Chapter 11

Beckett opened her eyes. The loft was vibrating. "Castle," she whispered nudging his shoulder. Something is going on outside. Grudgingly leaving the warm softness of the bed, they looked out the windows to see a huge truck with huge trees.

Castle's sapphire eyes sparkled and his grin lit the room. "It's here! Our tree is here!" He hastily pulled on sweats and sneakers and went down to meet the crew, who by then were engaged in discussion with the doorman. The roof of even the freight elevator was was too low for the majestic Norway Spruce, so it had to be taken up the stairs. Castle gleefully supervised as four men put their shoulders to the task. The tightly bound branches just fit through the door. Castle guided the way to an open area he had prepared days earlier. The tree was set up by able and experienced hands and its bindings were removed. After the delivery crew were on their way, Castle took the hand of Beckett who by now had a tie sweater over her sleep shirt and was wearing comfy slippers, and led her to admire the towering greenery.

Rick couldn't contain his excitement. "Now I really know Christmas is coming!" he exclaimed. "Cupping Kate's cheek he said, "We have the most beautiful tree and I have the most beautiful woman beside it."

Kate considered her bed hair, sweater and slippers. It was not her sexiest outfit. But the glow in Rick's eyes was unmistakable. He meant every word. Standing on tiptoe, she put her arms around his neck, feeling the silkiness of his hair on her fingertips. The kiss was soft, almost tentative and they stood, foreheads touching, searching each others' eyes. They came together again, under the shadow of the branches. Kate pulled back. "Martha could come down. She had to have heard all the noise."

Rick swept Kate up in his arms, carrying her to the bedroom and kicking the door shut behind him. Dropping her on the bed with a bounce, he pulled off her slippers and toed out of his sneakers. Rick pulled at Kate's sweater and she pulled at his sweats. "I don't have any mistletoe," Rick panted.

"You don't need any," Kate answered breathlessly, bringing her lips to his.

The clothes flew in all directions as they sought each others' heat and scents. Rick stroked Kate intimately until her body rose to meet him, melding in joyous abandon until the growing sensation could no longer be contained and was loosed in ecstatic climax. "You know Rick," Kate said, smoothing the hair from his forehead, "I think I'm going to like new Castle Christmas traditions."

Rick pulled her close. "I think I already like them."

Life at the 12th had gotten more complicated. J.B. Jones had committed securities fraud and the F.B.I. had decided to take an interest in the case, in the person of Boyd Perkins, special agent and forensic accountant. Perkins was tall, almost impossibly skinny, wore wire rimmed glasses, and reminded Beckett of a crane. He had taken over the conference room with all available financials from J.B. Jones, Sky High, Leto Labs, and LocIt. Other than the loss of the conference room, Beckett had a problem in that she needed some of those documents herself. Brockman's statement was more than enough to arrest Jones, but a conviction would require more than than the testimony of an accomplice. She needed to prove that Jones had acquired the cyanide and used it.

Beckett enlisted Captain Gates to engage the authorities in New Jersey to send a forensics team to Jones' residence in Cherry Hill to search for any traces of cyanide, but she wanted proof that he had obtained it. Otherwise she was afraid that Jones' lawyer would claim that it belonged to Brockman, creating reasonable doubt. The FBI might get Jones' on fraud, but she wasn't about to lose him on Judith Spicer's murder.

"Agent Perkins," Beckett asked, "can we at least share your space to look at some of the documents ourselves. A murder is at least as important as fraud." Beckett didn't see it, but over her shoulder, Gates was giving Perkins her prodigious stink eye. Perkins grudgingly agreed to Beckett's request and Beckett and Castle joined him at the table. Ryan and Esposito had caught another murder and were pursuing it. Esposito seemed especially pleased to be free of Jones' case. Ryan existed in a state of eternal nervousness, his hand never far from his phone, and didn't seem to care much what his assignment was.

"I think I've got something," Castle said, a page of Jones' phone records in his hand. "Jones made a call to a plating company."

"What about it?" Beckett asked.

"Plating companies use cyanide in their processes. I researched it for one of the Derrick Storm novels. He was tracking down some specialized munitions."

"Maybe we should pay the company a visit," Beckett said. "Where are they?"

Castle, consulted his phone. He looked wary. "They're in the 220's in the Bronx," he answered. "That makes a certain amount of sense. Industries like that sometimes set up in disadvantaged neighborhoods because no one asks questions about environmental issues. Considering what happened last time we were in that part of the Bronx, could we take the subway this time?"

Beckett remembered how her car had been recovered from joyriders on the Jersey Turnpike when she and Castle had gone in search of a witness/hitman. She smiled ruefully and nodded.

Castle and Beckett found the owner of Corona Plating, Evan Eckert in his office behind a desk full of both paperwork and sports memorabilia. The walls of the office were covered with sports treasures as well, reminiscent of Jones' collection.

"Yeah, I know Jones," he told Beckett. "We were members of the same boosters club. He came here trying to get me to invest in some equity company."

"Did you?" Beckett asked.

"No," Eckert told her. "I put our profits back into the company, besides, I've always found Jones to be a little bit off. I gave him the nickel tour though. I don't think vats of chemicals appealed to him. He seemed very glad to leave."

"Was anything missing after he left?" Castle asked.

Eckert looked thoughtful. "There might have been. There was a container of potassium cyanide unaccounted for in our analysis area. We try to keep pretty careful track of the stuff. We're not allowed to keep an antidote on site."

"Why?" Castle asked.

"The antidote is amyl nitrate and it's considered a drug of abuse. The DEA won't let us have any around."

"The DEA is more worried about poppers than they are about someone dying of cyanide poisoning?" Castle persisted.

Eckert shrugged. "You people know more about law enforcement than I do. I just follow the rules."

Beckett extended a hand with her card in it. "Thank you very much for your time, Mr. Eckert. If you think of anything else, please give me a call."

Eckert looked at Beckett appreciatively, causing Castle to bristle. "A pleasure, Detective."

As Castle and Beckett approached the subway, Beckett got a call from Captain Gates telling her that a granular substance had been found in Jones' rented mansion. It was presumed to be potassium cyanide, but there would be a report in the morning. Beckett updated Gates on what she and Castle had uncovered as well.

The Captain seemed to be as happy as she ever got at the news. Beckett and Castle decided that they could go directly back to the loft. It was still a little strange to come home to the towering spruce, especially as it was as yet bare of ornaments, but Rick and Kate quickly adjusted. Chopping fresh vegetables together, they made a huge stir fry and ate it on a blanket under the branches. They finished with cups of tea, fragrant with orange and spice. Rick lit a fire, pillows were added to the blanket and Kate relaxed against Rick under the green canopy.

"Just how did you know that poppers are amyl nitrate," Kate asked. "More book research?"

Rick laughed. "No, some of my friends used them before doctors started handing out blue pills. I can't say that I ever felt the need."

Kate lightly brushed her fingers over the area in question. "No, I can't imagine that you did." She felt the motion under her hand. "And you don't."

"Not when you're around," Rick told her. "I am still making up for four years of cold showers."

Kate stood up. "We'll just have to see what we can do about that," she said extending a hand to pull him up. Fingers entwined, they walked off together.