Kate looked at the "Welcome home" banner she had helped Martha to hang.
"The best is, darling, that it serves both for a kidnapping and an appendectomy." Castle's mother said from the kitchen.
She laughed and agreed.
The orange sunset light was filling the loft lounge. However she had wake up a couple of hours ago. Castle and Alexis had left Paris early morning local time. They would arrive to NY on empty estomach in the early evening so Martha had found the perfect excuse to make a super breakfast.
Kate received a short message from Castle. They had landed in the airport. They had not wanted her to go to pick them up. Better for her, because waiting at the airport was worse than waiting at home. Despite that, it was being a very long wait.
She had a sore back and it was not surprising. After speaking with Castle by phone last night she received by e-mail a report from the embassy in which explained the official version of the rescue. It did not fit with what the workteam had managed to deduce with so much effort, so Beckett had stayed until dawn reviewing the case.
When Gates arrived early in the morning to the precinct and found her half asleep at her desk, ordered her to go home. She had fallen like a rock in her bed and slept until late afternoon, when Martha call her to announce the welcome plan for Richard and Alexis. She would have preferred to sleep until Castle woke her banging on the door of her apartment.
She decided to call to the precinct to make the time pass faster and hear what they had figured out this morning by the way.
"Yo."
"Espo, this's Beckett"
"Heeeeeey, the detective with Dracula's schedule" Javi scoffed.
"If I'm ever bloodthirsty you will be the first one" she replied banter "Anything new?"
"'Anything' did you say? Well, you choosed the wrong day to sleep."
"Just tell me. " she said impatiently.
"Okay. The official news from France speak of a robbery attempt last night at Palais Le Bon in Paris. So far so normal, but look at the social networks ... I send you a video."
Kate saw in a pretty decent quality recording how explosions were heard in the Parisian night, followed by many shots noises. The person recording zoomed in showing flashes inside a palace. After a few minutes there was silence.
"A robbery? That was an assault!" Said detective Beckett.
"Of course it was an assault ... Wait Beckett. I put the speakerphone ..."
"Hey, Beckett" Ryan said "guess who is the owner of Pa-la-is... well, the mansion"
"Let me guess. Russian billionaire?" Kate said frustrated.
"Bingo!" said Kevin.
Kate dropped into the armchair. She did not have thought about it. How the hell?
" Damn it! It was in front of our faces all the time" She said, rubbing her forehead with her hand.
" Hey! Don't beat yourself. Everything looks like easier when you know the solution. We had no reason to watch about the properties of the Russian guy."
That was true, and had not obtained a search warrant based only on conjectures.
"Well, guys. Forget it for now. Is Gates over there?"
Ryan and Esposito surreptitiously turned to look at Captain's office. She was taking on the phone gesturing and looking angry.
"She is ... VERY busy, Beckett." Espo replied gravely.
"Yes, a little bird has told her that Deputy Chief of Missions of CIA made a whirlwind trip to Paris." Ryan said.
"Really? Then we were on the right track! " Exclaimed the detective.
"But..." said Espo.
"But...?" Beckett replied confused.
"But officially .." Ryan explained "... nobody has confirmed it. Moreover FBI, CIA and NS have ratified the version we got from Interpol. Which ensures that the gendarmes found Castle's daughter in an abandoned office building thanks to a mysterious and timely witness, who are in custody, and there is no trace of the kidnappers.
"Fairy Tales" said Beckett angry.
"Real Liars" said Espo impotent.
"Maybe Castle could clarify something when he get back" said Ryan trying reassure them.
" Ha! Castle will tell us that he was who rescued Alexis armed with his verbosity and perspicacity" tired Beckett said.
" Hey! Don't say that! We'll tell on him" Espo said jokingly.
Kate laughed and said goodbye to them, promising that she and Castle would go to the precinct as they could.
At that point Martha ran into the room.
"Katherine, I hope you know about baking because I have a cake in the oven for an hour and seems like a soup!"
"Yeah, sure, let's see ... " Kate said as she stood up and tried to remember the morning tv shows she used to watch when was younger and had hangover...