Aug. 11th, '15: Neighborhood Watch - Part VIII
Title: Neighborhood Watch - Part VIII
Author: SweetChi
Rating: PG-13
Crossover: Castle
Word Count: 1352
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Supernatural, I am making no money from this and am doing it purely for enjoyment.
Summary: Ryan and Castle start their investigation.
Part VIII
Kevin slung the bag out over the edge of the dumpster, taking pleasure in Castle’s “Hey!” as it narrowly missed him. Never thought he’d be diving for his own trash. At least it was the recycling bin instead of actual trash this time.
“Banquet meals? Really, Ryan?” Castle called already having ripped the bag open and rummaging through its contents.
“They’re cheap and quick. All I’ve had time for the last couple weeks.”
“No wonder your brain is rebelling…”
Kevin gave a small smile as he climbed out. Strangely enough, it made him feel better that Castle was teasing him about being “crazy”. He doubted he’s say such things if he actually thought Kevin was losing his mind. Well, maybe. It was Castle after all.
“You said it was pink, right?”
“Yeah. I know it’s in that one because it has the envelope for my paycheck,” Kevin said, picking out said envelope from the mess Castle was making and giving it a little wave. “I was all pissed off because they screwed up my overtime. Her note made me forget all about that…”
“Awwww,” Castle said, stopping his pawing to look at him all dewy eyed. “I really hope she’s real, because the ammunition for giving you shi-“
“There!” Kevin interrupted, catching sight of a pink corner.
“Nice try at deflection,” Castle said, pulling on said corner and revealing a Victoria’s Secret catalog. “Ooh la la… You do a lot of lingerie shopping Detective Ryan?”
Kevin felt himself turn pink, but was helpless to stop it. “Previous tenant.”
“Sure,” Castle chuckled. “I’d say the same thing. You know, if I had any shame. Oh, what’s this!”
The sight of the little pink post it brought a ridiculous amount of relief to Kevin. He’d told Castle he was sure of what he saw, but each little piece of evidence to back that up felt like a piece of his sanity returned.
The “Thursday?” scribbled across it became visible as Castle straightened it out and suddenly Ryan felt sick. Here he was being happy that he was being proven right? What the hell was wrong with him? If he was right then that meant Buffy…
“I think I’d rather be crazy,” he said, staring at that post-it.
Castle looked up at him from his squatted position next to the bag, face serious for once.
“You think she’s dead?”
“You didn’t see what I saw,” he answered quietly. “I mean, I keep telling myself that she could be okay, but… Even if she’s alive, she can’t be okay. Not with all that blood and falling that far…”
“She could be the one screwing with you.”
Ryan blinked. For some reason that had never even occurred to him.
“I guess that’s possible. Not really a great option but better than her being hurt, or worse…”
“Or maybe it’s not her blood,” Castle said, standing. “Let’s go get another co-conspirator, shall we?”
*****
“You want me to what now?” Lanie asked, taking a step away from the filthy sock dangling between them.
“Test the blood on the bottom of it,” Castle said.
“And there’s this,” Kevin said, holding out a baggy.
“Did we get a new case? Because I haven’t heard anything about it,” she said, giving the two of them a squinty eyed look of suspicion.
“It’s not for a case per se,” Castle said with a shrug. “Just something Ryan and I are working on.”
“That’s not reassuring,” she said flatly.
Kevin stepped in front of Castle, elbowing the sock away from his face. “It’s about a friend of mine. She’s missing and this is really all we have to go on. Can you-“
“Oh and this!” Castle said pulling the post-it from his pocket.
“You,” she said pointing at Kevin. “Should know how to handle evidence better. And you, are an idiot, but I still expected you to have done enough research to not go shoving crap in your pockets that could help with a case. Even an unofficial one.”
She grabbed a couple bags for the sock and post-it and took the baggie of blood.
“Thank you, Lanie,” Kevin said, feeling a huge surge of gratefulness. “Really, I appreciate it.”
Lanie’s face softened and she shook her head. “Don’t thank me yet, sweetie. I’m not sure I’ll be much help with this. Looks like the sock got drug all over the city.”
“Whatever you can tell us- Hell even if you can’t tell us anything- still, thank you.”
“You okay?” She asked, looking at him closely. “You seem a little worked up about this.”
Kevin struggled with what to say, should he tell her the truth? Would she be as logical about the whole thing as Beckett and Javi or would the actual presence of the blood sway her to his side? Luckily he didn’t have to explain anything as her phone rang right then.
“I have to go,” she said when she hung up. “But I’ll do what I can. Might be a little while - work load isn’t exactly light at the moment. But I want some answers when you come back? Got it?”
Kevin nodded, elbowing Castle again as he whispered “Quid pro quo, Clarice”, and gave her a crooked smile. “Sure thing. Just, uh, can you keep this between us three?”
If anything, she looked more curious after that statement. Kevin could see her struggling with the desire to ask more questions, but finally just settled on a shrug. “Fine. But seriously. Answers soon.”
“So, uh, what was the call,” Castle asked, following her to the door. “Anything new and gruesome I might- gurk-“
Castle made a little gargling sound as Kevin pulled him the other way by the back of his jacket. “Man, I swear you have the attention span of a puppy…”
*****
“Well, to find suspects we need to find out what we can about Buffy,” Castle said once back in the car. “You said you guys had dinner right? Where?”
“At her place,” Kevin said, frowning. “Delivery. And I paid and answered the door.”
“Hmm, we can dig into that holding company in Scotland,” Castle suggested. “Her name might not be on the lease, but maybe she’s one of the clients or something?”
“She said she and her sister got an inheritance and she let the sister decorate the place with the money. Never mentioned anything about a company.”
“She say what she did for a living?”
Ryan shook his head. “I asked but then we got distracted.”
Castle looked over with an eyebrow waggle. “How distracted?”
Kevin gave him a scathing look. “We were bowling and her shot went wild - ricocheted off that replica of David. Still made a strike though…”
“Wait, what? I’ll need a little more explaining after a sentence like that.”
“When we first met and I found out she was moving in upstairs - which is another thing we can check on. That couch was delivered to the building. The jackasses just left it in the lobby. So if we can find out where it came from, maybe we can get some info. Anyway, she made a joke about laying off the living room bowling. She picked up some little indoor bowling game and we played the night we had dinner.”
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Castle said with a grin, veering into traffic.
“And that ‘where’ would be…”
“Toys! She had to buy that game somewhere, right? And I know every toy store in the city. Stores mean surveillance footage and credit cards.”
“Unless she bought it online.”
“Unless she- who buys toys online?! Half the fun is going to the store!”
“Not everyone thinks like you, Castle,” Ryan said, not able to help a small smile at the writer’s outrage.
“Yes, I suppose there are some poor unfortunate souls out there… “
“We could go check out the couch instead.”
“We’ll stop in when I drop you off, get a picture. I’ll send it to a couple people that could probably tell me where it came from. But for now… Toys!”
“See. Puppy,” Ryan said, shaking his head.