Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance, Family, Humor
Rating: M for violence, language and sexual situations
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters featured on the show Castle, they belong to the creator of the show, ABC, and the others who do own them.
A/N #1: As horrible as it sounds, the case that I have Castle mentioning towards the end of the chapter is actually true, I did not make that up, just wanted to point that out to the readers who might have wondered about that.
A/N #2: I was very surprised to see all the feedback I got for the last chapter, but incredibly pleased too, so definitely have to say thank you for them all! vetgirlmx (Sorry, but I had to laugh a bit at your reaction to the cliffhanger; I was expecting something like that, but not to that degree. And I know it's mean to stop where I did… but it's what writers do, and it keeps people interested in the story, which I thought I was going to need! I also liked seeing all the speculation you were doing with how this chapter ended and everything going on with it, I can see you definitely want to know what's going on. And great to see you're thinking this case is a lot more twisted, and you're right, would be an understatement to say it, but I liked seeing it your review! And of course, so happy that you want to read more of the story!), sammysgirl78 (Really sorry, as I said before I know ending as I did was mean, but it was something that needed to be done. But now it won't be a cliffhanger anymore once you read this chapter! And I did like seeing your speculation too, nice to know that you're interested in the case and everything. And glad that you want to read more too, but I can understand why you don't want the story to end; by the way, glad to hear that too. But I do have more stories to come, so you don't need to worry about that. But now with this chapter, you don't have to wait anymore!), pcol22 (Very happy to see you enjoyed the last chapter. Not surprised that you caught that this case was hard, for some reason I find it easier to write more difficult cases. But glad to see your speculation now with everything that's happened there. And of course, very great to see that you want to read more!), 41319always41319 (Did enjoy what you said about Amy, I did like seeing that in the reviews, but again, did like your speculation. And definitely am happy to see that you too would like to read more!), wendykw (I loved seeing your review, your reaction to the cliffhanger. Really liked that I surprised you with what happened in it. And I hope you'll keep on reading!), life's a mystery (Liked to see that you thought I did a good job going forward with the case the last chapter. And not surprised you wanted me to update, after the cliffhanger, lol. But now I have, so I hope you'll read this chapter!) and TORONTOSUN (Was interesting to see your comment about the ending of the chapter. And yeah, I think Castle and Beckett did ask the right questions as you said, for the reaction). So thanks to all of you for sending the reviews, I greatly appreciate the time taken out of your days to write them. And I definitely loved reading them all!
A/N #3: The title of this chapter is a lyric from the song Tired of Midnight Blue by George Harrison, from his album Extra Texture (Read All About It).
What I Have Seen
"Put down the knife," Beckett said, aiming at the man's head.
"Why should I?" the man hissed to her. "Shut up!" he bellowed to Amy, who was whimpering in fear.
"Let her go and we can talk," Beckett told him, trying to speak as calmly as she could though her voice was tense with the situation.
"Hey Beckett!" Esposito suddenly yelled outside the apartment.
Jumping at the sound, the man drew his knife across Amy's throat before he ran to Beckett, her shot grazing his temple. He slashed at her, but Beckett was able to duck out of the way.
Trying to catch the man as he ran to the doorway where he was standing just behind it, Castle felt the sudden sharp pain of the knife slicing through his clothing and into his arm before the attacker took off for the door. There was a sudden shot, and the man crumpled to the middle of the floor as he grabbed his arm to stop the bleeding as it spilled over onto his coat sleeve.
"Call an ambulance," Beckett said as Ryan and Esposito ran inside with their guns drawn. "Castle-" she started to ask.
"I'm fine, take care of her," he said abruptly, looking down at the attacker who was motionless on the floor.
Holstering her gun, Beckett went to Amy Holsten, kneeling next to where she was laying on the floor. She couldn't see the wound as the woman had her hand pressed over it, and she got up to get a towel to help put pressure on her cut when she suddenly sat up. "Wait, you should-" she said when Amy took her hand off her throat.
