Dear Reader, please accept my most humble and abject apologies for the tardiness of this story. Alas other tales required telling before this. And so here it is, the concluding chapter of this tale. Please enjoy.

Chapter 12

Castle opened the front door and walked in to find that the lights of the loft had been muted. A glance at his watch saw that it was a little after ten o'clock. He felt a little guilty for being late. He had promised to be home early evening. He had meetings at Black Pawn for most of the day discussing the new book. Gina had given him hell for not having finished the last chapter as he had promised. Catching hell from his ex-wife was nothing new. He had promised to have the final chapter finished by the end of the week and that seemed to have appeased her. Just.

Later on he had caught up with Ryan and Esposito for an update on the case but they had found nothing new. As frustrating as that was it did not surprise him. The shooter had disappeared into thin air it seemed. He had gone over the case with the two detectives to see if he could find something that be could turn out to be a lead but after several hours he had come up with nothing, just like they had. Again.

He dropped his keys into the bowl on the sideboard and moved into the loft. The loft seemed too quiet and he figured that everyone had gone to bed. At least Alexis and Kate may have gone to bed, knowing his mother she was probably out on the town with some of her friends kicking up their heels. It was a thought he did not dwell on. His eyes were drawn to the living room and saw that the television was on but the volume had been muted. As he walked in that direction he saw the blanketed figure on the couch.

Kate heard his approach and turned her head.

"Hey." She said quietly. Slowly she rose into a sitting position, letting the blanket fall down. She pulled back the hair that had fallen across her face.

Castle smiled at her.

"Hey yourself." He glanced over to the TV. It was some old sitcom rerun. "Are you practising your lip reading skills?"

"I thought I might give it a try." Kate smiled

Castle sat down beside her. "So, how's that going?"

Kate shrugged her shoulders. "Eh, need more practice."

"I'm sorry I'm late." He told her.

"Don't worry about it."

"But..."

"Don't worry about it." Kate repeated.

Castle nodded his head. He turned to watch the TV

"Alexis is upstairs." Kate informed him. "Had some homework."

Castle looked back at her and saw the gentle smile on her lips. She quirked her eyebrow.

Castle could not help but smile back at her. He had been thinking why Alexis had left Kate on her own. It was as if she had read his mind.

"So how are you doing?" He asked.

"I'm good." Kate nodded. "Getting better."

"Good to hear."

They sat there in comfortable silence watching the TV for a few minutes. Castle was startled out of his reverie when he felt Kate rest her head against his shoulder. He turned his head to look down at her. Kate's focus was the TV. He was half expecting at any moment to realise what she had done and immediately sit up straight. Kate did not move. That was the other half of his expectation, that she would not move.

"Felling sleepy, are we?" He asked.

"Nope." Kate replied. "I had a long nap this afternoon."

"Okay."

"Feeling up to telling me the rest of the story?" Kate asked.

"Sure."

"Are we nice and comfy?" Castle said, chuckling.

"Mmm." Kate nodded her head.

Castle reached over with his free hand and drew the blanket over her, making sure she kept warm. She turned her head slight and smiled at him.

"Definitely, nice and comfy." Kate murmured.

Castle smiled down at her.

Castle had to think back for a moment to recall where he had left off the story. It had been a couple of days since the last time he told the story. A moment later it came back to him and he smiled even more.

...Once more the fair Detective Beckett and Richard the Minstrel found themselves standing in the lodgings of Master Roger. Both the fair detective and the Minstrel were slowly taking the surrounds while Master Roger watched them with a bewildered look upon his visage.

"They told me he met his demise in a mugging that went awry." Master Roger said. "And now you tell he was killed here, in my lodgings?"

"Nay, not him." The Minstrel replied. "His spouse."

"His spouse!" Master Roger exclaimed, becoming visibly agitated. "Pray tell, what kind of family was this?"

The Minstrel completed his examination of the room in which they stood. He turned to face the fair detective.

"Verily, so we are married." The Minstrel said.

"Nay, we are not married." The fair Detective snapped.

"Be at ease, my dear detective." The Minstrel said, a smile growing on his face. "It is just pretend."

