Chapter 3 - Story

Lanie had left us to drive to the precinct to help out our colleagues with the crime they're stuck on. So we had said goodbye and then me and Alexis had headed up for the apartment. When we got up I had read a few chapters in her father's book before she had stopped me by curling into my arms and tried her best to hide her tears. That's when I put the book away and pulled her closer to me, trying my best to comfort her.

"Schh, it's okay, I'm here for you" I whispered in her ear and she nodded.

"I know, but he's not" she cried quietly and I couldn't help but myself let a tear fall down my cheek.

It hurt so much knowing the pain she was in. We sat like that for a while, just taking in each other's presence. I could feel her breathing calm down and before I knew it she had fallen asleep in my arms, something she had never done before. To my relief I had my computer on the coffee table by the couch so I could reach it with ease. I checked my email and found the evidence Esposito had sent me. They were looking at a woman in her twenties who got shot in her stomach and had bled to death. She was bruised as if she had been in a fight right before she got killed. In the papers stood her name, Marah Adams, and it also said she had been found by her best friend. Apparently she didn't have a boyfriend, at least according to everyone Esposito and Ryan had talked to, and she was very shy. When I got to the last page of the notes Esposito had sent me I saw a piece of paper with something written on it. According to Esposito the note made no sense but that perhaps I would be able to understand what it meant.

'On the first day she will cry, on the first week she will see, on the first month she will speak, on the first year she will be ours' it said.

At first I didn't understand one word on that paper. It was probably written by our victim because Esposito wrote they had compared it to her handwriting in her notebooks. Suddenly Alexis took in a deep breath and I couldn't concentrate on the evidence anymore. I thought about what she had said today, about her wanting to see her father, about her missing him. I couldn't help but open a tab on internet to go into google and search for him. I clicked into his official site, the one I had been into so many times before.

'Full name: Richard Edgar Alexander Rodgers CastleNew releases: Wild Storm'

I didn't find anything I hadn't seen before, except that he had canceled all his book signings. It didn't say why but I had a feeling I knew, the day he started canceling them was the day he lost his daughter. I clicked up the pictures there were of the man and I couldn't help but remember that first time I met him. He had seemed like such a gentleman, what the hell happened to him? I clicked out of his official site and searched for the most recent articles there were of him.

'Richard Castle haven't showered in days... maybe even weeks!'

'What really happened to Richard Castle?'

'No news on the canceled book signings, Richard Castle gone?'

'Richard Castle, career over?'

I clicked into one of the articles and saw a picture of the man. He actually did look like he hadn't showered in weeks, he had even grown a small beard. I couldn't find anything on Alexis, it was like the reporters didn't know she existed, or they didn't know she was the reason he acted this way.

"Is that dad?" Alexis's voice startled me and I immediately closed the computer.

"Sweetie, you scared me, I didn't know you woke up" I said and she looked up at me as I looked down, into her ocean blue eyes which I knew came from her father.

"Sorry" she mumbled as she hugged closer to me again.

"It's okay honey" I stroke her hair.

"Did you find him?" she asked quietly and I gave her a confusing look.

"Who?" I asked and she mumbled her words to me.

"My dad."

"No, I'm sorry sweetie but even if I did I... I can't let him see you. If I do then they will take you away from me too" I tried to explain.

"Why? You're much nicer than the two other women I was with" she questioned.

I sighed and pulled her tighter to me. I couldn't explain this to her, she was too young to understand, and even if she would be able to understand she still wouldn't because to her it's the social workers who's made the wrong decisions, not her dad.

"I won't let them take you away from here unless you don't want me to take care of you" I promised her with my whole heart.

After some more cuddling we decided to make dinner. And after some trying to decide what to make we decided on ordering takeout. Once we had eaten Alexis asked if we could watch a movie so we decided on watching the new Disney movie . While we watched the movie I got a text from Esposito asking if I had looked over the evidence and I answered I had but that nothing had come to my mind.

"Who's that?" Alexis asked when I had taken out my computer to once again to look at the pictures of the murder scene.

I clicked down the photo, not wanting the young girl to see the awful picture.

"No one" I said but I could see she knew I was lying.

"Is that the victim you'll bring justice?" she asked and I looked at her with a shocked face. "What? My dad a mystery writer, I do know what a homicide detective do" she answered with a shrug and I sighed.

"Right... yeah, it's the victim in the case we're working on" I admitted after a few minutes of silence, trying to decide whether to tell her or not.

"Where's her baby?" Alexis asked and I looked at her with wide eyes.

"What?" I asked before I quickly clicked up the photo again to see what I had missed.

Alexis then pointed to a cloth on the floor a few feet away from the body.

"That looks like the blanket I had when I was smaller, before daddy got me Monkey Bonkey" she explained and I was already on my phone calling my partners.

"Ryan" I heard Kevin Ryan, my other partner, answer.

"Ryan it's me, Alexis just got us a lead, she has a kid" I said into the phone and I heard Ryan get something in his throat so he had to cough.

"What? No, not according to any of her records" he said and I heard him fiddle with a lot of papers on his desk.

I looked at Alexis who had turned back to the movie after her statement. She looked a bit concerned but at the same time she had already let go of the fact that she had seen a murdered girl on a picture.

"I actually think that could be the piece you need, perhaps it's the father that killed her" I suggested and I could hear Esposito come up to Ryan to ask what he was searching for.

"Beckett thinks she had a kid" he said and I immediately told Ryan to put on speaker.

"You're on speaker" Esposito said only a few seconds after.

"Alexis spotted the cloth on the photo, she told me she had a something alike as a blanket when she was younger. And I think she might be right" I told Esposito.

"CSU found no evidence of a kid in her apartment, are you really sure it's her kid?" he asked and I was taken back from his question.

"What do you mean?" I asked and he explained.