Disclaimer: These characters don't belong to me, but they're all I have until Castle starts up again in September. Anyone know where I can buy a time machine? I'm not sure I can hold out.
Love Letters
Season 3, Episode 1: Airdate September 20, 2010
A Deadly Affair: Kate's personal journal entries for this episode.
September 20, 2010: Beware the signs...
And here I thought it was just going to be another boring day. How wrong I was. In hindsight, I'd missed every sign. Being a detective, you'd think I would have paid better attention.
Sign number one: It started this morning at the precinct when Ryan brought Castle's name up.
And just like that it became Rick Castle Day.
Mentioning Castle was something the boys never did around me anymore. For the past three months Castle had managed to become The Name We Do Not Speak. Sure, I'd overheard them talking about him, but they'd always stop mid-conversation when I entered the room. Today however, Ryan slipped up. It was the Autumnal equinox and he recalled seeing Castle balance an egg on its end on this day last year. I informed Ryan it was superstition, a load of crap, however, after the events that followed, I've been forced to rethink my theory.
I knew Ryan felt bad bringing up Castle so I did my best to downplay it. Damage done, he and Esposito cautiously asked if I'd heard from Castle. When I told them I hadn't, they quickly let the subject drop. I'd just assumed Castle had become bored with our little precinct and had found himself a new muse or moved on to his next…publisher. Whatever. I figured he'd forgotten all about us.
To be perfectly honest it did hurt to think Castle could simply drop us from his life and never look back, but who I really felt bad for were Kevin and Javi. They'd practically idolized the guy, and then he took off, not once even giving them the common courtesy to call and check in. Ryan's been teetering somewhere between angry and lovelorn, while Esposito's been just plain mad.
But here they were, worried about me. They're sweet to worry; I'm not sure what I would do without either of them. I may be an only child, but I have two brothers, the way they watch out for me. Here I'd thought I'd been putting up a pretty good front and had managed just fine since Castle left, but obviously my act wasn't fooling either of them. I was sure I'd put it all behind me, until today when the mere mention of Castle's name had me on edge.
Sign number two: Castle was literally around every corner I turned. We were outside on the curb at a crime scene, where a woman had been shot then fallen to her death and there he was, larger than life; his image plastered on a cardboard cut-out in the shop's front window. The sign said he had a book reading there this weekend. His image mocked me; crystal blue eyes twinkled with mirth as they followed my gate, his lips taunting me, silently whispering "I'm not done with you yet". The truth literally knocked the wind out of me – Rick Castle was back.
I tried to put it out of my mind and concentrate on the case. Not an easy task.
We followed a lead of an address the victim had clutched in her hand only to find the apartment had been broken into. There was a man with his back turned to us, standing over a dead body, gun in his hand. We prepared to take him down. Ryan's gun was fired, but thankfully no one was shot. Raised voices demanded the man drop the gun. He froze and then slowly turned around. We couldn't believe our eyes. It was him. Rick Castle, prodigal writer slash cop wannabe, in the flesh, as though we'd conjured him up. To say we were shocked would be putting it mildly.
Gone for over three whole months and now suddenly he'd been catapulted back into my life. I didn't expect to ever see him again, except maybe for the occasional mention of his exploits on page six next to a photo of him parading some new blonde around - but there he was.
We hadn't seen him since he took off for the summer with his ex-wife - the same day I broke things off with Tom Demming because I'd been foolishly ready to accept Castle's offer to go to the Hamptons with him. Not that I'll ever tell him this. It was just as well really since it obviously would have been a colossal mistake. Had I known the invitation came with a time stamp and that I'd be so easily replaced…well, it was my own fault. I should have known better.
So there he was right in the middle of our second crime scene. Was I surprised to find him in trouble? No. Did I really think he'd just killed someone? No, not really, however, he was standing over a corpse with a gun in his hand, so we really had no choice but to arrest him and haul his ass down to the station. I keep telling myself this.
I won't deny a certain sense of gratification as I slapped those cuffs on him.
