Playing Hard to Get
Chapter 16
"Caucasian female. A couple of skinny dippers found her this morning," Espo told Kate and Castle.
"Purse is missing, couldn't find an ID. But get this – we couldn't find her shoes," Ryan said.
Kate knelt to look for herself. "Hi, Lanie, cause of death?"
"Stabbing. She has a nasty wound in the back. ...How are you feeling? You brought Castle with you." Lanie had just seen her, but she was here now.
"I'm fine, and so is Castle. We really need that purse to ID her." Kate was annoyed. Surely it was around here somewhere.
"Well, she's tall, pretty, dressed very well, at least ten pounds underweight, and her hair is fried from too many blow dryers, and too much makeup. She's a model," Rick proposed.
Lanie handed over a small baggie. "Found this on her."
"TF. That's Teddy Farrow. He designs dresses for women. High-end, very expensive. Is there a label on her dress?" Kate queried and looked at Lanie, and she checked.
"Teddy Farrow," Lanie confirmed.
"She's one of his models. Maybe he can ID her. Come on, Castle, we're going to enter the world of designers and models. Just get ready for this. It's not going to be what you're expecting." Kate was well acquainted with this life.
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"Rick Castle, what are the odds of meeting you here? You don't remember me, do you?" she asked him.
"Of course, you're…" He had no idea. She was wearing enough makeup and could be his ex-wife for all he knew.
"Tina. Here, call me." She wrote her number on his hand and slithered away.
"Tina!?" Rick watched her walk away and turned to see Kate glaring at him. "She's… I mean, she's…" He was sure he knew that name from somewhere.
"You call that number, and I will kill you, Castle," Kate warned, looking at him through slitted eyes.
Rick opened his eyes wide. "Are you jealous, Kate?" If she was, it was sooo cool!
"Focus, Castle. Dead body." She wasn't jealous. She was… she was…possessive, that was what she was.
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Lanie texted Kate and let know she had finished the autopsy. "Time of death is between 2 and 5 am," she told them both.
"She left the party at midnight," Kate noted.
"So, what did she do for two or more hours?" Rick wondered.
"Wherever it was, she put up a fight. There's some bruising on her arm." Lanie pointed it out. "Her dress was torn. And there was a cut inside her mouth, indicating she'd been slapped, HARD!
"Now, this is where things get weird. She wasn't stabbed with a knife. Based on the wound, I made a sketch. And I found traces of glass in the wound." Lanie handed over her sketch to Kate.
"She was stabbed with the Washington Monument?" Rick was astonished.
"I also found a drug in her system. After little research, I found models can buy it off the street. It promotes weight loss. Find the seller. Perhaps he knows something," Lanie added. That was the last of what she had.
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Ryan and Espo had just shot down her best suspect. "We have him on video parking cars all night in Atlantic City. He's definitely not our guy," Espo told her.
"You have to be kidding me? He stalks her, takes pictures of her, has her comp card, and he's not our killer!" Kate slumped; she was back to square one.
"And one piece of slime slithers away," Rick commented. That guy made him sick. He was creepy even to look at.
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"I see just the person to talk to." Rick took Kate and walked toward someone. "Detective Beckett, meet Rita. She used to babysit for me, for Alexis." Rick knew what Kate thought of her. "We want to talk about Jenna."
"Oh, that was so terrible!" Rita exclaimed.
"Were Jenny and Sarah BFFs?" Rick asked her.
Rita frowned. "I wouldn't say BFFs. Sarah doesn't play well with others."
"Did she ever push anyone down the stairs?" Rick asked.
The young woman shook her head. "No, mostly stupid childish stuff. Lying about when a call time is, itching powder in your underwear. Then one time, she crushed up some kind of diet pill and put it in her drink."
"You mean she dossed someone?" Kate queried.
"She got all wired and called Calvin Klein a boring old fart. To his face!" Rita told them, her eyes huge.
