A/N: I hope you enjoy the less choppy, plot-line tweaked, and somewhat improved version. We continue with the second half Season 3, episode 1: "A Deadly Affair" and stick closely with canon, because a certain bet gets made that is essential to the plot.

Disclaimer: I do not own Castle – all credit goes to Andrew Marlow and the writing team for ABC's Castle; my thanks to them for providing a foundation for this little exercise.

10

Kate made an especially early appearance at the precinct the next morning. She found a voice message from Lanie regarding the examination results of the two murdered females indicating that she wanted to see Kate at the morgue as soon as it was possible. Kate took the hour or so of quiet to begin the detailed outline of the police reports. She checked back with Lanie right around the normal starting time for the day shift, and to Kate's relief, she answered the morgue's extension. Kate wanted whatever edge she could muster before Castle showed up later – that was if he decided to show up. Kate was seventy percent sure he would even after the crossed paths and cross faces. She made her way over to the adjoining complex and down to the morgue.

"Morning girl . . . I hear you made an interesting arrest yesterday . . . you want to talk about it?" gushed the medical examiner.

Kate put on a straight, unconcerned face and replied "Nope," with a nice sharp accent on the 'p' to the point of making it pop.

Lanie gave her a puzzled, 'are you really sure about that?' look, but then got down to business. The dead women had received GSW's on opposite sides of their bodies, but the patterns for the entry and exit points were almost identical; and in keeping with the characteristics for 0.45 caliber ammunition. Lanie then called Kate's attention to the tattoos each woman had. Kate didn't see the relevance; she figured everyone got tattoos these days, so what made these so special? Lanie pointed out that the patterns and the inking; especially the shades of the inks were very similar; and could have been the same artist she had theorized. Kate took note of these seemingly minor details but Lanie had one more thing. She picked up an ultraviolet light and shined it on Miss Whitman's lifeless hand. The lamp revealed '#227'so Kate memorized it as well hoping that it could have been an entry code or a locker number or something relevant to the case. At any rate, Lanie said that it was probably written more than a week before, possibly two. Lanie directed attention back to the late Maya Santori.

"I found this taxi receipt on her. Look here, the time stamp on it is only an hour or so before she I think she was murdered. It also shows the pick-up address."

That was all the official business she had for Kate. She pried Kate once more about the episode over at the precinct.

"You're sure you don't want to talk about it?" she repeated.

"Positive," replied Kate as she made her exit.

She could hear Lanie still going on about it. "You keep holding stuff like that in . . . you're going to get an ulcer or something . . .," went the admonishment as the door swung shut behind her.

She did not reconsider. Kate knew there were a couple more victims in cold storage so that would keep Lanie busy for the rest of the day. Their diverse paths would give Kate some time to figure out how and when she was going to break the recent details of her love life to her best girlfriend.

Meanwhile Ryan had been pursuing the phone and financial records of both women. A posting on the digital crime folder indicated that such records were available for use. The phone records had finally yielded a common factor. Both women had been contacted by a Todd McCutcheon within hours of their deaths. In turn, his police record showed activity for robbery and assault charges. The team wondered if he had graduated to murder as well. The victim in the apartment could very well be Todd, but they had been unable to recover any ID's. For all they knew the vic could have been a roommate who got was mistakenly caught up in Todd's affairs. They requested an APB for McCutcheon's whereabouts. They had to cancel it in short order when Lanie, who had started on the next body in line at the morgue, informed Kate that Todd McCutcheon's whereabouts were confirmed to be right there on her examining table and it became even more interesting from there.

