The speedometer was pushing sixty, the city lights flashing past in bursts of light that cast a yellow glow across Beckett's somber features. Castle watched her eyes dart between the rear-view mirror and the road ahead as she weaved the car through traffic, clenching the wheel tightly as she nearly sideswiped a silver Civic that was veering dangerously close to the center line.

"Dammit," she hissed through clenched teeth, as a row of red tail lights blocked the upcoming intersection. A cloud of steam rose from a jumble of cars pushed bumper to bumper in what appeared to be a mild fender bender. Seeing her approaching lights, a cluster of onlookers waved at the cruiser, but instead of stopping, Beckett took a hard right, snaking her way around the accident.

Castle gripped the side of his seat, pushed into the backrest by the forward momentum and the locking seat belt. "Uh, Beckett…can I remind you that we won't exactly be able to arrest Amber Conrad if we're both killed on the way to her office." He held his breath, eyes squeezed shut as she ran through a red light, barely waiting more than a second to make sure the opposing traffic had stopped.

"And can I remind you, Castle, that unless we get to Amber's office in a timely fashion, we'll be letting a killer walk free."

"You mean an alleged killer," he responded, his 'things that will piss Beckett off censor' kicking in a moment too late. He knew his message was spot on, but his timing could be better.

Beckett rolled her eyes and skidded the car around another corner; the backside of the midtown office building appeared a couple blocks down. She could already see two squad cars sitting curbside, silent and waiting. She cut her own siren and pulled up behind them, but a quick survey of the vicinity didn't turn up the officers who had driven them there.

"Castle," she tossed her cell phone in his direction, "call Esposito and find out where the reporting officers went." She flashed him a quick thank you smile and proceeded to make sure her guns were in place before taking off for the entrance, Castle tailing behind her.

"Esposito said they're already inside." His words were breathy as he jogged behind, trying to match Beckett stride for stride.

"What," she fumed, the rhythmic clicking of her heels against the pavement quickening.

"He said he told them to wait," Castle relayed, his voice filled with remorse even though he was just parroting Esposito's words. "But they said they were going to just get in position, wait for you upstairs."

A string of expletives pushed up into Beckett's throat, but she swallowed them back down, too tired from running to waste her energy on anger.

Approaching the building from the backside somehow seemed more ominous, the manicured bushes and garden beds of the pristine front traded in for two large, overflowing garbage receptacles. Beckett scanned the sidewalk for any sign of the officers, but came up empty in both directions.

"So what do you want to do?" Castle asked, peering into the building, a single security offer sat draped over a security monitor, his chest rising and falling too steadily to be awake.

"Let's check in with him," Beckett nodded toward the sleeping guard, "and then head up to Amber's floor." Finding the door locked, she rapped hard on the glass pane, startling the guard, the coffee cup in his hand falling to the ground and shattering on the tiles.

The security guard sat upright in his seat, looking frantically for the source of the noise. Seeing Castle and Beckett waving outside the door, he tentatively rose from his chair, surprising himself as he stepped on the broken glass from his coffee mug. Beckett flashed her badge and his pace quickened, a look of fear in his eyes.

"Can I help you?" He opened the door and ushered them inside. "Please ignore the mess," he smiled nervously, gesturing at the floor, "I spilled my coffee and haven't gotten around to cleaning it up just yet."

"Busy night?" Castle joked, but the guard's expression remained stoic. "By the way, you got a little something…" he waved his hand in a wide circle pointing out the brown stain running from the collar to the bottom button of his white shirt. The guard crossed his arms over his torso. "You might want to think about making stronger coffee next time."

"Castle," Beckett placed her hand on Castle's chest, physically prompting him to cut the jokes. She turned her attention to the guard. "Have you been at this post all night?"

"Yes." The guard clenched the fabric covering his arms, pulling the material taught against his thin frame. He couldn't have been older than twenty.

"Awake or asleep?"

"Castle."

"Hey, it's relevant."

"Castle."

"Sorry."

The guard's eyes ping-ponged between Castle and Beckett, and he slinked back a couple inches, glad that their verbal sparring took the attention off of him for the moment.

"Did you see two police officers come through here within the last few minutes?" The young guard shuffled his feet, the red color in his cheeks matching the acne splayed across his forehead.

"Uh…no. I guess they could have passed by, but…uh…I didn't see them."

"Do you know a woman by the name of Amber Conrad? She works on the fourth floor."

His eyes lit up. "The banging brunette with the crazy leg?" he spit out, then quickly said, "I mean the lovely…I mean attractive…I mean the woman with the limp…physically disability…handicap." He swayed back on forth on his heels, eyes averted.

"Yes. Have you seen her come through here tonight?"

"No."

"Does this stairwell go up to the fourth floor?" She pointed toward a door off to the side.

"Yea."

"Okay thanks," Beckett said softly, feeling a little bad for the kid, "if you do see her please call 911 and let them know. Okay? Can you handle that?"

"Sure." He met her eyes, stiffening up until his posture resembled a guard stationed outside of Buckingham Palace.

Castle and Beckett bolted to the stairway, Beckett taking the lead, and she bounded up the steps two at a time.

