Since Alexis wasn't able to get hold of her father, she decided to head over to the loft. The second she walked off the elevator she heard the voices of people that shouldn't have been in her former home. She cautiously ventured toward the place where she used to live and the first thing she saw was the door swung wide open.
Yellow barrier tape draped across the door, sending an unmistakable message – Do Not Enter. There were people in the loft she didn't recognize, and she couldn't understand why they were there. They were all wearing Tyvek suits and gloves to prevent contamination of a crime scene - which was what this had to be if they were in the loft doing what they appeared to be doing. Alexis briefly considered marching right past the loft and down the back stairway to leave the building. But she knew that she wouldn't get any answers if she didn't at least look in to see what they were doing.
She squeezed through the doorway, and at first no one challenged her because everyone was busy focusing on the task at hand. As she advanced further into the loft, she saw four techs gathering fingerprints and physical evidence. A young Asian-American man looked up to see her standing in the living room.
"Miss, you can't be in here. This is an active crime scene and I need you to leave," the tech says with as much authority as he can muster.
"This is my home - I live here. Can you please tell me why you're in my father's house?"
"I can't go into all the particulars, but your father was arrested for suspicion of murder."
"That's impossible! My father would never kill anyone."
The tech gave Alexis a look that says, yeah, like I've never heard that one before.
"Miss, we have a dead body that proves otherwise."
"Okay, if he is suspected of murder, who did he kill?" Alexis demanded.
The tech walked over to his clipboard, picked it up, and flipped through the pages until he found the victim's name. He read the name of the deceased, which he really shouldn't do, but if it got this woman out of here quicker he would give her a name.
"Your father is suspected of killing Doctor Joshua Davidson."
The second Alexis heard the name her body became rigid, and a chill ran throughout her entire being.
The tech watched her body language and saw her face turn pale. Maybe telling her wasn't the right thing to do after all because she wasn't moving.
"Do you know the deceased, Miss?"
Alexis just stood there, not knowing what to say. What could she say? It was her father's partner's boyfriend.
Xx
Flashback 12 hours earlier…
Alexis had checked all of her dad's usual hangouts and found nothing. Then she had the idea to go to the Old Haunt. Maybe he might be there. But in the end that turned up nothing as well. There was only one last place he could possibly be, and she didn't want to believe that he would still be there that late. But she knew somehow that he would be there no matter what. She was just about to cross the street to enter the 12th Precinct when she stopped dead in her tracks, seeing him descend the stairs and then look to his left and then to his right. When he turned left, she matched his pace on the other side of the street but stayed back far enough so she wouldn't be noticed by him.
She sensed that her dad was internally struggling with something, but she couldn't figure out what it might be. At times it even looked like he was talking to himself as he walked.
He was just about three blocks away from the precinct when she saw him pause at the door to a pub, hesitate for a second, and then walk in. There had been many times when she found him in his office, too intoxicated to get up from his chair to go to bed. She suspected that it was going to happen tonight as well. He was going to tie one on and come home complaining about why Kate wouldn't express her feelings towards him. She knew that the detective had feelings for her father, but Kate has hidden them well. Alexis didn't know why Kate treated her dad the way she did, but her father had loved Kate unconditionally for the past year and a half.
Directly across from the pub there was a 24-hour diner; Alexis entered and took a seat facing the pub so she could see when her dad left.
She ordered a cup of coffee and watched the pub's front door. Everything was fine for twenty minutes - until she saw Doctor Motorcycle Boy walking casually along the sidewalk towards the same pub her father had just entered. When he entered the pub, Alexis grimaced and muttered, "Crap, nothing good can come of this."
She finished her coffee, requested the bill and toyed with the idea of going straight over to the bar, then decided she'd wait it out a little before she did. Almost an hour went by and neither man had come out the front door. Alexis knew that those two were an explosive combination. It was a matter of when not if, they'd rub each other the wrong way. She got up from the table, leaving a tip for the coffee, and exited the diner. She crossed the street to the pub and pulled the door open. Although the pub was dimly lit, she should have been able to find him but didn't. She wanted to ask the bartender if her dad had been here, but instead, she wisely walked through the main floor of the pub towards the restrooms in the back. Before she got to the restrooms she saw a door directly in front of her that led to the alley. She slowly pushed against the panic bar to open the door and the second she did, she heard it.
"Not so tough are you now, Castle?"
"You know what, Josh? What I'm going to do now is something you deserve! You should never let your guard down."
She heard the sounds of fists hitting flesh and then someone collapsed on the ground.
"Had enough, Josh?"
"You son of a bitch! You knocked out two of my teeth!"
