Castle takes a few steps closer and stops in front of her. She has her mouth slightly open still in shock, but she tries to mask it very quickly. She closes her mouth then and smiles weakly.
"Took your time."
He sees all the spectrum of emotions that fluttered in her face for a moment. He is sure that he spotted a look of jealousy and shock in there before she beautifully masked it with a smile.
"Yeah, well. Got held up," he offers an explanation, not really wanting to reveal his plans with Ryan. He doesn't want her to know about them. Not yet, anyway. 'It's just helping out a friend, that's all' he tries to convince himself.
"Shall we go?" he asks, trying to usher them out of the room, to the elevator.
"Mhyes," she answers, voice thoughtful, like she is trying to gnaw through something in her head.
"What's wrong?" he tries to ask nonchalantly when they step into the elevator.
"Who's Emily?"
He is silent for a while and finally asks, "So, you heard?"
"Well, it was hard to miss," she answers honestly, turning her head at him. "Loud voices carry around in the open room very well."
He looks at her for a moment, before answering. She is standing there, biting her lip nervously, even though she is clearly trying to hide it. He smirks inwardly but stays fairly serious.
"Ryan asked me a favour," he starts. She shifts from one foot to another, keeping herself silent and urging him to continue
"Jenny's cousin is coming to visit them." he shares, looking into her eyes to see her reaction. "Ryan has noticed that I haven't been dating, so he and Jenny are trying to hook me up with her cousin. Her name is Emily, apparently. I've heard she is a sweet girl," he nods and smiles dreamily.
"Hmm.." she makes that sound again. "So, you haven't seen her?" she asks, curiosity in her eyes.
"No," he shakes his head. "We have a double date today."
"A date?" Kate is surprised.
Now Castle is amused. His eyes were not deceiving him before. Kate Beckett is jealous over his date with this woman. 'Oh, this can be fun,'he thinks.
"Well, that's what the kids call it these days," he answers, seemingly not affected by her questions. "We are going to a romantic restaurant and the theatre afterwards, so I think it is considered a date."
"Oh," she says, her face serious. Then she smiles at him and pats him to the shoulder. "I hope you have a great time with Ryan and Jenny and..." she pauses. "Emily?" her voice rises to that last name, making it seem like a question.
"Yes, Emily," he answers, amused. "You know, Beckett. If I didn't know you better, I would say that you are a little bit jealous right now," he takes the chance to mock her for a moment. Just to poke around and see what stirs up in her.
She offers a seemingly fake smile to him. "Why would I be jealous, Castle?" she asks, stepping away from him and turning to face the wall. She looks up. "You are a free man, you can date whomever you want," she muses.
Castle looks at her back and smiles a victorious smile. Oh, he's got her for good. She is so totally jealous.
Ryan and Esposito slowly pull up to the curb, forty yards short of the address given for the consulate.
"Are you sure this is it?" Esposito asks his partner, inspecting the buildings on either side of the road.
"Yep, thats what is listed. Office 6B, in that ugly office block on the left there,"
Esposito smiles and asks, "You know the best thing about this consulate?" Seeing Ryan's blank face he continues, "The McDonalds across the street. I'm freakin starving. Need lunch." Ryan stares at the golden arches, caught in two thoughts.
"I promised Jenny I wouldn't have take out this week. Deal we have going," Ryan explains apologetically.
Esposito sighs, resigned to be hungry for at least the next couple of hours.
Ryan continues to stare at the store, "I am so getting a Mac. What you having, Javi?"
Spontaneous laughter erupts between the two, as they exit the car and head to McDonald's for a quick snack. Ryan is content in the end with a single burger, his partner obviously isn't. A quarter pounder, and two cheeseburgers later, Esposito follows Ryan across the street to find the consulate. They enter the lobby, and the quickly find the information board and verify the address.
"Well it's the right building. Estonian Consulate, 6B," Ryan reads off the board. They both walk over the marble floor to the elevator, push the button, and patiently await its arrival. Another individual also ambles over, and stands close to the detectives, his head bowed down. The man glances at them both, his eyes widening slightly as he spies the badges attached to their belt. Ryan notices this immediately and glances at Esposito, whose interest is also piqued. He appeared to be in his mid forties, short dark hair, and immaculately dressed in a expensive designer suit.
The elevator bell sounds, and the door opens to the three passengers. "Going up?" Esposito steps into the elevator behind Ryan, directing the question to the stranger. The man steps in behind them and answers with a distinctive accent "Yes, floor six please."
The detectives now share a very long look between them, Esposito asking "Estonian?" Their elevator acquaintance nods in the affirmative.
"Know the consulate general?" Ryan politely asks.
The man looks up sadly at both of them, bows his head again, "Yes, I do. He's a great man and will sorely missed around here."
"Err... didn't he only just start his job recently?" Ryan was perplexed by the notion a man, not a week into his job, could be missed so quickly.
Their companion's complexion abruptly takes an angry turn. "Oh not that upstart interloper who stole his job. No, I am talking about the old consulate general, a man of foresight and vision, a stellar representative in his role." He finishes the sentence, pride shining through the last words.
"So, you knew the old consulate general, we gather?" Esposito folds his arms across his chest, suspicion slowly dawning on both detectives.
The man slowly looks up, as the elevator doors open to the sixth floor, "Yes, he was my best friend." He pauses once more, inhales a deep breath, and states, "That is why I had to kill Kalev."
"Hey Lanie!" Beckett greets the ME when she opens the shiny morgue doors. "What do you got for us?"