"Can I just say," Castle inhaled loudly behind her as they passed the door leading to the third floor, "that I am incredibly grateful that her office is only on the fourth floor."

"Out of breath already?" she teased, even though her lungs were burning from the stale stairwell air.

"I'll have you know I am the perfect specimen of health and fitness…it's just really hot in here."

"Well you know what they say, Castle, if you can't handle the Heat."

They came to a stop on the landing of the fourth floor, and Beckett motioned for Castle to fall in behind her. She cracked the door open to get her bearings, relieved when the hinges didn't creak or groan. A quick survey revealed the door was positioned at the end of the long hallway that ran through the office, with Amber's office on the other end.

Without the reporting officers in sight, Beckett slinked into the hallway, and Castle following closely behind.

"This is one of those moments I really wish I had ordered a new bullet proof vest," he whispered, the eerily quiet hall giving him a sense of unease. Beckett shot him a 'shut up and stay behind me' look, and he obliged, wondering if he lost some masculinity points for using his fiancé as a personal shield.

From the other end of the hallway a quiet scuffling sound came out of the room with the only open door. Beckett pulled her gun out and pushed her body flush with the wall, her senses only sharpened by the potential danger.

"Amber Conrad, this is Detective Beckett. Please come out of the office. Put your hands where I can see them." She pointed her gun down the empty hall, but was met with only silence. "Amber Conrad," she shouted again, this time more authoritative, more assertive, "come out of your office now."

She heard the shuffling again, this time accompanied by a deep groan.

"Uh, I might be mistaken, but that doesn't sound like Amber," Castle said, peering around Beckett in time to see a bald head pop out of the doorway.

"Don't shoot. Officer McKinley here. Please don't shoot."

Beckett didn't drop her gun. "Where is Amber Conrad?"

The officer crawled out into the hallway, either to injured or too disoriented to concern himself with looking dignified. He dropped his head, revealing a dark red spot forming in the center of his head with tufts of gray hair shooting out from around his ears. His head looked like an overripe, molding strawberry.

"Officer, where is Amber Conrad?" Beckett repeated.

Without lifting his head Officer McKinley said, "she's gone."

Beckett holstered her gun and approached the officer. "Where is your partner?"

"He's gone too." He leaned back against the door, keeping his head down, and lifted a hand to his forehead like he was shielding his eyes from the sun. "We came up here to wait for you. Amber saw us, and she took off running toward her office. We followed her, found her stashing file folders into a bag, and when we tried to arrest her, well, this happened." He pointed to the growing red bump on his head. "In my defense, she's surprisingly fast."

"I think your best defense is to not try and defend yourself." Castle said, looking down at the beaten officer, who just shrugged and slunk further onto the floor.

The phone on Amber's desk started ringing and Beckett made the decision to answer it, hopeful that someone connected to Amber might give up some useful information.

"Hello," she said, trying her best to imitate Amber's controlled tone. "Oh, hi Scott." Castle raised his eyebrows, confused, and Beckett mouthed 'the guard,' and pointed down. "Okay, I see. And he's with you now…Thanks for calling me…Yep you did the right thing…Yes, I'm sure…Scott, you did fine…Yes…Yes, really…Listen I'm going to hang up now…No I'm not calling your boss to tell him you did a good job." Beckett hung the phone up with slightly more force than necessary.

"I think he has head of the Secret Service written all over him," Castle said.

Beckett scrunched her face up in amusement, biting into the side of her cheek. The only thing that kid could reliably guard was his own ego. "So, your partner is in the back reception area. He followed Amber down the front stairwell but lost her when she looped around to the back of the building and got into a car. Thankfully, he had enough sense to call in an APB for both Amber and the vehicle. If we're lucky she won't get far."

Officer McKinley pressed harder into his forehead and took a deep breath that came out sounded more like a moan. "If you don't mind, I think I'm going to go find my partner and go get this thing looked at." He stood to head toward the elevator, and Beckett dug her nails into the desk, weighing the benefits of ripping the office apart for directly disobeying orders. When she saw the way he hobbled down the hall, leaning heavily against the wall for support, she decided he had received enough of a beating for one day. His commanding officer could deal with that mess later.

"I'm not even an official detective, and I know that was a rookie move," Castle said when Officer McKinley was out of ear shot.

"What's that Castle, a Rook move?

"Rookie move. I said rookie.

"Uh huh." She smiled feebly, glad to still have her sense of humor intact even though every other element of the case was in shambles. "I'm going to call Esposito, get him to send CSU over hear to scour the office, see what we can get off this computer. I'll meet you down in the back reception area."

"With security guard Scott?" Castle whined.

"Yea, maybe you can show him a little love while you're down there. You know, commend him on a job well done."

"For what, apprehending a police officer? He didn't do anything?"

"Since when has that stopped you from wanting your pat on the back?"

Castle's mouth gaped open, and he held up his finger like he was about to begin a multi-tiered counter argument. Instead all he had to say was, "touché."

"Did unis bring in Samantha Roberts, aka Debra Boscoe?" Beckett asked as she walked back into the bullpen. She'd lost count as to how many times it had been that day.

