+Title: The Stranger
By: greygoose70
Chapter Eleven
Castle stopped typing, scanned over what he had written, saved it, got up from his chair and stretched. He glanced at the clock hanging on the wall amazed at how long he had been at it. Time to find the girls. Last he remembered they were at the pool so that's the first place he looked. And there they all were, each one stretched out in a lounge chair, asleep. He should wake them but since they had the could sense to cover themselves with a giant beach towel, he let them be and went back inside to start dinner.
After dinner of cheeseburgers, potato salad and baked beans Alexis and Paige bid their farewell since they were heading back to the city the next day. The rest of the evening followed their usual routine, bath for Lily and a movie of which Rick fell asleep somewhere after the opening credits.
He woke up to the feel of Kate's lips on his forehead then the sound of her voice telling him to come to bed. When he opened his eyes, he saw her kneeling next to him, so he wrapped her in is arms, pulled her into his lap, which she came willingly, cupped her face in his palms, found her lips with his and kissed her passionately.
"Thank you for today," he whispered when he pulled away, "I got a lot done.
"I came in to check on you once, could see you were in one of your zones, so I let you be. Now let's go to bed, I'm in one of my horny zones."
The next day was Sunday more of a relaxation day than anything else. After breakfast they took a long stroll along the beach. When they returned Lily went to her room to play, Kate to their library to read, Rick to his gym for a workout.
Following a light lunch Rick went to the study to get some writing done, the girls to their previous activities.
Marlowe continued watching up to the point where the man that had been sitting in the back seat of the car began making his way toward the house, he then started formulating his plan. Looking around the room he saw a free-standing mirror. He positioned it so he could see the man as he rounded the corner. He retrieved his Winchester 1200, sawed off 12-gauge shotgun from its hiding place, laid down on the bed placing it along his right leg.
Alberto Castranino, Sonny to those that knew him, professional hit man, strode to the stairs leading up to the second story where his contracted target would be. When he got to the first step, he removed the coat from his arm draping it over the handrail then slowly began his ascent. Reaching the top landing he carefully peered around the corner before proceeding to the window of the targets room. Arriving at the window, finding it closed he swung his guns butt end into the glass shattering it. He then poked the barrel into the room fired a three-round burst.
Marlowe kept watch through the mirror seeing his would-be assassin as he came toward the window. Even though this image was reversed Marlowe could tell he was right-handed meaning he would have to be standing directly in front of the window when he went to shoot.
At the breaking of the window Marlowe quickly rolled off the bed, landing on his knees, the Winchester at the ready and pulled the trigger, the noise it created gathering the attention of Jimmy and Jen down at the gas pumps.
Marlowe hopped to his feet seeing his first shot, the one loaded with dimes, rip into the left shoulder of the assassin, there rotating action nearly separating it from his body. A quick pump and the Winchester roared again this time sending a mass of 12-gauge pellets into Sonny's chest the force of them sending him over the railing to the stairs below.
Jimmy seeing his partner falling immediately jumped into the car and took off forgetting the gas nozzle was still attached to the car.
After his second shot Marlowe exited through the shattered window, leaped over the boardwalks railing. He stumbled slightly upon landing but quickly righted himself, pointed the Winchester at the speeding rental car and blasted away once, twice, three times, the last one igniting the fuel splashing from the fuel spout. He plopped down on one of the stair risers as the fuel tank blew engulfing the car in a wash of flames.
Jen came running over immediately seeing his blood-stained shirt. "You've been hit," she clamored. "Yeah," he replied, "go call the doc but not the sheriff."
"Probably won't need to. I'm sure they heard the explosion and are on their way."
"You're probably right, now get going before I bleed to death."
It was ten minutes before Doc Fabian showed up, thirteen for the sheriff's deputy, Joe Denton, to arrive. The doc went right to work cleaning up Marlowe's wound, applying a bandage then wrapping it tight using elastic bandage wrap. He helped Marlowe to his feet guiding him to his station wagon."
"Where are you going with him?" Deputy Denton yelled.
"The hospital in Richmond, need to get this bullet out of him, see what other kind of damage was done." Doc yelled back.
"Need to get his statement first," replied the deputy.
Marlowe turned his head toward the deputy, "they came to kill me, I killed them, end of statement. Come on Doc, let's go."
Deputy Denton watched as the doc drove off with their prime witness, victim, killer, whatever the hell he was. "I can give you a statement, Joe" he heard Jen say.
Turning around to face the girl he said, "What the hell happened here Jen?"
Jen then began relating to him everything from when the two men drove into the station clear up to when the rental car exploded. Deputy Denton jotting down notes as she did.
After taking Jens account of what happened he started taking pictures of the crime scenes, easily using up two rolls of film. It was when he was collecting and bagging evidence that Sheriff Hanley arrived asking the same questions that he himself had asked, he then got in his car and left.
Probably going to report in with Pierce he thought.
Ding, ding, ding.
TBC