560. Chapter 560

After Law and Boarder

Episode 6. 21

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I admit that I've lost the right to own Castle. Which I never did. Rating: K Time: See above

"Mr. Castle. My office. Now!"

Castle had learned to interpret Captain Gates' voice. There was a cold voice she used when she was angry with him. There was a hot voice that she used when she was very angry with him. There was…Castle stopped. Gates always seemed to be angry with him or very angry with him. But as he rose from his chair by Beckett's desk, he thought her voice indicated she wanted something from him. This could get interesting.

"Detective Beckett is still in interrogation?" Gates asked sternly.

Castle nodded quickly. "Yes, sir. She felt that Ms. Willis would be more cooperative woman to woman, so to speak. So I stayed here."

"I can see you're not a woman, Mr. Castle." The voice was back to cold.

"Can we get on with this, Victoria? We can brief Detective Beckett later."

Castle turned around. Even without the badge, he knew the other man was a cop. Probably someone senior if he was calling Gates by her first name. Castle looked him over. Rumpled suit, tie askew, brown eyes and receding brown hair. Castle thought he seemed grumpy.

"Mr. Castle, this is Captain Gallery, from Vice. He needs to talk to you."

The two men shook hands. "Mr. Castle, you and Detective Beckett just worked a case involving extreme sports, right? The Streets Sport Festival?"

"Yes, a skateboarder was murdered. Why?"

"There's another extreme sports event coming to New York tomorrow, XTRA Games. We'd like you to go there for us."

Castle smiled. "Luckily, I do keep myself in pretty good shape and I've done some skateboarding with my daughter Alexis, so…"

Captain Gallery looked horrified. "Mr. Castle we don't expect you to participate. The City of New York doesn't have enough money to pay for the insurance we'd need to get for you."

"I thought that if anything happened to me, I was on my own. That's what those papers I signed said when I first got here."

"That's for you as a writer shadowing Detective Beckett. As you'd be working for the NYPD on this, we'd be liable for any injuries you sustained."

"I what capacity do you want me to go?" Castle asked, somewhat disappointed at not being able to participate, but happy about being a real cop for a change.

"Undercover, but as writer Richard Castle. You'd be writing an op-ed piece about the games and the sport itself."

"You know, I am kind of famous and so is Beckett. She's the model for Nikki Heat." He tried to sound modest.

Gallery shook his head. "You aren't famous among the kids that participate in, and watch extreme sports. I asked my son and his friends if they knew who you were. None of them had any idea. Oh, one of them thought you played a doctor on some medical show on TV. Another thought you played some guy named Bluth."

"Maybe I should write a YA Nikki Heat book." Castle muttered under his breath. "Why is Vice interested in extreme sports anyway?"

"PEDs, Mr. Castle. Performance enhancing drugs. Everyone connected with the sport is young and many use recreational drugs of some sort and have no problem with PEDs. The sport is young, so the rules, such as they are, are haphazardly enforced, making cheating easy. A lot more than professional athletes take PEDs. The amount you can find in high schools these days is frightening."

Castle thought for a second. "An op-ed piece. Sure."

Kate Beckett was beautiful. Her hair was tied in a pony-tail and she wore almost no makeup. She had on skin tight Lycra pants that showed off her long legs and magnificent ass. Her top was an oversized Street Sports tee shirt.

Castle leaned down and whispered in her ear. "Too bad they don't make athletic shoes with four inch heels."

"Oh, I don't need four inch heels to dominate people, Castle. You know that."

"If that's a referral to your victory at Scrabble, I think I redeemed myself at poker the next night."

Kate smiled at the memory. "Oh, but that was a tie, I believe. We both won."

"Oh? I believe I had you begging for…"

"Castle! Over there. The guy in the red jacket. He just got a glass vial from blue shorts and Yankees hat. The vial looks like the vials we found steroids in during the swimmer murder case. We need to follow him."

Kate took Rick's arm and, being careful to never look directly at their suspect, began tailing him. Either he made them, or he was just overly cautious. Suddenly, he jumped on a bike and started to pedal off. Kate started to chase him, but he kicked over a row of bikes, bringing a group of angry bike owners running to their bikes to see if any damage had been done. By the time Kate pushed through the crowd, their suspect had vanished.

"Did you get a good look at his face?" Castle asked, catching up to her.

"No. He had a hoodie on. Tall, slender and muscular. Which fits about half the guys here."

Castle looked around, but saw no one matching their suspect. "So, how about I buy us an energy drink?"

She took his arm. "Maybe even a cheeseburger."

They walked around for several more hours. They saw plenty of young men with Yankees caps on, and lots with blue shorts, but no one that matched their other suspect.

As the games were ending for the day, they had about decided to go home and try again the next day when they got lucky. A young woman tripped and fell against Rick. As he started to apologize, he looked down at what she had dropped. There on the grass were a half a dozen glass vials.

Kate pulled out her badge. "NYPD. Are those yours?"

The woman smiled. "Are what mine?"

Castle knelt and picked up the vials, as he stood up, he was shoved violently against Beckett, knocking them both down.

Beckett leapt to her feet and took off after the running suspect. The suspect jumped on a dirt bike and sped off. Kate pushed a rider off of his bike, yelling, "Police business." And sped off after their suspect.

Castle was right behind her, grabbing another bike, also screaming, "Police business." Regrettably, Castle's motorcycle skills had gotten a bit rusty over the years. With the bike in neutral, the engine screamed without moving the bike forwards. As the bike's owner reached to pull Castle off his bike, Castle got it in gear and roared, shakily, off.

He caught sight of Beckett ahead of him just as he knocked over a stand selling smoothies, sending sweet liquid all over the patrons. Clipping a tee shirt stand, he rode off with a shirt saying, "Live to Ride, Ride to Live." covering half his face and blocking his vision. And, for the second time that day, he visited the cheeseburger stand. Head on.

Laying among the condiments, he looked up to see Beckett riding back to him. "Did you catch her?"

"No."

"She got away?"

"No. Gates was coming to see how we were doing. Our suspect rode right into her patrol car. Gates made the collar before I got there."

Back at the precinct, the woman promptly rolled on everyone she knew in the PED ring. Rick and Kate went home feeling that they had done well that day. Rick, however, limped.

"Do you want to play more Scrabble tonight?" She asked once they were back at the loft.

Castle stretched, trying to work out a kink in his leg. "I really just want to eat and go to bed."

"Would you like a nice massage?"

"What will you be wearing?"

"A smile."