Twenty-four

For Castle, the first two months of his and Kate's official relationship could not have been more perfect. Of course, in many ways, their relationship hadn't changed at all. They worked cases together, solving many of the city's toughest homicides, and spent time together outside the precinct as well. They ate dinner, went to movies, did activities with Alexis, and, naturally, spent a fair amount of time secluded in his bedroom.

As summer began, things began to feel even more idyllic. The weather was warm and there were more activities for them to do outside. They'd even planned a vacation together: they were taking Alexis to the beach for a long weekend.

On an ordinary day in June Castle was making his best effort to clean up his desk area after a particularly hearty teasing session from his girlfriend. He wouldn't deny it was covered in more crumbs and dust than it should have been, but he maintained his excuse was their busy caseload. Back-to-back homicides gave them hardly enough time to finish paperwork let alone tidy up their spaces. Granted, Kate, the neater of the two, never had much to clean up—but that was beside the point.

That particular day they did not have a case and were on catch up duty. While Kate processed some of their more complicated paperwork, he decided to clean up his desk. He retrieved sanitizing wipes from the supply closet and moved all the items to one side of his desk before wiping it down. As he was in the process of switching sides so he could repeat the process, he inadvertently spilled his half-full mug of coffee. Much to his dismay, some of the liquid traveled onto his partner's desk.

"Crap," he groaned under his breath. Using the sanitizing wipes, he began corralling the liquid that had encroached upon her space before it got on anything or—god forbid—damaged anything. Unfortunately, in his hasty attempt to do this, he ended up knocking some things over on her desk.

Her cup of pencils and highlighters toppled over, scattering writing utensils every which way. As that cup was made of heavy duty plastic, he was not concerned. What did concern him, however, was that he held also knocked over her elephant statue. That piece was, most unfortunately, porcelain and thus able to break.

For as long as he had known her, Kate's "Elephants on Parade" statue had sat at the back edge of her desk right beside her computer monitor. Castle had stared at it many times over the years, and he always found it…well, odd. There was nothing particularly wrong with the statue, he just didn't like it and for some reason it never seemed to fit Kate's personality—at least, not in his mind. Still, she seemed to like the piece, so he never said anything about it.

Quickly, before she returned from the bathroom, Castle picked up the statue and wiped it down with one of the lemon-scented wipes, figuring he could replace it before she even noticed. That's when he saw it and his heart dropped towards his shoes: the body portion of the lead elephant was missing; it had broken off.

Before he even had the chance to form a curse in his mind, he heard the click of her heels approaching and looked up, his face a bit paler. He could not have been caught more red handed. Or, in this case, broken elephant handed.

Kate stopped walking when she reached her desk. She looked up, observed the bizarre scene before her, and her brow wrinkled. Instantly, an apology exploded from her boyfriend's mouth.

"Oh my god, Kate; I am so sorry! I am so, so sorry! It was an accident, I swear! I spilled coffee and I bumped this and it fell over and I'm so sorry!"

"Did something break?" she asked, reaching her hand out for the statue. Castle passed it over with a cringe. When Kate took the item in her hand, she noticed the same thing he had: the broken back on the lead elephant.

"I'm so sorry!"

When she glanced up and saw the pitiful look on his face, the tightness in her chest lessened. "It's okay, Castle; accidents happen. Where's the…oh." She picked up the piece that broke off from its position beside her keyboard.

"Here let me see it. I bet I can super glue it back together," Castle said, holding out his hands. She passed the elephants and the broken piece back to him and he attempted to put them together. He didn't see it until he put the elephant's back in its rightful place. The edges of the smaller piece weren't sharp or cracked; they were polished and smooth. That wouldn't have happened if the piece broke off, right? "Hey wait," he began cautiously, "I don't think this broke off…it looks like it was meant to come apart."

"Really?" she asked, craning her neck. She had no idea the elephants had a secret compartment.

"Yeah look," Castle said, holding it up. At that exact moment, he seated the elephant's back into its proper position and it snapped into place, making it look as though it had never been separated. "Huh."

"Oh," she said, staring at it for another minute. Then, she shrugged. "Okay, well, thanks."

