Visitations

Chapter 4

Safe Choices

Ice cream making was underway in the Castle kitchen. In his typical fashion, Castle had chosen the most high tech method possible, using liquid nitrogen. "Why is he doing that?" Johanna asked, popping in beside Kate. "What's wrong with salt, or one of those tubs you put in the freezer?"

"Castle developed an interest in liquid nitrogen when it was used as a murder weapon on a case we worked on." Kate explained. "The murder scene was at a restaurant owned by Maddy Queller. You remember her?"

Johanna snorted. "Oh course I remember her. You two were great friends in high school. You stole some of my best make-up to give her a makeover as I recall."

"You knew about that?" Kate asked.

Johanna shook her head dismissively. "Please, It's not like I thought your father took it. I knew what was going on with you. And speaking of high school, did you get the Stuyvesant bomber?

"Yeah," Kate reported. "It turned out it was someone who couldn't pass the entrance exam and was trying to prove how smart he was. Fortunately, he wasn't as smart as he thought he was. CSU analyzed the bomb fragments and we traced the materials. He'll be trying to prove his smarts in the penitentiary. But you were asking about the case involving Maddy."

"Right," Johanna agreed. "How did Castle develop his fascination for the cold stuff from that case?"

"I'm not sure. I wasn't really in his head then," Kate admitted. "I was thinking about someone else at the time."

"Another cop?" Johanna asked.

"Mmmm," Kate confirmed.

"Oh," Johanna declared, taking them both back to the 12th Precinct. "We need to take a look at that."

They could see Castle hurrying in with a carrier of coffee, but seeing Earlier Kate drinking coffee and smiling with another man.

"Who's that?" Johanna asked.

"Tom Demming. He's a robbery cop. We worked together on a previous case," Kate responded too offhandedly.

"So you were making a date with him?" Johanna returned.

"Why not?" Kate protested defensively. "He's tall, handsome, works with disadvantaged kids, and has nice blue eyes."

"His eyes are closer together than Castle's," Johanna sniped. "He's kind of white bread, isn't he? Not very exciting. Are you sure you're not putting on a show for Castle? You're even asking Castle if going out with Demming is a problem."

"Castle had been doing his own thing," Kate retorted. "He slept with some starlet who was trying to get herself cast in the movie of Heat Wave."

Johanna clucked knowingly. "I see."

"Anyway," Castle said he had no problem with my going out with Demming.

"Right," Johanna countered, "so you were both being a couple of idiots. So where did Maddy and the case come in?"

"Castle and I checked out the body, a chef named Balthazar Wolf," Kate explained. "I had no idea who he was but Castle was going on and on about Kitchen Wars and something called molecular gastronomy. That's apparently where the liquid nitrogen came in. Wolf used it in his work and he was murdered with it. The guy's hand broke off and shattered. I think that might have gotten Castle's attention. Then we found out Maddy owned the place, or at least was partners with Wolf. I introduced her to Castle and she immediately began giving him dirt on our high school days at Stuyvesant."

"And you were pissed off," Johanna surmised.

"She told Castle I watched Saved By the Bell reruns," Kate complained.

"You did," Johanna pointed out. "But you were embarrassed to ruin your bad ass detective image with Castle by having him know about it."

Kate nodded sheepishly.

"I need to see that conversation," Johanna announced. She and Kate materialized as Maddy was asking Kate to accompany her to a Rocco DiSpirito charity event.

"So you turned her down, for your date with Demming," Johanna observed. "But look at that. Castle is stepping in and you're jealous."

"No I wasn't," Kate protested. "I was fine. I even told Maddy so when she asked me."

"Of course you were," Johanna taunted. "Let's see what happened on Maddy's date with Castle."

They materialized as Castle and Maddy were eating off each others' forks. Earlier Kate promptly took Maddy in for questioning. Things only got worse for Earlier Kate when Maddy accused her of breaking up Maddy's date with Castle because she was hot for him and wanted to make little Castle babies. It was all the more mortifying because Castle was watching from observation.

"You were totally red-faced to have Castle hear that, but I didn't hear you deny it," Johanna pointed out, "although I don't know about the making little Castle babies part. You've never been enthusiastic about that."

"I didn't used to be," Kate answered, "but with Castle..."

"Loving someone does make all the difference doesn't it?" Johanna asked. "Did you know you loved Castle then? It was certainly obvious enough to Maddy."

"It was more obvious to her than it was to me," Kate confessed.

"So you were with Tom," Johanna observed.

"So I was with Tom," Kate repeated.

"So who really killed the chef?" Johanna asked.

"His best friend, his foster brother David," Kate replied.

"Why would he do that?" Johanna asked, confused.

"I think you'll have to see to understand," Kate told her. "Wolf had been at a cafe every afternoon from three to five. Can you get us there?"

Johanna looked up for a moment as if receiving information and nodded. Balthazar Wolf sat a table staring out a window at the boutique across the street. He wasn't interested in the clothes or the shoppers. His eyes never left the clerk. "He looks at her the way Castle looks at you," Johanna observed.

Kate ignored the comment. "Her name is Cecily. She's David's girlfriend, but Wolf is in love with her and she's carrying his child."

"Oops!" Johanna interjected.

"Wolf was trying to get up the courage to propose," Kate continued. "He had a ring. He finally put it in the cake he was making when he was killed. Castle figured that part out. He found the ring and showed it to me, pretty much put it in my face actually."

"And how did you feel when Castle shoved an engagement ring at you?" Johanna asked.

"Confused," Kate confided. "For a minute I wished..."

Johanna laughed. "At least you got there eventually. If Cecily was pregnant with Wolf's child, why do you think she was with David?"

"Castle and I talked about that," Kate said.

"What was that conversation like?" Johanna asked.

Kate sighed. "I understood where Cecily was coming from. Wolf was a bad boy. He slept around. He was exciting and bigger than life, but she doubted she could depend on him for the long term."

"Kind of like the way you thought of Castle back then?" Johanna suggested.

"Sort of, I guess," Kate agreed. "Cecily thought that as much as Wolf made her feel alive, eventually he'd leave her. She had no idea he was going to propose. So she stayed with David. She thought he was safe. But as it turned out, he wasn't. He found out the baby was Wolf's and killed him. Now she's going to have to raise the child alone."

"So if it had been you then, would you have stayed with David?" Johanna asked, "even if you were in love with Wolf?"

Kate considered it. "You know at the time Castle said, '"The heart wants what the heart wants.' But I don't think I could quite believe it. I might have gone for the safe choice, chosen David the way I chose Tom."

"And now?" Johanna prompted.

"Castle's still not the safe choice. There are things we don't know, that we may never know. But life isn't safe and I can't imagine choosing anyone else."

A/N Stuyvesant High School is not fictional. It is one of the special high schools in New York City, free but entrance by a tough exam. For Kate and Maddy to have gone there, they would both have to have been smart cookies.