CASTLE

Flowers For Your Grave - Chapter 16

The next morning, Castle walked through the doors of the Tisdale NYC building. "Hi! I'm Rick Castle. I have an appointment to see Mr. Tisdale." he said, arms perched on the counter, looking at the pretty secretary but not as pretty as Becke...whoa where did that come from? he thought.

"Yes, Mr. Castle he's expecting you." she replied.

"Is he now?", a familiar voice said through the hallway.

No, Rick thought. How had she decided to follow the exact same lead as him? He turned around to see Beckett with her badge held up for the secretary to see, already walking towards the elevators.

He fumbled to give her an answer as she pressed the button for the elevator. "This is not what it looks like. This umm.." Okay who was he kidding? Kate was the best homicide detective around. She knew exactly what he was doing here. "okay this is exactly what it looks like, but I can explain." he continued.

"You coming?" was the only thing she said as the elevator dinged open and she stepped inside.

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"Did Allison ever mention having enemies or being threatened?"

Kate questioned Jonathan Tisdale, real estate mogul, the victim's father once they were inside his office.

Mr. Tisdale coughed and began, "People loved her. All she wanted was to make the world a better place. I told all this to the other detective." he said, getting a little annoyed.

"I know, sir. We're just following up." Kate said to pacify him while Richard roamed around the office looking at the photographs and touching things he probably shouldn't be touching.

"Did alison know anybody who could've profited from her death?" said Castle suddenly, peeking out from behind a model of a high rise building.

Kate whipped her head back to look at him so fast, she would have gotten whiplashed. She could see Jonathan Tisdale getting angrier.

"Mr. Castle, I may be rich, but my daughter was not. She abhorred money. What little she had, she gave to charity." his voice softened. He was clearly proud of his daughter.

"Thank you, sir." Kate said flipping her notebook close to indicate the end of that discussion. But Castle had other ideas.

"Mr. Tisdale, Fortune magazine estimated your net worth at nearly $100 million. Is that true?" he pressed on.

"I don't check day to day." came the answer.

"But it's in the ballpark?" It was clear now to Kate that he wasn't going to back down and was working on some angle. He was after all, a best-selling crime novelist so he had to have some idea. He couldn't be asking these questions for nothing.

"I've been lucky, yes." Tisdale said, fixing his hair.

"Appreciate your time." said Kate, not wanting to overstep as she nudged Rick and they both turned around to leave the office.

"Wh-What happens to all that money
If something happens to you?" Rick asked again. He just could not seem to let it go.

''Castle." Kate said warningly.

"Half of my estate goes to my charitable foundation, and the rest to my children." replied Mr. Tisdale.

"I mean, my son.", He added after a beat.

Richard felt his heart hurt at that very moment and he knew exactly how Tisdale felt. He was a father too. If anything happened to Alexis he wouldn't be able to survive.

"Thank you." he said genuinely as he walked out of his office with Kate right behind him trying to figure out what just happened.