Wow, Android typing really stinks. but I'm back up and running. Returning are our friends from Blue Bloods so hold on. Castle runs the first part because I've royally neglected him. Something that i am ashamed to say was entirely my fault. 32 almost done and posting by next week, for those catching up from the notifications, sorry but the sight wouldn't send them because i replaced a chapter. Start here and enjoy. PS Bad ass Jane incoming.

Tuesday, May 21st

Rick watched as another picture was taped up onto the murder board. Another dead body and another unsolved homicide. As he watched Curatola place a second picture up on the wall, he wrote down the victim's name on the glass board in the center of the room. Since Torrez was dead, the triple threat Killers just disappeared, though no one thought for a second that the Colombian killer crew had actually stopped. Rick was convinced that they had just changed tactics.

Curatola stopped in her tracks as she looked around the small conference room. Their murder board covered all four walls with a glass board right in the middle of the room. The sheer scope of it was astounding to her and she looked at the man in the casual attire as he slowly circled around the room.

"Are you sure about this?" She asked sharply. "This seems way too big for just one person to do."

Rick nodded. "Don't look at it like it's all one case." He replied, "Think of it as more as parts of a plan." He looked back at her, "A game of chess, if you will, each move carefully thought out and planned, sacrifices made for the greater victory."

Reagan snorted at the civilian, "This ain't no game. It's murder."

Rick nodded seriously, "To you, but to our friend the Raven, that is exactly what this is; a very large game of chess or Command and Conquer." He pointed out a series of street drug dealers, "Pawns. Sacrificed but easily replaced."

He held a hand up to Torrez, Humphreys, and Morgan, "Rooks and Bishops, wielding power as weapons, not the strongest but nothing to dismiss."

He pointed out the three bad cops who'd been killed, "Knights, Limited in their abilities but not in their uses."

He touched a picture of a black bird in the center of the glass board, "A queen who holds all of the others' abilities and is cold, methodical and lethal. She alone knows the plan."

Reagan snorted, "If it were a game of chess, all we'd have to do is find the King and take him out."

Castle smirked, "Which is exactly why we haven't seen him yet." He looked back on the overall layout. "She's very smart to a point where she is beyond dangerous. Everything the NYPD has done up to this point has been according to her plan or else it would have unraveled by now. She's been at this for over six months, leaving a trail of bodies in her wake."

The doors opened and Ryan pushed in the roller board that held their initial outline of the Raven's activities in New York. One side had the distribution and the other had the money. He eased it over to the center and stood up. "Espo will be in here in a minute with the other one. Gates is making copies first."

Rick nodded as Dan Reagan looked over both sides of the board, He shoved his hands into his pockets, "This is the original case?"

"One of the three," Rick said, "That one was the Blood Rose Killer. Seemingly targeting upper end citizens, we've revealed that it's actually a financial network."

Esposito came in with the Butcher's board and wheeled it up next to the Blood Rose Killer's board. "Gates herself has the Arsonist." He said and no sooner than he'd said it, the dark skinned commander of Homicide rolled the last board in.

Ryan and Esposito took the board and lined it up with the rest. Once placed together, the connecting lines laid out the information.

"As I said, it's a very large game to her." Rick said, "We're dealing with a criminal mastermind. It's the closest we'll ever see to a real live super villain."

"Minus the superpowers," Javi said.

"What so you're saying the Raven is what, Megamind?" He shook his head, "Let's be real for a second here,"

Danny Reagan walked slowly around the boards and flipped the three serial boards over to reveal the financial chain. "I can see how you came across the idea here but three serial killers working for a drug lord?"

"It's a façade." Gates said sharply, "It's one crew utilizing task specific instructions to create the illusion of three serial killers in an effort to conceal the actual reason for the murders."

"Which is what?" Curatola asked.

Rick leveled a serious look at her, "The replacement of the original Escalante Cartel's drug network while killing off the competition's presence." He flipped the boards back to the distributors. "Humphreys and Morgan, two of the biggest distributors, NYPD hasn't been able to pin anything on them because they themselves never actually see drugs or drug money. You can see the bodies that trailed them, all of which Narcotics suspected were part of the chain. Customs Agents who work at the ports and allow containers to just be unloaded from a ship and whisked right out of the gate on semi's. No manifest, no inspections."

