Sinning by Silence

Summary – Post 7x09 AU. What if Beckett's last visit to her old apartment didn't go quite as she planned. Not light and fluffy like some of the fics out there.

Author's Note: Maybe I don't like Mondays after all because this evil plot bunny popped into my mind this morning and wouldn't let go. And I'm surprised no one has done this yet. Guess my Castle OCD is back for a little while. And this won't be long – just 3 chapters and I'm posting the first 2 at the same time so I'm hopefully not quite so mean.

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Chapter 1 – Lies of Omission

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Beckett stood surveying her old apartment, a slightly nostalgic smile gracing her lips. The mover had just left with the last box marked for delivery at Castle's – no, now their loft – their home – and she was still working this change into her life paradigm.

Castle was always saying that now they were married, what was his was hers, but the loft still felt more like his home. And she hadn't lived in another man's roof in years, not since she had graduated from the police academy and gotten her own place.

Lanie had been right – she would miss this place immensely and she was a little reluctant to let go of it since it part of her story. This had been her place, her home, her 'lair' in Castle-speak, for the last 4 years. She had come here to lick her wounds – she had fallen in love here – she had fought and almost lost that love here – she had solved her mother's murder here – and the things she and Castle could do here in the privacy of it still made her shiver.

She looked around and then her smile widened as she thought of what she wanted to do. Just as this place had put its permanent mark on her, she wanted to do likewise and picked up a knife she had left for her cousin Sophia.

Beckett quickly carved her initials into the wood and then stepped back to admire her handiwork. There – it said that Kate Beckett had been here – had lived here. Yes, that's exactly what she needed.

She took one last look around her apartment and smiled slightly again as she opened the door to walk out and close the proverbial door on this part of her life.

And froze, hesitating for a split second before starting to reach for her gun at the sight of the two people standing there, one of them aiming a gun at her.

A slight smile on her face, Dr. Kelly Neiman t'sked several times. "Now, now, Detective Beckett, is that any way to greet old friends? I'm surprised at your manners. I told you we'd be meeting again soon," she said in a pleasant voice.

Beckett raised her hands away from her gun and then walked backwards as the two people came into the apartment. She studied the man for a moment. He was the right height, maybe a little pudgier, definitely a different face, but the eyes were still cold, still deadly.

"Tyson," she breathed.

"Congratulations on the wedding. I hear it was quite lovely," said Tyson. "And telling Castle you had an errand to run on the way home – not telling him that you were coming here – priceless. Couldn't have planned it better myself."

Beckett frowned, narrowing her eyes – the messenger – he had been at the precinct delivering a letter to one of the detectives when Gates had told them to go home and had overheard their subsequent conversation. "You were there."

"Stalking my prey so to speak," Tyson replied. He cocked his head slightly to the left and studied her for a moment, and then straightened it and slowly walked behind her.

"So I was wondering – is it in your professional DNA or your personal DNA? This telling half-truths in your pursuit of justice – leaving things out when questioning suspects. And doing the same thing to your husband – these lies of omission? So that makes me wonder how truly invested in this marriage you really are."

His voice was almost soft in her ear. "But that's a moot point now. It's a shame that a lie is the last thing he'll ever hear from your lips. He'll spend forever wondering about it – whether or not you truly loved him enough to finally let him in all the way, wondering if he ever knew the real you."

"No!" Beckett exclaimed, whirling to face him, making her second mistake of the day. "You can't…"

She felt a needle prick the side of her neck and her voice trailed off as the room started to spin. "No," she sobbed as her knees buckled. "Castle…" was the last thing out of her mouth as darkness enveloped her.

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Castle straightened the wine glasses for the millionth time that evening and made sure the DVD was ready to play the moment Beckett walked in the door – well, not quite that moment, but very soon afterwards.

He glanced at his watch and then tried to call her again, frowning as the call went straight to voice mail.

Beckett said she was running an errand on the way home – their home, he smiled at the thought – and he knew she would have called him if she was running late.

He checked his traffic app again to see if there were any unusual snarls, but traffic looked normal. Still NYC traffic could be tricky.

Maybe she had been called back into the office and hadn't called him, he thought as his mind started to spin the possibilities – just like that time she had been called in to help on a special case and he hadn't been invited and then stonewalled at every turn until the truth finally came out. Surely Gates wouldn't have done something that stupid again.

He frowned as he speed dialed Espo's number and was glad when the Hispanic detective picked up on the 2nd ring. "Hey, Esposito – sorry to bother you, but there's nothing going on at the precinct that I should know about, is there?"

"No," came the reply. "What's up?"

"Beckett said she was running an errand on the way home, but she isn't home yet. I keep calling her, but it's going straight to voice mail."

"Huh, that's strange," said Espo.

"So nothing's going on?" Castle repeated.

"You know I'd tell you," Espo responded. "Listen, I'll call Ryan and meet you at the precinct in half an hour."

"Okay," said Castle. He picked up his jacket and keys and raced out of the loft, wishing that he had a gumball for his car.

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"I've located Beckett's car using its GPS, but I haven't been able to locate her phone yet," said Tori Ellis, bringing up a map on the computer screen. "The car is here."

"Ah," said Espo, rolling his eyes at Castle who was standing next to Ryan. "Remy's is there. See, bro, nothing to worry about. She was probably running late and stopped to pick something up."

"Yeah, thanks," said Castle, smiling almost sheepishly. He quickly speed dialed Remy's number. "Hey, Sam," he said when the manager answered the phone. He and Beckett were such frequent diners that they knew the staff by name and the wait staff knew their orders. "Is Beckett there? Uh, huh, uh, huh."

Castle frowned as he hung up and looked at Tory, Espo, and Ryan. "No one there has seen her tonight."

The butterflies in his stomach were starting to churn faster.

It was Ryan's turn to frown as he thumbed on his phone. "Hey, LT, Beckett's car is at parked at Remy's. Can you have a unit swing by and check it out?"

He looked at Castle. "So is there some other place she would go in the area?"

Castle shook his head. "No, not that I know of. All she said was that she was going to run an errand and then be home to watch a movie. Maybe she said something to Lanie?" he looked at Espo hopefully.

"I'll call her," said Espo.

Castle nodded, wracking his brain to think of where Beckett had gone.

Ryan's phone rang and he quickly picked it up. "Uh, huh, uh, huh. Thanks, man."

His frowned deepened as he looked at the people in the room. "Beckett's car is there, but the engine is cold."

Espo thumbed off his phone. "Lanie's working late tonight – she hasn't talked to Kate either."

The butterflies in Castle's stomach kicked into warp drive. He almost jumped when his phone chimed the special ring he had uploaded only for Beckett's text messages. "It's her," he breathed a sigh of relief and then thumbed it on to look at the text.

When Espo was Special Forces, he had seen the life leave a body through the scope on a rifle. Being so far away, it always felt impersonal. Now he had a front row seat as the color drained out of Castle's face and the man gasped for air as his knees buckled.

He and Ryan moved as one, pushing Castle down to the ground, not wanting him to hit his head in case he passed out on them.

Espo fished the phone off of the floor and looked at the text and then the picture. "Damn son of a bitch," he said as he handed the phone to Ryan.

The text was simple – "Guess I changed types" but the attached picture was life-destroying.

Beckett lay peacefully arranged on the ground, her green eyes open but unseeing and bloodshot, her lips blue, a 3-braided cord bound around her neck, the red ligature marks standing in stark contrast to the paleness of her skin. Kate Beckett was dead.

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