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: Really loved the reviews that I got last chapter, and I want to hurry and send out my thanks for them. pcol22 (So glad again to see that you enjoyed the chapter, always love seeing that. And you'll of course see what will happen with this case as chapters get posted. Not surprised that you were worried about Castle getting a more serious wound, never know if that might happen, and also with my stories I'm not surprised you were thinking that either, lol. And of course, really glad to see that you want to read more!), vetgirlmx (I wasn't too surprised you mentioned the fast that the mother and daughter shared boyfriends. Believe me, I don't condone that kind of thing, but there's gotta be something salacious and that's what came to my mind. But I was aiming for the reaction you had with that, so was glad to see it. And again, not saying anything about the case while it's still going, but loved seeing your speculation, as always. And was happy to see you liked how Ryan and Esposito were worried about Julia and also about Beckett investigating the case. They're life family after all the years they've worked together, so had to include that. And of course, very happy to see you want to read more of the story!), 41319always41319 (You make a great point, were definitely players in the last chapter, lol), TORONTOSUN (Interesting to see you mentioning Castle and Beckett on the same page. And was glad to see you liked that Julia was in this chapter for a bit. And yeah, Ryan and Esposito definitely have Beckett's back, so really glad to see you noticed that in this chapter, and glad you liked that too!) and sammysgirl78 (And not surprised to see you mentioning the fact that the mother and daughter were swapping men as you said. But like I said before had to have something salacious for it, lol, but I don't condone it! Interesting to see you speculating about the case, of course, not going to say if you're right, but you'll find out of course. Not surprised to see that you want them to finish up the case to go home to Julia. I'm not surprised you want more family time, but letting you know there will be in future, that I'll tell you for sure, lol). So again, thank you to all of you who reviewed the last chapter. I appreciate the time that you all took to read and then write the review. And of course I loved reading them all!
A/N #2: The title of this chapter is a lyric from the song Wah-Wah by George Harrison, from his album All Things Must Pass.
If I Keep Myself Free
Walking down the hall at Hudson North Hospital, Castle watched as some nurses ran past him and Beckett. "Something happened?" he asked.
"I don't know," Beckett said slowly, looking at the numbers on the doors they were passing. When she came to 245, she wasn't too surprised to see the nurses inside, or the doctor she'd spoken with on the phone covering up the man on the bed.
"Time of death is three twenty nine," the doctor said, standing up straight. She then noticed Beckett and Castle in the doorway and turned to them saying, "Detective Beckett?"
"What happened?" she asked, looking over at Skipton's body underneath the sheet.
"Strange thing, he had woken up, but was only able to whisper one word, over and over before he struggled for breath, and then died," the doctor replied. "They'll have to do an autopsy to figure out what happened exactly."
"What word did he say?" Castle asked, knowing Beckett was going to be incredibly angry their best suspect had just died, taking with him the answers they needed to conclusively close the case.
"Maison," the doctor simply said before she left the room.
"So he's dead," Esposito said.
"That's what she said the first time," Castle said quickly before his fiancée could hear, sitting in front of her computer.
"Where does this put us now with the case?" Ryan asked, looking at Beckett quickly before turning to Castle.
"I'm not sure," he answered simply. He wasn't surprised when the two looked at him and he said, "Just… I'm sure there's paperwork or evidence or something." When they had gone back to their desks he sat next to Beckett and watched her for a moment seeing her expression. "I don't know if I want to ask what's going through your mind right now, because that's largely rhetorical, but if you feel like sharing-" he started to tell her.
"No, I'm just trying to get myself to write this report out but…" Beckett started to say before she trailed off.
"Yeah, it's not case closed," Castle said. "Listen, I've been thinking about what the doctor told us."
"Me too," Beckett said quickly.
"And he kept saying maison, what if he was giving his alibi?" Castle asked, since he knew she didn't quite believe Skipton had been their killer.
"Ryan, Esposito," Beckett said, standing up then. "We're not finished."
"Wait, Beckett, we have testimony from Holsten that has him saying that he killed our first vic," Esposito said to that.
"And I'd like to make sure he's our killer before I condemn a dead man," Beckett said simply. "Espo, I need you to look at whatever security footage there is from wherever it is that Skipton lives, at the time of the first two murders."
"What about the assault?" Ryan asked.
"That I think was legit," Beckett said simply.
"And you might want to check out Skipton's apartment," Castle commented. "He could have something from the murders."
"I'll take CSU," Ryan said quickly; not wanting to protest with the way Beckett was looking.
