CH78
I'll make it up to you by posting the next chapter earlier than originally scheduled.
And here it is, what a coincidence?
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Kate had a lead on Shawn's mother and she grabbed Ryan and Espo and took them with her.
The chop shop guy had given them a location on where the car came from. Reaching this location they found it was a series of row houses.
"Call up some units to help us, we're going door to door. And we're going to need pictures of her." Kate tells Ryan and Espo.
About half an hour later there were 5 units on scene going up and down the street knocking on doors.
Kate and the boys were across the street and a few doors down when one of the units came to end unit. After knocking on the door and not getting a response he wrote it down for a visit later and started walking to the next one past a small alley.
In the alley he spotted a guy with groceries walking down the alley towards the street when he called out to him. The guy with the groceries dropped them and took off running.
The officer called it in and took off running after him. There were soon additional uniforms in cruisers helping him chase him down.
Finally catching him he put up a fight. His ID put him at the unit the uniform had not gotten an answer at.
Kate called it in and soon had a warrant to enter the unit to search it.
It didn't take long to find Shawn's mother chained to a room inside with pictures of her all over every wall in the unit.
It was easy to figure out from all the pictures that he was a stalker of the worse kind. He had decided that she was meant to be his, so he picked her up and held her while he tried to break her.
However she had a son from a different man and that just would not work. So he had a couple of friends hold the boy while he figured out what to do with him.
The woman was soon reunited with her son and both were crying and hugging before they were allowed to go home. Kate had a unit drive them home and make sure they got inside without incident.
Kate now had a lot of paperwork ahead of her over this. She reminded the boys to show up tonight for dinner and Ryan was suppose to bring his wife.
Next she told Roy to show up at their home tonight for dinner and then went downstairs to remind Lanie, before heading home to help Castle cook.
Martha and Alexis were assigned door duty as people arrived since Kate and Castle were busy cooking right up until it was time to eat. They were also assigned tour the home duty.
Jim for the first time got to meet everyone that was involved in his daughter's life at home and at work. They all seemed supportive of her, plus he got to watch how Rick, his daughter and Kate all interacted at home.
Jim got to embarrass Kate with his stories of when she was younger, though not to be outdone Martha joined in the story telling to embarrass her son.
He also got to find out that Kate had been listening when Johanna had taught her to cook. Only to be told Rick was doing most of the cooking during the week.
And he took pride in listening to Roy comment about the work she does. Though it still worried him about the type of work she did. She could not come home some day because of her work and that was causing him some worry.
He was also amazed at Alexis. She was completely devoted to Kate and always called her "mom" the entire time and Kate took to it so easily.
Castle had offered everyone coffee after dinner and dessert. He had considered offering drinks to everyone but decided against it because of Jim.
Ryan and Jenny were the first to leave but followed soon after by Roy.
Javi and Lanie stayed a while but were the next to leave leaving just Jim since Castle had changed his mind about asking Paula to attend, and Gina of course was not invited.
Jim started making remarks about time to leave however Kate started asking him to stay the night. They could throw his clothes in the wash overnight so they would be fresh for him in the morning.
Kate even offered to cook breakfast for him. Something Johanna would have served. It wasn't until Alexis had also asked him to stay that he finally caved and stayed the night.
After a breakfast a la Katherine, Kate drove him home.
"You have a beautiful family and friends Katie." Jim had to tell her at his door.
"Thanks dad I love them both so very much." Kate confides.
"I'm happy for you Katie, it seems perfect for you." Jim smiles at her really happy for her.
"We'll see you for lunch as usual next week dad." As Kate kisses his cheek and drives home.
Kate had made it home and found Castle in the exercise room pounding the crap out of the punching bag so Kate decided to join him. Kate liked the fact that Castle had added a couple of TV's to the room.
"How is your father?" Castle asks while still pounding away on it.
"He seems a lot happier lately. It's nice to see him sober again." Kate tells him.
"I hear a "but" in there."
Kate sighs. "I've spent so many years without a father to help me; I'm finding it hard to let him back into my life. I saw him drunk so many times."
Castle stops punching and moves over to Kate and turns off her treadmill. "He's your father Kate. I think if you'll let him in you may find the old father you lost."
Kate knows she shouldn't feel this way but she does just the same. "That's just the point. I feel like I lost my father when I lost my mom. I spent so much time cleaning up his mess and driving him to the emergency room. He almost killed himself more than once."
