Chapter 5
Castle returned a few minutes later, with one hand behind his back. "Why don't you take a seat on the couch?" he requested, pointing to the cushy furniture facing the window. She wiggled into the t-shirt before walking over to the couch. She sat, folding her legs under her. Rick came around to face her, sidestepping like a crab so that he shielded whatever was in his hand from her view. A mischievous smile played across his face.
"Now, my dear, tell me what I want to know. You thought I wanted something…kinky, perhaps? You realize that in order for you to try to imagine what was going through my mind, you'd have to a pretty dirty mind yourself. Then again the way you played with me out in the Hamptons, I think I already knew that. Regardless, you might have an inspired idea we could try. So, start talking or…"
"Or WHAT?" Kate snapped, her brow so furrowed her eyebrows were nearly touching. Then, before he could backpedal, she continued, her voice and look softening dramatically. Oh how she love to keep him off balance. "Or I won't get my brownie sundae?"
Rick blinked rapidly, clearly disappointed. "How did you…? You didn't peek…"
"Didn't need to." She pointed to herself. "Detective, remember? Years of training honing my observational skills. Besides, Darth Sidious, while you were delivering your super-villain soliloquy, the ice cream has been dripping all over the floor." She finished, with a pointed look behind him.
He looked so forlorn she couldn't help but laugh, and he joined in. He handed her the large bowl and two spoons, then took the napkins to blot the floor. "Helga's gonna be pissy with me about this. She told me not to eat in my room."
Kate was confused. "Hold it, who the hell is Helga, and where does she get off telling you what to do in your own house?"
"Housekeeper. Large, frightening, East German housekeeper" he replied. "Food stains like this are murder to get out of a carpet. But in case you were going to ask me why I allow her to boss me around, she's sorta like family. Been with us since before Meredith left me. She only comes in a couple times a week now, since Mother moved in and Alexis is almost grown."
Kate had dug into the dessert while he was talking and blotting. "Mmmm good."
Rick stood up and joined her on the couch, claiming the other spoon and helping himself to a liberal bite. "I thought you'd like it. And I figured we'd need the calories to sustain us for whatever is next." He said, with a suggestive wink.
"Nice try, but what's next is 'Kate goes home because she has to work in the morning'"
Castle made no attempt to hide his disappointment. "Go home?" he asked faintly.
"Yeah, Castle, you remember, my apartment, where my things are? If you think I am doing the walk of shame, you have another thing coming," she replied.
Now he looked so sad she could barely stand it. "First of all, you have 'things' here. Remember your suitcase? I know you said not to go through it, and I mostly obeyed, but I found a loophole. I got Helga to launder everything for you. It's all in the closet. But second, and way more important, now that I think about it…you're ASHAMED of me? Of us?"
Kate sighed, put the bowl on the side table, and took his hands in hers. "No, of course not, that's more or less a figure of speech. However, I told you I am not big on broadcasting my personal business. I know everyone assumes we are already sleeping together, I am just not big on proving them right." She paused to think. "But it is late, and if as you say, I have fresh clothes here…" she trailed off.
Rick fairly beamed at her. "Then you'll stay? Because I really do enjoy waking up with you."
Kate nodded and reclaimed the ice cream bowl. "Now help me finish this, will you? I hate to see good chocolate go to waste."
They finished the treat while watching a little late TV, then turned in for the night. Sometime in the wee hours, in the dark, Rick was startled out of a deep sleep by a caress of a very intimate nature. Kate, he determined, was awake and had slipped her hand inside his boxers, trying to stir him for an encore performance. Wasn't she the one talking about work in the morning? Oh well, mustn't disappoint the lady he thought, and rolled over to position himself above her. When he reached down to touch her with equal intimacy, he found she was already ready for him. No preamble was needed, especially since her hips rose to push against his hand. He gently entered her. She clung to him and he took her on a ride to soaring heights. She started her climax but he slowed, and the rhythm change brought her back from the edge. The tension built up again and this time he let it culminate until she cried out, relaxing her hold on him. A few seconds later he joined her with his own cry, then rolled sideways so as not to crush her. They both went back to sleep. No words were used, because none were needed.
In the morning Kate got up and dressed for work. Rick made breakfast for them, then saw her off, arming her with a cup of coffee. They agreed to meet for dinner at a cozy Italian restaurant.
At work, Kate found a fax from Henry, with usage details for the clean room where the body was found. Apparently, the last time the autoclave had been run was from 5:02 to 5:42 pm the night before the body was found. The technician had discovered it the next morning when preparing to sterilize the next batch of equipment. So there was her window. Figuring on 15 minutes to gather the previous batch and leave the room, that meant the body could have been put there anywhere from 6pm to the next morning, when the gruesome scene was found.
Next she looked at the security badge logs. They were for the whole suite, which included several rooms. It narrowed down the suspect pool, but not by much. 25 people had entered/exited during that time frame. Time to go talk to Lanie.
Kate made her way down to the morgue and found Lanie in the middle of another autopsy. She knocked on the window, and Lanie gave her the "one minute" sign.
Lanie came out of the autopsy room, peeling off her gloves as she went. "Good morning, little lovebird. You got some again last night, I see."
Aghast, Kate blushed madly. "Never mind, this is not the place for that discussion. Did you find anything of interest with our corpse?"
"Pshh please girl, don't play the prude card with me, I know you too well. And there's no one down here but us. Don't think the corpses are gonna stare, do you?" Lanie asked, a hand on her hip.
"Please, can we talk about evidence?" Kate begged.
"Oh, alright. We lucked out with those silly nylon suits, in more ways than one. First of all, it kept the body from falling apart until I got it here. But second, it kept things in as designed, namely an ID badge. The heat melted it a bit, but it has a magnetic stripe. I bet if your guys take it back over to Dynagene, they can read it and see who it belonged to. Also I took dental x-rays, maybe if someone is reported missing you can match it that way."
Kate nodded, taking in all this information. "Cause of death?"
"Blunt force trauma to the back of the head definitely rendered him unconscious, which makes sense, because nobody would willingly hold still and watch the door to that awful box slam shut on them. Hard to say whether it killed him or the heat did. This was a gross one. As the temperature hit boiling, the tissues expanded, following the easiest path, out the cracked skull." Lanie shook her head. "Nasty."
Kate took in a few deep breaths to quell the nausea in her stomach. "Think I will be skipping lunch today. Can I get that badge from you?"
Lanie handed the evidence bag with the badge across to Kate.
Beckett went back upstairs, intending to speak to Ryan and Esposito about getting the badge scanned. Esposito was on his phone, saying "yes, we'll be there right away."
"Another case?" Kate asked.
He got close to her before responding, speaking so that only she could hear. "Yes and if Castle is on your radar like I think he is, you might want to call him. This one is up his alley" He handed her a piece of paper with the address.
Kate's eyes widened briefly and she considered calling him on the carpet for his presumptuousness, but he was sort of like a brother, and she didn't want to insult his intelligence, so she simply nodded and pulled her phone out. She hit speed dial 3 and Castle picked up almost immediately.
"Miss me already?" he asked her teasingly, and she had to fight the smile. There was another murder to investigate, this was not the time for flirting like some school girl.
"Yah, hi, are you busy?" she asked, her voice all business. She hoped he would understand.
"Never too busy to help my favorite detective, if that is what you are really asking. It's ok, I get it. Just tell me where and when." His voice was more serious now.
She told him the address, and that she and the guys were leaving immediately.
"Be right there!" he responded eagerly.
