908. Chapter 908

After The Wrong Stuff

Episode 7.16

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: If I said I own Castle, I'd screw the pooch. Rating: K Time: See above.

This is a sequel to Chapter 751, also After the Wrong Stuff.

She was awoken by the buzz of her phone. She glanced at the time displayed on the phone. Ten minutes to six in the morning. She grabbed the phone. "Beckett."

"Marshal, we have a murder, I'm afraid. Nathan Doorman, one of PLP's scientists. Stabbed to death in his bed. His girlfriend was in bed with him. She woke up and found him dead. Or so she says."

Kate sighed. Officially, she was a Captain with the Greater New York Police Department, currently on loan to the Federal Government as the head of law enforcement on Mars. But, just as Ray Chavez, the chief operating officer was called the Mayor of Mars, she had inevitably been called the Marshal of Mars. "Doorman was in Dome Seven, right?" Getting an affirmative reply she added. "I'll be there as soon as I can. I'll notify Castle."

Kate got out of bed and headed for the tiny shower in her four meter by four meter living unit. As water, along with almost everything else, was rationed on Mars, the shower was short. But it gave Kate time to think. When she had come here some five months ago, she had thought that a scientific colony that now was over twelve thousand people and was composed of the finest scientific minds that Earth had would have few, if any, serious crimes. She had been wrong. Putting that many egotistical over achievers in eight crowded domes was a recipe for disaster. The first murder on Mars had occurred only two days before she had landed.

And, the work being done on Mars was on the cutting edge of science. Projects worth billions were everywhere, and the urge to steal the results of your competitors' hard work wasn't easy to overcome. The second case that she had solved was industrial espionage.

Lastly, there was the only other cop, of sorts, on Mars: Richard Castle. He had come to Mars to visit his daughter, the brilliant Dr. Alexis Castle, a woman with more advanced degrees than many college faculties. He also had agreed to write a series of articles for IASA to popularize the Mars colony. Castle had been an enormous help to her and was an enormous pain in the ass. He had no use for rules or regulations and came up with the most outlandish theories. However, as a murder mystery novelist he had brought to Mars all sorts of police gear from crime scene tape to a sophisticated computer far in advance of anything the GNYPD had. Kate had been shocked to find that her request for similar equipment to accompany her to Mars had been turned down by desk bound bureaucrats on Earth as unnecessary luxuries. It would be at least another three months before the new budget, including her police equipment, was approved and then it would be another eight months before a ship could get here.

She dressed in her boots with stiletto heels, cargo pants, tee shirt and jacket and tucked her 9mm Glock into the shoulder holster sewn into her jacket. She walked across the hall and knocked on Castle's door.

"Come in, Beckett. I have breakfast almost ready for us. We have plenty of time to get to Dome Seven and the murder."

"Castle! How did you know?"

He just smiled at her. "Your coffee's on the counter. I'll have breakfast ready in no time."

Although she knew she should head to the crime scene ASAP, she sat. Castle was very wealthy and had insisted on bringing his lifestyle to Mars. Instead of the four meter by four meter living unit Kate and everyone else had, Castle had a twenty by twenty meter suite. He had a living room, a small but excellently equipped kitchen, a separate bedroom and a bathroom with a real tub. He also had a small crime lab set up. Better, he had his own food sent out to Mars which was infinitely better than the rations that everyone else had to survive on. Castle was very generous to Beckett, providing her with all the coffee she wanted as well as inviting her to dinner each night. Kate usually declined, feeling guilty about sponging off of Castle, but she noticed that her dinners with him had increased from an average of once a week to two a week.

Once they had breakfasted, they headed to Dome Seven. Ralph Walden, the Dome Safety officer, met them at Doorman's unit.

"Marshall, Dr. Ivanko is just finishing up the initial examination. I have one of the neighbors sitting with his girlfriend, Meg Dooley."

The two of them interrogated Meg, who was wearing a robe over a night gown that had blood on it. She was of little help. She admitted to having a fight with Doorman the night before, having accused him of cheating on her, but said that they had a few drinks, went to bed and when she woke up, he was dead.

As he left, Dr. Ivanko gave them his preliminary findings. Cause of death was a stab wound to the back, severing the aorta. The murder weapon was a kitchen knife from the victim's kitchen. A preliminary test showed Dooley's fingerprints on the handle.

Once back in Castle's suite, Kate looked at the notes they had. "It looks like an open and shut case."

"Um, maybe not. I can't see Meg as a killer. She's such a shy little thing. She's a wallflower who lacks any self confidence outside her field which is some obscure branch of physics that hardly anyone understands but her."

"Castle, there are half again as many men as women on Mars. That's enough to change any woman's self image from wallflower to temptress. She's been here over a year. And she's our only suspect."

"Not exactly." Castle said, reddening slightly.

"Not exactly?" Kate said, mildly glaring at him.

"You know those Friday nights when I go Dome Three to look through the orbiting telescope? Well, actually, there's a poker game there."

"Castle! Gambling is illegal on Mars!" Kate said angrily.

"Okay, can we just get by that? The thing is that Doorman was a regular and he regularly won big from a Charles Benoit. Can you have Dr. Ivanko check both Doorman and Dooley for sedatives? And let's go check with Benoit."

Benoit was in a small dome some two hundred yards away from the main domes, working for an Earth based biofuels company.

"Sure, I played poker all the time with Nate all the time, but I didn't lose a lot of money to him."

Castle shook his head. "Charlie, I was there. I saw you lose to him, over and over. You lost a lot of money. Enough to give you a motive."

