63. Chapter 63

Chapter 63

Castle and Beckett had already eaten breakfast before Alexis came downstairs.

"'Morning, Sweetie," Kate said as she sipped her coffee. "I didn't think you had anywhere to be this morning. You're up early."

"I guess I just didn't need any more sleep. Is there more coffee?"

"Yes," Castle answered. "And it's all yours. We need to leave for the precinct so my awesome wife can continue to do the awesome job she's doing coordinating this investigation."

"He's a little biased," Kate answered, and drained the last of her morning caffeine from her cup.

"Not from what I hear. Word gets down to the morgue, too, you know. From what we hear, the NYPD women are loving that you and Gates and Karpowski are running something this high profile, and the men from the twelfth aren't having any of it if somebody has something negative to say about it. You're making a difference, Kate."

"I had no idea. Just doing my job. But thanks.

"I'm so proud of you."

Kate gave her a hug and walked toward the door.

Castle followed, kissing his daughter's forehead after he grabbed his jacket. "If it turns into another long day at the precinct, have fun with JD tonight. He's right. Get as far away from this case as you can. Be a kid and enjoy doing something just for fun."

"Love you," Alexis answered and heard a simultaneous "Love you, too" from the two people leaving the loft…and they didn't even seem to know they had done it. She shook her head and chuckled as the door clicked closed.

xxxxx

Karpowski was already there when the couple breezed in a little after seven. "Do we have warrants we can execute this morning?" she asked.

"Right here," Castle answered, dropping the folder on the conference room table with a flourish. Offices, homes, grounds, vehicles, computers, phone records, finances. We're golden."

"We hope so anyhow," Beckett amended. "Time to find a connection between the Hogans and the people at the toy company."

"We assume it's two Hogans, but we aren't absolutely certain yet," Karpowski reminded her.

"Right. We need to find them first…get the unidentified guy's prints and confirm."

"I checked the apartment building's office hours. The voice recording says the office opens at eight."

"Want to text Blount and Freedman and send them over there before they come in?"

"Ahead of you there, too, Lieutenant," Karpowski answered with a grin. "Already sent it."

Beckett smiled. "So the warrants…we need somebody from tech to be sure that part is handled the way it should be. There's a lot more of that at the office. I'll call them. My gut says The CFO was in on the cover-up but not the hit."

"Mine, too."

"Do we have anything else new to look at, Ms. Early Bird?" Castle asked.

"Not yet," Karpowski answered good naturedly. "We'll just have to keep checking the computer."

Ryan and Esposito came in not long after that, followed shortly by Jennings.

"Sleep is a wonderful thing," Esposito announced as they sat down with their coffee. Checking the folder on the table, he gave Ryan a satisfied look and said, "We have warrants."

"So how do we do this?" Jennings asked. "And where exactly?"

Beckett went over the plan again and they all nodded. Do we have a time planned?" Ryan asked.

"We were considering that just before you came in," Castle answered. "Thought we'd wait until we hear something from Freedman and Blount."

"They're checking on Hogan's old apartment?"

"Yep." Karpowski answered.

"If they find them, we need to get the Hogans off the streets first. They're armed and ruthless," Ryan chimed in.

"Yeah, Beckett agreed. "If they find anything, we need to start with the Hogans…and we need to handle it carefully. The toy company will have to come second."

"Tattinger thinks his lies have us fooled. He probably doesn't have a clue we're on to him," Jennings scowled with disgust.

"I keep thinking about the kids in this," Castle said sadly. "The ones who died…and the ones who lived but lost their best friends. Pratt said last night that Morgan had made copies of all the vacation pictures for the three families. You should have seen his son's face when Pratt handed us the manila envelope Feldman had left with him. The boy thought he was giving us the last pictures the kids had of their friends. His dad explained it was just the same kind of envelope."

