Previously:

"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.

The call came in just as most of the other teams of detectives (who had closed their cases for the day) were glancing at the clock every two seconds to see whether they could officially sign off for the day. She had been sitting at her desk for the time period in-between reading and rereading the information she had in the hopes of finding anything helpful. It had gotten to the stage that she could have recited it almost word for word. Hearing it ring she picked it up before the ring could end and said her usual 'Beckett'. The person one the other side of the line introduced himself. "Hey, it's Duncan from the 21st, about the case we just caught."

"What do you have for me?"

"Boss thinks it fits your case parameters, and is wondering if you wanted to come have a look either tonight or early tomorrow morning. I think he would happily hand this one over to you…it's quite…you know horrific. More kids dead, what is the world coming to?"

"Alright thanks, I am about done for the day over here so I might come by on the way home. What's the address?"

After getting the address Kate hung up and gathered up all the paperwork and grabbed her coat. Seeing she was packing up Ryan and Esposito followed suit. Castle had already left an hour before to prepare for a TV interview.

The apartment building on 157 West 57th Street was incredible. It must be one of the most expensive buildings to live in in all of New York. Just to get in the door she had to show her badge, as well as name the lead detective who was then called to the elevator up to the 75th floor, she was stuck with how much a juxtaposition the two scenes were. Perhaps they weren't related at all, though she never did believe in coincidences.

They were waiting for her to have a look before they got Perlmutter to take the bodies back to the morgue. Depending on the outcome of her looking the scene over, it might be Lanie awaiting their arrival.

Stepping through the lavish front door she was overwhelmed by the space in front of her. She thought she had seen it all when she had stepped into Castle's loft for the first time; but this place made his seem...well like hers. Not that her apartment was bad, it was actually pretty amazing for her price range, it just wasn't anywhere near the same league as his. Her amazement at the penthouse was ruined by the blood trail leading around a corner.

Following it, she entered a grand dinning room. At the table sat the family of five staring glassy eyed at the one empty chair. Once again the sick bastard was alluding to the fact that someone was obviously missing. Strangely they had all been killed differently. The mother had her throat slit, the father strangled, the eldest of, at her guess, around 12 had had her arms slit until she had died from loss of blood and last identical twins of about 6 had had been stabbed in the chest multiple times as if the murderer had lost his temper and snapped.

Getting the run down from Perlmutter, she looked around the room taking in every detail. There is a family portrait on the west wall, in it they are all smiling and laughing, including the now missing boy. The stark difference in the two scenes is horrifying. Why would anyone target what looked like a perfectly happy family?

She was broken out of her musings by the lead detective's deep resounding voice "So...what do you think? You going to be taking this one off my hands?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure this is our guy. How about we get Lanie to take a look to see if she can get any evidence that links them and if not we work it out from there?"

"Sounds like a plan. Names Daniel Vanderbelt. Call me if you need anything. I'll have them send all the evidence we packed to you. See you around Beckett. Have fun with this one."

As he had been speaking the bodies had been prepped for travel. Deciding that it would be valuable to see into the lives these people had been living, and well it wasn't everyday that she had the chance to see one of the most expensive apartments in New York; she started looking around.

It was even larger than she first imagined, six bedrooms, six bathrooms, a small library, two studies, a games room, immense kitchen and living room and of course the beautiful dining room were all included. Seriously the place was massive for a relatively small family. She soon found herself standing in the missing boys room. Looking around she saw a stack of school books on his desk, all with the name James on the front. Flicking through, she saw that just like Amelia this kid was exceptionally smart. He had multiple pre-med books, advanced maths, English, the works. Glancing around the room she was struck by the mass amount of photos of him and his friends covering the walls. He was the exact opposite in that account to Amelia. It was then that she was overcome with the realization. No it couldn't be...it just couldn't could it? It was impossible, that had happened years ago and she had left it behind. No one else knew about it. Expect for him.