"And what about Torrez?" Regan gruffed, "He killed a cop, how does that fit into this master plan?"

"He's just a patsy," Ryan said as he flipped through his notes, "I'm starting to think he was set up from the time we found Morgan and Humphreys."

Esposito dipped his head at his partner, "Thing is that I agree, The Raven gets a hold of some intel, says we're closing in on her crew, so on to her next move, when she replaces these two, she sets up Torrez to take the heat. Six bodies later, she gets an opportunity with Welsh. He's not playing ball, so she has him killed and puts the triple threat on Torrez like that idiot could ever run something so big."

Rick stepped in and rolled up his sleeves, "There comes the wrinkle in her plan. Torrez, a supposed cop killer, is captured alive which as we know, NYPD doesn't have a lot of success at capturing cop killers."

"They usually resist and end up dead, "Esposito said straight to Reagan.

Danny narrowed his eyes, "Excuse me?"

"Relax bro," Espo said, "We've had our own issues with cop killers. No Quarter, remember?"

"Back on Point, Castle." Gates said loudly, knowing an implication would only distract them.

"Thanks to Jane, we get him first, and as you saw on your last visit, Beckett and Rizzoli rolled him on his boss. We gave him over to you and as soon as no one, not us and not you, is looking, he gets shipped down to the tombs and gets killed before he can give up anything solid. Since that time, the triple threat has disappeared to further sell his guilt. But I believe our crew just evolved with their needs. We've gotten three bodies over the last week where forensics has matched the weapon to the Butcher's blade but the victims weren't gutted, they just had their throats cut."

"In addition three large wall street investors have disappeared off the face of the earth." Gates said and handed a file over to Reagan, "As you can see, each missing person has questionable ties and a second person connection with seven of the Blood Rose kills."

"Okay, Captain." He said, "I can follow that but why bring in Major Case? Seems like you've got a good handle on what's going on and as I understand it, a team with a ninety eight percent closure rate."

"Speaking of," Jackie said from the corner, "Where are Beckett and Rizzoli? I thought they'd be lead on this case."

"They're at LETO." Gates said coldly, "Esposito and Ryan are lead on this since I'm losing Beckett, Rizzoli and Castle this summer."

Reagan glanced over at his partner, then to Castle. "They get promoted?"

"We're moving to Boston." There was a light in his eyes then that Reagan thought interesting.

"I heard the Commissioner offered Becket a command, why Boston?"

"Family matters." Rick said.

"The reason we asked you to join us," Gates deflected, "Is because this is about as Major as a case can get. In addition to our own interests, the DEA has a task force set up for the Raven Cartel, it's actually ran out of the new England HQ in Boston."

Reagan shook his head, "New York has its own DEA HQ right in the federal building."

"And the Agent in charge is running it out of Boston." She replied, "Don't ask, I don't know why. But Special Agent Sera Beltran has asked me to keep her informed as to our progress here. Considering how she damn near spat nails in my office when I told her about the Raven, she seems to have something against the drug lord."

Esposito snorted, "That's one way of putting it. Miss no facial expression damn near popped a vein out of her head when she heard the name. Since then she's been on a warpath looking for a useable link to bring down the Raven."

"That's why the DEA ran through my unit." Reagan said sharply, "They were looking through our case files on Torrez and the triple threat."

"Beltran has some kind of ax to grind and she's determined to bury it in the raven's skull." Ryan said.

"Something to admire, nice imagery by the way." Rick nodded, "So since you took lead on the case, Beckett, Rizzoli, and I are moving to Boston. 12th is getting a new sergeant who's not up to speed on the case as well as the usual homicides, Gates felt that it would be better to bring you up to speed so that there are two different investigations in on this so if one side tracked or shut down, the other can continue."

"No," Jackie said, flipping her dirty blonde colored hair back, "You want back up in case something happens to your team."

