Chapter 1

The Case of Deep In Death

Part 1

In many ways it had been a miserable summer for me. The look of disappointment on Beckett's face was indelibly imprinted on my mind as I walked away from her in the hospital. For the next week or maybe longer I did not get any calls from 12th Precinct and more to the point no calls from Detective Beckett. Not for a moment I did not think that the murderers in New York City had taken a holiday.

Seeing that she would not call me, I tried calling her but all I got was her voice mail, no doubt she was screening my calls. At first I would leave messages but after a while when I did not get any call backs I stopped leaving messages when I got her voice mail until I finally got the message and stopped calling all together.

"You touch my mother's case, and you and I are done."

Her words kept revolving around in my head every time I tried calling her. The reasons for me wanting to call her was because I wanted to explain to her why I had done what I had. I had wanted to tell her that I could have kept what I had learned secret but she had a right to know. Detective Beckett did not want to talk to me. Talk about being in the bad books. I was really deep in Beckett's Bad Book.

I could have picked up the phone and called the Big Cheese and use his influence but I decided not to go that way. If Beckett did not want me around then so be it. I would get over it, eventually.

To take my mind off that particular matter I turned my attention to finishing the final chapter of Heat Wave. All I had left to do was the final edits and some re-writes before I sent the finished product to Ex-wife Number Two and publisher to do her magic and turn my manuscript into book form and have it ready to be published.

I have to say that I was a little surprised that ex-wife Number Two and publisher was a little more forthcoming and effusive than usual about my latest work. When she had mentioned it I thought she was going come out and praise me in front of her underlings. I should have known better. Before my ego had any chance to inflate, she slapped me down by saying that this book had better be a best-seller or she would be demanding back the publisher's advance. That was the Gina Cowell that I knew and once loved.

My agent Paula Haas was very excited about the book. I had shown her the first half of the manuscript and she had declared it to be one of my best. I have to say that Paula does not get too overly excited about a new book of mine, not like the early days and she prefers to slap me down just in case I get too big headed but she has a good eye for such things, and I valued her opinion. She was already talking about organising a book tour and a whole raft of interviews come publishing day. I was not quite ready to deal with those particular matters.

So with a sense of excitement that I might have a very good book on my hands, I packed up the family and headed for the Hamptons for our annual summer vacation. During the day it was sun and sand, doing the traditional Castle family things, swimming, building sandcastles, that sort of thing. Alexis put up with the traditional Castle family things for a couple of days before she came out and told me that she was a little too old for making sandcastles and she wanted to go out with her friends.

I will admit that it hurt a little bit. I disguised the disappointment by playing the 'cool dad' and told her sure she could go off and catch up with her friends. It was yet another less than subtle reminder that my little girl was growing up rapidly. That life was changing. I was not too sure that I liked it all that much.

It was late at night when Alexis was sleep in bed or having a sleep over with friends and mother was gallivanting around the Hamptons visiting friends, I would venture to my office and think about Beckett's mother's case. Soon I came to the conclusion, that despite Beckett's feelings on the matter, I had done the right thing. I had found some new information about the case. I had found a possible new lead. It consoled me a little bit on those long summer nights.

And I did a bit of writing. I began to flesh out possible new plots for future Nikki Heat novels. When I was doing that I had no idea if there would be any more Nikki Heat books but there was all these ideas and stories floating around in my head that I needed to put down on paper as soon as possible otherwise my head would explode.

It was not as if I was a total recluse, far from it, I attended a few parties here and there. As per usual there were a handful of women who were more than happy to throw themselves at me but for some reason that I could not explain, I found that I was not all that interested.

I am sure Mother must have found that a little odd on those couple of occasions that we attended the same party, considering my performance the year before where I really lived up to my playboy image once my parental duties for the day were over. I do recall Mother giving me a quizzical look or two when she saw me brushing off the latest pneumatic blonde who came up to me gushing that she was my number one fan. Mother did not say anything to me though.

