American Crime Stories

A/N: You know, I thought about responding to some insulting critiques I got, just like I did in the previous chapter. In the end, I decided that it is just not worth it, because stupid people will continue to write stupid things whether I answer to them or not.

However, I want to thank everyone who left me a encouraging review or PM telling me in one way or another, that they enjoy reading my story. I appreciate it.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Arc One, Chapter four

CASTLE'S LOFT

A week after his lunch with Abby, Castle was sitting at his desk. Although he hadn't gone back to the precinct, he hadn't been idle either. He had met with the people who had contacted him during the Naomi Allen investigation. They informed him that they believed that they found the person Castle had contracted them to find. They wanted him to corroborate their finding. They had gone over the evidence and in the end they all decided that they had found the right person. After that they had spoken in length about the next steps and decided that his contractors would keep on surveilling the target for a few days and find as much information as possible.

The following two days Castle locked himself in his office to think about his life. He couldn't get Abby's question out of his mind. "Why do you go back when you're so unhappy there?", she had asked. His discussion with Abby had forced him to confront some of the thoughts that had been at the back of his mind for a while now, especially after hearing Beckett's confession. He was still angry with himself for not trusting his instincts and letting himself believe that she really didn't remember his declaration of love. Well, he couldn't change that now, but he could make different changes in his life.

Despite what most people thought of him, he wasn't the rich but immature and childish socialite known for his parties and rather wild lifestyle. That playboy persona was a character that he had developed to boost his career – although he was honest to himself, there were times when he had gotten lost in that persona. However, what only a select few people knew was that Richard Castle was a careful man who had a plan for his life. It hadn't started like that. In fact, after his first book "In a Hail of Bullets" had become a bestseller, he blew through all the money in a matter of just six months. Afterwards he decided that that would never happen again. Especially, as he knew that there was a real possibility that his writing career could come to a sudden end when people would stop buying his books. So, he had sat down and made some sort of life plan. That plan grew and he had adjusted it over the years to what it was today, hidden from sight on his smart-board. One part of his plan was that he decided to learn as much about business as he could while writing. In the end, Richard Castle had become a shrewd business man with different and diverse investments which made him one of the richest man in the country.

So, for two days he had worked in conclave with himself and adjusted his plan. He had made some tough decision that he knew wouldn't sit well with some people. His predictions proved to be right when had gotten into a rather heated argument with his publisher, his ex-wife Gina. Well, it couldn't be helped, he had decided on the way forward and he would do anything to reach his goals.

Castle knew that he had to concentrate on his writing to reach his deadline. That is why he was sitting at his desk, acting out some sort of scene while playing with a toy dinosaur and a Barbie doll.

"You are very beautiful, Nikki Heat. It is too bad I have to kill you now," Castle said in an accented voice of the dinosaur. "Uglier men than you have tried, Draco," he replied as the Barbie and slapped the dinosaur with the Barbie doll. Then he switched to the voice of the dinosaur, "You have slapped me. Now I will have to –"

"Playing with dolls, are we?" Castle looked up to see his mother standing in the threshold to his office, smirking.

"These are action figures," he replied indignantly.

"Ah." What else could Martha say?

"I'm using them to envision a scene. I need to finish off 'Frozen Heat', but I'm not really in the mood to write a page."

"Yes, I now. I just got off the phone with your ex-wife."

"Judging by the lack of screaming and swearing, I'm guessing that you don't mean Meredith." He quipped.

"No," she said and walked more into her son's office. "Gina asked me to remind you that your final manuscript is due on next Tuesday. She's still angry with you and that's why she called me."

"Yeah, I figured."

"You're sure that you made the right decision?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Maybe, if you talked to Beckett …."

"Mother…," Castle sighed heavily. His face darkened for a moment and Martha noticed it. She put up her hands in the universal sign for surrender. Castle saw her carrying something.

"Is that the mail?"

"Oh, yeah, yeah." Martha handed the post over. "Thank God Alexis is finally getting some college acceptance letters. Her friends started getting those weeks ago."

Castle took a stack of letters and put them in a drawer on his desk.

"Richard Castle, what on Earth are you playing at?" She asked aghast.

"I don't want Alexis to have to live through that Stanford rejection nightmare again so I'm holding the letters. This way she gets them all at once and she'll get all the good news with the bad." He said, obviously proud of his logic, although Martha wasn't. "Richard, that is the dumbest idea you've ever had and that is telling something. Now, you've got to give her these letters before she has a nervous breakdown." Martha moved to get the letters out of the drawer but he stopped her.

