Her jacket was not there, a file lay abandoned on her desk, she was not here anymore. Esposito and Ryan, however, were still here and were looking at Castle suspiciously.
"Castle? What are you doing here?"
"I'm looking for Beckett."
The two cops looked at each other and frowned. Ryan asked –
"What do you want from Beckett?"
Castle usually found very endearing the brotherly relationship between Beckett and the boys, but right now he did not have time to deal with two protective big brothers.
"To tell her that I'm an idiot."
"You are an idiot," Esposito agreed.
"I'm glad that point is settled. Now, do you know where I can find her?"
"She and Lanie left together, not long after you left. I don't know where they went."
Castle quickly put two and two together. This was not good for him. If Beckett had left with Lanie, he would never manage to talk to her alone. He also could not help but think that their leaving together meant that she was probably taking it even harder than he had thought. And he had no way of knowing where they could have gone. He decided to try anyway and stormed out of the precinct. He barely heard Esposito calling him as he turned away and walked out of the room without a word. In the elevator, he tried to figure out where to look first. Was there any chance that she had gone back to Lanie's? Since he had no other leads for the moment, he decided to give it a shot anyway. He toyed with the idea of hailing a cab but remembered the state of the traffic and ran towards the subway.
Luckily, someone was coming out just as he arrived at her building. He grabbed the door before it closed and entered. He had only gone to Lanie's place once before but he remembered distinctly where her apartment was situated. Outside the door, he took a breath and tried to gather his thoughts before ringing the bell. He felt a mixture of relief and fear as he heard the sound of someone coming to the door. The door opened and he found himself facing the medical examiner. Her first look of surprise was soon replaced a glare filled with annoyance.
"What are you doing here, Castle?"
TBC on Sunday or Monday if everything goes well.