A/N: I did one of those super long chapters again. Sorry…ish. Anyway, since it took me so long my notes are at the bottom : ) Go read, my little lovelies!

Chapter 11.

"Your Jane Doe had one tough job," Lanie replied, still bent over the girl's body. "X-rays show she'd broken multiple bones, some more than once. All healed, but still." The ME shook her head and lifted Jane Doe's right arm. "The radius in this arm was broken at least three times."

"How can you tell," Castle asked.

"They were all in different places. None of them was a compound fracture, the ones that break through the skin, but they all snapped in their own way." She placed the arm back down and started gesturing to different body parts. "Legs, ribs, arms, wrists, even a few fingers." Lanie gave one of her "Mm Mm"s and then pointed to the stab wound. "This is your cause of death. A knife was thrust into her right anterior side, slicing the pancreas and lacerating the liver."

"How long?" Beckett asked. Lanie knew that face. Kate just needed to hear it. So Lanie obliged.

"If someone had come across her and helped her to the hospital, she would have made it with surgery. But without help, well, she wasn't in pain for very long."

Lanie watched as anger flooded into Kate's eyes. It matched her own, though Lanie was good enough at disguising it and compartmentalizing. Years at her job had taught her the cruelty people were capable of. This girl was no different. She'd seen many cases where someone had stabbed a person and then left them there, crying and bleeding on the street. People often asked Lanie why she chose to be a medical examiner. She sometimes quipped that dead people were much pleasanter than live people, aside from the smell, or that if you messed up an autopsy people were less likely to sue, or even that someone had to. It was very rarely she told the truth. That dead people need saving, too, and she would do her part to bring them that, to give them peace, a final say. That she helped them with one last word to the living, the name of their murderer.

"Anything else?" Kate said, her voice level.

"There were bruises on her wrists, suggesting a struggle, but that's it. I've sent stray fibers I found on her body to the lab," she answered. Kate nodded, lost in thought.

Lanie's eyes flicked to Castle as she watched him move a little closer behind Kate, pretending to peer over her shoulder at the body. Her body unconsciously leaned back into him, but that was nothing new. Lanie wondered if Castle would make some small move or gesture to comfort her when he suddenly stood tall.

"A jockey," he announced.

Beckett turned around to him. "What?"

"She was a jockey. Think about it. Small body, muscular build, broken bones."

"Castle, just because she has a small, tight body doesn't mean she was a jockey."

"No, come on, think about it. She can't be taller than what, 5 feet?" He looked to Lanie for support. She nodded.

"5 feet, 1 inch to be precise."

"Right, and then she's got broken bones everywhere. What other profession comes with multiple broken bones that have healed and then gotten re-broken?" Castle's face was eager, searching Kate's eyes, asking her to believe him. She sighed and turned back to Lanie.

"It's possible," Lanie stated before Kate could say anything, but she held her hands up, communicating that it was not her idea.

"Anything else going on here?" Kate asked, avoiding the subject. But before Lanie could respond, Kate's cellphone rang. "Beckett," she answered. She held up a finger, hold that thought, and left the mortuary. Castle looked like he was contemplating following her.

"Hold up," Lanie said and raised an eyebrow. Castle followed suit. "You wanna tell me what's goin' on between you two?" She asked.

"Between me and Beckett? Nothing's going on between us."

"Mmhm," she replied, "I'm not buying that, Castle."

"You've been saying that for what, three years now? What makes you think something's changed this time?"

"I have my sources."

"Ah, your sources. I see." Castle gave Lanie a look that suddenly had her squirming. She tried to cover it up by turning it back on him.

"Yes, my sources. They tell me things have changed. And I also have eyes, Castle. Today at the crime scene? There's something going on between you two."

"Beckett went to see Lockwood this morning," he said by way of explanation. "He wouldn't talk and it had her down, so I've been trying to keep her spirits up." He shrugged. "Just being her friend."

"Mmhm," is all Lanie returned. She wasn't buying it. Their little game this morning wasn't about distracting Kate from her interview this morning.

"And as for your sources," Castle continued, unfazed, "You should tell him that you two should probably step it up a notch, because you aren't fooling anybody."

Lanie gaped at him for a moment before she was able to compose herself. They weren't fooling anybody? But they'd been so careful. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't know what who's talking about?" Kate asked as she re-entered the morgue.

"I'm trying to get Lanie to confess about her and her super secret resourceful relationship," Castle replied, turning to face his partner, a grin on his face.

"Ah. Well, it's hard to hide love when you find it, isn't it Castle?" Kate cocked her head to the side, a coy smile on her face.

"Something I'll be sure to keep in mind for future reference."

"You do that. That was Ryan on the phone." She turned back to Lanie. "Thanks, call us if you find anything else?"

"You know it. And we're gonna have a serious talk later!" She called after her friend as she and Castle left the morgue. "Can't hide it when you find it," she grumbled to her Jane Doe. "They should be one to talk. Because they might not see it, but I do. And if they do see it," Lanie raised her head and looked at the closed doors her friends had just disappeared out of, "Then they are trying to pull one hell of a prank." Pushing those thoughts aside, Lanie went back to work, but after a few minutes she pulled out her cell phone.

"We've got a serious problem," she stated when Esposito picked up.

"I know! Have you seen those two together? It's like 'boom! the sky's lit up' around them. What do you think they're playing at?"

"Most likely payback for all the taunts and bets. But Javi, that's not what I'm talking about. They know. About us."

"Nah, babe, we've been careful. They can't know."

"Uh huh, well then you tell me why both Castle and Beckett are all 'you aren't fooling anybody' down here."

"Lanie, they're playing us to get the spotlight off them," he explained. "Did either of them use my name?"

