Sunday at the Casketts
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: No. Rating: M Time: The summer between season two and three.
SUNDAY
Kate woke up the next morning alone in Rick's bed. Slightly worried, she put on a robe and went looking for him. She found him in his office, typing.
"You're working?" Kate said, trying to hide her disappointment.
"Sorry. I had an idea last night and I woke up at dawn and couldn't wait to start writing. Are you mad at me?"
"Terribly." Kate said. "I'm heartbroken. I may never recover. I don't think I can go on like this. Perhaps I should just end it all."
"We'll do a double suicide. I have a great idea for a suicide note. It'll be from both of us. Maybe I can do it in iambic pentameter? How about haiku?"
Kate had to laugh. "Okay, if you write, can I sit in my chair and work on my files?"
Rick considered the matter carefully. "Only if you allow me to make you the best breakfast in the Hamptons."
"Deal."
Kate agreed she'd had the best breakfast in the Hamptons, if only because of the chef and waiter who had waited on her so attentively.
Seated in her chair, Kate read another file while Rick typed constantly, never stopping for a break. Kate read for hour after hour with no result. She tried every way she could think of to make the file give her the evidence she so desperately wanted.
"Damn it!" She muttered.
"Problem?" Castle asked, no longer typing.
"This case. I know the bastard did it, but I can't break his alibi. I just hate this kind of case when I can't solve them."
"What's special about this case?"
Kate took a deep breath and began her briefing. "Our vic is Violet Szabo, age 27. Over the past three years her boyfriend, Kenneth Hillman, has been arrested seven times for domestic assault. Each time he got away with it because Violet refused to testify against him. She said it was a mistake, nothing happened, he loved her. All the pathetic excuses battered women use." Kate held out a sheaf of photos. "These are photos of the beatings he inflicted on her."
Castle looked at the photos and grimaced. "In the old days, if you did that to someone's daughter or sister, you'd end up in an alley being nibbled on by rats. If you were lucky, you'd wake up, that is."
Kate nodded. "She had no one. Just this dirtbag." She tapped the photo of Hillman. "Sometimes when I see these women beaten like that, I just want to pull out my pistol and put a bullet through the bastard's head."
"You won't because you're too good a cop."
"Lucky me." Kate said sarcastically.
"Murder weapon?" Castle asked.
"Probably a bottle, according to Lanie. He crushed her skull. The dumpster for their building is overflowing with bottles, but none of them are the murder weapon."
"What's his alibi?"
"He was watching Monday Night Football with his buddies. We got lucky when we picked him up. He was still at his buddy's apartment with all of his pals. They had been drinking, but also doing drugs. Oh, nothing major, there was some pot, a little meth, some coke and a bottle of prescription painkillers stolen from a neighbor. There wasn't enough for a felony bust, but enough for us to drag the whole bunch in and interrogate them. No luck, though. Every one of them insisted that Hillman had been there during the window for the murder. I doubt if the DA will even want to bother with a misdemeanor drug bust. They'll all walk. "
"What was the window?"
Kate looked at a file. "It was pretty narrow. The vic's sister, Lisa, called her at 7:45 to tell her she was coming over. When she got there at 8:20, Violet was dead."
"How far is it from the vic's place to the buddy's apartment?"
"It's next door. It'd take all of two minutes to get from one apartment to the other."
As Castle looked at crime scene photos taken at the drug bust at the buddy's apartment, Kate crawled up on his lap. "Usually when I get a case and it looks like the murderer will walk, I go home, throw myself on my bed, cry a little and feel miserable. Do you mind if I sit on your lap instead?"
"I wouldn't want you anyplace else at a time like this." Rick said tenderly. Kate rested her head on his chest, cried a little and felt miserable. Not as miserable as she'd have felt if she was alone, but miserable none the less.
After a while Rick spoke. "You've led a very sheltered life, haven't you, Kate?"
Kate twisted around to stare at him. "What do you mean by that? I'm a homicide detective, I've led anything but a sheltered life."
Castle grinned at her.
"You have something, don't you?"
Castle nodded. "I was just staring at the photos of the buddy's apartment. There are a lot of roaches in that ashtray. They had a lot of pot that night."
"So?"
