Thank you so much for the awesome response. I'll admit to feeling a bit iffy about posting an AU.

Warning characters may be a bit out of character in this chapter. I guess that's why it is AU.

If you want a vague idea on time line I say Season 3 ish. Its AU but at least you will get an idea on Alexis age and Becketts hair length. LOL

This is my first attempt at a fic with a "case/ murder" in it so bare with me.

Thanks to Anne for being my Beta and making my work better

Previously on Storm Clouds

"Step away from the body scumbag."

Castle turned around surprised to see several guns pointed at him.

"Okay. Okay. But you have to help her. She doesn't have a pulse. I've been trying to give her CPR but I don't know if I am doing it right?"

"Paramedics are on the way. Now step away from the body."

Castle kept his hands raised as he stepped away from his bed.

"I didn't kill my ex-wife."

Chapter 2

Detective Kate Beckett poured herself a cup of tar. That was the only way to describe the black sludge the 12th precinct passed off as coffee. She added a few sugars, not that it would help. If it wasn't for the fact that she needed the caffeine hit, she wouldn't even bother. She craved an overpriced coffee from a coffee shop with tons and tons of whipped cream on top. It had been a long few days, but finally their killer was behind bars. In just a few hours she could go home and relax. Taking a reluctant sip of her coffee, Beckett walked out of the break room and suddenly felt a change. She looked at everyone in the room and wondered what was going on. They were gathered together in small groups, whispering amongst themselves. A few had their cell phones out, but they all seemed to be looking towards the elevator.

Beckett walked over to her two partners Javier Esposito and Kevin Ryan. She was in charge of the two men, but at times she felt more like their mother.

"Hey guys. What's going on? Did we get a pay rise?"

"I wish," Ryan told her. "Do you have any idea how much a wedding costs?"

Beckett rolled her eyes. Ryan might complain about the cost of the wedding in front of his partner, but soon as Esposito was out of hearing distance, Ryan was running over with magazines asking her opinion. Not that she knew anything about weddings.

"So what's going on then?" she asked again.

"Slaughter is bringing in some celebrity. The guy was found standing over his wife's body." Esposito told her as he turned back to his desk and continued on with his paperwork.

Beckett rolled her eyes again. Slaughter. Hate was a strong word that she usually only reserved for criminals, but she truly hated Detective Slaughter. Three months ago he had been transferred to the 12th. He'd had issues at his previous precinct and Beckett wasn't surprised. Within seconds of meeting him, he had hit on her. It wasn't unusual; she hadn't fallen out of the ugly tree and hit every branch, guys hit on her. What guys usually didn't do is insult her when she told them no. Slaughter hadn't been happy and started making assumptions about her sexuality and asked it was hard to walk with a stick shoved in a very uncomfortable place. Since then they always butted heads. Slaughter wanted to close cases just like she did, but their methods were different.

"I can't wait to see who it is," Ryan asked eagerly. "Who has been in the media lately for arguing with their wife?"

Beckett raised her brows at Ryan. He was a bit of a fan boy and loved it when celebrities came into the precinct. Ryan had a stack of pictures of himself with celebrities in handcuffs. He had a rule though; if they were guilty, he got rid of the pictures.

The elevator dinged and a man came stumbling out. His hands were behind his back, she assumed cuffed. The unknown man would have hit the ground if it hadn't been for Slaughter grabbing the back of his shirt. As the man was pulled back up, Beckett's eyes connected with startling blue ones.

"Get in the interrogation room," Slaughter ordered as he pushed the man down the hall. "In there, Richard Kimble."

"My name is Richard..."

"Castle," Beckett finished, stunned.

"Wow. That really is Richard Castle," Ryan exclaimed.

"The author Beckett has a crush on?" Esposito asked.

Beckett turned to look at her partners. "I don't have a crush on him."

Esposito scoffed. "Yeah, right. I have been to your apartment, remember. You have all of his books on display front and centre. You practically had a heart attack when I went to remove one of his books that you had in a plastic case."

Beckett gritted her teeth. Why was it she had invited her partner over to her apartment? Baseball, that was why. His TV was broken, so she had offered to have him over. She was going to be watching the game after all. Well, she wasn't going to be making that offer again anytime soon.

"The book is one of his earlier works, and it's hard to find. Besides, it was signed which makes it more valuable. The case is practically indestructible."

