Kate's Investigation
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: A thorough investigation shows I do not own Castle. Rating: K Time: After my story, Kates' Run.
"Is he dead, Kate?"
"His skull has been sliced open with a vibro blade and his brains are leaking onto our carpet. What do you think? And please remember, I'm Andi, not Kate. You're Gigi, not Alexis."
"I'm sorry. I'm just upset. I mean he's…dead. Right in the middle of our bungalow. What do we do now?"
"We'll have to call the authorities."
"The police? Do we have to?"
"When housekeeping comes to clean our place, they're going to notice a dead body. Of course we have to call the police. It'll be dangerous, but not reporting it at once would be even worse."
Kate Beckett and Alexis Harper were on the run. They were not only running from the law, but from Senator William Bracken's hired killers. Kate had been a captain in the US Constabulary, responsible for the protective detail for a US Senator Daley. They had intelligence that another US Senator, William Bracken, was arranging for Daley to be assassinated. Daley refused to believe that a fellow senator would do such a thing and refused to increase his security detail as Kate had recommended. That cost him his life. In the gun battle, Kate had killed one man who turned out to have been a nephew of Bracken's. Bracken manufactured evidence that showed that Kate had helped in the assassination plot. In addition to the Earth police, Bracken sent his own people after her.
Alexis Harper was the daughter of Senator Daley by his mistress, a Meredith Harper. Since Bracken was known to wipe out his enemies' entire families, she went with Kate.
Now they were Andi Carson and her cousin, Gigi Carson. Their story was that they were two Earth born women who had moved to the colony of Firenza. Andi had married a Firenzen and had gone through a bitter divorce. They had come to the colony of Toulouva, a world that was ninety percent water, but was also a famed vacation spot. With people coming and going all the time, they felt they had found the perfect place.
Both now had short, dark hair and eyes that had been tinted green.
Andi grabbed her phone. There was no emergency number for the police, but she called the manager of the Saint James Resort, Mr. Trelawney. He was quite upset, but said he'd call the local constable and hurry over himself. Luckily, the main office of the resort was only a few hundred feet away.
Trelawney looked into the bungalow.
"Oh, dear. It's Mr. Fuzzy."
"His name is Fuzzy?" Gigi asked. "Do you think it's an alias?"
"No." Andi said. "When people pick an alias, they want one that won't be noticed. Everyone would remember a Mr. Fuzzy."
"I'll have to call the constable." Trelawney said.
In minutes, Constable Demming arrived. He was overweight and out of shape, but Andi reminded herself that it was his brain and experience that counted.
"What's the problem?" he asked.
"There's a dead man in the cottage." Trelawney said, pointing.
Demming looked and then spoke.
"Whose cottage?"
"These two ladies." Trelawney replied.
"Their cottage, they must have done it. I'll write up my report."
"That's not possible." Said a voice.
The speaker was a non-human. He was long limbed and thick bodied and covered with short, light tan fur. He had a small external nose with rather large nostrils and small external ears. He also had two large front teeth. He wore scuffed work boots, tan cargo shorts and a blue tee shirt with the logo of the Saint James Resort on the front. Around his waist was a tool belt containing tools that Andi didn't recognize.
"Who are you?" Demming demanded.
"Tolan. I'm a gardener here. I saw the women leave a half an hour before the man went near their cottage. I didn't see them come back until just now."
"Furball here must be in on it with the women. I'll add his name to the report."
The resident of the cottage across from Andi and Gigi's came out. She was tall and very slim. Andi guessed she had had some very expensive work done to look as young as she did.
"I was on my front porch talking to Tolan here when the ladies left. The red flowers by my entryway are heart song flowers from New Lambeau. They're very hard to grow and I wanted Tolan to care for them properly. I went into my cottage to look up the proper care. By the time I came out again, they were back."
Demming nodded.
"It's a damned conspiracy. The skinny broad is in on it too."
The woman smiled.
"By the time the skinny broad's lawyers get through with you, fatso, I'll own Saint James and you'll be cleaning toilets for the rest of your life."
"Please, Constable Demming." Trelawney squeaked. "This is Mrs. Lee, the wealthiest person on the planet Tralee. She's a trillionaire there."
"And I have substantial interests on Toulouva, as well." She said with an unfriendly smile.
"I'll go work on my report." Demming said and quickly walked away.
"You might want to mention in your report that we were in the admin center of the resort the whole time we were gone." Andi said. "The employees can vouch for us. Unless you suspect them."
Demming muttered something as he walked away.
"You'll need a much more competent investigator, Mr. Trelawney." Lee said.
"There isn't one. He's our entire police force."
"Surely you can contact the Union of the Archipelago and get someone."
"We can't." Trelawney said.
Mrs. Lee glared at Trelawney.
"Why not?"
"The world of Toulouva was settled mostly by people originally from Polynesia on Earth. However, the Union of the Archipelago was settled by people whose roots were in the Caribbean. Most of the islands were settled by either English speakers or French speakers with a few Dutch. The twenty-seven counties of the Union are run by the companies who run the resorts. There's no overarching government and the individual counties don't cooperate much."
