Playing Hard to Get
Chapter 5
Rick really didn't understand how his daughter had succeeded where he had failed. Everything he had tried had failed, yet here he was. He was standing there watching the Desk Sergeant calling to find out if he could go up to the 4th floor.
"Yes, Ma'am." He hung up and looked at Rick. "You can go up." He pressed his little button, and Rick heard Buzzzzzzz. So he opened the door and headed for the elevator.
He knew how to get up to the 4th floor since he had already done it a few times. It was just lately he'd been detained on the ground floor.
Rick felt victorious as he walked off the elevator and into the bullpen area. First, he had to get around this wall that was barely a wall. He could see over it but couldn't go through it.
"Beckett." He saw her sitting at her desk, so he walked over to her, noticed the same chair next to her desk, and sat down.
"Mr. Castle. Do you understand the terms of this agreement? If you step more than five feet outside this building, an alarm will go off. It has GPS, and I and everyone else will know exactly where you are.
"If you violate the terms of this agreement, it is broken. And you will end up in lock-up for 24 hours. After that, the device is removed, and you are sent home. It is a one-strike and you are gone moment. Do you understand the terms?" Kate waited for his response.
"Yeah, yeah. So do we have a case?" Rick was ready to get started. He needed to watch Beckett in action so he could continue writing.
Kate thought he'd said yes far too easily and quickly. She had a feeling that he really didn't understand. That he was going to break this agreement with ease, and nothing would actually happen.
"Tori!" Kate beckoned her over since she had the device and only needed to attach it. "Foot, Castle, here." Kate tapped the corner of her desk and was a bit amused as Rick lifted his left leg and placed his heel on the desk.
Rick watched her attach something to his ankle. "What's this?"
"This, Castle, is a SCRAM device," Kate told him as Tori did her job and stepped back after she finished. "This device monitors your location 24 hours a day. It is tamper resistant, water resistant, and is connected to a monitoring and alarm device."
"This device is battery powered and will last weeks. It's connected to a device that, in turn, is connected via landline, digital cellular network, and the Internet using Ethernet or WiFi. It will activate should you exceed your boundary area, which in this case, is five feet outside of this building.
"The device itself will sound an alarm, and it will send a signal to the base unit that will sound an alarm. If you consume any alcohol at all, it will also sound an alarm. Spill as much water on it as you please. Dunk your entire foot into a sink full of water as much as you please. The device will still work," Tori told him. She glanced over at Kate. "He's all set and all yours," she told her and walked away.
Kate was holding Lilly in her lap. "You understand, Castle, you step outside this building, and the deal is off."
Rick ignored what she was telling him. She still had the puppy he had sent. "You kept Lilly."
"Yes, I kept Lilly. She is this Precinct's mascot. She goes home with me at the end of my workday, and I bring her back each morning. Thank you for Lilly, Castle. She's been great."
"You're quite welcome. So do we have a case?" Rick asked her again.
"Not at the moment. I'm sure that will change eventually," Kate told him. "You know where the vending machines are and the coffee machine."
"Have you at least changed the coffee maker?" Their coffee wasn't coffee. He didn't know what it was, but it wasn't coffee.
"Same machine; nothing's changed," Kate said and bent down to put Lilly on her bed. She was looking sleepy.
"Yuk. I'm going to go get coffee." Rick got up to leave and get some decent coffee.
"You step outside this building, and this deal is over, Castle," Kate reminded him.
"Surely you're not serious? It's just coffee." Rick couldn't believe it.
"That's the deal. You step outside this building wearing that thing, and the alarm goes off. This deal is over, and you go home and stay there. Once again, banned from the Precinct. It's a one-time deal, Castle, you violate it, and that's it. End. Of. Game." Kate waited to see what he would do.
"Seriously!?" Rick spun around to look for Roy. He could get him out of this and saw him in his office. Rick hurried over. He needed him to remove this thing. "Roy!"
"Castle, I see you made it back into the Precinct and didn't end up arrested," Roy observed.
"Yeah, yeah. Remove this thing." Rick lifted his foot to show him the device.
Roy shook his head. "No can do, Castle. You made a deal with Beckett over how you could be here. You break it, and you're out. End of story."
"Seriously? Who's Captain around here, you or her?" Rick really couldn't believe it.
"I am, Castle," Roy growled at him. "And if you keep talking to me like that, you'll spend your first day here in lock-up. Do we understand each other?"
Rick thought Roy was a friend. Friends didn't do this to friends. "Yeah, we understand each other." Rick turned and left his office. "Traitor," Rick muttered softly to himself.
That wasn't how this was supposed to work. It wasn't what he wanted.
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Kate's cell phone rang. "Beckett." She listened but didn't write anything down. She was onto what Castle might do, and for Alexis' sake, she wasn't going to give Castle a chance to break this deal just yet. "Got it, on my way."