"He just barely cut," she explained as the wound had already stopped bleeding. "But I need to sit."
Motioning to the bed, Beckett gestured to Ryan who came into the room before she ran into the bathroom, grabbing two towels off a stack. Going out into the main room, she tossed one towel to Esposito who was next to the attacker, and she finally allowed herself to go to her fiancé. "Is it deep?" she asked, helping him to use the large towel to put pressure on his arm.
"It's, ugh, it's deeper than hers was," Castle said, grunting as she pushed hard on the towel. "But I'm okay. Him I can't say for sure, do we know who he is?"
"Wallet," Esposito said, tossing the black case to Beckett with one hand as the other was pressurizing the gunshot wound. "Clean through," he told her as she was pulling out an ID.
"Neil Skipton," Beckett read off the driver's license. "We'll need to get more from him later, is he unconcious?"
"Out cold, he must have hit the floor after you shot him," Esposito said when he could suddenly hear stretchers coming down the hall. "Bro, how'd you do that?" he called to Ryan.
"Dialed 911 as we were walking up to the door," he called back.
"How is she Ryan?" Beckett asked, knowing she had to get their attention back to the case.
"Fine, bleeding's stopped," he answered.
"Take him first," Beckett instructed the first EMT that walked through the door. "He's the most seriously injured." She glanced down at Castle's arm and said, "I don't think you'll need to go to the hospital."
"No, but I am going to need a new shirt," he said in frustration. "My favorite one too," he said to Beckett as another EMT came over to him and made him sit, his arm above his head as he checked on the wound.
Rolling her eyes slightly, though she was feeling relieved the injury wasn't serious; Beckett went into the bedroom where a third EMT was looking at Amy's cut. "She'll be okay?" she asked the woman.
"Just fine, a flesh wound," the EMT responded. "We'll get this patched up, so you don't need to go to the hospital."
"Thank you, I'd like to just relax," Amy said.
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to speak with you first before you can do that," Beckett said. "You're finished with dress rehearsal already?"
"At Joey; the director's; insistence, he thinks I'm too emotionally fragile to dance tonight. But I'm alright, luckily this can be covered up," Amy replied, sounding annoyed. "I will be able to dance right?"
"Without any problems," the EMT responded. "Please stop talking so I can clean off the blood."
Waiting until the paramedic was leaving the room, Beckett nodded to Ryan and said, "Check on Castle."
"Right," he said, looking a little surprised at that.
"So I think we need to have a discussion about who this man is Amy, because the man you told us was your father turns out to be your former lover," Beckett said.
"I know, Neil forced me to do all of this," Amy said quickly. "He wanted to get the money in my mother's account."
"And what's his relationship to you and your mother?" Beckett asked.
"He's my boyfriend," Amy said, biting the inside of her mouth visibly.
"Still?" a voice said at the doorway. Castle nodded slightly to Beckett when she looked at him and then said, "He's demanding money from you and kills your mother and you're still with him."
"I love him, and you don't know that he did kill her," Amy protested. "All he wanted was to-"
"You know already that he killed her," Beckett cut her off abruptly. "Why would you be helping him trying to frame other people if you didn't?"
"I was forced to," Amy reiterated, seeming to go limp. "He wanted the money to leave here, to go away to the South Pacific with me. I was going to get him the money, but then I found out Amber and I couldn't touch it until she died; it's in her will."
"Did you tell him that?" Castle asked.
"I had to," Amy said miserably. "He threatened to hurt my little sister, and I couldn't let that happen, so I went along with it."
"We could have offered her protection," Beckett said simply. "Do you know where he got the drug?"
"What drug?" Amy asked.
"Your mother was killed with a drug that's hard to purchase, unless it's black market," Castle replied.
"He… he has a friend who knows a dealer, a Franco Moritz, and a while back, I don't remember the day it was, they went to another dealer together. I thought they were scoring some pot; he had some when he came back," Amy said.