"No," she answered after a moment.

"Then we're safe. We'll just be careful," he said, his voice relaxed and confident.

"Mmhm," Lanie smiled. "So what's our plan of attack?"

"You focus on Beckett. Ryan and I will handle Castle."

"Got it. We still on for tonight?"

"I'll pick you up at 8."


"Alright, Ryan what've you got for us?" Kate asked as she and Castle walked back into the bull pen.

"Description of a tall, dark haired male running away from the area our Jane Doe was killed around TOD," Ryan replied, reading off his notebook.

"Anything more specific?" Kate asked as she scribed the information to their murder board.

"Six feet, dark brown maybe black hair, no facial hair, tan jacket, jeans, boots."

"Boots? What kind of boots?" Castle asked quickly. Kate rolled her eyes, though she was more amused than annoyed. Castle and his ponies.

"I dunno. The guy wasn't overly specific, just said the suspect was wearing work boots."

"Don't, Castle," Kate said, holding up a hand.

"How did you know I was going to say anything?" He whined. "Your back is turned to me."

"Boots doesn't mean the girl was a jockey, Castle," she returned, not bothering to really explain. They both knew they were on the same line of thought, even if they didn't agree. "We're going to check every possibility instead of just heading down the jockey track, okay?" Kate did turn to him then and gave him a look meant to remind him of his promise back in the car. "Ryan? Check missing persons for her. Hopefully someone's looking for her. She's around twenty, so hopefully she attends college. Run her through the system, too. You know the drill, just check it all."

"On it." He and Esposito left.

"That includes the Jockey Association, too," she nodded to Castle, "So stop worrying. You've gotta keep an open mind here, Rick."

"I know."

She left it at that. "Aren't you dying to tell me?"

"What?"

"About your conversation with Lanie? Don't you want to regale me with how you held your own against her?" A smile flashed across Castle's face and his eyes lit up again. She smiled at the response and listened as Rick quickly filled her in, their bodies leaning towards each other, both laughing quietly at how easily Castle had turned the tables on Lanie.

"You know, Rick?" She said, leaning back. "It seems like I may have taught you a thing or two about interrogating people."

"I should hope so, Detective. Three years of shadowing you should prove useful in real life situations."

"Although you should know this will have consequences." She raised her eyebrow.

"I fully expect Lanie to call Esposito and for them to retaliate." Castle shrugged.

"Think they'll divide and conquer?" She smiled.

"It is their MO."

"Can you handle them both?"

"The question, my dear Detective, is not whether I can handle the real life Roach, but whether you can handle our little fiery ME down there."

The two looked at each other for a few moments before they burst out laughing, drawing the attention of a few stray detectives passing by. They quickly calmed down and turned to the murder board.

"Alright, Mr. Castle, got any crazy stories for me about this one before we get down to business?"

"Why, Beckett, I'm hurt that my highly plausible and logical stories are not considered 'business' around here. What if I decided to just leave? Then where would you be?"

"Finishing cases a lot faster, I assume," she smiled. "I mean, your theories do involve ninjas and the CIA. And aliens, if I remember correctly."

"Okay, not some of my best work."

"You've used the CIA more than once."

"I will be right one of these days," he began.

"Law of Averages. Right, I remember." Kate smiled wider and nudged him with her shoulder. "So?"

"I already told you, she's a jockey."

"Castle-"

"No, go with me on this one. So she's a jockey, right? So she's killed because she stumbled upon something at the track. People were betting illegally, or a competitor was using performance enhancers. Oo! Or her boss was using performance enhancers on one of their horses. Or! There was jealousy and animosity between Jane Doe and another jockey."

"Or she did something illegal like using performance enhancers on one of her mounts to win more races or rigged a race."

"Or she could have refused to do something illegal like using performance enhancers or wouldn't be bought out by another stable and enticed to rig a race." Castle reiterated her innocence, something not lost on Kate.

"Alright. And if she's not a jockey?"

"Well she's twenty, so we can rule out being a big-wiz at some fancy law firm or something."

"No, but maybe she saw something? And had to be silenced?"

"Or a lover got jealous and in a moment of fury stabbed her?"

"But all this happened at 2 AM at a park."

"So then there was a secret meeting in the moonlight. Like and exchange of information." Castle snapped his fingers. "She was a spy!"

"Not a spy, bro," Esposito said as he and Ryan walked back into the bull pen. "So check it, Ryan and I just spoke with Missing Persons and someone matching the description of our Jane Doe was reported missing this morning. They're sending her picture down now."

"So what makes you think this is our girl?" Kate asked as the printer-fax machine spit out a sheet.

"Because of what she does," Esposito took a look at the page before handing it over. "And because of this."

Kate's eyes settled on the face before her. It was their Jane Doe. Castle stood up and placed himself behind her.

"Bam! Said the lady!" He cried out as he flicked the page. "Kaylan Richardson, 20, and what's that? Jockey extraordinaire!"

"Alright sit down before you hurt yourself, Castle," Kate said as she pinned up Kaylan's photo and erased 'Jane Doe' for 'Kaylan Richardson.' "Who reported her missing?"

"Her trainer, Colin Anders."

"Let's bring him in."

Alright, so thoughts? I know it took me forever to get you this chapter, but now that I'm on break I should have ample time to get you more goodness! We'll get some Caskett time soon, no worries, and I plan on bringing Martha and Alexis into the story, too. Don't worry, I've got you covered. : ) And thanks so very much for all the reviews and such! You honestly don't know how much it means to me. I get all smiley and giggly and people ask me what's wrong : ) In any case, please please let me know what you think! More? Less? Get on with it already? Anything is fine by me! Xoxo Aubrey