So we have another body at the same crime scene. Coincidence or not? Follow our talented team as they endeavor to find out.

Disclaimer: Still don't own them.

Chapter 7

CSU moved quickly around the playground, dusting the jungle gym for prints and searching the area around the play equipment for anything that might indicate the victim's state of mind at time of death or indeed, foul play, if Castle's theory was to be believed. Cigarette butts, candy wrappers and other detritus were collected, bagged and tagged ready to go to the forensic lab for closer study. The night time scene was illuminated many times over by the flashing of CSU camera equipment as the layout was recorded for posterity, drawing a small crowd of late night passers by and local residents intent on taking in the grizzly spectacle.

Kate instructed the scene's of crime officers to scour the body and clothing for hairs and fibers and Lanie promised to send the cord from around the victim's neck to the lab for inspection once they'd cut the vic down and taken the body back to the morgue.

Castle was sitting with the guys chatting outside the gates to the playground when Kate approached, car keys in hand.

"Okay guys, I think we've done all we can here for tonight. Let's meet up back at the precinct at 6am. Get some shuteye and then we can make an early start on this thing tomorrow...or no, that would be today." She groaned, flexing her tired shoulders and stretching her arms out behind her. "You coming Castle?" She asked, jerking her head towards the spot where her car was parked.

"I don't want to take you out of your way Beckett. I can grab a cab."

"At this hour? Castle, don't be a hero. It'll take me ten minutes extra max."

"Well, okay. If you insist Detective." He replied, though all of them knew that it would take far longer than that for Kate to drive Castle home and then get back to her own apartment. But he didn't want to argue and risk drawing more attention to her offer.

"Sweet dreams, boss." Said Ryan.

"Yeah, see you in a few, Beckett. Castle." Added Esposito, waving the pair off as they headed for Beckett's car.

"I really could have caught a cab Kate. You need your sleep." Said Castle, climbing into the passenger seat.

"And risk another call out tonight to come and identify you? No thanks." Said Kate, smiling tiredly at the implied suggestion that Castle, left to his own devices after dark, was incapable of avoiding trouble. "Besides, I owe you for covering for me back there. Smoothly done, Castle. Got to hand it to you…for once." She added, slightly ruining the effect of the compliment.

"Eh, in case you hadn't noticed, I was covering for us. I was there too, you know. Or was our evening that unmemorable?" He asked, pouting as he nudged Kate's shoulder.

"Oh, it was memorable, all right. But don't get cocky, Castle. It doesn't suit you."

"Anyways, we have dinner at Babbo to look forward to. You can thank me then." He nodded to himself, brooking no argument with Beckett over the dinner plans he had suggested earlier.

"I said I'd think about it, Castle…or have you forgotten that detail already?"

"And I'm just doing what I'm good at Kate."

"And what might that be?" she asked, eyeing him suspiciously as they pulled up to a stop sign.

"Wearing you down!" He smiled broadly in reply, causing Kate to roll her eyes and blush because although she would never admit it to his face, he was rather good at wearing her down and she could feel herself slipping to a place where that thought no longer bothered her. She rather liked being worn down by Richard Castle and fighting against it was losing its appeal.

Once they pulled up in front of Castle's loft he unbuckled his seat belt and swiveled round to face her. "I would invite you up for coffee Detective, but at this hour more caffeine is not what either of us need. So I'll just say…until 6am. It has been a pleasure, as always." And he leaned in to give Kate a light peck on the cheek.

"Night, Castle." Said Kate to his retreating back. When he was gone from sight she lifted her hand to touch the spot on her cheek where he had kissed her, smiling to herself. He was charm personified. Always leave them wanting more, she thought, shaking her head. Damn he was good and with that she put her car in drive and headed back to her apartment and certain pleasant dreams.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Ryan was wheeling a second murder board across the floor of the bullpen as Castle stepped off the elevator, coffees in hand on his way to Beckett's desk, at a little after six.

"Hey Ryan, we catch another body during the night that I didn't hear about?" Asked Castle, looking at the two boards now set up side-by-side. One contained the timeline and details they already knew about Livia Caliente's murder and then second board was blank as yet.

"It's for our John Doe…from last night, Castle". Said Ryan.

"Yo! Wakey wakey, bro." Said Esposito. "You already forget the stiff swinging from the playground? Man that is cold."

