800. Chapter 800

After He's Dead, She's Dead

Episode 3.02

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: The Ouija board will tell you I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above.

"You have to admit…." He began.

She cut him off. "I do not have to admit anything."

"Can't you at least….?

"No, I can't."

"It's possible that…."

"No! It's not possible."

"You're not going to agree with anything I say, are you?"

"Of course not. What you're saying is absurd. There are no such things as psychics, mediums, seers or fortune tellers. They. Are. All. Frauds." She said very clearly and distinctly.

"I won't try to convince you then."

"Good. Now can we get back to work? Jack Barton is on the run and he may be headed for his cousin Bettina who's a fortuneteller somewhere here on 31st. She's always had a soft spot in her heart, and her head, for her ne'er do well cousin and will probably spot him some money to get out of town. Luckily, we are a rational, twenty first century police department, and we have photographs of Bettina, but since she uses a couple of dozen aliases and moves around to avoid the attentions of the Bunco Squad and dissatisfied customers. So, can we start looking?"

"Couldn't we use my Ouija board instead?"

Beckett rolled her eyes.

Hours later they got back in her car, very tired and footsore. "We've been to every charlatan and fake on this street and all we got are sore feet."

"That's because you wear four inch heels." Castle said brightly. "If you had good walking shoes like mine…"

"Castle. Enough."

"I could massage your feet for you."

It said something for how sore her feet were that she actually had to think for a second before turning him down.

"Hey, look. We parked right in front of one. See the sign? Fortune telling. I wonder why we didn't see it before?"

"I was probably distracted by something foolish." Beckett said under her breath.

Castle pretended not to hear.

They went in and found the place to be different from the places they'd been in previously. "No voodoo dolls, crystal balls, mystic signs or anything otherworldly." Beckett said. "The place looks like an upscale dentist's office, all beige carpets, and light wood and chrome furniture. Swedish modern?"

"I'll bet they don't have any 1940's National Geographic's magazines." Castle said.

A tall, well dressed man in his mid thirties walked into the waiting room and smiled at them. "Detective Beckett, Mr. Castle. Welcome. I'm Jerry, I'll be happy to help you."

"He knows who we are, Beckett! Tell me you're not impressed."

"I'm not impressed. You are modestly famous due to the Cosmo article, or one of his buddies we've already talked to called him up."

"Modestly famous?" Castle said, clearly hurt.

"You're right. There's nothing modest about you and fame. You're very immodest. "

Jerry laughed. "A good guess, Detective Beckett, but incorrect. Please, sit, both of you. Would you like some coffee, Detective? Grande skim latte with two pumps of sugar free vanilla?"

"That was in one of the book reviews, I'm sure of it." Kate said.

"I'm afraid I can't help you with Jack Barton or his cousin, Bettina. I've heard of Bettina, of course, but I've never met her."

"You were called by one of the people we've already talked to, weren't you?"

Jerry just smiled.

Kate put her coffee down and began to get up. "If you can't help us, we'll be on our way." She handed Jerry her card. "But if you do hear or see anything, please call."

Jerry didn't take the card, but looked directly at Castle. "You've recently gotten into a relationship, haven't you, Mr. Castle?"

Castle nodded.

"It's with someone you had a relationship with before, am I right?"

Castle nodded again.

"The first time, your relationship didn't work out." It was a statement, not a question.

"That's right."

"And it's not working out now, is it?"

"How do you know that?"

Beckett glared at him. "Castle, you and your ex-wife have been on Page Six. Everyone knows she's your ex. It doesn't take much of a guess to guess that if it didn't work out the first time, it may not work out the second."

Jerry nodded. "All that could be true, Detective Beckett. But it isn't." He turned back to Castle. "You've had a lot of shallow relationships in the past, haven't you? Both your first and second marriages ended in divorce and you want to avoid getting hurt again by not allowing anyone to get close to you, much like Detective Beckett, right?"

"All of this he could have found with research, Castle. Nobody likes divorces, of course you were hurt. And you've lived the last couple of years on Page Six. One supermodel or starlet after another is hardly indicative of meaningful relationships. And what my mom's murder did to me is hardly top secret." Beckett glared at Castle. "Stop looking at him like that? He isn't some cosmic being come to Earth to change your life. We should go." She took Castle's hand to take him out, but he refused to get up. He just sat in the chair.

"You do want a meaningful relationship, don't you, Mr. Castle?"

Castle nodded very slowly.

Jerry turned to Kate. "You recently had a personal relationship that you had hopes for turn out badly, didn't you, Detective Beckett?"

"I don't know how you found anything about my personal life, but this is harassment and stalking. I'm a police officer, remember?"

Jerry nodded and smiled. "It can still work. It will work, if you let it." As he said that, he looked directly at Castle, who was looking at his feet and shaking his head.

Kate grabbed his hand and pulled him up. "We're going, Castle. Now come on."

Once back in the car, Castle shook his head to clear it. "Okay, a lot of that he could have learned by research, but how could he have learned about you and Demming?"

Kate made no reply. How the hell could he have known about Castle?

The next day, Castle and Beckett came back to Jerry's with a search warrant. Beckett was not going to let some fraud pry into her private life. But when they got to where Jerry's had been, there was only a vacant lot. Beckett flagged down a patrolman who worked the area.

"A fortune teller named Jerry? Here? No way, Detective. This has been an empty lot for all of the two years I've been here, and I never heard of any conman named Jerry around here."

Much, much, much later…..

Richard Castle kissed the top of his wife's head. "In spite of everything, all the problems and all the things fate put in our way, here we are, Mrs. Castle. Why do you think that is?"

Kate had only one answer. "It's magic."

Author's note: 800 chapters. Wow. I never expected to get this far.