Part XI

"Hey, sweetie," Lanie said, glancing up at Kevin as he came through the swinging doors. "And Castle."

Castle gave a little finger wave and not so subtle glance around the room – checking for anything new and interesting, Kevin was sure.

"Sorry to say, you made a trip down here for nothing," Lanie said, looking regretful as she slid her chair back from her computer.

"That's okay. I figured you hadn't had time to look yet. We were in the building so I thought I'd check though."

"Oh, I looked at them," Lanie said. "I just didn't get anything useful for you."

"What's that mean?" Castle asked, having not found any new bodies to catch his interest.

"Well, the sock is too compromised. The blood on the bottom isn't even reading as human anymore."

"Not human?" Kevin asked. "Like animal?"

Lanie shook her head. "Like not anything known."

Castle perked up considerably at this news. "Alien?"

"It's just been contaminated too much to register. I'm going to try a few things when I get some more time, try to sort it out," she said, ignoring Castle completely. "The dried flecks did come back as human. Not surprising since you actually made an attempt to preserve that evidence."

Kevin shrunk a little under her glare.

"It shows traits of being from a woman, but that's all I know. I tried to run DNA on it but something went wrong with the system and it kicked it out. Same with the fingerprints on the post-it."

"Kicked it out? Is that normal?" Castle asked what Kevin was thinking.

"Well, they have been doing some maintenance and upgrades," she said hesitantly. "But not really, no. Especially with both of them. Probably just a glitch though. I'll try it again later and let you know what comes back."

"Thanks again, Lanie," Kevin said, giving her a wave as he and Castle walked out.

"Well, that was interesting," Castle said.

"Yeah, that whole lot of nothing is really making my wheels turn," Kevin said dryly as they headed to the building exit.

"Really? You saw that as nothing?" At Kevin's questioning glance, Castle stopped. "A crime scene that disappears? A body that disappears? Buffy not being on any of lease paperwork? A mysterious 'holding company' out of the country? The unexplained involvement of a gang unit detective who happens to have a picture of your missing mystery girl in his desk? And now the system suddenly gets glitchy when Lanie tries to run any blood or prints that might belong to Buffy? And one comes back as not human?! You see nothing, I see pure gold."

"Okay," Kevin conceded. "When you put it like that…"

"It's the best case ever?"

Kevin gave him a withering look.

"I mean, if Buffy's not dead. Only the best case then…"

"I go by many names. Around here it's Detective Ethan Slaughter. The only thing you really need to know about me is that Wolfram and Hart sent me."

"For a welcoming party you're being a little rude," Xander said, gesturing to Kennedy's trapped hand with a jerk of his head. "How about you let her go and we have a little chat."

"Oh, sorry, forgot about you for a second," he said giving Kennedy a fake smile as he released her fist. "Apologies."

Dawn pressed herself a little harder against the wall, more than a little nervous about this guy's ability to stop Kennedy cold like that. Seeming to notice the tiny movement, he turned his eyes on her.

"I'm just here to deliver a message," he said. "Violence was not in the pages. Unless you make it necessary of course."

Xander stepped in front of Dawn, blocking her view.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means 'go home'," the "detective" answered. "Wolfram and Hart have this under control. There's no reason for the Slayer's Council to bother with something this trivial."

"Trivial?" Dawn blurted, finding it a little easier to speak with Xander between her and the… whatever he was. "Six people are dead. My sister is-"

A step back from Xander had her shutting her mouth as her nose almost bumped the back of his shoulder.

"Yes, we hear Miss Summers had a little run in with our target. Any chance I could speak to her about that. Not that the bench warmers aren't cute," he said, not even deigning to look at Kennedy, just giving a little wave in her direction.

"Buffy's busy, but I'm sure she'll be interested in hearing about your little visit. I'll send her your way when she has time," Xander answered, matching the tone of false geniality.

Dawn could see the detective's eyes narrow as she peeked over Xander's shoulder.

"Was that a threat, Mr. Harris? Because I would love a chance to meet with Miss Summers. And if you take one more step, little slayer, I'm going to have to do a rush clean up in here, and I really don't have time for that."

Dawn looked around Xander's other shoulder, seeing Kennedy freeze where she'd been inching up at an angle behind him. She shot Xander a questioning look and he gave back a minute headshake.

"Excellent, now let's recap. There's nothing for you here. We at Wolfram and Hart have the situation under control and in the interest of keeping things civil between our two organizations we would greatly appreciate it if you saw yourselves off and left this situation to us," he said, sounding like he was reading a prepared statement off of a cue card and was completely bored by the whole thing. "And when you see Miss Summers, please have her call me at her earliest convenience."

With that he laid a card down on the table they'd all been sitting at moments before and left.

Xander moved away from Dawn with a gusty breath and she leaned back against the wall.

"What the hell was that?" Kennedy asked looking shaken and angry.

"I don't know," Xander said, slumping in a chair and looking Kennedy up and down. "But I think we're going to need a bigger boat…"