Part XII

Castle was still bemoaning the fact that Slaughter had slipped out without them knowing as they turned on Kevin's street.

"He could be at that hotel! Cleaning up the evidence!"

"Evidence of what?"

"We don't know, that's the whole point."

"We'll get a picture of the couch and look at what we have on Buffy and that company that leased the apartment then check out the hotel. If Slaughter's there and involved I don't want him knowing we're on to him. So no more cozying up to him, got it?"

Castle gave a put out sigh as they pulled up to the building. "Fine. But if we don't find anything at the hotel, I'm going to say I told you so."

"'I told you so' what?" Kevin asked, grabbing the papers out of the back seat and getting out of the car. "It could mean there was nothing there in the first place."

"Or it could mean that Slaughter moved Buffy's unconscious body and bags of broken paraphernalia and the quick job contractor he's paying off to keep quiet about fixing the balcony doors and replacing all that stuff while you were downstairs talking to us."

Kevin paused at the front doors to the building, looking back at Castle questioningly. "You really think that's how it went down?"

"I can't think of any other way it could've gone down. Well, that doesn't involve aliens," Castle shrugged. "If, you know, you actually saw what you say you saw and weren't just seeing things. Which I really hope not because this case is fun."

Ignoring the jibe at his sanity, Kevin kept quiet as they got in the elevator. Honestly, he hadn't really been thinking about the "how" of what he saw disappearing - mostly because it made his case seem flimsy at best when you added such an unexplainable element to it.

Kevin tossed the pages down on the table next to the front door and headed towards the back of the apartment.

"I'm going to use the bathroom and get the lock picking kit."

"Good idea, management probably wouldn't be too happy with replacing another door. Oh! But if we do have to kick it in, can I do it this time?"

Kevin shook his head and ignored the question. "Help yourself to anything in the fridge."

"Yum, Banquet meals and old mustard," he heard Castle mumble.

"Hey, it's not that bad," he called down the hall, cringing a little.

It really was that bad, actually. He'd opened his mouth to be polite without even thinking about the fact he hadn't been shopping in weeks. Hopefully Castle would pass and not even look.

Kevin was therefore relieved when he came out of the bathroom and saw Castle poking around his bedroom – well, almost. Castle poking around his private stuff, while not a surprise, wasn't really welcome either. Castle looked startled at being caught red-handed but not guilty at all.

Kevin snorted a little when he saw the writer was wearing one of his brown leather coats. "That's sad, dude. I doubt you're hard up enough to steal from a poor detective like me. Mine probably cost about an eighth of what yours did – I'm surprised you're not breaking out in hives."

He didn't tell him (because he wasn't sure he'd be successful honestly), but he planned on getting Castle's coat back from Slaughter when this was all said and done. Because seriously, that pissed him off. What kind of dick move was it to steal Castle's coat like that? It was like taking candy from a baby.

He clapped Castle on the shoulder as he went past him to the closet. "I'm surprised you'd rather be digging through my crap than Buffy's though. Thought you'd be eyeball deep in those printouts by-"

He trailed off as he turned around and saw Castle had wandered off again. Dude needed a bell or something. He was grateful for his help on this, for sure, but he was also really missing Javi's focus.

Not finding the kit in the closet, he dug under the bed and through a couple drawers before finally coming across it under the bathroom sink.

Why the hell did I put it in there…

Walking out of the bathroom he saw Castle spinning slowly in the middle of the living room. Seriously a new time low on his lack of concentration. Seeing Kevin standing there looking at him with a raised brow, Castle stopped his spinning.

"Where did you put the pages on Buffy?" Castle asked, still looking confused.

"Oh, they're right-"

He stopped, looking at the empty table next to the front door. What the hell…

He did his own slow spin of the room.

"I swear I put them on the table when we came in."

"I thought so too, but when I came back in here they were gone."

Castle walked up to the door and it opened easily. They gave each other a "you've got to be kidding me look". Could someone have seriously walked right into his apartment and taken the papers while they were both out of the room?

"I'm not sure whether to be excited or annoyed," Castle said, putting his hands on his hips. "Think we were followed?"

"Not that I noticed. I guess someone could've been staking out the building…"

Dammit, someone was working really hard at keeping things hidden about Buffy or anything related to her and this case.