It was at the tail end of the summer holiday when Paula called me to say that she had lined up a big interview with Cosmopolitan that included a photo spread to help publicise Heat Wave. I was only too happy to do the interview. Cosmo is a pretty big deal and would go out to a huge readership. I

was okay with the photo shoot but became less keen on it when Paula told me that the magazine wanted to do the shoot at the 12th Precinct. Paula over rode any objection I might have had, like she usually did, by saying that she had run it past the Mayor, and the Big Cheese was all for the interview and photo shoot. It was something about getting good publicity for the NYPD. She also mentioned that Cosmo wanted to interview Detective Beckett. I demurred about that. I did not think Beckett would want to do an interview. Paula told me not to worry about it and then rang off.

A couple of days before the Castle clan packed up their tents to come back to the city Amy Saunders the writer from Cosmopolitan came up to the Hamptons to do the interview. She was a young, petite Asian American woman, aged in her mid twenties with an enthusiastic and gushing attitude that would have been more suited to one of those magazines that targeted the teen market.

On Amy's arrival I gave her a tour of the house and the grounds before we settled down in the living room and got started on with the interview. Amy's enthusiasm was infectious and I suppose I may have big noted myself here and there in answer to some of her questions just to impress her. After about four hours the interview was wound up and I sent a new fan girl on her way. I went back to packing up for the return back to the city.

On returning to the city I tried once more to contact Beckett but all I got was the same result as the last time. I called Captain Montgomery to give him a heads up about the photo shoot. The captain was looking forward to it. He had already been given a heads up by the Big Cheese. We engaged in some small talk asking about each others family and then the Captain asked when I was going to come back into the precinct. I will admit that I told Captain Montgomery a little white lie, I told him that I was kind of busy at the moment with things that prevented me from coming in. I promised him that we would catch up on the day of the photo shoot.

The day of the photo shoot rolled around and I don't think I felt more nervous than I did on that day. I was not concerned about the actual photo shoot, I've done them countless times before and it just becomes second nature even though a great many of them can be long and tiring. What made me nervous was the fact that I would be seeing Detective Beckett again. Because we had not talked since that day in the hospital I was not sure how she would react at seeing me again.

The photo shoot was set down for the afternoon after lunch and at the appointed time I made my appearance in the bullpen. The boys were happy to see me, greeting me almost like a long lost brother. I'm sure they were also happy to see the two models that had been hired for the photo shoot.

Beckett greeted me cordially and I thought I saw a hint of a smile but perhaps that was wishful thinking on my part. I was a little relieved to see that she was not angry at me just very cool. I could live with that.

I was quickly commandeered by one of the photographer's assistants and dumped in a director's chair and had some one dusting my face with a light coat of makeup. There was then a bit of a discussion about the suit I was wearing until another assistant said that what I was wearing was fine. Soon I was directed to the area that had been set aside for the actual shoot.

The two models hired for the photo shoot, a blonde and a brunette were dressed in black stripper-cop uniforms and there were a couple of posters for Heat Wave in the background. Pretty soon I and the two girls were striking the pose and doing what ever the photographer wanted us to do.

While I was doing all of this and having the two girls hanging off me and looking as sexy as all get out, I could not help but notice the look of disapproval on the face of Detective Beckett. Dare I say it, she looked a little disgusted at all the goings on in the bullpen. Her attention was drawn away from what I was doing back to Amy Saunders who was sitting in my chair to do the interview with her.

"What's so special about world famous mystery novelist Richard Castle?" Amy enthused. "He's rich, he's handsome and he's basing his next best seller on you. Tell me, Detective Beckett, what's it like being the inspiration for thrill-master Richard Castle's new character, Nikki Heat?"

Beckett looked a little uncomfortable having a microphone shoved in her face. She glanced at it before lifting her gaze to Amy and offered up a small strained smile.

"On behalf of the NYPD, it has been a pleasure to offer Mr Castle insight into the profession." Kate replied carefully, if a little stiffly.