Castle left his loft apartment and made his way over to Tribeca to revisit Maya's place since he been cut short with the really inconvenient arrest procedure. The scope of the scene was large; he figured CSU would still be there. On the chance that Beckett was also still there, he stopped off to get a peace offering of her favorite coffee and a pastry, as well as one for himself. As he expected the apartment was still occupied by the CSU members, but no Kate Beckett. He bribed the officer in charge of the scene with the coffee and pastries and gained access. Once inside he pulled on some latex gloves and began his exploration. Maya had worked in several media with a collection of bronze, pot-metal, clay, and welded steel sculptures of various sizes in evidence but apparently, she favored the cast bronze. It appeared that all of the cast pieces had been smashed open for some reason leading him to the conclusion that somebody had been looking for something inside. The smaller steel pieces had been toppled. He knelt down beside one of them and noted a smudge of someone's blood beside it. He gazed further toward it; there was some blood on one of the sharper edges. Someone had been injured in their search. He assumed it wasn't Maya; no artist would just start wrecking her work unless she had suddenly gone insane or had been held at gunpoint. He called over to the CSU's forensics expert and pointed out the find; meanwhile, he gazed over at one of the work tables that had only been partially disturbed and saw something that didn't seem to fit Maya's sculpting theme. At that moment he didn't entertain it any further; after all, he had plenty of strange things in his office too. Having completed his personal sweep of the crime scene he made his way over to the 12th precinct; stopping only to buy another peace offering.

He made his way to the 4th floor, liking his entry as a guest much better than as a suspect for a crime. As he turned down the aisle he caught sight of Beckett at her desk, with her head down, concentrating on some document in hard copy. He walked up silently and with one fluid motion set the peace offering down in its usual place. Kate kept her face toward the document. She began to smile, but quickly suppressed it as she raised her eyes toward him. She still didn't want him to know anything about her feelings, at least not just yet. She decided to brief him on the investigations thus far since there was no sense in stonewalling him because he would just interfere with the case and drive everybody crazy until he uncovered things his way. After she had explained the preliminary details, Castle launched into a set of his wild theories surrounding the demise of the two young women. Kate informed him further that Todd McCutcheon was the one in the apartment with the snake and the vending machines. Todd's girlfriend had been contacted and was on the way over to the precinct to make a statement.

"I'll bet they were CIA agents probably targeted for termination," Castle offered one of his theories.

"You know Castle; I had forgotten how useful your contributions to crime solving could be," she retorted sarcastically.

Castle mentioned that the laws of probability would someday prove him right.

"Like I'm going to take that bet."

Castle leaned forward and got close to Kate. He lowered his voice to a whisper.

"OK, here's a bet for you," he continued quietly, "I bet I can link these three murders to one motive before you can."

She looked at him incredulously and leaned forward closing the gap between them.

"OK, you're on, but if you lose, you have to get out of my life and never interfere with any of my cases ever again," came her serious reply.

"And if I win," countered Castle, "you have to take me back as your partner!"

Castle had agonized over this moment almost the whole night. He knew from his gambling experience that going all-in with confidence sometimes left one on the outside merely looking in. His literary comrades had proven that to him more than once. Nevertheless, based on what he knew at that point, he felt he was still in the game. His wild CIA theory didn't have anything in common with what he had deduced on the way over to the precinct. His mind snapped back to the present situation; the sparing contest of wits was back in full swing, and with refreshing vigor. It felt so good.

"What happens if the rest of the team figures it out before us?" he added in whisper.

Their little exchange had not gone unnoticed. Esposito and Ryan had returned to their desks and were listening intently for any hint of what might be going on. The mystery of the whisperings between Kate and Castle held the two eavesdroppers almost spellbound. The whisperers sneaked a glance in their direction. The sight was surprising. It looked like Ryan and Esposito had suddenly left for the breakroom and were replaced by Lewis Carroll's Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum stand-ins. Kate and Castle turned to face one another a second time.

"Nah," they whispered in unison.

The little private episode was just too much. The Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum expressions vanished. The two rose nearly in unison and made their way over to Beckett's desk.

"What was all that about?" Esposito pried while Ryan nodded in agreement.

"Oh nothing . . .," replied Kate with a reserved look, "Castle was just apologizing for not calling over the summer."