"Don't suppose the building has any surveillance cameras?"

"Don't you think I'd have used that to prove Buffy was real instead of going to toy stores with you if that were an option," Kevin snapped, feeling irritated at this whole situation.

Castle feigned a wounded look that was gone as quickly as it came. "Well, I doubt they'll magically reappear if we stare at the table long enough. Might as well check out Buffy's apartment, see if there was anything we missed that Slaughter would've found interesting. And I can send out a picture of the couch. Some of that other stuff looked pretty specialized, too – should be able to track down where some of it came from pretty easily. Maybe we can find that sister of hers."

Kevin nodded his agreement. He was starting to feel discouraged almost more than aggravated though. They kept finding a lot more questions but were batting zero in the answers department so far. Hopefully the hotel number from Slaughter's desk would give them something new to go on…


"Any news on Buffy?" Xander asked as Dawn hung up.

"Willow said she's almost completely healed now, but still hasn't woken up," Dawn answered gloomily.

"Is that… normal?" He asked hesitantly.

"Given that most people would be dead after getting their ass kicked and thrown out of a fourth story window, then I'd say there's not much that's normal about any of it," Kennedy said.

"Balcony," Dawn corrected with a lip curl. "Not window."

Kennedy had been in a pissy mood since the "bigger boat" comment. Well, maybe before that, with the whole super detective acting like she was a gnat to be swatted. And Dawn was getting sick of it. Plus she'd taken shotgun! Even after Dawn called it! Xander had looked like he was shocked over the lack of car seating arrangement decorum too, but hadn't said anything.

Weenie.

Then, after the first wrong turn he'd taken, she'd kicked him out of the driver's seat as well, making a little vindictive part in Dawn feel much better. Well, until Kennedy had revealed that she'd never done much driving, and instead had been driven around the city. Her lack of experience showed when she almost mowed down two pedestrians and nearly took off the door of a cab. Then had the nerve to get mad at Dawn when a terrified squeak had slipped out.

Dawn took a deep breath, repeating a mantra of "let it go" as they pulled up to Buffy's building with a scraping of wheels on curb. She was trying to give Kennedy some slack, really she was. If anyone could relate to hating nothing more than being made to feel small and unimportant, it was Dawn. And even though Kennedy was a Slayer now, she was still really insecure – at least that's what Willow kept using to defend her with. Kennedy just handled her issues a little more… bitchily than others.

"This is the building? God, it's ugly. You dropped all that money into this pit?" Kennedy said, getting out of the car.

Dawn followed, biting her tongue. The building was a little more run down in person than in the pictures she'd been sent. But it had charm! Character! It-

"And why put the money into a balcony that overlooks an alley? There are about a hundred better places I could've recommended if you'd bothered to ask. I mean, it is supposed to be for any Slayer that comes to the city, right? Shouldn't you have-"

"Could you please shut the hell up for five freaking minutes," Dawn growled, spinning on Kennedy in the middle of the street - her "let it go" attitude quickly crumbling to ashes. "Because I'm seriously about to call that Detective myself and volunteer to work for Wolfram and Hart instead of listening to you bitch about one more thing."

"Ladies," Xander said, giving a nervous laugh as he stepped between them, putting a hand on each shoulder to try and usher them out of the street. "Can't we all just-"

He froze, hands sliding from their shoulders and placating smile slowly fading.

"Uh, you okay there, Xander? Did you forget the rest of your reference, because-"

"Sonofabitch…"

"What are you-" Kennedy stopped as well, eyes widening as they laid eyes on whatever Xander had seen.

Dawn was almost afraid to look, but when she did she couldn't say it helped with her confusion.

"Uh, guys? What's the deal? I mean, there's a guy on Buffy's balcony, and yeah, that's trespassing, but-"

"That's Caleb, Dawn."

Dawn blinked, the name registering but not at the same time.

"Caleb?" She asked in confusion. "Caleb who? The only one I know of got chopped in half by Buffy, and it's kind of hard to trespass on balconies when you're in two pieces."

But Xander and Kennedy were already sprinting toward the building.

"Oh crap…" Dawn said, taking off after them.