%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Chapter Four

Castle was surprised that things moved along so smoothly once Demming delivered him to the warden, and the warden gave him a standard newbie lecture since the other guards in attendance were not in on the plan, or Rick's actual identity.

A somewhat out of shape guard escorted Castle to his new home away from home for the next three days. Actually, two and a half days, since he'd already missed lunch.

When the guard informed Robinson that Castle, actually Marlowe, was going to be his new bunk buddy for at least the next few days, Miles wasn't thrilled.

The guard just smirked and left Castle standing there.

Castle reached out his hand. "Hi, I'm Spencer Marlowe."

Robinson ignored the extended hand and raised a brow. "Am I supposed to care?"

Castle looked over Miles Robinson. He was an ex-cop. A bad cop by all accounts. And he'd been in prison for nearly nine years. Rick had no idea how many other inmates might know of Robinson's former employment, but it was evitable that some other inmates would have found out and that would make things hard for Miles while he was inside. The only way he could've survived under those circumstances was to be as tough as the rest of them. No, he had to be tougher than most of them.

Castle realized that he wasn't going to be able to become his buddy in a couple days. He had to play the same game. He had to project a harder facade than was normal for Rick Castle. Being the class clown, or everybody's buddy wouldn't work here. He had to exude a personal confidence and hardness that would fit in with his cellmate. It's would be fun to try something new.

This man would never confide any whereabouts of any stolen jewels to someone he couldn't respect.

Castle pulled his hand back and let one side of his mouth twitch up very slightly.

"So, you prefer to act the jackass. Fine by me. I'm not here looking for new friends. And since I'm only going to be here for a few days it really doesn't matter… does it."

Robinson glared at Castle. "What do you mean, only a few days?"

Castle turned his back to his cellmate and stared at the two small chests at the foot of the bunk bed. "Which trunk is mine?"

When he didn't hear a response, Rick turned and looked at Miles. Castle waved his hand back and forth between the two trunks.

Robinson's eyes sparked in annoyance. "Yours is the left. You got top bunk." He waited only long enough for Rick to dump his small package of underwear and socks. "So why are you only going to be here for a few days?"

Rick stared at the angered prisoner. It seemed he didn't like not being answered when he asked."

Castle took a deep breath and leaned against the bunk bed. "Not that's it any of your business." He said. "I'll be leaving this Saturday for my parole hearing and I don't plan on coming back."

Robinson's frown began to twitch upward until it actually reached a smile. Then he let go an actual chuckle. "What a bunch of cheap bastards." He returned to his chuckle.

Castle frowned at the man. "You want to clue me in on the joke?"

Robinson shook his head back and forth as he let his laughter die down.

"Apparently, the joke is on us. The reason you're in this hole with me is because I too am going to be leaving this Saturday to attend my parole hearing."

Rick rolled his eyes, then snickered. "They must've figured that they would be saving a few bucks of taxpayer's money by shipping us over to the courtroom in one vehicle and just two guards instead of two each."

Robinson just shook his head back and forth again. "Leave it to this city to come up with such a brilliant idea." Miles nodded at Rick. "Where were you before they came up with this ridiculous idea?"

"East Side Penitentiary."

Miles laughed out loud. "Wow, by having you here they saved about six miles in travel to the courthouse."

Rick smirked and nodded. "Of course, no one bothered to add in the travel distance to get me here from there. And all the paper work that had to be created, which probably kept a couple of secretaries a few hours to type up and move it up the chain of command."

"Nothing like governmental efficiency." Miles waved toward another folding wooden chair leaning against the wall. "Pull up a chair. It's still a couple hours until we get to stretch our legs."

Castle nodded and walked over to grab the other chair.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Lt. Tom Demming wandered over to homicide and plunked himself in the guest chair next to Sgt. Javier Esposito.

"So Castle has been in prison going on his second day now. I wonder how he's doing."

Espo shifted some papers on his desk. "He'll be fine."

Demming shrugged. "You can't blame me for worrying. I know he rode with Kate for all those years, but he's still just a writer. I don't know how he'll react if things don't go the way he thinks they should."

