Turn About
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: How do I not own Castle? Let me count the ways. Rating: K Time: Somewhat AU.
Author's note: The last sentence of the first chapter certainly attracted people's attention.
"What do you think you're doing?" He gasped.
Kate smiled and took a selfie with her camera. "I'm taking pictures of myself absolutely naked in your loft, Mr. Castle. And, I'm e-mailing them to my home computer. Just imagine what Bud Schiller will think when he sees pictures of the daughter of one of the victims naked with you." Kate quickly took a picture of Castle. "I know your expression is shock and anger, but it just might look like lust."
Kate laughed and sat on the couch. She spread her long, toned legs as far apart as she could and took a video of herself. "If that doesn't break the internet, nothing will."
"Beckett! Stop! Stop right now."
She smiled at him. "Of course I'll stop. Just as soon as you agree to take me on as an investigator."
"How am I supposed to do that? "Castle demanded. "The NYPD is never going to let you be a part of the investigation. You know that, don't you?"
"I have lots and lots of vacation time. I'll just tell Captain Montgomery that reopening my mom's case has upset me so much that I can't concentrate on my duties. He'll give me all the time I need without you ever having to tell One PP anything."
"I don't have the authority to make you an investigator."
Kate walked to the window and opened the drapes. "Can anyone see me from up here? Or are naked women so common in your loft that no one will notice." She took more selfies.
"I told you I can't…."
"Then call Dr. Murray and tell him to bring me in as an investigator on my mom's case." Kate snapped.
Castle clenched his fists and then relaxed. I can't believe I'm trying to get a beautiful, naked woman out of my loft. He thought. "Okay. You win. I'll call him. Now will you please get dressed?"
"Call him now. You don't need to tell him how I convinced you unless it's necessary. Then I'll get dressed."
Castle called Dr. Murray, and without mentioning naked Kate, managed to convince the doctor rather easily.
He hung up his phone. "Okay. You heard me. You're in. Now get dressed and get out of here."
Kate walked slowly to the bathroom to get her clothes. Once inside, she nearly threw up. My god. I can't believe I did that. And I can't believe that playboy Richard Castle didn't take the opportunity to sleep with me. I had a few meaningless flings in college, but since Mom died, I couldn't let anyone get even that close, but I just offered to sleep with a man for….what? Justice? Revenge? I just hope that what I did just now does some good. I hope Mom understands why I did what I did.
She dressed slowly and walked out to find Castle standing at the door, holding her coat. He handed it to her, not helping her on with it.
"Thank you, Mr. Castle." She said quietly.
"You're thanking me? You blackmailed me into this." He said angrily.
Kate frowned. "Blackmail? I think I'd call it extortion, not blackmail. Good night, Mr. Castle."
Once she was gone, Castle headed for his bar and poured himself a double. He downed it in two gulps.
Whatever happens, I've just met a fascinating and determined woman. Very determined. And very sexy. What a character she'd make. A slow smile spread across his face and he headed for his laptop.
Kate called Montgomery the next morning. As she had thought, he understood and told her to take as much time off as she needed. That done, she headed for the commission's office. She was greeted by Dr. Murray.
"Detective Beckett. I'm glad you could join us. I don't wish to insult the NYPD, but you'd have to be an improvement over the two that were working your mother's case for us. And Rick has spoken very highly of your abilities and the depth of your commitment to this case, it being personal and all. I know One PP doesn't approve of officers being involved in cases where they have personal stake, but I've always found a personal interest to be helpful. I'm glad Rick recommended you so highly."
Kate was so shocked, she spoke without thinking. "He did?"
Dr. Murray was surprised. "Are you surprised that he did?"
Kate quickly recovered. "It's just that he hardly knows me. I'm surprised he has such a high opinion of me after such a short time knowing me."
Murray smiled. "You'll find Rick is a very good judge of character. Why don't you join him and he can bring you up to speed on what we've found." Dr. Murray pointed to a small glass enclosed office where the author was sitting.