"Something like that," Gates said, "I'm going to tell you something that doesn't leave this room. Agreed?"

Curatola cocked her hip and crossed her arms. "Okay?"

Reagan nodded, "Agreed. What do you got?"

Gates nodded to Castle who cleared his throat and stood looking at all of them, "The Captain had me listen in on a meeting that she had with Beltran. It seems that we've made the most progress on the Raven's investigation and Beltran wants us to brief her people on what we have. Naturally our commander is a woman of wisdom." Gates rolled her eyes at his flattery, "But since we are dealing with a federal agency, redundancy seems like the best possible solution before we get shut out of the investigation."

"So," Curatola straightened, "You want us as backup for when the feds pull the plug on you."

"NYPD has the right to investigate crimes in its jurisdiction of operation." Gates said, "I'm a by-the-book commander but something is telling me that we want to have our own investigations into the Raven. I play by the rules but I'm not sure the DEA will."

Reagan nodded, "And NYPD wouldn't roll over on something like this at all."

"The Commissioner was very specific in his instructions." Castle said, "You're in on it."

"In addition to copying everything we sent you two weeks ago," Ryan said with a slight smile, "We also duplicated everything in this room and included a full report that took us nearly a week to put together."

"In addition to that," Rick said with a smile, "I took the liberty of securing full copies that I've sequestered in a location known only by myself, the commissioner and the Captain here as an added precaution."

"Why the extra security on this, just because of the DEA?" Reagan asked.

"Care to share Castle?" Gates asked in a tone that said she'd like to know too.

He looked at them both, "All I can say is that this woman couldn't do all that she has in such a short amount of time without having some very influential people on her payroll. These precautions are a way to make sure that this investigation doesn't die prematurely."

Gates nodded, "Let's get you up to speed on it so you can do what you need to."

Striding into the bullpen the first thing that Beltran noticed was the four unoccupied desks. Two of which she had expected to be empty since Beckett and Rizzoli were on vacation. The other two belonged to their two male partners. She glanced at the office that was closed and locked and noted that the Captain wasn't in. Catching a detective she badged him and asked where she could find Gates.

Which was what had lead her to the small conference room. She opened the door to find Richard Castle standing with the two partners and a man and woman she didn't know but were familiar. She silently stepped in and listened. Seeing pictures and images plastered all over the walls, it was impressive to see what the NYPD had been up to lately.

"So if Torrez was a fall guy then how can we track down this crew?" The slightly balding man asked.

The tall latina woman with dirty blond hair and attractive features pointed at something on the wall, "This has the looks of a professional hit so I doubt we'd be looking at a local crew. If the Bonez gang was the crew… it doesn't fly. They're street animals."

"A professional crew makes more sense." Esposito said as he sat in a chair. "It's not like mercenaries are hard to find in Columbia."

She leaned against the door and continued to listen.

"They're not your average group of guerrillas either." Ryan added, "So we're talking about either a contracted hit crew or what?"

"Most likely," Castle said. "Either outside contracted or she has her own set of killers on hand."

Sera smiled, "She has her own."

All heads turned to her as she assumed lead. "The Raven has a handpicked crew that works for her. Highly skilled killers who're very good at not getting caught. They probably snuck in with the drugs."

"Agent Beltran," Gates said. "What brings you by?"

She straightened up and walked up to the center board, "I came with an update on the search of the Raven's pipelines into New York but I have a feeling that I'm the one with outdated information."

She looked around the room and back to gates and Castle. "Who are your friends?"

"Detective Reagan and Curatola." Gates said, "Major Case Squad."

"Major Case is taking over?" She asked. "I thought your end was a homicide investigation and, just out of curiosity, when exactly did Homicide and Major Case start investigating Narcotics?"

Reagan narrowed his eyes at the dark haired woman, her returning gaze rose the hairs on the back of his neck. "Homicide investigates when a body shows up. When the case gets a lot of attention, Major Case steps in, but since we're all part of a task force, the Commissioner thought we should cooperate, so we're cooperating."

