Chapter Fourteen
The coffee date never materialized. Castle texted again and Beckett replied to let him know she was busy; for a murder caught on film their suspect list was awfully short.
Beckett found she was running down leads all day; she had finally called it a night when Ryan and Esposito had started yawning and remarking caustically how nice it must be for Captain Montgomery to leave the building certain his best detectives were on the case around the clock.
"Fine," she'd said at last. "Go. But first thing in the morning I expect the vic's financials on my desk."
"Yes, boss," they'd both echoed, and their computers were off and they were headed to the elevator before she had even taken her eyes off the murder board.
Beckett shrugged her shirt off, shimmying out of her dress pants and digging around in her dresser for jeans and a casual top, trying to hurry, and retying the scarf around her neck. Yeah. Not that the marks there were exactly prominent, but as an ME Lanie made her living detecting minor details, and she didn't want to give her friend any ammunition.
The last thing Beckett had wanted was to go out for a drink when she had to be back at the precinct first thing in the morning. She'd agreed to a compromise when Lanie had called; drinks and take-out at her place. Of course, Lanie had gotten there at the same time as Kate, and now she was rushing around, ruing the fact she hadn't been able to text Castle back.
Damn. She had it bad. But, she supposed, it had been less than twenty-four hours, so maybe she shouldn't text him back. Maybe it was a good thing Lanie was here. Maybe she needed to wait, leave a little space-
"Beckett," Lanie's voice echoed into her bedroom, and she cursed softly under her breath.
"Coming," she called. "Do you want to order? There are a bunch of take-out menus in the kitchen- top drawer."
"Okay," she heard Lanie call back, and she bit back a grin as she heard the squeak as Lanie wrestled with the drawer. Yeah. So her kitchen was mostly fine, but the drawers could be described as vintage. Or, more accurately, as an occupational hazard.
"Hey," she said, walking back into the kitchen. "You find them?"
"Oh, I found them," Lanie said, gesturing to the menus on the counter. She straightened up, her arms folded across her chest, staring Beckett down. "What are they?" She dipped her head, indicating the sink, and Beckett frowned.
"My kitchen counter? The sink?"
"Take a closer look."
Beckett stepped into the kitchen properly, stretching to see what, exactly, had Lanie so riled up. Oh. Damn. "Uh- coffee cups, Lanie. What- you've never seen anyone leave dirty dishes around before?"
"Uh-huh. And, pray tell, Kate Beckett, why there are two coffee cups in the sink?"
"I- uh-" Kate panicked. She was so busted.
"Kate?"
The gleam in her eye had Beckett stepping back, and she nearly laughed at herself. The fearless Kate Beckett, interrogated in her own kitchen? Not okay. She struggled to come up with something; a lie, or maybe she could turn the tables? But she couldn't think quickly enough. "God, Lanie. Do you tell me every time you hook up with Espo?" She wrinkled her nose. "Don't answer that. I don't need the details."
"So you hooked up. Huh. Figured as much," Lanie said, eying Kate's neck.
Kate threw her hands up in the air. "I have no idea why you bothered getting your medical degree- you would have made a great detective," she huffed, before a small smile found its way to her lips. "Fine. Yes. I… had someone over last night."
"I knew it!" Lanie uncrossed her arms, beaming at Beckett. "I don't know why you were so secretive about it. Oh- is it someone I know? Josh." She narrowed her eyes. "You did not hook up with Josh again, did you."
"God, no. And what do you mean by again? That was a one time thing." Kate snatched up the menus. "If you're not going to pick something, I am," she said. "How about pizza. Oh- or Chinese?"
"Nu-uh," Lanie said, but Beckett reached into her pocket for her phone.
"Pizza," she decided, shushing Lanie as she dialed and ordered dinner.
Kate picked up a bottle of red from the counter and stalked into the living room, nodding at Lanie to grab two glasses. She settled herself onto the couch, filling Lanie's glass and her own before speaking.
"Cheers," she nodded, raising her glass to Lanie and her friend returned the gesture with a sly smile.
