New York, April 2009
Richard Castle, Watcher
Author: Starfox5
Rating: FR18
Crossover: “Castle”
Written for: TtH August Fic A Day Challenge
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. Castle Characters belong to Beacon PIctures and ABC Studio. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Summary: They know the murderer - but they cannot prove it..
New York, April 2009
The patrons of ‘Clark’s’ tensed up when Violet O’Malley and Rick Castle entered, but no one tried to run or attack them. The bouncers didn’t even react to them anymore, other than some slight twitching when Vi stared at them for too long. Brinner, the owner of the demon bar, had really cleaned up his act over the years. And it had only taken half a dozen thrashings from Vi, two demonstrations of the Ack Pack, and one visit by Faith and Buffy. But after his bar had been rebuilt twice, and his regulars decimated three times, he had finally come around to the new Council’s way of thinking. The demonic bartender still had some disreputable clients, but they were the questionable rather than stake-on-sight kind. Some people simply took a bit longer to learn the facts of life, Castle guessed. And to decorate a bar so it didn’t look like a crime against humanity.
Brinner even had become a useful contact. Within limits. He wasn’t exactly a fountain of information, but Vi didn’t have to literally shake him down anymore to get some directions to troublesome demons. He still refused to let Castle attend the Kitten Poker evenings.
Castle leaned on the bar, keeping an eye on the regulars, while Vi went through the usual motions, threatening the Loose-Skinned Demon in creative ways.
“And if you don’t get helpful right now, I’ll stuff you into a laundry machine and wash you until you skin has shrunk to fit your size! Got that, Brinner?”
It was an act, to let Brinner claim he was forced to help the Slayer. The smarter demons among his patrons understood that it would stop being an act in a heartbeat if it was needed, but occasionally, some newcomers tried to intervene, and Vi and RIck had to show them why you didn’t fuck with the Slayer in New York. Or anywhere else.
“Br’gek said he had some liver… well, I overheard him ask around if anyone was interested…”
“And who is that creep, what is he, and where can I find his soon to be slain hide?”
The way a Loose-Skinned Demon’s folds flapped around when he was shaken like a ragdoll was a fascinating and disgusting sight.
*****
“Why can’t those demons live in nicer, cleaner spaces?” Vi complained, staring a smudge of… something… on her boot.
“Because New York is a very expensive area, and they can’t scrape enough money together for a deposit that covers damage from visiting Slayers,” Rick answered as the two made their way through the basement of an abandoned factory. “But in a way, this is like a demon version of a loft - just without all the remodeling, and using the basement, instead of the upper levels, for housing.”
Vi snickered and shook her head, then stiffened for an instant, head cocked to the side. Rick knew she had sensed their prey. She was like a hound dog, in that way. Not that he’d ever make that comparison where she could hear it.
The two picked up their pace, Vi taking point and kicking the next door in, revealing a Fyarl demon in what Rupert would be calling a “threat display”. Rick’s colleague was an expert for Fyarl demons, for a reason he had never discussed. Rick suspected someone he cared for had been killed by one of the buggers.
Rick stepped to the side, and Vi charged ahead, dodging the load of paralyzing snot coming at her before slamming her foot into the side of the demon’s left knee. Howling, it tried to take her head off, but she had dropped below his swing, and was rolling on the floor to his back. Rick watched, but kept his pistol with the silver bullets ready. Just in case Vi caught a case of bad luck.
She didn’t. Another kick smashed the monster’s nose in, ruining his ability to snot at people and staggering it. Away from a Hellmouth, they really were not that tough compared to a Slayer. Then the blades came out, and tendons got cut.
“You could have simply shot his knees out with the shotgun,” Rick commented as he stepped inside the room.
“I don’t want to get rusty. Not everything can be shot.” Vi curb-stomped the demon’s right claw, then put her foot on his back and kept him down.
“Point.” Rick looked around, spotting a tupperware container with the slightly decomposing missing liver in it. Fyarl’s - not the brightest bulbs among demons. He sighed, then crouched down at the side of the demon.
“Hello. I am Castle, that’s Vi. We’ve got a few questions for you regarding the murder of a Mrs. Jennifer Farwright, who was found stuffed into her safe and missing her liver. You wouldn’t know something about it, would you?”
He did, but it took a few more applications of controlled violence from Vi until he spilled what he knew. After the monster had finished, Rick pulled out his smartphone and showed the demon a picture. “So… this girl hired you for the murder, and then used magic to clean up?” A weak nod from the broken demon confirmed Janet’s involvement.
