Maitland's Millions

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Would it surprise you to know I don't own Castle? Rating: K Time: After the end of season eight. Just a three shot.

It began innocently enough, as these things often do.

Castle ran upstairs to the mezzanine of the book store where his wife and his agent were enjoying coffee.

"Okay, ladies, I'm all done. How did you like it, Kate?"

"Going to your first book signing as your wife was…educational."

Paula laughed. "I had to stop her from going down there with her gun in her hand when that blonde leaned way over the table."

"Don't those women know by now that we're married and that the only chest you will ever sign again is mine?"

Castle blushed. "Sorry. Years of being your friendly local playboy author have stuck with me."

"Maybe I should sit next to you next time. I could wear a tee shirt that says Richard Castle is mine, so back off."

One of the store clerks came over to talk to Paula. "Ms. Haas? What do we do with the box?"

"Oh, just toss it, dear."

"Wait." Kate interrupted. "What box?"

The girl shuffled a cardboard box in her hands back and forth. Paula came to her rescue.

"Oh, people give Rick a lot of things at these signings. He's had awful manuscripts given to him, people asking for money, all sorts of things. Rick puts them in a box under the table."

"Why do you keep them in box if you're just going to throw them away?"

"To prevent hard feeling by my fans. How would you feel if your favorite, ruggedly handsome writer took your fan letter and just tossed it in the trash? You wouldn't be a Richard Castle fan much longer, would you?"

"You can just toss that, sweetie." Paula said a little too quickly.

"No. Bring it to me."

The clerk looked back and forth between Paula and Kate, then handed the box to Kate and quickly made her escape.

Kate pulled out a business card. "Teresa Clemons, an accountant. Does she think you need an…" Then Kate saw the writing on the back of the card. "No, she thinks you need to be tied up, have chocolate sauce dripped all over you…" Kate shot to her feet, looking to see if the woman was around. "She wrote her hotel name and room number. I should go over there and…"

"Kate, please, honey. You'd just get everyone embarrassed…"

"This one sent a nude photograph. So did this one and…Oh my GOD! She must be over eighty."

While Kate went through the contents of the box, getting angrier by the second, Castle tried to distract her. "Kate, I was talking to Ryan and Esposito this morning and they were looking at a website called Maitland's Millions. It seemed to be about some cop, but they got suspiciously busy when I asked them what it was about. Can you…"

"You get nude photos from men, too?" Kate growled, waving another photo at him.

It took a half an hour for Kate to go through the box, take the contents to the book store manager's shredder, then bag the shredded paper to be burned in the loft's fireplace.

Once the burning was safely done, Rick poured her some wine and let her settle down. He sat beside her on the sofa and when he thought it was safe, he asked, "Are you okay now?"

She surprised by throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him passionately. "Thank you so very much." She whispered when she broke the kiss. "Thank you."

"For showing you the throw away box?" Castle wasn't sure why she was thanking him.

She shook her head. "For all that you've done for me. I was a mess after my mom died. Terrified about being intimate with anyone for fear they'd leave. In denial about just how bad off I was. I was a complete bitch to you too many times to count. Any sensible man would have run from Kate Beckett as fast as he could, but here we are. We're married and I never thought I'd ever be this happy. Every time I see how easy it would have been for you to find someone else, I know how lucky I am." She kissed him again.

"No one has ever called me sensible to begin with and if you think I'd be happy with a three hundred pound, eighty year-old grandmother…"

She slapped his chest. "You could have gone with that accountant. She's probably a very stable woman."

"The accountant was the eighty year-old grandmother."

"Well, Mr. Castle, I think I need to show you just how happy I am you stayed with me."

Later, as they were ready to fall asleep, Kate asked, "Did you ask about Maitland's millions tonight?"

"Just something I picked up at the station."

"Um. Take me to lunch tomorrow and I tell you all about it."

Castle arrived the next day precisely at noon and took Kate to Remy's. Once they had ordered, he asked her about Maitland's millions.

"Charles Maitland was a captain in the New Jersey State Police. In the early nineties he was named the head of their narcotics unit. He was responsible for coordinating with all of the police forces in New Jersey and coordinating with other state's narcotics people, mainly New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Connecticut. He also coordinated with the feds, mostly the DEA."

"I'm assuming that he didn't get his millions by winning the lottery?" Castle asked.

