Wow, thanks Moby Dick. Sorry I kept you waiting. I better get working on the ending – looks like I'm gonna have to post it much sooner than I thought. :tongue:

It keeps getting better. Can't wait to see what comes next!

OK everyone, I finished the story last night and can't wait to share it with you all. Thanks so much for all your feedback. This is the longest piece of fiction I've written in a long time and am glad you're enjoying it. So here's part 3. Enjoy!

“Her cell phone that is,” Castle finished.

A collective inhale sounded through the car. Alexis and Jenny both clapped hands to their mouths in shock. Lanie looked like she would pass out.

“She didn’t leave her phone at the precinct or anywhere else did she?” Castle asked Ryan and Esposito.
“No.” They answered together.

“We looked around her dad’s place for clues to who may have…you know…but we didn’t find anything and Captain Montgomery cleaned out her desk and gave all her stuff to her Dad. He didn’t say anything about finding her phone,” Esposito explained.

Ryan added “And the bomb squad said it was never recovered from her apartment. Just like-”
“Just like her body,” Castle finished.

He looked at everyone in the limo with a combination of trepidation and hope. The looks on their faces told him what he had to do. He slowly raised his right hand to his ear and pressed the send button.

“Hello?”

Castle’s jaw dropped as the voice on the other end registered in his brain. It was her. Detective Kate Beckett was alive. No question about it. Unless…

“Kate?! What the…? Hold on, how do I know you’re actually Detective Beckett … My God it is you! Are…are you Ok? Wait, no, put her back on the phone! KATE!” The line went dead.

“Oh my God,” Martha muttered.

Without thinking another thought, Castle climbed out of the limo and screamed “Captain Montgomery!”

“Geez, Castle what is it?” Montgomery asked as he came over.

“Castle are you positive that was her?” Ryan said, having jumped out of the limo himself. “Remember the case you two worked where the murderer used a recording of the victim’s voice to get his fiancée to withdraw her entire family’s fortune?”

“Wait a minute, what the hell is going on?” Montgomery pushed. Castle showed him the list of received calls on his cell phone, with the call from Beckett’s cell listed at the top. The Captain’s face changed dramatically as he figured out what Castle was thinking.

“You’re not serious? You think she called you?” he asked.
“I don’t think, I know it was her,” Castle insisted. “She was whispering, but I know it was her.”
“How do you know? I mean Ryan’s right. The call could have been faked.” He asked.

“It’s not a fake, sir.” Esposito broke in. He was also standing outside the limo holding his own cell phone. His expression had changed dramatically. “She called me too.”

“She did what?!” Montgomery responded.

“Listen,” Esposito said and he activated the speaker phone on his cell to play a voice mail left for him about hour earlier. The men all stood with mouths agape as Beckett’s voice issued from the cell.

“Esposito, it’s Control Freak. Really. I have a message for you and Castle. Find me at the place out west where the dead rest. Good luck.”

“Control freak? Place out west where the dead rest?” Montgomery asked.

“When she and Castle here first started working together I told her that watching her, the control freak, work with someone she couldn’t control would be more fun than Shark Week,” Esposito answered, grinning sentimentally to himself. “The rest must be some kind of riddle.”

“Castle, what did she say to you?” Montgomery pressed.

“Whoever’s got her cut her message off, but when I asked how do I know it’s actually her, she said ‘Because I smell like cherries and you pull my pigtails.’” Castle said, his eyes getting emotional.

Montgomery, Ryan and Esposito all looked back at him like he’d just sprung an extra head, so Castle explained that he had once complimented Beckett on how she smelled like cherries, causing her to turn her head and the both of them to get dangerously close to a kiss, and how after her mother’s murderer was killed, she used the pigtails metaphor to express how she liked having him around.

“On each occasion we were both totally alone. No one else could have known what we said to each other – no one. It has to be her!” Castle made his point.

“What’s going on guys?” Jim Beckett now joined the group, apparently aware that something out of the ordinary was up. They all looked at each other, at a loss for how to explain what had just unfolded in the last few minutes. Captain Montgomery finally broke the silence.

“She’s alive, Mr. Beckett. She left a message for Esposito during the funeral and Castle actually spoke to her.”

