Title: The Fifth Bullet

By: greygoose70

AN: This is going to be my follow-up story to When the Bough Breaks, P3, instead of Sucker Punch. I may continue SP at a later date, but right now I like this story better. Sorry for the confusion.

The Precinct

Beckett put the finishes touches to her report, printed and signed it then stuck it in her outbox. She shut off her PC, grabbed her coat from the back of her chair and headed for the elevator. She hadn't gone but three steps when she heard her phone ring. "No, please," she moaned, "don't be a dead body." She returned to her desk and picked up the receiver giving the caller her usual greeting, "Beckett."

It was dispatch giving her the location of a dead body. She told the caller "thanks, she'd be there in twenty," then called Castle with the information.

Beckett pulled up and parked in front of Eden Art Gallery, the location given to her by dispatch. She exits her cruiser and finds Castle kneeling next to a dog. "Hey Castle," she says, "who's your friend?"

"Don't know," he answered, then looking around gave her a kiss to her cheek. "I found him tied up here when I arrived."

Beckett blushed and let out a gasp when she felt Castle kiss her cheek. She is tempted to grab him and thoroughly kiss him back just like she did in the precinct stairwell when he left earlier to get some writing done. Oh, why not, no one's around to see us except the dog, and he isn't going to tell anyone, goes through her mind…so she does. When she finally releases him she says breathlessly, "Let's go."

When they arrive at the scene of the crime, Beckett goes over to where Lanie is knelt next to the corpse. "Hey Lanie. What can you tell me?"

Castle meanwhile seeks out Ryan and Esposito

"Victim is Victor Fink, owns the art gallery, 43 years old, shot in the back twice, looks to be a 9mil."

"Thanks Lanie," then goes to meet up with the rest of her team. She's just a half dozen steps away from where Ryan, Espo and Castle are standing when she is met by John Edison, lead CSU technician, who tells her his group has an interesting puzzle.

"And what would that be," she asks.

"Well, we've found five shell casings, but only four bullets - two in the victim and two embedded in the wall. But no fifth bullet.

"That is interesting. Keep me abreast if you find it."

"Okay guys, that's all we can do here tonight. Let CSU and Lanie complete their work, then we can get a fresh start in the morning." she states when she reached where her team had gathered"

Once they are back on the street and alone Kate turned to Rick and said, "I'm going to head back to the precinct, make a couple of phone calls then sleep at my place tonight. I know was going to spend the night…"

"It's okay," Rick said interrupting her. "I want to get some more writing done anyway. I'll just grab a cab." He then took her hand, pulled her to him and kissed her.

"You're wonderful, you know that," she said when that separated.

"Just keep telling me. Now go," he replied giving her one more brief kiss then stepped to the curb and hailed down the next passing taxi.

It was three hours later that he received her text telling him she was home.

9am, The Precinct the following morning

Castle stepped off the elevator carrying his usual two cups of coffee and a pastry bag. "Good morning detective," he said sitting the items on her desk then taking his place in his chair.

Beckett quickly snatched the cup bearing her name and took a long swallow savoring the hot liquid as it travelled past her lips and down her throat, then gave him an appreciative smile saying "thanks." She then opened the bag, removed the still warm bearclaw wondering how he kept it warm as she pulled off a claw and popped it in her mouth.

Castle marveled at the smile he was able to put on her face just by supplying her with the sugary substance she craved, it was one of the simple things he loves, yes, loves, about her.

Swallowing the last bite of the bearclaw and washing it down with a drink of coffee she finally spoke telling Castle that Mrs. Fink should be in shortly so they could interview her. Those words were no sooner spoken when LT arrived at Beckett' desk telling her Angelica Fink was here. She told LT to seat her in the conference room.

Beckett and Castle enter the conference room and with one look at the distraught Mrs. Fink can tell she has probably been up most, if not all night. Beckett introduces herself and Castle, and telling her they are "sorry for her loss."

"How could someone do this," Angelica asked through occasional sobs and hiccups. Castle observes the woman's actions and removes himself from the room returning shortly with a bottle of water for the her. She thanks him then twists off the cap and takes a long slow drink.

Beckett remained silent, waiting for Castle' return and for Mrs. Fink to finish her drink ,then asked her, "Mrs. Fink, can you think of anyone your husband might have had a problem with? A buyer or seller, an employee."

Mrs. Fink's eyes suddenly got wide then blurted out, "Rocco Jones.

"Who's Rocco Jones?" Beckett asks.

