652. Chapter 652

After Pretty Dead

Episode 3.23

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I pretty much don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above.

Kate stuck her head out of the bedroom and glared at Castle. "One word out of you, one grin, one wiggled eyebrow and I'm not doing this. Remember that."

Martha came rushing to Kate. "Katherine, please. You promised and you look spectacular, I promise you. Please?"

Kate nodded. "I know. I know. I promised and I'll do it." She turned to Castle. "And one word out of you and…"

"I know. I'll be sleeping on the couch for a week."

"More like a month." She growled, and stepped out.

Castle had been practicing keeping a straight face from the day that Martha had explained the role to Kate. It was a great effort, but he succeeded. However, he didn't trust his voice enough to say a word.

"You look gorgeous, Katherine." Martha said with a smile, brushing Kate's hair away from her face and pulling slightly on her sweater.

Kate thought she looked like a cheap slut. Her Lycra pants were so tight that she could hardly walk and her padded bra gave her a double D cup chest. "I look awful. I look like a hooker."

Martha nodded happily. "Yes, you do, dear. And that's the point. Jill is a slut who thinks the only way she can get what she wants is with her body. It's really an excellent part. Very meaty, if you'll forgive the pun."

"I'm not an actress." Kate said sullenly.

"I know, dear. And if we haven't been having this awful flu epidemic, I wouldn't have asked you. But tonight is our first dress rehearsal and it's so important that we get everything right, and both Colette who plays Jill and her understudy are sick as dogs. You'll do just fine, Katherine. You can hold the script and read your lines, and the stage directions are on the script so you can move…."

"I know, Martha, and I apologize for all the bitching just now, it's just…"She looked down at her massive fake boobs. "This is so not me."

"That's not important. Look at Kate Hepburn or Audrey Hepburn, hardly pulchritudinous, but wonderful actresses. Liz Taylor and Marilyn Monroe, big boobs and great actresses. It's what's inside that's important. "Martha sighed. "You would have made a wonderful actress."

"Are you ready, Castle?" Kate said, ignoring Martha's comment.

"Sure." He said, quite proud of the fact at how neutral he managed to keep his voice.

"Just remember that the only reason you're driving is I can't see anything except straight ahead with these….things." Kate grumped. "One word and…."

"I already know."

Once at Martha's acting school, they were surprised to find no one on stage. "Michael? George? Helen? Where is everyone?" Martha looked around, beginning to panic. "Everyone can't be sick, can they?"

Then they heard the sound of high heels clicking rapidly towards them and a petite blonde ran out on the stage. "Martha! It's Chris. She's sick now too. She's in the bathroom and she's….sick. Very sick."

The three went backstage, then Kate and Martha went into the bathroom. Castle stayed outside with the men in the cast and crew. "What happened?" He asked an actor playing a burly biker.

"The flu, I guess." He replied. "She was all right and then, she just started crapping in her pants. She ran as fast as she could to the bathroom and has been inside ever since."

"It's funny, though." Said a well dressed man. "She was just fine all day today. Then, just a few minutes ago, the floodgates opened, so to speak."

"Which dressing room is hers?" Castle asked.

"Last one on the left. She shares it with Maggie, the blonde who went to get you."

Castle nodded and headed for the dressing room. It took him perhaps five minutes to find what he was looking for.

He walked back just as Kate and Martha were coming out into the hallway. Martha shook her head sadly. "This is the worst run of luck I've ever seen for a play. Even the Scottish play wasn't this disastrous."

"It's not bad luck." Rick said, holding out a torn paper packet.

"A laxative?" Kate said.

"I found it in Chris' dressing room, pushed down behind her makeup table. Someone is sabotaging your play, Martha."

Martha turned to the blonde. "Maggie, what do you know about this?"

The blonde's eyes widened. "Nothing. Why…why would I want to make anyone sick?"

"To take someone's part." Kate said. "What's the part Maggie has now?" She asked Martha.

"She's Marcy. She's a quiet girl. Doesn't say much, because she's painfully shy."

Kate nodded. "That gives her motive and opportunity."

The man dressed as a biker stepped forward. "Except everyone had an opportunity. Chris' dressing room has the best lighting. All of us were in there at one time or another for our makeup."

The rest of the cast nodded, admitting they'd all been in the dressing room.

"There's one more thing." Castle added. "Any of them could have had a motive. If I hadn't shown up and gone into my CSU mode, this would have gone on until opening night. That's when the suspect would have dosed his real target with the laxative and taken over the part he, or she, really wanted. And everyone would have thought it was just flu."

"Which means everyone is a suspect?" Martha asked.

Both Rick and Kate nodded.

"Well, Maggie didn't make any sense as the perp anyway."

"Why not?" Kate asked.

"The play is about the prom king and queen from high school and the runners up getting together ten years after graduation. Maggie's too petite to play the role Kate's playing, the big boobed slut. And Chris's part is the tall, self assured career woman. In fact, the play makes a note of her height. She really isn't a good fit for any part other than maybe Danni who's only on stage for a minute or so in the second act and why would Maggie want a smaller part? "

Kate shook her head. "But Castle has a point. The suspect wouldn't have wanted the part of anyone who's already been made sick, they'd have waited until opening night to sabotage the actor whose part they really wanted."

Someone that Rick thought was part of the backstage crew spoke up. "And it wouldn't have to be an actress, just because all of the people attacked were chicks. It could be a guy we're looking for."

"Thanks, Ray." Martha said sarcastically. "For reminding us that we've doubled our suspect pool."

Ray smiled. "Just trying to help."

"We need to create a timeline." Kate said, taking out her notebook. "Castle, can you write down everything?" Castle nodded and took the notebook. "Now, who was the first person here tonight?"

A slender African-American woman named Margo raised her hand. "I was. I'm the stage manager."

"Did you go into that dressing room, and if so, at what time?"

Margo explained her movements that night, being careful to say who she saw in the dressing room and when. Slowly, Kate worked her way through the cast and crew until she got to Chris, who had come out of the bathroom wearing a robe and looking much the worse for wear. As Chris explained her movements that night, she suddenly looked at Ray, the lighting tech. "Ray, what were you doing in my dressing room? You walked out just as I was coming in, and no one else was there."

Ray smiled disarmingly. "You're wrong. I was never in the dressing room."

"Yes, you were." The biker said." I saw you. You left just as Chris was going in."

Ray smiled and feinted towards Castle, then tried to run past Beckett, figuring she'd be easier to get by than the bigger man. That was a mistake, he saw once he was on the ground with Beckett's knee in his back, holding him while she cuffed him.

"Ray, why?" Martha demanded.

"I was after that bitch, Maggie. I had a great gig at the Melodium. So I smoked a little dope on the job, big deal. I always got the job done. But she just had to rat me out. I got fired and now I can't get a job except at this shithole. I was hoping I'd knock her out on opening night and maybe frame the little bitch."

Oddly, Maggie laughed. "Ray, I never said a word about you. I didn't have to. Everyone in the theater knew you were wasted half the time. You weren't getting the job done, that's why you got fired."

Later that night, Kate came out of the bathroom wearing only her sleep shorts and carrying her NYPD tee shirt. "Do you like my boobs?"

"I love your boobs." Castle said. "And every other part of you. Why do you ask?"

She shrugged. "It's just that you've been with so many women with big boobs, I ….wondered."

"Okay, I'll tell you the truth. I just love women with big, round, firm…..brains. And that's the truth."

"So, you only married me for my mind?"

Castle laughed. "I wouldn't go that far."

She tossed the shirt aside. "How about showing me how far you'd go?"