A/N: I'm so glad that you guys are enjoying this and enjoying the suspense. Though I've written dozens of stories before, this was my first attempt at a real suspense/mystery, so I'm thrilled you guys like it so much! :) Thank you for all the reviews!

Six

Just as Kate was making the decision to flatten herself to the ground, she found she was already there and something heavy was resting atop her. The bullets blasted into the wooden fence behind her causing splinters to rain down. She covered her eyes and waited for the debris to hit the ground before attempting to scramble to her feet. The weight on top of her hindered her ability to get up so much that by the time she was on her feet, pistol ready in her hands, the truck had already disappeared around the corner.

Cursing under her breath, Kate turned around to see a man climbing off the ground, brushing off the knees of his jeans and the tops of his shoulders as he did so. When their gazes met, they exclaimed in unison, "What are you doing here?!"

For a beat, they stared at each other. Then, Kate asked. "Well?"

"I asked you first," Castle replied.

"And I'm the one with the gun!" She gauntleted the weapon in her fists, feeling for the first time the damp gravel in her palms digging in as she squeezed the metal and trained the muzzle on her suspect. In truth, she did not find him all that dangerous, but her actions were simply protocol.

Castle raised his hands in a defensive stance but before he could respond verbally, the sound of an approaching engine could be heard and Kate whipped towards the noise, turning her gun on the street. "C'mon," Castle said. "We've got to get out of here before they come back."

"No," she said, not looking at him. "I came to talk to the people at the salvage yard."

"I was just in there; nobody's there. They must have just left the gate open."

Kate glanced over her shoulder at him. "Yeah? And how do I know you're not just saying that when really there are a few more bodies in there."

He pursed his lips and cocked his head to the side as he looked at her as if to say "Really?"

Kate did not get a chance to respond because, with the squeal of tires, she could see headlights approaching quickly, perhaps three or four blocks in the distance. "C'mon!" Castle grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her backwards. "This way."

"My car's the other way," she said, though she did follow him at a hurried pace.

"Yes, but if we go there, you'll just arrest me." Castle explained. The other end of the block was much closer than the one Kate originated from and they reached it in just under ten seconds at their pace.

As she hopped down from the curb, Kate glanced briefly behind her; the SUV was gaining on them. "This way!" she said, taking the lead over her male companion. She raced across the street towards what appeared to be an abandoned gas station. The convenience store portion of the station seemed to be well secured with metal fencing and gates and thus inaccessible. The plywood-boxed in gas pump area, however, would provide emergency cover.

Her calves beginning to burn from her sudden dead sprint in heels, Kate reached the edge of the safe area and dove behind it, lowering herself into as low of a crouch as she could manage. Despite her feet slipping against the greasy, damp asphalt, she inched around to the far side of the plywood box and turned her gun around the corner. If the SUV spewed more bullets as it passed, this time she would be ready.

Still breathing heavily, Kate tensed her hands on the gun and braced her forearm against the edge of the plywood. Several seconds passed as the noise from the vehicle grew louder. Finally, it crossed into her view, but as quickly as it came, it was gone. Fortunately, it also disappeared without any gunfire.

Taking a sharp breath in and breathing out slow in attempt to diffuse the adrenaline coursing through her body, Kate rolled back so her spine lined up with the back of the plywood box. She glanced to her left and saw that her suspect was crouched beside her in as tight of a ball as he could constrict himself into. His eyes were squeezed tightly shut as though he was waiting for an impending explosion. For a moment, she was surprised to see him there, figuring he would have taken the opportunity of her divided attention to escape, but it appeared he had not.

"C'mon," she said, clambering to a standing position. "Let's get out of here before they come back."

He opened one eye at a time and looked at her. Taking her upright stance as a sign the imminent danger had passed, he stood as well and scurried out of the gas station parking lot and back across the street towards the salvage yard.

As they came to the center of the road, Kate spotted a tan, mostly rusted, mid-nineties Toyota she hadn't noticed before. Castle stopped his jog beside the driver's door and looked at her. "Get in."

Kate held her gun at her right side and looked at him suspiciously. She turned her gaze to the car and then looked at him again. He sighed, rounded his shoulders and rested his hands on the car's roof. "Oh come on—if I was going to hurt you I would have just let those guys shoot you. Besides, you still have your gun, right?"

Before she could respond, the sound of squealing tires could be heard again, and Castle beckoned her with the frantic wave of his hand. "C'mon, c'mon—before they come back!"

Kate conceded to his point and decided that if she was given the choice between the drive-by shooters and him, a possible felon, he did seem the better option in that particular moment. Walking over to the passenger side, she pulled open the door while asking, "Where the hell'd you even get this car? Does it run?"

