644. Chapter 644

After The Final Nail

Episode 3.15

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I'm a lot of things, but I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above

"Without Damian Westlake, I'm a lawyer, I'm a grifter, I'm a rodeo clown, but I'm not a writer. Without him, I'm not me."

Richard Castle

"Who's his lawyer?" Detective Kate Beckett asked.

Ryan pulled a piece of paper from a file. "Richard Castle, a low rent shyster. Interesting history, his mom's Martha Rodgers, the Broadway star. He had a kind of Bohemian upbringing, never knew his dad, bounced around from one school to another. Dropped out of college to write, never published. Finally his mom got tired of supporting him and cut him off. He went to some diploma mill and got a law degree. Passed the bar on his seventh try. He's been one step ahead of his creditors since then."

Beckett shook her head. "If I'd ended up a lawyer, I'd have to deal with his kind all the time? I guess I'm lucky I'm a cop."

"You still have to deal with him." Ryan said with a smile.

"Sure, but on my terms."

She walked into interrogation and sat. "Mr. Castle, I'm Detective Kate Beckett." She looked at the opposing lawyer and decided he looked exactly what a lousy lawyer should look like: Thirty pounds overweight, needing a haircut and a shave, dressed in a cheap, ill fitting blue suit with a white polyester shirt and a clip on tie.

"I've already instructed my client to say nothing, Ms. Brackett. And I'm filing a motion to suppress the evidence you illegally seized when you burst into my client's apartment with no warrant."

"Mr. Castle, your client fired a shot at us and ran into his apartment. We didn't need a warrant. Now, it looks like your client didn't mean to kill Ms. Borlan, so I'm prepared to offer man 2. That's a very good deal, Mr. Castle. You should tell your client to take it."

Castle shook his head, which led to an hour long discussion with Kate trying to get Castle to see that was the best he was going to get, with no success.

Once the suspect was led away Beckett spoke to Castle. "I don't understand why you won't tell your client to take the deal. He won't get a better deal."

Castle shrugged. "His parents are paying me. They told me to plead him not guilty or they'd get someone who will. I need the money."

"So, we'll charge him with murder and he'll get convicted and spend the rest of his life behind bars? Why the hell did you ever become a lawyer, anyway?"

"It was the book."

Kate frowned. "What book?"

"I wrote a book in college. It was about a defense attorney, Jameson Rook, who gets involved with a homicide cop named Nikki Heat. The book went nowhere and I had to do something, so…"

Kate laughed. "Nikki Heat? That's a terrible name for a cop."

Castle just shrugged. "No matter. It'll never get published, even if I tried."

"You still have it?"

"It's on my laptop. It's kind of a hobby, I guess. I write a little bit here and there when I'm not busy." Castle smiled at her. "You'd make a great Nikki Heat, you know."

Kate shook her head. "I don't think so." She stopped and stared at him. "Can I see it? I kind of have this thing for murder mysteries. If it's no problem."

"No, not at all." He opened his brief case and pulled out his laptop. "The file is called Heat Wave."

"Okay, give me your number and we'll talk about it when I'm done reading it."

"Can't wait to hear from you."

Although Castle had never expected to hear much from the detective, he found she had a lot of good ideas. That changed both their lives.

….

Detective Kate Beckett stared at the suspect sitting in the interrogation room. Unlike most suspects, he looked like he was enjoying himself. He won't enjoy himself when I get through with him. She thought.

"That's really him?" Detective Ryan said.

"In person."

"A lot of people said he'd never get caught."

"He's been caught, but not convicted. That's up to you, Beckett." Captain Montgomery said quietly.

"I'll break him."

She walked into the interrogation room and began reading his file, hoping to keep him off balance.

"I can tell you more about me than is in the file, Detective Beckett."

"I'm sure you could, Mr. Rodgers, but none of it would be true."

Rodgers pouted. "I really prefer Castle, you know."

Kate referred to the file. "Not Jerome Halder, or Clark Harris, or Constantine Orlovsky, or Harry Travers, or David Gault, or…"

"No, just Rick Castle." He said smiling at her.

"Would you care to tell me about the scam you were running this time?"

Castle did a creditable impression of being shocked. "Scam? I'm a respectable businessman. I do not scam my clients and I resent the implication that I do."

"Then perhaps I should just let you go."

"An excellent idea, Detective Beckett, or can I call you Kate?

"You may not. And you realize that if I let you go, Charley "Boom Boom" Caprice is going to kill you. One, you cheated him out of a great deal of money. Secondly and more importantly, you're the only witness to him ordering the death of his girlfriend. Are you sure you want out?"

"Of course. I have every faith in my ability to outthink and outwit Mr. Caprice."

Kate referred to the file. "I don't understand about the scam. Almost all of the money went to buy back the building that Caprice extorted from the original owners. That allows the elderly tenants to stay there. Where's your payoff?"

