751. Chapter 751

After The Wrong Stuff

Episode 7.16

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: It would mar my reputation for honesty to say I own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above

"Welcome to Mars, Captain Beckett. I'm Ray Chavez, the chief operating officer, or as they call me back on Earth, the Mayor of Mars."

Captain Kate Beckett, on loan from the Greater New York Police Department, put down her bag and shook the man's hand. "Glad to meet you, although I'm not sure that I should be happy that Mars now needs a police force."

Chavez nodded. "We have nearly twelve thousand scientist and engineers on Mars now, with more on the way. If you look to your right, you can see the new dome we're putting up." Although she had seen it a thousand times on the news on Earth, Beckett looked over at the construction robots assembling the framework for the new dome, which would be identical to the one she was standing in. The framing would be filled in with clear ceramic panels with eight airlocks at the bottom of the concrete pad the dome sat on. All together, the dome would cover some thirty acres.

"All of the people here are scientists or engineers?"

"Well, speaking broadly to include MDs and such. In fact, you're one of the few people here who doesn't have a PhD or more. Considering the cost of getting a person on Mars and keeping them here, we just can't afford people who don't contribute directly to the mission, either working for IASA, or for the tech companies working on Mars. As on Earth, most of the construction work, and other hard work, is done by robots"

"I'm sure that when you get a permanent replacement for me, they'll be able to handle the occasional fist fights and petty thefts."

Chavez looked embarrassed. "What with our budget coming up for a vote and all, we didn't want to broadcast it, but Mars has just had its first murder."

"When? And who?" Kate demanded.

"Dr. Julia Prescott. She was bludgeoned to death two days ago."

"And you didn't tell me at once? Do you have any idea how this complicates my job?"

"We do have someone looking into it. Someone with experience in this sort of thing."

"Who?"

"Richard Castle."

"Who is he and what sort of police experience does he have?" Beckett snapped.

"He's the father of Dr. Alexis Castle. She's a brilliant woman, who is an expert in many fields. We call her the first Marsologist."

Kate was starting to get a sinking feeling in her stomach. Could it be that Richard Castle? She wondered. "Do you mean Richard Castle, the writer?"

"Yes, have you heard of him?"

"I'm a fan of his books, but he's otherwise nothing but an irresponsible playboy. He's been in scrapes all over the world and spends most of the rest of the time with one empty headed bimbo after another on his arm or in his bed. How could you have let him get involved in a murder case?"

"He volunteered. No one else did."

Kate knocked on the door to Castle's quarters. Prominently displayed on the door was a sign reading "Mars Police Department. Richard Castle, Chief of Police." In seconds it was opened by a tall, good looking man who looked at her with a twinkle in his blue eyes. "Captain Beckett, I presume?"

Beckett walked in past Castle, then turned to face him. "Thank you, Mr. Castle for your….work on this case. But I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"I can't." He said smiling at her.

"I insist."

"This isn't just the headquarters of the Mars PD, these are my personal quarters. They wanted to put me into one of the standard four meter by four meter "living units", but I put my foot down. But, once I told them I'd pay to have it transported to Mars, I was allowed to bring a twenty meter by twenty meter place of my own."

"Then hand over whatever data you found, if any, and I'll take it from here."

"I can't do that either?"

"Mr. Castle…"

"Chief Castle. I'm the chief of police. Didn't you see the sign on the door? I had Chavez appoint me. I outrank you."

"I'll have him fire you." Kate said, barely controlling her temper.

"Even if you do, all of my evidence is on my personal computer. It has a quite a sophisticated security system."

"I'll get a court order."

"The nearest judge is back on Earth. And I'm afraid I'll need to see an actual court order, not a facsimile sent electronically. Plus, I own the only fingerprint kit on Mars. I always carry one with me, in addition to a lot of other police gear." Castle smiled softly at her. "Captain Beckett, I just want to help. Believe me, I can be a help. I'll have Chavez appoint you as Commissioner of Police or something so I'll work for you. Please?"

Kate gritted her teeth and said, "Okay."

"Good. I've reduced the number of suspects down to sixteen who have no alibis and of those, three look good."

"There are twelve thousand people here and you found sixteen that have no alibis? How?"

Castle walked over to his computer. Beckett noted that it was top of the line, far more expensive and capable than anything Greater New York could afford.

"Mars has a lot of security cameras. Not to look for crimes, but to check on physical security. Outside of the main domes and the various smaller buildings is Mars. And Mars is cold and has an atmosphere that's unbreathable. The only reason that people don't die more often on Mars is that people are trained relentlessly, they get spot checks and tests constantly and the administration monitors just about everyone all the time."

"Just about everyone?" Kate asked quickly. "Who isn't monitored?"

"Oh, everyone's monitored, just not all the time. There are areas where there's no monitoring, for instance when you take your shower. Some of the labs aren't monitored because either IASA or some private company is doing proprietary work and don't want their competitors to find out what they're doing. That's how Dr. Prescott was killed, I'm afraid. She worked for Inhaber GmbH, a European tech conglomerate. She was battered to death in a lab in Dome Four. Inhaber as so paranoid about security leaks that they have no cameras. You can basically walk right in without anyone noticing. Inhaber doesn't seem to understand that someone could walk in and steal something. Or kill someone."