"Okay. I will, I will. Though you have to admit, watching her have a nervous breakdown is pretty funny."

"Unlike yours." Castle smile fell instantly. "Now, what are we going to do about your writing?"

"Oh, I don't know. I just need something … different. Something new. Something like…"

"Severed heads?" Martha asked and pointed to news playing on the TV. Castle turned up the volume on the newscast. "The victim was found shot to death after midnight. According to police, his bag contained three severed heads."

Castle was so engrossed with the newscast that he didn't see his mother open the drawer and grabbing her granddaughter's college decisions.

"Detective Slaughter, what can you tell us about –" The newscaster on TV tried to ask but the other man just

stalked toward the camera and pushed on the lens. "Get that camera out of my face before I put a bullet in it!"

The newscast stopped, Castle shook his head. "You know, Mother, in different times I would have tried to meet that guy and to get on this investigation."

"But you don't want to do that now?"

Castle sighed. "No, I just want to finish this book and my contract." He had told Gina that he would stop writing the Heat-series which had started a heated argument. She couldn't understand why he would once again stop writing a very successful series. Especially, since Black Pawn were offering him a very generous new book-deal which would make him one of the best paid authors of all time. Gina had even called Paula Haas for a conference call. However, in the end the two women accepted that Castle wouldn't change his mind. They did know him rather well after all.

"Okay, I will let you get back to play with your dolls – I mean writing."

"Funny, Mother, funny."

CASTLE'S LOFT

Castle was passed out face down on his desk, drooling. After his conversation with his mother he had bunkered down and started a writing frenzy until he decided to rest his eyes a bit due to his pounding head. After a few minutes he had fallen asleep. He was startled awake by Martha and Alexis screaming in delight. He tried to get up which was less than graceful and walked into the living room.

"What happened?" He asked concerned.

"Dad, I got in! I got in!" He understood immediately.

Castle sat down hard on the couch. "Oh… where?"

"Almost everywhere, so far," Martha told him proudly.

"Oxford, Princeton, Sarah Lawrence…," Castle could see Alexis' excitement practically roll off from her. However, his headache prevented him from sharing that excitement too much at the moment.

"That's great, Honey. I knew it would work out."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Then why were you hiding the letters from me?"

"What?" Oh oh, dangerous waters, tread carefully.

"C'mon, Dad. I can read a postmark. Some of these came last week." She slapped him gently on the head and he grimaced. Well, what could he say to that?

"Oh. I just –" Castle groaned. There was no way the he could lie his way out of it. "I'm sorry, Honey. I'm just trying to protect you."

"I'm 18 now. You need to trust that I can take care of my…" Alexis trailed off, reading the letter in her hand, "myself."

"What?"

"I got into Stanford," Alexis told them disbelieving.

"Yes!" Martha exclaimed and Castle cringed at the noise. "Oh, great! That's always been your first choice, right?"

He was surprised to see his daughter hesitate. "And yet I sense trouble."

"I – I don't know. I mean, I should be happy. But after they shot me down for early admission …"

"They rejected you and now you feel betrayed."

Alexis nodded slightly. "How am I supposed to get over that?"

Castle didn't know how to respond to that question. He was saved from figuring it out from his ringing cellphone. He looked who it was and saw that it was Marcus. "Sorry, Pumpkin, I have to take that." He told her and went to his office.

A short while later Alexis was sitting on the couch, still mulling over her acceptance letter from Stanford when Castle came back into the living room.

"Ah. Basking in the glory of you?" He asked her with a smile on his face and joined her on the couch.

"No. Just trying to figure out what to do. Stanford has always been my dream school but what if their initial rejection was the universe sending me a sign? That I'm better off somewhere else?"

"You think you'd be better off somewhere else?"

"I don't know. Do you?"

Castle sighed. "I don't know either. I guess the question is, do you want it badly enough to get over being hurt?" He paused for a moment. "You know what I think would help with this decision?"

"Ice cream," they said simultaneously and shared a smile.

Being the adult, Castle exclaimed, "Race you."

Alexis scrambled up off the couch but her father was quicker. He was up first and pushed her back down, laughing. Castle ran towards the kitchen with his daughter close behind him.