"He was Victor's previous assistant. They got into an argument a couple of months ago and Victor fired him. Rocco swore he'd get back at him."

They didn't get anything further from Mrs. Fink, so Beckett let her leave. Beckett returned to her desk where Ryan and Esposito reported that Fink's phone records show he received a phone call from a blocked number that originated in New York. It was an international cell number registered to Bahrain Cellular.

As Ryan and Espo returned to their desks Ryan was approached by LT and after conversing for several minutes Ryan went to follow him, but when catching Castle' gaze, Ryan signaled for Castle to come along.

Beckett watched as Castle got up to go with Ryan then turned back to her PC and wrote something down on a post-it note. Calling out to Espo she handed him the note, told him to grab an officer and pick up Rocco Jones and bring him in.

Ryan and Castle joined LT in the conference room where he tells them about the man in there with him was picked up outside the Eden Art Gallery, but when questioned by the officers, the guy had no idea of why he was there or who he was. LT handed a bag to Ryan telling him this was all the stranger had on him.

Ryan took the bag and opened it which consisted of a keyring with only one key, a small plastic grocery sack and a book, Crime and Punishment. Ryan begins flipping through the pages when he finds it, "Hey Castle," he says, "I think we found the fifth bullet."

Ryan took the book, with the bullet still lodged in it, out to Beckett telling her about the man with amnesia. "Take it down to John in CSU," she says, "see if it matches the others. I'll go in with Castle."

With no idea as to how address the stranger she decides to just go with 'sir' and began posing questions. "Sir, do you know why you were at the art gallery last night?" When she gets a "no, he doesn't remember being at any gallery," she moves on asking, "do you know who shot you?" Again she gets a "no," in response. Beckett tries a different approach and asks him "what his favorite food is." She can tell that surprised him, but from the blank look on his face she's almost sure of the answer she's going to get, and she gets it.

"I don't know," he says.

Beckett sighs, looks over at Castle a look of frustration on her face. "I'm going to call in Doctor Holloway. I need to get a better handle on this amnesia." Beckett stepped out in the hall to make the call returned a few minutes later telling Castle "Holloway was already in the building, would be up in a few minutes."

Doctor Holloway walked into the room ten minutes later, greeted everyone then took a seat. Beckett instantly began explaining to him what the problem was.

"Well, there are several types of amnesia, but what you have been able to describe I'd have to say it is episodic amnesia."

"And that is," Castle said.

"It is a type of retrograde memory loss that can last from hours to days or even years. During episodes of this type of memory loss, patients are unable to recall their personal information, and any recent as well as distant memories are lost."

"What about other types of memory," Castle asked, as a sudden thought came to him.

"Why? Do you have something else in mind," Beckett enquired.

"Yeah, I do," he replied pulling a pen from his inside jacket pocket. "Lend me your pad."

Beckett slid her pad over to Castle, he immediately push the items over to their subject saying, "write down your name."

The man took the pen in his hand and without hesitating wrote something down on the pad then shoved it to Castle. Castle took one look at what was written and his face contorted.

"What is it Castle? What does it say"?

"Impossible to say, Beckett, the only thing I can make out is the first letter which looks like a 'J'," then handing her the pad.

Beckett stared at the scribbling briefly then passed the pad over to Holloway who after analyzing the signature said, "It's called muscle memory. He has probably had to sign something so often that the muscles in his hand automatically remember what to do."

"Okay, how about we just call you Jay for now," Beckett said directing her attention to the unknown gentleman seated there with them.

"Good as anything," he answered.

It wasn't until after lunch that Espo and Hastings returned with Rocco Jones, they immediately stuck him in one of the interrogation rooms. Beckett waited an additional thirty minutes before going in to question him. After covering the basics she got around to asking him what the argument was about that got him fired.

"Because I wanted a bigger cut of the action and Fink wasn't willing to give me one," Jones responded.

"What action are you talking about?" Beckett asked.

"Fink paid me to paint forgeries of high-end paintings that Fink would then sell as originals."

"Did Fink have any particular customer he sold these forgeries to."

"Yeah, Bahir Huran. He's some type of high ranking attaché at the Bahrain consulate."

Beckett rose from her seat and exited the room instructing the guard at the door to lock Jones in a holding cell until his alibi could be checked. He is Afterall a suspect in the murder of Victor Fink.

Beckett and Castle pushed open the double glass doors of the Bahrain Consulate located on the 14th Floor at 866 2nd Avenue, entered and walked up to the large semi-circled counter where Beckett showed the girl there her badge and asked to see Bahir Huran.