"I do not want to pretend."

"Fear that you might like it?" The Minstrel said, leaning closer to the fair detective, smiling even more.

"Verily, if we are married, I want a divorce." The fair detective declared.

Master Roger had watched the exchange before him. Still bewildered he ventured to speak.

"Are you two like this all the time?" He inquired.

"Yes!" Said the fair Detective Beckett and the Minstrel in unison as they rounded on Master Roger. They suddenly looked at each having realised they had spoken together.

It was the Minstrel who broke the staring contest.

"Alas. we are not married, but they were." The Minstrel said. "Pray say that the doorman was correct. Melanie returned home about four o'clock in the afternoon."

The fair Detective's face brightened.

"She would have had to have prepared dinner for the children."

The Minstrel nodded his head and turned and strode towards the kitchen that was to be found in Master Roger's lodgings. The fair Detective Beckett followed him into the kitchen.

"Then Samuel returns home." He ventured.

"Counting House hours, around six o'clock." The fair Detective added.

"By then the children would have eaten." The Minstrel said.

"So...they're amusing themselves in the bedroom?"

The Minstrel nodded his head, enjoying the building of theory with the fair Detective.

"What in my bedroom?" Master Roger interjected.

"Hush." The Minstrel said glancing in the direction of the bewildered looking Master Roger. "See you not, we are on a roll."

"They have a fight." The fair Detective Beckett declared.

"About the illicit liaison."

"About Philadelphia."

The Minstrel nodded his head eagerly and moved to stand closer to the fair Detective.

"The argument becomes heated."

"And she turns her head..."

"He strikes her with something." The Minstrel declares.

The Minstrel and the fair Detective pause as they look about them in search of a cooking utensil that could act as murder weapon. The fair Detective Beckett reached for a copper pot and held it up for the Minstrel to see.

"A pot." She announced. She looked at what the Minstrel was holding and found that he held in his hand a large iron frying pan. "Or a pan."

The Minstrel waves the pan in a striking motion.

"Wack! He strikes her hard. Cracks her skull."

"Alas, the children are still in their bedroom." The fair Detective pointed out. "He has to figure out a way to remove her from the apartment without the children seeing."

Richard the Minstrel surveyed the terrain of the abode and anon his eyes rested upon a door in the hallway. Through the open door he espied the bathroom of the abode. His face lit up.

"The hallway bathroom." He announced.

Both the Minstrel and the fair Detective Beckett departed from the kitchen and moved to the bathroom.

"He needed to purchase more time." The Minstrel said.

"Verily." The fair Detective Beckett said as she surveyed the bathroom. Her face brightened as she pointed. "He placed the body in the tub. And then closes the door."

Master Roger had followed the fair Detective and the Minstrel from the kitchen and now stood in the doorway of his own bathroom. He let out a cry of surprise when the fair detective closed the door in his face.

The Minstrel nodded his head in agreement at what the fair Detective Beckett had said.

"He tells the children their mother has gone forth to the shop." The fair Detective Beckett added.

"Which according to the case file, the man at the door of this building was never able to substantiate." The Minstrel pointed out.

The fair Detective nodded her head and then her face slowly creased into a frown.

"He has no mode of transport." The fair Detective Beckett said as she looked at the Minstrel who stood close to her. "How does he transfer the body from this abode?"

Master Roger pushed open the door. His patience was sorely tested at the intrusion of the Fair Detective Beckett and the Minstrel but he said not a word about that. Instead he spoke something else.

"Mayhap he hailed a hansom cab?" Master Roger ventured.

The fair Detective Beckett rounded on Master Roger. "Truly, mayhap the cabbie assisted in putting the body in the trunk." She said tersely. "How much do you tip for that these days?"

"The doorman!" The Minstrel exclaimed.

"Minstrel, I was jesting."

The Minstrel could not help but smile as he looked at the fair Detective.

"What if the body was already in the trunk when he transferred it from this abode?"

"A trunk?" Master Roger said. "He would have needed a wagon."

The Minstrel looked to Master Roger.

"In this building, if you have something picked up or delivered, do you have to sign for it?"