"Did you see them go?" Beckett asked.
"No, they left from Neil's place," Amy said. "So that's all I can tell you about that."
"What about Martine? He was actually the one buying the drug with Skipton," Castle asked.
"I don't know, it could have been Martine was this Moritz guy and it was a false name," Amy said with a groan as she moved and her skin stretched a little around the wound.
"Okay, but what would Skipton have against the babies?" Beckett asked. When Amy looked at her blankly she said, "Your mother was injected in the stomach."
"Repeatedly," Castle added.
"I don't know, he's crazy," Amy said. She took a deep breath and said to Beckett, "I know that sounds bad, but I can't stop what I feel, could you? If you knew you were with someone who was so apparently wrong for you?"
"When did you know he killed your mother?" Beckett asked, not bothering to answer her question.
"After you talked to me and Amber," Amy said. "He told me he'd done it but I couldn't tell you, he threatened to kill Amber again if I did."
"The assault?" Castle then asked.
"It was Neil, he wanted something to throw you off of him, so he came up with my dad, then used his extra scapegoats Joyce and McInnes," Amy said.
"Did he force you to take them as lovers?" Beckett asked. When she got a nod she sighed and said, "And you did that without any protest?" When the young woman just looked at her she said, "Alright, you loved him and I'm assuming he demanded it." She then called to Ryan asking him, "How is he?"
"Unconcious still as they were taking him out, they said they'd get a doctor to call once he comes to," the detective answered from the doorway.
"Any officers?" Beckett asked, since they couldn't see much from the doorway.
"Adams," Ryan answered.
"Okay, I'd like to put Ms. Holsten on protective detail, have Adams take the first shift for now," Beckett told him. Once the officer was standing at the doorway she turned to Amy and said, "It's an intrusion on your privacy, but for the moment I'd like to make sure no one who might know about the inheritance as well as Skipton comes for you."
"Thanks, will I be able to dance later?" Amy asked.
"Just make sure Officer Adams knows where he's escorting you," Beckett said. She went to the door, Castle following her, and whispered a few words to the officer before she and Castle went out into the main room. "Can you two secure things here?" she asked Esposito and Ryan.
"Definitely," Esposito answered. "If we get anything we'll let you know."
"Okay, I just need to ask her one more thing before I go," Beckett said, going back to the doorway. "Ms. Holsten?" she asked, getting the young woman's attention. "I'm wondering why Skipton wanted to murder Lorenzo Martine."
"He was… my ex boyfriend, my last boyfriend before I started dating Neil," Amy whispered, hanging her head. "I couldn't tell you that… I thought you'd suspect me and I needed to be around to make sure I could protect Amber just in case!"
"Did you two break up?" Castle asked, having gone with Beckett back to the door and hearing that.
"We did," Amy said with a slight sigh. "And after he went back to my mother. I know it sounds weird, but he never set out to leave me for her, it just happened."
"Okay, thank you for answering your questions, we'll let you know how your boyfriend is doing," Beckett said to assure her. She left after a few more words with Ryan, and then she and Castle left, going to the lobby. Before she could leave the building, he was grabbing her hand, pulling her into the stairwell, underneath the stairs and out of sight of the security cameras. "You are okay right?" she asked, a little taken aback when he hugged her tightly for a moment.
"I had a really horrible image of that knife not missing you," Castle said. "You've been trained pretty well."
"That was me not wanting to go to the hospital," Beckett said. "And not wanting Julia to find that out either. But you're okay?" she asked as she touched his arm.
"The best I can be getting sliced, it was a little deeper so it bled more, but I'll be fine," Castle said, knowing she wanted to find out what the EMT had told him. "Not even any stitches."
Beckett didn't reply to that, instead she narrowed the space between them, brushing her lips to his before she pulled back, looking into his eyes.
"You had an image of the knife doing a lot worse damage didn't you?" Castle asked her.
"I did," Beckett conceded since he'd guessed already. "But we need to go and look into this guy."
