It was as early a morning as any in New York, the city that never sleeps. However on this particular morning the NYPD had discovered the latest citizen of the sleepless city to join the residents who were trapped in an eternal sleep.

As Castle and Beckett walked down the wooden planks of the docks Beckett couldn't help but crinkle her noise as they drew closer and closer to the crime scene, the salty morning air of the water mixed with the undeniable stench of death was enough make someone with a weak stomach gag.

"What have we got?" She asked as she and Castle finally reached the scene. It wasn't crowded, just themselves, Esposito, Ryan, Lanie and two other cops who were roping off the area.

"Name's Jasmine Suzuki, she's nineteen and a college student. Can't tell much about her, all she had in her wallet was her I.D., some cash and a credit card. She also had a track phone" Esposito listed off as Castle approached the body.

"Can we talk about what happened to her?" He asked bending over the dead girl's body.

It was clear how she died, her entire stomach was shredded to bits and all of her organs were ripped everywhere. It made even Lanie question what the killer used to do this job.

"Looks like something sharp and with more than one tip entered into her left hip then was slashed all the way through until it came out the other end" the medical examiner said as the other's joined in looking over the body.

"So what the killer had one knife in each hand?" Castle asked half joking and half serious

"Not a half bad idea except to do this amount of damage he would've needed to slash through her a few times but it looks like the weapon was only entered once. However I did find this" Lanie said holding up a clear plastic bag which contained a small gray sliver of something

"I'm going to have to send it to the lab but it looks like a piece of an animal claw" she explained

"You think an animal did this to her?" Beckett asked wondering what kind of animal could have possibly done this kind of damage. Sure any animal could have attacked her and chewed her remains but messy as it was this was precise.

Aside from her middle and her obvious death, she was unharmed. An animal would've chewed her leg or her arm, left scratches somewhere else on her, torn her clothes, just something. An animal would've done something more, something messier; something less precise.


Back at the precinct after going through Jasmine's phone Esposito got hold of a girl named Ginger Brooks, Jasmine's roommate.

"Oh god I knew it, I knew something was wrong" Ginger cried as she sat on the couch of the almost lounge like room with Castle and Beckett opposite her, asking her what she knew.

"What do you mean you knew? Did you know that Jasmine was in trouble?" Castle questioned the young girl but she only shook her head.

"No, no I didn't know she was in trouble. Not this kind of trouble" she explained before taking a breath, trying to calm herself.

"But she'd been acting strange lately, for the past week" Ginger began

"Strange like how?" Beckett asked eager to hear this and relieved that for once someone who had a relationship with the victim had noticed strange behavior, it would surprise you how so few people noticed.

"Jasmine would always go to bed before midnight, always. If she stayed up later then she was watching a movie or finishing homework but the past two nights she stayed up reading this same file over and over again." Ginger explained

"And what was in this file?" Castle asked getting more and more intrigued by the explanation as it went on.

"I don't know. She refused to tell me. She said it was nothing personal just that she told her mom once and she laughed in her face and told her that what she believed was impossible, desperate hope." Ginger explained so Castle nodded disappointed that the girl didn't know the contents of the file as Beckett continued to listen intently.

Ginger reached into her bag and pulled out a folder with the image of Hello Kitty on it, she held it out to Beckett.

"Whatever it is I knew where she kept it so I brought it with me, I thought it might help" she explained, Beckett took it with an almost whispered thank you.

"You didn't look at it?" Castle asked surprised, he would've.

"Jasmine said she would tell me about it when she solved it, she didn't want me to know before then. But I can tell you one thing" Ginger said so the Castle and Beckett both paid close attention.

"She brought it with her when she came to school freshman year" she said, whatever was in that file her roommate had been investigating it for a few years and now it had gotten her killed.

"Thank you for all your help Ginger just two more questions, can you tell us what Jasmine was a major in and how to contact her parents?" Beckett asked as Ginger once again took a breath.

"She was a criminal justice major, as for her parents her dad died in the military. She hasn't spoken to her mom in almost two years, they didn't get along. I'm sorry but I don't know where she is" Ginger explained wishing she could've been more helpful.


"Hey Beckett" Ryan called when he caught Beckett returning to her desk

"So I got in touch the dispatcher who got the call about Jasmine last night, said it came in around twelve-thirty a.m. but here's the weird part, it came from an unlisted number" he explained

"Wait so somebody killed her and then called 911 for her?" Castle asked; it didn't make any sense but who else would call from an unlisted number?


Meanwhile down beneath the surface of New York two turtle brother's sat on the couch of their living room while the youngest sat crisscross on the floor and the oldest paced around the sunken pit holding a pocket knife which regrettably they had taken off of a deceased woman's body.

"I still say we should've left the knife there, we called the police and what if they need it to find whatever sicko did that?" The red bandana wearing turtle growled only for his younger yet taller brother to sigh

"Ordinarily I'd agree with you Raph but we can't ignore what's carved on it" Donnie reminded his brother who still didn't seem happy about it but nodded. He wasn't usually one to want to leave things up to the police but seeing that most likely innocent girl who couldn't have been much older than himself lying there in a pool of her own blood and guts; it had been enough to make his stomach churn. And without her knife what was to stop the police from ruling it as some kind of accident.

"Donnie's right, whoever that girl was she had the symbol of the Hamato clan carved onto her weapon. That means that somehow in some way she's connected to us" Leo reminded them

"And we could be next" Mikey said fearfully. When he had seen what happened to that girl he looked away, he had wanted to throw up and he felt lightheaded, how could a person do that?

He couldn't understand it. He couldn't for the life of him understand how someone could be so inhuman as to rip another human being to shreds and leave them where they fell. Even the Shredder had the decency to get rid of the body. Even if it was in the name of destroying evidence, still even a monster like him wouldn't gruesomely murder a young girl only to leave her lying in the spot where she took her last breath for all to see.

Then Donnie had seen the pocket knife which had fallen to her side and engraved in the wooden handle with black ink to make the engraving stand out was a symbol matching the one on their own throwing stars, the symbol of the Hamato clan.