Disclaimer: I do not own the characters featured on the show Castle, they belong to the creator of the show, ABC and the others who do own them.
A/N #1: I was happy to receive the feedback I did for the last chapter so I'll get to my thank yous for that! TORONTOSUN (Really nice to see you like how I'm using Skye and Mary more in the story, I do enjoy writing them so this one was a great one to have them in!) and
MB (I wasn't surprised you mentioned how the chapter had more information about Anais and why she was as you put it gravitating toward Beckett. And yeah, I figured with happened to them that kind of stuff would happen to the spirits of Martin and Anais. Anais did think she was pregnant, you were right about that. I was really glad that I surprised you with Anais taking Beckett over to find the body, exactly what I was aiming for. I wasn't surprised that you were glad Skye got Anais to go to her from Beckett since she could handle her better! Really happy you're looking forward to more of the case! You're welcome for the first half of the chapter! Really nice to see you thought the second half was a good update with the two cases, 100 years apart. And I wasn't surprised you had all the questions you did about the two cases now, lol, you'll see. I had to laugh at you mentioned it was an interesting way to keep those dreams away, but I figured that would be the best method for both couples to accomplish that, lol. You're welcome for sharing the second half of the chapter!).
Thanks for the reviews, I loved reading them and appreciate the time taken to write them out and send them my way!
A/N #2: The title of this chapter is a lyric from the song The Invisible Man written by Roger Taylor, from the Queen album The Miracle.
Never Take Me Alive
"I think Lizzy was mad."
"Of course she was, you didn't tell her what happened," Mari said in amusement, watching her friend as she was looking outside the windows at the front door.
"I don't think our mom and dad would want me to," Julia replied. "I'd have to ask them." She turned back to the entry with a shrug and said, "But that'll have to be later."
"Jules," Josie said suddenly.
"Yeah?" Julia said, reaching over to and taking her hand.
"Want to play," Josie said firmly.
"The game room?" Julia replied. She wasn't surprised when her baby sister nodded and she said, "I guess we better go to the game room."
"What about her show?" Mari asked.
"That's for Mom and Dad to show her," Julia said simply while they left the foyer. "Anyways, I doubt she'd want to watch without them."
"Do you think they're okay?" Mari asked.
"They were up late," Julia replied. She wasn't surprised when her friend was looking at her and she said, "I'm guessing someone had a nightmare." Making a brief face she said, "I hope not but I just have a feeling." They were inside the game room then and she said, "Well Josa, what do you want to play?"
"Ski," Josie replied, smiling widely at her sister.
Laughing briefly, Julia said, "Skeeball," looking at Mari.
"I figured," the girl said with a smile.
"Do you want to play with us?" Julia asked. "You don't have to if you don't want to."
"No I do, there's two games," Mari replied, reminding her friend of that as they stepped up to the games. She watched as Josie was taking off her slippers and said, "She's going to cheat?"
"No," Josie replied.
"She knows doing that is cheating," Julia commented while she helped her sister up onto the ramp. "Outside of the house. But here she's free to… as long as she knows it's wrong."
"That's kind of weird," Mari said with a smile. "And remember I know all of that already."
"I know, but she needs to hear it," Julia said, smiling herself when her friend was laughing. She reached down for one of the balls and handed it to her sister, watching her put it in one of the hundred slots before she said, "Are you going to stay there the whole time?"
"No," Josie said. When she had finished her turn she said, "Mama and Dada?"
"They're still sleeping," Julia said soothingly, holding her hand while she was walking back down the ramp. Once she had helped her sister off, she was about to start herself when she heard footsteps down the hall.
"Hey, good morning," Aaron said, walking inside the room. "I'm surprised you two are awake," he said teasingly as Josie went over to him while her sister was speaking.
"I slept alright," Julia explained, not surprised when Mari echoed her. She smiled when Aaron was widening his eyes at the toddler and she said, "She wants you to pick her up."
"Really?" the investigator asked.
"Yeah," Julia said. Once he'd picked her up she said, "You're kind of up early."
"Not really, we had a short lockdown yesterday," Aaron said, not surprised when the toddler was merely smiling at him. "Does she want me to go somewhere or do something?"
Julia couldn't help laughing and said, "I think she's good, if she wants you to do something she'll tell you."
"And she doesn't want to play?" Aaron said.
Shaking her head Julia said, "She was just before you walked in." She then said, "Can you tell us anything about the victim that was in the basement with Anais?"
"No," Aaron said firmly. "Sorry," he said when the two girls looked startled. "Your mom told me not to tell you, especially you Julia."
Frowning the teen said, "I figured. But I had to ask."
"I don't blame you," Aaron said before he looked at Josie. "Now she wants me to put her down."
"Your beard is scaring her," a voice said jokingly from the doorway. Zak smiled at the kids when they turned to him and he walked the rest of the way into the room saying, "Morning."