"Right, who knows, we might find the last evidence we need and can wrap this case up completely," Castle said before he followed her back into the lobby.
"So we have motives for the two killings," Beckett was saying as she and Castle were in the back conference room finishing up their lunch they'd ordered in, Ryan and Esposito joining them halfway through. "The inheritance for our first vic."
"But is there more than one for the second?" Ryan asked. "Jealousy and helping Skipton get the drug?"
"That bothers me bro, why would he take Martine with him? Which one of them knew the dealer?" Esposito said.
"That we should wait to ask Skipton himself," Beckett said, marking the murder board which they'd moved in there since she and Castle had started looking over the case again; that time with their new suspect in mind. "But when we do, we're not going to know if he's telling us the truth, and our other half of the question is dead. Can you guys go now and get more information on him, specifically any gun purchases. Though like the drug, I'm guessing it was black market."
"We'll try and dig up everything we can," Ryan said before hitting Esposito's shoulder as his partner was biting into another slice of pizza.
Watching the two leave, Beckett went to the walkie-talkie she'd brought in the room with them and contacted Officer Adams. "Where are you now officer?" she asked after he'd answered her first call.
"On the way to the theater Detective, nothing suspicious and no one following the squad car," the man said.
"Copy, I'll contact you in an hour or so, keep me posted if anything suspicious happens," Beckett said.
Watching her, Castle wanted to say something as she turned to the murder board then, but refrained, seeing that she was looking at the photograph of the fetuses that Lanie had discovered during the autopsy. "Are you sure we should have that there?" he asked, fighting his lunch rising up his throat as he turned away from the picture.
"It was a possible motive, and they're victims as much as their mother and f-" Beckett started to reply when she got a sudden phone call. "It's Lanie. What is it Lanie?" she asked as she set her phone to speaker.
"I thought you'd want to know, I got the preliminary DNA test results back from your second victim and the babies," Lanie replied.
"And?" Castle asked.
"It wasn't a match, he wasn't their father," Lanie said simply. "I ran the twins' DNA really quickly through the system, but nothing, which I was expecting, but I wanted to be thorough."
"I'm wondering," Beckett said, looking at Castle whose eyes widened as they stared at each other. When he nodded she continued saying, "If you can go to Hudson North where our current suspect is, and get some DNA from him. After I call the judge of course."
"I can, just make sure it's legal," Lanie said.
"I'll call you back," Beckett said before hanging up. "It's worth a shot."
"I'm kind of glad that Martine isn't alive," Castle commented. "You think Amy Holsten knew her mother might have been sleeping with her boyfriend though?"
"Well, the fetuses were two months," Beckett said as she walked out to her desk. "Mother and daughter could have switched boyfriends, though…"
"Martine was our vic's ex, so he dated the daughter, and then went back to the mother?" Castle asked. "This is really some hardcore Greek Oedipus territory; I bet you Alexis would have a field day with this."
"She's in child psychology Castle," Beckett said simply. "But I need to make two phone calls, to the judge and then to Amy again."
"I could take the call to Amy for you," Castle suggested.
"Better she talks to me, she knows you're not a cop," Beckett replied, picking up her phone and dialing a number. "In the meantime, see what the boys have so far."
Knowing that was more to get him to leave her to her calls, Castle nodded and went over to the murder board they'd left in the back room. He pushed it back, not minding that he needed to, since he knew Ryan and Esposito wouldn't have much on their suspect. He saw Beckett looking at him as she was talking to the judge while he positioned the board next to her. He then went over to Ryan, seeing he was looking at his screen.
"Beckett kick you out?" the detective asked, seeing Castle out of the corner of his eye.
"Just for her phone calls," he replied. "Anything?"
"Well, there's nothing in his health records that would indicate he's insane," Ryan said. "Though he did go to jail briefly for domestic abuse, he hit his ex girlfriend."
"When?" Castle asked.
"When he was nineteen he was living with a girlfriend in college, they got into a drunken fight, and he slapped her in the face," Ryan said.
