Chapter 79

Castle was up and out of bed way before his girlfriend, only a few hours after he fell asleep. Wrapped in a wool blanket, he sat upon Beckett's white sofa. He stared at the television, at the morning show, but was mostly preoccupied with reminiscing about their night. He didn't care that it was going to be a sunny but chilly day. He didn't care that the President was travelling to some international meeting of heads of countries. He was filled with content, of precious new memories, all due to the time that he'd spent with the woman in her bed. He'd immensely enjoyed being enveloped by her company, her physical form, her flood of affection. The softer side of Kate, the part that no one else got to see he adored. The wine always dropped her guard, allowed her to share herself with him.

He'd put her to sleep, completely satiated. Her subtle sweet scent was still on his skin, his hands and surrounding his mouth. His right index finger ached a little from strong contracting muscles that had gripped it, from powerful thrusts of her hips that had unnaturally forced it to bend.

The final word that had spilt from her lips before she had passed out was his name over and over, her fingers in his hair. His mouth had been pressed gently against her swollen, sensitive clit in the seconds she lost consciousness.

Castle knew exactly how to make Beckett soundly sleep and gain rest. He smiled, a man happy he could pleasure his girlfriend the way he could this one. He silently thanked an ex-girlfriend who'd taught him how to satisfy another.

"You old Cheshire cat," he mumbled to himself.

He was hungry. His stomach rumbled.

It was a fact that Kate would wake up with the appetite of a ravenous lioness. After she climaxed like she had earlier, she would eat well all day. He had stock in Kate's kitchen nowadays and so got himself off th cough to set about making them a decent breakfast before they embarked on what he anticipated was going to be a frantic day.

Once breakfast was well on the way to being ready, a sleepy Beckett pattered from the bedroom not long after he'd heard the toilet flush. She stopped by the counter, took in what he was doing with a scratch of her head and mumbled, "You're still here…"

He stepped around the counter, raised his hands to each side of her head. "Of course I am." He pressed his lips gently to her forehead. He stroked over her temples. "You're here."

"I thought you'd be gone for Alexis."

"I've texted her. She's good to get to school."

"Mm." She gave him a kiss. She smiled cheekily. "You smell of me, Castle."

"Gloriously so."

"And you're making pancakes."

Castle smiled thinking her eyes looked cute, "I was hoping for bacon and eggs."

"We ate em." She pressed her lips together, looked right into his bright blue eyes.

"We did. And you didn't replenish." He quickly returned to the kitchen to save his pan cakes.

"Yeah, well, you know I mostly order in, Castle. I dislike grocery shopping."

"Yeah, but you love my cooking. Are you hungry." He asked watching her hand unconsciously rub her abdomen.

"Fucking starving. The smell of the coffee woke me."

"Yes." He smiled, thinking how adorable she was first thing in the morning. "Well, the coffee's brewed. I think your filter's broken though. I'll order you a new one later."

Beckett peered over the counter at his cooking efforts, with every intention of pinching something from a plate. She fondly commented, "Wow. Looks like you thought of everything."

Castle snapped his fingers, "Yes, except the paper." He quickly took the half dozen steps to the front door.

"Castle, we don't have time for the paper. There's a body out there that I gotta find."

After unlocking the deadbolt, Castle opened the door. A corpse slumped to the floor. Surprised, he looked down, "Ah! Looks like it found you."

After Beckett made the call to the Precinct to report the body, they knew they had about a quarter hour before Police, Detectives, the ME and the CSU teams would arrive. They gulped down the breakfast Castle had prepared, like a couple of starved Labradors then packed the dishes to the dishwasher to hide as much evidence of their domestic bliss as they could. They didn't have time to shower and dress and decided that was a minor issue. After all there was a body in Beckett's front doorway.

The apartment, Beckett's place of extreme privacy, was soon teeming with detectives, agents and crime scene scientists. Kate tried to not feel she was being invaded, refrained from telling people not to walk on the rug, or take photographs of her home. The detective understood everyone was doing their job, respecting her privacy, and then there was Castle. He was having a great time now that he was the center of attention. He was kept busy answering questions.

Then Ryan was in her face with his notepad and he asked, "So you had just gotten up, right?"

"Yeah. Castle just finished making breakfast and he went to the door-," She ceased to speak once she realized how it sounded. Then swallowed when she realized that he smelt of her, that he'd had his face…. Fuck, she didn't want to think about it at all.

Ryan continued oblivious to her internal panic. "What kind of breakfast?"

Beckett's brow tightened, "Uh, I'm sorry?"

"What kind of breakfast was he making?"

"Pancakes," Beckett replied.

Ryan kind of smirked, then declared. "Well, isn't that domestic."

Beckett frowned and stared him down, which immediately caused him to lose the smart ass look.

"Anyway," she continued, "The paper usually arrives at four, and we were up at seven. So that means the killer had a three hour window where he could have left the body there unnoticed." A hand was pointed in the general direction of the front door.

Ryan focused on his notebook as he asked, "And exactly what time did you and Mr Castle go to bed last night?" He looked at her.

