Rick Castle sighed, as he exited the elevator into the 12th precinct's bullpen. It had been a long and sleepless night for him. The Boylan Plaza bombing had left five people dead; scores injured, and had brought the wrath of City Hall down on the precinct. Alexis had cried through the night, haunted by the images of bombing victims in the morgue. Yawning, he looked around for Beckett, frowning when he didn't see her nearby. However, a familiar face caught his attention. "Hey, Espo," he called out, as Esposito walked by. "No luck on the files last night. You guys catch a break?"
"Better," replied Esposito. "We caught the suspect."
"What?" exclaimed Castle. "Where is he?"
"In the box. With Beckett."
Castle eagerly walked into the observation room, watching as Beckett picked apart Bobby's story, piece by piece. He was claiming he could not remember what happened or how he got the backpack containing the explosives, that it must be some sort of trauma-induced amnesia. As he grew more afraid of Beckett's icy stare, Bobby exclaimed, "I swear I don't remember! It must've been one of those trauma amnesia moments!" Beckett lowered herself until she was mere inches from his face. In a low, deadly voice, she said, "No. You don't get to use that excuse. Not with me."
"I swear to God, I don't remember!" replied Bobby, in desperation.
"The hell you don't remember!" yelled Beckett, as she whirled around to face him. "Do you wanna know trauma? I was shot in the chest, and I remember every second of it...And so do you!"
Castle stood in silence, as he stared numbly at Beckett in the interrogation room. He couldn't even breathe, he was so stunned. Finally, he managed to find enough of his voice, to whisper out loud to himself. "All this time…you remembered?" Castle numbly walked out of the observation room, and back into the bullpen. As he approached Beckett's desk, he slammed the coffee cup down, shooting coffee through the lid to stain the papers scattered on Beckett's desk. Normally, he would have cleaned them up before she got back. But now, he was so furious with her for lying to him all this time, he just didn't care. Castle gathered the case files he's been reading that he left on Beckett's desk into his arms, and walked over to knock on the door of Gate's office. "Sir, can I ask a favor?"

Beckett walked out of Interrogation two hours later, having gotten little from Bobby, but the usual repeated "I don't remember!" line. She was tired, had a headache pounding in her head, and desperately needed coffee. Looking at her desk, she smiled as she saw the coffee cup on her desk, thanking whatever deity watching over cops that at least one of the items on her list was fulfilled. However, the smile quickly turned into a frown of confusion, as she looked around, not seeing Castle anywhere. "Where's Castle?"
"Over there," replied Esposito, gesturing toward a desk on the other side of the room. "He commandeered that shortly after you went in to interrogate Bobby. Said he needed some privacy to read the case files, so he asked Gates if he could use it."
Beckett frowned, as she glanced over at the desk Castle was using. "So where is he now?"
"He went to go get more case files," replied Esposito. "He should be back up soon." As if on cue, Castle strode back into the bullpen, carrying a new armload of case files. Without a word, he sat down at the desk, and started scanning the top one. Beckett walked over, and stood next to him. "Hey, Castle," she said. Castle didn't reply. Beckett frowned, and tried a new approach. "What're you doing?"
"Reading," replied Castle, not bothering to look up.
"Oh," replied Beckett. "You got anything?"
"Maybe. Hey, Ryan," Castle called, looking up as the detective walked by. "You have the LUDs from Jessie's phone?"
"No, I left it on Beckett's desk," Ryan replied. "Why, what's up?"
"Something Alexis said last night's been bugging me. She said that when she was planning a surprise party for Ashley, she called to make sure everything was set up right before they walked in. Now, right before the bomb went off, Jessie was trying frantically to call whoever had the detonator, to tell them that the bomb was in the middle of a crowd."
"Right, but whoever had the detonator wasn't answering the phone," said Esposito.
"Exactly," replied Castle. "Now, I don't know about you, but another phone call from the person who told me I was good to go would make me wanna answer right away."
"Unless you CAN'T answer," said Beckett. "Bobby had several phones that he lifted from people. Maybe one of them was our bomber?"
"No. I checked the numbers against Jessie's LUDs. None of them were a match," replied Ryan.
"Which means there was only one person at the scene that couldn't answer their phone," said Castle, as he stared at the murder board. "LeAnn West."
"The reporter?" asked Beckett in disbelief. "Castle, she has no motive to kill these people. Why would she set off a bomb?"
"Fame, attention, ambition," replied Castle. "She's a reporter, on hand when the biggest story in the city hits. Don't you find it a little TOO convenient that she just happened to be there right as the bomb goes off? Also, I did a little digging into her background. She and Jessie went to Hudson University together, which means she had motive to get in touch with him."
"Yeah, but CSU went over the area with a fine-tooth comb," replied Ryan. "They didn't find anything."
"Unless she dumped it during the chaos," said Beckett thoughtfully. She turned to Ryan and Esposito. "Have CSU sweep every storm drain, trash can, dumpster, and rat hole in a five block radius from the bombing. If there's a hiding spot, I want it checked." As the boys ran off to make calls, Beckett turned to Castle and smiled. "Nice job, Castle," she said. "You may have cracked this case."
"Yeah," he replied, as he turned back to the desk he was using, gathering up all the files on it. Beckett frowned.
"Is something wrong?" she asked.
"No," he replied, as he walked away. Beckett watched him walk off, her brow still creased. He had sounded mad at her. But for what? Was it something related to the case? Or was it something she said or did? Before she could ponder further, Ryan walked over, a smug look on his face. "CSU just called. Guess what they found in a storm drain two blocks from the scene?"
"Castle, you wanna take a stab at this?" asked Beckett, teasingly. "Spin one of your wild theories?"
"No," he replied, sitting down at his desk.
"O…kay," said Ryan. "Anyway, they found a burner phone that matched to the number Jessie was trying to call right before the explosion. And right next to it was the remote detonator. So they ran it for prints, and got a match. Guess who?"
"LeAnn West," said Castle quietly.
Ryan frowned. "I'm not playing Psychic with you again."
Beckett looked at him, a steely glint in her eyes. "Have uniforms bring her in."
"Esposito's already on his way to pick her up," replied Ryan.
"Good," she replied. She headed for the elevator, only to notice Castle still sitting at his desk. "Castle, you coming?"
"Actually, I think I'll sit this one out," he said.
Beckett blinked. "Okay," she said, hoping the hurt she was feeling wasn't coming through in her voice. "Well, you can watch from the observation room, if you want."
"I know," he whispered to himself, as the elevator doors closed on Beckett.

