Disclaimer: I have no rights.

WC: 900

"Body temp indicates she died between seven and eight," Lanie informed Beckett and Castle when they met with her at the morgue.

"She got off work at seven," Beckett said. "She lives about fifteen minutes away. If we add the time of getting ready and the preparation involved, that gives us an approximate twenty-minute window. Thanks, Lanie."

"No problem."

Beckett turned to Castle.

"What?"

"How did you know Therapy was a gay bar?"

"Oh, I've been there."

"What, for research?"

"Research? No, Black Pawn would never let me write about a gay bar. You know, Raley and Ochoa were supposed to be gay…"

Lanie snorted.
"I wonder how Kevin and Javi would have felt about that."

"They are open-minded, modern guys. I'm sure they would have been fine with it."

Lanie and Beckett raised their eyebrows.

He chuckled.
"Yeah, can you imagine their faces? That would have been awesome." He sighed. "Unfortunately, I work for a bunch of homophobes. Oh, well."

"So… gay bar."

"What? A straight man can't hang out with his gay friends on the weekend? I'm even thinking of taking Alexis when she turns twenty-one. She can dance, hang out with as many guys as she wants and I'll be completely cool with it."

"Because you know they wouldn't try anything," Beckett said.

"Exactly. I love the gays."

"Well, that makes two of us," Lanie said.

"Both alibis have been confirmed," Esposito informed them when they returned to the precinct. "Pollard was working until nine. We have time-stamped tapes and his co-workers back it up along with the time-sheet."

"And Jack?" Beckett asked.

Esposito cleared his throat.

"Ryan and I spoke to several young men who corroborated his story, including the bartender. They all said he left at eight-forty five.'

"Nice guys."

"Did you have anything to drink? They have really great scotch there."

"We were on duty, Castle," Esposito said.

"I might bring Jenny sometime. Seemed like a nice place," Ryan said.

Esposito stared tat them.

"What?" they both said in unison.

"I found traces of moisture on the victim's skin. At first I thought it was condensation but the conditions of her apartment conflict with that; and I've been overlooking my report; there was an unusually high temperature in certain parts of her body.
"She was iced down," Beckett said.

"Which means my time of death is completely off."

"So, Billy or Jack could still be involved," Castle said.

"Or both," Beckett said.

Castle was staring at his phone as he sat next to Beckett's desk when she brought him a coffee.

"Waiting for Alexis to call?"

"She's not supposed to for an hour. I'm willing time to speed up."

"Is it working?

"It's kind of having the reverse effect."

Beckett sighed as she sat next to him, covering his hand with her own.

"Castle, I can't imagine what it must be like to have to try to be ok with her being so far away for the first time since…"

He sighed.
"I have to let her face her fears – I'm just not so crazy about facing my own."

"I'm sorry."

"She's in very safe hands in a controlled environment. She's probably going to be completely fine."

"Probably."

He sighed.
"It's the probably part that kills me."

"There are no guarantees Castle."

"And usually, I'm totally Zen about that; that's part of what's exciting about life. But when it comes to Alexis… I wish I could have some sort of guarantee that she was always going to be ok. Instead I just have to have faith."

"That's not something you usually have much trouble with."

"I didn't used to. I just don't trust the world any more, Kate. I was wary, I worried like any parent – maybe I got a little overprotective sometimes, but I still thought the world was so beautiful. I wanted to show it to her; and I wanted her to find it for herself too. I still think she needs to; in fact probably even more so now, but…"
He fought back tears.

"Oh, Castle," she whispered, leaning forward.

"So we re-searched the apartment." Esposito informed Castle and Beckett as he and Ryan approached.

Beckett slowly withdrew her hand and Castle pulled himself together.

"I thought it was clean," Beckett said.

"Because we were looking for the wrong things. We found these in the trash," Ryan said, handing Beckett an evidence bag with a ripped up picture in it and another containing a Receipt.

"That receipt's for a bag of ice and it fits into our new window,' Esposito said.

"Yeah, but because the temperature was messed with, it's a big window," Beckett said.

"Check out the picture," Ryan said.

It was a picture of Jack, Billy and Jill - or, they at least assumed it had been Jill.

"The Vic's face has been scratched out," Becket said.

"There's your motive," Esposito

"It's still circumstantial, guys Not enough to charge him."

"No, no what you need is a confession," Castle said.

"Murder weapon would be nice, too," Esposito said.

"Right, so you just need to break him and you've got both."

"Not as easy as it sounds, Castle," said Becket, "he's as cool as a cucumber."

"A guy who shoots his fiancé because he's infatuated with her lover isn't cool as a cucumber," Castle said. "Every character has a weakness; a sore spot, kryptonite. You've just got to find his."