Kate had heard enough. "Thank you, Rita. You've been very helpful." Kate turned to Castle. "All right, maybe she would kill for a job. But going from dossing someone to killing someone is a big leap."
"Like Teddy said, a very big paycheck. Her face everywhere. Sides of busses, billboards, TV, magazines. She could be famous and rich. She just had to get rid of Jenna. Maybe Jenna wasn't stabbed. Maybe she was pushed and landed on it," Rick offered.
Kate was sold. "Sounds like we're talking to Sarah."
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"I have…pink pumps, Beckett?" Rick held them up with a pen. "And his reward made of glass looks just like the Washington Monument. One is missing."
"It does, doesn't it." Kate glared at their guy, who was looking really good for murder, especially since his apartment was directly across from where Jenna was found dead.
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"Home. She was only trying to go home. To you. And you killed her." Kate couldn't believe where this case took her. He was her husband and thought his wife was cheating on him, so he killed her for what he thought was happening…but wasn't.
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"What about Sarah and Wyatt?" Rick questioned her.
"I had a conversation with Teddy Farrow this morning and told him what those two have been doing behind his back. He's going to launch a whole new campaign. Those two will never work in the industry ever again. They. Are. Done." Kate was thrilled that those wretches got what was coming to them.
Rick approved. "Poetic justice. I can live with that."
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"Wait, is that why you have been on my case all day?" Rick thought they had gotten past what he did.
"I'm the inspiration for Nikki Heat, and I should be reading it first," Kate insisted, poking him in the chest.
"Why didn't you just say so?" If she had, he wouldn't think she was still mad at him for what he had done before.
"Why didn't you just give it to me?" Kate fired back.
Rick frowned. "Why didn't you just ask?"
"Why didn't it occur to you?" Kate asked, her eyes blazing.
"You'll have it by tomorrow," Rick promised.
Kate was satisfied. "Good."
"Tonight. My place. Alexis still has Lilly, and I'm cooking," Rick said as he pointed at her and left since he had cooking to do.
Kate began to respond, then snapped her mouth shut. She was well aware that Alexis still had Lilly, and she did need to get her puppy, so she had no choice but to go to the loft for dinner tonight.
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"Looking good, Detective Beckett," Espo told her now that Kate was looking at her computer. It displayed a picture of her with a tennis racket.
"What?!" she screeched. "How did you two get this?" She thought she had destroyed every last one of those pictures.
"We're detectives," Espo said smugly.
But Ryan gave it up. "We called your dad."
"Okay, you guys have had your fun. I was 17 and I thought it would be more fun than waitressing. It was one summer, no big deal." Kate was done with those two and started to return to her desk, but she was back.
"And if you tell Castle anything about this, I will kill you," Kate promised them.
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An embarrassed Detective Kate Beckett was at the loft, watching Castle cook while she was playing with both puppies. She was learning that playing with two puppies was a heck of a lot of fun.
The door buzzer sounded, and Alexis was on her feet and running for the door. Opening it, she saw Rita standing there. Alexis and Rita hugged and giggled. "Ready for high school musical marathon?" Rita asked Alexis.
"Oh, yeah!" Alexis was more than ready to reconnect with her former babysitter.
"Hello, Mr. Castle." Rita waved as both of them went upstairs.
"Color me shocked. Apparently, the modeling world isn't all sexy clothes and fun parties. It occurred to me that if Jenna had someone looking out for her, she might not be dead. So if Rita needs somewhere to go or someone to call, she now has somewhere to turn to," Rick explained as Kate sat there, staring at him in disbelief.
"Castle, just when I thought I had you all figured out, you go and do this." She was astonished. Maybe he just saved a life, and at the least, he made her happy. He just went from Child Castle to Adult Castle. "That's impressive, Castle."
Rick smiled at her. "Makes you want me, doesn't it?"
"Annnd you just ruined it." Kate went back to playing with the puppies. At least the puppies loved her.
