A Timely Demise
Season 9, Episode 2
Written by The-KLF
This is a work of fiction by writers with no professional connection to ABC network's Castle. Recognizable characters are the property of Andrew Marlowe and ABC. Names, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
831 3rd Avenue, Manhattan
A shadowy figure stalked through the cloud thrown up by the flour being pumped into the cellar of Ess-A-Bagel, and it billowed in her wake as she crept along the sidewalk. A few blocks later, a raucous group of night-time revelers swarmed around her, jostling in the opposite direction to get to their destinations. The woman lifted her left arm as if checking a wristwatch, and shifted her bag on her shoulder before looking both ways on the street.
The person slipped into a shadowy alley, dodging two large, stinking garbage bins. Rats scuttled away, their nightly endeavours disturbed by the steady stride. The figure glanced over her shoulder and, with a nod, pulled a lock-picking kit from her pocket, stepping up to a dirty door obscured from the street by stacks of air-conditioning units.
The door gave way easily to skilled hands, with a click that rang like the smallest of bells through an empty kitchen, the sound bouncing off pots, pans, and clean surfaces. The person paused for a beat, then walked toward the connecting door with silent determination and, without so much as blinking, opened it.
The trespasser took in the scene: a middle-aged woman on the opposite side of the desk. Short, tight salt-and-pepper curls framed her dark skin; she was completely enveloped by cigarette smoke hanging heavy in the air, surrounded by stacks of money.
"What d'you want?"
"So much cash in here, your office looks like a green pasture." The trespasser's voice was trembling with anger. "You were mean, and petty to him every day, and then fired him for no reason with no pay! Give him the little bit of money you owe him!"
"Get outta here, I ain't givin' you anything." The woman dismissed the intruder and went back to counting the pile of bills in front of her. With hands balled into fists, the other woman began to move towards the desk.
"You old bag, them are fightin' words..."
The woman stubbed out the cigarette that had been firmly gripped between her lips, and rose from her chair. Within seconds the two were struggling around the room, disrupting every item that wasn't fixed down. The intruder got a grip on the collar of the woman's shirt and pushed her toward the wall.
The thump of the woman's body on the wall caused a heavy clock to fall straight from its precarious nail onto her head.
The intruder seized it, lifting it up before bringing it crashing back down onto the woman's head. She dragged the woman over to the desk chair, where she slumped backwards, an eerie noise emitting from her throat before silence descended.
The trespasser didn't wait long. Grabbing her bag from where it had fallen to the floor, she put her woolen gloves on and began to gather up all the cash in the room. With a final glance at the body to make sure she wouldn't be followed, the thief scrambled out back the way she came, slamming and locking the door behind her. She headed out of the alley and blended in with a crowd of college students out for the night.
A friendly grin at LT was enough to get Castle under the yellow tape at the end of an alley off East 57th Street, and he walked toward an open door halfway down the alley, behind some dirty air-conditioning units. "Good morning, Officer Bailey." He smiled at the female officer. "How are the twins?"
"They're doing great, thank you. It's good to be back at work, though," the dark-skinned cop responded with a grin.
"Oh, I remember that age… they're so cute at five months…" Castle chuckled as he shook his head. "It's good to have you back, the bullpen has missed you." He touched his palm to Bailey's elbow and began to move past her but she stopped him with a raised hand.
"Castle, just wait a moment. You need to put the clean booties over your shoes, there's a lot of debris in the crime scene that we're trying to preserve." She allowed him inside the door before she handed him a pair of bright blue shoe covers that matched her own. "Okay, I'll walk you through. Please watch your step."
"Got it," he nodded, and followed Officer Bailey with great care, trying to match where she placed her feet with his own tread. He was so busy concentrating on the corridor floor he didn't notice that she'd stopped until he almost bumped into her back.
"Oops, so sorry. Didn't want to step on anything." Her indulgent sigh was lost as Ryan caught sight of the writer.
