Author's Note: We're starting this chapter the day after the poker game. There is a tiny reference to Season 1, Episode 4 in here. Can you spot it?


Chapter 28

Kate sat back in her chair and closed her eyes. The Maguires' financials had arrived an hour ago, and Neski's had arrived fifteen minutes later. Beckett's team, minus Ryan, had been combing through them ever since. In the last few days of Colleen's life, nothing had popped. Daniel's accounts didn't show large deposits or transfers coming in, so he probably wasn't hiring out his expertise as a killer; at the same time, there were no large amounts going out, so he didn't hire someone like Shadow Fox to kill his wife or Neski. All in all, this meant that Beckett's theory that this case was personal to Shadow Fox was becoming more and more likely. Right now, they were busy retracing both Maguires' and Neski's electronic footsteps to see where Shadow Fox might have crossed their paths and discovered what Colleen and Neski had been working on. Ryan was still working on tracking down the various Roosevelt guards to see if any of them knew anything about the missing blond imposter.

Esposito hung up his phone. "Got a hit. Mr. Maguire was at a Java Loft at the corner of East 90th and 1st Ave. The manager thinks there may have been someone with him. He's going to check the security cameras."

Beckett nodded. "Go check it out. Ryan, got anything?"

Ryan hung up his phone. "CSU came up with a bust. No fingerprints on the roof. They did find a blond hair, but it was synthetic."

"A wig?" Ryan nodded and Beckett groaned. "What about the guards? Do they know how someone who doesn't work there could have run their roof checks?"

Ryan shook his head. "So far, no one I've talked to remembers the blond guard."

"Thanks Ryan. Keep it up." Beckett checked her email and saw that Traffic Control had sent the footage Ryan had requested. "On second thoughts, have Esposito finish that list when he gets back. Traffic control just sent the footage you requested. See if you can find Maguire anywhere."

It was Ryan's turn to groan as he got to work.


Esposito returned an hour later with a police sketch of Maguire's date and her receipt. "Got this from one of the girls that worked there. And guess what? The cameras cut out just after Maguire arrived but before she did. An hour later, they came back on and both Maguire and the girl had disappeared. Manager had no idea until he went to check the video."

Beckett stood up and took the receipt from Esposito. "This is our mystery woman's receipt?"

Esposito nodded. "And we got a credit card number."

Beckett handed the receipt back. "Run it. Any luck Ryan?"

"Not yet." Ryan looked up. "There are a lot of cameras. Any chance someone else can help me out?"

Beckett smirked. "I think we can figure something out. Castle, grab a computer; Ryan what have you looked at so far?"


Beckett was waiting in the interrogation room when Maguire was brought up from holding. His clothes were wrinkled, his hair was disheveled, and his eyes were bloodshot. Beckett couldn't tell if it was lack of sleep or tears. Castle had spotted Maguire at the corner of East 83rd and 3rd Avenue ten minutes before his wife was murdered. There was no way that he could have gone to the Roosevelt to kill the P.I., been at that corner fifty minutes later to be caught on camera, and then returned to the Roosevelt in less than ten minutes to kill his wife. Gates was furious that Beckett's team had proven Maguire was innocent, not because she wanted Maguire imprisioned, but because that meant they hadn't arrested the Shadow Fox.

Maguire sat down. "What now?"

Beckett pulled the still from the traffic camera out of her folder. "We found this on a traffic camera at East 83rd and 3rd Ave. We know you didn't kill your wife."

Maguire looked like a load had been lifted from his shoulders. "So why am I still here?"

Beckett picked the traffic camera photo up and put it back in her folder. "We think the real killer may have crossed paths with you before your wife's death." She pulled out the police sketch of the mystery women out of the folder. "Do you know this woman?"

Maguire nodded. "That's Pamela Kreutz. She's a reporter, or a journalist. She said she was going to do a piece on impressive women in Manhattan and wanted to include my wife."

"She was with you at a Java Loft the day of your wife's death?"

Maguire nodded. "She met me there. She wanted to interview me for the piece. Get another perspective on Colleen or something."

Beckett pulled out a notepad. "What did you talk about?

"What Colleen did, where she worked, the kinds of cases she was involved with, if she was working on any cases at the moment. Honestly, it seemed like she was conducting an interview for a news story. None of the questions were unusual."

Beckett finished writing. "And Pamela Kreutz. Did anything about her seem off?"

Maguire looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"Her hair, her eyes, her demeanor; did any of that look or seem like it was fake or an act?"

