Author's note: I'd like to thank DREAMWRITER 08, southerngirl1, and TORONTOSUN for their reviews. TORONTOSUN: I'm glad Rick's reactions seem genuine. Thank you. southerngirl1: Thank you. DREAMWRITER 08: At least in New York, it is possible to get an exemption from autopsy based on religious beliefs. I'm not sure where else that is allowed. And I'm not sure if the hospital would send a body directly to a funeral home or not; I couldn't find anything one way or the other, so I made a best guess. This chapter begins the following morning (again, not sure if a funeral could be done that quickly, but I do know Jewish custom is to hold the funeral as soon as possible, so that's what I'm going with.) Enjoy!

Chapter 7

Rick was dressed in black and standing in front of the mirror. "I'm surprised the funeral is happening so soon after… she died."

Kate walked back into the bedroom. "Well, she is Jewish. Burial takes place fairly quickly after death."

"Yeah, I know. That's not what surprises me. It's just… she never told me."

"What?"

"She never mentioned she was Jewish. Never said she was any religion. I'm starting to feel like I never really knew her."

Kate straightened Rick's tie. "She played a lot of things close to the chest. Maybe she didn't want us worrying about anything."

"I guess."

Kate's phone rang. "Beckett. When? Thank you."

"What happened?"

"First United Bank was broken into last night. They're not sure if anything is missing."

"So, you're going…"

"Don't be ridiculous. Hayley's funeral comes first. The bank is Robbery's case."

The service was beautiful. Unbeknownst to Castle, Hayley had arranged everything for her service not long after she'd permanently relocated to New York. The rabbi for the Orthodox Congregation called Talmud Torah Adereth El officiated at the graveside service. As was custom, it was a closed casket service. Hayley's coffin was simple, also part of Jewish custom, but it was still a beautiful casket.

Castle had been selected to be one of the pall bearers and he tried to hold in his grief as he carried out his duty. Afterward he stood with his family. Alexis was crying softly to his left and Kate was standing stoically to his right. Castle tried not to cry as he watched the service, but several tears escaped his eyes. That was until Hayley's coffin was lowered into the ground; he could no longer contain his grief then.

The Castle family stayed by the grave after the service. Hayley's coffin was by now covered with earth and Alexis had taken a seat by the temporary marker. It bore two names; the name they had known her by and the Hebrew name she must have taken after her conversion to the Jewish faith. According to the marker, the name she had selected was Dinah Marilou Shafir. Castle didn't know what it meant to Hayley, but he could feel that it suited her well.

Castle cleared his throat. "I'm glad she'd taken care of all of this. I wouldn't have known where to begin."

Beckett nodded. "It was a beautiful service. Do you know if her mother came?"

Castle shook his head. "She's back in prison."

Alexis sighed. "I miss her so much. She taught me a lot. She may have been one of my best friends."

Castle squatted next to his daughter. "I know. I'm going to miss her too."

A woman walked up to them. "I was hoping I wouldn't miss the service. Guess I didn't make it in time. I'm sorry."

"Rita." Beckett was surprised to see her. "We were told you were dead."

"It was close." She pulled her turtleneck collar down and showed them a scar running from her ear toward her clavicle. "Hunt showed up just in time."

"Is he here?" Castle stood.

"No, he couldn't come." Rita laid a flower at the temporary marker. "He's on a mission abroad. Since I was in the country, he asked me to come and represent him, but I didn't get here in time."

"Did you know Hayley?"

"We'd met briefly. She wasn't aware of my relationship to you." Rita looked at Alexis. "We never got to meet before. I'm Rita. I'm married to your grandfather."

Alexis wiped away her tears. "Sorry this is how you're meeting me."

"Don't be ridiculous. This is exactly what meeting someone at a funeral would look like. Don't apologize for mourning." Rita glanced around. "Forgive me for showing up only to leave again, but I don't enjoy being out in the open for long. I'm sure you can understand."

"Of course. Just don't stay away for so long next time." Castle gave her a hug. "Give my father a hug for me."

Rita smiled. "I will. Take care of each other."

"Goodbye, Rita." Rita walked away and Beckett turned to Castle. "I have to go to work. It's time to bring the leaders of these gangs in for questioning."

Esposito and Ryan were still in their black suits when Beckett arrived. "Karpowski's team grabbed the two gang leaders for us. They're stewing in separate interrogation rooms."

"Remind me to thank her later." Beckett accepted the folders Ryan handed her. "You guys take I1, I'll take I2?" She held out one of the folders.

Esposito shook his head. "I know the guy in I1. I'd rather not talk to him."

"Are you scared, or would he be distracted?"

"He would be distracted." Esposito took the folder for the perp in I2.

"Okay, I've got I1." Beckett walked into the first interrogation room. "Juan Hernandez. Suspected of grand theft auto, burglary, assault, assault with a deadly weapon, extortion, racketeering, and murder. That is quite the jacket. So, I guess yesterday was just another Tuesday for you?"

Hernandez smirked. "Something like that."

"What'd you do yesterday?"

"Oh, you know. Went grocery shopping, did some laundry, took out the trash."

"Was any of this around East 112th and 3rd Ave.?"

"Nah, I didn't need to go down there."

Beckett nodded. "So, this isn't you?" She slapped a still from the surveillance footage on the table. "Because that looks a lot like you."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot. I was also hanging with my boys. Musta slipped my mind."