"We have a case!" Rick was happy, finally.
"Nope. I have a case. You get to watch Lilly. Don't worry, Castle, we'll be back," Kate told him.
"No! I'm supposed to go with you," Rick complained.
"That's not part of this deal, Castle. You stay here, or you go home and stay there." Kate called over to Espo and Ryan, "Let's go, guys."
"Nooo!" That wasn't how this was supposed to work.
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Kate had given Espo and Ryan a couple of minutes to get the basics.
"Our guy here noticed a rolled-up rug in the dumpster. So he thought maybe he would take it since it was trash. Only when he got it home he found a surprise inside," Espo reported.
".38 caliber close range, killed him instantly," Lanie told her.
"We got an ID?" Kate queried and Lanie shook her head. "There's no wallet, keys, or jewelry."
"All right, let's get a team on the dumpster, see if there's anything else in it." With that, Kate went back to the Precinct to start her murder board.
It wasn't long before she went into Roy's office. Kate had a paper for him. "Jeff Horn, two-term council member."
"Jeff, I know him." Castle was still here, amazingly enough. "He's running for reelection. His picture's on every bus in the city."
"The press is going to be all over this one. Does he have a family?" Roy asked while they all walked.
"Yes, Sir," Kate replied.
"Well, let's find them before the jackals do." Roy handed the paper back to Kate.
"You get to stay here, Castle." Kate didn't plan to drag his wife down to the Precinct so she could tell her that her husband was dead.
"WHAT! This is so not fair," Rick protested loudly.
"That's the deal. And don't take Lilly outside either, or the alarm will go off, and the deal is over." Kate strode over to her car so she could go find the new widow.
"THIS SUCKS!" Rick complained and looked down at a wide-awake Lilly. She went over to the pee pads and immediately peed. Now just like at home, he had to pick it up, put it in the trash, and put down a fresh one.
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Kate was back. She found Castle in front of her murder board, and he or someone had added something to it. "What have you done to my board, Castle?" Kate wanted to know.
"Your guy took pictures of the body but not a decent picture of the rug. So I took a picture of that picture and sent it to my interior decorator. She knows where that rug came from. Which hotel, to be more precise. It's only used in one." Rick smiled at her since he had generated a clue for this case while trapped here in the Precinct.
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Now he was watching as someone waited in the interrogation room. "See." Rick was gloating, and Kate hated it.
Kate was willing to let him sweat right where he was.
Rick leaned back in his chair. "He didn't do it, you know. A multi-millionaire wouldn't be stupid enough to roll a dead body up in his own rug," Rick pointed out.
"Yeah, I know, Castle, but he's connected since it was his hotel. Espo, find out what room that rug came from and who rented it for the last six months or so. And talk to all the cleaning staff. I need you to get backgrounds on all of the cleaning staff," Kate called out.
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Kate caught up with her Captain. "Sir, you need to see these." She handed a large envelope to him while Castle slid in next to him and watched as Roy took out the pictures.
"OH WOW! That's Horn, and that's definitely not his wife," Rick commented since this was really good.
"His competition for the job hired a private investigator who took the pictures. He didn't use them because he's ahead of Horn in the polls. If that had changed, he might have released them. He still has the negatives, though," Kate told him.
"Find out what the wife knows before the press gets wind of this. Find out if she lied to us." Roy handed it all back to Kate and walked away.
"Please say I can come." Rick was suffering from being stuck in this building.
"Not part of the deal," Kate reminded him.
"Oh, come on," Rick pleaded. "I'll be good, I promise!"
"You promised last time, and you lied, Castle. You get to stay here." Kate walked over to the elevator and left him behind.
"This so sucks," Rick complained pretty much to himself. No one was listening except Lilly, who was looking up at him. "Don't look at me like that," he grumbled.
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Kate pressed the button on her car to accept the call. "Beckett."
"The rug is a dead end," Espo said. "Seems the hotel dumped a couple of dozen of them last week. Half went into the dumpster, and the other half went to thrift stores." He could hear her swearing under her breath before she hung up.
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Rick was having fun as he, Ryan, and Espo looked for the right call girl on the website, the one that private investigator had found for Beckett.
Rick stopped them. "Wait! That's her."
"Don't worry, we'll find out who owns it. It might take us a bit, but we'll get there." Kate knew they meant for these sites to be hard to trace. "Castle, what are you doing?" He had his phone out and was calling someone.
"Hi! My name is Richard. I'm a very generous man and am looking for a special date with Tiffany," Rick said as he quickly jumped up since Beckett was after him.
"Castle, you can't just call and arrange a date with a prostitute," Kate hissed, but he had already arranged for a callback and hung up.
"Why not?" Rick countered.
"Because… Because… Because we're the Police, that's why!" Kate insisted.
"No, no, no! You're the Police. I'm just a lonely upscale gentleman looking for a date. I bet I find her before you do," Rick challenged her.
