988. Chapter 988

After Little Girl Lost

Episode 1.9

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I'm lost, but I know I don't own Castle. Rating: K. Time: See above.

"Please state your full name for the court."

"Katherine Houghton Beckett-Sorenson-Shaw-Demming-Queller-Davidson-Royce-Smith-Tyson-Bracken-Vaughn-Hunt-O'Leary-Wood."

"You've had quite a lot of husbands, haven't you?" Said ADA Ryan.

"Objection!"

Ryan looked up at the judge. "Judge Parish, you're the presiding judge, you can't object?"

"Didn't you just hear me object? Quit badgering the witness."

"I'm trying to establish a pattern of actions by the defendant. She's the defendant, not a witness."

"Poe-tay-toes, po-tah-toes." Judge Parish said. "Oh, continue."

"Your first husband, Special Agent Will Sorenson, was killed in the line of duty?"

Beckett nodded. "We were working a kidnapping. I noticed the rabbit the little girl had was missing and thought it must mean the kidnapper knew the family well. When we arrested the sister, Nina Mendola, she grabbed a machine gun from inside the bunny and killed Will, as well as Alfred and Theresa Candela. I shot and killed Nina."

"She hid a machine gun inside a stuffed rabbit?" Ryan said, in disbelief.

"It was a big rabbit."

"And none of the $750,000 ransom was ever recovered."

"That's irrelevant." Beckett snapped.

Ryan looked at Judge Parish. "What she said." The judge said, shaking her head.

"Your next, um, marriage was to FBI Agent Jordan Shaw?" Ryan asked, letting disbelief show in his voice.

"It's really rather funny. She was investigating me about poor, sweet Will's death. But we fell madly in love. Of course, she was still married, so we couldn't make it official, but I took her last name as a sign of our love."

"There are several videos on the internet that show Special Agent Shaw naked and tied to a bed while you hit her, um, private parts with a riding crop."

Kate smiled at the memory. "Jordan was such a naughty vixen."

"And then there's the matter of her death."

"Yes, we went to the top of the Empire State Building. Jordan said she wanted to tell the whole world how she felt, but when she tried to climb up on the spire, she fell."

"Several witnesses said she yelled "murderous bitch" as she fell." Ryan said acidly.

"Actually, she was trying to tell everyone she had a "wondrous wish" for the two of us to be happy."

Ryan shook his head. "Then you were married to Detective Tom Demming."

"Yes, Tom and I went undercover to try to infiltrate Victor Racine's operation. Imagine my surprise when Lieutenant Holliwell of Internal Affairs told me that Tom was already working for Racine."

"Racine, Holliwell and Demming were all killed in a shoot out. You were the sole survivor?" Ryan said, checking a file folder.

Kate nodded sadly, as if remembering the incident. "I was so surprised when I found out that I had inherited Demming's brownstone on Central Park West as well as seven million dollars. Somehow Holliwell's records didn't show the money was gained illegally. Of course, I had to pay income taxes on all of that. Luckily I was able to negotiate it down to eleven dollars."

"Eleven dollars?" Ryan screamed. That had not been in the file.

"And I paid every penny."

"Mr. Ryan, I'm wondering where this is going?" Judge Parish asked.

"Oh, that quite all right, Lanie. It's kind of like going down memory lane."

"Okay, Sweetie, but just let me know if he's a problem."

Ryan sighed deeply. "You then married Madison Queller?"

"Maddie was a dear friend from high school. I was just so down after all that had happened to me. Maddie and I just clicked."

Ryan again checked a file. "And how did this marriage end?"

"Maddie owned a restaurant and was into molecular gastronomy, using various chemicals in the cooking process. I told her and told her not to use nitroglycerin in that cake and when she used the blender on the batter,…Boom!"

"And you inherited her restaurant?"

"She wanted it that way."

"Doctor Josh Davidson?"

Kate slowly shook her head. "I really thought I'd finally found my man. Imagine my surprise in finding all of those diamonds hidden in his Harley after it somehow blew up. Of course, the government tried to say they were blood diamonds that he'd acquired illegally in Africa and smuggled back to the US, but they couldn't prove that."