Benoit shook his head. "He ended up with my money, but I was throwing the games. We'd wait until just the two of us were still in the game, then we'd raise and raise. When it got to be enough money, I'd fold and he'd win."

"Why?" Kate asked, not believing him for a second.

"Alcohol. He was running PLP's farm here. The company was selling the fruit and vegetables for way under cost to build market share and establish themselves. PLP figured that in a couple of years they'd be able to grow and sell food on Mars for less than it'd cost to ship it from Earth. But Nate bad another idea. He built him a still and was making Martian Moonshine. Thanks to the French and Italians, we get a little wine ration sent here, but IASA is always trying to cut the ration down. They called it an unnecessary luxury. Like hell."

"Do you have any proof of this?" Kate demanded.

"I have two bottles back at my quarters."

"And where's his still?"

Benoit shrugged. "He kept that a secret."

They walked back to the main domes and Benoit handed Kate two bottles of alcohol.

"One's rum, at least it's made from sugar cane and the other's vodka. More or less."

"These will have to be destroyed." Kate said, heading for the kitchen sink, intending to pour it down.

"Beckett!" Castle wailed.

"It's illegal alcohol, Castle."

"It's evidence!" He yelled, just as she opened the first bottle. "If we don't find the still, that's all the evidence we have of any illegal alcohol production."

Kate stopped. She knew Castle was right, but she also knee that his desire to keep the alcohol had more to do with his rapidly dwindling supply of Scotch than anything else. She put the cap back on the bottle.

"We need to find the still."

They searched Doorman's quarters and his work space and found nothing at all that would indicate he was operating an illegal still. They did get a report from Dr. Ivanko that said that both Doorman and Dooley had high levels of sedatives in their blood. Ivanko opined that Dooley would have been too stoned to have killed Doorman.

"We're stuck." Beckett said, sitting in Castle's suite, enjoying a cup of coffee. "We can't get a search warrant for every single living unit and lab on Mars. No court would grant that. And I'm sure that the illegal still was connected to Doorman's death. He was killed either by a partner or a competitor. Any brilliant theories, Castle?"

"Of course." He said with a smile.

Kate raised an eyebrow. "Care to share?"

"We get our bootlegger to come to us. We ask Benoit to start asking around for anyone who has alcohol for sale. Mars is like a small town. Everyone knows we confiscated his stash. Other people must have been buying, so eventually, someone will come to Benoit. Then he'll tell is who the villain is."

"And why would Benoit give up his connection for us?"

"Because alcohol is taxed and the Doorman paid no taxes. Threaten to charge Benoit with income tax evasion and send him to Earth for a trial. That'll kill his career."

Benoit was not a happy camper but he agreed. Several days later, he talked to Rick and Kate. "I'm supposed to meet a guy at ten tonight at Olympus Mons Park."

Kate nodded. Olympus Mons wasn't a park, it was just an open space in Dome One where people liked to gather. It had benches and tables made from packing material and a few plants brought from Earth. Someone had rigged outdoor lights and there was usually some kind of music, either live or recorded.

Promptly at ten, someone approached Benoit. As soon as he took a package out of his jacket, Rick and Kate pounced on him.

As Kate handcuffed the man, Rick grabbed the evidence.

"Kate, we have a problem. This doesn't slosh."

Kate grabbed the package and sniffed it. "Pot! You're growing marijuana?"

The man nodded. "It's legal everywhere on Earth except for some dictatorships. The only reason the corrupt rulers of Mars won't let us have any is because they want to us to do anything but work until we drop so they can get richer. This weed will free our minds and make Mars a paradise for man."

Kate nodded. "Sure. But we were looking for someone making alcohol. And you're headed back to Earth for this."

"Alcohol? You mean like Doorman was making?"

"Yes. Do you know where the still is?"

"What's in it for me?"

Kate took a deep breath. This was the part of the job she hated. "Charges are dropped and you remain on Mars. And you stop growing pot. And I'll watch you like a hawk to make sure you never grow anything again."

"The still is underground."

"Underground? How?" Kate demanded.

"When they built Dome Seven, Doorman reprogrammed one of the construction robots. The things are so simple any ten year old could reprogram them. He had the robot build a little basement in Dome Seven, complete with a disguised entrance. I'll show you."

They arrived at a blank wall in a narrow crawl space between the wall of the dome and a laboratory. They tapped on a light patch of concrete and a door opened.

Castle moved in first. He bad barely gotten inside when someone swung at him. The two of them went down and Kate drew her Glock. "Hands behind you! Now!"

The attacker stood up.

"Ralph Walden! The Dome Seven Safety officer?" Castle said.

Much later, Rick and Kate relaxed in his suite.

"Walden was Doorman's partner after all." Castle said.

Kate nodded. "But not willingly. As safety officer, he inspected the dome regularly and found the hidden basement. He threatened to turn Doorman in if he didn't get cut in. But after a while, Doorman decided that Walden couldn't turn him in without admitting to his own crimes and told Walden to get lost. That's when Walden decided to take over the business and get rid of Doorman. He put sedatives in their booze and when they passed out, he stabbed Doorman and put Dooley's fingerprints on the knife."

"And best of all, Ray Chavez, the Mayor of Mars, has decided that illegal stills are too dangerous, so PLP is setting up a legal distillery so the people of Mars can have a drink now and again legally." He gestured to Kate's empty glass. "Another Martian Moonshine cocktail, Beckett."

"Yes, please." Kate decided that she should accept more dinner invitations from Castle.