Disclaimer: I do not own any of the phenomenal characters from Castle but I do own this shameful tid bit of story.

Chapter 4


Before the crime solving duo could leave the station they were summoned by the lab techs who had examined the laptop belonging to Cassandra Grey. Along with all the hate mail from the forum, there were a couple of instant messenger conversation logs between the victim and Jennifer Spectre, indicating a few things that interested the Detective and even more information that she would use to confront Jennifer with.

Arriving at the nice apartment complex, Castle and Beckett walked inside. They took the stairs as the elevator was down for maintenance. "Pretty nice place for a young woman that lives alone," Castle observed. It was no where close to the luxury high rises of the last murder scene, but these apartments were definitely nice for someone's first place.

Neutral earth tones ran the length of each hall, passing by creamy white doors that gave the place a naturally pleasing atmosphere. Warm hardwood flooring reflected the light from the hall lights ever so slightly.

They reached the door labeled '42' and stopped. Beckett felt uneasy as she reached to knock. The thought that someone would kill over jealousy befuddled her; actually, why anyone would want to kill another, period, confused her. It was why she kept doing what she did, not only for her mother and her own family, but for all the others who wanted answers.

Castle noticed that Kate had zoned out for a bit. Reassuringly, he placed a hand on her shoulder, "you good?" He gave her a warm smile to chase the question. She nodded, and let out a short sigh before raising her hand to knock at the door.

"Jennifer Spectre," she called through the thick wood, "this is Detective Beckett, NYPD."

Spectre didn't waste time in opening the door, "Detective, Mr. Castle, can I help you?" She was wearing a white apron over her clothing and her hair was tied back in a tight ponytail. The rush of air from the open door carried the smell and warmth of cookies baking in the oven.

"Actually, we were wondering if we could come in for a bit," Beckett proposed.

Jennifer looked back towards her kitchen and then hesitantly opened the door the rest of the way, "uh, yeah sure. Just excuse the messy kitchen," the red head smiled a bit, ushering them inside while smoothing out her apron. "Did you find out something new? Or is something wrong?"

"You might want to have a seat," Castle suggested as they all walked towards the seating area in front of the television. "What is it?" The girl developed a frightened demeanor.

After taking a seat on the opposite couch to the young woman, Beckett began, "Greg O'Connor was found dead in his apartment this afternoon." The statement physically sickened Jennifer as tears welled in her eyes, but it was a surprise that she hadn't heard it from the media already.

"His body was found in the same manner as Cassandra's, so we believe the same person killed both of them." Beckett was calm, maybe even slightly soothing as she spoke, but her eyes were firm. Castle stayed quiet, examining the actions of the girl.

Kate pulled two separate pictures from an envelope she was carrying with her. The first was of Cassandra's body hanging from the ceiling of the convention center while the second was of Greg's body hanging in his bedroom. The bags still remained over their faces but the pictures were gruesome enough on their own without all the gore.

"Who…" Jennifer called out weakly, "who would do something like this to them?" She looked towards the pictures presented to her, her hands looming over her mouth as a few tears streamed down her cheeks.

"We believe you had the motive." Castle stated matter-of-factly.

"Me?" Spectre returned, stunned.

"You failed to tell us about your relationship with Mr. O'Connor." Kate started to reference the evidence given to her by the computer lab techs. She pulled out another picture from the envelope, an indecent picture of Jennifer, along with a few pages of emails.

"It was over." Jennifer coldly stated, not needing to pick up the picture or read any of the e-mails. "I loved him, but…" the words lingered on her lips as she looked away from the detective, "he didn't love me. Cassandra was my best friend. I knew it was wrong. And I wanted to call it off, but he lied to me every time we spoke. He told me, he cared about me, wanted to be with me." She dried her eyes, "but I knew…that I was only sex because she wanted to save it for marriage."

"But," Castle hunched over to listen in, "she found out?"

"Cassandra confronted you with an instant message." Beckett stated, not needing to pull out a copy of the conversation. She already had the girl talking.

"After she called us out, I went over to her apartment to clear the air and explain myself. She was dressed in that stupid outfit and she scratched me." Jennifer lifted her right blue sweater sleeve and peeled back a large bandage. "She tried to fight me over it, but I told her that I had ended it the day before because I cared more about her. I would never hurt her like that!" She pointed to the picture of Cassandra's body hanging from the rafters.

