I want to thank you all so much for your response to that last chapter! It was so wonderful to see the positive comments about it, and to hear that you liked the chapter and were happy to see the story continue. As I said, I was uncertain about continuing, but with the response to the last chapter, you've convinced me to hang in there, for at least a little while longer. It wasn't a super quick update, but this is one of the longer chapters I've done for this story.
Some shout-outs: IrrationalObsessions, you really almost make me blush with your continued glowing praise. Not sure I deserve all of that, but thank you! Chelle82, thanks for your kind words also. ThePutz913, if you were talking about it, and then the chapter popped up, I bet you did a double-take. RGoodfellow, since his trademark was signing chests, I thought Hooters would be mildly funny. And where else do you have the potential to find a lot of buxom chests? Aruro, more Ryan/Esposito in this one. Charliexedd, glad you're caught up and that you enjoyed the series (if I can call it that yet). And I'll think about the Dad thing...there may be some good opportunities for that coming up. And to everyone else that I didn't mention specifically, I still very much appreciate all of your comments, so thank you. In looking back at some of the earlier reviews/comments about Blizzard, it looks like I have a whole different group of readers now than I did then. So again, thanks for reading and sticking around and giving me some feedback. I do LOVE to hear from you!
I made some of the brownies (who remembers the brownies?) this weekend to take to a party. And I kept thinking 'wouldn't it be weird if someone said, 'oh, yeah, I read about these brownies in a story I was reading online...' Yeah, strange, I know. But this is still my 'secret life', so I think there will be some sort of cosmic shift or at least a weird weather event if my alter-ego ever collides with real life.
Several days ago, I posted something on tumblr that I thought was kind of funny, although totally unrelated to Castle. In writing this chapter, I got the idea to actually use this...thing. So now it isrelated to Castle (well, it will be after this chapter, at least in my world). After you read the chapter, you'll know what I'm talking about, and if you want to see the entire list, check out my tumblr page (xxGoogiexx).
Lastly, I just want to remind everyone of the timeline of when this storyline was started, which is mid-season 3.
Disclaimer: I don't own Castle. Bummer.
"We need to find out why he picked these people, aside from the fact that they have some derivative of the name 'John'."
Beckett and the guys were sitting in their 'war room', which was really the conference room that had been overtaken by the case. Now that they knew the second thing that their killer was trying to spell with the victim's names, they knew they had more victims; victims that had last names starting with the letters used to spell MacGuinness' last name. They'd spent most of the next day combing through files and looking for their missing victims, and once those were found, they started looking for commonalities in the victims or with the timeline of the killings. It was nice to report in her briefing with the mayor that they now had a more solid lead and a link to some semblance of a motive, crazy though it was. However, it was still a blow to also have to report that they'd found more victims; victims that were now identified because of the new lead with the name.
Beckett tossed her pen down on the table in front of her. "I don't like it, and I don't want to have to do it, but I think we have to start interviewing all of the victims' families about their deaths."
"Beckett, some of those were originally ruled accidental," Ryan pointed out, his meaning clear. If they start questioning the families about an accidental death, word could get out, which was what they'd been trying to avoid this whole time.
"I know, I know. But I don't think we have any choice anymore. How long has this guy been at this? Over a year? Now we finally have something that links all of these deaths together. We need to find out if the victims have any ties to John MacGuinness. If we find a connection with the victims, it might lead us to the killer."
They were all silent for a while, just thinking about the implications of what they had to do, and how they had to do it. Finally, Ryan spoke. "Where do you think we should start? Because personally, I think if we're going to get some good information from any of those people, we'd be better off starting with the most recent victims. They're going to have the best memories because the events are more recent."
She leaned back in her chair, thinking about it for a few moments.
Esposito chimed in, "You know, he does have a point. If there's a bigger connection between the victims other than their names, then it won't really matter where we start. And the ones whose memories are more recent will probably be better anyway."
She nodded. "Good. Let's start with Emerson and work our way backwards. And let's start going through the information about MacGuinness, now that we finally have most of it."
They'd requested information from other precincts about John, aka Mike, MacGuinness to supplement what was in the computer records, and the last of the information had just been delivered. With similar sighs, they all began to grab files about MacGuinness.
"Guys, see if you can find anything about family or friends in those files. I know our information said no next of kin except for that elderly aunt in Pennsylvania, but maybe there's something in the files."
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
They were still in the conference room an hour later, still combing over old arrest reports, when the phone on the table rang. They were all jolted by the sound as their eyes flew up and found each other's. Who could be calling? They'd had the phone put in there for convenience, in case they had to make calls to track down information and didn't want to use their cell phones, but they never received any incoming calls on it. Never.
