I offer no apologies for this chapter.
OM
SheLearnedtheTruthat17 by Oldest Man
"Kate, Rick should be your obsession, not a 'when I get some things done' kind of thing. Let him help. There's no reason you two can't…"
"Lanie, she was mymother. It's my problem, not his. Besides, I need to keep this part of my life separate." It was a BS excuse but she was a girl who believed in preparing for any contingency – up to and including her relationship with Castle cratering and leaving her homeless.
"Girl, this is a real bad decision. It's gonna come bite you in your ass, I'm warning you, Kate. You're going to regret keeping this a secret. You're not supposed to have secrets from one another."
Chapter 16
Kate made it back to the loft and Castle 3 nights later. The case of the slashed model was dead in the water with no leads, no prints, no suspect and no hope of a solution. She was tired and cranky and not at all good company.
"God, Rick, I missed this." She snuggled into his embrace and he just let her lean into him. She had bags under her eyes and looked more tired than he had ever seen her before.
"Go take a shower while I make you something to eat and you can bring me up to speed on the case. It sounds like you've covered every base and explored all your options at this point. It's terrible to say, but until you get another one just like it, you don't have enough data, Kate. You might have to let this one go."
"I know and it's horrible to think that the only way to get a break is if this monster kills someone else."
Rick whipped up something for her to eat and she fell asleep on the couch shortly after finishing the first real meal she'd had in days. He covered her with a blanket and went in to his study to write. He'd missed her but she needed sleep more than anything else. There would be other times and he was patient. Sometimes Castle took a backseat to Rogers.
He had written Rook and Nikki into a terrible argument after a near-death experience for Nikki. She'd been disarmed and if one of her boys hadn't shown up and taken down the suspect, she'd have been shot at point blank range.
Rook didn't need to see the look of terror on her face because he and Veritas sure did hear about it thanks to riding back with the Roaches while Nikki took the suspect in for booking. He realized that in that one second before the suspect had been disarmed and cuffed, he'd almost ended Nikki's life. That night in his apartment, lying together in bed, Rook had asked her to marry him.
'Rookie, y'know I love ya to death and all but we're not from the same worlds. You write about what others do while I do the things you can only write about. You speak 3 languages and I can barely string words together in English. You don't belong in my world and I don't fit in yours. I'm sorry. I won't marry you."
"And I'm blind."
He said those words with such bitterness that for a moment all she wanted to do was hold him tightly in her arms and tell him the truth – that the image he had of her was so flawed and unreal that she was afraid he'd 'see' the real her and be repulsed.
Instead, she slapped, hard, across the face.
"Don't you ever say that again, ever!"
Rick wasn't satisfied with it and he wanted to redo the entire chapter, substituting something else. He didn't like her reasoning. It felt – contrived - and if there was one thing he hated it was when someone dissembled, lied, instead of being truthful in moments like the one he'd written.
He started to get sleepy and went in and gently woke Kate and carried her up to their room and put her to bed. He didn't want Alexis or his mother to find her asleep on the couch in her nightshirt. He set the alarm and crawled in beside her and was asleep in minutes.
5:45am
Rick woke instantly to the sound of the alarm, hit the snooze button and walked downstairs and started the coffee. He scrambled a couple eggs and made toast and carried it all up to their room just as the alarm went off again.
"Kate, it's 6am and you need to wake up, drink my Blue Mountain roast and eat. I'm coming into the precinct later on after a meeting with Paula and Gina about some new promotional stuff. I have to fly out to L.A. for a meeting but I'll be back Thursday night. Don't make plans for Friday night, okay? I want to take you out for a change."
"Coffee first, then talk while I eat." She grabbed the coffee and inhaled and smiled up at him. He loved the way she looked when she first woke up. She looked so damned good to him.
"So, Friday?" She hadn't answered him. He knew that she still had a life outside of his and he vowed not to intrude on it unless he was welcomed in.
"Um, can't Friday. How about Saturday? I've got something to handle Friday and I'm taking a personal day off."
When she went to find something to wear she was surprised to find her clothes in bags from the dry cleaners.
"Rick, I can handle my own dry cleaning. You don't have to follow around doing stuff for me. You have your own life and you know how I feel about you paying for stuff."
"I just wanted you to have your stuff ready for work if you spent the night. No big deal, Kate. I like following you around. The view is spectacular. Eat and get ready. I'm going down to finish a chapter."
Kate carried the empty breakfast tray down to the kitchen and went in search of her fiance for a morning kiss before she had to leave. A part of her wished she could stay and just talk with him but she got a call about another body and it was 'worse than before' according to Ryan.
"Rick, I'm leaving. Got another slasher victim in the park. I'll see you back at the precinct," she called out to him as she left. The loft was closer to the park than the precinct so she was at the scene within minutes.
Ryan met her at the steps. The body had been found within yards of the first, staged in almost precisely the same way, except this time the slasher had taken out the victim's eyes.
"Looks like escalation to me," said Ryan. "This guy is getting angry, Beckett. There's bruising around the neck this time."