"Interrogation room number one," Ryan said. "Prepare yourself." Beckett eyed him quizzically. "Let's just say she is dealing with some anger management issues."

Castle contorted his mouth into a worried expression, then puffed up his chest and pretended to flex his arms. "Don't worry Beckett, I got your back."

"Why does that not make me feel any better?" she quipped, pushing open the interrogation room door.

"Thanks for coming in Ms. Roberts," Beckett began, pretending as though Debra had willingly walked herself into the precinct late at night on a Saturday.

Debra uncrossed her legs, pressed her hands into the table and leaned forward, her push-up bra forcing her breasts upward so that only a sliver of material covered her nipples. Castle stared straight ahead, eyes locked on the opposing wall, not flinching. He might as well have been staring directly at her chest for how subtle he was being.

"What do you want?" she demanded, her tone argumentative and already uncooperative.

"Given the change in circumstances surrounding the case, Ms. Roberts, we are electing to speak to anyone closely related to both Caitlyn Madison and Daniel Henry." Her voice was cool and unaffected. "Especially in light of some new evidence," she added.

Debra shifted in her chair and leaned back. "Okay, so what do you want to know?" If she was worried, she didn't show it.

"How long ago did you start dating Daniel?"

"I started working for Mr. Henry a little less than a year ago."

"And how did you two meet?"

"We were introduced through a mutual acquaintance. The relationship seemed like it would be mutually beneficial."

"How so?" asked Castle.

"We both were connected to people the other one wanted to know."

"Such as?"

"Such as high profile businessmen and women, Hollywood insiders, politicians even.

"What did you do before you started dating Daniel?" Beckett asked.

"You mean working for Mr. Henry," Castle mumbled, throwing Debra a sheepish smile.

"Mostly odd jobs. I lived at home so I didn't have too many expenses."

"And how does one who works mostly odd jobs get connected to anyone of influence?" Beckett crossed her arms over her chest, challenging Debra to elaborate.

"I don't know it just happened," she said, an inkling of defensiveness creeping into her otherwise steady voice.

"Okay, let's try this again," Beckett countered, opening the file folder containing the picture of Debra Boscoe. "Forget about Samantha Roberts. What was Debra Boscoe doing before she started working for Mr. Henry."

And there it was, the flash of panic that colored every suspects eyes when he or she actually had something to be suspected of. "So what, I changed my name," Debra said.

"Nope. I don't think so. Try again." Beckett said matter-of-factly.

"It's the truth." Debra pushed back her chair, her face flushed.

"Okay, fine. Then how about this question. You have been arrested on multiple accounts of possession and sale of cocaine. What do you know about the drug trafficking ring Mr. Henry was running out his clubs?"

"What!" she shouted, her voice reverberating around the room. "Look, I admit to being involved with drugs when I was younger, but I haven't gone near that stuff in a long time."

"Really," Beckett stood up and leaned across the table, "then why do I have someone implicating you in its involvement?" She lied, hoping the added pressure would help to surface the truth. "You can cooperate now and save yourself a bunch of jail time or you can wait and face a much steeper punishment when I uncover the truth."

"And she always uncovers the truth," Castle added.

"Listen," she brushed some wayward strands of hair off her forehead and Beckett could see a thin layer of sweat forming at her temples. "I did know something was going on, but I swear to you I was not involved. Rumor was that Daniel and Caitlyn were in on something together. Maybe that's what got them killed." Her voice went from angry to defensive to panicked all within a minute.

Beckett rocked back and forth on her heels, her mind racing with another tactic to get Debra to talk, assuming there was something else to talk about. Castle saw the telltale frustration lines around Beckett's drawn mouth and decided to take a shot.

"How well do you know Amber Conrad?" he asked.

Debra's face momentarily went blank before she recovered with a limp smile. "I only know her in a business capacity." Her voice was almost robotic, like she was a computerized program spitting back a prerecorded message. "Don't I get my lawyer about now. I don't feel comfortable talking anymore until Daniel's legal team gets here."

A light tap sounded through the two-way mirror and Castle and Beckett excused themselves. Esposito was standing in the observation room, a grim expression on his face.

"What is it?" Beckett asked.

"Uniforms just got done searching Debra's room at the penthouse." He held up his phone and Caste's eyes got wide when he saw the image. "That's about two million dollars worth of cocaine you're looking at."

Castle rubbed his hands together, smirking. "I love it when suspects lie."

Beckett gave him a sideways glance and raised an eyebrow.

"What? You're all sexy when you get pissed."

She put her hand on her hip and Esposito took a step back, holding up his hands to declare his neutrality.

"I should clarify," Castle backpedaled, "sexy when you get pissed at the suspect, not at me."

"Keep talking, Castle. I can do both." She exhaled, grabbed the phone from Esposito and trudged back to her desk. This was going to be one long night.

Please review! I'd love to hear what you liked OR disliked about the story, writing style, etc.. Also, if you're craving more fluff, check out my other story Witchcraft. It's based off of the episode Smells Like Teen Spirit when Beckett references singing karaoke with Castle in the Hamptons.