NEW YORK CITY, NEXT MORNING

CASTLE'S LOFT

The next day Castle stood before his smart-board, updating the facts on one of his private investigations. The evening before, Castle and his contractors had met with their target. Well, they surprised the man, sitting in the dark when he had come back home. Watching the man's incredulous face when he realized who was sitting in his living room made Castle chuckle. What followed was a heated conversation in which Castle made it perfectly clear that it was in the man's best interest to cooperate with him and his team. In the end, they struck a deal. Castle would get all the relevant information which he was looking for and in turn Castle would help the man disappear.

Castle was very happy to get his hands on all the information, but it was a lot of evidence to get through. They would need days if not weeks to work through it, corroborate it and then formulate a plan of attack. However, there was enough information for Castle to update his personal murder-board. He was interrupted by his mother who walked into his office. She watched him staring intently at his smart-board.

"Hallo Darling. You want to tell me what you're up to?"

He had been so focused on his work that he hadn't heard her coming in. He quickly closed the file he was working on.

"What do you mean, Mother?"

"Richard, please, I'm not stupid. You've been on edge lately and I think that you're situation with Beckett is only a part of the reason. Then there are the frequent calls and meetings you try to hide from us. I haven't said anything before but you know how curious I am."

"You mean nosy?" Castle sighed and looked at his mother. He made a decision and opened the file he was working on. "Here, have a look, that's what I'm working on."

Martha looked at the smart-board, read the headline "The Dragon" and quickly looked over the board. She turned to her son. "You're still investigating that case behind the Detectives back?" She asked incredulously.

"Yes and no."

"Explain."

Castle sighed again. "Despite what Beckett thinks, this case isn't just about the murder of her mother. It never has been. What Beckett seems to forget is that her mother's colleagues Diane Cavanaugh, Jennifer Stewart and Scott Murray were killed by the same killer around the same time as her mother. In addition, there are the murders of John Raglan and Gary McCallister. And do not forget the death of the Captain or the conspiracy around Laura Cambridge's death and Bob's part in it as a bystander. As I said, it is much bigger than just the murder of Johanna Beckett's mother." He sighed once again and put his hand through his hair.

"Look, Mother. There are various reasons why I'm doing this. One is, that I want to finish what I started. I know it sounds arrogant, but it was my initiative that led us to the actual killer, Dick Coonan. Now I want to find the man behind that whole conspiracy and all who are involved in it. And let me tell you, there a lot of people involved, some very powerful and connected people." Castle was glad that he hadn't put the name of the Dragon down on the board just yet. He saved the data and disconnected the flash drive. He would later put it into his secret safe which only his mother and daughter knew about. He turned to his mother.

"However, most importantly is that I feel guilty."

"Guilty for what?"

"If I hadn't started to look into Johanna Beckett's murder, the boys wouldn't have been tortured by Lockwood, Roy Montgomery would still be alive, Beckett wouldn't have been shot and Bob could be on his way to be Governor." Castle sighed.

"So you're not doing this to get the Detectives affections?"

"No, Mother. That ship has sailed." Martha was surprised, not only because of her sons words but because of his tone. It was steady and free from emotion. It was a tone that she knew all too well, she had heard it a few times in her life. Her son had made a decision and he would not deviate from it. She was honest to herself that she was surprised. Despite his anger and disappointment after overhearing her confessions, she had thought that he would go back to the detective, as he had previously done. Martha liked Kate Beckett very much and she had been fairly sure that the Detective was the first woman that her son had ever truly loved. Despite that, it had been also very painful for her to watch her only son torture himself over his feelings for the younger woman and she resented the woman a bit for that. Moreover, she couldn't figure the woman out. One day, she seemed to encourage his advances, the other day she rejected them.

"Are you sure you don't want to give her another chance?" Rick started to interrupt, but Martha raised her hands to stop him. She thought she had to try and talk to her son once more about his feelings. "Darling, you know that she's been through a lot in her life. Her mother's murder." Here she pointed to the smart-board. "Her father's subsequently alcoholism. She gave up her plans of becoming a lawyer to become a cop. That is a dangerous life on its own, with people shooting at you regularly. Then last year someone tried to assassinate her. I can understand your anger about her lie, but Darling, you've never been shot. How do you know whether you would have reacted differently than her?"

"Yeah, Mother I'm sure. It´s not just because of her lie or deception. You know me Mother, besides from business and writing, I'm prone to make hasty decision based on my emotion." Martha nodded, she knew that to be very true. Sadly, it was something he had learned from her. Although for her it was true in every part of her life.

"That's what I've done in regards of Beckett from the beginning. However, I have sat down and analyzed both our behaviors since our meeting and I'm seeing things clearly now for the first time in four years. You want to know what I came to realize?"