XXXXX
When we arrived back to the precinct I interrogated him about the murder. We'd just arrested his ass, he was a murder suspect and yet he still managed to find time to flirt with me. I told him he looked good too – for murder. Will he ever take anything seriously? Highly doubtful. How he can still flirt under dire circumstances I will never understand, but I will say this…the guy can multi-task. And of course he looked good, he looked fine, or as Ryan would say, ruggedly handsome, but I'd rip off my fingernails one by one before I'd ever tell him that. I mean, he still hadn't apologized for not calling when he got back.
It's possible I might have had some residual anger issues to work out where he was concerned. In this, I was not alone. I think the Captain and the boys were angrier than I was. It wasn't easy to keep my focus on the case, but I did my best - after I argued with him some more.
Castle said he knew the victim, she'd done a sculpture for him once and today out of the blue, she'd called him for help. I continued my questioning, drilling his ass. He asked me why I was so mad at him. Seriously, how could he not know this? What was wrong with him? He was a smart guy; he'd just have to figure it out on his own. I asked him why he didn't call and he froze up. I'd meant why didn't he call when he found the body, but I know he thought I'd meant why didn't he call after he got back to the city. His expression was priceless. He claimed he was about to call us, but then we showed up on our own. Yeah, right. I plan to watch the video again tomorrow. I'd forgotten how easy it was to torture him.
I questioned him about the victim, asked him if he'd been sleeping with her, but he denied it and got defensive. He asked me how that question was pertinent. Thank God I'm able to think on my feet. I explained I was simply trying to establish motive. Then he told me he's still in a "relationship" with Gina. I'd half expected him to admit he'd been having an affair with the now deceased teacher so I was slightly thrown by this news. Then he had the audacity to accuse me of being jealous. I am not jealous. That would be ridiculous.
I could care less who he's in a relationship with; he could date a thousand women. The more the merrier. Then he had the audacity to bring up Demming. I could feel the boys and probably the Captain too, listening in to every word from behind the mirror. Castle must have seen my hesitation because he pounced. I fought the need to run and prepared for battle. He seemed surprised Demming and I had broken up. He looked like he wanted more information on the subject, but there was no way in hell I was having that conversation with him. Things went rapidly downhill from there.
He claimed to have picked up the gun to protect himself even though I had to remind him he'd been to a hundred crime scenes and knew the drill. Some things never changed; the man had to touch everything!
I asked him why I should believe him and he cried "You know me", which was interesting since I wasn't quite sure I ever did.
It turned out the gun Castle was holding wasn't the gun that killed the victim so he was technically free to go. Tempting as it was to take the Captain up on his offer to hold Castle overnight; I took the high road and told him he was free to leave. Then the nut asked if he could stay and help on the case. I practically kicked him out of the precinct.
Lanie examined the bodies and pointed out both victims had tattoos that appeared to be the work of the same artist. She kept pushing me to talk about how I felt at seeing Castle again. I told her I was fine, which I was. I just wanted to focus on solving the case. I'd sent Rick Castle away and thought he was finally gone for good.
But life's funny that way…
We arrived at the next crime scene and there he was again presiding over yet another dead body. A normal person would stop and wonder how they'd managed to find themselves continuously surrounded by dead people, yet he could only focus on how clever he was for finding one. He had star 69'd the victim's phone, it had led him there and he was ever so very proud of himself. Clever he may be, but it also had never crossed his mind that he could have been hurt if the killer was still there. You'd think he might have called us with this news, you know, since we're the police and all, but instead he stormed headfirst into what he believed to be an active crime scene.
Esposito determined the victim's body had been cold for a long while so Castle was off the hook since he'd been in police custody at the time. Castle's crazy but he's no killer, so I tell him he can go. He refused to leave and practically begged to join us on the case. My counter argument - the only reason he was there was because he'd been in the wrong place at the wrong time. If he'd really wanted back on the team he would have called us when he returned from the Hamptons.
He told me he'd been waiting for me to call him, a comment which left me nearly speechless. He was the one to leave; he should be the one to call. How could he not see this? He makes me crazy! He attempted to turn up the charm full power to convince me that him showing up with the dead bodies was a sign from the universe we were supposed to solve this mystery together. He couldn't have laid it on any thicker.