"So… who was the guy?"
Beckett shrugged, taking a long sip of her wine, before putting the glass down, reminding herself that she had to work in the morning. "Castle," she mumbled.
Lanie's eyes widened and Kate smirked, watching a plethora of expressions roll over Lanie's face… shocked, impressed, and finally, smug. "I knew he was into you!" she exclaimed.
"So, was it good?" Lanie asked with a mouthful of pizza.
Kate stared at her. "Seriously?"
Her friend shrugged. "What? You told me about Josh."
"Yeah," mumbled Kate. "Regretting that now." She took a bite of her own slice of pizza, considering how much to tell. "It was… good," she said at last, her cheeks reddening.
Lanie laughed. "Just wait-"
Kate's eyes widened. "No. Absolutely not. Lanie Parish, this goes no further. You do not tell Esposito. I'm serious."
"Hmm." Her friend smiled, her expression warm. "Oh, sweetie. Of course I won't tell him."
"Good," Kate said. "Last thing I need…"
"So, are you going to see him again?"
Kate shrugged, focusing on her glass of wine. "I… hope so," she said at last, considering. He'd messaged her today, twice and he'd seemed to take it well when she'd returned a text to let him know she was snowed under at work.
She was still a little worried about him, though. He'd woken up in a good mood, showing her just how good that mood was in the shower… and it had been great. But she remembered having nightmares back when she was dating Will. They had been just another thing in the long list of things that had seen that relationship combust.
What if Castle thought about his nightmares, and didn't want her to be the one to see them? Eventually the trauma from Alexis' kidnapping was going to catch up to him. What if he didn't want her around then? What if this was a kind of post-traumatic-attach-to-the-cop-on-the-case kind of thing? What if-
"Kate!"
"Yes?" Beckett asked, looking up guiltily.
"I asked if you wanted more wine, sweetie," Lanie told her. "But you were zoned out."
"I'm… kinda tired," Kate admitted, groaning at Lanie's knowing expression, and holding her glass out regardless. If Lanie wasn't going to go home, she needed wine. A lot more wine.
When the phone chimed in the middle of the night, Kate sat up, immediately on alert. She was used to late night calls from dispatch, but her friends and family know better than to send her text messages at... she looked at the time on her cell... three in the morning. Okay then.
Are you awake? Kate sighed. She was now. She typed a quick message back to Castle. No. I'm asleep, like you should be. The reply came through immediately. Sorry, I couldn't sleep so I was writing. I have a new idea. Kate giggled - actually giggled.
She might not enjoy being awoken at three in the morning but it certainly made a change to get messages from a writer instead of calls about dead bodies. How about you call me in the morning- the actual morning- and tell me about your idea then? Kate texted back, before committing the cardinal sin of a detective on call, and switching her phone to silent, lying back down and burrowing under the covers, intent on getting some sleep.
Castle called at twelve, when Beckett was staring down the murder board. "I was going to call you when I woke up," she teased. "But I couldn't do it. I couldn't wake you up at six in the morning."
"You got up at six?" he asked, sounding disgusted. "I was still asleep then."
"Yeah. Like I was at three." Her jaw dropped, something occurring to her. "Oh, admit it, Castle, you're still in bed now, aren't you?"
"Well. Um." She heard shuffling, and a triumphant "no!" resounded firmly in her ear.
Kate rolled her eyes, glancing across the mostly empty bullpen. The guys were in the workroom, going over tech, and she took the opportunity to head into the break room, cell pressed to her ear. "Come on, Castle," she said. "You just got out of bed, didn't you?"
"I've been up for hours," he lied and she ran her fingers through her hair, amused. Very carefully, she closed the break room doors, setting the phone on speaker and putting it on the counter as she tackled the coffee machine.
"I'm a trained detective, I can hear you lying," she told him.
"And I'm- hey!" He sounded delighted all of a sudden. "Are you using my coffee machine?"
