A/N - Hey Everyone! Thanks for all the follows and favorites. Thanks, also to those of you who have discovered The Castle Wall by going beyond the first page of updates. You really dig for the stories. Thanks, as always goes to my serial reviewers: TorontoSun, wendykw, gostopow, hfce and new to our club, Mouserocks-nerd. I can't express to you how good it makes me feel to see your continued support. Finally, about the story - yeah, I'm a tease. Enjoy!

The Castle Wall

Chapter 11

Organized Chaos

Dear Richard, it began. He looked at Kate, swallowed, and continued to read. He read to himself for a moment, raised his eyes, and checked the women with him, concern and fear on his mother's face, Beckett's was blank, ready to absorb information.

He schooled his face into a lighthearted expression. "Dear Richard," he read aloud, "Congratulations! You've won the publisher's clearing house." He looked up. His mother exhaled audibly, but Beckett wasn't buying it.

"Oh my heavens," exclaimed Martha, "You really had me going. I thought it was some sort of threat."

Rick grinned, "Sorry, Mother, just having a little fun, trying to break the tension." He took the gloves off.

Martha smacked him on his chest. "Sometimes, I think your talent is wasted on the pages. You should have been a performer."

Kate watched the exchange and thought, "Oh Martha, he truly is a performer."

"Well, my dears, I'm off to a luncheon. Can't keep my public waiting." Rick had come around the counter and leaned down to kiss his mother goodbye. He straightened up and walked her to the door.

"Goodbye, Mother," he said with a smile and, Kate noted, full eye sparkle. He was charming his mother. He was making sure she did not worry. Martha waved to Kate as she stepped over the threshold.

Kate called, "Goodbye, Martha, have a good lunch."

Rick closed the door, turned and walked back to the kitchen. Kate reached for the letter. His hand clamped down over hers in a flash. He looked at her. "No."

"Castle? What do you mean 'no'?" Her eyes searching his face, she continued, "If this is a part of the case…I know it's not publisher's clearing house."

He grabbed the gloves and picked up the letter with them. He folded it and put it in his pocket. "No."

"No? What the hell, Castle?" She took a calming breath. "Is it about the case?" No answer. "Castle, does it have anything to do with our case? Jeez, Rick, I need to know."

He stared at her and contemplated the contents of the letter and her state of mind. "Give me a minute, Kate. I need to think about this."

"Rick, we need to think about it. We. You're not facing this alone." All of her instincts were begging her to protect him.

He relented at her words of unity and pulled the letter out of his pocket. He put it on the counter top. She reached for it and he said, "Use the gloves." She looked at him, wide-eyed. "I'm going to go suggest to Alexis that she spend the afternoon at a friend's house." He crossed to the stairs and ascended them as Kate picked up the letter and read the dis-jointed handwriting.

Dear Richard,

I've been observing you. I've been watching you at your home, at the precinct, at the bookstores. I even spoke to you last week at a restaurant. You think you're Mr. Cool, but I know your act. I've seen the play too many times. You won't take me seriously. You just don't get it. You have to, now. You're done. You're dead. You're all dead. You'll see me now. There was no signature.

She re-folded the letter, stood up, walked around the counter, and pulled out a locking plastic lunch bag. She put the letter in the bag, closed it, and disposed of the gloves. Castle came back down the stairs and crossed over to Kate who was deep in thought.

He waited for Alexis who followed him down the stairs. He kissed his daughter on the top of her head, "Call me when you get to Brooke's," and sent her on her way to her girlfriend's home a few doors down Broome Street. "Hey" His countenance betrayed the lightness in his tone. "Did you read it?" She looked at him. "That's a big yes. Well?"

"Castle," she cut him off, "This is serious. I'll need to put them side by side, but I don't think this is from the other letter writer, the first one. The tone is different. It's…I don't know…less personal…more judgmental…like you're going to be punished." She stopped and looked at him. He was thoughtful, gazing down at the cold granite of the countertop.

