Lovely Rita, Meter Maid
Summary: What if Rita isn't who she says she is? I told myself I wasn't going to write a season 8 story but this idea just popped in my head.
Author's Notes: Thanks for the reviews, favs, and follows. Don't own Castle; just writing to mess with the characters. Rated high T for swearing.
Chapter 3 The Pawn Gambit
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"Are you sure you don't want me to go with you?" Alexis asked as she and Castle walked to the screening section of the airport after checking his luggage. "Who's going to keep you out of trouble?"
Castle shook his head as he gave her a hug and a kiss. "Thanks, Pumpkin, but I'm a grown man and it's time I started acting like one. Besides you have finals and an office to run. See you in a couple of weeks. Don't solve any cases that I wouldn't solve."
"Okay," Alexis laughed, returning the hug and kiss. "But just don't grow up too much while you're gone."
As he watched Alexis walk off, Castle handed his ticket and prescreening pass to the screening agent. "Good evening, Miss," he said, turning his attention back to her.
"Good evening, Mr. Castle," she said as she read the name on his ticket. "I see you're already prescreened."
"Yes, ma'am," he answered.
"Have a nice flight," she said, handing him back his ticket and prescreening pass.
"Thank you," he replied and walked down the hallway to the gate.
As he walked, he folded his ticket and prescreening pass and put them in his front jacket pocket, his fingers brushing against something metal.
Oh, damn, he thought as he pulled out a single key on a key ring. He had been so preoccupied at the precinct that he had forgotten to give Beckett the new key to the loft.
Castle pulled out his phone to call her but stopped. Calling her probably wouldn't do any good because she hadn't been taking his calls lately. He'd just call Eduardo and let him know to let Beckett up if she came by while he was gone.
As he was walking to the departure gate, he noticed a large poster with his picture on it, advertising his book tour in England.
"What are you smiling at?" he murmured as he walked past the poster of the smiling man, obviously taken during a much happier time. "Your life sucks."
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"Agent Carlson," said the woman, answering her phone. She was working late, tying up some loose ends for several cases.
"Agent Carlson, this is Agent Frank Costales, LA division. I just wanted to give you a courtesy heads-up that we're picking up a suspect in your territory tonight – a Richard Castle. He's wanted in connection with a shipment of drugs seized earlier this week in LA."
Carlson immediately stopped what she was doing to give this complication her full attention. "Do you need any assistance?" she asked.
"No, we've got it. We will be extraditing him back to LA as soon as possible."
"Great. Thanks for calling," said Carlson.
As she hung up the phone, she immediately searched for the case file.
There, she thought as she brought it up. A warehouse was raided last week and not only had Richard Castle's fingerprints been found on the confiscated contraband, his blood had been found on it also and a bullet.
God dammit to hell, she silently swore. The pilot was supposed to have dumped that shipment in the ocean and now it shows up in DEA custody. They could make it disappear, but that would take longer than they had to be able to do it discretely.
Hindsight was 20/20 and she should have just dumped that writer's lousy carcass in the ocean after she shot him, rather than having his memory of the event erased. To hell with whom his father was – it could have come in handy, but not now.
And she had been stupid enough to use her own gun that could now be traced back to her when ballistics were run on the bullet.
This was not good – it was little things like this that brought down mighty empires – income tax evasion, unpaid parking tickets, greedy pilots who cut out the middle man.
So now it was time to close up shop here. LOCKSAT would take a hit, but they were diversified enough that it wouldn't matter in the long run. Maybe in 10 or 15 years, they'd start back up in the States.
She pulled a burner phone out of a secret compartment in the bottom of her briefcase and quickly dialed a number.
"Brad, I'm pulling the plug on all US operations – yes, the clean house protocol. Your contact double-crossed us on last year's trip to Thailand and the DEA has that shipment in custody and I can't get to it in time. Take care of him. No, don't detonate the bomb, but do let them know where Beckett and Singh are. That should keep them chasing their tails and buy us some time."
Carlson pulled a USB drive out of the secret compartment and inserted it into her computer, clicking on the single file stored on the drive. She watched for a few seconds as the virus invaded her computer, leaving a path of destruction as it wiped out files.
She left her gun on the desk as she walked out of the office and away from her life.
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Alexis noted the tail number of the plane and watched as the passengers boarded and it pulled away from the gate.
"Be safe, Dad," she whispered.
But instead of taxing to the runway, the plane stopped on the tarmac. Baggage handlers came out and started unloading the freight off the plane at the same time, 2 black SUVs pulled up. Several men in suits got out of the SUVs as the door of the plane opened and a set of stairs was rolled and locked in place.
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Castle felt the plane slow to a stop as the captain's voice came over the loudspeaker.
"Folks, it will be just a minute. It seems we've picked up some luggage that belongs elsewhere so we need to wait while they remove it."
Letting out a frustrated sigh, Castle slumped in his seat and willed his hand not to reach in his pocket and pull out his phone so he could play Angry Birds during the delay.
