Chapter 3

Esposito stared at the business card in his hands. He ran his fingers over the embossed lettering forming the name, Shannon Moonlight. Since he had had it for months now, it was wrinkled, folded in strange spots and one corner had been ripped off completely. When he noticed Castle walking towards him, he quickly put it into his pocket, and pretended to type on his computer.

Castle nodded at Esposito. It looked like Castle was going to say something, but then all the color drained out of his face. Esposito thought he was going to pass out.

Esposito jumped from his chair and guided the larger man to the chair beside the desk. "Hey. Hey. Take it easy. Talk to me, man."

"Sorry. Just dizzy."

"Did you eat anything?"

"I don't remember." Castle's head dropped a bit.

"Stay here." Esposito headed for the break room. He needed to get some food into Castle. His hand was putting change into the vending machine before he remembered Ryan said there was a casserole for Castle in the fridge. Quickly dishing some out into a paper plate, he made a cup of coffee while it warmed in the microwave.

This whole situation with Castle was pulling at his heartstrings. Esposito found himself channeling his mother, and emulating her when he would bring home other kids. No one ever went hungry at the Esposito household. Never mind that Beckett would kill him if he let her husband end up in the hospital again. Hot food in one hand, hot coffee in the other, he left the break room.

Upon arriving back at his desk, Esposito shoved the food and coffee into Castle's hands.

"Eat up." Esposito watched as Castle took one bite before reaching for the coffee. He pulled the cup out of Castle's reach. "Three more bites and you can have some."

"I can always just go get my own."

"Do it." Both Esposito and Castle knew how that would go.

Ryan, of course, choose that moment to approach. Their eyes met and Esposito gave him a small shake of his head. Don't ask, Esposito thought as loud as he could.

Ryan must've got the message loud and clear, because he just said, "Look at what I've found. I put in some of our details into the crime database. Like the rose oil and dismemberment. I found two cases that are a good match to our vic.

"Gabriela Capmany. Her body was found three months ago. She was missing her stomach, parts of her liver, intestines and her heart. It was blamed on the mob back when she was found. The missing organs weren't found, but she had rose oil all over her." Ryan held up a DMV photo, with a smiling Hispanic woman staring out. He slapped it on the board.

"And Jade Bazinet. She was found one month ago. She had been left intact, but she had rose oil and sage rubbed on her dead body. After her murder she was found to have the lycanthropy virus in her." Another photo placed on the board.

"Are we dealing with a serial killer here?"

"We need more proof. We should get Lanie in on this. See if there are any old tissue samples. If they were werewolves too, then we might just have something here."

"I also found this." Esposito and Castle moved to Ryan's desk. They watched as he pulled up a video and hit play. It showed a tall man in a dark hoodie follow Kayla onto the subway. "She doesn't get off."

"We need to check out that tunnel. It may be the kill site."

"I'm worried about you, man." After Beckett came over, Esposito was able to herd Castle into the break room while Ryan showed her the new evidence.

"You and everyone else. The only part of this whole thing I am having problems with is managing everyone else's expectations. I am doing the best I can and you all need to lay off!" Castle took a few heavy steps around the room, before shaking the anger off. "No. No, I'm sorry. That's unfair of me. You're concerned and that is not a bad thing."

"How many times have people...?" Esposito trailed off.

"Today? Three or four," Castle said, devoid of any emotion. His eyes fixed on the floor.

Talking about emotions didn't come naturally to Esposito. Even though he had come around to it through working with therapists, he wasn't raised that way. It still felt unnatural. But he had to reach out to Castle. Castle who he had watched slowly become more isolated from his family. Castle who had pulled away from his friends. Castle who thought he was so dangerous, he needed to be isolated.

Castle who was his friend. And Esposito was done letting him pull away.

"Talk to me, man." Esposito put his hand out towards Castle, figuratively and literally, before letting it fall to the table he was leaning on.

"You know I come from a place where if you have a problem with someone you go out back and hit each other until you get over it or an ambulance gets called. I don't do this feeling thing. But I'm trying. Talk to me. Please." Esposito watched Castle carefully. It wasn't working. He needed something more.

"Do you want me to go first?" Esposito took a deep breath. Big gesture time. "I hate that you put me in that position to shoot you. I hate that I was the person who pulled that trigger. But I'm so glad I was there to keep Beckett and Ryan safe. I don't regret keeping you from killing anyone else. And I don't regret pulling the trigger."

Tears collected but did not fall from Castle's eyes. His expression remained stoic. Finally he looked at Esposito. "I can't feel anything on this medication. It's like the world is wrapped in this thick blanket. Sometimes the anger breaks through, but that's it. I feel angry, just so I can feel something." Castle, of all people, was struggling with his words. Going slowly, and choosing them very carefully. Esposito stood silently, waiting for him to continue.

"But that's not true. I can feel the wolf. It still gets to have emotions and feel. It wants to eat you. It wants me to kill you for shooting us. When I'm around you, all it shows me is how easy it would be to kill you."