After a surprised look at the other two detectives, Beckett, punched the speaker button to answer the phone. "Twelfth precinct, Detective Beckett," she said into the otherwise quiet room as Ryan and Esposito listened, interested to see who was calling them.
"Ah, Hell's Fury, is that you? Glad I finally tracked you down," came the voice from the speakerphone.
Her mouth dropped open as she recognized the voice. "Castle?"
"Well, yes, Detective. It is I. Or at least that's one thing you can call me."
She rolled her eyes. "Yes, a few other names are coming to mind, now that you mention it... And speaking of names, what the hell did you just call me?"
"Now, now, Beckett," he chided. "But you're right. That is your new first name."
She gave the phone a strange look, aware of the other two detectives that were looking at her strangely, like she should know what was going on. "Castle, you're still on the west coast, right? Did you start smoking some funny stuff they have out there?"
"Nothing more than normal," came the reply.
"Castle, we're in a police station on a speaker phone. Not a good idea to be joking about illegal activity."
"Oh, yeah. Right." There was a pause and then he said, "Ryan and Esposito there?"
Ryan said, "Hey, Castle," at the same time that Esposito told him, "Yeah, we're here."
"Cool. You guys have got to hear this."
"Castle, we're in the middle of looking through files on MacGuinness," she said in a slightly exasperated tone. Then she had a thought and she couldn't resist having a little fun with him, even though it totally derailed what they were doing. But they deserved a break, didn't they? "So what is it? And please don't tell us that you found another Mavis who needed help holding up her boobs."
She delivered the line perfectly in a voice that had just a little bit of boredom thrown into the tone, and after the words were out, it was quiet enough in the room to hear a pin drop. And her casually uttered words were just enough to make Esposito's and Ryan's suddenly wide-eyed gazes shoot to her face to see what she was going to say next. Boobs? Holding them up? And why was Beckett talking about Castle holding up boobs? But the next words weren't from either of the two detectives, they were words over the speaker phone that were uttered by the supposed boob-holder. "Nice, Beckett," he said sarcastically. "You just had to bring that up in front of them, didn't you?"
Before she could offer any sort of response, Ryan got a smirk on his face and told the phone. "Come on, Castle. Spill. You were holding some...uh, womanly assets? And who's this Mavis? Did your agent set you up? Is she hot?" Beckett had to stifle a snort of laughter at that comment.
"Man, what the hell do you do on these book tours anyway, Castle?" Esposito wanted to know.
Beckett was starting to smile, grateful that she could because Rick couldn't see it anyway. And she especially enjoyed the sputtering that was beginning to come from the other end of the phone.
"Guys, it's not...look, I sign books, okay? Nothing else. And I don't...Mavis...Beckett, why did you have to mention that? Look, guys. It's nothing."
"Uh, uh, Castle. Most of what we see these days is the four walls of this conference room. If you got a good story, we need to hear it. You owe us, man." Esposito had a slightly threatening edge to his voice.
"You brought it up, Beckett. You tell them," Rick instructed. So amidst some smirks, she began to relate what Alexis had told her the previous day, making sure to keep the personal references out of her explanation.
At the end of her explanation, Esposito interjected, "Well, Castle, it appears you don't just sign books after all, huh?"
"Castle, I didn't know you went for the older ladies. Was it good for Mavis?"
"Guys, might I remind you that the story that was just related to you by Beckett was related to her by my daughter? So if my daughter witnessed it...guys, that's just sick. What you're insinuating...sick, I tell you," Rick finished, trying to sound appalled and indignant.
Beckett shook her head. "As fun as it is to discuss your boob-holding exploits, Castle, we kind of have to get back to work. And hey, how did you get this number, anyway?"
"When are you going to learn that I have connections, Detective?" he asked teasingly. "But you can't go yet, not until you hear this cool thing that I found."
"Castle, don't you have books to sign or something?" It wasn't that Beckett didn't like to talk to him, but she preferred to talk to him when she didn't have an audience.
"Not for another couple of hours, and it's blah and rainy outside. So look," he continued, "I have new names for all of us. They can be our code names."
"Code names?" Ryan asked, furrowing his eyebrows.
"What the hell do we need some freaking code names for? We're not comic book characters," Esposito chimed in.
"But wouldn't that be cool if we were?" Castle asked, obviously thinking about it for a moment before he snapped back to his previous train of thought. "But no, anyway...these are our Heavy Metal Band Names! You know, like if you were to start a heavy metal band and you have to give it a cool name? Mine would be 'Bleeding Rage'. Isn't that cool?"
