Chapter Three

Later that evening Kate and Rick sat around the kitchen bar and quietly ate their take out Chinese food. It was rare that they could just sit and enjoy each other's company without any distractions. Unfortunately for them …this time was no different.

Ring! Riiinnnggg! Ring!

"Hello Alexis." Castle said as he answered his phone.

"Hey Dad, I actually need to talk to Kate, but she didn't answer her phone. Is she with you?" Alexis asked.

"Yeah hold on. It's for you, Alexis said she called you but you didn't answer." Rick said as he passed Kate the phone.

"Hey Alexis, what's going on?" Kate asked

"It's my friend Lisa, the one that called you about the case. I just got a weird text message from her roommate Sheryl. She said Lisa was talking in her sleep last night. She said something like stop that woman…she did it…don't let her off the stage. No please don't let her get away. Weird right? Could she be remembering something?" Alexis asked with concern.

"Could be. Would you be able to bring Sheryl and Lisa down to the station tomorrow so I can talk to them about it?" Kate questioned.

"Yeah, no problem, hey can you tell my dad I won't be home til late? I have a huge exam tomorrow and I'm studying with a friend." Alexis asked.

"I'm sure that's fine, but I will let him know. Thanks for the call Alexis. Goodnight." Kate said as she hung up the phone. "Apparently our witness is sleep talking…more like sleep yelling from the sounds of it. Alexis is going to bring her and her roommate to the station tomorrow. Oh and she told me to tell you she will be home late. Study time with a friend." Kate said as she stood from her stool to clean up.

"Oh ok guess we actually have the house to ourselves then tonight." He half replied as he looked through the newspaper. Suddenly he sat upright in his seat. "Beckett look at this announcement:

Seamus McKenna and his wife Brianna proudly announce the engagement of their daughter Madeline McKenna to Aaron Summers. The two will be wed next Sunday at the McKenna's estate.

And look at this picture. That is our victim but that is not the same woman that was in your conference room this afternoon." Castle turned the paper to show Kate.

"What is going on!" Kate exclaimed. "Why would someone pretend to be this guys fiancé? Does she not understand that I could arrest her for interfering with my investigation?"

Kate picked up her phone and called Ryan. "Ryan, sorry to call you this late, how did you find Meredith Black?"

"I didn't find her…she came in asking for the Detective that was investigating the case. But before you ask I did look into her. I had her wait in the conference room and called a couple of the people in Aaron's theater troupe. They verified that she was who she said she was and one sent over a picture they had taken of Meredith and Aaron from an old cast party. Why Beckett, what's going on?" Ryan asked.

"Well, now I'm not sure. Castle just found an engagement announcement in the paper for Aaron Summers and Madeline McKenna. It just doesn't make any sense. He was engaged to two different women. How did he think he was going to get out of that one?" Kate speculated.

"McKenna? Like Seamus McKenna?" Ryan asked with a hint of anxiety in his voice.

"Yeah, Seamus McKenna is Madeline's father. You know him?" Kate replied.

"No, not personally, just by reputation. Seamus McKenna is rumored to be a high up with the Westies. He is basically an untouchable. Every time someone gets close to catching him with something shady he manages to worm his way out of it. If Summers was marrying into that family then this guy was not as clean as we thought. Either that or he was being blackmailed into it." Ryan explained.

"The Westies….again…wow the body count just keeps on growing with them don't they. Ok, thanks Ryan. I'm gonna need you in early tomorrow. It seems like we need to do some more digging on this guy." Kate said then hung up the phone. She relayed all the information she was just given to Castle. When she finished her phone rang again…this time it was Espo on the other end.

"Hey Beckett, I'm not sure if what I found is relevant to the case or not but I figured I would give you a call anyway. So I ran Aaron Summers through the military database and it turns out that he used to be in the Army. He enrolled when he was 18 and then was released at 27. It says that he worked with on classified projects. So I called a buddy of mine that I still talk to from when I was in and he recognized the name. Rumor has it that Summers was a genius. He was recruited right out of high school. His area of expertise was chemistry. They had him working on a new kind of weapon. Apparently from what my buddy heard he had a breakthrough on something, but couldn't find a way to stabilize it. He was so distraught with what he considered failure he had a sort of mental breakdown. They released him due to medical illness." Espo said.

"Chemistry? Lanie said she found a lot of chemicals in his blood work that she couldn't explain. Did you guys find anything at his place?" Kate prodded.

"Not anything out of the normal. We found your basic things. Scripts, bills…we did find a set of keys under his mattress, but no idea what or where they are too." Espo answered.

"Ok. Thanks Javi, I actually just got off the phone with Ryan before you called, I told him I needed you guys in early tomorrow, and now it seems like we have more to discuss. Lets meet around 8 and we can catch the Captain up on what we have come across so far too." Kate once again hung up her phone and sat down next to Rick.

"One man, two fiance's, ex Army, chemical genius, mental breakdown and then ends up dead on stage. Why is it that we can't catch a simple case anymore? I mean don't get me wrong I like the strange ones, but it seems that they keep getting more and more complicated." Kate said as she laid her head on her fiancé shoulder.

He laid his head against hers and said "It wouldn't be worth it if it was simple. You like a challenge Kate and I'd say that this one is going to be a big one. Hopefully Alexis' friend remembered something helpful. Maybe this mystery woman that she was trying to stop in her sleep is the killer."

"I don't know Castle. I have a feeling this is just gonna get crazy." Kate said before she fell asleep on his shoulder.