After saying the same to Zak, Julia said, "Do you guys want something to eat?"
"I think we're good," Zak said, looking at the doorway where the rest of the crew was walking in.
"I can make something," Julia said. She was startled when Mari nudged her elbow and she said, "What?"
"I can help remember," Mari said firmly.
"You don't need to do that," Zak told them, getting their attention. "But thanks for offering."
Nodding, Julia said, "You're going to investigate right?"
"Anais'," Zak replied. "Since we're able to do that."
"And Skye asked us," Jay said. He made a confused expression for a moment and said, "Specifically me."
"I told you already," Skye said, smiling when nearly everyone in the room jumped at her voice. "You're good at research. And considering how old this case is…"
"Is everyone ready for breakfast?" Mary asked them.
"You don't need to make it," Beckett said, she and her husband joining the others. She smiled when Josie was hurrying over to her and picked the toddler up before she kissed her cheek. While her husband was doing the same to their youngest she told the others, "There should be oatmeal on the stove, we can make some bacon or sausage if you'd like it."
"I am hungry," Aaron said. He saw the way Julia and Mari were looking at him and said, "I didn't want to force you guys to make anything."
"I've cooked a lot," Julia commented while they were leaving the room. She couldn't help laughing when the investigator shrugged and she hurried over to her parents. "Are you okay?" she asked them once she was close.
"I am," Beckett said, since that had been directed towards her. "And you? You're up already?"
"Yeah, I went right to sleep," Julia said reassuringly. "What about your case?"
"Not right now," Beckett said gently. "But we'll see what we can tell you tonight."
Though she wanted to protest, Julia knew it wasn't going to do any good and she merely nodded her head since they were reaching the kitchen. She took Josie after her mother handed her to her and watched her while their parents were finishing preparing the meal. They ate in the dining room and while they were doing so she looked at Skye, seeing she appeared to be alright.
Around the middle of the meal, Jim and Martha returned and sat with the group in the dining room, speaking to them before Castle's mother was asking everyone about their plans.
"So you two will have an investigation?" Martha asked.
"Yeah, Brad said we can come in a little later," Beckett replied. "I have to text Patrick," she then told her husband.
"Will the drive to the station be long enough to tell him everything?" Castle asked her.
"It should," Beckett said. She then turned to her mother in law and said, "Are you wondering what they're going to do?"
"A little," Martha confessed.
"Investigate ourselves," Skye replied. "Or attempt to, but we'll be going to the library."
"Could we go?" Julia asked her parents immediately.
"No," Beckett said firmly.
"Not to go where they're going to go," Julia protested vehemently. "But to get some books."
"I think it'll be better if you stay," Castle commented. He wasn't surprised when the teen looked a little upset and he said, "They're going to try and investigate remember."
"We'll likely update you on anything we can find," Skye said. "I know," she told the others when they were looking at her in surprise. "It's a murder, but she knows the story now… they both do."
"Please let her tell me," Julia nearly begged.
"Alright, but not when your sisters are around," Beckett said. When the teen nodded she said, "I think we need to go," since her husband had tapped his watch. She stood and then said, "But we'll clean up first."
"Do you absolutely have to go?" Mary asked.
"No," Castle said first. "But we'd like to get started on the investigation."
"I'm glad to hear that," Skye said. "And then we can finish with everything."
"So you can go home," Mari stated, not surprised when the investigator was smiling before she responded.
"That's our hope," Skye replied with a nod.
After they had cleaned up from the meal, everyone headed out to the driveway to say goodbye to the rest of the GAC crew who would be heading to different places until the next location's filming. When they were alone, the McDouglases left with the four investigators and Castle and Beckett were turning to their daughters and Mari.
"We can't go?" Julia asked.
"No," Beckett said simply. "I know what you're going to do if you head into the library. And I don't want you to put that kind of pressure on Skye and Mary to allow you two to sit in on their investigation." She couldn't help smiling at the pout on her daughter's face and said, "Sorry about that sweetie."
"I kind of figured," Julia replied with a shrug. She then hugged her parents in turn and said, "We'll do something the rest of the day."
"Help your grandfather with lunch," Castle then told her, not surprised when she was nodding rapidly.
"I said I would, I think we're going to have tuna melts," Julia said.
"Then have fun on your day off," Beckett said.
"We will," Julia said, looking at Mari who was nodding. She picked up Josie while their parents were making their way to the garage and they were in the entry when their car left. "I need to go on my computer," she said.
"How?" Mari asked her, looking at Josie who her friend was soon setting down.
"You want to watch your show?" Julia directed to her little sister. When the toddler was nodding rapidly she motioned to Mari and they walked to the game room but found it empty. "Looks like they want to watch in here," she told Josie before they made their way to the family room.