"Given all his best sellers, it's obvious Mr Castle has tremendous insight into the criminal mind." Amy gushed. "I'm told on many occasions, his participation was essential to solving your toughest cases."

"Really?" Beckett frowned at the young reporter. "You were told that?"

Amy nodded her head. Beckett frowned.

"By who?" She demanded.

"By Castle."

Beckett frowned even more at that piece of news. Glancing away from young Amy, Beckett caught sight of Captain Montgomery walking through the bullpen. She quickly turned back to the reporter and gave her a brief apologetic smile.

"Could you excuse me?"

Before Amy could respond, Beckett was out of her chair and collaring the Captain.

"Sir, could I talk to you in private for a moment, please?"

"Beckett, I have a couple..."

"Now." Beckett snapped before she marched into the Captain's office.

Captain Montgomery moved to stand behind his desk and watched as Beckett paced the floor back and forth a couple of times.

"We had a deal, Beckett." Captain Montgomery informed her.

The Captain did not have to ask Beckett the reasons for this little private chat. He had guessed merely from the look on her face.

"The deal is off." Beckett said, stopping her pacing to look at the Captain.

"What's the problem?"

"Not only does he have the bachelor party cop twins out there using him a stripper pole while I make nicey-nice with the press, but do you know what he said?" Beckett said as she waved her hand in the direction where my ruggedly handsome face was being photographed.

"No." Captain Montgomery ventured.

"He said that he has been instrumental in helping us solve crimes."

Captain Montgomery was a little surprised by his best detective's outburst.

"Well, hasn't he?" he said.

The good captain was very wise not to bring up that particular moment not all that long ago when Beckett herself had told him that the mob murder would not have been solved with out my help. Mind you my beautiful and ever inspiring muse and extraordinary partner in life continues to maintain she has no recollection of ever having said that but, I digress.

Faced with the truth of the matter she might just might have dug herself into a hole, Beckett reined in the tirade that she was ready to unleash.

"That's not the point." She said through gritted teeth.

"Do you know how hard it is for NYPD to get good press? I mean, in a magazine people actually read?" Captain Montgomery said. "This article is very important to the mayor, therefore we are going to cooperate. Do I make myself clear?"

"Okay, fine." Beckett sighed, knowing when she was defeated.

Still, she did not look too pleased when she walked out of the captain's office.

For the above I have to thank the late Captain Montgomery who filled me in on what had happened when I wandered into his office when the photo shoot was finished to thank him for allowing the precinct to be used for the photo shoot.

XXX

It was early evening when the boys were in the break room getting a coffee as was Beckett. One of the models was there getting herself a soda from the dispensing machine. Detective Ryan was ogling her and it would have been a lot funnier if his tongue was hanging out. Beckett started making herself a coffee, ignoring the looks the boys were giving the model as she was walking out of the break room.

"We should have photo shoots more often." Ryan remarked wistfully.

"Hey, Beckett." Esposito said turning to look at her. "How come you don't dress like that?"

"Because I don't want to be paid in singles." Beckett shot back.

It was at that moment I stuck my head in the break room.

"Hey." I said.

"Oh hey." Ryan said turning to his partner. "Don't we have that thing?"

"No." His partner replied unhelpfully.

"Yeah, you know, that thing with the guy?" Ryan said

Beckett turned and levelled a look in Esposito's direction. Esposito took the hint.

"Oh, yeah, the thing..." He said.

"Yeah, excuse us." Ryan said, as he and his partner exited the break room from another door leaving Beckett and I alone.

I could not help but grin at Ryan's efforts but if you want to clear the room, nothing does it faster than one of Beckett's patented Death Glares.

"I just wanted you to know that I had nothing to do with this." I said hesitantly. "I mean, it was the magazine. Well, the mayor thought it would be good publicity."

"You don't have to explain yourself." Beckett told me.