Rodgers smiled. "Seeing Caprice's face when he no longer had the property was my reward."

Kate laughed. "A con man with a heart of gold? I don't believe it."

"You don't have to believe it. You can believe anything you choose to, Kate."

"Detective Beckett, not Kate. Caprice knows you're here. He'll have people waiting outside. You won't last five minutes."

"I'll last longer than that, Kate."

"It's Detective Beckett to you. Remember that."

"But if we're going to be partners, I should call you Kate."

"We aren't going to be partners." Beckett snapped at him.

"Even with my testimony, it's my word against Caprice's. And his lawyers will certainly mention my…lifestyle."

"You're a crook."

"Brutal, but that is the way I'll be portrayed. But, if I help you, we can get him and his whole outfit."

Castle stood up and headed for the door. "I have a few ideas to suggest to your captain. Coming, Kate?"

….

"He's our witness?" Detective Kate Beckett asked, somewhat horrified.

"That's him."

"Is he sober?"

Detective Esposito shrugged. "He's been in the holding cell all night, but he was pretty lit when they brought him in, but according to witnesses, he was sober when he saw James leave the crime scene."

"What happened to his clothes? I hope he didn't try anything and someone flattened him. I have to get this clown's cooperation."

"He is a clown and the damage is from a brahma bull."

"A what?"

Esposito laughed. "There's a rodeo at Madison Square Garden. He's a rodeo clown. You know, distracts the animals so the riders can get away."

Beckett shuddered slightly. "I'll go in and see if I can get anything out of him."

Kate walked in to interrogation and smiled the witness. "Mr. Castle, I'm Detective Kate Beckett, Homicide."

Castle stood at once. "Glad to meet you, ma'am."

"No need to be so for formal and you can call me…"Kate stopped in mid sentence. "You're bleeding."

Castle looked down at his arm. "A bit. An occupational hazard with rodeo clowns, ma'am. It'll stop soon enough. It ain't bad."

Kate went to get a first aid kit and hurried back to Castle. "Take your shirt off."

Castle did as he was told, showing a poorly bandaged gash on his left arm. In addition, Kate saw numerous scars on his torso. "Where did you get all of those scars, Mr. Castle?"

Castle grinned and began pointing. "This is where a horse bit me in '98 in Tucson. This is where a bull gored me in Calgary in '02. This is my first scar as a clown. A hooker in El Paso."

Kate finished re-bandaging him as Castle described his scars. "According to your records, you were born in Manhattan. How did you end up a rodeo clown?"

"My mom was an actress and got a job as a weather girl in Albuquerque, New Mexico when I was fourteen. After a year she was killed by a drunk driver. I was put in a foster home. Some redneck cowboy family called the Castles, who owned a ranch. Once I hit eighteen, I began riding on the rodeo circuit, but I wasn't good enough. But I found out I was a good clown. I been at this over twenty years now, I gotta think about quittin' though. I'm just too banged up."

"Have any ideas, Mr. Castle?"

He laughed. "When I was a kid, I wanted to be a writer."

"So write."

"About what?"

Kate shrugged. "I love mysteries. You could write those."

Castle laughed. "I don't know nothin' about mysteries."

"Tell, you what. You testify against James and I'll give you some pointers. I am a homicide cop, after all."

Castle stared at the beautiful detective, then nodded. "Sounds good….Kate."

…...

"How was your book tour, Castle?"

Castle shuddered dramatically. "Stay away from the South in the summer. Hot and muggy like you wouldn't believe. How was your week?"

"We caught a good one." Kate replied. "At first we thought that this guy killed his wife, but it turns out he didn't do it. The ex-husband's girlfriend did it to keep the ex-husband. But we did get the guy for killing his father about twenty years ago."

"You solved a twenty year old murder? How very Nikki Heat of you."

Kate blushed. "I got lucky. It really wasn't the same without you, Castle."

"It's never the same without you, Kate." Castle looked at the file in front of Kate. "Can I look?"

"Sure." She handed the file over.

"Whoa! Damian Westlake? I know this guy."

"He's a friend of yours?" Kate asked. "I'm sorry."

"No, not a friend, just a guy I went to prep school with. He wanted to discuss a story I wrote but when I went to see him, he was in the middle of undressing my girlfriend. Needless to say, we didn't talk literature after that. We didn't talk at all. I always wondered what happened to him."

"Who knows, he might have been important in your life if things had gone differently."

"No way. How could anyone be as important to me as you are?" Castle winked at the woman he loved and she winked back.

Author's note: I should respond to all of the people recently who have reviewed my work as guests, in order of receipt: Yes; yes; no; usually on Wednesdays; same to you, pal; I'll think about it; good idea. I'll try it; Sure, anytime; and Tamara, Kate Becket/ Stana Katic IS very, very hot. Just ask her male fans.