"That is true." Master Roger nodded his head. "A delivery the size of a trunk one would have to affix their signature in the ledger."

"The ledger?" The fair Detective Beckett questioned.

"The ledger that is maintained by the doorman downstairs."

The fair Detective Beckett thanked Master Roger for his assistance in the investigation and both her and the Minstrel repaired to the ground floor and spoke with the doorman. The doorman was most eager to assist the fair Detective in her inquiries. It took the man but little time to find the ledger from five years past.

Once that ledger was in the fair Detective Beckett's possession she and the Minstrel perused through the pages searching for the entry for the day when Melanie Cavanaugh met her demise. Anon they found the entry.

The fair Detective Beckett and the Minstrel were standing before the door of the apartment of the Widow Marsh. The Widow Marsh, a woman around seventy summers old and short of stature, stood in the doorway and examined the page of the ledger that the fair Detective was holding out for her to inspect.

"Truly, that is my name." The Widow Marsh confirmed.

"Verily it was five years ago, Widow Marsh, but the the only delivery that day was to your abode." The fair Detective Beckett said. "If you remember anything at all about the delivery..."

"I remember." The Widow Marsh declared. "I had to go downstairs to sort everything out."

"Pray tell what do you mean, 'sort everything out'?" The fair Detective inquired.

"I informed the doorman I had never ordered a trunk." The Widow Marsh said. "But the navvy brought it on up. He loaded it up on the freight elevator while I was having words with the doorman."

"What transpired when you were downstairs?"

"I informed the doorman that they had gotten the incorrect apartment again." The Widow Marsh sighed. "Upon my return, the navvy had gone. Does this have to do with that missing woman?"

"It does." the fair Detective Beckett confirmed.

"I already told the other policeman this information." The Widow Marsh announced.

"Investigator Sloan?" The fair Detective prompted.

"I do not remember his name but I told him everything as I have told you." The Widow Marsh asserted.

The fair Detective Beckett and the Minstrel emerged from the apartment building and proceeded to where their horses awaited them. On reaching the hitching post. It was the Minstrel who espied a covered wagon trundling along the road past them. He regarded the passing wagon carefully.

"Tis the same wagon that we espied outside Master Wyler's emporium." The Minstrel remarked, pointing out the wagon to the fair Detective. The fair Detective Beckett watched the wagon for a moment before she turned to the Minstrel

"He must have a contract with them." The fair Detective remarked.

"If you want assistance with some heavy lifting, who would you call upon?" The Minstrel said pointedly.

"Your best friend." The fair Detective declared.

Upon their steeds did the fair Detective Beckett and the Minstrel did jump and away they rode in haste.

XXX

Master Tyler esquire now found himself acquainted with the inside of one of the interrogation rooms of the police house. He was not best pleased to answer the summons from the constabulary late in the afternoon but of choice in the matter he had none.

He was seated at the table in the interrogation room looking more than passing miserable. Across from him sat the fair Detective Beckett her countenance was that of disapproval and disdain at the man who faced her. Richard the Minstrel chose to remain standing leaning against a far wall but his eyes focused upon Master Tyler.

"We can trace the rental of the delivery wagon to you, Master Tyler." The fair Detective declared. "If you want we can bring the good lady you had the trunk delivered to to come in and identify you."

A look of deep concern marred master Tyler's countenance. He looked up to the interrogating Detective.

"Forsooth, I had naught to do with what befell Melanie." Master Tyler insisted.

"You have lied about everything else, perchance why not with this?" The Minstrel scoffed.

"I had no reason to hurt her."

"But Samuel had reason, correct?" The fair Detective continued, regarding the emporium owner carefully. "She kept returning to her ex-paramour. How much could a good husband put up with?"

Master Tyler let out a long sigh and told of the night after Melanie had met her demise.

"He came to me that night in alarm." Master Tyler said slowly. "He said that he needed for me to come with him to his abode. When we arrived, the children were asleep and Melanie was in the tub. He had placed her remains in a garment bag. Samuel said to me that she had come at him, and he took leave of his senses...and struck her."