"No, Castle here is just convinced our two cases are connected." Said Beckett, smiling as she accepted her coffee from the writer. "Isn't that right Castle? Because he's hoping we have a serial killer on our hands and it wouldn't do for the facts to get in the way of a good story now, would it Castle?" She asked, grinning at his disappointment.

"But I was so sure." Said Castle, whiny and frustrated. "The shoes…" he trailed off, raising his eyebrows questioningly at Kate.

"Forget the damn shoes, Castle. Lanie wants us down in the morgue. So grab your coffee and watch you don't trip over your bottom lip." She added, sweeping past him towards the elevator leaving him trailing in her wake.

"Well, good morning to you too, Detective." He said once they were alone in the elevator car.

"I'm sorry, but your face. I've never seen anyone so disappointed that we didn't in fact have some crazed psychopathic serial killer on the loose, in a children's play park of all places!" She said, nudging his arm playfully.

"Morning, Lanie." They chorused in unison, as they stepped through the doors into the M.E.'s office.

Lanie looked quickly from Beckett to Castle, taking in the synchronicity of their greeting, before shaking her head wordlessly and heading toward the autopsy table.

"There's something I think you're gonna want to see." She said, cryptically, leading them towards the steel autopsy table where their as yet unidentified victim was lying, uncovered to mid chest.

The flap of skin that made up the victim's neck had been resected and peeled upwards over the victim's face, exposing the muscles and tendons of the neck underneath. Beckett and Castle stood at a respectful distance, until Lanie called them closer to show them her discovery.

"You see this?" Asked Lanie, pointing a scalpel towards an area of anatomy on the victim's throat that was unidentifiable to Castle and Beckett's untrained eyes. "I noticed this here bruising on the infrahyoid muscles. Or the strap muscles as they're also called, because well, as you can see they're kinda long and look like..."

"Straps?" Asked Castle, beaming.

"Ya huh. Gold star there, Castle." Dead panned Lanie, while Beckett glared at Castle for breaking the M.E.'s flow.

"Please ignore him and continue, Lanie." Said Kate, nudging Castle with her elbow.

"When I looked at his neck from the outside this mornin', we got what you'd expect to see from a suspended hanging…a linear mark curving obliquely upward and backward and marks behind the right ear, consistent with the way his head was lolling to the right when we found him. Also visible within the mark is the outline of a braided cord, just like the rope recovered at the scene."

"So?" Said Kate, "We got ourselves a suicide like we thought. Thanks Lanie, I'll write it up."

"Not so fast, girlfriend. The bruising to the strap muscles…it's below the line of the cord. Also, the hyoid bone is broken. That bone is only remotely connected to the other bones of the throat by muscles and ligaments, making it difficult to break because of its…um…articulation." Said Lanie, looking from her friend to the writer to see if they were keeping up.

"So what are you saying, Lanie?" Asked Kate, knitting her brows together.

"What I'm sayin' is that Castle here was right. Our guy didn't die hanging from that jungle gym. He was manually strangled and then strung up to make it look like a suicide. The scrapes to the toes of those ridiculously expensive shoes of his…" at this she looked down at Castle feet and snorted, "were probably caused by the body being dragged over to the play equipment to stage the crime scene."

"So you're saying this was the work of a serial killer?" Asked Castle, excitedly. "I love this case." He added, pumping the air as Kate rolled her eyes.

"Na ha. No, I didn't mention no serial killer, Castle. What I'm sayin' is that we have two dead bodies connected by one crime scene. Whether they were snuffed out by the same sick weirdo…well that's for you guys to determine."

"Well thank you Dr Parish." Said Castle, beaming at his own astute judgment. "You, eh, wouldn't have happened to have been taping that little presentation there, would you?" Asked Castle, looking around for her recorder.

"Why, you not payin' attention in class again, Castle?" Asked Lanie, hands on her hips.

"No…just wanted to let they guys hear you say I was right." He finished, with a flourish, a smug grin on his face.

"Get outta my morgue before I smack you. Take that man outta here, Kate. God, I don't know how you keep it together around him, girlfriend."

"Years of practice." Said Kate, grabbing Castle by the arm and propelling him towards the door.

"I'm gonna make a start on Livia Caliente's autopsy later this morning. Come see me around 3pm…oh, and Kate? Leave that fool behind when you do." Said Lanie, causing Kate to let out a peel of laughter as Castle's head spun round to stare wide-eyed at the M.E. who was standing staring defiantly back at him with her arms crossed.