"Just remember who started this, Josh."
"This isn't over, Castle."
"Yeah, it is."
"CASTLE, GET BACK HERE!"
Alexis could hear a body as it slumped back down on the ground. She knew then that Josh was the one who got beaten. Pushing the door open, she saw what she expected to see. Her father, when he lost all control, could be devastating with his hands. And the fact that he was drinking didn't help matters. As she walked out into the alley, the first thing Josh did was look up at her with a disgusted look on his face.
"What are you looking at?" Josh snarled.
Alexis couldn't resist, it was just too easy.
"Not much!"
Before she knew it, he was close enough to grab a leg, and when he did he threw her off balance. She went down hard. When she looked at the smirk on his face, thinking he had the upper hand, she took her other leg and kicked him right where it counts….
Xx
Current time…
The second Kate walked into the interrogation room her eyes automatically locked with Rick's. For a moment, she stood there just looking at him until the voice of his attorney intruded on her thoughts.
"That will be all, Detective."
Hearing his voice brought her back to the situation at hand. She left the room and watched as the attorney sat down in front of Castle.
"All right, Rick, tell me what happened."
"Last night, after we finished our latest case, I went out to get a drink. I went down to the Irish pub about three blocks from here - Reilly's. I was sitting there minding my own business when Detective Beckett's boyfriend came in and started giving me shit about how he thinks I am seeing his girlfriend. I told him that I wasn't and he made a stupid comment about me trying to sleep with her so I could get into page 6 of the Ledger. After he said that, I punched him right in the nose and broke it," Rick said miserably.
"Rick, this is just starting off as a basic bar fight. How did you get arrested for murder?"
"Later, after I broke his nose, he made some more comments and then we took it outside into the back alley."
The attorney just shook his head, knowing what came next.
"So even in my drunken stupor, I still kicked his ass and knocked out two of his teeth. When I left him lying in the alley he was very much alive. He even asked me to come back so he could try to even the score."
"Well, Rick, it's like this, they have no security camera footage because the back alley was not covered with cameras. They do have a lot of circumstantial evidence though. They have blood on your shirt, and from what I can see your hands are covered with cuts and bruises. What's going to happen next is that they will have a bail hearing. Seeing that you are, oh excuse me, make that were working with the NYPD, I think the judge will grant you bail. But I'm here to tell you, it's not going to be cheap."
"That's fine, Marty; I have the money to back up my bail."
There was a knock on the door; Kate Beckett stood on the other side. Hearing the attorney say, "Enter," she pushed the door open.
"Counselor, I need to take your client back to holding. He will stay there until his bail hearing in about four hours."
"Very well. Thank you, Detective."
Kate knew when she was being dismissed, so she turned around and left the room. By the time she got back to her desk, she decided to have Esposito process Castle and escort him to holding. This was breaking her heart and she couldn't be the one who put him in jail.
Esposito fingerprinted Castle and escorted him to holding, where four hours seemed to fly by. His attorney went to his office and came back just in time for the bail hearing.
The court came to order and the judge called Castle's case.
"We're here today for an amount to be set for bail for one Richard Castle. Is the prosecution ready to proceed?" the judge asks.
"We are, Your Honor."
"All right then, let's get to it."
"Your Honor, the prosecution asks that bail be denied for Mr. Castle. He has extensive assets, and he's a flight risk. On top of that he knows the ins and outs of the NYPD and with this information he can easily escape monitoring and go off the grid, never to be found again."
"Objection! My client is not a flight risk," declared Rick's attorney. "He will surrender his passport and you can freeze his bank accounts after his bail is met. I can guarantee you that he is not going to be a flight risk."
The judge, who knew this would be a media circus, soon called for an adjournment to think over his position.
"The court will take a ten-minute recess." The judge rose from his chair and left the courtroom heading directly for his chambers.
The next ten minutes were agonizing for Rick. He wasn't sure which way this would go.
"All rise," the bailiff said as the judge walked back to his chair.
"In the matter of bail for Mr. Castle, I'm going to have to lean towards reassurance. Mr. Castle, you do know that you are a celebrity and you have more money than I will ever see in a lifetime. It is my ruling that bail will be denied."
Marty just looked at Rick with a frustrated look on his face. He thought for sure that they would grant him bail given the reassurances they gave the court.
Kate who was sitting in the back row dropped her head instantly, knowing that he would be remanded back to the 12th Precinct until he could be processed for transfer to Rikers Island.
"The suspect will be held until his transfer can be arranged by the 12th Precinct to Rikers. Next case," the judge called as his gavel hit the desk.