“Really? You s-spoke to her?” Jim said, his voice catching briefly in his throat. It struck Castle that Jim wasn’t quite as happy or surprised as he would have expected, given that Kate was the only family he had left.

“Yes I did. And I’m convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was her.”
“So was I when I got her message.” Jim said.

“You got a voicemail from her too!?” Montgomery said, trying to keep up with all the people his supposedly-dead protégé had called during her own funeral. “What did she say?”

“That I should speak to Castle and Esposito before I did anything else and go wherever Castle goes.”

“Ok, that’s enough chatter guys,” Montgomery concluded. “Let’s get moving back to the precinct to try to figure out what the hell’s going on. Castle, Esposito, and Ryan you work on that riddle while I drive. Jim, you’re coming too.”

“Dad, what’s going on?” Alexis had poked her head outside the limo door. She, Martha, Lanie and Jenny had been trying to process the possibilities associated with what Castle had told them.

“It’ll take too long to explain, honey, and we need to go right now. But cross your fingers and toes that luck is on our side.” Castle quickly said and he kissed Alexis on her forehead, ran to Captain Montgomery’s waiting patrol car and hopped in.

In the driver’s seat, Captain Montgomery already had the engine running. Once Castle was safely in the back seat alongside Esposito and Ryan, and Jim Beckett was buckled in the front passenger seat next to Montgomery, he gunned the car out of the church parking lot and in the direction of the precinct.

“Alright, Castle what did she mean by ‘where the dead rest’?” Ryan began the riddle-solving.
“Could be a cemetery … or the M.E.’s office?” Esposito thought.
“You don’t suppose he’s got her on Lanie’s table?” Castle asked horrified. “Lanie would die.”
“Sorry. Bad pun.” Castle apologized after realizing why the guys were giving him the dirtiest of dirty looks.
“You could say that.” Ryan responded.
“Excuse me, but could we please focus on finding where my daughter is?” Jim implored.
“Right. So we have a cemetery, the M.E. … what about a funeral home?” Esposito thought.
“They all make sense, but how does that relate to the other half of the message – ‘the place out west’?” Ryan said.
“Something characteristic of the west…” Castle muttered to himself. “Could be anything – horses, cowboys, a stagecoach, West Virginia.”
“Or the sun” Jim put in.
“The sun?” Castle, Ryan, and Esposito said together.
“Yeah. I just noticed from the dashboard display that we turned west, straight into the sun – or the sunset, to be exact.” Jim explained.
“Of course!” Esposito said. “The sun sets in the west.”
“Castle, you got internet access on that gizmo you call a phone?” Montgomery asked.
“Are you kidding? I can practically adjust the rotation of the earth’s axis with this thing.”
“Well search for cemeteries or nursing homes named something like sunset in the New York area.”
“Got it.” Castle replied and his fingers flew over the tiny keys on his phone. The other guys waited with baited breath for the results.
“Yes! We got a match!” He exclaimed, practically jumping out of his seat. “Sunset Funeral Services. 164 West 136th Street.”
“Hang on everyone,” Montgomery commanded as he blared the siren, and made a sharp u-turn to head north from Manhattan.
“Ryan, Esposito – call in the big dogs on this. If this guy is sick enough to blow up Beckett’s apartment, and kidnap her and possibly an FBI agent, I want all the firepower in our corner. I swear if he harms a single hair on either woman’s head, he’s going down.” Castle had never seen such fire in Captain Montgomery’s eyes, nor heard such conviction in his voice.

After a flurry of phone calls from the two detectives, all was quiet in the car for the duration of the ride to the funeral home where, they all hoped, Beckett and the missing FBI agent were waiting. Ryan and Esposito had checked and re-checked their police-issued handguns and Montgomery had passed his to Castle for his and Jim Beckett’s protection.

Castle still wasn’t convinced the plan was a sound one, but on such short notice it was simple and the best they could do. Castle and Jim Beckett would go in to the funeral home wearing wires and search for Beckett. The rest of the police, plus a SWAT team and an FBI special operations team would watch and listen from vans outside. If either thought they were in over their heads, they’d just give a signal, and all personnel would go in.

