526. Chapter 526

After Under the Influence

Episode 5.11

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: how many times do I have to tell you people? I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above

Author's note: If you go back to chapter 242, you'll see I wrote a version of Joey Malone's life that wasn't very pleasant. I thought I'd write a better life for him.

Detective Esposito pulled his car up beside the figure walking away from school. "Get in." He growled.

Joey Malone kept walking. "Exercise is good for you, old man. You should try it sometime."

"Get in the car or I'll show you how I exercise, Joey."

Joey sighed and got in the car. "Isn't there some kind of law against this kind of police harassment?"

"If you want to see police harassment, just keep running your mouth. Mrs. Dean said you missed three classes last week and one already this week. She said you cut school the last period of those days.'

Joey shrugged. "So?"

"So? Do you want to be some low level gangbanger all your life, or do you want to make something of yourself?"

Joey smiled. "I want to be a high level gangbanger."

"Joey, you're treading on very thin ice with me right now."

Joey just laughed. "All Mr. Douglas ever has us do in class is read. I'm already two weeks ahead of the rest of the class, except for that suck up DeLane Watts. And I have a solid B in English. So don't push it old man. I'm doing fine."

"You could be getting an A." Espo said,

"And be like DeLane? He's a fool."

"And what do you do when you ditch school?"

Joey shrugged. "This and that."

"I'll be watching you, Joey." Espo stopped in front of Joey's building and let him out.

Back at the station, he went to talk to Castle as the only one who had any experience with teenagers, although Alexis was one hundred per cent different from Joey Malone. "The kid lied to me, bro. Okay, I checked with his school and he's doing good. But he lied when he said he just does this and that. He's up to something."

Castle shrugged. "I tracked Alexis once to find out what she was doing after I caught her lying. It didn't end well. But, that was Alexis, this is Joey."

Espo nodded. "And Joey can find trouble a lot better than Alexis. I need to find out what he's doing."

It hadn't been that hard to shadow Joey. Espo carefully followed him until he walked into a little drug store not far from school. Drugs! Espo thought. Joey's going to hit the pharmacy and score some pharmaceutical grade drugs. Espo drew his pistol as soon as he entered the store. He'd lost sight of Joey for a second, but headed for the pharmacy in back.

Suddenly, there was Joey. "What are you doing, Joey?'

Joey turned around. "Stocking shelves. It's my job. And why are you all Dirty Harry." Pointing to Espo's weapon.

Espo shoved his pistol back in his holster. "You've been ditching school to work?"

"I need to work all of the hours I can. I'm not getting jack from my uncle and my schoolwork isn't suffering."

"Then why didn't you just tell me?"

Joey looked around quickly. "I'm only fifteen. I can't get a work permit. Are you going to rat me out?"

Espo laughed. "No, but tell me the truth from now on. I have friends who had trouble telling each other the truth. I don't want that to happen with us."

…

Espo walked into Joey's apartment. "You got beat up after school yesterday. What happened?"

Joey shrugged. "Some dudes were looking for trouble. Unfortunately, I bear a strong resemblance to trouble."

"Who were they?"

"I have no idea."

"Don't lie to me, Joey. Mrs. Dean said you got beat up because you're friends with me, a cop."

"If Mrs. Dean knows that, she must have talked to the dudes who did it. Ask her."

Espo started going through Joey's one room apartment.

"What're you doing?" Joey asked, following Espo's every move.

"Looking for a gun. You didn't come to me and you won't talk to me about it, so I figure you're going to handle things yourself. That means a gun. Just tell me where you hid it."

Joey shook his head. "There's no gun here."

Espo searched the place for everywhere that a gun could be and found nothing. "It's not here. Which means someone is holding it for you." Espo thought and then smiled. "Or…" He picked up Joey's wallet off the dresser. "You haven't bought it yet. You have two hundred here. Why so much?"

"I don't trust banks."

Espo put the money in his pocket. "You're making me a loan. I'll pay you back in two weeks plus twenty dollars. By then you should have cooled down enough not to do anything stupid."

"Two weeks, old man? It'd better be plus fifty then."

"Don't push it, Joey."

A month later, Espo stopped to see Joey. "I'm glad you didn't use that money to get back at the guys who beat you up."

Joey laughed. "But I did."

Espo looked around. "Where's the piece?"

Joey laughed again. "Last summer I DJ'd a party for a dude named Buster Colby. Know him?"

"Yeah. He's head of the local chapter of the Vandals Motorcycle Club. He's a real bad ass."

Joey nodded. "But he likes me. So we did some play acting. I had him and a dozen of his toughest looking dudes met me outside of school. I handed him the two hundred and pointed at the dudes who worked me over. He and his bad asses got on their bikes and rode past them really slow. They think I paid for a hit on them. They haven't been in the 'hood since. You should know by now, old man. I'm smart."

"I hope you're as smart as you think you are."

….

Joey stood in his cap and gown beside Espo while Castle took their photo.

"What are you going to do now, Joey?" Castle asked.

"Well, I didn't get accepted at Harvard, or Oxford, or even Columbia." Joey sighed dramatically.

"I know some people at One PP." Espo said. "I can get you a job with the NYPD as a civilian, start at something like a file clerk and maybe one day you could be a cop."

Joey made an exaggerated grimace. "And end up working for you? No way." Joey pulled an envelope out of his pocket. "I may not have made it into a world class college, but I did get into NYU."

Espo shook his hand. "A college man? What are you going to major in?"

"I want to become a teacher"

And he did.