Maguire closed his eyes. "The hair color was fake; I think her hair would normally be black because that was the color of her roots. But I think her eyes were always green. At least, it didn't look like she was wearing colored contacts or anything."

Beckett stood. "Thank you, Mr. Maguire. I'm very sorry for your loss."

Maguire stood. "Detective, do you think that woman killed my wife?"

Beckett shook her head. "We're just trying to see if anyone you talked to might have. It is more likely that if the killer crossed one of your paths, it was with your wife or Neski."

Maguire stood his ground. "But could she be responsible?"

Beckett just looked at him. "I'm afraid I can't discuss the details of a case, Mr. Maguire. Not even with you."

Esposito looked up as Maguire was escorted out of the building and Beckett returned to her desk. "No hits on who the mystery guard is. The guard on duty at the time said that faux-Blondie claimed he was new and was eager to take on some responsibilities. No one has seen him since."

Beckett nodded. "Makes sense. If he was using a disguise, he wouldn't continue to work there after his job was done. What about Pamela Kreutz? Do we have an address yet?"

Esposito nodded. "She lives in the Bronx. The Davidson Apartments, uh, 2501 Davidson Ave. near West 190th St. Apartment number 722. Ryan went to get the warrant. And I've left messages with all the major newspapers in the city; we'll find out if any of them have a Pamela Kreutz working there."

Ryan got off the elevator. "I got the warrant for Pamela Kreutz's apartment."

Beckett stood and grabbed her gun out of her desk drawer. "Let's go."


Beckett parked the car near the building Pamela Kreutz lived. Esposito and Ryan pulled up behind her. Everyone checked their gear and Beckett reminded Castle to stay out of the apartment until it had been cleared as a couple patrol cars pulled up as backup. Beckett held up the sketch of their suspect and everyone nodded. One of the uniforms grabbed a ram from his car's trunk and they entered the building. Because Kreutz's apartment was on the seventh floor, Beckett and company took the elevator up. Apartment 722 had a numeric keypad in the wall next to the door and the door looked brand new. From inside the apartment came to sounds of country music playing loudly.

Beckett knocked on the door. "Pamela Kreutz, NYPD, open up! We have a warrant to search the premises!"

No one answered. Beckett listened for a moment before she recognized the song as one of Alexis' favorites from Taylor Swift. She knocked again and repeated the warning before stepping out of the way and letting the uniform with the ram bust the door in. It took three hits with the ram before it gave and the cops swarmed the apartment. Beckett followed the sounds of the music toward the back of the apartment and found herself outside what must have been a bathroom. Beckett took up a position next to the door and Esposito moved to cover her. At the count of three, Beckett swung the door open.

"Aaaahhhh!"

Beckett was greeted by a high pitched scream and found she was facing someone familiar. "Alex?

Alex was sitting on the floor wearing gloves and clutching a scrub brush. "Hi?" She put the scrub brush in the tub. "Give me a minute to restart my heart."

Beckett lowered her gun. "What are you doing here?"

Alex stood up and grabbed the moveable shower head. "I live here." She turned on the water and started rinsing out the tub. "What are you doing here?"

Beckett holstered her gun. "We're looking for Pamela Kreutz."

"Oh, well now that takes me back." Alex shut off the water and pealed off her gloves.

"What do you mean?"

"It was my first alias when I moved to New York." Alex walked out of the bathroom and entered the living room. "But that was four years ago. I lived in this apartment back then too. Oh no, did you guys break my lock?" She moved to the door to examine the frame. "Crap. I'll have to see if Ewan can fix it."

Beckett had followed Alex. "Ewan?"

Alex grabbed her phone and started texting. "My boyfriend. He's an electrician; he installed the lock when I first got it."

"Ewan Brebnor?"

Alex looked up, surprised. "You know him?"

Beckett nodded. "He was a suspect in the Caldwell murder for a bit."

Alex laughed. "Really? He never mentioned that. I'll have to ask him about it." She finished the text and put her phone down. "Why are you looking for Pamela Kreutz?"

Beckett pulled the sketch out of a pocket of her vest. "She was at a Java Loft with the husband of one of our victims. Her credit card was used. Do you still have any of your old credit cards?"

Alex looked upset. "When is Disposal going to tighten security?"

"What?"

