614. Chapter 614

After One man's Treasure

Episode 2.10

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I own neither treasure nor Castle. Rating: K Time: See above.

Officer Kate Beckett was proud to be one of the first policewomen hired by the NYPD and today was a special day for her. Although not a detective, which was her goal, today she would be working in plain clothes for the first time. Passing a shop window on her way to the 12th Precinct, she stopped to check her appearance. Upon learning that she was to work in plain clothes, her fiancé, Richard Castle, a former flyer in the Great War, who now wrote detective novels featuring a beautiful and brilliant NYPD detective named Nikki Heat, had insisted on taking her shopping. She had to admit, the clothes he had purchased for her were stunning.

She wore a cloche hat with silk dress that came daringly to just below her knees, real silk stockings and the cutest pair of high heeled pumps she had ever seen. And, known but to Rick and her, she wore a brassiere from Paris, which was all the rage now that corsets were considered passé.

She strode into the 12th precinct and reported to Sergeant Roy Montgomery, the head of the homicide squad. "Officer Katherine Beckett, reporting, sir." She said, very formally.

Montgomery smiled at her. "You clean up nice, Officer Beckett. Come in and sit down. I have an undercover job for you."

"You do, sir?" This was better than Kate had hoped for. "What will I be doing?"

"We're investigating the murder of a bigamist?"

"Someone murdered an Italian fog?" A voice slurred behind her.

"Come in, Detective Schlemming." Montgomery said coldly. Then to Kate. "This is Detective Schlemming from Robbery. We're borrowing him for this case."

"Hubba, hubba." Schlemming said, the alcohol on his breath nearly making Kate ill. "Who's the chick?" He put his hand familiarly on Kate's shoulder.

"You'll be going undercover at the Law Offices of Dewey, Cheatum and Howe. You'll be a wealthy married couple with a lot of legal issues to take care of. We suspect that one of the victim's two "wives" killed him for his money. Whoever gets his money is out chief suspect in the murder of Eric Prawn."

"Isn't that unusual, sir?" Kate asked. "Usually bigamists marry women for their money."

Montgomery shrugged. "Some people love the institution, hate the day to day."

Schlemming sat on the armrest of Kate's chair. She could feel his hand sliding over her back and toward her boob. She readied an elbow to his midsection. Schlemming pulled a flask from his hip pocket. "Care for a taste, darling? We're married after all."

Before Kate could level Schlemming, Montgomery spoke. "You do know consumption of alcohol is illegal, don't you Detective? Prohibition and all?"

Schlemming just laughed. "We're all adults here." And he took a drink.

"Excuse me." Montgomery said, stepping outside his office for a second, calling over Detectives Ryan and Esposito. "Ryan and Esposito will be briefing you further on the case, Schlemming. Over at Mississippi Slims'."

"The speakeasy?" Schlemming smiled. "My kind of briefing." Ryan and Esposito smiled, winked at Kate, and left with Schlemming.

Montgomery, relieved, sighed. "That would have been a disaster. But where will we get a partner for you now?"

"Might I suggest Rick, Sir? He's been with me on cases with me before."

Montgomery frowned and then smiled. "I suppose we have no choice. And he is a good friend of Mayor Walker."

Montgomery called Rick who quickly agreed to be Kate's partner. He arrived shortly dressed in a handmade Saville Row suit he had picked up London.

Montgomery explained the case to him and then offered Rick a box of rings. "We have a selection of wedding rings for officers to wear when working undercover."

Rick looked them over and shook his head. "We'll stop off at Tiffany and Company. I need to buy my fiancé a wedding ring anyway."

"And I should buy you one, too." Kate was a bit worried. Could she afford a wedding band for Rick that came from Tiffany's?

However, Rick was way ahead of her, having already picked out a simple gold band that he knew was in her price range, especially after he had paid Tiffany's to put it "on sale".

Arriving at Dewey, Cheatum and Howe, Attorneys-at-Law they were met by one of the junior partners.

"Rufus T. Firefly, at your service." He announced.

"Are you an attorney, Mr. Firefly?" Kate asked.

"Actually, I'm a horse doctor, but marry me and I'll never look at another horse again."

"I'm already married. This is my husband Rick. I hope we can get started. We had a late night last night."

"You think you had a late night? Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got them on, I'll never know."

Mr. Firefly was distracted as two ladies came into the office.

The redhead stepped towards Mr. Firefly. "I'm Mrs. Meredith Prawn, beloved widow of the late Eric Prawn." She at once began to cry.

The blonde standing next to her snorted. "Really. I'm Mrs. Gina Prawn. And I am the beloved widow of the late Eric Prawn." She began to cry and then stamped hard on the redheads foot.

"Owwww!" She screamed. "I think a hippo stepped on my foot."

"If there's a hippo around here, it's you." Replied the blonde.

Meredith Prawn smiled and slammed a fist into Gina's midsection. Gina fell on her butt. Hard. But then reached up and grabbed Meredith's skirt, ripping it off. Meredith replied by tearing Gina's blouse off of her.

As the two women fought, Kate moved forward to stop them, but Rick grabbed her hand. "Better not. You can't let them know that you're a cop."

"Good thinking." Kate replied. "You're not stopping me because they're tearing each other's clothes off, are you?"

"Of course not. "Rick replied. "I've been going through their purses. Bad news. They've signed a contract so that whichever one of them is found to be the real widow, the other will get fifty percent of Prawn's estate. It looks like they're both suspects."

Eventually, before Rick could ask if any popcorn was available, the two ladies were pulled apart by the associates, who were considered expendable by the partners. "Remember to count this on your billable hours." Cried Firefly. "On both lady's accounts."

Both women had black eyes and bloody noses and looked at each other with hatred in their blackened eyes.

"Which one of them is the real Mrs. Prawn?" Kate asked Firefly. "They certainly want the job badly enough."

"Oh, neither one of these two." Firefly replied. "We discovered that as a young lad Mr. Prawn married a young lady who is now Sister Jacinda Immaculata and never divorced her. She's his legal widow. She's in a convent in some tiny one horse town in Nevada. Lost Wiggles or something. Since she's taken a vow of poverty, everything goes to the convent. I'm headed there tomorrow. I don't travel much, but I'd like to get into the habit."

Disappointed, Rick and Kate went back to the precinct. "I'm afraid we've failed, sir." She said to Captain Montgomery. She explained that a third Mrs. Prawn had been found in Nevada.

"No problem." Montgomery said with a smile. "Schlemming got drunk, or should I say, drunker and confessed to Ryan and Esposito that he was paid to kill Prawn on behalf of Meredith and Gina Prawn. They didn't know about the other Mrs. Prawn. Odd way to commit a murder though. Schlemming dressed Prawn in an elephant costume and put him in pajamas and then some bozo shot at him. It was easy for Schlemming to shoot Prawn then and blame the other guy. Well, Schlemming will be going up the river for a long time."

That night in Rick's sumptuous brownstone overlooking Central Park, Kate snuggled against her fiancé. "Do you think I'll ever become a detective?"

"I don't know enough about that to comment, but I'm sure you'll be Mrs. Castle soon."

"Soon?" Kate said. "Why that's almost as good as being a detective."

"Almost as good?" Rick said, surprised.

"The next best thing maybe."

"Should I show you just how good being Mrs. Castle can be?"

"I thought you'd never ask."