Disclaimer: I do not own Castle, the idea belongs to ABC

Forty minutes after they left Marie Holtz Kate and Rick pulled up in front of the crime scene for the second time that day. Things seemed different in the daylight, more real. The police tape was still up around the tree and Ryan and Esposito's cars were both still where they had left them this morning. They were still up stairs with Kimberly's roommate. Kate felt tears come to her eyes as a cool wind blew some of the red and yellow leaves off the tree where Kimberly's body was found. The more she stared at the tree the more questions plagued her mind. Who could have done this? Who hated her that much to end her life? Why did it happen? Kate was focusing on breathing in and out of her nose, to keep her emotions in check, when she felt a large hand be placed softly on her shoulder. As she looked into the face of the famous mystery writer she shook her head. "Castle, I have to solve this murder, her murder. and that means I have to treat everyone involved in this case like a suspect."

Rick nodded his head; he understood what she meant. He had seen too many cases where the killer was someone who they thought was truly devastated. "Well then, we probably should head inside, see what her roommate has to say, and find out why someone wanted you to see this murder."

With a nod of her head Castle and Beckett entered the building, took the elevator up, and knocked on the door of the apartment. When the door opened a young, blonde girl opened the door.

"Ashley moore?" Kate said as she held up her badge to show the girl. "I'm detective Kate Beckett, NYPD. We're here to ask you a few questions about-"

"Kimberly," Ashley said, not asking a question, but simply stating a fact. "Yes, the other two detectives are already here." Ashley opened the door and let both Beckett and Castle inside.

"I'm Richard Castle, just NY," Rick said as he smirked at the young girl; she certainly was attractive.

Ashley frowned. Richard Castle, Richard Castle. where had she heard that name before? Ah, that was it! "Richard Castle? Like the author?"

"The very same," Rick said as he extended his hand and shook Ashley's as he looked over at Beckett.

Kate was standing by the sofa with her arms crossing staring puzzled at Castle. must he always run into someone who was a fan? She knew that was the price they paid for him being famous, but she had a murder to solve. When the girl finally came over and sat down Kate looked up at her, her eyelashes were stuck together, the whites of her eyes were bloodshot red, and the skin around her eyes was puffy. "Ashley, I know the other detectives have already spoken with you, but if you don't mind, I have a few more questions." With a pained breath Kate saw her shake her head. "listen, I know how hard this is for you-"

"Really?" Ashley said unbelievingly; the tears had begun to form in her eyes again. All cops said that, it was some form of comfort thing, but none of them really meant it, it was all a platitude. "Who did you lose then?"

Kate took a deep breath and she looked up through the corner of her eye at Castle, who was standing right beside where she was sitting; he was loyal, she had to give him that. When Kate looked back at Ashley she said, "My mother, I was your age when it happened. But I'm not the reason we're here."

As the words came out of the detective's mouth Ashley felt her jaw drop. She felt so foolish.

Kate was silent for a moment, having no idea what to say to the girl sitting in front of her, she couldn't very well tell her that she knew Kimberly as well. That would have been unprofessional, with nowhere else to turn she looked up at the man standing above her.

"Ashley, do you have any reason to believe that Kimberly would try to hurt herself?" Rick asked tentatively.

Ashley lifted her head to stare at the man in front of her in utter disbelief. Kimberly commit suicide, it was insane! Plus, they had proof it was a murder. "What?" Ashley asked horrified.

Feeling immense pity for the young woman in front of her Kate leaned forward and looked Ashley in the eyes. "I know this hard, but if we're going to figure this out, we're going to need your help."

Ashley shook her head. "No, she loved her mother, her friends, her life too much to kill herself. She was murdered."

Kate Beckett sat at her desk, later that afternoon as she sorted through the case files of Scott Dunn. Something was off about this case; something just didn't feel like him. An annoying little voice, that sounded much like Castle's echoed in her head, we don't know how he killed, he was pretending to be Ben Conrad, remember? With a deep breath, Kate tried to ignore the voice and focus on the file in front of her.

"Have you heard back from the prison yet?" Rick said curiously, as he walked up to Beckett's desk holding a Styrofoam drink carrier with four twenty ounce Java Loft coffees in it.