"Except, you forgot something, Castle. You can't leave this building, or you break this deal." Kate had already won.
"Oh, come on, Beckett!" Rick groaned; this deal wasn't working out the way he wanted.
Kate answered her desk phone. "I didn't order anything," she told the Sergeant downstairs.
"I did. Tell him to come up. …Please!?" Rick begged her, and soon, a delivery guy carried in big box.
"Guys. Guys!" Rick finally got Ryan's and Espo's attention. "Since you guys have been so kind to me and since your coffee really is crap, I got you an up-to-date Espresso machine. It includes installation, right?" Rick asked the delivery guy, who nodded his head.
"I think my phone is ringing." Kate left him since that really was nice of him, and she didn't want to even begin to admit it.
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"Time to go home, Castle; we're done for today." Kate tapped his chair so he could put his foot on it, and she removed his device. "You're free to leave the building. When you come back tomorrow, this goes right back on again. That's the deal," Kate told him. "And Lilly goes home with me." Kate smiled at him since Lilly was still the best thing out of meeting Castle.
"Fine!" He still thought the damn deal sucked, but at least he was here
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"So, how was your first day with Beckett, Dad?" Alexis was helping him make dinner for the three of them since her grandmother was here, somewhere.
"You truly created this deal?" Rick questioned her.
"It was the only way you could get back in. I love you, but Beckett doesn't trust you. This way, you get to follow her around inside the building. It was the best I could do. And if you do break it, you are out, Dad. Permanently out. It isn't a game," Alexis warned him.
Rick stopped cutting his onion for a moment. "I suppose I should thank you. But just at the moment, it doesn't feel like I'm getting much out of this deal."
"Would you rather be stuck at home, unable to write anything at all?" Alexis countered.
"No." She had him there. "Thank you, daughter of mine."
"What's your first case with Beckett?" Impatient, Alexis waited for him to tell her everything.
Rick gave her the short version. "A dead councilman running for his third term, only to end up dead with pictures of him naked with a prostitute."
"Really? Why is it men can't keep it in their pants?" Alexis didn't get that at all.
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"Hey, Lanie!" Kate was sitting at one of her tables, waiting for her to show up.
"Damn, girl, don't do that to me. Don't you know only the dead are down here?" Lanie questioned her. "Yeah, I'm an ME, what's your excuse?" she challenged her.
"Don't be mean," Kate said right back at her.
"Why are you down here instead of having fun with Writer Boy?" Lanie didn't know why she wasn't in bed with Castle. He was just what she needed.
"Well, he's annoying, self-centered, egotistical, and completely…"
Lanie interrupted her tirade against Castle. "FUN! He's fun, and trust me, girl, your life could use some fun. And Lilly is still so very cute." Lanie reached over to pet her. "I mean, how bad can he be?" Lanie didn't see the issue.
Just then, Kate's cell phone rang and rescued her. "Beckett."
"GUESS WHO HAS A DATE WITH A PROSTITUTE!?" Rick told her, gloating because he had found her first.
Kate flung her free arm wide to show Lanie she was right and glared daggers at her.
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"Detective Kate Beckett. I need to ask you some questions about your association with Councilman Jeff Horn." Kate was waiting at the bar/restaurant where Castle had set up a meeting with her. Still trapped at the precinct, Castle was making a big stink over it!
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"Politics, escorts, and blackmail. This case is finally getting good." Rick really liked it, even while stuck at the 12th.
"The Councilman was looking for his blackmailer. What if he found him, Sir?" Kate had Castle, Roy, and Lilly. Not that Lilly was doing any of the talking.
"Start with his opponent, Beckett. He and the private investigator are the only two that knew about those photos at the moment. And check on the wife. There's nothing like a woman scorned by a cheating husband," Roy told her.
"Yes, Sir." Kate glanced over at Castle. "You get to stay here," she told him.
"OH, COME ON!" Rick griped about it yet again.
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"That Bruce Kirby has the account. The one that took those pictures," Espo told Kate. But she was mostly paying attention to watching Ryan making an espresso with the new machine, and she wanted one, but Castle was also in the room.
"He lost his badge for excessive force, criminal intimidation. A real peach." Espo didn't like him except maybe for murder.
"And he owns a .38. Same as our murder weapon," Ryan added, holding up his freshly made cup of coffee, and Kate had her eyes glued to it.
"Same weapon that killed Councilman Horn," Rick noted, and now Kate was paying attention, not on the coffee those three had.
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Kate retreated to the observation room where she knew Castle and Captain Montgomery were watching. "What do you think?"
"Waiting to receive a blackmail payoff from the vic. My three-year-old son could do better than that." Roy shook his head at his feeble response.
"So bad that it just might be true," Castle pointed out, but that wasn't helping Kate any.