The body was presented exactly as the first had been. Ryan was right. She could easily make out bruising around the throat as well as what appeared to be bruising on the victim's knuckles. She'd fought back.
12th Precinct
Identifying the victim turned out to be fairly easy. Her prints were in the system. She had a couple arrests for assault. Apparently she didn't like how she'd been photographed and had assaulted the photographer several weeks before. A year earlier, she'd attacked another model for flirting with her boyfriend.
"Vickie Sims, 23, a local girl from Staten Island. Uniforms are at her place now. Want me and Espo to head on over there?"
"Yeah. I'll see which agency represented her from the list we got from Vibrant and interview her agent. I'll let you know if Perlmutter comes up with anything for us."
Kate was still on the phone when Rick got off the elevator and walked over to her desk and placed a cup of her favorite coffee and a sandwich from the delicatessen down the street on her desk and then sat down. She acknowledged him with a smile and a touch of her hand and finished up her conversation.
"Thanks, Castle. I haven't had time this morning to do much other than breathe. Take a look at the board for me and do your thing. I could use some fresh eyes about now." She unwrapped the sandwich and smiled: turkey on toasted whole wheat with lettuce, mayo and tomato. Perfect. She'd only ordered it once before and yet he remembered.
Rick stood up and stared at the board. Two models. Both withlashes to the face and throat. The second victim had her eyes cut out. Bodies staged exactly the same manner. He studied the photos of the crime scene and mumbled something.
Kate was making sounds of enjoyment while eating her sandwich. She really appreciated his concern for her and she felt bad that they hadn't really had any time together in almost a week and now he was going to L.A. until Friday.
"Kate, there's something familiar about how the bodies are staged but I can't put my finger on it. It's ritualistic but there's more to it than that. Anything these two unfortunate beauties have in common?"
"We're still coming up with details, Castle. The boys are out on Staten Island taking statements and working with ESU and they haven't reported back in. I haven't been able to locate the agency that represents her yet."
"Google her. If she's registered, you'll find her agency listed there."
She'd wasted nearly 2 hours calling modeling agencies and being put on hold. Sometimes she hated him for the ease he seemed to have in plucking out all these esoteric means of getting information. She'd never 'Googled' anyone in her life.
"Want to ride over to 'Fields, Whittaker & Associates' and help me cut through the chaff?"
"Can't. I need to zip back to the loft and pack. I'm leaving later this afternoon. I stopped by to feed my lover and update her on my travel changes."
"Oh, well, follow me then. I have something for you." She got up and headed into the interrogation room and when he walked in behind her, she pushed him against the wall and kissed him with sudden hunger.
"God, Castle, I've wanted to do that since last night. I really, really missed you and I wish you'd have awakened me last night."
"You were dead on your feet. It's not as much fun when one of the parties to the party is asleep."
"I promise you that this weekend, it's all about Rick and Kate, okay?"
"I have to run, Kate. I'll call you when I get to L.A. if it's not too late. Or send you a text. Call me if you get any new info on the case, okay? Fresh eyes, even if they're 3,000 miles away."
Beckett's Apartment
She wearily opened the door to her apartment, threw her keys at the basket on the table and took off her gun and put it in her lockbox and stripped off the clothes she wore and hopped in the shower. It was 11pm and she was just getting home. Not the loft. Home.
Kate didn't feel comfortable just barging in and making herself at home in the loft when he wasn't there. She loved Martha and Alexis but still felt uncomfortable there without –
She finished showering and cursed because she was out of conditioner, then remembered she'd left a new one at Rick's. Shaking her head in disgust, she towel-dried her mess and threw on a night shirt (her favorite was underneath her pillow in their bedroom) and walked out to find something to fill the void in her life. Read a book, maybe.
Rick had sent her a text telling her he'd made it to L.A. and asking if there was any new info on the case but she was just too tired to respond. Besides, he was probably busy doing whatever it was that one did on a movie set.
'Probably having drinks with Nikki Heat prospects.' The tone of her thought surprised her. It was bitter and envious and a little uncertain. He loved her. She was being foolish. Still…
Beverly Hilton
Los Angeles
Castle pushed the ice around in his third Scotch with his swizzle stick. The other three at the table were going on and on about the need for a 'draw' to get the 19-45 male demographic to pay to see the movie. Yadda yadda yadda…
'Why hasn't she called or text me back? What does she have to do on Friday? Oh, crap! She's pregnant and getting an abortion! No. She told me she was on some implant. Maybe I should call her?'
He glanced at his watch. No, it was late and she probably was asleep. She hadn't been taking care of herself and she's exhausted with trying to make some sense out of two cases with zero clues or connections.
"So, Rick, what do you think? She's definitely our gal. The focus groups we used picked her out as 'Nikki Heat' 77.4% of the time and we used 3 different groups. And she's a hot property right now."
"What? I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention. Look, let's talk about this when it's not almost midnight my time. I've been up since before dawn and I need some sleep. I'll see you guys in the morning and I'll give you my decision after talking with her."
He finished his drink and went up to his room. He took off his clothes and climbed into bed. He'd worry about Kate and Nikki in the morning.
