Very Castle Celebrations
Chapter 36
As Castle is staring at his computer screen, he feels Kate put her hand on his shoulder. "I thought you weren't going to look at anything else on the Celia Leder homicide until after Christmas."
Feeling a bit sheepish, Castle swivels to face her. "I wasn't, but Linus gave me an idea."
Kate's eyes narrow skeptically. "Your lion poster."
Castle nods. "Uh huh. I started thinking about hunting, and I was musing about the name of Celia's store, Ultimate Safari. Some exotic leathers are illegal to import because they come from endangered species. I was wondering if the stolen messenger bags were contraband that Celia either obtained on purpose or were delivered to her by mistake. Either way, they'd be worth a fortune, but if she did receive them by mistake, and she refused to give them up, the smugglers might have been reduced to desperate measures."
Kate rolls her eyes. "Blowing up a water main is a pretty desperate measure. So what are you searching for?"
Castle shrugs. "I'm not really sure. I've been looking for information on the kind of animals skins targeted by poachers and seeing where it would lead me." He glances at the time display in the corner of the screen. "But I guess I got carried away. It's way past time for breakfast - especially since it's Christmas Eve. I was going to make my special pancakes."
Kate responds that Jackson has already had his cereal, but if Castle still wants to make pancakes, she's more than willing to eat them.
Castle accents the chocolate chip happy faces on his pancakes with hair and brows in red and green Christmas frosting. Celia Leder's murder is still in the back of his mind but his excitement for the holiday is building. His presents are all wrapped. Most of them are piled on the high table set up next to the tree and at least for the moment out of Jackson's reach. He has a few still stowed away for stocking stuffing, and the earrings he had made for Kate are in the safe. He wanted ruby hearts to show his love for her encircled by amethysts to support her passion for purple. They are finely crafted in platinum to highlight the stones.
He sent for a custom stocking for Jackson, going by the rule of the smaller the toddler, the bigger the toy. Jackson's furry boot is bright red, which seems to be his favorite color, about 2 feet long and a foot and a half wide. He appeared delighted when Castle lifted him up so he could hang it on the stoutest of the hooks above the fireplace. Castle imagines that his son will be even more excited when it is filled with playthings and mouthable starter books.
Castle has already begun reading to the boy, for as long as a toddler attention span could handle. Between the pictures and doing character voices, he believes he's sparked some literary interest. As independent as Jackson is becoming, Castle expects him to be grabbing the books for himself, even if he can't read them. Who knows? He might be raising a baby Einstein. Alexis was reading at three, and in a rare moment of refraining from sticking pins in his ego, Mother told him that he had been closer to two when he'd begun spontaneously recognizing words – mostly from TV commercials. She'd gone on to confess that even before his long stints in the public library, he'd always been a fast reader and had memorized her scripts with a lot less effort than she did. Jackson might follow in his footsteps.
On the other hand, his son is a lot like Kate: stubborn, fleet-footed, and adorable. Kate's speed with the written word isn't even close to his own, but her dogged determination gets her through. If Jackson has inherited that, it wouldn't be bad either.
Kate's stocking is also new. It had to have a spike heel, a handy place to stuff a candy cane or a stack of chocolate kisses. The design is reminiscent of the painting she had on the wall of her apartment and which now graces their bedroom in the loft. Alexis's gift receptacle has stood the test of time, as have Mother's and his own.
He mentally rechecks his list for the Christmas Eve Dinner. As usual, Mother will be making the glug - one thing she can't ruin. The turkey is smaller than the one he cooked for Thanksgiving, but he has a ham to go with it. Kate made her Nonna's special cookies, and he made more than a few of his classic Castle sugary works of art. An assortment will be left for Santa, and no doubt disappear by morning. Castle wanted a side dish Jackson could easily handle and settled on mashed acorn squash. Dinner will also feature the usual array of accompaniments to the succulent fowl, including the candied yams with the obligatory marshmallows.
He's been working on a new recipe for hot chocolate, ever since he had the brew at an eatery where he sipped one while taking advantage of the free Wi-Fi when the service in the loft was briefly out. He'd noticed the darkly sweet beverage was made with chocolate syrup. It seemed to have a touch of coffee, but not enough to qualify as mocha, just an enhancement of the cacao flavor. The generous portion of whipped cream on top was essential, but not what gave it character. After several experiments, he's discovered that with the addition of a few instant espresso crystals, he can come up with a close approximation of the original, but he is still striving for perfection.
With Jackson tugging on anything within reach of his small but strong fingers, Kate suggested that it might be best to forgo a formal tablecloth in favor of placemats. That gave Castle one more chance to introduce the Christmas theme, in quilted green and gold with matching napkin rings. Kate joked that if he ever became stuck again writing fiction, he could always do style books like Martha Stewart. Having found out the hard way that many of the recipes in Stewart's books looked better than they tasted, Castle half believes he might do at least as good a job, but for the moment he's fine with penning Nikki, Derrick, and Drake.
Alexis and Cary will be arriving around five, as will Jim Beckett. That gives Castle some time before he starts obsessing about the perfect Christmas Eve again. His case research is a siren call, but he decides to write a Christmas story, his first one for Jackson, instead. Given Jackson's current fascinations, it will have to be about a car, a red one. In honor of Derrick Storm, it can only be of one make.
"Freddy the Ford Focus was lonely. All the rest of the cars were gone for the holiday, and Freddy was parked in the garage by himself. His owner, Jerry, had said that Freddy was too small to haul his skis and all the gear he'd need for his trip to the mountains and had rented Emory the Escape. It wasn't fair. Jerry had taken his dirty clothes-which didn't smell very good - to the laundromat in Freddy. Freddy took Jerry back and forth to work and picked up Jerry's friend Cindy. Freddy never complained when Jerry forgot to wash his red body, left him in the hot sun or the cold snow. He always started when Jerry turned the key and hardly ever made funny noises.
"Still, Jerry had left him behind. Suddenly, he noticed that he had a visitor. The garage was closed, but somehow a mouse had squeezed in and was sniffing at Freddy's tires. It seemed to find something it liked. Freddy thought it was the food that had been dropped on the ground and Jerry had driven Freddy over when they went into the drive-thru at McDonough's. Freddy likes a fill-up with premium gas as a treat himself, but to a mouse, the bits of french fries might seem like a Christmas feast.
"Freddy is surprised when the mouse scurries away, but it returns a little while later with other mice. They all start nibbling on the treasure in Freddy's treads. Freddy is going to have some Christmas after all. Isn't that what it's all about; sharing whatever you have that gives someone joy? Jerry will give Emory back and drive Freddy again after the holiday. But until then, Freddy is glad that he has been able to make others happy, even if it's just a family of Christmas mice."