Alex sat down. "When Hardy and Drew issues an alias, you are given a drivers license, a passport, credit cards, whatever you need to make the alias seem real. When an alias is no longer in use, you have to turn everything they gave you back in, and Hardy and Drew are very good at keeping track of what went out and came back in. After you turn your stuff in, everything gets sent to Disposal to be destroyed. About seven years ago, my company had to go through a purge because a group of employees from Disposal had been caught stealing things like credit cards and equipment for making I.D.s, stuff like that. They were either selling them on the Black Market or using them themselves." Alex sighed. "Seven years ago wasn't the first this has happened, and obviously it won't be the last. A new ring must have started up again."

Castle jumped in. "Or not all of the thieves were caught last time."

Alex nodded and Beckett shook her head. "So we are looking for someone who doesn't exist."

Alex grimaced. "Looks like it."


Back at the precinct, Beckett's team was checking out several avenues looking for a lead. Hardy and Drew had been contacted, and they admitted that an employee had been caught three years ago trying to sneak items intended for Disposal out of the building. He was under investigation by the local authorities for Identity Theft as a result. This development cleared Alex and her old alias. Beckett was frustrated. This case was personal to Shadow Fox, which meant that they were running out of options. Esposito was at Sullivan and Cromwell talking to Colleen's colleges, Ryan was combing through the Maguire's financial records, and Beckett had just finished trying to track down Neski's P.I. business; apparently, he was self-employed and worked alone. The Chicago P.D. had agreed to co-ordinate and was going through all of Neski's files to see if they could find anything relevant to the investigation.

Ryan stood up and came over to Beckett's desk. "Got something. About a month ago, Neski was here, supposedly on a business trip…"

Castle interrupted. "But he was probably here to work on the Rathborne/Shadow Fox case."

Ryan nodded. "Yeah. Anyway, around that time, Colleen made a purchase at a Capitol One Bank in the Bronx. I found out what she bought: it was a rental for a safety deposit box. I'm thinking that she may have kept a copy of their notes at the bank just in case they were lost or stolen."

Beckett stood up. "Or to make sure that if they were killed, the information would be around for the police to find. Let's go."


Esposito was waiting for them at the bank. "Bank's manager is looking at the records. He won't let me see the contents of the box though. You guys get the warrant?"

Ryan held it up as the manager approached. "Colleen Maguire cancelled her box yesterday. And it has been emptied. I am very sorry."

Ryan handed the manager the warrant. "We're still going to need to see that box."

The manager examined the search warrant. "Of course. Right this way."

Castle fell into his spot next to Beckett as they walked. "Colleen has been dead for almost four days. How can her box have been personally cancelled and emptied yesterday?"

Beckett shook her head. "We'll ask him after we see the box."

The manager unlocked the box and pulled it out. "Here we are. Lucky for you, no one has rented it out yet or this would have been more problematic."

Beckett raised her eyebrows but said nothing as she let a CSU process the box. The tech took several photographs, dusted for prints and swabbed for DNA before leaving the vault with the collected samples. The manager didn't protest until after the tech was done, but he voiced his questions now that she had left.

Beckett stepped forward to answer. "Mr. Hammond. Colleen Maguire was murdered almost four days ago. Who was it that closed the account?"

The manager was in shock. "The records say that Mrs. Maguire closed the account in person."

Beckett tried to look sympathetic. "I'm sorry, Mr. Hammond, but I'm going to need to see your security footage for yesterday. It's possible that Colleen's killer is the one who cleaned out the account."

The manager nodded and led them to the security center. After a quick conversation with the guard, the video of the previous day began to play on some of the screens. Beckett watched as a woman dressed in the typical lawyer's pantsuit approached the desk with a briefcase, signed in, and entered the vault. Inside the vault, she went straight to the box and carefully emptied out the box in relative privacy. Beckett noticed that she seemed to be wearing gloves. So much for prints. After she was done, the box was locked up again and she left the vault. When she returned to the front desk, she signed more paperwork, shook the teller's hand, and left. The guard had frozen the video whenever a somewhat clear image appeared onscreen and printed out several stills. Beckett also had the guard get a close-up of the briefcase and gave it and a headshot to Esposito to show to Colleen's colleges. The woman herself looked like Colleen, but it wasn't. Whoever it was, they had to be wearing some sort of disguise. Beckett groaned; they still had no idea who the killer was, and the last of the clues had just been stolen.


A/N: I know there was a lot of info in this chapter, but it was time to wrap up this segment in the case. The next chapter will be the start of a mini-side case. I still researching stuff for that case, so I'm not entirely sure when I will be posting it, but I will try to get it up before the end of the month. Thanks for sticking with me. Please leave a comment, it will motivate me to work faster. :) Oh, and for those of you wondering, the reference was the Java Loft. I know very small…