245. Chapter 245

After Reality Star Struck, Yet Again

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I'd really get struck if I said I own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above

"First I'll kill the mayor. "Kate said calmly. "Slowly. Very slowly."

"Um, Kate…Honey?" Castle said, softly.

"Maybe I'll kill him on TV." Kate said, nodding and smiling to herself.

"I think…Maybe…Um, we could…"

"And then you'll be next, Castle." She looked at him with a sinister smile.

"Kate, Honey? I love you. You know that. And you love me. Remember?"

Kate took a deep breath. "And?"

"Killing is very hard on relationships."

Kate glared at Rick, then smiled. Rick did not want to know what she was thinking about to make her smile that way." Do you see this, Writer Boy?" Kate ran her hands from her hips to her shoulders. She was dressed in a light grey pantsuit with a light blue sweater with a thin gold chain around her neck. Her auburn hair hung loose around her face.

"Absolutely. And I love what I see."

"Well, take a good look, because if this is as big a disaster as I think it'll be, this is all of my skin that you'll be seeing until Christmas."

"Christmas? Kate! It's only April."

"Keep it up and we'll be talking about next February 29th." Kate said coldly.

Rick gulped loudly, but wisely said nothing. He glanced at his watch. "We should be going."

When Kate stopped her Crown Vic, she was surprised to see several uniforms. One of them waved his flashlight, directing her to a parking spot in front of their destination.

"Thanks for the parking place." She said to the uniform as the two of them got out.

"The mayor sent us down here. This is kind of his baby, you know."

Kate glanced over at Castle who was looking determinedly the other way. "I know. Oh, don't I know it."

"Anyway, everyone in the precinct will be watching. We know you're going to do just great. You too, Mr. Castle."

"If I live through the night." Castle muttered.

Kate looked up at the theater marquee. "Murder Mysteries of the Stars." She read. "Really? I get to be on a so-called reality show with no real murders, no mysteries and absolutely no stars. But the mayor loves it. And my boyfriend volunteered me for this."

"No stars?" Castle said." What do you mean? Joe Town is one of the stars tonight. Why, Jimmy Page, Hollywood PI ran for ten seasons. I used to love that show."

"And it was cancelled twenty years ago. And I'm sure that the only reason you loved it was that Page's clients were all top heavy Hollywood bimbos. Anyone who couldn't tell after the first five minutes that the villain was the sleazy agent/director/writer/producer/publicist was not paying attention." Kate grumped.

"I don't think there are any sleazy writers." Castle said defensively.

Kate snorted in derision. "Missy Kingston. She had one hit, three years ago. Stations played Kiss Me on Friday Night day and night. She hasn't had a hit since. Her record label dropped her last year."

"Alexis loved that song." Castle frowned. "I wasn't too happy about the kissing part."

"Luke Gregory. That man has had a career. He's been the second thug, or the third bank robber, in about half the movies made in the last twenty years. But a professional movie heavy as a star?"

"I thought he gave an especially nuanced performance as the crazed sniper in Crisis in Chicago."

Kate ignored him. "Last, and certainly least, is Lola Hewitt. Her only known talent is bending over towards the camera in a low cut top. And her boobs are so obviously fake."

"She has boobs?" Castle said innocently. "I really hadn't noticed."

Kate was unable to suppress a laugh. "Okay, Castle. You be a good boy and you might just get an early Christmas present."

"Really?" He said, perking up.

"Sure. About the Fourth of July."

Castle sighed and followed her into the theater.

Once they were through makeup, a production assistant briefed them. "You know the drill for the show, right? We have a scripted program in which clues are dropped, then a murder, then the stars have to investigate and see who did it. You two are our experts. If the stars get stuck, you try to point them in the right direction. Got it."

"We'll manage." Kate said coldly.

They wandered onto the set where they were set upon by Lola Hewitt. She introduced herself. "Detective Beckett, I'm really happy to meet you. And Mr. Castle, of course. I'm a huge fan of Nikki Heat and a huge fan of your cases. Can you tell me how it was that you figured out that Marcus Gates wasn't really 3XK? That wasn't clear in the papers."

As Kate talked to her, she was surprised that Lola had a surprisingly broad knowledge of aspects of police work. "How come you know so much about police work?"

Lola laughed. "I started acting when I was ten. The studios send you to school, but you don't learn much. At least I didn't. I was kind of self-conscious about my lack of knowledge, but then I met an actor called Richard Farnsworth. He was an old stuntman who became an actor. I noticed he never left the set after his scenes were over, so I asked him why. He said he'd gotten that from Gary Cooper who said that you always learned something if you stayed on the set. I listened and I started asking questions. I learned about sound, filming, lighting, construction, sets, props, stunts, makeup, and then I started learning about other things. I learned about sailing on set. I learned how to shoot, for real, on a western. I learned about police work on Murder Squad. They had a couple of retired LA cops as advisors."