"Wait," Esposito said, brows furrowed. "Morgan's next door neighbor said he saw Morgan coming home from Feldman's house after work the evening of the murders. Nothing unusual about his behavior, but he was carrying a letter sized manila envelope. Remember that? The neighbor said he waved with it as he went in the house."

Everybody was quiet, as if they were all processing that piece of information, trying to see a connection to something that was niggling at their minds.

Ryan found it first, sitting up and saying, "No. I don't even want to think it. That's when Stu, or whoever he is, was seen at the park in the neighborhood."

Realization seemed to flood all their minds at once, and Karpowski suggested, "If he saw the envelope, that may be why they went to the second house. It was about the size of what they were looking for, and he had just left Feldman's house with it."

"Those little kids could have been killed because Stu guessed it might be what he was looking for?" Kate's hands covered her face as she appeared to be coming to terms with that possibility. Karpowski responded nearly the same way, her fingers pinching at the bridge of her nose.

"God, that would make it so much worse to think about," Jennings answered.

"That could be why the CEO was so shocked about the families. He hired somebody to take out Feldman, and the man decided to execute nine people," Castle speculated.

About fifteen minutes later, they got pictures from tech with cleaner traffic cam captures. They had caught a reflection of both men in a darkened store window…definitely the same two men from the crime scene neighborhood. And the car they took from the scene now had only one unidentifiable letter on the plates. It didn't take long to identify the vehicle and the missing letter and put out an APB.

Shortly after that, Blount called in from near the apartment building. The man they had spoken to the day before was a temp and knew only what showed in the files. The office manager who had been there for years was back now. She identified the picture of the man they suspected was Stu Hogan as Briggs, whose name was now on the lease. She said Briggs now held the lease but said he only needed the place when he was in the city. He seemed to know Hogan well and said Hogan would still live there.

From that point, there was a flurry of activity. Castle took forms to Judge Markaway again for warrants for the Hogan and Briggs apartment, etc. and returned with them quickly. By then the stolen vehicle had been found about a block away from Hogan's apartment.

Both teams scattered themselves throughout the neighborhood near the apartment building. Ryan went to the apartment pretending to be just past tipsy, and he knocked on the door calling for Trudy. Larry Hogan answered the door and ordered him to leave.

"Came to see Trudy," he slurred slightly. "She gave me her address. Is she home?"

"She did a number on you, man. No Trudy here."

"You know where she lives? You didn't see Trudy." He laughed suggestively. "Anybody else here that might know where she lives?"

"No Trudy here. Nobody knows her," another voice called from within the apartment. "Now you gonna get lost on your own, or do we have to help you?"

Ryan answered, "Okay, okay. I'm going." He walked away with a little wobble in his gait until he was in the stairwell. Then he hurried down to let the others know both men were at home.

Beckett called the captain and asked for backup to be sent quietly. After explaining the situation to the office manager, she enlisted the woman's help in quietly evacuating those in the surrounding apartments. Before she and Castle and one of the uniformed backups stood next to the apartment door, she posted officers on the roof, and at the exits and stairwells. Ryan and Esposito eased into place on either side of the window to the fire escape. Jennings and Karpowski, guns drawn, were on the stairs that led up and down to the next floors, and the rest of Karpowski's team was on the ground below them.

Beckett knocked and announced herself. They all stood aside from the door as the expected gunfire blew through it, and a scuffling inside told them the occupants were probably heading for the fire escape. Larry was out the window first, and turned toward the stairs going down before he realized he was trapped. As soon as Stu came through, Esposito grabbed him to keep him from going back inside. There was an ensuing skirmish to subdue Hogan and take his weapon, Jennings coming down to assist. Stu struggled, but he dropped his gun in the process and finally complied. Larry had complied when he saw the firepower he faced, placing his gun on the fire escape and putting his hands on his head. The two officers on the roof with rifles kept them trained on the brothers until they were lying flat, face down on the fire escape. Those on the ground kept their guns in position as well, until the men were cuffed, arrested, Mirandized and seated in the back of separate squad cars for transport to the twelfth. The brothers' weapons were placed in evidence bags, and Karpowski took over the initial search of the premises while Beckett's team went to do the same at the toy company.

