A/N: Here is the second chapter. Not as long as the first as I'm trying to keep the pace tight. Thanks to all that have reviewed and followed. I've tried to take on board the suggestions of one of my reviewers for who I thank for the feedback.

Disclaimer : As always (no pun intended) Castle is the property of Andrew Marlowe, ABC and the rest of the Castle writing crew. I just like playing with thier creations.

"What've you got Lanie?" asks Beckett as she and Castle push their way through the double doors into the stainless steel covered, cold and brightly light morgue.

Lanie looks up from her examination of the victim's body on the autopsy slab in front of her, "My examination has confirmed the time of death at between 2 and 3 am this morning. He was shot with a 9mm hand gun just before he died. But that wasn't what killed him. The wound's superficial and was shallow so he was shot from a distance. The cause of death was massive internal injuries and blood loss caused by the crush injuries consistent with being squashed behind the dumpster."

With morbid curiosity Castle lifts up the sheet partially covering the body to check out the injuries and blanches at what he sees there as Lanie continues, "Bruising on his back indicates that he was wearing something like a backpack when he was crushed."

"We saw him wearing a backpack in security cam footage taken just before he died but there wasn't a backpack at the crime scene," comments Castle.

"With no ID on him and his pockets turned out someone was looking for something so they probably took the backpack as well," responds Beckett.

"And I think I found it, inside the bullet wound," adds Lanie as she holds up small, sealed evidence bag.

Castle takes the bag and examines the contents, "A micro SD memory card from a phone or computer."

"From the blood on the victim's fingers he put that in the wound himself," posits Lanie.

Beckett takes the bag from Castle to inspect the card, "So he was hiding this from his killer. Why not try swallowing it if he wanted to hide it, it's small enough? It would have been pretty painful to put this in the wound."

"He probably knew there was a chance that the stomach acids would damage the card," chimes in Castle. "I once researched how Derrek Storm would hide an SD card on his body when he was captured by some Albanian terrorists. After finding out what the stomach acids would do I had to use the usual place in the body that someone, convicts and drug mules for instance, use to hide something."

Beckett crinkles her nose in mild distaste at that image, "OK, I'll send it to the CSU techs and see if they can find out what's on it. Anything else?"

Lanie nods and holds up another evidence bag, "If that wasn't curious enough, I found this embedded just under the skin of his left forearm."

Inside the bag is a small, clear capsule with what looks like electronic components inside. Initially Beckett takes the bag to examine the capsule but it is snatched from her grasp by an overeager Castle.

"You know what this is?" he exclaims with that oft seen look of boyish excitement. "This is a sub dermal RF transponder. Benignly it is used in dogs and cats to store an owner's details and the animal's registration. But this, in a human, has to be a tracking device. A tracking device used by a shadowy government agency wanting to keep tabs on a subject. I see it now, our vic was the recruit of an international terrorist organisation and a secret government agency put this in our victim, probably in his sleep. They were tracking his movements hoping that he would lead them to the rest of his cell and once he'd done that they took him out by ramming him behind the dumpster with their black SUV."

"Except we know that the dumpster was hit by blue van," counters Beckett.

Undaunted Castle responds, "Yes, well that aside this is a tracking device so someone was watching our victim and it is the sort of thing a three letter agency might do."

Beckett pauses as Lanie smirks at Castle's eagerness and Beckett's reaction. Beckett hates but also deep down secretly loves to feed Castle's wild theories and with exasperation in her voice responds, "Unfortunately, I can't think of another reason something like that would be under the skin of our victim. Send it to CSU as well and see if they can confirm what it is and what it does. Maybe they can get a manufacturer's markings or serial numbers from the components. I'll get the boys to see if anyone like the FBI had him under surveillance. Come on Castle, let's see if we can get some answers at his apartment."

Beckett and Castle are being led down the corridor of a low rent apartment building by its overweight, wife beater wearing and bearded super. From the stains on the hallway walls and the dirty floor underfoot Beckett could see that while this place wasn't classified as a slum it wasn't far off.

"How long had Mr Carmody been living here?" asks Beckett.

