Thank you to my reviewers, I am sorry that this is so long coming.

I don't own anything you recognise.

Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Chapter Six

Castle watched as Beckett sighed before pulling her cell from her pocket, carefully as he often did he peered over to read the cell screen; she stared at him and raised an eyebrow towards him before dialling the Captain's phone number. He listened as Beckett explained that the body was that of Cassandra Peterman – he could hear the intrigue in her voice as she explained the new information that they had just discovered. Castle too was intrigued, Cassandra Peterman had lived a very interesting life – she was much more than just a sales assistant who had sold him a present – she like every one else had her own story – a story that ended prematurely miles from home.

By the time the phone call was over, Castle and Beckett were standing beside her car.

Beckett turned towards Castle, "Montgomery is going to contact 1PP and then they will contact Australia. The words 'diplomatic disaster' were mentioned if her family found out via another method."

Castle nodded, he understood the sensitivity, he didn't want to think of what he'd be like if something happened to Alexis when she was on the other side of the world. He shook his head and pushed those thoughts out of his mind, he knew where Alexis was at this point in time – she would still be reading over her essay.

"You okay?" Beckett questioned Castle, reading his bemused expression perfectly.

Castle nodded as the two of them climbed into the car, "Just thinking." He answered quietly.

Beckett laughed softly, "Don't think too hard, you'll make your head hurt."

Castle smiled, "Nice, Detective Beckett, nice."

After dodging the busy morning traffic by taking two back streets and an alleyway Beckett pulled into an empty space a few shops away from Swift's Jewellers. As the two of them climbed from the car and began to walk towards the large marble building, she remembered the last time she had visited this store – she'd come alone once without Castle to try and talk to Maggie Andrews.

She'd mused that perhaps Maggie would be willing to open up to Beckett alone, she hadn't. Maggie had been certain of the fact that she and Michael were together at the time of Paulette's murder and they had been carrying on an affair behind Paulette's back for at least six months. No matter what Beckett said, Maggie had stonewalled, she refused to say anything other than two lines, 'Michael and I were together when Paulette was murdered. We are in love. We have been together for months.' It was as if someone had made her practice exactly what she had said, as if they had drilled it into her mind.

Beckett smiled as Castle held the door open for her and she slipped in beside him, both of them entering the opulent store – it was empty apart from the employees. Immediately out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of the familiar figure of Maggie. She'd been standing beside one of the display cases – Beckett watched as she quickly found something to occupy herself with, but not before Beckett noticed a deep crimson blush spread across her cheeks.

"Mr Castle." A voice said loudly, interrupting Beckett's thoughts. Beckett turned to look at the person who it belonged to, Harry Swift smiled towards the two of them and continued, "How nice it is to see you again Mr Castle, I do hope that there is nothing wrong with the gift you purchased recently. Cassandra told me that you were quite pleased with the finished product."

Beckett watched as this time Castle blushed, before he held up his hand.

"The present is fine, better than fine, in fact." Castle answered with certainty.

"Excellent Mr Castle. After all here at Swift's every piece is made to the highest standards of perfection, otherwise we would not have the clients that we do. We are proud of our quality and I stand behind it, just as my father did." Harry Swift explained, leading the two of them over to a display cabinet that housed a beautiful collection of bracelets. "Did you wish to purchase another piece? I am expecting Cassandra at any moment."

Castle looked at Beckett and she immediately shook her head, "Mr Swift," she began slowly, "I am afraid Cassandra won't be coming today." She watched as his brow furrowed, processing the information she was giving him, "Her body was found in the early hours of this morning." Beckett added quietly.

"Cassandra is dead?" Mr Swift repeated, rubbing a hand over his face, before clenching his fist. "What happened to her?"

"She was murdered Mr Swift." Beckett replied bluntly. In her dealings with him in the past Beckett knew that Mr Swift liked direct communication and he also revelled in the truth.

"Murdered?" He questioned quietly, almost in disbelief.

"When was the last time you saw her?" Castle questioned.

"Two days ago." Mr Swift replied, "We were expecting her back today, we were just talking about how this was her latest arrival yet." He said with a smile and a small laugh. "Cassandra was a wonderful employee in every duty but her punctuality, she was late for every day she worked here and for every work function she attended. She even had a story about how she almost missed her connecting flight from L.A to JFK."

Beckett smiled involuntarily; she herself had once come very close to missing a flight on her way to Kiev for her study program. She'd been the last person to board the plane and she'd spent the entire flight looking sheepish and apologetic. She turned as Castle made a slight cough, "Sorry." She replied, "Mr Swift, we wanted to ask you about the burglary that you reported a few months ago?"

Mr Swift took a deep breath as a paying customer entered the shop; he quickly motioned towards Maggie, who, with her eyes staring at the floor moved quickly to the gentleman. Beckett watched as Maggie plastered a smile on her face and greeted the customer warmly, her voice bright and cheerful.

"There was a piece stolen," Mr Swift said softly, his voice barely above a whisper, "it was taken late one evening. Cassandra and Maggie were the last to see it. They'd shown it to a particular wealthy client and when I returned to get the item the next day it was gone."

"Was anything else taken?" Castle questioned as he looked around at the opulent pieces.

"No Mr Castle. Just the one piece."

"And it was?" Beckett asked.

"A diamond and emerald tiara."

"A tiara?" Beckett questioned surprisedly.

Mr Swift nodded, "It was left to my father by his grandfather who received it in a settlement from one of his rivals who he had been engaged in a long standing feud with."

"And you wanted to sell it?" Castle asked.

"No, Cassandra and Maggie were showing it to one of our most regular clients. He had expressed an interest in a ring that was modelled after the same tiara. My mother designed that type of ring forty years ago and it has been one of our best sellers ever since."

