Chapter 6

Beckett's first day back at the precinct. Will they close they case? And will Ryan and Esposito find out about dinner?

Beckett was usually the first one to the precinct in the mornings, so it surprised her when she walked in and found a cup of coffee sitting on her desk. She looked around but didn't see anyone. She then noticed Captain Montgomery's door closed but saw him in there with Castle and figured the coffee was safe to drink. She was idly wondering what Castle and the captain were talking about when Ryan and Esposito walked in.

"Welcome back detective" Esposito said sitting down.

"Thanks, so what happened yesterday?"

Ryan picked a file off his desk and handed it to Beckett. "CSU swept top floors of both buildings and found out that he fell from the one on the left. And as it turns out the vic had a girlfriend named Dianne that lived in that building."

"Did you bring her in?"

"I'm hurt you would even ask that detective." Esposito chimed in. "We brought her in and she had an alibi but it seemed shaky. We are still trying to run it down."

"Good, any other suspects?"

"Not as of right now" Ryan said. "He didn't have any enemies at work, didn't owe anyone money, wasn't into anything illegal."

Beckett finished skimming the file. "The girlfriend was arrested once before for petty theft, served a few months, but nothing major. What was her alibi?"

"Said she was at her mother's house upstate babysitting her little brother from the night before until later in the afternoon." Ryan said.

Esposito chimed in "but we are working on getting security footage from the buildings and talking to the mother. Should know in a couple of hours."

Beckett nodded "good job guys. Let me know when you find out. I'm going to talk to Lanie."

She was walking past Montgomery's door as Castle was walking out. She shot him a smile but kept walking. When she made it down to where the Medical Examiner spent most of her days she opened the door without knocking. "Lanie?" she called out when she didn't see her friend.

"In the back!" came the reply from one of the back rooms. Kate followed the voice and found Lanie sitting at a desk doing some of her own paperwork. Lanie looked up and put down her pen "you had better be here to tell me how your night went."

Kate sat down and started telling her about the evening with Castle. Once she started talking she couldn't stop. Yes, Kate Beckett was gushing. She even told Lanie about leaning up against Castle during the play.

"You cuddled with him?" Lanie said skeptically.

"Shut up, it was not cuddling" Kate said laughing and continuing on with her story. She told Lanie about the amazing things on the walls at the restaurant and how you throw darts to pick what goes on your burger. Then she got serious as she told Lanie what had been said over dinner. "I don't know where things will go from here, but at least things are…out in the open."

"And how does it feel?"

"Honestly? It feels really good."

"Girl, I told you so. But listen, I have to finish this paperwork. Talk later ok?"

"Sure thing." Beckett headed back up to her desk to find Esposito on the phone. He hung up and she looked at him expectantly.

"That was the mother. She said Dianne was babysitting that night. She got there around 5pm, but left early the next morning, around 6am. That gives her plenty of time to get back to her apartment before 7."

"But what would the boyfriend be doing at her house that early in the morning?" Castle piped up.

Ryan walked into the room with the security tapes. "Guess we can find out."

They spent the next hour and a half scanning all of the tapes from the night before and the morning of the murder. Finally Kate found something. "Look at this guys. It shows Jesse arriving at the building at 4pm the night before he was murdered." She fast forwarded the tape "then Dianne leaves at 4:33, which means she went straight to her moms."

"Does the vic ever leave?" Ryan asks.

Kate fast forwarded and shook her head "No, he doesn't. That's what's strange. Lanie says the fall is what killed him so we know he was alive overnight but we never see him leave." She fast forwarded the tape again. "And here is Dianne, coming back home at 6:27am the next morning."

"Looks like she lied to us about babysitting." Esposito said.

Castles face lit up "road trip?"

The four partners along with two other squad cars pulled up in front of Dianne's building. The officers from the squad cars went to cover other exits in case she tried to run. "Any chance I can get you to stay here Castle?" Beckett asked.

"Not if it's up to me" he said with a childish grin.

She rolled her eyes "ok but stay behind us please."

He nodded and the four of them headed off. Ryan and Esposito took the stairs while Beckett and Castle took the elevator up to Dianne's floor. They reached the floor all at about the same time, as the elevator made a couple of stops along the way. They walked up to the door and saw it ajar. Kate turned to Castle. "The 10 bucks I lost at dinner last night says you can't wait for me out here" she said with a grin, hoping that if giving him orders didn't work maybe a bet would.

He seemed about ready to argue but simply nodded with an amused gleam in his eyes. Kate motioned to her other partners to follow her lead. She took her gun from its resting place and pushed the door open, raising it to scan the room. "Dianne?" she called out.

Nobody was in the front couple of rooms but they heard muttering and rummaging from a back room and they headed towards the noise. Ryan and Esposito took up a position on either side of the bedroom door and Kate gave them the signal. They both turned into the room at the same time yelling "NYPD put your hands where we can see them!"

Dianne let out a scream and tried to run past them, but was blocked by Kate appearing in the doorway with her gun raised. She screamed again and threw her hands up. "I'm not doing anything wrong, just-"

Beckett cut her off "Not doing anything wrong? Dianne you lied to us about your alibi. Want to explain that?"

"Ok, ok I left early but I didn't kill him I swear!" she had tears in her eyes.

"Yeah, I've heard that one before. You can tell me again when we get downtown" she said and she stepped behind the now crying girl and began to put the cuffs on her.

"You have the right to remain silent" Detective Esposito started repeating. "Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you." He continued as they led her down to one of the waiting squad cars.

Once the four of them were back outside and the girl was on her way to the precinct Esposito turned to Beckett. "Dinner last night?"

"Aww you and Castle went on a date?" Ryan chuckled.

She narrowed her eyes and glared at the two of them. She glanced back at Castle before speaking. "It was dinner, that's all. There's nothing going on."

"Yeah, I'm sure" Esposito said, getting in to his car with Ryan.

The rest of the day went fairly easy. Once Kate got the girlfriend into the interrogation room it was a matter of 15 minutes before she confessed to the murder. "But why did she do it?" Castle asked when the detective came out of the room.

"Our victim had a rich uncle who died a few months back. He inherited everything, a nice house, a couple of cars, and almost a million dollars. Meanwhile she was barely making rent. He helped out sometimes, but she found out he was going to leave her."

"Yeah, "he said, leaning back in his chair. "Money like that will piss off a lot of people."

Kate smiled "have you pissed off a lot of people?"

"Do you really need to ask me that question?"

"Good point"

Castle's phone rang again and he answered "Hey honey, what's up? Yeah, I'm heading out in a few minutes. Ok I'll pick it up on my way, see you in a bit." He hung up and turned back to Beckett. "That was Alexis. We're doing a movie night tonight, complete with take-out. Would you like to join us?"

"Little soon for another date isn't it Castle? Plus I don't want to impose on your family time…"

"AH HA! So you admit it was a date!"

Her eyes got wide and she began to stutter "I didn't, I mean, it-"

"Don't worry, it can be out little secret. Also it was Alexis' idea to invite you tonight, so you won't be imposing."

She chewed her lip for a second, contemplating. "What movie?"

He smiled at the fact he knew she was caving in. "I don't know, Alexis usually picks"

She thought back to the previous night. Thought about how much fun they had had at the play and over dinner, about how easy it was to spend time with him. Would it really be any different with his daughter there? She had been to his house before and knew Alexis well. "Ok but I'm driving."

Ok please don't hate me for leaving it hanging a bit, but I have to keep you guys coming back for more don't I?

The more reviews I get the faster chapter 7 will be out :D