Author's note: I'd like to thank DREAMWRITER08, southerngirl1, and TORONTOSUN for their reviews. TORONTOSUN: This one was a fun one to put together. southerngirl1: Elements were borrowed from another crime show I loved. It was hard to not replicate it shot for shot, but it was fun to have a callback to that other show. DREAMWRITER08: Vikram's departure was something I'd originally planned to put in the previous case, but it didn't feel like the right time when I was writing it up. I'd forgotten the episode about Castle being framed for murder when I was writing this case, so there isn't an intended parallel, but it is interesting. This chapter starts where the last one left off and jumps between several characters. Enjoy!

Chapter 10

"Okay, thank you." Ryan hung up the phone. "A Francis Rowe clocked in this morning around the same time our vic did. No one has seen him for a few hours."

"So, he's probably on the run." Esposito glanced at the receptionist again. "She's getting me pictures of all the Frank's, Francis', and Francine's who work in the building. Thought we could run them by Evelynn's boss to see which she was dating."

"Good idea. I'll run down the whereabouts of Mr. Rowe. If he's supposed to be here, where'd he go?"

"Yeah, good call."

The receptionist brought a stack of profiles to Esposito. "Here you go, Detective."

"Thank you." Esposito flipped through the pages and held up Francis Rowe's page. "Here's his info. Want to get a copy?"

Ryan snapped a picture of the page. "Got it."

Esposito put the page back in the stack and headed for the elevator. "See you later."

Ryan spent the next hour on the phone trying to figure out where Frank Rowe could have gone and getting warrants to search those locations. He also talked to every friend or family member he could find numbers for, but no one seemed to know where Frank was. By the end of the hour, no trace had been found, so Ryan went up to where Vikram was. He found the man frantically typing and watching security footage. Ryan just watched for a minute, trying to figure out what he was trying to do.

After a while, Ryan gave up on the puzzle. "Whatcha doing, man?"

"Decrypting the surveillance feed. Originally, I thought that all the cameras were off, but they're not. Someone encrypted the footage. I have to unscramble it."

"So why were the elevator cameras working?"

"Different systems." Vikram typed a couple more lines of code. "That should… do it." He hit enter and all the screens lit up with footage from earlier.

"Nice work, man."

"Thanks." Vikram looked closer at the screens. "I've still got a few blind spots. There must be a few cameras that are still down."

"Where?" Ryan pulled out his notebook.

"Uh, top brass floor, archives, this room, the stairwells, and… behind the cafeteria. I think that's all, but there could be more. I don't know this building very well."

Ryan held up his phone. "I'm looking for this man. He works here, clocked in this morning, but hasn't been seen in a while. I need to know if he's still in the building."

"Sure thing. I'll start the search."

"Thanks, man."

"Yeah."

Meanwhile…

Esposito went straight to Washburne's office. "You're Quick's supervisor, right?"

"Yeah. How can I help you, Detective?"

"We're trying to find her boyfriend and I was wondering if you'd look at a few pictures for me."

"I don't remember if I ever met him, but I'll take a look." Washburne sat down.

"These are all the people who might use Frank for their name."

"Got it." Washburne flipped through the stack of photos, carefully looking at each face. There were a couple he deliberated a bit longer on, eventually setting them aside to look at a second time. When he got to Francis Rowe's photo, however, he stopped and held it up. "This is him."

"You're sure?"

"Positive. I saw him kiss her when he would walk her to the door sometimes. I just didn't know him."

"Thank you." Esposito's phone rang. "Esposito. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I'll be right there." He hung up. "Thank you again for your help, Mr. Washburne."

Esposito went straight to the Commissioner's office when he returned to the fourteenth floor. "You wanted to see me, sir?"

"Yes. I've just been told that the press is starting to gather outside. I want to get Gates out of here before they can get her name and picture."

"How can I help, sir?"

"There's a car waiting for you all downstairs. Escort her to the safe house. She'll be under house arrest there until everything gets sorted out." Hardlowe sat down. "Detective, she is still under arrest, so no favoritism."

"Sir?"

"Use handcuffs."

Esposito nodded. "Yes, sir."

Meanwhile...

Gates, now wearing a t-shirt and sweat pants, was using a wipe to clean off her hands when Beckett and Castle walked in. "This is humiliating."

"I'm sorry for all this." Beckett sat across from Gates.

"It's not your fault." Gates threw the wipe away. "It's everyone looking at me like they've already decided I'm guilty."

"Victoria," Gates' rep., Cindy Cook, put a hand on her shoulder, "I know you and Captain Beckett know each other, but…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Captain, the floor is yours."

Beckett opened her notebook. "Just start from the beginning."

"I was here during the award ceremony today, to preserve chain of command. Around noon, I went downstairs to get lunch. Normally, I bring it back to my desk, but today I stayed downstairs."

Castle held up his hand. "Forgive me, Deputy Chief, but could you be more specific about the times?"

"I went downstairs… I think it was five minutes before noon. I got back upstairs no more than three minutes before Commissioner Hardlowe got back."

"Thank you."

Beckett finished writing down the times. "And when you got back, what did you see?"

