211. Chapter 211

After Kick the Ballistics, Again

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Yeah, kick me if I say I own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above.

"Are you doing your justly famous brooding writer thing, Castle?"

"No, I'm just brooding now. Maybe I'll go for the full-fledged writer brooding later."

"Why?" Kate asked. "We got Philip Lee. This was a win for the good guys."

He nodded, bit didn't look convinced. "Yeah, but we're not the only winners here."

Kate frowned. "So who else won?"

"Jerry Tyson. He got beat up in Sing Sing by Philip Lee. He plots his revenge. He makes friends with Philip. He gives Philip Ryan's gun, knowing Philip will use it. Philip, of course, uses it on Jane Herzfeld. We catch Philip. And Tyson has his revenge without ever having to do anything more than give away a gun that he knows is hot. Too hot for him to keep."

"Okay. That's what we figured out. So?"

"So, consider this. Jerry Tyson is very intelligent, good at complex, long range plans and very patient. I'm betting Tyson could think up a dozen ways to get back at Philip without even raising a sweat. But he gives Philip a gun. Philip is going to use the gun to kill someone. And the Lee's operate in the 12th Precinct's area. Any murder is going to be investigated by the 12th, and a murder involving the notorious Lee family will attract the attention of the best homicide detective in the NYPD. That's you, in case you were wondering."

Kate nodded slowly. She could see where this was going.

"So, Detective Beckett, do you think that Jerry Tyson got just a little extra enjoyment out of knowing that the instruments of his revenge on Philip were the cop whose gun he took, that cop's partner, the writer who identified him as 3XK and the best homicide detective in the NYPD?"

"That son of a bitch."

Castle nodded slowly, his face sad. "And that's why I'm brooding."

Kate shook her head. "You have nothing to brood about, Castle. We've been over this a dozen times."

He held up his hands to stop her. "I know, I know. All of the cops on the planet failed to figure out that Tyson is 3XK and we should all be happy that someone figured it out because otherwise we'd be sitting around thinking that 3XK was rotting away in prison and not out killing again." Kate opened her mouth to speak, but Castle stopped her again. "And I also know that Philip would have killed Jane Herzfeld even if Tyson had never given him Ryan's weapon. But Jane is still dead and I know that I helped Tyson get back at Philip. And so I brood."

Kate smiled at him. "Look at you, Castle. Not only thinking like a cop, but feeling badly like a cop."

He smiled back. "Thanks, but I'll still brood."

She sat in the car across from the 12th Precinct. She wasn't wanted by the police, of course. But that might change and police departments would have surveillance cameras because they always wanted to know who was keeping them under surveillance. She saw the Lee family attorney enter alone and then leave alone. She made a phone call as soon as she was out of the precinct. Doubtlessly to Clifford Lee to tell him the bad news. Shortly after that she saw the writer and the three detective leave. They looked happy, which caused her to laugh.

Then she drove back to her home and to her lover.

"How did it go?" He asked.

"I got a little bit of gossip from a cop I followed. They turned down Philip Lee's plea attempt. He'll do life without parole."

He threw back his head and laughed, a full throated laugh. "Perfect. They're smarter than I thought but Philip is rather stupid."

She took his hand. "I would like to do some work on the woman, though. Can I?"

He shook his head. "I do have plans for all of them, but it'll take a long time for them to mature. So, we need them alive." He saw the disappointment in her eyes and added, "But we'll reach a point where they won't be important. I'm sure we can think of something appropriate."

He enjoyed the smile on her face. It reminded him of his own smile.

Dr. Burke considered what Kate Beckett had just told him about her latest case. "That was a difficult and complex case, Kate. However, I don't see how it impacts on your problems. You didn't mention having any symptoms of PTSD during the case."

"The point is that we might not have solved the case without Castle. He was the one who identified Philip Lee as the man that Jerry Tyson was beaten up by in prison. He also figured out that we shouldn't accept Philip Lee's proposed plea deal because Tyson would never tell anyone anything truthful about himself, and especially not to an enemy."

"But you had already figured that out yourself, didn't you?" Burke asked, somewhat confused.

"I just wanted to see if Castle came to the same conclusion that I did. And he did."

"Mr. Castle has been a help in cases before this, hasn't he?"

"That's what I'm thinking about. I've told myself that I can't have the kind of relationship with Castle that I want and that he deserves until my mom's murder is solved. That's why I've been keeping him at a distance these past years. But I'm also depriving myself of a very competent detective. Hell, of a brilliant detective. What if I never find my mom's killer because I didn't let Castle help me?"

"What do you plan to do, Kate?"

She sighed and thought. "I don't know."

Look at you, Castle. Thinking like a real cop. He ran what Beckett had said to him through his mind over and over. Okay, maybe I'm not a real cop. Maybe I never will be. But I'm not the dilettante that Gates thinks I am. Okay, and I'm not anywhere as good as I like to think I am, or wish that I was, but I do help. I'm a help to the real cops and that's something. Something I never was before and something I never would have tried to be before I met Beckett.

I am her partner. And maybe…