"Mr. Richard Castle?" a deep voice said beside him.
Castle looked up at two large men in suits standing next to his seat. "Yes," he answered cautiously.
"If you will come with us, sir," the other man said.
"Sure," Castle answered, slightly confused, as he stood. "Did I miss something on my prescreening application?"
The two men quickly zipped tied his hands behind him and walked him out the front door of the plane and down the stairs to the waiting SUV.
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Alexis watched in shock as her father was taken off the plane and put into the SUV, which then drove away.
She quickly pulled out her phone and hesitated – if things weren't the way they were, she would have called Beckett. But now, who could she call?
She quickly dialed Detective Ryan's number.
"Detective Ryan, this is Alexis Castle," she said when he answered. "I need help. I'm at the airport and my dad's just been arrested and taken away by someone in a black SUV. I don't know what to do."
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"What do you mean, you're not married?" Beckett asked.
Cross shrugged. "Just that – I'm not married, never have been, never will be. In my line of work, attachments are liabilities."
"That's exactly what Rita said," Beckett replied.
"Yeah, kind of a mantra in my line of work." He cocked his head at her. "What was in the memo that's getting everyone killed?"
"It was redacted, but it had LOCKSAT 2011BD written on the side," Singh said. "I was here in New York on business and someone tried to kill me, but I got away. I knew Beckett was here, so I called her for help."
"And you didn't think to call your agency?" Cross questioned.
Singh shook his head. "No, I didn't know who to trust. I had just learned they had taken out my team in Washington DC the day before. I thought since she wasn't with the agency, she would be a safe choice."
Cross grunted in response. "And you," he said, looking at Beckett. "You willingly walked into what obviously could have been a trap? You're a police captain – why didn't you call for backup?"
Beckett's face turned to stone. "Look, I'm not here to debate what I should or should not have done. I made a decision and I wasn't about to risk anyone else's life since I didn't know what I was walking into."
"No, only yours," said Cross bluntly.
They stared at each other silently for a moment before Cross broke the tension by asking, "So tell me about this Rita, who says she's my wife."
"She's in her mid-60's, probably Martha's age," said Beckett. "Tall, slender, short hair."
"Snarky attitude," added Singh. "But she saved us – she killed some of the mercenaries who were going to kill us."
Cross shook his head. "No, I don't know her. And yeah, that's the oldest trick in the book – the pawn gambit – sacrifice a pawn to take a rook."
"So are you saying that she's part of LOCKSTAT?" Beckett asked.
"She lied about being married to me," Cross answered.
"She told me to not look into this," Beckett said. "That she would find them." She deliberately left out the part where Rita had told her to go back to her husband and have a happy life.
"She gave me a card if I needed to contact her." Beckett pulled the card out of her purse and handed it to Cross.
Cross looked at the number, instantly memorizing it. "Maybe to keep tabs on you? Did you ever call her?" he asked.
"I didn't need to. She was waiting outside the loft when I got home," Beckett replied, frowning.
"Then that was probably a warning shot," said Cross. "So why did you leave Richard?" he asked, finally addressing the elephant in the room.
"To keep him safe. Bracken had my mother killed, but these people may have been his partners. And they killed my AG team," answered Beckett.
"Ah, vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord," quoted Cross. "So how does leaving him keep him safe? I don't see any divorce papers, so you do realize that won't stop them from using him against you."
"They haven't so far," Beckett replied.
"Yeah, makes you wonder why," said Cross, nodding. "Anyway, I think I've found out all I need to know. I'll let myself out, so you two can get back to doing whatever you two are doing."
Beckett took a breath as Cross walked out of the room. Was he right? Had she been played? If she had, what was LOCKSAT doing? There was a big picture here and she just had to let all the puzzle pieces settle into a pattern.
An hour later, Singh looked up from his search. "Got him," he said.
Beckett walked over. "Where?"
"Facial recognition shows that our unidentified man just went into a warehouse on Gansevoort Street," Singh replied.
"Okay, let's find out what he's doing," Beckett replied.
She paused at the main door on the first floor, carefully surveilling the area to see if anyone was around.
The street was empty, so she opened the door and they quickly walked out.
They had just reached the current car that 'Will Demming' was renting, when the street was flooded with light, blinding them.
Beckett's hand automatically dropped to her service piece when a voice boomed out from behind the lights, "Put your hands on top of your head and get on the ground, face down."
Eyes wide, Singh looked at Beckett and followed her example as she put her hands in the air and then lay down on the pavement.
Several officers rushed forward, quickly relieving them of their service weapons and zip-tying their hands behind their back. They then pulled them to their feet.
"Katherine Houghton Beckett and Vikram Singh," said Deputy Commission Gates coldly as she walked up to them. "You are under arrest for the attempted murder of Richard Edgar Castle and conspiracy to bring down an airplane."
Beckett shook her head. "No, no," she said, shock written on her face. "What's happened to my husband? Is he okay?" She couldn't believe that everything she had done had been in vain.
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