448. Chapter 448

After One Man's Treasure

Episode 2.10

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Castle is a treasure, but I don't own it. Rating: T Time: See above.

Toxic Heat

By

Richard Castle

As she always did, Detective Nikki Heat stopped briefly before going on to where the latest murder victim was. She looked down at herself and silently cursed. Her tee shirt was sopping wet and was plastered to her body, clearly outlining her perky breasts and allowing her nipples to poke the material out. If I ever catch the kids with the Supersoakers that did this to me, I'll teach them not to mess with the NYPD. She thought.

Nikki walked up to the uniform standing just beyond the yellow police tape. "Where's the vic?"

The uniform pointed to the building marked New York Recycling. "Top floor. The CEO, a guy named Lance Lowenbrau is the vic."

"Who got here first?" Nikki asked.

"Dumming." The uniform said, unwillingly.

"Where is he?"

The uniform shrugged. "He got on an elevator and no one's seen him since. He hasn't quite got the hang of those things yet. We've organized a search. I'm sure we'll find him. Mr. Rook suggested we leave a trail of candy bars leading to the front entrance. Luckily, he had some left over from buying one for every hungry child in Africa last week."

Nikki nodded. Dumming was not her favorite person right now. She had become a cop to get justice for her mother who had been murdered by a murderous terrorist group, TOOTH, The Organization Organized To Hate. Dumming had been assigned to cover the back of the group's lair but had let terrorists pass him and escape when they claimed to be Catholic school girls ditching class. When asked why the fact that they all had beards didn't tip him off to something, Dumming had said he thought they were Italian and launched into a story about he had almost gotten to first base with an Italian Catholic school girl until he discovered she was a Doberman Pinscher who's owner had most peculiar tastes in dog clothing.

As Nikki walked into the CEO's office she saw that ME Lauren Parry was already there, as was her lover, the ruggedly handsome journalist, Jameson Rook.

Rook smiled when he saw Nikki. I really must buy the kids who live near Nikki more Supersoakers. He thought.

Nikki went straight to the ME. "Time and cause of death?"

Lauren shrugged and pulled back the sheet that had been covering the vic. "Beats me, Sweetie."

Nikki looked down and saw the reason for Lauren's inability to determine either time or cause of death. "It looks like he's been …dissolved in something, at least partly."

Lauren nodded. "I've identified several toxic compounds, sweetie. But not all of them. Mr. Lowenbrau worked in recycling batteries with toxic materials in them. Maybe there's a connection?"

"What?" Rook said, having silently crept up on the beautiful detective with the skill born from his days on battlefields from the Balkans to Asia. "What happened is obvious."

"Care to enlighten us, Rook?" Nikki asked in the sultry voice that drove Rook mad with desire.

Managing to refrain from gently squeezing the firm, round globes of her legendary ass, Rook explained. "It's the Toxic Avenger. I was just about to publish a piece in Bodice Rippers Weekly exposing Lowenbrau's company as a fraud. He doesn't recycle batteries, he was dumping them in the ocean. The Toxic Avenger would never allow that."

Nikki smiled. "To begin with, the Toxic Avenger is an urban legend, and really, Bodice Rippers Weekly?" She and Lauren were one of the few people who knew that Rook wrote romance novels under the pen name of Lady Daphne Barking-Madly.

Rook smiled. "They've always liked my stuff."

"Me too." Nikki said coquettishly.

"Perhaps we could find some place…" Rook began.

"Looks like Slut's here." The ME said.

Nikki rolled her eyes, something that Rook found adorable. Nikki's usual team consisted of Roach, a mashup of the names Raley and Ochoa. However, Roach was busy with a court case involving the murder of a serial double parker. Although many in New York thought that such scum should lynched without a trial, Nikki was firm in her belief that serial double parkers should have a fair trial before being lynched.

In place of Roach, Nikki had been given Officers Sally Lewis and Ursula Tanner. The mashup had been obvious. Regrettably, from Nikki's perspective, it was also quite accurate.

"Where have you two been?" Nikki demanded.

"We found Dumming in the elevator with some candy bars." Lewis, a redhead who showed way too much cleavage, giggled.

"We decided to share." Tanner finished. She was a bottle blonde with a skirt far too short.

"Did you find anything?" Nikki asked, trying to control her temper.

"It's really hard to find." Lewis said, giggling.

"We did find the only other person who was in the building at the time." Tanner said. "A Herr Professor Doktor Kraftrad-Junge. He's the man behind the success of Mr. Lowenbrau's firm. He's a brilliant scientist. He told us so himself."

"Since it wasn't a success, but a scam, he should be our most likely suspect." Nikki and Rook said in unison.

"That's so cute when you do that." Lauren gushed.

Kraftrad-Junge was found in Lowenbrau's private office transferring the contents of the wall safe to his suitcase.

"Dr. Kraftrad-Junge?" Nikki asked.

"Jawohl" Kraftrad-Junge barked, crashing to attention.

"I'm Detective Nikki Heat and this is Jameson Rook. We're investigating Mr. Lowenbrau's murder."

"I vass only followink orders!" The Doctor screamed.

Nikki ignored him. "According to your resume, you attended the University of Lhasa, majoring in… basketball?"

"You played for the Slamming, Jamming, Lamas of U of L?" Rick enthused. "I saw them play against the NBA All Stars in '97. You guys lost 12, 891 to nothing. I remember when you almost got the ball…"

"Rook?" Nikki said, glaring at him. Rook said no more. She turned to the doctor. "How did you manage to get a job here with those credentials?"

"And we know that Lowenbrau didn't have any new technology. It was all a scam." Rook added.

"I know nothing!" The Doktor yelled, then broke down crying.

"Well, I have a nice murder here just looking for a home. I guess that's you." Nikki said.

"No!" The doctor bawled. "I vill confess. It vas Herr Von Von that killed Lowenbrau."

"Von Von? The billionaire?" Nikki and Rook said in unison.

"Dot's so cute." The doctor said. "Jawohl! Herr Von Von is the money man behind this. I vas chust collecting the money for him."

Nikki nodded. "Okay, deliver the money to him and get him to admit to the murder and we'll get you into a prison with lousy basketball players. You can relive your glory days."

Back at the precinct, with Von Von and Kraftrad-Junge in cuffs, Nikki turned to Rook. "See, Rook? No mythical Toxic Avenger. Just a common human killer with a human motive."

Rook nodded. "You're not just the most beautiful woman on the planet, but you're the smartest, and the most passionate person about justice on the planet."

Nikki smiled. "That's not the only thing I'm passionate about." She said in a low, sexy voice.

"Your place or mine?" Rook asked.

"Mine. It's closer."

Several days later, Nikki stopped at the edge of a swamp in New Jersey. Getting out of her car, she called softly, "Toxie, are you there?"

A large misshapen being peeked out from behind a tree. "Nikki? Is that you? What do you want?"

"I just wanted to thank you for telling me about Lowenbrau and his scam. I managed to get Rook to think that he figured it out, so it was a win-win-win situation for all of us."

"The Toxic Avenger is always glad to help you, Nikki." He said proudly.

Nikki thought. "Is there anything you can do about Dumming?"

Toxie shook his head. "He smells too badly for me to get close to him."

Nikki shrugged and headed back to New York.

Author's note: Would anyone care to guess what Doktor Kraftrad-Junge translates as from the German?