A stab with a silver dagger later, one of the murderers was no more.
Vi stood up, wiping the blade clean on a rag. “So, Rick… we know the perp, but we can’t prove it. What do we do?”
“We can’t take her out now, not with the police involved. We’ll have to see how the investigation is proceeding. Given that the girl wanted her aunt to ‘die surrounded by the money she loved more than her niece’, our new friends from the 12th Precinct might turn up something.
*****
“Oh, back to nature!” Rick grinned as Becket stopped the car at the edge of a small forest in New Jersey.
“Don’t wander off. I’d rather not explain to the Captain why the Mayor’s friend got lost in the woods,” Beckett ordered, then went to look at a big sign declaring this the future location of the ‘Pine Forest Condo Complex’. Rick couldn’t spot any pines in the wood, but he guessed the future owners would care, since the wood would be cleared anyway.
“Will it still be built, with the main investor dead?” he asked, watching the trees.
“That depends on what her heirs decide.”
Vi was moving slowly, a bit too nonchalantly, towards the edge of the forest. She probably had spotted someone - or something. If they encountered a demon here… well, he was already wondering how Beckett would react to such a revelation, but she’d probably try to shoot things that couldn’t be shot, and get hurt for her ignorance.
And it would be his fault, somewhat.
It wasn’t a demon that stepped out from between the trees, but a young woman, in what Castle was calling ‘Hippie Chic’ where Willow couldn’t hear him. Real hippies, as his mother had been fond to tell him, didn’t wear labels.
“Detective Beckett, NYPD. May I ask what you are doing here?” Beckett took charge, or thought so.
“I am Mary-Anne Waterson. I was visiting our grove,” the woman answered, her attention fixed on Vi. She was wearing a symbol for the Earth-Goddess Castle recognized. A Wiccan then. Probably even a real one, since Vi remained tense.
“Your grove?” Beckett must have picked up on the tension.
“My coven’s grove. The place where we gather to worship the Earth.” The woman explained, briefly making eye contact with the cop, before turning her attention back on the Slayer. Definitely a witch.
Beckett’s eyebrows rose a bit, but that was all the reaction she showed. “Do you know a Miss Janet Farwright?”
“Yes, she is also a member of our coven.”
“So that’s why she was opposed to the construction project!” Castle declared, as if he had just realized it. The look Beckett gave him showed she had bought the deception. Or she was just annoyed that he was blurting out information.
“Yes. She was very distraught that a member of her family was about to destroy our holy place.” The woman explained, in a slightly etheral voice.
“Did she say anything about her dispute with her aunt lately?”
The woman shook her head. “Only that she was optimistic that her aunt would see reason, and not choose money over her family, and nature. She didn’t tell us anything more than that.”
“Well, I am not sure dying can be equaled to seeing reason,” Rick stated.
“Every death is a tragedy, even if the cycle of life continues. The Earth does not condone violence.” The woman looked straight at Castle now.
Willow had a more flexible view, but Rick nodded. He’d still have to check if the coven was involved in the murder or not. Or rather, he’d have Willow look into that. She or some of her students were far better suited to dealing with fellow witches anyway, and Rick would rather have some magic backup when taking care of their murder witch.
Beckett rolled her eyes now. “When was the last time you spoke with her?”
The detective continued to question the witch, but nothing more relevant was revealed, other than a lot of details about the wiccan’s beliefs and practises. Enough to confirm the motive though, if Janet was even half faithful - or fanatic about the grove than Waterson, and not quite as strong in her rejection of violence.
Judging by the thin line Beckett’s lips had turned into on the way back to the car, the detective had come to the same conclusion. She knew Janet was the killer, but she couldn’t prove it.
Fortunately, Rick could do something about that. With a little help from his friends.
*****
“No one will ever believe that!” Vi huffed, wiping sweat from her forehead. Even for a Slayer, moving heavy machinery in cramped spaces was sweaty work.
“Sure they will. It’s the only explanation that makes a shred of sense, if you discount magic,” Rick answered, surveying the result. “One industrial grade meat maimer, in a van records will show Janet purchased two weeks ago.”
“It’s not a ‘meat maimer’. That’s not a word.” Vi pouted.
“Who’s the famous bestselling author here, you or me? If I say it’s a word, it’s a word!” Rick countered while making sure the remnants of the liver were spread inside the contraption. “Anyway - they’ll buy the story because they’ll make it up themselves.”
It wasn’t as if Janet Farwright would be around to tell them otherwise. She’d have a tragic accident trying to dispose of the van.
