I Know Who the Killer Is.
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: No, don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: AU, between Seasons Two and Three.
"Thank you for coming in, Ms. Archer." Kate said.
"I'm glad to help, but I don't know what I can tell you that I haven't already told you."
Rick held up the copy of the poem they had found in Lisa's apartment. "Do you recognize this?"
Andrea looked at the poem. "Sure. I've seen it before at Lisa's. She liked it."
"It was hand printed and on very expensive paper. It's written in what's called copperplate, which hardly anyone can do these days. Oddly, it's just like this. "Castle held out the card that had Alexis's name on it. "My daughter got this at the Palace of Earthly Delights. It's the same paper and the same handwriting. In fact, according to our forensics, it's your handwriting."
Andrea shrugged. "So I copied out a poem for Lisa. So?"
"You did more than just copy a poem for her, Ms. Archer." Kate said. "You copied that poem to show her that you loved her."
"What does my love life, assuming you're correct, have to do with anything? This is proof of nothing."
"But this is." Kate pulled out a clear plastic evidence bag with a pistol in it. "We found this in the heating duct of your apartment. Ballistics shows that this is the gun you used to shoot Lisa St. Croix. The pistol, the magazine and the remaining ammunition all have your fingerprints all over them."
"I want a lawyer."
Castle smiled. "Luckily there are plenty of them in town."
Kate nodded. "And you'll need one. Since you've asked for an attorney, we can't ask you any more questions. But I can tell you what I think happened, just so you'll know what we know."
Andrea glared at Kate, but nodded.
Kate continued. "You loved Lisa. That was what the poem meant. But she never loved you. She liked men, not women. Oh, she'd occasionally have sex with women, but it really wasn't her thing. But she was getting older. Her life was going to change, and change for the worse. But she had time to do something about it. I think now that she deliberately got herself pregnant by one of the many very wealthy men she knew. There were fifteen that could have been the father. She told them about the pregnancy and told them that their names could be kept out of it by a not unreasonable sum of money each month. Say, a thousand dollars a month per man? You can live very comfortably on fifteen thousand a month. Plus, she could pick up extra money at work, so to speak. She could keep the blackmail going until her child was, what, eighteen, twenty one? Until the child got out of college? She could put enough money aside over the years to last her the rest of her life. What could go wrong?"
"What could, indeed?" Castle asked rhetorically.
'The downside of love is jealousy." Kate continued. "Lisa didn't want you, didn't love you, didn't need you. You couldn't stand that, could you?"
"Was it a case of, if I can't have you, no one can?" Castle asked.
"I want a lawyer. Now!"
"You'll get your lawyer. Andrea Archer, you're under arrest for the murder of Lisa St. Croix." Kate motioned to the uniform to take her away.
Rick and Kate watched as the last of the fireworks exploded and the ooohs and aaahs of the faraway crowd faded away. Rick lay in the chaise longue on the beach in front of his house with his arms wrapped tightly around Kate.
"The Fourth of July is over." She said sadly. "I have to go back to the city tomorrow afternoon."
"I wish you could stay here." Rick said, kissing the top of her head and inhaling the scent of her hair.
Kate smiled but shook her head. "I'm a cop. I have to get back. And you, you're a writer. You need to finish Federal Heat."
"I have some ideas for Hampton Heat. Doesn't that count for anything?"
"Your book would be nothing like the real thing." Kate was silent for a moment. "I hated the newspaper this morning."
"Why? Dilbert was great, although Doonesbury was kind of predictable."
"The front page. Chief Brady acting like he'd captured all of the FBI's ten most wanted all by himself. We solved the crime and we got no credit. That sucks."
Rick pulled Kate tighter. "I'll tell you a little secret, Detective Beckett. I don't solve murders to make the front page."
"And why do you do it, Mr. Castle?" She teased.
"So I can hang around with the most remarkable woman I've ever met. Oh, and I also think that catching murderers is a good thing in itself."
"So if Montgomery asked you to shadow a fat, balding detective with bad breath, you'd do it?"
"Not in a million years. You are the one and only detective I work with."
"And you are the only writer I muse for." Kate sighed happily until another item in the paper came to mind. "The article about Angstrom's gallery didn't make me feel any better."
Rick shrugged. "Me either, but what can we do about it? DuBois and Poole's expansion into the Hamptons has been hailed as opening a new Mecca for the arts. Angstrom is going to make a fortune."
"He's still a pimp."
"That he is. A rich pimp."
Kate was quiet for a while. "I didn't like Lisa when I first started the case. I thought she was a whore, nothing more. But, I've decided that she's just promiscuous. She liked sex. So what? So do I."
"You're more selective that Lisa, though."
Kate shrugged. "I'd have nonstop sex with one man, if I could. She had nonstop sex with lots of men. She was used by men her entire life and finally decided to use back. And if she didn't have a heart of gold, she did at least have a heart."
"Did you have any particular man in mind for that nonstop sex?" Castle asked.
"Um…" Kate looked very thoughtful. "Let me see…Oh, yes. There is this one fellow. A writer and an amateur cop. Not a bad guy once you get to know him. He's a possibility."
"Can you say, "Damning with faint praise?"" Castle asked.
"It's you, Rick. As if you didn't know."
"Do you think we could try for nonstop sex until tomorrow afternoon?"
Kate rose from the chaise longue. "There's only one way to find out."
Author's note: And so it appears that Caskett is well established far earlier than in that TV show. Wait! Did someone hear maniacal laughter? There it goes again. What could it mean? Find out in the next exciting chapters of the Dinner at Remy's saga.