Infinite Kates?
Chapter Six
By UCSBdad
Disclaimer: Even if there are many UCSBdads, none of us would own Castle. Rating: K Time: After Interrogation of a Vampire.
Previously on Infinite Kates?...
Kate Beckett lookalikes all over. How will we ever sort them out?
"Her hair was different. Darker and curlier, I think." Simone said. "Perhaps this one was like me and Morgenstern. And it wasn't Kate at all."
Rick shook his head in disbelief. "More….Kates?"
Simone smiled. "More Simones, n'cest pas?"
Officer Morgenstern ran up to them. "Sir, I checked their wallets. The dead man is Charley Renfrew and the woman is his sister Monica."
Rick nodded, numbly, too worried about Kate to think of anything else. Simone took over. "Find the man whose motorcycle was stolen. Get a description and the license number. Get an APB out." Officer Morgenstern ran off.
"RIck, I can jump after that woman. Maybe catch her."
He shook his head. "You can't do that here. Morgenstern doesn't know about your…"Castle quickly looked around, "your special abilities."
"You mean that I'm a vampire?"
"Yes. And according to Kate you're becoming more human. Maybe you can be killed now. I can't let you take that chance."
Morgenstern came back. "All done, sir. I should go after the woman now."
"No, you two go back to the precinct. I'll look for Kate and the woman."
Simone put her arm through his. "She is my very best friend. I'm going with you."
"And you're not really a cop, sir. And I just witnessed two killings and a theft. But we can take my car."
"Can I drive?" Castle asked.
Morgenstern laughed. "Like that's going to happen."
Collette drove back to her condo and pushed the bike up the stairs. She opened first the outer door and then the inner steel security door. She pulled the bike inside where no one could see it from the outside, then went upstairs."
"Are you all right?" Rita said when she walked in.
"What happened? The TV news said there was a shooting related to the coffee shop shooting."
Collette held up the briefcase. "We have the money. We're set."
"What about the shooting?" Rita demanded.
"I was headed back here on foot when a man and a woman jumped out of the car. They were going to shoot me, but got distracted. Kate, I think I saw your husband."
"What? Is he all right? What happened?"
"He's fine. I killed the man and woman and borrowed a motorcycle to make my getaway. I left the bike with a thousand dollars downstairs."
"You're sure it was my husband?"
"Tall, dark hair, good looking, and he was with a woman in civilian clothes that looked like you and a uniformed officer who also looked like you. They're all fine. In fact your husband almost caught me when I made my getaway." She turned and looked at her friends, smiling. "Now I have to make some phone calls." Collette retreated to the bathroom and came out a half an hour earlier. "We'll have a car coming to pick us up in half an hour. We should change our clothes so we don't look like the women the police are chasing."
She went over to Kate. "I bought you something before I got my money." She took out a package of hacksaw blades and handed them to Kate. "It would take you forever to saw through the links on your cuffs, but you should be able to saw through the refrigerator's door handle much easier. We'll still make a call to your husband, but I'll leave one of our unused burner phones for you."
The women quickly changed and organized their suitcases. Then Collette got a call. "It's the car. He's ten minutes out."
Collette hugged Kate. "Sorry we had to do this to you. And if my friends end up needing help, please do what you can for them."
"Collette, if things don't work out for you, as you want, let me know. Maybe I can help you."
The two other women hugged Kate and thanked her for offering to help them.
They went into the bathroom and Kate heard the squeaking of rusty hinges. She assumed there was some sort of escape from the condo there. She began sawing away at the door to the refrigerator she was handcuffed to. Before she had freed herself she heard heavy machinery noise coming from downstairs and smiled. Collette had called and Rick was probably supervising the knocking down of the doors.
They still hadn't reached her when she freed herself so she picked up the burner and called Rick.
"Hi, babe."
"Kate! Is that you?"
"Who else were you expecting?" She teased.
"There is another one of you out here, we think. Are you sure you're you?"
"Would you like me to tell you about the first time I showed you my ice cube trick?"
"Not over an open line. But keep that thought in mind. I'll be there soon."
Three days later, Kate had Rick, Ryan, Esposito and Lanie, Flynn and Simone Carsen and Officer Morgenstern in her office with the door closed.
"Collette is Collette Stenger, an escaped Federal prisoner doing life without parole." Kate briefly went over the details of her escape. "I called the US Attorney's Office for South Florida and was directed to the Department of Justice in DC. They were not willing to discuss her case at all, other than to say if they recapture her, they will never allow her to go free if they can help it. They'll never agree to keep her in anything but the Federal supermax prison she was in, and they'll never allow her to have any privileges, no matter what. Then they hung up on me."
"For a seriously bad chick, she seems to have gone out of her way for you." Espo said. "From her record, she sounds more like the type who'd put a round in your head. Any chance she isn't all that bad and the government is covering something up and blaming her?"
