Ok, here's the deal. I invented a new character, and I really, really like her. So there's a lot of her in this chapter. Maybe too much, but I find her entertaining and she does contribute some insight into the Castle-Beckett relationship and to the case. I think she's relevant, but I welcome your feedback.
Also, I like to write in "dialect," so I did so for Lauren Harrow. If you have trouble understanding what I've written, I'll edit, but I think the dialect adds character. Again, I'm interested in what you think.
If you pick up on the movie reference in the chapter, you get a...well, you get nothing. I don't know you people. But I'll say congrats.
The only thing that's mine is Lauren Harrow.
THE THIEF
Kate Beckett was a very impressive woman in many ways. Her impressive looks went without saying, anyone could see that. She was an impressive investigator, a fact Castle had been aware of for a long time. He was also very aware of how impressive she was in the interrogation room. She had impressed him yet again about forty-five minutes ago with her ability to take down a suspect. But as Castle studied the woman across the interrogation table from them, Castle thought that Kate Beckett might just have met her match.
Lauren Harrow sat in the chair opposite Castle and Beckett, studying a small chip in her dark purple nail polish. Was it purple or black? It was hard to tell. But there she sat, as calm as could be, studying her nails for a moment before going back to looking at the interrogation room with some interest. Castle made note of the details, knowing that she would appear in a book at some point in the very near future. Harrow was a beautiful woman, he couldn't help noticing. She was slightly shorter than Beckett, with curly dark brown hair that fell loosely around her shoulders, dark bangs swept across her forehead. She had perhaps the most intelligent eyes he had ever seen, sky blue in a halo of navy. She was fit, muscular in a feminine way, and wearing dark jeans, an emerald-green shirt and a black leather jacket. She was fascinating.
Beckett seemed less impressed. Castle had to admit that Harrow hadn't made the best first impression. They had arrived at her apartment to find the door slightly ajar. No one had been in the apartment, but nothing had appeared out of place. It was neat, tastefully decorated, and nicely furnished for a woman who had no apparent source of income. Harrow had appeared in the doorway, caught sight of Castle and Beckett, and pulled a .45 from…somewhere….before Beckett could even identify herself. Beckett had her gun out mere seconds later, and as soon as the requisit "NYPD" had left her mouth Harrow had taken off down the hall, Beckett and Castle in pursuit. Then came Beckett's impressive takedown. But even as they had hauled her in for questioning in handcuffs, Harrow hadn't flinched or seemed the slightest bit concerned. She hadn't said a word, hadn't asked a single question, merely inspected the precinct with mild interest.
Suffice it to say, Kate's mood was crap for the second time in the last twelve hours. She had been absolutely furious with Castle for reasons still unknown until sometime around two when her anger had suddenly vanished, also for reasons unknown. Things had gone swimmingly for about an hour, during which Kate was much nicer to Castle than usual. She had brought him coffee. That never happened. Now she was royally pissed again. At least this time it wasn't directed at him…he didn't think.
Beckett placed Harrow's gun, which was now in an evidence bag, on the table. "Care to explain?" she asked calmly.
"Not to worry, I've a permit. Sorry 'bout pullin' me gun on ya, love. Instinct" said Harrow. She was British, her accent a brisk Cockney. Fascinating. "I've known quite a few coppers in my day, never two that looked like the pair o' you. An' when I see folks I don' know in me flat, I get a mite defensive"
"Your door was open" Castle pointed out.
"Yeah, it didn' latch. Does that sometimes" said Harrow with a look of mild annoyance. "I was just cross the hall feeding me neighbor's cat. I'd on'y been gone five minutes."
"So why'd you run?" asked Beckett.
Harrow grinned, revealing a set of straight white teeth and a fairly dazzling smile. "I pulled a gun on a pair o' coppers. Seemed like the thing to do at the time." Harrow turned her full attention to Castle for the first time. "You look somewhat familiar, 'ave I threatened you before? Or 'ave you arrested me?"
"Mr. Castle isn't a cop" Beckett informed her, and Castle flashed a smile.