Kate quickly sat across from Rick. "You recommended me highly to Dr. Murray?"
"Did you expect me to tell the truth? "Clark, there she was, stark naked, waving her boobs around, and threatening to send selfies to Bud Schiller." That wouldn't have made either of us look very good."
"Mr. Castle, I'm sorry, but everything I told you is true. My mom's murder is why I left Stanford and a possible law career and became a homicide cop. You have no idea how badly I wanted this assignment."
Castle smirked. "I had a pretty good idea last night."
Kate smiled back. "Oh, that was just Plan B. I had a lot more things in mind if that didn't work, Mr. Castle."
"If we're going to be working together, you should call me Rick."
Kate nodded. "Then call me Kate. Where do we start?"
"Where Dumb and Dumber were with the knife. Dr. Murray made a casting of the knife used in all four murders and identified it. The two detectives found nothing, so we're going to look again."
Six hours later, Rick closed the last folder concerning the knife. "The knife was favored by special ops people on Gulf War One. Also by about a gazillion trout fishermen, a group of eccentric whittlers in Texas, and an old lady in Des Moines who used it to chase off three burglars. The knives were never bought directly by the military. They were bought by individual soldiers, or sometimes a small group would get together and buy a bunch. And since no one keeps records of knife sales beyond which retailer gets them, this was a complete waste of time."
"But we had to look." Kate reminded him.
"Whee!" Rick said sarcastically.
"This is about my mother's death, in case you've forgotten." Kate said sharply.
"I'm sorry." Rick said. "Look, I've never lost someone as close as your mother was to you, but I have lost people who were close to me. I want to solve all of these murders. I just revert to sarcasm when I get stressed sometimes. Again, I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry for snapping at you. I know you could be out bar hopping with some gorgeous woman, but instead you're here with me. I do appreciate that you're here."
Rick smiled. "Well, checking files with a beautiful woman isn't bad, you know."
Kate blushed slightly. "What's next?"
"We'll review cases with similar MOs, and unsolveds by suspected contract killers. The FBI was kind enough to give us a hand." Rick gestured to a steel cart approaching them, piled so high with cases that whoever was pushing it couldn't be seen. "And that's just the first cart. There's no reason to think a hitman would stay in New York City."
Kate groaned.
For the rest of that day and into the next, they went over files covering killings all over the country.
"This is getting us nowhere." Castle said. "For one thing, a hit man may work in Mexico, or Asia or Europe, and there's no reason he has to use a knife all the time. If he's after some cartel big shot, he'll use a sniper rifle or an assault rifle or a...a…a…" Castle stopped.
"Or a machine gun, or a grenade launcher, or a flame thrower?" Kate finished for him. "So, do you want to just quit?" She challenged him.
"No, I don't want to quit. As I told you, I have this old-fashioned notion that people who murder other people ought to pay for it. But we're getting nowhere." He picked up a file." This could be out killer, but how would we know? Just because he used a certain kind of knife? Or because some cop thought it was a mob related hit?" Castle looked at the file more closely. "But this isn't your mom's killer. A fourteen year-old girl stabbed a neighbor to death because she said he was trying to rape her. However, because he was a "good Christian" and she was dressed "provocatively", she was convicted." Castle shook his head. "And she was fourteen. She would have been just out of diapers when your mom died." He smiled. "Maybe a midget with a diaper on? Good place for a killer to conceal a weapon. I'll have to remember that for the book."
Kate's head shot up. "You're writing another Derrick Storm novel? How far along are you?"
Castle sat back and looked at her. "A fan. A Richard Castle fan. Nice to meet you. What's your favorite book of mine?"
Kate blushed and looked away. "My mother had all of your books. After she died, I started reading them. It made me feel closer to her. And I kept reading them because…" She turned her back on Castle and struggled not to cry.
"Kate, I promise you, I'll send you an advanced copy of every book I write from now on. I'll autograph each one. I'll autograph the ones you have now."