"I'm sorry but Mr. Huran isn't here right now," the girl answered.

"Do you know when he will return," Beckett then enquired.

"That's hard to say, he is in a meeting at the UN which could run well into the night."

"Very well, please tell him the NYPD wishes to talk with him," Beckett replied handing the girl one of her cards.

It was just 6pm. Beckett and Castle were in the breakroom along with Jay trying to figure a way to identify him. they had already tried fingerprints, but that was a bust, they tried running his picture through the DMV but evidently he never applied for a driver's license either. Finally Castle came up with an idea, send Jay's photo to all the television stations, see if anyone could ID him, have them call the precinct. Being out of options Beckett agreed it was worth a shot.

Now, what to do with Jay for the night, they could put him in one of the holding cell but the only thing to lay on in there would be the metal bench, not too comfortable at all.

It was LT who supplied the answer for them when he came in carrying a blanket and pillow. "He can sleep in here on the couch, duty officer can keep an eye on him," he said handing the items to Jay.

"That works," Castle said then added, "so what do say we head across the street, see what Bernice has on the dinner menu. "You're invited to Jay, let's go."

The Loft

Kate woke to the smell of coffee, she wiped the sleep from her eyes and checked the time, 5:50am, so she rolled out of Castle' sinfully comfortable bed and made for the ensuite to wash her face and brush her teeth. She located her robe on the end of the bed, put it on and headed for the kitchen where she found Alexis busy making pancakes. "Morning Lexi," she said just as the girl turned and set a hot vanilla latte on the counter in front of her.

"Good morning to you too, Kate," Alexis replied, "breakfast will be ready in a few minutes, I just need to finish frying the bacon."

"Where's your dad," Kate asked, not seeing him around anywhere.

"Oh, he left for the precinct about an hour ago."

"Why didn't he wake me?"

"Just said you need your rest but if you weren't up by six for me to wake you."

"Yeah, he is nice like that."

"And yet you occasionally sleep in the same bed with him, so tell me have you two done the deed yet."

"Alexis Castle! Kate all but shouted, which brought a roar of laughter from Alexis. "We've only been seeing each other for a month and have decided to take it slow."

"Well, don't go too slow, from what I've seen you two are meant to be together."

Alexis turned back to the stove, placed two strips of crispy bacon on a plate along the side of the two banana pancakes already there, turned and set the plate in front of Kate. "Dad also said you don't eat a healthy breakfast, so dig in."

The Precinct

Beckett stepped off the elevator immediately going in search of Castle. She found him in the breakroom with Jay and Karpowski, a donut in his hand ready to take a bite. "You call that a healthy breakfast, Castle," she said loud enough so that everyone in the room heard her.

"Come on Jay," Karpowski said, "I don't think you want to be in here for what's about happen next," then got up off her stool and headed for the door, Jay in pursuit after her.

"Beckett," Castle uttered swallowing the remains of his donut.

"Castle, if we weren't in the precinct right now I'd kiss you. Oh hell why not," she proclaimed then took his face in the palms of her hands leaned in and assaulted his lips with hers.

Castle grabbed Beckett at the waist and pulled her close to him began giving as much as he was getting. He didn't know for sure what brought this on but he didn't care, Beckett was kissing him, here, in the precinct breakroom and that's all that mattered.

"Yo, Beckett," they heard someone that sounded like Esposito shout, so the instantly separated.

"What is it, Espo? Beckett asked clearly disgusted that her make out session with Castle had been interrupted.

"There's a woman out here clamouring, "where's my husband," Espo said as he walked into the room.

"Jay," they declared simultaneously then went sprinting for the bullpen.

"Hello, I'm Detective Beckett, and you are…"

"The man on the TV is Joel Westchester, my husband, where is he," the woman interrupted her voice still an octave or two above normal.

"He is in the conference room, come we'll take you to him," Beckett says.

"What is your name," Castle asks as they make way for the conference room.

"Tory Westchester," she answers.

"How long have you and Joel been married?"

"Two years," she replies. Then just as they enter the conference room and Tory sees Jay, she rushes to him, wraps her arms around his neck and begins kissing him.

Suddenly Jay starts having an asthma attack and begins backing away. Castle steps up to Tory and sniffs then says, "Mrs. Westchester, do you have cats?"

"Yes, eight. Why?"

"Because it's clearly evident that Jay here is allergic to them; he's not your husband is he?"

"He could be," she admonishes.

"Get her out of here," Beckett ordered. "I'm sorry about that, Jay, we won't let it happen again.