"Please, enlighten me."

"With Beckett, there is and probably always will be some reason, some kind of an excuse why she couldn't or wouldn't commit to a relationship with me. If you look back, you'll see that after each difficult situation, traumatic event or hiccup she has had in her life since our meeting, she always ended in the arms of another man. For me, that isn't a coincidence, it's a choice. Her choice."

Martha started to say something, but Castle cut her off. "Let's review the facts, Mother. I can understand that she kept her distance from me for the first few months. Not only was I still acting in my playboy persona, but I got put on her team against her wishes. However, I think we found our way and got closer over time as she learned to know me better. Then that crazed serial killer blew up her apartment and I, well we - you, me and Alexis – open our home to her and invite her in our family. You know I don't do something like that on a whim and so does Beckett. At least, she should have known as she is a rather good detective after all. And I think it went rather well. That was the first time that I thought I had a real chance, that she was feeling something for me, too. But what happened? She stared to date Schlemming." He spat that name out. Even after all this time he still didn't like the robbery-homicide detective. "And Mother, I don't mean just one or two dates. Nooo, I mean the full package: regular dates, sleeping together, holding hands, making gooey eyes and even kissing in the precinct." Martha could hear the disgust in his voice. "So, what do I do? I start a relationship that we all know was doomed to fail from the beginning. By the way, that is just one example of my bad decision making in regards of my relationships. What in the hell was I thinking dating Gina again!" Castle looked to his mother. "Don't answer that," he deadpanned. A small smile graced Martha's face, but she didn't want to interrupt her son. He was on a roll and she thought that he needed to get it all from his chest.

"Then after the dust settled on both our relationships, we were making progress again. At least, that was what I kept telling me. I really thought that we had grown so close again that there would be a chance for us be get together. And what happened? She blindsided me with Dr. Motorcycle Boy. Until this day, I still don't know where the hell he did come from. That relationship happened right under my nose, Mother. Here I thought, we were getting closer and closer, while she was seeing another man." Here Castle paused for a moment to pour them a drink.

"Let's put aside my romantic interest. I really thought that Beckett and I had become friends, close friends even. We had been through some tough times even then. The fact that she chose not to tell me about her new boyfriend for months really hurt. That, and the fact I was angry with myself for not noticing what had happened right under my nose really fueled my anger. Not to mention my jealousy." He smiled self-deprecating. For a moment, neither said a word.

"Mother, in the past few years, besides that ill-fated short fling with Gina, I've had only couple of dates. But Beckett? Besides her few one-night-stands that she thinks nobody knows about, she has been with Schlemming and Dr. Motorcycle Boy. These weren't flings, these were full-blown relationships. That's a big difference. And you can't tell me, that I didn't make my interest clear, even before her shooting. Everyone around us knew for a while that I had feelings for Beckett, but she chose these other relationships. We open our home and family to her and she chose Demming. She chose Josh after she and I almost freeze to death in that trailer box. You know, I had my arms wrapped around her to give her as much warmth as possible, trying to keep her alive. In the end, she chose to spend the rest of the night in his arms. I disarm a dirty bomb downtown Manhattan, preventing us and countless other people from being blown up and again, she chose Josh. But it doesn't stop there, does it?" Castle asked rhetorically. His right hand rummaged through his hair and he started pacing.

"I tried to jump in front of a bullet for her and even confessed my love for her. And what did Beckett do? She chose to lie to my face. She chose to continue that lie until she chose to tell the truth to a virtual stranger, a suspect in a bombing." Castle looked his mother straight in the eyes. "And now, I choose to end that little dance she and I have been doing for years. I'm tired of it, Mother." Martha watched her son. In his eyes she could see the resolve to end that "dance", as he called it. During her sons rant she came to realize that he hadn't made a snap decision out of hurt when he pointed out that he wouldn't pursue a relationship with the Detective anymore. There was a certain logic in what he had said. A logic that started to overwhelm even her strong motherly wishes for a happy ending for her son and his favorite detective.

However, before she could reply to her son's rant, his phone rang and he went to answer it.

"Castle… Elle… Calm down… WHAT?... I'll be there as soon as possible."

Martha could see that something bad had happened, his face went ashen. Her first thought was that something had happened to Alexis, but she knew that her granddaughter was up in her room. "Richard, Darling, what happened?"

"Mother…". His voice broke. "That was Elle, Gina's housekeeper. She said…" Martha was shocked to see tears in his eyes. "She's dead, Mother. Gina is dead."