"He was dirty. He corrupted three or four other cops, all in positions to do the most damage and he was in a great position to direct any attention to drug busts gone wrong to someone other than him. He really did make millions. No one really knows how many millions, but he was at it for years."

"What happened?"

"He was smart. He knew that most people get caught with their hand in the cookie jar because they suddenly start throwing money around they shouldn't have. Expensive cars, boats, new homes, vacations, things like that. He kept all the money himself except for a very small amount he'd dole out to the other dirty cops. Once they had enough, the plan was for them all to head for some country that had no extradition treaty with the US and live the good life."

"So, if he was so smart, how'd he get caught?"

"One of the other dirty cops' daughter developed leukemia and needed a lot of expensive care. More than New Jersey would pay for. He asked for a lot of money. Maitland turned him down. So, he ratted out Maitland."

"Maitland never told them where the money was?"

"Maitland saw the cops pull up in front of his house and figured it was all over. He went to his office and shot himself. The wife was just answering the door when they heard the shot. He killed himself in the summer of 1999. They were still talking about it when I went to the Academy."

"No clue at all where the money went? No secret bank account? No hidden room in the house? No odd trips out of the country to countries that have very strict bank secrecy laws?"

"The only clue Maitland left was something he said to his wife on his way to his office: "If they ask about money, tell them to ask William Claude Dunkenfield." We checked out everyone named William Claude Dunkenfield and came up empty."

Castle smiled at his wife. "Ah, but did you know that…"

"William Claude Dunkenfield is the real name of W.C. Fields, a comedian from the twenties to the forties?" Kate smiled back. "Yes. And we found out that Fields distrusted banks. He'd get paid for a movie and go to a bank and put his money in a safety deposit box, using a phony name. "

Castle thought about that. "Fields was famous for the bizarre names he'd make up for the characters he'd play. Elmer Prettywillie, Augustus Winterbottom, Ambrose Wolffinger, T. Frothington Bellows, Larson E. Whipsnade, Cuthbert J. Willie, Egbert Souse, pronouncd Sow-zay, Mahatma Kane Jeeves, and Otis Criblecolis, to name a few. Could you check the banks for names like that?"

Kate shook her head. "Not without a search warrant, and no judge is going to issue one for every bank on the east coast to look for god knows how many odd names."

"Do you suppose I could have a look at the files?" Castle did his best to look appealing.

"No, and they're in New Jersey, so out of my jurisdiction anyway. But, the Ledger wrote a series of articles about the case back in the day. That should give you a good start. You could probably find the old stories on line or at the library."

Once they had finished and Rick had taken Kate back to the precinct, he rushed back to the loft and got online. He was still reading when Kate got home.

"You're still reading the Ledger, Babe?' She asked, after kissing him.

"No, the State of New Jersey investigated the whole matter. And, New Jersey will pay a finders' fee of ten percent of whatever's recovered. "He winked at Kate, "It'll make a nice donation to the Johanna Beckett Scholarship Fund."

Kate blew him a kiss.

"The four other dirty cops were all convicted and sentenced to a long time in prison. Three are still in prison and the other one got shanked by someone who didn't like dirty cops. Oh, the daughter of the cop who ratted out Maitland died of leukemia. I did find one thing. There was another cop who was involved, Marty Sinclair. He was a rookie and all he was guilty of was signing some things without reading them. Not enough to put him in jail, but enough to fire him. I'm going to try to track him down. Maitland's widow is still around. She should be easy to find, too."

"How about we track down some dinner, Babe?"

"Excellent idea, my dear Captain Beckett."

Carolyn Maitland was easy track down. She lived with her daughter in northern New Jersey. She had been younger than Maitland had been when they married and still had a slender figure and coal black hair even though she was in her early fifties. They sat in the living room of the daughter's house.

"I don't see how I can be any help to you, Mr. Castle. If I knew anything about where the money went, I wouldn't be here. I'd be in some country with no extradition treaty with the US."

Castle was surprised. "You'd break the law?"

She smiled and nodded. "In a heartbeat. Because my asshole husband was a crook, I never saw a penny of the pension he was supposed to get. In addition, New Jersey took almost everything away. They said it was all the proceeds of a criminal conspiracy. I lost our house, our savings, the cars, everything in our house. I had to hire a lawyer to keep those things that I got before I married Chuck. And the lawyer got half of that. I had to go to work as a waitress to support my daughter and son. Luckily, I got a job as a teacher's aide and worked my way up to being the executive assistant to the head of the school district. It was nothing but a glorified secretary, but it paid the bills. Now Nancy, my daughter is a lawyer, and married to a lawyer. Todd, my son got a full scholarship to MIT and already has IT firms offering him jobs. I got screwed by my dear asshole hubby and by New Jersey."

