803. Chapter 803

After Anatomy of a Murder

Episode 3.05

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Would you break me out of prison if I owned Castle? Rating: K Time: See above.

"Hey, Pretty Boy. You getting out?"

Richard Castle kept walking down the long prison hallway, but turned to his questioner. "If I am, Red, you'll hear me screaming for joy all the way back here."

"Move along." The guard said, pushing him.

As soon as he saw his lawyer's face, with a smile that went from ear to ear, he knew they had won. "Well, tell me, Jerry." He demanded.

"Rick, the New York State Supreme Court upheld every one of the appellate court's decisions. And I talked to the DA in Manhattan. Since half of their evidence has been ruled inadmissible, they won't ask for a new trial. At least not now, but if they find new evidence, they can. But, in a couple of days at the most, you'll be a free man."

"Jerry, there is no new evidence to be found. I didn't do it."

Elsewhere someone was not happy to hear that news.

Detective Kate Beckett stared at her boss, her face frozen in shock and anger. "The man who murdered my mom is going to walk? He just walks? The DA won't even retry him?"

Roy Montgomery tried to calm her down. "Beckett, I know how you feel…"

"The hell you do! My mother was murdered. And now that bastard just walks?"

"I talked to the DA. He said the case we had wasn't all that strong to begin with. With the evidence that the courts ruled was inadmissible, he said there isn't a hope in hell of getting a conviction."

"The DA may think that, but I don't." She said savagely.

"Beckett, you are not to try to investigate your mom's murder. You're too close to it. Now get out of here and do your job."

Kate stomped out and came to a sudden halt when she saw who was standing by her desk. "Mike? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be getting ready for retirement?"

Mike Royce smiled at her. "I got to thinking, Kid. What am I going to do? Drink beer in some cop bar and talk about the good old days for the rest of my life? I decided not to retire. In fact, I talked Captain Montgomery into letting me get into plain clothes and come here as your partner."

"My partner?" Kate turned and looked into Montgomery's office. He was studiously looking elsewhere. Good for you, sir. She thought.

"So, shall we go after this dirtbag?" Royce asked.

Kate just smiled.

Richard Castle was not your usual released prisoner. Already an established author when he was convicted of Johanna Beckett's murder, he had continued writing in prison. He had written four books about "Lucky" Lawson, a minor league baseball player, wrongly convicted of murder, who managed to solve murders from inside prison.

With his arms around his mother and daughter, Castle was fielding questions from the press when he saw a familiar face pushing past the reporters.

"You're pretty cocky, now, aren't you Castle?" She said coldly. "But don't think you're going to get away with it. Not while I'm around."

"Detective Beckett, I did not kill your mother."

"You lying son of a bitch." She said, getting her face right in his.

"If you were as good a detective as you think you are, you might want to look at how weak the case against me was and…."

That was all Kate could take. She slapped Castle as hard as she could. Mike Royce grabbed her and hauled her back to her vehicle.

"That was stupid, Kid." He said as he pushed her into the passenger seat. "You could get suspended, transferred out, or even lose your badge." Then he smiled. "I bet that felt good, though."

"You bet."

As soon as Kate walked in the next morning, Captain Montgomery called her into his office. "Do you know that you slapping Castle made all of the late night news channels last night? And all the morning papers?"

"Am I suspended?"

"No."

"Transferred?"

"No."

"Demoted?"

"No."

She took a deep breath. "So, I lose my badge?"

"No."

Beckett was confused. "Then what's going to happen to me?"

"Nothing. The DA talked to Mr. Castle. He insists you did not slap him. Didn't touch him. He said he thinks you were swatting a mosquito. No one is going to do something to you when the alleged victim insists nothing happened. That said, however, if you ever pull a stunt like that again, you'll be walking a beat in Staten Island. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"Now get the hell out of my sight." Montgomery watched her walk away. Why the hell can't she just leave well enough alone?

Beckett was still confused, but Royce had an idea. "A slap is no big deal to a con. But Castle's smart. He's trying to get public opinion on his side. Make us look like a bunch of incompetent cops that got him sent up and him the innocent, peaceful victim. No matter what the bastard says, everyone did see that you slapped him."

Rick Castle sat in his office, putting the finishing touches on the last of the "Lucky" Lawson novels.

"All done?" His mother asked.

"Completely done. I'm through with Lucky Lawson. Now that I'm out of prison, I've lost all interest in those novels."

"You'd better get some kind of interest pretty soon, Kiddo." Martha waved at the loft. "This doesn't come cheap."

Castle sat in his office thinking. I need a new main character and a new murder. But where do I get one? I won't write about prison again. Maybe a private eye? A spy? Or….Castle smiled to himself. I don't need to make up a new main character or a new murder. I have one right in front of me. I'm going to solve Johanna Beckett's murder.

Kate Beckett stood in line for her morning coffee. "Hi, I'd like a…"

"Grande skim latte with two pumps of sugar free vanilla?" A voice said, putting her usual order in front of her.

"Are you stalking me, Castle? Because if you are…"

"I have several baristas who can testify that I was here before you. I'm not stalking you. I just came by to tell you that I've decided to solve your mom's murder."

