Flu

Chapter 105

May

Kate snuggles into the curve of Rick's body as his arms encircle her and the baby. She's amazed he can still do it – and that she still has months to go. She already feels enormous, but she also feels pretty good. The morning sickness is gone. She's even more ravenous, but she doesn't want to wake Rick to make breakfast.

He was writing well into the wee hours of the morning. He wants everything put to bed before the baby's born, looking forward to being as involved as possible in caring for the newborn. His hovering still gets on Kate's nerves sometimes, but at least he has experience with a baby, which is more than Kate does. She has no doubt he'll put it to great use.

As the weather warms, plans for Mark and Holly's wedding are heating up. Rick's given them free rein of the house in the Hamptons, except for the Memorial Day weekend, which he declared is a traditional family time for the Castle clan. With cookouts not being much of a thing for Manhattanites, Kate's never been that into them. But she's looking forward to the holiday. She's already confirmed that she'll be off the duty roster, even for paperwork. Lying in the sun and listening to the ocean in the distance sounds like heaven.

But heaven will have to wait. The archives are still full of cold cases, which she is more than capable of solving, regardless of her girth. Clues are clues, even if she has to take a minute to pee in the middle of exploring them. Gently disengaging from Rick's hold, she props herself up on one elbow gazing at him. Relaxed in sleep, his features are more boyish, yet still very sexy. Until Martha took her aside, she thought she was weird feeling horny when she's so obviously pregnant. But the older woman advised her to enjoy it while she can. She'll have enough trouble just fitting in eating and sleeping once the baby comes.

Her doctor offered to tell her the gender of the child when she started having sonograms, but she and Rick, well she really, decided to wait. If she knows whether she's having a boy or a girl, she'll have to start thinking about names, and she's not ready yet. Rick's been calling the baby, 'The Peanut,' but the kid sure doesn't feel like a peanut. And at least one of them wants a chocolate croissant. There should be some in the kitchen unless Rick accompanied his midnight writing with midnight snacking. She'll make a quick stop at the bathroom before finding out.

Panic hits Rick for a second as he jerks awake next to an empty spot in bed. The smell of coffee reassures him that Kate's not far away. Alexis has been known to start a pot upon occasion, but she's been up and out before the sun, toiling on a project at school that's an offshoot of her work at Hudson U. She's hurrying to finish it in time to present a report to Osnitz as an entrée into another summer at C.S.U.

From a stool she still manages to mount at the counter, Kate holds up a croissant with a large bite out of it. "Thanks for leaving them."

Palming her bump, Rick kisses her temple. "I'm not about to let The Peanut or the peanut's mother go hungry." He pours a cup of coffee, inhaling the rich scent before taking a sip. "Wow, I needed that! Thanks for putting it on."

"How late were you up?" Kate inquires.

"Until about one, I think. But I finished writing another chapter. Black Pawn isn't going to know what hit it. They'll probably be able to put the book out for Christmas. The downside of that is that they'll push me for a signing tour to boost holiday sales. I don't want to be away from you and the baby that much."

"We might both be sick of you by then," Kate teases.

"Come to think of it, a nice quiet hotel room and lines of fans who only occasionally resort to screaming could be very restful," he returns. "Or I could take you and The Peanut with me. I took Alexis on tours with me a couple of times when she was little, but I had to stop because my readers thought she was cuter than I am."

Kate reaches for a handful of Castle butt. "She probably was."


Rick pounds a staple into the last set of documents Kate filled out. "That's it. Ready to go downstairs?"

L.T. steps off the elevator with an older woman and leads his charge toward Kate's desk. "Detective Beckett, this is Mrs. Rosencrantz. Sergeant Harvey wasn't sure that we can help her, but if anyone can, it's you and Mr. Castle."

"Detective Beckett, Mr. Castle," Berta Rosencrantz begins hesitantly, "I need to talk to you about something that happened a long time ago."

"Our specialty," Rick proclaims.

"Mrs. Rosencrantz," Kate suggests, "let's go into the lounge, and you can tell me all about it."

"Would you like some coffee?" Rick offers, as Berta settles into a chair.

"You wouldn't have any tea, would you?" Berta inquires.

"Darjeeling, Lapsang Souchong, Earl Grey or herbal?" Rick asks.

Lines fan from the corners of Berta's brightening eyes. "I do love Darjeeling."

"Coming right up," Rick promises.

"If you won't think me presumptuous, when are you due, dear?" Berta asks Kate as Rick heads for the break room.

"July."

"Ah, a summer baby. My younger brother Larry was a summer baby. And for the rest of his life, he was a ray of sunshine. But we lost him in 1976, the centennial year. That's why I'm here. He was murdered."

Rick returns with Berta's tea and takes a chair next to Kate.

"Could you start at the beginning, Mrs. Rosencrantz?" Kate requests as Berta takes a sip of the warm liquid.

Berta lays her cup on a nearby table. "Yes, of course. Our parents, Larry's and mine, came here from England. People tell me I have a touch of Britain in my voice, but Larry and I were born here. My father was a professor at Columbia. He taught literature. My mother was a librarian.

"As you can imagine, I was always surrounded by books, and I loved them. Larry liked them too, but he was always so full of energy that he never stayed in one place long enough to read anything of much length. My parents adjusted to that by getting him books of short stories. And even as a young boy, he fell in love with science fiction anthologies. And he acted out the stories, too.

"My parents purchased a little house before New York became so insanely expensive. Larry would go out on the lawn and build space ships. He'd scout the neighborhood looking for materials, picking up scrap metal, pieces of glass, discarded appliances, almost anything. Most of the neighbors didn't mind him looking through the trash they put out. But there was one who did.

"He found Larry exploring his cans one day and shouted at him. Larry put everything back and apologized. But the man kept cursing at him. Larry didn't know what else to do, so he ran home. I could hear the man screaming even a block away, and asked Larry what happened. That's how I know about the incident. After that, Larry said he saw the man watching him. I saw him several times too. Larry started looking around before he went outside. A lot of the joy went out of it for him, but my brother was still building ships. He usually came in when it started to get dark, but one night he didn't. My mother sent me out to look for him. I had a flashlight, but I didn't see him at first. Then I caught a glint of something. It was a piece of metal. It was covered in blood, Larry's blood."