Chapter 9
The walk the night before had been good for both Beckett and Castle. It was an easy, comfortable break for both of them and had lifted their spirits enough to make it easier to sleep. When Castle came in the next morning with coffee, their smiles were easy and confident, reflecting the way they parted. Castle handed off the coffee with a lingering of his fingers on hers, and it was accepted with a mischievous glance.
"You're a writer, am I correct?" Beckett asked him, leaning back and watching him as she took an appreciative sip of her coffee.
"Where are we going with this?" Castle responded suspiciously, easing into his chair.
"You're a writer, and you're my partner, right?
"I'm in trouble no matter how I answer this. Right?"
"You're my partner, and you're a writer, so write." She handed him some forms that were already filled out along with some blank ones. "There's a lot of writing for this one. Tell the story as succinctly as possible, with all the details necessary. I gave you a few to go by so you don't have to ask me a million unnecessary questions."
"Beckeeeett," he whined.
"Do a good job and we can leave on time tonight. I'll even treat you to a celebratory dinner. We can take Alexis, too, if you want."
"That, Detective Beckett, is blatant bribery by a city employee."
"Is it working?"
He narrowed his eyes and glared at her, found the finished forms, and started looking them over, comparing them to the blank ones.
About an hour later, results came in from ballistics and the lab. The fingerprints were verified as Merci's, and the bullets matched Lowell's gun. With identifications from multiple sources and everything else they had gathered, the case could be closed and turned over to the DA.
After a series of various interruptions, by mid-afternoon, the paperwork was done, and Castle had actually done his fair share, impressing Beckett with his work. He was adding a sentence to the last one when Ryan and Esposito came over to let them know the suspect from yesterday morning's case had been found at a friend's house and was being brought in.
"Is Castle doing paperwork?" Esposito asked in surprise.
"Amazing, isn't it?" Beckett answered with a big smile.
"Where do you hide when the world is gonna end?" Ryan asked as he and Esposito went back to their desks.
"Very funny," Castle called from behind them. Turning back to Beckett, he grouched, "I'm getting us some coffee. And this is all you get out of me. You want more, the offer has to be a lot better."
"You did good, Castle," she said appreciatively. "I'll settle for coffee."
While he was gone, she started typing up the reports he had hand written, and took a break for coffee when he returned.
"Trade places," he told her.
"Why do you want my chair?" she wanted to know.
"You can keep your chair. I want your computer. I know what I wrote, and I type faster than you do. So trade places."
"Ryan could be right," she answered in awe and then moved. "Where do we hide?"
Castle glared at her for the second time that day, slid into her chair, took stock of what was on the screen, and he started typing, his fingers flying across the keys.
Beckett picked up her coffee, walked the short distance to Esposito's desk and whispered, "Want to see him when he morphs into Writer-man?"
The boys looked up to see Castle fully focused on getting his report on the computer screen. He never looked at his fingers, only the page and the screen, and didn't even look up as Beckett sat down in his chair, sipped her coffee, and stared at him for a change.
"I don't think I ever saw anybody type that fast. Nobody here anyway." Ryan said quietly, not wanting to distract Castle. "You think anybody will be able to read it when he's finished?"
"I don't know, but I'm so gonna have to check," Esposito answered.
In what seemed like no time, Castle had finished the typing. "Beckett, you can correct anything I missed," he said, and suddenly realized that three detectives were gathering at his back looking for mistakes.
"You can type up my reports any time you want, Bro'," Esposito told him,
"In your dreams," Castle answered, moving out of Beckett's chair. "Beckett has a lot more assets to bribe me with, and even she may not see this again."
"Beckett," Kate answered when her phone rang. "Okay. We'll be looking for him."
"They've got the shooter from yesterday morning downstairs. They're bringing him up now," she said to the group. Then she told the boys, "Put him in Interrogation 2. We'll be there in a few minutes. We've got enough witnesses to nail him, but a confession would be nice. Thinking about the file they needed to finish, she reconsidered. "You guys want to take this one?" she asked the boys."
"No problem," Esposito answered.
"Did they find the gun?" Castle asked.
"It's on its way to ballistics," Kate answered. The elevator dinged, and the boys went to meet the officers bringing their suspect.