"Our coffee machine," she corrected him. Damn. That wasn't what she meant either. "The precinct's coffee machine."
"So do you have time for lunch?" he asked.
Beckett checked her watch. "Sure. I can take a half hour," she agreed. "You wanna meet me here?"
"Okay. I'll be there soon. Really soon," he told her. "Because I'm awake. Have been for hours."
"Uh-huh." Kate rolled her eyes. "Listen, Castle, call me when you get here and I'll come down and meet you, okay?" She poured a generous splash of milk into her coffee cup and ended the call, stuffing the phone into her pocket and opening the door to the bullpen.
"What do you have?" Beckett frowned, ignoring the ringing of her cell in her pocket, intent on seeing what Ryan had picked up on the surveillance footage now that he and Esposito were done combing through it. Castle was going to have to wait downstairs a moment longer, because this was important.
"Check this out," Ryan said, rewinding the tape for another look. "You're looking at the victim, right?"
"Right," she agreed, annoyed. She was on a clock here. Ryan might be happy to waste time, but the last thing she wanted was for-
And the elevator door chimed out in the bullpen. She poked her head out of the work room to see Castle strolling toward her, a beam on his face. "Beckett," he said, delighted, and she made a face at him.
"You were meant to wait downstairs," she hissed, but it was no use, the boys were crowding around.
"Esposito, Ryan," Castle nodded.
"Hey, man," Esposito said, and Ryan nodded in greeting.
"I won't be long," she promised, steadfastly refusing to look at Esposito or Ryan, just glad the Captain and the rest of the usual crew weren't here to witness this.
"Oh, no problem," Castle said, following her back into the room where Ryan had the footage paused. "I don't mind checking this out."
She shook her head, closing the door after him and watching in amazement as he made himself at home, sitting down next to Ryan. "Okay," she said, tight lipped and nervous.
"Right," Ryan continued. "So as I was saying, you're watching the vic." He played the footage for the second time. "Baseball bat, light, car. Right?"
"Right," Beckett agreed. "So what am I meant to be seeing?"
"Rewind," Castle instructed, and she turned her head, narrowing her eyes at him. "Sorry," he apologized. "I just thought I saw something."
"You did." Ryan nodded, and Esposito took the opportunity to shoot Beckett a knowing look.
"Okay. Play it again," Beckett conceded, watching this time as Ryan pointed to the corner of the screen, to a wall in the alley. "What am I meant- oh. I see."
"Excellent," Castle said, his eyes lighting up. "This was all staged. What a great murder."
Esposito snorted. "Yeah, man, great."
"Well- you know what I mean, don't you?" Castle asked, looking around at the three of them, and Beckett gave him a slight shrug of her shoulder, tacitly agreeing. Dealing with murderers and psychopaths was never exactly pleasant, but sometimes it really was fascinating, if frustrating.
"Okay. Well, we'll have to see who could have tampered with this-" Beckett paused, an idea forming in her mind. She'd said she had time for lunch, though, and she should really get Castle out of here; he'd seen enough confidential evidence for the afternoon. "Let's take a break for lunch, meet back here in an hour-"
"What!" Castle exclaimed.
"What?" Beckett asked him, and Castle shrugged.
"Well- don't you want to solve this? We're so close, I can feel it. We don't have time for lunch!"
"Dude," she heard Esposito whisper to Ryan, and she frowned. Fine. If this was how Castle wanted to play it-
"I can go downstairs, get us some food from across the road, bring it back, and then I could take a look at what you've got so far and help you work out exactly who tampered with the footage!" His enthusiasm was palpable, and she shrugged, defeated.
"Good luck with that," Ryan told her, nodding in Castle's direction, and taking off with a wave, Esposito hot on his heels.
"Huh. Well, if they don't want to have lunch with us, that's their loss," Castle said. "So, Detective. I'll get us burgers and I'll be right back so we can go through all the evidence. What flavor shake do you want?"
A/N: Thanks for beta-ing this K! I had a few people who were looking forward to Lanie's reaction, hope this satisfied!