There was intensity to her words even though she wasn't speaking very loudly, but whether she was emotional for herself or actually emotional over the loss of her friend was a mystery, but the pair seemed to sense some truth to it.

Kate took a moment to let the emotion settle in the room before she grabbed another piece of paper from the envelope in her lap. The smell of cookies had dissipated as Beckett presented the messages from the forum. "Are you familiar with the name Shadow Spectre, Jennifer?" Spectre sifted her fingers through her bangs that fell to the side, "that's my brother's account." Beckett handed her the message log and she scanned her eyes over it.

"But I don't get what this is about."

"We think that your brother may have been harassing Cassandra through the forum, maybe even threatening her." Castle resolved.

"A lot of people did that though. No one really liked the way Cassandra portrayed Black Cat, sometimes she got into trouble on her own."

"How do you mean?" Beckett asked.

"She would always lure in men, both them and their characters, and practically tease them to death. A lot of times it even ticked off Greg. People got frustrated by her, but she played just like Black Cat would have. Promiscuous and flirty with no attachments unless it was to Spider-man, which is why Greg never worried much about it."

"So these," Beckett referenced two more photos in the envelope, the Polaroids found on the bodies. "Were meant to mark the characters they played on the forum?"

The door creaked open and a somewhat older, short man walked through, putting his coat on the rack next to the door. Detective Beckett and Castle stood, leaving Beckett's question unanswered. The man sharply looked over towards the two he was unfamiliar with, "Jen, you didn't tell me we were having guests." He smiled, and took off an instant film camera, carefully putting it away in a case at the closet by the rack.

"I'm sorry," Jennifer stood, "Detective Beckett, Mr. Castle, this is my brother William."

"Detective, eh?" William mused quietly while walking over to the standing trio, "to what do we owe the pleasure." His eccentric voice called Beckett to attention that he was significantly shorter than her, even slightly pudgy. A small white bandage was taped to his right cheek bone and his face was a bit flushed.

"We were asking your sister some questions regarding our ongoing investigation." Beckett reported before picking up the papers and pictures that belonged in the envelope.

The shorter man cringed slightly and rubbed his eye while searching in his pocket for a handkerchief, "pardon me, I'm just getting used to contacts." He smiled again and brought the white cloth to dry his moistened eyes. "Well I do hope she was helpful, from what I've heard of the case from the media, it's an awfully sad day in New York." His arm wrapped around his sisters waist and he gave her a slight squeeze.

"Greg and I started the forum together, worked on it together, everything. He was a bit frustrating at times, leaving me to tend to it when things got rough, but I couldn't have asked for a better partner even if we did play each other's arch nemesis." William appeared saddened but managed a smile through his downcast expression.

"We're truly sorry to both of you," Beckett offered their condolences. "We'll be in touch, Jennifer."

"She didn't do it either." Beckett threw her jacket down on the back of her office chair feeling frustrated. "Why are we hitting a wall like this?" She flopped down in her chair and stared towards her partner through the dim light. Ryan and Esposito were likely playing Madden together and most of the others in their office were gone for the night as well. Besides Beckett's desk, the only other light came from the case board's dim lamps that sat atop it.

"Well think about it," Castle tried to reassure, "we know that the killer has to be a member of the forum because they knew the victim's identities there." He sat back in his own chair.

"But we only know of five of the members who live within the area, and two of them are dead, and as far as Jennifer and Lawson are concerned, they both check out. Lainie got the tests back on the skin found under our first victim's claws and they were a match to Spectre. As for Lawson they were able to confirm the details of the message he spoke with us about."

"So we're left with the brother?"

"I guess so, but we don't have any hard evidence against him to get a conviction."

"Jennifer did say that Shadow Spectre was William though." Castle verified.

"Yeah but she also said that a lot of people had been sending messages like that, maybe he was just another guy that got caught up on Cassandra." Kate speculated. She ran her hands through her hair and breathed out a heavy sigh.

"You're kind of cute when you're frustrated," Castle quietly analyzed. "Not that you should be frustrated more often," he added quickly, shaking his head.

Kate averted her gaze from him to hide her creeping blush, she didn't really have a good comeback for him at the time, but he did know how to brighten her mood sometimes.