Espo laughed. "Castle has probably already worked up a dozen different scenarios that may happen already. He used to drive Beckett nuts with all his crazy ideas. And I'm not just talking about the really out there ones like time travel, and zombies."

"I never could understand why Kate put up with him. He was so different, and never like any officer or detective I've ever worked with or known."

Espo leaned back and looked at the Robbery lieutenant whom he'd known for many years.

"That's why he worked so well with us. He wasn't a cop, he didn't have cop training. But he was sharp. He saw things, things that we'd never been trained to look for. Granted, we had to put up with a lot on nonsense along the way. But that was Castle. Eventually he'd come across some minor clue that didn't make sense, but eventually he'd find or figure out why that clue was there. And why it was the key to our whole case."

Tom shook his head. "Oh, oh, I see you've drunk the Kool Aid, when it comes to Castle too."

Esposito gave Demming a patient smile. "You've worked with Kate before, and even dated her for a short time." Tom glared at him. "In the time you've worked with us and her. What was your assessment of her as a team leader and a detective one?"

Tom spread out his hands. "I thought she was great." He saw Javi raised brow. "No, not that, but that was great too. No, I mean she was an exceptional detective, leader, and cop. She's earned every commendation she's collected and she deserves the promotions she's been given."

Espo raised a brow. "So you'd say she's a pretty smart woman?"

Tom laughed. "She's brilliant."

Espo reached over and tapped the back of his hand. "She married Richard Castle."

Tom shook his head. "But it wasn't like she broke it off with me and ran off with Castle. If memory serves, there was an ex-wife and some doctor who were in the picture for at least another year."

Javier nodded. "True, but neither of those situations ended in marriage. For all the complications, and troubles those two had to fight through, Kate was never going to wind up with anyone but Castle."

Demming stared at his homicide friend, then got up from the chair. "I'd better check with the prison to make sure nothing unforeseen has happened." He quickly turned and made his way to his desk over in Robbery.

Esposito's laughter followed.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Rick would have two full days of prison life to experience before Saturday's court hearings would end his charade of being a criminal. He and Miles surprisingly got along after it was found out that he'd been put in the same cell as Robinson as a misguided attempt at some monetary savings for the city.

Castle, or more accurately Spencer Marlowe, got along with Robinson. Rick gave credit to his mother for his ability to get along with most people and he too had a bit of the theatre in him.

Unfortunately, he wasn't successful in getting Miles to talk about the jewel heist. He never indicated that he had ever even seen any jewels let alone, knew where they had wound up. Rick still wasn't sure that he wasn't being lied to, but Robinson held fast to his story that he never saw any loot from the robbery.

Castle didn't know if the convict was telling the truth, or just staying with his original story in case someone might over hear him. Also, while the two cellmates seemed to co-habit reasonably well, Rick was sure that Robinson wasn't about to reveal such a secret to a guy who just dropped in on him out of the blue.

Castle did find out more than he really wanted to learn about life behind bars. The food wasn't very good, and the beds were rock hard. He also found out that recreation mostly involved standing around or aimless walking around out in the yards if it wasn't raining. If the weather was poor, he was told, you just stayed in your cell.

He noticed that some inmates found ways to get decks of cards, or had handmade checker or chess boards in their cells. Castle would have given almost anything to get a deck of cards. Even if only to play solitaire.

Robinson, being a former cop, spent time every day working out. He'd kept himself in pretty good shape for being in a cell for all those years.

It hadn't taken much time for Rick to realize what the worst part of a criminal prison sentence was. The boredom. The crushing boredom was truly the worst part of any incarceration.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Kate was thrilled that the last seminar was finally over. All the captains from over fifty miles from Albany had use of their rooms until the next morning, but from the start Kate had decided not to stay over. As much as it had been an unexpected pleasure to have hooked up with Jean again, she wanted to get home. She needed to know when Rick would be coming home from the impromptu trip that Gina had talked Castle into. She also wanted to drop in at the precinct on Saturday morning just to check in and see if there had been any problems while she was gone.

She had confidence in Demming and Esposito to handle the normal everyday tasks that they would run into. They were both competent officers and both were capable.

