She slowly walked up to the crime scene, taking it all in. She was a homicide detective so her being here was odd. There were no bodies. No M.E. van. Nothing about this scene said homicide.

"Kate, this is so terrible." Lanie said and ran up to her and wrapped her in a hug. If there was no body why was Lanie here? Why was she called? Ryan had called about twenty minute ago and told her she need to get down here. Why?

"No one has told me what's going on. So I'd like to know, what's going on?"

"You didn't tell her." Lanie said angrily at Ryan.

"What?" She asked. They all looked very frightened. It was making her nervous. Then she realized someone wasn't here. "Where's Castle?" She asked and they all started to look a little bit sadder.

"That's kind of why we're here." Esposito said and her heart dropped into her stomach.

"What happened?" She asked looking at were all the other cops were gathered. They were all standing around a shiny silver dodge viper. It looked just like the one Castle had been talking about earlier. The one he said he purchased.

She pushed her way through the blue and whites to get to the car. There was a blood stain on the driver's seat. Also there was a locket in the passenger seat. She thought about it for a moment and realized Castle had recently given Alexis a locket with her grandmother's photo in one side and his in the other.

She slipped a glove on and picked it up. When she opened it she had to struggle not to let a tear fall at what she saw. Martha in one side and a scribbled out Castle in the other.

"No. This can't be happening." She said to her fellow detectives and close friend.

"I'm so sorry Kate." Lanie said.

"We also found this note." Ryan said handing it to her. This time, she let a single tear slide down her cheek.

KATE, YOU HAVE TWENTY FOUR HOURS BEFORE I KILL THEM. I'LL BE KIND AND KILL HIM FIRST. LET HER WATCH HER FATHER DIE. THEN I MIGHT KILL HER I MIGHT NOT. YOU TELL ME, WHICH IS MORE PAINFUL, LIVING A LIFE WHERE YOUR PARENT HAS BEEN MURDERED OR DYING TOO?. I'M GOING TO HAVE FUN HURTING YOU BY HURTING THEM. SO I WANT YOU TO HAVE FUN TRYING!

She had to take quite a few minutes to pull herself back together.

"Do we have ANY leads?" she asked frantically.

"We have a print. But so far, no matches." Esposito said. This has to be a dream…a nightmare. What did she do to deserve this? Her phone beeped, she had a text from an unknown number.

Just Standing Around Won't Do You Any Good.

She turned around, looking in every direction. There was a man in a bright orange hoodie who was looking at her and then started to run in the other direction when she saw him. Something about him seemed familiar.

"Trace this." She said throwing her phone to Ryan. She ran quickly after the guy with Esposito on her heels. She could swear he went this way but he was nowhere to be seen.

"Shit!" She cursed at a garbage can. Kicking it, hard.

"What was that about?"

"The guy, he ran. He had his phone out like he was texting."

"I didn't see a guy."

"He was quick. He's taunting me already. He was in fluorescent orange. He knew I would see him. He knows he's good. This isn't a good thing for us."

"I'll get someone to talk to some people, but um, we were kind of hoping you would do something that might be a little out of your comfort zone."

"What?" She asked a little annoyed.

"No one has told Martha yet. She will most likely want you to tell her, in person." Esposito said trying to sound as comforting as possible.

She didn't want to, yet she did. Martha was going to cry, which would make her cry. She didn't want to cry.

"Okay, I will go over in a little bit. First I need my phone." As if on cue Ryan jogged up handing her the phone.

"It's weird. We got a trace and it's like it was sent from your phone to you. The number was your and the position was from the spot you were standing in." This isn't good.