Dreams of Future Past
Chapter 10
What is Castle doing at the precinct? A photo layout with stripper cops? The gushing interviewer from the magazine is asking her about working with Castle. She is resisting the urge to tell her what a selfish, infantile brat he is - just resisting. And being asked how Castle helped on some of her toughest cases? That's too much.
Montgomery is no help, reminding her that Castle did just that. He orders her to cooperate. The brass at 1PP wants the good PR. Damn, he always takes Castle's side. If he didn't, she never would have worked with the writer in the first place. And the boys are loving the circus that's going on too, especially the scantily dressed models.
Castle isn't smiling. He tries to explain that he had nothing to do with the shoot. She assures him that she doesn't care. She's past it. She's past nothing! She trusted him, and he went behind her back. How can she deal with that or him?
She just wants to get on with the case, but Amy the reporter wants to go along. And of course, that means Castle will be there too. He seems desperate to make it up to her, like a little boy bringing his teacher an apple. Except that he offers to buy her a pony. A pony? Is he kidding?
At least Lanie is standing up for her. The way she's staring down a Castle should be making the flesh on his face wither. But he is busily making himself out as a crime scene authority to Amy. And worse, he's right. He even realizes that it isn't suicide, at the same time she does. Are their minds still in sync? She can't handle thinking about that.
She can send him off to the morgue with Lanie, who won't cut him any slack. The reporter can go too. At least she's rid of both of them.
The M.E. van was attacked, and the body was stolen? Castle is spouting stupid spy theories. Nothing has changed about that. Ryan and Esposito sent shaken-up Amy home. She tries to send Castle home too after Lanie declares him all right. He pleads that he should stay as a witness.
She decides to let him stay, but it may be a way to get rid of him for good. She makes him promise that when they finish the case, he'll be gone. He insists he'll make her change her mind about wanting him to go. Will she?
Castle is upsetting Sandy Allen, the victim, John Allen's, widow. He's implying the man might have been cheating. Damn him! But he does ask about the late-night phone calls. That gives her Max Haverstock. She hates to admit it, but Castle is being helpful. And the really awkward part is telling Sandy that her husband's body is missing.
Castle is staring at her in the elevator. She glares at him, and he slinks back against the wall. But he was thrown around in the van. Alexis and Martha have a right to know he's all right. She calls them, as soon as she's out of his view.
Mild, balding, bespectacled Max Haverstock doesn't look like a killer. Castle observes that he couldn't throw a body off a building. She suspects he's right. But killers often don't look like killers. Max Haverstock has no motive. John Allen didn't fire him. John Allen was downsized too. He'd been lying to his wife ever since. Allen wasn't the dutiful husband and father leaving for work each day and flying off on business. Whatever he had been doing had gotten him killed.
The body turns up, slashed open. Castle makes another stupid joke about someone hating the victim's guts, but Lanie says Allen was a drug mule. He's also been strangled, by someone with a strange pinky finger. It's not a great clue, but it's better than nothing.
She suggests that the inside of the glove of whoever cut open the body should be fingerprinted on the inside. As Lanie excises the print from the fingertip, Castle makes yet another dumb joke about Lanie being a mohel. Good for Lanie, threatening to practice on Castle. There is still someone she can count on.
The print belongs to a drug dealer. That couldn't be more obvious. They catch him and his whole gang in the act of cutting and packing. She has a pile of charges against the drug gang, and more on the way. She hates cutting a deal to get them to talk, but she needs something to lead her to pinky-man. It's no surprise that they confirm that John Allen owed money - lots of it. But Castle wants to know who vouched for Allen to get him in with the dealer.
It's another finance guy named Ron Bigby. The guy can't stop sniffing. No surprise there. A damn cokehead! But he is the first one they've talked to who knows what John Allen was doing. Triad run poker games? A tattooed Russian? How the hell is she going to track the killer down? Castle says he can do it. She hates it, but she believes him. The man always knows someone who knows someone.
She's worried about letting Castle go to the triad poker game. It's dangerous. Why does she care so much? He might as well have stuck a dagger in her soul. But the idea of anything happening to him would be another one. The button cam lets her team see and hear Castle, but he can't hear them. He's going to get himself into trouble. She can feel it.
The gaming hall is full of Tattooed Russians. Damn! Castle is playing, dropping $40,000 for chips as if it's nothing. There're going to take him for it. Fine. He deserves to lose it. But his narration of the crime is going to make the killer run - or just kill him too. Sh*t! He is going to get himself killed. She strips down as fast as she can, transforming from cop to trophy Russian girlfriend. The guards accept her offer of a possible bribe. Money or something more personal.
She flirts with the killer until she can get close enough to disarm him. Castle stares appreciatively at her metamorphosis. She shouldn't feel good about that, but she does. She covers by ordering him to call for backup.
Is Castle really talking about John Allen when he says that sometimes people do the wrong things for the right reason - love? Castle accuses her of being scared to pursue her mother's case. He wants to follow the leads he uncovered with her. He's not doing it because he cares about her. He's doing it because he's selfish, isn't he? She's too terrified and angry about what might happen if she gives in, to believe anything else. She has to send him away.
Her eyes can't move from his back as he walks off, shoulders slumping. Should she call him back? She can't. She can't justify giving him another chance either to herself or him.
But he comes back. He's not asking for another chance. He's just admitting his betrayal of her trust and apologizing. No excuses. He just thinks she has a right to know that he's sorry. The boy has given way to the man. She needed a reason to forgive him. Now she has one, but she can't tell him that. As he walks away again, she just calls after him that she'll see him tomorrow. She can breathe again.