"Forsooth why did he not entertain the idea of separating from her, divorce her mayhap?" The Minstrel jested.

"Think you not I was aware how wrong it was?" Master Tyler exclaimed heatedly.

"Truly why take the risk?" The Minstrel questioned. "Why did you remove the body?"

"Because he made a very grave error. And what of the children? Their mother was dead and if he went to gaol..."

Master Tyler shook his head unable to finish the sentence.

"So you arranged for the wagon." The fair Detective said.

Master Tyler nodded his head. "He said it should not be traced back to him." He said. "Tis reason why the trunk was sent to the old lady. Tis why I rented the storage space. We knew well the constabulary would look to Samuel as a likely suspect."

"And you made the payments?"

"Truly that is so. Samuel feared to take any chances. So, he would pass over the coins and I would pay twice a year."

"For five years?" The Minstrel said.

"It seemed a lot easier than to have moved her."

"Pray tell why did you stop making payments?" The fair Detective inquired.

"Truly I am sorry of what befell Melanie." Master Tyler said with a beseeching look upon his face. "What was I to do? Keep paying for the rest of my days?"

The fair Detective Beckett closed the folio that she had brought into the interrogation room with her. She rose to her feet and fixed master Tyler with a look. Her fair countenance had darkened.

"Mark this well, Master Tyler." she said. "The prosecutor and I will make sure of that."

XXX

The Minstrel was perched in the chair beside the desk of the fair Detective Beckett. He held in his hands a file which had attracted his interest and was reading. The fair Detective Beckett was standing close to her desk speaking with Sir Roy, the Sheriff having briefed him on the outcome of the case.

"So her body is dumped because Master Tyler failed to pay an account?" Sir Roy said.

"Ironic is it not?" The Minstrel announced looking up from the file in his hands. "That such a selfish act in the end revealed the truth."

"Truly, there were people who knew the truth all along." The fair Detective Beckett fumed. "They made the choice not to."

Sir Roy the Sheriff nodded his head. A moment later his countenance brightened.

"And so the Gods took their revenge and Samuel met an untimely demise and thus all is right with the world."

Sir Roy the Sheriff bid the fair Detective good night and took his leave. The fair Detective Beckett glanced at her time piece and walked over to where the Minstrel was seated.

"I am going to speak with Melanie's parents." The fair Detective announced. "And inform them how this story turned out. Would you care to accompany me?"

The Minstrel looked up from the file he had been perusing. A curious look was upon his face.

"The old woman with the trunk delivery informed us that she talked to a member of the constabulary." He remarked.

"Indeed. Sloan." The fair Detective replied.

"And yet he did not list her name in this report."

"Mayhap, he felt not the need to as he considered it unimportant." The fair Detective said. "He was not of the opinion that he was looking at a murder."

The Minstrel nodded his head. "Truly that may be so. Then why would you interview a neighbour about a trunk delivery?"

The fair Detective Beckett gave pause to ponder the question that the Minstrel had just posed. As much as she tried, alas an answer she could find not. Neither could the Minstrel if the look upon his face was to go by. However, all was not lost. The fair Detective Beckett knew where the answer to the question posed by the Minstrel could be found.

XXX

The Widow Marsh was taken aback upon answering her door to find the fair Detective Beckett and the Minstrel standing in her doorway.

"This must truly be some trunk." She remarked.

"You mentioned when we last spoke, a member of the constabulary spoke with you." The fair Detective said without preamble. "I realise that it has been five years, Widow Marsh..."

"I said not that it was five years." The Widow Marsh interjected.

"Pray tell when did he come to see you?" The Minstrel asked.

"I believe it was last year sometime." The Widow Marsh said. "I remember thinking, 'why is this member of the constabulary asking me questions about a trunk I never ordered'?"

"Do you remember anything about the man?" The fair Detective inquired.

"He was older."

"In uniform?"

"Nay, in plain clothes." The Widow Marsh reported. "He had grey hair and walked with a limp."

The fair Detective Beckett looked to the Minstrel both wore looks of surprise at this revelation.

"Master Davidson." the Minstrel declared.

