882. Chapter 882
After Limelight
Episode 6.13
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I'm famous for not owning Castle. Rating: K Time: See above.
"I can't watch this."
Kate looked at her husband and rolled her eyes. "Really, Castle?"
"You have no idea how much this hurts me. How could this have happened? This is awful."
"How could this have happened?" Kate asked rhetorically. "May I explain it to you?"
"You don't need to because…"
Kate explained it to him anyway. "You decided to become a PI."
"I only did that so I could work on cases with you. You know that." Castle complained.
Kate continued. "And you kept on being a PI after you were asked to come back to the precinct."
"I had a lease on the office for a year and I had put a lot of money into the business. Plus I was still helping you as a PI."
Kate nodded. "I'm not saying that you weren't a help and you were getting some ideas for the books. But then you let Alexis help out occasionally and that led to…" Kate pointed to the stage where Alexis was dancing with the backup dancers with Mandy Sutton, wearing a very brief costume and shaking….Well, Richard Castle didn't need to know what she was shaking.
It appeared that someone was trying to sabotage Mandy's tour. A very expensive, if brief, costume studded with jewels had been stolen from wardrobe. They thought they had the culprit when the costume showed up for sale on line. But, the costume was a rather well made fake with costume jewelry and wasn't even Mandy's size. The seller of the phony costume had gotten a picture from the internet and copied the costume.
Then a group of embroidered silk scarves that Mandy would throw to the audience went missing just before a show. The audience screamed for the scarves, but Mandy had none to throw. Mandy had remembered what a help Castle had been in the Claire Samuels' murder case and remembered also that he had become a private investigator. Castle had been happy to take the case and had allowed Alexis to work undercover on the tour. He had thought she might be a roadie or perhaps do admin work. He hadn't expected her to work as a dancer. Now he was standing backstage, with his wife, watching Alexis do what he considered to be some highly inappropriate dance moves.
"Castle, she's an adult. She probably dances like that when she goes out with her friends."
That did not make Castle feel any better. "Thank you for that mental image."
"Do you remember that outfit that you got me for Christmas? The one I wore to bed on Friday night?" Kate teased. "That's not that different from what Alexis is wearing. With the thong you can see most of my ass and the push up bra, while uncomfortable, does give you great cleavage. Do you think I should start wearing flannel pajamas to bed?"
"Whatever you wear, I'm the only one who'll see it. Alexis will be online like that for….forever. If she wants to dance like that, she can do so in the privacy of her apartment. With the windows closed and the blinds drawn, and the computer unplugged and having had the place swept for bugs or hidden cameras."
"At least she'll have a good time like that." She said sarcastically. Then Kate put her hand over Rick's eyes. "Don't look. One of the dancers just had a wardrobe malfunction."
"Is it Alexis?" Castle cried.
"Don't worry, Castle. It's another dancer. But, even better, I may have solved your problem. What you need is a MacGuffin."
Castle smiled at her. "Beckett, you're brilliant. Why didn't I think of that?"
"Because you were too busy worrying about Alexis."
"What's a MacGuffin?" Mandy Sutton asked, frowning.
"It's a plot device to move a story along. It's what motivates the characters, although you may never figure out what the MacGuffin is. A good example is the briefcase that John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson's characters carry around in Pulp Fiction. You never do find out what it is, and really it was nothing, just an orange lightbulb in the briefcase. But getting it and keeping it set up the beginning and the end of the movie."
Mandy smiled. "So we bring in something that we say will absolutely blow the audience away, but we don't tell anyone what it is. Then when whoever is trying to sabotage my tour finds out about it, they try to grab it and we grab them."
Rick and Kate smiled back. "Exactly."
The next day, Rick had a garment bag delivered to Mandy's dressing room. It was no ordinary garment bag and he had searched for a long time to find it. The bag itself was made of thick leather with an extra strong zipper that could be locked. A new closet was put in made of sturdy wood and having two locks. Mandy announced that she would be wearing a costume for the Saturday show that would break the internet for sure.
Castle had placed bugs and motion sensors in Mandy's dressing room and when Mandy was rehearsing on Thursday afternoon, he was sitting staring at his laptop waiting for someone to go into Mandy's dressing room. He didn't have long to wait. The bugs and motion sensors indicates someone was in the room. Castle walked to where he could see the dressing room door and waited until he was sure that the would-be thief had had time to try to get the MacGuffin. Then he walked in.
The first thing he noticed was that the new closet was unopened. And, sitting on Mandy's couch was a young man who he vaguely recognized as being a member of the technical crew, smoking a hand rolled cigarette.
"What are you doing in here?" Castle demanded.
The man exhaled and looked around for somewhere to run. Finding none, he said, "Nothing, man. Absolutely nothing."
Castle hauled the young man in front of Mandy who quickly got the truth. Jeff was a member of the lighting crew on his first big job and he was stressed. And when he got stressed, he needed some weed. Since Mandy was on stage, he knew he could sneak into her dressing room and indulge. He was not their saboteur.
Castle and Alexis met with Mandy later in her dressing room. "I think I sold the idea that I just saw Jeff going into your dressing room and got suspicious. I hope our saboteur doesn't know we've set a trap."
The show on Thursday went off without a hitch and also without any attempt to get the MacGuffin.
Early Friday morning was another matter. At three AM Alexis had fallen asleep watching the laptop for signs that someone was in Mandy's dressing room. Suddenly the soft beeping woke her. Someone was in the dressing room.
"Dad!" She said softly to her father who was asleep on a couch. "Dad! Someone's in Mandy's dressing room."
"How long?"
"I don't know. I fell asleep."
"Come on."
But as they got to the corridor that led to the dressing room, they saw a figure with a leather garment bag disappearing at the other end of the corridor.
"Stop!" Castle yelled and took off running, with Alexis right behind him.
"Dad! He's heading for the parking lot. Don't let him get away."
Castle burst through the stage door and saw a figure in baggy sweat pant and a hoody heading for a car across the parking lot. He put on a burst of speed and grabbed the saboteur.
"Let go of my boobs!" She screamed.
"I'm sorry." Castle said, momentarily letting her go. "No, wait. You're a thief. You're trying to sabotage Mandy's tour."
"I am not!" The young woman said, beginning to cry. "I love Mandy!"
When Kate Beckett had finished her interrogation she came out to brief Mandy Sutton, and the two Castles. "She's made a full confession. Her name is Grace Potter and she has a job as a gofer for your choreographer. She's an obsessed fan. She wasn't trying to sabotage the tour, she just worshipped Mandy so much she couldn't stop herself from stealing things that were Mandy's. "
"What will happen to her?" Mandy asked.
Kate shrugged. "That's up to the DA, but she's a first time offender, she told us where the stolen items were, so maybe probation."
"Too bad." Mandy said. "People like her are my fan base."
"You aren't thinking of keeping her on the job are you?" Kate asked.
"If the choreographer is happy with her work, I can give her a few things, and if they're gifts from me to her, she probably won't want to steal."
"I know that there's an opening as a dancer coming up." Alexis said.