"You know, that's interesting, because I think being involved in a gang shootout would be kinda memorable." Beckett placed a still of the shootings on top of the last one. "You want to revise your story?"

"Hey, they started shooting at us! We got the right to defend ourselves!"

"Look, it doesn't really matter who started shooting whom. Either way, I have six bodies down in the morgue, one comatose patient in the hospital, and I just got here from the funeral of someone who you'd probably call collateral damage." A picture of Hayley was put on the table.

Hernandez shot upright in his chair when he saw the picture. "She was there? She got killed?" Beckett nodded. "What have we done?"

That was not the response Beckett had been expecting. "What?"

"I knew Hayley. She helped me find one of my boys when he was in trouble. Shit." Hernandez put his head in his hands. "What happened?"

Beckett put the second photo on top of the pile. "She was hit by a ricochet from this man's gun. I want a name and where to find him."

"Hector. Hector Garvalo. But he's not alive anymore. He got hit while we were running away. Died in the car. We left him in an alley in Queens. I don't know if his body was found yet."

"Where?"

Hernandez gave Beckett the location. "So, you knew Hayley, too?"

"She worked for my husband." Beckett pointed to the men across from Hernandez's crew. "Do you have names for these men?"

Hernandez nodded. "You got a pen?" Beckett handed him a marker and he labeled the men he knew. "That's all of them."

"Why were you fighting with these guys?"

"Some old guy came to me, said he'd heard that Corado's crew was bad mouthing me and my guys. Said they were talking about wiping us out and taking our territory. I couldn't let that happen. Look, me and my boys, we do bad things. But we also protect our neighborhood."

"Who was this man? Can you describe him?"

"Old. A white guy with white hair. That's all I'm saying. I wouldn't have even listened to him if I didn't know him from the neighborhood."

Meanwhile…

"Thomas Corado." Esposito and Ryan walked into the room. "You've got quite the jacket."

"All those charges are alleged."

"Even the two convictions?" Ryan sat down.

"Even those." Corado stretched. "What am I here for this week?"

"Murder."

"Who did I murder?"

"Right now, there are bodies in the morgue without names, but I'm sure the Glock we took off you will be connected to at least one of them." Esposito set the picture of the two gangs posturing in front of Corado. "We know you were there, Thomas."

"So? I was there. What's it to you?"

"Is this you firing the first shot?" Ryan set the still showing Corado firing his gun on the table. "Because that sure looks like you."

Corado's swagger faded. "So?"

"So, that guy you shot is down in the morgue. That's second-degree murder."

"Which, to a two-time loser like you, means you'll be going away for a long time." Esposito turned to Ryan. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"I would." Ryan turned back to Corado. "I guess that means we can offer a choice of prisons."

Espostio picked right up on the teamwork banter they were so good at. "Yeah. One is full of TMG and KBU guys."

"Both of them hate ABM guys."

"The other has your friends and CAG guys. Now, CAG guys also hate ABM guys, but at least you'll have some friends to protect you."

Ryan leaned forward and laced his fingers together. "All you gotta do is start talking."

Corado looked between the two detectives for a minute before caving in. "Fine, what do you want to know?"

"Who are the TMG guys who were there?" Esposito held out a marker.

Corado took the marker and started to label the opposing gang. "I was just trying to protect my neighborhood, you know? A guy told me they were going to take us all out and claim our territory for them."

"Hold up, what guy?"

"Old, white dude. I've seen him around my neighborhood a bit. He said he overheard the TMG guys planning to take over my neighborhood. I had to stop them." He slid the still back. "Those are all the guys I know."

"Sit tight." Ryan and Esposito met Beckett in the Observation Room. "Our guy says an old, white guy told him his rival was about to take over his neighborhood."

"Mine too." Beckett looked through the windows at the suspects. "Why start a gang war between Hispanic and White Supremacist gangs? What is this old man trying to do?"

"No idea." Esposito handed Beckett the labeled still. "These are all the names he gave us. You want us to run them down?"

"I'll send out uniforms and talk to the gang units to round them up. What I want you to do is get in touch with the 103rd precinct. We're looking for the body of Hector Garvalo."

"Who's Hector Garvalo?"

"He's the guy whose bullet killed Hayley."

While the boys were looking for Hector Garvalo's body, Beckett opened the files Robbery had sent her about the bank vault heist. They had found evidence of the way the thief had gotten in and had confirmed that the item related to the Bretz and Coven file theft was missing too. Not only that, but the guards had both been drugged and had their hands zip tied together as well as disarmed.

Drugging the guards? The woman who stole the file had almost shot Esposito. Was this thief someone new or the same woman again? And if it was the same woman, why had she let the security guards live? Beckett turned to look more closely at the way the thief had gotten in. A window in the skylight had been opened and a winch system had been bolted to the roof so the thief could lower themselves from above.

If the thief had come in from any of the doors or windows on the sides of the building, they would have triggered the alarms. The skylight was hard to get to without using the internal roof access, so the bank had not bothered putting an alarm system on the skylight. The thief had somehow known that and had exploited that weakness. They were very smart. Beckett emailed the Robbery Captain to look for a woman fitting the file theft suspect's description casing the bank weeks in advance and returned her attention to the other cases on her plate.

A/N: The gang names are real gangs in New York, but the demographics and gang relationships are made up. For those who are interested, TMG – Tru Money Gang, ABM – All Bout Money, CAG – Columbus Ave Gang, and KBU – Killbrook Up. Stay tuned!