Two more cases covered in this chapter. Hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: Castle does not belong to me.

Chapter 18

Once Upon a Crime & A Dance with Death

Kate was surprised when she finally woke up enough to look at her clock and discover that it was already eleven thirty. She had been sleeping better of late but it had been a very long time since she had stayed in bed so long. The team had had two cases in very quick succession but now they were both wrapped up and Gates had promised them all two days off provided the paperwork had been completed. That was an offer she was not going to refuse so she had stayed at the precinct until after midnight making sure the cases were signed off to the Captain's satisfaction. Now, however, as she thought about the free time ahead of her, she realised that, unless she managed to distract herself, thoughts of the underlying causes of the completed cases would certainly prey on her mind. She had now discovered that one thing that served as an excellent distraction was her diary. Although this would not prevent her dwelling on the cases, it would help her put her thoughts into some semblance of order and that was most certainly what she needed.

Secrets. Secrets are like time bombs, eventually they explode. Secrets ruin lives and it doesn't matter how old the secret is, or how long it's been kept, once it comes out, people are hurt, people suffer, people die and innocent people tend to be the ones who are hurt the most. I know this. I've seen it played out before my eyes during these last few days and yet here I am, still keeping my secret, still lying to my partner, my best friend. I've spent so many sleepless nights trying to find a way to tell him. I've wanted to tell him for months but, as with any lie, the longer the truth remains hidden, the harder it is to be told and now I know just how much it will hurt him; the knowledge that I've been lying to him for so long will cause more damage than the lie itself.

Our first case began with the discovery of Little Red Riding Hood's body in the woods. No, I'm not joking, that is really how we were introduced to it. She appeared, on initial inspection, to have been killed by an animal, a big, bad wolf maybe? It was only a few hours later when we were called out again. This time the victim was Snow White complete with poisoned apple in her hand. We appeared to have a fairy tale killer on our hands and boy, did Castle love this one!

It turned out, though, that both victims, Amy Morgan and Kristina Curtis, had been killed with a cocktail of drugs and had been dressed in the costumes post-mortem. We could find no connection between the two women except for the obvious fact of their similar deaths and that each of them had withdrawn $50605 from their bank accounts.

Finally we discovered that the women had had lunch at a diner the previous Friday with a third woman. We traced Charlotte Boyd through her bank account (she'd also withdrawn the exact same amount) and arrived at her apartment to find her on her bed dressed as Sleeping Beauty. Fortunately, unlike the others, she was still alive, if only just.

At Charlotte's apartment we found the link between the three women. A photograph taken at 11.23pm on 6th May 2005 – 50605 – with a message written on the back, Who's the guiltiest of them all? If you pay you'll live to see another day. Charlotte was being blackmailed and it was safe to assume Amy and Kristina were too. What was more, in the photo, the women were dressed in the same fairy tale costumes they'd been found wearing. There was a fourth person in that photograph, a young man. Was he our killer, our blackmailer or maybe both?

As it turned out, no, he wasn't because he'd not survived the night of the photo. Owen Thomas, high on a cocktail of drugs, the same drugs that had killed our victims, had left an underground rave at 10.45pm and he'd been hit by a car and left at the side of the road to die of his injuries.

Young Owen had an older brother, Darren who just happened to be married to Amy Morgan's sister, Lesley. By chance Darren and Lesley had found an old camera and had thought it would be a great idea to see what photos were on it. As soon as Darren saw the photo of Owen with the three girls, he knew one of them had been responsible for his brother's death and had sought revenge in the form of blackmail but he was vehement in his insistence that he had not killed them.

In the end, and not for the first time, it was Castle who solved the case and it all came down to a mis-tied bow. The bows on Amy and Kristina's costumes were tied beautifully but the bow on Charlotte's was messy and vertical. She'd tied it herself, behind her back. Charlotte Boyd was our killer. She denied it at first, of course, but the evidence was overwhelming and in the end, she folded.

Charlotte had been driving the car that hit Owen that night seven years ago but the three women had agreed to keep quiet about it; until the photograph turned up. Then all bets were off. Charlotte, afraid of the scandal, had decided to silence the witnesses to her previous crime. The crazy thing is, if the girls had just reported the accident, there probably would have been few repercussions for them but by remaining silent, keeping the secret, two women died, one will spend most of her life in prison, a man will be jailed for blackmail and numerous loved ones have had their lives ruined.

Our most recent case also involved secrets. The death of Odette Morton, a very popular contestant on the TV show, A Night of Dance, was big news and, as such, Gates was on us to get it resolved quickly. As with most murders though, all was not as it seemed. In fact Odette Morton was not even Odette Morton, heiress and party girl who'd changed her ways but Barbara Landau, girl from the wrong side of the tracks, high school drop-out and stripper.

As we delved into the two women's pasts, we discovered that Odette's partying led to a few brushes with the law which resulted in community service orders and, as Castle so eloquently put it, she was happy to do the crime but not the time. Having seen Barbara during a girls' night at the strip club and been aware of the striking resemblance between them, Odette came up with the idea of creating a 'faux' 'dette. She paid for Barbara to have the necessary plastic surgery and, voila, Odette could carry on partying, while Barbara took her place on the more mundane occasions.

Barbara was supposedly killed in a train crash a year ago; the same crash which Odette survived and brought about her conversion from party girl to more responsible citizen. Now that miraculous conversion made more sense. Odette was the one who died in that train and Barbara lived and in doing so, took her opportunity to become Odette on a permanent basis.

That might have been the end of the story but for Odette's big secret; the secret she had not shared with Barbara and when Barbara had found out about it, she made the mistake of trying to use it to her advantage, as leverage to keep her safe but in the end, it got her killed instead.

What was that secret? Well, to say the least, it was pretty big. Odette had a boyfriend at the time of her grandfather's death; a boyfriend he did not approve of to the extent that he threatened to cut Odette out of his will if she continued the relationship. So she came up with her plan. She created a distraction in the kitchen at lunchtime one day, giving her boyfriend, the family's financial advisor, Samuel Lynchberg, the time to smother the old man with a pillow.

During a confrontation about her credit card spending one day, Samuel realised that she was not actually Odette and Barbara realised what Samuel had done. She tried to blackmail him but he decided his only available action was to kill her. Once again, when confronted by overwhelming evidence, the killer confessed.

I did manage to learn a little more about Castle's childhood during the fairytale case. Martha has been busy putting together a one-woman show based on her life. Castle insists most of it is fiction but I suspect there's more than a basis of truth in the story. She performed it for us after we'd concluded the case. It was really good especially as it embarrassed the hell out of Castle. I did feel for him a little, though, because I know just what it's like to have someone create a fictional version of your life, you listening there, Castle, and I took hold of his hand in a gesture of solidarity. We stayed like that for the rest of the show, holding hands on his knee. God, it felt so good, so right. Why the hell can't I just smash through my walls and move on with my life?

After the Odette/Barbara case I allowed Castle a slight insight into my dreams as a kid; I was pre-law at Stanford and had my sights set on becoming the first female Chief Justice. I think Castle was impressed; he kind of looked proud of me and, believe me, that felt good, great, in fact.

Secrets caused so much pain in both these cases and I'm so scared what's going to happen when my secret comes out because I know it will; I will pluck up enough courage to come clean one day and that day will have to be soon because, much though the consequences terrify me, I want to move on and I know that's just not possible until I do this.

Kate put the diary on one side and thought about everything she'd written. It was quite amazing how the diary helped her to organise her mind. She now knew what she had to do, all she needed to work out now was how the hell she was going to do it. More thinking time was required. Kate went to the bedroom, changed into her vest and shorts and headed out for a long run.