"I feel the same," Beckett told him. She smiled when her husband raised her hand and kissed the back of it though they were soon reaching their home.

"Anything?" Skye asked, opening the front door for the couple.

"No," Beckett said, shaking her head before she started to take off her outer layers. "But I'm not setting these back in the closet."

"I don't blame you," Skye said. "You watch Sesame Street with Josie, don't you?"

"That's what we're planning on," Castle said, setting his coat and scarf next to his wife's.

"Then Mary and I-" Skye started to say.

"Are going to join us," Beckett interrupted. She smiled at the investigator's surprise and told her, "If you want to."

"We would," Mary said, walking to the entry with a smile. "I think she heard you."

"She probably did," Beckett said, reaching for the baby. She kissed her cheek and let Castle do the same before they walked to the family room. As her husband was getting the show on, she watched Josie after she set her down, smiling while the baby went to Macca and wrapped her arms around the Hound's neck. She looked at Skye and Mary, seeing them sitting close to each other which made her frown for a moment. "You know you don't need to stay," she said.

"I can't leave," Skye replied. "Matthias would focus everything on Julia."

Taking a deep breath, since she knew the investigator was right, Beckett said, "I can't help feeling guilty you're here when you want to be home."

"I'm needed," Skye said. "I tried to get Mary to go but…"

"Not a chance," the doctor said firmly.

"See? Same thing," Skye commented.

Laughing softly, Beckett said, "Well you tried."

"And so did you," Skye replied. "But I think we better watch the show," she commented.

"Come here sweetie," Beckett said to the baby with a smile as Josie was watching them. She brought her onto her lap, and they began watching the show together, she and Castle doing their usual talking about the lessons before the show was over.

"Are you two getting worried?" Skye asked the couple.

"I'll text him right now," Castle said once he'd turned off the TV. He got his phone and quickly texted his friend before he started to set the device on the coffee table.

"How quickly can he text back once you've texted him?" Mary asked.

"It depends on where he's at," Castle said. "But right now he should be at the station so… hopefully soon."

"Hopefully," Beckett echoed him while she was letting Josie take one of her blocks from her.

"Mama," the baby said with a laugh.

"I know sweetie," Beckett told her before she reached for her and brought Josie to her for a kiss. After she had let her go, she watched her walk to Castle before his phone was giving its bird chirping sound.

"Dada phone," Josie said.

"I know, let me see who it is," Castle said, picking it up. "It's Brad," he said before he opened it.

"Please tell me he has something," Skye said before the writer was responding.

"He says they might," Castle replied. "And we should come in." He texted Brad back that they would before he picked Josie up and kissed her cheek, heading to his wife and handing her over.

"I texted Patrick, he'll be outside," Beckett told her husband. Kissing Josie's cheek she told her, "We'll see you later sweetie."

"You're heading in?" Martha asked, she and Jim at the doorway.

"We are," Castle said. "Looks like you will too."

"They need me at the theater," Martha replied since she was holding her gloves and scarf.

"He's kidding," Beckett said wryly before she turned her attention to Mary. "Since she's seen the show, let her play and my dad will tell you everything else."

"Of course," Mary said, taking the baby with a smile.

Heading to the entry, Castle said to Skye, "He's still with you?"

"He is," the investigator replied. "He knows not to go to her; I was very firm on that."

Castle nodded, since he was helping Beckett with her coat, and got his things before they were saying goodbye to his father-in-law, Josie and Mary. "Have a good day Mother," he said when they were in the garage.

"I will, I'll be back in the late afternoon," Martha answered. "And you three be careful."

"We will, thank you Martha," Beckett said, watching her mother-in-law leave. She got into the passenger seat once they were alone and she said to Skye, "Has he told you anything?"

"No, he's being quiet," the investigator said with a frown. "I tried to speak with him but…"

"Good morning," Darnley said, getting into the back of the car once it had stopped for him. "How're you doing? The vic?"

Telling him what she'd told Castle and Beckett, Skye said, "I think he's being careful after what happened yesterday."

"I'm not surprised," Castle said.

"I just hope he'll help us if he can," Darnley said.

"He said he will," Skye said.

Glancing behind her, Beckett saw the investigator was looking to the side before she straightened up, seeing the station nearing and wondering how their investigation was going to go that day.


"I'm torn," Castle told his wife.

Glancing at him, Beckett was about to speak before Brad was coming into his office while he walked rapidly and spoke at the same speed.

"I have Beutel in interrogation," Brad said. "He hasn't called a lawyer which I'm relieved about but he's going to be a challenge."

"Are you going to talk to him on your own?" Beckett asked.

"I have to, I talked to the founders, and they let me know he was part of the gay couple," Brad replied.

"He'd brush Kate off?" Skye asked. At the chief's nod she said, "Then you might want to take two men in."

"Me?" Darnley asked in surprise.

"No, I would say Bernier," Skye said. When the others looked at her, she said, "Matthias told me to go with him."

"Okay," Brad said after pausing for a moment. He then took off his blazer and folded it to put it on his desk. "I want you guys to listen in, but first let me call in the founders."

"Call in?" Castle asked in surprise.

"Thank you," Beckett told him.

"Not a problem, but you're sticking with what you told me right?" Brad asked.

Watching his wife nodding, Castle said as he left, "What did you tell him?" remembering she'd gone back to the office while they'd been having their coffee.

"That I want to ask about the pairings," Beckett said, turning with her husband as Skye suddenly let out a laugh before she was speaking rapidly.

"Matthias told me they would change the pairings," the investigator explained. "Regardless of sexuality."

"So Beutel isn't gay," Castle said.

"Oh no, he was," Skye said. "I mean is, sorry he's having a hard time with the tense. He said he was with another actor that night and the man was…" She made a face and then said, "On top and he was rough."

