21. Chapter 21

AN:

1. My apologies for the slowdown in posting. When I started this, I had already written almost all of what I thought would be a story of about eight chapters; but apparently I talk too much, even on paper. Still working at it.

2. Parts of the next two chapters are a bit heavy with situations and dialogue from episodes, for which, obviously, I take no credit. Please bear with me.

3. Thank you for staying with the story. It's appreciated.

Chapter 21

When they arrived at his attorney's office on Monday morning, Castle ushered his wife into the waiting area and Kate was surprised to find her father there. Jim stood to hug his daughter and shake Castle's hand.

"Dad, why are you here?" Kate asked.

"I asked him to be here with you. I wanted you to be entirely comfortable with what you'll be signing."

"That's really thoughtful of you, but you didn't need to do that. You're the one who needs to be careful, and I don't need my dad to hold my hand. No offense, Dad."

"None taken. I've been hearing that since you were three."

Rick snickered then looked at Kate and explained, "I don't doubt for a minute that you'll understand everything put in front of you, but there's a lot here, Kate. I'm no Warren Buffet, but I've done pretty well for myself."

"Are you sure you want me here, Rick?" Jim asked. This is putting your new father-in-law in the middle of all your business. Most men wouldn't want that."

"In case anything happens to me, I want you familiar enough with what Kate has to handle that you can easily step in if she has questions. Nobody wants to think about it, and we certainly aren't planning on it; but there is the possibility that either Kate or I, or both of us, could be killed or disabled if we end up in the wrong situation. My mother and daughter would need someone to help them through that sort of time. If it only happened to me, Kate would need you, too."

"Are you sure about this? Bringing your new wife and her attorney father…"

"If I didn't trust your daughter, I wouldn't have married her; and if I didn't trust you, I wouldn't have asked. I have nothing to hide, and I assume the attorney/client confidentiality will follow us on your part when we leave here."

"That goes without saying."

"Then sit with Kate today and observe. Advise her if you think you should. Do you know Winston?"

"We're acquaintances. He's an excellent attorney… and he must think you're insane."

Castle smiled his smirky smile. "That opinion has come up on occasion. Sometimes I don't listen well, but I'm not all that bad."

"You sound like a nightmare of a client," Jim teased."

Castle admitted, "Now and then. Mostly in the past," and indicated chairs where they all sat down.

The receptionist brought a tray and placed it on the table in front of them. "Mr. Castle always has coffee. If anyone would like something else, I can bring tea, juice, or soft drinks."

"Coffee is fine for all of us," Kate answered, and Jim nodded.

"Mr. Griffith will be with you shortly, Mr. Castle."

They were soon called into the attorney's conference room, the full account of Castle's wealth was laid out before them, and Kate and her father were both taken by surprise.

For the first time, Castle was giving a wife access to all that information before a divorce demanded it. He was also allowing Kate access to use of it. His attorney was thoroughly opposed to that; but, at his client's insistence, he prepared the paperwork. Kate discovered that, in addition to trusts for Martha, Alexis, and Meredith, there had been a trust for her since the year before…well before they were together. Half of Castle's income from the sale of the Nikki Heat books went to Kate's trust, and the same would happen with the future books. He allowed no argument there, either.

"Castle, I don't want all this. I've told you I didn't marry you for your money."

"I know that, which is why I trust you with it. And if you should be in the position of having to take care of my daughter, or my mother…or me, I want you to have access to everything you need to do that. You don't ever have to touch any of it if you don't want to, but sign the papers so there are no legal hang-ups if it becomes a necessity."

Legal papers were signed with minimal comment from her father. Signatures for Castle's bank accounts were requested, and her own credit card for Castle's account was given to her. She pushed it back to him and said, "Don't expect me to use them…the accounts or the card."

"Jim, you raised a stubborn daughter," he said as he put the card in his pocket.

"I know, but I'm still proud of her."

"Me, too." The two men smiled at one another.

"I'm sitting right here, you know," Kate grumbled from between them. Her arms folded across her chest.

Throughout the meeting, Kate and her father saw a whole new side of Castle. The man who had amassed such large holdings emerged. Not a sign of the man-child they all knew showed itself until business was completed.

Afterward, Castle invited Jim to stop for coffee with them, and they walked to a little coffee shop near the attorney's office.

"Thank you for being here, Jim," Castle said.

"You didn't really need me."

"I did…for the reasons I gave you."