“Why all the fuss anyway? We could just let the witch disappear. One unsolved case, among dozens.” Vi climbed out of the van.
“People wouldn’t know what happened. They’d be wondering if she really was guilty, or just another victim. Insurances, authorities… lots of people would be wasting their time, time better spent helping others. And it wouldn’t be just,” Rick stated. “This way, the case is solved, the right way.”
“Yeah… by fooling everyone,” Vi didn’t sound too convinced, but she stopped griping. Too many people knowing about the supernatural, too many fearing the Forces of Darkness, could wake up entities no one, not even the vampires and other ‘normal’ demons, wanted around. Dealing with that mess in L.A. had showed that. Though he had a feeling that sooner or later, Beckett would have to be informed. She was just a bit too good at her job.
“Alright, let’s ditch them!”
A bit of a shove, and the van started to roll down towards the river.
*****
“... and while trying to get rid of the machine and van she had used to kill her aunt, she had an accident, and drowned. We found the security camera spoofers too, that gave her the window of opportunity to murder her.” Beckett explained while clearing her ‘Murder Wall’ of the files from the Farwright case.
Rick hated himself right then, but he had to ask: “But why did she do it that way? Why not simply stage a robbery gone wrong?”
“Who knows? She was probably too worked up in the symbolism to think straight. But it all fits. The DNA, Perlmutter’s report, the receipts and the fake ID she set up to purchase the van and machine online… premeditated murder.” She turned to him. “So, do you think this will make for a good case for your ‘Supernatural Detective’?”
“Hm. I am not sure. I think Nicky Heat will discover that the murder was a witch who hired a demon to do the deed because she wasn’t strong enough to do it herself with magic. But she hadn’t enough money to hire a decent assassin, so her bargain-rate killer tried to make more money on the side by selling body parts of the kill, which led to all unraveling. I’ll probably add a long background of being seen as weak and useless by her family too. Wounded pride, maybe some jealousy, and some of her power bound in the threatened grove…” Rick trailed of when he saw the detective’s face.
“Nicky Heat? You’re giving me a stripper name?!”
“Err…”
Rick was very glad that there were too many witnesses around for Kate Beckett to shoot him and claim self-defense. Vi and the two other detectives were chuckling to the side, of course.
Author: Starfox5
Rating: FR18
Crossover: “Castle”
Written for: TtH August Fic A Day Challenge
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. Castle Characters belong to Beacon PIctures and ABC Studio. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Summary: They know the murderer - but they cannot prove it..
New York, April 2009
The patrons of ‘Clark’s’ tensed up when Violet O’Malley and Rick Castle entered, but no one tried to run or attack them. The bouncers didn’t even react to them anymore, other than some slight twitching when Vi stared at them for too long. Brinner, the owner of the demon bar, had really cleaned up his act over the years. And it had only taken half a dozen thrashings from Vi, two demonstrations of the Ack Pack, and one visit by Faith and Buffy. But after his bar had been rebuilt twice, and his regulars decimated three times, he had finally come around to the new Council’s way of thinking. The demonic bartender still had some disreputable clients, but they were the questionable rather than stake-on-sight kind. Some people simply took a bit longer to learn the facts of life, Castle guessed. And to decorate a bar so it didn’t look like a crime against humanity.
Brinner even had become a useful contact. Within limits. He wasn’t exactly a fountain of information, but Vi didn’t have to literally shake him down anymore to get some directions to troublesome demons. He still refused to let Castle attend the Kitten Poker evenings.
Castle leaned on the bar, keeping an eye on the regulars, while Vi went through the usual motions, threatening the Loose-Skinned Demon in creative ways.
“And if you don’t get helpful right now, I’ll stuff you into a laundry machine and wash you until you skin has shrunk to fit your size! Got that, Brinner?”
It was an act, to let Brinner claim he was forced to help the Slayer. The smarter demons among his patrons understood that it would stop being an act in a heartbeat if it was needed, but occasionally, some newcomers tried to intervene, and Vi and RIck had to show them why you didn’t fuck with the Slayer in New York. Or anywhere else.
“Br’gek said he had some liver… well, I overheard him ask around if anyone was interested…”
“And who is that creep, what is he, and where can I find his soon to be slain hide?”
The way a Loose-Skinned Demon’s folds flapped around when he was shaken like a ragdoll was a fascinating and disgusting sight.
*****
“Why can’t those demons live in nicer, cleaner spaces?” Vi complained, staring a smudge of… something… on her boot.