As she heard Castle's voice Kate's body both cringed and jumped for joy at the exact same time. As she lifted her hazel eyes from the case file she was reading and up at her partner she resisted the urge to bite her bottom lip. He had bought her coffee! Instead of showing her true emotion, she looked at him annoyed. "Castle, what are you doing? I told you to go home."

Castle smirked; there was no way she was going to get rid of him that easily. No, not until he knew if she was in any immediate danger, he thought he lost her once, and he wasn't going to go through that again. "And until I'm sure you're safe, I'm not leaving your side. Now have you heard back from the prison yet?"

Kate exhaled and nodded her head as she thought back on the conversation she had just had with the warden. "Yes," she said as she gazed onto the desktop of her computer. "They can't seem to locate Dunn," she said as she ran her fingers through her hair, looked up into Castle's crystal clear blue eyes, and said, "but they have no perimeter breech."

Rick frowned; so did that mean he escaped and was guilty of another homicide, or he was just hiding and had that much less blood on his hands? As the thoughts were warring inside his head the black plastic phone on Beckett's desk rang. Before the ring had completed she had clasped it in her hand and brought it to her ear. "Beckett."

"Detective, it's Henry Vice. We spoke a while back about the, uh," the warden sucked his teeth before continuing. "Whereabouts of Scott Dunn, well, I'm pleased to inform ya, we found him. So we can come on down whenever y'all are ready," he said in a thick southern accent.

Kate nodded her head as the warden spoke to her. Part of her wanted to jump for joy that they indeed had the man in custody another part of her wanted to go throw up at the thought of facing him again. "We're ready, bring him down."

As Beckett hung up the phone, she turned toward Rick and as she did, he almost gasped. Her face was white as a ghost. He had seen her face that pale only once before, the day she interrogated Dick Coonan. "Are you all right?"

Kate stared at her computer screen, not really seeing anything. Was she all right? There was a laugh. She was about to face a man who had made an attempt on her life. No, she certainly was not all right. With a deep breath, she turned to Castle. "What if I let her down, Castle?" she asked not voicing her true fears.

Rick felt the side of his mouth lift automatically, just like he did every time Beckett made herself vulnerable. "You won't," he said with unwavering confidence.

Kate looked to her left, into Castle's face. Uncertainty was flooding her body, when she had first heard of the engraving in the wall in the kitchen of Kimberly's apartment she was sure it was Dunn. It had to be, he was the only person she could think of that would have dedicated a murder to her, and the fact that she knew Kimberly made all the more sense. Now, though, after looking through his files and having the police find him her certainty was shattered. "How do you know?"

Rick looked at Beckett's face and he shrugged. "Because Nikki Heat wouldn't."

Kate Beckett rose from her desk chair the minute that the warden, Dunn, and a task force of officers exited the elevator. Kate felt the bile rise up in her throat as she looked at the man who was Scott Dunn. At least what was left of him; his hair had gotten longer, on both his head and on his face, he had dark circles under his eyes and he seemed to be more skeletal than he was when she arrested him. As Dunn was carted off to the interrogation room by two police officers she grabbed Dunn's rap sheet and walked over to the group with Castle tailing close behind her. "Henry Vice, I'm Detective Kate Beckett," she said as she held out the hand that did not contain the folder.

Henry Vice extended his own hand and grasped the young detective's. "It's a pleasure to meet you," he said as he ran his hand through his groomed gray hair and a smile formed across his thin lips revealing yellow teeth.

With a great deal of effort, Rick held in any exclamations about the state of his mouth, it was probably from chewing tobacco. "Richard Castle," he said as he leaned forward and shook the warden's hand as well.

The middle-aged warden raised his eyebrows at first Beckett then in turn at Castle. "Richard Castle, huh? That's funny; you got the same name as that there novelist."

Kate looked toward Castle and they exchanged a glance. "Well the interrogation room is this way," she said as she began to walk down the hallway followed by the two men. "Mr. Vice, if you don't mind, I'm going to ask you to stay in the interrogation room with Castle, I'd like to question Mr. Dunn on my own."

Rick looked at the back of Kate completely dumbfounded. "You're kicking me out?" he said with the same tone a five year old would use right after his mother told him he could not go along with his older brother to play in the woods.

"No, Castle," Kate said as she briefly looked over her right shoulder. "I'm just not letting you in."

