McCord was a great investigator. She noticed that something was up, that our meeting with the captain had bothered me. "Who was Roy?"

"My mentor." I said simply.

She gave me a very knowing look, a commanding look that said there is way more to it than that.

Before I could stop myself I started to explain. "He was the one that brought me into homicide, he gave me my career. He died to save me, took a bullet that was meant for me." This was the truth to an extent.

My mind flashed back to that moment in the cemetery. The pop sound of the rifle and Castle tackling me flooded my mind.

I twisted the ring on my finger to bring myself back to the present.

"Sorry." She said. She waited to see if I'd respond. "Davies didn't like that you knew Roy. Is there something I should know about?"

I shook my head. "I don't think so."

"Beckett?" She didn't think that I'd tell her anything.

"We should probably look into the captain as a suspect."

She looked at me like I was crazy. "On what grounds?"

"Would you believe me if I said it was a hunch?"

She looked at me quizzically.

"Trust?" I said tentatively bringing up what Colin had said to me.

It worked.

She sighed and picked up her phone. "This better be one good hunch."

It turned out to be pretty good. They found tons of questionable deals letting criminals off easy and some mysterious cash payments to the man's accounts. This cop was defiantly dirty, but there was no way to tie him to Winters' murder.

We questioned him, but got nowhere.

"I didn't kill her." He insisted. "I'm not the greatest cop, but I ain't no murderer."

"I think she told you about a lead and you silenced her." McCord offered.

He rolled his eyes. "She didn't tell me anything. She never did."

I spoke even though McCord really hadn't given me permission. "I was like Winters, never told my captain anything. He always knew what I was up to even if he didn't know my leads." I starred him down. "You can't seriously tell us that you didn't know she was getting herself into trouble!"

"Okay," he sighed. "There are a handful of political cases that remained unsolved if you know what I mean. She got all revved up about them the past two weeks. She threw herself into her work like it was an obsession. Something caught her attention."

"What was it?" McCord asked.

"How am I supposed to know?" He said angrily.

"Anything else?"

"Can I get some coffee?" He asked.

We both got up. We knew this conversation wasn't going to get any better.

We left the room. "He has motive." McCord said. "Winters was looking into the cases he covered up."

"Allegedly." I said. It had sounded like I was correcting her like a lawyer might.

She looked over at me a little amused. "When's your day in court?" She asked.

"My mother was a lawyer."

She nodded. She knew that. Like I had said before, she had done her research.

Taegan and Colin had just wrapped up their case, but they didn't join in. McCord didn't want them on this yet, not until we had exhausted every lead.

"Let's take a look at that law firm."

We drove out there. We met with Mr. Winters. His office was huge and was decorated with tons of sculptures and art.

"Hello Mr. Winters. We're so sorry about you're daughter's death."

He nodded. "Do you know what happened?"

I shook my head. "Was your daughter acting strange lately?"

He shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair. "Not that I noticed." He changed the topic.

"You look familiar." He said to me.

"It's probably just a coincidence." I said, even though I didn't believe in coincidences especially when there's a murder.

"What did you say your name was?"

McCord was annoyed. "Beckett, her name is Beckett! Your daughter, found something that someone didn't want to get out. Do you have any idea what it was?"

His attention went back to McCord for a moment. "She asked to see old case files a few weeks ago."

He looked back at me with a sad expression on his face still trying to place where he'd seen me before. He had probably seen me in a magazine that was promoting Rick's books.

I could tell that he wanted to focus on absolutely anything but his daughter. He was still in denial of what happened. "I told her that she could as long as she didn't share anything with anyone else. She just wanted to do some research on some old cases."

"Will you grant us access to what your daughter was looking into?"

"I'll have my assistant send over the files this afternoon."

We thanked him for his cooperation; as we were leaving he stopped us. "Wait!"

"Joanna." He said.

I gulped trying to hide my shock. "My mother?" I asked.

"My daughter was looking into Beckett's old cases, and anything that resembled them."

McCord looked at me to see how I'd react to this information.

"How did you know her?" I asked.

"I went up against her in court once. She won."

"Thank you for telling us. I'm sure that's important." McCord said trying to get me out of there.

As we walked out McCord watched me as if I were a bomb that might explode at any moment.

"Can you handle this?"

I nodded. "I can. I've done it before. I can do it again. I'll let you know if I need to back out."

"Would you?" She asked slightly puzzled by the idea.

"What?"

"Back out?" I could tell that she was thinking that in my shoes she wouldn't back out for any reason.

"If it got too dangerous for me, if I became a target. I can't put my family through what I went through. My mother wouldn't want that."

"Let's figure this out." She looked at me oddly.

As I saw her reaction I realized she was very much like I had been, she wouldn't give up, not if she could help it. She was a crusader.

She invited Colin and Taegan onto the case for fresh eyes to see if we missed anything. When McCord explained about my mother Taegan looked over at me to see if I was coping. I hoped that I looked like I was.

For hours we poured over Winter's political cases and my mother's old cases.

I noticed something in one of the police reports. It talked about a 22 year old that had been found guilty of killing his brother's girlfriend and I remembered my mother mentioning something to me over the phone. I'd been away at school and hadn't really wanted to listen to her talk about work. She had taken the cases no one wanted, the ones that lawyers thought were lost causes.

I referenced the file with hers and found her notes. It was pretty clear she had thought he was innocent of the crime, but the evidence said otherwise.

What in this report could have made her question his guilt? There had to be something that we were overlooking.

We decided to take a break to get dinner. I wanted to protest, but I knew I shouldn't. It actually felt like we were a team now, not just doing the grunt work. They got the food to go and went back probably knowing that sitting in a restaurant would drive me crazy.

I read through the file again. She hadn't won the case. "Maybe she didn't have any evidence?"

They all just looked at me. "What kind of lawyer would take that case?"

"She was like me. If she talked with him, maybe she believed him when he said he was innocent. She was working with multiple law firms and police departments at the Justice Initiative to reverse sentences on innocent parties. This must have been the first case that got her on his radar."

I kept reading through the report trying to find anything, but they were all staring at me.

"Who is he?" Colin asked.

I froze.

McCord looked angry. "You know more about this than you're saying."

I didn't respond.

"Trust." Colin said.

"If I say anything without evidence to act on I'll end up like my mother."

"Maybe not. Nothing leaves this room."

Colin went and closed the door.

"It's all circumstantial." I said. "I can't tell you how I know."

They all waited. "We can't help if we don't know the details.

I knew they were right. I would be ending this investigation if I didn't say anything.

I couldn't do that, no matter how much I had changed. I couldn't withhold information if there was a chance.