My Name is Derek Storm
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I don't own Derek Storm, either. Rating: K Time: An AU Season Four.
Castle sat down in the chair by Beckett's desk and tossed a file onto her desk.
"Thank God I'm rich, or at least this Castle guy is. I'm beginning to have trouble keeping the two of us apart." He said.
"What's this?" She asked, looking at the folder suspiciously.
"it's a file on the guy who shot you, Cedric Marks. He's an ex-military sniper, ex-special ops sniper, ex-black ops sniper, now in business for himself."
"Where did you get this?"
"It seems I have one old contact left. He insists I'm named Castle, but for the money I paid him to get this, he was willing to overlook that."
"So this is stolen?"
"I wouldn't know. I didn't ask." Seeing Kate's skeptical look, he explained further. "The organization he got this from isn't going to admit they even exist, much less that they have anything on anyone like Marks. They certainly aren't going to admit their security is lax, assuming it is lax, of course."
Kate opened the folder and saw a photo of Marks, apparently taken when he was in the military.
"He calls himself Cole Maddox now. He's got an out of state driver's license, a credit card, and other ID. Everything is there in the file you'll need to track him down."
"I need to talk to your contact."
"Not going to happen. He's never going to talk to a cop. In fact, since he thinks I'm crazy because I'm calling myself Derek Storm, he won't talk to me, either. Actually, now that he's ratted out a really dangerous killer, he's taking his newfound wealth and headed for parts unknown. He has enough to get very far away and stay there a long, long time."
Kate decided to use the file. She called over Ryan and Esposito and explained what had happened.
"We have his credit card number, so we'll look for him using that. He's got to use it sometime."
It took three days, but finally Ryan found something.
"He's used the card at the North Star hotel, just off of Lex. We'll need to tell Gates and get…"
"No!" Kate said quickly. "This all began with dirty cops and I'm not taking a chance that some other dirty cop will blow this if we get too many people involved. We'll do this by ourselves. Just the four of us."
"Beckett, that's just not right. He's a killer and we need…"
"Are you in or out, Ryan?" She asked.
He took a deep breath and answered.
"In."
They drove to the hotel where Kate talked the manager into letting them into Marks' room.
"We're going after a highly trained killer. Do you think that might be dicey?" Castle asked.
Kate pulled her backup piece from her ankle holster and handed it to Castle.
"Try not to shoot anyone. If you do, the paperwork will be murder." She said.
"I do paperwork, remember."
The manager opened the door and then stood well back. The four entered the room in a rush. They found no one there.
"The closet is empty." Espo said.
"Same with the chest of drawers." Ryan added.
"Bathroom has nothing in it. He even took the complimentary soap and shampoo." Castle said.
"The manager said he had a laptop and some paperwork on the desk. It's clean now." Kate said angrily. "He's in the wind."
She walked back out to the manager.
"I thought you said he was still here."
"He's paid up for another week, but if he went down the freight elevator he could go to our underground garage and go out the pedestrian gate in the back. There's no security camera there."
"Damn." Kate said. "He's gotten what he wanted, and he's gone."
"What did he want?" Castle asked.
"I don't know." Kate snapped.
The real Castle could have told them that Marks was after whoever was keeping Kate safe, but he wasn't there.
Marks was in the wind in more ways than one.
Several hours earlier he had parked his car eight blocks away from Mr. Smith's condo in an area where there were no security cameras or traffic cameras. He walked confidently towards his prey.
When he stopped for a stop light, an elderly woman came up behind him. Using a cattle prod disguised as an umbrella, she shocked Marks. He collapsed at once.
"Oh! This young man is having a stroke, just like my sister-in-law Andrea." The elderly lady said. "Does anyone have a phone to call 911?"
The people around her, smart New Yorkers all, fumbled for their phones in hopes that someone else would call 911 first. After all, the ambulance and hospital might come after them for payment.