"I can see why you're bitter." Castle said.

"Bitter. Damned right I'm bitter. If that asshole had told me he was going to commit suicide, I'd have helped him. I'd have gotten the damned chainsaw and started on his face. I'd have worked on his crotch and then…."

"Mom! That's not helping your blood pressure!" Came a voice from another room.

Mrs. Maitland took several deep breaths. "I'm okay, Nancy." She continued to take deep breaths.

"Can I ask you some questions about your husband without getting you all upset?" He asked.

She smiled at him. "Sure. Ask away."

They talked for over an hour, but Carolyn Maitland knew very little about her husband's crimes or the money.

It took Castle several days to track down Marty Sinclair. Luckily, the New Jersey investigation had been very thorough, showing each guilty party's full name, date of birth and Social Security number. By lunch time the next day, he was ready to meet Sinclair.

He walked into a small deli in Brooklyn and saw Sinclair sitting in the back, having lunch. Castle walked over and sat down. "Hi, I'm Richard Castle. I'm a writer. I'd like to talk to you about…"

"Get the hell away from me." Sinclair snarled.

"Look, I just want to talk about…"

"The damned case that ruined my life? I got fired for doing what every rookie cop does. It was drilled into us at the Academy. Do what the veteran cops tell you to do. They know what they're doing. So, I signed some things I shouldn't have. I got fired and because the cops talk to each other, I couldn't get another job as a cop. My wife left me, I lost my house. I lost everything. Now I'm a handy man with a twelve year-old truck that's falling apart. I live in a one room apartment and eat lunch at cheap delis that serve skimpy sandwiches on day old bread. Now get away from me."

Sinclair didn't realize that he had told Castle quite a lot, but Castle wanted more. As Sinclair glared at him. Castle smiled. "How about I buy you lunch?"

"How about you get lost?"

Castle took a hundred-dollar bill from his jacket and dropped it on the table.

"What's that?"

Castle smiled. "You figure it out." When Sinclair kept glaring at him, he dropped another bill on the table. Sinclair looked interested, so Castle put one more on the table. "You know I could go to see they guys still in prison. Twenty bucks looks like a fortune to someone in prison."

Sinclair picked up the bills. "What do you want to know?"

They talked for over an hour, but Sinclair told him little about the case he didn't already know. He tried a different tack. "Tell me about Maitland himself. Was he a sharp dresser? A slob? Did he like muscle cars? Fishing? Did he drink? Cheat on his wife? Belong to a strange cult? Did he like to work around the house? Work in his garden? Tell me about the man himself."

Guided by Castle's questioning, Sinclair told him all he knew about the man.

"What about his tastes? Did he like rock music, country, jazz, classical, bagpipes?"

"He liked elevator music. He had it piped into the office. The most boring stuff you ever heard. Everyone hated it."

'Did he like TV, movies, plays? What?"

"He was an old movie buff. He liked the comedies: Laurel and Hardy, Abbot and Costello, the Marx Brothers, oh, and he loved that fat, drunk, nasty guy. He had a poster of the guy in his office, playing cards and wearing this silly top hat."

"W. C. Fields?"

"That's him."

Castle refrained from smiling.

They talked for a bit longer, but Sinclair knew nothing more. As Castle got up to leave, he tossed another hundred on the table, "I said I'd pay for your lunch, right?"

Castle took the information he'd gotten from Sinclair and added it to the other evidence he had. Then he got to work.

When Kate came back to the loft several days later, she found her husband standing in front of his office, with a big smile on his face.

"You have something to smile about?" She asked, teasingly.

"Being married to you I always have something to smile about. But, I have even more to smile about right now. Beckett, you're married to a genius."

"And so modest, too."

He smirked at her. "Laugh if you will, but I found the missing money?"

"It's here?" She looked around.

"No, but I know where it is. The State of New Jersey has it."

"Really? You think they just found the money and decided to keep it and not mention it to anyone?" She said somewhat sarcastically.

"No. They don't know that the money they have is Maitland's stash."

Kate sighed. "Why don't we have a glass of wine and you can try to make this make sense?"