When both men were wired up and everyone and everything was else in place, Montgomery pulled them aside. “Listen guys, I don’t have to tell you that this is gonna be tough if she’s in there. Just don’t do anything stupid. Get in, find them, get them out, and don’t get hurt. And don’t forget we’re right outside,” Montgomery cocked his gun, “locked and loaded.”

Both men nodded in agreement, Montgomery wished them luck and they exchanged fist bumps with Ryan and Esposito.

“Let’s do this, Jim.” Castle faced Beckett’s father.

“There’s no one else I’d rather have going in with me. Just wanted you to know.” Jim responded. They turned and entered the funeral parlor.

Even though it was almost completely dark inside, save for a lamp glowing at the foot of the only flight of stairs to a second story, Castle and Jim could see that the furnishings resembled your average Ikea family room featuring functional and comfortable, but sturdy furniture lacking a lot of ornamentation. Wall art with a setting sun hung on almost every wall, a subtle reminder to all visitors of the name of the business they were patronizing.

The front hallway was shaped like a short rectangle, longer lengthwise, with a hallway branching off either side leading to what Castle assumed were rooms where deceased loved one would be laid out. Castle imagined that if one was hovering directly over the building looking down at the layout of the hallways, they’d be reminded of a shape roughly resembling the Chevrolet cross emblem. The staircase sat at the far end of the rectangle.

“You think that lamp was left on for a reason?” Jim asked.
“More than likely. Either this person knew we were coming or they’re here and want to meet us,” Castle responded.
“Or both,” Jim added.

They looked at each other nervously, but knew the only way to end the whole thing was to play along with whoever was the mastermind of these crimes. They headed towards the stairs and began ascending, both with a slow, determined tread. Castle could only imagine what was going through Jim Beckett’s mind. He didn’t have the chance to try to save his wife, Beckett’s mother, and now here he was trying to save his daughter. If she was still alive, at least he’d have the chance to look her in the eye, maybe even say some last words.
Don’t think like that, Castle thought and he shoved those dark thoughts off to the back corners of his mind. She’s gonna be fine. We’re gonna find her, get her out of here, kick the crap out of the perp, and then she and I can be together. No more fooling around, no more games. Once she was safe, he would tell her his true feelings.

At the top of the stairs, there was a large, dark room off the hallway to their left and several rooms in the other direction to their right off a small sitting area. Another lone lamp was lit near the entrance to the closest room on their right.

Castle and Jim exchanged more tense, but meaningful looks, telegraphing to each other what the other already knew – that she had to be in there.

“You’re both thinking correctly,” a smooth voice answered. Now an average looking man with black hair wearing a long black top coat and dark pants stood next to the lamp with his hands in his pockets. “Both ladies are in here. Would you care to say hello?”

Castle and Jim looked at each other, confused. Both ladies?

“I can see your curiosity is piqued. Step right this way,” the man said as he stepped back and opened the double doors to the room with a flourish.

When Castle and Jim entered, they met almost total darkness. Castle could barely make out what looked like two long dressers along the far wall. After a few moments, the man flipped on the lights and after letting his eyes adjust to the brightness, Castle could only stare in horror at what really sat along the far wall of the room. There sat two caskets along the far wall equidistant from each other. One held a woman in a dark suit, with somewhat tanned skin and sandy blonde hair who looked to be asleep. In the other, Castle saw the familiar body, also seemingly asleep, of the beloved NYPD detective who had been his inspiration in so many ways, the woman who had tamed his womanizing tendencies, the woman who had stolen his heart from practically the day they had met – Detective Kate Beckett.

Omg can't wait for the end.

OMG! Really good writing! But Beckett dead? Breaks my heart! Is this the end? no added twist….

anyways I enjoyed it….you're a talented writer

OK, everyone. Here's the next part. Enjoy!

“Oh, my God, Katie!” Jim Beckett exclaimed and didn’t waste a minute running over to the casket where she laid, stroking her face, her hair and imploring her to wake up and speak to him.