"A slap? Any pictures?" Castle asked.
"This," Ryan said, watching his reaction.
"So he's abusive while drunk, but he was pretty coherent when we were at the apartment," Castle said. "There's nothing else?"
"On his record? No," Ryan said simply.
"What about financially?" Castle asked.
"That'll be where I'm looking at right now bro," Esposito said, getting their attention. "And there's nothing too out of the ordinary, I'm looking for anything from that inheritance."
"What about a series of smaller deposits in cash?" Castle asked.
"Nothing. Unless he's got an account in an assumed name, he's clean," Esposito replied.
Before anyone could say anything else, Beckett was slamming her phone down and she said, "We have the warrant for the DNA test," when she saw the others were watching her. "But Amy Holsten just said she and our suspect have been together for six weeks."
"Which gives Skipton enough time to impregnate the vic before dating Amy," Castle said, walking over to her. "Maybe when Amy found out, she demanded the baby, babies, be gotten rid of, and Skipton does it that way," he tapped the picture of the needle that had been found at the crime scene. "Was she surprised when she found out?"
"That would explain her less than shocked reaction; compared to her sister's," Beckett said. "So you might be right about the two motives combining."
"I'm just wondering though, the vic knew Skipton," Castle was saying, looking at the murder board. "So she let him in, but why? And how on earth did she not know who the babies' father was?"
"She must have slept with them really close together," Beckett said, making a slight face at the thought. "You know determining the date of conception isn't an exact science."
"But you can get close," Castle said. "Think Amber Holsten would know when her mother started seeing Martine again?"
Nodding, Beckett picked up the phone, not dreading talking to that sister as much as she had calling Amy. She spoke very briefly to the young woman; who was apparently at her daughter's school; and she hung up saying to Castle, "She started seeing him again two months ago, around the same time she broke up with Skipton."
"So we have confirmation on that," Castle said.
"The mother and daughter were swapping boyfriends?" Esposito asked as he walked over to them.
"Apparently, but I don't get the feeling that it was done intentionally," Beckett said. "And the great part is, the mother was against her daughter being gay. Her younger daughter," she clarified for Esposito. "But I think I'm a little biased towards the younger Holsten sister. What do you have?"
"Talked to a friend of Skipton's just now," Esposito replied. "And he mentioned that Skipton seemed to be pretty upset when our first vic broke up with him."
"Another motive," Castle said as he and Beckett shared a look at that. "He's angry with his ex and seeing her go back to her ex-"
"He decides to try and steal her money, but then he finds out she's pregnant somehow," Beckett said.
"So he kills her and the babies, and then kills Martine because he thinks he's the father of the children," Castle finished. "But before he kills Martine he implicates him."
"Likely to get us off his trail, but that wasn't really thought out as well," Beckett said.
"Probably because he didn't have enough time to do that," Ryan called out to them as he got up from his desk. "Called another friend, and do you know where Skipton worked up until about four months ago?"
"Was he a dancer too?" Castle asked.
"He was and with the same troupe that Amy Holsten is now with," Ryan answered.
"What happened?" Beckett asked.
"He was fired for sexual harassment against the choreographer of the play that's going to start to tonight," Ryan said, showing them a picture.
"That could be the woman who picked up Amy at the hospital," Beckett mused. "The nurse I spoke with described someone who looks a lot like her. Okay, call her Ryan and-"
"That's who I was talking to," the detective interrupted.
"Wait, he was fired for sexual harassment and she's a friend of his?" Castle asked.
"Hattie Garret assured me it wasn't harassment, they were playing around with… movements, I don't know what she was talking about," Ryan said, shaking his head. "And she tried to get the charges dropped, but the heads of the troupe went ahead with it and he was fired. She did help him get work at…"
"What?" Beckett asked, a little startled when Ryan suddenly shut up, looking uncomfortable.
"He was a custodian at your daughter's school," he finally finished.