"I've already solved it, asshole." Kate tossed the coffee in the trash and strode out of the coffee shop.

Castle's first idea was to talk to the arresting officer, a Detective Raglan. He found him drinking alone at a cop bar. "Hi, you may not remember me but, I'm…."

"Every cop in the city knows who you are, Castle. Now get the hell out of here before I run you in."

"I just want to…"

"Out." Raglan said reaching for his cuffs.

"Okay, out."

He decided to try someone less likely to beat him up with a Billy club in the back of a police car. Dr. Clark Murray was happy to look into Johanna Beckett's murder, as he was the man who found some serious discrepancies in the police crime lab work.

Once he had Dr. Murray's reports and some other data, he decided to visit the scene of the crime.

Mike Royce handed Beckett a slip of paper as he got in the car. "Guess what? Castle bought himself a nice new Mercedes. I had a friend at the DMV get me the details. It'll make it easier to follow him."

Picking up Castle's trail at his loft, Beckett got angrier and angrier as she figured out where he was going. "He's headed to where he killed my mom, the bastard."

As soon as Royce stopped the car, she ran to Castle. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Standing peaceably on a public sidewalk, Detective. And how are you today, Officer Royce?" He asked with a smile. Both of them just glared at him. He went on. "Did you know that an undercover Fed named Bob Arman was killed here about ten years before your mom? A guy by the name of Joe Pulgatti was convicted of the crime. He was in prison with me and he swears he's innocent."

"Gee, a con who swears he's innocent. Should we alert the media?" Beckett was as sarcastic as she could manage.

"The police really should get a better grasp of with it's like inside, Detective. Cons are incorrigible braggarts. They love to brag to other cons about how many men they've killed, how much money they've stolen, how many women they've raped. Pulgatti admitted to a lot of things, but he always said he never killed the Fed. In spite of the fact that, in certain quarters, a cop killer is looked up to."

"How about men who stab women to death." Beckett snapped.

"I had a friend of mine, a Doctor Clark Murray, a well respected forensic pathologist look over your mother's file…."

"How did you get her file?" Beckett demanded.

"My lawyer has a copy of everything the police had on the case. Anyway, Dr. Murray had a hunch and found three other murders committed about the same time in exactly the same way. A killing blow to the kidney and some other wounds to disguise the precision of the first blow. One woman was a former student of your mom's, another was a lawyer your mother might have known, and the third was a document clerk at the courthouse. Don't you think that's odd?"

Beckett turned and walked away.

Two days later Kate Beckett was sitting in Dr. Murray's office when he came out to greet her. "Thank you for seeing me so soon, Dr. Murray."

"Oh, Rick Castle told me you'd be by. I've been waiting for you. Come this way and I'll show you what I have."

"He what?"

"Told me that you'd be coming. He said you were a very determined and dedicated detective. And this is your mother's case, of course."

The next day, Beckett and Royce sat in the bullpen looking over Dr. Murray's reports and the police reports on the other murders.

"I don't get it, Kid. If Castle killed your mom, why find all of this evidence for us?"

"He's arrogant. I'm betting he's a serial killer and he just can't resist showing us how much smarter than us he is. That's how we'll catch the bastard. We need to establish he was near where these other killings took place."

They go called out for another body drop and it was the next afternoon before she met with Royce again.

"Bad news, Kid. Castle's got a solid alibi for the murder of both of the other lawyers. He was on a book tour on the West Coast. He was on a live local TV talk show in LA when the student of your mother's was killed and he was giving a class at a local college for aspiring writers for the other. I couldn't place him anywhere for the murder of the clerk."

"Maybe he has a partner?" Beckett asked, mostly to herself.

"Hey, Beckett." Another Detective called. "I just got a call from Detective Raglan. He said Castle came to talk to him the other night."

That night Beckett and Royce were sitting across from Raglan, sipping beers in the same cop bar.

"Look, Beckett, I can't help you. Do you think I'm going to remember something important about your mom's murder after all of these years? Or something about how the lab work got all screwed up? I kicked Castle out of here on his ass. That's all I can do. As far as the other murders go, I think I was involved in one investigation, but I don't remember a thing that connects it to Castle."

She put her beer down. "Okay, thanks. It was worth a try."

Raglan watched the two walk out. No, it wasn't worth a try, Detective. If you're looking into those murders, you've probably just signed your own death warrant.

Royce didn't start the car when they got in. "Are you sure that Castle killed your mom, Kid? He's not a serial and he's come up with new evidence no one found before."

"Mike, just take me back to my place."

When she got home, she saw a Mercedes parked in front of her apartment. Castle.

"What do you want, Castle?"

He rolled down the window. "Did you have a nice chat with Dr. Murray?"

She still wanted to punch him, but didn't. "It was…informative, but I haven't ruled you out yet."

"Which means you're no longer one hundred percent certain I'm the killer."

"I didn't say that." She said angrily.

"See you around, Detective." He said and drove away.

I didn't say that. She thought. Did I?