"The cause of the explosion?" Ryan asked.

"A complete mystery."

"Mr. Ryan, Captain Ellis of the 12th Precinct, has gone over the case exhaustively and was never able to find a cause. Now will you please get on with it? You're cutting into my spa time." Judge Parish said sharply.

"I'll try to hurry." Ryan replied sarcastically. "Next you married Mike Royce?"

Kate smiled sadly. "He had been my training officer. I was in love with him back then and when we got together again, it was just magical."

"He was killed in a gun battle in a cemetery, along with all of the suspects?"

"Yes. Poor Mike was killed by a shotgun blast from that awful Clifford Stuckey. But although I did figure out the code showing where the stolen jewels were supposed to be buried, they were never recovered."

"Twenty million in stolen jewels were never found?" Ryan asked.

"Never."

"Next you wed a Michael Smith? He was quite a bit older than you, wasn't he?"

"I think a more mature man was what I needed back then."

"And he was killed by a bomb in a safe in his office as I recall. Do you have any idea what was in the safe?"

Kate shrugged. "I have no idea. He said they were important papers of some sort, but the safe was empty. But I have no idea what they were or what happened to them."

Ryan looked at another file. "I find it odd that you married Jerry Tyson, who was suspected of being the serial killer, 3XK."

"Suspected of being. Actually, the real serial killer was a Dr. Kelly Nieman. She had set poor Jerry up as a patsy to cover her killings. I'll always be sad that she killed Jerry before I could kill her."

"Oddly, she left all of her money to Jerry Tyson, didn't she? And you inherited from Tyson."

"I believe it was all part of her convoluted plot to blame poor Jerry, Mr. Ryan."

"Then after the tragic death of his first wife, you married Senator William Bracken?"

"When I found out about the plot against the senator, I tried to protect his wife by putting her in his limousine."

"Didn't the autopsy indicate she had a fractured skull before her death?"

Judge Parish interrupted. "That's irrelevant. I did that autopsy. It was well known what a clumsy old woman Mrs. Bracken had been."

"And after Senator Bracken's tragic fall from the top of the Statue of Liberty, you ran, successfully, for his Senate seat." Ryan finished.

"I wanted to protect dear Bill's legacy. And we had lots of money."

"Speaking of money, you then married Eric Vaughn, who also managed to die? This time on your honeymoon?"

"It was a working honeymoon. We had gone to Mexico to look over a company he owned, Mexisolar. But then we were caught in the middle of a gun battle between seven Mexican drug cartels. Poor Eric died heroically trying to protect me."

Ryan again consulted a file. "He was shot 347 times, but no one else was hurt?"

Kate nodded. "Bad karma."

"Then you married a man named Jackson Hunt?"

"Older men do appeal to me. I learned so much from dear Jackson."

"He was killed by a Muslim suicide bomber?"

"That's correct."

"While taking a bath in your mansion."

"It took forever to clean that bathroom."

"But it turned out that you had been married since you were at Stanford to a man named Rogan O'Leary. The late Rogan O'Leary."

Kate frowned. "O'Leary said that and for a while I believed that. However, I proved that the marriage was invalid."

"That's correct, Mr. Ryan." Judge Parish stated. "I made that ruling myself, just before the unfortunate fire in Las Vegas destroyed all of the records of the alleged marriage."

"And lastly you married a man named Mason Wood?"

"He was such a cute man. He was a private detective who formed what he called the Greatest Detective Society. Naturally, he wanted me to join. That's how we met. He's also supposed to have some vague connection with the intelligence community, but I assure you that nothing in his exhaustive records, which I personally looked through, indicated what that might be."

"And Mr. Woods was…."

"Stabbed to death by a serial killer duo. I took great pleasure in shooting both of them."

"Now we get to the matter at hand. The death of a failed novelist named Richard Castle."

"That man was insane. He kept insisting I was some kind of muse for him. He wanted to follow me around and observe? Observe what?"

