796. Chapter 796

After Food to Die For

Episode 2.22

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Castle is to die for, but I'd rather not. Rating: K Time: See above.

"Hey, Ricky." Kate called. "A large double pepperoni, okay?"

"You got it, gorgeous." Rick Castle called back and began making the pizza ordered.

Kate turned to the customer, a kid probably still in high school. "Anything else?"

The kid looked from Kate's long, gorgeous legs all the way to her reddish brown hair and smiled. "Yeah, you. You're sure an improvement over old Julius that used to run this place."

Kate smiled at the kid. "I am an improvement, and so is my fiancé, Ricky, over there. The one with the big knife in his hand. The one who's giving you the stank eye? You know how emotional we Italians get, right? Especially the way the men feel about their women."

The kid backed away from the counter. "Hey, I was just asking. No need to get all excited about it."

"You're number twelve." Kate said coldly, handing him a plastic token with the number twelve on it.

Once the kid had eaten his pizza, the small pizzeria was empty. Kate walked back to the kitchen and slapped Rick in the chest. "Don't do that. Do you understand?"

"No. What did I do?"

She got her face right in his, which usually didn't bother Rick. "Don't call me gorgeous in public. Do not do it!"

"We're supposed to be old Julius' nephew and his fiancé, Ricky Borelli and Katie Piscatello. What do you think people would say if I start saying, "One double pepperoni, coming up, Miss Piscatello."? The locals would think I was nuts, or something."

"Can you just call me Kate?"

"An Italian who doesn't call his lady love things like sweetheart, honey, darling, gorgeous, baby, or lover? Do you even know any Italians? Other than those you've arrested?"

"At least I don't get my tips from Sal Tenor."

"And without my friend Sal's tip, where would we be on this investigation?"

Kate was about to tell him exactly where he'd be and where she'd shove his friend's tip when they were interrupted. "Hey, Rickie! You wanna get your hands offa her cute ass and make me a pizza? The usual."

Rick leaned out of the kitchen. "I dunno, Dave. She's got a hell of a lot nicer ass than you do."

Dave's laughter covered the sound of the slap Kate gave Ricky.

Later, they closed up the pizzeria and took the subway back to the precinct, reporting to Captain Montgomery.

"How's the undercover doing, Detective?" Montgomery asked.

"Fine, sir." Kate said tensely, "But we haven't gotten anything from this so called tip."

Montgomery sighed, then smiled at his best detective. "Julius told me that he's been getting anonymous notes threatening his place if he doesn't pay protection money. Castle's….Italian friend has told him that Mr. Corelli, the owner of the sub shop was killed because he refused to pay. The Italians are apparently…upset by this. But for some reason they'd like us to handle it."

"Usually, when Castle's "friends" have a problem like that, someone ends up with a bullet in the back of the head."

"I hope you aren't suggesting we condone vigilante justice, Kate?"

Kate realized she'd gone too far. "No, sir. Of course not."

Two days went by before anything happened. Then, just after the lunch rush, Kate found a printed note on the counter. "Castle, we got a note."

"Ricky! I'm Ricky, dammit. Are you trying to blow this investigation so you can get rid of me?"

"Of course not! I made a damned mistake. Cut me some slack, will you?"

"Yeah, just like you do for me."

"Do you want to see the damned note or what?" She hissed at him.

"Bring it back here." Castle slipped on a pair of rubber gloves and examined the note: If you want to stay in business and in one piece, you need to pay. It'll cost you two hundred a week to stay in business. If you agree, announce you're having a sale on pizzas. Someone will contact you. If you don't, you face the consequences.

Castle put the note in a protective plastic envelope and they took it to Montgomery that evening.

"Should we advertise a sale, sir?" Kate asked.

Montgomery shook his head. "I'll have CSU go over the note. We might get lucky. In the meantime, no sales. Let's see what they do next."

Three days later, after the lunch rush, a well dressed man came in. He questioned Kate about their pizzas. We're they New York or Chicago style? How much did they charge for extra toppings? Did they do take out? And finally, "Do you ever do sales? The sub shop down the street has half price subs every Friday."

"Hey, pal." Said a voice from behind him. "You gonna talk or order?"

"Listen, asshole…." He began, then turned around to find himself facing a very large man. Kate thought he was over six feet six and weighed somewhere over three hundred pounds. While some of it was fat, the sleeves of his polo shirt were pushed up to his armpits by the size of his biceps. He looked down at the man with cold, dark eyes.

The well dressed man gulped and muttered, "I think I'll go get me a Philly cheese steak."

"Name's Junior. Glad to meet you. Is that the biggest pizza you have? The super?"

Kate nodded. "That's the biggest that'll fit in our oven."

Junior nodded. "Okay, gimme two with everything on 'em and add some anchovies and some cashews. Lotsa cashews. And gimme a pitcher of beer."

Junior walked over to a table, sat and pulled out his phone. Junior ordered three more pitchers of beer and two more pizzas before leaving at closing time. "Nice place you got here. I really like your pizza. I think I'll hang around. See you tomorrow."

When they went to the precinct, Kate had one of the glasses Junior had used in her purse in an evidence bag. Montgomery promised to get the prints run as quickly as he could.

The next morning Junior was waiting for them to open. He was there the whole day and ordered more pizza and beer than their other customers combined. He was also on the phone the whole day. When they got back to the precinct, Montgomery had bad news for them. There were no matches in AFIS.

"That can't be." Kate insisted. "Junior is someone's muscle. I can tell."

"But you say he's on his cellphone all day?"

"Yes, sir. Is that relevant?"

"It might mean he's not muscle, but smart. Too smart to have been caught."

"So far." Castle added.

For the next two days, Junior was a regular customer. He ate pizzas, drank beer and talked on his phone all the time. On the third day, he did something that Kate did not like.

"Hey, I hear you two are engaged."

Kate nodded. "We are. So?"

"So? I never seen you kiss your fiancé. Makes me wonder what kind of Italians you are. We are a very romantic people, you know?"

"So we don't kiss in public." Kate tried to avoid what she thought was coming.

"You two must be adopted, or something. You're not like any Italians I ever met."

Kate shrugged and walked to Rick, who had come out of the kitchen. She quickly brushed her lips against his.

"Jeez! That was no kiss! Ricky, you gotta show Kate how to do better than that."

Rick put one hand on Kate's shoulder and the other around her waist. Them he leaned in and kissed her long and passionately. Kate gave him the oddest look when he finally pulled away.

That evening, they saw Montgomery again. "You're off the case. The undercover job is over."

"What?" They both said. "Why?"

"I got a call from the US Attorney. Junior is an undercover DEA agent. It seems our extortionists are branching out from drug sales. The Feds want to handle it."

That night Kate lay in bed and thought for a very long time about that kiss.

Author's note: In a day or two I will be posting a short semi-sequel to Interrogation of a Vampire. Two escaped cons, one doing life without parole for terrorism, one for attempted murder, and a woman on the run from LA meet and head for New York, running into a police captain, her close friend and a rookie cop. Who could all these people be?