Author's Note: I'd like to thank TORONTOSUN, phnxgrl, and ElizabethMe2 for their reviews. TORONTOSUN: I think she would have lost her mind by now without Rick too. ElizabethMe2: not a problem and sorry to disappoint. ;)

We're starting up right where we left off. Enjoy!

Chapter 36

Gates saw them as they returned to the bullpen. "Everything okay?"

"Yes, sir. I just needed a couple minutes."

"Ryan filled me in. Castle's life may still be in danger?"

"Yes, sir."

Gates nodded. "Well, find Strasse. If she was hired by 'The Gentleman,' maybe she can lead us to him and we can end this threat."

"Yes, sir."

The elevator arrived and Esposito stepped off. "Got something interesting. I.T. is still going through all of Auditore's files, but they did find his client list. Someone known only as 'The Gentleman' was a regular until about five years ago."

"Do you know what happened?"

"No, but why would a regular stop using someone for their dirty work and then arrange to have them killed five years later?"

"Maybe the regular was in prison." They all turned to look at Castle. "Think about it. Five years is a fairly common sentence for a lot of different crimes. Maybe 'The Gentleman' was in prison and he recently got out."

Beckett shook her head. "That doesn't give him much time to build his own network."

"Maybe the network was already in place. Maybe the sentence was a little shorter and he's spent a year or so building it up. Maybe he's just been waiting for the perfect opportunity. Or maybe he was capable of running things from behind bars and waited until he was out to take revenge on Auditore for putting him in there in the first place. Whichever way it is, I think there is a distinct possibility that he was in jail."

Beckett turned to Esposito. "What else have you found?"

"The client list references a file number, which correlates to a file that was in the safe room file cabinets. Each file contains a lot of details about individual murders this guy set up. The victim, the killer, where, when; if there was something to know, it was all kept in there. I think if we were to go through it, we'd find a lot of cold cases in there." Esposito turned as the elevator dinged. "Unfortunately, there were a lot of files."

Beckett sighed as she watched CSU techs dolly boxes of files into the Conference Room for them to sort through. "Let's get started."

The next few hours were spent going through Auditore's records and matching those records with open and cold cases. Just like the Peterman case, where they matched Andreivich's guns to cold cases, many of Auditore's records were for out-of-state cases as well as in-state. Dozens of phone calls and emails were made to police precincts across the U.S. as they worked to sort through the files.

Ryan had been busy trying to track down Strasse. He'd combed through security and traffic camera footage surrounding the precinct to find out where she went. He caught a glimpse of her slipping into an alley nearby and sent some uniforms to check it out, but so far they hadn't found anything. Now they were digging through the dumpsters and canvassing the area trying to find something that would give them a lead.

Ryan switched from the footage to tracking her electronically, but so far he'd come up empty on credit cards and phone records for that name. Strasse was either an alias or she was using one. It was also possible that both were true. He pulled up her rap sheet again. Her fingerprints and DNA were on record from an assault charge in Brooklyn seven years ago. He tried searching for a credit history that matched.

Yes! He had finally found something for Strasse. Ryan followed the history forward as far as he could, but it looked like she'd stopped using this identity three months after her arrest. He searched for phone records, but the cell she'd been using had also been disconnected three months after her arrest. So she is using an alias now.

Ryan stood and grabbed his mug to get a refill of coffee. Halfway to the break room, he spotted Lanie coming off the elevator holding a bag of takeout. She was scanning the bullpen floor for a moment before disappointment settled on her features.

Ryan made a detour to talk to his partner's wife. "Hey, Lanie. How's it going?"

"Hey, Ryan. I'm just bringing dinner to my hubby, but it looks like he's too busy to take a break right now."

"Knowing Javi, he can eat and work at the same time."

Lanie smirked. "Oh, I know he can. I just don't want him to."

"I see." Ryan turned to head to the break room and Lanie followed him. "Want me to fix you a coffee?"

"If you're offering, I'll take it." Lanie set her bag down on the table and took a seat as Ryan got to work. "Is this for the Auditore or Wilde case?"

"Both. They're connected. Beckett, Castle, and Javi are working on Auditore and I'm trying to track down Wilde's killer."

"No wonder you guys are busy. You have your hands full."

Ryan set a mug of coffee in front of Lanie. "We can handle it. We've had harder cases."

"Don't I know it." Lanie took a sip as her phone buzzed. "Excuse me. Oh, come on." Lanie put her phone back in her coat pocket. "That's what I get for not clocking out for the night."

"You've got another body?"

Lanie put the food in the fridge. "Fourth one today. Tell Javi I brought him food. Thanks for the coffee."

"No problem. Good luck." He returned to his desk. "Lanie stopped by. She brought you dinner."

Esposito looked up. "Where is she?"

"She had to leave. D.B. somewhere."

He looked disappointed. "She should have come over; I would have taken a break."

"I think she didn't want to interrupt. Food's in the fridge when you want it."

"Thanks man."

Ryan woke his computer back up and took a sip. If Strasse was using an alias now, it was going to be harder to find her. It looked like he was going to have to start a canvass in the morning. At least there was an APB out on her. He may have run out of leads on the Strasse front, but she wasn't the only link they had to "The Gentleman." Ryan decided to look into Wilde's financials. He pulled them up, searching for the $50,000 Wilde had said "The Gentleman" was going to pay him. That's strange, there isn't a payment. Apparently, "The Gentleman" had never intended to let Wilde live.

Beckett stood and stretched. "How's it coming, Ryan?"

"She's using an alias now. Credit history for Strasse ended almost seven years ago. I tried following her on the traffic cameras around here, but she ducked into an alley a few blocks away. Uniforms are dumpster diving and canvassing the area. Nothing so far."