"The elementary school?" Beckett asked, tensing up.
"No, the middle school, so you probably never saw him," Ryan replied. "He started two weeks ago."
"I haven't seen him," Beckett said with a nod, relieved. "Okay, so I think we need to do two things at this moment. Ryan, Espo, can you locate Ms. Garret and speak to her about Skipton, pose the theory that he wanted to kill our two vics out of jealousy. And also call some other friends of his, and my daughter's school too, to see if anyone's complained about him since he started working there."
"And you?" Esposito asked, watching as she changed into her coat.
"I'm going back to the first crime scene, maybe the second one if I don't really have much luck there," Beckett said.
"Aren't we sure that Skipton's our guy?" Ryan asked as Castle was grabbing his own coat.
"I want to make absolutely sure," Beckett said. "Because I don't want to make a mistake on this one," she finished with before walking back to the elevator.
"You're not worried about her?" Ryan asked Castle quickly before he could leave.
"Why would I be worried about her?" he asked in confusion.
"She's pushing on this one pretty hard," Esposito said. "Never seen her doubt herself like this."
"It's not open and shut really," Castle said as she called his name. "But guys, what do you want me to do? You can't really blame her for acting like she is; you heard how Julia was crying when she came to the station."
"Just don't let her make a mistake," Esposito said as Ryan didn't speak.
"I won't," Castle said simply before he went over to Beckett before she could walk back to where they'd been standing.
"Not sure why they think I'd make a mistake," she commented when they were in the elevator.
"I think they want to solve it for their niece too," Castle suggested.
"That could be a reason," Beckett agreed as they fell silent the rest of the way to her car.
"So did we ever locate where exactly the struggle and then murder took place?" Castle asked once he and Beckett were in their first vic's apartment.
"It started in the kitchen, there were glass shards in the sink and on the floor the killer missed in their clean up," she answered. "And there's some flecks of blood on the bed, so I think that chunk of hair torn off her head is from the killer dragging her down the hall."
Following Beckett to the bedroom in the back, Castle said, "She was pretty svelte wasn't she?"
"One hundred pounds even, I'm not sure how she carried two kids; how she was going to carry twins," Beckett answered, looking around the room. She went through the drawers; even though CSU and Ryan and Esposito had done so already; and then walked over to the nightstand on the right side. "Would you let in an ex you'd just broken up with?" she suddenly asked Castle.
"Not sure, depends on the relationship of course, but, to be honest probably not," he said. "Maybe I would talk to them from the doorway, but not invite them in. You?"
"I did the same thing right after college," Beckett said absently, looking through the books that were in bottom of the nightstand, taking them all out and putting them onto the bed.
"Photo albums?" Castle asked, going to her since he wasn't having much luck in the closet.
"They are," Beckett answered, opening them up and making sure nothing was inside them. When she got to the last one she saw a picture of the vic with her two daughters and said, "There are times I wonder why she was so against Costa being a father."
Castle opened his mouth to speak, but hesitated for a second before she urged him to speak. "Okay, this is going to sound bad, but it's a theory," he told her as he sat on the bed that had been stripped by CSU. "I've seen a show that was about a woman who married a man for the sole purpose of having a child, not with him, just to have a kid. Her grandmother actually ended up shooting him when he tried to have visits with the baby."
"And you think this could be what Madame Claude was doing?" Beckett asked.
"I would assume, and we saw in the information on Costa that he's always been mentally unstable though he's controlled it via medication," Castle said. "The question I have is why on earth would she have kids with him when she knew his condition."
"It's more than likely that she didn't know about that actually, he didn't start getting treatment until after the sisters were born," Beckett said. "But that's a pretty frightening prospect for the Holstens."
"It is," Castle said. "Are you getting anything being here?"
"Not in this room," Beckett replied. "Let's head to the studio," she told him. She was about to start putting the books away when Castle did so instead. She easily noticed him grimace for a moment and asked, "How's your arm?"
