Here is the next chapter, finally. Sorry it took so long!

Disclaimer: as always I don't own Castle, the show or any of the characters.

And also as always enjoy!

Chapter 2

Detective Beckett arrived at work early the next morning. She wanted to get everything they knew up on the board before everyone else got there. She arranged the files by date of the murder, picked up the first one and began writing. She was just finishing the third one when her two partners walked in.

"New case?" Esposito asked.

"Looks like four." Ryan said.

Kate turned around and handed them the three files she was done with. "Four victims but it seems to be the same killer." She stuck a picture of the last victim on the board and wrote his name next to it.

"Board looks a little lopsided." Came another voice. The three of them turned to see Castle walking up. He handed Beckett a coffee. They all turned back to look at the board.

"Dude's right." Esposito said. "Four victims and no suspects."

"Yeah, we should probably do something about that," Castle chimed in.

Beckett rolled her eyes and Ryan asked "Where do you want us to start?"

She took back one of the folders he was holding. "You two bring in the two families from around here and question them. Try to find some suspects. Castle and I will take a drive to talk to the other two families."

"Oh! I love road trips." Castle said as they headed for the doors.

Once they were in the car, with Kate driving of course, Rick noticed something. "Is that a new shirt?" he asked.

Kate looked down for a second. "Oh, yeah."

"It looks nice."

She blushed. "Thanks. And, thanks for getting me to take a break last night. If you hadn't I would have looked at those files until my eyeballs popped out."

"What can I say? I was put here to keep your body parts in place."

Beckett smiled despite trying not to encourage him and they drove the rest of the way listening to the radio.

Twenty minutes later they pulled up outside a nice looking red brick building. There were a couple of stores visible down the road and a playground across the street.

They got out and looked up at the building. Beckett took out her little notebook and looked at it. "Our victim, Emily Katz, left a husband and a daughter in apartment 4B. The other cops said they found a briefcase of diamonds hidden in the house."

"Emily?" Castle said with surprise.

"What? Women can be criminals too."

"Of course, just caught me off guard."

They were greeted warmly in the lobby before taking the elevator up to the fourth floor. They knocked on the door of 4B and a tall man wearing blue jeans and a sweater opened the door.

"Mr. Katz?"

He nodded. "And who are you?"

She showed him her badge. "I'm detective Kate Beckett, NYPD. This is my partner Rick Castle. Can we come in for a minute?"

"Of course, and you can call me Ben." He stepped aside and gestured to the couch. "Is this about Emily?"

"Yes, her case was turned over to me yesterday. I'm just going over everything to make sure we have all the facts."

"Why was her case turned over?"

"Well, they way your wife was killed appears to be the same as another body that was found about half an hour away from here. In the three weeks since then, two more of the same murders were found under my jurisdiction. The two earlier cases were turned over to us."

"We think they four victims were killed by the same person." Castle added.

"Mr. Katz what can you tell us about before your wife disappeared?"

"Well, uh…" he began to fidget a little bit. "We were having problems with our marriage. A lot of problems. The biggest client she represents is the hospital a couple of blocks over, but she just lost a couple of her other clients. We could still pay the bills just fine but she also just found out she was pregnant again." He took a deep breath.

"You don't look too happy about that." Castle noted.

Ben looked up. "I love my daughter. And I would love another child too, but my wife was having an affair. I wasn't so sure this kid was even mine."

"That must have made you pretty upset." Castle said.

"That's not even the worst part." Katz said, standing up and starting to pace back and fourth. "After I found out about the affair I told her I wanted a divorce. She started telling me she had a way of making it up to me and making enough money to support us and the new baby."

"Did she ever say what it was?" Beckett asked.

He sat down. "No. She said she couldn't tell me, that she didn't want me involved."

Beckett took a deep breath. "Mr. Katz, your wife had a briefcase filled with illegal diamonds that she was trying to sell. Did you know anything about that?"

"Emily? Selling diamonds? No, she would never do anything like that. Hell she was the type of person who turned in a $5 bill if she found it on the ground."

"Sir, I have to ask, where were you between one and three pm the day Emily disappeared?"

"I left here at about noon with our daughter, Michaela. I brought her with me to run some errands and then I took her to a birthday party at two. We were there until 4:30. We came home and I made dinner. Emily was always home by six or 6:30. When she hadn't called and wasn't home by eight I called the police. They found her body the next morning."

Kate wrote something down then stood up. Castle followed suit. "Thanks you for your time. I'll let you know if we find anything."

He thanked them both and walked them to the door. Once in the elevator Castle spoke up. "Talk about dysfunctional."

Beckett glared at him. "Try to have some sympathy."

"Hey, I'm just sayin'. Guy finds out his wife might be pregnant with the man she's having an affair with. Then he finds out she is keeping other secrets from him. Sounds like motive to me."

"The only problem is the report from the other cops says his alibi check out. We can double check but it will probably be solid."

They walked out of the elevator and Kate's phone rang. Castle only heard her side of the conversation but he picked up that something was going on.

"Beckett. Hey Lanie, any news? What's wrong? No, we just finished talking to the first family. Ok, we're on our way." She hung up with a puzzled and worried look on her face.

"What did she say?" Castle asked, getting into the passenger seat.

Kate started the car and did a u-turn. "Not much. She found something and she needs both of us there as soon as possible."

They made the half hour drive in about 20 minutes and walked quickly into the M.E.'s office. Kate immediately noticed someone else standing next to her friend.

"Who…" Castle began before he was cut off.

"Dr. Murry" Beckett said walking up and shaking his hand. Dr. Murry was a friend of Lanie's that she called in when she had trouble with something.

The detective was about to ask him what he was doing there when her mind kicked into gear. She suddenly remembered the last time she had seen him- the case where they had found out it was Coonan who had killed her mother. The blood drained from her face. "Lanie, what's…" But now she was the one being cut off.

"Honey I think you should sit down." The M.E. said.

Kate stayed where she was. "Lanie just tell me."

Lanie decided it was best not to draw it out and took a deep breath. "The M.O. of these four murders matches Coonan's brother and your mom." Kate took a step backwards but didn't say anything. Lanie continued. "This part is just theory but since Coonan is dead we think that whoever hired and taught him is the one killing this time."

Kate turned around and bolted from the room without saying anything.

For the first time since they had come in, Lanie turned her eyes to Castle. "Well now you see why I wanted you here." He looked at her quizzically. "Well, go after her!"

Understanding spread across his face and he left the room, only to stop outside the door when he saw that was as far as Kate had made it.

She had leaned up against the wall with her hand over her mouth, unable to force her feet to carry her any further. As she let her body sink to the floor she could feel the tears forming in her eyes. She heard the door open but didn't look up until she felt someone staring at her.

Castle looked down at his girlfriend. His heart almost broke when she looked up at him and he saw the tears in her eyes. He hadn't seen her this vulnerable since, well since the Coonan case and he knew she didn't like it. Rick lowered himself down to her level and snaked an arm around her shoulders. He felt her lean into him and shake slightly as she allowed herself a few silent tears.

"I can't believe this is happening again." She managed to get out.

Castle put a hand under her chin and lifted her face to his, wiping away a tear with his thumb. "I'm here for you no matter what this case brings. Coonan died because you chose to save my life, and I am going to put everything I have into making sure this time we find the guy who did this."

All of a sudden Kate's tears dried up and turned to anger. The person who killed her mother, and who knows how many other people, was out there and here she was crying like a baby. As good as it felt to be sitting there in Castle's warm arms, she stood up.

"I'm going to put that bastard behind bars."

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Chapter 3 will be out soon I promise!