185. Chapter 185

After He's Dead, She's Dead, Again

By

UCSbdad

Disclaimer: He doesn't own Castle. Um, that is I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above

Kate Beckett rubbed her eyes hard and then stared at the murder board again. She had been staring at the board for hours. We have all this information on the victim. We have all of this information on his two partners. We should have all the information we need. I'm just not seeing something. But what?

"It's simple." Said a voice beside her.

Kate glanced to her side and her hand went to her sidearm, then stopped. "What…are you?"

"Just dropped by to help."

Kate rubbed her eyes again. She took a deep breath. She took another breath. Then she looked again. He was still there. A six foot tall white rabbit in a grey business suit was leaning on the desk beside her. "You're not real. You're a figment of my imagination." She said. She looked around the bullpen. It was late at night and it was empty except for her and…Except for her.

The rabbit smiled at her. "If it helps for you to think of me as something dredged up from your subconscious due to the strain of the last few months, go ahead. However, I prefer to be called Harvey."

Kate sighed, relieved. "Harvey. The imaginary six foot tall white rabbit from the old Jimmy Stewart movie of the same name. You're just a hallucination. I have been working too hard."

"The movie Harvey was not imaginary. He was invisible, to everyone but Mr. Stewart's character."

"You're not real." She said slowly.

The rabbit shrugged and smiled. "It's all about love."

"I don't love Castle." This is absurd. I'm having an argument with a hallucination.

"Of course you don't. You won't even try to like him. You make every effort you can not to love him. And that's obvious to everyone but you. What would happen if you followed your heart, though? Ask yourself that, Beckett."

Kate gave the rabbit her best glare. Oh, hell! I'm glaring at my own overworked imagination? "If you're going to bother me, you could at least be some help with the case."

"I was."

"You were what?"

"Helping with the case. It's all about love. Love is the answer."

She shook her head sharply. "Love is not the answer. There's a lot more to life than just love. What would happen to me if I let myself…have a relationship with Castle?"

"How would I know? I'm a rabbit. Not a psychic."

She took a step towards the murder board. "What's love got to do with it?" She knew that line was a mistake as soon as she said it.

"Oh, what's love got to do, got to do with it? What's love but a second hand emotion?" The rabbit sang in a surprisingly mellow tenor.

She turned on the rabbit. "Look! As I've told everyone, it's complicated."

"No it isn't. Love is a very simple emotion. You're just trying to add things in that have nothing to do with the case."

"The case?" Kate was confused.

"The case!" The rabbit tapped the murder board. "That's what I was talking about. You're the one who keeps bringing Castle into it." Kate just shook her head. "Look, "Harvey said softly, "you have the victim, Andrew Pine, you have a suspect, his partner Michael Petrillo and you have his other partner, Carol Bennett. They graduated from Hudson Law School and hung out their shingle in Manhattan four years ago. All three admit they both were having sex with Ms. Bennett." A look a disgust came over Harvey's furry face. "I believe the expression that Castle used was "Banging like bunnies." I don't find the simile at all apt."

The rabbit shook his head to clear it and went on. "The logs from their concierge, doorman and the security cam videos show that they both were there in her apartment at all hours of the day and night. Pine told his parents that they should prepare themselves for a big surprise. That he had found someone that he could be with permanently. That he was in love."

"And we conclude from that, Ms. Beckett?" Harvey now had on a black robe and mortarboard hat, suitable for a nineteenth century law professor.

"Pine was in love with Bennett. Petrillo was jealous. There was an argument late one night at the law firm's office and the next morning Pine's body was found. He had been struck on the head with a large award Bennett had gotten in law school. It had a marble base that weighed five pounds."

"And the crime scene unit found?" Harvey was now in a white lab coat.

"Nothing useful. It was their law office. Of course their fingerprints, their DNA, fibers from their clothing were all over the place. As well as from their secretaries and a dozen or more clients."

"Alibis?" The rabbit had a caped coat and a deerstalker hat on.

"Lanie put the time of death at between ten PM and midnight. Petrillo said he was in his office working until well after midnight. But, he said he was listening to music with ear buds. He wouldn't have heard a car bomb go off. And he said he didn't look into Pine's office when he left. Bennett said she went to her office to work at about eight thirty and doesn't know what time she eventually went home to her apartment, which is about a block and a half away. However, she claims that when concentrates on a problem, she completely blocks everything out. Petrillo and some other lawyers have told us that they've had to shake her to get her attention when she's like that. We can't find any witnesses to contradict anything they've said."

"Kate, if you don't believe in magic, you'll never find it. And I want you to find it."

She whirled around. The voice was Castle's, but the bullpen was empty. No Castle and no rabbit named Harvey. "I need to go home and go to bed." When she went back to her desk, she found a cup of coffee on it. Grande skim latte with two pumps of sugar free vanilla. She tasted it. It was hot. Right by the coffee was one of the doorman's logs. "Go home and go to bed?"

Castle arrived at the precinct the next day and put the usual cup of coffee in font of Kate.

They smiled at each other and said together, "I know who the killer is."

"Tell me." Kate said, sipping her coffee.

I remember checking the concierge and doorman's logs and the security cam pictures. There were times when Pine and Petrillo would go to Bennett's apartment when she wasn't there. Why would they do that?"

Kate smiled and held up the doorman's logs and a chart of who was there and when. "Because it's convenient."

"And it's convenient if you're two bisexual men looking for a quickie."

"But Pine wanted more. He was in love with Petrillo…"

"Who probably didn't know, or wasn't in love with Pine."

"But Bennett was in love with Pine. She was jealous."

"And she killed Pine."

"Would you like to help me break her alibi, Castle?"

"I'd love to, Detective."

Kate picked up her coffee. She noticed a small tuft of white fur had adhered to her sleeve.