"You wouldn't like to join us?" Martha asked the girls with a smile while Josie was hurrying into the room.
"Not really, I think we're going to play a game on my computer for a little," Julia said. "At least until the show is over."
"We'll let you know when it's over," Jim said. He watched them leave and once they could hear their footsteps going up to the second floor said, "She's going to try and search."
"Hmm, I think they still have the safety on her computer for that," Martha said.
"Should we stop her?" Jim asked.
"Richard said not to," Martha replied. "Only if she tries to go into their office." She wasn't surprised when Jim merely nodded, and they were turning their attention to their youngest granddaughter to begin watching Sesame Street with her.
At the same time in her room, Julia was typing on her search engine the name Anais Lindt before she said, "I don't know how much I'm going to be able to find."
"I was going to say," Mari said. "Actually I was gonna ask, if they took off your safe search thing but I forgot."
"They didn't, so I'm just hoping I'll find information," Julia said. She made a face and said, "Though without Anais with me I won't be able to prove it's true."
Nodding quickly in agreement, Mari then asked, "Did anything come up?"
Julia didn't answer at first, looking at the pages that had come up before she paused at the second to last.
"What is it?" Mari asked, having watched her closely.
"This has a genealogy of the Lindt family," Julia said, reaching for one of the desk drawers. "I should write this down, maybe it'll help the others looking at this one."
"I'll write," Mari said, taking the notebook her friend held once she had pulled it out.
Julia was about to protest when she finally nodded and said, "Sure, but my handwriting isn't that bad."
"No, but I have the better writing," Mari said. "Tell me the names," she added, taking the pen from her friend.
"Sure, but I might need to tell you about the relationships between these names," Julia informed her. She wasn't surprised when her friend nodded and turned back to the screen before she said, "This is the grandfather of Martin Lindt they talked about last night, Chester Lindt and he had a wife, Alma. They had three children, Harold, Eugene and Clyde and Martin's father is Harold."
"What about his mother?" Mari asked after she had finished writing everything she had told her rapidly.
"Her name was Loretta Frank," Julia said. "Should we note the rest of the family?"
"Yeah," Mari replied. "Didn't it mention mother or something?"
"Mother, family and friend," Julia said, turning to her. "I might have to put in her maiden name. Okay, so Eugene married a woman named Dorothy Austen and they had two daughters, Hannah and Frieda. Clyde married a woman named Della Giles and they had one son, Grady."
"That's it?" Mari asked, writing the rest down. After her friend nodded she said, "Now the Cloets."
"If there's anything about them," Julia said, making sure the spelling would be right as she typed it on a new tab. "Good thing we found that," she said after hitting enter on her keyboard. "Or else I would have had no idea what her name was."
"No luck?" Mari asked, watching her friend while she was reading. She wasn't surprised when Julia was shaking her head before she spoke a little slowly since she was still looking over the results.
"Not yet," Julia said. "Oh, here's something about her parents." She made sure the link was safe before she was opening it and reading saying, "Her father was Millard and her mother Marion." She read a little further and said, "Her last name was Dufort, not sure that'll be clue or anything."
"I'll write it down still," Mari replied before she was doing so. "Did Anais have any sisters?"
"No, or brothers," Julia said. She paused and said, "Why did you word it like that?"
"Sorry, I was writing then," Mari said. She smiled and said, "You could make a murder board with this, like your parents have."
"I could but all I would have is this," Julia replied, closing the tab she had. She stood up and went to one of her windows, looking down at the beach and said, "But at least it's something."
"Yeah, you should give that list to Skye, maybe those words have something to do with the murder," Mari replied.
"I wonder how she died," Julia said then, turning around and looking at the rest of her room. "I don't think the adults know yet, except for Dr. Thayer."
Nodding, since she knew the man from what her friend had told her concerning her parents' cases, Mari said, "I hope he figures that out."
"And the other case," Julia said musingly. She saw her friend was about to speak when she heard her grandfather calling to them from below and they hurried to leave so they could move to the game room as they'd discussed doing earlier.
"It's an interesting building," Zak said while they were making their way up the stairs of the public library.
"An old house, though I'm sure someone told you that already," Mary commented.
"They did," Aaron said. "I think it's awesome they left most of the fireplaces."
"Those are valuable," Mary said just was they were entering. She and her wife allowed the four to step up to the front desk first before the woman behind was talking first.
"Hello again," she told the four. "Did you need more information?" She was startled when they parted and she immediately recognized the two women stepping up to the desk. "How can I help you?" she asked.
Smiling a little, since the woman was a little flustered, Skye said, "We were hoping we could see the diaries of Mrs. Lindt, from 1923."
"Of course," the woman stammered. "I'll take you to the archive room we have set up."