She tilted her head to the side, "Reagan. I know that name. you're related to the Commissioner."

"And?"

She shook her head and smiled slightly, "You act just like him. I can see where you get that don't-mess-with-me vibe."

She turned away but not before running her eyes along Curatola. Beltran looked to the Captain. "Bring me up on this and I'll fill in where I can."

Gates looked to Castle and then to Reagan. "Start over Castle. Bring Agent Beltran up to date."

Wednesday, May 22nd

They walked into a nightmare of black suits and bustling Federal Agents rushing around the bullpen on Tuesday morning. In the center of the action was a giant of a man in a black T-shirt and blue jeans directing the invasion. Tall, muscular and a heavy tan, the massive Latino barked at a group of agents, "Make sure everything is exactly as NYPD had it. Take pictures of everything."

"What the hell is going on, Castle?" Kate barked to her fiancé.

He shook his head, "I have no idea."

Jane saw the letters DEA on a coat and growled low, "It's a DEA take over and shut down."

A voice called out to them, "Beckett, Rizzoli."

They turned to see their Captain more than a little pissed. "DEA is taking all files pertaining to the triple threat. Pack up your notes and hand them over to Agent Barbosa." She indicated the man in the center, "then go to the file room and pull what we have on Torrez."

"C'mon, Captain." Jane barked, "You can't let them waltz in and take everything."

"It comes from 1PP." Gates growled, "Just get it done."

Ten minutes later they walked into the file room to find Sera Beltran sitting on a desk, "Jesus. You girls sure know how to drag ass. I've been sitting here for a half hour, since I got word you were in the parking deck!"

Jane didn't bother with the pleasantries, "You shut us down and expect us to just hop to? Bite my ass, Fed."

"Only if that's an invitation," She fired back.

"Jane," Kate interrupted. "Hold on a minute." She turned back to Beltran. "What is all this?"

Sera shook her head, "A bureaucratic game of save face." She stood up and brushed off her pants, "Castle was briefing Major Case on your conspiracy theory and I happened to walk in with an update from my end, instead I get a whole briefing on what you've put together on the cartel, which coincidently is a view that my people are just grasping."

"Don't like being left behind, huh?" Jane snorted, her grin cocky.

Kate threw her a glare.

"Actually I took what you put together and added it to our information." she sighed, unfortunately my bosses weren't too happy that the largest addition of information was provided by NYPD Homicide. They got a little upset and decided to take everything."

Kate shook her head, "I thought we are all part of the Task Force."

Sera nodded, "According to my boss, there's in the task force and then there's the task force. I'm sorry about this but I have to pull everything you have so that Intel can trace it all down. The Director doesn't want you either running it down before us or backtracking our work."

"Which leaves us out of this," Jane snarled, "Thanks Beltran, way to play on the team." She turned to her partner, "See why I don't like Feds?"

"Rizzoli, I didn't know they'd react like this." Beltran replied, "I thought they'd be happy about the progress the task force made."

"So instead of letting us run with what we got, the DEA just cuts us out, really nice." Kate grumbled, "I used to think my partner was unreasonably biased about Feds but if this is typical of her experience. I'm starting to agree."

"Beckett…" Sera tried.

"Feds like to take the bat and the ball." Jane barked. "False sympathy aside, I've heard enough." She reached for the door handle.

Her arm went numb as Sera grabbed it. Jane reached back to cold cock her but Kate caught her arm, barely. "NO!"

It only took a split second for the word to sink in.

"Don't ever grab her like that!" Kate shouted.

Sera let go but clearly saw Kate's concern for her partner. Is there more to this than just friendship?"

Jane loosened her arm and left. Kate turned on Sera, "You have no idea how lucky you are that I caught that fist."

As Kate left the file room, Sera tried understanding what had just happened.

Are you out of your mind? Kate sent to her best friend in the middle of the bullpen.

Jane sat down at her desk and started pulling her files on the Triple Threat. "This is bullshit and you know it."

You almost punched out a Federal Agent!

She grabbed me!

Kate narrowed her eyes, "That's no excuse and you know it."

