The Suspect

By

USCBdad

Disclaimer: I own none of this. Rating: K+ Time: AU between Season Two and Three

The next morning Rick and Kate were met by absolutely blank faces from the other three women in the house. Neither Kate nor Rick could keep from laughing. But, after breakfast they had to get to work and decided to work at home with the photos and the list of blackmail victims they had. Since it was a gorgeous day, Rick brought his laptop out to the pool and gathered as much information on the men as he could find.

"Okay, honey, there are sixteen men on the list and I've identified every one of them. But the more I learn, the worse things look."

"Why?" Kate said, leaning over and giving Rick a good look at what the top of her bikini mostly covered.

"Why what?' Rick said vaguely, leaning in towards her cleavage.

"I can put on a sweatshirt, you know."

Rick sighed very dramatically. "The things I do to bring justice to this world. Did Superman have this kind of problems with Lois Lane?"

"Actually, in the original series, they were quite chaste."

"Okay, did Batman have Batgirl run around in a shapeless costume rather than skin tight leather?"

"I think Batman had a thing for Robin." Kate shot back.

"Okay, does Spiderman…"

"You know, you could just answer my question and then go back to staring at my boobs while I think about your answer."

Rick sighed again. "Okay, you win. All sixteen guys are even richer than I thought. And even more lawyered up. All of them seem to spend half their lives in courts for one reason or another, even the ones who aren't lawyers. I don't see a weak one in the bunch." That said, Rick leaned towards Kate's cleavage one more. Seeing Alexis approach from the other side of the pool, he quickly pulled back, earning a smile from Kate.

"Are these the guys that were being blackmailed?" Alexis asked, leaning over to stare at the notebook.

"How do you know about blackmail?" Rick asked.

"Duh! Do you think I can't hear you from all the way across the pool? It's all you two have been talking about all morning. Lisa St. Croix was blackmailing the men she screwed at that art gallery? And one of them got her preggers? Serves them right."

"How did you know about Lisa St. Croix?" Castle asked sharply.

"Dad. This is the Hamptons. Do you think everyone didn't know?" Alexis glanced down at the notebook again where the men's names were listed. "OMG! Clay Walker is on the list? That is so gross. He's like pinned to Nancy Carlisle, which is like almost like being sort of engaged to be engaged."

"I'm sure that's his father, Honey." Rick said.

"Dad! It can't be his father. Not if Lisa was pregnant."

"Why not?" Kate asked.

"More than a year ago, Mr. Walker and his wife were getting a divorce. She got a court order freezing his assets. But he still managed to move almost all of his wealth out of the country and he fled to Hong Kong. Apparently he's got connections there and they can't get him deported back to this country. But the courts did something to his passport. If he tries to get back in the country, he'll be arrested for violating the original court order. The guy on this list has got to be his son, Clay Walker, Jr."

"You wanted a weak link?" Kate said with a smile.

Rick returned the smile. "And we do have one." He turned to his daughter, "Alexis, we need some background and Clay Walker, Jr. Talk."

Alexis looked shocked. "You want me to gossip about Clay?"

"Is that a problem?" Kate asked.

"Are you kidding?" Alexis said with a smile. "Clay is very smart. Well, book smart. Not street smart. And he's going to Princeton next fall. And he's dating Nancy Carlisle…"

Later that day, Rick and Kate welcomed Clay into the police station.

"Thank you for coming in, Clay." Castle said with a deceptively warm smile.

"Uh, the cop didn't act like I had a choice."

"Actually, you didn't. But we like to be polite." Kate replied.

"Um, shouldn't my mom be here or something?"

Kate looked at the file in front of her. "You turned eighteen two weeks ago. You're an adult now. We don't have to contact your parents. Although, I understand getting your father here would be a problem."

Clay blushed. "Yeah, Dad's, um, you know, not handy." He finished lamely.

"You're dating a Nancy Carlisle, aren't you?" Rick asked. "Isn't she Tom Carlisle's daughter? Are you two serious?"

On more familiar ground, Clay smiled. "We're both going to Princeton in the fall. We're both pre-law, so we'll be in a lot of the same classes. So, we're pretty serious, I guess."

"Pre-law? Did you know that Beckett was pre-law at Stanford? Of course something bad happened and she had to give that up."

"Something bad happened?" Clay wasn't sure where this was going.