Kate turned back to him. She had herself under control now. "But you are writing another Derrick Storm book?"
"No. I quit writing Storm because he became too predictable. I knew what was going to happen from the first time I started typing. Writing Derrick Storm wasn't fun anymore. It was work."
Kate grinned. "Oh no! Not work? The horror!"
"I'm so glad you understand." Castle shot back.
"So what are you writing?"
"It's about a NYPD homicide detective. She's dedicated, fierce, smart, with haunting good looks. And kind of slutty."
"Slutty?" Kate glared at him.
"Sure. The kind of a girl who'd offer sex to a complete stranger to get what she wants. Or walk around his loft bare assed naked, taking selfies of herself."
Kate said nothing for a while. "I suppose I deserve that." She said quietly.
"No you don't. Nikki will never, ever, do anything like that."
"Nikki?"
"Her first name. I haven't come up with her last name yet. Nikki Manhattan? Nikki Wild? Nikki Ferrari? Nikki Hard? Nikki Diamond? Nikki Sweet? Nikki Holmes? Nikki Marlowe? I'll think of something."
"Something better than those names, I hope." Kate said, but with a smile.
Castle just smirked.
Kate went on. "But you're right. There are no murders that could be related to my mom's murder anywhere in New York at that time. We are wasting our time with these cases. There are just to damned many. We can't see the one tree we need for the forest."
"Oh, very good twist on an old saying. I'll use it in the book if I can find a place. But, what do we do now?"
"Let's try interviewing the next of kin of the victims. If our two predecessors did a bad job on everything else, I'm sure they did a lousy job with the next of kin."
They talked to friends, relatives and coworkers of the four deceased, but were getting nowhere. Years had passed, memories had faded, records had been lost or thrown out. A secretary who had worked with Kate's mom had thought she had looked upset just before she had been killed. An intensive interrogation, a review of her mom's records and talks with other people Johann Beckett had worked with finally allowed them to narrow the date down.
"Dammit!" Kate muttered as they drove. "All that and it was the McKeon case. Mom thought Mr. McKeon was going to murder his wife. That's why she was upset. And that was two years before her death. All that for nothing."
"The secretary was trying to help. She just got her dates badly mixed up. It happened the year her younger sister got married, not the year her older sister got divorced. But, we have a new person to interview."
"Again." Kate grumped.
Castle took out his notebook. "Mrs. Allison Farley, whose brother, our court clerk, was….."
"Shit!" Kate said angrily.
"He may not have been perfect, Kate, but he was hardly…"
"No. The car ahead of us."
Ahead of them was a police Crown Vic. One that Kate knew quite well. As she pulled in behind it, Captain Roy Montgomery got out. He was not a happy man. Both Rick and Kate got out of her car.
"Detective Beckett! I got a call from Mrs. Farley yesterday thanking me for sending that nice Detective Beckett to interview her about her brother's death. She was very apologetic that she broke down yesterday and couldn't complete the interview. Just what in the hell do you think you're doing? Did you think I was just joking when I said you were NOT to get involved in this case? Well?"
"Captain, this is my fault…." Kate began.
"No, it's my fault." Castle cut her off. "I approved of her coming onto the case."
"You don't have the authority to assign an NYPD detective to anything, Castle." Roy yelled.
"No, but I do." No one had noticed a cab pull up and Dr. Murray get out.
"Is there some reason you couldn't have mentioned that to the NYPD?" Montgomery asked sarcastically.
"Yes, there is. The NYPD assigned two drunks to work Johanna Beckett's murder. I got no work out of them and I never met with them without smelling alcohol on their breaths. I know just how unhappy One PP is to have an outsider running murder investigations and I knew if I complained to the NYPD, we'd just get in a giant pissing contest that we'd both lose. However, Mr. Castle informed me that there was an excellent detective already involved in the case. And while the NYPD seems to think that being personally involved in a case is a bad thing, I think it's a good thing. Believe me, I've gotten far more work out of Detective Beckett than those two clowns you sent me. I told Rick to bring Detective Beckett in on the case and I told her to keep that fact from you so that I wasn't being harassed by One PP."