The paperwork was too close to finished to stop now; so Beckett and Castle took time to proof the reports, and she signed them while the other two detectives talked to their suspect.
"Let's go see how the boys are doing," she suggested when the reports were in the file; and she and Castle took their coffees and watched at the window as Ryan and Esposito worked at getting a confession from Thomas Walsh. Faced with the number of witnesses willing to come forward in memory of a well-loved friend, the young man finally broke down in tears and confessed. It had been an argument with one of his friends that went too far…and got out of hand because he'd had a gun with him…a story corroborated by the witnesses. Getting the reports done for this one shouldn't take too long.
"You know, by the time we get these witness statements done, it's going to be time to go. Why don't you text Alexis and see if she wants to come along. Call Martha, too, if you want. We'll tell her where to meet us. It would be fun to have everybody. It's about my turn, and my apartment isn't as big as your loft."
"You've had dinner with us when we celebrate. Are you sure you want to feed the entire family?"
"If I didn't, I wouldn't have suggested it."
"And you really want me to call my mother?"
"Yeah. Your family is fun."
"I'm glad you like them. They're part of the deal," he answered, reminding her intentionally.
"I know that." She returned his gaze with a reassuring look, and he picked up his phone and texted Alexis.
Castle voluntarily helped with the witness statements from the day before, and the boys wrote up the interrogation and confession. Nothing new came up, and Gates ordered everybody out at the end of their shifts.
"I told Alexis we'd meet her at the morgue," Castle told Beckett. "After telling Lanie that Buttons was taking her home to change last night, Lanie let her in on the wisdom of keeping a change of clothes at work. She left this morning with a gym bag with two changes, so I think she'll be presentable."
"You realize we may have to invite Lanie, too now…which probably means she'd want to bring Javi along…and he'd feel guilty not asking Ryan and Jenny."
"Bad move on my part?"
She looked at him with a smile that told him it was fine, and said, "You may be having dinner with both families. I think they'll like each other."
"Me, too."
"Is seafood okay?"
"Sure."
"Call Martha," she told him before they reached Lanie's door. "I'll go see if Alexis is ready…and I'll talk to Lanie." She checked her phone for an address, gave Castle the name and address of the restaurant, and left him to his phone call.
"Hey, girl," Lanie greeted with a teasing, but suspicious look. "I hear you're hosting a Castle family dinner. Anything you need to tell me? Hmmm? Our girl is back there changing clothes. Talk."
"Later, Lanie. The walls have ears lately."
"Yeah, well if somebody didn't argue loud enough to wake even my clientele, the walls might not hear as much."
"I'm trying to get that under control," Kate answered, looking away briefly. "You want to call everybody else and meet us for dinner?"
"For real?"
"Yeah. Castle's good with it. You know Alexis won't mind, and you'll love Martha. You're a little alike. If it crosses the mind, it's likely to cross the lips."
"I am definitely sitting next to her," Lanie answered, her mind already forming prying questions.
"I can't afford to pay for everybody, though," she told Lanie quietly.
"That's okay. I'll explain when I call. We'll all take care of ourselves." She paused and smiled. "Writer-boy's actually letting you get away with this – not trying to get you to let him treat."
"He is so far. I think he knows I want to do something for him sometimes. I haven't always been that…aware, I guess. He's letting me figure it out."
"Look at you…figuring things out…on purpose. Yep. Definitely sitting with his mother. Mothers know things you don't know they know. No telling what you might learn."
"This is probably such a mistake," Beckett moaned as Castle came in.
"What's a mistake?"
"Lanie has claimed the seat next to your mother."
"What were we thinking?" Castle answered dramatically.
"Hey, Dad. Thanks for inviting me, Kate."
"The party is growing. Lanie is meeting us there, and calling the rest of the team," Kate told her.
Alexis smiled excitedly. "Everybody in one place. That should be fun!"
"And Mother is meeting us there, too," Castle answered.
"Interesting," Alexis giggled, as her dad motioned her ahead of him.
"We'll wait for you outside, Lanie," Kate called over her shoulder.
Castle resisted the temptation to offer to call ahead, knowing they could probably get a table faster; but this was Kate's plan, and they'd do it her way. Besides, he was perfectly content to spend as much of the evening as he could next to a happy, smiling Kate Beckett. The longer it took, the better.
