Very Castle Celebrations

Chapter 19

Realizing that the case he's just uncovered is exactly the kind of thing that Kate's task force looks into, Castle calls to her. She's fastening the last button on her blouse and pushing back the strands of hair Jackson grabbed, as she comes to look at Castle's screen. "A teenager killed by a mob in 1969?"

"Right," Castle confirms. "It was at a celebration of Israeli Independence Day, May 14. There was a parade in New York. Lots of kids from various youth organizations were marching. In particular, there was a group from the youth arm associated with the Israeli Labor Party, who were socialists that came out of the kibbutz movement. There were also kids from a right-wing club whose members followed the tenets of the Likud. That's Netanyahu's party. If it was anything like today, their political differences presented an even wider ideological gulf than the disagreements between Republicans and Democrats.

"Apparently the two groups were having a folk-dancing competition. Someone got kicked somehow, and a tussle broke out that escalated when the crowd became involved. At the end of it, a girl named Havah Greenspan was killed; she was knocked out and trampled.

"The person who hit her was never identified. There weren't any street cams back then, and there wasn't any TV coverage either. Havah was a member of the more conservative group. Her family blamed the socialists, who had been dancing to Shivuli Pez. The composer, Yankele, wrote it after he was impressed by the work of a kibbutz."

Kate tilts her head in the way that Castle has found always indicates that she's skeptical of one of his theories. "So, you think that the death of a teenager in 1969, has something to do with what happened at Meir's today?"

Castle appeals to her famous if occasionally infuriating logic. "Look, Israel wasn't officially established until 1948. When the government was young a lot of the officials came out of the kibbutzim, even though only a small segment of the population lived on them. That was bound to breed some resentment. The song supported everything the kibbutzim stood for. But the rage that fellow expressed looked like it was about a lot more than politics. That was personal, Kate. What could be more personal or soul-wrenching than the death of a child?"

Kate strokes her bottom lip with the tip of her finger. "He did look old enough to have a daughter who would a have been a teenager in 1969. All right, Castle. You know I won't be back to work officially for a couple of weeks, but I can have the team look into Havah Greenspan's death. I'll give them a call tomorrow. If that poor man was her father, maybe he can find some peace. But we still have tonight left to celebrate Father's Day. What would you like to do?"

He thinks they had a pretty spectacular celebration that morning, but it might be nice to curl up together for a while. Given Kate's impending return to a daily grind, kicking back and watching the classic but still relevant Mr. Mom, especially accompanied by a large bowl of buttered popcorn, would be great. And if something even more intimate follows - that would make the day just about perfect.


Castle surveys the room full of earnest faces, including that of his own daughter seated in the front row. With this crowd, he can't just get away with a reading from one of his books. They are expecting him to give out with pearls of wisdom. Unfortunately, he's not feeling much like an oyster, except perhaps for being all wet. This isn't the time to spin clever tales. Alexis has always been able to tell when he was putting her on. He expects that many of these young people have quite accurate bullshit detectors.

He begins by explaining that his female characters are drawn from real life. He changes names, places, and other details to fit the intricacies of his plots, but the personalities are just as he perceives them. He tells them that Clara Strike was based on a real CIA agent, but leaves out the fact that she turned out to be a Soviet sleeper. He doesn't mention that he had an affair with her either. Unfortunately, Alexis overheard that unfortunate bit of history, but there's no reason to share it with the world at large.

He really picks up steam when he talks about how Kate inspires Nikki Heat. He omits any revelations that he knows would upset her, but as far as case histories go, he's on pretty solid ground. He also describes how she earned the respect and loyalty of her colleagues.

Castle expresses his theory that even though physically beautiful women are all over the web, ubiquitous on TV and a staple in the movies, that regardless of gender, what people really respond to is heart and the verve to see something through. Both his male and female heroes are based on that philosophy, and he believes that it has served both him and his readers well.

The applause from his audience is gratifying and the genuine smile from Alexis even more so. Father and daughter leave the building together. They make a stop at a vendor's cart for soft pretzels, but they don't have much time to spend together. She explains that she is has joined a tutoring program for disadvantaged students and has a session shortly. Much as he would have liked more opportunity to hang with his daughter, he's proud of her. He makes the short walk to the subway, which is by far the quicker way to get back to the loft than trying to drive through midtown traffic.


Kate has news for him. Her force tracked down Havah Greenspan's father, Zev. It wasn't difficult. Over the years, he'd been writing letters to every police official, complaining about police negligence. The department has an online file on him complete with a photograph. There's no doubt that Zev was the man who had the meltdown at Meir's. Castle's hunch was right. But that doesn't bring them any closer to finding out who caused Havah's death. To discover the solution to that mystery, they'll need to talk to former members of both youth groups. After almost five decades, tracking them down will be no easy task. Membership lists would not have been computerized and are probably long gone. And many participants may have relocated to different parts of the country or even the world.

Castle is sure there must be another way. No one forgets an incident like that. If he can enlist his followers on Twitter and Instagram to put out the word, someone should respond to help solve the puzzle. It's just the kind of thing Castle fans love. But he suggests to Kate that they should talk to Zev too. It is possible that the man told the police something about Havah that was ignored at the time. He's seen signs of sloppy work police detectives, just in the cases he's worked with Kate. If there was a trail the cops of 1969 failed to follow, the details of every unturned stone will be etched into Zev's brain. As a father, Castle can feel that that with every cell of his being.

A/N If you tried in vain to copy Hebrew characters, here is a roundabout way to find them. Go to YouTube. Search for either Shibolay Paz or Shivuli Pez; they are variations of the same words because the Hebrew has no vowel markings and without a dot in the middle, the equivalent of a V and a B are the same letter. A video will come up showing an album cover. Everything on it will be in Hebrew. Hebrew reads right to left, so the two words on the right of the text spell out the name of the song. You can copy them. You can listen to the song while you're there too, but Yankele would have liked it sung with a jazzier edge and a sharp cutoff after the last word. That's the way he taught it. I don't know why this site is so finicky about copy and paste. But then they won't let writers use links either.