Meanwhile in New York…

"And tonight I'm sitting down with best-selling crime novelist, Richard Castle, whose new book Deadly Heat is coming out next week. I'll be asking him for advice on how to commit the perfect murder. There's this intern from the Rodney Gleason Show who always steals my parking lot spot and it's time he learned who the boss is." Lawson's joke earned uproarious laughter from the audience. The camera cut to Castle loitering backstage. He looked up just in time and flashed his best multi-million dollar author smile.

Rick waited in the wings with Paula for his cue, listening to the end of Lawson's news ticker segment. It was the third take because Lawson kept flubbing his lines. Paula was fussing over his jacket, tugging on sleeves and lapels, fixing his collar and brushing invisible dust particles off his shoulders. Knowing the format of Necessary News, Castle kept track of the issues covered in the news ticker. After the traditional small talk, Lawson usually liked to discuss one or two hot items on the news ticker with his guest. Considering himself a well-educated, intelligent man and well-informed citizen, Castle felt rather comfortable and relaxed going into his interview. Though… waiting around patiently was not his strong suit, and Paula was already telling him to stop fidgeting. Thankfully, it was almost time for him to go on stage and the associate producer pulled him away from his book agent with a wink, leaving him standing on a white cross marked with tape on the floor. The producer held up five fingers in front of Castle's face and began silently counting down as his form retreated. On cue, the camera picked up Rick and he strolled casually on the stage, waving at the audience.

"Welcome to the show, this is your first time here, isn't it?" Lawson met him halfway.

"Yes, yes it is. And I'm delighted to be here." Rick replied cheerfully as they shook hands and the host escorted him to his seat.

"So tell me about that new book of yours, Deadly Heat right? It's part of the Nikki Heat series. How many are there now total?"

"That would be number five."

"Wow that's a pretty impressive track record and it seems like the readers can't get enough of Heat and Rook's adventures."

"Absolutely, I've been very blessed in recent years with the tremendous success of the Nikki Heat series." Castle cleared his throat and took a sip from his coffee mug.

"At some point weren't there talks to turn it into a TV series?"

"Movie actually."

"When did it come out?"

"Well, they hit a little snag in production which turned the schedule upside down. But they're aiming for a limited release next year." Rick explained smoothly, leaving out the part about Natalie Rhodes being in rehab and the major recasting of Roach when a new director took over. "It's a great team, though. I've visited the set a while ago, when they'd just started shooting."

"Well, I can't wait. I'm a huge fan of Nikki Heat myself." Lawson admitted.

"Thank you," Rick grinned. "Which one's your favorite?"

"You know I think I'll have to go with Heat Rises."

"Good choice," Castle smiled appreciatively.

"Are you still working with NYPD and the detective on whom you based Nikki Heat?" Lawson inquired.

"Not anymore," Castle explained, "the detective I used to shadow works with the feds now. She's really extraordinary, so there's really no surprise there that the feds became interested in her."

"If she's half as good as Nikki Heat," Lawson nodded enthusiastically.

"Oh, she's better, she's just incredible in real life in ways I could never do her justice on the page."

"So is this then the end of Nikki Heat?"

"No, I'll write Nikki as long as people want to read about her. I've got enough research from my time with the NYPD to last me a dozen more books. The homicide squad I've worked with has kind of garnered a reputation to deal with the freakier and weirder cases that get called in, so there's lots more material to tell."

"That how you got the inspiration for the body theft scene? That is one of my favorites."

"Yes, that actually happened to me. One of the most bizarre moments of my life. One second I'm talking to the M.E., next we're attacked by masked men stealing a dead body from a coroner's van. I mean who does that?"

"I don't know, you tell me! Did you catch the killer?"

"We did, actually."

"That must have been pretty scary, though."

"It was," Rick admitted, "it totally was. But I've had a few close calls with death over the last years."

"Like?"

"Bomb scares, drowning, gunfire – one time I almost froze to death." The audience gasped horrified. "I know terrible death. Couldn't eat any frozen dinners for months afterwards."

Everyone laughed at his joke.

"Did you ever have to fire a gun?"

"Once or twice," Castle nodded, "but NYPD is very, very paranoid about civilians and guns, they still won't allow me to carry. After five years!" He complained. "Every time I had to fire a gun, it was literally a life-or-death situation and another detective handed me their back up to cover their ass. There's always tons of paperwork to fill out after that happens."

