Alright my sapplings, here is chapter 2 of Armed and Dangerous read for your enjoyment; this particular chapter was written by LittleLizzieZenta so go check her out and give her props. It's a little short but it's enough to get you going until the next chapter.

Oh and before I forget, don't forget to enter my writing contest. It's been extended to the end of June so please go and check it out. If you go to my profile, it'll be the story called "Spring Writing Contest" so look there for more details.

Enjoy 3

Beckett had been walking down the street for a few seconds before she realized that Castle wasn't by her side. She turned to find him with a dazed expression on his face. She couldn't help the small smile that graced her lips. It was just so easy to trip him up.

"Castle, you coming or what?"

The familiar question helped Castle to snap out of it. But not before a thoughtful expression crossed his face, followed by a satisfied smirk.

That smirk worried her. What was going on in that overactive imagination of his?

To her surprise, Castle didn't say a word. He merely fell in step beside her and allowed the luxury of silence as they made their way to the crime scene.

Silence that was broken by Beckett's startled gasp once they laid their eyes on the body.

At a glance, Beckett could tell that the victim was a woman, in fairly good shape and with long brown hair. In those respects she wasn't much different from many others that Beckett had seen over the years. Except this one had sunflowers over her eyes. And red rose petals dotting her clothed form.

Castle turned wide eyes to her. "At least this time I have an air-tight alibi," he whispered in her ear.

Beckett fought the shiver that raced through her body at the brush of his lips against her ear. Irritated that Castle could distract her at this crucial moment of the case, the detective rolled her eyes and moved in to get a closer look at the victim.

"So what have you got for us, Lanie?" Beckett asked, crouching down beside the M.E.

"Blunt force trauma to the head, neck, and chest," Lanie replied, gesturing to the deep bruises on the victim's neck and forehead and the blood soaking through the shirt directly over her chest. "I'd say the cause of death was the blow to the chest but I'll know more after I get her back to the lab. She also appears to have fallen from one of the balconies up there," the M.E. went on, indicating the building directly in front of them. "Judging by the severity of the wounds, I would say she fell from somewhere between the fifth and seventh floors."

"Most likely she was pushed," Beckett said. "Some sort of struggle that ended with our victim being pushed off the balcony. But why the sunflowers? And the roses?"

"Those rose petals are grand flora," Castle suddenly piped up.

Beckett immediately knew what he was getting at. "Coincidence," she insisted. "If Harrison Tisdale was going to have a copycat, it would have happened long before now."

"What if it was Harrison, out for revenge?" Castle theorized. "It would make a great story."

"Harrison still has years of his sentence to carry out," Beckett reminded him, "and there hasn't been a prison break." She turned her attention to Ryan and Esposito, both of whom had been patiently waiting while their lead detective gleaned her first impressions from crime scene. "Any witnesses?" she asked them.

"A guy who sleeps in this alley," Esposito said. "But he claims not to have seen anything. Said the body was already here."

"I don't know how much help he'll be," Ryan warned. "The guy seemed pretty out of it. Kept muttering something about people falling from the sky."

"Maybe he was thinking of our victim," Beckett speculated. "He could be lying to try to stay out of trouble. If the body dropped right in front of him it may have caused him to go into shock. Either way, let's bring him in."

"Already on it," Ryan assured her.

"Beckett, did you notice the shirt on the victim?" Castle asked.

Beckett shook her head. The writer must be desperate for ideas if he was seeing significance in a shirt. "It's just a shirt, Castle."

"I don't know," Castle said. "The front right corner here says 'C&B Forever.' What if it means something?"

"It's probably just some rock group we haven't heard of." Beckett rose to her feet. "Do we have an ID?"

"No wallet, cards or even cash," Esposito said. "CSU will dust for prints as soon as we figure out which balcony she fell from."

"Okay, looks like it's time to start knocking on some doors."

A few yards away, hidden in the shadows, a lone figure watched and waited. There was a plan in place and no one was going to be allowed to screw it up.

No one.