"I get how hard it was for you, I do. But you're not alone in this anymore. I also know how hard it is for you to let us or your friends help you, but you do have them to help you. I think your just having a family helps him want to be a part of your life again.
It took you a little while to warm up to us, so give him some time. You may find you love him almost as much as before you lost him." Castle tries to convince her.
"One day at a time." Kate tries to convince herself.
"You invited him to lunch again next week." Castle verifies.
"Yea, he seemed happy to go." Kate confirms.
"Good, maybe once a week will make him feel like a part of a family again and give him a reason to stay away from alcohol." Castle hopes.
"Richard, Bracken is being driven to the emergency room." Jack speaks up.
"Renal failure?" Kate questions.
"Poor baby, my heart bleeds for him." Castle comments rubbing his finger and thumb together, getting a laugh from Kate.
Castle steps back over to the punching bag and imagines the face of Bracken on it and goes back to pounding the crap out of it. Leaving Kate to turn her treadmill back on, taking peeks at Castle. Now understanding how he got those arms and shoulders she so loves on him.
Come Saturday, they took Alexis SUV shopping with them. They started with the BMW model first. It was a nice car but just didn't seem to have the size they feared they might need.
The Jeep was next and Kate loved the interior, however her on-line research of it showed it to not be maybe quite as mechanically sound as she would like. Considering the cost of it.
Next came the Land Rover. The interior was just a little too British stuffy for Kate's taste however when it came to function it was a much sounder car. At just over $100,000 it also didn't come cheap.
In the end the Land Rover won out and Castle drove it home while Kate drove Caste's Maserati home with Alexis. They now had all three garage spaces filled with cars.
Alexis changed clothes and ran out back to play on her new play set while Kate routed Castle to a comfortable place to sit. She had something she wanted to talk about.
"Castle you mentioned that you have a meeting with your publisher early next week." Kate starts off, not sure how she wants to say what she knows.
"Yea, Tuesday just after lunch actually. You want to come? The boys and Lanie can help hide the body." Castle asks hopeful.
Kate giggles a little; it really was tempting though she's pretty sure Castle doesn't really want her to kill her. "I did a little digging on one Gina Cowell." Kate whispers out.
"Thought you might. Is she connected to the mob? …. Oh I know her history only goes back a few years and she's from outer space. Frankie's wife maybe, Mrs. Frankenstein." Castle kinda liked that one.
Kate can't help but laugh at that one. Just thinking up that old black and white movie of Frankenstein's bride.
Bride of Frankenstein (advertised as The Bride of Frankenstein) is a 1935 American horror film, the first sequel to Frankenstein (1931). Bride of Frankenstein was directed by James Whale and stars Boris Karloff as The Monster, Elsa Lanchester in the dual role of his mate and Mary Shelley, Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein, and Ernest Thesiger as Doctor Septimus Pretorius.
The film follows on immediately from the events of the earlier film, and is rooted in a subplot of the original Mary Shelley novel, Frankenstein (1818). In the film, a chastened Henry Frankenstein abandons his plans to create life, only to be tempted and finally coerced by the Monster, encouraged by Henry's old mentor Dr. Pretorius, into constructing a mate for him.
"Sorry Castle, nothing so colorful." Kate is forced to tell him. "I did however find that she has made a number of financial blunders lately. Personal financial blunders. She's behind on her car payments and on her mortgage payments on her apartment. In fact her apartment is going to go into repossession sometime this month." Kate spills some of the beans.
"Is she stealing from Black Pawn to cover her loses?" Castle is shocked, Gina has never said a thing.
"I couldn't get into their records, however her bank statements would tend to suggest that she is not. Unless she is putting them into a different account." Kate tells him.
"Jack?" Castle asks.
"Scanning, ….. scanning, ….. I find no evidence that the financials for Black Pawn have been tampered with. However if the sale of your next book that is due out in a month do not do as well as expected they will be in a little bit of trouble." Jack tells them.
"Ok so it only affects her, still doesn't explain why she thinks I would marry her." Castle doesn't get it.
"She needs money Castle and lots of it. And she has access to the amount of money you make off the sale of your books through Black Pawn." Kate offers.
Suddenly Castle is worried. "Scanning." Jack beats him to it. "I found no evidence that your account holding the money from the sales have been tampered with. There is however a trace that your bank account has been monitored recently.
They are now aware of how much money is in your account and how much is deposited each month from the financial holdings that you have.