Before they could go any further with the conversation, the program director called for everyone to take their places. He walked over to Rick and Kate. "Tonight's murder is easy. Charles Norton Barnes, playing Granddad, calls his four heirs together and tells them he's going to change his will to cut them all out. He's murdered. And our stars have to figure out which one of them did it. You can help them if they get stuck."

"Do we get to know who did it?" Castle asked.

"Of course not. This is reality TV." Was the reply.

The program started and Grandpa began telling his heirs what a bunch of losers they were.

"Too bad about Barnes." Castle whispered to Kate.

"Why?" She whispered back.

"He's was a great actor, if nearly impossible to work with because of his ego, but in the last couple of years his drinking has gotten out of control."

Barnes, as Grandpa, was about to disinherit his relatives when the power went out all over the studio. After a few seconds, three gunshots were heard. There was pandemonium in the studio for several minutes until the lights came back on.

Kate saw that Charles Norton Barnes was dead. Shot three times in the head.

"Everybody stay right where they are." She said loudly, holding up her badge. "Detective Beckett, Homicide, NYPD.

She checked to be sure, but Barnes was truly dead. By his feet, she found a 9mm pistol. "Was he supposed to have been shot in the show?"

The director shook his head. "We don't have any weapons on our set tonight. It's not ours."

"Who was supposed to kill him?"

Missy Kingston raised her hand. "It was me. But I was supposed to poison him. See?" She held up a small vial. "But it's only water. I didn't do it."

"Do any of you have any history with Barnes?"

They were silent for a long while, then Luke Gregory spoke up. "Everyone in the industry knows about me and Barnes. He had me kicked off Big River Blues. He did it just to prove how important he was. The actor who took my place won an Academy Award for best supporting actor. Maybe I would have won, maybe I wouldn't, but I'll never know. I hated the bastard, but I didn't kill him"

"Anyone else?" Kate asked.

Missy raised her hand again. "The whole time we were here, rehearsing, he kept trying to get me alone. He tried to get me undressed and…" She began to cry. "I didn't kill him." She sobbed.

Lola raised her hand as well. "I've worked with him before. But if I killed every man who groped me, half of Hollywood would be dead."

Everyone looked at Joe Town. "Okay, everyone knows this story, too. After Jimmy Page was cancelled, I wrote a screenplay. I was partying in my suite in Las Vegas and in comes Barnes. We killed a few bottles, had some fun, and three days later I woke up with a hangover. My screenplay was gone and so was Barnes. I found out he sold it to RKO for $200,000. It's never been made into a movie, but, yeah, I hated Barnes, too."

Kate cursed under her breath. Great. Four people with motive and opportunity.

Rick had been looking around the set. He lifted up a lamp and motioned for Kate to come over. They both looked at what was under the lamp, and smiled.

Kate walked back to the suspects. "I think that's all for tonight. We'll be in touch tomorrow. "She held out her hand to Joe Town. "Good evening, Mr. Town." They shook hands. She moved on to Missy Kingston, who also shook her hands. Next was Luke Gregory. The last was Lola Hewitt. When they shook hands, Kate smiled. "Lola Hewitt, you're under arrest for the murder of Charles Norton Barnes."

"You're kidding." The blonde said.

"No. You wore rubber gloves to kill Barnes so you wouldn't leave fingerprints. We found them under the lamp. The same sort of gloves we use at crime scenes. They're coated with talcum powder. I've worn enough of the gloves to recognize the feel of the talcum powder on your hands. You know enough about stage lighting to have set up the blackout, you know how to shoot and you know police procedures. Why did you kill him?"

Lola laughed. "I've always hated my bimbo image. I'm smart, you know. Really smart."

Kate nodded. "Not smart enough to keep quiet."

Lola laughed again, then sighed. "I was twelve years old, and well developed for my age. These are my real boobs, you know. He raped me. He held me in his trailer and raped me for an entire afternoon. The studio was shocked of course. The thought that some disposable child actor might damage the image of the famous Charles Norton Barnes drove the suits up the wall. You can imagine what happened. I was called in by the lawyers and told that I was an evil liar and that I'd made the whole thing up. They said if I ever told anyone, they'd have me put in jail. I was a kid. I never said a word, but I never forgot."

Once back at the loft, Rick and Kate got ready for bed. Kate came out of the bathroom wearing an ankle length flannel night gown.

"I see you're a woman of your word." Rick said sourly.

"Yes, I am. "She said, grasping the hem of the nightgown and pulling it over her head. She had nothing else on. She glanced at Castle who was in shock. "I am a woman of my word. I said I loved you and I do. Do you have a problem with that?"

"Never." He pulled the covers back for her.

Author's note: According to reliable rumor, the story about actor/stunt man Richard Farnsworth is true. He did stay on the set of his movies when his scenes were over to see what he could learn. He did say he picked up the idea from Gary Cooper.