Reaching the security desk at the toy company, Beckett again asked not to be announced and left Esposito to be sure her instructions were followed. They went back to Jasmine at the reception desk and asked to see Tattinger and the CFO, Quinton Duggart. Once both of the men appeared, the warrants were presented and their phones were confiscated. Ryan escorted them to the conference room, explaining that their computers and anything with digital records would be taken. Both were angry and demanded to call their lawyers. They were given phones to use and allowed to call the attorneys but not allowed out of the room until the search was complete. Pertinent items were bagged to be logged as evidence, and then Tattinger and Duggart were taken in for questioning.

Tattinger was still lying, acting as if he thought someone would believe him. In the other interrogation room, hoping for a better outcome, Duggart's lawyer, had his client singing like a bird as soon as they realized he could be charged as an accessory to nine murders. He told them the entire plan to ignore the testing and put the toys on the market in spite of it, and gave them the passwords they'd need to get into his computer and find incriminating emails from Tattinger.

"I didn't know anything about Trent hiring somebody to kill Leon. He never said anything about that. That's just…" He sighed deeply and scrubbed his hands over his face before adding, "I didn't know. I honestly didn't know."

Duggart was taken to holding, and the team moved on to the Hogans. The fingerprints taken when the Hogans were booked for resisting arrest identified Briggs as Stu Hogan. Ballistics rushed the testing of Stu's gun, and his gun was the one that was used to kill both families. Stu had nothing to say except that he wanted a lawyer, but Larry was ready to make a deal for any leeway he could get. Beckett turned on the recorder and established that Hogan waived his right to an attorney. She made no promises, just told him that cooperation could work in his favor and that the DA would have to decide. He identified Tattinger as the one who hired his brother and admitted that he had introduced them."

"How did you know Tattinger?" Castle asked.

"I worked there for a while…night custodian on that floor. We'd talk now and then when he did one of his all night stays. He was mad at somebody once, and I told him my brother could take care of the guy if he wanted. I got fired about six months ago…got caught taking some game stuff home from the sample room. Tattinger called me a couple of weeks back and asked about my brother, and he offered me money, too; so I called Stu. I didn't kill anybody, just helped rough 'em up when they wouldn't tell us anything. We finally decided the second ones didn't know anything; but they knew we were there, and they knew why. Tattinger's orders were to do whatever we had to do to find those reports…and to be sure we didn't get caught. So Stu shot 'em. We never did find the papers."

"Why did you go after the second family?" Beckett asked.

"When we started beating his wife, Feldman finally told us he gave the information to a friend. When the girl came down the stairs to see what was going on, Stu shot her. After that, Feldman and his wife wouldn't tell us anything else. I guess they knew they were gonna die anyway. Then Stu went up to see if anybody else was there and shot the boy. He saw the guy across the street leave Feldman's place and take an envelope home that afternoon, and he figured that was what we were looking for. After a while, it looked like we weren't going to beat anything out of them; so Stu shot 'em then went upstairs and shot the kids."

"At any time during all that, did you ever ask your brother not to shoot anyone else? Did you feel any sympathy for the victims?"

"Nah. Any of them could have turned us in."

"Even the three year old…the youngest ones who were probably all asleep at the time?" Castle asked."

Hogan just shrugged.

State your response for the record," Beckett ordered.

"You gotta do what you gotta do," he answered.

Beckett closed the folder and turned off the recorder. "I'll let the DA know you cooperated, but I wouldn't count on much sympathy," she said as she and Castle left.

