Castle belongs to ABC. Sorry this chapter took SOOO long to come out, after seeing the spoiler of the kiss all inspiration for the story went out the window. I'll try my best to have the next chapter up sooner.

Kate snatched the death certificate and checked it for authenticity before looking up at Esposito in complete bewilderment. "Marilli's dead?" she asked with a horrified tone apparent in her voice. No, it wasn't possible for Marilli to be dead, not for the two months like his death record claimed. His DNA had been present at the crime scene a day earlier.

Javier looked away from Beckett for a moment before shaking his head and allowing his eyes to return to her. "It appears that way," he said shaking his head.

"This is not possible. His DNA was found at more than one of our crime scenes. He can't be…" Kate trailed off as she shook her head. Something about this felt wrong. The only other way that Marilli's DNA could appear in a crime scene, other than him being there, was if it was planted. Which, she knew, was impossible, Lanie corroborated that days ago by telling her there was more than one sign that the victims were raped.

"Uh, you don't think…" Rick began but when the two detectives looked at him stopped in embarrassment. There was no way they would even condone this theory.

Kate looked over at her partner waiting for him to continue. As the seconds ticked by and silence still filled the room she decided to give him a little push. "Castle, do you have a theory you'd like to share with the class?"

Shaking his head Rick looked up at Beckett perplexed. "No, it's crazy; I mean the audience would love it, but the chances of it-"

"Castle, Bro, we kind of need wild and crazy right now. In case you haven't noticed time is running out and bodies are stacking higher," Javier said as he looked down at the writer. He hated to admit it but more often than not the craziest of his ideas were right.

As Rick looked up into the faces of the two awaiting detectives he took a breath and braced himself for their response, which he was sure was not going to be good. "Do you think he faked his own death?"

A whole new wave of puzzlement crossed the detectives' faces before they frowned at each other and looked at Castle absurdly. "Um, I don't know Castle. Marilli didn't really seem the type to be theatrical."

"No, Beckett, think about it," Castle said as he placed his hand over Kate's to keep her attention on the crazy theory he was about to spin. For a split second she felt heat rise up in her cheeks as she looked down at their hands before looking up at Castle.

"How many cases have we solved where a person of interest ended up faking their own death?" Rick said exuberantly as Beckett pulled her hand out from underneath his and placed them in her lap. "Like eight!"

Kate lifted her eyes up to look at Esposito before turning them back on Castle. She had to give the man one thing, he certainly had the talent for over-exaggerating. "Try more like three, Castle."

Rick shrugged his shoulders. She was so concerned about the details of everything. He fought the urge to smile as he heard her voice in his head. Out here they're called facts. "Eight, three, same thing.

"Okay, so Marilli is unhappy in his marriage, that one is obvious. So in order to bring some happiness back into his love life, he has an affair with a woman he works with, Libby Murray. Well in the time he is with her he realizes in the how ever many years he has been with his wife he has never been this happy. He decides he wants to leave her, but he can't just divorce her. That costs too much money. So what does he do? He stages his mistress's death and then when he is convicted of her murder he stages his own five years later," Rick said smiling proudly to himself.

However, Kate was no so much impressed. "Impossible," she said as she watched Castle's face go from smug to beaten. "As someone who was at that woman's murder scene, I can promise you, there was nothing fabricated about that woman's death."

Javier frowned down at Castle. Some of his theories, Javier had to admit, were plausible but this one… "Why would he wait and rot in prison for five years just to fake his own death? And you do know that faking his own death would be more expensive than divorcing his wife."

Rick shrugged feeling embarrassment creep into his being, of course it would be more expensive; why hadn't he thought of that before he opened his mouth and looked like an idiot? "Well, maybe he didn't want to arouse suspicion to what he was doing, maybe he didn't want to get caught?" he said as his mother's voice went through his head. That makes about as much sense as Mousetrap, did that play eight times a week for a year, still have no idea what it's about.

Kate looked at Castle and did her best not to frown at him. It was a good theory, unlikely, but a good explanation to why he would still be alive. "Or maybe, he's just, I don't know," she said shrugging her shoulders. "Dead."

Rick shook his head. "Beckett, his DNA appeared at a fresh crime scene, there is no way he isn't alive."

Kate shook her head. She knew how it looked, like he had to be alive, but didn't that death certificate account for anything? If it wasn't him who died, then whose body did they bury? Even still, with all the evidence pointing to the fact that he was alive, she could not believe she was going to do this. "Esposito, get an A.P.B. out for someone matching Marilli's description."