"Melanie's father." The fair Detective added.

XXX

The fair Detective Beckett and the Minstrel sat upon their horses out the front of home of Master Davidson. The fair Detective was gazing at the house. Through one of the windows she espied a typical familial scene, children playing with their grand sire. The Minstrel looked away from the house before them and to the fair Detective. He saw the unhappiness that resided on her face.

"You could leave it like it is." He said softly. "Samuel is dead, the Sheriff is happy. Those little ones appear to be happy."

The fair Detective Beckett looked sharply at him.

"Know it well the difference tween a story and the real world, Minstrel." The fair detective said. "A member of the constabulary is empowered not to decide how a tale ends."

The Minstrel remained in the saddle and could only watch as the fair Detective dismounted and approached the front door of the house. The door was answered after she knocked by Master Davidson. It was not long after that all three returned to the city.

XXX

And so it came to pass Master Davidson found himself in the interrogation room facing the fair Detective Beckett and the Minstrel.

"I am here because I asked questions of a woman about a trunk?" Master Davidson said.

"Not any trunk, Master Davidson." The Minstrel said. "The trunk that your daughter's body was stored in."

Master Davidson looked from the Minstrel and then to the fair Detective.

"Let us assume for the moment that what you say is true, what is the charge?" He challenged.

"If Widow Marsh's answers led to Sam's demise, then the charge would be murder." The fair Detective informed him.

Master Davidson looked down at his hands that he had resting on upon the table and considered what he had been told. After some moments he lifted his head.

"I continued to mull over what Sam had said." Master Davidson said. "Everything that he claimed had occurred on that night, until I drew the same conclusion that you both have drawn. That my daughter did not leave the apartment that night alive. The Widow Marsh's answers merely confirmed what I already knew."

"That your son-in-law was a killer." The fair Detective supplied.

"If you had deduced what Sam had committed, why not go to the constabulary?" The Minstrel questioned. "He would have been sent to gaol for the remainder of his life."

"If he had been convicted." Master Davidson pointed out angrily. "Remember not, the constabulary did not have a body. His lawyers would have put Melanie on trial."

"So you took matters into your own hands." The fair Detective said.

Master Davidson leaned back in his chair and once more looked from the Minstrel to the fair Detective.

"One could well understand how a father might want to." He said. "How he might follow his daughter's murderer one dark evening, when he is assured there are no other souls about. How he might confront him with a weapon that he had brought back from a past war. Might even consent to promise forgiveness if the truth is told. And, upon hearing his confession, be overcome with rage."

"Killing him was not the answer." The fair Detective said quietly.

Master Davidson looked at the fair Detective and straightened in his chair.

"I said not that he met his demise at my hand. I said that a father might be justified." Master Davidson said. "The constabulary informed me that Sam met his demise during a robbery. And without evidence, there is little hope that his killer would ever be brought to justice. We shall see that if that is true or not. I would like to see a lawyer, if I could."

The fair Detective Beckett drew the interview to a close. She rose from her chair and departed from the room. The Minstrel was not far behind her.

XXX

Richard the Minstrel walked around the corner and came upon the fair Detective Beckett sitting at her desk regarding a picture of Melanie Cavanaugh. He quietly settled himself upon his chair. The fair Detective set the picture in the file and closed it. She glanced at the Minstrel offering him a small sad smile.

"By the way." she said. "It was my mother, not my father."

The Minstrel sat up in his chair and said not a word. Patiently he waited to hear more, and long he did not have to wait.

"We were supposed to have dinner together, my mother, my father and I. She was going to meet us at the tavern, but show she did not. After two hours my father and I returned home and there waiting for us was an investigator. A Detective Raglan. The constabulary had found her body. She had been stabbed."

"A robbery?" The Minstrel asked, his voice barely a whisper.

The fair Detective shook her head. "She still had her money and purse and jewellery. They attributed it to gang violence. A random, wayward event. So, just like Melanie's case, they could not think outside the square. So they just tried to package it up nicely. And the killer was never found."

The Minstrel could see the fair Detective's eyes shinning with unshed tears.

"Why do you wear the time piece?" He asked.