Castle sat there astounded at Kate's reply but said nothing. The supposed apology was not readily accepted by Espo and Ryan. They continued to glare at him in pretty much the same manner as the day he was arrested; making it clear that even if Beckett had forgiven him, they were not ready for it. The little meeting was interrupted by near simultaneous pings from the desk computers that were logged on to the digital case folder. A new entry from CSU forensics team reported some blood smears that were found in Maya's apartment matched Todd McCutcheon's blood. There was also some of Todd's blood on the side and bottom of Maya's shoes. That little tidbit jogged Ryan's memory. He went to his desk and looked up the results linked to the taxi cab receipts found on Maya. The report showed the driver picked up his fare outside Todd's apartment the morning of the murders. The ride terminated in the middle of a block somewhere in the Bowery district, and apparently, the taxi driver had been told to wait because there were wenty additional minutes on the meter; then the taxi was back on the road and terminated the ride in the Tribeca district outside Maya's apartment building. Castle noted the time stamp and remarked it was just after that when Maya had called him. He recalled a mental image of the phone screen; and right after the call to him, she had also called Todd. He was about to mention that when they were interrupted by Captain Montgomery.

"Todd McCutcheon's girlfriend is here," he reported to the team.

Everyone split up with Kate and Castle making their way over to the public part of the precinct, which contained a room with a door that could serve as a quasi-private area for questioning persons of interest. It was much less intimidating than the box, which was usually reserved for confirmed suspects. Captain Montgomery returned to his office. Esposito took off in the direction of Ryan's desk.

"Ryan!"

He got Ryan's attention before he could head out to chase down another lead. The two of them tried to gauge the outcome over the next day or so. Esposito had asked Ryan what he thought of Kate's interactions with Castle since the episode with the vending machines the other day; and especially about that whispering session just a few minutes ago. Ryan wasn't sure what to make of it. Esposito postulated that Castle would in all likelihood find the link to the murders first; and that he would somehow worm his way back into the precinct's good graces – Kate included. Ryan remained somewhat skeptical.

"You want to make a bet on that?" Espo jeered.

"Okay, you're on . . . and what are the stakes?" countered Ryan.

"You get to buy two or three rounds for everybody at the case closure meeting."

Beckett and Castle interviewed Todd's girlfriend who said that she'd never seen Maya or Chloe before. She also explained that while her boyfriend did have a sketchy past, he had turned his life around with the new vending machine business. She also mentioned that he had hurt his back a couple months ago, which put him out of work, so he borrowed money from a guy in the neighborhood to pay debts to the bank and keep his business. The guy he borrowed the money from was no good. A couple weeks prior to Todd's death the man paid him a visit and threatened him with a gun; saying he'd kill him if he didn't make his payments. It turned out that the man was only seen in the neighborhood frequently for his loan sharking activities. He was identified as Dean Carbino, from somewhere in Brooklyn. They thanked the woman for her statement and promptly put out an APB on Carbino, which didn't take long to get results. About an hour and a half later one of the uniforms had him in custody and was heading toward the precinct.

Their round in the box with Dean Carbino did corroborate the girlfriend's story about a shoddy loan arrangement for Todd's business but the rest turned out to be another dead end. Carbino said that a loan of $15 g's certainly wasn't enough to kill someone over; furthermore, it was just an initial threat to encourage prompt payments. But that wasn't all. Carbino concluded his testimony with the information that Todd had repaid him in full plus interest so there was no reason to kill him.

"Do you expect me to believe that?" Kate inquired with her serious look.

"No sweetheart . . . I don't . . . but that doesn't change the facts," the suspect replied with his prominent Brooklyn accent.

"So where were you the morning of September 21st?"

"I was in Jersey, shopping with the missus."

They checked his story. He alibied out, but Ryan wondered if maybe he didn't order the hit. A possibility, Kate added. But it didn't explain why both the women, but not the girlfriend, would also be included. Castle nodded in agreement. He jumped ahead, knowing the next plan of attack, and suggested they look at Todd's financial history. Here goes smart-ass Castle again they thought. Espo and Ryan both turned in unison and glared at him coldly and replied that Todd's financial reports were on their way. Kate looked on in slight amusement as Castle continued wondering aloud how a vending machine sales and service tech could suddenly afford to pay off a $15,000 debt, so it would be worth looking for any unusual financial activity. Everyone got up nearly in unison to check for the reports.