Kate's apartment
It seemed like she'd just fallen asleep when her alarm went off. She dragged herself into the shower and then dressed. Her hair was wild looking and so she just brushed it out as best she could and then left for the precinct.
Before leaving, she tidied up her mother's case file and put it back in her desk. She'd spent hours looking over it for some detail she might have missed but just like other nights, nothing leaped out at her. Random gangland violence. In the wrong place at the wrong time.
If the name on the file hadn't been Johanna Beckett, and she was the cold case reviewer, she'd have tossed the file in the 'unsolved' pile in a heartbeat but she couldn't. This was her mother's file and she deserved justice.
Dreading the day, she left for work. Friday was coming. Another Black Friday in her life. The dread she felt was suffocating and she needed air and even with the cruiser's window down and the crisp winter air flowing over her, she still couldn't seem to fill her lungs.
Los Angeles
Rick stood in the shower letting the cold water pound down on him. It had been years since he'd had that particular dream and he'd awakened up in tears and short of breath.
Rick Rogers had slipped away from the company and gone back to the village. Her body was right where it had fallen and he'd picked her up and carried her into what was left of her house and laid Alexana on the dinner table. He ripped sheets from the bed and then he'd washed her body and wrapped it tightly in the white sheets as a burial shroud and carried her to the village cemetery.
He used a shovel he'd found at the maintenance shack and dug a grave as deeply as he could in the frozen ground and laid her to rest. He covered her as best he could and left to rejoin the company. His soldier's mind marked the spot using other headstones as markers. Some day he'd come back and put a proper stone over her grave but it would do for now.
The sheets. Burial shroud. He'd placed her palms on her stomach and put slippers on her feet. It was tradition. It was a burial rite.
He connected his dots and quickly toweled himself off. It was too early to go to the studio and listen to the three stooges do their thing. But it wasn't too early to call Kate and share his thoughts.
12th Precinct
Kate was looking over the information they'd gotten from the latest victim's apartment and agency. Still nothing to connect the victims except their profession.
Her cell rang and she answered without checking the caller ID. She was annoyed at being disturbed.
"Beckett". Short like her fuse.
"Kate, it's Rick. I had a dream, a nightmare actually, about Alexana and – "
"Castle, I don't have time to listen to your recitation of a nightmare." She snapped, looking at her watch. She didn't want to hear how he'd buried his dead girlfriend. "It's still early in L.A., so just drink some water and go back to sleep. I've got work to do…"
He heard the snappish tone and the patronizing attitude that had oozed from her voice and it made him angry.
"Detective Beckett, look for any connection between the victims and anyone on the modeling shoots who might be of Moslem faith or descent. The way the bodies were staged is how their religious tradition calls for the dead to be handled. Since the murderer wasn't burying the bodies, he wanted them found. This could be a connection."
She was suddenly very ashamed of herself. "Rick, I – I'm sorry." He interrupted her apology and she felt even worse.
"Yeah, Beckett, I get that a lot from you. I'll let you go. You're obviously busy and you'll want to cross reference names of the shoot crew. I'll see you when I get back. Try and get some sleep, Kate. I'd tell you to eat something but that would be a waste of breath."
He hung up and she felt the pressure of tears trying to escape from behind her closed eyes. He'd tried to help and she'd cut him down. 'Igetthatalotfromyou.' He did, and she constantly shot off her mouth around him without thinking first.
'I'll make it up to him. We'll go out Saturday and have a wonderful time and then we'll go home together.'
Where was 'home' exactly? The thought creeped into the back of her mind and sat there waiting to be answered.
Three hours of cross-referencing and calling for verification produced one result. Interestingly enough, it was the photographer that their 2nd victim had assaulted several weeks before. Kate called on Ryan to accompany her to interview their one and only suspect, Tariq Humal, at his residence.
When they arrived at the apartment building, they discussed strategy before interviewing the suspect, Mr. Humal. They wasted their time. A woman told them in broken English, through the door, that her husband was at work. He was a photographer and was at his studio preparing for an assignment.
Los Angeles
Castle was still smarting from his exchange with Kate and reevaluating his approach to her in the future. Whatever was bugging her was slowly pulling her away from him and he didn't know what to do about it. He hadn't meant to say what he had earlier but it was too late for regrets.
The studio car took him directly to the offices of Willie, Silly and Dilly, the co-producers who were trying to push Natalie Rhodes down his throat. Their latest idea was for 'Nikki' to approve of Natalie after she 'interfaced on the job with Natalie for a few cases'. He grimaced because he knew what Kate's reaction would be: "Hell, no!"
He hadn't expected that the idiots had already schmoozed the Mayor with promises of establishing a New York production crew to handle outdoor shots and possibly even some cast shootings and gotten premission.
If Beckett heard of this he could only imagine who would be 'shot'.
The meeting had been stormy when Castle heard the latest from the idiots. He'd been overruled and the studio lawyers had found a loophole and so Natalie Rhodes was the new Nikki Heat.
Beckett was going to be so happy…not.