"That won't be a problem, Detective," he said as he tailed her, his deep gray eyes not straying for a second from her back. "I'd be delighted to observe with Mr. Castle."

Great! Rick thought sarcastically as he glared at the warden from the corner of his eyes. What made him even more uneasy was the beautiful smile Beckett graced him with when she turned around.

"This is it," Kate said as she opened the door and allowed Castle to go in first. As Henry was about to walk through the door Kate touched his bicep to stop him from going any further for a second. "You know, officer, if you watched your inmates as closely as you were just watching my ass, we may not be here right now."

At the detective's words, Henry felt the color drain from his face. How did she see that? She was turned around! However, he recovered quickly and gave her another yellow smile. "Yes, well I have to say I'm glad I didn't," he said and continued into the room.

As Rick heard the words that came out of the warden's mouth he froze, anger not letting him take another step. How dare he talk to Beckett like that, as if she was nothing more than a one-night stand! He turned around to face the two of them and Beckett flashed her eyes at him, warning him not to say anything. "You know, that line sounded familiar," Rick said as he walked up to Beckett. "Like I may have read it in a book or something…"

Kate smirked at him and then looked through the observation room window. She took in a deep breath before speaking. "Yes, well, Nikki Heat did have a couple good lines," she said and walked out the observation room. As she opened the door to the interrogation room Dunn lifted his head and an eerie smile made its way across his skeletal face. "Hello Nikki."

With her head held high and her eyes against the back wall Kate walked into the room and opened up Dunn's file. "Scott Dunn, you have the right to have a lawyer present, if you cannot afford one, one will be appointed to you."

Scott looked up at the detective from his currently favorite novel. She was nervous; he could see it in her face. "What is with the formalities? You act as if we do not know each other. What do I need a lawyer for, Heat? You already have me in custody. What more trouble can I get myself into?"

For the first time, since entering the interrogation room Kate looked up into the face of Scott Dunn. "Where were you between the hours of two and six a.m. this morning?"

Scott laughed, surely, she was joking, where else would he be. "That all depends, Detective, where was the place you and Jordan sentenced me?"

Kate nodded her head as she lifted her eyelids from the file and glanced at him. "Tell me, Dunn, do you know an Ashley Moore or a Kimberly Holtz?"

Scott thought for a minute, he knew he didn't recognize the name, he made it a point not to make familiarities with people unless he intended to use them. "Nope, no, don't know them. Why?"

Kate looked up at Dunn, and pulled a picture of Kimberly out of the file and slammed it on the table in front of him. "This girl, right here, you're telling me you don't know her?" she said accusatorily.

Scott nodded his head. He didn't know why nikki kept asking him the same questions over and over, he was in prison for life, he had no reason to lie. "No, Nikki, I didn't see the girl last night, I've never seen her."

Kate was puzzled, this was not the Scott Dunn, she knew, this one was calm and passive and almost lucid. "Kimberly Holtz was murdered sometime early this morning, around the same time as the prison guards lost track of you."

Scott raised his eyebrows. The guards couldn't find him last night, so what? What did her murder have to do with him? "Nikki, use your head. If I escaped from the tombs, the last thing I would do after I murdered someone would go back."

Kate dropped the file on the table and leaned in close to Dunn's face. "Then tell me why in her apartment we found the words, 'I told you this wasn't over, Heat' carved into the wall! The same exact words you said to me when I arrested you six months ago!" she hollered at him.

A satisfied smile made its way across Henry Vice's thin lips again as he watched Beckett lean over the table to yell at Dunn. He guessed she didn't know that she needn't yell at him, Dunn was cooperative if nothing else, so he appeared anyway. When Beckett stood back up Henry turned to face Castle. "You know, you're a lucky man Castle."

Rick tore his eyes off the interrogation going on in the other room to look at the man that stood beside him. he frowned at him before opening his mouth to respond. "Thank you, I know," Castle paused just to watch the shocked look wipe over Vice's face. "Why do you say that though?"

Henry smiled at the writer. "You get to accompany and observe Ms. Beckett on all of her cases, am I right?" he said as he eyed the observation room window.

Rick nodded; he didn't know where he was going with this question, but he didn't like it. Truthfully, the man could have just been standing there breathing and he would not have liked it. There was something, he couldn't quite place what it was that bothered Rick about the man. "On most days, but I generally like to think of my work more of participate and annoy. Annoying people is fun, and work is meant to be fun."