"I'll be looking up some things," she was saying then. "While Castle and I look into the case from the start. As soon as you get the footage and find anything, tell us." Her phone rang, and Beckett quickly answered it when she saw it was Lanie, nodding her fiancé over. "What is it?" she said in greeting.
"First off, why are you snapping at me girl? Calm down, you have your killer," Lanie said.
"We're confirming we have our killer," Castle said quickly.
"Okay, well that explains that. And I have the results of a preliminary DNA test I did with Skipton's blood I got at the hospital," Lanie said.
"Was he conscious at all?" Beckett asked, since the doctor was going to be doing the autopsy on their suspect.
"No, he was out cold. But just to let you know, the symptoms that the man had, it sounds like an allergic reaction, a severe one," Lanie replied.
"See what you can find out if that's the case," Beckett said. "What about the test?"
"He's the father, well, it's not as accurate as the normal paternity test, but it's him or someone in his family," Lanie said.
"His family's in Louisiana," Castle said.
"Then it's likely him, thank you Lanie," Beckett said before she hung up. "Alright, let's go over this one last time, and hopefully one of them will get something."
Going over to the murder board, Castle and Beckett deconstructed every moment of the timeline, looked at the evidence they had gathered and all the previous suspects. Once they had finished, they followed Esposito to the TV, where he had a section of security footage from Skipton's building set up for them.
"I really thought you were getting obsessive Beckett, but I was wrong," the detective said as in clear view, Neil Skipton walked through the lobby of his building and went to an elevator at the time of the first vic's murder.
"Does he leave? Is there another exit?" Beckett asked, standing up from the desk she'd been leaning against.
"I called, and this is the only way in or out with a keycard; none of them were used to leave the building around the time of the murders," Esposito replied. "And then there's this," he said as he cued another clip, with the vic walking out of the building at the end of the time window for Martine's 'suicide'. "And that's the first time he's seen on the clip."
"No disguises, a big wig or Nixon mask?" Castle suggested.
"Dude," Esposito said in exasperation, looking at him.
"And that brings us directly to square one, yet again," Beckett said, with a sigh of defeat. "I'll be pulling an all nighter," she said, walking back out to her desk. "I better call Julia."
"B-" Esposito started to say.
Beckett's phone started to ring then, and she answered it, seeing it was Ryan, saying, "Anything?"
"We found some e-mails on the computer, between Skipton and Holsten, about him committing the murder of the first vic," he replied.
"He's not our killer," Beckett said. "Espo just found out he was in his apartment at the times of the murders."
"But he is the one who beat up Holsten," Ryan said. "We found a shirt with some flecks of blood on it; we're sending it in for testing."
"Did you look around for any blood in the place?" Castle said.
"Yeah, I thought of that, but-" Ryan started to say.
"Detective," someone said in the background.
"Hold on," Ryan said.
Looking at each other, Beckett, Castle and Esposito waited a little impatiently for their partner to come back on, listening to a muffled conversation on the other end.
"Okay, I'm sending you a picture," he said. "CSU has some luminol and sprayed it, we got this."
Going to the message and the picture attached, Beckett nodded saying, "That'll be the location of the attack, where are you?"
"The tub in the bathroom," Ryan said.
"Good, but you didn't find any vials that held the drug or any needles, what about bullets or a gun?" Beckett asked.
"It's clean for anything else. Do you want his computer?" Ryan asked.
"Did you dust it for fingerprints?" Esposito asked.
"It's clean," Ryan said.
"Could be the person who's setting him up, or else he was constantly wearing gloves," Castle suggested.
"Can't be that theory, the apartment's covered in his fingerprints, but that's all we were able to get from what we were sent by the hospital," Ryan said.
"Then bring the hard drive in and give it to tech, but I can tell you right now they won't find anything," Beckett said simply.
"I know, but this is all I have for you," Ryan said.
"Thank you anyways, it helps our theory," Beckett said before hanging up her phone.
"Going to call Julia?" Castle asked.
"Actually, I think I'd like to take a break for a moment, excuse me," Beckett said before she went to her desk. Grabbing something inside she went to the break room and got a bottle of water from the vending machine before she took two aspirin, sitting at the shorter table, her head in her hands for a brief moment before she sat up again, mulling their evidence over in her head.
"You know he was offering to take over that all nighter you said you wanted to do," Castle said, sitting next to her and talking in a low voice since they were alone but the doors were open.
"I can't, and don't think I'm afraid to see Julia, I just want to go home knowing it's all over," Beckett said. "But I dread having to go through all of this all over again."
"Call her," Castle said. "But tell her we'll come home in a few hours."
"Together?" Beckett asked, one eyebrow raised at that.
"Why not?" Castle replied with a shrug.