"Really?" I was more than a little surprised by what she had just said.

"Really. See, I don't care anymore." Beckett said dismissively. She picked up her coffee and cast a look at me. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an interview to get back to."

Beckett brushed past me as she made her way back to her desk. I was not going to leave it like that. I couldn't. I followed her.

"What did I do that was so wrong?" I asked in a low voice.

"The one thing I asked you not to do." Beckett retorted, also in a low voice.

"Okay, so you asked me not to look into your mother's murder." I conceded. I still felt a pang of guilt. Suddenly I brightened. "But look at what I found."

"It doesn't matter what you found. I put that all behind me a long time ago."

Definitely still not forgiven. We had reached Beckett's desk where Amy was still waiting. Beckett turned on a pleasant smile for the young reporter.

"We can get back to the interview now." Beckett told her.

"Nope, you're going to have reschedule." Esposito announced as he walked up to her desk. "We just caught a body."

"So sorry to step out on you, Amy." Beckett said apologetically but looking anything but.

"Oh, are you kidding?" Amy said excitedly. "Its perfect. A chance to see Castle in action. Our readers will love it."

Beckett had her mouth open to offer another apology but it appeared that the Universe had turned against her because right at that moment Captain Montgomery walked up to her desk.

"Well, we wouldn't want to disappoint your readers now, would we detective?" Captain Montgomery said pointedly.

The smile that had threatened to break across Beckett's face had second thoughts and quickly turned tail and fled to the hills. She shot a glare in the direction of the captain before she turned it full on at me. I might not have helped matters but smirking at her. Right that moment I didn't care. This was my chance to get back into her good graces, and I was going to do anything and everything to do so.

Beckett gathered herself up and gritted out an 'of course not sir'.

XXX

Because I was still in the Beckett Bad Books I did not get to ride with her to the scene of the murder. Instead I had to catch a ride with Esposito and Ryan and had to endure an interrogation from the boys about what had I done to have Beckett to have so angry at me. I was not about to tell the boys that I had found some new information on Beckett's mother's case, that was something between me and her. I defaulted to my usual response, I feigned ignorance. I'm not really sure they bought that, they're detectives after all. Thankfully Ryan managed to change the subject by bringing up the topic of the bachelor party cop twins, and his wish that there should be more photo shoots in the precinct. I promised to mention his request to my publicist.

It was getting on in the evening when we arrived at the crime scene. I got out of the car almost before it had come to a stop and raced over to Beckett who had driven down to the scene on her own. All ready the street had been blocked off by uniforms and the ME and CSU people were on the scene. Several banks of powerful spotlights had been set up and switched on to provide illumination of the crime scene.

"Hey, can we talk about this please?" I said, when I caught up to Beckett as we crossed the street and approached where the body had been found.

"There's nothing to talk about." Beckett replied.

"Well, you could at least let me know what I can do to make it up to you."

"You could leave me alone." Beckett said firmly.

"Yes, well, I tried that, and it didn't work." I replied. I was desperate to get back into her good graces. Suddenly I had an idea. "Hey, I could buy you a pony!"

Did I mention I was desperate to get back into Beckett's good graces?

Beckett scrunched up her face in that adorable way she does on hearing my offer.

"Focus, Castle." Beckett said. "Crime scene, okay?"

We reached the side walk and looked up at the tree. Esposito and Ryan joined us and were straining their necks to where the body had landed. The body had wedged itself in the vee of a pair of thick branches. A cherry picker had been brought up close to the tree and the platform had been raised up to where the body was situated. Standing on the platform was Medical Examiner Dr Lanie Parish. She was attached to a safety harness as she busily jotted down notes on her clipboard.

"It's raining men." I quipped as I stared up at the body.

Dr Parish paused in her note taking, shielded her eyes from the glare of the spotlights and peered down. She did not look pleased.

"Castle, what are you doing here?" She demanded.

"Don't worry. We're still mad at him." Beckett called up to her friend.