That's the question that got Beckett pissed off. Her eyes darkened and for a second, her lips pressed together as she faced up to him. Through gritted teeth she said, "I think we're done here, Kevin." She wasn't about to tell him she'd had about three hours of sleep. Solid sleep. She didn't even remember falling asleep now she thought about it. He recognized the icy stare and scrambled off before he got into trouble.

Esposito approached Castle, who was standing alone in the middle of the living room observing. No notebook, no pen in the detective's hands because he relied on his memory. He kindly bumped into the writer's shoulder as he greeted, "Dude."

Rick turned his attention from the CSI team to the detective, "Espo."

Espo gave a nod in Beckett's direction. "I see Beckett in her jammies… Wine glasses on the counter."

Castle cast his eyes over Beckett who was highly agitated then shifted his eyes to the wine glasses he had stupidly left by the sink to hand wash. He waved his hand in the negative. "There's nothing going on between Beckett and I. No more than there was yesterday." He said with confidence as Ryan stepped into the opposite side of Castle. He wasn't lying. Their relationship hadn't altered in the past day or so.

"Dude, you made her pancakes." Ryan pointed out.

Castle sighed and replied, "It's just breakfast."

"Pancakes is not just breakfast." Esposito said, "It's an edible way of saying, thank you so much for last night."

Ryan laughed, "Castle, come on. We're your friends. Details."

Castle decided to play along and put his arms over their shoulders, brought them into a huddle as though he was about to share a massive secret. "All right, come here."

Ryan and Esposito huddled right in anticipation spiking between them.

Castle pretended he was figuring out how to tell them a secret and when he spoke, he used a loud voice, "There are no details."

Esposito stepped back, waved him off. "I can't even look at you right now."

Ryan read out loud what he wrote on his note book. "Witness refuses to cooperate."

Castle waved them off and made his way to Beckett, with the desperate need to keep her under control. She was not at all happy and he could see she was on the edge of losing it.

Meanwhile, Agent Shaw entered the apartment with a sheet of paper in her hand, purse on her shoulder, stilettos on her fee. She was on a mission. She went directly to Beckett who was currently standing with Castle, in her PJ's. Shaw said as she approached, "Now we know why he took the body."

Beckett took the paper and read the note with Castle, "I know where you live." She looked between Shaw and Castle, "This was a threat."

"More than that," Shaw replied "He's saying he's disappointed in you. In his mind, he gave you a fair warning that he was going to kill again. If you had been smarter, you would've been able to stop him. He's saying, this one is on you." She paused when she saw Beckett's expression of anger and frustration, "I'm profiling him, Detective, not agreeing with him. The guy's a freaking nut-bar. Don't let him get to you."

Castle held up another piece of paper with the sketch of their man on the front page. "Talk about irony."

Beckett asked, "Do we have an ID on our victim?"

Shaw shook her head, "No, not yet. There's no purse, no missing person's report filed. The coroner's van is downstairs. We need to get the body to the morgue and pull the slugs. Only four entry wounds. If the pattern holds, he should have a four letter word for us."

Beckett frowned then commented, "That's funny. I have a four letter word for him, too."

Shaw took in what Castle and Beckett were wearing. "Why don't you two escort the body to the morgue and let me know what you find?"

Beckett nodded, "Okay."

Shaw rescanned Beckett, "Once you're dressed, of course."

Beckett was about to bite, but happened to see Castle's wave of his hand, which distracted her. She obeyed his summons and followed him to her bedroom. It was she who closed the door on everyone and she leaned against it, closed her eyes.

"Fuck, Castle." She huffed out and rested her forehead to her hand.

"We did that, Hon-" He shut his mouth when he copped her frosty glare. "Sorry."

"They all think…" She was unable to continue she was so upset. "I have a dead person in my living room and two teams of cops and I'm here with you in my night clothes."

"What do you want me to do about it, Kate?" He asked with much frustration. "I wasn't expecting a body either." For several seconds, he observed Kate who struggled to not cry. As a woman in her late twenties she was generally strong and quite mature for her age. She had terrific problem solving skills. But situations like this, when she sort of lost her composure, she exhibited lack of experience on how to deal with problems. It also brought out how much she hated lying to people. She was great at concealing, but if she needed to out rightly lie, she suffered guilt and retreated within herself.

"Castle, I don't think I can keep up this charade."

"You have to," he firmly replied, "Right now is not the time to share our news with everyone. Agent Shaw will be gone from our lives when we, as in you and I, catch the murderer."

"You and I? You've seen her murder board. You love her equipment. I cannot compete against that."

He stepped in close and rested his head to her forehead his right hand to the side of her head. "She has all the technology in the world but she doesn't have us and our ability to solve." He raised his left hand to touch her cheek which brought her back from the brink of tears. She smiled.

"Yeah, we're pretty good," she agreed.

"Montgomery has the best solve rate he's ever had." He inhaled then said, "Take a shower, I will clean up after you and then we go to the Morgue."

She nodded.

He pressed his lips to her forehead. "Hurry up," he whispered.

She proceeded to her bathroom and he followed, sure no one would notice their absence. There was so much going on in the living room that their noise was penetrating the bedroom.