Javier felt his expression melt into one of slight surprise. He knew better to believe that Beckett would be wasting police resources if she truly thought he was dead. "You saying he's alive, boss?"

Kate pushed her lips together as she shook her head. "I'm saying, there is a chance that he did indeed fake his own death," with her admittance she saw a satisfied smile cross Castle's face. "However, I do not think it was because he and his lover wanted to run away to live happily ever after," she finished and looked at Castle and raised her eyebrows. "Also, get me the current contact information on his wife."

It was two o'clock in the afternoon when Kate Beckett pulled up in front of Sharon Reynolds', formally known as Sharon Marilli, home. She took in a deep breath and gazed upon the house that she had not seen in five years. She was glad, though, that this time she would not be delivering life debilitating news. As she exhaled she put the car in park and turned it off before getting out and making her way up the driveway.

Beckett was halfway up the driveway before Rick caught up to her. As he fell in step with her stride he looked her in the face. "Bringing up the painful past of a family who has moved on is stressful. I can see why you're nervous."

Kate looked at Castle surprised as he broke her out of her stream of memory. As she processed what he said the surprised look that crossed her face now melted into a frown. "I'm not nervous," she responded defensively.

Rick cocked an eyebrow at her. She was lying, she had to be. If it were him he'd be shaking in his two hundred dollar leather shoes from the nerves. "You look nervous."

Why should she be nervous? It wasn't as if she had taken the man of the house away in handcuffs or destroyed the family with a murder charge. "Well, I'm not," Kate said defiantly as she looked Castle in his blue eyes.

Rick looked down at the woman in front of him. If he hadn't been positive before that she was lying, then her defensiveness confirmed it. He opened his mouth to argue further but stopped and closed it. Whether she was going to admit it or not, this was not the time or place to be arguing about it. "Okay, but if you were, you know you can tell me right? I won't think any less of you."

Kate felt the familiar feeling of a smile hiding behind her lips. However, all she let out was a smirk. "Why Castle, so you can comfort me?" she asked raising her eyebrows at him before side stepping him and continuing on to the front door.

Rick stared after her in somewhat awe as he watched her walk up the driveway. He smiled to himself as he answered, "Well, yeah."

Kate Beckett heard the doorbell ring throughout the house as she pulled her finger away from it and waited. The nerves that she lied to Castle about not having were invading her stomach something fierce. What if they didn't remember her? What if they did? Did they blame her for destroying their family? It hadn't been her fault, Marilli killed a woman and he needed to be brought to justice before he killed again.

As the door opened an artificially blonde girl clad in sweat pants stood in its wake and glanced up from her pink flower covered cell phone with a look of annoyance. As she took in her visitors her annoyance melted into unbridled surprise in her crystal eyes. "Detective," Camille said, recognizing Beckett the instant she laid eyes on her.

Kate smiled down at the girl in the friendliest way she could, trying to tell her through her eyes that she came baring no detrimental news. "Hello Camille, is your mother here?"

At the detective's words the surprise in the teenager's eyes melted into an anger so deep it dimmed her bright eyes to a shade of gray. "What do you need her for?" she asked hostilely as she stood in the doorway and folded her arms.

Kate sighed inwardly and resisted closing her eyes. She knew that this visit was going to end up like this. "That's a private matter between her and me," she said as she stared down the fifteen year old.

However, Camille was not intimidated by the stare that frightened some grown men. Instead her eyes drifted over to Castle and took him in. "Oh, then I suppose he is going to wait outside then?" she said jutting her head toward Castle.

Kate turned her head to take in the man standing next to her. If only the teenager knew how often she had wished that she could leave him behind. "No. He is my partner, he comes with me."

Camille raised her eyebrows in surprise as she again looked Castle up and down. "He's your partner? Really?" she shook her head defiantly. "He doesn't look like cop."

Frustration built its way inside Rick's chest as he glared at the blonde teenager without blinking. This girl was not much younger than Alexis, how was it she was such a good kid when this girl was such a brat? "Are you going to allow us to see your mother or not?"

At Castle's words Camille moved her eyes to his face. He was trying her patience, both of them were. Why couldn't they both just leave her family be to try to sew back together the scraps of their life, which still remained? "Tell me what it regards and I'll allow you in and to talk to her," she bargained as she folded her arms over her chest.

Kate sighed. As much as she would have liked to shelter the girls from the investigation five years ago and the current one that was taking place she knew it was a losing battle. "Your father."

For a brief flash of a moment sadness crossed over Camille's face, however as fast as it came it was gone again, and back in place was the hardened expression of a rebellious teenager. "My father's dead."

