Hello my darlings this is your new chapter (finally) from LittleLizzieZentara. You must understand how busy it is for three people to get together and write a chapter. We do apologize and we're doing the best we can but sometimes...life just gets in the way. Anyways...SEVEN DAYS UNTIL CASTLE AIRS IN NORTH AMERICA. Just saying...

And as always, you can follow me on twitter at vatrask

Enjoy 3

Had Castle seen the flimsy excuse for him to stay behind for what it was?

The question gnawed at Kate as she drove over to the Q3.

She had ordered Castle to stay behind while she followed up a lead numerous times. But usually that was when he was safe at the precinct or she made him go home. Or even more rarely she would tell him to go with Ryan or Esposito.

But leave him alone at a crime scene, even if it wasn't where a murder had taken place?

This had to be a first.

And to have him stay behind so that he could 'direct' the CSU team?

Kate groaned. What had she been thinking?

That was the problem. She hadn't been thinking. She had been close to panicking. If Esposito hadn't called her when he had….

Kate shook her head to dispel the image of lips touching, tasting, exploring….

Not that it worked. Obviously.

Right now almost any other lead would have been preferable to this.

Maddie was sure to say something embarrassing.

Like the very first words that came out of her mouth.

"Becks! Where's Rick? Home recovering from a wild night of helping you get started on those little Castle babies?"

"Maddie!" Kate hissed in much the same way she had when her old high school friend had first brought up the topic.

"What?" The blonde's face was a study in innocence. "He's not here to hear us. You can admit it now."

"There's nothing to admit, Maddie," Kate snapped.

Nothing that she wanted to clue Maddie in on, anyway.

"So you're really not hot for Castle?" Maddie shook her head in amazement. "Becks, what more do you want? The guy is rich, hot and really knows how to show a woman a good time."

What was Maddie implying? Had more gone on between them than Kate ever realized?

"So you're really not into Castle?" Maddie pressed.

"Why?" Kate wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer.

"We were having a really good time before you interrupted us-"

"You were a suspect in a murder investigation!"

"Not so loud, Becks! Sheesh!" Maddie rolled her eyes in annoyance. "My point is that, if you're not interested, I'd really love to-"

"NO!" Kate's tone was close to a shout, something she didn't realize until a few restaurant patrons turned to see what the commotion was all about.

"Why not?"

Why wouldn't Maddie just let it go? The woman was beautiful, successful, and sensual without even trying. Men flocked to her; they always had, even when those 'men' were only high school boys.

Not that Kate was insecure about her own appeal, but-

"Because he's MINE."

Oh, no! Had she really said that?

The self-satisfied smile on Maddie's lips told Kate that she had.

"I mean," she continued hurriedly, "he's my partner, and we're in the middle of an investigation. He can't get distracted right now. I need his focus on me." No, that's not what she meant! "For the case. It seems to be focused on us, so…." So now she was believing Castle's theory?

Well, his theories did often have a grain of truth in them, even the most outlandish of them.

But no.

All of those things-the hotel, the park, the shooting range-had to be a coincidence.

Didn't they?

"You and Rick have been very popular with the staff tonight," Maddie said. Apparently she had decided to drop the issue of Kate's feelings for Castle. At least for the moment.

"What? Why?"

"Right in the middle of the lunch rush this blonde woman came here with this kid and handed our hostess two tickets to the Metropolitan Museum. She said that when you and Castle showed up to give them to you. The woman was totally freaked. Shirley, our hostess, said it was like it was a matter of life and death, or something. Considering your job, I knew it just might be."

"Maddie..."

"Don't worry, I told Shirley not to mention the 'life or death' part to anyone else," Maddie assured her. "If it was something like that, I knew you wouldn't want anyone else to know."

Kate had a feeling she knew who the woman was, but she had to ask. "Can you describe the woman?"

"Elegant, wealthy, and she wore this darling outfit I'd just seen in Bloomingdales last week," Maddie said.

"Anything else?"

"She had blonde hair, maybe shoulder length?" Maddie thought for a moment before adding, "She wasn't too tall or anything and I'd guess maybe a size eight, considering the size of the dress."

Kate bit back a smile. Maddie had always been a clothes horse. She was the one who had suggested that Kate spend her summer modeling back when they were both seventeen. They'd been the same size back then and Maddie had assumed that Kate would be able to keep the clothes and share them with her. She'd been wrong on both counts.

"And the kid?"

"Eight or nine, I don't know! You know me, Becks, I've never paid that much attention to kids."

That was certainly true. Maddie had thought she was crazy when she took that brief nanny job when she was sixteen. It turned out it was the mom who was crazy…but that was ancient history and irrelevant to the case.

"Did she order anything?" Kate asked next. She was fairly certain the woman was Melissa Talbot and the kid the woman's son, Zane. But she would feel better having some actual proof.

Maddie had no sooner left to go back to her office to check the lunch receipts when Kate's cell phone rang.

"Beckett, Melissa Talbot is here and she has some information you're going to want to hear," Castle said as soon as Kate answered.

"Is she all right?" Kate wanted to know.

"She's fine," Castle assured her. "Shaken up, but she and Zane are both fine."

"Okay, put her on," Kate said.

"Detective Beckett?"

"Castle said that you have some information for us?" Kate prompted.

"I was just getting ready to take Zane to the park when two women I assumed were police officers arrived," the woman said. "But as soon as I let them in they started acting strangely. They handed me an envelope and told me to take it to the Q3. When I demanded to see their identification the one that did most of the talking started yelling and threatened to tell my employer about everything that happened with my husband if I didn't leave for the restaurant right away. And so I did."

"Can you describe the women, Mrs. Talbot?"

"They both had medium brown hair and one was a few inches taller than the other. They were pretty average really, not heavy but not overly thin, or anything."

That could describe tens of thousands of people who lived in New York City, not to mention thousands more tourists that flocked to the city each year.

"Is there anything else?" Kate asked. "Tattoos, distinguishing scars?"

"Nothing," Melissa Talbot replied. "Although the taller, quieter one did mention something about honoring JJ's memory."

So now they had a nickname for the victim. It wasn't much, but it was something.

"All right, thank you for your help, Mrs. Talbot," Kate said. "Don't hesitate to call if you remember anything else."

"Of course," Mrs. Talbot said.

"Just sit tight, Castle," Kate told her partner. "I'll head over to get you after I'm done with Maddie."

Which would be all of another minute or two. Because now that she knew that the woman that had come to the Q3 had been Mrs. Talbot, there wasn't much more Maddie could do to help the investigation. But she did want to give her friend a description of the women Mrs. Talbot had mentioned, just in case they returned to the restaurant for some reason.

As much as Kate didn't like to admit it, they were just coming up with more and more questions.

And no closer to finding any of the answers.