Finding Thanksgiving

Chapter 7

The precinct was running on a skeleton crew as Thanksgiving approached. Kate had given as many cops the afternoon off as possible, saving the time for the expected conflicts among the frenzied shoppers late Thanksgiving day and on Black Friday. Kate brought Bankin in to hold her heavy bag as she executed her workout in an otherwise deserted gym. She made sure Bankin was as sweaty and bruised as possible, prompting him to spend the maximum amount of time under a soothing hot spray in the shower. The locker room was almost empty when Castle retrieved Bankins's cell phone to the excruciatingly off key strains of Peggy Sue. He passed it to Haley who in the interests of maintaining proximity, had elected to work in a women's stall rather than Kate's office, while Castle stayed on guard with a walkie talkie to make sure the horrendous travesty of Buddy Holly's repertoire didn't come to an end.

Castle need not have worried. Peggy Sue was followed by That'll Be the Day, Maybe Baby, and Love's Made a Fool of You. "You've got that right," Castle muttered during the final song. Hayley signaled Castle and handed the phone back while Bankin was still wailing about crying at night when your baby don't treat you right. Castle just made it out of the room before Bankin returned, mercifully silent, to towel off and get dressed.

Castle stopped briefly at Kate's office to let her know he and Hayley had completed the mission. "You know," he told her, "Bankin's got more to worry about than Silver and LokSat. The ghost of Buddy Holly may came to haunt him. I just hope it doesn't decide to play poltergeist in the precinct."

"I don't know Castle," Kate replied. "Maybe it would give everyone who's left an excuse to get out of here."

Castle raised a Spockish brow. "The gung-ho Captain Beckett wants an excuse to leave her post?"

Kate sighed. "Not feeling so gung-ho right now Castle. This candle's been burned to the middle."

"You could reconsider coming to Thanksgiving dinner," Castle suggested. "A little down time, with a turkey induced siesta might be good for you."

"No Castle, the way things are right now between us that would be too comfortable, too hopeful. It would just be too painful afterward for both of us. You be with your family and I'll keep watch. You should invite Hayley, though. I don't think she has family here."

"I did invite her, but she told me she has plans with friends. I don't know who they are and I get the feeling it might be better that way. It will just be Mother and me and Alexis and a huge turkey - which I have to make sure is thawing properly. Hayley should have some results soon too. So stay in touch in case anything comes up?"

"Absolutely, Castle."

As Castle strode away, Kate closed the door of her office, sank down on her couch, and buried her wet face in her hands.


The sound of the knife echoed hollowly off the walls of the loft as a solitary Castle cubed bread to toast for croutons for the stuffing. The smell of roasting chestnuts, also for the stuffing, wafted through the air, but contributed none of its usual pre-Christmas cheer. Castle shouldn't have been standing there alone. The kitchen should have been bustling with activity, as it always had been before the day before Thanksgiving. This just wasn't right. Since Kate left, nothing was right. As much as shafts of pain burned through him when Castle considered her deception, he still wanted her back. He hadn't felt this way when he found out Meredith had been cheating on him, or either time he broke up with Gina. Even his break up with Kyra hadn't hurt this much. He put down the knife and took a seat at the table, staring at a glowing pyramid. "You know Lucy, being in love can really suck sometimes."

"I don't really know that Rick," Lucy responded. "My circuits can't love. But there are numerous citations in literature that support your point of view. Oh, Haley's on her way up. Maybe she has clues for you. That should be a distraction."

"Yeah, a welcome one," Rick acknowledged.

Rick opened the door and Haley strode in. "Bankin has been a busy boy and not just on his assignments from Kate. He called several of the same burners that Dick called. Oh and Dick goes by Richard Marley. A friend of mine hacked the DMV and found him."

"So we really can call him Dick. You have some interesting friends, Haley. They could make a good book," Castle proposed. "Nikki Heat is running pretty dry these days."

Hayley shook her head doubtfully. "I don't think they'd fancy that much. They prefer to stay out of public notice. But you shouldn't give up on Nikki Heat yet. You told me once you love Kate like a house afire. Learning to read people is my stock and trade. Whatever has happened, she feels the same about you. That's not something to be thrown away."

"Listen to the woman, Rick," Lucy chimed in.

"I am listening, Lucy," Castle retorted. "But Hayley, let's get back to Bankin's phone. If he was calling the same numbers as Dick, he could be working both sides of the street, for Silver and for LokSat. Maybe that's why Silver never had any luck. Bankin was throwing monkey wrenches into her investigation just like he's probably been doing to Kate."

Haley nodded. "That's what I was thinking as well. I put a call into her. She should be joining us soon."

"She is," Lucy piped up. "She just came in the back door, Rick. She should be up here in seventy-three seconds."

Kate's key clicked in the lock. She threw her coat on the back of a chair. "Oh good, Hayley, you're here. What are we going to do?"

"Well usually when you find out you've got a cuckoo in the nest, you get rid of it," Hayley offered.

"Kate can't fire him for no reason and as tempting as it might be, we can't just kill Bankin," Castle pointed out. "He's obviously playing both sides of the street. LokSat may have planted him with Silver to keep an eye on her. If we take him out, we alert everyone. We'll have guns blazing at us from two directions. We have to use him. We had one link to LokSat. His intersection with Dick gives us two. We follow both their movements and when one or the other leads us to LokSat we call in the cavalry to take him down."

Hayley's face twisted in confusion. "Who's the cavalry?"

"Our contact in the CIA," Castle answered grimly as he and Kate exchanged looks. "Believe me. He's no one you ever want to meet - and definitely no one you ever want pissed at you."

"Castle's right," Kate agreed. "It's better you stay as far away from any information about him as you can. But before we take that step, I feed Bankin some information. I'll tell him that the DEA gave Narcotics some tips on drug operations, throw in a few of the places Dick has been. That should jar him, maybe into notifying his own boss." She gazed questioningly at Haley. "You cloned his phone, right? We'll know whomever he calls, won't we?"

"We will," Hayley confirmed.

Kate pulled out her own cell phone. "Good. Let's poke the bear."

Castle drew a deep breath as the creases in his face deepened to ridges. "Let's just hope we don't end up as the bear plate special."