him she thought he was right, she decided on a pre-emptive strike for the vengeance he had planned. She continued to listen to his battle and waited patiently as he made time between elaborating to her on the cold park foreplay and trash talking to his daughter about her laser tag ability.
She listened intently and patiently waited for him to move. He was three quiet steps into what she was hoping was a sneak attack across open ground when she affected her best breathy voice, "Castle, do you have any idea how hot I get when you work a theory like that?"
She heard all background noise suddenly die out and she could imagine him stopped in the middle of the room with his mouth open. The short silence was followed by three rapid laser sounds, the sad sound of Castle's laser pack vibrating the kill shot, and Alexis giggling and shouting with glee.
She couldn't fight the chuckle that escaped as she pictured him dejected over the loss. She heard the moment he realized that she had said that so Alexis would catch him off guard as he gave a gasp of feigned shock.
"Oh, come on. Beckett was distracting me." He whined to his daughter.
"Tell Alexis 'you're welcome' for me."
"Beckett says you need to give me a rematch because she cheated." He called
"I didn't say that." she interjected.
Kate heard Alexis laugh at her father in the background, "I have homework; you'll have to wait for that rematch."
"You do realize, Detective Beckett, that this means war." he said menacingly, followed by a good rendition of a classic evil laugh and punctuated with several shots of his laser gun before he abruptly hung up the phone.
Beckett looked at her watch and was surprised that it was after eight. She hadn't spent an hour on the phone with anyone, except for being on hold with some government bureaucracy or another, since she was a teenager.
Shrugging off any kind of introspection on that point, she decided to call it a night. Kate grabbed her jacket off the chair, and started for the elevators with a smile on her face and a walk that was just a little lighter than when she had come in an hour before.
xoxo
A/N: Sorry, forgot last chapter's review that made my day, so here's both five and 6:
Chapter 5: FootyGirl, I'm thrilled and excited to attempt to keep meeting your expectations. I hope I don't let them slip out of character as the story moves forward.
Chapter 6: stiggle, You totally made my day. Your positive words inspired me to write and I appreciate that immensely. You're not a horrible person for rarely reviewing fanfic (though other authors may disagree). I also read fanfic on my phone, but it's not a 'smart' phone, so I can't log on or leave reviews without booting up my computer and finding whatever I was reading, so I don't review nearly as often as I'd like to. I'm assuming that's why of the hundreds of people who read each chapter, only two had anything to say last chap. They must be on phones like mine, so I don't hold it against them, since I'm the same way. :)
For everyone else, thanks for reading and I should have a new chapter out later this weekend.