“Because New York is a very expensive area, and they can’t scrape enough money together for a deposit that covers damage from visiting Slayers,” Rick answered as the two made their way through the basement of an abandoned factory. “But in a way, this is like a demon version of a loft - just without all the remodeling, and using the basement, instead of the upper levels, for housing.”
Vi snickered and shook her head, then stiffened for an instant, head cocked to the side. Rick knew she had sensed their prey. She was like a hound dog, in that way. Not that he’d ever make that comparison where she could hear it.
The two picked up their pace, Vi taking point and kicking the next door in, revealing a Fyarl demon in what Rupert would be calling a “threat display”. Rick’s colleague was an expert for Fyarl demons, for a reason he had never discussed. Rick suspected someone he cared for had been killed by one of the buggers.
Rick stepped to the side, and Vi charged ahead, dodging the load of paralyzing snot coming at her before slamming her foot into the side of the demon’s left knee. Howling, it tried to take her head off, but she had dropped below his swing, and was rolling on the floor to his back. Rick watched, but kept his pistol with the silver bullets ready. Just in case Vi caught a case of bad luck.
She didn’t. Another kick smashed the monster’s nose in, ruining his ability to snot at people and staggering it. Away from a Hellmouth, they really were not that tough compared to a Slayer. Then the blades came out, and tendons got cut.
“You could have simply shot his knees out with the shotgun,” Rick commented as he stepped inside the room.
“I don’t want to get rusty. Not everything can be shot.” Vi curb-stomped the demon’s right claw, then put her foot on his back and kept him down.
“Point.” Rick looked around, spotting a tupperware container with the slightly decomposing missing liver in it. Fyarl’s - not the brightest bulbs among demons. He sighed, then crouched down at the side of the demon.
“Hello. I am Castle, that’s Vi. We’ve got a few questions for you regarding the murder of a Mrs. Jennifer Farwright, who was found stuffed into her safe and missing her liver. You wouldn’t know something about it, would you?”
He did, but it took a few more applications of controlled violence from Vi until he spilled what he knew. After the monster had finished, Rick pulled out his smartphone and showed the demon a picture. “So… this girl hired you for the murder, and then used magic to clean up?” A weak nod from the broken demon confirmed Janet’s involvement.
A stab with a silver dagger later, one of the murderers was no more.
Vi stood up, wiping the blade clean on a rag. “So, Rick… we know the perp, but we can’t prove it. What do we do?”
“We can’t take her out now, not with the police involved. We’ll have to see how the investigation is proceeding. Given that the girl wanted her aunt to ‘die surrounded by the money she loved more than her niece’, our new friends from the 12th Precinct might turn up something.
*****
“Oh, back to nature!” Rick grinned as Becket stopped the car at the edge of a small forest in New Jersey.
“Don’t wander off. I’d rather not explain to the Captain why the Mayor’s friend got lost in the woods,” Beckett ordered, then went to look at a big sign declaring this the future location of the ‘Pine Forest Condo Complex’. Rick couldn’t spot any pines in the wood, but he guessed the future owners would care, since the wood would be cleared anyway.
“Will it still be built, with the main investor dead?” he asked, watching the trees.
“That depends on what her heirs decide.”
Vi was moving slowly, a bit too nonchalantly, towards the edge of the forest. She probably had spotted someone - or something. If they encountered a demon here… well, he was already wondering how Beckett would react to such a revelation, but she’d probably try to shoot things that couldn’t be shot, and get hurt for her ignorance.
And it would be his fault, somewhat.
It wasn’t a demon that stepped out from between the trees, but a young woman, in what Castle was calling ‘Hippie Chic’ where Willow couldn’t hear him. Real hippies, as his mother had been fond to tell him, didn’t wear labels.
“Detective Beckett, NYPD. May I ask what you are doing here?” Beckett took charge, or thought so.
“I am Mary-Anne Waterson. I was visiting our grove,” the woman answered, her attention fixed on Vi. She was wearing a symbol for the Earth-Goddess Castle recognized. A Wiccan then. Probably even a real one, since Vi remained tense.
“Your grove?” Beckett must have picked up on the tension.
“My coven’s grove. The place where we gather to worship the Earth.” The woman explained, briefly making eye contact with the cop, before turning her attention back on the Slayer. Definitely a witch.
Beckett’s eyebrows rose a bit, but that was all the reaction she showed. “Do you know a Miss Janet Farwright?”
“Yes, she is also a member of our coven.”