"No one would notice? So far, the Mars colony looks pretty cramped to me."

"The lab is big, cluttered with all kinds of junk and it's noisy. Plus the people who end up coming to Mars are chronic overachievers, total workaholics. Once they have their nose in a computer, you could stampede elephants behind them and they'd never notice. That's what Dr. Prescott was like. Worked sixteen hours a day, every day. Ate at her work station and often slept in her chair. As far as I can find, she had no friends, no hobbies and no interests at all outside of her job."

"So why murder her?" Kate asked, mostly to herself.

"I have no idea, so let's go look at her quarters."

"You didn't look?"

"No, but I had them locked."

Kate walked out of Castle's quarters as fast as she could and headed down the hallway. Then she noticed Castle wasn't with her. She turned to see him standing by his door, smiling at her. "Dome Four is this way."

Kate was surprised that the door was sealed with yellow crime scene tape. "You brought this to Mars?"

"Of course. How could I not bring yellow crime scene tape to Mars?" Castle did his best to act as if he couldn't understand anyone not bringing yellow crime scene tape to Mars.

Kate cut open the tape, beating Castle to it by a split second.

"The place looks hardly lived in." Castle said.

"That'll make our search easier. I'll take the left side, you take the right."

The standard Mars living unit was four meters by four meters. There was a curtain closing off the tiny bathroom, with the bed, some drawers and a full bookcase beside that. The side Kate took had a computer work station and more bookshelves.

"I've found her underwear drawer." Castle announced gleefully.

"Of course you did." Kate muttered.

"You have to come see this, Beckett."

"I've seen women's underwear before, Castle. It's no big deal."

"This is. Come look."

Kate rolled her eyes and walked over. He was right. This was a big deal.

She went through the drawer. "Lace bras you can pretty much see through, crotchless panties, garter belts and hose, teddies, and all very expensive."

"Do you wear any of these?" Castle asked.

"That's none of your business." Kate snapped.

"But this is." Castle held up a cardboard box. "A box of sex toys. They look used."

"I'm sure you'd know."

"So, the workaholic doctor had a kinky side. And no one knew about it."

"If those are used sex toys, someone might have known." Kate carefully put the toys into evidence bags. "Who are our three best suspects?"

Jason Elliott-Williams was not happy. "I'm not a pervert, Captain. I'm just very demonstrative. Very touchy feely. I touch men, women, children, dogs and if there were any, I'd touch Martians."

"You've had two complaints filed against you here for unwanted advances. And plenty more back on Earth."

"I told everyone. I wasn't making advances on anyone. I was just being me."

Castle's phone beeped. "The DNA test from Dr. Prescott's…Um, things are done I think we can excuse this gentleman." Castle held out the phone so Beckett could read the message.

"You're free to go, Mr. Elliott-Williams."

He wasted no time in doing so.

Drs. Petra Kubikoff and Yasmin Hussein looked bored. Or maybe tired.

"What was Dr. Prescott like to work with?" Kate asked.

"A bitch." Kubikoff replied. Hussein nodded.

"Why?"

"She felt everyone should work as hard and as much as she did. She bitched and complained about everything. Nothing we ever did was good enough. But that wasn't any reason to kill her. Once were done here on Mars in another year, we can go back to Earth and write our own ticket."

"If she was so bad, Dr. Hussein, why were you having sex with her?" Kate asked softly.

"That's absurd."

Kate slowly shook her head. "She had a box full of sex toys. We had he lab here examine the DNA found on them. There was her DNA and your DNA, Dr. Hussein. Now why would you have sex with a woman who was a bitch, in your words?"

She shot a glance at Dr. Kubikoff. "It was the only way to keep her from sabotaging my career. She said I'd either let her have sex with me, or she'd sabotage one of our experiments and blame it on me. She said she'd pick something that was so important, the company would fire me and ship me back to Earth."

"That sounds like motive and opportunity." Castle said.

"Please stand up and turn around, Dr. Hussein. You're under arrest for…."

"NO!" Screamed Kubikoff. "I killed her. But I just hit her. I never intended to kill her."

Once the case was over, Kate found herself back in Castle's quarters sipping a very good red wine. "A sad story."

Castle nodded. "All murder mysteries are. Petra and Yasmin were lovers before they ever got to Mars. Poor Dr. Prescott was so nasty, the only way she could get a lover was to pay for it back on Earth. But there aren't any hookers on Mars. So, she hit on the idea of blackmailing Yasmin. But she got greedy. Told Yasmin she wouldn't share her with Petra any more. She wanted Yasmin to herself. Petra went to talk to her, they had words, and according to Petra, Dr. Prescott hit her first and she was just defending herself."

"By ramming Prescott's head against a lab table twenty or thirty times?" Kate scoffed.

Kate's phone chimed. "It seems there's been a theft of company secrets worth millions at Tatra, Inc." Kate stood up and headed for the door. "Coming, Castle?"