"A guy in a tree, Mom and Dad bickering." Ryan remarked to his partner. "Seems like old times."

"Mm-mmm" Esposito replied.

"How's it going up there?" Beckett asked.

"I got tree branches poking my boobs and spotlights shining up my booty." Lanie replied.

"Could be worse. You could be wearing a skirt." Esposito remarked, a smirk on his face.

Lanie stopped writing and glared down at us and in particular the Hispanic detective standing beside me.

"When I come down, I'm gonna smack you."

"I'll be looking forward to that." Esposito said, grinning.

Lanie regarded Esposito a moment before she picked up a wallet and tossed it down to Esposito who caught the object effortlessly.

"Vic's a white male, late thirties." Lanie reported. "Judging from the cracked branches, I'm guessing he did a Superman off the top of that building." Lanie pointed to the three storey apartment building behind the tree.

Esposito had opened the wallet that Lanie had thrown to him and inspected it.

"Vic's name is John Allen. ID has him on the Upper West Side. Business card has him in insurance." Esposito informed us.

Amy Saunders came to join our group and spoke for the first time.

"Is it a suicide?" She asked.

"It's not a suicide." Beckett and I said simultaneously.

Beckett and I shared a momentary look of surprise at having spoken at the same time, and having said the same thing. That was a little spooky. Little did I know at the time that this would become one of our 'things'.

"How do you know?" Amy asked.

"The building is too short." Beckett informed her. "He'd want to kill himself, not cripple himself."

"If you want to die, you're going to aim for concrete not a tree." I added. Pausing a moment I studied the building behind the tree. "Judging from the angle of descent, I'd say he was thrown off the building."

"Since it clearly wasn't a suicide, how did he die?" Beckett asked Lanie.

"There are signs of strangulation. It looks like his windpipe was crushed." Lanie replied.

"Any ligature marks?"

"Nope." Lanie said simply.

I looked across to Amy.

"Ligature refers to anything that ties or binds, like a rope or a belt." I informed her. "The lack of any marks suggests that he was strangled by hand."

"Wow, you really know your stuff." Amy gushed. "No wonder they like having you around."

I felt a hand on my shoulder and found it belonged to Beckett. There was a look in her eye that I could not quite fathom.

"You know what?" She said. "He's such an incredible resource it seems like a shame to waste his talents here in the field." Beckett glanced at Amy before turning her attention back to me.

"Would you mind going back to the morgue with Dr Parish to see what else you can find out about the vic?"

"Don't you think I'd be of more use here at the crime scene?" I said.

"Oh, no." Beckett replied, a small humourless smile on her face as she looked at me. "We're just going to knock on doors and see what else we can stir up. You know, boring police stuff."

I got the message even though I did not like it. I was not about to make a scene right in front of everyone.

"Fine." I conceded. I leaned close to Beckett before speaking again. "I was serious about the pony."

I moved across to where Amy was standing.

"Come on, I'll show you the umm...morgue mobile." I said.

It took more than a few minutes for Lanie's people to get the body of John Allen down from the tree and on to a guerney and bring it over to the morgue-mobile. To kill a bit of time I answered a few questions that Amy threw at me and showed her the morgue-mobile.

A couple of morgue people came up with the body and loaded it into the back of the morgue-mobile.

"You mean we have to ride with the body?" Amy said, going a little pale.

I must say that Amy was shocked at the thought of having to ride in the back with the body of the victim. This was not the way to becoming a top notch journalist, you go white as a sheet at the thought of having to ride in the back of a van with a dead body. If she was to ask me for career advice I would have told her to go for the teen magazines where they dissect everything the members of the latest hot boy band to hit the charts say and do.

"You can take my seat up the front." Lanie told her, giving her one of those fake sweet smiles.

"You sure?" Amy asked hesitantly.

"Mmm, I'm used to hanging out with stiffs."