"Hey you …" the medical examiner lifts her gaze from the body laying in front of her and smiles when she sees them come in. "... and Castle."
"Hey, Lanie." Castle says, stepping closer to the table. Seeing the body lay there with all the bullet holes, suddenly he is full of glee. He was grossed out in the crime scene, oddly enough. It was probably due to the fact the dead body was still too fresh. Too human like. Now, it looked like a shiny new toy, lying in the table.
"Oooh, I can see insides of him!" he cheers and steps closer and extends his arm.
"Nuuh-uuh, Castle, put your finger in there and Iwillcut it off." the ME stops Castle before he can touch the body with his bare hands. Castle eyes Lanie for few heartbeats, but seeing her strict gaze, he retreats his arm and sighs.
"You are ruining all the fun."
Beckett comes closer to the table, only mildly annoyed about Castle. "What did you find?" she gets right to the point, looking at the ME. "It sounded urgent in the phone."
Lanie smiles to her friend "I called you down because I wanted to show you something."
"Oh?" Kate is surprised.
"Well, as far as I know, the death is caused by the 23 gunshot wounds to his chest, left arm and left side of his head." She shows to the direction of the wounds with her hand, showing the riddled pattern of the bullet holes.
"But..." she continues, but before she can say anything Castle exclaims "He is blue!"
Beckett stares at Castle telling him to shut up without words, using her eyes. Lanie shifts her gaze from Kate to Castle and tries to talk, before Writer-boy interrupts again.
"Yes, he is a bit blue, that's what I am saying. It doesn't add up with the gunshot wounds."
"Why it doesn't?" Beckett asks, her face serious.
"Well, the blue tinge of the skin points to lack of oxygen in the body. But with the gunshot wounds, the shade shouldn't be there yet. I hope that the thorough examination can shed some light to what is going on with this man." Lanie looks at Kate, then Castle.
They nod in unison, both seem to be deep in thought. Beckett is furrowing her brows and tries to think of a reason for this mystery. Before she can say anything Castle interrupts the silence again.
"So you are saying he was suffocated before being shot?" he looks at Lanie, intently.
She looks at him, disapprovingly. "That is not what I am saying, Castle. This early blueness is just a detail that doesn't add up with the overall condition of the body at the moment"
He looks at Lanie, smile in his eyes and points out. "What condition? The guy has been reduced to minced meat"
Now both of the ladies are staring at him. "What?" he asks, looking at Beckett,
"Minced meat or not," Lanie says to him, making both Beckett and Castle look at her. "The guy is a mystery for us. I hope I can have more substantial information to you as soon as I have performed and examination on him." She stops for a moment and then adds "But the reason I called you down, is this."
She reaches for a plastic bag from the little table beside her and raises it up. There is a little piece of paper in there. Beckett takes the little bag from the ME and squints at it. Castle shuffles closer to Beckett, making her uncomfortable. But she doesn't say anything, focusing solely on on the paper.
It is the same kind of paper the other little note had, even the lines in the paper are similar. This paper, like the other one has numbers and letters on it:
'2.2
ukene38'
"This is the same note we found," Beckett voices her thoughts. "Where did you find it, Lanie?"
"This was on the pocket of his suit. I noticed it when I was cutting him out of it. It was really close to falling out from the tiny pocket."
"Thank you, Lanie." Kate smiles to her friend. Then she gives the plastic bag to Castle who is anxious to see it in his hands. She continues, "We found other half of that paper in the crime scene."
The morgue falls silent for a minute, while Castle is investigating the paper. Kate is shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot, glancing at Castle and then Lanie. The medical examiner observes them for a second, noticing the awkward tension between them.
"Well, this is it for now" Lanie tells them both. "I have to cut him open to know more."
Castle makes disgusted face at her words, when he looks at the ME. "You will cut him more open than he is right now?"
Lanie pointedly ignores him and says to Kate. "Keep your shadow on the line. What have you been feeding him today, chocolate?"
Kate laughs at her friend and answers "Oh, then he would be much worse. I assume the giddiness is caused by the fact that he has a date today."
Lanie raises her eyebrows 'Ah, that might explain the tension'.She looks from Castle to Kate and back to Castle. "A date? So, you two decided to go out eventually?" she asks.
Kate manages to keep the straight face that she had before. "No, ah... um." she stutters.
Castle only smirks and helps helps the detective out "I have a date with Jenny's cousin."
Lanie's eyes go big at his words. "Oh, really?" and then looks at her friend who slumped at the side of the table, trying to keep her composure. But Lanie sees her cracking under the surface. She wants to mock the writer more, but seeing her friend in slight distress, she decides it's better not to do that right now. She turns her face to Castle, smiles slightly and says. "I wish you have a good time then, writer boy"
Kate sighs then and turns herself around "See you, Lanie. I need to get going." And starts walking away. Castle remains there for few moments, not understanding the hurry of his partner. His brows furrowed, he stands there until Kate calls him. "Are you gonna stay there or come up to the precinct?"
This gets him going and he hurries after her, catching her pace.
"See you, Lanie!" he throws over his shoulder, before the morgue doors close.
Lanie smirks when she looks at Castle running out of the Morgue doors. "Well, well, well, a date?" she muses in the empty, metallic morgue. "This gonna stir up stuff."
She chuckles when she collects one of her power tools and switches it on.
A/N: From Trinx and Brett: Thank you for reading and reviewing, dear readers. We love you for it. Please continue the awesome work you have done since. We are really happy for the 11 reviews we got for two last chapters. And the awesome follows and favourites. We really hope you like this next installment too.
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