"And Beckett?" Esposito asked. Castle gave a little, guilty nod. "Have you been talking to anyone about this?"

"Who? There aren't any psychiatrists that specialize in werewolves. I've looked. Reached out to a couple who didn't, but they declined. Not until I pass a stress test."

"Do you remember Shannon Moonlight?" Castle looked at him with confusion written on his face. It was a rapid change in conversation.

"Wasn't she a person of interest in the Faina Murdo case? What does that have to do with anything?"

"After we interviewed her, she gave me a card. She told me to give it to you and said she could help. She's not entirely on the up and up, but I need to give you the choice." Esposito fished around in his pocket before handing over the card. "Here."

He didn't look up, worried about any look of condemnation on Castle's way too expressive face. He didn't want to see the pain from knowing Esposito sat on this for months.

"Thank you."

"No problem, man." A hand landed on Esposito's shoulder.

"No. Thank you for everything." He looked up and saw nothing in Castle's face but a small smile filled with hope. Beckett was right, he thought. Castle has infinite forgiveness and patience.

"It's no problem. You're my friend."

A grainy video played on the computer screen. It was taken with a fisheye lens, so the edges were distorted badly. A woman stepped up to the camera. Her face in full view, it was obvious this was Kayla Brown, taking money out of an ATM. Her head kept turning and twisting, this way and that, looking for someone or something just off camera. Before she got the money, she saw something to her left and ran to the right. The bottom of a man's face appeared on the left. If it had been a normal lens and not a fisheye, then the face would be out of frame. It was distorted and misshapen.

"Tory's working on removing some of the distortion. It'll take time, but that's not what I wanted you to see," Ryan said as he hit the forward button. The man's face disappeared from view before a motorcycle ran down the street, left to right. "The motorcycle has a flame decal on the engine. Esposito traced the art to a shop in Chelsea. Fresh Flame."

"You guys have been busy."

"Esposito followed up with Fresh Flame, and they did this job for a Mr. Kendrick Crosse. He was Kayla's last boyfriend. Confirmed with Sam Redding. They broke up three months ago."

"Can we confirm that this is the same person seen on the subway video?"

"It's close. But with the fish-eye distortion, it's hard to tell. Most likely we won't get a match." Ryan shoot a look at the closed break room door. "What are they talking about in there? Any idea?"

Beckett wandered over to her desk. She picked up an envelope and threw it in the trash. "There are some things they should've talked about a long time ago."

Ryan followed her, reached down and picked the envelope up. "What's this?"

"Some officers have been picking on Castle. I intercept most of what they send his way. Just throw it away." Beckett looked defeated. The expression looked very wrong on her face.

"Come on. We can't just let them win."

"This isn't a fight. Let it go, Ryan. Don't be stupid." Beckett grabbed the envelope out of Ryan's hand and threw it in the garbage again.

Her phone rang. "Beckett."

She turned to Ryan, with a concerned expression. "There's been another murder."

The smell of blood permeated the air. Beckett didn't need Castle's nose to figure out that something very bad had happened here. The trail of blood was a dead give away too.

Like Kayla Brown's crime scene, this body had been left behind a dumpster. But the signs were clear this was a crime of convenience, rather than a planned murder. The body wasn't posed. It was sprawled out on the pavement, cut open like Kayla. His throat had been slashed from ear to ear. The remains of a nice suit and tie clung to the body. The organs were cut from the body, but too wet to burn. Not that that had stopped the killer from trying.

Blood was everywhere.

"Our killer left his wallet. This was David Peterson," Ryan said.

Beckett crouched down next to the body for a closer look. The man, David, was dressed to impress, judging by his clothes. He had on a nice polo and dress slacks, all now ruined with blood. The shirt was slit open in a hurry, the edges jagged and raw. Part of his skin sagged unnaturally. The flesh underneath removed.

"The body is still warm. The murder only happened hours ago," Esposito added.

"This is definitely a serial killer, people. So I need us to be extra careful going over everything. I don't care if it's a week old gum wrapper that has nothing to do with anything. I want it bagged and tagged." Beckett rattled off some tasks for the gathered officers to do.

She turned her head slightly, trusting that Castle would be right there. Because when was he ever not. "Castle. What do you think?" When she received no reply, she turned fully. "Castle?" she asked.

Worry rising, she pulled out her cell phone. The line simply rang and rang. "Has anyone seen Castle?" The call went to voicemail.

She made her way back to her car. Breaking into a run for the last few feet, there was a sinking feeling growing in her gut. Vaguely she was aware of Esposito trying and failing to get her attention. She had to find Castle.

There was Castle's phone laying on the passenger seat. Proudly displaying a missed call notification over a photo of a smiling Alexis.

"Beckett!"

"What!?"

"I gave him Shannon Moonlight's card. He might be there."

"I need her number. Now! And put out an APB on Castle." Please, Beckett thought. Please don't let the killer have him.