Castle glanced at his watch and saw that is was ten-thirty. "I think I'm gonna head out." He noticed the effect he had on her, and didn't want to interrupt her work. "Call me if you need anything."

He started down the line of desks up from hers, "Castle," she called and he stopped. "What would Heat do?" Kate twirled a pen beneath her fingers.

"She'd probably go home, think about going out to pick up a guy for the night, but stay inside because she's got a certain someone on her brain. She might think about the case after a glass or two of wine, while she's in the bath, and maybe before she goes to bed early, so she can wake up with a clearer head tomorrow." He smiled, but didn't stay too long. He didn't want to give her enough time to sift through what he'd said.

The cozy office was lit up just enough for a certain writer to see his key board. He glanced at the clock on the bottom of the screen reading five forty-five. He'd really been writing for that long? The whole case had gotten him into the mood for writing about Heat. It had twists and turns and now a dead end and though he was excited, after he thought about and took the time to notice the clock, he was tired.

He gently closed the laptop's lid and set it down on his desk after he heard the soft lock from the lid, but he heard quiet knocking on the other side of his closed door. "Come in," he yawned out after stretching in his swivel chair.

"Dad," Castle smiled, seeing his daughter come in, in her pajamas. Not a single red hair was out of place on her head, despite just coming from bed.

"What are you doing up so late…or early, Pumpkin?" He asked sleepily, but glad to see her.

"I couldn't sleep much," she replied with a shrug, "but I saw your light on and since I didn't get a chance to see you much yesterday, I thought I'd see why you were up."

"Oh yeah? This police work can be tough, but I was writing and lost track of time." his smile lasted until another yawn, "so why can't you sleep?"

"I'm frustrated." Alexis put it simply, taking a seat in the chair opposing the desk.

"By?" Her father pried.

"Well did you ever get so mad at someone you were working with that you wanted to see them disappear? I know it sounds bad, but me and my friend Regina are working on this math project where we have to chart out our daily caffeine intakes, and then prove the graph with a series of equations, but every time things seem difficult, she sort of dumps the work all on me, and she forgot to chart her last four daily intakes, so I'm just frustrated." The red head spoke fast and with a lot hand motions to get her message across, but when she was finished, she carried a worried look.

Castle nodded, until something clicked in his mind, "I don't know how you do it, but thank you!" His daughter slightly jolted back in surprise, but he jumped up out of his chair, and hugged her quickly. "I've got to make a phone call, but you should talk to your partner about it. Let her know how you feel, otherwise she's going to keep using you like that." Castle smiled after his concise fatherly advice, "you should get back to bed and not worry about it." He added. He kissed her forehead and walked out of the office leaving Alexis to wonder what it was that she awakened in him.

Rick grabbed the nearest phone in the kitchen and dialed up Beckett. He was met with a groggy response, "do you know what time it is?" Beckett slurred while turning towards the clock, it was a few minutes shy of six in the morning.

"Put on a fresh pot and meet me at the station," said Castle while slipping on his jacket.

Beckett sat up with a yawn and adjusted the strap of her tank top, "What's this about?"

"I just burst through that wall like the Kool-aid man." Rick stated in triumph before breathing out an 'Oh yeah' to mock the famous mascot. He ended the call in a rush and headed for the door; leaving Kate to stare at the phone awkwardly, then back at the clock. Shaking her head, she freed herself of the blankets and got ready to meet the wise man.

As Castle shut the door, Martha trotted down the stairway tiredly in a red silk robe. "What's all the fuss about? Can't a girl get her beauty rest?" She smiled towards Alexis who was leaning against the office door.

"I think Dad just broke his big case." She reported with a smirk.

"I swear, they should pay your father for his keen abilities, gets them from me, you know?"

A/N: I don't know how many of you guys toggle with your settings, but I've found that I prefer reading on a half page size with the third 'A' selected, what do you think? Makes it feel more like a book to me. Just something I thought I'd share. It'd been so long since I had been on the site that I didn't notice all of the changes they made.

So as far as story goes, the next chapter will more than likely be the last! :D I'm a bit sad about it, but since my intentions are to be like an episode, it's gotta bite it soon, y'know? Also, I couldn't have a story without a self-absorbed comment from Martha. :] The characters are so great to write for haha.

As usual, hope everyone's doing well, and that my story is still pleasing. Thanks again to all of my readers and reviewers for the encouragement. :D