A look of recognition crossed Harrow's face, and she grinned again, sitting up straighter. "Richard Castle" she stated with a snap of her long fingers. Castle nodded. "Bloody 'ell, man, it's a pleasure. I gotta tell ye, I'm a fan. Tha' Bentley Silver? Great bloody character, 'e was. Ye know, ye ought to 'ave Nikki 'Eat go up against someone like tha'."
Castle leaned forward. "I've been sitting here thinking that very thing" he said.
Beckett cleared her throat and Castle leaned back. To his surprise, it was Harrow who spoke first. "But I'm not 'ere to admire the work of a gifted author. You wanna talk to me 'bout Johnny Todd."
"What makes you say that?" asked Beckett.
"Well, this is 'omicide" Harrow said with a gesture toward the bullpen beyond the door. "An' Johnny Todd's the on'y person I know's been murdered. At least in the last couple o' days." Harrow was leaning back in her chair again, utterly relaxed. Fascinating.
"How did you know Mr. Todd?" Beckett still seemed less than impressed, obviously trying to take back control of the interview.
"Former business associate of mine."
"Hmm" said Beckett. "I haven't been able to find any record of an employer for you, Miss Harrow. What is it that you do?"
"I'm self employed, as it were. In the security business."
"You have a pretty lengthy arrest record. Quite a few B and E's."
Harrow merely smiled and shrugged slightly, maintaining perfect eye contact. "I've never been convicted of anythin'."
"You must have a good lawyer" Castle offered.
"Never needed a lawyer, dahling." Harrow met Castle's eyes again, then looked back to Beckett. "But B an' E's ain't why I'm 'ere. You wanna know if I killed Johnny Todd. An' the answer's no."
"You were involved in a physical altercation with Mr. Todd on the night of September 18th. Care to tell us about that?"
"It'd be a pleasure, love" said Harrow. Castle was beginning to understand why she had never needed a lawyer. She was good. Very, very good. But not a killer…at least he didn't think so. "I was down a' the pub, 'aving a quiet drink with a friend o' mine, when in walks Johnny Todd an' 'is girl Toni. Pretty little thing, brains of a tree stump, but Johnny ain't the brightest either. Johnny comes over to me table, bloody sloshed an' it not even midnight. 'As a job 'e wants me 'elp on. I told 'im to piss off."
"Why?" Castle interrupted.
"As I said, Johnny ain't the brightest-my apologies, wasn't the brightest, may 'e rest in peace. We had a deal once, an' 'e thought 'e could try and cut me out, didn' 'old up his end of the bargain. So I terminated our association. Can't do business with people I don' trust. On'y Johnny knew I'm the best in the business, an' 'e needed me for this new deal. Wanted to bring me on. So I told 'im what I just told you: don't do business with them I don't trust. Well ol' Johnny didn' like this too much, started gettin' a mite worked up. Called me a whore. I 'it 'im. Then I left. I don' take kindly to that kind of talk. Not very gentlemanly."
"So what happened last night?" Beckett asked. "Did you decide that wasn't enough? You needed payback? For calling you a whore, cutting you out of the deal?"
"I 'ad no need for payback, love. When I left the pub, Johnny was on the floor wiping blood off 'is pretty face." Harrow paused for a moment, then leaned forward and put her elbows on the table, her eyes never leaving Beckett's. "Johnny Todd was a nasty little rat bastard. But I didn' kill 'im. Not my style."
"So where were you last night from one to three a.m.?"
"Went to a midnight showing of the new Ryan Reynolds film with a pair of friends, then 'ome to sleep." Beckett gave her an incredulous look. "What? I'm a criminal, I can't enjoy the cinema?" Castle chucked, but at Beckett's look quickly changed it to a cough.
"The thing is" Beckett continued, indicating the gun on the table. "Your pal Johnny, the rat bastard, as you called him, was killed with a .45. Which is what this is."
Harrow sucked in a breath. "Forty-five makes a nice sized hole in a person" she said. She considered for a moment. "I'm 'aving a thought, 'ere. Ye know who else 'as a .45? Will Manning."