"What happens when you smoke a lot of pot? No, don't answer that. As a fine upstanding enforcer of law and order, I'm sure you have no idea. I on the other hand…"
"Are becoming insufferable." Kate threatened.
"When you smoke pot, you get hungry. You get the munchies. If you look on the table, there's only a small bag of potato chips. Look under the sofa in this photo, though."
Kate looked. "Something white?"
"And rectangular and shallow enough to fit under the sofa."
"A pizza box. They ordered out for pizza!"
"And Detective Beckett solves another mystery." Castle said with a grin.
Kate grabbed for her phone. "I'll call Ryan and Esposito and have them find out what pizza parlor they ordered from. Maybe the delivery man will remember something."
Kate was quickly on the phone, and asked her friends to check out the pizza box.
"Thanks, Espo. I'll see you…" There was a pause. "If you must know I'm upstate with an old friend from college. Yes, they're having their seventh child soon…" Kate suppressed a laugh. "I know. You're busy. See you." She hung up and looked at Castle. "Poor Espo. As soon as he thinks a woman even knows what the word marriage means, he loses interest."
"I hate keeping secrets from them, Rick. Actually, I hate not being able to brag that I'm your girlfriend."
"Hey, I'd like to brag, too. My lawyer has been working on…"
Kate silenced him with a kiss. "No. We're just going to have to keep our hands off ourselves when we're back at work. Like I told you, the NYPD has a lot of ways of punishing people that anger them. I could end up in human Resources at One Police Plaza. I'd hate that."
"Keep my hands off of you? Well, for the greater good, I can do that. But how are you going keep your hands off of me?"
"I'll imagine Captain Montgomery making me a school crossing guard." Kate sat in Rick's lap for several more minutes, just relaxing. "What plans do we have for dinner?"
"Tonight we're headed for Bo's Barbecue, a real down home style Southern barbecue. It's not as stuffy a place as the Inn was, but everyone will be staring at you since you are so beautiful."
"Could we leave a little earlier? If I'm going to be here regularly for the rest of the summer, I'll need some more casual clothes." At the horrified look on Castle's face, she quickly added, "I can shop by myself, of course. Perhaps you'll find something for yourself."
They made the same agreement they had on Kate's last shopping trip. They would split up and meet by some benches after an hour. Once again, Kate found Rick there waiting for her.
"I bought some really nice things. I'll try them on for you when we get home."
"Can I help you get dressed and undressed?"
Kate shook her head. "No. Not a chance. Because once you get me undressed once, it'll be all over." She spotted the small plastic bag he was carrying. "Did you find something for yourself?"
Rick smiled. "Actually, I found something for you." He opened the bag and held out a small box for her.
Kate opened the box and gasped. "Are these real?"
"Do you think I'd give you an imaginary gift?" Rick teased.
She slapped him lightly on the chest. "You know what I mean. Are those real diamonds?"
"Of course."
She pushed the box back to him. "Rick, I can't take this from you."
He looked puzzled. "Why?"
"These are diamond earrings, that's why. I can't take such an expensive present. It wouldn't be right. "
Rick put his arm around her and drew her close. "Kate, you've lost so many things in your life. First your mom, then you lost five years of your dad to alcoholism, you lost your chance for a degree from Stanford, law school and a career as a lawyer. You lost over of a decade of your life stuck behind a wall. That and your job causes you to live with more pain than anyone should have to live with. Every time I see you or even think about you, I just want to do something to make your life happier, to surround you with the beauty you deserve. As far as the cost? I could buy a pair of these for you every day for the rest of our lives and not notice it financially. Please take this gift from me, Kate. It'll make me so happy."
Kate leaned against Rick. "Okay, but just this once. I don't want you to even think about giving me another present all summer. Not so much as a tee shirt, understand?"
"But what if I find something that just screams at me, "Buy me for Kate."?"
"Scream back, "No!""
Kate did enjoy Bo's and was happy to stay after dinner with Rick in the bar, talking of crime novels and police work and many other things.
When she as ready for bed, Kate again stuck her head out of the bathroom and winked at Rick. "Are you ready?"
When he nodded, she stepped out wearing a dazzling pair of earrings and an even more dazzling smile. "I want to make one thing clear to you. I'm not making love to you tonight because you gave me these earrings. That would make me feel too much like a kept woman. I'm making love to you tonight because of all the other things you've done to make me happy."