LeAnn West looked up as Beckett entered the room. "Why am I here?" she asked. "I told the police everything I know. And they have the footage from the day of the explosion."
Beckett sat down, as she laid the folder she was carrying on the table. "You lied to us, Ms. West," she said.
"Excuse me?" the woman said. "I didn't lie to anyone."
"Oh, really?" asked Beckett, as she turned on a TV. "Then how do you explain this?" The footage was of LeAnn talking into her mic, hand raised to her ear. "You were on the phone with someone, weren't you?"
"No, I wasn't," she said. "I wasn't on the phone with anyone, I was talking to my cameraman. I already told the FBI the whole story."
"Except you left out a few details," replied Beckett. "Like the fact that you knew Jessie Friedman. The two of you went to Hudson University together."
"Yeah. So did a lot of people."
"The two of you reunited at the protest, went out for drinks, and you hatched a plan. You wanted media attention for the movement. You wanted to get promoted to the anchor desk. That spot looked really good to you, didn't it? So you set up your camera at the perfect vantage point. You waited until you went live, and then you detonated that bomb."
"What? That is insane! This is ridiculous, and I will not listen to another word of it. We're done here." LeAnn started to rise, but Beckett slammed a phone in an evidence bag down on the table in front of her.

"We're just getting started. Recognize that?"
Fear flashed across the reporter's face, before she managed to compose herself. "No. Should I?"
"That's the burner cell you used to call Jessie. We found it in a storm drain two blocks from Boylan Plaza. You know what else we found in there? This." Beckett set down another bag, with the remote detonator in it. "The remote you used to detonate the bomb. Small enough to hide in the palm of your hand. It's got your fingerprints all over it, LeAnn."
"How did you find that?" she asked quietly.
"By tracking your movements after the explosion, using your phone's GPS," said Beckett.
LeAnn stared at the evidence before her. "No one was supposed to get hurt," she whispered. "It was just gonna make a lot of noise, and people would start respecting me as a reporter, but everything just went wrong."
"Why didn't you come forward once you realized what you had done?" asked Beckett.
"I thought about it, but what good would that do? I kept quiet for Jessie's sake. I wanted to protect his memory."
In the observation room, Castle stared, as he, Ryan and Esposito listened to LeAnn's confession. "What you did was called sinning by silence," Castle whispered. Ryan and Esposito turned and stared at him, but he continued on, as if he were the only one in the room. "It's not smart. It's not brave. It's just cowardly."
"Castle?" Ryan placed a hand on Castle's shoulder.
"You okay, bro?" asked Esposito, concern lining his face.
Castle blinked, and turned to the two men. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine," he said, his voice low. "Excuse me." Castle turned, and walked out of the room.

Captain Gates stood in the bullpen, addressing the group of people in front of her. "The FBI has taken LeAnn West into custody," she said. "This woman, who's blind ambition led to the death of five people WILL get what she deserves." Gates paused. "I, um…I wanna thank each of you for what you did to make this happen. You, um…all put in 110%. Made me proud." Gates turned to face Castle. "I especially wanna thank you, Mr. Castle, for your help in this case. Your insight and creative thinking broke this case wide open for all of us." Castle nodded. Gates took a breath, and turned to her squad. "So, let's uh…get outta here, head on home, and catch up on some much needed rest." Gates turned to walk off, but Castle quickly stood up.

"Uh, if I could have everyone's attention for just a moment," he said. Everyone turned to look at him. "Tonight, drinks at The Old Haunt for every cop in this precinct are on the house. That includes you, Captain Gates," said Castle, as he turned to her.

"That's very generous of you, Mr. Castle," she said. "And I will be taking you up on that offer." Gates smiled as she walked off, thinking of the taste of a cold beer and pleasant company at the bar.

Beckett turned to the men. "You know what? I'm still a little wired," she said. "You guys wanna go over to The Old Haunt, take Castle up on his offer?"

"Sorry," said Ryan. "But it feels like a month since I've seen Jenny. I should really get home."

"Me too," said Esposito. "I'll holler at you."
"Well, if you go in tomorrow, I'll make sure your drinks are on the house," said Castle. The boys nodded, and waved as they left.

"Well, I guess it's just you and me," said Beckett, turning to face Castle.

"Yeah," said Castle, grabbing his coat.

"You know, now that the case is done," said Beckett, as she turned to face him, "what did you wanna talk about?"

"Nothing. Nothing important," he replied. He slung his coat over his arm, and started walking toward the elevator.

Beckett looked at his back in confusion. "Okay. Well, good night," she called. Castle just waved behind him, not bothering to turn around. As he stepped into the elevator, he turned to glare at Beckett as the doors closed. He didn't know how long she was going to keep up this charade, but one thing was certain to him: his time shadowing Kate Beckett was rapidly coming to a close.