'Here you go, one visitor's log photocopy.'

The desk sergeant gave Beckett the printout, not bothering to hide her weirded out expression, which Beckett took in stride with a shrug.

'My captain's been a little paranoid lately, wants to make sure we all have our ducks in a row.'

'Hey, no skin off mine. Take care of yourself.'

'You too.'

Beckett went out through the visitor's sign-in lounge, not missing that the beefy man who'd been there reading the paper when she'd gone in was reading the same section as she walked out. Turning her body as she shoved open the door, she popped the safety on her gun holster as she reached for her keys. She was steps away from the entrance when she heard the door open and shut behind her; Beckett didn't have to look back to know she was being hunted.

She nearly made it to her car, and for a microsecond there was the glimmer of hope she'd been wrong. It vanished the moment she felt hard hands connect against her back and she took the hard shove from behind, braced herself against the back end of her Crown Victoria. Spinning, she drew out her weapon in a smooth fluid motion and trained it on the man. He was massive, at least six-six and a solid two-sixty of mixed fat and muscle, but he was barely breathing hard. This was not just muscle for hire, this was Dick Coonan all over again - military trained and too damn smart to bluff.

Still she was no cupcake either and she held herself in an isosceles stance with her police issue marked at the spot above his left eye.

'Touch me again, I dare you.'

'Only came here with a message for you, little lady.' His beady eyes were nearly black with intensity. 'Get your nosy ass back in line and wrap up Raglan's death or maybe next time it won't be some tired old geezer of a cop, maybe it'll be those cute little children of yours. Or that red-headed slut who just got married you're so fond of.'

Beckett's blood went to ice but she simply steadied her weapon. 'I promise you, if you threaten my family, you'll wish you'd never been born. You will beg for death.'

'That a threat from one of New York's finest?'

'That's a promise. You will not touch me more mine.'

The beefy man clucked his tongue, and popped in a stick of Doublemint. 'Says you. My rifle might have a different idea. You best be on your way now.'

Beckett kept her weapon on him until she watched him walk towards a waiting taxi and drive off, then got into her car. She didn't holster her weapon but put it on the seat; the moment her engine was turned over and she was peeling out of the parking lot, she dialed home.

'Rick,' she said, running over his words when she heard him answer; for the first time she thanked God her son hadn't picked up. 'Is there any chance of you sending the kids away?'

'I had a feeling you'd say that, so I talked to Alexis, RJ and Jojo are going with their sister to Miami and staying with Terrance for the next three days.

'Good. I know you can't really say anything so just listen.' Beckett negotiated the turn onto the bridge, used her gumball to clear the cars from her path. 'I just left Rikers and some hired muscle took a swing at me in the parking lot, the same hired muscle that took out Raglan. I'm on my way to the precinct and I'm going to tell you right now you cannot talk to any of the families until I get there, you hear me? I don't want to be responsible for them panicking.'

'Of course,' he said so smoothly that Beckett heart gave a squelch.

'I love you.'

'I love you too. Call when you have news.'

She hung up and with her lights and sirens still going, she drove into the underground lot at the Twelfth, then took the stairs two at a time until she reached the Homicide floor. Relief was great when she saw Adam and Esposito going over the records they'd gotten via Fuqua's warrants, and Ryan was coming out of the break room with three cups of coffee in his hands. She flew past them, barking, 'Follow me' and they were up in a flash as they went into Montgomery's office without waiting for invitation.

'Beckett, you...Christ, what happened,' Montgomery said, looking up from the files splayed on his desk and yanking off his reading glasses. 'Close the door, sit down.'

'No, sir,' she replied with a shake of her head. 'I talked to Moore, got everything on the night Montrose died.'

'Good, because I am-'

'Sir, with all due respect, shut up and let me finish.'

The Ry-Sposito monster and Adam lifted their collective eyebrows so high they nearly plowed through the ceiling while Montgomery simply moved around his desk to sit on the edge of it, so he was part of the group and not separated from his people.

'What is it, Kate?'

'The shooter from the Raglan homicide accosted me in the parking lot on my way out. Here, have a listen.'

Ever the smart Detective, she pulled out the recorder she hadn't shut off from talking to Roman Moore - a smart precaution on her part - and pushed play. In a few minutes they all heard it, the quite obvious threat against Beckett and her family.

'I called my husband, and he's arranged for RJ and Jojo to go with Alexis to a medical conference in Miami she was already leaving for this afternoon anyways. She's staying with Terrance and he's been informed he'll have a few extra house-guests.'

'Mere was at the crime scene,' Esposito breathed, then fumbled for his phone. 'They're not getting my babies.'

'Or mine.'

While the men made their phone calls, Adam stepped over and looked at Beckett. 'Nothing will happen to them, I promise.'

'I don't care who it is or what happens, they come after Alexis or RJ or Jojo, they are dead,' she said in an icy voice.

Meredeth says she wants to send the twins and my father to Miami as well, give Terrance a hand with your little ones,' Esposito informed her while still on the phone, 'and my mami's agreed to take Tessi and Max to Puerto Rico with her.'

'Tell them to stagger the flights and don't fly from the same airport,' Montgomery replied. 'The last thing we need to do is to tip them off.'

'My kids are going to California with Lanie and Dave and their family, they were already set to go anyways, should I put Honey-Milk on a flight as well?' Ryan asked, not surprised when his friend nodded.

'I'll pick up the tab for the flights,' Beckett replied without hesitation. 'Castle will not care about the money. In fact.'

She called his cellphone this time, not home and wasn't surprised when he answered. 'Rick I need you to arrange some flight details for me.'

'What do you need Kate?'

The information was exchanged and when they were all certain their babies and loved ones would be far far away from this nightmare, Beckett looked at them. 'They're starting to panic and get the troops in line.'

'We need to do the same thing, but I am fairly certain that you already have a plan,' Esposito said as he studied Beckett's face.

'We go after the weakest link, bring him in for questioning so the others know we're onto them, send the warning shot legitimately. Question is, who do we go after? Do we want big-dog Cowlan or someone who will give us Cowlan?'

'We could work our way through the food chain,' Ryan suggested. 'Mike was clearly low on the rung and he couldn't handle the pressure of it, which was why they put the squeeze on Christine, to make sure whatever Mike had told her stayed a secret. So who would be next in line?'

Beckett closed her eyes, called up the murder board they'd constructed at home. 'Elliott,' she decided. 'He was their clean-up man in Records, so he would know where every body is buried.'

'How do we do that?'

'Detective Esposito and I got that covered,' Adam said, stepping forward. 'We went to Fuqua and she gave us whatever we needed, which wasn't too hard since when we arrived at her chambers she was on the phone with Delancy anyways.'

'Good to know the brass is on our side,' Beckett said, and Montgomery shook his head.

'Delancy came from the streets, not the politician's office, he knows when to smell a rat. Adam, Detective Esposito, what have you found?'

'We've just finished going over the rest of Raglan's phone transcripts, we'll need some help to get the rest for Spitzer, Cowlan, Elliott and Attwood done,' Adam continued. 'We'll find our weak link in one of them.'