"You planning on having your apartment blow up?" Esposito asked.

Beckett shrugged. "You never know."

The three detectives turned around when they heard yelling coming from the interrogation room. So did quite a few officers in the precinct.

"Wait. I thought you said that a celebrity had murdered his wife."

"I wouldn't exactly call Richard Castle a celebrity," Esposito told her as he went back to his paperwork.

Beckett turned to face her petulant partner. "No, what I mean is he doesn't have a wife. He isn't married, at least not anymore. His second marriage ended a few years ago and he hasn't been dating anyone."

Esposito laughed. "Well look at you. I thought Ryan was the little fan girl."

"It's public knowledge Espo."

Esposito raised a brow at her. "Yeah, if you surf the fan pages."

Beckett shook her head. She so wasn't dealing with him tonight. "If he doesn't have a wife, then who is he suspected of killing?"

"Let's find out," Ryan told her as he went running off to the viewing area of the interrogation room.

Beckett watched Ryan run off, then turned to look at Esposito. He was smiling at her.

"Well, aren't you interested?" she asked him as she stalked over to the viewing area.

She walked in and cringed at the yelling.

"You killed her, didn't you."

"No. I told you I didn't." The author insisted.

"Really. You write about death all the time: maybe writing wasn't enough for you anymore." Slaughter began to circle his prey. "Did you pull out a gun to add a bit excitement to your sex life, and the gun just went off?"

"She was shot?"

"Oh, don't act like you don't know." Slaughter told him.

"I told you I didn't kill Meredith."

Beckett gasped. Meredith.

Ryan turned towards her. "What?"

Beckett shook her head. "It's nothing. It's just Meredith is his first ex-wife."

"Is that supposed to mean something?" Esposito asked as he entered the viewing area.

Beckett bit her lip and lowered her head. "He umm. He has a daughter with his first ex-wife."

Darkness started to sweep over her. A young girl was now without her mother, and her father was a suspect in her murder.

"I didn't kill my ex wife."

"I don't care."

"Who are you? Tommy Lee Jones or something?"

Slaughter scoffed and sat back in his chair. "That depends. Are you going to tell me it was the one-armed man who killed your wife?"

"Ex-wife. We have been divorced for over ten years. I have no reason to kill her."

Beckett turned to her two partners. "What do we know about this case?"

Her partners raised their brows at her.

"What? Something isn't adding up here. What else do we know?"

They shrugged and then walked out of the room. She was about to go after them when she saw them approach another officer. Good: they were looking into to it for her

Beckett looked at the man sitting in the interrogation room. Often suspects sat in the chair, levelling the detectives a smug look. They all denied committing the crime, but none looked as scared as the author sitting in the interrogation room.

"Where is my lawyer? I want to see my lawyer."

"Your lawyer will be here soon pretty boy, but once they get here, I can't help you. Come on, admit to killing her. Maybe a judge will go easy on you."

"I am not saying anything else."

"You just did. Not very bright for an author."

Beckett shook her head. Slaughter was an ass, and she couldn't listen to it any more. She walked out of the viewing area and walked over to her desk.

"Hey, Beckett. I talked to an officer who was at the scene and Esposito called Lanie." Ryan told her as he walked over to her desk. He had his notebook out just as if he were at a crime scene.

"And?" Beckett inquired. Lanie was a medical examiner and her friend. She was also Esposito's girlfriend. Something that the two had tried to hide from her and Ryan. It had been funny watching the two of them trying to hide their relationship with excuses about where they were and who they were texting.

"Well, apparently there was a 911 call saying there was the sound of a gunshot coming from the apartment. When officers arrived, they found him standing over the body. He had blood on his hands, he says he was trying to revive the victim."

Beckett nodded. That was definitely possible.

"And Lanie."

"Lanie didn't work the case," Espo told her as he walked over. "Perlmutter did."

Beckett groaned. Perlmutter was a good ME, but there was definitely a reason why he worked with dead people.

"So, did Lanie know anything?"

"No, but she did some digging when I told her who the suspect was. She says you owe her one for making her talk to Perlmutter."

Beckett rolled her eyes. Great ,now there were three of her friends giving her grief over the author.

"And?"

"The victim was shot, but your boy there has no gunshot residue on his hands or his clothes."

"Well see, doesn't that tell you something?" she asked her partners.

Ryan shook his head. "All it means is that he washed and changed his clothes. Come on Beckett, don't act like a rookie."