Kate reached for the back of her chair, pulled it out from her desk, and sat without thinking. Only when her backside connected with the seat did she realize she was sitting on something sharp. Confused, she stood again and looked down. There, in the center of her seat, sat a petite cassette tape. She picked it up and held it between her index finger and thumb. "Castle, what's this?"

He looked across the desks at his partner. "A cassette tape?"

"Yeah. It was on my seat…"

Castle considered this for a moment before his eyes widened and he practically leapt into the air. "The elephant! It must have come out of the elephant! Oh my god!" He snatched the item back from her desk and flipped it over as though the underneath side would reveal a secret message. "Where did you get this thing? A thrift shop? I bet the original owner put that tape in the elephant for safe keeping because, as you well know, elephants never forget. Ooooh! What if it's a tape from the Watergate scandal!"

Kate's brow wrinkled. "What? No… No, this belonged to my mother."

Castle looked down at the item he held. "The elephants did?"

She nodded. "They sat on the desk in her office."

"So…what do you think is on the tape?"

Kate dropped the tape into her palm and examined both sides, but there were no markings. Looking back up to her partner she said, "I don't know, but we need to find out."

As they had spent more time than they should have in the precinct supply closet (for reasons neither of them cared to disclose) Castle recalled seeing an old tape recorder there from when they were forced to record their interrogations analogue not digitally. Fortunately, he was able to find the device again with little trouble. Back on the homicide floor, they sealed themselves into one of the small conference rooms and placed the cassette in the player.

Kate hovered her finger over the "play" button for several seconds, feeling the cool metal beneath her fingertip. She hadn't the slightest idea what the tape would contain, but she had a sinking suspicion it would be a recording of her mother's voice—a voice she hadn't heard in over a decade. No matter what that voice was saying—even if it was just dictating notes—she wasn't sure if she was ready to hear it.

Sensing her hesitation, Castle's wrist closed over hers. She looked up and found comfort in the smile he offered her. With a deep breath, she pressed play.

As it turned out, there were multiple voices on the tape. Three, to be exact and none of them were female. Instead, Castle and Kate sat silently listening to the discussion between the three men. Blackmail, extortion, and threats. Kate's brow wrinkled as she looked at her partner; his expression remained equally as confused until they heard the sentence that would change everything.

"…if anyone gets too close like that bitch lawyer Joanna Beckett who's been poking around, I'll have them killed; I've had people killed before."

"Castle," Kate exhaled slowly, looking over to her partner with eyes wide. He swallowed hard, knowing he was thinking the same thing as she. He gripped her wrist a bit tighter as she rewound the tape and played it again.

"Hang on," Castle said, reaching out to pause the player. "Is that…Montgomery?"

"The captain?"

He nodded. "Yeah, listen."

He pressed play again, and the voice sounded even clearer. Then, when he was addressed as "Roy" they knew for certain.

Kate could feel her gut begin to churn. "He…he was involved? He knew?"

Castle shrugged. Then, he rewound the tape and played it for a third time. "That voice…the man making the threats…it sounds so familiar, but I can't place it."

Kate stood from her seat immediately. "We need to talk to him."

Castle stood as well. "Whoa, Kate; hold on. Just hold on one second, we need to think about this."

In the prior eight weeks they had begun to look into her mother's murder. She caught him up to speed and then they began looking into the assassin Dick Coonan's financial records together. They also examined the autopsy files of the victim's whose murders matched that of Kate's mother. In doing so, they were able to find a woman that Joanna worked with who was also murdered. This led them to believe that she was killed for a case she was working on, but that was a dead end.

Kate had already looked through her open cases years earlier, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary with in them. If she was looking into anything else, it was off the books. Unfortunately, many of Joanna's notes were encrypted and Kate had never been able to crack the code. Castle took a stab at it, but was no more successful. The cassette tape was not only their most promising lead in weeks, it appeared to be the smoking gun.

Kate looked at her partner, fury in her eyes. "If he was involved in my mother's murder I want to know about it—right now."

Snatching the cassette player from the table, Kate marched out of the conference room and through the open door of the Captain's office. Castle scurried after her and shut the door once they were inside. Montgomery looked up, curious. Kate said nothing; she merely pressed play on the recorder.