“So that’s why she was opposed to the construction project!” Castle declared, as if he had just realized it. The look Beckett gave him showed she had bought the deception. Or she was just annoyed that he was blurting out information.
“Yes. She was very distraught that a member of her family was about to destroy our holy place.” The woman explained, in a slightly etheral voice.
“Did she say anything about her dispute with her aunt lately?”
The woman shook her head. “Only that she was optimistic that her aunt would see reason, and not choose money over her family, and nature. She didn’t tell us anything more than that.”
“Well, I am not sure dying can be equaled to seeing reason,” Rick stated.
“Every death is a tragedy, even if the cycle of life continues. The Earth does not condone violence.” The woman looked straight at Castle now.
Willow had a more flexible view, but Rick nodded. He’d still have to check if the coven was involved in the murder or not. Or rather, he’d have Willow look into that. She or some of her students were far better suited to dealing with fellow witches anyway, and Rick would rather have some magic backup when taking care of their murder witch.
Beckett rolled her eyes now. “When was the last time you spoke with her?”
The detective continued to question the witch, but nothing more relevant was revealed, other than a lot of details about the wiccan’s beliefs and practises. Enough to confirm the motive though, if Janet was even half faithful - or fanatic about the grove than Waterson, and not quite as strong in her rejection of violence.
Judging by the thin line Beckett’s lips had turned into on the way back to the car, the detective had come to the same conclusion. She knew Janet was the killer, but she couldn’t prove it.
Fortunately, Rick could do something about that. With a little help from his friends.
*****
“No one will ever believe that!” Vi huffed, wiping sweat from her forehead. Even for a Slayer, moving heavy machinery in cramped spaces was sweaty work.
“Sure they will. It’s the only explanation that makes a shred of sense, if you discount magic,” Rick answered, surveying the result. “One industrial grade meat maimer, in a van records will show Janet purchased two weeks ago.”
“It’s not a ‘meat maimer’. That’s not a word.” Vi pouted.
“Who’s the famous bestselling author here, you or me? If I say it’s a word, it’s a word!” Rick countered while making sure the remnants of the liver were spread inside the contraption. “Anyway - they’ll buy the story because they’ll make it up themselves.”
It wasn’t as if Janet Farwright would be around to tell them otherwise. She’d have a tragic accident trying to dispose of the van.
“Why all the fuss anyway? We could just let the witch disappear. One unsolved case, among dozens.” Vi climbed out of the van.
“People wouldn’t know what happened. They’d be wondering if she really was guilty, or just another victim. Insurances, authorities… lots of people would be wasting their time, time better spent helping others. And it wouldn’t be just,” Rick stated. “This way, the case is solved, the right way.”
“Yeah… by fooling everyone,” Vi didn’t sound too convinced, but she stopped griping. Too many people knowing about the supernatural, too many fearing the Forces of Darkness, could wake up entities no one, not even the vampires and other ‘normal’ demons, wanted around. Dealing with that mess in L.A. had showed that. Though he had a feeling that sooner or later, Beckett would have to be informed. She was just a bit too good at her job.
“Alright, let’s ditch them!”
A bit of a shove, and the van started to roll down towards the river.
*****
“... and while trying to get rid of the machine and van she had used to kill her aunt, she had an accident, and drowned. We found the security camera spoofers too, that gave her the window of opportunity to murder her.” Beckett explained while clearing her ‘Murder Wall’ of the files from the Farwright case.
Rick hated himself right then, but he had to ask: “But why did she do it that way? Why not simply stage a robbery gone wrong?”
“Who knows? She was probably too worked up in the symbolism to think straight. But it all fits. The DNA, Perlmutter’s report, the receipts and the fake ID she set up to purchase the van and machine online… premeditated murder.” She turned to him. “So, do you think this will make for a good case for your ‘Supernatural Detective’?”
“Hm. I am not sure. I think Nicky Heat will discover that the murder was a witch who hired a demon to do the deed because she wasn’t strong enough to do it herself with magic. But she hadn’t enough money to hire a decent assassin, so her bargain-rate killer tried to make more money on the side by selling body parts of the kill, which led to all unraveling. I’ll probably add a long background of being seen as weak and useless by her family too. Wounded pride, maybe some jealousy, and some of her power bound in the threatened grove…” Rick trailed of when he saw the detective’s face.
“Nicky Heat? You’re giving me a stripper name?!”
“Err…”
Rick was very glad that there were too many witnesses around for Kate Beckett to shoot him and claim self-defense. Vi and the two other detectives were chuckling to the side, of course.