Shaking her head, Beckett pulled out her phone and dialed her dad's number saying; once he answered; "Hi Dad, no I'm still at work, I just wanted to talk to Julia. The case is still going on, so we might be a while, I need to see."
Leaning his head on his hand that was propped up on the table, Castle heard Beckett's dad and Julia talking though the sound was muffled. He glanced at Beckett when the little girl said an enthusiastic hello, and was relieved when the strain on his fiancée's face eased up immediately.
"Hi sweetie, how are you?" Beckett asked as Castle stood up suddenly. She was a little startled at that, but understood why he'd done it when an officer walked into the room.
"Good Mommy, the movie was lots of fun," Julia answered after Beckett had turned off the speaker on her phone. "The puppy was funny; it made people look at his tail while he spun it."
"That does sound funny," Beckett agreed when the officer left. "So what are you and your grandpapa doing for dinner?"
"We're gonna go to the deli and have sammiches," Julia said happily. "What about you, are you and Castle going to come?"
"I'm afraid not sweetie," Beckett said, sighing. "I might need to work a little later tonight, but he'll go over and take you home alright," she said, ignoring Castle's annoyed expression. "But I will kiss you goodnight if you're asleep once I come home okay?"
"Kay, can't I talk to Castle too?" Julia asked.
"Not now Julia, but later you can," Beckett said, looking up at him. "I'll see you later okay?"
"Kay, bye Mommy, say the same to Castle too," Julia said quickly. "And I hope you come home before I go to sleep."
"Me too, bye sweetie," Beckett said before Julia gave the phone to her grandfather. She talked briefly with her dad as Castle left the room and once she'd hung up she looked at the screen of her phone, something nagging at her as she'd been talking about him taking Julia back to her apartment. "Maison," she whispered idly, going to a search engine and putting in the word. "Home…"
Looking at the murder board, Castle frowned as he looked at the photo of the studio where their first vic had been found. He scanned it from left to right before stopping abruptly saying under his breath, "Home…" and with that he turned to get Beckett in the break room.
Nearly colliding right outside the doorway, Castle and Beckett looked at each other and said, "I know who the killer is."
"Yeah, we just need to figure out how to prove it," Beckett then said, relieved that he'd thought the same. "Ryan, Espo," she called, the former just walking into the bull pen. "I need the theater footage from the time of our first murder."
"Sure," Ryan said, he and Esposito already watching the two as it'd been hard to avoid seeing them nearly running into one another.
"I need to make a phone call, but once I'm done I'll take a look at it," Beckett said.
Castle sat in his chair next to her, listening in on the conversation a little anxiously before she hung up and nodded once. He followed her over to where Ryan was waiting for them, seeing Esposito was on the phone.
"Who is it?" Beckett asked.
"Officer Adams, he had to switch to his personal phone, he's wondering if he needs to stay on the protective detail; he heard about Skipton dying," Esposito said as he joined them in the room.
"He does," Beckett said simply. She was going to tell Ryan to start playing the footage, when her phone rang. "Beckett," she said, forgetting to check the caller.
"It's Lanie, I just finished up the autopsy on Skipton, and I found something in the pocket of his pants that the hospital sent over with his body. It was in the very small pocket on the side, a plate from a medical alert bracelet. He was allergic to penicillin," Lanie said.
"And he was injected with it?" Beckett asked.
"He was and it was legitimately done… at the hospital unfortunately," Lanie said. "He didn't have the allergy on his medical records, I'm trying to figure out why that is, but he wasn't murdered."
"Okay, thanks Lanie," Beckett said, hanging up. "I almost thought-"
"So did I, but I think two is enough," Castle said in response before she could finish.
"Guys?" Ryan asked, he and Esposito watching the two.
"Sorry, start up the footage," Beckett said, going to stand right next to the screen. She watched the dancer on the stage, and when the figure turned their face towards the security camera she paused it and then zoomed in.
"What the hell?" Esposito said, stepping up to the screen. "How'd you get the idea?"
"Home," Castle said simply as Beckett left the room.
"Call Officer Adams, put the backstage of the theater on lockdown, and get officers outside watching all the exits," Beckett said, going to her desk.
"On it," Esposito said as he and Ryan got their phones and began dialing.
"Yes, this is Detective Beckett, I need to speak with the judge," Beckett said as she and Castle were standing at her desk.
Listening in on the other half of that conversation, Castle wasn't too surprised when she hung up looking a lot less tense and asked her, "Are we set?"
"How'd you like to see the ballet in person Castle?" Beckett asked.
"I've always wanted to," he replied simply as they grabbed their coats and she called for Ryan and Esposito while they hurried to leave the station.