She waited – what felt like minutes - before she was sure that he had either left the elevator or had gone back up to his floor. She watched the meter as it stopped on the ground floor before later arriving at her floor. She frowned. But before long the elevator stopped at eleventh. Was that him or a mere coincidence?

When she thought the coast was clear she entered the elevator as the door shut, leaving her on her own as she made her way to her department floor. She didn't like the way she had so much skin on show. She began to pull her skirt down in a failed attempt to hide what was on show but in all her efforts, it didn't make much of difference. It was difficult considering she was lacking a lot of material to work with. She huffed as she blew a stranded hair out of her face. She felt so opened and exposed. She wasn't used to dressing like some high class prostitute. Her usual trousers and high collared top was good enough for her but today she was undercover and she needed to be opposite to her usual self.

The elevator stopped as the doors creaked open, revealing her friends standing and gawping at her. She wasn't sure if they had just been doing something that happened to be outside the elevator or they were just waiting for her return. They gasped as she began to walk out. She had a slight jump in her step as she made her way towards them. They had seen her leave in her new attire and still gave her that same boyish grin they did the first time round. Weren't they tired of it already?

"What? Guys you know I'm doing this" she pointed to her outfit "for a reason. So quit with the staring" they still continued to stare at obviously good figure as she rolled her eyes she began to walk past them as they followed closely after her.

"So where are we with the suspect? Did it work?" She stood by her desk as she found a pair of trousers in her desk draw. She ruffled through some of the piles of papers on her desk whilst she waited for her co-workers to get a grip and focus back to business. It was hard enough being one of the only women detectives in the business, never mind having to emphasise her assets for a job. But soon enough they came to their senses as they began telling her what had happened moments before she arrived.

"Like a charm, he was up here seconds after you left" she smiled at Esposito. Perfect she thought as she picked up her trousers and threw them over her arm.

"How long you do think you have to do this before he finally starts trusting you?" asked Ryan. It was a good question but even as good of a detective as she was. She didn't know the answer.

"I guess as long as it takes." She listened as Ryan began talking about other links to the case as decided that it would be rude to leave and change so instead she sat down on her seat and began pulling her trousers up from underneath her skirt. Her friends stared before politely turning around to give her some privacy. Even though, nothing was really on show, she as just layering and delayering clothing. When her trousers were finally at the right place, she began to pull off her skirt from over the top and soon enough she felt comfortable again like she was back to being herself, Kate Beckett. As they finished speaking, they left in search of another man, they suspected to be involved.

She sat her desk, looking through some of the paperwork she received from earlier. She thought about the whole situation, trying to tie in links between all the details. Before she could do anything, she needed to get her facts straight. Otherwise it would be like chasing a ghost.

[Flashback]

"Lanie" she called as she entered examination. She saw the lifeless body lying on that sterile white plate. Her heels clicked as she saw her friend staring down at him with her clipboard in hand. She never liked this part of the process. Even after being a homicide detective for as long as she had; seeing dead bodies still never failed to unnerve her "Who's our guy?"

"His name is John Harrow, twenty two. By the looks of things, the cause of death was strangulation, shown by the markings here" she pointed to what seemed like red-ish purple indents around his neck "and here. I'd say time of death is between 9am and 10am, Today" Kate examined them before Lanie continued "Prior to that, I found several amounts of these familiar fingerprints scattered around the body. My best bet is these fingerprints will lead you to our killer." Kate nodded "I know you're not gonna like this but I recognised these markings. They have some strange similarities to our mysterious killer before, although he's changed his style. Instead of picking out those blonde haired girls, he's targeting our male here. He's taking on more of a challenge"

"Are you sure it's the same guy? 3xK?" Lanie nodded. They had been chasing this guy for months. He had attacked three girls in a week and then left for a month before casually returning to attack another three. He left them all in that same innocent coffin like position and they still didn't know who their killer was. They were lead on a wild goose chase. This man was clever as he continuously set up other people and due to this they were never able to trace any of the murders back to him. They didn't know how he did it but it always ended up in them arresting the wrong guy. It was wasting police time and Kate couldn't have that, especially when she could be out solving another murder. She would be glad when this guy was caught and locked up in prison, serving the time he deserved.

"Thanks Lanie" She left the scene, finding herself checking for prints and as she did so they managed to match a face to the prints. This only meant one thing. They had a lead. But it all seemed too easy. This man was trained in covering up his tracks and all of sudden he makes silly mistakes like leaving his DNA all over their Vic? It didn't add up. Was he giving himself up after all this time? Did he have a sudden change of heart?

According to the prints the man they matched to was harmless but they knew that they couldn't guarantee this. A man that was supposedly harmless was capable of death – oh so they thought. Who knew what else he was capable of? If this was the guy that had been chasing, they knew he was able of murdering almost seven people including their new victim. They had to be tactical. Maybe he did finally decide to give himself in?

Esposito came up with an idea to use Kate as their number one weapon. They had to lure him in. They had to outsmart him. It was her job to seduce him. Make him come to her and sooner or later he would open up and tell her what his problem was. They hoped it wouldn't take long. This man was a ladies' man. Any sign of a hot woman would make his buckle at his knees, just what they needed. They needed to get his guard down, just enough so she could hand cuff him and drag him to the station.

She stared at his face, trying to imprint it into her mind. Ryan appeared as they gathered a group of people, all trying to remember the face.

"So who's this guy?" Ryan asked as he stared at Kate.

"Richard Castle"

It brought her to where she was now. She sat at her desk, pulling up his profile. He was writer – as he already confirmed in the elevator – but that could be a cover up or even maybe all these murders were giving him inspiration for an article. Maybe writing stories wasn't challenging enough and he wanted to make his stories real.

She stared down at his profession; a fashion writer ... or maybe not. She had remembered reading some of his work a few weeks earlier and he was talented, there was no doubt about it. Such a shame she thought. What littler talent there was in the world, the few they had turned out to be killers. The sayings always said that there's a thin line between genius and insanity. However much she wasn't going to like this, she had to meet him again. Somewhere she could catch him off guard, maybe just enough to blow his cover. It had to be somewhere public so that she knew she wasn't in harm's way.

Of course, she knew Esposito and Ryan would be there to back her up but still, she needed to be sure she wasn't going to be next on his hit list. The company's having a ball tomorrow night she thought as she smiled down at his profile in front of them. She was always thankful for the amazing database the station had and the amount of information they could find on people.

The ball was the perfect place. He would have to be there - appearances was everything - and if he was there so would she. Her heart fell as she read that he had a daughter. For some reason, she found herself feeling sorry for her, Alexis her name was. If this guy was allegedly 3xK then little Alexis would be without a father. She knew what it was like to be without a parent and she didn't want to enforce that on another child but it was her job.

There was no time for sympathy. She had to reel in their killer so he couldn't harm anyone else.

"What's the plan, Beckett?" she thought for a moment as she looked at the words on his profile before raising her attention to Ryan and Esposito. A smile came across her face as they looked at her eagerly.

"Looks like we're going to a ball, boys"