Kate was shadowing Castle on her own time. She was exhausted when she got to work in the morning, but she had to do something. She had lost Castle and her senses were heightened, which saved her life. A man came out of the shadows with a knife. She pivoted and got her coat slashed. She tried to reach for her gun, but the man was pushing her back against a wall.

Castle saw the attack and ran to Beckett. He was not the most physical con in prison, but an old con had taught him some dirty tricks he could use. He kicked the man in the back of the knee, causing his knee to buckle. Then he aimed a kick at the man's ribs. The man knew more dirty tricks, though. He caught Castle's foot and tossed him to the ground, then leaping up and stabbing at Castle, missing the first time.

Beckett saw the knife draw back for the killing blow and shot just as the knife came down on Castle. She put two rounds in the man's shoulder, kicked the knife away, then handcuffed him to a dumpster.

Once back at the precinct, Captain Montgomery questioned her. "Why was Castle there?"

"I was tailing him."

"Did you know the guy with the knife?"

"Never saw him before in my life, sir."

"Why did Castle attack the guy?"

That was a hard one for her to answer. "Absolutely no idea, sir."

"Okay, go home, get a good night's sleep and be in early tomorrow."

She and Royce were called into Montgomery's office as soon as they got in.

"Have either of you had any run-ins with the Westies?" Montgomery asked.

Beckett shook her head. "No."

"I busted one about a year ago for being a felon in possession of a firearm." Royce said. "Why?"

"Your knife man is one Dick Coonan. His brother Jack is an enforcer for the Westies. And, when we searched Coonan's office, we found enough heroin to get all of Manhattan high for a year. His finger prints are all over the stuff. He's looking at thirty years for that alone. You're sure you've never crossed paths before?"

They both shook their heads.

"Oh. Castle is listed as stable. He should be okay."

They came in the next day to find someone new in Montgomery's office. He was a tall, skinny balding man who introduced himself as Captain Morgan from Internal Affairs.

"What does IA have to do with this? And where is Montgomery?" Beckett asked.

"One thing at a time, Detective. We found evidence that Dick Coonan is a contract killer. As soon as we got evidence from his safe, he started to want to make a deal."

"A deal?" Kate said.

"To keep him from being executed in states that have the death penalty. He's confessed to fourteen murders, including the murder of your mother, Johanna Beckett."

"My mother was killed by a contract killer? Why?" She sat down in shock.

"A group of corrupt cops were kidnapping mobsters and holding them for ransom starting about fifteen years ago. An ADA named Bracken, now Congressman Bracken, found out about it and demanded the money. One of the cops killed an undercover Fed named Bob Arman. Bracken framed a gangster named…"

"Joe Pulgatti." Kate whispered.

"How did you know?" Morgan asked.

"Richard Castle told me about him, sir."

"Pulgatti wrote to your mom and she agreed to look into his case. Bracken paid for Coonan to kill your mom."

"Castle didn't do it." She whispered.

"Anyway, we arrested Raglan and a cop named Gary McAlister. They admitted to tampering with the evidence in your mom's case to frame Castle. The third cop was Roy Montgomery. He killed himself last night. He left a pile of documents about the case on his desk."

"Oh, God!" Kate said.

"You two should take the rest of the day off. In fact, make it a long weekend. Be back here on Monday.'

Kate was still in shock when she walked out of the precinct.

"What are you going to do, Kid?"

"I've got to go see someone."

The hospital told her that Castle was at home, so she went to his loft. She knocked on his door. When it was opened, Castle's mother was standing there. "What do you want?" She said coldly.

"Please, I'd like to see Mr. Castle."

"I don't think that would be a good…"

"Martha! Is that Beckett? Let her in."

Martha looked angrily at her son's bedroom and then stood back and let Kate come in.

Castle was lying on top of his bed in jeans and a tee shirt. "How are you, Detective?"

"Better than I have any right to be. You could have been killed saving me."

"But I didn't. No problem. Oh, I got a call from someone at One PP. Got the whole story. I presume from the look on your face you know the whole story, too?"

She nodded. "I'm so sorry for what I did to you, Mr. Castle. I was awful to you. I caused you so many problems. I'm so very, very sorry."

"Let's consider what you didn't do. You didn't kidnap mobsters for ransom, kill a Fed, frame Joe Pulgatti, frame an innocent man for your mom's death or stab me. All you did was investigate an unsolved murder. Just what a good cop should do."

"I don't feel much like a good cop."

"Well, I think you are. And I have a proposition for you." Castle smiled at the look of shock on her face. "Not that kind of proposition. I just can't writer any more "Lucky" Lawson books now that I'm out. So, I was thinking that I'd start a new series about a tough, competent homicide detective, who's not afraid to look at new evidence even if it hurts her to do so. One who's also gorgeous, by the way. I'd like to follow you around to do research."

"Mr. Castle, I don't…"

"Please, call me Rick."

She blushed slightly. "I'm Kate. But I don't think the NYPD would allow you to do that."

"Let me worry about that. Right now, I think the NYPD is going to go out of its way to be nice to me. What do you say?"

She smiled. "I guess it's the least I can do."