When they went back to Tattinger and his attorney, Beckett read him his Miranda rights, sat down across from him, and stated firmly, "You've been lying to us, Mr. Tattinger. We have a recording that Mr. Feldman made of the meeting where he refused to go along with your plan. Mr. Duggart has been very informative, and Larry Hogan has admitted to making the arrangements for you to employ his brother. Along with everything else, our search warrants give us access to your financial records. People are looking into that as we speak. We know that Briggs aka Stu Hogan's gun was used in all nine murders and that your final instruction to him was to do whatever he had to do to get the information back…and to be sure not to get caught. You hired him, so you're equally responsible for what he did." As she spoke, she laid the crime scene photos of the bodies one by one in front of Tattinger and his attorney, starting with Leon Feldman, followed by the other adults and progressing by age to the youngest. When she put down the last two photos, the CEO broke down.

Tattinger waved his lawyer off when he tried to stop him from talking. "Stop. It's over, John," he told him. Turning back to Beckett, he explained, "I thought Feldman started the rumors, and I only intended for Briggs to rough him up a little bit…scare him. Then when I knew he got to the test results and made copies… We were counting on that product to pull the company out of financial disaster. The company would have been ruined. I couldn't let that happen on my watch, and Duggart didn't want it happening on his watch, either. I talked him into going along with bribing the manager of the testing facility and hiding the problem. Quinton had nothing to do with anything beyond that. I got desperate and told Briggs to get rid of Feldman and bring back those copies." After hanging his head for a moment, looking haggard, he continued. "I don't know when I turned into somebody who could do even that, but please believe that nobody else was supposed to get hurt. All those children… God, I'm so sorry."

"I think we can safely say you and the company are both finished, Tattinger," Castle said unsympathetically. "Nobody is going to buy toys from a company whose CEO was willing to intentionally put dangerous products on the market or whose CEO was willing to engage in murder for hire to hide that, especially to this degree. It doesn't matter whether you intended these children to die or not. Nine people are dead because of you."

Castle and Beckett stood, and she opened the door and called LT to take Tattinger to be processed and sent to holding.

As Beckett gathered the photos and returned them to her file folder, the captain left the observation room and joined them. "Congratulations, Lieutenant. A firm victory for your teams, but I wish it didn't feel so hollow. I know those children's faces will haunt you for a while. They haunt me, and I've only seen the crime scene photos. When you have things tied up, bring me up to speed. I'll be in my office."

When he returned, LT informed her that uniformed officers were on the way in with the manager of the testing facility. That was the final piece of the puzzle, and a confession was easily obtained.

"Drinks after work?" Jennings asked when the two teams gathered in the conference room to box up records and clear the room for normal use.

"Sounds good. Where do you want to go?" Beckett asked.

"Let's treat Castle to a real cop bar…pay him back for all the coffee and meals," Blount suggested.

"I accept," Castle answered, looking pleased. "Is it okay if I bring my wife?" Everybody groaned and chuckled.

When they were back at their desks, the Captain called Beckett into her office again. "One more news conference, Lt. Beckett. Four-thirty again. That gives you about forty-five minutes to put together what you intend to say. Chief Dawson was pleased with your last contact with the press. Try to leave him feeling that way again."

Since Gates had a little quirk of a smile as she finished the last sentence, Beckett asked, "So you're saying there's no pressure?"

"This time I'm almost certain that questions will be allowed. I trust your judgment in deciding how to answer. As for reporters, the secret is to avoid letting any of them get under your skin…even if you want to take them down and handcuff them. Don't do that, either."

"I'll try. Shall I run my statement past you beforehand again?"

"I trust you. I believe Chief Dawson does, too, but I'm not sure about the publicity rep. Jot down some notes for her."

"I think Karpowski should be there, too, Sir. Her team worked as hard as mine, and we had nothing but cooperation from them."

"Karpowski will handle it well. I'll mention it to the chief. Tell her to be ready."

"Yes, Sir." Returning to her desk, Beckett told the others, "Be right back." Then she walked to Karpowski's desk and said, "You're going to be introduced at the press conference. It's in about forty minutes."

"What?"

"Forty minutes. They're allowing questions this time. You may have to answer a few."

