Chapter 5

Beckett came awake to the sounds of tapping and rustling from the great room of the loft and Castle's absence from their bed. Pulling on Castle's discarded shirt she went in search of him and found him, bare-chested, attaching greenery to the walls. "Castle," what are you doing," she asked with sleepy irritation.

"Hanging garlands," Castle explained. "I thought some Christmas decorations might help cheer Mother up."

"At five o'clock in the morning?"

"I couldn't sleep," he told her.

"You never can when someone you love is hurting. That's one of the things I love about you. Can I help?

"Really?" Castle asked. "I know Christmas is not really your thing."

"This is family, Castle. I'm making it my thing now."

"Great!" he exclaimed. "We need to get these up high, he said, indicating ropes of green with gold and red ribbons. There are already some little hooks in the wall for them. If I give you a boost, you can get them up there."

"Castle, am I climbing on your shoulders again? We don't have a body, a tiger or a Bigfoot," Beckett teased.

"I don't have to pull off your boots either, much as I enjoy it," he teased back. "Just go with it."

Beckett stood on Castle's shoulders, not minding that his touch was not confined to her legs, and trimmed the upper reaches of the loft until one hook was just a little too high and she slipped. Castle caught her as she fell into his arms. "We're doing our circus act again," he told her.

Kate brought her lips to his. "There's an act I like better."

"Rick returned the kiss, deepening it," Yeah, me too.

Garlands forgotten, Rick carried her back to the bed and laid her in the center of it. Arms still around his neck, she pulled him down on top of her. "You are wearing too many clothes," he told her, pulling his shirt off her shoulders, clearing the way for his searching mouth.

"You are too," she replied, grabbing at the drawstring of his pajama bottoms. There excitement rose as the barriers fell. He suckled as she stroked, until finally guiding him to her. Ever searching for more to touch, to feel, to taste, they moved together. The sensation grew, expanding through their bodies until they could now longer contain it, and it poured out in waves before ebbing to gentle ripples and finally calm.

With Martha not coming down for breakfast, Beckett and Castle were out the door in record time. As Leto Labs had recently gone public, its financial records were readily available online without the need for a warrant. There were comments and gossip accessible on the Yahoo finance pages as well. Castle and Beckett pored over all of it. Castle wrote the strongest possibilities for Judith Spicer's murder on the board. The first suspect was J.B. Jones. He had formed an equity company called Sky High and solicited a number of investors, all of them members of the same upscale country club, to buy shares in Sky High. Sky High in turn was supposed to invest in Leto as well as another company called LocIt. Sky High was privately held and thus the figures on how much money had actually been invested were private as well. The second suspect was Monty Shannon. He had made a loan to the company, secured against the intellectual property. As a secured creditor, he had the possibility of foreclosure to obtain the intellectual property for development.

Neither one of the suspects resided in New York City. Monty Shannon Lived in Westchester County, New York and J.B. Jones in Cherry Hill, New Jersey near Philadelphia. Beckett decided to try the shorter road trip first and interview Monty Shannon.

Monty was in his early seventies with a very full head of white hair and a put upon attitude. He seemed very fond of dogs and stroked two of them as they spoke. "It's a tragedy," he said, "just a tragedy. There were great things going on in that lab and now it's probably all gone."

"Who's going to get the intellectual property?" Castle asked.

"If the company goes down, it really should be me," Monty insisted. "Of course that may not happen. Leto may find someone else to carry on Judith's work, maybe that Brent Porter. Her tech Kolato could help him out. That would be the best thing. There's a lot of potential there. We'll just have to wait and see."

"Mr. Shannon," Beckett asked, "where were you around ten P.M. three nights ago?"

"You think I had something to do with Judith's death?" Shannon asked in an insulted tone.

"Just to put you in the clear, I have to ask," Beckett persisted, "Where were you?"

"I was right here, asleep. I don't do late nights anymore."

"Can anyone attest to that?"

"My son. He was here."

"One more thing, Mr Shannon, what kind of car do you drive?"

"I don't. My vision has been going. My son takes me wherever I need to go."

"What's his name?" Beckett asked.

"Sherman," Shannon answered.

"And what does he drive? Castle asked.

Shannon looked at Castle with annoyance, "A black Escalade SUV. Now if you'll excuse me, I have things to attend to."

"Wow," Castle told Beckett on the way back to the city. "That adds Downy to the concept of soft alibi. And who names a kid Sherman Shannon? Poor guy. Monty's son could have driven him into the city or even done it himself. Our Monty seems to know an awful lot about what went on at Leto."

"Yes he does., and we're going to have to learn more about Sherman."

"After calling Esposito to see what he could dig up on Sherman Shannon and Ryan to trace the movements of the Shannon Escalade, Beckett took a route that would take her and Castle back to the loft. They were greeted by Alexis who was waiting to talk over more of the details of evidence gathering with Beckett.

"You're spending a lot of time time on this project, aren't you?" Castle asked Alexis "Are you paying enough attention to your other work?"

Alexis gave him a look. "Dad, we're talking about me, not you. I don't go off on tangents and drop everything else. I've got it covered."

"OK, you two have fun. Maybe I'll go write or something." Castle strode off to his office with his nose distinctly out of joint.

Beckett and Alexis talked for about an hour during which Castle wrote a good portion of a chapter, after which Alexis refused an invitation to pasta primavera. Castle chopped very loudly in the kitchen. Eventually he served up pasta for himself and Beckett. Martha had left a sulky note that she would be doing some reorganizing at her school, since she had nothing better to do. As they were cleaning up, Castle looked a little sulky himself.

"What's the matter, Castle, feeling a little left out?"

"Maybe," Castle pouted.

"How about a game?" Kate asked.

Rick raised an eyebrow. "What kind of a game?"

"How about," Kate said, heading for the bedroom, "I hide and you seek."

Grinning, Rick ran after her.