Everyone laughed.

"Have you ever shot someone?" Lawson wouldn't move off the serious topics.

"Like killed?" Castle looked for confirmation. "No. I've shot at people and I've hit them to disarm them. But you just do what you gotta do to keep everyone on your team safe. They've got my back, so naturally I look out for them as well. And in the heat of the moment, there's really not a lot of time to think. You just aim and take out the perp before they get a chance to shoot you or one of your friends. That's what target practice is for."

"Wow, so when do you have the time to write then?" Lawson chuckled.

"Oh there's plenty. I usually write at night and on the weekends. There's a lot of time spent waiting around for test results or filling out paperwork, so I often take off on those days to write."

"I love how you just said you "take off" from your pretend job to do your real job." Lawson noticed.

Castle laughed, "You know I don't really look at it like that. I love hanging out with my boys at the twelfth. They're great people, they've become true friends over the years. It's really more fun than work, which sounds horrible because people are dead, but I'm just having a really great time with friends, solving puzzles and helping victims' families get closure in the process. And I love writing; it's never felt like a chore to me. When it starts to feel like that then it's usually time to retire the character. That's what happened with Derek Storm."

"Whom you've revived recently, haven't you?"

"Yes, yes I did. Sometimes inspiration just hits you. I love stories; I love telling good stories. That's what originally drew me to the homicide squad team I've been shadowing. I'd briefly met all these interesting people when I consulted on a case that was related to my novels. And I saw all these wonderful stories to tell. So I asked to shadow them for a while. Today, I am honored to call these people my friends because I've hardly met such dedicated, loyal, humorous, smart individuals anywhere else. I just wanted to tell their incredible stories."

Lawson nodded and then turned to face the camera directly, "Don't leave; when we come back from commercials, I'll get the dirt from New York Times number one bestselling author Richard Castle on how to plan the perfect murder."

Castle and the audience laughed, as the band started to play. Rick reached for the coffee mug, which was filled with water and not coffee at all, and took another long sip, while he and Lawson nodded their heads to the music. Lawson shuffled around the paper on his desk, discarding the pages of the script they'd already gone through.

When the music stopped, the host looked up again directly into the camera, "And welcome back with Richard Castle, whose new Nikki Heat novel hits the bookstands on Friday next week." The audience clapped dutifully.

"So how long does it usually take to write a mystery novel? How much planning goes into the murder?"

"Well, I usually start with an idea. A hook. You kinda have to work your way backwards. You start with the murder and/or the killer. Then you determine which evidence you're going to use, what your red herrings will be. At the precinct we use a murder board to solve the cases and I pretty much do the same, only with fictional characters instead of real suspects. And I've got a fancier high-tech board than the whiteboards at the twelfth." That earned him some heartfelt laughter from the audience. "I love gadgets, I really, really do."

"That's really fascinating. I always wonder if writers just… well, write."

"No, it's a craft like everything else. People have this idea about artists as geniuses who produce masterworks out of thin air. That's a very romantic concept. In reality, you hone your skills just like at any job. It's not like I wake up in the morning with a full novel laid out in my mind. I often go back and add characters or take out a diversion if I feel it distracts too much from the plot."

"So if you had to stage the perfect crime scene, how would you go about it?"

"You mean if my assistant kept stealing my parking spot and I tried to get rid of him?" Rick joked, recalling the host's opening monologue.

"For example." Lawson laughed.

"Err… don't get caught?" Castle quipped.

Lawson laughed again, "Obviously!"

"Well, I still think you should have invited the cast of CSI to answer that question but I will say this much. I've learned that it's incredible hard to investigate a homicide when you don't have a body. It's extremely hard to get warrants when you cannot prove that somebody has been killed, that a homicide has even occurred, which really hinders an investigation. So my first advice would be to get rid of the body where nobody can find it."

"That sounds like a no-brainer." Lawson rolled his eyes.