"Uh...well..." was all Beckett got out.
"Bleeding Rage...sounds kind of like what John MacGuinness was right before he bit it," Ryan surmised, referring to the victim's apparent temper and all of the injuries inflicted upon him before his death.
"Beckett," Castle continued, "you're Hell's Fury."
"That's what you called me before? My..."
"Your heavy metal band name," Castle finished for her, and she could tell from his voice that he was probably grinning proudly at himself, wherever he was. "Yeah."
"What's mine?" Ryan asked.
"You're...Hell's Spawn."
"Why's mine like Beckett's?"
"It's based on first initials, of your first name and last name. And your first names both start with 'K'."
"I think I'm afraid to ask," Esposito interjected, "but what's my band name? And this had better be good, Castle."
"Don't blame me if you don't like it, Esposito. I just found the thing, I didn't create it. If I created it, then I would have switched around C and D for the second name so my band could have been 'Bleeding Zombies'. Zombies are a lot cooler than plain old Rage."
"Mine, Castle?" Esposito prompted again.
"Oh, yeah...yours is 'Foresaken Sin'.
"Foresaken Sin. Hmmm..." Esposito said as he thought about it. "I think you could do better, Castle."
"I told you," said the voice over the speaker, "I didn't create it. I'm only passing it on."
"Passing what on?" came a different voice from the doorway, which caused them all to turn their heads to look at who was joining their heavy metal band musings.
Captain Montgomery walked into the room and sat down in one of the empty chairs and immediately caused the smiles and smirks to drop off the faces of the three detectives. But the Captain held up a hand. "No, Detectives. I know you're all practically living here because of this case. If you want to take a break and you can find something to smile about, I don't have a problem with that. You need that or you're going to burn out before you catch the guy."
"Captain, is that you?" Castle's voice came through the speaker.
"Castle? Is that you?" Montgomery echoed back at him. "Aren't you supposed to be signing books or something?"
"I will be later. Good to hear your voice, Captain! How have you been?"
"Gettin' along, Castle. So when are you going to be showing your face around these parts again?"
"Just as soon as I can ditch my agent. She keeps trying to plan more and more things for me to do. Hey, you don't happen to have any other captain-y types of friends anywhere on this side of the country, do you? Someone who could find some way to arrest her and keep her in some drab, smelly jail cell for a couple of days?"
Montgomery chuckled. "Sorry, Castle, no cop friends on that side of the country. Although I do have a cousin who plays piano in a bar in Vegas."
"Hey, I'm going to Vegas! Send me his info and I'll try to look him up," Castle replied enthusiastically.
"Hey, Castle," Ryan interjected, "What's the Captain's Heavy Metal band name?"
Montgomery shot a questioning look at Ryan, and the crew began to explain about the Band Name generator. He, too, was unimpressed with Esposito's name, and said that Ryan's and Beckett's names seemed like they should be competing against each other in a 'Battle of the Hell Bands' contest. Finally, despite saying that he wasn't into heavy metal, he admitted curiosity for his heavy metal moniker.
"It's...uh...Bleeding Tendencies."
Montgomery looked surprised, but yet oddly disappointed. "Bleeding Tendencies? What the hell kind of a name is that? Tendencies to bleed? That doesn't make any sense, Castle."
"I told you guys...I just read 'em, I don't write 'em."
"Hey, what's Karpowski's band name?" Esposito wondered aloud.
Rick looked at his list. "Well," came his voice over the speaker, "the K of her last name, appropriately enough since she's in homicide, is 'Kill'. Uh...what's her first name?" he asked.
Several of the members of the conference room opened their mouths to speak, but then shut them again. Ryan got a puzzled look on his face, then opened his mouth as if to say something but then closed it again. Esposito looked at him and shrugged. Montgomery looked like he was almost there, but couldn't quite come up with the name.
"Guys?" Castle prompted through the speaker, after having heard nothing but silence since he'd asked the question.
Beckett was looking at them squirm as they tried to remember the name of their coworker. Finally, Beckett decided to take pity on them. She rolled her eyes at the fact that they had no idea what Karpowski's first name was. "God, you guys. That's lame. Her name is Roselyn."
"That's it!" Montgomery said. "I know I should know that, but I always call her Karpowski. She looks more like a Karpowski than a Roselyn anyway." He lowered his voice threateningly then. "And if any of you tell her I forgot her first name, I can always find extra paperwork for you. Even you, Castle."
"Roselyn? Really?" Esposito asked.
"Huh," was all that Ryan said, obviously still puzzled because he couldn't recal hearing it before.
"Roselyn, huh?" Castle said. "That would make her 'Bleeding Kill'.