"This is your doing, isn't it, Beckett?" Karpowski asked suspiciously.

"Told you to watch your back. And it's good lieutenant practice," Beckett answered, looking unapologetically entertained.

"Thanks a lot," was the unhappy answer.

"Actually it's because you did a great job and you deserve credit for it. Besides, the captain apparently thinks this is part of a lieutenant's duties. Can't hurt to show the chief you can do it."

Karpowski looked at her for a moment, then her grumbled cop response to the idea that Beckett really was doing this to enhance her move toward lieutenant was, "Fine. Forty minutes."

Jennings looked up with a grin and Karpowski glared at him. "Shut up, Jennings. Not. A. Word."

Beckett chuckled her way back to her desk, Karpowski calling out behind her, "Better watch your back, Beckett."

"What was that about?" Castle asked, looking amused as his wife returned to her desk.

"I'm introducing Karpowski at the news conference, and she knows she might have to answer a question or two," she responded with a grin.

Castle chuckled. "How long have you known Roslyn? I never asked, but you seem to get along well. "

"We went through the academy together, both of us determined to prove that women could be an asset to the department. We didn't hang out a lot, but I didn't hang out with anybody a lot back then. We worked together well, though. Both of us put in our time in vice and were glad to be rid of it. We built a healthy respect for each other. She made detective about a year after I did, and I have no doubt she'll make a good lieutenant."

"And like the captain is giving you the opportunity to prove yourself, you're trying to pass it along?"

"Just doing the right thing," she answered, jotting down notes for the publicity representative.

Softly, so it belonged to only the two of them, he answered, "I love you, Katherine Beckett Castle. And I'm so proud of you."

"She smiled at him, somehow managing to look both mischievous and loving, and whispered, "Right back at you, Stud."

The boys looked up curiously when there was a sudden burst of laughter from Castle; but all they got from him was, "Sorry. One of those things where you had to be there."

That was followed by another little chortle and a smile Castle couldn't seem to lose. Beckett just displayed a self-satisfied smile, and there was another short bit of quiet, flirtatious conversation.

"Are you only going to use that name when we're in public and I can't follow up on it?"

"But your reaction is so much fun that way," she teased. "Maybe closer to home soon?"

"I'd like that."

"I'll see what I can do."

Ryan and Esposito were still paying attention as Castle and Beckett flirted. They watched as the blatant flirting stopped, but the married couple couldn't seem to shake the small smiles they wore.

"Wonder what that was?" Esposito asked.

"Dude, we probably don't want to know," Ryan said to his partner, and they went back to their paperwork.

Beckett finished her notes and was about to go back to her own paperwork, and Castle asked, "Want to trade places? I'll type."

"Really?"

"Sure. You dictate. We've got this."

That's what they were doing when Chief Dawson and his small entourage came in to join Gates and Beckett before the press conference. He met Karpowski and had no objections to presenting both detectives. He also made a point of meeting the rest of the team who had so quickly closed a case which caused such public concern. Beckett gave her notes to the publicity representative, who seemed satisfied; and they were told that Karpowski would participate in answering if there were questions after the statement.

Watching Karpowski leave with the other two women, Castle asked the others, "So, are we going to go and stand in the crowd and support them?"

"It's either that or more paperwork," Blount replied. "Lead the way, Castle."

The rest of the two teams got up, and all six men piled into the elevator together. Once at the ground floor, they did their best to leave the building inconspicuously and blend into the crowd of reporters, staying at the back edge of the group nearest the building.

Chief Dawson again opened the statements. "Although it was certainly not planned for that purpose, it's hard to ignore the fact that this case has been closed quickly by a precinct and two teams of detectives lead by some of the very capable women of the NYPD. All of us are grateful to the detectives, the ME's, and the lab and tech support teams who provided the information they needed. I'm well aware that you're not here to listen to me, so I'll put you out of your misery and defer to Captain Gates."

A ripple of quiet laughter went through the crowd as the captain moved to the podium.