Lanie again gave young Amy one of those overly sweet, friendly fake smiles and the second Amy headed for the front seat, Lanie dropped the smile and shot me a look that would have frozen the fires of Hell itself before she turned and climbed into the back of the van. I mentally shook off the icicles and climbed in as well.

A couple of minutes later the morgue mobile was rolling, heading back to the morgue. It was a little uncomfortable riding in the back of the van feeling Lanie's angry glare on me. I had been staring into space for a few moments before I lifted my gaze and turned to look at Lanie.

"Hi." I said.

"Uh-uh, you don't get to say 'hi' to me." Lanie shot back. "I'm just doing my girlfriend a favour."

"Oh, you too, huh?" I said with a sigh.

I was not surprised that Lanie was backing her friend Beckett. It told me that Beckett had spoken to someone about what I had done.

"Well, what do you expect?" Lanie said. "Beckett spent the first three years of being a cop trying to solve her mother's murder. It took everything that she had to put it behind her. You couldn't respect that?"

"What was I supposed to do? Not tell her what I found?" I replied.

"What you found?" Lanie frowned.

"Oh, she didn't tell you, did she?" I said.

Beckett may have spoken to Lanie about this matter but from the look on Lanie's face it was clear to me that Beckett had not told her everything.

"Three people were killed the same way her mother was, right about the same time." I said. "One of them was a former law student of hers, another was a documents clerk. The third was a lawyer for a non-profit."

Lanie considered what I had said for a moment before she looked over to me.

"Wait, the ME at the time didn't make the connection?"

"If he did, he buried it." I said.

"Did you talk to him?" Lanie asked.

"He died four years ago." I looked at Lanie. "So, you see why I had to tell her."

"What did she say?"

"That we were done." I said dejectedly. "And then she just..."

I never got to finish the sentence because there was an all mighty bang as steel impacted steel with an ear splitting screech. The force of the collision had both Lanie and me tumbling out of our seats and onto the floor of the morgue-mobile. There was a screech of tyres.

On the floor of the morgue-mobile I was still struggling to come to terms with what just happened and looking to see that Lanie was alright when the back door of the van was flung open by a masked man brandishing an assault rifle.

"Don't move! Don't move!" The masked man shouted as he waved the rifle about.

"Whoa!" I said as I stared up at the masked man.

The masked man jumped into the van and grabbed hold of the body and started pulling on it. I noticed there were two other masked men standing by the doors ready to take hold of the body that Masked Man Number One was dragging towards them.

Masked Man Number Two and Masked Man Number Three grabbed the body on either side and lifted it.

"Go! Go!" Masked Man Number One shouted.

The other two masked men dragged the body over to a waiting car that had pulled up to the morgue-mobile and dumped the body in the trunk of the car. One of the masked men slammed the lid of the trunk down and both men jumped into the car.

"Don't move!" Masked Man Number One warned as he back out of the van.

He jumped off the van and dashed over to the car. With a loud screech of tyres the car sped off.

Slowly I turned to look to a visibly stunned Lanie.

"Is it just me, or was that really weird?" I asked.

XXX

Thankfully no one was hurt, shaken up yes, but not hurt. Once the initial shock had faded a little I looked across to Lanie. She too was on the floor. I scrambled over to where she was and helped her up. She assured me that she was fine when I asked her the usual question, 'if she was alright'

Amy Saunders was a little more shaken than the rest of us. Lanie was able to settle her down before she became hysterical. The driver of the morgue mobile was also unharmed. Within minutes a couple of police cruisers showed up to the scene to handle traffic and to make sure we were okay.

Not far behind the police cruisers were the boys, Esposito and Ryan. They wore looks of concern as they got out of their car and when they saw that none of us were hurt, their concern turned to relief. I gave Esposito a statement of what had transpired, while Ryan handled Lanie and Amy.

After Esposito had finished taking my statement he stepped away and made a call to the precinct. I don't know who he spoke to because he did not tell me when I asked him after he had finished up with the call. I could hazard a guess who had been calling.