They had their coffee and talked for a while before Jim said he had to prepare for a lunch appointment with a client. When they all stood to leave, Jim shook his son-in-law's hand. "You continue to impress me, Rick. I don't know why you hide the businessman in you so well, but it's impressive. But, Son, I'm much more impressed with the kind of man you are than with the money. I'm glad my daughter has you." He gave Castle a fatherly pat on the arm before he left.

Kate looked over at him lovingly and whispered, "What he said." Then she took his arm and enjoyed the look of pride he gave her as they walked out to the street to hail a cab.

As they finished packing when they got home, Kate said, "It was nice of you, but you didn't need to invite my father this morning."

"When you were three, did you need to hold your father's hand most of the times he insisted?"

"Probably," she reluctantly admitted.

"And the few times he explained something today or made a good point when you wanted to argue, did it help?" he asked his wife.

"Yes," she conceded with a roll of her eyes and the hint of a smile.

"See?" he teased. "You still feel better when your dad is around to help you face the unknown, even when you could get by without him. I'm hoping Alexis will still feel that way about me when she's grown and independent. And if anything happens to me, you'll feel more comfortable having your father with you than dealing exclusively with an attorney you don't know that well."

"Rick, are you sure it's a good idea to plan that far ahead with Dad? He's been sober for a while now, and I think he'll stay with the program, but…"

"Kate, please remember, we're not planning on actually needing him for that. It's all a big 'just in case'. He and I have talked a lot, and I know he's a good man. I can see where you got your integrity. I've seen how he beats himself up about failing you; but I'm not unaware that if anything happened to you, he could easily go down that road again. He's faced a huge challenge and overcome it, and I want to help you support him. "

"You really do care about my dad, don't you?"

"I do. But I would have liked him with or without you." He stopped for a long moment as if deciding whether to say more. "He treats me like I think he might treat a son. I should be in his corner like one."

"And you've never had that before?"

"A hint with the stepfathers, but no. Not really. I used to try to imagine what my father would be like. It was fun to think he could be an astronaut, a CIA agent, a test pilot, even the president. I had quite a list of stories. But deep down, what I wanted was a father like yours. Someone who would spend time with his child just because he wants to, take an interest in what she does…provide a little praise and encouragement now and then, show some pride in her. Your dad calls once in a while when he knows I won't be at the precinct and asks me to have lunch with him, just to hang out…and like this morning, he takes time to tell me he's impressed with me. It's a good feeling. I think he genuinely likes me for who I am, not just because I'm with you."

"I'm one hundred per cent sure he does, and it might make you feel better to know he says similar things about you. We're both lucky to have you, Ricky Rodgers." Kate wrapped her arms around her husband and sighed, "I love you."

And he held her for a long moment and kissed her lovingly before they finished packing.

When Castle asked where Kate would like to go for their honeymoon, she asked for somewhere like the Hamptons, but warmer; so he made arrangements for a house in the Caribbean, with a private beach. They were on a plane the next day and ensconced in their own little world that night. The house was stocked with everything they needed, and there was a touristy town close by that would provide entertainment when they wanted to go out. They played in the ocean, took long walks on the beach, meeting others along the way sometimes, skinny-dipped in the pool, and creatively took advantage of the complete privacy the house offered. They returned home on New Year's Day after having celebrated New Year's Eve in their own way. And they spent Sunday with their family before Kate had to be back at work.

xxxxx

Not far into the new year, the precinct was treated to the presence of Natalie Rhodes, a well-known method actress who had been cast as Nikki Heat in the upcoming Heat Wave movie. She had asked to follow Beckett to immerse herself in the character. Most of the precinct was star-struck, Ryan in particular, which caused some trouble with his girlfriend, Jenny.

At first Beckett expected that it would be fun to have her follow a case with them; but then it became uncomfortable, progressing to annoying and unsettling. As Natalie got further into the character, she pointed out habits Beckett was not aware of, then began to mimic her posture and gestures, and Beckett was grudgingly holding on to her self-control. However, when Natalie's immersion in the character involved taking Beckett's coffee out of Castle's hand, it passed annoying. And when, while dressed as a Beckett clone, she asked for Beckett's permission to sleep with Castle for character research on the passion between Nikki and Jameson Rook, it was the last straw.

Beckett excused herself without comment, went and found Castle in the break room, threw her arms around him, and told him what happened.

"Just hold me for a few seconds," she whimpered, obviously at the end of her very frayed and increasingly short rope.

"We're at the precinct," he pointed out as he followed her directions to the letter anyway.

