145. Chapter 145

After The Lives of Others

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Others may own Castle, but not I. Rating: K Time: See above.

Kate Beckett sighed as she walked out of the precinct and headed for her car. She hated it when Rick was away on his book signing tours. He had only been gone one day and already she missed him. She opened the car door and got behind the wheel. She was just about to start the car when she saw something sticking out of the sun visor. She pulled it out. It was a smallish Manila envelope. On it were letters cut out of a newspaper. It said: To Kate. She opened the envelope. Inside was a beautiful hand painted silk scarf. She looked at the scarf and then examined the envelope. She got out of the car and examined the locks. She was positive she had locked the car and the locks didn't seem to have been tampered with.

She smiled to herself. "It must be from Rick. To make me feel better about him being away for two weeks." She put the envelope with the scarf on the passenger seat and drove back to the loft.

"Hi, Kate." Alexis said. "Sorry, but I have to run. I have a hot date with some DNA sequencing tonight." Alexis saw the envelope in Kate's hand. "Did we get mail?"

Kate shook her head. "No. I found this in my car. I suppose it's from your dad." She pulled the scarf out to show Alexis.

"Nice! Did dad say where he got it? I'd like something like that."

Kate shook her head just as Martha walked into the room.

"Oh, very nice, Katherine. You always have had exquisite taste."

"I think it's from Rick."

"You think?" The older redhead asked.

Kate explained how she had found the envelope in her car.

"I'm sure that's it, Katherine. Rick probably put it there before he left."

Kate forgot about it and went on with her evening routine until Rick called.

"Hi, how are you, Rick?"

"Missing you terribly." He replied.

"Well, you'll have an extra special homecoming when you get back. I got your present.'

"What present?"

"The scarf." Kate said, starting to wonder.

"A scarf. I haven't gotten you any scarves. What happened?"

Kate again explained it in great detail. Rick insisted he had no idea where the scarf came from.

They talked for a while and then hung up.

Kate was busy the next day. She got a call just after seven AM from Ryan about a body drop. Twelve hours later she sat down at her desk. As she did so, she felt something pressing against her hip. She reached into the pocket of her coat and found a small jewelry box. Inside was a pair of diamond earrings and another note. Also written with letters cut from a newspaper. It read: To beautiful Kate.

"Nice." Lanie said, looking over her shoulder. "Rick is nothing if not generous."

"It's not from Rick." Kate snapped.

"What?" Lanie said. "You'd better not have another boyfriend, sweetie."

"Of course I don't."

"Don't what?" Esposito asked, with Ryan standing beside him.

Kate explained about the scarf in her car last night and the earrings today. "And I checked the pockets of my coat before I left for work today. They were empty. I don't see how this got in my coat."

Ryan spoke. "We had to chase that witness on the subway. Did anyone bump you?"

Kate thought about it. "Yeah. About half of New York City."

"There you are." Esposito said. "You were concentrating on getting to our witness and someone slipped that in your pocket. Easy enough."

Kate nodded. "Okay. As far as I'm concerned, I'm being stalked. I'm sending this to CSU. I'll bring the envelope and the scarf in tomorrow. And I'll start the paperwork."

That night Rick called Kate again. She told him about the earrings.

"Whoa! I have competition? And some guy who can afford diamonds? I'd better start being nice to you."

Kate smiled. "You are already nice to me and you've never had any competition where I'm concerned."

"Hey. I love you, Kate." Rick paused for a second. "If you think this is a problem, I can cut the tour short and come back…"

"No. No. I'll be fine. You do your book tour and I'll be waiting for you."

The next morning, Kate found Detective Karpowski still at her desk. "Rough night, Ros?" Kate asked.

Karpowski nodded her head. "A total zoo. I've never seen anything like it, and that's saying a lot. We had nothing but problems from the second I got here until about a half an hour ago."

Kate commiserated and went to her desk. Sitting by her coffee cup was another jewelry box. This one was larger than the other. She opened it. A pearl necklace was inside. Also a note with the usual letters cut from newspapers. This one read: I love you.

Kate was now mad and a little scared. "Espo! Ryan! My desk. Now!"

She explained what had happened this time. She handed Espo the necklace and the envelope with the scarf in it. "Send these to CSU and have them go over them with a fine toothed comb. Also get with jewelers and high end boutiques and see if you can tell where these came from. Ryan, I want you to pull the video from our internal surveillance. Someone had to leave this last night. I'm going to brief the captain."

After briefing Gates, Kate sat at her desk, trying to figure out who her stalker was. It had to be someone she had some in contact with. Someone who knew her, if only slightly. She was still thinking when Ryan came back.

"Bad news. The place really was a zoo last night. There were at least a couple of dozen people around your desk, maybe more. The whole bullpen was so crowded that I can't get a clear shot of your desk for half the night. I've pulled all the records of the arrests for last night." Seeing the look on Beckett's face, he added, "Don't worry. We'll get him."