As soon as the four of them could get their hands on the financial reports, they adjourned to one of the multi-purpose rooms and began going over them. It was now late afternoon, but the day was far from over. Looking for anomalies in a stranger's financial statements was tedious work. One thing became clear though; all three of the victims had cash flow problems; and their collective situations were chronic; things would balance for a month or two – just barely, then the overdrafts would reappear. But starting two or three weeks prior to the murders, each victim had somehow received $9,500 in their bank account. The sums had just appeared like the proverbial manna from heaven. Along with this some credit card charges also appeared, made by a company simply referred to as: KCBC, followed by a transaction number. They were small, less than twenty dollars, but all in the same amount, which also raised a red flag. Kate told Ryan to get on it. Castle sat back and began grinning smugly like a poker player who had just raked in a pile of chips. He felt his theory just might have yielded the connection. Kate looked at him.

"Don't start celebrating just yet," she told him, "we don't have a positive connection right now."

Castle just kept on grinning. "I missed you too," he replied as he kept his gaze on her.

He hoped the repeated phrase would have more impact than it did on the day of his arrest. It did. Kate just rolled her eyes and began to smile as she turned away from him. Someone suggested they have pizza delivered. Castle said he was buying. While waiting on the pizza delivery, Ryan put in some calls to the banks' fraud departments regarding the deposits while Esposito continued to hunt for KCBC. It was after dark when the results appeared. The bank deposits were made in cash so there was no further tracing of it, since they were under the trigger amount for additional information required by the IRS, the cash was a dead end – but not completely. Three people getting cash under the radar screen made it look to Kate that something illegal might have been going on. It didn't look like Esposito was fairing any better on his first pass. KCBC appeared to be a credit card processing company somewhere. There was not a business address on file but not to be so easily thwarted, Esposito found his way over to the IT fraud investigator's desk. It took some digital wrangling, but an IP address tag revealed a physical location over in the Bowery somewhere. The tech could ping the card reader but there was no useful information as to where it was physically located or the business concern that employed it. The IP on the server was better than nothing. Esposito made his triumphant return to the group, which had gathered at the white board, with a street address in his hand. He was ready for some adventure. The part of town indicated was known to house some really off-beat places; including some private clubs where rather kinky stuff could be going down. Kate mentioned that they needed to go check it out. Esposito exclaimed that he was on top of it; and carefully guarded the paper from Castle's reach. After the pizza dinner, Kate was also ready for some adventure. She was feeling the effects of a small dose of a drug that had been absent for some fifteen weeks prior and wanted more. To Esposito's dismay, she looked at Castle and declared a road trip. Castle, with some gesture between glee and sneer, snatched the paper he had been guarding. They left Ryan and Esposito looking at each other and wondering what had just happened.

The address proved to be some nondescript building in the middle of the block. All of the front entrances looked nonfunctional.

"This place doesn't look like any reputable credit card company to me," Kate voiced her thought out loud.

They turned into a dark alley to see if the side entrances, if there were any, would prove to be different.

"No, it looks like the kind of place where you get mugged in a dark alley," remarked Castle with a mixture of sincerity and fear in his voice.

They found a side door with a dim entry light hung above it. There was no door knob; only a box with a numerical keypad mounted to the right of the doorway. There appeared to be no intercom. Kate recalled the #227 code on Chloe's hand so she gave it a try. Castle, somewhat alarmed, asked what she thought she was doing. Before Kate could answer, the door latch clicked, and the door sprang open accompanied by sound of screechy hinges. They surmised that the entrants were to close it behind themselves. They continued down a dimly lighted passageway while the music and voices got louder as they went. When they reached the venue, they stopped to take it all in and there was plenty to take in all at once. It was some kind of private burlesque club with fire eaters, midgets performing juggling acts, women walking around with large snakes draped over their shoulders, and scantily clad female fan-dancers; and in the middle of it all, a well-stocked bar. Kate watched Castle switch into his kid in a candy store mode. His eyes darn near bugged out.

"Wow! . . . This is like the circus . . . but with alcohol," he exclaimed. "How come I've never heard of this place before?"

Kate gave him a look like he was such a novice. "This is nothing in comparison to some of the clubs I've been to," she teased.

When Esposito hears about this he's going to be really mad that we cut him out, Kate thought to herself. Castle was drawn to the fan dancer. Kate turned her attention to the bartender.

"What will you have?"