Quietly, he said, "It doesn't just threaten me." He looked at her, "The other letter, which may or may not be involved with any of this, is from a woman, guaranteed. She thinks she has a personal relationship with me. It's not anything to cause worry. This one," he slammed his fist onto the baggie, "this one, is threatening my family. I don't even know what they…what they're…" He groped for words. "Kate," he pleaded. She pulled out her phone and pressed a favorited button.

"Espo, there's been a development. Can you and Ryan come to Castle's loft? We'll need CSU as well. Yeah, we're all right. Thanks." She looked at Castle, "C'mon, let's get dressed."

Ryan and Esposito arrived at the loft twenty minutes later followed by CSU, who began their investigation after Kate briefed them. Kate showed the boys the letter. "It was left under the door last night or this morning. It wasn't there when I got here around twelve." She stopped, rolled her eyes, and had the 'I could have had a V-8' look on her face. "Oh, how stupid am I?" She looked at Rick. "Call down and get the video."

Rick put away his phone after receiving a text from Alexis that she had arrived at her friend's home. He blinked at her blankly, confused, thinking he might have missed something. "What video?"

"Your surveillance video, from the hall."

Castle looked at her, then at the boys and back to her, shaking his head. "Kate, I don't have video."

Exasperated, she said, "Yes, yes you do, Castle. I saw the camera last night. It was quiet in the hall," she shot him a look, he puckered his lips into a half-hearted smirk "and I heard its mechanism." He stared vacantly at her, still uncomprehending. "Come on." She said as she headed for the hall.

She led them all into the hall and pointed to the camera mounted at the top of the drapes. "It probably captures the elevator and your door." She said looking back at Castle. He and the boys examined the tiny apparatus.

Castle reluctantly turned his attention to her and slowly said, "Kate, I didn't receive any notification that the building was putting this in."

"Hey, bro, don't sweat it." Espo said, "You probably just missed the memo."

"Yeah," added Ryan "Happens at the precinct all the time." He and Espo fist bumped.

"No, I don't think so. I'm really…" he paused, searching for the word, "particular about house and work paperwork."

Ryan, Esposito, and Beckett all raised eyebrows and in unison said, "Paperwork?"

Castle shrugged his shoulders, "Yes, just not at the precinct. My point is that I would not have missed it. I'm calling down stairs." He walked back into the loft, picked up his home phone, and hit a speed dial number. "Eduardo? It's Rick Castle. Rick put the phone on speaker.

"Oh Mister Castle, are you feeling better today?"

"I am, thanks. Eduardo, has the building installed video cameras on the floors in the hallways?"

"Video cameras?" Eduardo paused, "Oh no, Dios mío! Mister Castle, no, no cameras. We only have the one down here in the lobby." He lowered his voice. "Our residents want more anonymity than cameras would afford."

Rick's voice was low, "Thank you, Eduardo." He hung up the phone, Eduardo's revelation and its implications settled around him. "Someone's been watching me." He looked devastated. "Me, you, Mother, oh God, Alexis." He visibly paled; his breathing became ragged, his eyes: panicked. Kate stepped towards him.

"We don't know what this means yet." She took his hands. "Rick, look at me, don't jump to conclusions."

"What other conclusion is there?" He wrenched his hands out of hers.

"Castle we need to be calm and work the case." Ryan said trying to calm his friend.

"Yeah, man. We're onto the bastard now; we'll take care of it."

He gazed at all of them, not seeing them. He heard them talking, but it did not really register. His mind was spinning, out of control, theory after theory shot down by his subconscious. Over and over. His friends were still talking, but he could not hear them. The panic rising in his mind was drowning out everything else.

He blinked and raised his hand, "Enough. Guys, I appreciate the support, but I need to get a handle on this." He turned and Kate started to follow, "alone," he said to her, walked into his office, and shut the door leaving a dumbfounded Beckett, Ryan, and Esposito gawking after him.