Javier came back later with more bad news. "I have a friend who's a buyer for a jewelry chain. He identified photos of the earrings and the necklace as being high end, but not that uncommon. There are hundreds of stores in the tri-state area that carry them."

"No help there, then." She said with a frown.

"It gets worse. He said that there was a delivery truck hijacked about a month ago. Several hundred of these earrings and necklaces were stolen as well as other stuff. He's sent me photos of the other stolen stuff. He may send you more stolen stuff."

Kate shook her head in disbelief. "I'm being stalked by a jewel thief? Great! That's all I need."

When she got back to the loft she froze as she got out of the elevator. There, leaning on the door was a package. She carefully approached the package, pulling on her gloves. She carefully picked the package up. Just then she heard a noise from inside the loft. She drew her weapon and slowly unlocked the door. As she opened it, she saw movement from inside Castle's office. "Freeze! NYPD!" She yelled. "Come out with your hands up. Now!"

"Katherine?" Martha said, sounding shaken. "Is that you?"

Kate lowered her weapon. "I'm sorry, Martha. I found a package outside the door. I thought the person who left it might be inside."

"What's in the package this time?" Martha asked.

Kate opened it. Inside was a very sheer, short red negligee. As usual there was a message: Dearest Kate, I'd love to see you in this.

Kate stuffed her anger and fear deep inside her. She was calm and in control. "I'm going to talk to the doorman, Martha. Then I'm going back to the precinct. Don't let anyone in that you don't know. No matter who they claim to be. Call me if necessary."

The doorman was no help. "I'm sorry, ma'am. Both the O'Bannions and the Dorfmanns were moving out today. I had the doors open almost all day long. I'm sorry, but anyone could have walked in."

"Okay. I'll need to see the surveillance tapes for today."

The doorman frowned. "Um, I'm sorry. The system has been down for three days. The company repairman should be here tomorrow, though."

Kate was at her desk when Castle called. She told him what had happened.

"Okay. That's it. I'll get a plane out of here tonight and be there tomorrow morning. We'll solve this together, just like we always do."

"Castle, no. I can't ask you to do that."

"You're not asking me. I'm going to come home because I want to. No argument. Now you should go home and get some sleep. And be sure to lock the door and set the security system. Call me when you get home."

"Okay. I love you."

"I love you, too, Kate."

When she got home she called Castle and told him that she'd locked the front door, set the security system, checked that all the windows were locked and would be sleeping with her pistol on the night stand. He gave her the details about his flight into New York.

The next morning she arrived at the precinct to find Espo and Ryan standing at her desk looking grim faced. "What is it?" She asked.

"We found this in the morning donut delivery this morning." He showed her a jewelry box in a plastic evidence bag, an emerald ring in a platinum setting and another note: Kate, Castle doesn't deserve you.

Kate was furious. "Espo, go to the donut shop and…"

"Already been. The shop's family owned. Mr. and Mrs. Chan, their three daughter and their son. The son's sixteen and did the delivery this morning. The whole family couldn't afford all of this stuff. They did tell me that they leave the bags out on the counter for the morning delivery until they're all ready to go. Anyone could have walked in and dropped the jewelry into the bag. Our bag has 12th Precinct written on it."

Kate swore.

"That'll be a contribution to the swearing jar, Beckett." Said a familiar voice.

"Rick." She hugged him and gave him a quick kiss. "I am so happy you're here."

"And I brought you your coffee and a couple of bear claws. They don't really serve food on airplanes anymore, you know."

He looked in the bag he was holding and frowned. "What's this?" He pulled out another jewelry box.

Kate quickly put on her gloves and carefully took the box from him. She opened it. It was a diamond bracelet and there was a note in a very familiar hand. "You are beautiful, I do love you, I'd love to see you in it, and I really don't deserve you. Happy birthday. I love you, Rick."

She glared at him. "This was you? All along?" She turned to the rest of the team and the other detectives, Lanie and Captain Gates, all of whom were there and smiling. "All of you were in on it?"

They all nodded.

She turned to Rick, smiled and said. "My birthday isn't for another month."

He shrugged. "If I'd waited until then, you'd have suspected something. "

"And you really think you don't deserve me?"

"No. I just wrote that to put you off the scent, so to speak."

She kissed him. "Thank you." Then she kissed him again. "But we can't really be doing this every birthday, you know." She kissed him yet again. "Besides, my birthday gift was better."

He nodded. "I thought of some things, but I remembered how horrified I was when I thought you might be dead. I couldn't do anything like that to you. I decided I'd just give you some presents and a nice little mystery where you wouldn't think you or anyone else was in any immediate danger."

She kissed him again. "And tonight I'll wear one of my presents. For a while."