The Final Curtain
Ok Aaron…you can do this…just one more scene and you are done. This is your last time walking out onto that stage. At the end of this scene it will all be over. This will all be over. He thought to himself as he stood in the wings. As he looked across the stage that was filled with his fellow actors he spotted her on the other side. What! What is she doing here. There is no way she could have known. Did I slip up…did I say something that tipped her off. Maybe, maybe she just came to see the show. I did promise her she could come watch at anytime. If she figured it out that's it…it's ruined. He heard his cue and walked out onto the stage. The stage lights were so bright that he couldn't see past the first row in the packed theater. He took in the sight of the four cast members that shared his scene. These people had become his friends. A couple of them he surely would have stayed in touch with if things weren't about to change completely. He gave his final line and the lights went out. Through the darkness resounded a deafening bang. A flicker of light from stage right was all that could be seen. As the lights came back up there he laid. Surrounded by his cast. It was his final curtain after all.
Ring! Riiinnnggg! Ring!
"Ugh Castle could you please hand me my phone?" Detective Kate Beckett asked her fiancée as she moved away from his arms, where she had fallen asleep watching a movie.
"Payment first." Castle replyed as he waited for a kiss.
"Now, Castle, it could be the precinct." Kate countered.
Richard Castle knew that Beckett needed a good fifteen minutes to become her charming self once she woke up, but he couldn't resist any opportunity to get under her skin. He may have been playful, but he wasn't stupid so he handed her the phone without any further delay.
As she took the phone from him she decided to give in and gave him a small peck on the cheek as payment before she answered.
"Beckett."
"Is this Detective Beckett?" Asked a young female voice on the other end of the line.
"Yes, this is Detective Beckett. Can I help you?" Kate asked as her senses immediately heightened. She glanced at the clock on the wall and noticed that it was 10:30 pm. She wasn't used to getting calls that late unless it was from Rick or the precinct.
"Detective, my name is Lisa Williams. I am a friend of Alexis Castle. She gave me your number. I tried to call 911 but the dispatcher thought I was joking and she wouldn't patch me through. I need to report a murder." Said Lisa as her voice broke again from the shock.
"Go on Ms. Williams." Kate took the phone away from her ear and put it on speaker so that Rick could hear.
"I'm sorry to call you directly, but I didn't know what else to do. I'm at the Berkley theater on campus. Could you please come down here. A man was shot during his performance and the police still haven't arrived." She begged.
"Berkley campus? It will take me some time to get there, but we are on our way. Ms. Williams you said Alexis gave you my number. Is she with you?" Kate asked.
At the sound of his daughters name Castle flinched.
"It's her friend." Kate mouthed to him.
"No, she actually was supposed to be here, we had planned to come to this dinner murder mystery show for my birthday, but she has a big exam on Monday so she bailed."
"Ok. Where can I find you?" Kate questioned as she was frantically trying to put on her boots.
"Well I'm wearing my Alabama hoodie, and I don't see anyone else with that on. You could look for that. I will try to be out in the foyer." And before Kate could answer the phone disconnected.
"Castle call Alexis. Make sure that she even knows this Lisa Williams and confirm with her that there was a dinner theater going on there tonight." Kate instructed as she put on her jacket.
As Castle locked the door behind them and stepped into the elevator he called his daughter.
"Alexis? Honey, do you know a Lisa Williams?" He asked
"Yeah, dad, I told her to call Beckett. She called me freaking out that the guy playing Barnaby really was dead. Is it true? Did he really get shot?" Alexis fired off question after question.
"Woh, slow down Alexis, first of all I don't know if it's true, and second of all Barnaby? Is that this guys name? Who would be that cruel to their child this day in age?" Castle laughed.
"Dad! Be serious, Barnaby was the character's name. Honestly with grams as your mother you never heard of the play "But Why Bump off Barnaby"?" Alexis said with a serious tone.
"Oh, yes of course, written in the 80's right? My high school did a version of that play. It was a disaster. The set fell apart on the first night and…"
"Dad, can we get back to what just happened please?" Alexis interrupted.
"I'm sorry sweetie, yes well we are on our way to the campus theater now. Beckett just wanted to make sure that you really did know this girl." Castle explained.
"Yeah, she is one of my good friends. Her birthday is tomorrow and we all chipped in to make it a great night for her. I, however, forgot about my physics test on Monday and decided I should stay home. I should have been there. She was freaking out dad."
"I'm glad you weren't there to be honest. You have already dealt with to much at your young age I am glad you didn't see it. Listen, sweetheart I will call you as soon as I can to fill you in o.k?" Rick asked with a fatherly touch.
