Beckett walked into interrogation. Staring at the men who had sworn to uphold the law, she fought back the nausea that accompanied the memories of George Butler and Chelsea Walker. Those two had been failed by the system.

"You wanna tell us what's going on?"

"And you are?"

"Sgt. Frank Peck."

She stared at the other two until they gave their names as Officers Tim Lords and Jack Bradford. "Yes, I will tell you. You're being held as accessories to murder."

Two of them laughed.

"You find that funny?" she asked, her voice growing steely.

Lords nodded. "Yeah. I'm sorry, but I've never done anything even coming close to helping out a murderer."

"What about you?" she asked Bradford.

"Same as him."

"Really." Beckett started spreading out crime scene photos of George and Chelsea. "This gentleman was murdered yesterday morning. This young lady was murdered last night. You know what they've got in common?"

All three men shook their heads.

"They were both killed by Bradley Meretan."

Suddenly they put it together. "Wait, Brad did that?" Peck asked.

"I have an eyewitness who watched him kill this girl, Chelsea Walker, in cold blood, right in front of him. You can't get much more solid than that."

"You can't be serious. I've known Brad for years." Bradford said. "Hell, he's even come on patrol with us."

"Yeah, Nicky always bragged on how smart the kid was."

"Well, Nicky's nephew used you. He used his knowledge of police procedures to stalk, torture, and kill." Beckett was letting some of her fury show. "Any one of you could've just done your duty and let the system put this guy in jail and you let him go."

"Wait a damn minute!" Lords protested. "You're trying to pin an accessory charge on us for sticking up for a kid who made a couple dumb mistakes?"

"No, I'm saying that if even one of you had done their job, these two people would still be alive." Beckett flipped through the folder. "Peck, you pulled rank to get that B&E dropped."

"He was just goofing around. Kids will be kids."

She continued. "Bradford, you talked a fellow officer out of running him in for a stolen car."

The man shrugged. "Brad said he was just borrowing the car from a drunk friend and when the guy sobered up, he didn't remember loaning it out and reported it stolen."

"Okay, then, Lords, I'm just curious. What did you say to Chelsea Walker to get her to drop the kidnapping charges?"

The other two men turned to face him. "It was a joke. They were just taking a road trip."

"Kidnapping?"

Lords flushed. "Look. She was still underage by a couple months and Brad said that it was just because her parents would've freaked. So I talked her out of it and had a friend of hers take her home." Shrugging off the stares, he shook his head. "I didn't threaten her. I just talked to her. Told her that she could get in trouble for filing a false police report if she was just using us to get her out of trouble with her folks."

Beckett leaned back in her chair and stared. "Laid out like that, none of it seems quite so innocent now, does it?" She let her words sink in for a moment. "I've got a witness in the hospital held together with stitches and two bodies in the morgue. You understand how serious I am now?"

"What do you want us to do, Detective?" Bradford asked.

"Where is Meretan?"

"He has a place over on the Lower East Side. It's a friend's place, but he sublets."

"Gimme the address."

She jotted down the information and got up to leave.

Lords stopped her before she got to the door. "You're not really charging us with accessory to murder, are you?"

"No," she said, shaking her head. "But I have a feeling you'll all be getting visits from Internal Affairs, though." She shut the door against their groans.

Walking quickly through the bullpen, Beckett shouted out, "Ryan! Esposito! Mount up!"

It took only moments before they were on their way to the address. A quick shout announcing the police was all they needed before the door was popped open by the battering ram. Beckett rushed inside, clearing the first room and letting her partners sweep past her, clearing the next. When the apartment was cleared, she began taking a closer look.

The space had been very recently occupied. Dirty dishes and empty take out containers balanced on top of a pizza box. Beckett checked the date on the delivery tag. "He was here three days ago," she said.

"He was here more recently than that," Esposito called from the bathroom. "Come take a look at this."

She walked into the tiny room and peered over their shoulders. There were bloodied bandages lying in the sink.

"I make it to be two separate wounds," Ryan said. "Three blind shots, two hits. That's some impressive shooting."

"Let's save the celebrating until after we nail this dirtbag," Beckett said shortly. "We missed him again, which means that Castle's still in danger."

Appropriately chastened, the two men followed her out of the apartment. Once back at the station, Beckett put a twenty-four hour watch on the apartment along with Meretan's aunt's house. She didn't think he'd return to either place, but better safe than sorry. There was even more paperwork piling up, but she knew she wasn't in any shape to take care of it. "I'm heading back to the hospital, guys. Call if you need me."