Hi all and thanks for the great reviews and follows and story alerts – but I especially love those reviews! Nice to know what you think of my work, you know?
Now, quick story. I was ordering lunch today when I saw an older couple walk in, staring adoringly at each other. Very cute. He had a hearing aid and she was definitely on the feeble side. But the way they looked at each other reminded me particularly of Kate & Castle in Slice of Death. Anywho… I asked them how long they've been married and the old man just grabbed my shoulder and said, "Fifty-four years, m'lady. And I still love her like the day I married her. More really." At the same time the lady, smiled and said, "Oh, he just loves talking about this." I talked with them for a bit. The secret? He said, "Just keep loving each other."
A little while later, he came up to where my husband and I were eating and said, "You really touched my heart today." And he wished my husband and me a long and blessed marriage.
Ladies and gentleman, I fell in love with an old man today! He so touched my heart, too. But, I'm a sap and I know it. But he is, too, I can tell!
Enjoy. Hope this story is well on its way to touching your heart!
Chapter 22 – Enjoying the view
Across the nation, a homicide detective typically sees an average of six new cases a year and spends the rest of their time on cold cases. In New York City, which averages between 500 to 600 cases per year, this figure nearly doubles. Add to that tight budgets and a small pool of qualified detectives to choose from and you've got a lot of homicides and not a lot of man power to dedicate to solving them.
This dynamic is part of the reason Castle was so fascinated with the way Captain Montgomery had structured his homicide team. They didn't operate as individual detectives, each trying to best one another's clearance rate. Instead, Captain Montgomery implemented a strong support staff and organized his unit into three homicide teams. Each team was made up of four homicide detectives—except for Beckett's team, which was only a pseudo team of four, if you counted Castle—and by now, they all seemed to.
Scott Reynold's team included his partner, Roselyn Karpowski (one of only a handful of other female homicide detectives covering the five boroughs) as well as partners, Rodney Shields (Best. Cop. Name. Ever.) and Dan Koenig. The other team included Tony Choufani (the team lead, but retiring soon), his partner, André Concejal, and partners Ajay Sankar and John Coufer. When Castle had learned that "Coufer" was pronounced just like "Cuff her," he'd had a field day. He even tried for days to convince the Captain that making Shields and Coufer partners would make the gods smile in his favor for helping to align the universe.
It didn't work. Still, he couldn't resist yelling, "Shields, Coufer," whenever the two were together. Thankfully, they were good sports about it.
Whether you credited the collaborative nature of these teams, the reliable backup they received through the MEs and other video and lab techs or simply the skill that these detectives brought to their jobs, the 12th had the highest clearance rate in the state (64%)—even though each team saw 34% more new cases each year than any four detectives at other NYC precincts would ordinarily see. And though no one at the 12th was officially keeping score, records would indicate that Detective Kate Beckett's team had maintained the highest solve rate for a long while. It increased again three years ago and had stayed up.
This and the thought that the 12th deserved some sort of reward for what they did so well were the thoughts running through Castle's mind as he approached Beckett's desk to set her coffee there. He was looking around for her when she rounded the corner with an arm full of manila folders.
"Castle. You're here early. Two days in a row? What's up? Writer's block?"
"Nah. Would kind of defeat the purpose of having a muse."
"Muse, Castle? That's how we're going to start the day?" Castle just shrugged.
"Still why so early?"
"Got done doing what I had to do earlier than I thought I would."
"What were you working on? Anything to do with the scholarship? I know I haven't been much help this week."
"No worries. No, last night it occurred to me to make up some fliers for your mom's ring. So, I got some printed this morning. Not holding out a lot of hope, but maybe we'll get a hit?"
"Get a hit? We got a new case?" Ryan walked in. "Morning, guys."
"Hallo, Mate." Castle said, pulling off his best down-under voice. Beckett rolled her eyes.
"Hey, Ryan. No, not a new case. A lot of work though."
"The warrant for Nick Conat's emails finally came through, so you and Esposito get to comb through these." Beckett said slapping half the pile she carried to into Ryan's arms.
"Great,"Ryan said, drawling it out, walking back to his desk.
Beckett turned back to Castle after Ryan's interruption. She spoke lower now. "Fliers, huh? Good idea. I can take them later and put them up. I want to have another look. You know—not in the rain."
"I meant I already put them up. Looked, again, too. But, no dice."
"Castle, I wish you would have called me. I'd have gone with you."
"Well, you know I did actually think you might be exhausted and sleeping in a bit." It was true—she'd had to drag herself out of bed that morning.
"Well…it was sweet of you to look. And make the fliers. What did you put on them anyway? If you'd called, I'd have helped describe it. And helped put them up." He pulled a bright yellow folded up piece of paper from his coat pocket, and handed it to her.
"I figured you'd head out there today, but I wouldn't have been able to help then. Promised Alexis I'd take her to the airport to pick up Meredith."
Before Beckett turned away to sit in her chair, Castle was sure he saw something anger? irritation? light her eyes, but it was gone in an instant. Or he'd imagined it.
"Yeah, Alexis seems excited." She'd called Kate, running ideas past her, wondering what she'd prefer to do if she were Meredith? Kate had NO idea, and told Alexis as much. She tried, for Alexis, to imagine what the woman might like to do with her daughter, but in the end couldn't imagine how it would matter, so long as they were spending time together. Really, every idea Alexis had come up with sounded wonderful. She'd even decided to drag Lanie, maybe Josh—if he seemed interested, to The Cloisters Garden Tour that Alexis had mentioned.
"Must be hard on her, never getting to see her mom." Her voice seemed oddly strained. Castle wondered if the mom-talk wasn't a bit much?