Beckett rolled her eyes. "Richard Castle is a crime writer, guys. He knows how to plan a murder and get away with it. If a murder occurs but there isn't a body, then did it even occur? His first move would have been to dispose of the body, then get cleaned up."

"I guess," Esposito told her.

"Aren't you just grasping at straws?" Ryan gave her a sympathetic look.

Yes, she was grasping. She was grasping because she couldn't believe a man like Richard Castle could do something so heinous. He was a celebrity, sure, but he was more than that to her. She had started reading his books when she was going through a very traumatic time in her life. When she ran out of his books, she went online and researched him. There were a bunch of fan sites out there that had her wanting to send out restraining orders to these random people. Then there was his official site where all his book signings and links to videos of interviews were. That was where she hung out. She stalked the chat section for quite some time, not wanting to interact with obsessed fans. When one fan had posted a huge spiel that the murder from the latest Storm novel wasn't realistic, Beckett had jumped in, with all guns blazing. She admitted to being involved in law enforcement, and proceeded to go into detail about why it was in fact possible. Since then she often logged in and discussed various things with other fans. There were some she stayed away from, but once she waded through the nut jobs there were actually quite a lot of normal people on there, like her. Not only that, but the man himself often weighed in on some of the conversations. She had wasted hours reading over everything he wrote online and on the page. He could kill a person on paper but there was no way he could do it in real life. If only she could talk to him.

"Hey Beckett," Beckett looked up and saw Ryan was pointing behind her.

She turned to see Slaughter had left the interrogation room and was talking to an officer. Beckett turned to her two partners. "I'm going in. I want one of you in the viewing area, and the other keeping an eye on Slaughter."

"But Beckett."

Beckett waved them off and quickly snuck into the interrogation room. She quietly closed the door as to not draw attention to anyone outside the room. He was slumped over with his head on his hands.

"Hi Mr Castle, I'm Detective Beckett."

"Drop the Mr bit," he told her.

Beckett nodded as she pulled out the chair. "Okay then, Castle."

He looked up at her and frowned. "What, are we playing bad cop, hot cop now?"

Beckett gritted her teeth. Please please please don't let her be wrong about this man.

"Listen Castle. I only have a short amount of time here."

"And let me guess, you can't help me if I don't talk to you."

Beckett sighed. Slaughter had given him the same line.

"Can we contact anyone for you?" Beckett asked.

He frowned at her. "What?"

"Is there anyone you want us to contact for you? Friends? Family?"

"My daughter got home just as they were taking me out. They said someone would bring her here."

Beckett nodded. "Okay. Well, I don't know if she is here or not, but I can look into it for you. Anyone else?"

Castle shrugged. "There is no one else apart from my mother, and she is at some actors retreat in Vermont. They have no phone or internet access."

Beckett took out a pad and pen and placed it on the table. She then pushed it over to him. "Write down all the details you have on where she is and I'll have someone track her down for you."

He blinked at her a few times before grabbing the pen and quickly began writing. When he was finished he pushed it towards her. Beckett tore off the page and stood up and placed the paper against the mirrored glass. She waited a few seconds then released it when she heard a slight tapping noise. Walking back to the desk, she sat back down again.

"Okay, look I know you want to wait until your lawyer gets here, and that's fine. However, the sooner we know the facts, the sooner we can get the real killer off the streets."

"The real killer?" he asked shocked. "You mean you believe me?"

"You are killing my patience here, Castle. In a few seconds, Slaughter is going to come back in here and pull his I think I'm a bad ass cop routine. Once that happens, I'm out of here. This is his case, and I shouldn't even be in here. But I am, so I need you to tell me what you can and quickly."

He nodded at her. "Umm okay. I came home to make dinner and I guess Meredith was already there, dead. I went into my room and I found her. I tried to give her CPR and that's when the police broke into my home and arrested me."

"Okay. How long were you home before you found her?"

Castle shrugged. "Umm, maybe five minutes, ten at the most. I was making dinner for my daughter when I heard a noise."

"A noise?" she asked, intrigued.

"Yeah. There was this noise so I went to investigate."

"And that's when the police came in."

"Yes."

Beckett heard a tapping at the window. She turned and sent a glare to her comrade behind the glass. The tapping continued so she figured it might be important.

"I'll be back."

Castle nodded. "I'm not going anywhere."