Warning – a bit of angst in this chapter.
Finding a Date Ch. 5 – set 9th January 2014.
"Please let me come?" Castle sat propped on his pillow regarding his fiancé worriedly.
This was no time for puppy dog eyes or endearing gestures but he really wanted to be with her on this day particularly.
"No Castle, I need to do this alone." She lifted her hair off her collar as she finished putting on the jacket of a sharp black pant suit contrasting with a button-up white shirt.
"I just need a bit of space." She sighed, she really wasn't going back to old ways or trying to run but today she felt ... she didn't know what she felt and she was afraid she'd take it out on her fiancé, snap at him for something he didn't deserve so it was better she got through this alone.
She crossed to his side of the bed leaning down to kiss his bed head hair "I'll see you at the precinct later – bring coffee? " Kate asked, hopefully.
"Don't I always?" He raised an eyebrow as she leant down then snagged her hand, pressing a kiss to the palm before wrapping her fingers around the spot and letting go. He heard the front door click and glanced at the time on his bedside clock realising it was still dark outside. 6.42a.m. – he groaned. Early mornings were the one and only downside of following his favourite cop around New York City.
He wasn't going to go back to sleep now and he eased out of the bed in his boxers and t-shirt making his way to the bathroom where the fragrance of her shampoo still hung in the air.
Beckett let herself put of the loft quietly, she had no idea if Martha was in and Alexis had gone back to her apartment after the holidays but after so many years of working early shifts and getting home at unsocial hours it had become second nature to move quietly past the neighbours.
Her phone rang as she waited for the elevator and she swiped the screen quickly, "Beckett."
Dispatch informed her of the discovery of a body, "Text me the address." she requested crisply. Her plans would have to wait.
Several CSU technicians were doing their stuff as she parked her cruiser. She fastened the top button of her fawn wool coat glad of its warmth in the early morning air. A young woman's body lay propped in a shop doorway, her legs splayed out across the sidewalk.
Esposito approached "Yo Beckett. Didn't think you'd be here this morning." She shrugged, "I got the same call you did. What's the story? "
"White female, late teens or early twenties, no id. Taxi driver saw her as he went to the ATM just there – he indicated with his chin towards the adjacent shop front. "Uni's are looking for a purse but nothing so far."
Beckett crouched down for a closer look at the victim. She was warmly but not expensively dressed, no sign of blood.
Perlmutter was crouched on the opposite side of the victim. He looked over her shoulder "Where's your tag-long?"
She looked at him evenly, "I'll let him know you missed him!"
Sidney Perlmutter was famous across the NYPD for his acerbic comments but he rarely addressed them to Beckett. Although he had little empathy with the living the dead seemed to communicate their story in detail. Perlmutter had a great deal of respect for the Detective but not so much for the writer who usually accompanied her. He stood a little stiffly, the penetrating cold spell was over but the sun was barely up and he was chilled through. "There's sign of blunt force trauma here," he told Beckett indicating a spot on the victim's skull above her ear, "t.o.d round about midnight. I'll know more once she's on the table."
Beckett nodded, there was no way Perlmutter was going to offer any theories, he dealt strictly in facts.
"Canvass the area, check for any CCTV, you know the drill. We can't do much until we know who she is. Get someone to help you with missing persons, ok?" Beckett knew she didn't really have to tell Espo his job, she was as much confirming the process in her own mind as giving him instructions. "Circulate her picture to the media?" queried Espo. "Yeah, good idea. Might help us get an identity quicker."
"Have you heard from Ryan?" she asked as they walked back to their respective cars.
"Yeah, he's glad to be home but Jenny's mom has arrived. Seems she thinks Kev got himself trapped in a burning building to draw attention to himself!"
Esposito coughed his lungs still sore from smoke inhalation. Both detectives had been kept in hospital for observation overnight after their ordeal at the warehouse a couple of days earlier but Ryan had needed stitches in his leg wound and had been detained a further 24 hours. Jenny had been allowed home next morning but her delight in their healthy newborn daughter was tempered by concern for her injured husband who would be off for a while recovering and enjoying some paternity leave. As a result, Beckett and Esposito were short of a team member, two team members this morning Kate amended in her head.
"We've still got diapers and stuff Castle bought for Cosmo; I'll take them round at the weekend. I thought I'd let them get settled first."
Beckett turned to Esposito. "Can you manage on your own for an hour or so there's something I need to do."
Esposito nodded knowing, exactly what it was she intended. "Sure thing, I'll see you later."
Esposito entered the bullpen, grateful for the warmth after the cold outside. It was quiet this morning with just a couple of officers at their desks and a low hum across the room. He set his folder of case notes down on his desk and booted up his computer. He'd already dropped off the picture and brief details with the Press liaison asking them to circulate it on the morning news broadcasts and later editions of the papers. There wasn't much more he could do until the uniforms canvassing the area reported back except pull up a clean murder board and start putting up the known facts, victim's photo and timeline with estimated time of death marked about midnight.
It was usually Ryan's job to collect CCTV but today he needed to do it. The necessary requests placed he realised the shop next to his crime scene would now be open for business and he phoned through explaining why he needed their ATM footage. He then texted Officer Hastings who was canvassing in the area to pick it up for him.