Beckett turned to Ryan. "I don't care how you do it. Find out where the hell that video feed is going."

Ryan, still regarding Castle's door replied, "On it boss," and started toward the door to the hallway.

"When you're done," Ryan turned back to her, "call Karpowski. We'll need the extra legs on this one. Get her to assemble patrol officers to help find Patricia. So far, we think she's responsible for Gina's assault, the murders of Mandy Griffith, Janet Marlowe, and Thomas Wagner. Castle doesn't think this letter," she pointed to the bag, "is from her, but I'm not convinced and we can't take the chance. We need to step up our efforts in apprehending her before she acts on any of these threats."

"Got it," Ryan said as he continued to the hallway.

"Espo?" She glanced at the office door. It was still closed. "I need you to get a team together and start going through that fan mail. Take this one," she said, as she held up the baggie, "get it checked for prints, and then check it against the first and then any others you find. Castle may be right; they may be from two different people. We need to know if there are any others, you know the drill, same handwriting, and phrasing. Double check to see if there is any correlation between the two letters, anything at all. I'm having a hard time believing that all of this is going on during the same week is coincidence."

"Well, you know, he has been out there lately. What, with the events and bookstore deals. Maybe it triggered something. Maybe it's more than one person." Esposito speculated.

"What? Like a free for all 'I hate Richard Castle,"

"Or love, obsessively," Espo added.

Beckett rolled her eyes and continued, "as I was saying, an 'I hate Richard Castle so take your best shot' day?"

"I certainly hope not." Rick came across the room. "Really? I'm gone for what two minutes and they're already planning a parade." He shot a hopeful look at Espo, "I hope there's funnel cake and ponies."

Esposito smirked at his friend's improved attitude and fed the birds with him. "I'm out of here."

"Castle," Kate began.

"Kate, my family has been threatened; I think you can allow me my coping mechanism."

"Okay, you're entitled…today. Are you up for going to the precinct?" She was hesitant as she asked.

He took her hand and squeezed it. "You bet. We won't solve any of this moping around here." His self-confidence was the best tonic for reassuring her.

"Ryan, stay with CSU and then lock it up for us, please." She turned around to see Captain Victoria Gates walking through the door. Castle raised his eyebrows and walked forward.

"Captain?" He began.

"Mister Castle, I heard you've had some excitement over the weekend." She was an attractive fifty something woman who had proven herself to be a no-nonsense, by the book leader. She did not like Castle nor did she see the need for his continued presence at the twelfth.

"Sir? Can I ask what brings you out on a Sunday Morning?" Kate asked, not used to seeing the precinct commander at any crime scene.

The captain ignored her. "This is a nice apartment, Mister Castle," she remarked, looking around.

"Thank you, sir." Castle answered but looked over the captain's head to Kate, questioning why the captain was in his house, silently. Kate shook her head, signaling 'I don't know.'

Turning around, she addressed Kate, who smiled at her, "To answer your question, Detective, I'm always concerned when I hear of trouble at one-of-our-own's address. Even if he is a pain in the ass, Mister Castle is still part of the team. How about you brief me." Kate walked the captain over to the fireplace to stay out of the way of CSU, reporting on all of the activities and developments that had happened over the past forty-eight hours, who they were suspicious of and what the plan of investigation was. Captain Gates seemed satisfied with her debriefing and said, "I'll see about allocating some additional manpower for you, Detective."

"Thank you, sir. Castle and I were going to the precinct in a few minutes."

"Very well, Beckett." She turned to Castle. "We'll get this solved Mister Castle." With that, she turned and walked out.

Castle exhaled the breath he had been holding. "Did you hear that? I'm one of the twelfth's own." He grinned.

"Seriously? That's all you got from that?"

He squinted, as if trying to read her mind. "No."

She eyed him suspiciously. "Really. What else?"

