A Murder Below Zero

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: There's zero chance that I own Castle. Rating: K Time: In an AU future.

"Good morning, everyone. I'm Captain Tom Demming, Constabulary. I think it would be best if I took over the investigation. You two can assist, of course."

Kate's hand closed around the electronic stinger she had in her coat pocket. She wondered if she'd have to use it again and what the consequences to her career might be.

"That won't be necessary. You can run along now, Captain." Rick said.

Demming glared at Rick. It didn't seem to bother him.

"I do think it's necessary and I'm a captain in the Constabulary. Who exactly are you?"

Kate tried not to grin. Demming hadn't figured out who he was dealing with, or maybe just didn't care.

Rick held out his ID.

"Rick Castle, Colonel, commanding, 10th Special Operations Regiment."

Ed held out his ID. He didn't give his name.

"MinSec. Tenth Directorate."

Kate groaned inwardly. Rick was a Special Ops Colonel? And Ed was with the Tenth Directorate? No one knew exactly what the Tenth Directorate did because no one in their right mind wanted to know what they really did. The rumors that circulated around the Tenth Directorate were scary enough.

Demming tried to recover.

"I'd be more than happy to lend my expertise to your investigation."

Colonel Castle shook his head.

"Thanks, but no thanks."

"I would like to know why a Constabulary officer wants in on our murder. Rather odd, if you ask me. Perhaps I should open an investigation." Ed said.

Demming turned pale. Even if he didn't end up in an Arctic work camp, just being investigated by MinSec, let alone the Tenth Directorate, was a career killer.

"Good idea." Castle said. "Perhaps you can tell us just why you have such an interest in this man's death?"

"Naturally, as a police officer, responsible for internal security, I have many, many interests in…um, crimes." Demming finished weakly.

"Then what was there about our vic that attracted your attention? His name? Where he was killed? When he was killed? How he was killed? Please, tell me. I'm very interested."

Kate was starting to enjoy this. Obviously, Demming had no information at all about the killing.

"Well?" Ed asked.

"It's Detective Beckett." Demming finally said.

"You're so impressed by her abilities as a homicide detective that you just had to come and watch her at work?" Rick asked.

Demming looked at Kate, pleading with his eyes for her help. She decided to twist the knife.

"He's impressed with my ass. The first time we worked together, he slipped and grabbed my ass. He apologized, half heartedly. The next time we worked together, he managed to slip again and grab my ass again. He made a joke out of it, but I told him if he ever did that again, he'd regret it. So, the next time he slipped, he grabbed my boobs." She pulled her electronic stinger from her pocket. "I slipped and accidentally hit him with the stinger. I apologized loudly as I helped him to his feet, but I also whispered that if he ever touched me again, he'd get my stinger as far up his ass as I could manage."

"Is that true?" Ed demanded.

Demming just nodded.

"Get out of here and don't ever come near our investigation. And for that matter, don't ever come near Detective Beckett again."

Demming left as fast as he could.

"I still don't like the fact that he tried to get in on our investigation." Ed said. "I'm going to check up on him." Ed then took a large step away from Kate. "And I'll keep my distance from Detective Beckett so if I ever do fall around her, I won't be close enough to grab her."

Rick laughed.

"Detective Beckett, I think I'm going to like working with you."

"Since we seem to be on a first name basis here, why don't you call me Kate?"

"Okay, Kate it is."

"What next?" She asked.

"I've sent a team to Coonan's apartment just to keep anyone out. We'll pick up a forensic team from MinSec to go over the place."

Kate was curious about something.

"Does this place really sell coffee? This is a low rent area. I'm not sure the locals could afford real coffee."

"Tino buys used coffee grounds from other places. He'll get something vaguely like real coffee out of it." Rick said. "Where are my manners, Kate? Would you like some coffee?"

"From Tino's?"

"No, not from Tino's." He said. "Krulak, can you bring the coffee thermos in and a cup for Kate."

Krulak was a large, muscular man with a shaved head, but a large mustache. He poured a cup for Kate.

"There's sugar and non-dairy creamer on the counter, Detective."

Kate smelled the coffee.

"My God! This is real coffee. One hundred percent coffee." She took a taste. "And it's very good coffee, too."

She took another sip. She noticed the men were looking at her. Oh. They had to be going.

"I wish I could take this with me, but I don't have any cup holder in my car and with the roads the way they are, it'd all spill." Kate looked longingly at the cup.

"Why don't you ride with me, Kate. Have one of your people take your car back to your precinct. I not only have a cup holder, but Krulak rides with me and he has the thermos."

Kate agreed at once and told Espo to drive her car back to the 12th. Half of her team managed to squeeze into her car for the ride back to the 12th.

The seat in the armored vehicle was no more comfortable than in her car, but it had a heater that worked very well. The ride was smooth, so Kate sipped her coffee and luxuriated in the warmth. All too soon they arrived at Coonan's apartment building.

