Disclaimer: Don't own it, never will

Previously:

As soon as she stepped out of the elevator, she was called into the tech-room where Esposito, Ryan and Tory were waiting with surveillance from an ATM across the street. Castle was once again camera footage showed no one entering or exiting the building other than Mrs Francis on her way to the shops, however there was evidence of tampering. Even Tory looked impressed by the work that had obviously been done to hide the evidence. There was however one piece that clearly gave the footage away as being tampered with and that piece was a still shot of what Kate could only assume as being Amelia with a blind covering her facial features and the words "Find me Kate!"

Kate had no idea how to react; somehow they knew she would get the case that was the only explanation. Someone obviously had seen the recent article featuring photos of both herself and Natalie Rhodes, under the guise of Heat Wave being made into a movie. Getting Tory to analyze every single aspect of image, she also sent Esposito to the kids school to get details about why they would be targeted. Ryan she sent to look into photo and bank details. She herself headed back to her desk to look through the kids' background information.

Two hours later they hadn't gotten anywhere and Kate was about to go grab lunch for her team, when Castle walked in carrying bags of what smelt like Chinese and a coffee. Handing her the coffee he rushed past her into the break room where he was quickly followed by both Esposito and Ryan.

He was ignoring her, and she really couldn't deal with it anymore. The coffee did help though. She never could understand how his coffees always tasted better than when she got them herself. Taking her first sip, she decided to go join the boys for lunch. Castle seemed to have gotten his emotions under control and he and the boys were joking around as usual; though he seemed to be ignoring her to such a degree that the others wouldn't find anything suspicious. Halfway through her Chow Mein, she got the expected call from Lanie. Putting the rest aside, she grabbed her jacket and called out "Hey Castle, you coming?" and strode toward the elevator without waiting for an answer. Just as the doors were coming to a close Castle's hand shot through stopping them in their tracks. Hopping in beside her, she realized, he was avoiding even looking at her.

All the way to the morgue he was silent and determinedly staring out the window. Having had enough, right before entering she pulled him aside and even though she really wanted to pull his ear to force him to look at her she acknowledged that it was probably not really appropriate. She instead settled for grabbing his chin and forcing it up until his eyes met hers. With this done she said "Castle, I understand that the scene was hard for you, I get it and I would totally understand if you wanted to sit this one out and in fact I would rather it if you don't or can't pull yourself together. I can't deal with your mood swings when someone has made this case personal. I mean they are putting the blame on me through that photo; if I don't solve it and find Amelia then the media will see it as my fault. And yes the media is already involved; it is pretty hard to hide the fact that 10 children have been brutally murdered and that one has been taken. Okay? So make up your mind either you walk back out of here until this case is over and we put this behind us or your change your mindset and actually be a help rather than a hindrance. However, if you want to stay but can't handle seeing…what's inside then you can wait out here for me." And with her rant complete she pushed through the doors.

There on slab after slab were 10 little bodies, it was heartbreaking. Cases with kids involved were always harder and this one even more so. Hadn't these kids faced enough, the struggles of not having families, the tormenting feelings of not being wanted or the loss of their families? Lanie had her back to her washing her hands. Turning to look at her she launched into her spiel of information.

Taking notes, she was so focused on the task at hand that she didn't hear the doors open, it was only when Lanie's tone changed and she said "Hey Castle, what took ya so long?"

That she realized he had entered the room. To which he replied "Oh, you know, books to write, people to see, thought s to think" the last said with a meaningful glance towards her.

Slightly annoyed that she hadn't noticed, she quite harshly said "Do you have anything else?" and then seeing Castle's upset face (obviously he thought she didn't want him there; which was the complete opposite) she added "sorry this case is getting to me" and to ensure he understood she gave him an apologetic smile.

It seemed that Lanie had left the most important piece of information once again for last; as there on 12 year old Allies arm was another message. There written in the inside of her arm were the words

"10 little bodies dead in a row,

one is missing.

Who? You should know,

Soon there will be 5,

and then another.

This one will join the first,

and then they will be together"

Creepy much?" Castle's voice broke through her reading it through for the tenth time. It didn't make much sense in the reasoning of it. Yes, it was clear that he meant to kill again and that he would take another. But the line about them being together, that had her stumped; why would they force two people together that didn't know each other. That gave her a thought. Calling Esposito she sent him off to see if there was anyone in Amelia's life that someone would want to set up with her, as well as past boyfriends, love interests, crushes and the like. Ryan she sent out to find out if the psychopath had already acted and search for cases of five people being murdered.

Once she got off the phone Castle spoke up "Where to now, Beckett?"

"Back to Mrs Francis' to see if she can give any insight into all this."

Two hours later back at the precinct Kate was updating the whiteboard. Yes, whiteboard, no matter how much Castle pushed murder-board, it always seemed insensitive. Mrs Francis didn't have any information on the next target, however she had managed to find a photo of Amelia as a four month old. In it showed a smiling little chestnut haired baby, lying flat in a crib with a teddy bear bigger than her laying beside her. Mrs Francis said it was the only one that she had managed to protect from the whirlwind of a twelve year old Amelia who decided that she hated all photos with her in it. Mrs Francis never had found out what had happened to provoke the frenzy and where the photos disappeared to. It wasn't much but at least they had something to put up other then the haunting photo of her with a blindfold covering her features. She also added the time of death and images of Allies arm, as well as other relevant information that she got from Lanie. Just as she was finishing up Ryan and Esposito arrived back from their assignments.

Turning to give her full attention to them she noticed Castle walking out of the break-room holding two coffees. Handing it to her, he leaned back on the desk next to her. Once the boys realized they were waiting for them they jumped into their spiel. Esposito started "Found no past boyfriends, but plenty of people wanting to be, supposedly she was the kind of girl everybody wanted but was to afraid to ask. The girl who everybody thought was out of their league leaving her feeling like she wasn't good enough. Anyway, there wasn't any obvious stalkers, no real enemies, everyone seemed to have something positive to say about her. I also asked for a photo but she has managed to avoid any photos being put in the school systems either. None of her friends had photos with her either. Amelia seems to have managed to have not had a photo taken of her since she was 12 and those she had a friend hack into the system and delete."

Ryan then jumped in with "So basically you got nothing?"

"Did you get any better? This girl is a ghost."

"Yeah, actually I did. The 21st got a call not ten minutes ago with a report of a homicide of a family of five. I asked them to let us know if anyone was missing from the family and if so if it would be alright if we took a look as it might be related to ours. They said yes. So there Esposito!"

Before Esposito could retaliate she jumped in with a "Good job guys"

and added 'family of five?' to the white board.

Sending the boys back to work she went back to her desk to look over the recent calls that Amelia had made, waiting for the 21st to call.