Beckett updated the board and rotated her shoulder to stretch it out. For the most part her shoulder was back to normal, but every once in a while it just felt a little stiff. She groaned. She had been scheduled to go to her last rehab session this morning. Now she'd have to reschedule, which would slow down getting completely cleared.

Castle noticed the stretch and heard the groan. "Shoulder hurting?"

"No, just a little stiff." Beckett's phone rang. "Beckett."

It was Lanie. "Hey, so I just found Ms. Strasse. She's my D.B."

"Where?"

"Dump job in Central Park. I think 'The Gentleman' is behind it."

"What makes you say that?"

"She's been branded."

"We're on our way." Beckett ended the call. "Put your food in the fridge, Javi. We've got a body."

Meanwhile…

Alex arrived at Highbridge Park just as the sun went down. The Gentleman was standing near the High Bridge Water Tower. Surrounding him were six men wearing Secret Service knockoff suits who were probably packing some kind of serious heat. She checked her clearance to her knife. If there was one thing she hated, it was being surrounded by big guys with guns.

"Alex, glad you could make it." The men backed off a little to let Alex through.

She nervously entered the center of the group. "You have something new for me?"

Her employer nodded. "First, I wanted to talk to you about your activities last night."

Alex paled slightly. "I had accepted that job before you'd hired me. It was a good job."

"Actually, that is the first time I'd hired you. That's why I was reluctant to kill you when you showed up with Viper. You see, I knew about you and I'd heard of your skills, especially how easily you've eluded police capture. I wanted to see just how good you really were. So I set up an audition."

"You hired me to take out Auditore? Why did you want him dead?"

"My reasons are my own. Suffice it to say that we didn't see eye to eye on a particular job." He turned away from the last of the sunset. "By the way, you proved you were sublime. Between that and your other work, I think you're ready for harder targets. Here's your next job. Jacqualine d'Estrees. She's an heiress who's in town for the week."

"When do you need her dead by?"

"I don't actually want this one dead. I'm testing your skills a bit more. I need her to agree to meet with me. It's a business matter. You have 24 hours to make that happen. Give her this card. She'll know what to do."

Alex took the envelope from The Gentleman. "Anything else I should know?"

He smirked. "You're a big girl. You'll figure out what you need to do." With that, he turned and walked away.

Alex watched as her employer and his goons left. "I'll take that as a 'no'."

Meanwhile…

Beckett and Castle followed Ryan and Esposito's car down the service road into the park as the sun went down. They pulled up near the CSU van and parked, joining the boys as they trekked into the park. Lanie was kneeling next to the body, taking notes for her preliminary report.

"Whatcha got, Lanie?"

"She was killed here. Blood pool is too big for a body dump. Preliminary C.O.D. is a gunshot wound to the left temple."

Beckett stopped next to the body, careful to not step in the blood pool. "You said she was branded?"

"Yeah, right here." Lanie lifted the back of the vic's shirt.

"'T.G.' Just like Nicholas Everet." Castle straightened up. "I think it's safe to say 'The Gentleman' was behind this."

Beckett gestured to the bullet wound. "That's a big hole. Same caliber that killed Nicholas?"

Lanie nodded. "Could be. I don't see an exit wound, so the bullet might still be in there."

"Anything else?"

"Not at the moment. I'll get her back to the lab and let you know what I find."

"What about T.O.D.?"

Lanie shrugged. "She'd still warm, so a couple hours ago?"

"Thanks, Lanie."

"Mm-hm."

Beckett stood up and made her way over to Ryan and Esposito. "What's you guys find?"

"Jogger called it in." Ryan gestured to the woman standing near the ambulance. "I talked to her. She said she likes to stop here during her jog because you usually can't hear the traffic here. She was just looking around when she saw something unusual, so she went to check it out. Called 911 when she saw it was a body."

"Did she see anything else?"

Ryan shook his head. "Vic was dead by then. Nobody was around."

"CSU found some footprints in the dirt around the body." Esposito gestured to evidence boxes. "Most are generic work boot treads sizes nine through twelve. There was one set that was different, but they don't know the kind of shoe yet."

"That means 'The Gentleman' was here." Castle looked around at his friends. "Think about it. Wilde said he wears a three piece suit. You don't pair work boots with a suit like that."

Beckett nodded. "You're thinking the tread patterns are going to be from high-end shoes."

"Which might be exclusive to a certain store, leading us to finally get a description of the man who bought them."

Esposito shook his head. "There's nothing special about the pattern." He led the group over to the boxes and took out an evidence bag with a cast inside. "Unless this is specific to a certain type of high-end shoe, we won't be able to track it."

Castle was disappointed to see that the sole was simply flat. "No tread pattern and no stitch pattern?"

"He's probably smart enough to modify the bottom of his shoes to hide those details." Beckett turned in a circle to look at the area around the crime scene. "Esposito, where were the footprints found?"

"Coming from the road to the body and back again."

Ryan nodded. "I'm already having Traffic Control pull the footage for us." Ryan stepped away as his phone rang.

"Good. Maybe we'll get lucky…"

"No, we won't." Ryan came back to the group. "Cameras in the area were disabled. We've got nothing."

A/N: So what's going to happen now? Leave a comment with your prediction and we'll see who's close!

In other news, I edited the poll on my page. I think a few responders thought that "both" meant that the story would contain both storylines. To clarify, "both" meant both storylines, but in two separate stories. At any rate, I removed the both option to avoid future confusion. If you voted for the "both" option, please revisit the poll and select a new response. Thanks!