She flashed her badge along with a $20 bill. "How about some information," she replied.

She showed him the pictures of the three victims and asked if anybody there had either seen them or knew them. The bartender definitely knew them. They were all part of the owner's, dance troupe, he informed her as he pointed to the scantily clad woman dancing before Castle and many of the patrons. When the dance number ended, Beckett began an interview with Kitty Canary who informed them that Todd had a snake act, Chloe was a dancer, and Maya was just a patron who came from time to time for inspiration. Castle was inspired by Kitty's fluorescent purple bikini. Kitty Canary – that had to be only a stage name thought Castle. Kitty's husband Earl found his way over to them. Kitty went on to explain that she didn't know the three victims very well; certainly not beyond just being co-workers, except that Maya and Chloe did come to her for tattoos. It was her daytime job. Earl and Kitty expressed their sadness for the loss of the three club members. Kitty knew perfectly well that NYPD was there for more than chit-chat, so she threw out the episode of how Chloe's boyfriend Evan came around the club one night and had a loud argument with his girlfriend about what she was doing at the club. Kitty said she suspected that Evan thought Chloe was cheating on him. Kate also wanted to know if they had a mailing list with all of their 'regulars'. Earl said he would get it for them. With this thread connected to a new suspect and a plausible motive, Kate thanked them for their time. While she was scanning the room to find Castle, a couple of revelations hit her. Just perhaps the mysterious KCBC stood for 'Kitty Canary's Burlesque Circus' she thought to herself; and Todd McCutcheon's boa constrictor was kept on hand for who knows what kind of performance at this place. She finally located Castle.

"Well Castle, are you staying or are you going?" Kate teased him again.

"I'm . . . Um . . . I'm," babbled Castle.

Kate grabbed his arm; announced that he was going with her; and ushered him back down the passageway and out the door. Kate dropped him off near his apartment, then continued back downtown to turn in the patrol car. On the way she called the dispatcher and set up to have Evan Murphy tagged as a suspect in the case. She also requested a search warrant for his apartment. Here they were with seven people mixed up in something; and three of them were dead because of it. Things were becoming interesting.

About mid-morning on the following day, a nervous Evan Murphy found himself in the box with Kate and Castle. With the new information gleaned from the meeting at the club she began questioning him as to his motive for doing away with this girlfriend Chloe. Yes, he admitted he followed her to the club one night; and yes, they had argued, but that was only because she had been acting very secretive of late. Kate asked him why he hadn't mentioned this before. Evan apparently was aware of police procedure; either from watching TV or some other source. The source must not have been from personal experience because he didn't have any priors. He said he withheld the account of that little episode because he was afraid they would only have focused on him as a suspect and looked no further. Kate wanted to know about the money. Evan looked completely confused and countered with the question of what money? While Evan was visiting the police, they were visiting his apartment. A uniform interrupted the questioning in the box and asked Kate to step outside for a minute. A 0.45 caliber gun had been found in Evan's apartment; it could be the murder weapon. They had quickly dusted it for finger prints but found that it had been wiped clean. Kate returned to the box with renewed vigor. She accused him of being into something together with the rest of them – she wanted to know what it was. She showed him the gun they had just found in his apartment. He became almost hysterical and swore that he had never seen it before, didn't even own one, and that he had only fought with Chloe over his suspicions that she was having an affair with someone at the club. Beckett continued to press him hard for answers that he simply did not have. He finally asked for a lawyer. Not another word from him without a lawyer present. They transferred him to holding until the lawyer could show up.

Esposito was subconsciously trying to win his bet with Ryan. Not that he had completely forgiven Castle, it was just that he had seen the same thing Lieutenant Whitefield had seen and it was the simple fact that Kate Beckett had not been the same woman over the last few of months. If Castle's presence could somehow change that, he was all for it. Esposito took the lion's share of the mailing list provided by the burlesque club. When he found out where they got it the night before he lamented loudly that they should have called for back-up. Going to a place like that, he reasoned, one could always use more back-up. Kate had been particularly interested in the list of regulars that had prior police activity. Fortunately, most of the records had been digitized or had been entered directly into the new data base; hence those with priors had pictures readily available. Castle looked over Kate's shoulder as she reviewed the files. One stood out. A young man named Xander Doyle had an address in the Bowery very near the place where the taxi had dropped of Maya on the morning of her murder. Now there was an eighth person on the list. How much of NYC was wrapped up in it? Castle was generally very good at holding things in memory. It paid off.