"Who's Will Manning?" Castle asked.
"Just the guy Toni DiNozzo's been screwing on the side. You know, the distraught half-wit girlfriend who told ye I'm the on'y person who hates Johnny?" Castle was impressed, even Beckett's eyes widened just slightly. Harrow continued. "Well she's 'ad a thing going with Will the past couple o' months."
"How do you know that?" asked Castle.
"Ours is a tight-knit community" Harrow said with a wave of her hand. "Will's a big ol' boy, from Texas or somewhere, drives a big truck. In the construction business, so 'e claims. Anyway, take me gun, run ballistics, check me alibi. I'll stay in town, unless ye want me down in the 'olding cell."
"Wow" Castle said when they exited the interrogation room. "She's amazing."
"She's a professional thief, a professional liar, and probably a murderer" Beckett snapped.
''Come on, Beckett, you don't really think she killed Todd?"
"She fed us a bunch of lines to try and throw us off her trail. That doesn't really sound like innocence to me."
"What was her motive?" Castle asked as he took his seat next to Beckett's desk. Beckett plopped into her own chair with a huff. "Sure she hated the guy" Castle continued "but she doesn't strike me as the type to kill a someone over a two-year-old spat I have the feeling she ended up on the winning side of." Beckett said nothing. "You just don't like the fact that she owned that interrogation room."
"That is my interrogation room, Castle. Nobody owns that room but me."
"Just admit it, Beckett, you finally found a criminal who's as smart as you are." Beckett glared at him, so he cleared his throat and got back to business. "So are you gonna look into Will Manning at all?"
"After we run down her alibi and check with ballistics."
"Are you gonna release her?"
"After she's cleared and the paperwork's done…" said Beckett vaguely. Glancing at Castle and seeing his look of disbelief she continued. "So I'm gonna hold her for a while out of spite. Just…play with your phone or something."
Unfortunately for Beckett, Castle was right, a fact which he didn't hesitate to remind her of several times before she finally told him to shut the hell up. Lauren Harrow's alibi did check out and her pistol was not the same one that killed Johnny Todd. Her information about Will Manning, however, did pan out. Toni DiNozzo admitted to sleeping with him, and that Manning wanted to take Todd for all he was worth so that the two of them could run off together. She knew that Johnny had a big score coming up, but he never told her the details "for her protection." Will had gotten wind of this fact and, last she heard, had planned to beat him to the score. But Manning was in the wind. They had nothing on file, his apartment was empty, his identity falsified, and Toni DiNozzo was done talking. She had been booked for obstruction of justice and had lawyered up.
So here Beckett sat. She was at her desk with Castle perched on the edge and Castle's new hero occupying his chair while they waited for the sketch artist. Harrow had readily agreed to give them a description, saying "anything at all I can do to 'elp, love."
Kate hated the fact that she was more than a little jealous of Harrow at the moment. Though she would never, under any circumstances, admit it, Lauren Harrow was brilliant. She was cool, calm, collected, and perfectly comfortable sitting in a room full of people who were waiting for her to make a wrong move so that they could throw her in jail where she belonged. Yet she wasn't smug or cocky, she just watched the goings on with cool interest through painfully intelligent eyes. She was also very beautiful, and Kate new that Castle had noticed. He couldn't keep his eyes off the woman, and that was usually her area. Though Kate often complained that it was "creepy" the way Castle watched her, now that his eyes were glued to another woman she found herself slightly tempted to pop a few more buttons open on her blouse to get his interest back.
"Coffee Lauren? Beckett?" Castle asked, rising from the corner of her desk. It was taking the sketch artist entirely too long to get there.
Lauren? "Sure" said Beckett stiffly, not looking up from her paperwork. Lauren?
"Yeah, that'd be great, dahling" said Harrow with an annoyingly pretty smile. "Black is perfect."
Castle smiled his most charming crooked smile at Harrow before he turned and made his way to the break room, and Kate's stomach gave an angry lurch. Castle wasn't brooding this afternoon, which was good, but between being melancholy and flirting with a pretty thief Kate thought she'd rather have the former.