"Sweetie, you don't have to answer these questions if you don't want to."

"Judge Parish!" Cried Ryan.

"Don't sass me, Ryan."

"I shot Mr. Castle in self defense after he broke into my home in the Hamptons. He must have stolen a key of mine and made a copy."

"You say it was self defense, but don't the records show…."

"Your Honor." Interrupted the jury foreman." "We've reached a verdict."

"You can't have reached a verdict." Screamed Ryan." The prosecution isn't done yet."

Judge Parish glared at ADA Ryan. "Ryan! The jury is here to render a verdict. Don't you want them to do their job?"

"But…"

Judge Parish ignored ADA Ryan. "And the verdict is, Mr. Foreman?"

"Not guilty, Your Honor."

As the courtroom cheered, Kate walked over to thank the jury foreman.

"Thank you, Javi, for your fine work in bringing justice."

"No problem, Chica. Just remember to appoint me as Secretary of Defense if you win the election."

"If I win the election?" Kate teased.

"I guess since both major parties nominated you, you're a shoo in."

Kate laughed. "As Jackson and Mason said, it's not who you know, but what you know about who you know."'

Kate saw a familiar figure in the back of the courtroom and strode back to greet her.

"I'm glad you could make it, Alexis."

"I was here in time to see you vindicated, Mom."

"And how was the funeral?"

Alexis noticed a news cameraman nearby and allowed a tear to fall. "It was sad saying goodbye to dear Pi. I was so surprised that his little work with bees led to him making hybrid pineapple-bananas, coffee-oranges and all the others. I was so happy that my husband was able to buy Costa Rica with all the money he made. We made, that is. Then the tragedy."

Kate nodded sorrowfully as Alexis continued. "That was the only invasion of army ants in the entire history of Central America. I'm sure poor Pi was gone when I ordered the Costa Rican Air Force to napalm the ants. Pi would have wanted that way. I put up a memorial to Pi. I had a local carve it out of a burned palm tree. It cost me almost five dollars.""

"And Pi died so soon after your other tragedy." Kate said sadly.

"I lost poor Ashley when our private jet went down. My parachute opened, but his didn't. I intend to sue everyone involved for all they have. Oh, by the way, I've changed the name of the company from to . Soon I'll own all of Silicon Valley."

"Mommy! Mommy."

Kate knelt to talk to her young daughter. "What is it, Lily?"

"Guess what happened at school today?"

"What?"

"Do you know that nasty teacher who accused me of cheating on my exam? Her car blew up."

"Karma's a bitch." Kate, Alexis and Lily said in unison.

"Kate, I really don't like the way that ADA Ryan is looking at you."

"Oh, he's just unhappy that his wife left him to become Sister Jenny of the Church of Kate. Have we given her children back to her yet?"

Alexis laughed. "Of course not."

"Perhaps you should be friendlier to him, Alexis?"

Alexis thought for a second. "Someone on the inside of the DA's office? Why not? I mean, what's the point of getting D cup boobs if you don't use them?" Alexis wiggled towards Kevin Ryan.

"Mommy."

"Mommy!"

"MOMMY!"

Kate opened her eyes. "What is it, Lily?"

"You fell asleep on the couch. And Daddy and Reese and Jake are back. I saw the car coming up the driveway. Daddy got ice cream, didn't he?"

Kate managed to look puzzled. "Was Daddy supposed to get ice cream? I don't remember."

"Mommy! Of course, he was supposed to get ice cream."

Lily sped off when she heard the front door open. "Did you get ice cream?" She yelled.

"Six different kinds." Jake yelled back.

Kate walked into the kitchen where Rick was taking the ice cream out of the paper bags and getting bowls and spoons. She kissed him. "Love you."

"Love you, too."

"I had the oddest dream while you were gone."

"Really?"

"Mommy! Daddy!" The kids yelled. "Ice cream. No talking or kissing."

"I'll tell you about it later."

Author's note: I'm still working on Together Again, which features a number of characters played by Stana Katic all in one story. I'm also working on a story which places Rick and Kate in Renaissance Italy.