Rick put a large glossy photo of Clay and Lisa having sex in front of the young man. "Something bad. You weren't an adult when these," Rick put another photo down, showing Clay's face very clearly, "were taken, were you?"

"Uh…I'm…I mean…Where did you get that?"

"From Lisa's little love nest in Angstrom's." Kate said, putting down a third photo. "Does anyone know about you and Lisa? I'm sure a young man like you, scoring with someone as beautiful and knowing as Lisa, well, it would be natural to brag to your guy friends all about it. And they'd talk about how lucky you were, I suppose."

"No! I never told anyone! I would never tell anyone!"

"So Nancy doesn't know about this? Or your parents? Or Nancy's parents?"

"Lisa took pictures of us?" Clay squeaked.

"Do you think someone else was there? Of course she took pictures of you."

"Did you know that patronizing a prostitute is illegal, Clay?" Kate asked, in a sympathetic voice.

"She's not a prostitute!"

"Actually, what she is, Clay, is dead. Murdered. We're investigating her murder. It's been all over the Hamptons. I'm sure you've heard she was murdered." Castle said coldly.

"Sure, I heard…" Clay stopped and a look of horror crept over his face. "You don't think I had anything to do with….with…"

"Her murder?" Kate finished for him.

"She took lots of pictures of lots of men, Clay. She was blackmailing them, just like she was blackmailing you." Castle said.

"Do you have an alibi for the time of the murder, Clay?" Kate asked, still sympathetic. "Between four and seven AM on Tuesday?"

"An alibi?"

"Just tell us where you were, Clay. Otherwise Detective Beckett won't be able to help you."

"Four and seven in the morning? I was asleep."

"With who?"

"With whom?" Castle corrected. Kate glared at him.

"No one! I was asleep by myself. At home. In my own bed." Clay was starting to lose it.

Late shook her head sadly. "No alibi?"

"I didn't know I'd need an alibi!" Clay shouted.

"How much did you pay her?" Castle asked.

"How much? Who?"

"Lisa, of course. We know she was blackmailing you as well as those other men. If you can help us, you should, Clay." Kate was being the good cop.

"Somebody is going away for a long time, Clay." Castle said coldly.

"She wasn't blackmailing me. Look, I did give her some money, but that was four months ago. She said it was a loan. She just needed some help. Angstrom doesn't pay her that much."

"How much money, Clay?" Kate asked softly.

"It was only a thousand dollars."

"Only a thousand dollars?" Castle smiled and shook his head. "That's quite a loan."

"My dad, he…He feels guilty about having to go to Hong Kong. He makes up for it with money. I mean, last month he sent me a check for five thousand dollars. That was on top of my allowance." Clay whipped out his wallet. "Look, I have," he counted the bills in his wallet. "Twelve hundred and seventy three dollars. I have three debit cards. I could get all I want in minutes."

"And of course you don't know that Lisa was pregnant?" Castle asked sarcastically.

"Pregnant! Not by me! I always wore a condom. She insisted. She wouldn't do it if I didn't wear one! I swear!"

"Always?" Castle said.

"Look, Detective, I liked Lisa. She was my friend. I'd never hurt her. I liked her."

"You liked a woman who slept, admittedly, with everyone in the Hamptons? Are your standards that low?" Castle asked.

"It wasn't like that." Clay was sounding more and more miserable.

"How was it then?" Kate asked.

Clay stared at the floor for several minutes. "She was the only woman I ever had sex with."

Castle laughed. "The only one? Do you expect us to believe that?"

Clay nodded. "I've kissed girls, I've touched their…" he waved his hands around in front of his chest.

"You touched their breasts?" Kate asked.

Clay nodded. "I've put my hand under…Um, uh…Where her legs…"

"You've put your hands under a girls panties?" Kate suggested.

Clay turned red and nodded. "But it was different with Lisa. It just wasn't about sex, sort of."

"Sort of?" Castle sneered. "Really?"

"Sure, we'd have…sex. But then we'd talk."

"Talk? About what?"

Clay smiled a little at Kate. "About how to treat a woman. Not just in bed, but how you should treat a woman, what they like, what they don't like. All sorts of things."

"How did she tell you to treat a woman, Clay?" Kate asked softly.

"To always treat them like a lady. To treat them just like you'd like to be treated. Just be nice and be myself."

Kate and Rick exchanged glances. "Stay here, please, Clay. Mr. Castle and I need to talk." The two left the room.