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Kate found herself with two sleeping puppies, who she had tuckered out, and now she was sitting on the sofa, right next to Castle. In fact, she was so close that they were touching from shoulder to hip to leg. She had to if she wanted to see his laptop.
"Lanie's after me to go on vacation, something I haven't done since I became a detective," Kate told him.
"How many days of vacation do you have?" Rick inquired.
"Don't ask." She wasn't going to tell him she had over twenty-one days of vacation time she hadn't used.
"O-K-A-Y. So what do you like to do? Water ski?"
"Never done that," Kate told him.
"Parasailing?"
"Never done that either." Kate suddenly felt like this was a bad idea. She really hadn't done anything for the last ten years of her life, but because of Castle and his meddling, it was now an issue.
"Snow skiing?"
"That, I have done," Kate told him.
"Okay, you don't want to do that again. Then, you need something you've never done. How about skydiving?"
"You mean like jumping out of a perfectly good airplane?" Kate snorted, "Only if I'm dead. How about something a lot less physical?" she suggested instead.
"You mean boring." To him, it sounded like she could go down to a beach, do absolutely nothing, and still enjoy it. Where was the fun in that?
"Castle, if you're not going to help, I can do this alone, you know," Kate countered.0
"Fine, Little Miss Boring. Let's see some of the best hang gliding locations." Rick started looking, and then Kate tried to take his laptop away from him. "Okay, okay. Something nice and boring. Got it." It wasn't going to be any kind of a fun a vacation, he thought.
"All right, where haven't you been?" Rick needed somewhere to start. "And how long of a vacation do you plan to take?"
"Just one week. I was born in this city and went to school here, not counting a semester at Stanford. Oh, and I went to Kiev for a year. That's where I learned to speak Russian," Kate told him. There was no way she was telling him that was also where she got her one and only tattoo. He would just beg her to see it.
"You speak Russian?" Rick didn't know that.
"Dah," Kate replied and tried to add an accent to it.
"Fluent Russian?"
"Read it, write it, speak it. Don't look so shocked, Castle. I have gotten around a little. Oh, and my parents took me to Montreal once. I don't remember much about that, though. I think I was a brat on that trip," Kate admitted.
"NO! YOU!?" Rick teased.
"Shut up." Kate poked him in his ribs and grinned. It was just a little fun. "Then what do you suggest?"
"A cruise, maybe, provided you like cruise ships. There are lots of them that last only one week. Purchase shore excursions and see where you stop. If you fly to the departure city, you could start anywhere. San Juan, Barcelona, Venice, Seattle, Honolulu," Rick rattled off.
"I've never been to any of those places," she said. "But what if I don't want to be trapped on a ship all week?"
"Then we need a cruise that travels only at night, and you stop at a new location each and every day. Let me think. That sounds like San Juan for a cruise through the Caribbean. Lots of beaches, lots of shopping, if you like shopping."
"I like shopping," Kate admitted.
"Okay, Honolulu is another option, I'm thinking. Stop at every island. There are still lots of beaches and lots of shopping opportunities."
Kate nodded thoughtfully. "What about Venice?"
"Let's go looking." Rick headed for a cruise line and selected Venice as the departure city. "This one is mostly Italy and Croatia. And this one, mostly Italy and Greece. A lot of Italy and Greece, actually."
"Some of those are ten days." She had said seven. "Is that a problem?" She said she had time.
"No, probably not," Kate had to admit.
Rick nodded. "I guess the question for a cruise is where do you want to go? Italy, Greece, Croatia, the Caribbean, or Hawaii?
"What's the cost?" Kate questioned and looked at what he had on the screen now. "I can afford that."
"This is probably an inside cabin. What you want is a suite, not a room with a tiny little bed. You've got eighty grand, Kate. So back to the question, where do you want to go? Or do you want just one location for an entire week? Say, Paris for a week? Buy a rail pass and go anywhere you want." Rick had lots and lots of ideas.