Let me state for the record, until today, I'd never believed in fate or signs, or the symbolism of the equinox for that matter, but it had been a weird day and frankly he'd wore me down. I'd forgotten how exasperating he could be. The only thing clear to me at this point was he wasn't going away anytime soon; it might be better if I was able to keep an eye on him - we'd had enough bodies dropping for one day. Next thing I know, I heard myself agreeing to let him help us out on this one case.
I hate to admit it but he did make me wonder… was the universe trying to tell me something? Had I ignored all the signs or was it all just a coincidence?
He's exhausted me. I'm going to sleep now. Hopefully Castle's universe will adjust itself by morning.
XXXXX
September 21, 2010: The Bet
When I got to work this morning I had vowed to myself to remain calm, cool and collected; unaffected by Castle's reappearance, but then he had to go and bring me coffee. No hello. He simply put the cup down in front of me, like it was the most natural thing in the world and then not skipping a beat asked me about the case. I stared at him in disbelief. He'd drifted right in, as though he hadn't been gone for months. Like he'd walked out of the room in the spring and then five minutes later walked back in again, the summer without him never happening. How's a girl not supposed to smile, or smack him over the head with something?
My smile was short-lived since it didn't take long before we found ourselves in a little contest. Honestly, some people are so competitive. Whoever figured out how the three bodies were connected won the bet. If I won he had to go away and never bother me on another case ever again. If he won I had to take him back as my partner. I became determined to be rid of him once and for all.
The boys were still pretty mad at him. You could cut the tension in the air with a knife. I knew they'd really missed him, but were trying hard not to talk to Castle out of their sense of loyalty to me. Since I'm sorry doesn't appear to be a word in Castle's vast vocabulary, I decided to help smooth things over. I figured it would make for a better working environment and call me sentimental, but the man had brought me coffee so I tossed him a bone. I lied and said Castle did say he was sorry for not calling them. This seemed to soften Ryan up a little, although Esposito would be harder to convince. It would have been nice if Castle had thought of apologizing himself, but… oh well.
We reviewed the case and our findings on the victims. Chloe Whitman was a science teacher, Maya Santori was a sculptor, and Todd Metuchen owned a vending machine business. The three victims were seemingly unrelated but we needed to find out how they were connected in order to break the case.
Todd's fiancé told us a loan shark named Dean Carbino had threatened to kill Todd if he didn't repay the fifteen thousand he owed him so we brought him in for questioning. Carbino was a real piece of work and claimed he had no motive since Todd had paid him back, in full, plus interest. He's a slime-ball, but his alibi checked out.
It was Castle's idea to compare the financials of each of the victims. How he'd thought of this before three trained detectives was a very good question. I'd forgotten how damn smart he was; his ability to think outside the box. I started to rethink Castle's place here. He'd been helpful in the past. Maybe I could work around the fact that he up and left us for months? Maybe being around him didn't have to be uncomfortable?
That's when it got uncomfortable.
I was writing on the murder board when I caught him staring at my ass. I'm certain I didn't imagine it. I'm sure he was waiting for me to call him out on it, but I never got the chance because Ryan strode over in the middle of our staring contest. If Castle was in a serious relationship with Gina what the hell was he doing checking out the merchandise? Men...
I returned my focus to the case.
Esposito obtained the address from credit card charges that matched up on the victim's financials which led us to a burlesque bar owned by Kitty Canary and her husband Earl. Castle and I questioned the proprietors about the deceased. They informed us Chloe sometimes danced there, and Todd had a snake act while Maya was simply a patron. We still only know that they are linked somehow, but not how they are connected so Castle hadn't won the bet yet. They told us how Chloe's boyfriend Evan Murphy followed Chloe to the club one night, fought with and threatened her. He's looking like a suspect.