"Okay, the wound's scabbed over, so pulling on the skin like I was doing just now is not fun," he replied, standing up. He followed her to the studio and went to the phonograph, playing it while Beckett went to where the victim had been found. "Sorry," he said when she turned to look at him as the song began.
"No, I'm just thinking," she said, going to the window next to him where the fire escape was. "Did the killer escape up instead of down?"
"Think the roof has any security footage?" Castle asked.
"It could," Beckett said, turning back to the mirror. "We've never really talked about the way she was found; posed against the barre."
"I've been debating on that, two theories," Castle said.
"And you didn't share either one? You must be sick," Beckett teased him slightly. She sighed a little and said, "Let's hear them."
"Okay, so first is something to do with her dancing, I know that's vague, but that's because there are a lot of different theories within that theory," Castle said.
"And second?" Beckett asked.
"The killer wanted to her to look at herself, maybe because she was pregnant and the father was not Martine… though that's unlikely since I don't think anyone knew who the father was," Castle said.
"Interesting, but I'm going to go with the first one as more likely," Beckett said when her phone rang. "It's Julia, they must have stopped at my place or my dad's," she said, looking at the screen.
"Not here," Castle said, stopping her before she could answer. He took her to the entry and nodded for her to go ahead.
"Hey sweetie," Beckett said.
Castle fought a smile, still wondering if his fiancée knew how much her voice changed when she was talking to Julia from when she was working. He listened in; surprised when the little girl asked something after she explained they were at her grandfather's before going to the theater.
"Are you at work?" Julia asked.
"No sweetie, I'm somewhere else, why?" Beckett asked.
"Can we go on the screen?" Julia asked.
"Sure, have your grandpapa help you," Beckett said, tapping the screen a few times. "Hey Dad."
"Hey Katie, I'll leave you two to talk since I'll see you later," Jim said. "Castle."
Nodding to Beckett's father, Castle leaned over a little more as Julia appeared more fully on the screen and he said, "Hey sweetheart, how are you?"
"I'm good, school was okay, the teacher told the other girls and boys not to bother me," Julia answered.
"About Madame Claude?" Beckett asked with a slight smile.
"Yeah, and they didn't ask anymore, but the boys asked if you have a gun and a uniform," Julia said, wrinkling her nose.
"They haven't asked before?" Beckett said.
"Uh-uh, I don't think they believed me when I said my mommy was in the police," Julia said. "But I just said that you were solving things and you had stuff for that."
"Good answer," Castle said. "Are you excited to go to the movie?"
Smiling briefly as she knew he wanted to get the conversation off their work, Beckett said, "Are you going to change there?"
"Oh, yes Mommy, Grandpapa said I can wear something I have here for the movie so I don't have to stay in my uniform," Julia said eagerly, answering her question first. "I'm gonna wear the shirt that has the doggie on it, and my skirt from San Francisco."
"Good, I want you to bring that skirt home actually," Beckett said. "I really hope you have fun at the movie though sweetie," she said, needing to wrap up the conversation so she and Castle could get back to the case.
"When will I see you Mommy?" Julia said.
"I'm not sure, we're still working, but I promise I will try to come home as soon as I can," Beckett answered.
"Me too," Castle said.
"Kay, bye Castle, bye Mommy, see you later," Julia said, waving to the screen.
Beckett blew her daughter a kiss as her fiancé waved, and she turned off the phone. "Am I working that hard on this case?" she asked him.
"I don't think so, why?" Castle asked.
"Because I think I need to step it up a few notches, we need to wrap this up today. I can't go home to our daughter telling her we still don't know who did this," Beckett told him before she answered her phone that had started to ring. "Beckett?"
Castle looked at her when she asked, "He is? Alright, we'll be right in." "Skipton?" he inquired once she'd hung up.
"He is awake and the doctor is allowing me to question him with her there in the room," Beckett replied before she and Castle left the apartment as fast as they could without breaking into a run, knowing he was of the same mindset to solve the case as she was.