"It's much harder than I thought it would be." Kate leaned back and stopped looking at his laptop. She didn't even notice that, now she was leaning into him. She just knew it was comfortable like this.
"Do you want me to choose one for you?" Because he would do it.
"If I do that, I might end up in Nowhere, Alaska," Kate argued.
"Very funny. I wouldn't do that to you." Rick felt her squirm, and that was when he noticed she snuggled in nice and tight. "Okay, think about this one. Get a hotel in Paris. Let me plan. Get a train pass, and you could go anywhere on a high-speed train, something we don't have in the States.
"Take a train to London and spend the night before returning to Paris. Take a train to Lyon, perhaps, and spend the night. Barcelona and spend the night. Madrid and spend the night. Munich and attend Oktoberfest. You might even make it to Venice and spend the night. Berlin. The list can be endless, Kate. Paris is almost dead center for everything that is Europe.
"The only real benefit of a cruise is that all the food is part of the trip. You just have to pay extra for the shore excursions. If you're worried about seasickness, today's ships are extremely stable. You won't feel a thing." Rick waited for her to make a decision.
"Fine, I'll let you plan. Just don't do anything without my say-so. I want to see it first. Start with Paris and train trips, and see where I can go for a one-night stay and come back. But I want time in Paris." Kate pointed her finger at him for emphasis.
"I can do that. So, seven days, ten days, or longer?" He needed to know how long in order to plan this properly.
Kate had to think about that. Seven sounded good, but it was an odd number if she was going to spend a day to get there and another one to get back. "Make it ten and not one day more." Kate pointed her finger at him again.
"Deal, give me a couple of days. I've got one last question for you. Oktoberfest is coming up fast. Do I include that as a possible destination or exclude it?"
"Just to drink beer?" Kate didn't think so.
Rick corrected her. "They have music, carnival rides, and food. It's not all about beer, even if that is the main idea."
Kate raised her eyebrows. "Been there before, have we?" Kate looked up, and that was when she noticed where she was. She felt torn between moving away a little or staying right where she was.
"Just once, but it was years ago. I went with a bunch of guys. It was fun. The beer comes in these huge glass steins. Live music and the women were…" Rick abruptly shut up.
"Uh-huh?" Kate looked at him and shook her head. "I think it's a no for Oktoberfest."
"Probably a good idea. Okay, give me a couple days, and I'll give you a map and a time schedule. Good enough?" Rick asked her.
"Good enough, and thanks for this." She didn't realize she had never actually been anywhere till now. Suddenly, because of Castle, she had money and could do it.
"Are you staying, or do we watch a movie?" Rick questioned her.
Kate heard stay in his bed, but she wasn't ready for that yet. Maybe she had been when she was drunk, but she wasn't drunk now. "I think I should find Lilly and go home. Get some sleep before work in the morning."
"As you wish." He was disappointed but didn't want to push her. He had done enough damage already.
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Rick didn't go into the Precinct the next day, giving Kate a day off from him. Besides, he had a vacation to plan.
"What are you up to, Dad?" He was at the dining room table and had a map and papers spread everywhere.
Rick was deep into the planning phase. "Trying to plan Kate's ten-day vacation."
Alexis eyed her dad. "Does Kate know about this planning?" If she didn't, he was a dead man.
"Of course. First, it was some cruise ideas, but Kate settled for a plane to Paris and then high-speed trains to other cities for a one-night stay. I'm just trying to figure out which cities can be reached and still have time there. If I take her too far, she'll spend the entire day just getting there and then another just getting back again."
"Just so long as Kate knows what you are doing." Alexis patted him and left it to him. "I'm taking Dahlia outside again." Alexis noticed that he wasn't paying any attention to her. "I'm going to do it naked," Alexis said and didn't get a rise out of him.
"You're no fun when you like this," Alexis grumbled.
"That's nice, Pumpkin," Rick said absently. He still wasn't listening to her.