She took a few deep breaths, clinging to him before she pushed away, seeming calmer. "That woman is infuriating."

"She's trying to do a good job of playing the character."

"I know, and she probably will; but I don't have to enjoy feeling like a bug under a microscope…or watching her try to seduce my husband."

"Come on. It's getting late. Close up here for the night, and let's go home where there's no trace of Natalie Rhodes."

"You're gonna need a shower before that happens. I can smell her perfume on you."

"First thing I do, I promise. Will you help me wash it off?"

There was a tiny upturn at the corners of her lips when she answered flirtatiously, "Maybe." Then she went back, put things away, picked up her purse, and turned to Natalie saying, "No. You can't. We're going home now. Take me home, Rick."

As it turned out, Natalie Rhodes made some significant contributions to the case, and she and Beckett parted on good terms; but the entire team was ready to see her go, even Ryan. One Beckett was enough.

Immediately after Natalie's departure, Jenny came to apologize to Ryan for their misunderstanding, and Ryan took advantage of the cease of hostilities to propose to her in front of the entire homicide floor.

As the homicide detectives swarmed around the couple to offer congratulations, Ryan confided to Castle that the winnings from his bachelor party poker game and the bet at the wedding would make the next payment on the ring and take Jenny out for a nice, celebratory dinner.

So their team now consisted of a married couple, an engaged man, and whatever Esposito and Lanie were. Truth be told, they weren't certain that even Lanie and Esposito knew exactly what Lanie and Esposito were; but whatever it was, they seemed to be happy with it at the moment.

xxxxx

Toward the end of January, Beckett received a phone call out of the blue, from retired Detective John Raglan, who had led the investigation of her mother's murder.

After introducing himself, he launched into his reason for calling. "We need to talk…about your mother's case. There's something you don't know." He told her where to meet him and warned her not to bring cops.

She took Castle with her to meet him at a coffee shop and introduced him to her husband. By the time Raglan finally seemed to be getting to his point, his conversation had including the fact that he was dying.

"I hid a lot of sins behind my badge, and now I gotta carry it," he told them. In response to Beckett's accusation that he hadn't done his job well, he said, "I did what I was told. And I kept quiet because I was afraid."

Just as he admitted that he was involved in something that caused her mother's murder, a sniper's bullet shattered the window next to them, and Raglan was dead.

As they investigated Raglan's murder, the team dug up an old story of dirty cops, the accidental shooting of an undercover FBI agent, Johanna Beckett's involvement in the defense of the man accused of the murder, and the subsequent blackmail of the dirty cops by an even dirtier unidentified person of power.

Raglan's old friend, Gary McAllister, pointed the team to drugs and Vulcan Simmons; which led them nowhere useful. But Pulgatti, the man Johanna Beckett was defending had new information for them.

When the confrontation with the hired killer, Hal Lockwood, was over, and Ryan and Esposito were rescued from Lockwood and his thugs, the medics checked them over and treated their injuries.

Beckett went to the other ambulance where Castle was trying to rewrap the bandage on his hand.

"Hey there, Chuck Norris," she said as she climbed in to sit across from him. "How's the hand?"

"Excruciating. How's Ryan and Esposito?"

As she took charge of the bandage, readjusting it carefully, she let him know she had checked and they would be okay. "Thank you…for having my back in there."

"Always."

"You KO'd a professional killer."

"You would have done the same for me."

"I would probably have shot him," she pointed out.

"Well, you can go after them with guns blazing. I only had my blazing fist," he said ruefully, holding it up. "Although it did feel satisfying while it was happening. He tried to hurt my wife."

"Just remember how much it hurts before you consider doing it again."

"It was worth it."

"Let's get you a cold pack for it before I take you home."

"Yeah. Cold enough to be numb would be good right now."

A paramedic brought the requested ice pack, and Beckett took her husband to the car.

"Take me with you to the precinct. Let's see what you can get out of Lockwood before we go home."

"But…"

"The hand is going to hurt wherever I am. I might as well satisfy my curiosity."

"And you don't want me to be alone if it's another dead end?"

"Is that so bad?"

"No. It's really sweet." She leaned over and kissed him. "Precinct it is."

Castle waited in the observation room as Lockwood refused to answer anything, and finally a frustrated Beckett had Lockwood taken to a cell; then she sat in the interrogation room for a couple of minutes to pull herself together. Giving her a little time alone, Castle waited for her at her desk.

When she returned, she asked, "You heard?"

"I heard him give you a lot of nothing. I'm sorry."