We obtained the club's mailing list to check if anyone who frequented the place had a record. From these records we pulled up the file on Xander Foyle. Castle recognized the guy as the model for one of Maya's sculptures and we brought him in for questioning. Xander had an alibi but believed Chloe may have been involved in a meth house since he'd smelled chemicals on her when last he saw her. Per Lanie's findings this lead doesn't pan out. She informed us that traces of necessary chemicals and the finished product itself were not found on the bodies she'd autopsied.
We searched Evan's apartment and found the murder weapon, which he claimed wasn't his. It's been wiped entirely clean of prints and the whole thing started to feel like a set up. My gut told me it wasn't Evan. Someone planted it there, which led me to suspect the people that had pointed us to him.
That's when it all came together for me. We had a sculptor to make metal plates, a vending machine guy with unlimited dollar bills, and a Science teacher/chemist who knew how to whitewash them. Oh, and Miss Kitty the burlesque queen mentioned she worked in a tattoo shop as her day job, so that explained the ink. Yeah, I figured it out.
Now I could officially win the bet with Castle and make him go away again.
They say real power is not knowledge but knowing what to do with it. I pondered my next move. What to do? What to do?
This was the most fun I'd had all summer. He'd shown some real remorse over his lack of proper communication with his friends. He'd been trying to be on his best behavior. He'd been helpful on the case. Plus, there was the extra-added incentive of him getting in less trouble if I kept tabs on him.
I threw him a few clues.
Actually, I came close to taking out a marker and writing the answers on the murder board, but somehow stopped myself. Castle miraculously put two and two together and exclaimed it was a counterfeiting ring! He'd won the bet. It was hard trying to keep a straight face. Why does he have to be so damn cute?
We all went to pick Kitty and Earl up, and caught them red-handed as they prepared to leave town with a ton of counterfeit cash and the plates. They both made a run for it so I gave Castle a gun to protect himself along with perfectly clear instructions to stay put inside, advice which of course he would eventually ignore. Imagine my surprise.
We gave chase and ended up in the alley outside the bar which culminated in a modern day OK Corral standoff. My gun was pointed at Earl who was behind Castle and Castle was pointing the gun I gave him directly at me. Or so it seemed.
I really looked and I could see it in his eyes. I do know him, he was right, and the trust was still there. He would never point a gun at me, which could only mean there was someone behind me. And all at once we found our groove. We were both in the zone and everything clicked back into place again. Both our guns went off. He shot Kitty who'd been aiming a gun at me from behind where I stood, and my gun took down Earl from behind Castle. Bad guys defeated. We'd somehow made it through unharmed, although it was close. Just like old times. Castle looked as surprised as I'd felt.
Okay. I admit it. I've missed him. Somewhat.
Case closed, we returned to the precinct, and in an unusual turn of events, Castle's not gloating. Not only that but he's actually giving me an out. He starts to tell me if I really don't want him there then he'll leave, bet or no bet.
I fought the urge to hug him and told him he'd won fair and square and that I'd see him tomorrow. I want to say he looked…happy. That would make two of us.
I can do this...this friends and working partners thing. We can pick up where we left off. I'm going to pretend the summer never happened. It's water under the bridge. He and I going away together...that just wasn't meant to be. Continuing to be partners though is a different story.
When Castle was out of ear-shot, Esposito, smart-aleck that he is, called me out on letting Castle win the bet. I'm admitting nothing. After all, a bet's a bet… ;-)
A/N: Hope you enjoyed this installment. I would really love a review if you have a second! My next story will be a case story with some smut thrown in and your reviews keep me motivated. Thanks for reading. Karen
Note: The equinox brings a balance to the earth's rotation, and lowers the center of gravity. The Chinese are thought to have originated the practice of standing eggs on end during the equinox. Just as the equinox symbolically restores balance to the world by signaling its rebirth after a season of darkness, the equinox literally balances the day by dividing it into equal portions of darkness and light. If the symbol of fertility — eggs — could be balanced on end during a day equally divided between day and night, this was a sign that all nature was in harmony.
I especially liked this episode because it showed Kate going with her gut instinct and questioning fate, even though she had no solid proof, much like Castle believes in the possibility. It showed they're more alike than they realize. That, and he's her light. I'm such a sappy fangirl...