"I'd say they don't cooperate at all." Lee said coldly.
"That's true, I'm afraid."
"So, what am I supposed to do? Sit here in my cottage and hope that whoever killed Mr. Furry isn't some homicidal maniac bent on wiping us all out?"
Trelawney dithered and said nothing useful except to say it was Mr. Fuzzy, not Furry.
"The tall one," Lee said, pointing at Andi, "knew about aliases. Do you have a background in investigations? Police? Lawyer? Private Investigator?"
Andi was not about to admit to her background with the US Constabulary, luckily, Gigi spoke up.
"No, but we've seen all 428 episodes of Major Crimes Squad: LA Integrate. We also watched the 212 episodes of the spin off, Major Crimes Squad: El Paso-Juarez Integrate. They're excellent police procedurals and we learned a lot."
Lee stared at the two.
"The other option would be for me to bring in my own lawyers from Tralee and some investigators. That would interfere with what I'm doing here and would make me very angry. I don't think you want to get me angry, Mr. Trelawney."
"No. No. Not at all. I hereby appoint you detectives in the Saint James County Constabulary. "
"How much does this pay?" Gigi asked.
"We'll forget about your rent for the time you're here."
"I've found that you get what you pay for." Mrs. Lee said. "I think a bonus of fifty thousand US dollars if they succeed would be fair."
"Fifty thousand US dollars?" Trelawney squealed. "Impossible."
"I'm beginning to get angry."
"Yes. Fifty thousand it is."
"Do we outrank Demming?" Andi asked.
"Of course."
She nodded and smiled.
"The first thing we need to do is have an autopsy done. Did you call the doctor?"
"Um, I called Doc Josh, but he hasn't answered."
"He's in the clinic by the office?"
"I suppose." Trelawney answered.
"Will you three stay here and make sure no one disturbs the crime scene?" Andi asked.
All three nodded.
They were just outside of the clinic when they heard a woman scream. Andi reached for the gun she didn't have.
"Damn. We need to be armed."
"What do we do?" Gigi asked.
"We go in."
The woman was still screaming as she ran around the exam room, covering her bare boobs with her hands. Chasing her was a man in green scrubs.
"Your hands are too cold, Doc Josh." She screamed.
"Then let me warm them up, sweetie." Doc Josh yelled.
"Are you the doctor?" Andi yelled.
"You bet, gorgeous. Just take off your clothes and I'll get to you next."
"There's been a murder. We need you at the crime scene."
"Can't you see I'm busy with a patient?"
"A murder?" Screamed the topless woman who then ran off.
"Did you have to do that?" Doc Josh demanded.
"Yes. We're in charge of the murder investigation. Come with us."
Doc Josh shrugged and headed for the door.
"Don't you need a medical bag or something?' Andi asked.
Josh sighed and grabbed a small duffel bag with a red cross on it.
When they got back to the crime scene, Doc Josh knelt by the deceased for several minutes. Then he stood up.
"You're right. He's dead."
"That's it?" Andi said coldly. "What about a cause of death?"
"My guess is it has something to do with his head wound."
"Your guess?" Andi turned to Trelawney. "Where did you find him?"
"Um, Saint James Resort is the newest, smallest and poorest resort in the Union. We have trouble attracting topflight people."
"The only thing that Saint James has is lots and lots of peace and quiet." Lee said. "That's because the only thing to do around here is sit and watch the flowers grow."
"Can someone get the body out of our bungalow and clean the blood and brains up?' Andi said.
"Certainly."
Trelawney got on his phone and called housekeeping.
"Okay, Mrs. Lee and Tolan, you're the witnesses. Tolan can you tell me what you saw, but first tell me about yourself. I don't recognize your race."
"I am a Tarkai from the planet Tark. There is a plant on my world that can be made into a medicine for another non-human race. There is a great deal of money to be made from such trade. However, the humans who set up plantations to grow the plant decided it was cheaper to enslave my people rather than pay us for our labor. We all had slave collars put on us. If we disobeyed a human, great pain could be inflicted on us. One day some human caused the power plant to blow up, making the collars useless. My friend and I hacked them off and ran. We traveled for six weeks before coming to the Brightwell Farm. The Brightwell family treated us well. They fed us and cared for our injuries. Then we were given paid work, however, we only worked for four hours a day. The other four, we went to school. I learned to read and write in English, math, history, first aid and many things. Most importantly, I was taught to use a rifle in case the slavers ever attacked us. Eventually, I earned enough money to pay for a passage on a tramp freighter and come here."
"It sounds like you have little reason to like humans." Andi said.
"There are good and bad humans, as there are good and bad Tarkai. I hope to earn enough here to travel to the United Kingdoms and enlist in Black Jack Schram's mercenary brigade. He recruits Tarkai as scouts because of our excellent senses."
"So, tell me what you saw."
"I saw the two of you leave while I was caring for the flowers here. The human, called Fuzzy, walked from his cottage, number twelve, and walked past your cottage on the far side where I could not see him. Then I heard a soft humming sound. Some human machine I would guess."
TBC