Author's Note: I'd think to thank southerngirl1, phnxgrl, Chkgun93, and TORONTOSUN for their reviews. We're starting this chapter in Lanie's POV. Enjoy!

Chapter 27

Lanie snuggled into Javi's side when she woke up at 5am. The sun was barely creeping into the windows of their apartment and her alarm wouldn't go off for another fifteen minutes. She was starting to drift off again, wondering why she was already waking up when she heard it. The buzzing of her phone as a text arrived. She groaned and rolled over to grab it. Two texts had come in. The first was to alert her to a dead body being reported, the second to inform her of the address. She groaned again when she saw the location. Battery Park was all the way on the other side of town. That meant she had to leave now.

Javier's arm wrapped tighter around her as she moved to get out of bed. "No, stay here today."

Lanie kissed him on the cheek. "Can't. There's a dead body in Battery Park and I'm up. Go back to sleep."

His grip relaxed. "Wish they'd had the decency to die during normal business hours."

Lanie smirked as she got up. "Oh, if only."

It took her almost an hour to get to the crime scene due to the early morning commuter traffic. The detective in charge of the scene was a young woman who looked like she'd been given her gold shield the night before. Lanie grabbed her kit and stepped out of the cab to join the party.

The young detective held out her hand as Lanie approached. "Are you Dr. Parish?"

Lanie shook the offered hand. "I am. And you are?"

"Detective Lindsay Messer. My partner is Detective Greenaway, but she's out with the flu today. It's just me right now."

"That's fine. What do we have here?"

Messer led the M.E. to the body. "Commuter spotted the body on their way to work. I'm guessing he jumped from the roof of the apartment building."

"No witnesses?" Lanie set down her kit well outside the blood pool.

The young detective shook her head. "No one has come forward."

Lanie set up her clipboard and started taking her preliminary exam notes as Messer wandered away to talk to the uniforms who had come out of the building. The victim was an African American male, between thirty and forty with hair cropped short like a military man. He was also in just boxer shorts and a tank top. Lanie thought that was strange apparel for someone who was going to take his own life, but she filed away the thought for later and turned her attention back to the victim. From what she could see, he had great musculature, which implied he worked out. That meant he was probably not overpowered and pushed over the edge. She got as close as she dared and noticed something odd about his forehead. She moved his head a little and noticed what was wrong.

"Detective!"

Messer came back over. "Yes?"

"This man wasn't a jumper. He was dead before he went over." She pointed to the hole in his forehead. "That's a gunshot wound."

"You're saying someone killed him and dropped his body off the building to try and cover it up?"

Lanie nodded. "That's what I'm saying."

"So what would you say is the time of death?"

Lanie took a thermometer out of her kit and stabbed his abdomen to take the temperature. "Liver temp is 81°F so my rough estimate is that he died between 8 and 9pm last night."

Messer shook her head. "That can't be. I already canvassed the neighbors and from what they said, the earliest the body could be here was midnight."

Lanie stood up and signaled to the coroner's van. "That's the earliest his body was pushed off the building. He died three to four hours earlier. I suggest you do another canvass. I'll get his body back to the lab for an autopsy; let you know what I find."

Beckett found herself staring at the board early the next morning. She'd been tossing and turning all last night, her mind buzzing with the details of the latest Shadow Fox case. Up until now, Alex's scenes had been neat, controlled, and devoid of forensics. Last night's scene was the opposite. She'd have to wait for the forensics report, but she could say right now the scene had been messy and violent.

Why was easy enough to see; Locken's knife said everything. He had killed Alex's boyfriend, or possibly fiancé if the statement from Samuel Anderson at the Auditore murder scene was true. Beckett had been in a similar boat before and knew what Alex might be feeling. The difference between the two of them was Beckett couldn't cross the line no matter how much she wanted to; Alex didn't have a line to cross to begin with. Why Alex had displayed that much rage when getting her revenge wasn't what had kept Beckett up last night.

What had kept her up was how Alex would behave from here on out. She had just lost someone very important to her and the revenge wasn't done yet. Who would get caught in the crossfire? What had Alex or Ewan done to warrant Brebnor's murder? Would Alex even succeed?

Castle set a coffee down next to her. "When did you get up last night?"

Beckett shrugged. "I don't know. I couldn't sleep, so I came here."

"Worried about who her thirst for revenge could hurt?"

Beckett smiled. "Get out of my head."

Castle smirked. "Sorry. I can't help it sometimes."

Esposito walked in. "I went over the notes from the canvass this morning and noticed one a uni conducted. A resident who lives two floors down from Locken said a neighbor she didn't know helped her bring in groceries. I went back and talked to her again this morning, this time showing her Alex's picture."

"She ID'd Alex?"

Esposito nodded. "Alex never gave the witness a name or destination and refused a dollar for helping out."

Castle turned to Beckett. "That building required a key to get in. Alex used the lady to get inside."

Beckett nodded. "Makes sense. She saw the opportunity and took it. And we know this time around she didn't care who saw her."

Castle turned back to Esposito. "Did anyone hear anything during the attack? I can't believe the scene could be that bloody and no one heard a thing."

Esposito used his notebook to point at Castle. "I can answer that. No one heard a thing because almost no one was home. A lot of the building's residents got home after the first responders. Most of the canvass took place on the sidewalk out front."

"Detective Beckett?"

"Yes?" A uniform handed Beckett a folder. "Thanks. It's the forensics report."