Castle followed him to look over Beckett, barely able to maintain his composure, especially when he thought he saw tears forming in Jim’s eyes. He could make out some singed clothing and minor burns on her face, but for the most part she looked to be unhurt. After a minute or two, he headed over to check on the other woman. He shook one of her shoulders twice and failing to rouse her, he felt her neck for a pulse. It was faint, but there. He also noticed an FBI badge on her waistband. Could this be the FBI agent who had gone missing that Beckett had idly told him about a week ago? Beckett…

He returned to Kate’s side and immediately felt her neck for a pulse. It was stronger, but she showed no signs of consciousness. Before turning, Castle steeled himself for the impending confrontation. He could never remember feeling so angry, and yet so focused on what needed to be done.

“What in hell did you do to them?” he fairly growled at the man, who had removed his top coat and now wore a black suite and bow tie. Castle could tell he had been smirking to himself as he and Jim had had their backs turned.

“Have no fear Mr. Castle, Mr. Beckett. They are just asleep. I drugged them so they won’t wake up for hours. That way they’ll barely feel anything when I kill one of them. ” The man spoke slowly and confidently, almost like a snake as he stalks his prey. Castle felt the tension in the room ratchet up.

“What do you mean kill one of them?” Jim asked. His voice trembled with either fear or anger. Castle couldn’t tell which.

“Well you have to choose. Either her,” he gestured in a gentlemanly fashion towards the FBI agent, “or your beloved daughter, Ms. Beckett,” he crooned.

“Who is she?” Castle asked motioning to the FBI agent.
“Her? I’m surprised you don’t recognize her, Mr. Beckett."
“Why … how would I know her? We’ve never met.”
“Oh, but you’re wrong. Apparently,” the man continued smugly, “she was a favorite former student of your late wife, Johanna.”

Jim’s face contorted with what Castle could tell was a tremendously confused mixture of anger, sadness, and fear. His chest heaved back and forth as he struggled to control himself.

“How do you know that?” he asked.

“Oh, a little birdie told me,” the man said as he began to pace slowly in front of the caskets. “See, this young lady you see before you sleeping so soundly, changed her mind about becoming an attorney with Johanna’s help. From what I understand, she didn’t want to spend her life in a stuffy law office, but wanted to be out in the field doing the real investigating. So Johanna encouraged her, advised her and pulled some strings to get her into the FBI academy. She’s built a solid reputation for herself – she’s tough, uncompromising, empathizes greatly with crime victims…like someone else we know, hmm?” The man eyed Beckett playfully.

“Oddly enough, they’ve something else in common. You see, Johanna Beckett’s death affected her profoundly just as it did Detective Beckett. She looked over the case file, took some notes, and from what the aforementioned little birdie told me, was on the verge of contacting Katie to offer her assistance, as a thank you for her mother’s mentoring.”

“This ‘little birdie’ wouldn’t happen to be the person who ordered Johanna Beckett’s murder would it?” Castle asked intensely.

“Clever devil, aren’t you?” the man said silkily.
“Now I remember her,” Jim remarked. “She came by the house for dinner one time. Katie was off at college, so they never met.”
“Let me get this straight,” Castle said. “ ‘ Little birdie’ finds out that she's investigating Johanna Beckett’s murder, begins to worry that between her and Kate’s investigating skills, they’ll uncover his or her identity, motivation, et cetera, and has you kidnap her?”
“Correct, Mr. Castle,” the man answered, seemingly pleased himself.
“So why drag Katie into all this? Why don’t you just try to get out of her whatever she knows and leave Katie alone?” Jim asked.
“Mr. Castle is the answer to that,” the man responded.
“Me? Why me? Why are you doing this? Just tell us why you’re doing this?” Castle was getting desperate and impatient. Furthermore, his eyes were beginning to play tricks on him. He thought he had seen Beckett’s eyelids flutter and a finger move a minute ago.

“I’m an artist, Mr. Castle, just like you. I create an environment here where people can forget about their daily lives, comfort each other and enjoy each other’s company as much as possible.”

“In a funeral parlor?” Castle asked incredulously.

“Yes, in a funeral parlor, Mr. Castle. I’d have thought you, the Master of the Macabre, would understand. But of course not. You make light of death, write about it as casually as a college student would write a term paper,” the man hissed. “He’s made a career out of describing other people’s pain and misfortune with minimal regard for what those who have actually been there are going through. Every day people come through here, some are genuinely distraught by the death of their loved one or friend, but others merely feign their sorrow. They put on a sad face, maybe even shed a tear in a pathetic display of sincerity, but they really couldn’t care less. They really just want to get back to work, to their Blackberries, to their lattes from Starbucks, to their boyfriend or girlfriend. If you stand back and watch long enough, it’s disgusting.”
The man had lost his playful demeanor now and had a fierceness and bitterness in his eyes.