"Barely," he said, answering her second question first. "And my lawyer got it for me. He paid cash; it was cheap."

"Clearly."

He looked over to her as the engine coughed before turning over. "Yes I already know it's a far cry from my Ferrari."

As the car started off down the block, Kate glanced behind them. Seeing no one was following, she requested, "Take me to my car, please; it's just around the block."

"Are you going to arrest me?" he asked without looking at her.

Kate glanced over and studied his face, purposely letting silence fill the vehicle for a few moments. His hair, damp from the rain, was mashed down against his forehead. A few streaks of dirt could be seen on his cheek where he presumably rubbed his skin with dirt he picked up from the sidewalk. He did not look much like a typical fugitive. Instead, he looked like an ordinary man who was having an exceedingly terrible day. When he looked at her and seemed genuinely concerned, she smiled and put him out of his misery. "No. You saved my life; I think you get a pass—this time."

For the first time since she'd met him, she saw him smile. "So you think I'm innocent."

She cleared her throat and faced forward in the car. "What I think is irrelevant—I'm bound by where the evidence leads me."

"And if the evidence is wrong?"

Kate said nothing and, fortunately, they turned on to the block on which her vehicle was parked a moment later. Just as Castle completed the left turn, she heard a clap of thunder overhead and the rain falling on the windshield increased in pace. "There," she said, pointing towards the black sedan on the side of the road. "You can just-"

"Uh oh," Castle said in a sing-song tone, just as she thought the same words. He was still three car lengths back from her vehicle, but even from that distance it was plain: the front passenger side window of the vehicle was smashed out. When Castle eased his car up behind hers, she also noticed the vehicle was sitting atypically low. Upon further examination, it seemed at least two of the four tires were slashed.

"Well," Castle said, slamming his vehicle into park, "now we have a problem."

Resting her elbow against the car door and her head against her hand she sighed. "You don't say."

"Well I have a problem," her clarified. "If you call for backup they'll arrest me, but I cannot in good conscience leave you here to wait for backup alone, especially not when those trigger-happy thugs could be lurking about."

Kate turned her head towards him, notably surprised. She imagined most felons in his position upon given a free escape pass would have kicked her out of the car and sped off so quickly that tire tracks and a cloud of smoke would have been the only thing left in a matter of seconds. Yet, there he sat wondering what was best for her. Interesting. "Will you give me a ride?"

He turned his head to her. "To FBI headquarters? Unlikely."

"To my apartment."

Castle considered this for a moment. "Won't someone see us together?"

She chuckled. "I'm not the one who's a fugitive, Mr. Castle; no one is watching me." He nodded, conceding to this point, and moved his hand towards the gearshift. "Wait," she stopped him. "I can't leave my purse in car with the windows shot out of it."

She moved her hand to the door handle, but before she touched it, he'd already popped his open. "Let me; so you don't get wet."

"My purse is behind the driver's seat. Oh and my spare gun—in the glove box." He waved his hand in acknowledgement and stepped out of the car, hunching his shoulders and shoving his hands in his pockets because of the rain.

Only when she was alone in the car did Kate realize she still held her gun. She rolled onto her left hip so she could holster it once more. Then, as her hands left it, she looked up at Castle through the wind shield. He was leaning through the broken passenger window instead of opening the door to the vehicle. Unable to resist the urge, she rolled her eyes.

A minute later and significantly wetter, Castle returned and passed over her purse and weapon. She thanked him and set the purse in her lap to unzip it. As she slipped the gun inside, she realized that he'd handed it over to her instead of using it against her. Not only that, she'd requested that he retrieve it without even a second though. She shook her head as she put the weapon inside her bag; evidently her subconscious had no reservations about his innocence.

"So, back to Manhattan?" he asked, pulling the Toyota away from her wrecked vehicle.

"Yes, Tribeca."

"So…," he began once they were on their way back towards the island. "Why did you go to the salvage yard?" He heard a rustling of paper and, when he reached a red light, he looked over and saw her displaying a packet of papers she'd presumably pulled from her purse. "My notes! You read my notes!"

"Don't act so surprised, Mr. Castle. I, too, am a woman of my word."

He looked over to her and they exchanged smiles before traffic started moving again. "So if you read everything you must see—you must see I'm being framed!"

"I will concede that a lot of things in this case don't make sense. You're right handed, aren't you?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Because gunshot residue was only found on your left hand—as though you shot both victims with your left hand only," she informed him. "Plus the blood evidence doesn't make any sense. Not to mention that you have no real motive to kill either of them."

