805. Chapter 805

After Almost Famous

Episode 3.07

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I don't even almost own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above.

"Castle, you don't have to do this."

He nodded. "I know, but I want to. Your place was blown up because Scott Dunn became obsessed with Nikki Heat. Nikki was my creation, so I feel partly responsible for the loss of your place."

"You don't think that saving my life when Dunn was about to shoot me is payment enough?"

"Not at all."

"Well, it's too much. I really shouldn't let you do this for me."

"Do what? One, I've gone to a real estate broker friend of mine and gotten some nice leads for you and I'm offering to drive you around, since Ryan and Esposito need your car since theirs is in the shop. It's no big deal. Besides, my broker friend can always use a commission if we find something you like."

"Is that all this friend will get if I find something I like? Will she get something she likes?" Kate said suggestively.

"What makes you think the broker is a woman?" Castle said, trying to sound offended.

She laughed. "Because I know you."

"Okay, let's just take a look at the file she sent me and see what she's found." Castle opened a colorful booklet. The first thing Kate noticed was the photo of the broker on her letterhead.

"Castle, she's rather….mature for you."

He laughed. "Gotcha! She's a friend of Martha's, Kerry Lane. She came to New York with dreams of being a star on Broadway." Castle sighed dramatically. "But, she found there's a broken heart for every light on Broadway. Her career never took off. In fact, it pretty much sank. But, she's remained friends with Martha and with me. She baby sat me a few times."

"Little Ricky with a desperate actress? The mind boggles."

"If only I had learned how to walk."

Kate began checking the apartments in the brochure. "Castle! I can't afford these places. I don't make enough money to pay the rent. I'd have to stop eating and buying anything else. Why did you ask her to send these?"

"So you can get some ideas. Just because you can't afford these doesn't mean you can't get some really good ideas for your new place."

"Good thinking. My new place will look fantastic with a…." Kate looked down at photos of a condo just across from Central Park, "Sixteenth century Persian carpet. Castle, I am not looking at these. We should forget about your friend…."

"There are some more in your price range further in the back."

Looking through the brochure, Kate found some places that were in her price range, were near the precinct and looked nice.

Castle drove her to the first one.

"This is actually pretty nice, Castle." She said, admiring the place. "The living room is a bit bigger than my old one and the bedroom is a bit smaller, but the kitchen and the bathroom have been redone. It's a little farther from the precinct than I'd like, but the price is right."

"And you won't get lonely."

She glared at him. "What do you mean by that?"

"Rattus Norvegicus." Castle said, pointing to the kitchen.

Kate whirled around. "Rats? The place has rats?"

"I'd say you have a family living here. There's Daddy and Mommy and the little rats. Although those are awfully big rats, Beckett. A regular cat won't do, you'll have to get a wildcat or a puma."

"We're leaving." She said, glaring at the rats. The rats didn't even have the decency to scurry away.

The second place they visited wasn't as nice, not considering the rats, as the first place, but it was more in Kate's price range and right near the subway.

"There are two restaurants near here, Castle, that look nice. One's Thai and the other is a barbecue place. This could be…"

"Mamacita, loookin' gooood!" Said a male voice from the doorway.

Kate turned to find a group of college students looking at her with undisguised lust in their eyes.

"Are you the new tenant, Hotttie?" One asked. "How about a beer?" He held an opened can out to her.

"I'm Detective Beckett, NYPD. And I want to see some IDs."

They all pulled out their wallets. "We're all seniors and we're all over twenty one." The one with the beer smirked. "That means we're legal, baby."

Kate carefully examined the IDs, but they weren't fakes.

A bearded student pushed his way into the apartment. "Is this the singer chick?"

"She's a cop, dude."

"Damn! I need a hot chick. Hey, can you sing?"

"Why?" Kate asked.

The kid smiled. "My band is the Cannibal Zombie Strippers. We were called Napalm Sticks to Kids, but we got complaints for some reason."

"I can't imagine." Castle said.

"Castle…"

"I know, were out of here."

The third apartment was better.

"Okay, Castle. This is more like it. It's nice, there are no rats, no drunken college students, no rock bands, and I can…." The rest of the sentence was drowned out by the sound of bagpipes playing Let Erin Remember at full blast.

Beckett shot out the door, located the apartment that the music was coming from and pounded on the door. "NYPD! Open up." The music stopped and a man answered. Beckett held up her shield. "Detective Kate Beckett. You're violating the city noise ordnances. You'll have to stop or I'll have to run you in.

The man pulled back his coat to show his badge, "Captain Sean Murtaugh, Detective. And this is the Emerald Society Pipe Band and every one of them is a cop. We're practicing for a funeral tomorrow, and you aren't going to call anyone about us or you'll be pounding a beat in the South Bronx. Understand?"

"How often do you play here?"

"Whenever we need to." Murtaugh said, slamming the door in her face.

Beckett and Castle left to the tune of the Flowers of the Forest.

Kate Beckett carefully examined everything in the next apartment. She ran all the faucets, she turned on all the lights, she turned on the stove, and flushed the toilet. She talked to three of the tenants, all of whom described the building as quiet and peaceful. She and Castle walked around the neighborhood, and found nothing that would keep her from moving here. In fact Castle bought her dinner at a Chinese restaurant she found she loved.

The only thing wrong with it was the amount of the rent. That was the first thing she asked Ms. Lane about when they visited her office the next day.

"The rent is so low here has to be something wrong with it, Ms. Lane. What is it?"

"There's nothing at all wrong with the place. The problem is the owners."

"I don't understand."

"Detective Beckett, the place is a condo owned by a charitable foundation. It was willed to them some years ago by a very eccentric lady. She willed them many valuable properties and a great deal of cash. But there were some odd conditions to some of her bequests. One was that they would never raise the rent on that condo. The rent hasn't gone up since 1978 and it never will. The last tenant actually cried when he had to move out. But, his job was moving to Florida and he had to follow it."

Kate smiled. "I'll take it."

Several days later, Rick met Kerry Lane for lunch.

"I must say, Rick, it's very generous of you to pay the bulk of Detective Beckett's rent on that place. You must really like her."

Castle blushed slightly. "I do. But there's more than that to it. I've made millions from the Nikki Heat books, but I can't do anything openly for Beckett. You give a cop a free donut and she could get in big trouble. Anything more, like paying for Beckett's apartment, and she could get fired. As long as this stays just between us, it's okay. She gets a nice place to live and I feel better about making so much money from all she's done for me."

"Like I said, you must like her a lot."

Castle just smiled.