"Maybe. Sometimes. But Meredith's the kind of woman you can only take in small doses—even for Alexis."
"Still, she's put an awful lot of time into planning this weekend."
"Yeah. We talked about that."
"You're still afraid Meredith's going to disappoint her."
"She says she wants Meredith to know she turned out all right, that she's an adult—or pretty much an adult, so Meredith doesn't have to worry about her needing anything from her. That's why it was so important to Alexis to plan everything herself, pay for it with her own money."
"Well, she did a fantastic job planning. Puts every other kid in NYC to shame."
"I know." Couldn't hide the proud papa grin if he wanted to.
Beckett unfolded the paper in her hands and skimmed it. The description was spot on. Leave it to, Castle to get the details right. But, when she got to the bottom of the page, her eyes widened and her jaw dropped.
"Castle!" she hissed. "You cannot offer a $10,000 reward for my mother's ring! It's nowhere near that amount."
"I didn't think you could place a value on items of a sentimental nature."
"That's not the point, Castle. I can't—"
"Don't even say it, Beckett."
Kate's shoulders slumped. "You keep doing these things for me, Rick, telling me not to worry about it and shrugging it off like it's no big deal—chalking it up to royalties or—like I somehow deserve it for letting you follow me around."
Rick started to speak, but Kate held up her hand, and with a great deal of sincerity and emotion edging her low voice, said, "I think we're way beyond whatever you think you owe me, and it's high time you realize that you're not a burden. We get as much out of you being here as you do."
Rick held her gaze, surprised that she didn't avert her eyes. He was shocked, and as much as he wanted to look away, to avoid having her know how much her words meant to him he could not. He couldn't even come up with anything quirky to inject some levity into the moment. Finally, he landed on a truth.
"Well, Detective, you'll be happy to know, I didn't offer this reward as Richard Castle, the author following Detective Katherine Beckett and earning oodles of money as a result getting to work closely with her. No, this compensation for a good deed is offered—anonymously, I might add—as Richard Castle, friend of Katherine Beckett."
"You do this for all your friends, Castle?"
"I would. No different than if you were Lanie or the boys."
"Really, Castle? With all the people you know? You'd be out of money so fast." She sounded a little exasperated, incredulous.
"No, Kate," he said shaking his head. Castle offered a wane smile, and quietly share: "I know a lot of people. I have very few friends. Fewer great friends."
Beckett couldn't believe him. He was so natural and effervescent when it came to people—and utterly surrounded. He thrived on attention and read people too well. He was too charming. Too wanted. "So it's an elite group? The mayor? Connelly? Patterson?"
"All poker buddies. Connelly's a good guy. Patterson's a sometimes rival, but we get on well. I wouldn't call either if I needed a hand moving, but we play poker, discuss plots. So friends, I guess, but it's not like we hang out, outside of poker. My friendship with the mayor is more…mutualistic."
"Mutualistic, huh?"
"Yeah, you know, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours." This time, Castle did wriggle his eyebrows at Kate. She rolled her eyes and gave him a smirky scowl.
"Offer stands."
"And risk interfering with your special time with the mayor? No thanks!"
Kate looked back to the paper in her hands, her smirk fading. She didn't doubt that Castle would make a similar grand gesture if he thought Lanie, Esposito, Ryan—or any of his friends required it. Nearly dying together? Kissing? Okay, so maybe it's not quite the same level… But she knew Rick would always try to help the people he cared about. What concerned her is that Castle felt he had to do these things. She didn't want him to feel like he had to buy their friendship—or that they could be bought. He should know they didn't care about his money.
Kate wondered if she hadn't started this? Letting him bring her coffee each morning. Letting him put up money to find her mother's killer. Making a big deal about his Ferrari. The scholarship? And what did she give in return? What did she have to give? She couldn't help but feel that this friendship was too one-sided for her liking. She cared for Castle—that much she was clear on. How could she not? They'd been through a lot together and he'd been there for her, even when she didn't think she wanted him there. Yesterday was proof of that. And L.A. And so many other times. Somehow, she was going to show him that she valued him and his friendship. She'd already felt herself making subtle changes.
Castle watched her process the paper in her hand, what it meant, knowing she was worried about the reward.
"Kate, don't even think about the money. It had to seem significant in order for someone to call. But really to me, it's such a small amount—and I'm not being arrogant. Let's just hope someone finds it and picks up the phone—we both know how unlikely that is—but let's just agree to do a happy dance if it does happen, and if it doesn't, then the reward will be a moot point."
Kate looked at him, uncertain.
"Please, for me, Kate?" His plea was so earnest, and she didn't want him to disappoint him. Be graceful.
"Okay, Castle, I'm going to let this go for two reasons. One, you're incredibly sweet and thoughtful. Two," she said, handing him a stack of manila folders, "we've got a lot of work to do—and this, will definitely benefit from your expertise."
Castle glanced at his watch, surprised at how much time had passed. "What are we doing today, Detective?"
"You mean what are you doing?" she sent him a wicked grin. She was going to enjoy this.
Castle raised his eyebrows, questioning her.
"Rewrites, Castle," She nodded to the folders and stood up from her chair. She gestured him to it. "And, today, you get to do the paperwork."
"Detective, are you trying to pass your workload off on me?"
"Just putting you to good use, Castle. You type faster than me and speed read."
"You never let me before." His eyes were hopeful, but she could tell he was waiting for her to play a trick on him or tell him he was an easy mark.
"Need this out by noon."
"And what, my dear, detective, will you be doing?"
Kate lowered herself into Castle's chair, and leaned on her desk. She propped her chin in one hand and let the other cup its opposite elbow.
She winked at him and grinned.
"Just enjoying the view, Castle. Just enjoying the view."
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