"You'd think but it's really harder than you imagine to hide a body and get rid of all the evidence, which is the next thing. No matter how clever you think you are, you're not. The more sure you are of yourself; the more likely you are to overlook the one tiny detail that will unravel everything. That was one of my favorite moments to watch in interrogation, whenever we had a cocky son of a," Castle cleared his throat realizing he was on national TV, "when suspects were so full of themselves, absolutely certain they'd thought of everything, and then my partner would mention this tiny little detail and you could just see the wheels in their heads turning. Did I forget? And then you could see light bulbs turning on in their heads. Oh crap!" Castle accompanies his narrative with appropriate faces, which has the audience roaring with laughter.

"What about hiring someone else to do it? Make sure you have an alibi on the other side of the town?" The host suggested.

Castle shook his head, "People talk. The more people involved, the bigger the risk. The police know what they do. They find the weakest link, lean on him until he's ready to break. If they offer a deal, they'll sing like canaries."

"So really, you're saying there is no perfect murder." Lawson concluded and Rick nodded smiling.

"Yep, especially if New York's finest are on your case." Castle's respond was smooth, prompt and suave.

"So I guess I'll just have to continue leaving angry notes on windshields?"

"Pretty much, or show up earlier to work." Castle laughed.

"Well, as you may know, the format of our show is little bit different, combining investigative journalism and entertainment. For our next segment, Ripped from the Headlines, I've prepared for tonight a piece on unsolved and perfect crimes that I'd like to discuss with you."

"Okay," Castle frowned, since he had not expected that, "I'm not a forensic expert, though. I basically let other people do all the hard work and then reap the benefits of their hard work." The audience chuckled at the self-deprecating joke.

"Don't worry I believe you are familiar with the case."

An uneasy feeling settled in Castle's stomach. Lawson had better not been looking into Beckett's mother's murder or he might be strangling the cocky bastard on live television. Well, not live live, but still in front of a live audience. Rick glanced at Paula who shrugged her shoulders, indicating she had no idea what this was about.

"About a year ago, I think you came across an almost perfect murder, which put you right at the center of an investigation. Let's take a look." Lawson gave a curt nod and the newsfeed started.

Rick's eyes widened in horror when he saw his own mug shot on the screen from the time he'd been taken into custody for the Tessa Horton killing. He sent Lawson a dirty look and then glanced at Paula in panic. Castle could tell that his book agent was livid and had not expected this curveball either because he could already see her whipping out her cell phone and pacing in the wings. Heads were definitely going to roll after the taping.

Rick ran his fingers through his hair and watched horrified as Lawson's "investigative journalism segment" unrolled the Tessa Horton homicide from Castle's perspective as the perfect crime. By now he was seething inside and reached up to tear off the microphone and end the interview right then and there. Lawson stared proudly at the monitor in front of him, mouthing along with the voice over.

Paula caught Rick's movements from the corner of her eyes and shook her head wildly at him. She signaled him to do damage control on screen, while she pulled strings behind the scenes. Castle sighed. She was right. Walking out on the taping would only give Lawson satisfaction and paint him as a sore loser. So he let go of the microphone again and squared his shoulders, mentally preparing himself for a face off.

Rick almost lost it again, when at the end of the footage Lawson dragged Beckett into this mess. Castle closed his eyes and counted quietly backwards from ten to keep himself from lunging over the desk and throttling the talk show host on air. Instead he took a few deep breaths then slowly pulled off the microphone.

"While the official version was that Richard Castle shot and killed Jerry Tyson who had framed the famous writer for a ritualistic killing as an act of revenge, the only two people to actually see the Triple Killer were Richard Castle and his partner in crime, Detective Beckett. For a man of Richard Castle's means, who had so elaborately planned his escape from jail, it would have been only all too easy to stage a fake shootout and frame another man for a murder he had committed. Detective Beckett, who is the inspiration for Nikki Heat and has long been rumored to have a secret romance with the famous writer, would naturally back up her boyfriend's story. After all Jerry Tyson's body was never found by NYPD divers. Wouldn't it make more sense that the handsome, successful writer used his connections to make it look like he was being framed by a serial killer so he could get away with murder? Did Richard Castle achieve the impossible? Did he plan and commit the perfect crime? Did he fool his friends and family with his amiable charms and winning smile, hiding his devious mind out in the open as a mystery novelist all along? You decide."


A/N: Because I've always wondered how Gina and Paula handled the PR nightmare surrounding the manhunt for Castle ever since "Probable Cause" aired.