It was just this feeling she had in the back of her mind. She was not the kind of person who took stock in "feelings" and vague hunches. But something kept tickling her intuition that she would be needed back at the station.

If she didn't know that Castle was out of town, she would allow herself to worry more. Rick always had a knack for getting himself tangled up in something he shouldn't. At least Kate was comforted by the fact that he would be out of town for a couple more days.

Oh course, she had already missed seeing him for nearly a week. She hoped that throwing herself into her work would ease the loss of her husband for a couple more days.

Even if there were some problems she'd have to deal with waiting for her back home, it had to be better than the deadly boredom she'd suffered through this past week.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Both cellmates were up early in anticipation. They weren't scheduled to leave for the courthouse until around 10:00 a.m. so they had ample time to wash up, have their "thrilling" breakfast, and get dressed in the clothes they'd be given. Which were both poorly fitting suits that had been obtained from a second hand store to be used for such purposes.

Castle had a hard time believing that they were able to get them clothing so out of any sort of style without actually trying to, but they had. At least the shoes fit fairly well.

What was real sad though was the fact that if either of them were denied their parole at the hearing. They would be required to return the ratty suits, which would then be stored until when either of them finished out their sentence and were released.

It was soon going to be time for them to go. They were both dressed and waiting for the guards who would escort them. It would only be a few more minutes and Castle was fretting. He'd spent two plus days in prison with Miles Robinson. They got along okay, but their conversations never seemed to include talk about Robinson's jewel heist, the reason he went to prison.

Castle made up a story about how he'd tried to break into a rich guys house which he thought would have a lot of really expensive stuff he could steal and later fence. He knew many wealthy guys often had money laying around just for the taking.

Unfortunately, "Spencer" had been unlucky and had found the house of a rich guy who was in the process of moving. A lot of the stuff that Rick could've taken, was already gone. He had found the hidden safe since the picture that previously hid it from sight had been taken already. Still he busted it open only to find about forty seven dollars left under some papers in the safe.

All that was left in the house was some interesting nick knacks that apparently were no longer wanted. So "Spencer" took those too. But the luck he was having continued because the alarm system was still activated and he'd been captured.

Castle claimed his poor lucky streak continued because the public defender that he got was just out of law school, and he had to have barely passed his license to practice as an attorney. And, of course the rich guy had a top notch Wall Street lawyer who managed to make a fool out of the public defender.

To add some extra color to his story, Castle went on to expound on how the rich guy claimed that several museum level antiques that had not yet been moved from the house were missing also. Rick complained that he was also blamed for those thefts when he never saw anything like that. He was convinced that the rich guy was using the break in to add some insurance fraud to the whole thing. Since his so-called lawyer was such a hack, poor old Spencer, who actually only left the place with about $278 worth of stuff was blamed for an imaginary loss of nearly a million dollars.

In the three years since his trial, Castle explained, the rich guy was found guilty of embezzling from his company along with tax fraud. Even though the items that Spencer was supposed to have stolen never were found. The rich guy lost a lot of credibility and as such, Spencer Marlowe was granted a parole hearing that could claim that the time served was punishment enough for the provable thefts that had been made.

But even after spinning that yarn for Robinson, he still wouldn't talk about the jewel heist. His manner was always calm but he always refused to talk about it. Rick's purpose for being there wasn't turning out to be a very good idea.

They spent the last ten minutes in silence before their guards came over, unlocked their cell, and escorted them down to an unmarked police car for their ride to the courthouse.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Kate had gotten home to the loft late. Actually, she got back into New York, in the middle of the night. She was tired, but her nerves were all a twitter with the relief of being finally back home. It was just that she knew she was coming home to an empty loft.

She glanced at the clock and did the quick math between New York and California. It might be possible that Rick would still be up, and she'd really like to hear his voice again. It has been days since she talked with her husband and she missed him. Not that she'd admit that to him, but he knew she was just as sappy with him as he was with her.

She pulled out her phone and quickly pushed the well memorized numbers to see if Rick was still awake, wherever exactly he was currently.

The phone rang several times, unanswered, so Kate thumbed her phone off with a sigh. It was going to be another lonely night, but at least she would be in her own bed.