"You know, there was a time when I'd have to hold you back."

"Jane you are fifteen days from transferring home." Kate said sharply, "I'm 45 days away from joining you. Let's not fuck that up by doing something stupid."

"You think Gates would keep you here because of something I did?" Jane frowned. "Despite what she said when I came in, she's never once held you responsible for something I did. She's tough but she's fair."

"All it takes is a hold from someone in 1PP; they can hold us both indefinitely." Kate cautioned, "C'mon partner, use your head. It's not worth it."

Jane stared into her partner's eyes; the sincerity there shook her out of her temper. "Jesus, you're right."

"That's why I'm the sergeant." Kate said knowing that she'd reached her, "I know it's hard to keep that in check but trust me, punching a Fed would be a disaster here."

Jane deflated and leaned back in her chair, "I just reacted."

"You reacted once by shoving an AUSA into a wall." Kate reminded, "You didn't cold cock him, which was for her benefit."

"Something about her drives me right to the edge. I don't trust her."

"Then let me do something to earn that trust."

Jane's head snapped around to Find Beltran walking up.

"Haven't we had enough of you?"

Beltran rested her hands on the side of Jane's desk, "I don't know what I've done to piss you off like this."

"You're taking my case away from me." Jane snarled, "That's enough."

Sera looked to Kate, "Look, I know that I have to take this from you but don't think that I don't know what it's like. I've had cases pulled from me and I can sympathize."

Kate smirked, "Bully for you."

Sera straightened up to her full height, "Barricade."

The tall, muscled man heard his name and came over. "What's up?"

"She looked up at him, "Stay here and supervise the cataloguing. I'm going to look into that thing we talked about earlier."

His face tightened, "I thought we were going to handle that later."

"I have something else in mind." Sera turned to the partners, "Leave your files on the desk and come with me."

Jane narrowed her eyes at the Fed, "Last time i checked, my paycheck said City of New York Police Department. Not the Drug Enforcement Agency."

"Look, I'm offering to let you help on this," Sera said sharply, "Do you really want to sit here and watch my people pack up everything or would you at least like to go out possibly arresting a suspected member of your Colombian Crew?"

Kate jerked in her chair, "You have a lead?"

Sera nodded, "I do, which was why I was waiting for you in the file room."

She picked up her jacket off of Castle's chair. "Shall we go, or would you rather hang out here?"

Jane and Kate locked eyes before standing up together. Kate pulled a radio out of her desk as Jane pulled out her nine millimeter and clipped it to the back of her pants before checking her 45. Kate looked around for Rick who was strangely absent. With the book tour over, she'd expected him to return to following her and Jane around again. It was unusual for him not to tag along.

Where did he go? She wondered before following her partner.

Rick rushed into the Major Case squad room looking for Detective Reagan. Instead he found Curatola sitting at a desk with a stack of information in front of her. Rick bee lined it straight to her. His rushing approach caught her attention. "Castle, What are you doing here?"

"The DEA just came in and is pulling all of our files on the Triple Threat and our Cartel theory." He said breathlessly. "If you made any progress back up your work and give it to me."

"Your secured file?" She arched a finely shaped eyebrow.

"It's the only one we'll have when they're done."

Jackie pulled a file out of her drawer and handed it over before pulling two off of Reagan's desk. "The rest are just the copies."

Jackie pinched her brows together. "Within twenty-four hours they have us shut down. What's the deal?"

Rick sighed. "Beltran said her bosses are jealous but I don't buy it."

"I'll believe that when the Brooklyn Bridge spontaneously turns to gold."

Rick nodded his agreement. "I'll get this back to you with the backups next week."

Curatola nodded. "Get out of here before you're seen."

Rick nodded and shoved the three files into his case. "Make sure your reaction looks genuine."

The elevator pinged and a handful of government suits stepped off. Rick heard DEA and blanched.

"Stairs are on the south side." She pointed the way and Rick walked away casually.

"Who's in charge?"

Jackie watched Rick slip away before calling out. "Detective Curatola, what's going on here?"