682. Chapter 682

After Probable Cause

Episode 5.05

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I have the right to remain silent and I will. Rating: K Time: See above.

"Javi, there's something you need to know." Ryan said, closing the door after Beckett left.

"You mean about Beckett and Castle?"

Ryan's jaw dropped. "How…when…?"

Javi smiled at his partner. "He broke up with his ex a long time ago and except for that blonde, hasn't dated. She dropped that doctor and hasn't been with anyone else. For the longest time they both were…unhappy. Okay, maybe it's better to say they weren't happy. But, all of a sudden Beckett comes back from suspension and they're both happy. Very happy. I'm a detective, bro. How'd you figure it out?"

"Aaron Lerner, the murder at Castle's place in the Hamptons. When I interrogated him he said he'd told Chief Brady and his two consultants everything I figured out one consultant had to be Castle. I mean he'd never be able to pass up a murder investigation. Lerner confirmed it was Castle and his girlfriend. I asked him to describe the girlfriend. It was Beckett. Had to be."

"Normally, I'd be happy for them."

"You should still be happy for them. Castle didn't do any of this and we're going to prove it. Imagine what Beckett would be like if something happened to Castle."

Espo grimaced. "We have to find out what's happening."

Later, the detectives gathered around Captain Gates, trying to convince her that the evidence found in Castle's apartment wasn't the whole story.

"I'm not always Mr. Castle's biggest fan, as you well know, detectives. But in addition to having trouble believing Mr. Castle could do something so heinous, it's hard to believe he'd be so stupid and inept."

"Excuse me, sir?" Beckett said, confused.

Gates counted her points off on her fingers. "A killer who meticulously cleans the inside of his victim's apartment, but leaves his own fingerprints on the doorknob? A killer who leaves a shirt with his victim's blood on it in his own home for us to find? Mr. Castle knows full well that soaking that shirt in a bucket of bleach would have destroyed any DNA that could have tied him to Tessa Horton. And the barbed wire? Toss it in a trash can someplace and we'd never be able to tie it to anyone. Using a cashier's check to purchase the jewelry, knowing he'd be taking it back after the killing? What kind of halfway competent criminal would ever pay for anything he's using in a crime with a check, credit card or anything else that could traced back to him? And the surveillance video. Mr. Castle and half the people on the planet know that jewelry stores have surveillance systems. You wear a hat, sunglasses, a wig or a damned Arab burnoose to defeat the system. The computer files? Castle knows full well that we can retrieve deleted files if we have to. Even I know how to get around that. It's easy enough to just buy a new laptop, transfer the files you want to keep onto it and dump the old computer in battery acid. If we ask Castle why he bought a new laptop, he just tells us he wanted a new one and we can never prove that isn't exactly what happened. So, we have a fiendishly clever killer who makes dumb mistakes at every turn."

Gates turned away so she wouldn't have to see Beckett's sudden smile. "That said, while we can explain away the evidence by postulating that Castle is not the killer, we still have to deal with the evidence we have. Continue with the investigation."

When the detectives had left, Gates sat down at her desk. For many reasons I can't believe that Mr. Castle is a cold blooded killer. I know Beckett will never believe it. I hope she doesn't do anything stupid. If this frame is as good as it looks right now, Castle will run as soon as he can. And I'm pretty sure Beckett will run with him. I imagine that the two of them could lead the police on a merry chase, but it would be a lot better if they didn't have to run. She began looking at the reports on her desk. I was a pretty good detective back before I traded it for paperwork and One PP politics. Maybe I can find something the others missed.

Kate opened the door to her best friend. "Lanie, come in. Thanks for coming over."

"Wine? I need some."

Lanie nods. "It's Castle, isn't it?"

"Of course it's Castle. Do you think I'd be this upset otherwise?"

"No, sweetie. I mean the glow you've had since you've come back from suspension. It's Castle, right?"

Kate nodded her head slowly. "You knew?"

"Um, let's just say I had a good guess. I didn't know until you confirmed it right now. What are you going to do?"

"Save him."

"Are you sure…?" Lanie began.

"Of course I'm sure. I just don't know how. This has been too well set up. He could go to jail, Lanie. I can't allow that. I spent years trying to get myself in a place where I could be something, someone other than what I was. I'm finally there and I can't let it all disappear after just a few months, I can't."

"Kate, what are you thinking of doing?"

"Do you remember that doctor who was murdered? The drug lord's girlfriend? And the nurse who broke his girlfriend out of prison? Just after we got together, Castle told me that Martha said that the test of true love was if you'd break your lover out of prison. And he reminded me that I told him if he ever went to prison, I'd get him out."

"Kate Beckett! You are not thinking…."

"Perhaps we shouldn't discuss this any further. "Beckett cut her off.

Lanie stared at her friend for a long minute. "If you need anything, let me know."

Kate smiled.

"Now tell me about the evidence they found at Castle's."

Kate watched as the elevator doors closed on Castle and the two cops who were taking him to the Tombs.

"I'm sorry." Espo said.

"Don't be sorry. I don't need sorry. I need to find this son of a bitch and put him in the ground." Now I'm not a cop anymore, not if Castle's dead. I'm just a woman who's love has been murdered. I really don't have to worry about my mom's murder anymore. Because the next time I see Jerry Tyson I'm going to put a bullet in him. Even if he's in the middle of this precinct, with everyone from the mayor on down as witnesses. I'll kill that bastard and then kill myself. That's all I have left in my life, revenge.

But five minutes later she was rushing out of the precinct with another life on her mind.

It was over. At least she felt it was. She knew Castle wasn't sure, and he may be right. But she didn't care. She sat on the couch in his loft with a glass of wine and rested her head on his shoulder.

"You beat me to it."

Castle turned around to look at her. "Beat me to what?"

"I would have gotten you out somehow."

"Kate, I never want you to…"

"But I would, you know."

He smiled. "How? Please tell me how Detective Kate Beckett, sterling upholder of law and order would have broken me out of prison."

"I know the system. Detectives get prisoners out of the Tombs all the time. I know what papers I would have needed, what signatures I would have needed to forge. The people at the Central Booking see this sort of thing all the time. They'd have never given me a second look."

"Oh, Detective Beckett, they would have given you plenty of second looks."

"And I would have worn something extra sexy so they'd be too busy checking me out to even care if I had any paperwork."

Castle just laughed.

"I know places where we can get good phony IDs. All I'd have to do is stick a gun in the guy's face and tell him to make some IDs for us. What's he going to do, call the cops? The same with a car. And then we'd be off."

"With no money?"

"I have a little. And we'd go somewhere far from New York and start a new life."

"Ever been to Cabo San Lucas, in Baja California, Beckett?"

"No."

"I'd be a bartender and you'd be a sexy waitress. We'd have fun."

"I'm almost sorry I didn't have to break you out."

"Really?"

"No. Not at all."

"Me either. Still…We should go to Cabo sometime."