604. Chapter 604

After A Death in the Family

Episode 1.10

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: My whole family knows I don't own Castle. Rating: K+ Time: See above.

"It's about your mother's case."

Kate Beckett took a step backwards. "What?"

"I looked into it. I found something."

Kate stared at him for a few seconds, then turned and started walking down the hallway and out of the hospital. She was halfway through the parking lot before she realized that she had gone out the wrong exit. Her car was on the other side of the hospital.

She turned around and found Castle standing there, just looking at her. "We're over." She said huskily, trying not to cry. I will not give the bastard the satisfaction of knowing how much this hurts. I will not cry in front of him.

"I know." He said softly.

She really hadn't expected that from him. She expected some wise ass quip or some bullshit excuse. He knows? He knew we'd be over and he did this to me anyway. "You bastard. You fucking knew we'd be over? And you did it anyway?"

"You told me we'd be over. I believed you."

"I hope whatever you got from my mom's case is a real big help for your book. I hope what you did was worth it. I hope that…." Kate couldn't go any further.

He shook his head and took a step closer to her. "This has nothing to do with the book."

Kate just glared at him, then turned her face away. "How dumb do you think I am, Castle? Why else would you do this except for your damned book?"

"Nothing about your mother's murder is going into the book. I do know how to write a mystery since I've done it several dozen times. Unless your mother was actually a covert CIA agent, that is."

Kate had no idea what he was talking about. "What are you talking about? My mother was not a CIA agent. The whole idea is absurd."

"Nikki's mother was a CIA agent and she was murdered because of it, which is why Nikki became a cop. I didn't need anything from your mother's file to write the book."

"Then why did you look at her file?"

Castle smiled at her. "I told you earlier, you're remarkable. But your mask slips sometimes and I see the pain that you live in every day. And every day I see you do everything in your power to take away a little bit of the pain that the families and friends of the murder victims are in. And because you are remarkable, I can't imagine why anyone who knows you wouldn't do anything to take your pain away."

Beckett wasn't entirely sure she believed Castle, but she wasn't entirely sure that she shouldn't believe him. "What did you find?"

"I didn't find anything myself. I know a guy, Dr. Clark Murray. He's a forensic pathologist and a good one. I asked him to take a look at your mom's case file."

Kate frowned. "How did you get the case file?"

"The hand is quicker than the eye, Detective. I don't imagine that the people who sit in that little wired- in cubicle in Records are the 12th Precinct's best and brightest?" He lied convincingly.

"What did this doctor find?"

"He believes that the murder wasn't random. The first blow was a precisely delivered killing blow, and the rest were just for show. Okay, maybe the killer just got lucky. But he checked around. There were three other murders around the same time. All with one killing blow to the kidney, followed by other random blows. One woman was a former law student of your mom's. One was another lawyer and the third was a documents clerk at the courthouse."

Kate was shocked. Castle had actually found evidence that neither she, nor anyone else, had found. "Where are the files?"

"In my loft. I'm going to hand them over to Montgomery tomorrow."

"To Montgomery? Why?"

"Who else would I give information on four unsolved murders to?"

"To me, of course."

He shook his head. "You can't investigate your mom's murder. Montgomery won't let you. There are all sorts of NYPD regs against that."

Kate shrugged. "When I was still a uniform Montgomery found me in the files, looking through my mom's case. He never said anything."

"He was just cutting you some slack, probably figured it would help you with closure, or something. He won't let you investigate your own mother's murder."

"Then we won't tell him. Will you?" Kate said threateningly.

"How are you going to investigate without anyone knowing? You'll have no access to CSU, records or anything on an unofficial investigation. One slip up and you're not just off the case, you're in big trouble."

"Then we'll just have to find a way."

"We? If I recall, we are over."

She shook her head. "No way. You can't drag me back into this and just walk away. We are going to do this together."

She grabbed the sleeve of his coat. "We're going back to your loft to look at those records."

Kate finished reading the last of Dr. Murray's reports. "He's very good."

"The best." Castle said, with some pride.

"And he's right. This is not a bunch of random killings. The blow to the kidney is too precise and it's the same in all four killings. It was a targeted assassination."

"What now?"

"We need to see the police reports on the other murders."

"How? We have no authority."

Kate smiled. "Oh, Castle, if you think the records people in the precinct aren't the best and brightest, you should see the people in the Central Records Storage."

Early the next morning, just before the end of his shift, the cop at Central Records Storage let two cops in to get some records. He didn't pay any attention to why they were there and didn't notice that the female cop's signature, precinct number and case number were completely illegible. Rick and Kate ran back and began photographing the records of the three other murders. The files weren't that thick and it didn't take that long. When they left, a new cop was on duty. He just grunted at them as they left.

"These records are as useless as your mom's records." Castle said when they were back in his loft that night. "Maybe even more so. What do you know about this guy Raglan? The one who investigated your mom's death?"

"I never met him, but Ryan knew him slightly, and knew some of the people who worked with him. He apparently made detective, realized he's never go any further and just coasted for the rest of his time."

"What about the other detectives?"

"I did a quick check at work today. All were getting close to retirement. Obviously they were more concerned with retirement than with doing their jobs."

Castle took a deep breath and said something he didn't want to say. "Beckett, there's nothing here. We need to take this to Montgomery."

"No. We'll go look at the crime scenes tomorrow. I'm off. You have anything to do tomorrow?"

"Actually I do. "He waited a second for Beckett to look concerned and added, "I'm looking at crime scenes with a certain stubborn detective."

She smiled at him. "The stubborn detective will buy you lunch. And she'll ask you how she suddenly went from remarkable to stubborn."

"The two aren't mutually exclusive."

They found nothing at the crime scenes. A check of where the victims had lived and worked found nothing. Aside from one woman being a former law student of Johanna Beckett's, they could find no link between her and the other three.

"We have nothing, Beckett." Castle said, now at Beckett's apartment. "All we can do is hand this over to Montgomery."

She shook her head vigorously. "No."

"Beckett, I won't let you go down the rabbit hole again. If we'll be over again, then so be it. I won't let this case destroy you."

"It won't. I'm not going down the rabbit hole again. I'm done with the case."

"Then why not give it to Montgomery?"

"Montgomery won't let anyone in the precinct handle the case. It'll go to another precinct. And even if it goes to the best homicide cop in the city…"

"It won't." Castle interrupted. "The best homicide cop in the city already looked at it."

Kate smiled at him. "Whoever handles it will be looking at a ten year old homicide. There's nothing there, Castle. Nothing."

"But if Montgomery has it and something comes up, he'll know."

She shook her head. "The only one who'll connect something with these cases is me. So, I'll keep the case files here."

Castle sighed. "Make a copy for me. I'll put it in my safe at home."

"Castle, I had given up hope of ever finding anything on my mom's case. I was mad at you and I shouldn't have been."

"You still haven't found anything."

"And maybe I never will. But now I know that after all my studying of the file, there really was other evidence out there. And maybe, just maybe, there's more evidence. And maybe, just maybe, I'll find it."

"Maybe we'll find it." He corrected.

"Thanks, Castle."

"Always."