"Hey, I've seen that guy's face before," he exclaimed to no one in particular.

He snatched a hard copy of the photo and trudged over to the white board with it. The board was covered thickly enough now to be known as the murder board. He held it beside a photo taken of one of Maya's cast sculptures. At least the face was complete, and they were a match.

The APB on Xander Doyle paid off rather quickly. Within a couple of hours, they had him in the box. Captain Montgomery began to wonder if the precinct should install a revolving door on the interrogation room as he saw them pass his office with yet another suspect. Maya certainly had been busy soliciting help the morning before she was killed. Xander said he had met her at the club some months back. She liked the way he looked, and he admitted that they could probably guess the rest. She must have liked him enough to remember him in bronze. The reason she had come to him was to get a gun for self-protection. He said he wasn't surprised. He had met her on the street, just in passing, a few weeks before. She had to be into something because she smelled of all kinds of chemicals like bleach and acetone and other mean stuff.

"I've got another friend who often smells like that – he makes meth." Xander concluded.

That may have been the case, but Kate informed Xander Doyle that he would remain in holding until things became clearer. Kate got on the intercom. Moments later a uniform on duty over at holding came to escort him there.

Castle's murder theory machine switched into high gear. That had to be the connection he had effused.

"Think of it" he exclaimed as they made their way toward Beckett's desk. "The three of them are sitting around the burlesque bar one night after hours sharing tales of woe regarding their individual money troubles. The chemistry teacher jokes that 'we could always cook meth'; but the other two aren't laughing. 'Yeah we could' replies another; and that's how it starts," Castle went on with his customary dramatic narrative. "I'm going with the drugs," he concluded.

Kate was lost in thought. It was certainly plausible, but Doyle, Murphy, and Todd's girlfriend were puzzle pieces still not fitting. Castle thought they would fall into place; and was thinking out loud about the taxi ride Maya had taken; was it to the club or Doyle's place or both? Beckett called the medical examiner's office and the chemical residues, and when they arrived at the morgue, Lanie had already pulled the section of the report dealing the results of analysis for body surfaces and clothing.

"It wasn't drugs," she stated plainly.

Castle winched. He had wanted to keep that story going, but Lanie had squashed it flat with one stroke. She went on to say that their boy Xander was right about the chemicals – she found trace amounts of bleach, acetone, sodium chloride and ammonia on each victim but therein lay the problem; no trace of the end product, the methamphetamines, could be found.

As they made their way back to the 4th floor of the precinct Castle knew the next stop would be the murder board. But now Castle found himself at the betting tables once again. Only this time it wasn't poker, it had become blackjack instead. He had to beat the house and Kate was the one who would be pulling the fresh cards from the deck. They stood at the murder board together, Esposito was at his desk, Ryan was elsewhere. The game was on and Castle somehow had to do this without going bust. Kate focused first on the weapon found in Evan's apartment. Why did he have it? The freshly posted ballistics report confirmed it was the murder weapon used on all three victims. They traded theories of self-protection, not finished with his plot yet, and that he was going to ditch it but hadn't gotten around to it. Kate found them all improbable. Esposito overheard them at the board and called over to inform them that since they were talking about Evan, the report on his financials showed no unusual activity and certainly nothing of the $9,500 deposits the others had received. Well maybe that was it. Maybe Evan was mad that he didn't get a cut of whatever the victims were into. Kate remained frustrated that they still didn't know what the victims were into except that had made a lot of money. Castle drew in a sharp breath. His mind began racing, but he kept it all to himself. He both blessed and cursed the English language. On one hand it was full of words with precise meanings; on the other, one could be either accidently or arbitrarily vague. That was it! They made a lot of money; as in manufactured it rather than earned it. Kate could see the proverbial wheels turning in Castle's head and wondered what crazy stuff was coming next. To her surprise he bolted for the evidence room; and convinced the clerk to pull the box holding effects from Chloe's apartment. He rushed back to the murder board with the box in hand. He had one more card to draw – would he bust? He pulled several $20 bills from Chloe's wallet and glanced at them quickly. Aha! He had done it – drawn a '21' at the blackjack table. He handed the bills to Kate.