It's barely an hour later that Beckett is informed that Mr. Harun is here to see her. She is somewhat surprised, she really thought that he would never show himself. She knows she needs to be careful with him, he is foreign dignitary, so after introducing herself and Castle, she leads him to the conference room where he will be more comfortable. The first question she asks him is of his relationship with Victor Fink.

"I have on occasion purchased paintings from Mr. Fink," he replied.

"When was the last time you purchased a painting," Beckett enquired.

"He called me night before last told me had a painting for me. I went to see him but when I arrived he was arguing with someone so he sent me away."

"Do you know what the argument was about or who he was arguing with?"

"No, I couldn't hear what they were saying, nor did I recognize the other man."

"Was this man there," placing a picture of Jay in front of him.

Harum picked up the photo, studied it for a moment then said, "Yes detective he was. That is the man Fink was arguing with."

"Was anyone else there?"

"There was one other person but he was too far away and I never got to see his face."

"Can you describe him?"

"Medium height, dark brown or black hair, was wearing jeans and a short tan leather jacket."

"Thank you for coming in Mr. Harum, you can go."

After Harum left, Beckett and Castle sat studying the murder board. Suddenly Castle blurted out, "the dog."

"What about him," Beckett said.

"Actually the dog was female, but she belonged to Jay."

"What make you think that?"

"Jay had a plastic grocery bag in his pocket. He would use it to pick up the dog's poop, and CSU found dog hair on Jay's coat. Come on Beckett, we need to get to Animal Control"

At Animal Control they find the dog is still there, from the tag on her collar they learn her name is Lucy and she belongs to Jeremy Prestwick.

At the front desk Castle pays for any fees and purchases a leash, he and Beckett then take Lucy back to the precinct where the instant Lucy spots Jay she runs over to him. Jay squats down and pets the dog, says, "hey sweety, what's your name."

"Her name is Lucy," Castle tells him.

"And yours is Jeremy," Beckett says, "Jeremy Prestwick."

A quick search provides Beckett with an address and a divorce decree from a Emma Carnes. Beckett calls Ms. Carnes and asks her to come to the precinct. When Emma arrives and sees Jeremy she immediately goes to him and gives him a hug, which Jeremy returns. "They tell me were married," he says when they separate. Emma just nods and whispers "yes, we were."

Beckett asked Emma to go with she and Castle to Jeremy's apartment. Emma agrees so she can pick up some of Lucy's things and take the dog back to her place.

Emma having collected Lucy's things was roaming around in the spacious living room when she spots a painting. "That's the painting we bought on our honeymoon in Siene Italy," she says to Castle who is there with her. "Jeremy was supposed to have sold it as part of our divorce settlement. I have already received my half of the money." Going over to get a closer look she suddenly says, "this is a copy."

"How do you know that," Castle asked going to get a better look himself.

"There should have been a thumbprint in the upper right hand corner where Jeremy inadvertently picked it up while the paint was still wet."

Meanwhile Beckett was in the office going through file drawers and cabinets where she finds a 9mm pistol, she checks the magazine sees that five bullets are missing, so she bags it in order to give it to CSU.

Back at the precinct the weapon is confirmed as the one that killed Fink. Beckett has no choice now but to arrest Jeremy for the murder of Victor Fink.

Castle is at his wits end, he cannot believe Jeremy is the murderer, and he is telling Beckett so. Beckett recanting that she had to go with the evidence. "And what evidence would that be," he asked.

"He was seen arguing with Fink, we found the murder weapon in his apartment."

"That's not enough. What did Jeremy do, shoot himself? CSU checked his clothing, didn't find any GSR."

Beckett had to agree that Castle had valid points, and to be honest with herself she didn't want to see Jeremy convicted for Fink's murder either. "Come on, Castle, let's go back to Jeremy's apartment, we're missing something."

Jeremy's Apartment Building

"Welcome back detective," the doorman said greeting Beckett and Castle as they entered. "Going back to Mr. Prestwick's apartment."

"Yes, why," Beckett answered.

"Well you're the second people that have been up to his apartment today."

"Who was the first?" Beckett enquired

"Said his name was Darius Langley, Mr. Prestwick's cousin. He was here this morning before your fist visit."

"What did this Darius fellow look like?"

"Five-six or seven, dark hair, wore jeans and a tan jacket."

"That's the same description Harun gave," Castle declared.

"We need to talk to Harun again," Beckett stated then turned and told the doorman "thanks, he had been very helpful."