Kate shook her head. "I don't know. Rick and I are keeping an eye out for any news about Collette. If she ever needs help, we'll try to help her, even if she really is, or was, seriously bad."
Kate held up a photo. "Rita Sullivan. Stabbed the father of her child, Doug McClain, retired pro football player, after he refused to donate a kidney for the kid. The kid died. However, his wife found him with a knife in his neck and finished the job, getting rid of her cheating husband."
"You'd think Rita would get some sympathy." Ryan said. "What happened?"
"A DA with political ambitions. He decided to show the voters in Miami that they were safe from knife wielding ex-girlfriends. Rita got twenty five to life for attempted murder. According to the Miami police, both Rita and an "unidentified" Federal prisoner went to a hospital at the same time. They escaped and they found two guards dead and a dead man in doctor's scrubs. It turned out the guy was a very capable and high priced hit man. They thought that Rita or Collette was behind the killings until some people in the Federal Prison system were found to have gotten very rich all of a sudden. The Miami cops got to talk to one of them who said he'd been paid to get Collette out of the prison so she could be killed. Then the Feds swooped in, took over the case, and refused to share anything with the local cops." Kate looked at the prison photo of Rita. "Rita didn't deserve what she got. If she ever gets caught, I'll try to help her."
"We'll help her." Rick said, taking her hand.
"We'll all help her." Simone added.
"Last is Raina Mavias, a Russian. She was the mistress of an LA gangster named Virgil Vidalos. Apparently Vidalos had Raina's younger sister, Staysa, brought from Russia to the US. However, the people who took Staysa got wasted and decided to rape her. She resisted and was beaten with a bottle and suffered irreversible brain damage. Basically she's a vegetable. Raina was later told this by a cousin of Virgil's named Alex and he told her that Virgil knew all about it and lied to her. Raina started killing the men responsible for Staysa, beginning with some outlaw bikers that provided muscle for Vidalos. She planned on killing Virgil last, but when she got to him, a dirty cop named Beck, on Vidalos' payroll, somehow proved to her that Alex and not Virgil had covered up what happened to Staysa. She's a person of interest to the LAPD for the killings of some bikers and she's wanted for the murder of Vidalos. Now, Raina told me that the dirty cop killed Vidalos to get out from under the man and then blamed her. In addition to being wanted, apparently Vidalos' widow has a contract out on her. Even if she didn't kill Vidalos, the widow wants her dead for being his mistress."
"The good news, such as here is any, "Rick said, "is that Staysa has been moved from the charity ward she was in to a top of the line care facility. Not that it's going to do her much good."
"What do we do now?"Espo asked.
"As far as I can tell, the only crime anyone committed in my jurisdiction was the theft of a motorcycle. The killings of the Renfrews were found to be justifiable homicide. And I don't think I'll make the theft of a motorcycle much of a priority for my precinct."
"Besides," Simone said, "according to Kate, there were at least three women who looked like her around. I'm sure I couldn't tell you which one it was. I couldn't possibly positively identify the thief. Could either of you?"
Rick shook his head.
Officer Morgenstern smiled. "She looked like me. Who knows, maybe I stole it."
"So what do we do now?" Ryan asked.
"We do our jobs."
Sometime later. Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Estados Unidos Mexicanos.
The three women looked at the sign being put on top of their restaurant and bar. The blonde laughed. "Las Tres Virgenes? The Three Virgins. Really, Collette?"
Collette laughed too. "Okay, so we're not really virgins, but we are brand new people. New names, new identities and new futures. And I like it."
"So do I." Rita said. "And before you know it, we'll get Staysa out of that hospital the Castles put her in, then we'll all be together. Who knows? Maybe we can finally find a good man for each of us. Maybe I could have another Caleb someday."
"I never thought about being a mother until I met Theo," Collette said, "but I might like that."
Raina nodded. "I just wish Kate wasn't a cop. I'd love to bring them down here and give them the vacation of a lifetime. I was so worried about Staysa all alone in LA."
"And I'd like to meet those two other women who look like her, and us. I saw them just briefly."
They saw Carlos, their bar manager, coming towards them.
"Hola, Carlos. Que paso?"
"Senorita Collette, you three must meet the lady who has applied for a job as a bartender."
"You're our manager, and we trust you. Are you afraid she can't do the job?"
"No. She is very pretty, speaks Spanish, is very simpatico and is a good bartender."
"Then what's the problem? Hire her."
"No, you must come and meet her. All of you."
"Okay, Carlos, but why?"
"Her name is Marianne and she is blind in one eye…."
And the three walked to a new chapter in their life.
The End
Author's note: I am writing a sequel to Four of a Kind and Alexis's in Wonderland. Once again Rick and Kate will travel to odd and invariably dangerous alternate Earths. I've got some 42000 words done and it'll be done…Um, when it's done. In the meantime, enjoy the After…series.