"Ok love you talk to you later." Alexis replied before she hung up
"Love you too" he put his phone in his jacket pocket "Alexis confirms they are friends, and she confirms that there is indeed a play that was supposed to happen tonight. She's a little worried about her friend, but selfishly I'm glad she stayed home."
Castle and Beckett walked out of Castle's building and headed to Beckett's car. As they drove towards campus neither of them said a word. He could tell that she was getting into cop mode, and he didn't want to get in her way. When they first showed up nothing looked out of the ordinary. People were standing around huddled in groups, but there were no police cars, or yellow tape blocking off the building. Something just felt off to Beckett.
"Castle? Were are the other units. We took at least 20 minutes getting here, someone should have been here by now." Kate stated as they walked into the theater building.
"Well, maybe Lisa wasn't exaggerating when she said the dispatcher didn't take the call seriously." He replied.
"Ok, one call maybe, even though I don't agree with it, but all these people. I mean she couldn't have been the only one to have called. Oh look that must be her?" Kate spotted the Crimson red hoodie, but before she approached the girl she called in back up. Esposito and Ryan were just leaving the precinct and would arrive in about 15 minutes. She also called in Lanie who happened to be right down the street at her favorite restaurant "Ms. Williams?" Kate asked the girl in the hoodie.
"Yes."
"I'm Detective Kate Beckett and this is Richard Castle, Alexis' father. Could you tell me what happened here tonight?"
"Sure, thank you for coming, well, the first portion of the night was a catered dinner from the advanced cooking classes. Then they took about a half hour intermission to set up the chairs for the play. During the first act, the lights went out and there was a loud bang, like a gun shot. You could see a spark of light come from the right of the stage. When the lights came back on the actors all screamed. Aaron Summers, the actor that played Barnaby, was laying there dead. I immediately picked up my phone and dialed 911, but the dispatcher told me that I had nothing to worry about. It was in the script for that character to die and to please not waste his time with pranks." Lisa explained as she shifted from leg to leg.
"Well, not that it was right for him to be rude, but I'm sure he got a lot of calls like that over the weekend. People might not have realized that this was what they signed up for. It is a murder mystery dinner theater…right? I mean I could see why he would think it was a joke." Castle as he looked to Beckett for confirmation. What he got was a stare that said "I can't believe you just said that"
"Mr. Castle. I'm not an idiot. I know that the character was scripted to die, however, I just saw this same production last night with my parents. They had the same idea as my friends and bought tickets for me for my birthday. I didn't have the heart to tell them or my friends that I was going to be seeing it twice. And last night when the lights went out all you heard was a body hitting the stage floor. No bang, no spark of light. That's why I knew something was wrong." Lisa stated flatly.
"Ms. Williams, I assure you no one thinks that you calling us was stupid. Mr. Castle just has a tendency to speak before he thinks sometimes. If you can remember anything else that seemed different tonight please, don't hesitate to call me directly. You have my number." Kate shook her hand and started to walk towards Ryan and Esposito who had just gotten out of their cars.
"Hey guys, what's going on? I didn't know you liked the theater Beckett." Javier Esposito joked then immediately regretted it when he saw the look on Kate's face. "Oh, o.k. this wasn't a social invite so what's up?"
"It seems that someone wanted to bump off Barnaby for good." Castle replied.
"What Castle is trying to say is we caught a murder. Aaron Summers, our vic, was playing the role of Barnaby Folcey when in his death scene on stage he was apparently shot. Problem is the lights were out and as far as we know no one saw anything. I called Lanie she should already be in with the body. I need you two to interview some of these other witnesses and see if they can give us anything." Kate ordered.
"Where are the other unies? I don't see any other patrol cars here?" Ryan asked as he dug his notebook from his coat pocket.
"Well, Ms. Williams said she tried to call 911 but the dispatcher basically ignored her. I don't see, however, how they could ignore all the phone calls about this. I'm going to have to ask Captain Gates about that. I got the phone call because Ms. Williams is friends with Alexis."
"Hmm that's good to know. I'll see if anyone else tried to call and got the same run around." Ryan replied as him and Espo walked away.
"Why would anyone want to murder an actor in a college theater troupe? It doesn't make any sense?" Kate said as she walked back to her car with Castle.
"Well, it could be an understudy upset that he didn't get his big break. Or maybe a costume member mad about an extra couple pounds Aaron put on….oh oh I got it…it was the director. He was angry over a bad review about the death scene and needed to find a way to make it more realistic." Castle explained with a childish glee.
"Castle, it's late. Your theories get weak when you are tired. An angry director? That's the best you got. Come on let's go home and get some sleep. I have to get up early tomorrow to talk to Gates about our dispatchers." Kate smirked as she got into the car and drove back to the loft.