"Guys," Brad said, walking in with three people. "These are the founders of the troupe, Vasil Chauvin, Jasper Macar and Anita Foley. These are my consultants, and we have a few more questions for you."

"How many do you have?" Macar said angrily. "We've been stuck in our hotel rooms and-"

"Easy Jas," Foley said, grabbing his arm.

"Mr. Macar and Ms. Foley are married," Brad said. "Mr. Chauvin is his cousin."

"What did you want to ask us?" the man asked.

Addressing him, since he sounded a little calmer, Beckett said, "Are you involved with anyone in the show?"

"I have a wife," Chauvin replied. "Yolande, she lives in the city and she's an attorney."

"Is she aware of what you do?" Darnley asked.

"Oh sure, she's not a fan but I since I don't participate, she doesn't try to stop me or anything," Chauvin said.

"Has she ever seen the show?" Beckett asked with a slight frown.

"No, but the men at her law office went to see our Halloween show," Chauvin replied. "Secretly but of course she got wind of it."

"And was there any affect on those men? Relationships?" Castle asked.

"Not that I heard of," Chauvin said slowly. "She keeps work at work so… maybe not?"

At the man's hesitant tone of voice, Skye turned to Macar and said, "Did you ever rotate the people together?"

"Guys," Brad said immediately when the three shared looks. "I can charge you with obstruction, I'd just say," he added at the end, surprised when the three were responding after at the same time.

"We did."

"We had to."

"We just stopped," Macar, Foley and Chauvin said.

"Why did you stop?" Beckett asked.

"We had protests from Sonia and… Matthias," Foley said slowly. "Since they were dating of course. And since the others added to their protests, we really were ready to do that."

"Did anyone not want to?" Darnley asked.

"Mark," Macar said. "But he didn't really have anyone to be with, so we were unsure of what to do with him."

"Mark?" Darnley said slowly.

"It's Beutel," Brad said quickly. "His fake name was Mark Murray."

"Okay, then did Beutel do anything after that?" Beckett asked.

"No, he left it up to us," Chauvin replied. "And we had decided to hire someone else but we… were interrupted."

"Are you going to continue?" Castle asked.

"We will," Macar said. "But… that's going to have to be when we're cleared to leave."

"It's not yet," Brad said firmly, knowing why the man had said that. He looked at Beckett and Darnley and when they shook their heads glanced at Castle. When he shook his head, he was about to let the three leave when Skye was suddenly speaking and making them all look at her because her voice was calm.

"Was it your intention to try to get rid of Ms. Gage?" the investigator asked.

Stopping the three when they were protesting, Brad said, "Answer the question."

"We were thinking of asking the two to leave," Chauvin said.

"It's not what you think," Foley said rapidly, as the five were looking at each other. "We were going to send them back to the troupe Matthias had been in. They were starting to falter in their performances, and we talked to them, told them we'd get them back into Matthias' troupe, but he seemed to think they wouldn't let him return."

"Did he say why?" Darnley asked.

"No, but they were so earnest about staying to earn a little more money we decided to give them another chance," Foley said before looking at her husband.

"And that was the last show," Brad said. When the three were nodding he sighed and said, "Anything else?"

"Yes, were there any issues between Matthias and Beutel?" Skye asked.

"I… not problems, but I think they had some disagreements," Macar started to say.

"I think he told us he should go," Foley said.

"Beutel said Matthias should?" Beckett asked.

At the three nodding Brad said, "Alright, you can head back out to where you were sitting before. I'll get to you as soon as I can." Turning to his consultants, he said, "Come to observation, since I really want you to see what this guy says."

"We wanted to anyway," Castle said before they were following the chief over. He slipped with the others into the room and said, "Okay," as the man was staring straight at the mirror/window.

"Mr. Beutel," Brad said, Bernier walking in after him before the suspect was responding rapidly.

"I want a lawyer," the man said angrily. "You told me you were just asking me a few questions but if you know my name then you think I killed Matthias. I never did."

"Alright," Brad said, a little frustrated though he wasn't surprised. He nodded to Bernier before they were starting to leave, wondering what the others in observation called before Beutel was calling to him.

"I'm not the killer," the man said when the chief had turned around. "But if you want to look into someone who could have; look at his cousins."

"Cousins," Brad said.

"Cousins?" Castle said, asking Skye.

Holding up her hand, the investigator stared into the room while Beutel was speaking again, sensing the victim next to her was doing the same.

"Yes, he called her that bitch Lauren and her little snot of a daughter Chloe," Beutel said. "She found out what he did, she hated him and told him to stay away from her daughter. But he had money and it was going to the kid so I would so look at them both, they'd want him dead."

"You've got to be kidding me," Castle said, looking at his wife.

"Skye!" Beckett said since the investigator was abruptly crumpling into her chair after she had started to shake.

"What happened?" Brad asked, stepping inside and seeing the three gathered around the investigator.

"She collapsed," Beckett replied.

"I'm okay, I'm okay…" Skye said, sitting up slowly. "Yeah, I'm fine. But we have to go to the school," she said, looking at everyone.

"Why?" Darnley asked.

"You have to look into this don't you?" Skye said to the chief.

"Rice is looking into Chloe's mother," Brad said grimly. "And… yes, we need to talk to Chloe too."

"But I told you what Julia had said," Beckett commented, though she knew what the chief still needed to do.

"Yes, but I need to talk to her myself," Brad said.

"And the rest of us are going," Skye said firmly, standing up then.

"Of course," Brad replied.

"But why," Beckett said, taking her friend's arm as they walked out of observation.

"We need to get to her," Skye said in obvious concern. "Matthias tore himself away from me. He's going to try and reach his cousin through Julia."