"Well…you know," he paused, searching the air above him with his eyes, "nah, I got nuthin'."

She took pity on him. "The captain was here for a couple of reasons. First, she actually was checking on," she made air quotes, "one of our own. Second, she wanted to know what our progress was. There have been several crimes in a relatively short period of time and they all seem to be tied in together and third," She shrugged and continued, "I think she was curious about your place."

Castle agreed and said, "I'm glad she didn't look in the bedroom or my bath," Kate threw him a questioning glance and he continued, "Your stuff is everywhere." He indicated the door. "Shall we, Detective?" He ushered her through his front door ahead of him and paused to look at the camera as he thought about what its presence might indicate.

Castle and Beckett stopped for coffee on their way to an eerily quiet twelfth precinct. Sundays were slow and the normal commotion present in the precinct was absent. They rode the elevator to the fourth floor quietly, almost reverently. Kate kept stealing glances at her partner. Coping mechanism aside, she knew he was shaken by the threats to his family.

Detectives were normally on call on the weekends so the bullpen was silent. They stopped at her desk and took off their coats. Castle immediately turned his attention to the murder boards. Kate checked her messages. The boys already had quite a few details added about the murders and assaults. He studied the boards one by one. Janet Marlowe, Gina, and Mandy Griffith. On Mandy's board, under the suspects heading was a picture of Thomas Wagner. Castle involuntarily winced at his photo. He picked it up by the magnetic clip and moved it up so it was parallel Mandy's photo. He was now a victim as well.

Beckett hung up her phone and came to perch on the edge of the desk with Castle, her thigh and shoulder bumping into his. "Hey. You okay?"

He exhaled. "Yeah, it just all seems a waste." He ran a hand through his hair.

"I know…"

He interrupted her. "No, Kate. No you don't know."

"Castle…"

"Kate. This is happening because of me, because of something that I wrote or did or just because I was me." He hung his head. "How do you defend against this? How can I protect… And now you, Alexis and Mother may be in danger."

She took his hand in her own and studied their intertwined fingers. She held them up to him. "This is how. We go at it, together." She lifted his hand to her lips and kissed it. "Oh, and Castle this isn't happening because of you. It is happening because of some psychopath's twisted fantasy. Let's get to work on putting the bitch behind bars."

She scrutinized him. He seemed to be coming out of the funk that had settled down around him since he began studying the boards. They started by updating the murder board with the additional events and crimes of the past fourteen hours. Wagner's confessions and his murder. The assault on the nurse at Mount Sinai. CSU had collected evidence for Demming's investigation. The letter and the video camera at Castle's loft.

"I had two phone messages; one from Perlmutter, Mandy Griffith's official COD is the razor slice across her throat; she bled out in the pond." Castle marked it on her board. The other call was from Karpowski. Impound has the car that was used in Janet Marlowe's death. CSU was processing this morning. We should hear something by tomorrow morning. In addition, she found footage of the hit and run. It's pretty cut and dry, she said. He was waiting for her and ran her down. This corroborates the witnesses' statements from the scene."

Castle was annotating Janet's board when he stopped, turned to her, and asked, "Wait, he was waiting for her?"

"Well, yeah. However, it is traffic footage; it may have been a woman. It's probably not that clear and also, it could have been Wagner."

"Speaking of her. Any news from the canvass looking for Patricia?"

"Nothing yet. Ryan texted that Karpowski was given a team by the captain. They're out now. He has unis searching Wagner's apartment and Tom Garrett has been canvassing the area near the diner and bookstore in the village. We will find her. Maybe she left her prints on the car. You want some more coffee?"

He got up and stretched. "I'll get it." He walked across to the break room.

The elevator doors opened and Esposito, Ryan and a host of uniforms got off. Ryan was on his phone. Espo and the unis were each carrying file boxes Kate recognized as Castle's fan mail from Black Pawn.

