A/N: Thank you for your kind reviews! I'm glad I did the characters justice. I'm going away to Europe on Sunday so I won't be updating for a few weeks. I might be able to get in one more chapter after this one before I leave if I have a little time and a lot of inspiration (lots comes from you guys, your comments make me excited to write and I appreciate them, so thank you). Hope you enjoy this next chapter!

"Yo, Beckett," Esposito called as Kate exited the elevator.

"Hey, where's the fire?" Kate asked jokingly.

"We just got a call on another body," Esposito said, his expression grave. "Our riddle killer is back."

"What?" Kate asked, picking up the pace towards her desk. "He hasn't been active for months, why has he started killing again?"

"I don't know, but Kate," Esposito said, "It's the Council President, Travis Locklyn."

"Travis Locklyn is dead?" Castle said as he arrived into the station, coffees in hand. "I know him, he's a colleague of the Mayor's."

"Were you friend's with him?" Kate asked.

"No, more of acquaintances," Castle said, his voice sounding detached. After a brief pause, Castle seemed to pull it together, "We have to go talk to the Mayor, he's got to be crushed."

"Hold on, Castle," Kate said, "Are you going to be able to be objective on this one?"

Castle gave her a pointed look, "Just because I said 'hi' to the guy once or twice, doesn't mean I'm going to do something stupid."

Kate raised an eyebrow at him, "Right. I would never expect that from you, Castle."

"Right, I would never expect that from you, Castle," Rick mocked in a mumbly, high-pitched voice.

Kate ignored him, turning her attention to Esposito, "Did the first responders find a note?"

Esposito looked down at the open file in his hands, flipping through a few pages. "It doesn't look like it."

"Ok, well let's go then."

"So you're saying this is a serial killer case?" Rick asked, excitement pouring out of him.

"Don't sound so disappointed," Kate said sarcastically.

"How come I've never heard of this guy? Where was I when you worked the investigation?" Castle asked.

"Eight months ago? I believe you were on vacation when this case popped up," Kate said. "Away on some hot sandy beach while we were here, hunting down a serial killer in the freezing cold."

"I invited you to come with me," Castle pointed out with a cocked head and raised eyebrow. After getting no response from Beckett, he continued. "So the guy likes to leave notes at the crime scenes, huh? Is that why you call him the riddle killer?"

"Yes, Castle. That's why we call him the riddle killer," Kate said, turning the steering wheel to the left. Her patience was quickly running out after twenty minutes of endless questioning from the writer in the passenger seat.

"Ok, ok. One last question," Castle started.

"We're here," Kate said, pulling the car to a stop, turning off the engine, undoing her seatbelt and climbing out of the vehicle in one swift motion.

"I was just going to ask if we could stop for a bathroom break," Castle muttered as he scrambled out of the car after his partner.

Castle caught up to Beckett as she peered at the body laying unceremoniously behind the City Hall.

"Have you found any sign of a note yet?" Kate asked Lanie, the best Medical Examiner in the city.

"Not yet, but I'll probably find it when I do the autopsy," Lanie stated.

Rick made a disgusted face, "Why do you say that?"

"That's where all the other notes were found," she shrugged.

"Our first vic was a big shot lawyer, Carson Polinski. We found him outside of his law office eight months ago with a note tattood on what was left of the underside of his tongue. It said, 'Liars will lose their gift of gab, and shortly after their hearts I will nab'," Kate recited.

"Hey, he's a poet and he doesn't even know it!" Castle said, a goofy grin plastered on his face.

"Then," Kate continued, ignoring Rick's comment, "It was Carrie Neeren, a world renowned open heart surgeon. We found her outside of the hospital she worked at about two weeks after we found Carson. We found the note stuffed into a tube, then wedged into the superior vena cava in her heart. The riddle said, 'Playing God is quite the career, I would have elected for something more conservative, My Dear.'"

Castle frowned, "Did you ever figure out what the notes meant?"

"Well they're pretty straightforward, Castle. This guy doesn't like people who are good at what they do, and he wants to make them pay," Kate said.

"Yeah but... Can you write those riddles down for me?" he asked.

Kate looked at him, trying to figure out where he was going with his line of questioning before quickly scribbling down the riddles from memory.

Castle eagerly took the paper from Kate's hand and read the words written there. "I knew it! See, look. 'Shortly after their hearts I will nab'? Then he kills a heart surgeon? How about the next one, 'I would have elected for something more conservative'. Who's our next victim? A President of Council. These aren't random notes, they're clues pointing to his next victims!"

Kate took the paper from Castle's hands, scanning the words even though they were already burned into her brain. "We have to show this to Gates."

"Where do you think we'll find the next note? He's a politician so... maybe it's in his stomach? I don't know. I'm grapsing at straws here," Castle said.

"Maybe Lanie should check up his ass," Kate said, walking towards Esposito and Ryan.

"Hey, that's a good one!" Rick called as he hurried after her.

So much success. To be the best, oh. How I crave it. And I shall. The police have yet to catch me, and soon I will be compared to the greatest of serial killers - Bundy, Manson, Pickton. But my name will rise above the rest... Rippner. The world will fear me.

I. Am. Unstoppable.

A/N: I hope you liked this chapter! Thanks for reading, and if you have a moment I'd love to hear what you think about the story so far. I hope everyone has a great week!