"What is this about, Detective?" Sharon Reynolds asked as she took a seat across the kitchen table from Castle and Beckett. She had been dreading the answer to that very question from the minute that she and her partner entered the kitchen.

Kate opened her mouth not even beginning to know how to answer her question. As she thought about her answer, her mind argued to forget the past, she had questions to ask and an investigation to solve.

Rick looked at Beckett waiting for her to answer. Ten seconds passed, then twenty, he knew this had to be hard for her to answer, if it wasn't they wouldn't be approaching thirty seconds of awkward silence. "It's about your former husband, Victor Marilli," he said not being able to bare watching Beckett struggle.

Sharon looked at the author with alarm. Victor? They were here about Victor? Did they not know that he died in prison near three months ago? "I'm sorry to tell you this detective but…"

Kate nodded her head as the woman spoke in her guarded tones. Probably the same way she spoke to everyone every time the subject of her ex-husband came up. "I know, he's dead. But that leads me to my other question. In his file, you were listed as next of kin, if something were to happen to him."

Sharon scoffed at the detective's words. Of course she was listed as next of kin, she was his wife, they weren't very well going to call his mother. "Yes, I'm aware of this."

"So you identified his body when he was brought to the morgue after he died?"

Sharon looked at the detective through her eyelashes. Why was it so necessary to rehash all these painful memories? "No," she said and paused for a moment. "The first, last, and only time I saw my husband after he was put behind bars was his first day at Riker's. I told him I hated him for what he did to us-to us and to our family- and that he destroyed everything by not being able to contain himself and that he needed to remember my face because he was never going to look upon it again, and nor I his."

Rick frowned at the recollection of events that Sharon had just divulged to them. "Just out of curiosity, Mrs. Reynolds, if you swore to him that you were never going to look upon his face again, then tell me, who identified him at the morgue?"

Sharon rolled her eyes. Hadn't they wasted enough of her time with pointless questions for today? "His brother," she answered with pursed lips.

At her answer Kate felt her jaw drop open. Throughout the entire investigation five years ago, there was not a single mention of him having a brother. "He has a brother?" she said shock coloring her tone.

"Yes, Vincent, they're twins," she said and rose from the table. "Now detective, if that is all your questions, I need to get back to preparing dinner for my husband."

Kate nodded as she and Castle both rose out of their chairs. "Just one more question if you don't mind Mrs. Reynolds," she paused as she waited for Sharon's conformation. With a head nod she looked at the woman. "Where can I find him?"

Sharon sighed as she looked at the clock on above the stove before looking back to the detective. "Last place I know of, he lived in East Harlem."

Rick looked at Beckett as she stood against the wall of the elevator beside him. She had barely said two words since they had left the Reynolds' home and Rick knew it was a result of how the family had treated her. He couldn't understand why what they thought of her matter so much. "Tough crowd" he said breaking the silence as he looked upon the solemn expression she wore on her face.

Kate looked at Castle expressionless for a moment. "Yeah, well they've been through a lot Castle," she said and she looked straight and forced the family Marilli left behind from her mind.

Rick looked at Beckett as she stared into her reflection in the elevator doors. The solemness he knew she was still inwardly wrestling was no longer portrayed on her face. "Are you okay?"

Kate looked at Castle surprised. She didn't know why it surprised her every time he was sincere but it did. "Yeah, Castle, I'm fine," she said as the elevator bell dinged signaling that they had reached the homicide floor.

Javier looked up as he saw the elevator doors open out of the corner of his eye. He was both anxious and regretting Beckett and Castle's return to the precinct. As he saw them approaching the desk he stood up to full height and called out, "Hey Beckett, there…"

"Esposito I need you and Ryan to get me the address, workplace, and anything else you can find on Vincent Marilli. He's Mari-"

At Beckett's words Javier looked at Beckett both shocked and relieved. She already knew what he was going to tell her. "Marilli's twin," he finished for her. "I know; Ryan is running down his location right now," he said jerking his head to the back to where Ryan was sitting in front of a computer. "How did you find out about him?"

Kate looked at Esposito with unbridled surprise in her hazel eyes. "Marilli's ex-wife, Sharon. She told us that he identified him at the morgue."

"Ah!" Kevin announced as Vincent Marilli's address appeared on the screen in front of his eyes. He quickly jotted it down before jogging over to Esposito's desk. "We found him," he said as he handed the piece of paper to Beckett.

Kate looked down at the paper that Ryan had just handed her. 284 East 111th street apartment 12-F.Sharon had been right, Vincent did still live in Harlem. She looked up at Ryan. "Good work, let's go pick him up."