"So?" she asked.

"Take a look at the serial numbers on those bills," he said smugly.

She looked. They weren't serial at all – they were exactly the same.

"So, they were into counterfeiting," Kate said as she looked at him in his moment of glory.

"Hey, a chemistry teacher, a sculptor, and a vending machine tech walk into a burlesque bar and order a drink . . . the bartender asks if their ID's are fake . . .," Castle began.

". . . no, but the money is they whisper," she said completing the joke.

He had found the link. But they still had to find the murderer. The vending machine tech was needed to supply the $1 bills; the chemistry teacher's expertise was required for bleaching all the ink from the dollar bills. It sounded like a lot of work, but it was still much easier than trying to produce an authentic looking and textured paper. So what better way than to use authentic paper and print $20's and $50's? The sculptor who liked to work in metal could supply the plates. Now Castle recalled why that oval portrait of Andrew Jackson was on Maya's work bench. Only one thing was missing. Who supplied the ink? The Eureka moment dawned on them simultaneously as they stared at the murder board. They turned to face each other.

"I think I know who the killer is!" they burst out in unison.

Javier Esposito sat back in his chair and grinned. The old Kate Beckett has returned he said to himself. The homicide team assembled from various corners of the precinct, commandeered a couple of patrol cars and made a hurried trip over to the burlesque club. They were assisted by two uniformed officers who had been asked to come equipped to enter the venue by force on the possible chance that the keypad entry had been disabled or changed. Kitty and Earl were the ring leaders; the others just supplied the means to get things done, and for their help they received a cut of the phony bills. The whole deal went sideways when Todd tried to pay off his shoddy loan boss Dean Carbino with the funny money. Carbino figured it out in short order and threatened to rat them out if he didn't get cut in. The three victims were for it, but Earl and Kitty were not, so the rest was history. Earl planted the 0.45 caliber murder weapon in Evan's apartment to frame him. Evan hadn't found the weapon yet and therefore hadn't dirtied it up with his own finger prints. Earl and Kitty knew it was time to pack up and get out of town before the NYPD found out what happened. After the little interview, they knew it would be only a matter of time but heir time ran out as the NYPD caught them hurriedly packing up the valuable items from the club, including a couple of large travel bags full of phony bills and the precious master plates that made them. Kitty tried to distract the arresting officers by asking what finally gave her away. Castle replied that the only missing piece was the ink; and who better to supply it than a tattoo artist. With the slight distraction caused by the verbal exchange, Earl tried to make a break for it. The two crooks tried to split up and got lost among the high racks of inventory shelving in that section of the building. With six cops and two crooks the end game was a ride to the lock up.

Back at the precinct the fresh perpetrators were processed in while the two innocent persons were processed out. Kate ran background checks on Kitty and Earl. The poor victims never really knew what kind of nasty people they had been dealing with. Kitty had a list of priors including robbery, assault, and trying to use a car as a deadly weapon to run down her previous boyfriend. She had been a terror in Seattle, Washington; she left there in secret after serving some prison time; donned a new alias and set up shop in NYC. The burlesque venue was just a front and a diversion. While Ryan and Espo, and the uniforms were at the holding area desk, Kate had read the list of priors at her desk with Castle sitting in the chair that had remained empty all summer. They rose almost in unison. She stopped and looked at him.

"Well, I guess you won the bet fair and square," she said with a very business-like tone and a straight face.

Castle looked into her eyes ever so briefly before he spoke. He had only one more hand to play. It was risky, but he was feeling lucky.

"Well, if you still feel that I'm interfering too much, and you don't want me around . . . I'll respect that," he offered.

"No, like I said, you won fair and square," she replied with a smirk.

Castle knew he had won that round too.

"Tomorrow then?"

"Tomorrow," Kate replied, with her eyes twinkling and a slight grin in place.

It had been quite a day.