"I'd taken the middle elevator. When the doors opened, the first thing I'd noticed was the blood trail coming from the elevator to my right. I took out my gun, did a visual sweep of the area, and then followed the trail. When I saw the girl, she was on her side."

Castle looked at Beckett. "On her side? She was facedown when we saw her."

"Yes. She rolled onto her front when I stood up after she was gone." Gates took a deep breath. "She was still alive when I found her. I holstered my weapon and went to try and stop the bleeding. There were too many wounds."

"Did she say anything?"

"Yes. I don't know what it means. She said 'skavon 13104.' She died right after that. I stood up to call it in, she rolled onto her front, and that's when Commissioner Hardlowe found the scene."

"Had you ever seen Ms. Quick before?"

"Not that I recall."

Castle raised his hand again. "Did she say why she came up to this floor?"

"No, she just said 'skavon 13104.' Nothing else."

Beckett set down her notebook. "Is there anything else you remember that could help us?"

"Nothing stands out."

"Thank you, Deputy Chief."

"Thank you for listening."

There was a knock on the door and Esposito poked his head inside. "The media is gathering outside. Hardlowe wants Gates out of here without them seeing her."

Gates stood. "Do they have my name yet?"

"Not sure. There's a car in the garage waiting for us." Esposito came into the room and held up a pair of handcuffs. "I'm sorry. Commissioner's orders."

Gates sighed and turned around. "I understand."

Esposito handcuffed Gates and then led her from the room. "We're taking you to a safe house."

Beckett and Castle walked into the Commissioner's office. "Sir, where is Gates being taken?"

"To a safehouse. If the media has her name, they may have already camped out at her home. If she didn't do this, we need to protect her name and face from being dragged through the mud. As much as we can, at least."

"She'll be under house arrest then?"

"For now." Hardlowe stood and looked out the window. "I want to think she's innocent. But after what Deputy Commissioner Malone did, well... it makes me question things."

"I'll need to be able to talk to her later when I have more information."

"Understood. Just call this office so we can make sure her rep. is present."

Beckett nodded. "Thank you, sir."

"You and your team are probably the best we have. Don't let us down."

"We'll do our best, sir." Beckett led the way to the elevators. "We need to figure out where Evelynn came from."

"You want to find the other part of the blood trail."

"Exactly. We can rule out RTC, the lobby, and the call center floor. They are too busy to have let a blood trail go unnoticed. Same with the garage." She hit the call button. "Let's start with the archives. 'Skavon 13104' might be a case designation."

"I thought the archives were at evidence lockup."

"Cold Cases has a division here. Their archives would be kept here." The elevator arrived.

Castle followed Beckett inside. "Which floor?"

Meanwhile...

Gates waited until they were in the elevator to speak. "Which safe house?"

Esposito shrugged. "I'm not sure. I wasn't told. The driver should know."

"Will my husband be there?"

"Hardlowe didn't say."

Gates sighed. "I want to be able to talk to him at least."

The elevator arrived at the parking level. "I'll see what I can do about that."

"Thank you."

A young officer opened the SUV's door. "We need to leave. A couple reporters tried to sneak in here earlier."

Gates got in the back seat and Esposito climbed in after her. "Why aren't we using the car with blacked-out windows?"

"There wasn't time to get that car here, sir,"

Gates leaned forward and put her head down as far as she could. "Let's get moving."

Meanwhile...

Beckett's phone chirped. "Esposito confirms that Evelynn's boyfriend is Frank Rowe."

"Good to have a name."

"Yeah." The elevator arrived on the archive floor and Beckett led the way. "If the roster for today is correct, only the archivist should be on duty down here, but she didn't come in today." She pointed to the floor. "More blood."

"So, Evelynn was here." Castle was careful to avoid the drips. "If the archivist isn't here, how will we get in?"

"They're trying out a new system. Hopefully having access to all of the building will be enough."

"What kind of system?"

"Not sure. I think it's based on Bluetooth or something similar."

They arrived at the door. "Will we be able to get inside?"

"If Hardlowe did what he said he would, my I.D. should be enough to get inside." She swiped her card and the light flashed green. "Let's go."

"More blood in here. Would Evelynn have clearance?"

"No, 911 operators don't have that kind of clearance." Beckett pulled out her gun. "Keep your eyes out for 'skavon 13104.'" She turned left.

"Okay." Castle headed right, looking down the aisles as he walked. "Uh, Beckett? I found a body."

"What?" She headed toward Castle's voice.

"There's a body here." He pointed.

Becket headed down the aisle toward the body, Castle circling around to get behind her. When they reached it, they could clearly see the cut across his throat and the arterial spray on the shelves and plastic boxes. An I.D. was clipped to the breast pocket of the victim's shirt, but it was turned backward. Beckett looked around the crime scene, making sure it was clear. Castle pulled on a pair of gloves and reached out to flip the badge so they could read it.

"Francis Rowe. This is Evelynn's boyfriend."

"Yeah." Beckett pulled out her phone. "This is Captain Beckett. I need CSU and Dr. Parish in the archives at 1PP right away. We have another body."

A/N: Stay tuned!