In A Heart Beat (a Castle Fan Fiction)

Chapter 14: Past Regrets becoming Current Pains

"The steak to the heart and the stripping of clothes with the extreme beating was the killer's MO. We called him the Naughty Vamp Killer. It was one of my first cases and I was still a major joker. Now that I think back, I feel even worse about taking the case so lightly. We found him, but he'd managed to kill five girls before we did. All of them were staged in the places they struggled most. If they didn't do well academically, they were placed in the school or they were struggling with some sport and they were placed on the field. The worst was a young girl who was having relationship issues with her boyfriend and the guy hung her upside down from the boyfriend's window," Shaw informed as she drove with Kate to the crime scene.

"Sounds offal." it was offal. Who kills young girls who are struggling? Every girl struggles with something, everyone struggles with something. It’s a fact of life.

"Yeah, it was. But, like I said, we caught him eventually. Every serial killer is caught eventually. They slip up and we find him. Just because 3XK hasn't yet doesn't mean he won't. It just takes one mistake before we find them," she was trying to be reassuring, but the problem was that 3XK hadn't screwed up in, what, ten years? And now he was changing his MO, which made him more than dangerous.

Kate didn't answer Shaw's reassurance. She merely turned to stare out the window. Hopefully Laynie would already be at the crime scene. A familiar face could help the whole world. Then, her phone vibrated in her pocket. It was Alexis. "Hello?"

"Kate, is that Madeline? What happened to her? Is she at my old school?" Alexis was in panic mode. Somehow the half the city part of the conversation had somehow left Kate's mind. Of course, she did have other things on her mind. Like catching a serial killer.

"Yes Alexis, it is Madeline. We believe she was part of this case we are working. I'm so sorry," Alexis let out a sigh of disbelief. "Alexis, what subject was she was struggling in most?"

Alexis took a moment to think before answering, "She was really struggling with her French and English classes when I was tutoring her. But that was last year. I don't even know what classes she was taking this year. Why?"

Not that Kate was aloud to tell Alexis anything anyway, but she didn't want Alexis to know that grades had anything to do with this, "It's just a hunch. Listen, I have to go, but I will call you if we find something, alright?"

"Yeah, sure I guess. Gram says be safe and find this... guy. " The fact that Martha was cussing put a smile on Beckett's face a moment before she told her she'd find the guy and bring him down.

When she hung up, Shaw butted in, "Was that his daughter? She sounded sweet."

"She is. Poor kid's been through a lot lately. I feel for her," Kate didn't bother turning to face Jordan; she simply stared out the window.

"Like what? I mean, if I had to guess, she's a freshmen in college, right?" This so wasn't her business.

"Yeah, but- I can't talk about the other thing. She-," thank God her phone rang. She didn't know where she was going with that. It was Ryan. "What do you got, Kev?"

"So much. But first, this kid won't stop crying. How do I get him to stop crying? I tried everything. Bottle, diaper, sleep, playing with him, music, everything. I even had Javi sing him a lullaby while I was making the bottle. What do I do?" He sounded desperate.

Kate smirked as she answered, "Did you try setting him on the floor and giving him your car keys?" She listened as she set him down and pulled open his desk drawer. The background crying stopped.

"Oh dear God thank you. Anyway. Madeline Lily Ferrell, age eighteen. Her parents called after they saw the disturbing picture. As you can imagine they are in shock, but they managed to tell me that our vic was supposed to be with her boyfriend in Atlanta. When she never showed he got worried, called the folks and that was about a minute before they got the picture. Apparently she was the top of her class this year for the first and second semester. She was on her way to Columbia University this fall as an economics major. Also, she filed for a harassment charge against her Trigonometry teacher for sexual advancements. Apparently he is now facing jail time along with three other claims," He didn't skip a beat and he defiantly didn't know that that was probably what got her killed.