"Thank you so much," Mary said as the woman was beginning to walk around the desk to leave it. "I'm Mary and this is my wife Skye. It sounds like you know these four."
"I do, I'm Paige Cloet," the librarian replied.
"Cloet," Skye said, looking at the men who nodded. "You're related to Mrs. Lindt."
"I think," the librarian said, leading them to the room. "The story in the family is that Mrs. Lindt's father had a half sister, the by-blow of a maid. That's where my family is from."
"How did you get that last name if it's not a for sure thing if that's where your family is from?" Jay asked.
"My grandfather changed the family name," Cloet said with a shrug. "But the paperwork for it is messed up so I have no idea what my father's family name was in the first place. Here we are." She led them into a room with shelves filled with boxes and said, "Give me a second to find what you were looking at yesterday."
"Could I ask you a question before you do that?" Skye asked her quickly. When the librarian was looking at her she said, "Do you have any other diaries from her?"
Shaking her head Cloet said, "We only have the one, it's believed Mr. Lindt or her father burned the others. This one was found in the building where Mr. Lindt was found after he'd committed suicide." After Skye had nodded she moved to where she was aware the diary was.
"And if there's anything else from the Lindts we'd appreciate seeing that too," Skye said, in a rush for the second time when it had suddenly hit her. She watched with the others as the librarian was getting the diary before she went to the table where they were gathered and spoke to them all.
"Give me a moment to see if there's anything else from the Lindts," Cloet said before she was walking back to the shelves.
"Are you alright?" Mary asked her wife, watching her closely.
"Yeah," Skye replied, holding the diary. "Anais was with me until the doors."
"She didn't want to come in?" Zak asked, picking up on that quickly.
Nodding Skye said, "She mentioned something about the family that owned this home turning up their noses at herself and her husband."
"That's not a surprise," Cloet said, returning with a small box. "Her family was second generation here in the Hamptons."
"The Cloets," Jay stated.
"Yeah," the librarian answered. "I found this, it's not on display since it's a little tarnished but this belonged to Mr. Lindt."
"How did you get a hold of that?" Aaron asked in surprise since it was a bracelet, a match for the one they'd seen with the bones of Anais.
"It ended up with the granddaughter of a police officer on the case," Cloet replied.
"He took it?" Billy inquired.
"I'm not sure," Cloet said honestly. "All I know is the name of the woman who donated it, Jessica Lewis."
"Thank you," Skye said, watching the woman leaving.
"She stayed with you yesterday," Mary said.
"Yeah, we were interviewing her," Zak said. "We didn't know the name was connected to the house or remembered her name."
"After everything that happened?" Skye asked. "I'm not surprised." She then turned her attention to the diary and laid it on the table before she said, "I think we need to sit."
"Are you going to read the whole thing?" Mary inquired. She wasn't surprised when her wife was nodding and she said, "I think we better get some chairs."
After they'd brought six of them, the group sat around the table and Skye began by reading the first entry in the diary. She read a few more before she paused and said, "Well… this was about a month before the last entry of the diary. It seems like she and her husband are still very much in love."
"I thought we were all in agreement it wasn't him," Zak said.
"Yeah, you said you heard from Anais," Aaron added.
"I did," Skye said. "I'm wondering about the thing Cloet mentioned,"
"The family thing?" Aaron then asked.
"Yeah," Skye answered, nodding briefly. "Though what she said… Anais not Cloet, is that there were some very stuck up people."
"And they would deny her entry?" Jay guessed.
"Whoever lived at this house," Skye replied, looking around. "I wish we could ask someone."
"Not Cloet?" Billy said in surprised. "I'll ask her."
"You're not okay," Mary told her wife, watching her closely before she spoke.
"No, it's Duncan now," Skye said, leaning back in her seat. "I think he was here before."
"Could have been," Zak said. He frowned and then asked, "If we ask Kate and Rick would they tell us about him?"
"Good question," Skye said.
"They might," Mary told her wife.
Thinking that over Skye then said, "Is it because he's with me?" At her wife's nod she said, "We'll see whenever we see them."
"You're thinking about something," Aaron stated. When the investigator looked at him he said, "It's all over your face."
Smiling briefly Skye said, "Lunch with them but of course we'd have to see how their investigation goes."
"It's funny they keep investigating murders," Jay commented, looking over at the door and not seeing Billy.
"They're used to it," Skye said.
"And they like to get justice for the victims," Mary said, turning with the others as her wife suddenly rose up a little in her seat before she was sitting again.
"In Kate's case that might be the victims and her abilities," Skye said. She saw the way the others were looking at her and said, "Just a thought since we're apparently on pause right now," just before Billy walked back into the room.
"Luckily it's well known whose house this is, this was the Cecils home," the tech said. "And they were first generation in town," he added, startled when Skye and Mary were both groaning in frustration.