"Castle, you and Karpowski would sound like a team of hit men...uh, people, if you went into business together," Ryan surmised. "Bleeding Rage and Bleeding Kill? I think I'd stay far away from you two."
"Nah," Esposito told them. "He still screams like a girl when he's surprised. Takes the scariness out of it."
They spoke for a few more minutes, during which time Montgomery got up to go back to his office, but not before giving them a pointed look when he wished them good luck on the case. The three detectives read between the lines and knew that while he didn't mind a little break to clear their heads and relieve some tension, he was gently telling them to wrap up the break and get back to work.
Before Castle signed off, Esposito asked, "Hey, Castle...our epicenter victim, John MacGuinness? What's his band name?"
"Uh..." he murmured as he obviously looked it up, "Foresaken Tendencies."
"Foresaken Tendencies? That one kinda sucks," Esposito observed. "If the guy got that upset over the name 'John', imagine what he would have done with 'Foresaken Tendencies'."
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She didn't recognize the number that was calling her phone at 8:00 that night, but in the midst of going through files, still at her desk, she answered distractedly, "Beckett."
"Oh, Kate dear! I'm so glad I caught you!"
"Martha?"
"Yes, dear. How have you been, darling? It seems like it's been so long since I've seen you!"
"I'm fine, Martha, although I would love one day when I could actually get home before dark." She leaned back in her chair for a moment, Martha's call providing her with a welcome break.
"Ah, yes. Richard told me about the case you were working on, although he wouldn't tell me very much. Such secrecy! That boy...it's not like I'm going to figure out who the murderer is and go tell the scoundrel about all of your evidence, now am I? Really!" she said, sounding dramatically put out that 'Richard' wouldn't tell her more.
Kate, instinctively, jumped to his defense. "Well, Martha, we were given strict orders by the higher-ups to keep everything hush-hush. I'm sure it wasn't anything against you. And you know, his own paranoia about conspiracy theories and big brother watching could have been making him more dramatic than normal," Kate told her, hoping she said the right thing.
"Oh, yes, he does tend to be so very dramatic about some things, doesn't he?" Kate laughed inwardly at her comment...Martha, the queen of drama herself, talking about other people being dramatic was true irony.
"Well, at least there are no space aliens or zombies involved in my case," she laughed.
"There is that," Martha agreed. "Look, dear, I have a favor to ask of you, and I know it's quite the imposition, but I just wasn't sure who else to ask."
"Ask away, Martha, although I'm not sure...with this case..." she was naturally hesitant, because with her workload right now, combined with whatever Martha would have dreamed up, well, she felt she had to issue a disclaimer.
"Oh, I know, dear. You're working a lot. But you still do come home to sleep, don't you?"
"Well...yes..."
"Wonderful! Then this should work perfectly!" Martha sounded nothing short of thrilled. Before Kate could ask for more information, Martha continued. "I have to go away for a few days...one of my old friends is producing a small play, and they need an emergency fill-in for one of the characters."
"Well..." Kate said, still not sure why Martha was calling her. "That sounds...nice?"
"Oh, it will be so wonderful seeing Harry again. But I do have a bit of a dilemma, you see, with Alexis. With Richard gone on this extended tour, I'm the adult at home with her. Honestly, she's so responsible that she doesn't need much supervision, but you know, Richard feels better with someone else being there with her. So I thought that it would be just marvelous if you could stay at the loft while I'm gone!"
Really? Now Martha wanted her to stay at the loft again? First Rick with her ankle problem, and now Martha? Granted, it was a different set of circumstances, but still...
"Martha, I'm working insane hours...I'm hardly ever home these days. If you're looking for supervision, I'm about the last person you should be asking."
"Nonsense, dear. You said that you're home to sleep, and you can certainly do that at the loft. And you know that Richard would certainly feel more secure if you were there with Alexis in the nighttime hours. Oh, dear, you were comfortable when you stayed with us before, weren't you? Oh, I'd hate it if—"
"Everything was fine then, Martha. And it was wonderful for you to let me stay with you...with my ankle issue." With the way this conversation had evolved, Kate was glad that the guys had stayed in the conference room when she escaped back to her desk to peruse the files. "But I don't—"
"Nonsense, darling. Alexis is busy a lot anyway. Clubs...studying...movies, oh, you know the life of a high school girl. So she could certainly entertain herself until you'd get home. And you both got along well enough when you were here before, right?"
"Well, yes—"
"Wonderful! I'm supposed to leave tomorrow morning, so you can pack a bag tonight, right? And then you can just come over tomorrow whenever you decide to take a break to get some sleep."