It had been a short sleep, but still, it was much better than what she put up with in that hotel this past week. Now, if there had been a certain warm body next to her all night, then things would have been much better.

She wasn't even supposed to come into work today since Saturday was supposed to be a travel day, so she didn't get up as early as she normally would on a work day. If she was honest with herself, Saturday wasn't even supposed to be a regular work day for her, but she often came in on Saturdays to get some back log off her desk.

She wandered through the kitchen and decided to make herself a waffle. She opened the fridge and found a half full bowl of strawberries sitting on one of the shelves. They obviously had been in there for a few days, but they were still juicy since they'd been covered well.

The woman, still in her undies, flipped through the stack of the past weeks newspapers and decided to catch up with what has been going on here at home while she was stuck up in Albany.

With her strawberry covered waffle, and her hot cup of coffee, Kate was ready to have her first pleasant morning since she left for the wonderful world of boredom.

Her plan was to read the paper while she ate, then she'd go into the precinct at about noon to catch up on what had happened while she was gone. She also hoped that Castle would give her a call sometime today. She missed hearing his voice.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Castle slid into the back seat behind the driver of the unmarked police car. Robinson sat down next to him behind another police escort. Rick was just a little bit miffed that they only provided a driver and a single extra guard to chauffer them to their hearings. Apparently they didn't see them as dangerous threats. After all, Miles and Castle were on their way to a possible parole from their prison sentences. But it kind of hurt Castle's feelings that they weren't considered a flight risk.

Rick stared out the window as they moved slowly along in New York traffic. Since he grew up in the city he was familiar with the streets they were traveling on. The minutes dragged on and Castle was getting a bit drowsy. He must not have slept too well last night. Truthfully, he hadn't slept all that well for all the nights he had to sleep on that rock hard, pitiful excuse for a mattress that the prison provided. Apparently is was just another part of a criminal's punishment.

Suddenly there was some swearing going on in the front seat that had Castle looking at the traffic in front of them. The problem was quickly ascertained. Rick saw that a couple of large, older sedans had managed to run into each other and were blocking both lanes of traffic going their direction.

The guard stopped the car behind the two autos blocking their forward movements. The traffic coming from the other way was pretty heavy, so they couldn't just swing around into the oncoming traffic to get around the two cars blockading them.

"Shit," the one guard driving let the expletive fly. "I can't get around unless I slap on the siren." He was reaching for the cherry under his seat.

The other guard grabbed hold of his arm. "Let's give it a couple minutes before we bring attention to ourselves. Watch for an opening."

The two guard escorts were so busy watching the oncoming traffic that they didn't notice that the two drivers from the cars in front of them coming toward them until it was too late. Each front door was yanked open by one of the men who had been arguing with each other by the stalled cars just moments ago.

"Hand over your weapons and get out, or get shot. It's your choice."

The guard who had been driving looked over at his partner who was obvious in charge.

"Do what they say." He indicated Castle and Robinson with his thumb. "Are those two worth your life?"

After collecting their hand guns and shoving them in their coat pockets both guards were roughly pulled out of the front seat and cold cocked by their assailants. The two carjackers slipped into the front seat and without a care for the car they stole or the car in front of them they pushed aside one of the stalled cars with the much larger car the guards had been driving.

With some near misses with the oncoming traffic, and the screeching of burning tires, they stomped on the gas and with a sharp ninety degree turn down the next street, they fled the scene.

Castle looked over at Robinson wondering how he was reacting to their situation. He saw the slight smile on Mile's face. Castle just nodded, mostly to himself. It had been expected. Robinson apparently never planned to go through with his hearing. This also told Rick that Robinson must know where the loot from the jewel heist would be if he was willing to stage such an escape.

Just then there were the cracks of gun fire and the back window shattered from a bullet. One of the guards must not have been hit hard enough and was shooting at them with a backup gun. Castle felt a stinging on his cheek. He reached up and drew back some blood. Apparently a shard of broken window glass had grazed his cheek. He used the cuff of his shirt to staunch the blood flow and he leaned over to get as low as he could.

After one of the last shots that he heard was fired, Castle heard a grunt coming from the front seat and one of their so-called rescuers slumped forward, his head hitting on the dashboard.

