726. Chapter 726

After The Greater Good

Episode 6.19

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: You could just bend the rules and let me own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above.

Ruggedly handsome, Pulitzer Prize winning Journalist Jameson Rook saw that his lovely wife was staring out the window of her office at the 12th Precinct, apparently deep in thought. He came up behind her very quietly, then reached around and cupped her boobs. Before he could say a word, her elbow slammed into his stomach, she reverse head butted him, then whirled and kicked him in the crotch. He fell to his knees moaning. "Nikki! It's me for god's sakes." He looked up into the angry eyes of a woman who was not his wife. "Oops."

"Oops, indeed. "She said coldly. "Who the hell are you, pervert?"

"Jameson Rook. I thought you were my wife, Nikki Heat. She's Captain Nikki Heat of the NYPD. This is her precinct."

"So, you're Rook. Well, you're about what I expected."

Rook didn't think that was a compliment. "What were you expecting?"

"Just what I see. A playboy, would-be reporter, more interested in my sister's body than anything else."

"Would be reporter?" Rook said, standing very slowly. "Let me show you photos of my Pulitzer Prizes. In fact if you can wait, I have hard copy photographs in my car that I can autograph for you." Rook stopped as something sank in. "Wait. Your sister's body? You're Nikki's sister?"

"Brilliant." She said sarcastically. "And you didn't even need a press release or an anonymous source to figure it out. I'm Mikki Heat. I'm with a DOJ task force, the Combined Literary Interagency Taskforce."

Rook was impressed in spite of himself and his aching….lower extremities. "You're with CLIT?"

Mikki glared at him. "We prefer not to use the acronym."

"I bet." Rook grinned.

"Mikki! What are you doing here again?" Nikki Heat said as she came into her office.

"Decking your pervert husband. He sexually assaulted me in your office."

"I thought it was you and I grabbed her boobs by accident. You know I'd rather grab your boobs than anyone else's. Your boobs are so firm and round and succulent." Rook smiled sweetly at Mikki. "Unlike some boobs I could mention."

"That's it. I'm filing charges." Mikki snapped.

"In that case I'd have to excuse myself from the case you're working on. Since he's my husband, it would be unethical for me to be involved in any way with you." Nikki smiled cheerfully. "I can get Detective Schlemming to help you. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to help you on such an important case."

Mikki looked like she was going to be sick to her stomach. "Schlemming? Has he….bathed?"

Nikki got a serious look on her face. "I'm sure he must have, sometime."

Mikki nodded. "Then we should forget about that little misunderstanding. I'm always ready to work for the greater good."

Rook carefully watched Nikki's eyes. He was positive that smoke was about to pour out of Nikki's ears at any second. But, she recovered her usual iron control. She turned to Rook. "Mikki needs our help in the murder of the Cisco Kid."

"It was Pancho!"Rook exclaimed. "I never trusted him. Cisco got to wear a great Mexican charro outfit and Pancho always had to wear that stupid shirt."

He saw that both Nikki and Mikki were glaring at him. "Not that Cisco Kid. Morgan Detwiller is a hacker known as the Cisco Kid because he first worked for Cisco Systems, the internet company." Nikki explained.

Mikki continued. "And that's where he did his first serious hacking. Since then, he's gone on to other things. He's been hacking into academic and scientific websites and pulling out research. He sells the research papers to students who need a Masters' degree or PhD thesis. He's been selling all over the US."

"Why is the DOJ involved?"

"A lot of the academic work that's being hacked is paid for by the US government. In fact, some of the fraudulent research papers being submitted are being paid for by the government." Mikki told him. She turned to Nikki. "Do we really have to involve…him?" She said, looking at Rook with distaste.

"As far as I'm concerned, he's part of my precinct." Both Nikki and Rook smiled at each other.

"Keep me informed of your progress." Mikki said coldly and walked out.

"I didn't know you had a sister."

"Well, another layer of the Heat onion uncovered." She replied.

Rook sighed. "So what happened between you two?"

"Oh? You think something happened?"

"Nikki, don't play games."

"It was when I was a detective, before we ever met. One of the cases I worked was a group of Girl Scouts from very wealthy families. They were having their families force their employees to buy their cookies. They sold hundreds of thousands of cookies. They used the money to take "field trips" to Cancun, Mexico, Hawaii, Fiji and lots of other places, all first class all the way."

"That's horrible."

"We got a policewoman inside. She was to document how innocent secretaries, butlers, cooks, masseuses, manicurists, maids, gardeners, chauffeurs, lawyers, accountants, bagmen, drug dealers, plastic surgeons, influence peddlers, and politicians were being forced to buy unwanted and unneeded cookies. And one day I met with the undercover officer. Rook, it was terrible. I could smell the thin mints on her breath from ten feet away, and she had peanut sandwich cookie crumbs all down her front. She'd gone over to the other side. "They have chocolate." She told me."

"You did what you had to do." Rook said, solemnly.

"Mikki begged me not to pull the undercover officer. For the greater good, she said. But I had to. And that Girl Scout troop is one of Donald Trump's biggest financial supporters now."

"So, if the Cisco Kid is dead, why does CLIT want to be kept in the loop?"

"They suspect the Kid's partner, Sturgeon Furmangle. The Kid did the hacking, but Furmangle was the marketing expert. He hung around internet chatrooms frequented by STEM students and trolled for customers."

"STEM?" Rook asked.

"Science, technology, electronics and math. Although he also did a booming business in PhD theses for pre-Columbian pornography, and Classical German erotic limericks."

Rook nodded knowingly. "I had a friend in college who majored in art history so he could look at paintings of naked women. Once he found out about internet porn, he was gone."

"How sad."

"Do we have any idea why Furmangle would want to kill the Kid?"

Nikki went to the murder board. "The Kid was a perfectionist. He wanted to hack the very best papers available, but Fermangle was in it for the money. He kept pushing the Kid to do sloppy work. "Not good, tomorrow" was his motto. We have a BOLO out for Furmangle."

Rook smiled. "You have someone inside, don't you?"

Nikki nodded, but said no more.

"Some renegade hacker you caught and forced to work as a white hat hacker? Some skinny, pasty faced, unwashed kid who hasn't been out of his parents' basement in years? I can just picture him now."

"Actually, it's my niece Alexandra. She needed a paper for her pre-Columbian pornography class at Columbia but her social life was too hectic. She bought what she felt was a paper that was well under her standards."

"Her standards for plagiarized papers? Really?"

"Okay, she made a mistake, but she's reformed. Drop it, Rook."

"Word came in from an abandoned warehouse in Brooklyn." Detective Ochoa said, putting his head into Nikki's office. "They've found Furmangle. "

"Why are master criminals always set up in abandoned warehouses?" Rook asked rhetorically.

"The Abandoned Warehouse Workers Union is very strong." Raley explained.

They had found what was left of Furmangle. Lauren Parry, ME, explained. "I think the Kid set up a logic bomb in Furmangle's computer. When the Kid didn't contact the computer, the computer rerouted all of the electric power to his chair. As soon as he sat down in the steel chair, he was toast."

"Literally." Rook added.

"At least Mikki will be happy." Nikki said. "There's a ton of evidence here for her."

"We should go home." Rook suggested.

"So do you want to help me go over Alexandra's homework tonight?"

"Love to."