"I didn't really expect to get anything out of him…but I couldn't help holding on to a sliver of hope." She then took Castle's ice pack to the break room, dumped it, and got fresh ice for his hand.

"We still have your apartment. Want to spend the night there…not have to talk to anybody yet? I'll call and check in, but I think Mother will be at the loft tonight. Alexis won't be alone."

"That would be nice."

"Truth be told, I'd rather not have to explain the hand yet, either."

"Go ahead and call. I can feel guilty about keeping you from your daughter while I feel frustrated about Lockwood; but if Alexis will be alone, we're going home." She turned off her computer, picked up her things, and said, "Come on. Let's go unwind."

xxxxx

As they sat on Beckett's couch sipping wine and waiting for take-out, Castle suggested, "We could add to your murder board in the window…while it's fresh in our minds. You did come out of this case with some new information. Maybe recording it would ease some of the frustration of not getting the rest."

"Yeah. We could do that."

"So what did we learn?" he prodded.

"Raglan did something that connected him to my mother's death. McCallister was part of it, and there was a third, unidentified cop in it with them." She got up and found a legal pad and a pen and started writing.

"Whatever it was, it started about seven years before your mom was killed."

"Coonan was responsible for three other deaths, besides my mother's, but we know he was hired to do it. So, whoever it is these men are afraid of must have had some influence then, too. Raglan said he kept quiet out of fear."

"We know Lockwood told the boys that he needed to know what they knew about him…and his employer. So it's obvious that he was hired to kill Raglan.

"And we know that whoever the employer is doesn't mind resorting to torture and murder. If the same person was ordering murders that long ago, that would explain Raglan's fear."

"We know your mother must have come too close to the truth while she was preparing Pulgatti's case. What did she find out?

"When she took those pictures of the empty alley, she must have been documenting that Armen's murderer had to have been one of the cops involved in the kidnapping…maybe had been trying to identify them. They were the only ones who knew Pulgatti was in that blind alley. And Vulcan Simmons knew who she was. I still think he's mixed up in this somewhere, maybe working with whoever it is we can't identify."

"McCallister said the person we're looking for is somebody we'll never touch. What does that tell us?" Castle asked.

"It must be somebody who has a lot to lose, somebody important, maybe; and McCallister thinks we got his attention."

"More specifically, you got his attention, Kate. A hired killer had surveillance pictures of you. I'm worried. Promise me you'll be careful, that you'll be smart about this."

She stood and started pacing. "I can't give up, Castle. I can't. I'm going to keep asking Lockwood questions. He's my only connection to whoever hired him."

Castle recognized the determination on her face and decided to get whatever small concessions he could for the time being. "At least stop actively working on the case. You could visit him now and then and ask, but you know he won't answer. You'll just make yourself more obvious. We can add to your murder board when we get a hint of something new, but please don't put yourself out there like a target."

"I can't just do nothing. I've needed to know for so long. And every time I think I'm getting close, something stops me."

"It's usually another murder. And I'm scared to death that if you push this too hard, the next thing that will stop you will be a bullet."

The take-out delivery arrived then; and, at least for the moment, they mutually dropped the subject of Kate's being too obvious to he-who-cannot-be-identified."

As they talked about other moments in the day's events, Beckett mentioned Roy Montgomery. "I can't believe he took me off the case. And he tells us to "get the bastard" on one hand, but when we come back with new information from Pulgatti, he jumps down our throats again."

"Now that I know what I do, I can understand why he'd worry about your response to getting back to your mother's murder."

"Maybe, but I can't believe he got on my case about not taking backup to talk to a retired police detective. I was trying to decide how to point that out when Ryan and Esposito stepped in, but Roy didn't look like he was in the mood to answer any questions."

"That does seem odd, but everything about this case has had an odd flavor to it."

"Yeah. Well, at least we got Raglan's killer behind bars…another hitman off the streets. And we got some new information, too."

"Do you think you can sleep tonight?"

"I don't know. Let's take a shower and see. I have some fresh gauze for your hand in the vanity." They both stood, and she observed, "I like take-out. You can just throw away the dishes."

Castle chuckled as they both dropped "the dishes" into the garbage. "I knew there had to be a reason for so much of it."

"Into the shower, Writer-Man. You won't even have to use your hand. I'll undress you and wield the washcloth," she said with a Castle-like wiggle of the eyebrows.

"I like being married to you," he answered, following her to the shower, still worried and in pain but looking forward to a temporary distraction.