Scanning, ….. this information has been obtained by a hacker. Scanning, …. He is a known low grade hacker and is based in New Jersey. Scanning, ….. He has forwarded his findings to only one computer. Scanning, ….. the location of this computer is at the following address here in New York." Jack tells them.
"Castle that address is, … " and is interrupted by Castle.
"Gina!" Castle knows that address.
"She's hoping to convince you to marry her so she'll have access to your money and bleed you dry." Kate speculates. "Castle what she's done is illegal, she can be arrested for what she has done." Kate points out.
"Meaning our meeting Tuesday is likely to not be just business." As Castle pulls out his cell phone and calls his lawyer. They make arrangements for him to attend the meeting he has with Gina. He is going to go over his contract he has with Black Pawn.
He has also been told of the monitoring of his bank account and that it can be traced back to Gina. Steve has indicated that he will be working all weekend to get ready for his meeting with Gina. He will also drop off a proposed revision to the latest contract proposal from Black Pawn he presently is studying for the future Richard Castle books.
Kate has been quietly sitting next to Castle during the entire conversation. "You sure you don't want to come and bring your gun?" Castle is still hopeful.
Kate just grins. "A lawyer's pen is mightier than my gun Castle. Besides I can have Jack send the crib notes to Jill and learn everything that way."
"I'll make sure and remind Jack when the time comes." Jill adds her 2 cents.
"We still have to go puppy looking today Castle." Kate reminds him.
"Damn! Almost forgot. Alexis will skin us both alive if we don't get her a dog. You go get Alexis and I'll warm up the car and meet you there." Castle rises and heads for the garage while Kate heads for the back door to call Alexis inside so they can go.
Castle already had the two places programmed into his GPS unit; however they never made it past the first place.
"Let the puppy pick you sweetie not you pick him. That way we know he likes you already instead of learning to like you." Kate tells her.
It didn't take long for one to bound over to Kate and look at her then bound over and leap at Alexis who was sitting on the grass waiting. The puppy was soon all over Alexis getting her to fall over herself and laugh while the puppy did his best to keep Alexis doing what she was doing. Rolling around in the grass laughing.
Kate however stood there wondering why it came to her first? Because she is a mother? Well sort of a mother.
"Seems you have found the right one." The breeder told them who was standing near.
Alexis finally gets a handle on the little bundle of energy and pets him and squeezes him.
"He's going to need a name pumpkin, How about
BALDUR means "prince" in Nordic mythology
COOPER, BEAR?" Castle offers.
Kate offers up a name that she had heard recently. "Sparky."
"Sparky." Alexis offers up and instantly has a live wire of a puppy all over her yet again.
"Sparky it is then." Castle tells them.
Castle heads off with the breeder to sign the paperwork, get a few days of pet food the breeder has been using and pay for the puppy. He is also told when the puppy will need its next set of shots.
Kate meanwhile has joined Alexis and is now holding the puppy up to her face. "Are you in there Sparky?" And Kate gets her nose licked for her answer. Kate puts the puppy back down in Alexis's lap.
"What do you think Jill?" Kate asks.
"It is, ….. possible." Jill comments.
They stop and got two doggie beds, a harness instead of a collar (It doesn't pull on the puppy's neck), a retractable leash, 6 or 7 plush squeaky toys, 3 or 4 tennis balls, some canned dog food, plastic toppers to close the can with as well as some puppy dry dog food. Good stuff with good ingredients. Food and water bowls, and of course a big box of puppy pee pads as well as a doggie door that will need to get installed. And they had a tag engraved with his name and phone number on it. Also a big bag of pig ears and a couple of other items for the puppy to chew on.
Several hundred dollars later, with a trunk full of stuff and Alexis is in the back seat beaming with her new dog, they finally made it home.
One doggie bed went in Alexis's bedroom, along with some of the toys and puppy pee pads. More puppy pee pads went where the doggie door was going to get installed. And the other toys and tennis balls got scattered throughout the house.
First things first however, they took him out back so he could pee and poop and run around with Alexis to wear them both out so they would sleep later.
Neither Kate nor Castle heard the puppy whine at all that first night. They thought sure he would put up a fuss. It wasn't until Kate went in to get Alexis up in the morning that she figured out why. Sparky had slept with Alexis in her bed all night long.
Kate got Alexis up and had her take the puppy outside so he could start learning to be a good dog and do his business outside. He would learn to use the stairs eventually. Not like he had a choice if he wanted to keep up with Alexis.