"Ha," Henry exclaimed at Castle's words. "Maybe in your line of work, son, but in mine…" he shook his head before continuing. "It's like babysitting grown-ups. But you never know, if I had someone like Ms. Beckett to work with, it might be fun," he said as he winked at Castle.

Rick frowned; why didn't anybody get that it wasn't like that between Beckett and himself? Yeah feelings for her were there, but that was where everything ended, whatever happened between them was strictly friendly or professional. Rick shook his head as he watched Beckett turn and give him a look of impatience. "There's nothing going on between Beckett and me, not like that anyway."

Henry looked at Castle with a look that clearly said the word that was being shouted in his head right now was Bull. "Rick, who am I going to tell? Really, you don't need to lie for her to me about it."

Rick looked at Vice through the corner of his eye and frowned. "Just out of curiousity, because you're not the first person to inquire about it, what makes you think that Beckett and I are sleeping together?"

Henry looked at Castle almost surprised. For being a bestselling author, he certainly paid little attention to the details in his own life. He wondered if he even realized it himself. "I just see the way you look at her," he said just as the door opened and Beckett stepped through. Neither of the men even noticed her leaving the room.

Kate stood in the doorway staring at the two men. What way did Castle look at who? Surely Vice couldn't have been talking about her. No, Castle flirted, a lot, but he'd never be serious enough to actually develop feelings for her. "Thank you, Mr. Vice, I'm all through with him."

A saddened feeling of regret flooded Henry Vice as he nodded. "Did you get a confession out of him? I saw you yelling pretty harshly."

"No," Kate said rather shortly. "No, he keeps insisting that he had no way of sneaking out of the prison and back in without you guys knowing about it."

Henry nodded his head. Dunn was right, there was no way he could breech the perimeter without the entire jail knowing. Nevertheless, he thought if any man would be able to do it, it would be Dunn. His intelligence surpassed all the other inmates, which is probably why it took so long to catch him in the first place. "He's right. Now detective Beckett, would you please grant me the honor of walking me to the elevator?"

As Kate Beckett walked back from the elevator to her desk, she noticed someone was not only in her chair but also had their feet up on her desk as well. "Castle," she said as she hit his feet off the desk, "how many times do I have to tell you to get out of my chair?"

"Sorry," Rick said as he closed the manila folder he was looking through and got up. As he reseated himself in his appropriate chair, he opened the file and began reading through it again without saying a word to Beckett.

"Castle, what is it that you are doing?" Kate said as she watched those blue eyes go back and forth as he put his speed reading abilities to use. "Reading" was all he responded as his eyes never left the page.

A few moments passed before Rick tore his eyes away from the file and onto Beckett. She was watching the surveillance video they had gotten from the super of Kimberly's building, in fast forward. He wasn't sure why she was bothering, they'd both gone through the video earlier in the afternoon today. "Beckett, have you read through these files since this morning?" Rick asked and jiggled the folder when she looked up.

"Oh, you're done now," she said her voice a façade of excitement. "Yes Castle, of course I've read through those. Would they have been on my desk if I hadn't read them?"

Rick looked at Beckett almost puzzled and then down at his lap. "I should really start thinking before I speak."

"Or you could just think; it'd be a lot quieter here that way."

Rick narrowed his blue eyes as Beckett's profile. "So you left in quite a hurry with Mr. Warden, you never got to tell me your opinion on it."

Kate pulled her eyes away from the computer screen to look at Castle. "Honestly, he's innocent, I knew that even before I got the call from Vice."

Rick looked at Beckett dumbfounded. He never thought Dunn had done it, but he thought Beckett might not be as compassionate. "Why?"

Kate shook her head as she turned back to her computer screen. "Look at all the proof, the evidence," she said as she turning her chair to face Castle and holding up a single finger. "Dunn was in the tombs, last night, and no one crosses that boarder without them knowing about it and there was no breech." She counted off a second finger as she continued on, "Kimberly was raped, in the entirety of Dunn's rap sheet there is not a single count of sexual assault." She counted off a third finger as she concluded. "Even when Dunn was posing as Conrad he made each murder obvious it was a murder, even right down to Conrad. Dunn's innocent, Castle."