“And so, you both are here because Mr. Castle needs to be taught what that kind of suffering is like. Regardless of who you choose to be marked for death, the other two individuals left alive will suffer and for the rest of your life, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you contributed to their suffering, created it in fact, like one of your characters. So, if you choose our lovely FBI agent, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you destroyed yet another link that could have led to the discovery of the identity of Johanna’s murderer. If you choose, Katie,” the man said taunting Castle and Jim by emphasizing Jim’s nickname for his daughter, “then you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you destroyed Jim’s last living link to his late wife and what is left of his family.”

Jim now had a tear slowly coursing down his cheek. Castle could only shake his head in disbelief at what was happening. He was almost completely spent from the roller coaster ride of emotion that he had ridden in the last several hours.

“The time has come, gentlemen, for Mr. Castle to make his choice. What, or shall I say who will it be?”

Castle swallowed hard. For the first time in all his life, he felt as if the eyes of the entire world were boring into him, waiting for his decision as if the fate of the planet hung in the balance. For all his fame, he had never felt like this – had never held the lives of real people in his hands.

He looked at Jim Beckett, right into his eyes that plead with him to spare his daughter’s life. He looked at Kate Beckett, dear Kate Beckett, laying comfortably in her casket. He looked back at the FBI agent, who was just trying to show her gratitude to Johanna Beckett by trying to track down her killer. He thought hard, and after almost a full minute or two, realized what he must do. The only thing he could do. He approached the man who was holding all of them hostage, stood as straight as he could and looked him dead in the eye.

“Me. Take me. Leave them alone.”

“Castle, what’re you-?” Jim pleaded in shock.

Castle turned back to him. “Jim, you and your family have suffered enough, more than enough even. And there’s nothing I wouldn’t do, no amount of money I wouldn’t spend to give you and Kate the happiness and peace you’ve both earned. She’s a strong lady. She’ll get on without me. Hopefully find someone that doesn‘t get on her case as much as I do.”

As another tear feel from Jim’s face, Castle couldn’t avoid a chuckle or wiping tears from his own eyes.

“Is this outcome satisfactory to you?” Castle practically hissed over his shoulder to the man in the suit.

“Most definitely. I get to see your daughter suffer instead of you,” he answered pointedly.

Had he been holding a weapon in his hands, Castle would have taken the man’s head off without a second thought in that very moment. He thought of everyone breaking the news to Alexis and Martha – how he’d sacrificed himself to save Beckett and the FBI agent. He imagined what his funeral might look like, what Alexis would grow up to be, what would happen to his mother, to Lanie, Montgomery, Esposito, Ryan and Jenny, to Beckett and Jim. God, how he’d miss all of them. But something told him they would all understand and that Alexis would pull through. She was a decent, strong, intelligent young woman who already admired Beckett tremendously and was sure that she’d come to look up to Jim just as much. And she and Martha would never have to worry about money, since they’d both inherit his fortune.

“Fine,” Castle growled. “Can I do one thing though, before we … you know … go through with it?”
“And what would be?” the man asked as he pulled a hand gun from inside his suit coat and began loading it.
“I just want to tell her goodbye.” Castle replied, indicating Beckett.
“Very well. Why not?”

Castle approached the casket where Beckett lay and paused over her limp body. He so wished that things could have worked out differently, that they could have had a life together with Jim, Alexis, and Martha, but he also knew that he wouldn’t let any more Becketts die if he could do something to prevent it.

He leaned over her, slowly inhaling the faint scent of what remained from the perfume she had been wearing when her apartment exploded. He smiled to himself, then whispered clearly in her ear “After all this time you still smell like cherries.” He then kissed her a short, but strong kiss on the lips.

Before he turned back to face his death, his mind registered something. Was his brain playing tricks on him again or did he feel something on the other end of that kiss? That’s impossible, she’s out cold, he thought. Or was she?