Ellie's Last Act

Chapter 1

Richard Castle shifted uncomfortably but kept a smile on his face while Jimmy Dimmel played the video promoting Raging Heat. Despite the fact that book sales had soared since the video went viral, Richard was still not pleased with appearing as a clumsy dork. A gentle stroke on his hand brought a new source of unease. Ellie Monroe, there to promote her latest slasher film, was apparently trying to give him some support. They had slept together years before when she was attempting to be cast as Nikki in the ill-fated movie of Naked Heat. She read him well, too well. He moved his hand away. If Kate had seen that - well just in case, it wouldn't hurt to pick up his fiancée's favorite strawberry shake on the way home from the taping. It seemed that Ellie hadn't gotten the message as her head came to rest on his shoulder. As he pulled away, she tumbled to the floor.

"Wow, Rick," Dimmel joked, suspecting a set-up between Ellie and Castle. "You've got women passing out over you."

Castle crouched by Ellie, noting the grayish cast of her skin. "Jimmy," he said soberly, feeling for a pulse, "she's not acting."

"She was murdered," Lanie declared, as Castle and Beckett looked at Ellie's body on the autopsy table.

"How?" Beckett asked.

"Poisoned," Lanie explained. "She was taking a blood thinner for a clot in her leg. There were a lot of things she would've had to avoid, chief among them aspirin. She was loaded with it."

"Couldn't that have been an accident?" Castle asked.

"You don't think I thought about that, Castle?" Lanie asked with a scathing look. "I spoke to her doctor. Ellie was very aware of the risks and very faithful about getting her blood tested. She would have known better. Besides, CSU found her thermos of herbal tea backstage. It was loaded with aspirin."

"Oh, that stuff!" Castle recalled. "She carried it everywhere. She thought it made her skin softer or something. She did have..."

"Castle!" Beckett interjected sharply.

"Anyway," Castle continued, wincing under Beckett's angry glare, "she had me taste it once. I needed three sticks of gum to get the taste out of my mouth. It would have covered up anything."

"Lanie," how long after drinking the tea would she have died?" Beckett asked.

"Hard to tell," Lanie answered. "She had a lot of blood in her stomach, but it could have been a slow bleed that got worse over time with more sips of tea or it could have been faster. It might have taken several hours."

"We're going to have to trace her movements throughout the day," Beckett decided and see who had access to that thermos who had a motive to kill Ellie Monroe."

Beckett, Castle, Ryan, and Esposito were clustered around the murder board. "Ellie was one busy lady," Ryan noted. "I got her schedule off her phone. She had three different meetings and a lunch before she went to the Dimmel taping."

"Let me guess," Beckett speculated acidly, "the meetings were all at her hotel."

"Well, one was," Ryan replied. "One of the others was at another hotel and the third one was at a director's office.

"Okay, You guys talk to anyone at Dimmel who might have had access to the thermos or knows who did," Beckett ordered. "Castle and I will take her meetings and lunch date."

Ellie's first meeting of the day was with Von Durbridge, a director of bloody independent films. His films generally garnered scathing reviews but were regularly picked up by distributors because they sold well to the younger demographic and always made money in video sales. Von had what was in essence a small repertory company of actors he featured regularly in his films, of which Ellie was a part.

"Yeah, I saw Ellie yesterday morning," he admitted in answer to a question from Beckett. "She had some new - techniques she wanted to show me." Castle coughed as Beckett smirked.

"Did she have a thermos with her?" Beckett asked.

"Oh yeah, the tea," Von recalled. "She had it. She always had it. I don't know how she drank that stuff!" he exclaimed with a gagging noise.

"I know, right?" Castle put in.

"Did she drink any of it while she was with you?" Beckett inquired.

"Um, no," Von replied. "Actually we both had an energy drink."

"I'll bet you did," Castle thought to himself.

"So the two of you," Beckett questioned, "any troubles, any arguments?"

"No," Von replied, "actually I was going to give her a part in my next movie, Mistress of the Chamber."

"And did she seem well?" Beckett asked, almost suppressing a snicker.

"She was great," Von declared, oblivious to Beckett's reaction. "I'm going to miss her."

"Kate," Castle said as he slid into the his seat beside her in her car, "we need to talk about this."

"Talk about what, Castle?" she asked stiffly.

"Kate, you know about what!" he retorted. "About my sleeping with Ellie Monroe."

"Castle, that happened long before you and I were together," Kate argued. "It didn't make a difference then and it shouldn't make a difference now."

"Kate, that's crap and you know it," Castle insisted. "You and I weren't sleeping together then, but that didn't mean that you didn't care. You went out of your way to point out that it was couch casting. You wouldn't admit it, but you were jealous then and you're jealous now."

"So what's your point, Castle? Kate demanded.

"My point is there was no reason for you to be jealous then. I would have been with you if you'd given me half a chance," Castle continued. "And just as an aside, she was fun, but she couldn't light a candle to you anyway. In her case, I don't think practice - lots of practice - made perfect. There is certainly no reason for you to be jealous now." Castle reached over to caress her face. "You're the only woman I want, Kate."

Kate looked at Castle, the beginnings of a smile lighting her face. She glanced at her father's watch. "Castle, you know our next interview said he was going to be in a meeting until at least an hour from now."

"Why Detective Beckett, whatever will we do with the time?" Castle teased, returning her smile.

Kate reached over, drawing her fingertips down his thigh. "I'm sure we'll think of something."

Even at the speed Kate drove, the ride to the loft seemed interminable. Castle and Kate took the stairs rather than wait for the elevator. Martha was sitting in the living room reading a script as they pushed through the door, but with the quickest "Hello, Mother," Castle kept going and Kate with him.

Martha shook her head. "Now you see them, now you don't." As she heard the office and bedroom doors slam shut, she took her script up to her room and with a knowing but wistful look, shut her own door.