Kate almost looked at the phone in wonder. What? How had her affirmative answer about getting along with Alexis all of a sudden changed into an agreement to stay with the teenager. Kate tried to protest again. "But I'm not sure that—"
"And while I know Alexis likes to visit her friends," Martha continued, seemingly obilvious to Kate's attempted protests, "she still is a homebody and I just know she'd feel more comfortable with you here with her."
Well, Kate thought as she listened, Hurricane Martha was at full force, wasn't she? Kate stopped trying to protest and waited for the eye of the storm, when Martha paused to take a breath.
But when Kate finally could talk, she found that she couldn't really think of much to say. Somehow, Martha had very deftly gotten and cheerfully gotten around all of Kate's objections, despite the fact that she hadn't even been able to fully voice a lot of them.
"Uh...Martha..." was all she got out before Martha started in again. So much for the eye of the hurricane being quiet.
"Thank you so much, Kate darling! We'll see you tomorrow night. Well, I won't, but Alexis will. I'm just going to go run and tell her now. We'll have to get together for lunch when you're done with this case, dear. There are some wonderful stories of a young Richard that you simply have to hear! Ta-ta, darling!" And then she was gone.
Kate slowly took the disconnected phone away from her ear and just looked at it with bleary, tired eyes. What had just happened?
Well, apparently, Kate had just gotten herself a new place to stay for the next...oh, she didn't even know how long she was supposed to stay.
But somehow, she realized that she wasn't all that upset about her abrupt change in living arrangements. Maybe it was the fatigue of the case that wasn't making her think clearly. Yes, that was probably it. It probably had nothing to do with how comfortable she'd gotten in the loft when she'd stayed there, how easily she'd fit into their routines. Nope, she thought with a smile. Nothing at all to do with that.
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As Kate went back to pouring over files after her phone call, there were two redheads in another part of the city that were sitting on a couch with little grins on their faces.
"So she said yes?" Alexis asked.
"Not exactly," Martha replied with a sly look. "But I didn't really give her much of a chance, now did I?"
Alexis thought back to the side of the conversation that she could hear. "Now that you mention it, no. Did you even give her a chance to say anything?"
"Not a lot, no," Martha replied smugly.
"Grams, you're amazing," Alexis said while giving her a quick hug. "You played that so well! I knew you could do it."
"Well, dear, while my acting talents are legendary in some circles, I do have to give you credit for your wonderful script."
"But you just improvised. I didn't really do anything."
"Oh, no darling. Don't sell yourself short. You may not have written my exact words, but you came up with the idea and set the scene. And I must say that I think this little ruse will work very nicely toward your goal of sending Kate off to visit your father for a few days during his tour."
"You think so?"
"Definitely. Although I do worry about this case she's working on..." Then she made a dismissive gesture with her hand. "But don't worry about that. Kate and those other good looking detectives are very good at what they do. I'm sure they'll solve this case very soon."
"I hope so. But I'm sorry to have to kick you out as part of the plan, Grams."
"Nonsense. I can always use a vacation. Maybe I actually will go visit my old friend Harry. It would be nice to see how she's doing after 'the change'."
"Oh." Alexis looked momentarily puzzled. "I just assumed Harry was a man. But really, Grams, I don't need to hear about menopause problems, okay?" Sometimes her Grams gave just a little bit too much information.
"Oh, no, not menopause, dear. Gender reassignment surgery. Harry is a man now, but used to be Harriet."
"Oh," Alexis said as she nodded. "I can't really say...that I saw that one coming. And no, I don't really want to think about the specifics of that either. But Grams, you just said 'she' when you were talking about Harry."
"Oh, dear, I did, didn't I? Pesky pronouns. I will have to watch that, won't I?" Then she stood up. "So are you ready to go make the guest room uninhabitable?"
Alexis stood up too, and started heading for the stairs. "Yes, we definitely need to redecorate that room," she agreed in a conspiring tone. "It's such a shame that Kate will have to stay in Dad's room when she's staying with me."
"Yes, dear, such a shame. It'll probably make her miss him all that much more," Martha responded in an equally consipiring tone.
Alexis flashed her grandmother a smile. "And that's exactly what I'm counting on."
Sorry for so little Caskett in this one, but I hope the rest made up for it. How many of you actually remembered that Alexis was conspiring to get Beckett to visit Castle on the tour?
As I proofed this one, I realized that the tone of this was a bit different than other chapters of this story have been. It was mostly just light fluff, more like 'Blizzard' and even parts of 'The Plan'. Hope it was still okay.
I'd very much love to hear your thoughts on the chapter, good or bad. Thanks in advance!