"Look! There's an ambulance." Someone called. They all waved, and the ambulance pulled up. Two husky men got out and examined the unconscious man.
"We'll take him to the nearest ER." One man said as they loaded him on a gurney. Then Cedric Marks was driven off, never to be seen in New York again.
The elderly lady then turned around and went back the way she'd come. Once she was far enough away, she pulled out her own cell phone.
"It's done." She said. "Someone will need to clean up his place." She hung up without ever getting any reply. Then she strolled happily back to her hotel suite.
Laugh all you want, boys, at old Rose Feinstein, She thought, but when you need to take down a cold blooded killer, who do they send?
A week later, Castle was having lunch at a diner not favored by cops. An elderly lady approached his booth.
"Excuse me, sir." She said. "Would you mind if I join you? The only seats they have left are chairs that are so very hard on my back. Sitting in a booth will be much easier on me."
"Be my guest." He said.
"You know, you look a lot like my son-in-law, Jimmy. He's a dentist out in Oregon. I don't get to see them very often since flying is difficult for me. I have some photos on my phone of Jimmy and my grandchildren."
Castle looked at the photos which were doubtlessly of someone's family. One was not a photo. It was a message reading: Get out now.
He finished his sandwich hurriedly and left cash on the table. Then Richard Castle walked out, became Tim again and disappeared.
Kate knocked on the door of the loft which was opened at once by Alexis.
"Thank you for coming, Detective."
"Alexis, please call me Kate, okay?"
"Thanks Kate."
"When did you notice Castle was gone?"
"Not until after dinner. Dad always calls if he's going to be late, but this version of dad isn't so thoughtful. I got worried and I called you."
"Castle went off to lunch and never came back. Since we didn't have an active case, I didn't think anything of it. I didn't get worried until you called."
"Kate, I found out something else since I called you. You know Dad always carries $2000 in cash with him?"
"I knew that."
"He also keeps $25,000 in the wall safe here for emergencies. I opened the safe and it's gone. Do you think this was all some kind of a scam to rob us?"
"Is anything else of value missing?"
"No, I checked. His jewelry, my few things and Gram's things are all here."
"Then that's probably not it. Who knows? He may have decided he's Jameson Rook and taken off hot on a story. I'll put out a missing person's report on him tomorrow. We'll have to wait a day since he's an adult."
The missing person's report generated nothing and for over three months, no one heard a word about Richard Castle.
Then…
He stood in front of the loft door as he'd done so many times before. This time he was worried about knocking. Suppose something went wrong?
He scratched Charley behind the ears for good luck. He was still worried.
But he knocked.
The door opened and Martha stood there. For a moment she was in shock.
"Richard!" She screamed and threw her arms around him.
He heard a high-pitched scream from upstairs. Alexis came running down the stairs so fast that he was afraid he was afraid she'd fall.
"Daddy!" She screamed, also throwing her arms around him. She began to cry.
"It is you, isn't it, Richard?" Martha asked.
"It's me, Mother."
"Where have you been?"
"I woke up on a beach on one of the smaller Florida Keys about three months ago…"
"Three months! Why didn't you call?" Martha demanded.
"You have no idea what my mind was like. I had no idea if my name was Rick Rodgers, Rick Castle, Derek Storm, Jameson Rook, Ben Meltzer, or someone else. And I had these awful memories. There were murderous Wiccans, dead prom queens, although something was wrong with one death, a woman murdered and stuffed in a wall safe with her ring finger cut off, a serial killer who preyed on blondes. Oh, I was seemingly in love with five different women. One named Kyra, a Meredith, a Gina, a Kate Beckett and Nikki Heat. I figured out I was really in love with either Kate or Nikki. One of them's real, right?"
"Yes, dear. You love Kate Beckett, and she loves you."
"She does? Did she tell me that?"
"Not yet, Richard. But she loves you."
"I didn't know if I was some kind of criminal, just crazy, or had a really great imagination. I walked back to the only bar on the island and found I'd been there about a month, drinking until I fell over and them getting drunk again. Every day, day after day. I had apparently been buying rounds for the house, since all I had on me was six dollars."