Harrow watched him carefully until he was out of sight, then she leaned closer to Beckett. "Can I ask you a question, Detective?" she inquired in a lowered voice. Kate nodded, expecting the question to be something along the lines of "is he single." She was surprised. "How come you're not sleepin' with 'im?"
Kate's mouth gaped open. "I'm sorry?" was all she could think to say.
Harrow's expression was thoughtful. "'E loves you, as anyone 'ere can see. An' it's not the way your fellow detectives over there love you" she jerked her head toward Ryan and Esposito, who were sitting at their desks doing paperwork. "With them, it's more like brothers. They're protective, they care about ye, but they'd sooner sleep with their grandmothers. An' you feel the same way 'bout them." Kate racked her brain, trying to remember what interaction she'd had with Ryan and Esposito that Harrow had witnessed to give her this profound-and correct- impression of the relationship.
"Rick" Harrow continued, pointing in his direction, "looks at you like you're the on'y woman in the world 'e ever wants to be with. E's protective too, but like 'e'd gladly throw 'is life away to keep ye safe. 'E's probably even told ye 'e loves ye. An' you obviously love 'im too, but you 'aven't told 'im. You're afraid to. I'm bettin' 'e has a history, maybe broke your heart once and didn' even know it, an' tha's got ye scared. But 'e's proved 'imself a thousand times over and ye know it, but you're still afraid to be with 'im.
"So my question, love, is this: what's the 'old up? Why can ye trust 'im with you're life but not with your heart?" Harrow finished, inspecting Kate's face carefully. Kate felt incredibly exposed, but somehow not threatened, by the woman who had just effortlessly summarized the relationship Kate had so often described as "complicated.'' Kate was at a loss, but Harrow seemed to have even more insight. "Unless…" she said thoughtfully "you've lost people in the past. People you loved 'ave left ye. So now you're afraid to let 'im in completely 'cause ye don' wan' to get 'urt again."
"How the hell…?"
Harrow smiled "In my line o' work, it pays to pay close attention to detail, love. An' I almost got a degree in psychology from Columbia." She said casually. Kate just stared, completely stunned and more than a little fascinated. Castle was on his way back, but Velazquez had delayed him and Harrow took the opportunity for a final thought. "The thing is, love, that man already knows ye better than anyone in this world, an' would sooner jump in front of a movin' subway than hurt ye deliberate. Ye may think you're damaged, but 'e loves ye anyway an' I don't see that changin' any time soon. So why not just take away the misery you're puttin' the both of you through an' give in?" Castle was just feet away. "Plus, I've a feelin' the sex'd be bloody fantastic. Thanks, love." The last was to Castle, who handed Harrow her coffee while passing a questioning look between Kate and Harrow.
"Why do I have the feeling you've been talking about me?" Castle asked, looking at Beckett, who was too stunned to come up with a clever retort.
Harrow saved her. "Sorry dahling" she said "Detective Beckett an' I were just discussing tha' very attractive 'ispanic fellow behind me, but she tells me he's taken." Harrow shook her head, casting a slightly mournful look in Esposito's direction, then turned her attention to Castle. "Bloody 'ell, I've 'eard rumors 'bout you'rego but it's worse than I imagined." She shook her head, then asked Kate "Is 'e always like this?"
"Or worse" she said, recovering and grinning at Castle.
The sketch artist finally arrived, and while Harrow and Castle were occupied with discussing the proportions of Will Manning's face, Kate let her mind wander. Once she got past how incredibly spooky it was that Harrow could read so much about her in such a short while, she had to admit that the woman had a point. Kate had heard similar advice from Lanie more than once, as well as from Royce, Jordan Shaw, Natalie Rhodes and even Josh. And she was ready to listen. But, as the thief had pointed out, she still hadn't done anything about it and she was making the both of them miserable.
Maybe it was time to put a stop to this pattern they were in. Maybe she would finally listen, finally let Castle in completely. After all, Lauren Harrow was pretty damn brilliant…for a thief.