"We've got a team taking his place apart," Espo told them.
"Book him on the blackmail. In the meantime, we wait to see what the search turns up. But if this bozo is telling the truth…" Roy trailed off.
Kate finished that thought for him. "Then Horn had a quarter of a million dollars on him when someone murdered him." She was ready to scream in frustration.
"So, where is the money, and where does an underpaid public servant get that kind of dough?" Roy left them; he had calls to make because this might blow up soon.
"Where does any corrupt politician get money? People who liked him and gave him money before," Castle suggested. That gave Kate an idea, and she left.
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Kate cut him loose by taking off his monitoring device. "You're free to go home, Castle, and Lilly is still going home with me."
"But Dahlia is lonely," Rick complained.
"Dahlia had Alexis, and we both know it. Go home, Castle. We'll chase the money in the morning." Kate was done and left with her puppy.
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"Gina called to remind you about the book reading at Broadway Books tomorrow night," Alexis informed him.
"That was nice of her." Rick was busy with something and not really listening as was usual for him.
"Yes, she also said that if you didn't show up, she would," Alexis read from her notes about the call, "quote, 'pour honey on your eyeballs and let loose a thousand fire ants.'"
Rick was listening now. "That wasn't very nice of her."
"Hey, if you were in trouble and needed a quarter million dollars, where would you get it?" Rick asked his daughter.
"I'd just ask you." Alexis kissed his forehead. "Dahlia and I are saying goodnight."
"I'd just ask you." Rick looked at a picture of Horn's wife. She was now taking his place on the ballot.
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Kate didn't see anyone around, so she grabbed her coffee cup and sneaked into the break room. She began making herself a cup of coffee using Castle's new machine and smiled as she smelled it make coffee worth drinking.
"HI!" Castle showed up and startled her. Consequently, she accidentally dumped most of it down the drain.
Kate hated that Castle had caught her. "Hi."
"I have to show you something." Castle left her and didn't say anything regarding her using his machine.
"Read this." Rick showed her an old paper report. "Horn didn't have any money, but his wife came from money. She even used it to fund his first campaign."
"All this time, he was hiding his affair from his wife," Kate whispered.
"But what if she found out about the affair? What if he got the money from her?" Castle asked her.
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"Something's not right, Beckett," Rick said. "Her husband is murdered, she's missing over 250 thousand, and she doesn't say a word?"
A while later, Horn's wife was taken into Interrogation.
"We found that money in your house. We got a court order. You were more than angry, you were outraged. He didn't just betray you, he humiliated you. Everyone would know soon, so you decided to make it go away." Kate knew just what had happened.
She stared at Kate. "You see those wives. Standing stone-faced next to their men, you wonder, how could they do that? How do they watch as their whole world falls apart around them?"
"So you killed him," Kate accused her.
"NO, no. I was…" She wasn't going to admit to that.
"You were on the phone at 11:00 pm; what did you say?" Kate had phone records.
She fought back. "I was with my daughter."
"Murder is murder whether you were there or not," Kate said. "Are you ready to deal?"
"All I did was make the call." She didn't actually kill her husband.
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"Frank Nesbit, you are under arrest for the murder of Jeff Horn," Kate called out as she and the uniforms walked toward him.
He took off once Kate told him what Mrs. Horn had told her.
Ryan was at the back door, waiting for him. "Stop running, bro. The Campaign is over."
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"So what happens to the daughter?" Roy inquired.
"Horn had a sister and she's coming down tomorrow to get her," Kate told him. "She won't have any parents, but she will have a family."
"Nice work, very impressive." Roy walked past them. "Oh, and you too, Beckett," Roy teased her.
"SIR!?"Kate started to stand up and follow him so she could hurt him.
"Just yanking your chain, Detective. Just yanking your chain." Roy grinned at her and escaped around a corner.
Then, Rick's phone rang. "Castle."
It was Alexis. "Hey, Dad, where are you?"
"Where am I supposed to be?" Wherever it was, he forgot about it.
Alexis gave him a clue. "Fire ants, eyeballs."
"Right, stall them." Rick hung up and raised his left leg. "Take this off." He sounded just a touch upset.
Kate was getting a kick out of it. "Why, Castle?"
"Beckett, please? Gina's going to kill me." He needed to get moving, but this thing had to come off first.
Kate raised an eyebrow. "Only if you promise me something." And she waited.
"ANYTHING! Anything at all," Rick said desperately.
About ten minutes later Kate stood there drinking her cup of coffee made especially for her by Castle as she watched him run down the stairs since he couldn't afford to wait for the elevator.
"What do you think, Lilly? Was that good for you too?" Kate smiled at her puppy, watching her drinking water like there was no tomorrow.
"OH, CRAP!" Lilly was going to need to pee now. "HOLD IT. Please hold it." Kate picked her up and raced down the stairs.
"LILLY!"