"Hey, Castle! Don't move, it's tight in here." Bailey walked around Castle and returned to her post. Rick looked over to Ryan, standing with Lanie behind the desk of a small office. Cigarette butts, papers, pens, office detritus, and a few ten-dollar bills were strewn all over the room. Between them was the body of an African-American woman who looked to have been in her mid-to-late sixties.
"Meet Roberta Gussie, age 57, out of Jackson Heights in Queens," Esposito's voice piped up from behind him, making Castle jump. Esposito shook his head before continuing. "Nickname was 'Nana', no family that we know about yet, and she owned Boulevard Café. I've just been speaking with Penny Yang, who was hired about eight months ago as manager, but she only knew Nana professionally."
"She never hung out with her colleagues after work?" Castle asked.
"Nah, man, she seemed a bit… neurotic. Think she likes a routine."
"Speaking of routines," Ryan began, stepping over to join Esposito and Castle, "Cap' seems to be keeping to it pretty strictly since you guys came back."
"Yeah, yeah, we're being careful, y'know? Don't want to put too much pressure on her, with the extra stress and all." Castle stuck his hands in his pockets and bounced up on his toes.
"The stress of running a precinct?"
"No, th-…" Castle noticed Lanie was listening from across the room and realized he had been about to spill the beans without even thinking. "The extra bullet she took. I only got one, she got two."
"Uh huh…" Ryan didn't sound convinced, Esposito's eyes were narrowed and aimed at him like he'd grown an extra head, and Lanie looked like she either wanted to strangle him or wheedle the information out of him with a tickle fight. It was time to escape before he said anything else that he shouldn't.
"I'll meet you guys back at the precinct, you want coffee?" Castle turned and stepped on something that made a loud cracking noise. He shrieked and started to hop out of the door, only to be met by Officer Bailey who grabbed the lapels of his jacket and held him still.
"Don't. Move. Castle," she growled at him, and when he nodded she turned around and led him back out to the door, held her hand out for the bright blue booties, and told him, "Since you stepped on evidence, I want a coffee: black with no sugar."
He smiled as he gave her a small bow. "Your wish is my command."
By the time Lanie had taken the body to the morgue, and Ryan and Esposito had finished their initial canvass, Beckett had got through breakfast, thrown up, cursed the universe for inventing morning sickness, arrived at the precinct, made it through an hour-long conference call with the other precinct captains, and endured a cup of decaf coffee. Well, half a cup. She picked her mug up and stared into the cold liquid with a scrunched nose and a grimace.
"Glaring at it won't make it reheat itself, Captain." Kate looked up to find the newest officer on the Homicide floor smiling at her from the threshold of her office.
"Officer Aragon, come in," Beckett stood as she beckoned the woman in. "Welcome to the Twelfth! I hope you're enjoying your first shift?"
"Yes, Ma'am, thank you. Everyone's real friendly, I'm not getting too much ribbing for being a Transit cop," she smiled.
Beckett nodded and returned her smile, "Well, you're a homicide cop now, we look after our own. We thought you'd be a good fit here, especially after the case you worked on the subway with Detective Esposito. I'm going to assign you to Detective Younce, so if he's in and he needs something done, he's going to ask you to do it. Stuff like running financials, scrubbing video, that kind of thing, okay? Just for this week, then we can let you loose in the field after that."
"Yes, Ma'am." Beckett stood and held her hand out to Aragon, who quickly stood and shook it.
"Okay, good. See you around, Aragon. Dismissed."
Beckett looked to the door at the sound of a knock against the frame caught her attention. She grinned at Castle, a tray of coffees in his hand, who nodded to Officer Aragon as she walked out, closing the door behind him. "Hey, lover."
"Hey! As per your request by text message, I brought you a special coffee from home. What's wrong with the decaf here?"
"It's not made by you."
Castle handed her the to-go cup and accepted her brief kiss with a very self-satisfied smirk that she wished she had time to wipe off properly. "Well, I try."
"Yes, babe," she responded with a wink. "You're very trying."