"Way to go Castle." Said Beckett, as they entered the elevator. "It's only…what…6.35am and you've managed to get yourself banned from the morgue already. Please do not test my patience today. We've got two open cases, with few leads as yet. I don't need to have our MD mad at us…" She trailed off as she noticed the outraged look on Castle's face.

"Firstly, she is mad at me, Kate, me! And secondly, I just made the biggest break in this double homicide that we have so far. So I think you're being a little unfair, De-tec-tive, with your criticism. Get out the wrong side of bed this morning did we?"

"Oh, shut up Castle!" Said Beckett, as they stepped onto their own floor and came face-to-face with Ryan whose eyes grew wide at the jumble of words he'd just overheard, consisting mainly of "get out of bed", "this morning" and "we".

"I, uh, was just coming to find you guys," he said quickly, looking like a guilty eavesdropper. "Unis just called in a report from a woman on the Upper West Side. She was reporting her husband missing, but since it's too early to file a formal report, an enterprising young beat cop decided to call in an informal description anyway. Seems this guy was steady as they come and never missed a family dinner…until last night, that is."

"You think it's our guy?" Asked Kate, excited to finally catch a break.

"Photo is on its way over, but from the verbal description, I'd say that's an afirmativo." Said Ryan, bumping fists with Castle.

"So, we got a name?"

"Name's Edward Mason, 54 years old. Big time property Developer. Lives up on Park Avenue, corner of E85th."

"Ritzy." Said Beckett. "Someone going to visit the wife?"

"Not yet. We're calling up a photo from the DMV to make sure it's him, but the system's down."

"Architectural Digest." Said Castle. "He, uh, was featured in last month's Architectural Digest. PAW? He was behind that development. It went bust…" he trailed off at the blank expressions on the two detectives faces. Strike two to me, he thought. This is going to be a great day!

"PAW?" asked Kate, skeptically. "Castle this better not be another one of your riddles."

"Park Avenue West, my dear, or PAW to those in the know. Big ol' turkey of an apartment building they started uptown? There was a photo of Edward Mason standing outside the site. I don't know why I didn't recognize him before…? Must have been the purple face." He mused to himself, trailing off. "I just said that last part out loud, didn't I?" He asked at the disgusted looks on the detective's faces.

"Not cool, bro." Said Esposito, joining the group in front of the murder board.

Beckett was aware of Castle's warm breath tickling her neck and lightly blowing her hair as he leaned over her shoulder, looking at her computer screen while she pulled up the AD website to look at last month's issue of the magazine. He was invading her personal space deliberately she knew, but she decided that she wouldn't rise to it and so studiously ignored him.

For Castle's part, he was enjoying his close proximity to Kate, as he breathed in her light clean scent, surprised that she was allowing him to get this close to her in the middle of the bullpen.

But this was a physical stare down and Kate blinked first. Sitting up sharply in her chair she caught Castle unawares and before he had a chance to move away from her the back of her head connected with his nose and he yelped out in pain.

"Geez Castle. What the hell are you doing?" Asked Kate, indignantly.

"Bleeding to death." Came the dramatic reply, as a small trickle of bright red blood escaped Castle's nose only to be caught in the white handkerchief he pulled from his pocket. "Your head is so…hard!" He said, grimacing as Kate took the back of his neck in one hand and forced his head forward while he held the handkerchief in place with his other hand.

Esposito looked up from his desk at this moment, only to see Castle's head being forced down towards Beckett's lap by…by Beckett's hand! "What the hell, bro? Check out mom and dad." He hissed to Ryan.

"Okay you guys need to get a room. There are kids present." Said Ryan in mock outrage.

Kate looked mortified and Castle just smirked. His bleeding nose all but forgotten. "Nothing to see here, folks. Move right along." Said Castle.

"We, uh… We need to go interview the wife." Said Kate, desperate to escape the current uncomfortable scene. "Go grab some ice for that Castle and try not to damage anything else before we leave the building."

A/N: Okay, so I borrowed PAW from Portland OR, but since it hasn't been completed I didn't think they'd mind! ;)

I hope you're still enjoying our team's latest case. If it's fluff you're looking for I know this chapter was light on the stuff, but there'll be more later I promise. Trying to keep it measured and authentic for now.

Reviews have been few and far but if you're still reading I hope you're enjoying as much as I am.