907. Chapter 907

After Reckoning

Episode 7.15

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I lured you here to tell you I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above.

Previously on Castle….Rick and Kate were married at a beautiful ceremony at the Hamptons with all of their family and friends there. Wait! That's another alternate universe. In this one Kate Beckett of Scotland Yard is hunting the London Ripper, with tragic consequences. Her husband, Sir Richard Castle, has been captured by the Ripper.

The police diligently searched the whole area around where Sir Richard had been taken, to no avail. There was no sign of either Castle or the Ripper. Kate and Constable Ann Hastings headed back to the Yard.

"This was a set up." Kate said to her team. "The Ripper didn't kill Constable Hastings because he wanted my husband and he understood us well enough to know that I'd stop to check Hastings and that Rick was daring and foolish enough to run down the alley after the Ripper."

"But why take Sir Richard?" Constable Ryan asked.

"He wants me." Kate said. "And the Ripper knows that I'll freely walk into any trap he sets if there's any chance to save Rick."

Another constable called to Beckett. "Detective Inspector Beckett. There's a man on the phone. He says he has information about your husband."

Kate ran to the phone and spoke. "Beckett. What do you have?"

A Teutonic accent answered. "First I want protection. He'll kill me if he finds out I'm selling him out."

"Fine. We can protect you. Tell me what you know."

"No." Said Vaughn. "I need money and a new passport with a different name. I trust myself to protect me, not the police. I'll need a hundred thousand pounds and a British passport. You have six hours to bring it to the pub where we met. Otherwise, I'm running. And come alone. " Vaughn hung up.

"We can't raise that amount of money in six hours. And we can't get a passport, either." Said Chief Inspector Douglas.

"Luckily my husband is wealthy and he knows some fellows. Leave this to me."

"Beckett. It's a trap." Said Constable Hastings.

She nodded. "I know."

Kate ran out of the Yard and jumped in Castle's sports car which was still parked outside. She first went to a bank and got the required money and then visited an acquaintance of Rick's and got the very best forged passport that money could buy. A photograph and other details were procured from Vaughn's police record. Sir David also authorized Kate to carry a firearm, so she tucked a .38 Webley revolver into her coat pocket.

She arrived at the seedy pub just as night was falling. When she went to the door of the pub, she found a sign that said "Closed" and no lights on in the pub. However, when she tried the door, it opened freely. She drew her pistol and went inside, very slowly.

She tried the lights, but they failed to come on. She could see a shadowy figure sitting in the corner.

"Vaughn? Is that you?" She whispered.

There was no reply.

She walked over to find that it was one of Vaughn's girls, a blonde, strangled to death. Kate quickly found the farthing coin in her hand. The Ripper had gotten here first.

Then she heard a muffled sound that sounded like her name being called. She very carefully went to the back of the pub and into a hallway. At the end of the hallway was a door. She very quietly opened it. There, seated at the end of a darkened room was her husband. "Rick?" She called.

The figure looked up and moaned, then writhed about in the chair.

She pushed the door further open and as she did, a shot was fired, hitting Rick in the head.

Kate screamed and ran to him. She switched on her torch and was shocked to find it was Vaughn, dressed in Rick's clothing. She ran back into the pub and found the phone. In minutes, the pub was flooded with police.

When the lights were restored, they discovered what had happened. Kate summed it all up. "The Ripper killed the only blonde that worked for Vaughn. Then he took Vaughn prisoner and tied him to the chair. The voice I heard was doubtlessly the Ripper, using the blanket over there to muffle his voice. He had set up a double barreled shotgun pointed at Vaughn. A wire ran from the trigger to the door. When I opened the door, the gun fired both barrels. This was done to tie up a loose end, Vaughn, and to punish me by making me think I'd killed my own husband."

Douglas nodded. "Vaughn kept a suite of rooms upstairs. I have people already searching that. I want the rest of the officers to search the pub for any indication of where or who the Ripper is.

Kate joined in the search of the pub. When she picked up Vaughn's bloody bowler hat, she looked inside. There, tucked into the hatband was a small piece of paper. On it, in very Germanic script, were the words, "See R. Tues. 14 White Hart Lane."

Kate tucked the scrap of paper into her pocket and when the search was over, she told Douglas that she was going home. However, Kate went straight to 14 White Hart Lane. She stopped her car several blocks away and walked the rest of the way. 14 White Hart Lane was dark, but the door opened at once. She went inside. She crept through the house until she found a back room and in that back room was Rick.

"Rick. Are you all right?"

"Come into my parlor said the spider to the fly." Said a voice behind her.

She whirled and brought her pistol up, but a heavy walking stick knocked it from her hand.

"Sir David!" She cried. "What are you….."Then she knew. "You're the Ripper."

Sir David had picked up her pistol. "Quite right, my dear. Quite right."

"But why kidnap Rick and bring me here?"

Sir David smiled and shook his head. "Because you're Bloody Beckett of the Bloody Yard. Sooner or later you'd figure out who the Ripper was, and I couldn't have that, could I?"

"But why kill those women?" Kate asked.

Sir David walked over to Rick and pulled his gag off. "Your husband has a theory on that, don't you, Sir Richard?"

Sir Richard smiled bitterly. "It's about your mother, isn't it? She as blonde and beautiful, but she never wanted you. You're killing your mother over and over again, aren't you?"

Sir David shook his head. "My mother had hair as black as the night, and a face that would stop a clock as well as a body that closely resembled a pear. And she loved me dearly. After all, Father had married her for her money." Sir David looked off into the distance as if recalling a fond memory. "Her name was Jacinda and I loved her, in spite of the difference in our ages."

"How much older were you than she?" Castle asked.

"Idiot. She was my nanny when I was six. But she was beautiful and I loved her. But then I saw her making love to another."

"Your father!" Guessed Castle.

"Of course not."

"Your mother?"

"To her husband, you oaf! But my heart was broken. As much as I loved her, I also hated her. And then when I'd see some blonde streetwalker when I was a young constable, the rage grew in me until ….I began killing."

"You can't get away with this." Kate said. "Someone else will figure this out."

Sir David smiled. "That's the beauty of my plan. After I kill you two, I'm going to replace Beckett with Demming."

"He's going to get away with it." Rick and Kate said in unison.

Before Sir David could say another word, a camel, running backwards at full speed, smashed through the door and crushed him to death.

"Oh, bloody hell." Cried Constable Demming of the Sudanese Colonial Police. "Did Flossy hurt the boss? And he had a job for me. Told me to come at once."

The next morning, Rick and Kate relaxed over breakfast and discussed the case.

"I can't believe I was so wrong about Sir David." Sir Richard said glumly.

"Well, it all came right in the end." Kate said. "Even if Demming is the hero of the hour for catching the Ripper. "

"Please tell me he's not replacing you." Rick moaned.

"No. He refused a reassignment to London. Something about not being able to leave his beloved Flossy. But he was promoted to a Lance Corporal of the Sudanese Colonial Police."

"And I have a few ideas for my new book."

"Is Nicole Cold going to be properly dressed on the cover of this book?"

"That depends on what you mean by properly dressed."