The boys gave Lanie and me a lift back to the precinct. In the bullpen Captain Montgomery wanted Lanie to give me a quick once over. I assured him and the guys that I was fine, that there was nothing to worry about but the captain insisted. I suspect he might have been a little worried about any repercussions from up on high if there was something wrong with me.

Propping myself I allowed Lanie to conduct a quick examination. She produced one of those little flashlights and checked my pupils.

"Well?" Captain Montgomery asked.

"He'll live." Lanie concluded. Then she flicked my ear which made me jump a little.

"What, no brain damage?" Ryan inquired, unable to hide his smirk.

"If he has some, it happened way before tonight and was possibly self-inflicted." Lanie concluded.

I could not help but smile as I made a quick dash memory lane.

"Ah, good times." I said wistfully.

"How's Lois Lane?" The captain asked.

"Who, reporter chick?" Ryan said. Captain Montgomery nodded his head. "We took her statement and we sent her home."

The Captain nodded his head again.

"We got an APB on the sedan, CSUs are combing the rooftop, and we got unis looking for surveillance footage at the crash site." Ryan reported.

"You know, what I don't get is, who would steal a dead body?" Esposito said.

Now this was an area that I was reasonably knowledgeable about and was more than happy to impart some of that knowledge to the guys, which I did not hesitate to do.

"Oh, plenty of people." I said. "Organ harvesters, cadaver-less med students, Satanists, mad scientists looking to create their own monster."

"Or the guys who killed him might have left some evidence behind." Beckett suggested.

She had snuck behind me silently and I was a touch startled when she had spoken. I glanced behind me.

"Boring." I told her quickly before I turned back to the the boys, Captain Montgomery and Lanie and continued with my theory. "How about a spy having swallowed a top secret microchip that the enemy forces murder him over before the CIA can get a hold of him?"

I will admit that I was expecting a much better response to my theories than the one I got from the guys. From Captain Montgomery and Lanie I got blank looks, a frown from Esposito and a smirk from Ryan. It was worth at least an eye roll, at least I thought so.

"As much as we all appreciate your insightful and incredibly believable theories, Ms Cosmo is gone, so I believe you can go home now." Beckett announced.

It never fails to surprise me how much sarcasm can drip from Beckett's dulcet voice.

I eased off the desk I was leaning against and moved to where Beckett was standing.

"Home?" I said. I did not like the idea of being sent home. "No, no, no...this case just good. And I'm a witness."

I looked over to where Captain was standing, shooting him a pleading look. Beckett also looked over to the Captain. Captain Montgomery, bless him, gave Beckett the kind of look that said: 'you'd better say yes'.

When Beckett turned back to look at me. I saw that she did not look very pleased that she had been over ruled by her captain. She got into my personal space as she fixed me with a hard stare.

"Alright." She said. "I'll let you work this case with me if you promise to leave me alone when it's over and not to weasel your way back in."

"Deal." I said. I took a breath and spoke again. "But fair warning Detective. I will make you change your mind."

Did I mention that I was desperate to get back into her good graces?

"I won't." Beckett said firmly.

"You will." I assured her.

The look she gave me said that there was no way she was going to change her mind. That was alright with me. I could work with that. Detective Beckett had never encountered the full onslaught of the Castle charm. There were few women alive who could resist the full onslaught of the Richard Castle charm. Already I was summoning the forces to battle.

"So, what's the next step?" I asked. "Victim's family?"

From out of the corner of my eye I caught sight Esposito and Ryan exchange a look. I then saw Ryan shake his head as he handed over some money to his now smiling partner. If I did not know any better I would have sworn that the boys were betting on whether Beckett would take me back or not.

XXXXX

There you have it, dear reader, the first instalment of the first case of the second volume of the Castle Case Files. I hope you enjoyed it. Please let me know what you thought of it, I'd like to hear from you.

Just to let you know, I will be publishing these case files in five case blocks.

Con