"I won't tax your patience for long, either." She motioned for Beckett and Karpowski to join her. "You've already met Lt. Beckett. The woman beside her is Detective Roslyn Karpowski who leads the second of the two teams who handled this investigation. Both are experienced and accomplished homicide detectives. Any of us will accept questions about the case after the statements are complete, and we will answer as many as we deem reasonable without compromising our work." She looked to her side and said, "Lt. Beckett, Detective Karpowski." before she moved back to stand next to the chief.

Beckett and Karpowski moved forward, and Beckett spoke. "I'll begin with the information you want to hear. After that we will both be open to questions. This was a case of corporate financial difficulty, desperation, greed, an effort to escape responsibility, and terrible unintended consequences. We have made five arrests. Trent Tattinger, CEO of Top of the line Toys, Lawrence Hogan, and his brother Stuart Hogan have been charged with nine counts of murder. The toy company's CEO, Trent Tattinger; CFO, Quinton Duggart; and Irene Swanson, the manager of the testing facility used for their toys, have been charged with reckless endangerment. She then went on to briefly explain the situation that ended in the murders.

Questions were being shouted as soon as it appeared she was finished, but Beckett stood quietly for a noticeably long moment as she had when she made her first statement near the crime scene. She finally said, "If we can't understand the questions, we can't give you accurate answers. The questions we answer will be from those of you who are called on. If you'll be patient, we'll be here until you've had your chance."

The first person she acknowledged asked, "Are you saying that all the victims other than Mr. Feldman were collateral damage?"

"Sadly, that was the case," Beckett answered.

A couple of other questions about details of the case were asked, and Beckett had Karpowski field those. Then someone asked, "This is a kind of convoluted story. How did you figure it out so quickly?"

Beckett answered, "A lot of long hours, a lot of help from all those people the chief mentioned earlier, and a lot of help from Mr. Feldman."

The same reporter asked incredulously, "The victim helped you solve his murder?"

Beckett explained the information he left for them. "We had suspected most of it, but his information cemented the theories about the company he worked for. He left us the details and documentation." She looked over at Karpowski then, who picked up the rest.

"We knew the Hogans were responsible for the murders. After that it was a matter of finding them and figuring out how they were connected to Trent Tattinger."

The two detectives answered a few more questions about the case and the investigation before someone asked. "Those men over there who are trying to blend into the back of the crowd, are they the rest of your teams?"

"Yes, they are," Beckett answered, "And they deserve a lot of the credit for the success of the investigation." Karpowski nodded her agreement.

"How do they feel about taking orders from the only woman on their team?" someone else wanted to know.

"You'd have to ask them. We haven't heard any complaints."

"May I ask them?" was heard from the same reporter.

Captain Gates looked at Chief Dawson, who allowed it; and something that looked from the podium suspiciously like roshambo was going on in the back of the crowd. Esposito moved toward the front a few seconds later and said, "All of us wanted to answer, but I won." Standing where he could be heard, he stated clearly, "We don't care that our lead detectives are women because skill and competency don't have gender or ethnicity. We all intend to have our own teams eventually; and when we do, we and our teams will benefit from having worked with them. So, I guess respect is how we feel about it." Then, without any flourish, he went back to the others.

Another reporter asked, "Is that Richard Castle trying to hide over there with them? He's too tall to hide very well. Did he work on this case with you? And can we ask him some questions?"

Castle shook his head to refuse.

"He did," Beckett admitted. "I suspect his refusal is because the questions have already strayed far enough from the case. Given the nature of these crimes, personal questions don't feel appropriate. Are there other case related questions?"

Another few acceptable questions were asked of various people, and efforts toward another couple of personal questions were rebuffed. The chief then stepped in and closed the briefing before walking back into the building with the captain and her detectives…and her writer.

"Mr. Castle, I appreciate that you refused the publicity opportunity," Chief Dawson said.

