Chapter 4 – Any Ideas Accepted

Beckett looked up from the desk as soon as the coffee hit its normal location. Looking back down, her face was drawn and she immediately went back to writing. "I don't want to talk about it." She reached over in a drawer and looked around the bullpen. She slid the key over to him as he sat in his normal seat.

"It's done," Castle answered and saw Beckett take a sigh of relief. "So where are we at today?"

She pushed her seat back from the desk and grabbed her keys and coffee. "If you're game, we can head over to the docks and talk to a few people. Ryan's already on his way to the airport to pick up the sister. She's supposed to be coming into ID the body and hopefully shed some light on things. Then we have a time to meet the super at the apartment. He said Mr. Harper rarely had people come around, so he has no idea who could have done this."

Castle shook his head as he followed Beckett out of the elevator and to her car.

The docks smelled the same every time they had to come down. It didn't matter whether he came for fresh fish or with Beckett, they always had the same smell of dead fish and motor oil. As he followed Beckett to the warehouse that Jacob supposedly worked, Castle glanced at the boxes. Nothing seemed strange; crates from all over the world, some big and small.

"Detective Kate Beckett," she flashed her badge. "I'm looking for information Jacob Harper, maybe what he was doing on his last day of work. My colleague talked to someone on the phone."

"Yeah, I'm Marcus. I do lead on the warehouse. They were unloading that stack of crates over there." Castle noticed the dark corner a few extra creates had been tossed.

"Jersey?" Castle had to know about the accent.

"Yeah, I tie up my boat over there and go home. Couple blocks from my place." He looked back at the detective that gave Castle a glare. "The boxes are emptied now, when I got the call I dumped them there. We'll break them down after you're done."

Castle started poking around the boxes as Beckett took the list of crates from the man. "Also, you said we? If there's someone else that was here working on this shipment, I need to talk to him as well."

"Yeah, Steve. I'll send him your way in a few." Beckett nodded as the little portly man disappeared into a break room she guessed. "You find anything?"

Castle came out from one of the crates that stood nearly as tall as he did. "No, a couple of pop corn kernels and some packing peanuts. I have a feeling that the CSU unit would be more use here than us."

"Yeah, well, then just start writing in that notebook you carry the names on all the crates that they have a count." She continued her canvass of the crates and looked above her head at the one that was smaller than the others. "Castle."

Looking around the corner, he watched amused as Beckett stood as high as she could on her tip toes and waved her fingers across the bottom of a crate. Walking over behind her, he grabbed the end and pushed it within her grasp. Getting a deathly glare, he smirked and continued his search. "What's it say?"

Kate turned the box over and looked at the writing. "SHHS. Castle?" She waited and motioned him back over. "This matches the letters on the cleaners card?"

Castle glared at it and then smelled the box. "Yeah, and whatever was in there wasn't happy."

Kate tossed her head around and gave him a questioning glance. "What?"

"Take a whiff. You think Lanie could do something with it?" Beckett smelled it too and turned her nose up.

"Maybe or CSU, but when we get to the car, put it in the trunk." She walked out as Steve appeared. "Hi, I'm Detective Kate Beckett. Your boss was telling me that you were working with Jacob on this shipment the day he probably died. Do you have any recollection of anything that was out of the ordinary?"

The younger kid looked about sixteen as far as Castle could picture, maybe he was eighteen, but apparently new at his job. "Not that I know of. We oversaw the unloading and logged the pallets as they came off the ship." The kid looked at the log and then handed it to Beckett.

Reading over the log, she tried to find the box that listed the same four letters as the crate in her hand. "I don't see this particular crate on the list. You remember if it might have come in from another shipment or another crate?"

Steve looked at the box she was talking about and turned up his nose at the smell as well. Walking back into a small room that both Castle and Beckett followed him to, they watched as he went through the rest of the shipments from the day before. "There's no listing for that box. Maybe it came in another one. Plus, I wouldn't have forgotten that smell."

Beckett glanced at Castle and nodded in agreement. "Thank you, we'll be in touch." Beckett shook hands with the younger man and started out toward the exit. Castle slowed to match up with Beckett's pace. "You think he's clean?"

"Yeah, the kid's got just enough knowledge to find a sheet of paper." Beckett glanced over in rolled her eyes in agreement. Popping the trunk, she went and started the car as Castle dumped the questionable crate in the trunk.

As they worked their way back to the precinct, Beckett talked herself through what they knew at the point, which was little. Castle was thinking about the night before. "What?" she asked as he continued to stare at her uncharacteristically.

"Nothing."

"Castle, come on," she commented. She knew what was on his mind as he waved her off once again and started looking out the opposite window. He never just sat silent; he didn't even pull out his phone to play on.

The two of them sat in the car as she drove in silence until Castle couldn't hold it. "You know you didn't have to sneak out this morning. Martha and Alexis would have fully understood."

He saw Beckett's hands grip the steering wheel tighter and grit her teeth together. "I didn't want to be in the way and the key you left gave me the impression you wanted me gone anyway."

Castle closed his eyes and rubbed his temple. They pulled into the garage and Beckett parked the car before sitting with her hands still on the wheel. Looking straight forward, she couldn't move. "Kate, I wanted to give you the option, it wasn't required you leave."

"Castle, you weren't even supposed to be there for me. God, this wasn't even your conversation."

Castle turned and glared at her, "Why the hell not? You're my partner. I'm your friend. What? You think Lanie is the only person you can talk to? Remember how many people you've actually let into your life, about your mom and dad. You can trust me with those secrets but you can't trust me with your love life. It's not like I'm going to go off and text Esposito about it." He turned away and beat his hand against the car door. "Damn," he whispered to himself.

"Get out of the car Castle."

Castle met her glare and grabbed the door handle. "Well, that's a first," he mouthed as he slammed the door. Walking off in the opposite direction of the elevator, Beckett watched him as she opened the trunk.

"Castle!" She waited thinking he always turned around. "Where are you going?" she hollered across the garage.

Without turning back, he just waved as if he was saying I don't care. Getting in the car and slamming the door, he watched Beckett haul the box out of the trunk and slam the door. He kept an eye on her in the rearview as she disappeared behind the elevator doors.

Beckett listened to the elevator ding on every floor as she couldn't decide to punch something or cry. She didn't know why she couldn't have just said what she wanted, maybe because she honestly couldn't decide what she wanted to say. Her day was beginning to genuinely suck.

TBC

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