That done, he made his way to the break room to get a nice hot cup of coffee. As he returned to his desk the Captain's office door swung open.
"Where's Detective Beckett?" Gates demanded. Taken by surprise, Esposito didn't have time to think of an excuse. "Uh... she's taken some personal time. " he stuttered.
"My office now!" She commanded.
He entered, shutting the door carefully behind him and standing square to the Captains desk.
"Is she all right?" Gates asked her tone decidedly different as she swung her glasses between her fingers. Esposito decided honesty was the best policy. "It's the anniversary of her mother's death, Sir. She always goes to the cemetery before shift but this morning we caught a body so she's gone on there now. She'll be back in an hour." he assured the Captain.
Gates sat down heavily, sucking in a breath. "The body has been identified," she informed him," by the Police Commissioner no less. The victim was their nanny. This is high priority and the press will be crawling all over it. I want it done quickly and I want it done right. Am I understood?"
"Sir!" replied the Latino detective crisply. He didn't need telling.
She handed him a sheet of paper with the details the Commissioner had dictated over the phone. "The address is on there, get round there now. Tell Beckett I want to see her the minute she comes in. "
"Yes Sir!" Esposito exited the office, pulling the door to behind him and exhaling sharply. Suddenly the case had taken on its own momentum. He called Beckett's cell which went to voicemail as he'd expected. He left a message then sent a text. Then, to be safe he texted Castle.
Beckett made her way carefully through the cemetery, the grass paths slippery with dew. She stood where she'd stood so often before, in front of her mother's grave. Johanna Beckett's birth and death dates were set out in black script, she'd been just 47 years old. Her death - her murder- occurring within a matter of weeks of her forty-eighth birthday. The inscription above was engraved on Beckett's heart and in her brain as well as the cold grey granite stone. "Vincit Omnia Veritas."
Beckett clasped one of the rings she wore on a chain around her neck. "Hi Mom," she whispered, "Sorry I haven't been for while. You know I told you I was getting married but I so wish you could be there." Her breath caught and she was suddenly aware she wasn't alone. She swung round to see her Dad standing awkwardly a few paces back.
"I thought you'd be gone by now,"he said. "You're usually here before shift. " She nodded, not asking how he knew. "We caught a body first thing, so I'm later today. "
He came up to her "OK if I stay?"
They didn't visit together usually, she'd assumed he came but they never spoke about it. Neither wanting to tempt the pain they both felt. Neither good at expressing their true feelings, either each other or for the woman they'd both loved and lost.
They were silent for several minutes, each with their thoughts. Beckett barely registering the slam of a car door in the distance until her Dad spoke softly.
"Here are the others."
"Others?" Kate turned to stare at him. He indicated three figures in the distance organising themselves as they exited a town car. "Rick has come every year since he started working with you," her Dad quietly informed her, "I didn't realise it was him at first, he was just a figure in the distance standing by my wife's grave. " his voice faltered ,"then once we'd been introduced I realised where I'd seen him. They all came last year as well. I expect you'd already been and gone. "
Kate watched Castle, Alexis and Martha approaching. She wasn't shocked, not even surprised really it was just like them and she knew she'd underestimated these good people yet again.
Castle looked like he was trying to hide behind Alexis but Martha came straight up to them. "Katherine darling, would it be all right if we paid our respects to the wonderful woman who gave us you? "
Kate blinked away the sudden swell of tears "Of course, Martha."
"I'm sorry," she looked at Rick "I don't need to do this alone anymore do I?" The realisation was like a warm glow spreading through her, the grief remained but now her hurt was their hurt, and they would support her through it.
The older woman placed a bunch of white lilies on the grave then stepped back, linking her arm in Kate's. Castle tentatively placed an arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him. He placed his other arm around Alexis who in turn tucked hers into the crook of Jim's elbow.
"I'm sorry we never met you, Johanna," Martha spoke solemnly, "but I want you to know that you have a daughter to be proud of, and that we will love and cherish your family as our own." Alexis stifled a small sob and Jim Beckett gathered her into his side. They all stood quietly, respectfully, grateful for the mutual succour offered as the birdsong swelled around them and the sun rose higher above the tree line.
Eventually Beckett sniffed; breaking the hold, she wiped her eyes. "I have to get back to work," she said regretfully," we got a body first thing."
"I'll come with you." Castle offered. "I'd like that," she accepted.
"I'm going to walk back to the office" Jim Beckett stated "it's a fine morning and I could do with some exercise." Alexis looked at him a little hesitantly, "Could I walk with you?"
"Of course, anytime." Jim replied, keeping her arm linked through his.
Back on the hard top driveway they separated. "Guess that means I get the town car, I've got a class to prepare for." Martha announced. She hugged Kate swiftly, "see you later kiddo!"
The group parted after hugs from her Dad and Alexis. Never a demonstrative man Beckett realised he too was becoming accustomed to the uninhibited warmth of their new family.
As Castle closed the car door his phone beeped. She reached for her own cell to switch it back on, but Castle was already swiping his phone's screen. "It's Esposito" he told her. "Do I know where you are? Gates is on warpath." he quoted.
She started the car. "Tell him we're on the way." Detective Beckett was back on the job.