The next several minutes were like a roller coaster ride through the streets and alleys of New York City. Rick quickly lost track of where they were, but he could tell that the neighborhoods they were racing through were deteriorating.

After about ten more minutes, the driver pulled into a narrow alley that was a good two blocks long. They pulled over near a grouping of trash cans. The driver jumped out, as Miles Robinson and Rick let themselves out of the back seat.

The driver looked at Miles. "I think Donny is dead, and if he isn't." The driver pulled out his pistol and shot Donny in the head. "He is now."

Miles just nodded as he glanced up and down the alley. There was a smaller sedan parked a few feet away from them.

"So, what do we do with him?" The driver waved his gun over until it was pointed at Castle.

Miles looked over at Castle. He had a frown on his face. "In the few days we spent together I've gotten to like you Spencer, but…"

"Hold on." Castle put his hands up, then used his head to indicate the car sitting a few feet away. "You're going to need me."

The driver gave Rick and eye roll and a nasty smirk. "And why would we need you? I put this car here a few hours ago so we'd have a getaway vehicle that the cops wouldn't know."

Castle just nodded his head. "You've left this car here, unattended, for hours?" Castle leaned against the car they just got out of. "If I were you I'd take a look under the hood" A slight grin crept onto Rick's face. "And I'd check the tires on the other side. The car seems to be leaning that way."

The driver glared at Castle. Miles just waved him over to inspect the car. It only took a couple of minutes until the driver was swearing in some foreign language that Castle didn't know.

Miles stared at the man. "What's wrong?" The disgust in his voice indicated that Robinson already knew that there was a problem.

"It's them stinkin' kids around here. The battery's been stolen, the radiator has been slashed, and the two tires on the side facing the wall are gone."

Robinson gave that driver an unfriendly glare, then he turned toward Castle.

"I take it since you expected this problem, you have a solution?" Miles growled out.

"Not so much expected but smarter than your skinny rescuer. I didn't know what steps you had taken. But when I saw you left a car out in this neighborhood for several hours unattended, I knew what would probably have happened." Castle grinned. "And as it does happen, I do have a solution."

Miles stared him down. "What is it?"

Rick held up his hand. "Do you have someplace safe to hide out at for a few hours?"

Robinson turned his glare to the driver. The now somewhat nervous fellow nodded quickly. "Yeah, there's an old abandoned warehouse about three blocks from here. The bums stay away from it because they think it's haunted."

Miles turned back toward Castle. "So tell me what you have."

"Look," Rick held his hands up. "I'm not looking to weasel in on your hard earned stash. But I think I should receive some token for my help in this operation. I'm not greedy, just a few nice baubles from the jewelry robbery would satisfy me."

Robinson's glare grew flinty hard. Rick held up his hands again, then jerked his thumb toward the dead man slumped over in the front seat of their stolen car.

"I'm not even asking for his share in this whole deal. Just a little something to pay for the risks that I had to take, and the help that I'll be able to provide."

"And what help exactly are you offering." Miles raised his brow.

"I can provide a ride out of here." Castle was thankful that Kate had told him before she left for Albany that she wasn't planning to stay until Saturday morning. She would leave Friday night so she would have Saturday to decompose from the seminars.

Robinson let his lips curl up a bit. "Why do I think that you aren't really this bungling, semi-pathetic, B. and E. clown you paint yourself to be?"

Castle shrugged. "What can I say? The juries are always easier on those who seem somewhat hapless."

"So I take it you can get us a car?" Rick nodded. "But why do we need you? I can just have Ted steal another car." He indicated the driver.

Castle cracked a big smile. "Ah, but I won't be using a stolen car to put extra heat on us. I'll call my girlfriend. She has a nice car that no one would expect to see a fleeing felon to be using. She used to be a private investigator so she's had training in driving tactics and knows how to handle a gun."

Miles returned Castle's grin. "She sounds like quite the package. If she comes, why would we need you?"

Castle laughed. "She would insist. She likes me."

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

A/N: Gosh wasn't that thrilling? I wonder who'll be the driver that Castle was talking about?

All Readers are Appreciated, Review if you wish