Fire Burns

Chapter Five

It was late at night, and Kate was lying in bed next to Rick. He had his arm slung over her waist, and she had her finders intertwined with his. Neither of them were asleep.

"Do you want to be Mrs Castle?" Rick suddenly asked, breaking the silence.

"What?" Kate glanced across at Rick.

"Well, after Esposito's comment earlier, I've been thinking." Rick replied.

"Are you asking me to marry you?" Kate asked, sitting up, and looking down at Rick.

"Well, no. Not yet. I'm just wondering if you would want that some day."

Kate sighed. "I can't answer that."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't know. Sure, I think we'll be together for a while to come, but marriage? That's a big step. I don't wanna get married, only to get divorced a year later." Kate ran her hands over her face. "Look, Rick, if one day you ask, then maybe I'll have a better answer. But at the moment, we're still learning everything there is to know about each other. We're still a relatively new couple."

Rick nodded. "Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yeah, I just had to ask. You're right, I won't ask for a while yet." He looked up at her adoringly. "But one day..." He trailed off.

Kate smiled. "Let's just get through the next few months first." She leant down and kissed him gently. "For the moment, though, I'm satisfied just being your girlfriend."

"I'm glad." Rick replied, kissing her back, and pulling her down towards him. "I love you, Kate Beckett."

"I love you, Rick Castle." Kate replied.

"Now, get some sleep." Rick said, pulling her back down.

Kate kissed him again. "Goodnight.

"Goodnight." Rick whispered back.

Wrapped in his arms, Kate slowly fell asleep.

"Sometimes I question why I ever became a homicide detective!" Kate exclaimed a little over a week later.

Sitting in his usual spot next to Kate's desk, Rick looked up from the file he was reading. "Oh? Why's that?"

Kate sighed. "Murder investigations are so frustrating sometimes. Everyone lies, strongest suspects have alibis..." she trailed off, looking disgruntled.

"True." Rick said. "But we'll get there. Eventually."

Kate nodded, still frustrated. "But still, why couldn't I have gone and joined an office firm or something? Being a receptionist would be so much easier."

Rick chuckled. "There's no way you would be satisfied in a job like that. And besides, you wouldn't have met me if you weren't a cop."

"No. I'd just be some fan who waits over an hour in line to get her book signed." Kate muttered.

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing." Kate replied. "Got anything from that file?"

Rick glanced back down at the file, before dumping it on Kate's desk. "Nah."

They sat in silence, staring at each other, thinking.

"Guess what." Ryan announced as he and Esposito walked into the bullpen.

Kate looked up at her two colleagues. "What?"

Esposito stuck a picture up on the case's whiteboard.

Kate and Rick stood up and walked over to the board.

"Who's he?" Kate asked.

"This is Martin Rusk." Ryan said.

Kate merely raised an eyebrow.

"The half brother of Jessica Solomon."

"What?"

"Turns out daddy Solomon had a thing with someone else before he married Jessica's mother. He and Martin's mother put him up for adoption, both deciding they weren't ready for children." Ryan elaborated.

"He's been in town for the last week and a half." Esposito said.

"We need to talk to him." Rick said.

Ryan passed Kate a piece of paper. "Address of where he's staying."

"Thanks." Kate said. "Come on, Castle. We're gonna pay Mr Rusk a visit."

"Yes ma'am." Rick replied, following Kate from the building.

"Mr Rusk, NYPD. Open up." Kate pounded on the door. They were in a rundown part of town, and this building had obviously seen better days. Eventually the door opened, and a man stuck his head out.

"NYPD?" He asked.

"Martin Rusk?" Rick asked in reply.

The man glanced between Rick and Kate, who held up her badge. He nodded.

"We have a few questions to ask you." Kate said. "Would you mind accompanying us back to the precinct?"

Martin nodded. "No problems." He ducked inside, and emerged a minute later with a coat. "What's this about?"

"Jessica Solomon." Kate replied.

Martin frowned. "Jessica Solomon? What? What's she told you?"

Kate led the man to her car. "What do you mean?"

They all got into the car.

"Well, sure, I went over there last week. She didn't want to talk to me."

"Strange." Rick said. "Given that she's your sister."

They were driving now, and Rick was leaning over to talk to Martin.

Martin snorted. "Yeah. She didn't believe me. Thought her dad was so perfect."

"Your dad." Rick pointed out.

"Only biologically." Martin replied. "Never met the guy."

Rick turned back to face the front. "Hmm."

The rest of the drive was made in silence.

"Okay, Mr Rusk." Kate said once they were in the interrogation room. "Start from the beginning. Tell us when you last met Jessica Solomon."

The man looked confused. "Is this an interrogation? What have I done wrong?"

"Just tell us what happened when you last saw Jessica Solomon."

Martin sighed. "I only met her once. Just over a week ago, Thursday. I went up to her apartment, to talk. Just talk. I've spent years trying to find my biological family. I found my mother a little over a year ago. She's a great woman. She married a hippy kind of dude. They have a kid. He's 17 now. But she hadn't been in contact with my father for almost 30 years. Since I was born, really. Anyway, I finally found him. My father. About two months ago. Just after he died. Great timing. That's when I learned that he had two daughters. I decided I'd like to meet them. I found Jessica first. And I went to meet her. 'Hi.' I said. 'I'm your brother.'" Martin gave a bitter laugh. "You know what she said? 'Yeah right.' Then she accused me of trying to steal her inheritance."

"That must have made you mad." Kate said calmly.

"Yeah. I explained to her why I was there, and it wasn't to get my share of the inheritance. I don't care about that. I just want to meet my family. But she wouldn't believe that her father had a son from before he married her mother. I tried to convince her. She only laughed in my face."

"Is that when you smashed her head in?" Rick asked.

Martin's gaze shot to Rick's face. "What?" He sounded genuinely shocked.

Kate gave Rick a look. It clearly said 'not happy with you.'

"Wait, Jessica's..."

"Jessica is dead." Kate said, turning her gaze back to Martin.

"Oh." Martin looked gutted. "Oh my God."

"And you were there that night."

"What? She died the night I went to see her?"

"You can see where we're going with this." Kate said.

Martin shook his head. "No. No. I didn't... I couldn't... oh my God." He dropped his head into his hands.

Rick glanced across at Kate, who looked thoughtful.

Later, once Martin had left, Rick, Kate, Ryan and Esposito were discussing the case.

"I still think he did it." Ryan said. "Financial gain if he was to get part of the inheritance. As it stands, it all goes to Rebecca now."

"I don't think so." Kate said. "He was really upset when we told him Jessica was dead. He seemed genuinely surprised."

"Well, who else could it be?" Ryan asked.

"We've gotta be missing something." Kate said. She stared at the whiteboard. "Not Nathan Jackson, alibi checks out. Not Rebecca, her alibi does too. Martin Rusk has no alibi, and was definitely there the night she died..."

They continued to throw ideas back and forth, and Kate excused herself to answer her phone at one point.

She returned to the group shortly after. "That was Martin Rusk. Apparently he saw a man heading towards Jessica's apartment as he was leaving. He's coming back in to help ID the guy."

Another question mark picture was added to the whiteboard.

A/N: :D The plot thickens... and all that... anyway, reviews are always appreciated. You know that by now. Hope this chapter finds you all well, and I hope you enjoyed it.