"Was I drugged?" he asked. "Did you get the results of my tox screen back yet?" When he glanced over to see her arched eyebrow he added, "What? I know police stuff. They took samples at the scene and I figured they were going to test it."

"Your tox screen came back clean. The only substance in your body at the time of your arrest was alcohol, but I assume you already knew that."

Castle grumbled under his breath, obviously displeased with her answer, but said nothing loud enough for her to hear. She sat silently for a moment before she realized that while they were in the same space together, there was something she absolutely needed to ask him. "Mr. Castle-"

"You can call me Rick, you know," he informed her. "Or just Castle. No need to be so formal."

She smiled gently. "Okay, Castle—do you remember the last note you made? About Detective Ciardi possibly finding a witness in New Jersey who wouldn't return his phone calls?"

"Yeah, I remember. Why?"

"Did you ever find out the witnesses name?"

He shook his head. "No, Tony never told me. I do know he got a hold of her though. He said she agreed to meet him."

"When?"

"I don't know…" He groaned and raked one hand through his hair. "The past few days…I was so busy editing my novel I didn't really get a chance to talk to Tony that much. Now, I…I feel really bad about it. That's all I know; I'm sorry."

"No, it's alright," she responded automatically. "I just…I was thinking…what if that witness was Pamela Mackey?"

"Who?"

"The other victim—the other person you ki—you were accused of killing."

He glanced over at her. "Nice save." She felt her cheeks begin to heat, but made no other comment to the fact. "Who is she, by the way? I mean, was she connected to Tony in any way?"

"Not that we know. She had his name written on a note on her fridge, but that's the only connection. I think they're still running phone records. She was a hairdresser in Jersey City."

Castle shrugged and shook his head, indicating that did not help him identify her in any way. As they crossed into Manhattan and the rain began to slow, he asked, "So, if you read my notes, did you see all the case files? The ones with the missing drugs?"

"Yes—how did you come up with that?"

"It was Tony," he told her. "He's the one that brought that stuff to me. Did you see it? Do you think there's a dirty cop involved."

"Maybe. To be honest, I didn't take that close a look at all the files. I actually just went right to the death of Detective Ciardi Senior. That was the piece of the puzzle that made the least sense, especially since-"

"-they found no finger prints in the truck," he finished for her. When he looked over at her, he saw she was smiling. "Well, I'm glad there's at least one person in the FBI who's not a total trained monkey. So what's next, Agent Beckett?"

"As long as we're not being formal, you can call me Kate," she told him. "And, I guess I need to keep looking into this—as long as I don't get shot at again."

"They could have been shooting at me, you know; I was standing right there at the entrance to the salvage yard."

Kate nodded and considered this a moment. "Do you have some place to stay?"

He gave her a sideways glance and she could tell he gripped the wheel a bit tighter. "I'm not telling you where."

She grumbled. "Jeez I'm not going to send SWAT or anything. I just want to make sure it's…you know…" She let her voice drift off without finishing her thought, which had originally been a concern for his safety.

"Why, Agent Beckett, your concern is touching, but I'll be fine if that's what you're worried about. Though, really, if you ask me, you need to be more worried about yourself. You should take your partner along the next time you go to sketchy places near abandoned warehouses."

Kate laughed loudly. "My partner doesn't give a shit about me. He just wants to collar you and get his pension."

He looked over to her. "Maybe you need a new partner."

Kate tensed and stared out the window, realizing for the first time that she was being a bit too candid with a murder suspect. "Look, I appreciate the ride and you saving me from being riddled with bullets and all, but this doesn't change anything. If the evidence leads me to you, I will have to arrest you; that's the law."

"Funny—I imagine the law would be pretty clear about you arresting me right about now," Castle pointed out. She said nothing. "You wanna give me an address since we're almost to Tribeca."

"The corner of Church and Chambers, please."

"You know you might not want me to drop you off right at your building just in case….oh, you already thought of that," he said when he saw her pointed stare. A few minutes later, he pulled the car to the side of the road at the closest free space to that intersection. "Don't worry, Agent Beckett, I know you're just trying to do your job. I should just be grateful I'm not in cuffs right now, right?" he said with a bitter laugh.

Softening her gaze, she looked over to him. "I will keep looking through the notes you gave me to see if anything else pops."

He nodded to her. "I appreciate that. Goodnight, Agent Beckett."

Kate shouldered her purse and opened the car door. "Goodnight and thanks again for the ride." With that, she stepped out of the car and walked down Chambers Street without ever looking back; she did not want to be tempted into discovering the direction in which he disappeared.