"My father took her death very hard." The fair Detective replied. "He's sober now. Five years."

The Minstrel nodded his head in understanding.

The fair Detective showed the Minstrel the time piece. "So this is for the life I saved. And..."

The fair Detective paused in her story and reached into her shirt and pulled out a necklace on which was diamond ring. "...this is for the life that I lost."

The fair Detective Beckett forced a smile to her face as she looked over to the Minstrel.

"I suppose your Lady Nicole has a tragic back story now, Minstrel?"

The Minstrel shrugged his shoulders as he gave consideration to what the fair Detective had said.

"I don't know...I was enamoured of the exotic dancer by day and investigator by night thing." The Minstrel replied with a small smile on his face. "I suppose that a heavy emotional angle could work as well."

The fair Detective Beckett smiled as she rose from her desk and gathered her things in preparation for departure for the evening.

"Well, bewilder not your audience with substance on my account, Minstrel."

"Fare thee well Detective Beckett, till the morrow." The Minstrel said.

"Pray tell why you can not simply say 'goodnight' like normal people, Minstrel?"

Richard the Minstrel smiled up at the fair Detective Beckett.

"A couple of reasons." He said.

"And they are...?" The fair Detective raised a dainty eyebrow in the Minstrel's direction.

"First of all, I'm not like normal people."

The fair Detective forced herself to purse her lips to hold back the retort that was on the tip of her tongue. She merely nodded her head.

"Secondly, I am a Minstrel. It is my lot in life to weave words in such a manner."

The fair Detective nodded her head in understanding.

"And, 'till the morrow', sounds more promising.., more hopeful." He said with a smile on his face.

"You said a couple reasons, you just gave me three."

"And I am a Minstrel not a mathematician."

The fair Detective Beckett smiled. "Well I'm an investigator, so good night Minstrel." She said as she left.

"Good night, Detective Beckett." The Minstrel said as he watched her depart. Then added in a quiet voice. "Till the morrow."...

Castle finished the story and looked down at Kate expecting to find her asleep instead he saw a pair of luminescent emerald eyes gazing happily up at him.

"The end." Castle said.

Kate laughed at that. A moment later the laughter was engulfed by a yawn.

"It's late, I think it's time for bed."

Kate nodded her head. Slowly moved into a sitting position. She pulled the blanket aside.

Castle rose off the couch and stood up. He held out his hand to her. Kate bit on her lip but made no move to take his hand. Realising he might have overstepped Castle gave her an apologetic look and dropped his hand. Yet Kate still did not make any move to get up.

"Umm, Castle." Kate said hesitantly. "Would you mind if you carried me?"

Castle's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." Kate nodded.

"Okay."

Castle knelt on the couch. He slid one arm under her knees and the other under her shoulders. Kate immediately wrapped her arms around his neck. He grinned down at her as he gently lifted her off the couch. She hardly weighed much at all, he thought to himself.

"Is this my reward for telling you a story?" Castle asked, as he headed in the direction of the stairs.

"It might be." Kate replied cryptically.

"Castle, where are you taking me?"

Castle paused at the foot of the stairs.

"Umm, upstairs, to your room." He said.

Kate shook her head.

Castle looked down at her unable to hide the confusion on his face. With a tight lipped smile on her face Kate motioned in the direction of Castle's office, and beyond that of his bedroom. Again Castle's eyebrows rose up in surprise. Kate silently watched his face as he processed what she wanted. He gave her a questioning look. Kate motioned to his study again. Surprise slowly melted away with the birth of a leering smile. He turned away from the foot the stairs and started walking toward his study.

"Why, Detective Beckett is this your less than subtle way of having your wicked way with me?"

"Dream on, Mr Castle." Kate laughed.

"Oh I do." He breathed, smiling down at her. "Each and every night."

The End

XXXXX

And so another tale has come to an end. My thanks to you all for taking the time to read my humble efforts. My thanks to you for sending me your thoughts and opinions throughout this journey. Who knows, in the fullness of time, the Minstrel may return with another tale to tell.

As always I would dearly love to hear what you think of this effort.

Con