"What's it say?"

"Alex's DNA was found in the blood on Locken's body. Chemicals found in emotional tears were mixed into his blood."

"Emotional tears." Castle leaned back in his chair. "She was crying while she killed him."

Beckett nodded and continued. "His blood was in the tub, and a couple of her hairs were found down the drain."

"She showered after killing him." Ryan had arrived. "Makes sense. With all the blood at the scene, there's no way she didn't get any on her. And she was clean with wet hair in the surveillance footage."

Beckett continued highlighting the report. "Alex's fingerprints were not on the knife left at the scene, but they were on the phone."

"So she dialed 911." Esposito updated that notation on the board with a check. "Again, makes sense. She wanted to make sure his body was found."

Beckett closed the folder and tossed it onto her desk. "The rest of the report matches most other Shadow Fox scenes. No forensics telling us where she came from or where she was heading. Were you able to follow her to a destination, Ryan?"

He shook his head. "No. I was able to follow her for a while, but she slipped into Central Park. I wasn't able to find where she came out."

"I wasn't really holding out much hope of that." Beckett leaned back in her chair. "Unfortunately, I think the case is just heading for the stack unless anyone else has something to chase down."

Ryan raised his hand. "Last night before I left, I thought I saw Alex on footage from before Locken's murder. I was going to screen more of the footage to see if I could find out where she started. Tory was going to help."

"Good. Let me know what you find." Beckett handed the forensics folder to Esposito. "Follow up on this. Anything looks odd, have them double check it. I'm going to check in with Lanie again and see if she has anything new," she noticed Gates beckoning to her, "after I meet with Gates."

The meeting with Gates ended up just being an update meeting so the Captain would know where they were with everything. Within a few minutes Beckett and Castle were heading down to the morgue to see if Lanie had anything new for them. Lanie was busy sewing up the torso of the victim on her table, but he appeared to be missing the top of his head. Beckett and Castle waited outside until Lanie had drawn a sheet over the victim, hiding him from view.

She stripped off her gloves as they came through the door. "There's not much more I can tell you about Locken."

Castle looked confused. "People aren't allowed to just drop by anymore?"

"Usually the only people who drop in to see me are dead ones, obvious exceptions being Javier and Kate. Just dropping by is something she does. If you're here with her, the dropping by is for a case."

Castle smiled. "Guilty."

Beckett gestured to the body. "Who's that?"

Lanie shook her head and deposited her gloves in a biohazard trashcan. "No idea yet. I only just put his prints in. He looked like he might have been a jumper initially, but he was actually shot first and then pushed."

Castle put a hand on his own head. "Is that why the top of his head is missing?"

Lanie nodded. "I had to get the bullet out. 9mm, pretty badly damaged and his brain and skull proved it."

Beckett had spotted the rest of the victim's skull on a tray. "It ricocheted?"

"Yep. I'm making an impression of the bone to try and figure out the initial trajectory." Lanie's computer beeped. "That should be my I.D." She fetched the report. "His name is Marcus Johnson. He was in the military, dishonorably discharged. I'll let Detective Messer know."

"Detective Messer?"

"Yeah, you know her?"

"No."

Lanie added the I.D. printout to the victim's folder. "She said her partner's name was Greenaway."

Beckett nodded. "Elle Greenaway, yeah, I know her. She's a good cop."

"Yes, she is. Do you remember what happened to the partner before Messer?"

"He went into the FBI. Last I heard he works with Agent Sorenson."

Lanie nodded. "That sounds right. I knew I'd heard something like that. If you want, I can take another look at Locken, but don't expect too much. What am I looking for anyway?"

"Something that can tell us where Alex came from or was headed."

"I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks, Lanie."

Hours later…

By the end of the day the team had still come up with nothing new. The video footage Ryan had found last night saw Alex coming out of a park, but there was no sign of her going in. Esposito had reviewed the forensics report and come up empty too. Lanie also struck out on her end. Beckett finally had to admit they were still no closer to catching Alex. The folder was added to the pile of Shadow Fox cases on Beckett's desk and the information on the board was photographed and added to the box of evidence for storage. Beckett shut down her workspace that night with an unwanted thought. Next time.

Meanwhile…

Alex was pacing the apartment. The lights were dim, shining from only a couple bulbs spread around the apartment. A knife was held loosely in her fingers and she was wiggling it agitatedly at her side. Just a few moments ago, she'd noticed that a car on the street contained two men she'd seen at The Gentleman's compound during her last visit, which meant he was keeping close tabs on her. Just as I expected.

Alex stopped near the window again and glared down at the street again. They were still there. Still watching to make sure she would kill Detective Beckett and Candace "Hard Candy" Robinson. Well, she'd make sure they got what they wanted if it meant she had a chance of getting what she wanted. It was Beckett's fault she was in this position anyway. If Beckett hadn't been so smart and kind and good, I wouldn't have had such a hard time killing her when the contract came in.

Alex whipped around, her arm whistling through the air to throw the knife to the other side of the room. The throw was perfect and the knife tip was embedded in the wall, piercing a picture she had posted there. Alex walked by the picture on her way to bed, noticing with satisfaction that the knife's point of impact was right in Detective Beckett's heart.

A/N: And that's it for this case. I will probably be taking next week off from posting so I can finish typing up the next set of chapters. Until then, you can check out my new story if you haven't already. It is for CSI and is titled "What Happened at the Forensics Conference." You can also leave a comment below! Thanks!