Kate decided that being an enforcer for Finn Rourke obviously paid better than being a cop. The apartment building was very upscale. They took an elevator to Coonan's floor. There they found two soldiers and a dark-haired woman.

"Morning, boss. The lady here arrived about ten minutes before you did. She says her name is Molly Dearing."

"My name is Molly Dearing and I live here with Jack. I have my own key, see? Now will you let me go in? Jack will be home soon, and he'll want breakfast."

Kate looked Molly over. She was attractive, expensively dressed if rather underdressed, and didn't seem to know Jack Coonan wouldn't be wanting breakfast.

"Jack won't be home ever. He's dead." Ed said.

"How do you know and who the fuck are you?" Molly demanded.

Ed held out his ID.

"MinSec. Tenth Directorate."

Molly either had no idea what that meant, or she didn't care.

"Did you bastards kill him?" She screamed.

"No, we didn't and I'd advise you to keep quiet. We'll do the questioning."

Molly was about to go off, so Kate stepped forward.

"Perhaps if we all went inside? And I should talk to Molly."

"Sure, Kate." Rick said. "Will you open the door?"

Kate led Molly into the kitchen.

"Men can be idiots sometimes, Molly. Soldiers and some cops suppress their emotions because they see so much that is bad. Then they think that everyone should be like them. I'm Kate Beckett, Homicide, 12th Precinct, NEPD. Would you like some coffee?"

It took Molly a second or two to take that all in. She shook her head.

"Something stronger. There's a bottle of rum in the cupboard by the stove. Glasses are in the cupboard. Get two if you'd like."

"Can't. I'm on duty."

Kate poured Molly a stiff drink and put the bottle down next to her. She downed the glass and poured herself another one. This one she sipped.

"What happened to Jack?"

"He was stabbed to death in a place called Uncle Tino's Coffee Shop. Do you know why he'd be there? Was he meeting anyone?"

Molly shook her head and took another drink.

"Jack never talked about work with me, but I knew he worked for Finn Rourke." She smiled at Kate. "What? You never had a thing for bad boys, Kate?"

Kate smiled, remembering some of her boyfriends in high school.

"The bad boys I dated turned out to be bad for me."

"The big Special Ops soldier seems to be the ultimate bad boy, Kate. Is he any good in bed?"

"We just met this morning."

"And he's calling you Kate already? Sounds like he's interested."

"Maybe, maybe not. But, you have no idea why Jack was at Tino's or who might have wanted to kill him?"

"Who might have wanted to kill him? I can give you a list of a couple of hundred bad boys that might have wanted to kill him. You could probably make a longer list all by yourself. One thing, though. Jack always made sure I was safe if he was afraid something big was going down. He took me to my sister's over by Pelican Bay last night. That's why I was just getting here."

"I'll need the name and address of your sister."

"Sure, Kate. But think about the big soldier. He could be good for you."

Kate was about to reply when Ed walked into the kitchen.

"Miss Dearing have anything useful?"

"No."

"Okay, you can go. You're not listed as a tenant in this building, so you'll have to talk to the manager about getting any of your stuff."

Molly left quickly.

"She's going to go straight to Finn Rourke and tell him everything."

Ed smiled. It was not a pretty sight.

"If I know Rourke, he already knows more than she does. More than we do for that matter." He pulled something out of his pocket. "We found three business cards taped to the bottom of a drawer in Coonan's desk. One is a Dr. Josh Davidson, a Gina Cowell, described as an emotional therapist and a James Beckett, attorney-at-law. Any relation?"

Kate felt a chill down her spine.

"He's my father. When my mom died, he drank a lot, but he's never used any other drugs. And I know Davidson. He likes women who are unconscious. When I worked in Vice a couple of years ago, we thought we had him for not only drugging a woman to have sex with, but selling her to his friends. But at the last minute she changed her story. Said it was all a mistake, that the sex was consensual. We found out she changed her story after getting a 10,000 credit unit payment from the hospital. They said they'd accidentally over billed her which was a crock, but everyone stuck with the story and we had to let it drop."

"Do you know where your dad is right now?"

"He should be at home. He usually works from there."

"We'll see him first."

Kate felt miserable riding to her dad's apartment. Could he be using drugs?

They pulled up in front of his building. As Kate was getting out, she saw a group of the neighbors watching. Military vehicles didn't come to this neighborhood that often.

As they went in the building, Rick spoke.

"Maybe we should let Kate take the lead on this."

Ed nodded and grunted. Kate assumed that was an affirmative grunt.

She knocked on the door, and in a few seconds, her dad answered.

"Katie what a surprise…Oh, you have some friends with you?"

"Dad, this is an official call. Um, I'm investigating a murder and Rick and Ed are helping me. We found a business card at the victim's place." Kate held out the card, hoping there was some good explanation for all of this.

"It's mine all right, Katie. You should know what my cards look like by now."

"Dad, do you know a Jack Coonan?"

"Jack? Sure, I do. Oh, is he the vic?"

"How do you know him? Have you represented him in the past?"

"No, I'm afraid I buy pixie dust from him."

TBC