"About eight months," replies the super.

"What can you tell me about him, did he live alone?" continues Beckett.

"Not much. Kept to himself. Just him. Paid his rent on time, didn't make any noise and didn't bother me to have every little thing fixed, unlike some I could mention. Other than that I didn't care what he got up to," responded the super as he bent over to use his key to unlock an apartment door. Beckett and Castle share a look as they both think the same thing, "Boy this guy is REALLY helpful."

With the apartment open Beckett goes to step inside then turns and asks, "When was the last time you saw Mr Carmody?"

"Dunno, probably when he paid his rent at the start of the month," replies the super with indifference.

Beckett's questions are interrupted by an exclamation from Castle, who had proceeded into the apartment ahead of her, "Wow, either our victim didn't believe in tidying up after himself or this place has been seriously trashed by someone."

Upon entering the small, darkly painted apartment Beckett could see what he was talking about. The tiny living area, with a kitchen to one side, is turned upside down. The doors of all the cupboards are open and empty, all the drawers in sight are pulled out and their contents dumped on the floor and the cushions of the chairs are all slashed, stuffing everywhere. Dominating one wall is a bank of shelves and a desk all covered with smashed computer equipment.

Beckett turns on the super standing in the doorway, "And I suppose you don't know anything about someone searching this place?"

He just shrugs and with an exasperated look she slams the door in his face with, "Thanks for ALL your help. We'll be sure to come see you if we think you can be of any further assistance."

"Remind me never to stay in a building that guy has anything to do with," comments Castle as he and Beckett snap on their blue crime scene gloves. He picks his way over the mess to examine the smashed computer equipment. Beckett starts making a first pass of the apartment to see if there is anything obviously connected to the case, besides the state of the place.

As Castle starts poking at the insides of a ripped open computer Beckett reminds him, "Don't touch too much. I'll have CSU go over everything and see if they can make sense of this mess."

With his nose almost inside the wrecked computer he responds, "Looks like the hard drive has been removed. Someone must have wanted what was on that drive. Oooh!" and his head snaps up.

Thinking that he's found something important she goes over to him asking, "What is it?"

"I see it now. Our victim isn't an international terrorist but a computer hacker working for one of those whistle blower websites like Wiki Leaks. The shadowy government agency that had him under surveillance and then killed have spirited away whatever secrets he was about to release to the world."

Beckett shakes her head, surprised at herself that after all these years she can still be sucked in by him. How could she ever of thought that their life together would be boring. Before she could let him know exactly what she thought of the latest iteration of his flight of fancy there came the sound of movement from behind one of the closed doors leading from the living room. Drawing her gun Beckett motions Castle to the side of the door so that he can open it while she has it covered.

"NYPD! We know you are in there. Come out slowly!" she commands.

This causes more, even louder noises from behind the door and at the nod from Beckett, Castle opens the door. She clears the doorway then rushes into the room, gun searching for targets. As she enters what is a similarly trashed bedroom she spots a figure disappearing out the window.

"Stop! Castle, the fire escape!"

She races to follow. Still with her gun drawn she takes a quick look out the window, so she isn't exposed too long to possible hostile fire. She sees the figure, who she can now see looks like a man in a black hoodie, scrambling down the fire escape as fast as he can.

"Stop, Police!" she yells as she holsters her gun and follows the suspect out the window and down the fire escape. 'They never stop!' she thinks to herself.

As fast as she is the suspect has a head start on her and is almost at the bottom. He jumps the last few feet from the ladder at the end. Just as he is about to start running the side door of the building bursts open and out flies Castle, tackling the suspect. They proceed to wrestle on the ground with Castle exclaiming, "Not so fast….I've…got…you…"

Unfortunately his words are overly optimistic as the suspect struggles free of his grasp. But before he can make a run for it he is confronted with the sight of a pair of black, high heeled boots and blue jean clad legs landing in front of him. He looks up, straight into the barrel of Beckett's 9mm as she asks almost casually, "Going somewhere?"

From the ground behind the suspect Castle gives Beckett a double thumbs up for delivering such a badass line.