Hello all! Oh man you guys are going to start to FREAK out! I chose to use the same song-title for this ch because I originally envisioned this chapter and the previous one being a single chapter, so I'm sure you can guess how this chapter is going to go! Enjoy! Oh and don't forget to review!

'We know that Mike was just a foot-soldier, maybe Raglan too,' Esposito said as he studied the spider web of names on the Smart-board.

'No, I think Raglan's higher up,' Beckett countered, scanning the conversation between Raglan and Mike. 'Otherwise why would Raglan ask for a good faith payment? That seems like something a lackey would do.'

'You're right,' Castle agreed, turning to look at her. 'Would Cowlan be in charge?'

'No, he's good but he's not bureaucratic enough.' Ryan shook his head.

'Okay, so not Cowlan. What about the guy in the records room, Elliott?' Esposito suggested. 'That would be an ideal place to have a plant. Otherwise how would you have him not sending up a red flag over Mike and Raglan's frequent trips to records.'

'Maybe planting the records there were the whole point of those trips,' Adam suggested. 'IF he's overseeing the room, no one is going to think twice about him filing something for a fellow cop.'

'Yeah, that's a really good possibility.'

'Okay, so we've established those are definitely some bad guys,' Castle said. 'What about going the other way on this time line, bringing the 'why' of it all into focus with Montrose?'

'That means going through those files.' Ryan pointed to the stack on the table. 'It's a lot to go through.'

They each took a file and while it went faster with the five of them reading simultaneously, it was still an arduous, time-consuming process. An hour and a half later, Esposito called for a time-out and regroup on what they'd all found.

'What's everyone got?' he asked, looked around at the other faces.

'I have Matthew Montrose's service record. By all accounts he was a real up and coming cop, just like Timo Ross,' Castle said. 'He was still an officer but he was assigned a lot of undercover work because he could easily pass in that world.'

'So how would a uniform on the verge of his detective's exam or some other kind of promotion wind up with three bullets in his head in an Alphabet City warehouse?' Ryan pondered.

Castle wrote the question on the board, turned the page in the death file on Montrose. 'According to the arresting officers' reports, and that officers in the plural possessive, Montrose was on his way there after receiving word a major exchange was going to go down. He was with a Detective Christopher Spitzer of the seven-two's narcotics bureau.'

'Spitzer, has he popped anywhere else?' Beckett asked., and got a squawk from Castle. 'Sorry, right, continue.'

'Thank you. Anyways, this particular night Montrose went to look at things first since it was his tip. When he didn't radio Spitzer for backup as promised and he heard three gunshots, Spitzer radioed any available units in the area that an officer might need assistance. He waited until the pandas arrived and went in with Officer John Raglan to find Roman Moore standing over the body with a gun.'

'There was never a reason to question it, unless you looked at Roman Moore a little more closely,' Ryan filled in; he'd taken Roman Moore's file and was looking at his long list of misdeeds. 'The guy's a career felon, no question, total loser. He was arrested like clockwork for drug running and possession.'

'Those often go hand in hand with violence,' Adam said, which had the Irish detective shaking his head.

'This guy's never had so much as a sniff at being linked to anything violent. He just likes to share his part favours with one too many people. He's a criminal, but not a violent one, and any time he's done time, he's never quibbled on his plea. He owned up to his transgressions.'

'So what makes a guy like that suddenly plan and execute the cold-blooded murder of a cop, then deny his involvement?' Beckett wondered aloud. 'He still around?'

'Yeah, surprisingly. And look at this.' Ryan pulled out several pages from his file. 'He went to your mom, and your mom alone for help. He hasn't tried to get himself out of Rikers before or since.'

'We're making a trip to Rikers tomorrow,' Beckett said smoothly, making notes to their current file. 'Okay, so now the million dollar question is what did Matthew Montrose know that was worth killing to keep secret?'

'And my dad,' Adam added softly, sending shivers down all their spines. 'What if...what if one of these dirty cops came to see my dad and coerced him into killing himself? That would explain why the cops who investigated my father's death would see anything different, or why Maggie couldn't be much comfort to me.'

'Maggie?' Beckett felt an itch on the back of her neck. 'As in your friend Cruz?'

'Yeah, she was there. There wasn't really much of an investigation, it was quite obvious he'd hanged himself in the shower and left a note of his own accord. But the cop who came to investigate the suspicious death was someone out of my house, and Maggie was with him. Why?'

'Huh, because her name never appears on any reports of your father's death.'

'She wasn't officially on the case, she said she came after she heard the address. She recognized it as my dad's home and knew I could use a friend.'

Beckett thought of what Adam had told her about Cruz spying on him when he was working the murders with her. But what if...what if... 'Guys, can you give us a minute here? I need to talk to Adam in private.'

'Kate, if you have a question for me, there's no need to send them away. I can handle it.'

'You told me that IA had Maggie looking at you, reporting back to Blake Holmes, right? What if she was sent there to make sure that your dad was dead?'

'I wouldn't put it past Maggie to try and get ahead whatever way possible. When you grow up the way we did, you learn to take what you can get and go with it.'

'Would she go on the take?'

Adam let out a weary sigh, as old feelings and suspicions about one of his oldest friends bubbled freshly to the surface. 'Every fibre of me wants to deny it, but I have to say yes. Yes, she is the exact kind of cop I oculd see going on the take and finding someway to justify it.'

'Which means that there is probably someone involved in this in IA as well. Three guesses as to who I'm thinking,' Beckett added as she looked at the rest of them and she watched Esposito's knuckles curl up.

'Holmes,' he snarled softly. 'That fucking rat bastard.'

'No one likes cops to spy on other cops, that's the natural pecking order,' Ryan added in just as severe a tone, 'but a cop spying on other cops and being on the take for it? They oughta be hung by their balls from the Chrysler Building.'

'Question is there, how do we look at Holmes without letting him know?'

'Easy, we pull in another cop from IA, one who has the power to boss Holmes around,' Beckett said, getting up to move her stuff legs around. 'Montgomery can do that, that's not going to be a problem. We've got out network of dirty cops - Raglan, Cowlan, Spitzer and Elliott, one of whom is dead. We need to look as hard as we can at the remaining three. Okay. Here's what we do. We take the night off.'

'Excuse me?' The Ry-Sposito monster spoke in tandem.

'Go home.' She looked at them all with such heated passion in their eyes. 'We've made some very big leaps today and we are going to need to update Montgomery tomorrow morning, and we're going to need a good night's sleep to do it because things are about to get very messy.'

It was a fact, not an inference; they all knew that so they nodded in agreement and began to tidy up the files. Rather than keeping them in the obviously labeled police issue file boxes, they found some of Castle's manuscript boxes with his unique handwriting on them. They had no room for error, no chance of screwing it up so they didn't consider this paranoia.

The moment she'd kicked her men out the door along with Meredeth and Max to go home, Beckett turned to Castle and gave him a hard kiss.

'I love you Rick.'

'I love you too, Kate.'

'Now where's my other man?'

She headed upstairs to Jojo's nursery, saw her little girl napping like a champion, then went into RJ's room. He too was zonked, but she picked him up out of his bed and carried him into her room where she tugged the duvet over their bodies.

'Mumum?' he asked sleepily. 'Whass mattah?'

'Nothing, I just needed an RJ hug.'

'Oh, okay.' He wrapped his arms around her midsection and made an 'mm' sound as he squeezed. 'There Mumum. Now shh, I snoozing.'