"You spent over $27,000 dollars?"
"I guess."
"And you got a dog?" Alexis asked, looking at the large, grey dog with her father.
"Charley here saved me twice. When I still had money, some guys tried to rob me. Charley fought them off as I was in no condition to do anything."
Alexis noticed that her dad had changed somewhat. His hair was much longer now, coming over his ears and he had a deep tan. He was dressed in faded and distressed jeans and a very loud aloha shirt.
"Eventually, I was pretty sure who I was and what I was, but there was always the thought in the back of my mind that I might be some sort of criminal. Anyway, it was tourist time in the Keys, and they hired me as a bartender. I wanted to make enough to take a bus back to New York, but the bus company wouldn't take Charley. I was trying to save up for a plane ticket when three college students from New England someplace offered to drop me off here if I'd pay my share of gas and drive. Until you opened the door, I wasn't completely sure if you were real, figments of my imagination or victims of some crime I was involved in."
"You're home again, and you're you, that's all that matters." Alexis said.
"I'm me? Who else would I be?"
"You thought you were Derek Storm." Martha said and explained what had happened.
"I was here for months and thought I was a fictional character I invented?"
"Yes, dear. Now you should go to the 12th Precinct and see Katherine. She's been worried sick about you."
"Could I have something to eat first. I haven't had anything to eat since breakfast yesterday and Charley got most of my breakfast burrito."
"I'll make you a sandwich, Dad." Alexis said, hurrying to the kitchen.
"Could you brown some meat for Charley? He's used to eating cooked food at the bar."
Kate heard the elevator door open and then heard some very familiar footsteps. She whirled around in her chair, shot to her feet and ran to Castle. She kissed him and then stepped back
"Where the hell have you been, Castle?" She demanded angrily.
He explained where he had been and what had happened to him.
Kate explained what had happened in his absence.
"So, Marks or whoever he is, is in the wind and has been for months." She concluded.
Castle knew that was more accurate than Kate could know. He remembered his last conversation with Ed, his handler for the Team.
"You mean I can finally get out of here and go home?" He'd asked.
"Why such a hurry, Rick? You've been sailing around the Eastern Caribbean for months on a one-hundred-and-fifty-foot sailing yacht, with all the comforts of home, a gourmet chef, satellite TV and…"
"And I want to go home." Rick finished for him. "I only agreed to help your look alike take my place because you said it'd keep Beckett safe. Is she safe? What happened?"
"We got the guy who shot her and took him to a friendly country for interrogation."
"I assume the friendly country isn't known for their dedication to human rights?"
"Would you rather have had the man who almost killed Detective Beckett have a lawyer present?" Getting no reply, Ed went on. "Anyway, we use chemicals more than waterboarding these days. Once we'd drained him dry, we sedated and cuffed him, put him in a plane and tossed him in the ocean from 10,000 feet. From that height, hitting the water is like hitting concrete."
"But you know who's behind all of this? You know?"
"Absolutely, and we have a solution to the problem. You'll probably hear about it before you make it home?"
"Before I make it home? Why can't you just let me go home?"
"We have to make your amnesia look convincing. It's not likely anyone will check on your whereabouts, but we want to make sure."
One day in the bar, Rick read an article about the death of New York Senator William Bracken. He'd skidded on a rain slickened road and slammed into a tree in rural Virginia. An elderly lady had arrived on the scene seconds after the crash. She told the police that Bracken had been driving way too fast for the road conditions. She also said she could do nothing to help him once she'd stopped. She didn't mention if she'd done anything to hinder his survival as no one asked.
"Beckett, I'd like you to come to dinner at the loft tonight. We really need to talk."
"Yes. We need to talk."
The End
Author's Note: Next up is Joyeux Noel and Vorlags. You wouldn't expect a Castle Christmas to be normal, would you?