Beckett pulled her cruiser to a stop behind the black towncar that was double parked in front of 866 2nd Avenue just as Huran was coming out the door.

"Mr. Huran," Beckett says as she gets out of her car, "raise your hands, your under arrest."

"What for," He asked.

"Suspicion of murder and receiving stolen property."

"I'm afraid I can't honor your request detective, you see I have diplomatic immunity granted to me by the United States government."

Beckett stands there momentarily troubled, his immunity status means she can't arrest him for anything, not for receiving stolen property and definitely not for murder, but then she has an epiphany. "That may be true, but this car doesn't, and it is double parked giving me the right to search it."

"Really," the astonished driver says.

"Yes, really. Now open the trunk.

The driver reaches inside and pops open the trunk, Beckett instantly begins scouring through the contents until she finds it, the original painting from Jeremy's apartment.

"I purchased that painting legally," Huran says, then adds, "it is why I was in the gallery that night, to have Fink get me the original. The next morning Fink's assistant brought me the original and I paid him for it."

"Did this assistant have a name?" Beckett asked.

"Darius Langley," Huran answered.

"Well, I'm still going to take this painting in as evidence," Beckett tell him as she removes the painting then turns back to get in her cruiser. Just as she is ready to get in an NYPD blue and white pulls to a stop. Beckett flashes her badge to the uniformed officer who lowers his window and asks "what's up detective."

Beckett request he use his onboard computer to get her an address for Darius Langley. The officer typed in the name and moments later she has a printout of the address and a description of Langley.

Beckett knocks on the door at the address she has been given. When it opens she sees a young man who fits the description on her printout. "Darius Langley?" She asked just to be sure it was him."

"Yes," he replied.

"Detective Beckett, NYPD," showing him her badge, and this is Mr. Castle. We'd like for you to come with us."

"What for," Langley enquires."

"Just some routine questions about a murder."

"Okay, let me get my coat but is this going to take very long, I have a class in an hour."

"Are you an art student? Castle asked.

"Me. No. Philosophy. Art is my roommates strong suit."

"And who is your roommate," Beckett said.

"George Heller."

"Where can we find him?"

"He's at the gallery helping pack up paintings."

"The Eden Gallery," Castle states.

"Yeah," Langley says.

"Thanks Darius, you've been more help than you know. Come on Castle."

Beckett sprints up the stairs where she espies George Heller, alias Darius Langley busy wrapping up a painting. She calls out to him using his real name, George Heller.

Heller snapped up, saw the female detective headed his way, he dropped whatever he had been holding and spun around to make his escape via the rear stairway and exit. Unfortunately for a him Beckett and Castle had anticipated such a move, so Castle was waiting for him.

Heller skidded to a stop, turned and came face-to-face with Beckett' Glock 9mm pistol.

Beckett turned Heller around, cuffed him, then transported him to the 12th Precinct and deposited him in an interrogation room. An hour later she went in and got Heller to confess to killing Fink and shooting Jeremy, then switching out the paintings and selling the one to Huran.

Meanwhile, as Beckett was getting Heller's confession Castle was busy getting Jeremy released from custody and calling Emma, have her come to the precinct and bring Lucy.

When Beckett finally immerged from the interrogation room with a signed confession and Heller was escorted to booking she went looking for Castle finally finding him in the conference room along with Jeremy, Emma and Lucy. She noticed that Jeremy and Emma sat side by side and were holding hands. "Well look at you two. Do I see a budding romance going on here," she said with a genuine smile gracing her face.

"I may not remember her, but I think I want to learn to love her all over again, And we were married once," Jeremy replied squeezing Emma's hand a little tighter and giving her a knowing smile.

"I believe Jeremy needs me now more than ever, and I want to be there for him. I still love him. I think we deserve a second chance," Emma added.

"Well, good luck to both of you," Castle stated.

"I agree," Beckett said.

"Think they will make it this time," Castle said as Jeremy and Emma walked out, Lucy taking up the space between them.

"Yeah, I do," Beckett replied.

Later at Kate' apartment, she and Rick sat on the sofa eating Chinese takeout. Kate set her empty sweet n' sour chicken container on the coffee table and scooted next to Rick. "How many second chances do you think we will need," she said while placing kisses to his cheek.

"None," he responded setting down his container also, "because we are going to it right the first time." He then wrapped her in a hug and kissed her with a passion that told her so.

AN: I'm going to take a break from this series for the time being. I have a couple of stories I need to finish first, but believe me when I say I will continue with their story, at least how I want it to play out.