Seven

Castle could hardly believe when he was already most of the way through his second week of observing the young ADA. Every day he spent with her was fascinating. He felt as though he should be filming his life so that he was able to better capture every insight, every moment. Scribbling in his notebook was hardly a sufficient way to gather all his thoughts and it was most certainly not the neatest way. At the end of each night, he was lucky if a little more than half his writings were decipherable.

That particular Thursday morning he and Kate were on their way downtown to meet with some detectives working on closing a double murder case. When they arrived at the NYPD twelfth precinct, Kate led the way inside and up to the third floor. There, she was met by two detectives. From the way they greeted her, it was obvious this was not their first case together.

"Ryan, Esposito, this is Richard Castle. He's, ah, observing me for his novels," she confessed rather reluctantly.

Castle shook the hand of the shorter man in the three piece suit warmly. When he turned in the direction of the Hispanic man wearing a leather jacket, he was met with immediate skepticism. "You're letting him observe you, Beckett? Really?" Esposito asked as he roughly shook the writer's hand.

"Yeah, ah," Kate tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "It's a long story."

"No, it's a great story! Kate generously allowed me to shadow her since I'm basing my next character on her life," Castle explained with a grin.

"Not on my life!" She corrected quickly. "His next character is a female ADA—that's where the similarities end."

Castle smiled knowingly from her to the skeptical Esposito, who cleared his throat. "Uh huh. Well, you want to chat about storybook characters or our latest homicide?"

"Homicide," she said almost pleadingly. Then, she allowed the two detectives to lead the way into their bullpen and directly to what she'd come to know as the "Murder Board" or the white board on which they pinned their suspect and crime scene photos as well as scribbled out their notes and timelines.

"Ohh I used to have one of these!" Castle proclaimed, walking directly up to the board. "I used it to outline my novel notes."

"Yo writer boy," Esposito snapped. "Don't touch the merchandise, okay?"

Castle made a large gesture of holding his hands up, palms facing out so he would not be accidentally accused of touching the board. "I'm just looking."

With an annoyed "Hmph" under his breath, Esposito turned to Kate. "So we've got this-"

"Is he your main suspect?" Castle asked, pointing to a mug shot labeled Jonathan Mendel towards the top center of the board.

"What's it to you?" Esposito snapped.

"Uh yes," Ryan interrupted, stepping forward. "In addition to having a prior conviction for assault, Mr. Mendel was seen in the same area of the victim's apartment for the first strangling on the morning of the 15th."

"Well," Castle began, pointing at the picture, "this man couldn't have done it."

Esposito glanced at Kate with a disbelieving expression before folding his arms over his chest and looking back to Castle. "And how do you know that?"

"This girl. She was strangled, right?" he asked, pointing to the picture labeled "Victim 1 – Hannah Clay." Her manner of death was obvious with the distinct purple bruising on either side of her neck in the crime scene photo. "You can clearly see the two handprints here and here, but this guy could not have made those marks?"

"Why not?" Ryan asked.

"Because," Castle said, going back to the picture of Mendel, "look at how he's holding the name placard in this mug shot. He's holding it normally with his left hand, but look at his right. He's just grasping it with his index finger and thumb. How many thugs do you know that hold a sign like they're at afternoon tea at Buckingham palace." He demonstrated picking up an invisible teacup in a posh pinky-out manner.

Esposito blinked at him. "He's just holding a sign."

"Where is he now?" Kate chimed in.

"Unis are bringing him in," Ryan answered.

"Well, mark my words—there's something wrong with his right hand and he wouldn't have had the grip strength to leave those finger marks."

Having heard enough of his observations, Ryan and Esposito walked away. If Castle was not mistaken, he believed he heard Esposito growl as he did so. After Kate's chat with them, she returned to Castle's side. "Boy, they're friendly," he commented sarcastically.

She shook her head with a soft smile. "Nah, they just don't like outsiders."

"They seem to like you," he observed.

"I work at the DA's office; we have to work together. They tolerate me."

Castle nodded. "I you ask me, that Esposito guy has got a thing for you."

Kate let out an unintentional laugh. "I don't think so."

"He does."

Shaking her head, she led the way back to the elevator and punched the "down" button. "Well, this concludes today's field trip. I hope you enjoyed your first trip to a police station during which you weren't being arrested."

Making a face at her smart-alecky comment, he said, "Actually, I did. And I want to thank you for the past two weeks. I know this isn't what you wanted, but you've been very helpful and this experience has been very…eye opening."

She chuckled. "Glad you're enjoying yourself."

"How about you come to dinner at my place tonight?"

She glanced over at him, noticeably surprised before saying quickly, "Uh, no."

"C'mon," he enticed.

"No."

"Yes, please. It's the least I can do to pay you back for any inconveniences I've caused you. Please. One meal. Free food," he said in an attempt to not give her any reasons to say no again.

She raised a suspicious eyebrow at him. "Are you going to take no for an answer?"

He grinned. "What do you think?"

With a heavy sigh she agreed. "Fine."

With his expression looking more and more like he was the cat that got the cream he said, "Excellent. See you at seven; I'll text you the address."