As the crackling audio filled the office, Montgomery shrank in his seat, and his expression turned to stone. When Kate stopped the tape she threw the recorder on his desk and folded her arms over her chest. "You knew. My mother's murder—you knew all along. All those years ago you found me looking into her file and you knew—you knew who killed her."

"I didn't know about Coonan—I swear. I didn't know who had actually killed her," Montgomery said, his voice pleading.

"But you know who hired the hit, don't you?" When, after a moment, Montgomery remained silent, Kate raised her voice as a single tear dripped onto her cheek. "Don't you!"

Montgomery stood from his desk and approached her like one would a wounded animal on the side of a highway. "I was trying to protect you, Kate. Please just-"

"I don't want your protection; I want justice," she spat at him.

The captain's chin dropped to his chest and his shoulders slumped. He opened his arms, palms out flat, and said, "I don't know what to say."

Kate let out a mirthless laugh. "Let's start with the truth."

Montgomery's eyes darted to Castle and then back to Kate. "Maybe you and I should-"

"No," she cut him off simply. "Castle stays."

At her words, Castle's chest swelled with a sense of pride, but he knew that moment was not the one to address it.

With great reluctance, the Captain sat on the edge of his desk and said, "The man on that tape—the one who threatened to kill your mother if she kept investigating—is William Bracken."

"As in…Senator William Bracken?" Castle offered.

"That's the one."

"Jesus…" He muttered; he hadn't been expecting that one.

Kate stepped towards him, her brow winkled. "What was my mother involved in?"

"She…she had taken on a case—the defense of a man framed for a murder he didn't commit. He had been…he had been framed by us—the NYPD. Myself, Raglan-"

"Raglan," Kate interrupted him, her voice weak. "The man who investigated my mother's murder?"

Montgomery nodded in confirmation. "Those were dark times, Kate, and I am so, so sorry for my part in it. Truly, I am. I never wanted anyone to get hurt, least of all your mother, but Bracken…back then, he was the DA and he had us over a barrel—blackmailing us. We had no proof, not until I-"

"You?" Kate interrupted.

Montgomery nodded. "I made that recording, Kate and I gave it to your mother. It was supposed to keep her safe but…" The elder man hung his head, his appearance aging almost a full decade during their conversation.

The room stood still for a moment, before Kate finally raised her head. "But we have him now—Bracken. On that tape he confesses. We can use that and if you testify-"

"Kate," her partner interrupted her softly. She turned to him. "If he testifies, he'll incriminate himself."

Kate's tear-filled eyes turned back to the captain. Suddenly, he looked like one of her suspects who had just confessed to all of his crimes. Castle was right; she knew that. They couldn't take down Bracken without Montgomery becoming collateral damage. "Sir?"

The captain picked up the recorder from his desk and held it in his hands for several moments. He turned it, end over end, and then, with a heavy exhale passed it back to her. "I can't ask you to keep this to yourself, Kate. I've known you for a long time and I know that you won't rest until you get justice; that's what makes you such a great homicide. All I ask is for twenty-four hours. I need to tell my family before they hear about it on the evening news."

Kate pulled the recording device into her chest and nodded to him, agreeing to his request.

Three weeks later, standing in the living room of Castle's apartment, Kate watched video footage of Senator William Bracken being arrested and hauled out of his Washington D.C. office by the FBI. With Captain Montgomery's resignation and the resurrection of all of the emotions between her and her father over her mother's murder, it felt on one hand as though her life was falling to pieces. Yet, when Castle's arm slipped around her, she knew for certain it wasn't coming apart. Rather, a large chapter was merely coming to a close.

Turning to him, she slipped her arms around his waist and sunk into his chest until she found that oh-so-perfect spot she could melt into. He held her close and dropped a kiss onto her forehead. "It's over, Kate," he said with an exhale.

"Thanks to you."

"Me?" he rebutted and then shook his head. "I didn't do anything."

Kate looked up at him. "You found the tape."

"By being an idiot."

She smiled at him gently. "Still, without you I don't know if I would have ever found it. Without you none of this would have been possible."

Though he wasn't sure he fully agreed, Castle chose not to argue. Instead, he pulled her and held her close, glad that she had finally found the closure she deserved.

A/N: Friendly reminder that this story has 26 chapters + an epilogue