"What I do here isn't for publicity. I've asked my publicist to downplay it because it could interfere with investigations. And gaining personal publicity around the deaths of those children would be unconscionable."

The chief just nodded appreciatively as he followed Gates to her office, and he told his small staff to wait where they were. "Out of curiosity, does Mr. Castle actually help much?" he asked her quietly.

"I tried hard to believe he was worthless at first. It annoyed me to have to deal with a civilian who has the mayor on speed dial to insure his presence here. But, honestly? It's too bad his writing is such a lucrative profession for him. He would have made an excellent detective. And I'll admit that he's grown on me. I know my detectives can do their jobs quite well without him, but their solve rate is a little higher when he's here. As often as he puts in as many hours as our detectives, it's amazing that he still gets any writing done."

"Hummph!" the chief answered, seeming surprised. "And we still aren't paying him anything for all the consulting time?"

"The fact that he met his wife here and is able to work with her regularly seems to be all the reward he needs." With a smile and a little shake of her head she added. "They seem to be a package deal. And the homicide division has adopted him as one of their own. Actually, I think he likes doing something that makes a difference. He's a good man."

"So, you recommend that we let him stay?" Chief Dawson asked with a chuckle.

"Yes, Sir." She laughed lightly at herself and, for Victoria Gates, looked a little sheepish after having just presented something of a Richard Castle commercial.

"I'd recommend giving these detectives a long weekend off. I have the feeling the city budget can't afford the kind of overtime they put in on this one."

"Yes, Sir. I know my part of it can't."

"Thank you for keeping me informed throughout. My phone was ringing constantly, and having answers to the questions was a necessity." He offered his hand and Gates shook it. "You and your staff have given us a good boost in public approval, Captain. Nice to get that now and then."

The chief waved to the bullpen in general as he left, then everyone settled back into their normal routines.

Another half an hour spent on paperwork left all of them close to finished. Gates called them into the conference room one more time and spoke to them about their long weekends.

"Good work, people. The chief was happy with us. Be here tomorrow to finish all your paperwork." Gates told them. "You all put in two full eight hour workdays in overtime on this case...Lt. Beckett and Mr. Castle gave us two and a half. You know how the budget goes, so you'll get one of them in your paycheck. The other will be comp time. You can choose to add either Friday or Monday to your weekend. I'd like you to split the extra days as close to half as possible so we aren't too short staffed on those days. You can work that out among yourselves, and Lt. Beckett will give me the list tomorrow. Unless we have an emergency, I'll avoid having any of you on call for those three days. Enjoy your evening." She turned and left then.

Days off were assigned, and Beckett put together the list and delivered it to Gates before they all quickly left to get the drinks they had discussed earlier.

xxxxx

As they walked into the bar near the twelfth, Beckett and Karpowski were teased about being too good to show up at a lowly cop bar now that they were celebrities, and the guys were razzed about sucking up to their bosses. But the bar was inhabited by cops from the twelfth, and underlying all of it was a respect for the job. The two teams had made their precinct look good to the general public, and that was good for all of them. Castle was welcomed, and he and Beckett dropped their guard a little bit, holding hands at times, one slipping an arm around the other, leaning against one another now and then…simply indulging themselves with their small, affectionate touches among people who were at minimum friendly acquaintances. It was a comfortable, relaxing evening for all of them.

After talking to some of the other patrons at the bar, Castle sidled up behind his wife later and asked, "You ready to go home yet?"

"Yeah. Let's go. This has been a day for the books." Then she quickly amended, "But not those books."

"No intention of using any part of this case there."

"I know that. More proof that I married a good man." She gave him a spontaneous quick kiss on the cheek. "Let's go home. Maybe we still have time to hug the kid before JD gets her."

"You love my kid. Proof that I married a good woman."

They both smiled and Castle went to thank the rest of their extended team for his drinks before they left. Once they were in the car, they allowed themselves the long slow kiss they had wanted since they left the precinct. Then they headed home in search of a kid to hug.