CHAPTER 4

Castle walks back to Beckett's desk. She has already begun her murder board. Her time line starts Friday at 5:00pm when the plant closed for the weekend and ends at 7:00 AM when the first employees arrived at the shop. Somewhere in between these two times, the murder occurred.

Kate looks over to Rick "What did Gates want?"

"Oh, she got her copies of the first three Nikki Heat books and wanted them signed. That's all"

"Oh. OK. It's a fact. We have another confirmed Richard Castle fan in the precinct?"

"Oh so you admit you are a fan?"

Kate smiles at Rick then whispers "I think I have already proven I am a giant Richard Castle fan girl"

Castle raises his eyebrows at Kate and smiles "yes, your fan girl credentials are confirmed many times over."

Beckett breaks the love eyeballs "So, how's the stomach? Ready for some spicy Thai food for lunch?"

"Thanks Kate. That just took care of me not wanting to eat again, ever. No. I think I can wait until tonight to eat. Probably something very bland as a mater of fact. Any new information on the case?"

"Nothing yet. The boys haven't got back from the canvass. When they do, we can start."

Beckett sits on the edge of the desk and looks at the blank board. "Castle, can you think of anything that would make anyone do something so heinous?"

"No. This is just way beyond anything my sick mind has ever dreamed up. What would cause someone to put another person inside a machine that would destroy every bone, muscle, tendon and connecting fiber in the body? You know, they probably had to start on the hands or feet. That means that the person was probably still alive for a time before they died. In fact the smashing of the limbs probably prevented excessive blood loss. This person may have survived in horrific pain for an extended period of time before they actually died. How gruesome is this guy?"

Beckett's phone rings. Caller id says 'Lanie'. "Hey Lanie, you got something? OK. OK. Thanks. Let me know when you have more details. Thanks."

Castle looks at Beckett "She have anything?"

"Just preliminary DNA. It is a white male. That's all for now"

The elevator bell rings and Ryan and Esposito exit to the floor.

Ryan opens his notebook "uniforms canvassed 2 blocks around. No one heard anything. But this is an industrial area. If this happened over the weekend, no one was around, so I'm not really surprised."

Esposito looks over his notes "everyone in the company is in shock that this happened at all. No one I talked to has even a minor grudge against a co worker and none of them claims to have seen any disputes between anyone in the company and any outside contacts. The warehouse manager said the only problems he knew about were outside in the alley about a week ago. It looked like two men arguing over something. They were in each other's face and yelling, but he did not recognize either man. He couldn't hear what the fight was about, so he put it all out of his mind."

Beckett looks over her notes. "Hey, did we get the clothes from the remains?" Her use of the term 'remains' was different. She usually said 'body'. There really was not even a body to deal with.

"The remains went to the morgue along with whatever clothes were there were" Esposito noted

Beckett gets up "You guys start looking up missing persons reports for a white male. Missing between Friday night and Monday morning. Castle and I are going to go see Lanie. Right now, that is all we have until the DNA is returned"

As Beckett and Castle enter the elevator, Esposito looks over to Ryan "I still want to know who Beckett is seeing. Do you have any idea?"

"Javi, why don't we leave the girl alone? You know, after all she has been through, losing her mother, getting shot in the chest and almost dying, her PTSD, and then getting thrown off a building, watching Maddox and the evidence get blown up and then finally confronting her mother's killer, she deserves some happiness. And I for one am willing for her to be happy without getting in her way"

"Oh! OK Kevin. But whoever he is, he better not ever hurt her or he will come face to face with this former Special Forces." Pointing at himself

"You know what Javi? I'll bet he already knows that she has a dad and two partners who will make sure he always treats her like a queen" Ryan deliberately left Castle out of the list thinking the Esposito just might pick up on that small detail. After all, Esposito was the first one who noticed how jealous Castle became when he even saw Beckett with another man.

Kevin Ryan smiles as he turns away knowing that Richard Castle will in fact treat her better than a queen and would give his own life to protect Katherine Beckett and never let anything bad happen to her. EVER