Smelling a very large rat, Montgomery turned to Castle. "And just how did you know about Detective Beckett?"
"Research. It's what I do. It was easy to find out that Johanna Beckett's daughter had become a cop to solve her mother' case. Then I checked her background. She's a brilliant detective. You're very lucky to have her."
"She'll be lucky to be a detective once One PP finds out about this. I can't protect you from this, Kate."
"Do you see the blue van parked down the street?" Dr. Murray suddenly asked.
Montgomery was too much of a professional to look. "What about it?"
"It's registered to the Ledger. They've been following my other teams, but they seem to be spending a lot of time on Mr. Castle and Detective Beckett. I'm sure they'll interview us at some point. It makes a great human interest story, don't you think? A daughter investigating her mother's murder? I'd suggest you contact One PP and have them get ready to take credit for that brilliant idea."
Captain Montgomery sighed. "I'll take you off vacation effective the day you began so you don't lose any vacation time, Kate. I just hope this works. For all of our sakes."
"Me too." Kate said, as Roy got back in his car and left.
"What are you doing here anyway, Clark?" Rick asked.
"I like to check up on my field teams once in a while. Now shall we go see if Detective Beckett is as good an interrogator as you say she is. I must say I'm anxious to see her in action."
"Believe me, Clark, seeing Beckett in action is something you'll never forget."
Kate blushed and glared at Rick.
Mrs. Farley was unable to give them any further leads. One by one, the few leads they had turned into dead ends. Finally, one day, Rick and Kate were sitting alone in the bullpen, looking at a stack of files.
"Looking at it won't do us any good, Castle. We both know that there's nothing else there. We're done and the case is done. We found nothing."
"I'm sorry, Kate. I really am. I hoped we'd get whoever killed your mother."
She smiled at him. "That's sweet of you, Castle. But I learned one thing from the first time I investigated my mom's case. I know when to stop. I'm not going to obsess over this and go down a rabbit hole. I'm done." She took his hand in hers. "And I'm afraid our partnership is over. You've been a good partner. I appreciate everything you've done for me, Rick."
"About that. I'd like to keep shadowing you. For research for my book."
She shook her head. "Castle, what I do can be very dangerous. I can't let you put yourself in a position where you could get hurt or killed. Besides, One PP would never go for it. Never."
"Let me worry about One PP. Come on, Kate. You know we're good partners. I can help you with your cases. I did some good work on some of the other cases Dr. Murray got. In fact, you said we'd never have solved one without my help."
"That was one case, Rick. You could get hurt and I won't take the chance."
"I know how to change your mind."
"How?" She challenged.
"I'll how up at your apartment, take off all my clothes and start taking selfies."
"Castle! You said you'd never mention that!"
"I won't mention what you did, but I will post selfies of myself in your place."
"I won't let you in."
He shrugged. "I can come here and do a strip tease in the bullpen. Imagine how Karpowski would like that. And Stegner. Or I could follow you to a crime scene, one with a lot of reporters."
"You wouldn't!"
"You do recall that I was once arrested for riding a police horse while naked?"
"You would!"
"Kate, just accept it. I'm going to be your partner. And confess. You want me to be your partner."
"That's blackmail."
"More like extorsion. My partner taught me that."
Kate glared at him. "Your partner should learn to keep her mouth closed."
Castle just laughed. "And don't worry, partner, Nikki Heat will never do anything that will embarrass you. And she'll always catch the killer."
"Nikki Heat?"
"The name of my new character. The homicide detective."
"Change it, Castle. That's not a cop name. it's a stripper's name."
"I can't change it."
"Yes you can."
To Guest: Crap is spelled C-R-A-P. Nice try, though.