"Do your assistants often show rare pieces to customers?" Beckett questioned, as her mind formulated a theory.

Mr Swift smiled before answering, "No, not often. It was something that Paulette began." Suddenly at his mention of her name, Mr Swift looked concerned. "Detective, Mr Castle please tell me that Cassandra wasn't murdered because she worked here like Paulette did. Paulette was fond of the tiara. She wore it at her wedding. It was my reward to her for being the best assistant in sales terms for six months."

"We are still making inquiries." Beckett replied seriously as she watched Mr Swift take a seat behind the counter.

"So the fingerprints?" Castle said as he watched the older gentleman wipe at his forehead with his handkerchief, he remembered a similar reaction when he and Beckett had come to question him about Paulette.

"Cassandra immediately offered to have her fingerprints taken to be eliminated from the number of fingerprints that were found on the box in which the tiara was stored. She came to my office the next day and told me that since she was the last employee to arrive she could see how we may become suspicious of her and she wanted to clear her name. That was the kind of person that she was. She was always prepared to go the extra mile."

"And Maggie?"

"Maggie was also fingerprinted and her fingerprints were found on the door of the safe only, we have security footage of her and Cassandra entering the safe, Maggie opens the safe and Cassandra enters and then returns with the tiara."

Beckett and Castle both nodded, in a strange way this made sense. Both women had volunteered their fingerprints to eliminate themselves from the police investigation. Beckett mused that Cassandra had done so because she wanted to stay in New York and as for Maggie; Beckett knew that she would do anything to keep the police away from her.

Beckett looked towards Castle as he mouthed something towards her, she could just make out the word 'coincidence' followed by a sharp shaking of his head. She nodded back towards him – she could follow his thoughts – there were too many similarities between Paulette and Cassandra to ignore.

"Sir." A voice said from behind where Mr Swift was sitting.

"Yes Chris." Mr Swift answered as the slightly built security guard stepped out of the back office.

"I have been reviewing the security footage of early this morning as per your new protocol and I've found Cassandra standing outside the front door at about 3am."

Immediately Beckett was walking towards Chris, "I am going to need to see that footage."

Chris nodded and motioned for Beckett and Castle to follow him, Beckett did so at lightning pace, Castle was somewhat slower, he gently helped Mr Swift from his chair and then followed the now sombre man down the small corridor.

Beckett watched as Chris pressed play and the small figure of Cassandra appeared on the screen – she was dressed only in the dress she had been found in and she was shivering violently. Beckett noticed Cassandra reach for her phone, she checked the time stamp of the recording and matched the time to the message that she and Castle had read on her computer earlier this morning. Beckett turned as Castle and Mr Swift entered the room, "What was she doing?" Mr Swift questioned.

No-one answered his question, so Mr Swift simply sat back down at his desk, Beckett took this as her opportunity to ask him another question. "We believe that while outside Cassandra sent someone a message about wanting to go home, do you know why she would have done this?"

Mr Swift looked up slowly, "No Detective, as far as I knew Cassandra was returning to work today."

"Other than the burglary did she have any other problems?" Castle asked, taking the seat next to Mr Swift and sitting down slowly.

"No," Mr Swift told her firmly, "she had no other problems."

"That isn't entirely true." Chris answered from his seat; "There was the issue with her ring when she first started work."

"Her ring?" Beckett asked, remembering what Lanie had said about Cassandra wearing a small ring that wasn't found with her body. She focused back on the footage for a moment, the tape wasn't clear enough to see if she was wearing the ring outside the store but hopefully the image could be enhanced.

"Cassandra had a small silver ring." Mr Swift explained, "I approached her about not wearing it to work as it was not one of our pieces. She told me that someone who was no longer alive gave the ring to her and that it was very important to her. She cried in my office for an hour afterwards so I reconsidered and allowed her to wear it. She wore it every day."

"She never took it off." Chris added, "I asked her about it once and she was going to tell me but we were interrupted."

"Did she tell you anything more about it Mr Swift?"

"No. I didn't mention it again. I did not wish to upset her."

"I understand." Beckett replied, before addressing Chris, "We are going to need a copy of that tape."

Chris nodded, "Copying as we speak Detective." He replied with a smile.

Beckett smiled back and began to ask another question before she was interrupted - Maggie had entered the room.

"Mr Swift?" Maggie said quietly, concentrating intently on her employer – not looking at Castle or Beckett once. "Mrs Gregory is here about her daughter's pendant. She mentioned something about you having the perfect stone for the setting."

Mr Swift nodded, before rising to his feet, "Yes Maggie, I'll be there in a moment." Maggie nodded back and disappeared from sight quickly. "Is there anything else you need Detective, Mr Castle?" he questioned.

Beckett shook her head, "That is all for now Mr Swift," she replied with a smile, "Thank you for your co-operation."

"You are welcome Detective," he answered, "Please find who did this to Cassandra, she was a lovely girl. We will all miss her here."

Castle stood and nodded towards Mr Swift who then smiled at him, "And Mr Castle please come back anytime. I also hope that your present is well received. It is after all a beautiful piece."

"Yes." Castle replied quickly as he watched Beckett raise an eyebrow towards him, he sighed – he should have known it was entirely impossible to buy her a present without her finding out some of the details. He was about to say something when Chris handed Beckett the DVD.

"Thank you." Beckett replied and she turned to leave the office, slowly she walked out into the store and couldn't help but smile towards Maggie as she left the building.

"She knows something." Castle said under his breath as he followed Beckett out and into the street.

"I know." Beckett replied, "But she's unlikely to give it up. I've got more chance of finding out what you've bought for me than knowing what Maggie is thinking."

Castle laughed, she was probably right. But so was he, there was more to the story of Maggie Andrews and he was determined to find it out.

So any theories about what's happening?