They set everything down in the larger conference room and set to work. Espo came back into the bullpen and handed Kate a file. "This was in the top box. It's a file of letters from Gina. Lot of rejection there."

She nodded and took it from him. "Thanks." Castle brought her coffee and sat it down on her desk.

Ryan hung up his phone and reported, "Tech was able to trace the video feed." Kate jerked her head up from the file. "We got an address." Castle looked back and forth from Beckett to Ryan and back to Beckett again, the implications of what he was saying settling on his face. She held his gaze and tried to project reassurance.

"Espo," Kate called, not breaking eye contact with Castle.

He stuck his head out of the conference room a second later. "Yo, Beckett."

"Leave that for now, I want you with us." He put down the letter he was holding and all four of them headed to the elevator.

The two unmarked cruisers pulled up to an older building with a stoop and locked outer door. They waited only a moment for the uniformed officers who would serve as backup. Three cruisers pulled up, silently. Kate gave instructions over the radio. After pulling on their vests, they ascended the outer steps. Espo picked the lock and opened the door. A uni held the door for the rest of the crew. They crept into a small lobby and cleared it. Kate gestured to two unis to cover the back stairs. Kate took the lead up the stairs, followed by Esposito, Ryan, and Castle. Two more unis trailed Castle up to the second floor. Kate slowly opened the door to the second floor and held it for Ryan and Espo. Espo made eye contact with Kate and pointed down the hallway, indicating the direction to apartment 2D. They slunk down the hall in a well-practiced precision ballet. Kate crossed to the far side of the apartment's door, while Espo flanked the near side. Castle was hanging back a few feet down the hall by the elevator. Ryan stood slightly off center of the door, held up three fingers to Beckett and Esposito who watched him carefully. He lowered each finger and on the final, he kicked in the door. They entered quickly and efficiently. Shouts from all three of the detectives of "NYPD" and then, "Clear," were heard as they entered and searched for any life. After she determined no one was there, Kate called to Castle. Ryan and Espo started their exploration of the apartment. Castle entered and looked around. It was neat and modestly decorated. Beckett searched through a desk. It was out of place.

Castle approached her and looked at the desk. "It's a writing desk. I'd say from the nineteenth century," he said, a mildly impressed expression playing across his features.

"Ryan, if this is the place, where is the computer? Shouldn't there be a computer if an IP address was traced here?"

"Uh, yeah, this is the place; we just haven't found the computer."

"It could be a laptop," offered Espo tossing a look of support his bro's way.

"Keep looking," Beckett said.

There were bookshelves and the books, Castle noted, were in alphabetical order by genre then author. He looked at the mail on the desk, arranged by biller name and shook his head. "Stoddard."

Kate had moved to the kitchen. Every cupboard, every shelf and drawer had a label, perfectly centered, describing the contents. "What did you say, Castle?"

"Stoddard. Her name is Patricia Stoddard. It's all over her highly organized bills." He turned in his spot and surveyed the apartment. "Do you know what's missing?" Castle asked no one in particular. "Me," he waited for their responses. The detectives just looked at him, waiting. "If this woman is supposed to have such a fixation on me that she would kill, where am I?"

Beckett and Esposito looked at Ryan. "This is the address," he emphasized.

They continued their search. Espo and Ryan went down the dark, narrow hallway to the bedroom, "Whoa, Beckett," Espo called.

Beckett entered the bedroom followed by Castle. He stopped when he was over the threshold. The bedroom was more masculine in décor than he would have guessed it to be, but the thing that stopped him was the racks of clothing lining the walls. These were arranged, like everything else in the apartment, but by color. Every color in the rainbow spat at you from the walls of textiles.

"Beckett." Ryan's voice reached through the cacophony of color on the walls. He was standing by a door. It appeared to be the closet, but the door was locked with three deadbolts.

"Who puts deadbolts on a closet?" Espo asked.

"Someone who wants to hide something," Kate supplied.